Too much D&D

So the free version of D&D 5th Edition is out, and I fell strangely underwhelmed. Reason why? Well its probably because in the last four years or so I’ve picked up a small bookshelf worth of D&D Variants.

First D&D in its OSR forms was explored in great detail. Then after that was exhausted I moved onto modern forms; Pathfinder, Dungeon World (a story telling game not 100% mechanically related but definitely in spirit) and recently 13th Age was purchased.  Pedants beware this not an exhaustive list of D&D variants, just one coloured by my personal experience.

The Originals

D&D Cyclopedia: I started off with red box Molday and quickly moved onto blue box expert so this has it all in one book (sans the illustrations, examples and solo tutorial) + the bits from Companion/Masters that I never got round to buying (because I’d moved to AD&D land by then). This is the book I wish Wizards of the Coast had republished even as a limited run, because my copy threatens to disintegrate every time I lovingly touch it.

AD&D 1st Ed: If D&D was my early teens AD&D was my mid-late teens and was still being occasionally played into my early 20s. So lots of memories here, and even though I probably use OSRIC (see below) at the game table, the core three books of AD&D have a lot of nostalgic power.

Straight Retro-clones

OSRIC (=AD&D) I love this big hardcover book. Its the AD&D 2nd ed I wanted back in the day, a simple reorganisation of the rules into one coherent whole. The combat chapter makes sense! Its strangely humble, saying its merely a rules index so modern publishers can put out AD&D compatible adventures under the Open Gaming License (which it is published under in its entirety), but I’d use it any day of the week as my AD&D at the gaming table.

Labyrinth Lord (=B/X).  A very clever clone of Basic/Expert in one slim volume. Made me realise that I’m not interested in that style of play however.  Also available is the Adv. Labyrinth Lord supplement which works on the premise that back in the day we learnt with basic/expert and then simply added the bits (Classes, Monsters, Magic items etc.) we liked from AD&D. Which is certainly how I did it.

Swords and Wizardry (=OD&D).  The premise from this one is that its based of the Original white box D&D  from the 70s with its supplements added, cleaned up and made comprehensible, I love this stripped down back to basics approach presented here. Finally a version of D&D that I can keep in my head! The S&W complete crams in a complete comprehensive version of D&D that is comparable to later big three book versions of D&D in one slim volume.

Basic Fantasy (=B/X with bits of AD&D). Notable for two things. A more straightforward and clear interpretation based on the idea that you use D20 Systems Resource Document (the Open Gaming version of D&D 3rd Ed released by Wizard’s of the Coast) more closely, keeping its clarity of rules but building in the Old School flavour. Secondly if you see OSR rule sets as an almost Linux expression of D&D, Basic Fantasy is a distro that keeps most actively to that idea of it being free and community supported (yes I know S&W does but for me BF does it slightly better).

Retro-clone inspired

These games use one of the above clones as a base and then takes it from there.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess: LotFP is basically a  Horror and Weird take on D&D, using Basic Fantasy as a base. I’ve seen this one grow up from its initial incarnation , with some very dodgy photo shop art, through its Grindhouse box set incarnation, were that art was largely replaced by the cream of OSR Artists old and new and the game was focused to razor sharp proportions, to the current high quality two book format Rules & Magic (available now) and Referee’s book (crowdfunded but still in production).  I think its a classic game that takes the premise of old school D&D and runs out of the park with it, while cunningly never forgetting where it comes from.

Woodland Warriors: Uses the Swords & Wizardry as a base, simplifies it and only uses D6s, and gives it a child friendly setting all in one small slim book. Its genius makes me weep.

Crypts and Things: My own take on OD&D using Swords and Wizardry as a base and putting it in the blender with early White Dwarf D&D, Fighting Fantasy, 80s UK FRP & inspiration from the Howard/Lovecraft/Ashton-Smith/Michael Moorcock. The result a gleefully dark Swords and Sorcery game, where the players get to play Elric, Grey Mouser, Fafhrd and Conan, in a game referred by Clark Ashton Smith 🙂

Modern D&D

Pathfinder: I love Pathfinder, it does big book D&D and is clear and expressive while it does it. For me it comes packed with a big friendly DM I call “Bob” an impressive bear of a man, with a big bush beard and a deep friendly US accent that calmly guides me through the 1000s of pages. The online PRD was revelation when I sat there GMing it for the best part of the year in 2012 (and the reason I’ll be doing an online SRD for OpenQuest soon).  Its just not the D&D that comes anywhere my preferred playing style (rules lite and pacy) and there’s no way that  I’m memorising all the moving parts. But perhaps one day Bob will quietly persuade me to have another go, and it was certainly a variant of D&D that my players, all self proclaimed Kings of D20, highly respected.

Dungeon World: I accidentally blundered into the Dungeon World Kickstarter one bored hot afternoon at work and a year later ended up with a hardback and a T-shirt. Its a version of D&D completely rewritten from base using the Apocalypse World storytelling game engine. I love it. Once I got my head round its terminology and structure its the fast pacey flexible game of D&D that I want to run and it errs on the side of Mega Gaming Fun for the players ( the sub-classes especially get a big up in the fun stakes).

13th Age: To be honest I’ve not read too far into it, but I like what I see so far. Like DW its a more story orientated game, but its not so much a rewrite from the ground up being based on the existing D&D 3rd edition SRD,  simplified with storygaming mechanics/assumptions.

Torchbearer: Make no mistake about it this is a cleaver and very focused book by the same people who bought you Burning Wheel and Mouse Guard. Presentation wise it reminds me fondly of  AD&D 1st. However its fallen down the cracks because for me it asks me to think about Dungeon Crawling far too hard to be taken seriously. When its designer Thor Olavsrud says “This is a hard game” early on in the first chapter I started loosing interest in this book. Baz King of RPG Treehouse fame kept with it and his read through can be read on UKRoleplayers.com.

If I was to have to keep on from each category (which to be honest given the mess my office has descended into may have to be the case) these would be my winners.

  • Original: D&D Cyclopaedia
  • Retro clone: Swords and Wizardry
  • Retro clone inspired: Lamentations of the Flame Princess (I’m taking it as given I get to keep copies of my own games so C&T survives the cull 😉 ).
  • Modern: Dungeon World.

Fiendish Friday: The Bone Collector

The Tale of the Bone Collector
“You see Ulmak just had to collect them all. Tall ones, short ones, skinny ones and just plain odd ones. Skeletons of all shapes and sizes. Said it helped him in his healing. See Ulmak was a ‘kind’ sort, wouldn’t hurt a fly and gave healing to anyone who came to his hut. That was his undoing. You see one day those bad Bonedancers came, with their wounded leader. Wasn’t Ulmak’s fault that mad dog died right there and then. Even the Kindly Ones have their limits. So the remaining Bonedancers, tie him up, torture him some, and send him just plum crazy. Then bad things start to happen. He made his bones ‘dance’ and turned them Bone Dancers into that sack he carries with him. Then he left Bone Guard, and started stalking the bone fields building up a collection. Some say he’s building an army, but I reckon he’s a shadow of a man whose just following his habit.”

A Sorcerer in a dark black robe, who is busy collecting the bones of the dead, which he places in a bulging sack made of human skin which he carries over his shoulder. Occasionally the bag stirs as if there is a live animal within. He prefers complete undamaged skeletons and will pay handsomely, at 10 GP a complete set of bones. This deranged and insane individual is collecting the bones to make the ultimate skeleton army. He has 3d6 Skeletons in his sack, which is magic and animates the bones of any complete skeleton placed within. The only drawback of this bag of bones is that the skeletons are not under the control of the owner and attack any living thing once released from the bag. The Bone Collector usually tosses the opened bag at any one who physically threatens him

The Bone Collector
Crazy Magician

AC 7 [13] HD 5 HP 20 Attacks: 1 Dam: Bone Wand Dam 1d10 + Save  or suffer Necrosis (additional 1d10 damage from flesh death). Special Rules: Knows Raise Dead, Can animate any skeleton, 1d6 per round, also Cure Moderate Wounds (old healing power that uses if character can touch his buried humanity)   CR/XP 7/600

Fiendish Friday: Five of the Worst

The latest in my occasional Friday column for Crypts and Things, I present five adventure seeds revolving round five conflicted non-player characters.

The Hunted & The Damned
“Help us, help us please. They are after us.”

Situation: Pale and ghost like a brother and sister couple plead that the characters help them escape a hunting beast that is on their tail.

Twist: The pair are powerful sorcerers from the Other Worlds, and the beast is retribution for them killing an entire world.

Waiting to Wake Up
“I no longer know my name”

Situation: The characters find a sleeping barbarian who if woken up thanks them for waking him from a magical sleep and then pledges to serve them.

Twist: The barbarian is actually a pretender of the throne of some ramshackle Northern kingdom, cursed by a rival’s sorcerer and dumped far away from home. Initially he doesn’t remember and is happy to dumbly follow the characters. Each dawn make a Saving Throw for him. if he makes it  he fully remembers his past, and suddenly demands that the characters follow him as his minions to retake his birth right!

Soul Sucker
“Its so good that you’ll be my friend”
Situation: The characters meet an  defenceless ancient man on some abandoned pathway, each day without fail he gives them each 10 Gold Pieces for them to protect him as they take him somewhere “safe”.

Twist: The man, who can no longer remember his name, was a court sorcerer for one of the Ancient Emperors which he half remembers and babbles on about. In this past he summoned an Other World parasite, a worm like creature that lives within him. It is like a Maggot Master, identical in stats, but with the additional special ability that any character within twenty feet of it looses 1d6 Sanity every hour on a failed Saving Throw. The sanity loss feels like a depression, with thick black clouds coming over the character’s mood. The old man dithers and wants to be stay with his new friends.

Fearless Doomed Hero
“We go Kill Vampire Lord now!”
Situation: An angry young youth, armed and armoured to the teeth, crosses the character’s path and wants them to join his one-man crusade against the evil Vampire Lords!

Twist: The young man is actually a pawn of the Vampires, sent to find new victims by eliciting sympathy for his cause. The youth is completely unaware of this, due to an evil enchantment cast on him when the vampire’s captured him as he tried to rescue his older sister – who may or may not be a Vampire by now.

Dead, Dead and Dead again.
“I’m Igmorogil the Indestructible!”

Situation: A wild eyed berserker, called Igmorogil, runs out of nowhere, attacks the characters and If they kill him he raises from the dead after one to six hours, even if the characters burn his body.

Twist: This tribesman was cursed by a Witch to die a painful bloody death THREE times. On the third time he dies for good. Each time he dies, he comes back a bit more insane and crazed.

Fiendish Friday: Zarth Wars!

A small idea for a Convention game next year at the Seven Hills Convention (in Sheffield weekend after Easter weekend) which has a Sci-Fi RPG gaming theme. Here’s how I blend Planetary Romance, Spell Jammer with the magnificent evil that is Crypts and Things:

Few of those who crawl in the dust of ancient empires that litters the dying World of Zarth even suspect of the mayhem that rages in the skies above their heads. Of the wars fought between the evil Uzil and the insane Yikirk. The clashes between the Space Gypsy Skyships and the foul luminous floating discs of Olz. The insane gravity of the Topaz moon or the ominous silence of the Dark Star.
But the Grand Astronomer of the Crystal Moon summons you the appointed heroes from your Zarth bound life, to rise up into space to rescue the Princess Zarisula from the clutches of the Fiend who would be Emperor of known space.

So grab your flame lance, don your crystal armour, prime your needle gun and set sail on Rocket Ship Zargaz to the Obos, the moon of Infinite Doom!

Planetary Romance meets Swords & Sorcery using the OSR D&D rules of Crypts of Things.

Fiendish Friday: The village of Shek

A small dirt poor village for your Crypts and Things game, from the upcoming adventure module UK-S2 The Dark Path.

Shek

Shek is a small agricultural village, whose residents cling to the Old Religion of Earth worship. They are used to the intervention of the spirit world in their daily lives, and dotted  around the village are small little offering  shrines to local spirits,such as the Wee Man, The Lady of the Trees, Oddkin the Bodkin and Wee Lass (no relation to Wee Man). These spirits provide protection from the extremes of the weather and ensures the health and vitality of the villagers, their livestock (mainly goats) and their crops. Priests who try to convert the villagers to their religion usually get tarred and feathered, and Sorcerers s are  treated as if they are the most evil people on the planet.

Shek comprises of around 15 log cabins with thatched roofs, a big communal barn for livestock sits on the edge of the village, and big circular hall in the centre acts as a communal meeting place. For entertainment Shek folk drink Bog Beer (a dark almost black ale), take hallucinogenic mushrooms found locally in the Woods of Delirium   and start random, but harmless fist fights (aka. “Good friendly violent fun”).

Incoming! Tomb of the Necromancer

Been busy producing stuff recently and along side OpenQuest 2  I’ve been putting Paul Mitchener’s Tomb of the Necromancer together. 25 pages of perfectly formed mid level terror set in the frozen North of Zarth, featuring Beserkers, the quest for a long lost magical item and more gruesome undead than you can shake a +1 sword at. Well this is Crypts & Things for you 😉

More details to follow. Print proof just sent off so should be available via Drive Thru in the next couple of weeks in both print + pdf formats.

In the mean time here’s the cover by the amazingly talented David Michael Wright.

Tomb of the Necromancers cover by David Michael Wright

Tomb of the Necromancers cover by David Michael Wright

Fiendish Friday: The Snakes of Severis

In a deserted temple on the Plateau of Pain stands a seven foot high statue of a long forgotten god. This robbed figure wielding a short sword held aloft is covered in writhing multicoloured snakes, ranging from between two to three feet in length. Baby snakes emerge periodically magically from the statues wide open mouth. The snakes are carried far and wide by an order of assasins who specialise in dissappearances. They know a magic word which paralases the snakes into a hard dart like form. They will then throw the snake at a target who on a successful hit must Save vs Poison as the snake’s fangs sink into exposed flesh. If the target fails they start to phase out of reality within twenty four hours (D20+3). Within that time the target becomes more and more insubstantial. Only strong magic can save them, such as Dispel Magic as cast by a ninth level Magician, or higher, or paradoxically the petrifying gaze of a Basilisk. If the target phases out of reality, their insubstantial form is transported to an isolated place in the Shroud, known as the Purple Room, where it waits for up to sixteen hours (2d8 hours) before being returned to Reality for its final damnation. For after they leave the Purple Room they are transported insied the Statue, where they become their essense produces the next batch of Snakes!

Fiendish Friday: Thuric’s Ring

God Emperor Thuric is almost forgottten by all but the most obscure scholar. This tyrant lorded it over the Continent of Terror in ancient times. He was completly sadistic and insane and attracted similar bad types to his court. Such as the evil Sorcerer Elbakem-El-Feng. This demon in a man’s form quickly intergrated himself with the Emperor’s inner circle, and soon became the sole channel of communication with him. Once he had isolated Thuric he bedazzled him with a series of gifts, each more extravagant than the last. First was an intricate jade ring, were two carved jade serpents lay tail to mouth, each swallowing the other. Then came magificent sets of magical arms and armour, exquistively crafted artefacts and jewelry to melt the heart of even the most resistant of women. More and more did Thuric become dependant on Elbakem’s gifts. Then one day he awoke alone. His treasures all gone and in the empty throne room only the mocking laughter of Elbakem. His shocked servants rushed to throne room to find that Thuric had disappeared. The only trace of him being the jade ring, placed neatly on the seat of his throne.

Crypt Keeper’s info.
The ring when first donned produces a warm resilent glow around the character, giving them +10 hit points and +2 when makeing saving throw.

Each following week a new gift appears in the wearers life (roll d6 on list below). Only the wearer may don them. If they try to give them away the gift crumbles into dust.

1. Golden Armour of Lions Ac 0 [19].
2. Silver blade of Servering, d12 damage +2 to hit.
3. The amulat of Seduction, -2 to Save to avoid being seduced ( equivalent of a Charm Person spell) by the person who gifts the amulat.
4. The wearer discovers a treasure horde worth 500 Gp nearby.
5. The Sheild of the Dragon, automatically protects against Fireball and Dragon fire.
6. Robe of Charming, wearer automatically has charisma 18 and is able to cast Charm Person, twice a day.

After all the gifts have appeared, another week passes. The wearer enjoys life. Then one morning they awake and all their possessions are gone (not just the gifts). All they can hear is the mocking laughter of Elbakem-El-Feng, who then steps into Reality to take the character back to his hellish Other World as ‘payment’ for their time with the gifts.

Elbakem-El-Feng in Demon form appears as a tall gaunt humaniod with stretched grey skin, horned head and long talons. It wears and uses all the gifts.

Elbakem-El-Feng AC 0 [19] HD 8 Attacks x 2 Damage Talons (d8) or Silver blade of Servering, (d12 damage, +2 to hit) Save 8 Special Rules: Posseses the Six Magical Elbakem-El-Feng. CR 10 XP 1,400.

Fiendish Friday: The City of Chun

The Scarlet City is named thrice – for the molten godblood that flows through its core, for the crimson hue of the rock from which it is carved and from the stains of blood that run across every part of the city – a mark of the excesses of the Crimson Lord. The City fell into ruin 5000 years ago when its stone buildings were shattered by angry gods. While the rest of the old human empire was drowned in Ash, Churn was drowned in the waste of its own excesses in vengeance for its ruler’s hubris. The city is the source of the fetid Stink River* and lies at the heart of the foetid swamplands.

The infamous city of Chun is home of the Crimson Lord himself. Dotted with bubbling smoking caldera whose lava pools – known as godblood by the people of Chun – are said to contain the pathways to the Gods themselves. Twisting tunnels, intricate caves and malevolent minarets have been painstakingly carved from outcrops of volcanic rock creating a partially hidden labyrinth of narrow thoroughfares, open spiral-pathed pits and fantastical bridges and towers that eerily emerges from the swamp and mist.

Within this demonic architecture live the surviving people of Chun, feral cannibalistic savages who are grouped into small clans whose every existence is to serve the Crimson Lord himself with tribute of flesh and blood. The people of Chun worship the Crimson Lord and who in return for this love, and their blood, protects them from the ravages of the wider world. His risen armies, drawn by blood sacrifice from the godblood pools, feel no pain or fear and when one fall, another rises from the pool.

The god blood pools are tended by the Godspeakers of Chun, one of the few remaining sects of foul unspeakable cultists who once terrorised the surrounding lands in the name of the Crimson Lord.

Notes
*The Stink River is in the Ash Plains and is mentioned in UK S01 Blood of the Dragon.

The above is from an upcoming C&T module, and was written by Neil Gow author of Duty & Honour.

Fiendish Friday: A Sky of Bones

So I missed a week, but we are back with this special weather event to cheer up even the most humdrum journey across the wastes of Zarth.

“I’ve experienced it four times in my life. It always starts the same. The sky darkens as if a storm is brewing. Indeed there is a rumbling of sorts but if you listen carefully you’ll hear it’s more of a grinding sound. Then suddenly the sky goes blood red, with clouds swirling around an angry red spot, which suddenly opens up and vomits out a blanket of human bones that covers the sky, blots out the sun and even the Locust Star. If you are not already locked up tight in shelter, now is the time to run as fast as ye can, because next comes a rain of the dead armed hideous for war comes screaming down ready to harm the living”
Hongra the Horny, Scout of the Ash Plains.

This is a magical disaster that can affect an area of up to five miles square.

It starts out as typical storm, before the sky turning red round a single vertex of bloody horror, which is actually a gate to a Hellish Other World, were all the armies of the Empire that was under the Ash Plain were taken by the vengeful Old Gods in punishment for their civilisations hubris.  The Sky of Bones vomits out from that Other World gate, and if you look closely enough it is an writhing mass of undead warriors held in the sky by some invisible force.

The storm lasts for d20 minutes, and each minute roll on the following table to see what drops from the Sky of Bones near the adventurers.

Roll d8

  1. 2d6 Skeletons
  2. 1d3 Ghouls
  3. 1 Wight
  4. 1d3 Red Zombie
  5. 1d4 Zombie
  6. 1 Mist Maid
  7. 1d3 Wind Wraith
  8. Roll again and double the number encountered.

Once the storm is over, any remaining undead are sucked back into the gate which then closes, leaving only clear peaceful skies in its wake.

It occurs mainly in the Ash Plains, probably due to its origins, but has been reported in other places in the Continent of Terror.