Eventually…

Delays continue- what I’ve been up to in the meantime

No, this has nothing to do with the post.

Since I’ve actually heard from two different people that they’ve been reading this blog, I thought I couldn’t let two weeks go by without an update. Since there was some curiosity about the mysterious projects I was working on, I figured I’d share a link to each here. They have nothing to do with AD&D and everything to do with Call of Cthulhu. Of course, once these are done, I have another project- the dread ‘C’ that really needs my attention. Don’t worry, things will resume here eventually. Perhaps we’ll be done by Christmas?

Project A

Project B

My contributions to both (far far far more to B than A when I’m just giving a little help) are nearing completion, thankfully.  It will be nice to see my name in print again.

Quick update

Just resting

Sorry for the delay; for money projects A and B have kept me very busy.  I’ve started working on a pool of posts so I can draw from those in the down periods (like now).  Daily updates aren’t possible currently (not that anyone seems to be keeping a close eye of this blog, as most visitors tend to be looking for info on gar, Village of the Damned (I should have used a different picture), or scimitars), but I’ll try to do a few per week.  We’re getting close to Magic Items, something I fear I may have to break into sub pages as if I can blather about aerial combat, I sure can rant about magic items.

Another weird search: ICMB blueprints (who is looking to build those?)

Page 79: Saving! Throws!

Now this is a page I used often.

Not for the Psionic Combat Notes though.  Since Psionic Blast attacks require you to know the WIS of the target, we get some examples of what the average WIS of monsters are.  This might explain why humanoids attack adventurers in wave after small wave until they’ve all died.   Goblins have a WIS score between 2-8.  Xorn (I know you were curious) have a WIS of 3-12.  A succubus has 2d6+6, making them possibly wiser than most Clerics… now if they could just figure out how to get dressed.

Now the good stuff: V. I. SAVING THROW MATRIX FOR CHARACTERS AND HUMAN TYPES

There are five categories of possible ’saves’-

1. Paralyzation, Poison, or Death Magic (All involve some sort of attempt to change a biological condiction?)

2. Petrification or Polymorph (Transformation)

3. Rod, Staff, or Wand (A ray attack, presumably you avoid it with a dodge?  Also, if anyone ever wants to open a gay bar catering to gamers, I call dibs on this as a name.)

4. Breath Weapon (Dragons only?  Perhaps this represents you ability to dive and stay down, though this makes no sense for Green Dragons.)

5. Spells (Now that is a catch-all.)

There isn’t much rhyme or reason and there are lots of things that make sense in multiple categories- does a gorgon’s attack count as Breath Weapon or Petrification?  No idea where this system came from, my guess would be ad hoc.

Another advantage of the multi-classes shows up here- you use the lowest save from any of your classes.  Fighter/Magic-Users are in real luck, again.

Here’s another tidbit I missed back in the proverbial ‘day’; “A roll of 1 is always failure, regardless or magical protections, spells, or any other reasons which indicate to the contrary.”  I guess that’s why monsters have Magic Resistance.

The page concludes with a bit on monster saves (i.e. V.II. SAVING THROWS FOR MONSTERS).  In this sytem hit dice count as experience levels.  Most monsters save as fighters other than those the abilities of other classes (how many monsters can’t climb walls?), which get the lowest value depending on what abilities they have.  Monsters without offensive capability save as the class closest to their powers (no guidelines here).  The only exception are unintelligent monsters who save at 1/2 their HD, save for poison and death magic, which are normal.

Marks and writing: Pencil  underlining of the saving throws for 11-15 level Magic-Users; a few stray marks on the page.

Fun with search terms

Someone found this blog searching for “reincarnation as a badger”

AD&D druid?  Hindu University Wisconsin student?

(yes, I’ll get back to posting soon.   Sorry for the long pause, again.)

Page 78: Even more Psionics

(Sorry for the prolonged break- other projects have been keeping me busy.)

We’ve still got a page of Psionics tables…

IV.C Psionic Blast Attack Upon Non-Psionic creature

A.K.A. The Mind Flayer table.  Total your INT and WIS.  The higher your total (and the farther away your attacker is, the great chances you have to avoid any effect.

Examples-

Droog the Dull- Attacked at medium range, his INT and WIS total is 16.  His save is a 13 (no modifiers).

Mogran the Mediocre- Attacked at medium range, her total is 28.  Her save is 5 (base 7, +2 for being a cleric).

Baerlyn the Brilliant- Attacked at medium range, his total is 36.  His save is -2 (base of 1, +1 for a magic-user, +2 for being an elf).

One important note- the combination of the spell feeblemind and psionic blast is deadly as even at long range the feebleminded character has a save of 18.

Depending on your INT and WIS total, you suffering differing effects of a psionic blast.  Poor Droog might end up in a coma, be stunned, confused, or enraged.  Mogran might be confused, enraged, panicked, feebleminded, or permanently insane while Baerlyn might be feeblminded, permanently insane, temporarily insane, or suffer a “mild insanity”.  Be careful if your total is 30-33, you’ll be feebleminded 75% of the time.

Our other table is IV.D- Psionic Attacks Ranges and Damage Adjustments

This is pretty much what it says it is… something I never used.

One thing I do note with enjoyment is how much thought has gone into these tables and their modifiers.  Helm of Telepathy?  Check.  Hopeless foe?  Check.   Dwarf?  Check.

For the curious, here are the spells and powers that are “psionic related”:

Astral projection, augury, charm monster, charm person, clairaudience, clairvoyance, confusion, detect evil/good, detect magic, dimension door, divination, empathy, enlarge, ESP, etherealness, feeblemind, feign death, geas, invisibility (any sort), know alignment, levitation, locate object, magic jar, plane shift, polymorph self, quest, shape change, suggestion, symbol, telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation, true seeing

Page 77: More Psionics

Sorry for the long break between actual “page” entries.  Some dark force, no doubt, doesn’t want the truth to get out about Psionics.  Now I just need to check my wall charts to see if it was Reptoid stooges or Hyper-evolved Nordic Ultra-Terrestrials (man, that was gooood cold medicine).

Was it the Reptoids?

...or the ultra-terrestrials?

The world may never know.

What I do know is why Psionics so rarely ever showed up in my assorted AD&D campaigns.  Unlike most things in AD&D it does not scale to level or experience.  A 1st level psionic character never changes, expands, or improves their powers, save by gaining a few points from the odd ioun stone.  Maepharax, Grey Elf Wizard of the Silver Moon Society is put on the same footing at Durf, the Lucky, so long as both character through some combination of good rolls and high stats are psionic.  Is this great news for Durf, 1st level human thief?  Sure.  Does it make no sense that after 1000 years of training Maepharax is no better at her Ego Whipping or Mind Blanking?  Of course not.

But what of page 77?  Or your discussion of psionics?

The first I’ll post today; the other when I am satisfied with what I’ve said (i.e. who knows).

The page is almost entirely filled with the psionic combat table (IV.B. Psionic Attack Upon Defenseless Psionic).  The X axis is a range of possible point totals for the defender (maximum psionic strength, not current points); Y shows attacker’s current attack strength divided by type of psionic attack.

Example: Snoobuck, Gnome Illusionist and psionic (Strength 210 points) is psionic blasted by a Mind Flayer (attack strength 120).  The result is D, “Dazed for 1d4 turns”.  Her companion Plunch the Dull (Strength 45) unfortunately is K, “Killed”.  Ouch.  Hopefully they’ve got some non-psionic chums to keep their brains from being eaten.

Clearly, you don’t want to be the recipient of a psionic attack if your defenses are down.  At best you’ll loose some attack points.  Alternately you might be Confused for 2d4 rounds, Dazed for 1d4 turns, loose a power temporarily, made into an idiot, Killed, be dazed and lose a psionic attack or defense, put into a coma “A state 99% chance to be mistaken for death”), or made a “robot” slave of your attaker.  That’s harsh.

Tomorrow: More Psionics (oh yeah)

Another childhood dream crushed

Yes, I realize this has nothing to do with Psionics (clearly I have a powerful block against writing about that topic… could it be Psionic control?!?) but I was recently able to snag a long out of print 1st ed. AD&D module- Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure.

See also "Story, Never-ending"

I’ve always wanted to read this adventure- it was set explicity in the World of Greyhawk, was by Gygax (a shared credit with Rob Kurtz), and if WG4’s quality was any indication (yes, I do love the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, but more on that later) this one should really be great.  Here’s the back blurb:

Four great and powerful heroes travel in search of adventure. Led by Mordenkainen, wizard without peer, they have come to mysterious Maure Castle, a forlorn and foreboding place, source of wonderment and awesome adventure, following a strange and terrible story. [Hah! Ed.]

For, somewhere deep beneath Maure Castle, from whence no person has returned alive, there stand two massive iron doors – doors without latch, lock, or handle – the Unopenable Doors.

And if the doors are opened, what then? Such potent evil, such terror lies beyond, that even the bravest adventurers may quail before the ultimate test!

Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure is a challenging adventure for high-level play. Four original characters from Gary Gygax’ famous Greyhawk capmpaign are included for your use.

Can you meet the challenge? Can you survive what lies beyond…the Unopenable Doors?

Perhaps it was the intervening decades, but what I’ve imagined laying beyond those doors was infinitely better than what I found; a thoroughly bland trap-encounter-trap dungeon.  Nonsensical puzzles?  Check.  A random mismash of connecting corridors of various styles and sizes?  Check.  Is it squeezed into a single sheet of graph paper?  You betcha!  No concession to any sort of logic?  Oh yeah, in spades.

So, first we have the “unopenable doors”.  How do you get past them?  Well Mordenkainen has an artifact.  Do you?  If not, that’s too bad.  Hope you know passwall.  The first room encountered is a trap that causes you to drop your gear into pits that destroy them automatically, which I’m sure is a lark to your players who’s been carefully shepherding their characters to 9th level and beyond.  Soon after you’ve got an iron golem that can only be hurt by another item in the room.  That’s fair- and fun.

I could easly bitch and moan about the whole thing, bit by bit, and was doing so for much longer than above, but I deleted a goodly chunk.  Needless to say what you have are three really out of date levels, containing a haphazard bunch of monsters (gnolls??  why are these poor bastards here?  How do they get the “random scrap of meat” if they’re behind the “unopenable door”?) random treasure (if you don’t want characters to root around endlessly, stop hiding valuable stuff in table legs), and a less than compelling group of villains, all thrown together in what might have been fun thirty years ago, but left me more than cold.  Eli is never a good name for a villain.

The only accurate bit of the title is the inclusion of Mordenkainen, otherwise this is not a fantastic adventure.

Thank you for bearing with my sullen disappointment.

Dave Arneson, RIP

I organized (rather poorly) a small game-day at my college in the Twin Cities circa the mid-nineties. I spent most of the day dealing with logistical problems of my own creation when I saw an older guy walking around the tables (most folks playing Magic- it was the hot new thing at the time). I remember speaking to him for a minute of two, not really paying attention other than to tell him I was sorry there were not more rpgs being played. He gave me his card, I pocketed without reading it, and moved on to clean up another mess.

Only later that night when I read his card did I realize that the fellow was Dave Arneson. Despite my brusque stupidity, he spent a little while watching the games being played and smiling a little. I wish I’d been a little less self-involved and taken a moment to thank one of the people most responsible for my favorite hobby.

Here is a tribute from someone who knew him far far better:

http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=214

This one is very nice as well:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0644.html

Quick note

Tower of Iron what now?

I’m currently reading the rules on Psionics, since I figure I can’t intelligently discuss its associated tables if I don’t actually understand how the system works. Once that’s done, I’ll post a page on the topic and continue the page-by-page here. In the mean time, enjoy the note I posted for the many people who seem to find the site looking for G — A — R (a type of fish). They beat all other search topics by 4 to one.

***UPDATE***
Now I have moved from an ailing machine to an ailing me.  I will fight off this cold soon (hopefully) and relate all I have learned about Psionics and perhaps comment on why Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure is the most disappointing module I have ever read.