Mr Referee I don't really have a 18 charisma.

In a previous post I talked about the utility of a having a high charisma as a paladin. Several people asked how I handle using attributes and skill in play.

In the 30 years I been roleplaying I experienced various methods of handling character abilities and skills Which one works for you will depend on what your goals for the game as a whole. For me it is about immersion, making my players feel that their characters are part of a living breathing and interesting world.

By doing this I hope to do two things elicit "natural" reactions to the situations the characters find themselves in, and to engage the "soap opera" effect where the player want to play the next session just to see what happens next. The way I handle attributes and skills has been honed serve the first goal, to keep the game flowing as natural as possible.

It actually quite similar to one of the techniques described in the Old School Primer by Matt Finch. The players state or roleplay what they are doing and the referee makes a ruling. The main difference between the Old School Primer and myself is that I don't solely rely on the ability of the player to come up with the smallest of details.

I almost never allow a roll without an accompanying description of what being done or the player roleplaying what his character does. What I am looking for is what the player considers are the issues of the character's pending action. Not whether they included every detail. The success of the attribute or skill roll is what determine whether the details are correctly executed. By doing this you can have players roleplay characters vastly different than themselves.

Note that this is not the same as deciding if the players are doing the right things as their characters for the situation. They could execute everything perfectly i.e. make all their rolls but given the circumstances it would the wrong thing to do.

For example the player roleplaying the Paladin decides to distract the Bounty Hunter with some pleasant conversation. In the course of roleplaying the paladin player mention about he just come from the Dwarven Hold and how he had a great time in. Not knowing that the Bounty Hunter despises dwarves. Now the rest of the conversation is pretty much shot even if the paladin makes all his rolls. I would give the player some type of warning and an opportunity to recover as it would be natural for a high charisma individual to pick that maybe talking about dwarves is not a good idea. But if the player misses my cue then that will be that.

Mr. Referee I have an 18 Charisma!

Paladins in AD&D and OD&D need to have extraordinary high Charisma and this can be a potent weapon in its own right.

In this post on the theRPGSite Cranewings talks about a situation his players were involved in. Basically the Paladin was born in a conquered land and his religion has been taken over the conquerors own religion. He came across a girl that has information that could benefit the remaining faithful. But had the misfortune of running into an Imperial Bounty Hunter looking for the girl.

The encounter wasn't resolved well by his players, and so he posted his story. The replies had some good suggestions but they all missed probably what is the most devastating weapon that Paladin had, his Charisma.

If I was in that situation I would basically just talk pleasantries with the bounty hunter until the sun went down. With my high Charisma I could make the conversation interesting and be able to utter distract the bounty hunter until she had to leave. The paladin wouldn't have to lie, just artfully shift the conversation if the topic comes up. The bounty hunters leaves with the memory of pleasant conversation and none the wiser.

Now roleplaying games being what they are, situations change all the time. So how effective a Paladin's charisma will be greatly depend on the circumstances. But I think it will be more useful more times than not.

What "powerful" in my campaign

Al over at Beyond the Black Gate asks an interesting question about what is powerful in your D&D campaign.

My general rule of thumb was inspired partly by the D&D level titles goes like this.

1st is the initial apprentice level, some body who is newly trained.
3rd is when you are considered a full member of your profession.
9th i.e. name level is when you are considered by most to be capable to handle being a leader of your profession.
16th level i.e. Mage level is consider highly skilled grandmaster level.
18th level i.e. ArchMage means you are one of the top 1% in that profession.

When I played AD&D I went by the populace has level style. In my current S&W/MW campaign I still do that to some extent but because now I have the NPC classes, thank Jeff Rients, they are "leveled" but are considered 0-level for combat. Leveled individuals have the same ratio to the general populace as nobility did in western europe. If you just pick a random person off of the street they will be zero level but if you look at who adventurers normally associate with then the number of leveled people they run into goes up considerably. (i.e. nobles hanging with other nobles).

I may refine the NPC classes further in regardless to fighting classes to better represent society. It is important that I approach this the right way in Swords & Wizardry as the fighter's ability to get 1 attack per level against less than 1 hd creatures is an important class feature. If I was using AD&D, with it's multiple attack per round at higher levels, it wouldn't be as much of an issue.

The best summary of a paladin I read.

By the far the best gamable description of a paladin I seen was given by Elisabeth Moon in her Deed of Paksenarrion series.

Paraphrased From page 579 of the Trade Paperback the Dead of Paksenarrion.

Most think being a holy warrior means gaining vast arcane powers, that they would be nearly invincible against any foe. But truth is that while Paladin are skilled at fighting, that was the least of their abilities. A quest might involve no fighting at all, or a battle against beings no steel could pierce.

Above all paladins show that courage is possible. It is easy enough to find reasons to give in to evil. War is ugly as many know. But we do not argue that war is better than peace; paladin are not that stupid. It is not peace when cruelty reigns, when stronger men steal from farmers and craftmen., when the child can be enslaved, or the old thrown out to starve, and no one lifts a hand. That is not peace: that is conquest and evil.

Paladins do not start quarrels in peaceful lands, never display their skills to earn applause. But we are the sword of good defending the helpless and teaching by our example that one person can dare greater force to break evil's grasp on the innocent. Sometimes that can be done without fighting, without killing, and that is best.

But some evil needs direct attack, and paladins must be able to do it, and lead others in battle. Wonder why paladins are so likable? It is important, we come to a town, perhaps, where nothing has gone right for a dozen years. Perhaps there is a temple there and sometimes there is not. The people are frightened, and they have lost trust in each other, in themselves. We may lead them into danger, some will be killed or wounded. Why should they trust us?

Because we are likable, and other people will follow us willingly. And that's why we are more likely to choose a popular adept as a candidate rather than the best fighters.

To me this is best damn summary of a D&D style paladin I ever read and the basis for how I referee them.

Wizards needs to take leadership.

Mike Mearls has an interesting column called Legends & Lore . In short the article is about how we are all playing D&D and how we have more in common then we have different. And that it is important to consider where we been while building the future. That throughout its history D&D shared common elements that has appeal to all fans of D&D regardless of edition.

I respect the effort that went into this column but I think it misses the point of the current situation. It boils down to that people want to play D&D with the rules of their choice. Not something like it, or something that feel like it, but with a particular set of rules.

If you want to appeal to fanbase X then you need to use those rules. Otherwise you just facing the same issue as any other RPG company with a new ruleset in building a fan community. The difference between today and 1991 is that we have the Open Gaming License and the d20 SRD. The fans are now in charge of their own destiny and the success of Paizo drives the point home.

So what can Wizards, or anybody owning the D&D brand can do?

In short by taking leadership on ALL editions of D&D. Acknowledge that nothing going change the fact that people are going to play and buy material for all editions of D&D. State that while that while most corporate dollars is going to go into support for the current edition, that older editions will be included in future plans. Creating events on the Internet and in the retail chain where fans of all editions can come together and play D&D regardless of edition.

In the past this would be problematic as the technology of print runs and distribution make supporting multiple game editions costly. But now that we are in the Age of Internet there are lot more choices available making it feasible to have your cake and eat it regardless of edition.

By taking leadership on ALL editions will not mean every D&D players would be playing the latest edition made by Wizards. But it will create a friendly atmosphere like the club, convention, or store where everybody trying all sorts of things at different time. That will make not only easier to sell the current list of product also may find ways of making money off of the older material. For example rulesets or subscriptions for the VTT software.

In one version of this post I had numerous specific suggestions but realized most of them been hashed over and over again. (Like pulling the older PDFs from sale). Posting them would have just obscured the main point, that Wizards own all D&D editions and have customers for all D&D editions. If they want out of their current predicament they need to step up and take advantage of that.

And if they don't others will under other names. (Pathfinder, OSRIC, Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, etc)

One DM puts up his entire folder

David McLouth scanned the contents of his folder of vintage dungeon maps and keys and posted it online.

The post annoucing it is here.

The scans can be seen here.

Definitely a minimal dungeon here with much of the details in David's head. The main thing I would have done different is put room titles on each entry as an aide to the details of the rooms.

I haven't read through the entire dungeon but there some interesting things in there starting with the orgy room on Level 1. That something would not have seen in a TSR module.

Thanks David for posting this.

Knowledge Illuminates is #1

Knowledge Illuminates just hit the number #1 spot on RPG Now hot list.

You beat me there first you dog. ;-) (Majestic Wilderlands got as high as #3).

Congratulations you earned it.