The classic World of Greyhawk is back!

In a nice bit of Christmas news for the OSR, the 1983 boxed set of the World of Greyhawk is avaliable on PDF again. You can get it here from DnD Classics website, RPGNow, or DrivethruRPG.

While I known for promoting the Wilderlands and hexcrawls, I started with the World of Greyhawk for the first couple of campaigns I ran after getting the DMG. As a fan of Tolkien appendices in the a Return of the King, I was impressed with the epic sweep of history in Greyhawk. The fact the Gygax had barbarian migrations as a major component alongside elves, dwarves, orcs, etc was impressive to me back then.

The only downside was that I never thought that religion got the same type of detail. Instead we got a hodgepodge focused on the deities not the religions. Well I fixed that for myself with this article on Greyhawk Gods.

I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas and I hope you all have a Happy New Year.

Where should all the Dwarven Forge go?

Between using Virtual Tabletop for gaming on Monday Night, conventions, the game store campaign, and friends now scattered across the United States, I haven't done much gaming at my house for a long time.

For games outside of Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds, this meant I had to find a way of transporting my game room with me. Or more specifically all my miniatures, props, and dwarven forge.

In the past two years I acquired a collection of Dwarven Forge Dungeon , Medieval building set, and most recently Dwarven Forge Cavern. It used to be all I needed was my two milk crates of miniatures and my rolling laptop bag. But now I need to transport my Dwarven Forge as well.

Yeah I know I could run a game without all that claptrap. But this is for when you DO want to run with all that claptrap. Like when you put on a spectacle of a City State erupting in flames.

The calm before the storm

The riot in full swing

The dead

For a while I been relying on a hodgepodge of storage. A combination of a really nice wooden box that my friend +Dwayne Gillingham let me use for a set of dwarven forge style dungeon pieces he made. Along with some of the original DF boxes reinforced with duct table placed in a rolling toolbox I bought. And some other toolboxes I picked up as well.



The Dwarven Forge Cavern pieces were the final straw. I asked Kelly Anne, my wife, to get something the next time she was in Erie. She does hairsticks and other handmade jewelry so she is always in stores that have storage stuff. And she found me these. She got me two sets for four total.

And they are great, ultimately with six of them I was able to store all Three sets of Cavern pieces and addons I bought. Now I wanted more for my existing Dungeon Pieces.

I took advantage this weekend to stop at Target and see what they had.

I found this

And after looking around I found this as well.

After fiddling around I found that the Storage will fit eight of the big Stack and Carry bins in two stacks of four each. I also Found that two of the small Stack and Carry turn sideways is roughly equal in area to a stack of two of the large Stack and Carry. I opted to buy the tote, six large stack and carry, and two small sets of Stack and Carry (three each).

When nested properly it looks like this.

When I got home I found I was able to get all my Dwarven Forge Dungeon pieces in there. In addition I have plastic baggies of what I call my horde miniatures. I lucked out one time when my friend +Daniel McEntee got somebody's collection of plastic DnD miniature in a trade for MtG cards.

In exchange for helping him sort it out, he let me have some of the miniatures he didn't want. This included two dozen twisted demon looking things, two dozen hobgoblin zombies, and two dozen thin undead things. I designated these as my hordes miniature to use when I need to put out a lot of something. They were in a small cardbox box from a Power supply I bought but now they went into one of the small Stack and Carries.

I may buy another set like above and some foam trays  and try to get everything into two storage totes.

The pricing on this from Target was

$10 for the Storage Tote
$20 for the two Small Stack and Carry with three each
$30 for the three Large Stack and Carry with two each.

$60 + tax for all them.

Delving into AD&D: How combat is supposed work.

+Erik Tenkar blogs on casting time segments in ADnD 1st edition. For me the gold standard for figure how combat is supposed to work by the book in first edition is DM Prata's A.D.D.I.C.T essay over on Dragonsfoot.

The two main things I learned from reading ADDICT is that

• Speed Factors only come into play with a tied initiative.
• That side (or individual) starts on the segment indicated on opponent's die roll.

The second point needs some further explanation. What the convoluted explanation in the DMG boils down too is that if I rolled a 5 for initiative and you roll a 2 for initiative. This means you start on segment 5 and I start on segment 2. If I was a spell caster, that would mean that I would cast any 1 or 2 segments spells before you could act. If  I cast a 3 segment spell we would go at the same rime. Or rather we would then go to the speed factor rules to see who go first. If you have  a speed factor 2 or less weapon you would go before me because of the 3 segment casting time. If you had a speed factor 3 weapon, then the spell and the melee attack would be simultaneous.

The most important thing about ADDICT is that it reinforced the feeling I was developing about ADnD 1st Edition. That the game as a system didn't deserve to be on the pedestal I placed it on. Don't get me wrong, I think the writing and aides in the DMG are pure gold, I think the PHB reflects what most people want for their characters when playing classic DnD. The Monster Manual likewise is still a classic in my eyes. But is more of a ODnD book than a ADnD book.

With Playing at the World and Hawk and Moor documenting and explaining the genesis of Dungeons and Dragons, I fine myself respecting ODnD far more than ADnD. Why? Because it was developed as a direct result of Gygax running his campaign. Despite is poor presentation almost everything in that book was actually used at some point by Gygax. 

In contrast ADnD 1st edition feels more or less designed. I haven't read any account of Gygax actually using the combat system in the DMG, or other subsystems like Pummeling, Grappling, and Overbearing. The few accounts of I read suggest that there is a whole lot of "Well that seems like a good idea, lets put it in." and little actual playing of the content. And on top of that, TSR was being bombarded by rule questions, and having to deal with tournaments*. Which I feel had a major influence on what Gygax focused on.

I realize that Gygax did play some of ADnD but it wasn't developed the same way as DnD**. I do realize that some parts of ADnD improved on ODnD especially in terms of clarity.

However the differences in how they were developed is why I opted to build the Majestic Wilderlands on top of Swords and Wizardry instead of OSRIC. The Majestic Wilderlands is born of what I actually did in my campaigns and ODnD proved to be a better fit than ADnD.

*Organized play has been both a boon and a bane for tabletop RPGs from the beginning. in the 1970s to today.

**For modern example of a RPG designed this way, look at Goodman Games DCC RPG. +Joseph Goodman, +Harley Stroh, and their team spent countless sessions of actual play, playtesting the game before it was printed. It is my opinion is that it is best way to a good design if you have the time and resources to do it.

Gothridge Games Starter Adventures, a story about a lot of maps.

+Tim Shorts finally released Starter Adventures. For those you who liked his Knowledge Illuminates, you will like this. Moreso because you don't get just one adventure, you get about a dozen and a half adventures, locales, creatures, and items. Along with great art from +Jason Sholtis and maps from me.

RPG Now PDF
Lulu PDF
Lulu Print

The Map from Bender's End.

I tell you need to be careful around Tim with cartography. He just might have you redo the trees ....

Nope. But to be fair showing just the tree trunks was not a good idea. 

Nope. Didn't like the spiky branches or gray transparency. So tried round trunks and transparent foliage.

Nope. now I tried a general fill.

Nope. He finally made up his damn mind combining the branching trunks with transparent foliage.

I can't complain as Tim as been putting up with my bad grammar for years when editing my stuff.

Now for a word about Traveller

Traveller has always been one of my favorite science fiction RPGs. One of the hallmarks of Traveller is its dedicated fanbase and the fact they have supported the game continuously since its publication. First with Fanzines, then with mailing list, finally through a succession of websites. There may have times when there was nobody publishing Traveller material but there never been a time when the fans were not doing something with Traveller or its quintessential setting the Third Imperium.

There are some useful Traveller Links

Far Future Enterprise
Mongoose Traveller
GURPS Traveller
The Traveller Wiki
The Traveller Map
The Traveller Forum

Comments
The most cost effective method of owning older Traveller material are the Far Future CD-ROMS

Of all the subsequent editions The Mongoose Traveller Core Book is the most worthy successor to Classic Traveller. However their supplement quality has been spotty (but improved in later printing). At all cost avoid the 1st edition/printing of Mongoose Mercernary.

If you want a printed copy of Classic Traveller, Far Future has you covered on RPGNow with the Traveller Book for $20 plus shipping.

GURPS Traveller has the best supplements, like their historical books they are useful even if you don't use the rules. GURPS Traveller:Nobles, GURPS Traveller:Far Trader, and GURPS Traveller: Solomani Rim are particularly good. The only real dud in their line is their version of the Spinward Marches.

The Traveller Map is an incredible resource. Probably the best one ever made for any RPG. It even allows you to pick any of the its sectors and download it in a booklet form that is similar to the original Classic Spinward Marches. Some of the utilities can be used with custom data that you created for your own Traveller setting.

Now go and answer that mayday!

Comments on 5e combat.

From my answer to a question on RPG Stack Exchange about the deadliness of 5e combat.

Yes 5e combat can be deadly. I blogged about the initial encounter in detail in this post.

The Party

• Elven Wizard
• Human Rogue
• Human Wizard
• Human Fighter

The Fight

• Four hours outside of Phandelver the party ran into an ambush set by four goblins.
• The party roll perception rolls. The goblins rolled various 20s for their stealth check. The Goblins got a surprise round.
• In the surprise round, the goblins shot arrows taking out both the human wizard and the elven wizard.
• The Goblins win initiative over everybody except for the downed wizards. They shout a NPC Wagon Driver and the Human Fighter who remain standing.
• The human rogue starts running towards the goblin shooting his short bow. The human fighter dashes toward the nearest goblin.
• The Human Wizard rolls a natural 20 on his death check. The Elven Wizards get a successful death check.
• The next round the goblins focuses on the charging Human Fighter but his high armor class prevents him from being hit.
• The Human Rogue closes in and kills a goblin with his short bow. The Human Fighter reaches a goblin. The Human Wizard hides. The Elven Wizards continue to roll death checks.
• The next round the Human Wizard cast sleep causing one more goblin to fall.
• The remaining two goblins start running away
• The Human Rogue shot down one goblin, and the Human Fighter kill the last goblin.
• The fight is over with all goblins down. The Elven Wizard is stabilized.

Comments

• Surprise is important and goblins are good at creating a surprise round due to their high stealth.
• In general low CR 5e monsters have one special ability they are good at. This can be decisive under the right circumstances.
• Quantity is also a decisive advantage. For another group with 8 PCs I ran this encounter with 8 goblins. The goblins were completely outclassed even with surprise. It is my opinion that the multiplier for number of opponents needs to be used for the party size as well. In subsequent session it is obvious that doubling the monster does not provide the same challenge if you double of the number of PCs. It wasn't until I increase the difficultly to four times the original I was able to get comparable results for the eight PC group as I did for the four PC group.
• 5e combat is highly situational. Different plans, different terrains, different initial conditions can produce widely varying results. The result is that small differences in CR don't mean much. Only when the numbers are increased from 50% or 100% on either side the differences become decisive.
• 5e rewards system mastery but there is less to master. And because of 5e combat sensitivity to circumstances, there is no combinations of abilities that make for an instant win.
• The use of a d20 and the flat probability curve means that a run of bad or inferior dice rolls can and will happen. The same with a run of superior dice roll. In combination with 5e's sensitivity to situational factors this means results can vary wildly from group to group even when using the same PCs.

In general the book values work great for four man parties. Try running a few encounters with a four man party, Phandelver is good for this. Do this to get a feel of how 5e combat is supposed to be like. Then for a larger group, increase your encounter size by 25% increments until you get the same feel as the smaller group.

The D20 Hairsticks are back!

Kelly Anne, my wife, has operated a Etsy store selling hair sticks for a few years now. On occasion, she will buy d20s and turn them into jewelry namely hair sticks. She hasn't been stocking them for a few years and I been nagging her to make some more. She has a iron cauldron filled with d20 ready to be turned into hairsticks. Finally this year she did and half of them sold all ready. So if you looking for a gift for yourself or a loved one check out her selection.
.

The one she currently has for sale are:

Gathering Magic (pictured above)
The Sparkling Sorceress
The Water Elemental

Plus a new style for this year

The Shield Maiden

Check out the rest of the selection at Aliarose. She also takes custom orders. 

Game Notes:

Sharpened Hairsticks: Dmg: 1d3, RoF 2, Rng: 10/30. Up to 6 may be worn in a character's hair.