Attronarch's Athenaeum

Campaign journals, reviews of TTRPG stuff, and musings on D&D.

Oof, what was the first one? As I wrote before, most of my early RPG experience came from computer games. I'm not sure if Final Fantasy VII and Vandal Hearts II were among the first I bought, but they are the ones I do remember quite vividly. Oh, I played a horde of JRPGs on Play Station.

Maybe an easier question for me would be “what is the second RPG you Kickstarted?” Now that is something I can easily check... aaand it was a 5x7 DUNGEON CARD SET by Dan Smith:

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Wilderlands of High Fantasy is a campaign setting published by Judges Guild in the 70's. It's by far the best fantasy setting ever published (yes, I am biased) for a busy Judge who doesn't have infinite prep time.

The setting is just populated enough that one can drop in whatever they wish, without breaking anything. At the same time, there are plenty of cool things to interact with even without adding anything.

Legendary adventures in the Wilderlands include City State of The Invincible Overlord, Wraith Overlord, Tegel Manor, Caverns of Thracia, The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor, and many, many other, less known ones.

The setting was originally published in four booklets:

  • Wilderlands of High Fantasy (City State of Invincible Overlord, Barbarian Altantis, Glow Worm Steppes, Tarantis, and Valon)
  • Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde (Desert Lands, Sea of Five Winds, Elphand Lands, and Lenap)
  • Wilderlands of the Magic Realm (Ghinor, the Isles of the Blest, the Ebony Coast, and Ament Tundra)
  • Wilderlands of the Fantastic Reaches (Isle of Dawn, the Southern Reaches, the Silver Skein Isles, and the Ghinor Highlands)

Besides the setting, they came with a plethora of additional rules and procedures for generating everything from ruins to caves to dungeons.

The setting was compiled and expanded into a box-set by Necromancer Games in 2005. Unfortunately, it's been long sold-out, just like the originals, so it is quite expensive to get it today.

Robert Conley, a long-time Wilderlands contributor and Judge (his Wilderlands campaign has been going on for 40 years!), revised the four original booklets and their maps under the license from Judges Guild:

His own works in the Wilderlands are amazing as well:

  • The Majestic Wilderlands (a 140 page rules supplement compatible with the Swords & Wizardry rules and a guide to the Majestic Wilderlands)
  • Scourge of the Demon Wolf (a 72 page adventure compatible with the Swords & Wizardry rules and a setting supplement to the Majestic Wilderlands detailing a small barony, a complete fantasy village, a conclave of mages, a crossroads hamlet, and a camp of wandering beggars)

Above two are available as print bundle as well.

His licence will lapse (all reasons explained here) and all of the above will be removed from his store page by Monday, August 21st, 2022.

Given that Judges Guild of today is nothing but a mismanaged mess, make sure to get these amazing supplements while you still can.

And even more importantly, to support Robert Conley, a person who has kept the true spirit of Wilderlands alive long after Bob Bledsaw had passed away.

#News #Wilderlands

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Gaming magazines! And for tabletop RPGs, it were classmates in elementary school.

We tried to make sense of this really, really cool book, full of fantastic drawing and rules in foreign language. AC didn't make any sense whatsoever. Our favourite trick was dying to a gelatinous cube that falls out of a wardrobe.

The book? Well, today I know it was the first edition of the Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook.

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I've been toying with a unified save throw mechanic for B/X. Nothing against the one proposed in Swords & Wizardry, I simply wanted something a bit closer to the source material.

Here is the table with unified save throw for each class:

Level Fighter Magic-User Cleric Thief Dwarf Elf Halfling
1 14 14 14 14 10 10 10
2 14 14 14 14 10 10 10
3 14 14 14 14 10 10 10
4 12 14 14 14 8 8 8
5 12 14 11 13 8 8 8
6 12 12 11 13 8 8 8
7 10 12 11 13 6 6 6
8 10 12 11 13 6 6 6
9 10 12 8 10 6 6
10 8 12 8 10 4 4
11 8 8 8 10 4
12 8 8 8 10 4
13 6 8 6 8
14 6 8 6 8

Unified B/X Saving Throws by Attronarch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at https://attronarch.com/classic-dnd-unified-b-x-saving-throws.

I suggest the following two house rules:

  • Wisdom modifier is added to the saving throw.
  • Prime requisite modifier is added to the saving throw as well. Classes with dual prime requisites use the better modifier.

Example 1: Fighter with STR 13 and WIS 13 would add 2 to all their saving throws.

Example 2: Elf with STR 13, INT 9 and WIS 10 would add 1 to all their saving throws.

This is a minor buff to offset the loss for the Death Ray or Poison saves, the latter being quite present in old-school modules.

Commentary

Above saving throws were based on calculating both the mean and median for each level, and then choosing what felt in the spirit of the edition. For example, Fighters and Clerics progress the most with their saving throws, followed by Magic-Users, Thieves, Dwarves, and Elves. Halflings have the poorest progression, but such is life...

By unifying the savings throws, spells lose some of their power (easier to make save against them), while poison and instant-death-inducing effects gain power (more difficult to make the save). For that reason I proposed two house rules above.

Why not simply use attribute checks more often? Because they do not scale with character experience. This is of critical importance for games that use 3d6 in order to roll character abilities. Characters get better at avoiding danger (i.e., making a saving throw), because they get more skilful as their experience grows.

On the other hand, ability scores are mostly static. They can usually be changed by either powerful artefacts (e.g. Gauntlets of Ogre Power) or magic (e.g. Wish). For that reason, I consider them to be a poor alternative to a saving throw.

What would work though, is combining unified saving throw with attribute modifier. Save versus dragon breath? Unified saving throw + dexterity modifier. But if one goes that route, why bother unifying throws at all?

One of my assumptions is that using unified saving throws might make for a faster, smoother, and more universal adjudication. I plan on testing it with my players. Once I do, I'll update this post.

Should you wish to come up with your own unified saving throws, I've included the class calculations below. Classic saving throws are from the D&D Expert Rulebook, page X24.

Classic B/X Saving Throws

Cleric

Level Death Ray or Poison Magic Wands Paralysis or Turn to Stone Dragon Breath Rods, Staves, or Spells Mean Median
1 11 12 14 16 15 14 14
2 11 12 14 16 15 14 14
3 11 12 14 16 15 14 14
4 11 12 14 16 15 14 14
5 9 10 12 14 12 11 12
6 9 10 12 14 12 11 12
7 9 10 12 14 12 11 12
8 9 10 12 14 12 11 12
9 6 7 9 11 9 8 9
10 6 7 9 11 9 8 9
11 6 7 9 11 9 8 9
12 6 7 9 11 9 8 9
13 3 5 7 8 7 6 7
14 3 5 7 8 7 6 7
Improvement 8 7 7 8 8 8 7
8 8

Dwarf

Level Death Ray or Poison Magic Wands Paralysis or Turn to Stone Dragon Breath Rods, Staves, or Spells Mean Median
1 8 9 10 13 12 10 10
2 8 9 10 13 12 10 10
3 8 9 10 13 12 10 10
4 6 7 8 10 10 8 8
5 6 7 8 10 10 8 8
6 6 7 8 10 10 8 8
7 4 5 6 7 8 6 6
8 4 5 6 7 8 6 6
9 4 5 6 7 8 6 6
10 2 3 4 4 6 4 4
11 2 3 4 4 6 4 4
12 2 3 4 4 6 4 4
Improvement 6 6 6 9 6 6 6
7 6

Elf

Level Death Ray or Poison Magic Wands Paralysis or Turn to Stone Dragon Breath Rods, Staves, or Spells Mean Median
1 8 9 10 13 12 10 10
2 8 9 10 13 12 10 10
3 8 9 10 13 12 10 10
4 6 7 8 10 10 8 8
5 6 7 8 10 10 8 8
6 6 7 8 10 10 8 8
7 4 5 6 7 8 6 6
8 4 5 6 7 8 6 6
9 4 5 6 7 8 6 6
10 2 3 4 4 6 4 4
Improvement 6 6 6 9 6 6 6
7 6

Fighter

Level Death Ray or Poison Magic Wands Paralysis or Turn to Stone Dragon Breath Rods, Staves, or Spells Mean Median
Normal Man 14 15 16 17 18 16 16
1 12 13 14 15 16 14 14
2 12 13 14 15 16 14 14
3 12 13 14 15 16 14 14
4 10 11 12 13 14 12 12
5 10 11 12 13 14 12 12
6 10 11 12 13 14 12 12
7 8 9 10 10 12 10 10
8 8 9 10 10 12 10 10
9 8 9 10 10 12 10 10
10 6 7 8 8 10 8 8
11 6 7 8 8 10 8 8
12 6 7 8 8 10 8 8
13 4 5 6 5 8 6 5
14 4 5 6 5 8 6 5
Improvement 10 10 10 12 10 10 11
10 10

Halfling

Level Death Ray or Poison Magic Wands Paralysis or Turn to Stone Dragon Breath Rods, Staves, or Spells Mean Median
1 8 9 10 13 12 10 10
2 8 9 10 13 12 10 10
3 8 9 10 13 12 10 10
4 6 7 8 10 10 8 8
5 6 7 8 10 10 8 8
6 6 7 8 10 10 8 8
7 4 5 6 7 8 6 6
8 4 5 6 7 8 6 6
Improvement 4 4 4 6 4 4 4
4 4

Magic-User

Level Death Ray or Poison Magic Wands Paralysis or Turn to Stone Dragon Breath Rods, Staves, or Spells Mean Median
1 13 14 13 16 15 14 14
2 13 14 13 16 15 14 14
3 13 14 13 16 15 14 14
4 13 14 13 16 15 14 14
5 13 14 13 16 15 14 14
6 11 12 11 14 12 12 12
7 11 12 11 14 12 12 12
8 11 12 11 14 12 12 12
9 11 12 11 14 12 12 12
10 11 12 11 14 12 12 12
11 8 9 8 11 8 9 8
12 8 9 8 11 8 9 8
13 8 9 8 11 8 9 8
14 8 9 8 11 8 9 8
Improvement 5 5 5 5 7 5 6
5 5

Thief

Level Death Ray or Poison Magic Wands Paralysis or Turn to Stone Dragon Breath Rods, Staves, or Spells Mean Median
1 13 14 13 16 15 14 14
2 13 14 13 16 15 14 14
3 13 14 13 16 15 14 14
4 13 14 13 16 15 14 14
5 12 13 11 14 13 13 13
6 12 13 11 14 13 13 13
7 12 13 11 14 13 13 13
8 12 13 11 14 13 13 13
9 10 11 9 12 10 10 10
10 10 11 9 12 10 10 10
11 10 11 9 12 10 10 10
12 10 11 9 12 10 10 10
13 8 9 7 10 8 8 8
14 8 9 7 10 8 8 8
Improvement 5 5 6 6 7 6 6
6 6

#Resource #BX #OSR

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What a question! D&D, in all its iterations and edition, and with all its supplements, has so many systems and subsystems that I don't know where I'd start?!

Maybe I should focus on the three big house rules I've implemented:

  1. Arduin's special ability charts. Arduin Grimoires begun their life as crazy AD&D supplements. Special ability charts were one of them. Every character can roll on their respective chart, and get anything from smelling so bad the monsters will spit them out to secretly being a were-creature. My players have been having a blast with it.

  2. Critical hits and fumbles from the Dragon Magazine, issue 39. Common approach of natural 1 always being a fumble and natural 20 always a critical strike doesn't make sense to me. Why fixed 5%? Why doesn't a high level fighter become better? Carl Parlagreco introduces a simple system where probability of success or failure is determined as the difference between the attack roll and roll required to successfully hit. In other words, it scales with the level of the attacker.

  3. Clinging to life. Classic D&D is very lethal. 0 hp? You are dead. For my game I decided to introduce two checks: first save versus death to see if you are still alive, and then roll under constitution score to remain conscious. This has created some rather memorable (and dramatic!) moments in my game.

There are so many cool systems and subsystem and whatnot... One life wouldn't be enough to explore them all!

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How do you get more people for anything?

Easy, you get them to talk about it. Therefore, I'd talk about playing RPGs within my community, and I'd ask others to do the same. Of course it can feel awkward, especially between adults.

What I found that works well for me is to talk about as a hobby (as it is for most), just like collecting vinyl, practising martial arts, or any other. Talk about it without shame and see what happens.

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Funnily enough, that is one of the questions I've asked myself when I started recruiting for my Wilderlands campaign.

Here's how I'd answer today: * They will enjoy an expansive, interactive, and open world that lives and breathes with them. * They will enjoy great freedom and thrill that comes from it. * They will like that we use simple and readily available rules (Classic D&D in B/X flavour and their retroclone Old-School Essentials). * And last, but not least, they will like it because we are all having good time together.

There is more to it, but I reckon that above is good enough to begin with!

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A zine chronicling the Conquering the Barbarian Altanis D&D campaign.

Inaugural issue details the first two sessions.

Download here.

Overlord's Annals zine is available in print as part of the legendary Alarums & Excursions APA, issue 561:

#Zine

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To be honest, due to my work online games work best.

So my where is more about the selection of the right digital tools that puts everyone at ease and allows them to immerse themselves into the game, not gadgets.

So far I've found Discord the easiest, because we can use voice, audio, and chat (including dice rollers), all in one place. Owlbear Rodeo works great as a minimalist shared map.

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As a kid I read about fantasy games in magazines. Then my parents bought me a SegaMEGA Drive console, but I can't remember any specific RPG. What I do remember is Exile III:Ruined World demo which I've played on my Macintosh for endless hours.

It was a RPG proper! You create a party of six, with attributes, races, classes, skills, etc., and then you are just dumped into the world. Go and do whatever! It was a true open world with high interactivity, and real consequences for your actions. (I doomed some of the cities by accident more than once. Ops!)

I see it is still available for sale, for both PC and Mac. The screenshots bring so much nostalgia!

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