Via a google+ post by Peter Fröhlich, I just came across the marvellous looking Book of Miscellaneous Spells.

I've only had a quick skim through it, but it looks like there's some really nice stuff in there. Apart from the different approach of not presenting new classes, it reminds me a lot of my own Theorems & Thaumaturgy. Especially in the way the book's development is described in the introduction:

"This supplement started life on June 19, 2011 as a spell posted in the Workshop Thread on the Dragonsfoot Forums. The first spell posted was Lighten Load (not my best work, but I've included it from a sense of sentimentality). I would probably never have taken the next step, pulling together a compilation, if winemaker81 (Bryan) hadn't put the concept in front of me. In many ways, he deserves a lot, if not most, of the credit for this. I had no idea at that time that a single spell was going to lead to the crafting of over 150 spells."

Compare that to what I wrote in my introduction:

"...the seeds of this project were planted several years ago, when I'd just started playing old-school D&D again, in the form of AD&D 2nd edition. I began writing some spells to fill out two of my favourite schools of magic: necromancy and dimensionalism. Shortly afterwards I discovered the unstoppable explosion of creativity that is the Old School Revival / Renaissance and began to share some of my creations. The positive feedback I received from the community inspired me to write more, and more, and more spells... and now here you are with this book."

 Definitely worth checking out!

Amazon just kindly informed me of the release of the Premium D&D 3.5 Player's Handbook.

First thing I noticed: that's quite cheap.

Second thing I noticed: hang on, the cover's the same as the original! They (in my mind somewhat controversially) reprinted the AD&D books with new covers, so I would have assumed the 3.5 re-releases would get the same treatment. But no -- they already sport the regulation fake leather tome effect, which is apparently now a requisite feature of all D&D books. Pah.

Edit: though, thanks to Brendan, I now realise that they actually are revamped covers. They're just not as radically reworked as the AD&D reprints were.

On the topic of D&D 3*, I had a funny turn some weeks back where I thought "maybe D&D 3 (not 3.5) has some old-school charm now", haha. After 5 minutes and reading my first class description I realised that this is a fallacy.

It's an old conundrum of AD&D: the balance of humans vs demi-humans. If you look at a mixture of 1st level characters of various race/class combinations, the demi-humans are clearly way more powerful with their infravision, huge saving throw bonuses, and the ability to potentially have the complete abilities of up to three classes. All these things give them an enormous advantage compared to their full-human brethren. In a dangerous old-school campaign, 1st level demi-humans are way more likely to make it to 2nd level -- that's the fact.

And what do humans get as a balance? No level limits.

So that's the traditional state of play. Now, in my experience this is not a balanced situation, not at all. The problem lies in the fact that no campaign I've ever played or run has reached the levels of experience where demi-human level limits kick in. And I think this is a common experience. (This is with the exception perhaps of long campaigns when I was a kid, but then we were playing BECMI, not AD&D, so it an wasn't issue.) Thus, players of demi-humans basically get all this cool stuff "for free" as it were, leaving their human comrades feeling a little under-par.

I have to say at this juncture that I don't care about balance purely for its own sake, in mechanical terms (for therein lies the road to 4e). The only reason I'm drawn to consider this is my observations of how players of "lesser races" (i.e. humans) feel overwhelmed by their "do anything, +4 on saves, see in the dark, oh and by the way I speak 7 languages" counterparts.

A novel remedy to the situation came to my mind the other day, which I shall describe.

1. Remove Limits
No level limits for demi-humans. Gone. They're rarely relevant anyway, and do nothing to create a sense of balance. Limits of class by race could also optionally be removed, if you want to go all the way.

2. Remove Some Benefits
Firstly multi-classing. As I've discussed before, that's the real killer for me, resulting in characters who can "do anything" -- honestly, who needs a thief when you have a multi-classed magic-user / thief at hand?

As a second reduction in demi-human power I'd suggest the removal of infravision from all playable races. It seems like only a minor perk on the face of it, but in practice is extremely useful (depending on how lenient the DM's interpretation of its precision is). I just find it more atmospheric when PCs are venturing into dark places with naught but a feebly flickering flame to guide them.

3. Boost Humans
In order to make humans attractive, all that remains is to give them a few perks in the same order of magnitude as the demi-human racial abilities (things like the dwarven stonework abilities, extra languages, saving throw bonuses, etc).

Here's what I thought of, though of course many other things would be possible.

Firstly:

• +1 to any two attributes (player's choice).
• No attribute limits (min 3 / max 18 for all scores).

And then, to mimic the traditional idea that humans are "more flexible" (odd that they were the ones who couldn't multi-class...), how about giving them the choice of some small bits and pieces of other class' abilities. Choose one of the following:

• Use any weapon without penalty. (Magic-users only.)
• Wear one better armour than usually allowed. (Thieves or magic-users only.)
• One thief skill which advances with level. (Non-thieves only.)
• Ability to cast one 1st level magic-user spell, chosen at random from the list in LL. (Non-magic-users only.)
• Ability to cast one 1st level clerical spell, chosen at random from the list in LL. (Non-clerics only.)
• Turn undead once a day as a cleric of equal level. (Non-clerics only.)
• +4 to one saving throw (player's choice).

I reckon that should roughly equalise the field.

After a year or more (I can't remember how long exactly) of only playing versions of old-school D&D, I played in a Savage Worlds game yesterday.

I had a SW period a while back, both running and playing in regular campaigns, and enjoyed it for a while, before the siren's call of old-school D&D lured me back to my roots. So it was very interesting to return to my once-regular gaming system, and to look at it with fresh eyes.

I guess I have a weird relationship with Savage Worlds now. On the one hand I basically really like the system. I find it clean and well designed, without being bland, complex enough for some nice character options, without the number crunching that comes with D&D 3, and it comes in a nice slim rulebook. I also really like the concept of a core system -- which can be expanded and tweaked for each campaign -- as opposed to generic / universal system -- which is supposed to cover everything out of the box.

However, playing the game again yesterday brought up two really major things I don't like about it:

1. The dice system. On paper I find the dice system in Savage Worlds really cool. Roll your trait die (a d4 to a d12) and a wild die (a d6). Take the highest then apply any situational modifiers. If you get 4 or more you succeed. Higher results in multiples of 4 (so a result of 8, 12, etc) are called "raises" and sometimes get you additional levels of success. All dice "explode", meaning that if you roll the highest number on the die then you roll again and add.

A nice system. The trouble I have with it is that it can take so bloody long to resolve a single action! There's lots of different die types involved, lots of adding, lots of re-rolling (which leads to more adding), lots of comparing (the wild die and the trait die can explode separately). This is, of course, especially problematic with players who are new to the system, but even for experienced Savage Worlders the fact is that it's just a slow and pretty fiddly resolution mechanic compared to what I'm now used to (to attack: roll a d20 and look up the result on a table*).

2. The use of miniatures. Of course the use of miniatures is theoretically optional in most roleplaying games, including Savage Worlds, but SW is one of the more mini-oriented games I've come across. There's a lot of talk of things like adjacent squares, blast radii (in squares), squares of movement rate, etc etc. It lends a skirmish / wargame feel to the game (which, if I remember correctly, is actually its origin). This is fine for certain sorts of game (I'd consider using Savage Worlds for an explicitly battle oriented game, for instance), but for general roleplaying I prefer to not use minis at all, and can't be bothered with all this counting out squares of movement, ranges, and so on.


The tagline of Savage Worlds is "Fast, Furious Fun!". I think this is very relative. Compared to basic (old-school) D&D, for example, it's not fast at all. Compared to more modern D&D 3 derived games, I guess it probably is fast. I'd say it's about the same as 1st edition AD&D played with individual initiative, segments, the full monty.

Once again I come away internally praising the glory of the sleek OD&D or B/X rules!

* I'm beginning to wonder whether a simple table lookup is actually faster than rolling a die and adding a modifier. You know, one of the main proposed benefits of the ascending AC system is that it doesn't require a table lookup. It does, however, replace that lookup with an addition or subtraction of the d20 result with the attack modifier. I'm not sure that's quicker.

Inspired by Chris' post over at the Vaults of Nagoh about the idea of running a campaign using the AD&D Fiend Folia as the sole source of monsters, and Jeff's post about using the deities in that book as the only deities in a campaign, my thoughts turned suddenly to Unearthed Arcana. Could one run a campaign using only the Fiend Folio and Unearthed Arcana?

My answer quickly developed into a "no". Well, of course one could, but I wouldn't want to. Depending how strictly you were to follow the law of only using that one book, the only character classes available would be the cavalier and the barbarian!

However, I did have a look at the spells section, and thought it'd be rather cool to run an "alternative D&D" game where the spells in that book were the only ones in existence. I surmised that it'd probably make sense to combine the magic-user and illusionist spell lists, as both (and especially the latter) would be rather sparse on their own.

The combined list of spells in Unearthed Arcana produces a patchy list, skewed heavily towards spells of charm, illusion, abjuration and binding. Very different then to the standard AD&D spell list, which is largely focussed on invocation and alteration. I think that would make a very interesting list to play with though, forcing players and DM alike to look at some of the more obscure and less popular spells in a new light! It also lacks what are normally considered to be some fundamentals of arcane magic, like means of detecting and dispelling magic.

Here are the combined lists (with illusion spells in italics).

1st level
Alarm
Armor
Chromatic orb
Firewater
Grease
Melt
Mount
Phantom armor 
Precipitation
Read illusionist magic
Run
Spook 
Taunt
Wizard mark
Write

Notes:
1. There's apparently no need for the spell read magic, except for spells of illusion. Perhaps they're written in some semi-phantasmagorical script which is impossible to read normally?
2. With no sleep or charm person, firewater is about as close as it gets to a killer 1st level spell!
3. Given the lack of power in these 1st level spells, I'd probably allow beginning magic-users to memorize two at a time. The extensive list of cantrips would probably see some use as well.

2nd level
Alter self 
Bind
Deeppockets
Fascinate
Flaming sphere
Irritation
Know alignment
Melf's acid arrow
Preserve
Protection from cantrips
Tasha's uncontrollable hideous laughter
Ultravision
Vocalize
Whip
Whispering wind
Zephyr

Notes:
1. A few more useful spells here, including a bit more offensive capability.

3rd level
Cloudburst
Delude 
Detect illusion
Item
Material
Melf's minute meteors
Phantom steed
Phantom wind
Secret page
Sepia snake sigil
Wind wall
Wraithform

Notes:
1. With no means whatsoever in the whole spell list of detecting magic in general, here we get a limited means of detecting spells of one specific type, illusions.
2. Without the introduction of fireball or lightning bolt, 3rd level spells are not the tipping point we're used to.

4th level
Dispel illusion
Evard's black tentacles
Leomund's secure shelter
Magic mirror
Otiluke's resilient sphere
Rainbow pattern
Shout
Solid fog
Stoneskin
Vacancy
Notes:
1. Again, thus far there's been no way of dispelling magic. Now we have a means of dispelling illusions, at least.

5th level
Advanced illusion
Avoidance
Dismissal
Dolor
Dream
Fabricate
Leomund's lamentable belabourment
Sending
Tempus fugit

Notes:
1. The oddly named advanced illusion implies the presence of a series of antecedent spells which no longer exist.
2. Here we see the beginning of a pattern in the higher level spells -- means of binding and dismissing summoned creatures, but no means of summoning them! Presumably this would be achieved by magic items, or perhaps naturally occurring dimensional rifts.

6th level
Chain lightning
Contingency
Death fog
Ensnarement
Eyebite
Mirage arcane
Mislead
Mordenkainen's lucubration
Phantasmagoria
Transmute water to dust

Notes:
1. Chain lightning is probably the most deadly spell in the list.

7th level
Banishment
Forcecage
Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion
Sequester
Shadow walk
Teleport without error
Torment
Truename
Volley
Weird

Notes:
1. Here we encounter the only purely planar spell in the list: shadow walk. The plane of shadow would probably play a significant role in such a campaign world.
2. Teleportation seems to be a very safe business, and also provides a risky means of planar travel.

8th level
Binding
Demand
Otilkue's telekinetic sphere
Sink

Notes:
1. Lots of unpleasant ways of trapping things.

9th level
Crystalbritlle
Energy drain
Mordenkainen's disjunction
Succor

Notes:
1. At last! A means of dispelling magic! Mordenkainen's disjunction would probably be regarded as the ultimate peak of the arcane arts.

I never played this back in the day, or even looked at the books, but I always thought it sounded kinda cool. I think it sounds even cooler now, so I had a look on ebay. Luck was on my side, and I now have a very cheap copy of the books winging their way to me (albeit without the box -- which I'm not particularly bothered about).

I'm even thinking about running a Spelljammer game at the local con here in Berlin this year. Would be fun to crack out the proper AD&D 2e books again :)

Anyone got any experience / memories of Spelljammer they'd like to share? It's not something I hear mentioned very often...

Just reading Daddy Rolled a 1's post about AD&D 2nd edition, where he mentions how one thing he really liked about that edition was the "kits". I played a lot of AD&D 2e, but never used kits at all. But it got me thinking about them again, and I looked a few up.

My feeling about them now is that while mechanically I don't like them (they depend on the proficiencies system, and seem to add a lot of complicated abilities and mechanical bonuses to things, which I find too fiddly), I do like the flavour of them. I've often thought it'd be nice to give players a list of inspirational ideas for character concepts per class, especially in an old-school game where there are only a very limited number of classes, with no "options" at all.

So here are the kits for fighters, thieves, clerics and magic-users (the latter two aren't particularly imaginative to be honest). There's actually a complete list of them all in wikipedia, for further reference!

Fighters:
Amazon
Barbarian
Beat-rider
Berserker
Cavalier
Gladiator
Myrmidon
Noble Warrior
Peasant Hero
Pirate / Outlaw
Samurai
Savage
Swashbuckler
Wilderness Warrior

Thieves:
Acrobat
Adventurer
Assassin
Bandit
Beggar
Bounty Hunter
Buccaneer
Burglar
Cutpurse
Fence
Investigator
Scout
Smuggler
Spy
Swashbuckler
Swindler
Thug
Troubleshooter

Magic-Users:
Academician
Amazon Sorceress
Anagakok
Militant Wizard
Mystic
Patrician
Peasant Wizard
Savage Wizard
Witch
Wu Jen

Clerics:
Amazon Priestess
Barbarian/Berserker Priest
Fighting-Monk
Nobleman Priest
Outlaw Priest
Pacifist Priest
Peasant Priest
Prophet Priest
Savage Priest
Scholar Priest

Play report after our first session of AD&D 1st edition. Written from the point of view of my character Weebrian Jig.


The personal diary of Weebrian Jig, Prestidigitator of the Illuminated Order of Mesmerists, Servant of the 7th Angle.

12. Readying 579CY.

Called as a representative of the IOM on official guild business to the Guildhall of Verbobonc. Met one Alderman Crow, the chairman of the town council, and the venerable Mellium, sage of Verbobonc. Also present were an unusual group of warriors (mostly of orcish blood, I remarked) and a druid of Gnarley. It was requested that myself, the warriors and the druid travel to the village of Hommlet, some two days' journey south of Verbobonc, to surreptitiously investigate the uprising of banditry in the area. It was suggested that we had been chosen for this task as we were relatively unknown in the region, and were to conduct our investigations under the guise of a travelling band of adventurers so as not to rouse fear in the village. It was hinted that this may have something to do with events 10 years past in the area involving a "temple of elemental evil" which was defeated. We were told that Lord Rufus and Lord Burn in the village know of our planned arrival, and may be spoken to in confidence.

After the meeting I invited my companions-to-be to the Rusty Nail, which, bearing in mind their "unusual" racial stock as well as the fact that they were outsiders to Verbobonc, I thought would be a safe place to take them in the city without risking any trouble. One of the warriors, a brutal looking chap, but who apparently had some noble heritage in addition to his orcish blood (must remember to inquire after this), initially refused to enter the tavern, deeming it in some way beneath his station. Tis indeed a homely establishment, not intended for nobility, but I make no excuses for having taken them there, as I had good (aforementioned) reason and besides know nothing of upper class establishments. In any case another of the warriors, a strikingly beautiful young lady, apparently a follower of St Cuthbert, persuaded this haughty nobleman to join us.

Unsure whether the orcish heritage of my companions bodes for ill or good.

13. Readying 579CY.

None of my travelling companions reported any unusual dreams, or any dreams whatsoever, despite my request. My own dreams were tranquil and featured (several times) the unusual image of a unicorn eating potatoes.

Was pleased to note that Wilstan, one of my warrior companions, performed an augury upon the morn of our departure, casting the entrails of a chicken upon the ground. However as I stooped to interpret the divination he thrust his boot into the guts and requested that we should all do likewise. Naturally I refused, somewhat mystified at his intent. I believe he is a follower of Rao, although I have not previously heard of such strange customs among the worshippers of the god of Reason & Serenity.

With horses provided by the city of Verbobonc, we set off upon our way, with grey clouds looming overhead. Leaving the safety of Verbobonc, I wisely clad myself in a plain black cloak, covering my IOM regalia so as to blend in with the everyday travellers of the road. Intended to reach the village of Etterboek by the afternoon and to overnight there. Along the road we encountered: Dwarvish merchants heading north to Verbobonc, a horned beast of some kind (spotted in the distance by the sharp eyes of Kazhireh, a female warrior, also of Gnarley), a thunderous rain storm, soaking us to the skin.

Stayed in the Golden Cockerel inn in Etterboek. An adequate, although expensive, establishment. No specialty desserts were offered, disappointingly.

14. Readying 579CY.

Set off early, on a clear windy morning, hoping to reach Hommlet by nightfall.

The road was not busy. The only people we encountered were two laden caravans escorted by two guards, apparently in a very great hurry. They briefly informed us that the road was safe and clear. This proved to be very much mistaken. I wonder now if they were lucky, mad, or treacherous.

I believe today I experienced my first taste of this "adventure" which my master has enthusiastically recommended to me. I remain unsure of the merits of this lifestyle, but am pleased to note that my training proved adequate to meet its challenges. Here is what came to pass.

As the road passed through a region of boggy ground, we reached a point where a huge tree had fallen across, blocking easy transit. Madrak, our half-orcish escort from the distant north, went ahead to investigate it, at which point a confusion of arrows rained down upon us. I believe Madrak was gravely hurt by this initial volley. I leapt from my horse and called Rotter to guard, and I too received a glancing blow from one of the missiles. After this initial volley, our attackers (who were quickly observed to be a band of orcs) charged at us, presumably believing us to be near finished. We were greatly outnumbered. My warrior companions fought well, obviously trained for this sort of eventuality, and the tide of the battle turned in our favour. I myself was forced to wait in hiding amongst the frightened horses, with the patterns of the chromatic orb and the spook phantasm urging to be released from my mind as I have never noticed them doing before. As the orc brigands rushed towards us my chance, and the test of my training, came. Launching Rotter to savage one of them, I focussed on another, and advanced boldly towards it uttering the syllables to conjure the nightmarish phantasm. The brute turned on his heels, fled and was soon decapitated by one of my companions. I was very pleased to observe the spell's remarkable effects in the heat of battle. A second orc proved an easy target for the chromatic orb, as he stumbled towards me. The light of the pearlescent orb hit him full in the eyes, blinding him and allowing me the opportunity to cast darts into his face, causing him to fall to the ground. I now understand why my master insisted that I spend such long hours playing the game of darts with the halfling patrons of the Rusty Nail. The practice has proved unexpectedly useful.

I am thankful for the presence of Rotter, who has proved his worth as more than just a sleepy beast of watch. I shall consider attempting to acquire further such hounds, as they prove faithful and vicious if correctly trained.

Subsequent to the battle, we gathered ourselves together and set about searching through the bodies of our fallen assailants (three of whom, unfortunately, managed to escape, despite the pursuit of Alric and Kazhireh). We discovered a total of 20gp in small coinage, a pouch containing 5 gemstones, and a sack with 8 pieces of silver jewellery decorated with gems. I am unsure what exactly we are required to do with this kind of loot, as surely it has been stolen from reputable merchants and locals to the area. I think that perhaps we should hand it in to the local constabulary, although I remember my master gleefully mentioning the riches he has gained from "adventuring", so perhaps there is some right for members of the Adventurers' Guild to keep possession of items acquired in such manner. I shall have to reread my contract of guild membership, and perhaps inquire at the guild quarters in Hommlet, if such an establishment exists.

It was also noted that the emblems on the orcs' shields identified them as members of the "vile rune" clan, a name which bears little significance to me.

Hurriedly we finished our journey to Hommlet, bearing with us a single still-living orc, whom Wilstan had wisely captured. I look forward to perhaps being able to test the worth of the hypnotism spell on the brute, if we get a chance to interrogate him. I think it may also be wise to "soften him up" first with an application of the spook phantasm. I have read that its effects can be particularly spirit-crushing if the victim believes he is unable to escape.

After several more miles of travel we reached Hommlet, and head straight to the chapel of St Cuthbert on the outskirts of the village. The resident clerics were glad to heal my companions' wounds, and Chryseïs (our St Cuthbert devotee) offered them one of the pieces of jewellery as thanks.

I got the illusionist I was dreaming of! (Not that hard with Method I -- 4d6 drop lowest arrange to taste...)

I decided to go for a human, and I have named him Weebrian Jig.

From memory, his ability scores are:
STR 13
CON 13
DEX 16
INT 16
WIS 13
CHA 14
COM 14 (yes we're using Comeliness!)

My master (randomly selected) is a gnome called Blasphemy Rumtum. He's taught his apprentice well, and I have a good selection of spells. The only thing sadly lacking is the illusionist's staple and all-round useful phantasmal force. Something to look forward to though.

Now I'm just trying to ascertain from the DM if it's possible to get a bodyguard hireling whom I could equip with a weapon and a shield. The other alternative is of course one or more war dogs, though at 25gp each they don't come cheap to a 1st level magic-user!

I'm considering using the classic prodigal sorcerer as his "character portrait", and am trying to come up with a title for him. Something suitably arcane sounding like "Weebrian Jig, Prestidigitator, servant of the 7th Angle". He's LN in alignment.

I'll continue to post news on his exploits...

I'm very excited, as a friend here in Berlin is starting up an AD&D (1st edition) campaign! We're starting tomorrow evening with character generation. (I'm hoping for an illusionist.)

The really cool thing for me is that, though I've owned copies of all the AD&D 1e books for years, I've actually never played it! I've played loads of basic D&D (Mentzer / Labyrinth Lord), and loads of AD&D 2e, but never the Gygaxian masterpiece.

Very much looking forward to it. Maybe I'll post my character when he's made :)

Though it's not a class I've ever seen used in practice, I've always been smitten with the idea of the wild mage -- a magic-user who lives on the dangerous and unpredictable side of the arcane. The only place I've actually seen a wild mage class presented was in the AD&D 2nd edition Tome of Magic. The class didn't appear in AD&D 1e (as far as I know) and also seems to have never made it into the later versions of the game (again, as far as I know -- please correct me if I'm wrong here).

This lack is something I hope to remedy by including guidelines for wild magic in my work-in-progress book.

My initial thoughts are going along a different track to the ToM wild mage, which presented a d100 table of (fairly extreme) wild surge effects, with a 1 in 20 chance of a wild surge occurring each time the wizard casts a spell. Personally, I'd like a system where wild surges are more common but less extreme. And instead of the fixed table of effects, I'd like to design a system which taps the endless (d∞!) creative potential of the DM & players. So here are the beginnings of my thoughts on how this might work.

The basics

• Any magic-user can choose to be a wild mage. Usually this choice would be made at character creation, and could never be altered, but existing MUs may be allowed to opt to be wild mages if the DM introduces the option in the middle of a campaign.
• Magic-user sub-classes like illusionists can also opt to be wild mages (or wild illusionists, in this case).
• Whenever a wild mage casts a spell, the player must roll 1d6 & 1d12. The d6 determines whether a wild surge occurs, which is indicated by an odd number. If a wild surge does occur, then the d12 indicates what happens.

Table 1, 1d6

1. Wild surge, consult table 2.
2. Spell works as intended.
3. Wild surge, consult table 2.
4. Spell works as intended.
5. Wild surge, consult table 2. Spell remains in memory (can be cast again).
6. Spell works as intended plus stays in memory (can be cast again).

Table 2, 1d12

1. Spell functions as if the caster were 1d4 levels higher than normal.
2. Spell functions as if the caster were 1d4 levels lower than normal. (If effective caster level ends up less than one then the spell has no effect.)
3. Spell has normal effect plus the effect of a randomly chosen spell of the same level.
4. Spell has normal effect plus another randomly chosen memorized spell is activated unwillingly.
5. Spell manifests as intended and a randomly chosen spell of the same level appears in the caster's mind in its place. (The caster is able to cast this spell, even if it is not one that he usually could.)
6. Spell fizzles with no effect.
7. The spell's target or area of effect (where applicable) changes.
8. Randomly chosen spell of same level activates instead.
9. Randomly chosen spell of one level higher activates instead.
10. A randomly chosen spell of level d8 manifests instead of the intended effect.
11. Cast another memorized spell instead. (If the caster has no other spells memorized, then nothing happens and the spell remains in memory.)
12. The caster loses the ability to cast spells for 1d4 rounds or 1d4 turns (whichever the Labyrinth Lord deems appropriate).

So the main creativity of the system comes when the intended effect is replaced by a randomly chosen spell. This would require a lot of quick creative thinking on the part of the DM, which I reckon would be a lot of fun! For example, what happens when a sleep spell surges and is replaced by hold portal?. The intention is that the DM wouldn't have to follow the random spell's description to the letter, but could simply use it as a creative kick-start. In the example of sleep transmuting into hold portal, perhaps there are no doors close by, and the DM could interpret it as locking shut the mouths or eyes of all creatures in range.

As I say, this is all just a beginning, so I'd be very interested to hear anyone's thoughts on what I've described or on wild magic in general.

I just noticed this morning, as I went to look up a spell description in the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion, how I love reading the LL books and that the feeling I get when reading them is close to the feeling I get looking through my old AD&D / basic D&D books. It's not quite the same, as there's obviously not the same nostalgia as actually handling the originals, and you obviously don't get to experience the Gygaxian genius that is distilled in AD&D, but it's close. And for me that's actually a really big deal. All other RPG books I've read, those for more modern systems, have a kind of "dry" feeling to them, somehow lacking in magic.

So I'm glad to realise that the LL books, the ones I'm using in my game at the moment, have that "special something" as well. I know it's a totally personal thing, but it's important to me to have that special feeling about the games I'm running.

I wonder if anyone else has a similar feeling?

As readers of this blog have no doubt noticed by now, I like lots of spells with my D&D :) One of my favourite supplemental books for D&D is the AD&D 2nd edition Wizard's Spell Compendium -- a four volume set containing all wizard spells ever published by TSR from 1975 to 1997. That's a lot of spells.

I'm also a big fan of specialist wizards, and the idea of splitting spells into various schools of magic, which is pretty much essential once you're dealing with many hundreds of spells. So in my Labyrinth Lord campaign I've currently got four types of magic-user which players can choose from: mage (using the default AEC spell list), illusionist (also straight out of the AEC -- though I intend to expand their repertoire up to include 8th and 9th level spells), elementalist (using a custom spell list), and necromancer (which is a class I've put a little bit of work into, but only developed spells of the 1st and 2nd levels so far).

The approach I've been taking to specialist wizards is that they study totally separate forms of magic. So a mage cannot learn a spell from the necromancer spell list, and vice versa. Of course some spells are shared (both mages and necromancers can learn the fear spell, for example), but the crossover is minimal. This is the way specialists worked in AD&D 1st edition, if we extrapolate from the single example of the illusionist vs the standard magic-user. AD&D 2nd edition, on the other hand, vastly expanded the number of specialists, adding the necromancer, enchanter, transmuter, diviner, invoker, abjurer and conjurer. The difference in that edition though is that specialists can actually cast spells from most other schools of magic, being only barred from casting one or two "opposition" schools. While I like the expanded array of specialist wizards, to my mind this somewhat watered them down, as they can, in the end, cast mostly the same spells.

So I decided to base my Labyrinth Lord specialists more on the original AD&D example of the magic-user and the illusionist having separate spell lists. However upon adding the elementalist and the necromancer to the mix, a problem became clear. The main way in which wizards can expand their repertoire of spells is by finding scrolls as treasure. In the basic LL rules, any wizard (or elf, in fact) can learn any spell from any scroll, subject to the normal level restrictions. With the AEC (or AD&D 1st edition) you have the addition of illusionist scrolls as treasure, which are of no use to magic-users, except perhaps as a commodity to sell. Now if I add two (or more) extra types of wizard, then it ends up in the situation where a wizard finding a scroll in a treasure hoard ends up standing very little chance of actually being able to understand and cast the spell contained. This is a shame, because this should be a very exciting moment for the wizard's player -- the chance of finding a new spell!

I have thus found myself musing on ways to alleviate this problem. Two solutions have I found:

1. To allow all types of magic-user to learn spells from other spell lists, at a cost. This will work like spell research. If a magic-user finds a scroll containing a spell which is in his spell list, he can learn it as normal. However if he finds a spell not in his spell list, but which he really wants to learn, he can undergo a process of research -- searching out books on the topic, discussing with other wizards, perhaps even undertaking training of some kind. This process lasts the normal duration of spell research (one week per spell level), but costs half the normal rate (500gp per spell level). At the end the magic-user has learned to cast the spell. In this way, it's possible for magic-users to still make use of any scrolls they may find, though some will be far easier to use than others.

I've also decided that, to keep some "niche protection" for each type of specialist magic-user, they are only able to memorize at most one spell per level castable which is not on their allowed spell list. This allows each type of wizard to learn a smattering of other types of magic, and to have a few tricks up his or her sleeve, while still remaining fundamentally tied to the style of magic he or she was originally trained in.

2. To avoid the situation of an ever-expanding selection of specialist wizards, with minor schools such as dimensionalism, diabolism, abjuration, divination, and so on all having their own slightly differing spell lists, I've been musing on allowing such obscure branches of magic to be learned at any point in a magic-user's career, as kind of "prestige classes" (to use the D&D 3rd edition terminology). I was impressed by Dyson Logos' recent posts on prestige classes for old-school D&D, and have thought of using something similar. So if a magic-user wants to explore the far-out intricacies of dimensional magic, for example, he has the option of putting in the required efforts (time, money and XP, plus perhaps special adventures to retrieve tomes or find teachers) in return for gaining the ability to learn some rare spells -- essentially adding to his list of castable spells.

In combination, these two modifications to the system of strictly separated schools of magic create what seems to me to be a really nice balance. A few major types of magic exist, each with their own specialists. Specialists concentrate mostly on their own school, but are able to learn a smattering of spells from other schools, making scrolls a useful treasure to all types of magic-user. There are also minor, rarer schools of magic which are studied by only a select few, but which can be explored by a dedicated wizard.

I've been thinking recently about a slightly different way of handling deities in a campaign, moving a step away from the prototypical "god of order" ,"goddess of healing", "god of the sea" type pantheons which seem typical in fantasy games. My thoughts were partly inspired by James M's Petty Gods project. He mentioned at some point that he envisages the petty gods as being of about the same power as the arch-devils and demon lords in AD&D -- awesomely powerful compared to average mortals, but certainly not invulnerable to a well-prepared party of high-level adventurers. I like this image of gods, as awe inspiring and yet still fallible, and very far from omnipotent.

I was also contemplating the role of gods in a fantasy world -- why they want worshippers and why people want to worship them. The answer that came to mind is that 1: gods crave either power (real power in the real world, that is) or idolisation, or both, and 2: they attract followers by promising them a little bit of their power, in a variety of ways (an afterlife, for example, or progression through a religious hierarchy). The promise of an afterlife would be especially appealing if the supposed (or even proven) fate of the faithless was suitably horrible -- eternal limbo or undeath.

A third and final factor in my mental deity mix is the old AD&D rule about there being a % chance of a demon appearing when its name is spoken. I find that enormously evocative, and scary, and love the idea of extrapolating that concept to all deities. That'd lead to these powerful supernatural beings having 'true names' (which invoke their power) as well 'common names' or aliases which allow people to discuss them without risking fire and brimstone.

Put all this together and you get a world where gods potentially rule cities, regularly make appearances in person to impress their mortal followers (or at least send emissaries to do so), demand taxes, offerings and sacrifices of various kinds, and have the direct and immanent ability to respond to someone who utters their name. These gods I'm imagining are, it has to be said, mostly on the nasty side -- greedy, vain, sadistic, megalomaniac -- that sort of thing. Basically like insane emperors with the volume turned up to 11. There'd probably be a few gods out there of a more benevolent or philanthropic nature, but, as the lesson of history shows us, the most powerful leaders of the world are more often than not the most crazed and egotistical. (That's one way of looking at history anyway... I accept there are likely others. ;)

As an upside, gods like these aren't so far from mortals, and there'd be tales of great heroes defeating gods, and perhaps of literally being deified themselves.

As a specific example, here's a rough idea of the sort of god I'm thinking about.

Name: Jaaquai
Known as: The Cold Prince
Alignment: Lafwul Evil
Temple: Shrines to Jaaquai can be found throughout Old Aalia. His temple lies in the city of Sendak.
Demands: Jaaquai demands monthly tithes of silver from his followers and the rulers of Sendak, and threatens unending winter if they fail to comply.
Promises: The god offers loyal followers the opportunity to serve him in the afterlife in his fathomless and opulent palaces of ice. He also promises protection from the cruel cold of winter.
Followers: Devotees of Jaaquai can be recognised by the missing ring finger on their left hand, which is cut off during an initiation rite.
Manifestations: At midnight on the winter solstice a gateway opens in the temple of Jaaquai, leading into the god's ice palace. Followers are welcomed within and a great feast is served. Worshippers present gifts to the Cold Prince -- typically jewels and silver. The god chooses slaves from those present, and appoints three priests who will serve as his ministers for the following year.
Speaking the god's name: There is a 5% chance of Jaaquai responding when his name is invoked by a mortal. If the god responds, roll 3d6. Devout followers re-roll results of 15 or higher.

3: 1d6 ice devils or winter fey gate in to aid the supplicant. 50% chance of the god himself making an appearance as well.
4: An ice devil or winter fey gates in to aid the supplicant.
5 - 6: The supplicant is granted one use of one of the following spells (whichever is more helpful): resist fire, resist cold, hold person, obscuring mist, wall of ice.
7 - 8: The supplicant is blessed by one of the spells listed above, but is expected to make an offering to the god in return. Treasure worth 2% of the character's XP must be donated within a month at the god's temple.
9 - 11: The supplicant is paralysed with awe for 1d6 rounds.
12 - 13: The supplicant is affected by a slow spell.
14 - 15: An ice storm manifests, centred on the supplicant.
16 - 17: An ice devil or winter fey gates in and attacks the supplicant.
18: 1d6 ice devils or winter fey gate in and attack the supplicant. 50% chance of the god himself manifesting and attacking as well.

I found myself, some days ago, browsing the AD&D 1st edition Unearthed Arcana, and re-read the description of the thief-acrobat split class for the first time in quite a while. It got me to wondering whether that class' abilities could be integrated into the standard thief class, without requiring a separate sub-class. In class-based games this is how my tastes go - I want a few very archetypal classes (fighter / thief / magic-user), perhaps with a sprinkling of options within each one to give a bit of variety. The number of classes in AD&D 1e/2e is too great for my sensibilities, let alone the madness of all the classes and 'prestige classes' (or whatever) in 3rd and 4th edition D&D.

The thief-acrobat abilities seem like the perfect example of the kind of 'options' I'm talking about for a class. You're still a thief, but you can choose (at character creation, ideally) if you want to specialise more in traditional thievery or in fancy acrobatic tricks. Likewise, I think the skills of the AD&D / Advanced Labyrinth Lord assassin class could easily and pleasantly be integrated as options for the standard thief. That's another class which, according to my criteria, isn't really necessary - it's just a thief with a couple of skills swapped out.

So I compiled a list of all these thief-like skills, including those from the acrobat and assassin:

1. Pick locks
2. Find & remove traps
3. Pick pockets
4. Move silently
5. Climb walls
6. Hide in shadows
7. Hear noise
8. Back stab
9. Script: Read languages / Use scrolls
10. Disguise (as assassin)
11. Poisons (as assassin)
12. Tumbling (as acrobat)
13. Balance (as acrobat)
14. Jumping (as acrobat)

So, just in theory, a newly created thief character could simply pick 9 out of those 14 skills.

(Note that I've not included the assassin's 'percentage chance to kill things automatically' ability - I've always regarded that as a bit over-powered and silly. Besides, it's sort of just a variant on back-stabbing for multiplied damage.)

The script skill, which includes read languages (usually gained at 4th level) and use scrolls (usually gained at 10th level), could probably do with a bit of expansion. Ideally all of these skills would provide some benefit at 1st level. So I'd extend the read languages ability (at a lower percentage of success) to 1st level, and possibly include some kind of code-breaking abilities too, which would be pretty useful for a thief.

Likewise, I'd consider giving back stab a progression of sorts (as it does in AD&D, but doesn't have in LL), so the damage multiplier increases at higher levels.

Also the poisons skill would need some kind of progression - perhaps a percentage chance to analyse or even create poisons?

It'll need a bit of work, but I think it's a pretty promising idea...

Due to:

1. Having a distinct lack of t-shirts in a passable condition at the moment.
2. My love of old-school RPGs, and a certain amount of "geek pride".
3. Having noticed a shop near where I work which offers printing of images onto organic cotton t-shirts.

I've decided to expand my currently extremely limited repertoire of t-shirts with some new ones featuring evocative old-school images. The first selection was the iconic 1978 Players Handbook cover, which I photographed and (somewhat painstakingly) editted. I'm pretty pleased with the result, as originally I was thinking I'd have to cut off the adventurers at the bottom of the image, as they were covered in writing. Photoshop's "clone stamp" tool is a work of genius! I'll no doubt post a picture of the t-shirt when it's printed too. (By the way, I just realised that this is a t-shirt I always wanted as a kid, after seeing it in a TSR promotional brochure... Dreams do come true ;))

Next on the list is either simply a Dungeons & Dragons logo (I'm thinking the one off the Mentzer box - which is the most iconic to me), or perhaps the Moldvay Basic D&D cover. I did try making a vector image of the former already (which would be required to make a vinyl transfer of it), but I had some trouble getting a good result without arduously tracing the whole thing by hand. I might end up doing that, when I find the time, but I'd also be very interested to hear if anyone has already done this, or knows where one can get a vector D&D logo online?

After waking up this morning, I started thinking about the planes of hell. Such is the life of a Dungeon Master ;)

In contrast to the traditional AD&D conception of the planes of existence, in my campaign I've decided that there's only one plane or world, and that all deities, devils, demons, etc have their realms located physically in that one world. (I don't claim to know a huge amount about real-world mythology, but I think this was pretty much the world-view held by people such as the Norse and the ancient Greeks.) Of course, most of these divine or infernal regions of the world would be obscure, mythical and pretty much impossible for average mortals to reach. (Heroes with powerful sorcery and magic items, on the other hand...)

So, in my campaign, the spirits of the dead travel through the Underworld (literally underground) and have to run the gauntlet of spiritual worth as various unsavoury beings vie to steal their souls. Up until now I've not put that much thought into the dark forces of the world, other than creating a list of the names of some of the major gods of Chaos - who'd be exactly the folks who would be ruling these subterranean domains.

This is what came to my mind, inspired by the idea of "the nine hells" (not sure if that's an AD&Dism, or if it's based in real-world legend?):

The Nine Hells
1. The burning hell
2. The freezing hell
3. The boiling hell
4. The parched (or desolate) hell
5. The caustic hell
6. The lightless hell
7. The hell of hooks
8. The hell of holes
9. The hell of dominion

Each of them of course now needs a suitably nasty ruler and his or her servitors. For example, I imagine the boiling hell being a swamp-world filled with bubbling pools and noxious vapours, ruled by a frog god and his amphibious devil servants. The ninth hell I envisage as the kind of central hub (also perhaps the lowest), from where the as-yet unnamed lord of hell rules each of the other eight.

Fun times :)

I've seen a few people discussing this topic, on various blogs and forums: the idea of weapon damage in D&D being determined not by the weapon itself, but by the class of the character wielding it. The most commonly propsed system is that characters do damage based on their hit die (d4 for magic users, d6 for thieves, d8 for clerics and d10 for fighters - using the AD&D class hit dice).

It's an idea that I find very appealing. 1. It's simple, super simple. 2. It (potentially) does away with that old D&D stickler - "why can't my wizard / cleric use a sword?".

So with damage by class a wizard can use a sword - he just won't do much damage with it. This makes sense to me. Of course, anyone can pick up and use (almost) any weapon, but without proper training (like, say, being a fighter) they're not going to be able to use it at full effectiveness.

At the low end of the damage spectrum it seems to make sense. However I've wondered if it makes sense at the other end (fighters). Is a trained warrior really as effective in combat with a dagger as with a longsword? I don't claim any knowledge of such things, but I presume not, otherwise the longsword would probably never have been invented.

So, what I've been thinking is that a mixture of the two systems would probably work - damage by class and by weapon. This sounds like it's going to be complicated and involve tables, but it doesn't! All you need to do is say that any character can use any weapon, and all weapons do the damage listed as normal - BUT up to a maximum of the character's hit die. So a wizard wielding a dagger, a club, a sword - any weapon at all - will do d4 damage. But a fighter wielding a dagger will be a far less formidable opponent than a fighter wielding a 2-handed sword.

(By the way, I'm sure this idea is subconsciously inspired by Savage Worlds, where damage is by weapon but limited by a character's Strength.)

The only trouble I can see with this (or other damage by class systems) is that it takes away one of the fighter's big advantages - having no weapon restrictions. Of course the fighter has also just gained a new big advantage - being the only class capable of dealing maximum damage with big weapons. I'm not sure if this balances out though.

I'd say probably clerics would be the big winners here, going from being able to use a very limited selection of weapons, almost all of which do d6 damage, to being able to use any weapon, many of which deal up to d8 damage. In that respect I'd consider reducing clerics' maximum damage to d6, that seems more balanced.

I'm interested to hear anyone's thoughts on this matter!

So I've been browsing through the AD&D DMG, and I must say I'm really impressed with it so far. "1e" has the reputation of being overly complex, arcane and difficult to understand, but I've not found it any more complex than 2e was, say. The "rules" section of the book (and that includes all sorts of guidance and examples, not just hard rules) only encompasses 119 pages - the rest being magic item descriptions and various random tables.

Anyway, I'll probably write here about anything I read that particularly grabs my attention. One such thing was the presence of the following two sentences, amidst the section on INTERVENTION BY DEITIES:

Serving some deity is an integral part of AD&D. ...the accumulation of hit points and the ever-greater abilities and better saving throws of characters represents the aid supplied by supernatural forces.

That's something that's never occurred to me before! And I don't think most people play that way, nowadays at least. (I'm not sure how many people would have taken those sentences literally back in the day, either.) But taking those sentences literally is a really interesting proposition, I think. What if every character, not just clerics and paladins, were required to choose a patron deity, and that that patronage is required in order to advance past 5th or so level. Like, normal people can advance up to a certain degree, but it requires the patronage of a deity to attain the abilities of higher level characters. That sounds like a pretty interesting premise for a campaign to me!

Look what I just received in the post!

I've just had a flick through it, to see what's in there (I've not looked at the 1st edition DMG for quite a few years), and was delighted. I'm especially pleased by the huge number of random tables for all manner of things: NPC personalities, dungeon dressing, treasure, tricks & traps, etc etc.

It's going to be a fun read!