Midgard DM Exposition
In most of my campaigns I employ what I dub "idea men" (irrespective of
gender, of course). In the Midgard campaign, my primary idea man was Justin
Howell, a player from the Luthor StrongHeart campaign. I explained quite a
bit to him in a series of e-mails, so I've posted them here in case people
want some explanation about the reference guide.
Here are a couple of the more coherent expositions:
On Thu, 5 Jun 1997, Kim Lumbard wrote:
> Why am I not going to allow it to happen? I have always let players be
> whatever class they desire (among the prescribed selections), despite the
> detrimental effects on party composition. Certainly I've suggested,
> warned, and even offered incentives, but players are always free to make
> their own mistakes. Did I ever tell you about Garthac the assassin?
Was that the half-orc with a charisma of 3 or 4, or am I thinking of
Ug Smut (or something to that effect)? In any event, I'd sort of expect
the GM of a party-based campaign to be pretty firm about characters
being compatible with each other. Then again, most players have enough
sense not to try playing an adversary/avenger/defiler if there's already
a paladin.
> Lessee, essence de barbarian is:
> a) massive hit points and significant DEX-linked AC adjustment
> b) several ranger / woodland-esque abilities
> c) large restrictions on magic use
> The thrust of amazons is:
> a) gender
> b) several special fighter maneuvers
> c) direct pantheony (i.e. connection to a pantheon of gods)
I think I vaguely recall barbarians. Unearthed Arcana was the one that
had Cavaliers, weapon specializations, and lots of deities for the non-
human races, right? About all I can remember about barbarians was d12
hit dice, or something gratuitous like that. How severe are the magic
restrictions? Could one use magic weapons, at least?
What maneuvers do amazons have that are different from the basics all
fighters get (parry, disarm, etc.)? Is "direct pantheony" essentially
the type of thing Jen's character had in the LS campaign?
> Alas, there is no R-symmetry as yet, though I would be willing to
> entertain some notions...
I have a vague recollection that we may have discussed alignment symmetry
before, and ended up hand-waving assassins into the role of the anti-
Ranger.
> So over last summer a person I roomed with made a spoof on the LoLS a la
> Mystery Science Theatre 3000. It was hilarious (and one of the things he
> ridiculed was Flanders name).
I don't suppose you still have a copy of this spoof?
> All the races will exist and be "prevalent". The relative utility of the
Will you toss in any new races, along with the fighter variant classes
we've been talking about? I can't think of much that would be both
plausible and not unbalancing, but you're much more inventive than I am.
> There's nothing wrong with an impossible mission...assuming the players are
> smart enough to turn tail and run. :-)
A big assumption there...
> > You could just tell them, and I still occasionally write to Jen. With
> > effort, the idea could probably be driven home before third level.
>
> Actually, I would appreciate not telling any of the players about any
> of the information which I have told you about the upcoming campaign.
> Hmm... upon reconsideration, I would consider it a serious breach of
> faith.
No problem. If you ever do want some indirect help in wielding a Clue
Stick upon the party, just let me know. Once you start, I'll very likely
correspond with Jen about the players' perspective, but until and unless
you wish me to do otherwise I'd do this under the pretense of complete
ignorance (beyond the knowledge of the campaign's existance, of course).
Should be much more amusing that way, anyhow, given what you've said
about the game world being very twisted and unusual.
On Thu, 5 Jun 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
> > their own mistakes. Did I ever tell you about Garthac the assassin?
>
> Was that the half-orc with a charisma of 3 or 4, or am I thinking of
> Ug Smut (or something to that effect)? In any event, I'd sort of expect
That was Ug Smut. Garthac was a PC assassin who wiped out half of his own
party. Woohoo!
> the GM of a party-based campaign to be pretty firm about characters
> being compatible with each other. Then again, most players have enough
> sense not to try playing an adversary/avenger/defiler if there's already
> a paladin.
I'm not so certain. I've seen some pretty weird combinations. I find the
best policy is to not get involved, sit back with some popcorn, and watch the
players massacre each other... :-)
> I think I vaguely recall barbarians. Unearthed Arcana was the one that
> had Cavaliers, weapon specializations, and lots of deities for the non-
> human races, right? About all I can remember about barbarians was d12
Correct.
> hit dice, or something gratuitous like that. How severe are the magic
> restrictions? Could one use magic weapons, at least?
In Unearthed Arcana the restrictions were pretty severe, but then gradually
lessened as the barbarian increased in level. My new barbarian incarnation
will be pretty severe, period; they will not be able to use magic weapons.
I envision the new barbarian as being a brutish combat sponge.
> What maneuvers do amazons have that are different from the basics all
> fighters get (parry, disarm, etc.)? Is "direct pantheony" essentially
> the type of thing Jen's character had in the LS campaign?
They get things like Missile Deflection, Range Shots, Lassoing, of course.
Yes, direct pantheony is exactly that.
> I have a vague recollection that we may have discussed alignment symmetry
> before, and ended up hand-waving assassins into the role of the anti-
> Ranger.
Speaking of symmetries, I have at long last altered the core rules to
introduce massive levels of symmetry. This includes but is not limited to:
Symmetrized ability effects. INT, WIS, and CHR affect die rolls.
Universal Saving Throws, XP progression, and HD progressions.
Class naming (10, 15, 20, etc. are all name levels)
I've also introduced numerous things:
New Morale System (hope it works!)
New Rolling System, with joint rolls and looks
New Classes (Monk, Assassin, Barbarian, Amazon) Soon Bards & Druids.
This next campaign should be massively interesting, at the very least as a
game-testing hotbed.
> I don't suppose you still have a copy of this spoof?
Alas, no. I should have gotten a copy.
> Will you toss in any new races, along with the fighter variant classes
> we've been talking about? I can't think of much that would be both
> plausible and not unbalancing, but you're much more inventive than I am.
I considered importing races from other games, like "Obsidimen" from
EarthDawn, but decided against it. As it stands I have a pretty symmetric
racial distribution, and will let it stand for now. However, you are
pointing out an important thing: there should be some way of conveniently and
fairly adding on new races.
> > There's nothing wrong with an impossible mission...assuming the players are
> > smart enough to turn tail and run. :-)
>
> A big assumption there...
I'm not assuming anything. I expect they will all die. 8^)
> No problem. If you ever do want some indirect help in wielding a Clue
> Stick upon the party, just let me know. Once you start, I'll very likely
> correspond with Jen about the players' perspective, but until and unless
> you wish me to do otherwise I'd do this under the pretense of complete
> ignorance (beyond the knowledge of the campaign's existance, of course).
> Should be much more amusing that way, anyhow, given what you've said
> about the game world being very twisted and unusual.
Heh, heh, heh. Well, given that you have no problems with secrecy, how would
you like to become an "idea man" for the campaign? I typically employ 1-3
idea men per campaign, though the players are often unaware of it. They are
exactly what they sound like: people I talk to / correspond with about the
campaign and who give me new and inventive ways to hose the party over. :-)
However, if you become one then total secrecy is called for. As a necessary
step I will disclose the entire campaign premise to you, so that you can
think of things which mesh well. But that means the slightest slip could
give the whole shebang away. The best idea people are those with no contact
with the players (I've had them in foreign countries before), but given
contact it is best to not even let on you are helping me.
Interested?
On Wed, 27 Aug 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} This would be the fellow you referred to in the "Intro to Kim D&D" part
} of your web page, I assume. You really should find the time to write
Correct. He was played by Lanny, after he got fed up with the dweeb
maneuvers the party was doing.
} up in some detail all these cool stories you've accumulated.
I shall try. But I prefer taking the time to create new cool stories...
} Sounds cool. Will these new rules soon appear on your web page? I
} think I've only seen Morale (except for fear/terror checks) appear in
} Warhammer Fantasy Battle, not in a RPG.
I initially thought not, mainly because they were in a form not easily
convertable to HTML. But I'm now changing them over in large part to Excel
(in order to create an automated character sheet; 60% done and climbing!) and
it looks like Excel has an HTML converter. If it works, I take an hour or so
to slap up all the new charts, though the rules themselves will still be in
Word format.
Speaking of which, do you have Word 8.0, i.e. the one which shipped with the
latest version of MS Office? If so, I can e-mail you my current docs,
which would go a long way to describing the current state of Midgard...
} Lanny had this role for the LS campaign (or was it the one before LS?),
} right?
Actually, no. Ray Clermont was a constant idea man for the whole LS campaign
(a player of mine from MA). Justin Muhly was the "main man" for awhile after
he petered out as a player. A few others came and went briefly.
} Yeah, I think so. It seems to me that the probability of me moving
} out to the LA/Pasadena area in the immediate future is sufficiently low
} that forfeiting the chance of playing in this campaign is not an issue.
Excellent! Hmm... I think I'll hold off on disclosing the whole enchilada
for right now (it's simple, but big). Is there any possibility of you
visiting the LA area / getting together?
} I'm feeling serious "gaming withdrawal" at the moment. I'm hoping that
} we can start another World in Flames campaign here soon; there's a neat
} looking scenario on the web at http://world.std.com/~DaveL/drang.html
} War starting in '42, after Chamberlain backs down over Poland in '39;
} Germans with a real navy, France not necessarily doomed, Turkey, Spain,
} and Sweden all participating - looks very interesting, although not
} necessarily well balanced. If nothing significant starts for a while
} around here, I'll probably try my hand at pbem Diplomacy.
We all do what we must in order to satisfy our urges...
On Wed, 10 Sep 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} This is fucking weird!!
I'm glad you think so. :-)
} What are the mechanics of that
} Yggdrasil reincarnation thing, anyway?
Basically what I described in the player intro. You get speared and blooded,
a cocoon forms, and nine days later a new person emerges.
} My knowledge of
} Norse mythology is weak and spotty (basically just what
} I've absorbed from its generally weak influence on various
} fantasy stories; Brin's "Thor vs. Captain America" would
} be a major part of that). I have the impression that
} Yggdrasil is a rather large tree, but wouldn't access still be
} a bit restricted, especially with everyone living underground?
The Yggdrasil is the World Tree. It is the main fixture of the Ginnungagap,
where life originated. All the nine worlds are supported in its branches,
primarily Asgard, Jotunheim, and Niffleheim. That's the Norse gospel.
As far as the game is concerned, the Yggdrasil will be under Midgard and thus
the "trees" people encounter are actually small branches and twigs of the Ash
Tree of Life. (i.e. branches, not roots). The Yggdrasil is all
encompassing, and therefore has shoots anywhere.
} Or do people only settle in caverns that happen to have
} convenient Yggdrasil roots to spear corpses to?
Human settlements cluster around Ash Groves next to Lardale Streams, yes.
The same way that in our real world civilization clustered near protective
regions and food sources.
} I'm also
} assuming that elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. can do the same
} sort of thing, and that Yggdrasil preserves species.
Actually, demi-humans are buried and a similar process occurs. Orcs and most
other humanoid monsters reproduce the "old-fashioned" way, i.e. sexual
reproduction.
} My next question would be about agriculture or other food
} gathering activities, but the comments about "don't pick
} food related nicknames" is somewhat suggestive...
Lardale is the only food source the players will be aware of. It flows in
underground streams which occasionally shift, causing migration. In fact,
the primary plotline will be along these lines, i.e. Fallersholm needs to
move and the party is going to help it to do it.
} What's
} so nasty about the surface, anyway?
There is no surface. Midgard is actually the body of Ymir, the first giant,
who was slain by Odin, Vili, and Ve. The entire body is rife with caverns;
these caverns get smaller as you descend and larger as you ascend. The
topside is nothing more than a designation for a series of BIG caverns. No
sun, no moon, zippo.
} I'd guess rampaging
} dragons and gods, but you imply that a fifth level party
} might not die if it went upside, which would tend to shoot
} down that hypothesis.
The nastiness on the upside... is the goblins.
} The magic section is the other really boggling bit. "Dirt is
} magical" Sheesh! Still, could be pretty damn cool; more
} magic stuff to play with, even at low level. Also fits in
} quite well with the newly created world premise, which I quite
} like. I presume hematite will be fairly common, to compensate
} for the lack of healing that I remember from AD&D's Norse gods?
Exactamundo. It also makes clerics less critical to party survival.
} About the weapon plusses - if one makes a weapon of pure silver,
} will it automatically be a +2 weapon, or is that the potential
} that a magic user could enchant it to?
Just the potential. In fact, I've worked out a system where you can
deliberately create a weapon with less plusses than it would normally get in
order to imbue it with more special abilities.
} For structural reasons,
} I'd hope that people would make weapons mostly of steel or iron,
} with just a coating of whatever bonus metal they choose. Btw,
} Pratchett's Discworld novels should be useful resources for the
} more comic aspects of living in a strong magical field. Will
} the magic be strong enough to create analogs to Gaspode the Wonder
} Dog (intelligent, talking animals)?
I see no reason why not. However, the selection of monsters on this world is
severely curtailed. It basically has to do this chart which describe the
whole world in a nutshell. I definitely have to send you a copy. What is
your mailing address?
} I like the no spell components/spell books modification, and
} calling Amazons "Valkyries" somehow makes the class much more
} palatable. I'll leave the Ride jokes to the players... I see
} what you meant by dwarves and gnomes being particularly good PC
} races.
Many things on Midgard will be turned topsy-turvy, deliberately so.
} You could (if you had lots of time to kill) set up the name
} section to produce a name from a series of die rolls, much like
} the random demon name generator in Warhammer's _Realms of Chaos_
} sourcebook. In a remarkably short time, Slam Jam determined that
} Smutlust Buttockthrust was the best name available from that table.
Actually, setting up a random name generator would be pretty easy, and I have
considered doing so. It is, alas, a low priority project.
On the other hand, I have recently realized my long-standing vision of an
automated character sheet! You type in a few stats and all the info is
automatically populated. Woohoo!
} Do you have any plans for making the PC region even more restricive
} by means of drow, balrogs, and/or Cthulu-esque horrors from the
} Dungeon Dimensions? Squeeze the PCs between the surface and the
} really nasty shit farther underground...
Actually, the nastieness coefficient decreases as you go downward. That's
where Asgard is, after all...
On Thu, 25 Sep 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} So these places are distinct worlds, not just regions on one normal
} world.
Actually, the relation is far more fuzzy than that. Each realm is connected
to every other realm via magical portals which can be created on the fly
using elemental compositions.
} If all the worlds are supported by its branches, what does the
} tree live on; i.e. where are its roots? This is really hard for me to
} picture. Also, one assumes that Norse cosmology includes their
Heh, heh, heh. The tree = free space. Where does it reside? Where it
resides.
} perception of the real world somewhere, so where's the bit with
} Scandinavia, the sun, moon, stars, Vikings, little or no magic, etc.?
Nope. No concept of the "real" world. That would make players too familiar
with it. ;-)
} You really are changing _everything_ - now humans and demi-humans will have
} a reproductive edge over goblinoids, instead of the reverse. How bizarre.
It's one of the base abilities of humans.
} OK. What light sources do exist, if standard astronomical objects are
} absent? Just luminice, fire, and light spells? Btw, who are Vili and Ve?
Yes. Luminice (more commonly known as just ice) exists everywhere and
becomes more common the deeper you go. Furthermore, since pressure increases
as you descend, that means that things become lighter and brighter as you go
downward.
Vili and Ve are brothers of Odin, who are all sons of Bor.
} Besides, for a non-infinite Ymir, there must exist a surface somewhere.
} I assume you mean no habitable/interesting surface.
Actually Ymir is a topologically interesting construct of finite dimensions
but no surface.
} > The nastiness on the upside... is the goblins.
}
} Knowing you, I'm not surprised. Ken, Jen, Paul, and Dan will be _so_
} pleased to learn this, I'm sure.
The main reason I made them the scorge of civilization is because a player
mentioned to me that he thought goblins were worthless. Once I wipe out the
5th level party with them he might think differently.
} Makes sense. Is this not in some way present in the regular rules?
It is indeed, but not so highly codified.
} I've never done more than simply look at what "typical" magic items
} exist, so I have no idea how a high level mage character would go about
} making them, but I'd assume there'd be a trade-off in time and effort
} between plusses and bonus stuff (fire/frost, slay X, whatever).
[...]
} 110 Morningside Dr. #61 B
} NY, NY 10027
} Sorry. Left the zip code out of my .plan; it's fixed now.
I'm just about to mail off a care package to you which contains copies of
most of my DM documents. Unfortunately, I haven't written them for outside
consumption, so you'll have to puzzle out most of the stuff. Also, I'm
giving you my old copies (about two weeks out of date) since I want a finite
number of these things floating around.
However, there are three places where I would direct your attention:
DM Reference: Page 2 This is the whole campaign right here, baby
DM Norse Mythos: Some nifty background on the theological superstructure
DM Plotlines: Some rough sketches of the campaign (massively outdated)
I've also included a copy of the player handouts at the end. Enjoy!
} So is it possible for characters to visit Asgard, presumably climbing
} down the appropriate branches of Yggdrasil?
I haven't decided. But that is certainly what people in the world think.
} I'm assuming Asgard is
} where Odin et al. hang out. Or is that Valhalla?
Valhalla is one of Odin's halls; Asgard is his realm.
} I'm also curious as to the value of the decay constant of the magical
} field. It seems like an interesting time to start the campaign would
} be a few decay times after the creation of this whole universe, such
} that some of the more common and blatant magical effects are just
} starting to disappear. Make the party start to depend on hematite,
} lardale, luminice, whatever, then slowly make them stop working at
} higher levels. Or would that be too nasty?
Nothing is *too* nasty. Keep thinking of stuff like this! ;->
On Fri, 26 Sep 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} Lovely. Perhaps someone should start making a list of "signs your DM
} might be a mathematician" analogous to Foxworthy's redneck jokes.
Bwah hah hah! I think a top 10 list would be more appropriate... ;-)
} Individually, goblins are worthless, just like kobolds, 0 level humans,
} and any other < 1 HD creatures out there. OTOH, "quantity has a quality
} all its own". That was a singularly foolish remark for a player to make.
I concur.
} I presume he hadn't heard about Gannis, or that kobold from that high
} level campaign long in the past. Would you have used goblins if this
} person hadn't implicitly challenged you to do so?
He had heard about both. I may not have used goblins, but I certainly would
have employed some otherwise normally spudly creature.
} I'm sure I will. I'll try to hold off on my background questions until
} all this arrives.
Sounds like a battle plan. Feel free to ask questions: it will help to
understand the holistic psyche when creating ever greater possibilities for
destruction...
} There is one thing I forgot to include in yesterday's message. I've
} been pondering the possible sociological effects of Yggdrasil. Seems
} to me that it makes a slave economy much more practical, since the
} ruling class wouldn't really have to worry about keeping their slaves
} alive very long. They could even exploit Yggdrasil further by killing
} any slave showing the slightest hint of rebelliousness, so that the
} population would consist entirely of dull, blindly obedient workers.
} This would seem to fit in well with the emphasis on mining and warfare;
} mining would seem to require more brute force, with only a few people
} who actually know where and how to apply it. Warfare could work well
} enough with an elite warrior class backing up hordes of cannon fodder
} (fireball kindling?) - more of the Russian style of war here. I
} figure this would be a LE type of community, but I could be wrong.
} One could go a little further with this, and have the ruling class
} (warriors, priests, skilled craftsmen, etc.) be defined by heredity
} through sexual reproduction, while the workers would be those reincarnated
} by the tree. No doubt there are plenty of other ways Yggdrasil could
} warp Midgard societies away from the terrestrial norms.
Actually, you've already hit on one: there is no real concept of a slave
society. Why keep around rebellious slaves when you could just kill them and
raise them to be loyal? Why keep around dispirited warriors when you could
kill them and hope for a more effective fighter? There is also little
tangible benefit to being born, and a considerable disadvantage (namely the
long period of protection and caregiving).
Lastly, mining is typically done by erudite people and not brutes, since the
slightest mishap in the mines could lead to mass destruction.
} It looks like the players haven't figured out the advantages of going
} for dwarves or gnomes. I'd say the early odds on survival would have
Several of them have recently made conversions, to their great benefit.
} Jen dying first, and Dan having the best shot at making a few levels.
} Gotta love those alignment distributions. Would it be too difficult
} for you to link to the character sheets and backgrounds to these
} characters?
It wouldn't be difficult at all, but I won't be linking them just yet. I
can, however, arrange to send you the docs via an e-mail attachment. I'll be
done them by this Saturday; I'll try to send them to you this Sunday.
On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} Your package arrived today. I need to prepare for teaching
} tomorrow's lab, so I've only skimmed through it. Much looked
} very cryptic, and some of the high level titles are just plain
} silly (Wonder Woman, Lone Ranger). The amazon and assassin
Hey, I was under time pressure to produce here...
} classes looked cooler than I expected, with the barbarians less
} cool than I expected. Rangers and bards were described as
} being warped into essentially new classes, but no further
} material was present; is this because nobody is likely to play
} one in this campaign?
It's because they don't exist on this world. There is no real concept of
outdoors on Midgard, and thus druids / rangers ore out. Midgard also uses a
runic system and thus rhyming mages are out.
} More questions/comments when I have time (Wed/Thurs, most likely).
Sounds good.
On Wed, 1 Oct 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} Further examination of the assassin class reveals that it is
} precisely, down to the last detail, everything I could possibly
} want from a thief-type character. I am amazed and disappointed
} that nobody has chosen to play one, especially given that some
} fool has decided to play a monk (I've never seen the attraction
I'm pretty happy with the new assassin myself. Were I coming in as a player,
that's the class I'd try out.
} of that class). Does the assassin's autopsy skill also help with
} non-magical healing (surgery, setting bones, general first aid),
} perhaps supplemented by the poison skill for drugs? The character
Don't know. But that would be a great thing to try and find out...
} concept of an assassin using the cover identity of a physician
} appeals to me, although I'll probably never be able to use it.
}
} On the subject of rangers, I guess I've been warped by conversations
} with Raj about how he'd modify rangers. Your barbarian rules (home
} territory, similar territory, unknown territory) remind me a lot of
} what Raj had in mind. As I recall, he defined nine terrain types,
} in three groups of three, and a ranger would be native to one terrain
} type where he'd be really studly, in the two related terrains he'd be
} competent, and in the remaining six terrain types he'd just have basic,
} marginal survival skills. One of the nine terrains was underground
Very much the concept I'm going for here. Basically, I wanted to describe in
a game mechanical way the reason why barbarians can fight off powerful armies
in their home territory, but are unable to conquer neighboring regions.
} (related terrain with mountain and tundra? not sure...), which led to
} speculation about dwarven rangers. Apparently you don't have such a
} loose interpretation of the class. Re: bards, the title list suggests
Actually, I am now leaning toward allowing all races to be all classes, just
with an additional XP multiplier modifier. So, sure, you could have a
Dwarven Magic-User, but it might cost you an extra +.5 XP multiplier, etc.
} that they would not be totally inappropriate (Skald is a norse bard,
} is it not?). The connection between bards and magic has always
} been unclear to me, though. Is this a version of the 1st ed. bard
} (incredibly studly ftr/th/mage) that you're not using, or are you
} not using the 2nd ed. bard (really lame excuse for a thief with a
} few spells)?
Bards are a new class, basically a rhyming mage. Key benny: all spells cast
vocally (no somatic / material components necessary). Key drawback: all
spells cast vocally. Some other charm / Lore like abilities, etc.
You are right that Skalds would not be inappropriate for the world, but a) I
haven't really fleshed out the Bard class to my liking and b) if I were to
spend the time on class creation, it would be for more fighter classes.
} On to more useful pursuits... What the hell is the DM Reference
} packet supposed to mean? I could interpret very little of it. The
} first bit looks like you're fitting a RoleMaster style "elemental"
} magic system to the alignments. I find the label of elemental to
That is very much what it is. Okay, here's the spiel, in no particular order
but hopefully some coherence:
1) There are five basic elements:
Cold and Heat, Light and Dark, and True Earth
Each of the elements is related, but not equivalent, to an alignment.
Cold <-> Law, Heat <-> Chaos, Light <-> Good, Dark <->, Earth = Neutral
Furthermore, the elements are in opposition as you would expect, with earth
being the void at the center. So there are 3 thermal states (Presence of
Cold, Presence of Heat, and absence of either = Void) and 3 spectral states
(Presence of Light, Presence of Dark, and absence of either = Voda).
1A) NOTE: Dark is NOT the absence of Light, and Cold in NOT the absence of
Heat. This is the whole sight / sense business. Every creature can see in
two out of three spectral conditions: Light, Void, and Dark. Humans, for
example, can see in Light and Void but not in Dark; demi-humans can see in
Light and Dark but not in Void.
2) All of these elements / alignments can mix with each other if they are not
in opposition. This leads to the 5 x 5 charts which forms the basis for this
world. For example, Cold and Light combine to make Ice (i.e. the luminice
listed on the Player page). Ice is NOT Cold + Water. I intend to screw the
party with this fact multiple times until they wise up.
3) Anyway, when two elements mix, they make a new element (Ice, Wood, Crystal,
and Coal). When an element mixes with an alignment, it makes a concept.
These concepts form two parallel cycles: (Birth, Youth, Old Age, and Death)
and (Creation, Preservation, Decay, and Destruction). Alignments mixing with
other alignments make alignments, except for True Earth = True Neutrality.
4) Okay, here's the funky part. Magic and life are also in opposition.
Where there is great magic, life force is minimal; where life predominates,
there is little magic. (That's the reason why magic-users need to form
runocs with their life force when they cast spells; more on that some other
time.)
True earth is the magic Void and Life Vacuum: it absorbs and negates all
magic and all life. As far away from that as possible, the corners of the
chart have life related abilities (Regeneration, Rebirth, Life Draining, Life
Warping). This might seems like magic to the characters BUT IT IS NOT.
5) Anyway, every block also has a exemplary monster class which typifies the
"element". Note that humans are Chaos + Light, exemplifying Youth, and are
close to the pure Rebirth. Hence the Tree-based rebirth.
Lastly, each block also has a Rune / combination which describes the
"element" in question. It follows the rule that the x-axis labelling always
comes first.
6) OKAY. Now let's talk about the Combinational Transformation Chart.
There are two mediums, which lead to three medium combos
Air, Water, and Air + Water (together)
Each of the basic elements is modified by one of these mediums, leading to a
different aspect of the same element. NOTE that Lava is Heat + Water, and
NOT Heat + Earth (Yes, I will ream them with this, too :-)
7) Each of the combo xforms can create a portal to the appropriate Norse
Realm.
8) When two opposing basic elements meet in a medium, they can create Storm
or Vortex or both. So, when Dark and Light clash meet in Air, they create
Storm, which as everyone knows is Thunder (Dark + Air) and Lighting (Light +
Air).
Hope this explains some of the junk on the first page. This really does form
the crux from which I am basing the rest of the campaign. For example, there
are no monster on this planet which do not come from the chart (except for
special classes of 'over' monsters for which there is a 'brand' for every
block).
} be aesthetically displeasing when applied to anything with more than
} the classical air, earth, fire, and water (and maybe "spirit" or some
} other misc. other type of category), but this is just personal
} prejudice. It is not at all clear to me how this works, or what
} you mean by the luminice floor, coal spikes in ceiling type of trap.
} The bit about humans seeing in light and void but not dark (and the
} permutations of that for demihumans and goblinoids) also makes no
} sense to me.
Whenever two opposing elements come into contact, they
a) clash and destroy each other => damage
b) can create momentary void = True Earth => damage
} I get the impression that plants don't exist in Midgard, which
} raises the question of what the shafts of spears, arrows, axes,
} hammers, polearms, maces, staffs, etc. are made of. Bone might
Plants exist; they just aren't a fixture of the human world.
All the things you would normally make from wood are made from a) haft or b)
igneon, two special types of ore. The party hasn't even questioned this yet.
Sigh.
There are also other useful ores, like strand, which take care of clothing,
rope, etc.
} work for axes, hammers, and maces, but I don't see that working
} for the longer or thinner weapons. Then again, there probably
} isn't much use for archery in Midgard, leaving just the polearm-like
} weapons to figure out.
}
} What's the deal with character stats? The range for humans is
} given as 3-25 in all stats; the max listed for dwarven cons is 21,
} and there are some other anomalies on that page. On the whole, I
There are no anamolies; just new and unfamiliar symmetries. :-)
Actually, I am very close to just ditching ability restrictions entirely. I
rarely if ever consider them when creating the character anyway, and they are
a major pain to keep track of.
} think I like the more even distribution of utility between the
} six stats; makes a player think more about what they want their
} character to be like, rather than just letting game mechanical
} utility determine where they put strengths and weaknesses. Btw,
} there's another aesthetic prejudice on the racial abilities page:
} couldn't you raise elven heights by about 18", so that these are
} real, Tolkien-style elves and not the puny AD&D pixie-elves? I'm
Don't want them to be able to use long weapons.
} also mildly peeved that halflings (who I like even less than monks)
} seem to be perfectly optimized for assassins. Oh well...
Heh, heh, heh. That is a rather curious connection, isn't it? Ken (one of
the people who croaked it in the first session) is coming back as a halfling
assassin... ;->
} The plot line looks cool - I particularly like the fifth level
} adventure. From our experiences in the orc stronghold, they're
} going to be hosed from the beginning (executed for incompetence
} by Mr. Adversary, possibly). What is "the Association" that they
} will meet around 3rd (?) level, if they live that long?
A settlement based on chaotic leadership principles as opposed to lawful
ones.
BTW, the plotline has mutated significantly in response to character pasts
(as it always does), though I will be following the general gist for quite
awhile.
} A couple of technological questions - does anything functionally
} similar to gunpowder exist? Seems like cannon would be incredibly
} powerful in defending long narrow passageways. Another way to
} exploit the cramped, close-packed combat conditions one would
Actually, most of the areas underground are rather spacious. The cavern in
which Fallersholm resides is several acres large, and the main passageway the
PCs are currently exploring is 100ft across / high. Think big.
There are certainly warrens / what we would normally think of as caverns, but
they are rarer. This has to due with the way caverns et al are actually
formed...
} expect underground would be some sort of flamethrower (call it a
} "fire engine" just for amusement). Didn't the Byzantines have
} some sort of napalm-like substance that made Constantinople's
} seaward defenses impregnable (given that any ships attacking would
} be made of wood)? Perhaps you could restrict these types of things
} to the goblins and let the players discover their existance the
} hard way. :)
Excellent! Ah, the joy of idea men...
Suppose that we said that elemental oppositions actually created force, say
Cold and Heat = Explosive Light and Dark = Implosive
(Or we could have some other element be equivalent to dynamite.)
How would you go about constructing a crude weapon / trap from this?
Certainly the musket idea stands... is there some other nifty way to employ
it?
} The bit about stun looks dubious to me, since it looks like it
} would produce RoleMaster-like results of a character being hit
} hard once, and then being forced to stand around helplessly watching
} his own execution. Probably realistic, but not fun to play.
Strength in numbers. I want lone people to get hosed. With luck, in a
group, other people will be able to pull people's hash out of the fire.
On Thu, 2 Oct 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} That was basically my point - selecting for a placid and easily controlled
} population. But if brute force isn't of great utility, there's no need
} to build up a huge and potentially dangerous population base.
I believe we have slightly different conceptions. People don't need to be
cowed; if slain, they are raised anew with no memory of their former life.
} Here is a major mistake on my part - I'm too used to thinking of mining
} as the extraction of safely inert materials. Perhaps I should think instead
} of Midgarders mining _for_ dynamite, not with it.
Heh, heh, heh. Let's keep on this "dynamite" idea. (Bad pun, I know. :-)
What are the real world uses of dynamite / nitroglycerin / other explosives?
} Another detail point on the packet you sent - somewhere you put a note
} about whether or not to have cursed magic items. I think the answer
} should definitely be affirmative. Basically what I have in mind would
} be a deity scale practical joke; Loki would seem like the logical
} perpetrator, as he seems to have a sense of humor, and he's of a
} different alignment from Freya the Valkyrie goddess (CE vs. CG, IIRC).
} The items in question would be analogous to the "Girdle of gender
} switching" or whatever it's called in the DMG, although it would work
} best as something apparently of greatest use to valkyries (the DMG
} version is supposed to look like a girdle of giant strength, I think).
I was definitely going to have ores in the world with comic effects;
in fact, I was already going to have a gender-switching ore! My question was
more along the lines of: if all magic items are made by people (a big
assumption) then what reason would they have to curse the item? The only
reason I can think of is the user mismatch, i.e. a weapon functions
positively for creature type A has negative effects for type B.
Also, I'm thinking cursed items might also be the straw that broke the
camels' back. I'm already reaming them enough; cursed items might be too
cruel...
In fact, I have just decided. No cursed magic. But definitely magic ores et
al with unpredictable / undesirable effects.
} Some sort of ring apparently giving bonuses to range attacks is all
} I can think of off the top of my head. Magic bracers could also work,
Hey! That's good.
} although that would catch a lot of magic users and thieves, too. What
} would happen, in terms of character class, if a valkyrie was magically
} transformed into a man?
An excellent question. One which we'll have to wait to find out...
On Fri, 10 Oct 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} This ore would be called "transvestite", right? Took me a while to catch
} that one. You will presumably have a related comic ore called "hermaphrodite".
} Shame on you. I thought you had a more sophisticated sense of humor.
Heh, heh, heh. One goes for whatever cheap laughs one can...
} Btw, Doug says you have a beard these days. You should update your photo
} on your web page, since I can't quite picture this.
Actually, my beard is purely for gaming purposes, to give the players a feel
for the bearded people running around, in particular Jarl Sigurd. I'll
probably shave it off in a couple weeks.
On Thu, 9 Oct 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
[XP stuff]
} How much effect would this have? It would only be relevant if the
} character survives for a while, and I got the impression in the LS campaign
} that you tried to work things so that everyone advanced at once anyway.
That is normally the case. However, were I to go to a gradiated XP scheme,
then I would either
a) limit the amount of XP handed out each adventure or
b) make the penalties significantly stiff.
Otherwise there is no reason disincentive to be the unfavored classes.
I'll give it some more thought.
} I'll see if the elemental chart thing makes more sense now.
[L, V, D]
} There are some amusing implications here - it would seem that in Midgard,
} anti-photons exist. Maybe complex velocities too, so that kinetic energy
} could be negative (Cold)? Very odd. Just to make sure I have this
Cold is negative kinetic energy! Beautiful! Ah, I love it when a plan comes
together...
} straight, if something opaque was between an observer and luminice,
} the observer would be in void (what we would ordinarily think of as
} shadow, or "dark"), as would an observer with an opaque object blocking
} a source radiating Dark (coal, is it?).
Absolutely correct. I have entertained the notion of distinctly separating
spectral properties, i.e. something could be Light opaque but Dark
transparent, but I am uncertain whether to do it. The pros are:
1) Can create some good cinematic scenes with it
2) Can be used to ream party
but the drawbacks are
1) It *is* a pretty complicated idea...
2) ... and if the party catches on, they might figure out other things.
What do you think? What should be the prevalence of materials whose
thermal and spectral properties are distinctly different?
} How important will these elemental mixings be for non-mage characters?
} There are those funky runes on the monk, so he might care, but would a
} normal fighter or barbarian particularly need to know how all this works?
No one needs to know anything. But the whole party will start to get hosed
if they don't start figuring out some of this stuff, and PDQ, so at least one
character needs to do some serious experimentation.
Furthermore, knowledge of such things would be eminently useful in
a) avoiding bad situations.
b) leveraging the elements on the world to their usages.
Consider luminice. It gives off cold and light under pressure. What a
perfect weapon this would be! Tip arrows with the stuff, put small spikes of
it into clubs, etc. Not only do you do more damage to people, but there
would be flashes of light given off which would could momentarily blind
them. In fact, any of the four pure compositional elements could do the same.
} I suppose you could hand-wave a conservation of energy argument in here -
} if the same form of energy is needed for both life and magic, this sort of
} result would make some sense.
Hmmm... I'm not so certain. I think it would be better to go with an energy
and anti-energy type of idea, as you alluded to above. What is the
connection between magic & life / the elements? I think that they should
form a third dimension... AHHH.... I see the grandeur before me now.
Let me compose another chart and I'll get back to you on this.
} So how would the luminice floor/coal ceiling trap work? The two
} are not in contact, and wouldn't be put into contact by the victims,
} unless the victims happened to knock off a chunk of ceiling.
The trap would be a simple dropping mechanism which would release the spike
from the ceiling whenever anyone entered the area.
a) they might get spearchucked = damage
b) the two opposites would create both vortex and storm = damage
c) momentary True Earth is created = damage
All in all, a good situation. :-)
} Very good. I'd been thinking leather might be a major form of clothing;
Actually, there are virtually no animals around, and what few the humans come
into contact with are enemies. So things like skins, leathers, furs,
etc. are very rare items.
} hadn't thought too much about rope. Are these funky utility ores important
} beyond their obvious basic uses; i.e. will it matter that the party is
} oblivious to their existence? Well, I guess it could be important later
} if you decide the magical field is decaying to the point that these ores
} can't exist, or if the magical field varies with depth, such that it's
} too weak to support much of what the party takes for granted as they get
} higher up. Might be too much if they reach the goblin levels only to see
} their clothing, rope, and many weapons fall apart.
Heh, heh, heh. My thoughts exactly. Igneon, for example, is basically a
moldable material which becomes semi-liquid when heated and then solidifies
when cooled. (Here's a good example of thermal asymmetry.) BTW, just in
general, things get Colder and Lighter the deeper you descend, and Hotter and
Darker the higher you go.
So won't it be nifty when all the igneon items start dribbling apart the
first time the party encounters goblins (who, BTW, will employ coal
extensively in their weapons... :-)
} So do you expect party fission at that point? The array of alignments
I don't expect anything. I wait gleefully to see what will occur... ;-)
} and races would seem rather unstable to me. Any intra-party violence,
} as in Solomon Swordcraft's party?
3 intra-party deaths in the first session. I'm expecting that at least half
will bite it in the second.
} Whoa. That's an order of magnitude larger than I'd thought. And they're
} going up, so it will only get bigger. Hmmm. Archers would not be as
} useless as I thought, and a Spider Climb spell (maybe fiddle with the
} details to fit in with the Earth (something) spells the two mages have)
} would be even more amusing, particularly if cast on a bowman. I love
} the idea of an archer standing on the ceiling of a passageway shooting
} people directly below him. Maybe something else you can inflict on the
} party... Spider Climb is only a level 1 spell, right?
Correct. In fact, Spider Climb and similar abilities kick serious booty in
underground environments. Heh, heh, heh. The lizard things the party is
fighting have a limited spider-climb effect, which they have postulated but
not yet been hosed by...
[Explosives]
} I'll have to go through that elemental chart to make sure I understand it
} before figuring out details. The flamethrower thing could be pretty easy -
} just use Lava as the ammunition, and employ it using a powerful hand pump
} made of resistant materials (such materials also being needed for the
} storage tank). True Earth might be a place to start for such resistant
Alas, True Earth is bigtime rare, and even more rarely found in a stable
form. I'm actually leaning toward making it a purely temporary phenomena,
i.e. actual void.
} materials. This would be a two or three person weapon, but a jet of lava
} shooting forth at people would just ruin their whole day. Better yet,
} combine _this_ with Spider Climb spells, and let the operators do a
} sprinkler impression. Yee-ha!
Good, good. Keep those ideas flowing...
} Moving on to the second message: more explosive uses. Lots of military
} applications; mines, bombs, artillery (both cannon and mortars - combine
Mines! Holy spit! I totally forgot about these! Those would be the perfect
thing to put around established settlements...
} the latter with bombs for indirect fire in large caverns) would seem the
} most relevant. Quick, large scale excavations/removal of obstructions;
} apparently Midgarders would need to ensure that the material being
} blown away wouldn't do anything dangerous to themselves.
A thorny problem, especially when the magical ore composition of the material
to be destroyed is unknown.
} Demolition
} of bridges over chasms, or collapsing smaller passageways could be the
} defensive applications, while offensively one could knock holes in
} fortifications. I'll need more time to think of just what elegantly
Already have many ways to quick-collapse passageways, as well as using the
elemental oppositions to create barriers of storm and vortex.
} subtle tricks one might play with elemental opposition = (ex/im)plosions.
} Mortars would actually seem the easiest weapon to construct - put a
} concentrated form of Heat or Cold in the bottom of the tube, lay it
} to the appropriate elevation and azimuth, then drop in the shell,
} which would have the opposite element on the bottom, combining with
} the stuff already in the tube to fire the shell. As with the fire
} engine idea, inert materials strong enough to be useful in this context
} would be needed. In addition to explosive shells, mortars could be
} effective with poison gas. :) No need to get fixated on explosives...
True, true. It might be that explosives themselves do limited damage / have
little force, but are the perfect deliver system for dusts and other ores
which need wide-scale dispersion to be effective.
Hmmm... I'm really liking this angle. It takes a known idea (explosives) and
then twists it to an easy but unexpected extension (i.e. the explosion itself
doesn't hurt you, but the Dust of Dissolving it carried screws you over.)
Any other things that weak explosions could be used for? Certainly for
gasses / dusts / etc. Any other applications? Non-warfare?
} On cursed items: user mismatch would be the most logical form of cursed
} item, but there are other reasons to make cursed items, if the maker has
} a sufficiently sadistic sense of humor. For example, in Ars Magica,
} there exists a powerful fire spell designed for no purpose other than
} to catch mages who steal from the spellbooks of other magi. Powerful
} fire spells would be among the most popular targets, given their combat
} utility, so this one looks like a really nice attack spell, and is written
} in a sufficiently convoluted format that the "Range: 0" bit can easily
} be overlooked (game mechanics: mage learning the spell from such a text
} must roll a moderately difficult magic theory skill test to see the
} trap). For a D&D analog, maybe a high level mage is periodically
} losing stuff to a higher level thief. Mr. Mage could then decide to make
} an item, probably seeming to be a better version of an item previously
} stolen, while actually being a nasty cursed item (magic dagger which
} actually takes over the limb holding it to try to stab the person
} holding it to death, for example). As you say, this may be too much
} nastiness for one campaign, though. I'm sure you'll make up for it with
} the weird ores.
That's a good reason, but I'm wondering whether the magic-user would actually
spend the effort on this world (where time and resources are precious). In
any event, I've already decreed that there are no cursed items, so we need to
think in the realm of weird but potentially useful...
} A final thought on monsters: will Rodents of Unusual Size try to sneak
} into the party's camp sometime to carry away the gnome (or one of the other
} small characters) for dinner? Could be a more humorous combat, if there's
} any need for such a thing.
Bwah hah hah. ROUSes now, in fact, exist. In the Fire Swamps, of course...
:-)
BTW, I'll probably be working intensely over the next several weeks, so don't
get discouraged if my e-mail replies start becoming spotty. Keep sending
the ideas! I'll read all the e-mails; it may just take me awhile to
respond...
On Sat, 18 Oct 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} Thank you for setting up the long-awaited Midgard timeline. Jen
} has recently resumed sending me email, but it appears that I won't
} need her to get a general notion of what's happening to the party.
No problem. The likelihood is that I'll update it a week out of phase,
i.e. on Friday / Saturday for the last weekend's session.
} Looks like an entertaining game, but I don't really understand
} why the characters are so insistant on killing each other. The
} monk's killing spree struck me as really gratuitous. Sigurd's
} briefing did outlaw intra-party violence, not that people seem to
Heh, heh, heh. I was quite amazed and amused with the carnage myself. The
players just happened to come up with almost contradictory pasts, i.e.
"I want to hate all women and magic-users" and
"I want to be a female mage".
} care. How did you implement BlackRune's attack, anyway? Did you
} and Max work it out separately, and just tell the relevant players
} that their characters died, or was it all done in front of everyone?
Max suggested it to me about a week before, we worked out the details the
night before the session, and then we role-played the cover story in the
session. So from the player's perspective in the room a wind was blowing by
just randomly killing their characters. :-)
} One would hope that any further alignment wars will be less destructive,
} although from what Jen said, the likely losers of such conflict (her
} and Dan) have set up a pretty cool, if unoriginal, character combo.
} Party v2.0 looks fighter poor, cleric and thief heavy to me...
I am also concerned about the "lack" of fighters, i.e. a good distribution
under normal conditions. I guess the best thing to hope for is that the
excess characters die off, leaving a higher fighter density. :-)
} Just out of curiosity, why are those lizard dudes so anal about
} knowing the religion of their opponents?
Because they are part of the Brood, a sect of serpents descended from
dragons, and thus also from Jormungandr. In their religion, the only real
deities are the family of Loki, who is the real "All-Father". They help
those who worship the true deities, and destroy anyone else who worships the
false ones.
BTW, we had a great first session today. It ended with the party stacking
32 dead bodies in the same place at the same time. Bwah hah hah! Wraith,
here we come!
On Sun, 12 Oct 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} I like this notion. Most materials should probably be much the same for
} Light and Dark, but there should be some materials with asymmetrical spectral
} properties. Luminice in low pressure environments (such that it doesn't
} glow) should probably be translucent to photons, and opaque to anti-photons,
} for example. Inactive Coal should probably work analogously. Other materials
} could certainly be similar to one or the other, although I don't think you
} should make such materials very common. If there are only a few such
} materials, it should take the party quite a while to catch on.
Great! I like the ice being opaque to dark, and vice versa.
} Thermal properties, OTOH, should probably be predominantly asymmetrical.
} You may find this aesthetically displeasing to have thermal and spectral
} properties distributed so differently, but I'm basically trying to come
} up with a way for Midgard to not _completely_ fail to reflect normal physics.
} Maybe magic should somehow be tied in to Cold materials, since otherwise
} I can't figure out what complex particle velocities might mean. Still
} another way to hose the party around goblin country here - it's less Cold
} there than where they start, so magical effects could be weaker. Lower
} range, duration, or strength of spells could all be justified this way.
Hmmm... I do not wish to tie magical power densities to elements. All
elements should have differing power gradients themselves, reflecting the
size / potency / purity of the material in question.
} The more damage bit would come from sort of a weak Frost Sword type of
} effect? I'm not sure about the blinding bit. If a flash went off on my
Yes. Extreme cold, just like all pure elements, deal damage.
Hey! That means that solid light could hurt people! Wheelah! There could a
whole class of spectral weapons / ways to damage people. Maybe we could even
have light sabers floating around...
} chest, I don't think too much light would reach my eyes. If anything, it
} should be more likely to blind the attacker, since he'd normally be watching
} where his weapon hit. This would be great for long range archery, though;
Hmmm... I'll think on the blinding bit.
} not quite tracer rounds, but at least you can easily spot where your arrow
} hit, and adjust your aim accordingly. A moderate level ranger or amazon
} could get to be a really frightening sniper with this.
Bwah hah hah! That is, I daresay, a tremendously good idea. Bonuses on
tracer fire, spotting for large groups of archers, targeting for mass
magic-user spells. Ah, the uses are endless.
} OK. And here I thought the first chart was obscure and complicated...
My new chart is more elegant, if you can visualize in multiply connected
topological spaces. Ah well. I may end op not useing the new life oriented
extensions. There is already a good symmetry going with the life related
abilities.
} Indeed it is. For some reason, I thought this trap idea was purely elemental,
} without any normal mechanical components.
Two great tastes that taste great together.
} No surprise whatsoever given your comments on luminice in weapons.
No surprise to *us* maybe... ;-)
} >From the character list on your web page, it looks like Ken didn't really
As you have probably already found out, the vast majority of the party died
by its own hand, or foot as the case may be. Bwah hah hah!
} want his character to survive. I presume he was already weakened when he
} challenged Cathy? Normally I wouldn't expect an amazon to stand a chance
Nope, he was at full strength.
} in a duel against a barbarian unless she could hold the range open. Kind
} of disappointing that the other two deaths came back as near-clones, especially
} since Valkyrie/Thief makes rather more sense than F/T.
The elf, did not, in fact, have a chance. She was killed in the first swipe.
} "Inerton" seems like a more practical material, although it too may be rare.
} I was also thinking about the by-products of elemental annihilation reactions.
} Seems that inerton would be a fairly natural residue for such things;
} Coal + Ice -> Inerton + many much energy (storm, vortex, etc.).
Hmmm... I originally postulated inerton (is that where you got the name,
or did you also read the Legion of Super-Heroes comics?) but was unclear
about its inclusion when I was going to make the big-time power of True Earth
de-magicification. I guess being magically inert is a characteristically
different thing...
Okay! Inerton exists! Do you think it should only be found in trace
quantities, or can people somehow get ahold of a hunk of the stuff? When you
use True Earth on a magical thingie, does it become a hunk of inerton? The
latter might be a more controlled way of keeping its usage exclusive, but
still around to mess things up.
} This reminds me of my remaining confusion wrt the elemental page: where do
} air and water fit in? Are they just the mediums in which the various
} elements may be present, or is there more to it than that? The non-lava
} {element} + water entries didn't mean much to me either.
Air and Water are simply modifying mediums, and not true elements in
themselves. The combinational xforms are just what the pure elements become
modified to when in the presence of air or water. Thus, Dark and Air make
Thunder, i.e. the sound of rumbling. Light and Air make Lightning,
i.e. flashes of electricity. L & D are anthetical opposites, and thus fight
one another when in contact. In air, they would combine to make Storm =
Thunder + Lightning.
It is possible to transport oneself around the Norse universe by these
elemental transforms. That's what all the places listed are. I haven't
quite defined what the critical discriminating xport factor is yet, or if
there is one at all.
} Depends on the technological sophistication you choose for the users of
} explosives. I've been thinking in roughly Napoleonic terms, since the
} Hornblower novels have the earliest post-gunpowder setting of any books
} I know well. The Three Musketeers might be closer to what you have in
} mind, but it's been a long time since I've read it.
[...]
} Probably. I can't think of much, though. If there are large streams
} and lakes, and races that can't metabolize lardore (orcs?) then depth
} bombs might be a rather unsporting means of fishing. Small explosions
Orcs eat moulTAK, basically other people's life forms. What the party has
not discovered yet is that sufficient quantities of this can heal the person
on combat. Heh, heh, heh...
} making long range signals could also be a possiblity. An additional
} normal military application could be cannon shooting at the ceiling above
} enemy positions, knocking down lots of shrapnel. Probably not too effective
} against armored troops, though.
All depends what the schrapnel was made of. Metal eats shards? Heh, heh,
heh...
} There should still be plenty of scope for hoseage. The obvious ideas would
} be things like those Robes of the Archmagi, with three outwardly
} indistinguishable varieties, each for one of the three values of one of
} the alignment dimensions (probably Law/N/Chaos for Midgard). Maybe an
Good, good.
} anti-fighter staff or dagger some mage made to defend himself. Then
} there's the ego weapons; something like Stormbringer or Gurthang probably
} wouldn't be cursed per se, but wouldn't necessarily be a good thing to
} have. Berserker weapons would be a more usable version of this class of
} non-cursed but not really good magic items. For humorous ideas, how about a
} magic rat-slaying weapon that forces its user to attack rats over any other
} available targets. You'd want to make sure Ken got this one. :) There
LOL!
} are of course more subtle options - say a ring with the incidental effects
} of the One Ring, invisibility to normal creatures coupled with a metaphorical
} neon sign saying "Hurt me" to intelligent undead. They'd never know it
} wasn't just a ring of invisibility until a wraith/vampire/specter/whatever
} fucked them. It looks like getting rid of cursed items doesn't really
} restrict what you can do to the party. If you were feeling fair, you
} could even have them find cryptic warning labels wherever they find any
} dubious magic items.
Excellent! I like the One Ring variant ideas. A useful item with side
effects, perhaps even known or readily predictable. Hmmm...
} Of course... This would be a Lava rich area, right (Fire -> Heat, Swamp ->
} Water)?
You got it. Don't forget the Shimmer and Steam around there, too.
} OK. Perhaps you could have one of the players write up (as email to you)
} summaries of the sessions (using the excuse of providing notes for any book
} you might someday want to write of the campaign, or something), and simply
} forward those to me to keep me informed of what's going on.
As you have already discovered, a lot of junk will hit the web page. I may
get around to writing a "private" update, describing the inner workings of
the plotlines, but I'm not certain I have enough time. I'm dropping a class
soon, so we'll see what's up after that.
I hope you are enjoying your voyeuristic long-range hosing of the party.
Keep the ideas flowing!
On Tue, 28 Oct 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} I picked up "The Complete Compleat Enchanter" by de Camp and Pratt
} yesterday, and the first of the stories involved the main
} character being transported to Midgard (a more traditional
} version than yours), and participating in Thor's visit to Jotunheim,
} although the notes you have on that story don't mention the bit
} about Thor doing so in search of Mjollnir, and kicking everyone's
} ass when he finds it. That may well be a twist added by de Camp.
It must be, because it is clear in the story that Thor has his mallet,
i.e. he uses it several times.
} Perhaps your players would be interested in this reference. It also
} gives the name of Frey's sword (listed as ? in your Norse Mythos papers),
} Hundingsbana. Very effective against fire giants... De Camp's
} Norse runes differ slightly from yours, too.
There are several runic systems out there based on Futhark (the symbols used
in Scandinavia), which is itself by no means standardized. There are several
overlapping eras of rune symbols and little temporal info to sort through
them.
} What's a Threll?
A Threll is a servant race to Trolls. They are about 10-20 feet tall, black
leathery skin, and bones protruding from all over their body. Thinking of
all of them as various classes of devils and demons is probably the best way
to go...
} Am I correct in thinking that this current plotline
} is essentially the "patrol gone wrong" possibility you were thinking
} of for L2?
Actually, I had something different in mind for the Patrol Gone Wrong. This
is more a Messed Up Retrieval.
} I can see how the situation as of the current version of
} the web timeline could simply develop into a bunch of gnoll probing
} attacks gradually attriting the party until the survivors have to
} imitate brave Sir Robin. Gnolls are moderately studly goblinoids, right;
} 3 HD or so, better than orcs or hobgoblins?
They are 2HD, buffer than orcs definitely, larger than hobgoblins but by no
means the winner in a straight fight with them.
} What do Norse paladins get at 5th level? The traditional super warhorse
} seems inappropriate for Midgard.
It's 4th level that they get the warhorse, and I have conveniently
sidestepped this issue by making Ingjald 3rd level. :-) What do you think
they should get? Do they become worm-riders? Purple steeds?
Just came up with another magic weapon idea. This would be
basically a type of magic ore, used by orcs and/or other races
that don't reincarnate, in order to make weapons to mitigate
the reproductive advantages of those races that do. This ore
would produce (normally) +0 magic weapons, with the effect that
beings killed by such weapons cannot be reincarnated (possibly
high level clerical spells might work, if there are the right
kinds of gods to grant them). Naturally such weapons would be
illegal in human territories, and they'd probably be rare enough
in orc territories that only the elite would have them (orc
chieftain's household guard, or something). Could be amusing to
have the party find one of these, detect that it's magical, and
spend a lot of time and effort trying to figure it out, only to
have the bearer arrested for possession of an illegal weapon on a
visit back to Fallersholm. You could call the ore "Mordac" or
something.
Almost time for my office hour now...
On Sun, 19 Oct 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
[...]
} Could happen. OTOH, it could be that the fighters would be weeded out
} by the fact that they'll typically be most exposed in combat - thieves
} tend to be pretty good at cowardice if they want to be, and clerics would
} want to hang back to bless people... We shall see. Will anything
} interesting happen to Jen or Dan if the other's character dies?
The other dies; a fair compensation in my mind. Last session they just
discovered that they can exchanged ability points on a 2-for-1 basis when in
physical contact. Wheelah! Much fun up ahead...
} Do any of the characters worship Loki (or other acceptable deities)?
Nope. Which, all in all, was a good way to start off...
} Uh, OK. I'll have to look at that undead page, I suppose. How many of
} the bodies had been autopsied by the assassins?
2 were autopsied. Actually, I decided to be fair that the undead could only
merge once per day, so that they were instead attacked by a horde of
skeletons and zombies. They barely survived, but survive they did,
destroying all of the undead.
Unfortunately, when they discovered that Valodinain could cow the undead into
service they foolishly used it to get free attacks on them. Those undead
might have been useful minions in the upcoming fracas with the gnolls...
> Heh, heh, heh. I was quite amazed and amused with the carnage myself. The
> players just happened to come up with almost contradictory pasts, i.e.
> "I want to hate all women and magic-users" and
> "I want to be a female mage".
Gotta love it when that happens. I don't believe it has happened in any
games I've played in, though. During one summer game when I wasn't
around, Gary Fay made the brilliant decision of creating a character
background to the effect that his character used (without question)
strange drugs he received in the mail and then did whatever the accompanying
instructions dictated. Slam Jam had a lot of fun GMing this before the
character died. Generally the players had enough contact with each other
during character creation that contradictory outlooks could be avoided,
though.
> I am also concerned about the "lack" of fighters, i.e. a good distribution
> under normal conditions. I guess the best thing to hope for is that the
> excess characters die off, leaving a higher fighter density. :-)
Could happen. OTOH, it could be that the fighters would be weeded out
by the fact that they'll typically be most exposed in combat - thieves
tend to be pretty good at cowardice if they want to be, and clerics would
want to hang back to bless people... We shall see. Will anything
interesting happen to Jen or Dan if the other's character dies?
> Because they are part of the Brood, a sect of serpents descended from
> dragons, and thus also from Jormungandr. In their religion, the only real
> deities are the family of Loki, who is the real "All-Father". They help
> those who worship the true deities, and destroy anyone else who worships the
> false ones.
Do any of the characters worship Loki (or other acceptable deities)?
> BTW, we had a great first session today. It ended with the party stacking
> 32 dead bodies in the same place at the same time. Bwah hah hah! Wraith,
> here we come!
Uh, OK. I'll have to look at that undead page, I suppose. How many of
the bodies had been autopsied by the assassins?
On Sun, 19 Oct 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} Aaargh! That's really bad. The players will be so pleased to see those.
} Perhaps you could make a magic collective thingy, with a Lightsaber and
} a suit of Dark plate armor (with appropriate precautions for such a potentially
} volatile mix). Created for LE fighters, giving them psychokinetic
} powers, protection from good, detect good, slay good (or maybe just CG for
} all this), some elemental protections. One drop the protection/sense good bits
} and just say that it was made for Adversaries. Have we just invented Jarl
} Sigurd's primary magic items here? Or perhaps this is too cheesy to
} actually use.
It is not too cheesy; I am going to use it. I have just had a great
idea... do you remember the Hanna-Barbera shows? I think it's time to pull
out Thundarr the Barbarian and his Sun Sword!
As for Sigurd's items, they consist primarily of a +3 magnetite sword and +3
magnetite shield with a set of +4 gold armor. You just don't need much more
than that... ;-)
[interton]
} It's on the list of ore's in the notes you sent me (p. 10, DM reference, I
} think). I only read comics in the sense of Dilbert, Doonesbury, etc. Btw,
} does St. Dogbert (probably translated) exist in your Norse pantheon,
} presumably as a demigod associated with some appropriate god (maybe Loki)?
} Could be really fun with an appropriate (high INT) Valkyrie, having St. Dogbert
} as her divine messenger, and being enlisted in Dogbert's various private
} enterprises from time to time. You could even have Raj the World's
} Smartest Garbage Man as St. Dogbert's high priest, and Bob the dinosaur
} as a paladin (or avenger) of St. Dogbert, with multiple weapon specializations
} in other people's underwear (allowing the dreaded wedgie attacks). Or
} maybe this is getting a bit silly - particularly since Jen would probably
} catch on that I know far more than I've told her about this campaign if
} you did implement St. Dogbert.
I think it is almost, but not quite, too silly to use in this campaign. For
other campaigns, though, it would fit right in...
} I think I like the True Earth version. Of course, there's the question of
} how one gets a situation where TE exists to be used on a magic thingie
} (ObBlackAdder: "Sounds a bit rude!"; would this be Frenchy's Rod of Pleasure?).
I'm leaning toward the True Earth version myself, since it could explain
trace elements of interton in the VS reactions anyway...
} [Air, water]
}
} OK, I think I understand most of this. There remains the question of
} elements other than Heat in water. As I recall, those are three Norse
} words (Vinir? and two I can't come close to remembering). This is in
} addition to the various other worlds in the Norse universe.
Friva and Lava are basically cold and hot water, and act analogously.
Gyoll and Vivir are dark and light water. The two are names of rivers
surrounding the realms in question (Hel and Vanaheim) and are the most
blatant attempts to show that xport effects of combinational xforms.
Of course, they are also the last two I expect the party to run across...
;-)
[moulTAK]
} Would the perennial half-orc barbarians be able to use this?
Yes. In fact, it is what I envisioned their primary means of healing would
be: a diluted vampiric regeneration.
} Also on the
} subject of non-humans, do lycanthropes exist? I'd think they could, since
} the CN box of the alignment/elemental chart has Morphers listed. Less
} extreme than intelligent undead, but still potentially amusing to hit the
} party with.
That is, in fact, where they would belong. However, there are so many other
things to hose the party with that they will have to get in line...
} This is certainly entertaining. Let me know when something I suggested
} has a direct impact (preferably literally) on the party. The magic items
} are particularly amusing to come up with - just dredging my literary
} recollections and twisting as needed; when/if the party is likely to
} find some magic stuff, perhaps we could work on coming up with specific
} item ideas for them, consistent in power, form, and effect to their
} location (shouldn't take much more than a week's lead time, maybe two).
Alas, once I have an idea I usually toss away the source, so it would be
difficult for me to track your ideas. Also, idea men can present flavors and
visions as well as specific ideas, making it even harder to pin down "direct"
effects. Fear not! You are helping the campaign!
On the subject of magical items, I was planning on giving the party some
seriously powerful magic items in this next adventure, since they appear to
need some help surviving (they all died again). Any suggestions for cool
things? [BTW, don't worry too much about long term imbalance. I plan on
taking the items aways from them the moment the get back to Fallersholm.
Redistribution is essential in any well run order. :-]
On Wed, 29 Oct 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} That's a potentially a very powerful ability. I assume it lasts only until
} they are no longer in physical contact; even so, they should be able to
} do quite a lot with this. The more I think about it, the more powerful it
} gets... One can only hope Dan and Jen will also see many ways to use this.
It is a very powerful ability; I'd place it at 4th level. Any extra points
do disappear when physical contact is broken, though deficits remain. Alas,
they never did plumb the depths of this ability, though they should have.
} OK, what is the deal with these undead? I looked through the Undead
} pages you sent me, and they just described the abilities of the various
} creatures. Why would wraiths be particularly relevant after massacres,
} and what's this "merge once per day" thing? I'd have thought that if
} any undead were relevant for large piles of corpses, it would be ghouls.
Ahhh... sorry. This is an aspect of the undead which I has created but
apparently never wrote down. Note that on the chart Undead are near the LE
area. The reason is: because all undead are actually organised congomerates
of dead bodies.
Humanoid corpses which are not recycled in some fashion arise as undead soon
afterward, unless they are consumed by cavenger creatures first. (This is,
of course, barring those races which spontaneously rebirth from their own
corpses, like insects, say.) Two corpses become one undead. Any merge with
an evil person becomes a zombie; two non-evils becomes a one skeleton.
Remember the exponential scale to the undead? That's because in order to
create a higher rank two lower rank creatures have to merge (and I've decided
they can do it only once per night). Thus, given time the 16 skeletons +
zombies = 8 ghouls + shadows = 4 Wights = 2 Ghasts = 1 Wraith. That being
said, I bungled the actual figures in the session, attacking them with the
full number of corpses (i.e. I forgot to convert 2-to-1). C'est la vie.
BTW, here's the upshot. Chaotic Clerics turn undead in the normal fashion,
whereas Lawful clerics press them into service. I was hoping that the party
would figure this out (considering they have one cleric of each) but things
just didn't work out. The C Cleric rolled great, while the L cleric bit.
} What were they thinking?! What's the point of a non-Good aligned cleric,
} if not to control undead armies? Sheesh.
Actually, remember that clerics on this world are LC aligned, not GE. It's
because he was Lawful, not because he was Evil.
} I wouldn't have thought something as nasty-sounding as a Threll would be
} appropriate for a PC. Are you doing something like Doug once described,
} where you allow a character to be any creature one can imagine, with a
} "stud factor" XP modifier (1 for normal races, 0.5 or so for kobolds,
} many many much for dragons)?
Actually, he was going to just use the standard fighter progression. His
great power was already offset by some serious restrictions, namely a) linked
life force and b) Word Law with Valodinain. As for why I let him do it, the
party needed some help at the time (not that it did them much good).
} Btw, what do you mean by "trolls"? De Camp's
} story had "trolls" that sounded like Jabba's Gamorrean guards with
} Medusa-style hair, while I normally think of trolls as being large (8-10 ft.)
} animated humanoid rocks.
Trolls on this world are pure evil, basically devils and demons put
together. They are powerful beyond belief, and try to help people commit
acts of evil. Wheelah!
} The fact that Ingjald is (warhorse level - 1) level comes as no surprise
} to me. I guess I thought it was 5th since that's when LS actually got
} to use his special warhorse. Anyway, I was thinking that for Midgard,
He got SilverHoofs during the 4th level adventure.
} one might ditch the special mount idea entirely, and replace it with
} some equivalently useful power/gift/whatever. A tentative notion would
} be a long sword, which is +1, maybe with a minor power (light, or flies
} to the owner's hand when called, or something) when used by the paladin
} it belongs to, and is a -1 non-magical weapon (becomes heavy and awkwardly
} balanced) for anyone else. Or you could give them some sort of Danger
} Sense, such that they can't be surprised, much like assassins of moderate
} level. What the hell, why not have each deity give a different power to
} their paladins or other special fighters at 4th level. Thor could give his
} followers the ability to summon their weapons to hand, like Thor himself does
} with Mjollnir; Loki could give the Danger Sense ability, perhaps; Odin might
} give some sort of Lore bonus and/or other intellectual powers; Heimdall
} could give cool sensory abilities (see through walls, etc.); I don't know
} much about the rest of the deities off the top of my head. This is more
} of a general idea for the class of special fighters, than something
} specifically for paladins. I guess Heimdall, Odin, and maybe Frey would
} be the ones with mostly paladins; I'll have to look this stuff up. The
} returning weapon idea would be particularly nasty for Valkyries, too.
Hmmm.... danger sense and increased senses seem a) particular apropos and b)
very useful. Wait! That's where some of Ariel's abilities lay! Heh, heh,
heh... an idea for the next adventure is simmering...
} What's a purple steed, anyway?
A purple worm that you ride, of course. Usually most passengers prefer the
roomy interior spaces...
[Darth Vader items]
> It is not too cheesy; I am going to use it. I have just had a great
> idea... do you remember the Hanna-Barbera shows? I think it's time to pull
> out Thundarr the Barbarian and his Sun Sword!
>
> As for Sigurd's items, they consist primarily of a +3 magnetite sword and +3
> magnetite shield with a set of +4 gold armor. You just don't need much more
> than that... ;-)
Isn't a Sun Sword one of the standard powerful magic weapons in the DMG?
I'm not familiar with the specific reference above, though. So Sigurd has
AC -5. Hmm. I think he could do a bit better, if rings of protection and
Ioun Stones (however you spell those things) work in conjunction with heavy
armor like that. Any special powers to the weapons or armor?
[The Church of St. Dogbert]
> I think it is almost, but not quite, too silly to use in this campaign. For
> other campaigns, though, it would fit right in...
Well, that goes without saying. I just never seem to play religiously
inclined characters, or I'd have done something like this before.
> Friva and Lava are basically cold and hot water, and act analogously.
> Gyoll and Vivir are dark and light water. The two are names of rivers
> surrounding the realms in question (Hel and Vanaheim) and are the most
> blatant attempts to show that xport effects of combinational xforms.
> Of course, they are also the last two I expect the party to run across...
> ;-)
What a remarkable coincidence.
[lycanthropes]
> That is, in fact, where they would belong. However, there are so many other
> things to hose the party with that they will have to get in line...
Hey, the more the merrier. "If a little brute force is good, too much must
be better." Besides, if the party survived such a combat, some of them
might become lycanthropes due to wounds, which I'd think would improve their
chances of survival (probably at the expense of the unbitten members of the
party, but there's nothing new about that in this campaign).
> Alas, once I have an idea I usually toss away the source, so it would be
> difficult for me to track your ideas. Also, idea men can present flavors and
> visions as well as specific ideas, making it even harder to pin down "direct"
> effects. Fear not! You are helping the campaign!
I can pick up something from the timeline - I noticed that they got to play
with dynamite at the electrum mine.
> On the subject of magical items, I was planning on giving the party some
> seriously powerful magic items in this next adventure, since they appear to
> need some help surviving (they all died again). Any suggestions for cool
> things? [BTW, don't worry too much about long term imbalance. I plan on
> taking the items aways from them the moment the get back to Fallersholm.
> Redistribution is essential in any well run order. :-]
How "seriously powerful" do you mean? Maces of Disruption for clerics
could be good - they've always been among my favorite AD&D magic items.
Predator suits or rings of invisibility (perhaps of the intelligent undead
attracting variety) for thieves, assassins, and monks; bracers of protection
for mages, valkyries, and thief types; weapons (spears, hammers, javelins,
etc.) that return to the user, or gloves of telekinesis, for valkyries;
rings and Ioun Stones of protection, maybe some other stones, too; I think
it would be very cool to give Ken and Paul matched swords, named Ratslayer
and Dogslayer, as I mentioned in a previous message; a flying carpet could
be randomly useful; boots of climbing to do the Spider Climb thing; maybe
something allowing "Presence attacks" as they're called in HERO - a helm
or crown of command, or some such thing; a shortsword giving an extra
backstab multiplier; and of course wands and basic +n weapons and armor
go without saying.
Here's an idea if they all happen to choose L* alignments: Borg rings.
These would be restricted to lawful users, and would allow instant and
automatic telepathic communication and hit point transfer between users
of these rings; the size of this collective would be the number of such
rings initialized together at the start of each day (wake up, initialize
rings, memorize spells, go adventuring type of routine). One could also
have master rings, allowing the user of it to control all users of basic
rings initialized with it that day - maybe have one of these in the hands
of an NPC mid level Adversary commanding the next party (until he goes off
on his own like Ingjald did last time).
I'm trying to think of other party scale items, since they are potentially
the most interesting, complex, and powerful. I'll let you know if any
clever ideas come to me.
On Thu, 6 Nov 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
A Sun Blade is, in fact, a stock magic item from Unearthed Arcana. However,
the "Sunsword" [tm] is a jagged-lightning bladed golden hilt which Thundarr
uses.
} Given the stun rules, one wonders whether merges will always increase the
} combat power of the undead. Against a party of ten characters, will eight
} ghouls do better than 16 zombies, given that the latter could attack with
} two zombies on one character for more than half the party? I suspect that
} the combat utility of merges depends on the presence and levels of clerics
} in the party being attacked.
There is definitely a double inflection, i.e. the overall power falls due to
merging, and then begins to rise again. However, because of the Undead
Legion rules it is always a favorable circumstance to merge, since the undead
so created is able to harness twice the power it used to, i.e. its own and a
similar quantity of undead underneath it.
} > Actually, remember that clerics on this world are LC aligned, not GE. It's
} > because he was Lawful, not because he was Evil.
}
} Right. It's so easy to slip into standard AD&D thinking patterns.
Agreed. Care must be exercised...
} Do the players know this? I find this to be a highly nonstandard use of the
} word troll. Do these trolls have a role in Ragnarok, the way gods and giants
} do?
The players have a vague idea that trolls aren't bashing machines, yes.
Actually, in the Norse mythos 'trolls' = 'dwarves', i.e. maggots which were
spawned from the body of Ymir given intelligence by the gods. I've decided
that I'm going to alter the usage, just in case I need a demonic / devilish
storyline.
} Who is Ariel? Also, there's a LG god of justice I'd never heard of; his
} paladins could gain the special ability of detecting truth/falsehood. Not
} sure what to do about Tyr, though.
Ariel and Ookla are companions of Thundarr The Barbarian.
It's curious you mention Forseti. The players were so desperate to survive
the ROUS encounter that one of the paladins raised he sword and declared,
"Forseti, I swear you undying allegience if you help the party survive and
accomplish its mission!"
I'm still stunned the player did such a thing. But I will almost certainly
use it to hose him over as some point...
} Wouldn't this be a desert type of thing? I didn't think the worms were
} purple, either. Also, just because most passengers use the interior
} spaces doesn't necessarily mean that that's what they'd have preferred.
} That would be like claiming that mice prefer to fly riding hawks from
} the inside...
Actually, purple worms are appropriate to any environment; I'm not referring
to the spice worms.
And yes, you've caught my little piece of sarcasm about roomy interiors...
;-)
On Sun, 9 Nov 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} What did the party do wrong this time? I wouldn't expect a
} first level party to do any better than they did against a gnoll
} warband supported by ogres and giants.
There are many things the party could have done:
1) gone after the gnolls originally and reclaimed the electrum
2) used the undead to fight on their side during combat
3) booked from the mine immediately after Bariaur appeared
4) changed the connectivity of the tunnels
5) hidden from the gnolls and waited for the cavalry to arrive
6) etc.
If there is a lesson to be learned by each party's demise, I think that in
this case the lesson is "Expand your option set." The party only and
excusively focused on the "Fight or flight" options, both of which lead to
the party's destruction. It is exceptionally disappointing, because except
for 2) above, the party arbitrarily ruled out all the options above.
} Btw, what's up with the introduction of Donblas and Arioch as
} powers with even the slightest connection to Midgard? Next thing
} you know, one of the PCs will be an incarnation of the Eternal
} Champion. Is that what the present paladin epidemic represents?
It was the quickest mythology that I could yank from my butt to give a
background to Bariaur. Don't worry, he's dead and they are unlikely to
influence the campaign.
The paladins spawn from a separate disease. :-)
On Sat, 22 Nov 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} It would appear that even when you force them to learn about the
} whole elemental thing, they're still hosed. You'd think someone
} would have realized they were in the Fire Swamp and that ROUS
} swarms would be a Bad Thing for a L1 party, particularly with at
} least one of the mages out of spells. Sheesh. Still, isn't party
} survival past the second session a record for this campaign? What
Actually, in the second spur they reached an all time high of four sessions!
} are the stats (HD, AC, damage) for ROUS, anyway?
[17] (AC6: MV 15"//9": HD 2: AT#1: D2-5 bite) <25% Chance of Disease / bite>
All in all, pretty buff little critters.
On Fri, 28 Nov 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} Had the paladin already chosen a different deity to serve? If not, I don't
} see what the big deal is. Paladins are supposed to have "undying allegiance"
} to some appropriate god. Forseti is an odd choice under the circumstances,
} I guess - not the most warlike of the pantheon.
The paladin was at that point deityless; furthermore, they really don't need
to select a god until name level (when they start receiving clerical spells).
I was somewhat surprised by the choice of Forseti myself... though it might
be consistent with an "honesty" kick that the player is developing...
} Moving on to other messages: I wasn't aware of the whole of the 2nd party's
} option set. I'd think that if they want to run away, they'd also want to
} hide from the gnolls. Apparently not...
That wasn't the whole set; just a representative sample of what they could
have survived with!
} [ROUS]
} "Indeed they are powerful." Too bad there are all those losers, er, paladins
} hanging around to cure disease if needed.
I haven't even made the rolls because of that very reason. Maybe it's time
for someone to get mysteriously sick...
} Back to AD&D - under what circumstances would the T collective have listed
} Luthor's status as Red (or something worse than green, anyway)? I may have
} asked you this before, but if so I've forgotten the answer. Would the
} snake breathing dragon be enough?
Actually, status is dependent on the individual and not the situation. I
suppose if he were dead the collective might list him as Red...
8^)
On Mon, 1 Dec 1997, Justin Howell wrote:
} I remember you and Ken doing this in the LS campaign, much to the annoyance
} of certain evangelical Athenian priests. What's the justification for
Heh, heh, heh. Fun, though. :-)
} the intrinsic paladin powers, with this deityless until name level
} interpretation of a paladin? Does the set of appropriate deities just
Paladins are able to do all of their stuff because of their inherent
goodness. That's the standard schtick.
} have some sort of pool of henchdeities (like the one giving Leia her spells
} after 4th level) in charge of empowering all aspiring paladins? One could
All deities have servitor-class crearues which do their bidding across the
multiverse. We could have paladins granted their powers in this way, but on
the stock world this is not the case.
} also perhaps redo the class along the lines of the Thief-Acrobat - special
} fighters are just fighters until level x, then they may switch to this
} related alternate class if they meet certain entry requirements. Not like
} it would matter in your campaigns... :)
Actually, it does matter, even though players might never see it. Architects
the power of the gameworld.
} Another return to AD&D subjects - would an effective use of Phantasmal
} Force be to cast it to make the image of a fighter (or set of fighters)
} in the party, with this image in the same place as the fighter, differing
} only in that it shows the illusion of the fighter making a slightly
} different attack (i.e. hacking at the legs when he's really going for
} the enemy's head)? This might be extended to the illusion not showing
} whatever wounds the enemy scores, as an attempt to fuck with enemy
} morale. Would this work, or would the spell be dispelled on contact
} with the enemy (almost immediately in this case)? I've been pondering
It might work... too well! What if it confuses the fighter whose fighting?
} illusion spells now that Doug, Slam Jam, Gary Fay and I are once again
} attempting a pbem rpg, and I'm reworking a character with illusion
} spells (along with the obligatory flight and invisibility, plus some
} useful sensory spells). It occured to me that this idea might help
} Jen, too, depending on exactly how the magic system works. I think
} this would work in Hero, but I'm not sure about AD&D. Regardless of
} whether it would work, should I suggest it to her?
Ahhh... this would be an excellent question. My answer would be: if you
would have normally suggested it (not being an idea-man) then it is okay to
do so. However, since I recently brought the campaign to an end,
everything will soon be declassified. So if you like, feel free to tell Jen
about your participation in their frequent demises... 8^>