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variant for simple sensing and control spells

7/7/2023

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Much as I love RPGs, and especially the old ones, with few exceptions the rules for magic and spell casting leave a lot to be desired.

If you are not familiar with Original D&D, you can take a look at the original Basic D&D by Holmes here:

www.americanroads.us/DandD/DnD_Basic_Rules_Holmes.pdf

Gonna go out on a limb and claim that SJGames, The Fantasy Trip: Wizard may be the only well functioning magic system I've ever played. It derives ideas from Tunnels and Trolls, which is much more interesting when it comes to magic spells than D&D, except the spell names are a bit goofy in T and T. The Fantasy Trip is a light weight Path Finder style game with simple elegant design features.

If you are into home brewing and haven’t played either, I highly advise you get a copy of both.

TFT: WIZARD - 
https://warehouse23.com/products/the-fantasy-trip-wizard

TUNNELS AND TROLLS - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/108306/Tunnels--Trolls-Rules-4th-Edition

Within the original style of games most gamers are coming at Fantasy Role Playing, or FRP, from a literary perspective. i.e. Most of these gamers who play Old School grew up also reading a variety of fantasy novels which had a huge impact on the collective ideas for setting and power levels for player characters. 

Consider, most early games tend to be low magic. Sure, you can find magical artifacts and you can cast spells, but you will need more than magic to solve most situations you run into. Thus, what I am talking about today may not apply at all to anything published later than about 1997 when WOTC acquired all the assets of TSR including the D&D trade name.
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Original D&D was comprised of 3 little booklets. Each being around 66 pages long. It had enough in those booklets to inspire any group of gamers to create entire worlds. Some of these worlds are still being explored today still using the most simple of rules.

Yet, the simplicity of the system left many desiring to expand the game system. The end result often has problems, most notable of these problems being that complexity and supposed increased realism, makes the games play slowly. *Cough Cough* (Path Finder)

To add onto the pile of garbage that Original D&D is (Yes, I love it, but I can see what a pile of garbage the rules are.), original D&D introduced another magic type system called Psionics.

I’ve made up characters and tried testing the psionic rules for both OD&D and AD&D. I found them a bit over powered. I can’t really wrap my own mind around the concept of having a world setting with ordinary magic and psionic power. For me, it breaks setting to have both as they are both magic. I feel they need to be merged together. Thus some of the ideas for things like psionic mental attacks could be shoved back into the regular magic realm as spells. 
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Lately I have been fiddling my game system some more. I have pondered how to keep the game simple, yet, add more flavor to the game's magic spells.

Like all my other modifications I am fine with publishing rough ideas that may not work. If you dig through this blog you can find rules for spell points in OD&D, as well as rules for weapon damage based on size comparison. Neither of the articles presents a fully playable set of rules. I am just throwing out some ideas. You can take those concepts and run with them and do your own thing. If you publish based on my ideas a citation would be nice though. I always try to cite other people who had interesting ideas that I riffed on.

In OD&D spells are just simple gotchas that always work. Although they tried to fix some problems by creating a hierarchy for some kinds of spells it just leaves a bit to be desired. Many of the spells seem either under powered or over powered.

As my own campaign moves into a more refined state I am seeking simple home rules to upgrade with. Simplicity is key. We have several game systems being developed in our house group and one thing that happens in the beta test first round is how obviously over ruled our games are. We keep having to chop all of them down and remove die rolls and actions to stream line play.
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Let’s talk about the sensing and control spells.

Detect Evil and Charm Person are a perfect example of spells which could use a bit more definition as well as a bit of refining as Charm is way too powerful.

And then we get the spells such as E.S.P. which really seem like extensions of the two previous spells.

All of these spells have to do with behavior that is a lot like Psionics. I would add that D&D Psionics really feel more like something to be used in sci fi games, I’ll leave that for you to ponder.

I see these spells as easily categorized like so:

1. Feeling/sensing consciousness as a pre-lingual experience for a caster “You sense that a malevolent being is nearby.”

2. Reading/Listening as an ability to understand another’s verbal thoughts, or perhaps to see through the subject’s eyes and ears.

3. Telepathic conversation which could be sending a message and or even allowing for two way conversation.

4. Psychic control or compulsion as per Charm, or perhaps even Geas. (Should charm be two spells, one is an influence on reactions and the other is full on mental control.) 

5. Psychic attack as in a kind of mental battle that can cause unconsciousness and or death.

Each of these grades of power has both an active and passive form. It makes sense that if you can cast one of these spells, then you also know the passive/defensive version of the spell. (This is discussed in OD&D if I recall correctly.) Thus a Magic user might cast a spell to mask feeling and sensing during a secret raid on an evil wizard or priests domain. And, a wizard might cast one of these on a party member to keep them from being attacked or controlled by an enemy during a battle.

If you play in the old way, Character Attributes are best viewed as potential whereas class level is actual training and ability. In a game this can get a bit blurred as some things about human beings, real human beings, seem more innate than actual trained ability.

Success or failure with these spells should not be a binary die roll as in a combat attack. A player should never be too sure how successful they are.

For sensing you may want to do a combined mechanic of both range and level of caster. Thus a player could get 1d6 X 10 feet per 3 levels of ability. As a Referee I might be a bit fast and loose with results and a creature sensed just outside of range might lead to telling the player “You feel there is something angry, but the feeling is very feint.”

I prefer to simplify my games, thus if a M.U. casts the passive, or defensive, version of mental sensing it just works. Enemies won’t know you are there.

This is the thing about magic spells. Most game descriptions are vague and they often act as a ‘anything in range’ kind of spell. I often feel like the specific situation requires a referee judgement to interpret what a result is with players not knowing the full picture ever. I understand if some referees and players find this fog of war approach too chaotic. Yet, the fog of war approach is how you create a truly mystical experience for players during a game.

As you move to more difficult spells in their active and more invasive forms you may want to use some modified simple die rolls. We need to know if the subject notices they are being mind read, or if they are able to defend against being controlled, or attacked.

This is where I feel every RPG since OD&D gets it wrong.

The beauty of OD&D/Holmes Basic D&D is in the simplicity. It’s possible to clear half a one page dungeon level in one session.

Consider how you want to mechanize these spells. If a challenge is required, do you simply use the saving throw chart?

Maybe a M.u. can only control a quantity of hit dice equal to their own level, thus a 1st level wizard can’t go around charming higher level players.

Maybe you do a mutual challenge roll with modifiers based on class and level?

Perhaps the caster and the defender each roll a D6 with the higher number winning. All ties mean the subject is aware someone is psychically attacking them.

Certainly the psychic attack needs to be a 6th level spell. Maybe for this one each player rolls a d20 and the caster has to exceed the defenders die roll by 5 to succeed in knocking the subject out, and by 10 to outright kill them.

What kind of mods would you have? Barbarians might be more vulnerable to this kind of attach than other classes.

I know a lot of you want some kind of strict guide for your rules. I am still testing these ideas, thus I am merely tossing this out there for you to consider as a home rule in your own game.

Let me know if you try this out and how you decided to rule each of the spells as they are all quite different and may require a different rule for how they work. 
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You can also purchase Dark Ambient music to play during your game sessions here:
https://thesynthlordchamber.bandcamp.com/album/dungeon-fuzz-box


Thank you for taking the time to read, Griff
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Beyond D&D 5e

4/24/2023

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Since the numerous HASBRO/WOTC debacles of late, a great deal of you are starting to move away from D&D 5e. Some are choosing heavily ruled games such as Pathfinder and others have begun a long journey into the older play style which goes all the way back to when Dave Arneson began running his Blackmoor campaign in 1971.

​To all of you D&D 5e players - Welcome to the wider community of RPG gamers!


For me, it is wonderful to see a new exploration of older games. The simpler game systems that are not heavily mechanized to the point that referees have little space to individualize have a lot to offer.

I also really want to avoid any kind of edition war sentiment. Whatever system was available to you when you started gaming is going to be your 'comfort food' game system. You know it inside out and it is easier for you to use than anything else. Keep playing what you know, but also consider other RPG games.

I always urge gamers to go back to the older games for inspiration by finding a copy of Original Dungeons & Dragons, Tunnels and Trolls, Empire of the Petal Throne, Rune Quest, TFT: In The Labyrinth, or even Traveller. All of these games offer an entirely different game experience from what may be familiar to you and may add to your already existent campaigns.

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Now is the chance to become a much more well rounded RPG gamer and also, exploring other systems doesn’t have to be costly. Old games can be found on Ebay, or as PDFs. In some cases they are even being reprinted today. Some are even free.

A copy of Basic D&D is on the web here:
https://www.americanroads.us/DandD/DnD_Basic_Rules_Holmes.pdf

If you are a gamer without a group, I will even leave these links to the rules and a wonderful solo adventure for Tunnels and Trolls - yes, even solo play can be fun.

The original rules:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/108306/Tunnels--Trolls-Rules-4th-Edition

A very good solo adventure to play through:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/54802/Sword-for-Hire-TT-solo

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There is the blanket term of OSR for anything that is not the current D&D edition. I would add, 5e is now part of the OSR realm of D&D editions. And, of course, there are many non D&D fantasy games, as well as an endless supply of non fantasy settings that one can explore.

For someone who began with newer editions, beginning around 3rd edition, the constantly evolving low ruled style of the early games may be a bit confusing. The premise that Arneson described when he demonstrated his Blackmoor game to Gary Gygax for the first time of “There are no Rules” may seem entirely alien.

What did Arneson mean by that comment? How can we play a game that has no rules?

An Adventure Game is not a computer program. Not all situations can be handled in a realistic manner by simply rolling some dice and tabulating the result with a cross referenced attribute. Rob Kuntz is known for stating, “You cannot rule reality.” What he means is that in an ever changing real fantasy world experience there are too many variables to track and you can’t model a reality with simple die roles according to simple one size fits all rules. What you need is a Referee, or Judge, who is fair and impartial that can make decisions about what is happening in any situation and can apply these decisions to the game play.

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The earliest editions of RPGs had rules which covered player attributes, movement, how to conduct battles, how magic spells work, and some very basic rules for listening at doors, opening doors, and finding concealed objects. Everything else was up to the Game Master and players to work out amongst themselves.

The minimal rules led to a greater level of flexibility for the referees. It allowed them more freedom to create things ahead of time that the players could then discover. It also led to having unique encounters creating a truly magical feeling for the players.

Perhaps the greatest difference within traditional play is how weak players are to start out with. New characters are like young adults, or even teens, who are setting out to make their way in life. Thus your ability is limited and the situations and creatures encountered are often deadly. Players will often choose to avoid some encounters. 
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Wandering into a dungeon or wilderness away from civilized society is a terrifying experience. Everything one encounters is mysterious and enchanting in its own way. Yet, as mentioned before, it can also be deadly for your characters.

The older D&D basic set I linked is only 44 pages long, yet it contains everything you will need to play up to 3 levels of a game. It has a sample dungeon, but you can easily create your own. My advice is to read the sample and them make your own because it is easier to run something you made up yourself and you will also need a bigger 3 level dungeon anyway.
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There is a reason the old games were so popular. They ware fast playing, and also, a lot of it was very Do It Yourself. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have fun exploring a magical RPG world with the older games.

Of course, another way to learn how to expand how you play your RPG is by watching Secrets of Blackmoor:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B087QN51WF/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

​Until next time, Griff

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The Dreaming

4/1/2023

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Finally back from Gary Con. I managed to get sick on the return drive. It made the trip into a hallucinatory journey for me. But I am now fully recovered.

Today is the house game group day. YAY, I can look forward to playing tonight. Thankfully, Bob Whelton will be running something so I can take a break. I’m not burned out, yet, I put a lot into doing the annual Gary Con games I run for people.
​

I do not run a massive schedule of games. An aerial war game session over Blackmoor, a movie screening, a large naval battle, and the annual descent into a Blackmoor dungeon with Tonisborg.

Each session requires its own particular kind of energetic investment to have the game, or event, be enjoyable.

This year only one person came to the Battle in The Skies over Blackmoor. Thus I offered to show up and talk about the game rules and also gave away a book and a T-shirt.
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As we chatted an original Blackmoor player I had never met wandered up to the table. To be precise, Paul Stormberg dragged him over and introduced us. The failed game session turned into a long discussion about original Blackmoor. This is why I go to GaryCon, I always meet interesting gamers. This time it was Phil Grant.

The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game was a huge success. Despite someone not showing up, another someone off the wait list decided to stop in and see if there was an open slot, thus I had 12 players.

PRO TIP: If you go to a convention and the schedule is full for a game you want to play - make sure to show up anyway!


People who spotted the game being played showed interest as well. A lot of experienced players were asking me if there was another session scheduled because they really wanted to play. Next year I will add another session to the schedule.
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The movie screening was lightly attended. Yet, the audience was really appreciative. One person came up and described being in tears by the end of the film. And yes, everyone got a gift for being there.

Giving things away seems to be a theme for us. In previous years I have given away boxes worth of old games from the 80’s and 90’s. This year we gave away our own game books, T-shirts, dice bags, and Emergence of Blackmoor maps. Oh, and imported candy from Croatia.

I have a box of old valuable games and may bring some old TSR modules to give away next time. I hate to see good games sit in my house unplayed. I’d rather know they are getting used by a game group and being fully enjoyed.

Chris commented that our events are like parties where everyone gets a prize just for being there. After all, it’s GaryCon and it should be special, as the event honors Gary Gygax without whom TSR and all the games we still play and love would not exist.
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​Gary Con takes a lot of effort and energy. 

Just now, I was sitting outside sipping my morning coffee and it came to me that although I am fully immersed into my campaign creation to the point that I doubt I could write everything I think of down, I need some time to gather my referee energy before I can run a game again.

Sure, I can run a game. Running a game is easy. I’ve been doing it for over 45 years now. What I want out of running the world of Blackmoor is a feeling I get when I do it well. I do not want to go through the motions. I want game sessions where everyone involved feels they have done something unique and that on some level the communal energy while playing transcends the ordinary.

This is no tiny pondering about gaming, it is one of those deep think times where you realize you had a new insight.

I often hear gamers say such things as, “Oh, when we play our game we are story tellers!”

It is a mantra new gamers tell themselves and others all the time, usually while trying to convince you they are doing something special.

Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story
Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story
Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story
Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story Story
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Well, sure, but I feel good referees do more than convey stories.

I know the best games I have ever played are more about state. What are we doing to our mental state. Are we transporting ourselves into a dream?
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​Story is the launching point. A good story puts you in a different state. 

We enter the dreaming. And the RPG dreaming is not something you can simply conjure up without the combined play between the players and referee. You need  everyone involved mentally present and also a bit of luck!

I wish I could claim to be the greatest referee out there. I work hard at creating something special for every session I run. Sometimes it will fly, other times I end up with an “oh my god the humanity” Hindenburg moment. Some of you will likely know what I mean by this.

I will say I do try to make every session feel unique for myself. The last thing I want is to feel like I am phoning it in. If I ever feel I have run out of referee magic, I will likely hang up my dice bag and stop playing. No game session should feel ordinary!

This is the struggle for referees who chase the dreaming. You have to try out strange ideas to keep your sessions feeling fresh for you and your players. New approaches for how you present your world to your players. You also need players who engage with what you are presenting. Passive players who expect the referee to dole out gaming joy will never experience the dreaming.

Another aspect to the dreaming is the game environment. There is a reason most gamers play within controlled room environments. Distracting spaces can ruin the dreaming.

Much as I love conventions, the big rooms full of tables full of gamers full of roaring voices, ruins the dreaming. I could never run a game in a space like that because I can’t do what I do when I run my game.
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​One game that I suspect is very successful at Gary Con is the Order of the Owl. It is a game that gets played in a little corner of the convention; tucked away in a stairwell of all places. Although there is a lot of traffic going through the area, where the game takes place is off to the side and very quiet and intimate. What is most interesting about it - it is a walk up game. Anyone can play. There are always extra chairs and you can just jump in and play. The referee runs the game nearly non stop for days on end. It is just there for anyone to take part in.
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​For my one annual game session GaryCon lets me use a conference room where we can close the door and enter the dreaming.

Somehow, this year, I ran one of the best games I have ever run. The players were engaged and I felt like I as referee had entered the dreaming. We could switch between game talk about mechanical things and dreaming the experience of being in the dungeon together without effort.

I always feel like I run good games at GaryCon, but this group of players had some kind of mojo going from the very beginning. They were there to be together as a team. I did not have to herd them into good play technique. They were the ones who decided very quickly on a party leader who did most of the talking with me, and would discuss situations amongst themselves before taking actions as a party. The entire game ran smoothly as the players helped me to focus on my duties while they focused on theirs.

I was impressed to have the players create a marching order with the halfling moving forward to scout and explore. It was understood that aside from the alteration of having the halfling do scout work, if anything was encountered, the marching order was also the hallway combat order.


They picked up on my DM cues. At one point a player was interested in examining something and I said something like, “It seems ordinary…”

The player took my cue and we moved on without role playing the details of a non event that would have wasted game time.

When something needed adjudication on the fly I asked for a grey roll and then told them the results. No one questioned what I was doing, since they can’t know what the roll is, or how it works. They trusted my judgement as referee.

At one point in the game I ran a combat that was very large. A party of 14 characters, one mule, and a pet rat v.s. 21 Kobolds. Because I run original rules, it is entirely a make believe experience without miniatures. Due to the collaboration between players and referee it was over in about 7 minutes!

As a game being run in the open format of Original D&D, the focus is exploration. No time was wasted on narcissistic drama about “My character is a special…”

We only had 4 hours of game time. The players were there to forge deep into an old dungeon to grip it and rip it. Exploring was job number one.

I am still amazed at how well the game ran. I suspect everyone was an experienced player as all the in game suggestions were good ideas, with everyone being polite in voting for or against party actions.

I am still scratching my head over the game session. A room of 10 strangers and me, their referee, managed to coalesce into a well oiled gaming machine that played a near perfect game.

I’m not talking about perfect in terms of tangible goals either. What I mean is that everything ran smoothly even when the party was being T.P.K.ed by wraiths in the final encounter of the night.

It was the overall experience that was perfect.


I can’t know if everyone felt as I did. My hunch is that everyone had an exceptional game session. Most of the players stayed until the very end with only one leaving a mere 15 minutes before the end of the session.

Original D&D play is a collaborative game form. Everyone in the session has to do their part and contribute to making each session be extra-ordinary. What can you do to make your own experience flourish? It isn’t about being the best or in any way competitive. Is it simply about being fully engaged in the moment?

What can we do to raise the bar in our own game sessions?

HERE IS A LINK TO PART OF THE LIVE STREAM OF THE GAME SESSION:

https://www.facebook.com/blackmoorsecrets/videos/601847208200528

Thanks for reading and pondering with me - Griff

Please share my article, tell your friends about Secrets of Blackmoor, and perhaps be kind to each other.

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context for tonisborg

3/15/2023

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The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg is published which is wonderful, yet, there seems to be some confusion regarding the purpose of the book.

Dan and I had assumed most users of the book would understand the underlying premise being this:

Although the book is about the old dungeon maps, the only way to understand the maps is via a tutorial on play methods and a set of rules specifically designed for the play style for the time the maps come from.

Very simply, if the maps had been published as the section on history along with the maps, and without any of the other sections, the maps would have lost what they need most, which is context.

The only way to fully achieve the context within which the maps can be understood is through play.

Today I came across this review which appears on Reddit with a link to a blog review.

The Reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/comments/11ipa1b/weekly_osr_vlogblogroll_round_up/


The Blog post: 
https://mystical-trash-heap.blogspot.com/2023/03/review-lost-dungeons-of-tonsiborg.html?m=1
These days people tend to get angry when confronted with criticism. I work to avoid reacting emotionally and engage with what I see in a review such as this. After all, I may be wrong and the reviewer may have a point after all. 

What I think I see is a simple misunderstanding.

What follows is my response to the reddit post, which I am duplicating here:
The big complaint seems to be about the extra junk.

A lot of thought went into producing that book. The analysis of play technique was extensive. There are even new items and examples I have not seen anywhere else.

The rules draw extensively from pre-publication drafts, OD&D, and Gygax and Arneson house rules. Dan spent years on his rules and I expect as with all RPGs he is still updating his work.

My greatest concern is play technique. It is a dying art. I've watched people play RPGs and it seems like everything is more of a video game on paper - Tonisborg preserves the old ways, which are a verbal tradition for play that has been handed down player to player.

My background with D&D:
I started with Holmes Basic in '77 although I had played D&D on computers as early as '75. I actually thought DnD was originally a computer game and was delighted to discover a paper version. How clever to take a computer program and turn it into a game you play at home when you are away from the PLATO mainframe at CERL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdPrzb534TY&t=297s

You can still play it at cyber1.org

The real treat on that system is the first multi player StarTrek battle and take over the universe game, Empire.

Most RPG gamers shy away from the kind of game I like, which is Grip it and Rip it computer gaming and war games. Yet, if you are interested in Empire, we need players. Get a Sign On and I will personally teach you how to play.

We are the oldest Multi Player Computer Gamers in history and our player base is literally dying. We can only muster about 6-8 players for the Sunday "Griff War" anymore.

I digress.

Back to Holmes...

I bought a copy of the 5e start set. I was curious, What is this game?

I could not make heads or tails of it. It is so poorly written and organized. It is nothing like my Holmes edition which gives you everything you need to know on how to play D&D in only 45 pages!

Tonisborg is a very old artifact that is very incomplete without an explanation on play and a set of rules.

Thus, the entire Tonisborg book has to be the way it is. For anyone who was not playing RPGs in the first 10 years there is no context for what Tonisborg is. To most gamers today it is just another set of maps. To publish it without a way to revive it would be a travesty as people would entirely misunderstand it.

Most of what exists in an RPG is what I call Informal play. It is the exchange between player and referee that is not covered by the rules. This is what the entire book discusses through example. Idealy, anyone purchasing the book will attempt to breath life into an old dungeon and play it. This is when the maps become what they truly are, which is a living thing as a game environment.

Old Refs will read the How to Play section and know all of those tricks. Yet, it is likely they will come upon something they used to do and for some reason stopped doing. Thus even an old hand may treat the play section as a refresher course on how to referee a solid game.

Champions of Zed - Dungeoneering Edition provides a complete system for resurrecting Tonisborg. Yet, Tonisborg is easily played with pure 3 LBB with or without supplements, all the way up to BX. I am about to do a TFT:ITL adaptation.

I can see why the reviewer has so many issues with the book. As the authors we have worked to provide an entire Time Machine Gaming Experience back to 1973 between the covers of Tonisborg.

The 3 sections are inseparable, or Tonisborg has no historical meaning that can be carried into the future.

To the author of the review:
Consider that your experience and knowledge may seem like common information on how to play an RPG, yet, what you do in a game resides within an oral history and tradition that could be lost. If the second and third parts of the book seem redundant to you, then the book has succeeded in preserving even your game methods for posterity, and they will now continue to be passed down through generations of gamers because you are part of this living game as well.
​

Thanks for the review - Griff
That's all I have for now.

Please tell a friend about Secrets of Blackmoor and Tonisborg by sharing our links on your social media.

We can only keep producing game related items such as the movie and book through grass roots support from you.

Thanks!

Griff

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Time and Sand

1/27/2023

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I found this on the web and have no idea what it is from


​Sample Chapter from, The Essential Blackmoor
by Griffith Mon Morgan III Copyright 2023


Time and Sand - how and why to streamline your game
As a referee you have to contend with the desire players have for more powerful weapons and spells, and even more so, for rules systems that give them abilities that border on magical super power.

In order to operate the Blackmoor World setting I always will advocate for games with simpler mechanics and faster abstract combat because it allows for more exploration in a smaller amount of game time. Yet, there are issues that arise which are endemic to the role play format which I want to discuss.

A dilemma that will confront you as a game referee is that you must avoid granular play. By granular, I mean that time has slowed down and hardly anything is getting accomplished.

It is easy to get players to explore your game world in more detail and this takes more time to play through. When you want to give your players something to focus on, all you need to do is slow the game down by giving players information such as this:

“The elf feels a draft coming through cracks in the wall…”

“You can see some kind of writing on the floor…”

“You find a wooden chest hidden under a flag stone…”

Yes, players should be examining their surroundings closely for clues. And these clues become keys to guide them into exploring objects and places in more detail. The problem is - it can backfire!

Time is a problem when running a game; both in-game passage of time and real world time for a play session. Game referees always want to embellish setting with details. Often what happens is that something a referee is putting into a description in order to add more flavor becomes too interesting for some of the players. What was meant to add mood and ambience becomes a focus element and the players become obsessed with exploring it.

It can be almost anything. A small container that is one of many food jars, or a random non combat encounter with a person. What you as game referee wanted to skim over is now going to become the major focus of play for the next half an hour. What is worse, it has nothing to do with advancing the players through the real story of exploring and discovery. It is a dead end and a time waster.

The granules of sand are slipping through the hour glass and not a lot is actually happening despite a great deal of player chit chat and referee improvisation. 

Many will argue that a good game referee should be willing to take this small and innocuous story element and weave it into an actual in-game element. I agree, it is a tough call as to when to expand on something and begin to invent an unplanned situation, and when to minimize the attention to detail the players can fall into.

​The greater question is that you must weigh is the enjoyment your players get from such an event vs. the rewards they will get from the event.

Searching for Gold

For players, all rewards are gold. Whether it’s locating a secret door, beating some monsters in a battle, or actually finding make believe gold. All of this gives them feelings of accomplishment.

Motives for seeking rewards in a dungeon adventure are fairly straight forward. Players go to dungeons to find treasure and magic items. They may also be on a quest to solve some kind of problem. Wilderness and world exploration will likely have some purpose as well. Players need to travel to another town, or they want to get to the location of an old ruin. Yet, the reward, or goal, in either of these situations is a prize that has been placed in advance by you the referee, thus the purpose of the game is to reach an objective. This is true even if the players are merely exploring. The true objectives are the placed encounters in your adventure. These are the really shiny gold that may have all three elements of exploration and discovery, victory in battle, and magical treasure.

Of course, you also have to have time for unplanned random encounters and those must feel as ‘real’ as any of your placed encounters. Referee work can be hard.

It really comes down to whether there is more gold to be extracted from this mine, and I am being a bit prosaic here, yet the investment of time vs. returns has to be considered in every encounter. Players will want to dig deeper into a situation thinking they can get more proverbial gold out of it. They are having fun doing this, or at least that one player is having fun while the rest of the party is twiddling fingers. What if a situation is already mined for all the gold it can provide? What then?

The most painful aspect to these kinds of expansive non quests is that as the game referee you’ve spent hours preparing yourself to present a world to your players and they’ve somehow decided to do the equivalent of parking themselves somewhere in order to examine their own belly buttons.

​As the game referee you know what is gold, and what isn’t, that’s the easy part. The hard part is how to guide players away from distraction so they can continue the quest.

This is true in my own game as well. A recent adventure to the Forest of Forgetfulness had the players entering a strange dimensional rift. They were literally exploring a soviet era secret military installation that they had gotten transported into. My players wanted to look in every nook and cranny in every place and thing they found. I had not planned for all of this and I was having to think fast about every little detail. Fortunately, I have explored many actual abandoned places and I could close my eyes and image what my players would be discovering.


The perfect memory for recall came from when Chris and I explored an entire derelict mining town in the mountains west of Denver and it didn't take much to see this in my mind for what I needed to describe to my players.

Some Tools You Can Use in Your Own Game Sessions

In a game, you really can’t break immersion with, “That’s not what I had planned for during this adventure, so you’re not going to get anything worthwhile out of doing that.”

We can all agree this is bad referee technique.

What referees need to do is develop tools for managing time granularity in their game.

Referees often use simple phrases such as “It looks harmless.” This is a short-cut when you want players to know they have to actually do something to find out what is going happen.

The same can be done to speed play. You can tell your players, “There doesn’t seem to be anything of value here.”

This only works some of the time.

Some of my players can be really tenacious and despite my signals stating that they are wasting time they will continue to persue worthless avenues of play. If you have a similar kind of player, it is at this point that you may need to teach them, or remind them, of how you run your game with, “I will let you know if you find anything that is relevant to your quest.”

Ok, this is not as bad as. “Stop doing that, I want you to go over here…” The experienced referees reading this may be squirming at this advice, because they feel that even random details are important to an adventure.

Allow me to add some context. My players are exploring a massive military research facility that takes up hundreds of square miles of land. They really can’t get granular with every single building they encounter. I will role play one building to get the feel of the place, but all the rest needs to be skimmed and time needs to dilate and move more quickly. In this situation, the players are examining the contents of old office desks that have already been broken and rifled through over decades of abandonment. They don’t need me to describe every address in an old rolodex they find lying on the floor. Time is going to go fast and in 15 minutes of real time 4 hours will have passed in the game world.

Step three in reducing granular play is to ask the players if they are looking for anything specific? Turn the game on the players and make them declare themselves!

Everyone twigged to what was going on as soon as I described the setting. The buildings weren’t medieval and certainly the garage full of work trucks was a good giveaway they weren’t in Blackmoor anymore. They were good about it and played along as if they had no idea what these things were. Even when they found the box full of live ammo they played along by saying, "These little metal sticks may be worth something."

Lots of knowing winks were also exchanged. 


Obviously, they knew what kinds of things one might find there and they could avoid entirely ‘Metagaming’ by saying something like, “I am looking for anything I could use to do X thing”

To which I was able to respond, “Ok, if you see anything like that here, I will let you know.”

Lastly, you need a couple experienced players that are willing to help you out in keeping things on track.

It’s likely an experienced player has been a game referee themselves. And they can spot when players get too granular and detail focused as well as you can. They know exactly the kind of hell that players can put you into when all you want to do is get them to move to something more interesting to explore on a much larger scale.

Instead of talking to the player who is engaged in minutiae, you can turn to your helper player and say, “You don't sense there is more of interest to be found here.”

Your helper player will then interject and address the other players by suggesting to move along.

So far so good.

The other problem is when you are dealing with an encounter where players are speaking to a non player character. You really gotta cut these short sometimes. I will even go as far as suggesting that you need to railroad the encounter a little bit to keep things on track.

The encounter needs to let the players know whatever information they need for their adventure, but you must avoid chit chat.

Thus a NPC will provide this to players:
  • NAME: This is who I am (or who I want you to think I am.) 
  • MOTIVE: This is why I am talking to you. (or what I want you to think my motive is.) 
  • INFORMATION: This is what I can tell you. (Yes, I may be lying.) 
  • OBJECTS: This is what I can give you in order to aid your quest. (Is this a gift or manipulation?) 
  • CONCLUSION: I need to get going, I have to meet someone, are there any questions?

Don’t misunderstand me in wanting to speed play. This kind of encounter is generally meant to guide players forward, but they often get wrapped up in chit chat and wanting to know more than they need to know. So, yes, enjoy running the situation, and do not go too fast with it. Yet, the real goal is to advance the players along their way of seeing your world. If your players spend an hour here, then you may not have enough time left on game night to explore the places they are meant to find.

Referee skills are something that take time to develop. There are no hard rules for how to deal with every situation that will occur during a game. Over time one learns a greater ability to read players and know how to use what tools when.

I hope this sparks some new ideas for running your own games.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

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Thank you so much, The Secret Team

(Chris, Griff, and everyone who helped make Secrets of Blackmoor possible.)
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ADD SALT FOR MORE FLAVOR

1/20/2023

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I’m no genius game referee. I am just a regular gamer like you who works to keep their game fresh for their players. In order to do this I try to expand on what is in the rules of my game. I do it in order to create more lore about what the people places and creatures that can be found in my world are like. I assume all referees do this with their game.

Often it is within the little details that one can expand their setting. Just take something seemingly ordinary and give it a little bit of a twist and you’ve added some flavor to your world setting that can be discovered by players. 

Here is just one example for how to slightly alter what is written in the game rules in order to add flavor.

SALT

Salt is a very valuable commodity in early cultures. So much so that it has been attributed with both magical and economic value. Don’t believe me, here is a link proving that salt has the power to ward off evil spirits.

https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/man-pours-salt-on-feet-to-ward-off-evil-spirits-at-walmart/

Now that I have established the real world power of Salt Magic via Scientific Research and web sourced corroboration we can move on to applying this to our RPG games.

Many traditional warding concoctions use common herbs mixed into salt such as Rosemary. The resulting mix is known as Black Salt. My encounter only has salt, but you may want do some some research of your own.

I have a tendency to riff off of tiny comments people make. The other day someone mentioned that one of the D&D books has a passage saying that zombies are somehow averse to salt. I can’t recall what book this comes from and I am too lazy to look it up right now. What matters is that I got to thinking and quickly added a zombie salt encounter to my next week's game session.

Salt vs. Zombies:

In AD&D Zombies are hurt by flasks of holy water. In OD&D this does not apply.

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Let’s change zombies and make it so they will not approach salt. Why? Because salt has purifying magic in it.

Thus a solid line of salt on the ground, say an inch or more in width, is enough to keep zombies from advancing across it.

A line across the typical 10 foot wide passage would require several pounds of salt to create a barrier large enough to deter zombies.

Throwing salt on zombies might be another tactic, but I think most of it would fall off of them and it might cause them to be confused for 1-2 combat rounds is all.

Immersing a zombie in salt might paralyze them.

Salt does not harm zombies, it merely confuses them and keeps them at bay.​
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A Zombie Room

Our players arrive at a place where someone has placed a treasure in a chest.

What they see as they come down a hallway is what appears to be a sack leaning against the wall and a scattering of pure white powder across the floor. Foot steps can be seen that may have scattered the powder, yet the powder effectively covers a 10 x 10 foot area. An examination reveals this may be salt. A tasting 100% verifies this for the players.

The sack leaning against the wall is partly empty and still contains about 4 pounds of salt.

About 30 more feet farther and the players come upon a closed door at the dead end of the passage. It seems to open outward and there are wood wedges jammed into the door to keep it from opening.

The players can listen, but zombies do not make noise, so they will not detect anything.

If the players remove the wedges they can pull the door open. Roll for success and surprise as always.

What do you want to do?

Now it is up to the players to decide what they want to do.

The clues are there for them to deduce a non combat solution. 

If they retreat back to the salt the Zombies will only chase them as far as the salt on the floor.

Arrows, pole weapons, even ten foot poles can then be used to beat them into submission. Yet, some may simply wander back away from the salt.

It really is up to you how you handle specifics. In my case a player opted to carry the salt bag. This was enough to keep the Zombies from outright attacking. I did do a 50% chance that a zombie would wander close and take a swipe at the PC. I rolled to hit and to do damage, if they did hit, another D20 roll equal or under Dexterity for the PC would be required to keep from dropping the salt bag which could spell disaster for a lone PC in a room full of zombies.

Once inside the zombie room the players found a half circle line of salt poured near the back wall that encircled a treasure chest. It makes sense that the treasure chest had to be guarded from having the zombies gnawing on it - they do get bored and chew on things.

In my game the players have entered a dimensional rift called the Zone. The treasure chest turned out to be an ammo box full of bullets. This is a group of adventurers who came from medieval Blackmoor and they have yet to discover guns.

Of course anyone they encounter who has a gun will know how to use it. An encounter with an armed NPC is sure to come in the near future much to my game group's dismay.

Now It's Your Turn

Ok, this is not the kind of encounter that will make or break an adventure. My main reason for sharing this is to hopefully re-inspire some of you about going a tiny bit farther when creating encounters.

​Yes, you can make a combat and treasure situation into an easy puzzle for your players to solve.


You probably have similar ideas in the back of your mind already. See if you can create just three little situations for your players to resolve using their brains.

Keep Gaming and Having Fun with Friends!

SECRETS of BLACKMOOR part II

If you are reading this Blog you likely have already seen Secrets of Blackmoor.

The other day Chris and I had a long meeting where we reviewed projected costs for making the follow up film a.k.a. Part II: Imaginary Worlds.

We would love to use more of the footage we have and also get more interviews that talk specifically about Blackmoor and maybe even some other early RPG settings.

In order to raise funds for another film we will need to do a KickStarter project and its success will rely on how many people have already seen the first film. It will be an all or nothing 'make it or break it' KickStarter with a very high goal minimum to reach funding.

I urge everyone to keep telling gamer friends about the film and sharing the link to this website everywhere.

​Where else can you think of that gamers may not have heard about Secrets of Blackmoor?

We really appreciate all the support you've already given us. We work hard to produce things that have value to you. Don't worry, we're still working on other games too!

Thanks so much, The Secret Team (Everyone involved in the making of Secrets of Blackmoor)


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The Lost Sci-Fi RPg's By the Snider Brothers

1/9/2023

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Image source: Wayne's Books
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Photo of one of the boxes we found while making Secrets of Blackmoor
Today I just want to tease a couple of RPG games we are interested in publishing.

Mutant by Richard Snider

Star Master by John Snider

I was chatting on reddit and we got onto the subject of Gamma World and other variants.

I posted this:


Metamorphosis Alpha was published in 1976.

TSR had copies of Mutant, but due to conflicts with Dave Arneson they were rejecting any games produced in the Twin Cites.

It is suspected they reverse engineered Mutant to create MA. The author likely had no idea of the previous game, he was merely told concepts. I personally do not believe James Ward willfully copied the concept. He was merely told of a game idea by Gary Gygax in conversation and built from that.

The same is said about the third volume from the Star Probe + Star Empire series titled, Star Master. TSR was in possession of a draft which had been submitted and they never returned. It became Star Frontiers and the original was suppressed. It seems likely even if the mechanical aspects do not match, the idea was plagiarized from the drafts.

Both games are by the Snider brothers who it should be noted were original Blackmoor players before D&D is published.

Thus the sequence for those games is:

Richard Snider, Mutant in the early 70's > Ward with MA by TSR 1976 > Ward with Gamma World by TSR 1978 > full color boxes and drafts exist for a later attempt at publication of Mutant by Adventure Games in the mid 80's.

John Snider, Space Campaign which Arneson dubbed Stellar 7 in 1973 > Star Probe '75 > Star Empire '77 > Star Master draft never published > A print out draft and typed fragments exist of Star Master which was slated for publication by Adventure Games in the 80's > TSR Star Frontiers '82.

The Wikipedia entry states that the artwork for SP and SE was done by Paul Snider and that the layouts were done by MMSA members. 

Perhaps a telling clue about the possible plagiarism is the absence of space ship rules in both the Star Master Draft as well as Star Frontiers. Snider's game was intended as an expansion on his rules for space exploration and empire scale space campaign rules which do cover space travel and space ships. Star Frontiers did not include space ships in the original game, adding them later in an expansion set. We likely will never have a concrete answer, yet, it does lead to conjecture.

The question is whether anyone would want a hard copy of either of these games.

Thanks, from The Secret Team 

As always, tell a friend about Secrets of Blackmoor: The True History of Dungeons & Dragons
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MAKING LORE FOR YOUR CAMPAIGN

12/15/2022

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I am running a game tonight and I need some lore to help develop my arc story, and yes, I wait until the last minute to prep for game night - It’s how I roll.

Creating lore for your campaign is actually really easy. You see, most gamers aren’t that picky and what they like is a bit of cheese and campiness mixed with pseudo poetics.

Additionally, “perfection is the death of creativity” - Chris tells me this when I get pinned on some minor detail and feel paralyzed for a week. For your own campaign no one will read what you write but your gamer group. They won’t be very critical because you can write things that are easily better than anything being produced by WOTC in the past few years. Their writers are all hacks and you can and will do better!

Above all - this is supposed to be fun. It’a called gaming for a reason.
​

Let’s start!​

The Fall of Ghebelin

And the Elfaren ever deceitful small minded and cultivators of jealousies did secretly conjure an abomination to unleash upon the land and all the decent citizens and a great cloud gathered and rolled slowly like boiling water a dark curtain over the warmth of the sun and the giving night sky of she of a thousand eyes as it grew and grew ever outward obfuscating of the everything it touched with choking dust and putrid festering spell linger

​Ok, what am I doing here? 

I’m name dropping. Some bad people are doing bad things.

Instead of saying exactly what things are I am using adjectives to describe things as being like other things. Yup, Similes!

Hmmm.. She of a thousand eyes?

Ok, here is more…
And the greatest queen of the Ghebelin who ever ruled in the blessed heavens on this earth could sense a presence of the unknown and gathered her advisors unto herself and summoned the seekers who cast the divination sticks at the ground and the wands revealed dark paths fraught aplenty with many doors which cannot be opened and sit silent and mute and a dark fate as hard as stone
Notice the lack of punctuation? Yep, ancient writing should be sans punctuation just to age-ify it.

More name dropping and describing who these people are. Easy peasy, you can do this too.

And then I use verbs to name who and what people are - seekers. Oh, they do some kind of divination, they’re soothsayers!

And I add in a bit of weirdness by hinting at fate being closed doors - oh oh , badness is coming.
In this last moment of her rule the queen gave unto her faithful Duaraven cohort the ancient scrolls of the Ghebelin the crowns of power which adorn the wisest of her nobles and the blood seed sapphire pulled from her own diadem and bid him go to and forth and with great effort conceal for near an eternity all these sacred gifts with cleverness and cunning in readiness for her return in ten thousand thousand flights of the three sisters
More names, Duaraven, hmmm wonder who they are, Ghebelin, err… huh? And we’ve already had Elfarren.

If you want it to seem like some old lost scroll make sure to use bad grammar too. Back in ye olden days no one had a copy of, The Elements of Style. 

Gee, you’d think I was bopping my players on the nose with these names. Sure sounds like Dwarves, Goblins, and Elves. A tee and hee and another hee.

Don’t obscure it too much. It’s just a dumb Elf Game so put neon signs on things to point the way and speed things up. Also, the players who are either elves or dwarves are now wondering what is going on here. Things are about to get really crazy in the campaign.


What about these scrolls, crowns and blood seed sapphire - oooh, ancient relics!
And then the great queen leading her retinue of nobles lords and maids descended into her sacred underworld of the palace where they await in court stepped outside of the riverine time until the day of reckoning when the Ghebelin shall rise once again to assemble a great legion of faithful and avenge themselves upon the cruel Elfarren traitors
Ok, so some queen is now dead, or is she? She’s promising to come back?

This is really weird stuff here.

And the mountains and the great cities fell ever downward and dark waters charged in a flood washing away what had been once great and beautiful leaving a flattened world of rot and desolation and those who remained of the proud Ghebelin hunted like animals by the cruel Alfarren were bled and others of them fleeing to hide deep under earth and rock away from warmth and light and she of a thousand eyes are now downcast fallen and without consolation


And now greatest of Queens Arruanni watches and awaits and speaks in the dreaming of the gods to those who are willing to listen to her tale


This I write Stone Frothingel last of the Duaraven cohorts to shining Arruanni Queen of all Domains
Whao some dwarf dude wrote this a long time ago. He must be the same dude who was supposed to hide everything, maybe?

The elves killed the goblins but some got away?

What is this dreaming of the gods and is this queen going to talk to our players in their dreams?

Final Lesson of the day - Let’s do Cut Ups!

A long time ago I took a writing class. As part of it we learned how to make sort of fake poetry. Poetry uses language in ways that aren’t “normal”.

And you can do it yourself very easily by re-arranging other peoples words to make your own poetic phrases.

Cut the text from my little lore snippet and copy it into a text document. Then take that text and print it out.

Now comes the fun part. Take real scissors and cut it up into pieces of sentences. Pile them up and randomly pull out several and arrange them to your own liking to create a rambling sentence or two. Is it starting to feel like ancient lore yet?

If you need any extra words in there just steal some from your favorite fantasy novel and add them in. Maybe chop up your own sentences too. Just remember to use lots of descriptive words.

Use lots of simile and metaphor. Perhaps the sun in the sky can be the fiery charioteer who arrives at dawn. It’s really ok to be campy and cheesy when you make up lore for your game as it actually adds to the oldness and flavor of past times.

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I wrote this a few weeks back and have since used this lore sheet with my players.

Thus, after some small adventures in Vestfold and Chris being given gifts by the earl himself for the previous week's battle at the old gate where Chris earned the title of, "The Gate Crusher," (The gift was a mixed blessing, 
a hand painted shield and a land grant for his own domain - an overgrown patch of land in the swamps where he can go build a castle of sorts.) a mysterious woman in leather armor contacted the party and showed them these writings of ancient lore.


My house players hadn't met Lavender yet.

She features prominently in my game. In a sense she is me. I use my little assassin lady to drive my story. It's fun to get to play as a kick ass girl too.

It was at this point I left the room and my players began to read the handout which I gave to everyone. They went over every detail of it. I could hear them reading it aloud to each other from the other room. They even pondered what the different spellings of some words could mean. This taught me to make sure to keep misspellings of names of things in future lore handouts to confound my players even more!

Chris quizzed me after the game session about the Three Sisters. He is the one who rolled a 1 on the mountain pass and was transported to have an audience with the the Three Sisters. Thus he asked if the Three Sisters were also a constellation. He guessed that the passage of time since the queen must be 10 thousand years. I deviously commented something along the lines of: That is a good guess. What I didn't tell him is that the Three Sisters are both those same deities and a trio of comets which appear roughly every 100 years, thus making this lore more along the lines of 100,000 years old.

Now my players are off to the Forest of Forgetfulness where it is assumed the resting place of the Ghebelin queen may be located.

This is pretty awesome for me, because they are heading into a rift between the 999 realms of existence and may even step from one world to another and end up in The Dreaming City.

IF YOU SEEK MORE GAME REFEREE INFO:

There are 6 more days left to pre-order a copy of The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg hard bound book.

More info and a red pre-order button are here:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/secretsofblackmoor/the-lost-dungeons-of-tonisborg
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The One Hit Point Dilemma in D&D

11/20/2022

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It’s been cold and snowy here in Denver. To be honest this kind of weather makes my spirits get low. The only cure is to think happy thoughts, make yourself smile, and talk gaming - It really does work.

Perhaps one of the greatest issues with OD&D and perhaps even AD&D is the problem of a bad roll for hit points.

i.e. Your 18 strength fighter just rolled a one for their hit points.

So what do you do now?

I know both kinds of referees, the by the rules what you roll is what you get ref, as well as the lets fudge that a little bit so you stand a better chance of not dying type. Neither is really doing the players a favor on HP and to be honest the 1 HP PC is still something worth having players run just so they can experience being very cautious at first level. Yet, it can be a a real hassle in the long run.

Also, here is an odd thought about the rules from the early days.

I recall my first read through on D&D and wondering if hit points were a fixed quantity once rolled, or if players would re-roll hit points before every adventure. It was not very clear how to handle them!

Hit points aren’t meant to represent an actual physical property related to how hearty you are. They are an abstraction. Gary Gygax wrote a bit on that in this image I saved from an online post I spotted. Thus even Gygax is saying they are more like a combo of skill and luck in avoiding dying through adversity.

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​I really like what Gary said about his perspective on RPGs and how D&D handled mechanics when it was first created. Although this blog post relates to the part on hit points, so much of this page is pure gold that I have to show the entire image.

Having players re-roll bad rolls is the age old cure and yet it feels a bit arbitrary thus I propose a more systematic approach. 
I feel that any modification to the early editions has to stay within the scope of how the original rules were written. This variant is designed so it remains within the format of simple rules that enhance play without over burdening the game with too many details.

The entire design of D&D is predicated on die roll averages. I go into that really in depth in some of my older posts on understanding how D&D works.

Ok, let’s get ‘Average’ but leave in a little bit of player NERF and BUFF for the sake of having players be more likely to survive.

What if hit die rolls are modified based on attributes? That seems reasonable, yet which attribute should it be and no matter what attribute we use there is the chance of a player having a 3 in that column, so that is still not so great.

I propose using the character’s prime ability score, or scores, for classes with more than one. And then I suggest we modify this by the character's constitution score.

When I say modify, I really mean one should use averages.

Thus a fighter would get Str + Con and this would be divided by 2 to get a modified roll.

OD&D breaks things down into Low, Average, and High for ability scores. This really points to other considerations about the design, but that is a whole other can of worms I won’t go into right now.

The tally of the Prime Ability and Constitution gives a nice number one can use to modify the hit points die roll with. Now we can use this low, medium, high to modify the rolls for HP like so:

-If the Average of Prime and Constitution is 8 or less, the die roll is un-modified.

-If the Average is medium or rather 9 to 14, then any hit point die roll of 1 or 2 is treated as 3 and all others rolls are read as they fall.  (If you are doing Greyhawk style d8 hit dice anything 3 and lower is treated as 4.)

-If the Average of Prime and Constitution is 15 or greater, anything rolled less than 4 is treated as four. (Greyhawk and later versions with d8 it is a 5)

Doing this kind of hit die roll modification will shift hit points up, but will not create an incidence of a higher quantity of high rolls. It just means the lows are more likely to be shifted toward a mid range. Also, some PCs will tend to get higher hit point Tallies based on their attributes.
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That's all I have for today. Make sure to pop by the Kickstarter, if you haven't purchased a book already, as it is rapidly coming to the final deadline.

Order a Copy of Tonisborg Here:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/secretsofblackmoor/the-lost-dungeons-of-tonisborg

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BLACKMOOR ORDERS

11/16/2022

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Something to consider in your Blackmoor world setting are the different orders which exert influence and force, whether as an alliance or loyalty to a greater power, be it a religion or a realm, or simply some kind of deeply held belief.

Of course the most known factions are The Red Wizard Coven who worship the nameless deity and are known for their underground temples that are covered in meander chalk drawings and their ally, the being known simply as, The Egg of Coot.

On the side of good there are two prominent organizations also. The Order of the Dragon in Blackmoor and The Hunters in the Deep of Vestfold, known as Fastness Fold in my own campaign. These are forces that work for the Baron and the Earl. The two organizations are like the CIA and MI6. Each works for their own ruler, yet, they are also known to work together in their endless fight against the various other enemy states of Blackmoor.

The Order of the Dragon is an elite military unit. They will not break under pressure as they are battle hardened troops of the greatest ranks. They are also known to have some assassins as spies that work for them. And they have paid watchers who gather information for them from all over the world of Blackmoor.

The Hunters in the Deep are a secretive society of assassin spies. They do the behind the scenes dirty work for the Earl. Yet, a lot of what they do is to simply gather information on the goings on around the world of Blackmoor.
​

Neither will spy in the other’s realm or on the other group. They do sometimes send agents on missions in each other’s realms as a collaborative venture.
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The Order of the Dragon is a known group as they can be seen around Blackmoor in their white tunics with red dragon heraldry. Yet, what is not known is their other mission of protecting the realm through either force, or intrigue. Perhaps a modern comparison is the Special Forces which most nations have and are called on to perform clandestine military missions. The leader of the Order of the Dragon is known as the Great Svenni. He is an old experienced warrior, loyal to the barony.

The Hunters in the Deep are only known via whispered rumors. They do not parade around in uniform. They are everywhere and nowhere. It is rumored their leader is a person who goes by the name of Lavender.

These two groups are very useful for creating interesting scenarios for your own campaign, be it Blackmoor, or your own creation.

In many cases they work indirectly, and those who work with them will be operating as agents of agents in vast networks. Indoctrination to either group is a long process of gradually being accepted within the group through challenges and the accomplishment of difficult tasks that require the building of deep trust. Both groups also have secret hand gestures and symbols that are used as codes to recognize other agents. The Order of the Dragon uses imagery having to do with dragons and the Deep Hunters use images of octopus.

The two groups are in a constant struggle against incursions by agents of The Red Wizard Coven and The Egg of Coot. Often the goal is merely to place counter spies within the other organizations in order to keep tabs on what their nefarious plans are. Just recently, the Egg's agents managed to create an alliance with the Thieves Guild of Fastness Fold. This led to the siege of the city with an uncursion out of Tonisborg Dungeon through the old gate in order to break the city defenses. Luckily the Deep Hunters had agents in place and were able to find out about the plans for the raid out of the dungeon.

The house group of players took part in the defense of the old gate. Chris was having a fiery night with the dice and every turn he was cleaving multiple orcs in half and pressing the attack. Eventually the attackers broke morale and Chris led the counter-charge across the bridge to the island, with the city guard following his lead while chanting 'Gate Crusher.'

Chris has earned a reputation and a title as a fearsome champion of the realm. It can only be expected The Deep Hunters will be knocking on the Gate Crusher's door some time soon as brave adventurers are hard to come by and of great use to the organization.


New players will always enjoy a good romp through a dungeon and it is hard to get them to want to do much more than that. Yet, if you consider that the forces for evil are always colluding to undermine the order and balance of good, then there are a lot of small missions that a party of adventurers can be hired to go on by either of these organizations. In many cases these adventures can begin in a town or city and go to the wilderness or even back to the dungeon.

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