“It’s more of those horned devil dogs!” Locklar called. “What should we do?”
Gorlin strained to see, finally making them out in the shadows.
“Run!” he shouted, turning toward the trees a half-mile in the distance.
Pronghorn Jackal
No. Enc.: 1d6 (2d6)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 150′ (50′)
Armor Class: 5 [14]
Hit Dice: 1+1
Attacks: 1 bite or charge
Damage: 1d4 or 1d6+1
Save: F1
Morale: 6
Hoard Class: NilThese are larger cousins of regular jackals with pronghorns. They are far more aggressive than standard jackals but can quickly scatter if an encounter begins to go badly for them.
They can initially charge and ram with their horns. When biting, a natural ‘to-hit’ roll of 20 indicates that the horns have also gouged the target, causing an extra 1d4 in damage.
Just a low HD encounter with a little something to spice it up a bit.
Watched this again the other night:
A cracking good yarn.
I can see a couple of clever players getting their PCs into the sorts of situations Peachy and Danny find themselves in and getting out of. If that save vs. drugged bride hadn’t failed, they might have gotten away with it.
I have not read the Kipling story, so I do not know how well the film compares to the original.
Tags: literature
Sandbox Dungeon Master’s Toolkit: Nudges and Libertarian Paternalism at The Mule Abides:
A successful sandbox game has to balance extremes. Too much restriction and you get the Straight Line Dungeon where player choices barely matter. Too much freedom and you get the Hall of 10,000 Identical Doorways where the players have no basis for choosing one over another. When you mention that one doorway has a trail of bloody footprints leading through it, as a DM you’re using a nudge to help players navigate between these extremes.
A great post on how to drop hints in sandboxes without resorting to “here’s what your adventure is this session” hooks.
Good stuff. Know-what-I-mean? Know-what-I-mean?
Regular readers of this blog will know that Kilgore prefers digest-sized books and comb or coil binding. The combination of small size and ability to lay open flat at the game table is a hard one to beat.
So when I picked up the Advanced Edition Companion for Labyrinth Lord I knew I had to make a comb-bound digest containing both volumes:
300 pages of Labyrinth Lord in one digest-sized volume
More than anything, I don’t want to have to shuffle back and forth between multiple books at the table. Both are currently complete in this tome, so it’s a pretty hefty little digest:
The Tome of the Labyrinth Lord (and his dice)
I put another clear cover in between the two books as a divider and to show of the AEC cover:
Labyrinth Lord + Advanced Edition Compainion = Mega Digest of Adventure
The comb I used is just barely big enough, but the next size I had available is way too big. I may pull sections 2 and 3 (classes and spells) of the original book out as all the material is repeated. For example, the cleric’s turning undead table, the magic missile spell description, and the fighter experience point table are all in both.
We’re probably going to use AEC character classes only, so losing the material on the original elf, dwarf, and halfling race/class won’t matter. It would save over 30 pages and might make flipping pages near the beginning or end of the tome a bit easier.
Tags: Labyrinth Lord
Deities & Demigods: A Christian Perspective
A good quick post on this topic, and I’ve thought the same thing for a long time. A lot of people complain that D&DG is just a “super monster manual” and I’ve always thought that was what should be expected.
“O” is For Old School: Review of The Dungeon Alphabet
A good review of The Dungeon Alphabet on Gnome Stew. It’s particularly interesting because Gnome Stew focuses almost entirely on New School games, so their take on something with roots so solidly in the Old School, and their effort to describe such things to their readership, is enlightening.
Give and take combat
Using one “to-hit” roll for both sides of a battle.
Dragon Age RPG: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying
A series of level-based boxed sets from Green Ronin Games. It’s an “all-new game system that’s both easy to learn and exciting to play,” at least according to the web site. Looks like a paper-and-pencil adaptation of a computer game, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The Essential Dungeons & Dragons Starter
Speaking of level-based boxed sets, WOTC is putting out an “introductory” version of 4th Edition in a red box. It appears to be a severely cut-down version of the game, and not just a level-limited set like the Red Box of yore. I understand it’s only levels one and two, which takes only a pitifully small number of encounters to max out compared to the amount of playing that could be fit into levels 1-3 in B/X, for instance. This strikes me as a sort of “psst, kid…first one’s free” except that it’s not even free. I realize you can’t give away boxed sets for free, but I’m having trouble seeing how this is anything but a cut-down freebie intro in a box that costs $20.Still, it’s tough not to see OSR-type influence on some of the things going on in the industry.
New Middle-Earth Roleplaying Game Coming Soon!
Interesting, though I must admit I certainly see no need for such a thing.
Narn i Hîn Húrin and D&D vs Tolkien
Speaking of Middle-Earth, Monsters & Manuals has a great post on the incomplete version of the Tale of the Children of Hurin from Unfinished Tales and how the concept and setting are more akin to D&D than the Third Age Middle-Earth of LOTR. I have long been a fan of Narn i Hîn Húrin, enjoying it more than other versions of the story, but had never really made that connection. I think it’s spot on. Go read.
The Hobbit Might Be Delayed Until Late 2012
Final Middle-Earth link.
From Iamtim on the S&W boards:
- OD&D Supplement 1 (Greyhawk) says that MMs do 2-7 points of damage, with two additional missiles every 5 levels. No comment is made about rolling to-hit or not.
- Holmes Basic D&D says that MMs do 2-7 points of damage, with higher level casters firing more than one missile. A to-hit roll must be made as if it were fired from a long bow.
- Moldvay Basic D&D says that MMs do 2-7 (1d6+1) points of damage, with two additional missiles every 5 levels. They automatically hit any visible target.
- Mentzer Basic D&D echoes Moldvay Basic D&D.
- The D&D Rules Cyclopedia echoes Moldvay Basic D&D.
- The AD&D 1E PHB says that MMs do 2-5 (1d4+1) points of damage, with one additional missile every 2 levels. They unerringly strike their target.
- The AD&D 2E PHB echoes the 1E PHB.
- The 3E D&D PHB echoes the 1E PHB.
Labyrinth Lord, both the standard and the new Advanced Edition Companion, give an automatic hit, 1d6+1 damage, and two additional missiles every five levels. Just like Moldvay.
Tags: spells
Locklar unsheathed a dagger. “I don’t care if that little magician did come from across the sea,” he muttered. “He’s going down.”
With a yell, he charged the diminutive man in the silk robes and pointed slippers.
The frail man, his narrow eyes focused on the warrior, made a slight gesture with his right hand and Locklar grunted in pain as something invisible scratched at him savagely. Ignoring it, Locklar continued his assault.
But when another unseen claw struck him, and then another and another, he thought better of it.
“Okay,” he groaned, hoping that the dark-haired barmaid who had been smiling at him earlier wasn’t watching, “maybe I’ll just leave him alone for now.”
The man gave him a slight bow, then turned back to his wine.
Talons of Cheng-Wiang
Spell Level: M1
Duration: Special
Range: 50′This spell causes an invisible claw to strike at an opponent, causing 1d4 points of damage if a successful to-hit roll is made (rolled as a normal melee attack.) It can attack once per combat round, striking any single target within sight of the caster and range of the spell.
If the attack hits, the spell continues for an additional round. If it misses, the spell caster may roll a save vs. spells to keep it in effect. If a ‘1′ is rolled for the save, however, the caster suffers 1d4 points of damage plus one additional point per level above first.
Personally, I’d allow casters to keep the talons of Cheng-Wiang active even after the combat ends as long as they keep rolling successful saving throws. This spell can pump up the combat power of a low level mage, but it comes with a serious risk.
I would NOT allow fake “attacks” against whatever is handy (walls, trees, etc.) in an attempt to avoid needing to roll a saving throw, though.
The Advanced Edition Companion for Labyrinth Lord has been released.
I picked up the PDF last night. A free no-art version is also available. The dead tree versions can be ordered through Lulu.
I’ve been looking over the preview version for a few days. Though I haven’t been able to give it the attention that I wanted to, I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re going to go ahead and covert our existing campaigns over to LL-AEC almost immediately.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to print it out in my preferred size, digest, to bind at work today with our comb binder. So I’ll have to wait another day before it’s in my hands. Dash it all.
Tags: Labyrinth Lord
