Thursday, February 16, 2012

The Paladin's Warhorse and the Magical Realism of the DMG

You crack open the black covers of the Dungeon Masters Guide (first ed. natch). You are looking up a half-forgotten section that your brain is foggy on. Inexplicably, out in the page next to it, in cramped tiny sans serif font a section forms in the seemingly random jumble of the book.

You don't remember ever have never noticed before. How could I have missed an entire subsection, I have read this umpteenth times? You read it, here there is a mysterious new subsystem. There is High Gygaxian quirk. All of it is strange and good. How could we never have played with that?

Tonight riding out of the mist of page 18 came...

The Paladin's Warhorse
When the paladin reaches 4th or higher level, he or she will eventually call for a warhorse...It will magically appear, but not in actual physical form. The paladin will magically “see” his or her faithful destrier in whatever locale it is currently in, and it is thereafter up to the paladin to journey to the place and gain the steed. As a rule of thumb, this journey will not be beyond 7 days ride, and gaining the mount will not be an impossible task. The creature might be wild and necessitate capturing, or it might be guarded by an evil fighter of the same level as the paladin, and the latter will then have to overcome the former in mortal combat in order to win the warhorse. In short, the gaining of the destrier is a task of some small difficulty which will take a number of days, possibly 2 or more weeks, and will certainly test the mettle of the paladin. Once captured or won, the warhorse knows its role and relationship to the paladin, and it will faithfully serve thereafter for 10 years.

(You have been here yourself?)

11 comments:

  1. You're right, I have never seen that passage. I thought you hated Paladins?

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    1. Yep, still hate them. But rules-supported magical horses that appear out of the mists of your brain and that you can build an entire player-driven adventure (or two) out of to obtain--that I like.

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  2. You need to read The Deeds of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon (who lives near Austin, by the way).

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    1. I actually made it half way through it and lost in on the plane. Should I pick it up again?

      Had no idea she was in our neck of the woods.

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    2. You should definitely pick it up again. I have a copy if you want to borrow it. And not sure if your lady reads that genre, but she might like it, too (mine did).

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  3. Yeah, used it to good effect once - though we were playing Rolemaster at the time.

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  4. Well, sort of...I find the whole of idea of magically intelligent animals, especially those that can speak, to be really creepy.

    I've got an evil npc knight running around who waits outside the known local dungeons. He likes to kill and rob the wounded, treasure laden adventurers. The knight rides a red-skinned demon bull, which is wearing a magical bow-style "Yoke of Control". Should it escape control,it will gore it's former "master" to death, and eat his liver. A character can firmly grasp the yoke to become the new "master"...

    Equal parts of "The Last Unicorn", a published Forgotten Realms NPC, and probably a little of Moorcock's Corum...

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  5. I dislike this bit and I also dislike the bit about a wizard's familiars automatically just showing up - even if it makes things easy in terms of boring game mechanics, it strips the situation of drama.

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    1. If you don't like the idea of the character going on an adventure to find their companion creature as the paladin does, and you don't like the idea of the creature coming to the character as for familiars, then how would you resolve it?

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    2. I was not very articulate - I meant I dislike the "poof, there it is" thing. I dislike the visions thing. I dislike "magic strips drama" thing. Except for fire balls. Which make things more dramatic.

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  6. Do war horses sometimes break free, venture off alone, and (at a certain age) see visions of paladins?

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