And So It All Began...

“The Realm of mankind is narrow and constricted. Always the forces of Chaos press upon its borders, seeking to enslave its populace, rape its riches, and steal its treasures. If it were not for a stout few, many in the Realm would indeed fall prey to the evil which surrounds them. Yet, there are always certain exceptional and brave members of humanity, as well as similar individuals among its allies--dwarves, elves, and halflings--who rise above the common level and join battle to stave off the darkness which would otherwise overwhelm the land. 

Bold adventurers from the Realm set off for the Borderlands to seek their fortune. It is these adventurers who, provided they survive the challenge, carry the battle to the enemy. Such adventurers meet the forces of Chaos in a testing ground where only the fittest will return to relate the tale.”

The first words I ever read in connection with a roleplaying game. Thanks Gary. 

And while we are on about the Keep, check out HC player Desert Scribe's statting out of the Keep and Caves of Chaos forces for Hordes of the Things. 

Holmes Expert Boxed Set: What If?

Old school D&Ders seem to love “what if” intellectual excercises. What if D&D had been modeled on classical Greek myths rather than medieval Europe (Mazes and Minotaurs)? What if Traveller had cornered the market first and fantasy rpgs where modeled after it? What if the B/X series had been completed by Companion rules, rather than Mentzer?

My own head was spinning last night from a similar line of questions after reading a very intriguing passage in Dragon magazine #35 (March 1980). In Gygax's then-monthly column, “Sorcerer's Scroll”, he discusses at great length the various business decisions of TSR as it went gangbusters at the turn of the 1980s.

About halfway through he starts talking about about the internal debate at TSR about whether the Holmes Basic edition should have a product that pointed back to OD&D (as Holmes intended when he volunteered) or forward to AD&D as it began to be rolled out as a system. We all know which vision won. Thus the strange hybrid beast that was that first blue box set came into being.

Now here's the part I didn't know, there were plans for an Expert set expansion for Holmes underway at TSR in 1980. According to Gygax: 

“...as Basic Set sales soared, so did our plans... Design is now hard at work on the second boxed D&D game, the Expert Set. It will take players through at least 12th level of experience, tie in the best of the “Original” material, and actually add some new classes, spells, magic, monsters and so on. That should satisfy all those fans who prefer the complete flexibility and open form of D&D over the more controlled and formalized structure of AD&D.”

Whoa. Now obviously these plans were folded into a different plan in which D&D evolved into a new toned-down and simplified system that would be the B/X and later the BECMI lines. But it does pose a very tantalizing what-if.

What if that Holmes Expert set was rolled out before or in place of the B/X revision? Now there have been several nicely-done Holmes expansion homebrews such as Meepo's Holmes Companion, but what if there was full-bodied expansion along the more ambitious lines above?

Imagine for a minute a Holmes Expert set that retained it's unique bits. Five-fold alignment, DEX determines initiative, unusual spell descriptions, no racial classes, generous magic-item creation rules, etc. grafted onto an expansion written by the quirky (and slightly incoherent) mind that was J. Eric Holmes.

Imagine a set of new classes and/or races written by the man who explicitly stated that players could start at just about anything a DM gave her nod to such as a “centaur, a lawful werebear, and a Japanese Samurai fighting man”?

Imagine new monsters from a guy so immersed in pulp fantasy roots as to actually write a follow-up novel to Edgar R. Burroughs strange and obscure Pellucidar series? It certainly would feature the Cthuloid and gonzo creations you get whiffs of in Mazes of Peril and his other stories. Were-shark anyone?

What about the module that would have accompanied it? Imagine a Holmesian mid-level adventure that would rival In Search of the Unknown or Keep on the Borderlands?

The mind boggles.

Something We Forget About Gary Gygax...

...namely that he had his moments of really being crankily down on those tinkering with house rules and variants in D&D. A fact that we, the so-called old school, tend to readily gloss over in our rush to embrace a DIY ethic. Re-reading an ancient issue of Dragon magazine (#16, July 1978) yesterday I was surprised how early indeed he was travelling down this warpath.

A few eyebrow raisers:

ON CRITICAL HITS (one of the most common of house rules)

"The “critical hit” or “double damage” on a “to hit” die roll of 20 is particularly offensive to the precepts of D&D...the point must be made that whole game system is perverted, and the game possibly ruined, by the inclusion of “instant death” rules, be they aimed at monsters or characters. In the former case they imbalance the play and move the challenge which has been carefully placed into D&D. In the latter, “instant death” no longer allows participants to use judgement when playing. Certainly some monsters are capable of delivering death at a single stroke, but players know these monsters and can take precautions. If everything that is faced has an excellent chance to kill characters, they will surely die before long. Then the game loses its continuity and appeal, for lasting character identification cannot be developed."

ON WEAPON EXPERTISE (guess a view he ditched when Unearthed Arcana reared its head)

"There are a number of foolish misconceptions which tend to periodically crop up also. Weapons expertise is one. Given the basic assumption that those normally employing weapons are typical of the medieval period, and D&D is plainly stated as a medieval fantasy game, it should follow in the minds of knowledgeable players that any fighting man worth the name made it a point to practice daily with all forms of arms. There was a prejudice against the use of the bow by knights, granted...The truth of the matter with respect to weapon expertise is, I believe, another attempt to move players closer to the “instant death” ability. For those who insist on giving weapons expertise bonuses due to the supposed extra training and ability of the character, I reply: What character could be more familiar and expert with a chosen weapon type than are monsters born and bred to their fangs, claws, hooves, horns, and other body weaponry? Therefore, the monsters must likewise receive weapons expertise bonuses. While this does put part of the system into balance again, it moves player characters closer to situations where they can be killed before they can opt to follow a course of action aimed at extricating themselves. Again, this feature is undesirable and must be discarded."

ON VANCIAN MAGIC--AND THE AMATEUR RPG PRESS IN GENERAL

"Spell point systems are also currently in vogue amongst the fringe group which haunt the pages of “Amateur Press Association” publications. Now APAs are generally beneath contempt, for they typify the lowest form of vanity press. There one finds pages and pages of banal chatter and inept writing from persons incapable of creating anything which is publishable elsewhere...From this morass rose the notion that a spell point system should be inserted into D&D...[The D&D magic system is] inspired by the superb writing of Jack Vance. This “Vancian” magic system works splendidly in the game. If it has any fault, it is towards making characters who are magic-users too powerful. This sort of fault is better corrected within the existing framework of the game — by requiring more time to cast spells, by making magic-users progress more slowly in experience levels. Spell points add nothing to D&D except more complication, more record keeping, more wasted time, and a precept which is totally foreign to the rest of the game."

Beyond enjoying the sheer snarky beauty of this particular rant, I draw two somewhat contradictory lessons from reading this:

1. that those of us monkeying around with the rules shouldn't bow to any infallible authority--even to that of figures we tend to respect. It is your game after all and all the putzing around under the game hood out there is a good and healthy thing. Can I get an amen?

2. That said, one should always keep a sharp eye for the balances that were built into the game at the get go. Thus the seeming weakness and illogical nature of one class (magic users not being able to wield swords is a classic example) may be hardwired into the game for good reasons. Keep an eye out especially for changes that muck up actual play at the table and be clear-minded enough to discard your own "brilliant" ideas when they just simply don't work.

More later next week on how and why we ditched any number of "brilliant" house rules in our campaign.

More Good Jack Vance News

A little bird tells me that Songs of the Dying Earth is not the only limited-edition volume of Vancian virtuosity coming out of Subterranean Press this summer. Apparently the Michigan-based publisher is also releasing Vance’s autobiography, This is Me, Jack Vance (complete with the pure-awesome editorial geek subtitle Or More Properly, This is “I”) , and a collection of short stories Wild Thyme, Green Magic. The latter will include a Dying Earth short, so it’s a two-fer as far as I am concerned.

Also yesterday doing a little digging for Vance’s influence on Gary Gygax and early D&D I found the following gem of an essay in which Gygax himself explicitly lays it all out. What more to say on this then?

Good News For Jack Vance Fans

Jack Vance is often considered one of the patron saints of old-school D&D, thanks to Gary Gygax's "almost famous" Appendix N stuck in the back of the first edition of the Dungeon Masters' Guide. Besides contributing the game's "fire-and-forget" magic system, his picaresque tales were a great inspiration to the whole feel of the game in its infancy.  

Closer to home, his clever, baroquely-described Lyonesse series has left inspiring touches and homages all over the Hill Cantons. (Just ask the mage, August, who had the great misfortune of picking up a certain odd emerald-colored pearl a few sessions back.)

So, it's with great excitement that I note that Songs of the Dying Earth, a collection of novellas and short stories set in Vance's Dying Earth (naturally)--and edited by one of the few other fantasy authors that can write worth a damn, George R.R. Martin--is now finally being put to press. Besides the formidable Martin, contributors to the book look like a veritable All-Stars team including Dan Simmons, Neil Gaiman, Glen Cook, and Robert Silverberg.  The book should be hitting bookstores around August. Yay.

Gygax's Hunter Class

Jon in Seattle mentioned in an offline discussion the rumored existence of a Hunter class that Gary Gygax was kicking around for AD&D 1e after his untimely departure from TSR. Having heard zippo about this before, I was as much intrigued as I had been yesterday about the Amazon.

With a little cyber-sleuthing I was pleasantly surprised to find that Gygax had indeed penned such an article in 1988 in the short-lived magazine Realms of Adventure. For your reading pleasure the article is appended below.

THE HUNTER

Before beginning the exposition I want to express my pleasure at again being able to offer new approaches in play to all the enthusiasts of fantasy gaming. As time and space permits I’ll try to provide several more character classes for your consideration in the fantasy game milieu. Read on, and when you’ve finished please consider dropping me a line to let me know what you think. Suggestions and requests for new professional approaches are always given thoughtful reading. One further thing. This is all quite ‘unofficial’, as another entity possesses all rights to the AD&D game. Nonetheless I think you’ll find hunters nice additions to your campaign.

This profession is as much one of circumstance as purpose. The hunter is one who was born in a wilderness area and grew up in primitive conditions requiring a knowledge of woodcraft, fishing, trapping, tracking, knowing the flora and fauna for many reasons, and hunting to sustain life. There might be rare exceptions to this, but generally the hunter is one of savage, barbaric background. There are, of course, hunters from open plains areas, frozen tundra, and barrens. Such individuals are of more nomadic sort than the class considers, and in general these backgrounds are more akin to the barbarian class. The hunter class considers a wooded homeland as the principal training ground, and this should suit most campaign milieus.

Race: Humans, elves (wild races only), half-elves and half-orcs can be hunter characters. There is no upper limit to progression for any race.

Armor & Weapons: Treat hunter characters as barbarians in regards to the wearing of armor and use of weapons. However the hunter may have two weapon specializations, one of which must be the spear. The player is allowed to select his or her second specialization.

Strength bonuses: As a fighter class character.

Dexterity bonuses: Begins at 14 with +1 and go up in steps of +1, so 18 dexterity gives +5 for armor addition, reaction and missile adjustment.

Constitution bonuses: As fighter.

Attack Ability: A hunter uses the table for fighters. When combating opponents of human or near-human sort, which fight with hands or weapons like those of humans, the hunter is at a –2 penalty to hit. When combating opponents of other nature (animal. Reptile, fish, beast, monster) the hunter is at +2 to hit. In the latter case any modified score of 20 or greater on the ‘to hit’ die roll indicates maximum damage for the weapon employed.

Saving Ability: Hunters use the same table as fighters but gain a +2 bonus against any attack form requiring a saving throw which comes from an animal-like opponent (a basilisk, a dragon, etc).

Hunter Profession: As barbarians never require training to advance in ability level, so too hunters are never in need of any sort of formal schooling. They always advance by ‘on-the-job experience’, as it were. If the circumstances of any adventure indicate a lack of related experience for hunter character advancement, the DM will always reduce his or her reward to match circumstances.

Minimum Characteristics: The hunter must have minimum statistics of S 15, I 12, W 12, D 15, and Con 14. There is no minimum Charisma.

Experience Bonus: The minimum statistics for a hunter total 68 (exclude Charisma). Any total of 73 or greater earns a 10% bonus in awarded experience.

HUNTER TABLE I

Exp. Point Total /Level #/of d12*/ Name attributed

0-3,000/ 1/ 1/ Forester

3,001-6,000/ 2/2/ Frontiersman

6,001-12,500/ 3/ 3/ Woodsman

12,501-25,000/ 4/4/ Backwoodsman

25,001-50,000/ 5/ 5/ Trapper

50,001-100,000/ 6/ 6/ Tracker

100,001-175,000/ 7/ 7/ Stalker

175,001-300,000/ 8/ 8/ Huntsman

300,001-500,000/ 9/ 9/ Hunter

500,001-1,000,000/ 10/ 9+3/ Huntmaster

For each additional 500,000 of earned experience an additional level is added and 3 additional hit points are gained. Above 9th level, characters are simply referred to as ‘Huntmaster’ without reference to degree of excellence (i.e. 10th, 11th etc is omitted).

*The d12 is ‘averaged’ in that a roll of 1 is treated as 4, a roll of 2 is treated as 5, and a roll of 12 is treated as 6. The initial hit point determination roll for a 1st level hunter character must always be 6 or better, but thereafter any result (with averaging) is possible.

HUNTER TABLE II

Experience level of hunter/ Chance of success*

1st/ 21%

2nd/ 23%

3rd/ 26%

4th/ 30%

5th/ 35%

6th/ 41%

7th/ 48%

8th/ 54%

9th/ 59%

10th/ 63%

11th and up/ +2% per level to 75% max.

*The DM may allow some added chance for success if additional preparation time is taken and there are such considerations as distractions, camouflage and the like. Deduction is likewise to be made for care, having an experienced guide (such as another hunter), magic, etc. Naturally a spell will surely discover snares and traps if the dweomer has the power to do so. A hunter is able to detect others’ snares and traps at a likelihood of 10% below that with which he or she is able to build them personally.

Additional Hunter Skills:

Animal Friendship. The hunter character may create a special bond with a hunting animal – dog, wolf, large cat or even a bear. The animal cannot have more hit dice than the hunter has experience levels. It will require a month of constant attention to form the special bond after an animal has been befriended, and the animal must spend at least one half of the time thereafter with the hunter. If desired, the hunter may free one animal and befriend another, but at no time can there be more than one special animal attached to the hunter. The chance of striking friendship is shown on HunterTable II, though a hunter of high level is not restricted by the 75% maximum. The DM may adjust the chance of success as necessary due to circumstances. The animal will hunt for and with its master/mistress, perform simple acts upon direction, and generally behave as very loyal and most intelligently for its species. Typical acts such an animal can perform are:

Track

Hunt down and chase

Come back on command

Sit/stay

Go/fetch/retrieve

Guard/watch

Attack/subdue

Attack/kill

Highly intelligent animals might carry things to some known place if the command is understood.

Build Snares & Traps. These constructions will catch game or enemies. The hunter can construct any of the following in the times shown below and with the noted effects on any victim:

Snare: 30 minutes; save vs. DEATH or victim killed.

Deadfall: 1 hour; 4d6 damage.

Heavy Deadfall: 2 hours; save vs. DEATH or victim killed; 6d6 damage if save made.

Pit Trap: 4 hours; save vs. DEATH to avoid unconsciousness for 1 hour, 1d6 damage + 1d6/stake placed by hunter up to 10, with d10 roll by victim to determine how many stakes are effective; no escape, or at least 1 minute required to get out of pit (DM determination).

Spring Trap: 15 minutes; 4d4 damage; successful ‘to hit’ roll must be made by trap against victim’s armor class to inflict damage, but no dexterity bonuses allowed (because the trap is a surprise).

The chance of any snare or trap functioning is determined by the hunter’s experience level, as shown on Table II.

Construct Simple Weapons. The hunter is able to fashion weapons as indicated below. The chance of a weapon breaking on use is the inverse of the skill of the hunter, as shown on Table II (so a weapon fashioned by a 1st level hunter has a 79% chance of breaking when used, unless this chance is modified).

Club: 10 minutes; +20% on skill for fashioning.

Spear: 30 minutes; +10%.

Knife: 1 hour; +5%.

Stone Axe: 3 hours.

Bow: 6 hours with 3 arrows, each additional arrow 1 hour.

Track. This includes identification of any footprints, signs, and spoor of any sort. The hunter is able to track the quarry detected at a base chance as shown on Table II, with modifications as below:

Sign under 1 hour old +20%

Sign under 3 hours old +10%

Sign under 1 day old 0

Sign over 1 day old -5%

Sign over 2 days old -10%

Simple concealing of sign used -10%

Rain or other similar disturbance -20%/hour

Thus, if the quarry took a well-traveled road for example, and there was a fair amount of traffic passing along it afterwards, the sign would be obliterated at the rate of 20% per hour, and after 5 hours it would be untrackable. Ahunter is able to conceal sign as well as he or she is able to detect it, but for each non-hunter (or skilled woodsman) in the group with the character the ability is reduced by 5%.

Treat Injury. Damage from wounds of any sort can be treated by a hunter. The hunter can stop bleeding and set sprains or broken bones. The immediate effect on the patient is a gain of 1-4 hit points, and healing will then proceed at +1 point/day above normal rate for as many days as the hunter has levels of experience.

Treat Illness. Illness includes poisoning of any sort. Toxins can be slowed in effect by any hunter, and illness or parasitic infection delayed for as many days as the hunter has levels of experience. Simple poisons, illnesses, and infestations can be cured totally by a hunter of 6th or higher level with a base chance of 5% per level of the hunter; the DM may adjust this for severity of the problem and special knowledge of the hunter.

Woodcraft. Ability to employ woodcraft as shown on Table II. Included in this skill category are:

Climb cliffs and trees (+20%)

Determine best route through wilderness

Identify fauna

Identify flora

Identify habitat

Know direction and avoid becoming lost (+10%)

Mimic animal and bird calls

Scout ahead for danger

Shelter finding or construction

Making fire

Making clothing (+10%)

Supply game, fish and other food (+20%)

Locate pure water (+20%)

Weather prediction

The DM may wish to adjust probabilities according to circumstances.

Until next time, good gaming!

Gary Gygax