More D&D

OK, so there's more to the story of Rheamah Farsighted. That first combat was interesting and it reminded me of how tactical you can be (and have to be) in D&D. If I'd fought the kobolds with the bill instead of the short sword then she'd still be alive.

So, with the power of GM fiat, I've resurrected her and swapped some things around. I'm in two minds about the sickle as a weapon. It's not great for fighting but it fits so well with the idea of the farmer who became a warrior. I think I'll keep it for a while.

And there's more to the story.

When I sat down to roll her up, my eldest son walked past and asked me what I was doing. Before you know it he's made his own character: Michaelangelo the Mage. He got a little bored after a while (that's how long character creation takes when it's been so long between drinks) and asked me to play his first adventure for him. I re-did the kobold encounter and this time we survived. Hooray for party balance!

Later, I told him about game sessions and campaigns. I told him that there didn't have to be miniatures but that we could just imagine the story. And now he wants to keep playing "the game."

The light has come on in his eyes. He wants to know about the creatures in the monster compendium. He wants to know how to go up levels. He wants to know everything about the game.

Well, all the fun bits, anyway.

Tonight we played another encounter. This time he brought my other son in as well. The three of us continued our walk through the forest, fighting off a pack of jackals and then continuing our search for the wizard in the cottage. We found him and said that all we wanted was shelter for the night. He invited us in, fed us, and talked the night away. In the morning he taught Michaelangelo some more spells.

But the best part was this.

"When can we play again, Dad?"

The farmer who became a warrior

I have a great friend called John. When John read my earlier blog post about how I Burned My D&D Books he immediately offered to lend me his.

They were the same edition too! Right down to the art that I thought I'd forgotten.

Side note: art in your gaming books is important. It helps to navigate the book, among other things.


So now I have his AD&D 2nd edition books on my shelf. What to do with them? Well, I could have simply read them. That's a kind of gaming fun.

I didn't have a group to play with, so I did the other thing that gamers do: I made a character.

It seemed to me that the trope of the hero's journey was irresistible. Also, I wanted to toy with the usefulness of those farming implements that became weapons. In the end I made Rheamah Farsighted, a farmer who was forced from her lands by a dragon and now wanders the world.

Unlike the 16 year old me who last had these books, I decided to do character creation strictly by the rules. No min-maxing. No adding extra dice to the stat rolls. Just a raw set of stats with the question, "What could she become with those stats?"

Without any fancy formatting, here is my Evernote entry on character creation.

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Rheamah Farsighted

Str 11 (weight allow 40, max press 115, open doors 6, bars/gates 2%)
Dex 12 (react 0, missile 0, defensive 0)
Con 11 (hp +0, system shock 75%, resurrection survival 80%, poison save 0, regen 0)
Int 14 (4 languages, spell 7th, spell learn 60%, 9 spells/level)
Wis 11 (magical defence 0, bonus spells 0, spell fail 10%)
Cha 13 (max henchmen 5, loyalty 0, reaction adj +1)

Fighter, human

Height: 73", Weight: 123lbs, 17yo
Chaotic Good

Weapon Proficiencies (4)
- bill-guisarme (Spd 10, 2d4 or 1d10)
- short sword (Spd 3, 1d6 or 1d8)
- sickle (Spd 4, 1d4+1 or 1d4)
- short bow (Spd 7, 1d8)

Other proficiencies (3)
- hunting
- animal lord
- navigation

Studded Leather armour, shield AC6

HP 10

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And then I took her on a road test to fight kobolds.

They killed her.

Here ends the story of the farmer who became a warrior.