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.

---

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

---

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.

I burned my D&D books

Once upon a time I was a fundamentalist Christian. The earth was only 6000 years old, Angels and Demons were invisible spirits doing the spiritual bidding of God and Satan, and we were living in the end times.

And I loved playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Somewhere deep inside, however, this couldn't last. Too many Jack Chick tracts. Too many sermons in the dangers of this and the peril my soul was in. The devil was in those D&D books and they were the reason I wasn't pure.

So I burned them.

A Players Handbook, a Dungeons Masters Guide, an Unearthed Arcana, an Oriental Adventures, and some Greyhawk campaign material. They all went into the flames.

To my surprise they burned with multi-coloured flames jetting out of the covers. It was the colour of spirits being tormented! They fled those books and went back to their dark lord.

My parents were upset that I was destroying expensive books. My church youth pastor was happy for me.

These days, however, I wish I'd kept them. Partly because I'm something of a collector. All those pop culture conventions and stores nudge me towards my wallet. Also, partly because I'd like to play them again. I know it's an older edition, but the nostalgia play is powerful.

It'd also be cheaper than buying the latest edition. :)

I remember some of the artwork from those books. There was one picture on the same page as the cavalier that always stood out to me, as well as a paladin fighting through demons.

Maybe I'll find a D&D game a convention somewhere and sit in for a session. Maybe that will scratch the itch.

10 Most-played Analog Games

I've seen this in a gaming blog or two, and have succumbed to the peer pressure.

1. Rifts

I played this game for years, from late in high school through to my mid-20's.  It was the inevitable follow-on from Robotech.  With more toys in each and every supplement, it's little surprise that this appealed to the style of play I had at the time.  I was a munchkin in a munchkin game.

2. Car Wars

A friend introduced this one to me in 1989 and I still have the rulebooks he eventually sold to me.  This was a great little strategy game, with crunchy design and - on a good day - a mountain of dice to roll.  Somehow it managed to capture the whole process from designing and building a car, through to the huge explosion that destroyed it.

3. Robotech

It was the precursor to #1, Rifts.  We played it a lot through high school.

4. Marvel Super Heroes

I can't remember how it happened, but we managed to get our hands on this little gem.  I've not seen it since, but I think it gets the awe it deserves.

5. Advanced D&D

My first RPG system.  My magic-user died horribly in the first game I ever played, and even though I was distraught, I was also hooked.  Since then I've spent countless hours at gaming shops and at home, just leafing through game books.  And no, I haven't yet tried D&D 4e.

6. Dungeon

This was a board game by TSR, although I think we had the Jedko print of it.  Nevertheless, it was a great little game that we played for hours, over and over again.  It was also the game of gloating and being a sore winner or loser.  Sigh!  Happily, we now have Munchkin to make fun of the whole experience.

7. Poleconomy

More fun that Monopoly, this was another way for my older brother to trounce me.  Still, eventually I figured it out and made it tough for him.  We had the John Sands red box (to steal that phrase), complete with little kangaroos.  It's interesting to see how much the world has changed since this game was printed.  Most of the companies on the board don't exist any more.

8. Spirit of the Century

It's slowly catching up with the others, and although it's a contemporary favourite, it hasn't had the hours it deserves.

9. Don't Rest Your Head

Ditto.

10. Pictionary

I hate this game, but it's a favourite in certain family circles.

Gary Gygax Fails Saving Throw

Not my headline. Not my usual kind of game, but D&D Creator Gary Gygax Fails Final Saving Throw: Dead at 69 says a lot. I started on RPGs with AD&D, about 20 years ago. Thank you, Gary, for such a start.

I think we should have a game to commemorate a life that brought us all such joy.