The beginning of the school year always gets me nostalgic for my old D&D days - playing for hours and having the time of my life. I've been looking back at past campaigns and binders full of gaming materials just sitting there on shelves, hopeful but neglected. I don't know why I keep all this stuff; it's fairly obvious that I'm probably not going to run any of it again. My current campaign in AD&D has been running for about 13 years now and has generated two full binders of material with a third in development.
Should I scrap the lot of it or try to preserve it for some possible future return?
Most of the binders hold reworked versions of rules or modules converted from one edition to another. My Harn campaign from back in the 1990s hasn't been touched in decades - literally! All the materials I bought for that game sit in binders on my shelves. All the 3rd edition D&D books (which take up an entire small bookcase) sit idle and stare at me while I play World of Warcraft or work on my AD&D material. I'm not really sure what will happen when AD&D ends - will I simply give up on human interaction altogether? Computer games are grabbing my attention more and more now and keeping me from all the things I have to get done. But these are a poor substitute for a game that allows you to do anything you want. Scripted adventures are OK the first go around, but there is very little fun in repeating the same quests over and over. And I suck at pvp games.
So I keep looking back at all the stuff I have and wondering what the hell to do with it and the rest of my existence. I still have no permanent home to call my own, no family to raise, nothing to look forward to each morning, and a soul-sucking job. I need to get the hell off Long Island and soon!
Monday, August 26, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Creature Catalog and Cosmology in B/X D&D
In a nostalgic mood last night, I decided to pick through the new monster listings in the few B/X modules published before TSR moved to Mentzer BECMI. I found a quite a few gems, although I was disappointed in the lack of modules from this version of the game. In essence, my only sources were B3: Palace of the Silver Princess, B4: the Lost City, X1: the Isle of Dread, and X2: Castle Amber. All the other modules were published in 1983 with the new Mentzer rules (and horribly produced I might add).
This got me reignited for another go at what Companion D&D would have included. Obviously, the Creature Catalog produced for D&D in the 1980s was exactly the same as what I worked on but also included creatures from ALL the BECMI material published at the time. Keeping with the mindset that later products were too whimsical for my tastes, I wanted to see how I could interpret the rest of the modules in terms of Moldvay/Cook rules. Modules B5 through B12 are much too involved with the Easley-illustrated Mentzer sets. Some of these modules are quite boring or seem to be too far reaching. The worst of the bunch is B8 which seems to be totally disconnected from anything in the D&D multiverse and introduces almost completely different game mechanics, including so many monsters that do not appear in the original rules. A few new monsters are ok, but replacing ALL the monsters is like making it a new game.
The Expert series (X3 through X13) are somewhat tied to the Known World setting, although many of these explore areas beyond those mapped on the original, as if the design team for the GAZ series chased all plotlines outside of their boundaries. Amusingly enough, it's very hard to place an adventure in a setting where EVERYTHING is developed and explained. Therefore, by filling in all the empty hexes, these products practically eliminated any possibility of setting adventures in their borders (except maybe for internecine warfare)! The modules X4 and X5 are the exceptions as they build up a new enemy from beyond the deserts in the west (The Master) in a way that works well, if a little too loosely defined.
I'm tempted to add in all the material from the original D&D rulebooks and supplements to increase the monster and magic item lists. However, I want the simplistic feel and uncomplicated nature of the game to shine through - so all the elegant D&D elements without any of the Advanced nonsense present in AD&D. I prefer a three-phase afterlife featuring Lawful Heavens, Neutral Spirit Realms, and Chaotic Hells. I dislike the Spheres concept of BECMI, although some of their definitions are kinda cool for the ethereal and astral realms. I see the Ethereal Plane as a transition plane for the Inner Planes enclosed by the Material Plane. Beyond the Material Plane is a the Astral Plane, a vast void of stars (essentially outer space) where travel is performed using the mind and the other planes are actually planets orbiting distant stars, with layers being planets in the same star system. Various gates bring the players to and from these planes (planets). Some planes may be little more than collections of matter, liquids, or gases. In fact, this works very well for defining the inner planes. A large gaseous cloud would represent Air, a vast sphere of ocean defines Water, a rocky desolate planetoid with numerous cracks, crevices, tunnels and caves represents Earth, and the interior of a sun or molten core of a planet could represent Fire. A pulsar could represent Positive Energy and a black hole represents Negative Energy.
Alternately, the Spirit Realms of Eastern Mythology and religions featuring mutable creatures that exist by will alone could represent the mutable elements of the Inner Planes. The Ethereal Plane becomes a misty barrier between the land of the Material and the land of the Immaterial, between realms of Souls and realms of Spirits. The Heavens become those planets in the Astral plane that are considered enlightened and paradises, while the Hells become those planets barely able to support life or are dangerous places to exist. Souls would be ejected from the Material Plane and sent to a corresponding Afterlife in the Astral Plane where they are reincarnated in a new form based on how they lived their lives. The oldest and most powerful inhabitants of the outer planes are the Immortals who use soul energy to power their activities. They foster others on the Material Plane to gather more worship and thus more soul energy.
This version of the game can work but I need to define lots of terms, determine what happens at the upper levels of the class structures, and how this all links together.
This got me reignited for another go at what Companion D&D would have included. Obviously, the Creature Catalog produced for D&D in the 1980s was exactly the same as what I worked on but also included creatures from ALL the BECMI material published at the time. Keeping with the mindset that later products were too whimsical for my tastes, I wanted to see how I could interpret the rest of the modules in terms of Moldvay/Cook rules. Modules B5 through B12 are much too involved with the Easley-illustrated Mentzer sets. Some of these modules are quite boring or seem to be too far reaching. The worst of the bunch is B8 which seems to be totally disconnected from anything in the D&D multiverse and introduces almost completely different game mechanics, including so many monsters that do not appear in the original rules. A few new monsters are ok, but replacing ALL the monsters is like making it a new game.
The Expert series (X3 through X13) are somewhat tied to the Known World setting, although many of these explore areas beyond those mapped on the original, as if the design team for the GAZ series chased all plotlines outside of their boundaries. Amusingly enough, it's very hard to place an adventure in a setting where EVERYTHING is developed and explained. Therefore, by filling in all the empty hexes, these products practically eliminated any possibility of setting adventures in their borders (except maybe for internecine warfare)! The modules X4 and X5 are the exceptions as they build up a new enemy from beyond the deserts in the west (The Master) in a way that works well, if a little too loosely defined.
I'm tempted to add in all the material from the original D&D rulebooks and supplements to increase the monster and magic item lists. However, I want the simplistic feel and uncomplicated nature of the game to shine through - so all the elegant D&D elements without any of the Advanced nonsense present in AD&D. I prefer a three-phase afterlife featuring Lawful Heavens, Neutral Spirit Realms, and Chaotic Hells. I dislike the Spheres concept of BECMI, although some of their definitions are kinda cool for the ethereal and astral realms. I see the Ethereal Plane as a transition plane for the Inner Planes enclosed by the Material Plane. Beyond the Material Plane is a the Astral Plane, a vast void of stars (essentially outer space) where travel is performed using the mind and the other planes are actually planets orbiting distant stars, with layers being planets in the same star system. Various gates bring the players to and from these planes (planets). Some planes may be little more than collections of matter, liquids, or gases. In fact, this works very well for defining the inner planes. A large gaseous cloud would represent Air, a vast sphere of ocean defines Water, a rocky desolate planetoid with numerous cracks, crevices, tunnels and caves represents Earth, and the interior of a sun or molten core of a planet could represent Fire. A pulsar could represent Positive Energy and a black hole represents Negative Energy.
Alternately, the Spirit Realms of Eastern Mythology and religions featuring mutable creatures that exist by will alone could represent the mutable elements of the Inner Planes. The Ethereal Plane becomes a misty barrier between the land of the Material and the land of the Immaterial, between realms of Souls and realms of Spirits. The Heavens become those planets in the Astral plane that are considered enlightened and paradises, while the Hells become those planets barely able to support life or are dangerous places to exist. Souls would be ejected from the Material Plane and sent to a corresponding Afterlife in the Astral Plane where they are reincarnated in a new form based on how they lived their lives. The oldest and most powerful inhabitants of the outer planes are the Immortals who use soul energy to power their activities. They foster others on the Material Plane to gather more worship and thus more soul energy.
This version of the game can work but I need to define lots of terms, determine what happens at the upper levels of the class structures, and how this all links together.
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