Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 44 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Monsters & Treasure Volume 2.
**For those coming in, in the middle of this series I am giving you my take on OD&D during my first exposure starting in Sept of 1975. For this first part it is just the first three books of the original woodgrain box set and prior to obtaining the Greyhawk, Blackmoor and later Supplements.**
Now we will continue on with the Magic/Maps Determination Table:
Next up is Miscellaneous Weapons which are distinguished by how few non-Sword weapons were originaly presented:
The Magic Bow was changed to a Magic Short, Composite, or Long Bow courtesy of our archery buff in the group. So then of course the arrows were specified by which bow they went with.
Also added a Magic Throwing Axe, a Magic Sling and of course Magic Sling Stones. Also added under Miscellaneous Magic, but I will mention it here a Magic Sling Stone Pouch.
Another addition was a Magical Quarterstaff (must have a nod to Robin Hood after all).
As before most items only had a + to Hit bonus, but those that named specific creatures also had a + to Damage bonus.
Now we come to one of the most fun (especially for the referee) items of all - Potions:
Potions were a source of amusement and wonder as new potions were added to the list. I will post some of my old tables once I have been through the OD&D books, the Supplements, The Strategic Review, and the early The Dragon.
One thing you will note about the list of potions is that some represent things that are not in the spell list. There will be more about that when we get to year two of my gaming history which will be quite a bit later this year.
The foot note ** for the Potion that is Poison, that advice also can be used to effect for Potions of Delusion. You should (IMO must) pay attention to anything a player says about what potion he wants or expects. This applies to things besides potions. I listen intently to remarks the players make and use that as an idea springboard.
The other big thing is that IMC healing potions are much more common than anything else.
Next up are Scrolls:
The footnote about a 25% chance that any scroll is usable by clerics was first added in the 5th printing of OD&D. Note four types of Protection Spells, this of course led to additional types of Protection Spells. As I have mentioned before I am not very fond of cursed items, although I do believe there should be some.
Also I added, if you roll 00 then you roll again to a second table:
01-75 Roll again on the Scrolls table ignoring 00
76-90 Roll twice on the Scrolls table ignoring 00
91-95 Roll thrice on the Scrolls table ignoring 00
96-99 Roll twice on this table ignoring 91-95
00 Spell Book - contents - Referee Choice
On the table for Curse Scrolls the first three items are pretty clear and deadly. But the item for a roll of 7, is it the person reading the scroll that is transported or the whole group. I always ruled that it was the whole group. I also ruled that way for the item for a roll of 8 transportation to another planet. Sometimes it was a different timeline or dimension.
Now we come to Rings:
Of these items, Weakness and Delusion are Cursed Items. Again many items can be added to this list to increase the variety of possibilities. IMO the Ring of Many Wishes (4-24) was way too much of a good thing and 4-8 was IMO a much better range for it. Eventually I did with this table the same thing I did for the Scrolls Table and having to roll two consecutive 00s to snag a Ring of Many Wishes (4-24) just felt better. More about wishes when we get to the Descriptions.
The last thing touched on today is Wands and Staves:
So Wands were Magic-Users only. The footnotes tell you who can use what in terms of the Staves. I added Rods to the table as well and also made more staves for the Clerics. But those things were done over the summer between year one and year two. There were other things added during the summer and gaming with my younger brothers (seven and ten years younger).
Tomorrow we will get into Miscellaneous Magic.
Today is Part 44 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Monsters & Treasure Volume 2.
**For those coming in, in the middle of this series I am giving you my take on OD&D during my first exposure starting in Sept of 1975. For this first part it is just the first three books of the original woodgrain box set and prior to obtaining the Greyhawk, Blackmoor and later Supplements.**
Now we will continue on with the Magic/Maps Determination Table:
Next up is Miscellaneous Weapons which are distinguished by how few non-Sword weapons were originaly presented:
The Magic Bow was changed to a Magic Short, Composite, or Long Bow courtesy of our archery buff in the group. So then of course the arrows were specified by which bow they went with.
Also added a Magic Throwing Axe, a Magic Sling and of course Magic Sling Stones. Also added under Miscellaneous Magic, but I will mention it here a Magic Sling Stone Pouch.
Another addition was a Magical Quarterstaff (must have a nod to Robin Hood after all).
As before most items only had a + to Hit bonus, but those that named specific creatures also had a + to Damage bonus.
Now we come to one of the most fun (especially for the referee) items of all - Potions:
Potions were a source of amusement and wonder as new potions were added to the list. I will post some of my old tables once I have been through the OD&D books, the Supplements, The Strategic Review, and the early The Dragon.
One thing you will note about the list of potions is that some represent things that are not in the spell list. There will be more about that when we get to year two of my gaming history which will be quite a bit later this year.
The foot note ** for the Potion that is Poison, that advice also can be used to effect for Potions of Delusion. You should (IMO must) pay attention to anything a player says about what potion he wants or expects. This applies to things besides potions. I listen intently to remarks the players make and use that as an idea springboard.
The other big thing is that IMC healing potions are much more common than anything else.
Next up are Scrolls:
The footnote about a 25% chance that any scroll is usable by clerics was first added in the 5th printing of OD&D. Note four types of Protection Spells, this of course led to additional types of Protection Spells. As I have mentioned before I am not very fond of cursed items, although I do believe there should be some.
Also I added, if you roll 00 then you roll again to a second table:
01-75 Roll again on the Scrolls table ignoring 00
76-90 Roll twice on the Scrolls table ignoring 00
91-95 Roll thrice on the Scrolls table ignoring 00
96-99 Roll twice on this table ignoring 91-95
00 Spell Book - contents - Referee Choice
On the table for Curse Scrolls the first three items are pretty clear and deadly. But the item for a roll of 7, is it the person reading the scroll that is transported or the whole group. I always ruled that it was the whole group. I also ruled that way for the item for a roll of 8 transportation to another planet. Sometimes it was a different timeline or dimension.
Now we come to Rings:
Of these items, Weakness and Delusion are Cursed Items. Again many items can be added to this list to increase the variety of possibilities. IMO the Ring of Many Wishes (4-24) was way too much of a good thing and 4-8 was IMO a much better range for it. Eventually I did with this table the same thing I did for the Scrolls Table and having to roll two consecutive 00s to snag a Ring of Many Wishes (4-24) just felt better. More about wishes when we get to the Descriptions.
The last thing touched on today is Wands and Staves:
So Wands were Magic-Users only. The footnotes tell you who can use what in terms of the Staves. I added Rods to the table as well and also made more staves for the Clerics. But those things were done over the summer between year one and year two. There were other things added during the summer and gaming with my younger brothers (seven and ten years younger).
Tomorrow we will get into Miscellaneous Magic.
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