30 Day D&D Challenge - Favorite Playable Race - Day Two

Today's Topic is Favorite Playable Race as we continue our celebration of International Original Dungeons and Dragons Month!

Over the years I have mostly played humans and more recently an elf, a dwarf and a half-elf, but mostly humans. A few years ago I had a player that wanted to play a dragon and so I was forced to think about how I wanted to do that. The player was a college age son of a friend in the game that was in town for a few months. IMC dragons are Immortal, so how was I going to reconcile that with a PC dragon. So I did it and we play tested until he went back to school. I would love to play this as a character myself if I ever get the chance.

Here is the public part of the write up that I have posted to date over on The Ruins of Murkhill forum.

This is only one of several different ways that I have run dragons over the years. This write-up was created when I had to reconcile my vision of dragons as immortal with dragons as a PC. In this description there are three phases of dragonhood and only the second phase can be PCs.

Please feel free to comment using with as much detail as you want, I am using OD&D and will be going fairly barebones. In OD&D there are six varieties of Dragons, each with separate characteristics in particular and other things in common. There were only six age groups with Very Old being 100+ years. They ranged from 5 HD to 12 HD. In addition, there are rules for subduing dragons.

IMC I have always from bitd till now viewed dragons as being immortal unless they meet a violent death and I have house ruled that a number of different ways over the years. In addition, dragons IMC can have up to 50 HD for Ancient dragons of 100,000+ years of age, although they mainly sleep on their hoard and only rouse themselves occasionally to eat, living mainly on energy absorbed directly from the environment.

IMC dragons are hatched in clutches of a fifty-thousand eggs at a time as tiny worms of which only a few dozen make it to 499 years old and 5-7 feet in length and weighing 100 to 150 lbs and during this time their intelligence slowly increases decade by decade. Then they enter a well-hidden cocoon phase which lasts about a year and from which they emerge with the familiar dragon appearance. They are able to shape change once a day into humanoid form and back. They are now first level and this is the most curious and adventurous phase of their lives and where they interact most with other creatures including man. This phase lasts until they obtain 12th level which requires a total of 2,000,000 XP and not a set age. At 12th level they can now shape change 4 times per day. Of the few dragons that make it to this point they now enter a second cocoon phase from which they emerge as fully adult at which time they seek a mate, dragons mate for life and are extremely devoted to each other. Dragons in the 2nd and 3rd phases of life do interact with each other and parent/offspring do recognize each other. Fully adult dragons are very intelligent and very territorial and as noted the older and larger they become the less they paradoxically need to eat. Dragons normally only remain fertile until the age of 3000 years and lay eggs once every 50 years; however, if adult dragons do not encounter any 2nd phase dragons for a period of 1000 years their fertility will re-exert itself up to the age of 50,000 years, as the sense of species preservation is an extreme imperative with dragons. Adult dragons tend to live in remote areas and do not interact much with other species unless provoked or intrigued. Dragon protectors of orcs villages and such are always 2nd phase dragons.

IMC there are way more than 6 types of dragons but not necessarily any of those in other editions of D&D. I have never really been comfortable with the subdual option so I house rule that fully adult 3rd phase dragons can not be subdued. If a dragons mate is killed, then the survivor will recruit other dragons including all known offspring to seek scorched earth revenge, so if you kill one fully adult dragon you might want to make sure you get them both. 

I do have different types of dragons gain their first spell at different levels, modified by have they spent time with human magic users, so it does get an individual tweak. Although in one version I ruled that dragons at levels 1-12 did not get any spells until they passed into the 3rd phase of life and being full adults. If I change something and it would be general knowledge or something players could easily find out I make that info available. In any event once they become full adults their magic becomes more powerful. That is partly to keep them from being too powerful as PCs. Different types of dragons have different spells and if they spent the 2nd phase of life hanging out with human magic users that also affects the spells they might have. The minimum HD for Dragons IMC for spell casting is normally 6th level, but it can happen sooner if they hang out with human magic-users.

My OD&D dragons, from the Adult all the way up to Ancient are very powerful, with an Ancient dragon being a match for a half-dozen of the next most powerful monster(s).

I have different types of dragons gain their first spell at different levels, modified by have they spent time with human magic users, so it does get an individual tweak. Although in one version I ruled that dragons at levels 1-12 did not get any spells until they passed into the 3rd phase of life and being full adults, I have since changed that and dragons get spells at some during the 2nd phase of life and the rest in the 3rd phase. If I change something and it would be general knowledge or something players could easily find out I make that info available. In any event once they become full adults their magic becomes more powerful. That is partly to keep them from being too powerful as PCs. Different types of dragons have different spells and if they spent the 2nd phase of life hanging out with human magic users that also affects the spells they might have. The minimum HD for Dragons IMC for spell casting is normally 6th level, but it can happen sooner if they hang out with human magic-users.

2nd Phase Dragons can polymorph self 2X per day and 3rd Phase Dragons start at being able to polymorph self 4X per day up to Ancient 3rd Phase Dragons can do 8X per day.

The types of dragons listed are all venomous and all are colored as the real world snake they are named for.

First I will post a bit of info for 2nd Phase Dragons. The 2nd Phase of life is when they exit the cocoon and start their journey from Level 1 to 12. This is the only time period that a player can take a Dragon PC. 

Level One Stats for Phase 2 Dragons - All 2nd Phase Dragons are Neutral in temperament. Note that at level one they have no treasure yet and the main difference is starting hit dice, other things change as they age(level up).

And yes, I know a lot of things in these tables are the same and some is not, that will change when I get around to finishing them.

Dragon Breed	Number Appearing	Armor Class	Move in Inches	Hit Dice	% In Lair	Type or Amount of Treasure	Alignment
Western Diamondback	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
Eastern Diamondback	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
Timber Rattler	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
King Cobra	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
Death Adder	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Saw Scaled Viper	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Chain Viper	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Philippine Cobra	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
Tiger	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Black Mamba	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
Green Mamba	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Taipan	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Eastern Brown	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
Black-banded Krait	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Inland Taipan	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
Many-banded Krait	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Jararaca	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Bushmaster	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
Black Desert Cobra	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
King Brown	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
Boomslang	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral
Cottonmouth	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Copperhead	1-4	6	9/15	1	20%	None	Neutral
Fer-de-lance	1-4	6	9/15	2	20%	None	Neutral

4th Level stats for 2nd Phase Dragons

Dragon Breed	Number Appearing	Armor Class	Move in Inches	Hit Dice	% In Lair	Type or Amount of Treasure	Alignment
Western Diamondback	1-4	4	12/18	5+3	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Eastern Diamondback	1-4	4	12/18	5+3	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Timber Rattler	1-4	5	9/15	4+1	20%	Type A1	Neutral
King Cobra	1-4	4	12/18	5+3	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Death Adder	1-4	5	9/15	4+2	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Saw Scaled Viper	1-4	5	9/15	4	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Chain Viper	1-4	5	9/15	4	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Philippine Cobra	1-4	4	12/18	5+3	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Tiger	1-4	5	9/15	4	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Black Mamba	1-4	4	12/18	5+2	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Green Mamba	1-4	5	9/15	4	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Taipan	1-4	5	9/15	4	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Eastern Brown	1-4	4	12/18	5+1	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Black-banded Krait	1-4	5	9/15	4	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Inland Taipan	1-4	4	12/18	5+3	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Many-banded Krait	1-4	5	9/15	4	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Jararaca	1-4	5	9/15	4+1	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Bushmaster	1-4	4	12/18	5+2	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Black desert cobra	1-4	4	12/18	5+1	20%	Type A1	Neutral
King Brown	1-4	4	12/18	5	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Boomslang	1-4	4	12/18	5+1	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Cottonmouth	1-4	5	9/15	4+1	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Copperhead	1-4	5	9/15	4	20%	Type A1	Neutral
Fer-de-lance	1-4	4	12/18	5+2	20%	Type A1	Neutral

The Ages and Phases of a Dragons Life:

Age in years	Description	Next Up	Hit Dice
Hatchling as tiny worm - 499	Very Young	At 499 years Enter Phase 1 Cocoon	Up to 1 d8
499-500	Metamorphosis	Spend one year in Phase 1 Cocoon	8HP
1st-3rd Level	Young	Familiar Dragon Shape and Look	1-4 d8
4th-6th Level	Juvenile	At 6th Level Begins to Gain Spells	4-8 d8
7th-9th Level	Sub-Adult	Continues to Gain Spells & Grow in Power	5-10 d8
10th-11th	Young Adult	Continues to Gain Spells & Grow in Power	6-13 d8
12th (520-1000 age range)	Near Adult	After a year at 12th Level Enter a Phase 2 Cocoon	7-14 d8
Spend a Year in Phase 2 Cocoon	Metamorphosis	Emerge after one year as Full Adult Dragon
Emerges from Cocoon	Full Adult	Fully Adult - May be 521-1001 Years Old	7-14 d10
521-1001 Years	Full Adult	During the next 100 years Seeks Mate	7-14 d10
Normal Fertility Until 3000 Years	Full Adult	Dragons Lay about 50,000 eggs every 50 years	9-17 d10
3001-10,000	Old	In the absence of contact	10-20 d10
10,001-25,000	Very Old	with Phase 2 dragons	13-26 d10
25,001-50,000	Ancient	Fertility will Return More Powerful than any other 6-12 Monsters	15-30 d10
50,001-100,000	Venerable	More Powerful than any other 12+ Monsters	20-40 d10
100,001+	Great Wyrm	More Powerful than any other 12+ Monsters	30-50 d10

There is a lot more that is not yet made public and is not planned to be anytime soon, but that is always subject to change. The above tables are not in final form, mainly since I have not had anyone else want to play a dragon and I have not fully varied the different types of dragons, but one day I will.

The player that ran his did a lot of scouting, air cover for the party and would attack from behind the opponent with the breath weapon and other attacks, he was also chased on more than one occasion by a dragon whose territory he accidentally invaded and would have to figure out how to get back in touch with the party. He was with the party during land bound adventures and during their sailing ship adventures, both were a blast.

If you made it this far the topic for tomorrow is 30 Day D&D Challenge - Favorite Game World.

2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day Two

When talking about the Blackmoor Campaign and Dave Arneson and what was it like to play in his game a great place to find out is to watch the The Secrets of Blackmoor - The True History of Dungeons & Dragons documentary. Following the link is where you can watch it as a streaming video if you were not a Kickstarter backer.  To get more information you can visit the website at SECRETS OF BLACKMOOR.

The old timer known as Chirine Ba Kal who played in Blackmoor, Greyhawk and Tékumel said  that 

"Dave's style was usually fast, furious, and chaotic."

And he suggested watching this short film, "Duel at Blood Creek" to get a taste of it and how it went.

30 Day D&D Challenge - How I Got Started - Day One

Today's topic is How I got started playing Dungeons & Dragons, now called Original D&D in my case.

A little background, I grew up in a rural area on a farm in southern Ohio where my family had moved from central WV. We at one time or another had sheep, cows, hogs, chickens, guineas, horses, goats, turkeys, cats, dogs and a pony or two and a mule. We spent a lot of time outdoors and in the woods. Farm work was inter spaced with hunting and fishing. However, a big part of our lives as kids was my dads stories, he had hundreds of them, as did our grandfathers and uncles. We were also read to every night and we also heard fairy tales and other stories. When I started reading I was introduced to the library where I devoured all the fairy tales, folk stories, mythology, fantasy and science fiction I could get my hands on. 

I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E Howard,  One Thousand and One Nights, Beowulf, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Robin Hood, Jonathan Swift, Mary Shelley, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Samuel Butler, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, L. Frank Baum, Jack London, George MacDonald, Peter S. Beagle, G. K. Chesterton, Lord Dunsany, E. R. Eddison, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Willaim Morris, Clark Ashton Smith, Frank R. Stockton, and of course J. R. R. Tolkien and too many others to count. This does not even get into the movies that I saw. The earliest I remember is seeing The Blob the summer before first grade. I loved the Sword & Sandal movies, the Pirate movies, the old horror movies that were shown on TV, Science Fiction and Westerns and a ton of others.

Fast forward to the fall of 1975. The first day or two of the fall semester I met a guy from Columbus who had gotten Dungeons & Dragons in the spring of 1974 and had played with his friends always as the referee. He told me about the game and I was immediately all in. In a few days, we had our first game with 12 players, 6 men and 6 women. Fields of study (majors) ranged from English, French, Latin, to Biology, History, Chemistry, Geology, Physics and Engineering. At least those are the ones I remember.

Our first game  two elves, two dwarves, one hobbit and seven humans. That was pretty much the ratio even when the group got bigger. In the beginning both dwarves and the hobbit were fighters, but later on there would be two hobbits thieves, one dwarven and one elven thief. In the beginning both elves were magic users, we only had one guy who ever played an elven fighter/magic user. Of the seven humans we had two magic-users, one cleric and four fighters. So the initial 12 were one cleric, four magic users and seven fighters. We only had one guy who ever played a cleric, and he is now one in real life for lo these many years, well a priest that is. 

I have vivid memories of the first game and going through six characters that first evening. :D When death is not permanent because you can roll up another character and be back in the game in a few minutes, how cool is that! I was the stand in the gap guy which is what I enjoyed doing. I eventually got a few characters up to 8th or 9th level. We played twice a week from 8-12 hours per game and occasionally much longer. We had one finals week where many of us were done by Tuesday and we played most of the day (16 hours or so) for three days straight.

The referee had a set of table dice that we all used to roll up on characters 3d6 in order no adjustments or re-rolls. Hit Points were 1d6 and if it was a one, well that is what you had. From the first game we ran all action as being simultaneous. A natural 20 always hit and on a natural 20 you rolled again and a second natural 20 was a kill. I varied that in a number of different ways over the years.

Within a few games we started adding players and later than year we usually had 16 players. Also within a few games, we had people hanging out and watching the games. In the later years, we ran 16-20 players every game, mid 20's maybe a dozen times, and high 20's up to 30 a couple of times. We always had an audience and I would guess at least 60-70 different people played at least once. Every game had a different cast with a core group that was always there and the rest varied from game to game.

When we had a party of 20 later on, we would have one cleric, four thieves, six magic-users and nine fighters. So we were always light on healing magic, and magic items for the cleric were a priority and he always got first dibs on the magic armor. Yeah, we wanted to keep him alive. One guy alternated between magic-users and thieves and never once played a human, except for later on when he played druids. The guy who played the elven fighter/magic-user (the other ref) also played human fighters, an Illusionist and a Bard. I was the only one who ever played a paladin or a ranger.

Out of that whole group I was the only one that got to read the rule books (and to be sure the only one that ever asked) and the only one that my friend ever offered to let ref. A month, maybe two, in I started reffing and he moved over to playing and I did most of the reffing after that as he would much rather play and had not gotten to up to that point. Once I had access to the books, I ordered my own set. No one else was ever interested in being a referee, and he preferred to play, I was the one that preferred to ref, of which I was quite happy.

The guy that introduced us to D&D never ran a dungeon, it was all city and wilderness, but after I had reffed for a little while I decided to do a dungeon. My prep for the game was selecting nine quotes. When the game started they set out across a desert for two weeks until they came to an old set of ruins (yeah, I liked Ruins from the beginning) and eventually down into the dungeon below. Somewhere in a box I might still have that list of quotes. My first dungeon ran horizontally and after travelling for a ways through a rock walled cavern they came to a large oak door that looked very old and was covered with cobwebs. Beside it on the rock wall was the first quote carved into the wall. They got the door open and the adventure began. 

They eventually made it through each area, (some of which involved game weeks) and continued to the next door. I do not remember a ton about it without being able to look at the quotes, but I do remember that it was a very psychological adventure, one area being one where they had to figure out that they were being lulled to complacency from which they would never leave, one of them figured it out and then had to convince the rest of the group to continue which he almost failed to do. At the end of it they had obtained no treasure and fought no physical battles, but they talked about it all week and I got a lot of good feedback on the game.

I have always run all of my games the same way, very minimal prep and create on the fly from very minimal prompts. I do write things up and tinker with the rules all the time, but I never pre-plan an adventure. I create opportunities and then let things unfold and surprise us all. When I sat down with those quotes, behind each door I was as surprised as the players were. I can run a game on zero notice anytime and anywhere, I am always ready to run a game and create a complete new world on the fly. I enjoy creating one of a kind magic items, all types of quirky things, and one of a kind monsters. My inspirations are people like Dave Arneson and Dave Hargrave. My games are fast and furious with a lot of what is called "player agency." I loved the question, "What do you want to do?" That is the most important part of OD&D, is being willing to keep asking that question.

IMO and For Me, improvisational gaming is the maximum fun and the players kept coming back twice a week for the four years of college gaming. It still works even today with all ages. I also played it with my younger brothers during the summers.

If you made it this far the topic for tomorrow is 30 Day D&D Challenge - Favorite Playable Race.

2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary

Today begins a year of celebration of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor as we kick off 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary. I will be posting now and then throughout the year talking about Blackmoor and Dave Arneson. If you saw my heads up post a few days ago, then you already know what this is about. If you did not I will wait while you check it out here. 

You are back, great so you have read the disclaimer and we are on the same page and you know where I am coming from.

Dave Arneson played a multitude of games including wargames and one of his friends David Wesely decided to do an experiment and created  a scenario set in the fictional German town of Braunstein. Mr. Wesely (due to the chaos and the way his scenario was turned upside down) considered it a failure and was greatly surprised when his players kept asking when he would do it again. While I will talk about this more in the future, the short story is that he did run more of them and one player - Dave Arneson - in one particular scenario about a fictional Central American country pushed the experiment way further than Mr. Wesely was initially prepared to go, but he decided to say "Yes" to what Arneson proposed to do in a pre-game meeting and that as they say "has made all the difference."

Dave Arneson always credited David Wesely as the creator of the roleplaying game, but I would point out that it really appears to me that it was the synergy between Dave Arneson and David Wesely that created roleplaying games. IMO Dave Arneson gave credit because without that "Yes" who knows when or how or by whom roleplaying games would have been created. The imaginative scenarios were named Braunstein after the town in the first one and they provided the soil. The additional imagination and wanting to run with the possibilities came from Dave Arneson, this was the water. The "Yes" from David Wesely was the sunshine, that made it all grow. All the other players were important, I do not mean to slight them at all, so please do not misunderstand.

When David Wesely left Minnesota in 1970 for military duty, Dave Arneson took over running the Braunstein games and this was the beginning and genesis of Blackmoor. That is why the 50th anniversary is this year 2020.

January is International Original Dungeons & Dragons Month (30 day Challenge starts tomorrow on the 2nd)

Today January 1st is the beginning of International Original Dungeons & Dragons Month. Today's post will be brief; however, this month I will be attempting to post everyday and do a 30 Day D&D Challenge. Each day I will  give you the topic for the following day. It will run Jan 2nd through Jan 31st.

The Topic for tomorrow Jan 2nd. will be "How You Got Started." If you participate please include use the title "30 Day D&D Challenge - How I Got Started" as part of your title.

This month and the posting in the challenge will be to celebrate the 46th anniversary of the publication of the Original Dungeons and Dragons in January of 1974.

There may be some other posting going on besides the challenge on some days during this period. I hope that you enjoy this and that sometime this year you will try the Original Dungeons and Dragons if you have never done so before or if it has been a long time since you have played it.