Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 28 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Monsters & Treasure Volume 2.
Now we will start on the monster descriptions.
MONSTER DESCRIPTIONS:
MEN: There are several categories of men:
Remember that men who are not player characters are monsters by definition.
BANDITS: Although Bandits are normal men, they will have leaders who are supernormal fighters, magical types or clerical types. For every 30 bandits there will be one 4th-level Fighting-Man; for every 50 bandits there will be in addition one 5th- or 6th-level fighter (die 1–3 = 5th level, die 4–6 = 6th level); for every 100 bandits there will be in addition one 8th- or 9th-level fighter (die 1–3 = 8th, die 4–6 = 9th). If there are over 200 bandits there will be 50% chance for a Magic-User (die 1–4 = 10th level, die 5–6 = 11th level) and a 25% chance for a Cleric of the 8th level. If there are exactly 300 bandits there will absolutely be a Magic-User, and the chance for a Cleric goes up to 50%. There is also a chance that there will be magical accouterments with the super-normal types:
Alignment: 50% chance of Neutrality, 50% chance of Chaos.
There is a table to fill out the composition of a group of Bandits. Then it gives and example of a group of bandits along with the Makeup and Composition of the group.
I have used all of these in game and others of my own devising. I also have had them of mixed composition, by which I mean groups made of men and monsters together. Mostly bandits, brigands, buccaneers and pirates, but sometimes among the other types as well.
BERSERKERS: Berserkers are simply men mad with battle-lust. They will have only Fighting-Men with them as explained in the paragraphs above regarding Bandits. They never check morale. When fighting normal men they add +2 to their dice score when rolling due to their ferocity.
Throughout this section there are examples on how to create groups of the various kinds of men.
BRIGANDS: Same as Bandits except +1 morale and Chaos alignment.
Essentially tougher bandits.
DERVISHES: Dervishes are fanatically religious nomads who fight as Berserkers, never checking morale, with +1 on hit dice, and otherwise as Nomads (below), except they will always be led by an 8th–10th level Cleric and are Lawful in alignment.
I divided them into three types: dancing, whirling, or howling. I also allowed them to be Lawful or Chaotic, not just Lawful. I made them as very touchy and hard to read during an encounter.
NOMADS: These raiders of the deserts or steppes are similar to Bandits as far as super-normal types and most other characteristics go:
There is an example and it details Nomads as Nomads of the Desert and Nomads of the Steppes. Usually they road horses, but sometimes they road something else. These were also inspired later on by the Horseclans books that we got the first few copies of during the four years of college. The first three were published in 1975, 1976 and 1977. We had copies starting in early 1976 and continued to look for them as they came out.
BUCCANEERS: Buccaneers are water-going Bandits in all respects except composition of their force.
Sometimes buccaneers teamed up with Mermen, who are covered below. Sometimes the players adventured as buccaneers and competed against pirates.
PIRATES: Pirates are the same as Buccaneers except they are aligned with Chaos.
Of course you have to have pirates, what would you do without them.
CAVEMEN: Cavemen fight as 2nd-level Fighting-Men, armed with weapons equal to Morning Stars. They have no armor but get 2 Hit Dice. They have –1 morale. Alignment is always Neutrality.
Note the two Hit Dice and they fight as 2nd Level Fighting-Men, a group of Cavemen are no joke.
MERMEN: Mermen are similar to Berserkers in most respects, but they fight at –1 on land. They are armed with tridents and darts (50/50). Armor class is equal to Leather Armor.
I interpreted the "similar to Berserkers in most respects" to mean that they would fight at +2 in the water.
Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 27 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Monsters & Treasure Volume 2. Today we will look at the second half of the table that opens Volume 2.
Unlike Minotaurs, Centaurs are said to be semi-intelligent at worse (noted later) and I have always treated Centaurs and Unicorns as fully intelligent.
Nixies, Pixies and Dryads I have never used, they just have not resonated with anything I have wanted to do.
Gnomes, Dwarves, Elves and Ents are all intelligent. No one has ever asked to play a Gnome or Ent, but I would be fine if they did. Gnomes I play as touchy and very concerned about the exact letter of a contract and very hard to deal with. They have strong magical powers and inclined to be isolated.
Pegasi, Hippogriffs, Rocs and Griffons are highly desired as mounts by adventurers with the first two reserved for smaller and lighter adventurers and the latter two working best for those who are larger.
Invisible Stalkers are a very deadly adversary as we will see later and are a lot of fun to use in a game.
Elementals are always a fun thing to use especially as minions of the villains. Djinn and Efreet have a multitude of ways they can be used and it is also good to switch things up from the standard myths and make them more mysterious.
Here we can see that the dungeon clean up crew as they are called are divided into different categories. We will get into some of the reasons these are divided in the coming days. Both Ochre Jelly and Black Pudding are fairly mobile.
Now Green Slime is immobile and Gray Ooze is nearly immobile.
As a player Yellow Mold is the one that I most do not want to run into as a player. Note that note of these have any treasure. It also says Nil for Lair, but really anywhere you find them is there Lair.
I grew up with horses as my father loved horses and working with them was what he preferred to do, but making a living interfered with that a lot.
While we mostly had riding horses, we did own some draft horses and dad farmed with horses until 1959, after which he used tractors. We also had a mule for a few years too.
All manner of insects and animals are a way to have some fun encounters and add a unique flavor to your world. Large herds of herbivores feed the variety of carnivores and monsters. Do not forget the ominivores and of course insects are ubiquitous.
And then of course we have the footnotes, that are there to inform you that there are options and not to blindly follow the tables. The movement rates are explained, although I intrepreted them as I noted before I read that far in the table. Yeah, I did not look at the footnotes until I reached the end of the table. So I just presented it the way I first saw it. It also refers you to the written descriptions.
Under special abilities it notes how to resolve things between Chainmail and these rules. Also please note that the earliest players were familiar with Chainmail and wargames before coming to OD&D, unlike later players who likely had not previously seen Chainmail and often did not have it. We ruled that no men could see in total darkness, but monsters and elves and dwarves could see in total darkness and could do so even if they were player characters. Also hobbits could see in total darkness. So only humans had that handicap.
In regard to Attack/Defence there is an interjection here about that and we will look at that much deeper when we get to Volume 3. I will note that against a player character, even a 1st level player character a Troll did not get six attacks for being 6 Hit Die monsters with the +3 to one die roll. But we did give them three attacks from day one, with two claw attacks and a bite attack. There were other monsters that got more attacks in a similar manner.
Tomorrow we will get into the descriptive text.
Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 26 of my series of looks at OD&D now moving to Monsters & Treasure Volume 2. The book starts off with a table of Monsters, so I am going to look at the table first and then go on to the descriptions.
So The Monsters:
Of course the % in Liar was supposed to be % in Lair, but that did not get corrected until the 2013 "Premium Edition." In Dave Hargrave's Arduin campaign, they used it as the percentage chance that the monster would lie if you were interacting with them.
A lot has been made about this table not being in alphabetical order by some. However, if you look there it is in order by category of monster and then by Hit Dice within each category.
First up are humanoids, with men being listed first, which is technically out of order because they are a minimum of one Hit Die, but they are the prime actors in OD&D in the Gygax view so of course they go first, I believe Gygax saw men as their own category separate from the rest of the humanoids.
Then the table runs form Kobolds at 1/2 Hit Die and Goblins at One Hit Die -1, up to Giants as the largest Humanoids. You will note that as they get more powerful the number appearing decreases.
Next up are the Undead which is pretty straight forward. You will note under move in inches 12/24, 15/30 and 12/18. In these tables, depending on the monster, the first move given is usually on foot and the second given is riding, flying or swimming. We assumed that Wraiths were riding a Wraith Horses for the higher speed. Since Spectres have no corporeal body, we just assumed that they would use the higher speed if they needed to move faster than your mount to catch you. We did not worry about it beyond that. Of course, vampires can turn into bats and fly.
Now here we have creatures that can turn flesh to stone, but they do not appear to be in order. Why is that? Well you will see later that the first two are noted as not being intelligent, so you really have two groups of two here and that is what is going on. We will be looking at these creatures in more detail later on.
Note that the variable size monster is located between the other two. We will look at these in more detail later as well. Along with most of the monsters in this list.
Next is Wyverns, Dragons (variable size) and Balrogs. These creatures were much used in our games.
The last that we will look at today are each their own category, IMO. Note that Purple Worms are the largest identified monsters in the table at 15 Hit Dice. Also Minotaurs are IMO of animal intelligence only.
Tomorrow we will look at the rest of the table.
Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 25 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Men & Magic - Volume 1.
Today we will finish up our look at Men & Magic Book 1.
MAGICAL RESEARCH:
Both Magic-Users and Clerics may attempt to expand on the spells listed (as applicable by class). This is a matter of time and investment. The level of the magic required to operate the spell (determination by referee) dictates the initial investment.
If you have been reading along, you know that we jumped in and started doing this rather quickly as the game initially progressed. After the Greyhawk Supplement, it sparked another round of creation, which will be addressed once we get to the supplements in this series.
Investment for 1st level is 2,000 Gold Pieces, 2nd level is 4,000 Gold Pieces, 3rd level is 8,000 Gold Pieces, 4th level is 16,000 Gold Pieces, 5th level is 32,000 Gold Pieces, and 6th level is 64,000 Gold Pieces. The time required is one week per spell level. For every amount equal to the basic investment spent there is a 20% chance of success, cumulative. An investment of 10,000 Gold Pieces in order to develop a new 1st-level spell, for example, has a 100% chance of success after one game week.
We doubled everything noted above. So it was not just the Magic-Users and Clerics spending on this, the entire party was chipping in and sharing the expense. One of the things that I remember was the peaceful and efficient division of magic treasure and the mostly communal nature of the coin and gems.
The level of the spell researched must be consistent with the level of the Magic-User or Cleric involved, i.e. the character must be able to use spells equal to or above the level of the one he desires to create.
This is self explanatory.
Once a new spell is created the researcher may include it in the list appropriate to its level. He may inform others of it, thus enabling them to utilize it, or he may keep it to himself.
Since the whole party was helping pay for the research, all the spells were shared. When scrolls were obtained the Magic-Users and Clerics also took turns copying the spells into their own spell books.
BOOKS OF SPELLS:
Characters who employ spells are assumed to acquire books containing the spells they can use, one book for each level. If a duplicate set of such books is desired, the cost will be the same as the initial investment for research as listed above, i.e. 2,000, 4,000, 8,000, etc. Loss of these books will require replacement at the above expense.
The first book for first level spells came from the master than the spell caster was apprenticed to before joining the adventuring party. All future books had to be obtained by the character and they had to collect the spells that went into the book. And as noted all values are doubled.
This concludes the commentary on Men & Magic Book 1. Tomorrow we will start on our look at Monsters & Treasure Book 2.
Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 24 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Men & Magic - Volume 1.
Today I will look at the Cleric Spells that we added in the early days prior to obtaining the Greyhawk Supplement.
1st Level:
7. Open Lock
8. Repel Vermin
Open Lock: This spell is used to open locks on doors, chests and other things. At 2nd level the lock will open on a 1-2 on a six-sided die, at 4th level the lock will open on a 1-3 on a six-sided die, at 7th level the lock will open on a 1-4 on a six-sided die and at 10th level the lock will open on a 1-5 on a six-sided die.
As noted the Cleric has a Find Traps spell, so we added an Open Locks spell.
Repel Vermin: This spell will repel all manner of vermin ranging from ticks, fleas, lice, bed bugs and the like, up to rats and mice. This will keep bedding or an area free of vermin for 12 hours. It will also banish them from all creatures within the area of the spell. Covers an area of 400 square feet.
Yeah, some inns, most inns are not so clean when it comes to bedding. Travel in the Wilderness also tends to make you acquire these smaller creatures too. Many animals and monsters have ticks, fleas and lice, among other things.
2nd Level:
5. Bless Non-edged Weapon
6. Bless Sling Stones
7. Owl Hearing
8. Elephant Memory
Bless Non-edged Weapon: When fighting a creature that required a magic weapon to hit, a Cleric may bless their weapon (or the weapon of someone else) and it will function as a +1 to Hit Magic Weapon for a period of 1 Turn.
This was so a Cleric could temporarily upgrade the weapon of a hireling.
Bless Sling Stones: This spell will cause slings stones to function as magical +1 to hit weapons for a period of 2 Turns. Roll 2 six-sided dice +4 for the number of sling stones affected.
Our Cleric wanted to have a magical missile weapon too, as magical arrows did not help him.
Owl Hearing: This spell gives the caster the sharp hearing of an owl for a period of 5 Turns.
Very good for listening at doors and lasts long enough to listen to multiple doors in close proximity.
Elephant Memory: This spell allows the caster to remember an event in great detail and the memory is a permanent memory. The duration for the purpose of an event is two hours.
Note: This required the player in question to take notes and then have the notes vetted (and initialed) by the referee and the other players.
3rd Level:
5. Cure Moderate Wounds
6. Hold Monster
7. Eagle Sight
8. Bloodhound Smell
Cure Moderate Wounds: This spell is like a Cure Light Wounds spell, but the effects are doubled, so two dice are rolled and one pip is added to each die. Therefore, from 4 to 14 hit points will be healed by this spell.
We added this spell to move the former Cure Serious Wounds down one level. We had a very lethal game during those years. Zero hit points was death.
Hold Monster: This spell is the same as Hold Person but applicable to Monsters.
Just adding in a spell that was obviously missing.
Eagle Sight: This spell gives the caster the distance vision of an eagle for a period of 5 Turns.
Very useful for looking a valley over from a high place before entering it, good for studying a village, town or city or castle before approaching it.
Bloodhound Smell: This allows the caster to track creatures as a bloodhound for 10 Turns.
This was added long before we learned of the ranger and his tracking ability.
4th Level:
2. Cure Serious Wounds(Revised)
7. Remove Traps
8. Cure Major Disease
Cure Serious Wounds (Revised): This spell is like a Cure Light Wounds spell, but the effects are tripled, so three dice are rolled and one pip is added to each die. Therefore, from 6 to 21 hit points will be healed by this spell.
As noted we added a Cure Moderate Wounds spell and then beefed the Cure Serious Wounds spell up to a more powerful spell.
Remove Traps: This spell will remove both magical and non-magical traps without setting them off. This is successful on 1-3 on a six-sided die. At 8th Level this increases to success on a 1-4 on a six-sided die. At 10th Level this increases to success on a 1-5 on a six-sided die.
Cleric Detect Traps and also Remove Traps.
Cure Major Disease: This spell functions the same as the Cure Disease spell, except instead of affecting one creature it affects 10-25 creatures per casting. Three six-sided dice +7.
This spell can be used to cure disease affecting a village or hamlet and a group of clerics can use it in towns or cities. It is also especially valued by armies during times of war.
5th Level:
7. Water Walk
8. Speak Languages
Water Walk: This spell enables a Cleric to walk on water while unencumbered for a period of five Turns.
This can be used to walk across a swift flowing river to tie a rope to a tree which the party will then use to make their crossing more likely to not involve a mishap. And many other things, of course.
Speak Languages: This spell enables a Cleric to speak any one language and understand that language for a period of ten Turns.
This was after players lobbied for a way to speak to any creature whose language was not known. I created this spell as something I saw as a reasonable development.
We also boosted the number of spells that Clerics get per level.
Tomorrow we will finish out Men & Magic Book 1.
Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 23 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Men & Magic - Volume 1.
Now to take a look at the Spells for Clerics for Levels 4 and 5:
4th Level:
Neutralize Poison: A spell to counter the harmful effects of poison. Note that it will not aid a character killed by poison, however. It will affect only one object. Duration: 1 turn.
Please note that this spell applies to objects and not to creatures. This is used to neutralize poison before it is ingested or absorbed, etc. Note also that the duration is only 1 turn. When you look at the way it is written it is not nearly as useful as it appears at first glance. So I rewrote this spell, to be more in line with what I think the intention should be.
Negate Poison: A spell to counter the harmful effects of poison. While it will not aid a character killed by poison, it will negate poison in liquids or foods, on or in objects and it will negate poison that has been ingested or absorbed, etc. Duration: Permanent.
This IMO makes a lot more sense, neutralizing poison temporarily and for a very short time has virtually no benefit.
Cure Serious Wounds: This spell is like a Light Wound spell, but the effects are double, so two dice are rolled and one pip is added to each die. Therefore, from 4 to 14 hit points will be removed by this spell.
That is like a Cure Light Wounds spell.
Protection from Evil, 10’ radius: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users.
Except it is a 4th Level Spell for Clerics instead of a 3rd Level Spell for Magic-Users.
Turn Sticks to Snakes: Anytime there are sticks nearby a Cleric can turn them into snakes, with a 50% chance that they will be poisonous. From 2–16 snakes can be conjured (roll two eight-sided dice). He can command these conjured snakes to perform as he orders. Duration: 6 turns. Range 12”.
One: the snakes have a 50% chance of being venomous not poisonous. This is a very common error and why having an editor does have its good points. I also added a list of snakes and you would roll on that list for what snakes were conjured. There are about 3500 different snakes in the world and about 600 of them are venomous. (Not that I knew there were anything close to that many back then) I made a list of 12 of each. I will append that list to the bottom of this post.
Speak with Plants: This spell allows the Cleric to speak with all forms of plant life, understanding what they say in reply. Plants so spoken to will obey commands of the Cleric, such as part to allow a passage and so on. This spell does not give the Cleric the power to command trees as Ents do. Duration: 6 turns. Range: 3”.
Plants have their own way of thinking and their own frame of reference so questioning them can be difficult.
Create Water: By means of this spell, the Cleric can create a supply of drinkable water sufficient for a party of a dozen men and horses for one day. The quantity doubles for every level above the 8th the Cleric has attained.
It does what it says and I never worried about nailing down how many gallons that would be.
5th Level:
Dispel Evil: Similar to a Dispel Magic spell, this allows a Cleric to dispel any evil sending or spell within a 3” radius. It functions immediately. Duration: 1 turn.
This is very useful and, as an example, allows the Cleric to block a Finger of Death from an Anti-Cleric for 1 Turn (10 rounds) for anyone within a 3" radius of the casting Cleric. (see below for Anti-Clerics and the Finger of Death)
Raise Dead: The Cleric simply points his finger, utters the incantation, and the dead person is raised. This spell works with men, elves, and dwarves only. For each level the Cleric has progressed beyond the 8th, the time limit for resurrection extends another four days. Thus, an 8th-level Cleric can raise a body dead up to four days, a 9th-level Cleric can raise a body dead up to eight days, and so on. Naturally, if the character’s Constitution was weak, the spell will not bring him back to life. In any event raised characters must spend two game weeks’ time recuperating from the ordeal.
I allowed this spell to work for Hobbits also, I did not have the Gygax aversion to Hobbits.
Commune: A spell which puts the Cleric in touch with the powers “above” and asks for help in the form of answers to three questions. Communing is allowed but once each week maximum (referee’s option as to making less frequent). Veracity and knowledge should be near total. Once per year a special communing should be allowed wherein the Cleric can ask double the number of questions.
I never liked this spell, but I still let the players use it even so.
Quest: This is similar to the Geas, except that the character sent upon a Quest by the Cleric is not killed by failure to carry out the service. However, the Cleric may curse him with whatever he desires for failure, and the referee should decide if such a curse will take effect if the character ignores the Quest, basing the effectiveness of the curse on the phrasing of it and the alignment and actions of the character so cursed.
This one can also be a lot of fun for the referee.
Insect Plague: By means of this spell, the Cleric calls to him a vast cloud of insects and sends them where he will, within the spell range. They will obscure vision and drive creatures with less than three hit dice off in rout. The dimensions of the Insect Plague are 36 square inches. Duration: 1 game day. Range: 48”. (Note: This spell is effective only above ground.)
Yes, the Cleric can ride and direct the swarm ahead of him for a full day. It is rather amusing when it is directed into a building or a courtyard or something else that you want cleared.
Create Food: A spell with which the Cleric creates sustenance sufficient for a party of a dozen for one game day. The quantity doubles for every level above the 8th the Cleric has attained.
Again it does what it says it does and I never worried about defining a quantity.
Note: There are Anti-Clerics (listed below) who have similar powers to Clerics. Those Clerical spells underlined on the table for Cleric Spells have a reverse effect, all others functioning as noted. The chief exception is the Raise Dead spell which becomes:
The Finger of Death: Instead of raising the dead, this spell creates a “death ray” which will kill any creature unless a saving throw is made (where applicable). Range: 12”. (A Cleric-type may use this spell in a life-or-death situation, but misuse will immediately turn him into an Anti-Cleric.)
Anti-Clerics: Evil Acolyte, Evil Adept, Shaman, Evil Priest, Evil Curate, Evil Bishop, Evil Lama, Evil High Priest.
You may ask in regard to a saving throw what does "where applicable" mean? I ruled that less than 4 full HD (i.e. not 3+ HD) does not get a saving throw, it just kills them and 10 HD or more does not need a saving throw because it will not work on something of that size and power. In between those limits a saving throw is given.
Tomorrow I will look at the Cleric Spells that we added prior to obtaining the Greyhawk Supplement.
Oh and here are the tables I promised you.
Table 1 Venomous Snakes
1. Black Mamba
2. King Cobra
3. Fer-de-lance
4. Bushmaster
5. Spitting Cobra
6. Puff Adder
7. Water Moccasin
8. Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake
9. Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
10. Copperhead
11. Eastern Coral Snake
12. Cottonmouth
Table 2 Non-Venomous Snakes
1. Anaconda
2. Rock Python
3. Boa Constrictor
4. Kingsnakes
5. Black Racer
6. Blacksnake
7. Bull Snake
8. Garter Snake*
9. Hoop Snake**
10. Reticulated Python
11. Great Plains Rat Snake
12. Twin-Headed Snake**
* Garter Snakes are quite harmless.
** Hoop Snakes and Twin-Headed Snakes are not real, but you can spin quite a story if people do not know better. Hoop Snakes are something I was told about as a child. It will hold its tail in its mouth and roll along very fast until it catches you.
Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 22 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Men & Magic - Volume 1.
Now to take a look at the Spells for Clerics starting with Level 1, 2 and 3:
The first thing you will notice is that there are not very many spells for Clerics at each level, with only 14 Spells for the first three levels.
1st Level:
Cure Light Wounds: During the course of one full turn this spell will remove hits from a wounded character (including elves, dwarves, etc.). A die is rolled, one pip added, and the resultant total subtracted from the hit points the character has taken. Thus from 2–7 hit points of damage can be removed.
Did you catch that? This spell was supposed to take a full turn to work, 10 melee rounds. We, from day one, house-ruled that it took one round to work and not one turn.
Purify Food & Water: This spell will make spoiled or poisoned food and water usable. The quantity subject to a single spell is approximately that which would serve a dozen people.
This is very useful if your players tend to hunt and the meat they are carrying around is going bad on them. In my dungeons you will sometimes come across a food-laden table or food-beverages or water. My players learned that it is more often than not wise to be sure it is safe and not just assume.
Detect Magic: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users.
This is the spell that both Magic-Users and Clerics have that really are completely the same, as both are 1st Level Spells and operate the same.
Detect Evil: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users except that it has a duration of 6 turns and a range of 12”.
The Magic-User spell is 2nd Level, the duration is half and the range is half of that of the Cleric spell.
Protection from Evil: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users except that it lasts for 12 turns.
The Magic-User spell is a 3rd Level Spell and only has a duration of 6 turns.
Light: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users, except that it has a basic duration of 12 turns.
The Magic-User Spell starts with a base duration of 6 turns and goes up by Level of the caster, the Cleric Spell starts at a base duration of 12 turns and goes up by Level of the caster.
2nd Level:
Find Traps: By means of this spell the Cleric will locate any mechanical or magical traps within a radius of 3”. The spell lasts 2 turns.
Before the thief, the primary trap finder was the Cleric. In the early days, healing spells were not the first priority for a Cleric. As they gained experience at playing the class players learned that healing spells were not the most important thing that a Cleric could do.
Hold Person: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users except that its duration is 9 turns and its range 18”.
Versus being a 3rd Level Spell for Magic-Users. The Magic-User Spell was a Duration of 6 turns + level of the caster. And the Range was 12”. There are two ways you can go with this, either just duration of 9 turns or you can say that they left out the word "basic" and that it should be a Duration of 9 turns + level of the caster and treat it the same as the Light Spell between the two classes. We went with the second interpretation.
Bless: During any turn the prospective recipients of a Bless spell are not in combat the Cleric may give them this benison. A blessing raises morale by +1 and also adds +1 to attack dice. The spell lasts six turns.
This wording of this spell implies that it may take a full turn to cast; however, we ruled that it only takes one melee round to cast. How many of you did not need to look up "benison?"
Speak with Animals: This spell allows the Cleric to speak with any form of animal life, understanding what they say in reply. There is a possibility that the animal(s) spoken with will perform services for the Cleric, and they will never attack the party the Cleric is with. (The manner of handling the probabilities of action by animals is discussed in the next book). Duration: 6 turns. Range: 3”.
The players, in my experience, never cease to find an endless source of amusement in this spell.
3rd Level:
Remove Curse: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users.
The same as the 4th Level Spell for Magic-Users.
Cure Disease: A spell which cures any form of disease. The spell is the only method to rid a character of a disease from a curse, for example.
Did you catch that? You cast Remove Curse to remove the curse and then you cast Cure Disease to cure the disease caused by the curse. You get bit by a Werewolf and you will need to have both spells cast to put it behind you.
Locate Object: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users, except that the base range is 9”.
The Magic-User Spell is 2nd Level and the Range is 6” + 1“/level of the Magic-User. So for Clerics this spell is higher level, but also has a little greater Range.
Continual Light: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users, except that the light shed is equal to full daylight.
Only with the Clerical Continual Light Spell is the light said to be equal to full daylight. Once the players figured this out, which did take a while, they stopped using the Magic-User spell to create objects with the spell as light sources. If you are going where there are any creatures that are harmed or hindered by full daylight, then this is the spell of choice.
Tomorrow I will look at the 4th and 5th Level Cleric Spells.
Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 21 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Men & Magic - Volume 1.
Today we will look at more Magic-User spells that we created prior to when I obtained the Greyhawk Supplement. These spells were created by the players.
2nd Level Magic-User Spells:
11. Detect Gold
12. Detect Silver
13. Detect Gems
14. Detect Water
Detect Gold: This spell will detect Gold within 100 feet of the direction the caster is facing in an area the width of the casters body. The spell will give the caster a mental picture of the distance to the Gold. The more intense the feelings the larger the quantity of Gold. Duration 1 Turn.
The players wanted to develop a spell which would aid them in searching for treasure, so five Magic-Users spells months developing these spells, triple the time and expense for developing the a first level spell. I got them to tunnel 95 feet into a mountain and they found a rich vein of Gold. The party was a bit crestfallen when this happened, but the dwarves left the party and staked a claim and kept digging. They bought the rights from the party and recruited some more dwarves and settled down at the site.
Detect Silver: This spell will detect Silver within 100 feet of the direction the caster is facing in an area the width of the casters body. The spell will give the caster a mental picture of the distance to the Silver. The more intense the feelings the larger the quantity of Silver. Duration 1 Turn.
The players also tried this out at the same time they tried out the Detect Gold Spell and got a result showing Silver in the same area as the Gold. So there was a rich vein of Silver mixed into that vein of Gold. They tried these spells a number of times with rather mixed results and limited utility. (with one exception, see below) However, I the referee had a great time with it. Kind of how things work when the party would make a greedy wish (which came later on).
Detect Gems: This spell will detect Gems within 100 feet of the direction the caster is facing in an area the width of the casters body. The spell will give the caster a mental picture of the distance to the Gems. The more intense the feelings the larger the quantity of Gems. Duration 1 Turn.
They had a little better luck with this in locating a huge hoard of Gems, but they were very well defended by several dragons as they were soon to learn. There was also large quantities of Gold and Silver detected. While they are casting the spells and discussing if this the real thing or another mine in the making, several dragons fly up and ask the party what they are doing in the vicinity of their lair. The party is trying to talk their way out of it, but the dragons are not buying it saying they think they are trying to slip in and steal away the young dragons and sell them into slavery, which comes out of left field for the players who start stammering around in confusion. They ended up getting breathed on and chased for miles before the dragons let them go. What can I say, TANSTAAFL.
Detect Water: This spell will detect drinkable Water within a 100 radius of the caster. The spell will give the caster a mental picture of the distance to the drinkable Water. The more intense the feelings the larger the quantity and the greater the purity of the drinkable Water. Duration 1 Turn.
This was the first spell they created after a trip into a desert and almost dying of thirst. This one operated exactly as advertised and they were very happy with it.
So this all of the Magic-User spells they created prior to the introduction of the Greyhawk Supplement. Later when I go through the Greyhawk Supplement and the other Supplements I will conclude each of those sections with other spells that we created.
Tomorrow I will start going through the Cleric Spells.
Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 20 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Men & Magic - Volume 1.
Today we will look at additional Magic-User spells that we created prior to when I obtained the Greyhawk Supplement. These spells were created by the players.
1st Level Magic-User Spells:
9. Silence
10. Lesser Wards
11. Lesser Barrier
12. Imaginary Knife
13. Blank Face
14. Gopher Holes
Silence: This spell is used to silence an opposing spell-caster, it will interrupt any spell being cast the same round and will prevent other spells from being cast by the target. Range 12", Duration 2 Turns, And a -4 to the targets saving throw.
This spell was very popular with our Magic-Users.
Lesser Wards: This spell is used to guard a campsite or other area from intrusion. It does not block entry, but once set it is active for a period of 12 hours. It will alert any three party members designated by the caster, one for each 4 hour block of the night, to the intrusion of any thing larger than 40 pounds in size. This will supplement each watch of the night. It protects a radius of 120 feet.
This spell was much requested by the party and the Magic-Users rotated who memorized this spell each day.
Lesser Barrier: This spell is used alongside Lesser Wards in areas that are more hostile and will cause 2 points of damage to any creature larger than 40 pounds that intrudes upon the protected area. It will last for a 12 hour period and it protects a radius of 110 feet.
This spell was also much requested by the party and the Magic-Users rotated who memorized this spell each day.
Imaginary Knife: This spell creates a magical knife of overall length 15 inches. It can be summoned by a single thought by the caster and has a +1 to Hit and a +1 to Damage. Duration 1 Turn
Our Magic-Users wanted to feel less defenseless if they had to fight lobbied for this spell quite strongly. Even more than for Silence.
Blank Face: This spell is a strong illusion that hides the face of the caster with totally blank unmarked and featureless flesh. There is no saving throw for the viewer. It also creates a -2 to the Morale of intelligent creatures of less than 4 HD.
Our Magic-Users, backed by the rest of the party, lobbied for something that would make them less of a target by encouraging opponents to shy away from them.
Gopher Holes: This spell creates 4-24 gopher holes around a camp site or other area. Each hole is 1 to 2 feet in diameter and 2 feet deep located at the outer edge of a 59 to 61 foot radius and located as chosen by the caster. Duration 12 hours, sans gophers.
As you can perhaps guess by now, my players did not like night attacks. Three of the above spells were for helping them with night encounters. The purchase of caltrops was also quite popular.
Tomorrow we will look at new 2nd Level Magic-User Spells.
Today, March 15th - the Ides of March, is OD&D Inspirational Author Day and by that I mean authors that have and do inspire my campaign and my thinking on how I run my campaigns.
The author I want to highlight in this year is one of the first authors I read as a boy. My father and his younger brothers had several of the early Tarzan books in hardback written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The books are old enough, it is possible that my grandfather read them too. They had been passed down from brother to brother and then they came to me (the oldest son of the oldest son) from my youngest uncle who is only 7 years older than I am. His genres are adventure novel, fantasy, lost world, sword and planet, planetary romance, soft science fiction, historical, and westerns.
Tarzan is a great inspiration for my OD&D worlds and campaigns. It has been noted that OD&D has an implied setting of a post-apocalyptic world. It is a world of ruins and the dungeons beneath them, lost civilizations and former greatness. A world struggling its way back up from some long ago disaster and fall of civilization.
What does Tarzan have to offer? Lost cities (Opar and others), lost empires (Opar and others), lost civilizations (Opar and others), unusual creatures (dinosaurs anyone) and many other things. A trip to the center of the earth (a tie-in to the Pellucidar series.
They are rollicking good stories, with a lot of action and a ton of incredible world building. Some people want to be highly critical of ERB and some of those criticisms are just, while others are overblown. I would submit that if you cannot ever put things in the context of when and why they were written, you will lose out on a lot of things that our rich literary history has to offer. First and foremost ERB was writing at a fast pace for the pulps to put food on the table. Second, his characters grew and changed in some ways as the years went by and as the financial urgency in his life gradually ebbed. Third, many of the things that some focus on went completely over the head of a 7 year old in the early 1960s and for quite a few years afterward. The beliefs and attitudes of that 7 year old where influenced much more heavily by his parents and not by the books he read. The distinction between reality and fantasy was clear in my home.
In addition to Tarzan, there was the Barsoom series and John Carter of Mars(sword & planet), the Venus series(sword & planet), the Caspak series, the Moon series(sword & planet), the Mucker series, several standalone science fiction stories, several Jungle adventure novels (two of which involve time travel), several Western novels, two historical novels (The Outlaw of Torn and I Am a Barbarian), a number of other standalone novels.
I have read all of these, some of them over ten times. As a result I have a large bedrock of world building ideas at hand. While ERB is IMO one of the gold standard authors for action and adventure, his world building earns him unrivaled gold status in that arena in my opinion. He has created many earth based worlds, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, the Moon, Martian moons, fictional islands, and other worlds. All of them have rich and unexpected detail and they can be mined over and over for ideas. The movie Avatar borrowed a enormous amount from ERB for the creatures of that world to the extent that ERB should have been given writing credit for the movie IMO.
Hope to see you next year when I talk about Robert E Howard.
