tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65601431485812122812024-03-28T03:23:36.017-05:00Save Versus All WandsThinking About Original Dungeons & DragonsOakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.comBlogger191125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-80841037504109714772018-11-02T12:13:00.004-05:002018-11-02T12:13:57.712-05:00Announcing the Contest Winner! (Plus Some Interesting US Coin Facts)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLC19ubPDP0cOIsH4xqHth5pM-d2ka7YeKP9VKT3hzabuWGE5OaceCNZGaLGQJx6JHBDPOOJVGd0t2BAG1Im4qUi2_K-PfaoxpiRNYd0gX7BJzpNd0p4eDq4mj7-Xki29lxcZrfcLdfqs/s1600/Dr.+Evil+and+Coins.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="678" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLC19ubPDP0cOIsH4xqHth5pM-d2ka7YeKP9VKT3hzabuWGE5OaceCNZGaLGQJx6JHBDPOOJVGd0t2BAG1Im4qUi2_K-PfaoxpiRNYd0gX7BJzpNd0p4eDq4mj7-Xki29lxcZrfcLdfqs/s400/Dr.+Evil+and+Coins.png" width="371" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: helvetica neue, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The third semi-annual Save Versus All Wands contest - <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2018/10/contest-what-is-value-of-this-coin-hoard.html">What is the Value of this Coin Hoard</a> - is over.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">$1,000 was the winning guess, only a bit below the actual total of $1,216.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was made by Mark Clover (AKA Dr. Evil) who made his guess via the above funny meme.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thank you to everyone else for participating!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mark is the owner of <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/457/Creative-Mountain-Games">Creative Mountain Games</a> and manages the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LakeGenevaGames/">Lake Geneva Games</a> store in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. He started playing Dungeons & Dragons when it was first released in 1974, and attended the last Gen Con to be held at Horticultural Hall, one year later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He'll be receiving the four <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/5373/Campion--Clitherow?term=campion+%26+clitherow&test_epoch=0">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</a> booklets plus the <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/225721/SEVEN-VOYAGES-of-ZYLARTHEN-Supplement-1-Book-of-Spells?src=hottest_filtered">Book of Spells</a> supplement. Fittingly, Zylarthen was directly inspired by the original 1974 "three little brown books." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Curiously, Mark's guess of $1,000 was also the highest guess, with no one guessing <i>over</i> the actual total. Most of the others were in the range of $200 to $500, with the mean being only $400 or so - only one-third of the actual value of the hoard. I'm not sure why the guesses were low. Perhaps it was partly due to the fact that few thought anyone be crazy enough to amass more than a thousand dollars worth of coins for use in a role-playing game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Though, remember, it's not a sunk cost. In a sense it's only slightly less liquid than keeping money in a checking or savings account. Indeed, by one measure, it's more liquid! And, yes, I've at least partially "cashed out" twice since I started, eight years ago. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not a numismatist, but I've learned some interesting facts in the process of amassing my "hoard".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's one of them: If you throw out the "cheap" coins - pennies and nickels - and the more recent coins - the Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea and Presidential dollars - the four basic original coins - dimes, quarters, half-dollars and dollars (those large diameter Eisenhowers) - all have approximately the same volume and weight per dollar value. In other words, if you take a Arturo Fuente 8-5-8 cigar box and fill it to the brim with dimes, quarters, half-dollars or Eisenhower dollars, you'll always get approximately $200 of coins weighing about nine pounds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Interestingly, that's about the value of the 25 cigars that the box was designed to contain, at least at walk-in cigar store prices. Though if you <a href="https://www.famous-smoke.com/">order a box online</a> you can pick it up for about $125. And, by the way, if you're a cigar smoker, I highly recommend the 8-5-8's, especially those <a href="https://www.famous-smoke.com/a+fuente+858+claro+cigars/item+13743">with the unusual green "Claro" wrapper</a>. They're a great value for only five dollars a stick.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The figures below, break down the numbers and properties of the above pictured coins. Keep in mind that the in-game monetary and experience point values are based on the Zylarthen <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/10/why-silver-standard.html">silver standard</a>:</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Totals:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Number of Coins: 6,350</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Game</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Value: 288,870 Silver Pieces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: 288,870 xp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 5,020 lb. (1004 eu)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Actual</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Total Value: $1,216</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 60 lb. 4 oz.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_(United_States_coin)">Jefferson Nickel</a></b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> (iron scrip)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Number of Coins: 1,000</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Game</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Value: 1 iron scrip coin (1/20 of a Silver Piece)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: 50 xp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 50 lb. (10 eu)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Actual</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years: 1946-2018</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Diameter: 0.835 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thickness: 0.077 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Volume: 0.042 cubic inches </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mass: 0.161 ounces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Composition: Copper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: $50</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 10 lb. 1 oz.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(United_States_coin)">Lincoln Penny</a></b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> (Copper Piece)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Number of Coins: 1,600</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Game</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Value: 1 Copper Piece </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(1/5 of a Silver Piece)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: 320 xp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 80 lb. (16 eu)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Actual</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years: 1947-1962/1962-1981/1982-2018</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Diameter: 0.750 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thickness: 0.059 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Volume: 0.026 cubic inches </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mass: 0.080 ounces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Composition: Bronze/Copper/Zinc</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: $16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 8 lb.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_(United_States_coin)">Roosevelt Dime</a></b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> (Silver Piece)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Number of Coins: 2,000</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Game</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Value: 1 Silver Piece</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: 2,000 xp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 100 lb. (20 eu)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Actual</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years: 1965-2018</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Diameter: 0.705 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thickness: 0.053 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Volume: 0.021 cubic inches </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mass: 0.073 ounces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Composition: Copper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: $200</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 9 lb. 2 oz.</span><br />
<br />
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<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_(United_States_coin)">Washington Quarter</a></b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> (Gold Piece)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Number of Coins: 800</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Game</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Value: 1 Gold Piece (10 Silver Pieces)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: 8,000 xp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 40 lb. (8 eu)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Actual</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years: 1965-2018</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Diameter</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">: 0.955 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thickness: 0.069 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Volume: 0.049 cubic inches </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mass: 0.182 ounces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Composition: Copper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: $200</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 9 lb. 2 oz</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_dollar">Susan B. Anthony Dollar</a></b></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (token for multiple iron scrip coins)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Number of Coins: 100</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Game</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Value: 100 iron scrip coins (5 Silver Pieces)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: 500</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> xp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 500 lb. (100 eu)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Actual</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years: 1979-1981, 1999</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Diameter</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">: 1.043 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thickness: 0.079 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Volume: 0.067 cubic inches </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mass: 0.260 ounces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Composition: Copper/Nickel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: $100</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Total Weight: 1 lb. 10 oz</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_half_dollar">Kennedy Half Dollar</a></b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> (token for multiple Copper Pieces)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Number of Coins: 400</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Game</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Value: 100 Copper Pieces (20 Silver Pieces)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: 8,000 xp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 2,000 lb. (400 eu)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Actual</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years: 1971-2001</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Diameter</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">: 1.205 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thickness: 0.085 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Volume: 0.097 cubic inches </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mass: 0.365 ounces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Composition: Copper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: $200</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 9 lb. 2 oz</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_dollar">Eisenhower Dollar</a></b></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (token for multiple Silver Pieces)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Number of Coins: 200</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Game</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Value: 100 Silver Pieces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: 20,000 xp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 1,000 lb. (200 eu)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Actual</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years: 1971-1978</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Diameter</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">: 1.500 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thickness: 0.102 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Volume: 0.180 cubic inches </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mass: 0.729 ounces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Composition: Copper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: $200</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 9 lb. 2 oz</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea_dollar">Sacagawea</a>/<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_$1_Coin_Program">Presidential Dollar</a></b></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (token for multiple Gold Pieces)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Number of Coins: 250</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Game</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Value: 100 Gold Pieces (1000 Silver Pieces)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: 250</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">,000 xp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 1,250 lb. (250 eu)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Actual</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years: 2000-2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Diameter</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">: 1.043 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thickness: 0.079 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Volume: 0.067 cubic inches </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mass: 0.260 ounces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Composition: Copper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Value: $250</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Total Weight: 4 lb. 1 oz</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-63070842936886332732018-10-24T14:39:00.000-05:002018-10-27T16:38:25.155-05:00Save Versus All Wands Contest: What is the Value of the Coin Hoard?<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUm8t4c55ItP0g1wreRqlJuGZluEKA7EHcKgcoTHmXKB3eisECkW3eebaZiPCB7zxtvF9Utb3Xq8J5J2Dqs_N67GtD68A8ewXpxIC9M_0-9JlWBeDr19CW-1s9itzLNuyBws7V-F1X_yk/s1600/Total+Coins.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUm8t4c55ItP0g1wreRqlJuGZluEKA7EHcKgcoTHmXKB3eisECkW3eebaZiPCB7zxtvF9Utb3Xq8J5J2Dqs_N67GtD68A8ewXpxIC9M_0-9JlWBeDr19CW-1s9itzLNuyBws7V-F1X_yk/s400/Total+Coins.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Treasure Type H </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Announcing the third annual (well, not quite) Save Versus All Wands contest!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can read about and see the results of the first two - <i>Seven Voyages of Zylarthen: What's in a Name</i> and the <i>Jack Vance Dialogue Writing Contest</i> <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/10/seven-voyages-of-zylarthen-whats-in.html">here</a>/<a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/10/results-so-far.html">here</a>/<a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/11/seven-voyages-of-zylarthen-contest.html">here</a> and <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/11/jack-vance-writing-contest.html">here</a>/<a href="https://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-winners.html">here</a>. They were four years ago. Apologies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<font-family: arial="" helvetica="" neue="" quot="" sans-serif="">Okay, so here's the current contest question:<b> How much money is in the above picture?</b></font-family:></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What does this have to do with anything? Well, here's the background:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In </span><i>Characters and Combat</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, Vol. I of <a href="https://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?keywords=Zylarthen&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</a>, I talked about using actual United States coins as props for in-game copper pieces, silver pieces and gold pieces.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Using coin props is fun, especially for kids. I should say that I started doing this for AD&D before I wrote Zylarthen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The idea for using <i>actual</i> coins as props is that U.S. metal currency is worth so little now that if you want props for fantasy mo</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ney, US coinage is, weirdly enough, your cheapest bet. A penny, nickel or sometimes even a dime is in most cases cheaper than, say, a washer from a hardware store or a plastic toy imitation "dubloon". Plus, US coins look more like, well, coins than, say, washers do, and they clink more than plastic toy coins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In fact, they're not merely cheaper, they're in a sense, free. You can't trade your washers or plastic dubloons back for what you paid for them. But you can do that with US coins. In a sense it's simply a way (albeit odd) of saving money while getting some neat game props in the meantime.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is what I wrote in Zylarthen:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Physical Coin Tokens (Optional):</b></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In our campaign we actually give players little </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">bags of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and (for really nice hauls) half dollars </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and dollars to represent their coin hoards. Everyone has found this vastly more fun </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(and potentially less prone to error) than the usual method of crossing digits or </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hatch marks off of a piece of paper. It makes discovering treasure—or spending </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it—more real, and even mundane items or inexpensive weapons seem more valuable </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">when you have to pay for them with physical money.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We keep about $200 worth of coins in a number of cigar boxes (these look very </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">much like treasure chests), and have a dozen or so mock-velvet bags that we purchased </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for a few dollars at a jewelry store. To those who object that this is too </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">great an expense, we would reply that it isn’t actually an expense—we still have </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the money (perhaps it’s even an admittedly odd way of saving money), and if we’re </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ever down to our last $200, we can always go back to hatch marks!</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Penny = Copper Piece</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dime = Silver Piece</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Quarter = Gold Piece</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kennedy Half Dollar = 100 Copper Pieces</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Presidential Dollar = 100 Silver Pieces</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eisenhower Dollar = 100 Gold Pieces</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Small Washer = Iron Coin </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nickel = 100 Iron Coins</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now, Zylarthen is on the silver standard, where 1 SP = 1 experience point. The exchange rates for coins are these:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5 CP = 1 SP</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10 SP = 1 GP</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4 iron scrip = 1 CP</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Beginning player-characters get 30-180 silver pieces, and standard equipment is usually priced in silver pieces, to some extent roughly tracking the prices in OD&D and AD&D, though I twiddled things somewhat to make them more "realistic" relative to actual medieval prices.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wrote about why I went on the silver standard <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/10/why-silver-standard.html">here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Among other things, the scheme makes copper pieces more valuable (thus giving people and monsters more reason to hoard them) and makes gold pieces rarer and more similar to, say gems. One of the problems with the treasure schemes in OD&D and AD&D is that gems and jewelry make up 97% (or whatever it is) of the value of treasure found on the charts. A silver standard goes some way towards solving that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But back to using US coins as props.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I actually changed the original representation scheme, slightly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Eisenhower Dollar now represents 100 silver pieces and the Presidential or S</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">acagawea </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dollar now represents 100 gold pieces. (This is because I came to believe that shiny Presidential and <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">S</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">acagawea</span> Dollar coins look more like gold.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And nickels are now individual iron scrip coins, with Susan B. Anthony Dollars representing 100 of them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Finding a large iron scrip hoard might be annoying.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So here's the current scheme:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Penny = Copper Piece</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dime = Silver Piece</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Quarter = Gold Piece</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kennedy Half Dollar = 100 Copper Pieces</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eisenhower Dollar </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">= 100 Silver Pieces</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Presidential Dollar = 100 Gold Pieces</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nickel = 1 iron scrip </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Susan B. Anthony Dollar = 100 iron scrips</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'll write more later about how things have worked out - including tackling the knotty subject of <i>are the coins really free?</i> - but in the meantime I thought I'd launch a contest in the spirit of the first Zylarthen contest.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Above is my current hoard.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>How much actual money (in US currency) is there in the picture?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hint: it's not $200.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vote once in the comments on this blog post.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The winner will receive the four original Zylarthen booklets plus the supplement Book of Spells. If you already own the five booklets, they makes a great gift!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Extra credit:</i> <b>What is the total Zylarthen equivalent in experience points? </b>Include this estimate with your money guess. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">if the winner gets within 50% to 150% of the actual experience point total, I'll throw in the Zylarthen <a href="https://www.rpgnow.com/product/224895/SEVEN-VOYAGES-of-ZYLARTHEN-Electronic-Edition">Electronic Edition</a>, or if you already have it, some sort of equivalent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Contest ends at midnight (CST) on Halloween.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Good luck!</span></div>
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</style>Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-91526542594777562292018-10-23T08:43:00.001-05:002018-10-23T17:33:47.654-05:00Alternate Weapons and Combat Rules for Seven Voyages of Zylarthen and OD&D<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first edition of <a href="https://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?keywords=Zylarthen&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</a> features melee and missile attack tables <i>by weapon</i>, not class or level. Additional to-hit adjustments are then made for higher-level characters or situational factors. A</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ll weapons generally do 1-6 points of damage.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are the two main charts from the revised <a href="https://www.rpgnow.com/product/224895/SEVEN-VOYAGES-of-ZYLARTHEN-Electronic-Edition?term=zylarthen&test_epoch=0">Electronic Edition</a> and <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Zylarthen&type=">booklets</a>:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I designed the weapons and combat system the way I did for three reasons: </span><br />
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<li>I wanted to simulate how different weapons performed against different types of armor—not merely that all weapons become less effective the better the armor, but that certain weapons perform relatively better (or worse) against certain types of armor such as mail or plate. Rather than add yet another set of annoying bonuses or penalties (as was done in <i>Greyhawk</i> and the AD&D <i>Players Handbook</i>), I decided to “bake in” the effects to the main attack charts. Thus, swords and pointed weapons generally have lower target numbers to hit against unarmored or lightly armored opponents but are much less effective against mail and plate (or their creature armor equivalents such as dragon scales). On the other hand, axes and heavy blunt weapons come into their own against metal armor. Another way of putting this is that the declining “curve” on the charts is flatter for axes and heavy blunt weapons. </li>
<li>Not only did I feel that this added more realism to combat (without losing much in playability) but it also gave more meaningful choices to players in their weapon selection. No more were, say, the mace and hammer clearly inferior to the long sword. Swords might be good all-purpose weapons, but if you were going up against heavily armored humanoids or creatures with tough hide or scales, an axe, mace or morning star might be a better bet. </li>
<li>I was able to preserve the original conception of all weapons doing 1-6 points of damage - which, as a purist designing what was in some ways a hyper-purist game, I felt was important - while nevertheless including a mechanism for distinguishing between the effectiveness of different weapons. As a side-note (and this may be annoying to some), I also thought it was more OD&D-ish to base the combat mechanism around a central somewhat mysterious and (I hoped) in practice mathematically uncrackable chart (all those varying to-hit numbers). </li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(I wrote about the historical treatment of weapons vs. armor in OD&D and AD&D <a href="https://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/02/weapons-vs-armor-in-old-school-d-part-i.html">here</a>, <a href="https://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/02/weapons-vs-armor-in-old-school-d-part-ii.html">here</a> and <a href="https://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/10/weapons-vs-armor-in-old-school-d-part.html">here</a>.)</span></span></div>
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Recently, however, I have come to feel that the original Zylarthen system may have been too fiddly, as well as arguably not representing the differences between weapons with sufficient magnitude. Thus, it is difficult if not impossible to memorize the charts, and the differences in the "to hit" numbers usually only amount to, say, 5% or 10% (a few pips on a twenty-sided die), which may not appear to matter as much as it should. <br /><br />So I devised a new alternate system. <br /><br />The main change is this: All weapons now have, all things being equal, the same chances to hit. Thus, for a 1st level character, the to-hit numbers follow the standard 10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17 progression against armor classes 9//8/7/6/5/4/3/2. This sequence is easily memorized. Though, in fact, if one wishes to suspend purity considerations by substituting an ascending armor class system - 10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17 - </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it becomes even easier to calculate, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">where the armor class simply becomes the chance to hit for a 1st level character.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This returns the to-hit numbers to the original OD&D and AD&D scheme. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />What now are the most important combat differences between weapons? There are two: 1. Weapons now have differing damage dice. And 2. some weapons—most edged and pointed weapons—have their damage die halved for attacks against the better types of armor—5, 4, 3 and 2 in a descending system, 14, 15, 16 and 17 in an ascending system or, to put it non-mathematically, metal armor (mail or plate) or the equivalent in creature terms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This, for better or worse, is obviously much more OD&D <i>Greyhawk</i> than OD&D <i>three little brown books</i>. I suppose history might be repeating itself.<br /><br />Of course, the above aren't the <i>only</i> combat differences, given that other considerations from Zylarthen have been preserved: Some weapons perform better or worse against large creatures, for example. And there are still other important non-combat considerations. Cost is one of them, though cost often still has an inverse relationship with weapon durability (the “optional” weapon break rules are, in my view, an important part of the overall system). Encumbrance is another. And there are various special rules that add to (or subtract from) the value of certain weapons. <br /><br />OD&D purists (or, rather, hard-core purists who opposed even some of the changes in weapons and combat offered in <i>Greyhawk</i>) may be annoyed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But I suppose people who enjoy rolling different-sized polyhedrons for damage will presumably be pleased. <br /><br />I’m still basically a purist, but I’m comfortable with these changes and feel that they make for a good alternative combat system. I’m even warming up to the idea of ascending armor class . . .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are the new charts. They should be read against the background of a few other relatively minor changes—I’ve slightly adjusted the weapon class and encumbrance for a few weapons, for example. And there is now a two-handed sword! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is a quick summary of other rules, relevant to the above, from Seven Voyages of Zylarthen:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Encumbrance:</b> Each "dot" or unit of encumbrance is equivalent to 2-10 pounds. Most characters only get 25 to work with, with movement declining from 13 to 12 to 9 to 6 to 3 for every five units. Carrying any item with an encumbrance of 3 or more means that you can only move at a maximum of 9. And keeping in mind that you're probably also wearing armor or carrying food (or gold) or simply trying to keep your encumbrance low so you can do thiefy things or whatever, an extra "dot" or two can often make a big difference.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Weapon Class:</b> Under the initiative rules, the person or creature with the <i>highest</i> weapon class always attacks first. Subsequent rounds feature an initiative die, with ties going to the person or creature with the <i>lowest</i> weapon class. This obviously gives the advantage to long weapons in short fights. For long rough and tumble melee brawls not so much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Weapon Breaks:</b> In Zylarthen, weapons have a chance if breaking not on a fumble but on a critical hit (getting a really hard strike in may have consequences for your weapon) as well as when inflicting death blows against heavily armored or high hit dice creatures. The chance of breakage then depends on the weapon's cost (a good stand in for durability, I think) with swords and great swords having only a 1 in 20 chance of breaking, going up to 3 in 20 for daggers, spears and the like. Obviously magic weapons are largely immune. I think this makes good intuitive sense as well as tracking historical accounts of knightly duels. Often opponents would change weapons multiple times during a fight due to breakage. While things probably won't often come to that extreme in Zylarthen, dungeon explorers are well-advised to carry spares with them, especially when using cheaper weapons. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But getting back to the alternate rules themselves, I feel that the changes reflect well the philosophy that no weapon is either pointless or perfect. All have advantages and disadvantages. Here is a quick summary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Dagger:</b> A great all around utility weapon. Virtually everyone has one. It's the only weapon with no encumbrance, at least if multiples are not carried. Once in close-combat it is almost as effective as a sword. It can be used in an off-hand along with another short weapon. And in extremis it may be thrown.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Axe:</b> This weapon has many of the same advantages as a dagger as well as being a passable armor cracker.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Mace:</b> The best armor cracker for only 1 encumbrance unit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Sword:</b> A good all-around weapon that does the highest potential damage of any of the 1 encumbrance unit weapons. It can be used with a shield, buckler or off-hand dagger or axe.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hammer:</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The best one-handed armor cracker.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Battle Axe:</b> The heavy two-handed axe deals out more average damage (however they are armored) of any weapon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Long Sword:</b> The best one-handed weapon, if price is no object, for fighting an unarmored or lightly armored foe. And it performs as well as an axe against plate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Staff:</b> We've improved this weapon a bit, giving it some of the defensive bonuses of a shield or buckler and knocking its encumbrance down from 3 to 2. Thus a Magic-User can now run at almost full-speed without having to drop it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Morning Star:</b> Sort of a cheaper and lighter battle axe for those armor crackers who don't want to be too weighed down. Its length will also allow one to usually attack first on the first round of melee.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Great Sword:</b> I felt the game needed this. The long sword wielded with two hands didn't offer enough of an advantage. However, unlike the Fighting Man's nuke of <i>Greyhawk</i> and AD&D, it's encumbrance of 3 may be a negative for some players. Plus while it holds its own against heavy armor, it's not as effective in that context as a hammer, morning star or battle axe. Still, it partly make up for that by getting a +2 damage bonus against dragons and other large creatures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Spear:</b> This cheap weapon has a number of advantages, including enabling its user to almost always attack first in the first round and doing double damage against a charge. And it's much more effective when wielded with two hands. Unfortunately, they break a lot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Pole Arm:</b> Sort of a super spear, but perhaps too heavy to seriously consider taking on a dungeon delve. We've increased its encumbrance to 5.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lance:</b> Nice if you have a horse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Javelins:</b> You can take three Javelins with you at a cost of only 1 encumbrance unit, and throw them all in one round (assuming your annoyed opponent doesn't charge you). Not very effective against heavy armor, but you can't have everything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Sling:</b> A good light missile weapon, especially for Thieves and Halflings (who get a bonus on sling attacks), and you can always try to gather stones if you run out of bullets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Bow:</b> Not quite as effective as a crossbow, but its lighter. And it can penetrate armor at close ranges.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Crossbow:</b> The king of missile weapons. It's heavy but often worth it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'll be officially writing up these alternate rules and offering them, along with some of the already existing combat rules and alternate "errata" for some of the encumbrance changes, etc., in a free supplement soon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It may or may not show it, but I've probably put more thought and effort into weapons and combat than any other aspect of Zylarthen. Perfection is a questing beast, but stupid or "unrealistic" weapons things bug me. This may be a fault.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But to the degree that the game works, I think it does so in part due to the weapons mechanics. Or at least, <i>for me</i>, it does so due to the weapons mechanics. That might be a minority view among Zylarthen players and readers, but still.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And of course, if one was so inclined, these weapons mechanics are easily usable, without Zylarthen, for OD&D or even AD&D. They're sort of my variation on <i>Greyhawk</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you're interested in what I've done here, either from the point of view of being familiar with the Zylarthen rules set or not, I'd love to hear what you think.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is it an improvement? A sell out? Is there anything I overlooked? What can be tweaked or adjusted to make it better? </span></div>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-5606856959403073922018-09-11T01:19:00.000-05:002018-09-11T07:38:03.296-05:00Flight 93 - "Stand Up and Bring the Ship Down!"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlA9LnDgAh_gHillpA9bC6sQNkhrcf3GVdTw2arUmcgxo24FUfPjYBPA6hhQwHzO1Rw1Dwimd-RfrOGzmivGH2VESsZXcoruLlRFDESGT3PL5Y1gHKk26ladI1AH3bl-VWEU62cJh0fWI/s1600/Flight+93.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="270" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlA9LnDgAh_gHillpA9bC6sQNkhrcf3GVdTw2arUmcgxo24FUfPjYBPA6hhQwHzO1Rw1Dwimd-RfrOGzmivGH2VESsZXcoruLlRFDESGT3PL5Y1gHKk26ladI1AH3bl-VWEU62cJh0fWI/s400/Flight+93.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The last minutes on the fourth plane (from the film <i>United 93</i>)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>This is a repost (with some edits and supplementary comments) of a piece I wrote a year ago on September 11, 2017. Obviously I think the subject is as important and relevant as ever.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This post is not about Islam.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's certainly not about any sort of "tragedy."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's about heroism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another word for that is love. L</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ove for one's neighbor</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. Love for justice. And, yes, love for life. Even if you think you might lose it.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><br /><i>"We've nothing to fight with, and may wind up dead,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But we've voted to stand up and fight them instead,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And we might keep them from getting through."</i><br /><br />United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania fie</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ld on September 11th, 2001, killing all aboard - 34 passengers (including a near-term unborn baby) and 7 crew. 4 hijackers also died. The plane had been comandeered 45 minutes after takeoff by terrorists - confederates of the men who steered their 3 hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These hijackers were a few minutes late in their mission (the plane had been delayed taking off), which gave the passengers enough time to figure out what their mission was - a suicide strike against the U.S. Capita</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">l Building or the White House.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"One man's been stabbed, and we can't reach the cockpit,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But somehow we'll alter the flight.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>We've guessed that the target is likely the White House,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And if we fail, we'll surely die."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The lines above were composed and sung by Leslie Fish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who is Leslie Fish?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leslie Fish is a writer, folk singer and "filk" musician - "filk" being the term for music tied to the science fiction and fantasy fan convention scene. She is a libertarian anarchist whose political activism has spanned the breadth of the movement. She has protested the Vietnam War, worked with the "Wobblies" (Industrial Workers of the World), defended gun rights and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cVOOXQo22o">praised the Moon landings</a>. On anarchism she wrote:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What sort of anarchist future would I like to see? There's no reason for a government-free society to be nothing but agrarian, no reason at all that it couldn't be industrial and space-faring.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She is a quasi-pagan. And a Trekker. Or "used to be," according to Fish:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I sort of lost interest when NEXT GENERATION came along; it's just too pussy, Yuppie-ish, and bloodless for my tastes.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fish also wrote "Flight 93," the most moving and inspiring artistic tribute yet made to those heroes of 9/11.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><br /><i>"We've nothing to fight with except our bare hands,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But we'll keep on trying until the plane lands</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>One way or the other. We've taken our stand.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>My darling, I love you. Goodbye."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you listen to it and are not moved, listen to it again. If you still are not moved, then I cannot help you. If, on any listening, you do not cry, at least a little, then you are much stronger than I.<br /><br /><i>He watched while the passengers battled and died,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And knew that no help would be found.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The guard was distracted. Just one chance to win.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>There's one case where suicide isn't a sin.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>He weighed all his chances. He said: "Auger in!"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And drove the ship into the ground.</i><br /><br />The passengers on Flight 93 almost succeeded in wresting control of the plane from the terrorists. Most believe that they effectively breached the cockpit. But there is controversy over who w</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as at the controls at the end. The song implies that it was a passenger - "Jason the pilot" - but the cockpit tapes appear to indicate that a hijacker crashed the plane, fearing that he was seconds away from being overpowered. It's also possible, of course, that there was a fi</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ght over the controls.<br /><br /><i>Flight 93 hit the ground at full speed,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And no one aboard her survives.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But the White House still stands, and a few thousand folks</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Can thank those aboard for their lives.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>There's no guarantee, when the Bad Guys come in,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>That they won't kill you all to a man.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>So when some fanatics are out to have fun,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>There's nowhere to hide and there's nowhere to run.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Then pray that the law lets you carry a gun,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But fight back however you can.</i><br /><br />So the song is a tribute but also a lesson. Don't expect the bad guys to have any scruples or mercy. Someti</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">mes, they just want to kill you, and perhaps thousands more in the bargain. No hero wants to die. But there are worse things than natural death. And better things than giving in.</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</i><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>You might not survive, but at least you can try.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Stand up and bring the ship down.</i><br /><br />A YouTube link to the </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">song follows, along with the full lyrics. Here are links to a few of Fish's other more notable songs - </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4y802_Ot-k" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Day it Fell Apart</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, a righteous anti-corporate ballad, also about heroism, in this case, hospital workers dealing with the results of a mine explosion, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSYNRlVqjfA" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Valhalla</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (warning: graphic paganism), one of her most well-known "filk" efforts, and </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO0XSreGVHY" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Gamers</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (warning: graphic nerdity), a light-hearted hymn to gamers and their battles against prejudice and the government. She currently has a blog, </span><a href="http://lesliebard.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">LeslieBard</a>,<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> whose most recent post has a distinctly </span><a href="http://lesliebard.blogspot.com/2017/09/political-theatre-charlottesville.html" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">nonconformist take on Charlottesville</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For Flight 93, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I highly recommend <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_93_(film)">United 93</a>, a </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">straight-ahead, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">non-ideological</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">narrative of the events, which manages to also be moving and inspiring.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>I wrote the above a year ago. A few days later I exchanged a number of neat letters with Leslie Fish. She is a true individualist in the common sense meaning of the term. One way of putting that is that she doesn't give a damn what anyone else thinks, and follows her ideas wherever she belives they lead, even if that's in a different direction from what some might predict. One of her recent posts (Fall, 2018) is a quasi-tribute to (of all people) John McCain. At the same time she has also often made a libertarian defense of Trump-like immigration controls.</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>I disagree with a few of her opinions. But I love more that she doesn't give a damn. Would that more Americans were like her.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Flight 93"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">b</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">y Leslie Fish</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She took off from Newark on a warm autumn day,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With forty-five travellers and crew.<br />They all were unarmed at the will of the law;<br />Security passed them all through.<br />An hour into flight-time, four Arabs jumped up --<br />Two Ahmeds, Ziad and Sa'eed --<br />Announced a hijacking and waved knives around<br />(Razorblades, box-knives and steak-knives they'd found),<br />And a box that they swore was a bomb up and down;<br />They thought that was all they would need.<br /><br />Flight 93 no more will fly.<br />Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:<br />You might not survive, but at least you can try.<br />Stand up and bring the ship down.<br /><br />CeeCee the stewardess had a cell-phone,<br />And called up her husband to say:<br />"The plane has been hijacked. We'll do as we're trained;<br />Be quiet and humbly obey.<br />They'll dicker for money or some social cause.<br />The government surely will pay.<br />They'll put us out somewhere and leave with their score,<br />Or maybe police will come catch them and more.<br />That's always the way this has been done before.<br />With luck, I'll be home in a day."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Next was Mark Bingham, who had a phone too,<br />And used it to call up his Mom.<br />He said they'd been hijacked by "three foreign men"<br />Who had knives and said they had a bomb.<br />But some of the passengers plotted, he said,<br />To take back the plane as it flew.<br />"But first tell me, Mom, is it true what they say?<br />That three other airplanes were hijacked today,<br />Flown straight into buildings and blew them away?"<br />His mother cried, and said: "It's true."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Jeremy Glick called his wife on the phone,<br />And told of the bomb and the knives.<br />He said: "If these stories we're hearing are true,<br />We might as well fight for our lives."<br />His wife told him: "Yes, the World Trade Center's hit,<br />And maybe the Pentagon too."<br />He left the phone hanging, then came back and said:<br />"We've nothing to fight with, and may wind up dead,<br />But we've voted to stand up and fight them instead,<br />And we might keep them from getting through."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Thomas Burnett phoned his wife several times,<br />Reporting the course of the fight.<br />He said: "One man's been stabbed, and we can't reach the cockpit,<br />But somehow we'll alter the flight.<br />We've guessed that the target is likely the White House,<br />And if we fail, we'll surely die.<br />We've nothing to fight with except our bare hands,<br />But we'll keep on trying until the plane lands<br />One way or the other. We've taken our stand.<br />My darling, I love you. Goodbye."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Jason the pilot could hear the whole tale.<br />He'd signaled as well as he could.<br />He saw that the terrorists still held the cockpit --<br />And one way to stop them for good.<br />He watched while the passengers battled and died,<br />And knew that no help would be found.<br />The guard was distracted. Just one chance to win.<br />There's one case where suicide isn't a sin.<br />He weighed all his chances. He said: "Auger in!"<br />And drove the ship into the ground.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Flight 93 hit the ground at full speed,<br />And no one aboard her survives.<br />But the White House still stands, and a few thousand folks<br />Can thank those aboard for their lives.<br />There's no guarantee, when the Bad Guys come in,<br />That they won't kill you all to a man.<br />So when some fanatics are out to have fun,<br />There's nowhere to hide and there's nowhere to run.<br />Then pray that the law lets you carry a gun,<br />But fight back however you can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrlDbUdXjNZqE2eDHFow_TsQ3jEEjCQELykpEzMnoK35qoj7l-JlgLZexvg3tf_spzHhNtbVE4K74T64U3BlyV4mIE3xzx7hh-XdEpfJyuiFXKk4-v9U8nhwasIU18APN8vVEM6JcAMo/s1600/Leslie+Fish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrlDbUdXjNZqE2eDHFow_TsQ3jEEjCQELykpEzMnoK35qoj7l-JlgLZexvg3tf_spzHhNtbVE4K74T64U3BlyV4mIE3xzx7hh-XdEpfJyuiFXKk4-v9U8nhwasIU18APN8vVEM6JcAMo/s400/Leslie+Fish.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leslie Fish</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Cross posted at </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://mahoundsparadise.blogspot.com/2018/09/flight-93-stand-up-and-bring-ship-down.html"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">M</span>ahound's Paradise</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span><br />
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Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-82112935303482549032018-04-22T09:59:00.000-05:002018-04-22T10:06:08.415-05:00Story for Earth Day: "A Narrow Escape" by Lord Dunsany<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO8dKAklS0cjtH7OXBjhCr2CtP_fZZydof9Ljhh2r5F4yrzlIAfvnz9PwHWgMkRFOzn4NYJpXfqYRDwzMsx0ECURf1j73zIwD8QKfl80uvEemVLdA1mwMpnNXS1jrwdT0HMF49D-46iGA/s1600/Dunsany+A+Narrow+Escape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="307" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO8dKAklS0cjtH7OXBjhCr2CtP_fZZydof9Ljhh2r5F4yrzlIAfvnz9PwHWgMkRFOzn4NYJpXfqYRDwzMsx0ECURf1j73zIwD8QKfl80uvEemVLdA1mwMpnNXS1jrwdT0HMF49D-46iGA/s400/Dunsany+A+Narrow+Escape.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"A Narrow Escape" from <i>Tales of Wonder</i>, 1916, by Lord Dunsany</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was underground.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />In that dank cavern down below Belgrave Square the walls were dripping. But what was that to the magician? It was secrecy that he needed, not dryness. There he pondered upon the trend of events, shaped destinies and concocted magical brews.<br /><br />For the last few years the serenity of his ponderings had been disturbed by the noise of the motor-bus; while to his keen ears there came the earthquake-rumble, far off, of the train in the tube, going down Sloane Street; and when he heard of the world above his head was not to its credit.<br /><br />He decided one evening over his evil pipe, down there in his dank chamber, that London had lived long enough, had abused its opportunities, had gone too far, in fine, with its civilisation. And so he decided to wreck it.<br /><br />Therefore he beckoned up his acolyte from the weedy end of the cavern, and, "Bring me," he said, "the heart of the toad that dwelleth in Arabia and by the mountains of Bethany." The acolyte slipped away by the hidden door, leaving that grim old man with his frightful pipe, and whither he went who knows but the gipsy people, or by what path he returned; but within a year he stood in the cavern again, slipping secretly in by the trap while the old man smoked, and he brought with him a little fleshy thing that rotted in a casket of pure gold.<br /><br />"What is it?" the old man croaked.<br /><br />"It is," said the acolyte, "the heart of the toad that dwelt once in Arabia and by the mountains of Bethany."<br /><br />The old man's crooked fingers closed on it, and he blessed the acolyte with his rasping voice and claw-like hand uplifted; the motor-bus rumbled above on its endless journey; far off the train shook Sloane Street.<br /><br />"Come," said the old magician, "it is time." And there and then they left the weedy cavern, the acolyte carrying cauldron, gold poker and all things needful, and went abroad in the light. And very wonderful the old man looked in his silks.<br /><br />Their goal was the outskirts of London; the old man strode in front and the acolyte ran behind him, and there was something magical in the old man's stride alone, without his wonderful dress, the cauldron and wand, the hurrying acolyte and the small gold poker.<br /><br />Little boys jeered till they caught the old man's eye. So there went on through London this strange procession of two, too swift for any to follow. Things seemed worse up there than they did in the cavern, and the further they got on their way towards London's outskirts the worse London got. "It is time," said the old man, "surely."<br /><br />And so they came at last to London's edge and a small hill watching it with a mournful look. It was so mean that the acolyte longed for the cavern, dank though it was and full of terrible sayings that the old man said when he slept.<br /><br />They climbed the hill and put the cauldron down, and put there in the necessary things, and lit a fire of herbs that no chemist will sell nor decent gardener grow, and stirred the cauldron with the golden poker. The magician retired a little apart and muttered, then he strode back to the cauldron and, all being ready, suddenly opened the casket and let the fleshy thing fall in to boil.<br /><br />Then he made spells, then he flung up his arms; the fumes from the cauldron entering in at his mind he said raging things that he had not known before and runes that were dreadful (the acolyte screamed); there he cursed London from fog to loam-pit, from zenith to the abyss, motor-bus, factory, shop, parliament, people. "Let them all perish," he said, "and London pass away, tram lines and bricks and pavement, the usurpers too long of the fields, let them all pass away and the wild hares come back, blackberry and briar-rose."<br /><br />"Let it pass," he said, "pass now, pass utterly."<br /><br />In the momentary silence the old man coughed, then waited with eager eyes; and the long long hum of London hummed as it always has since first the reed-huts were set up by the river, changing its note at times but always humming, louder now than it was in years gone by, but humming night and day though its voice be cracked with age; so it hummed on.<br /><br />And the old man turned him round to his trembling acolyte and terribly said as he sank into the earth: "YOU HAVE NOT BROUGHT ME THE HEART OF THE TOAD THAT DWELLETH IN ARABIA NOR BY THE MOUNTAINS OF BETHANY!"</span></div>
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Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-33467206083593960592018-04-04T11:11:00.000-05:002018-04-04T14:48:16.481-05:00Historical Analysis: D&D Prices Then and Now (Is 5e the Most Expensive Edition Ever?)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwhdo68lQgUW39AML36jI1xHUYtlM0tW4r5zuGUNm7KWqX6H3OeGQRFrEywpzK7BsVc6L3EWZ6eI3S5jdM2x2O-qE3JGfD_75FaQTPacrixa3a1StyP449EV14s1ILPpul464h-mg9u30/s1600/Two+Handbooks.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1249" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwhdo68lQgUW39AML36jI1xHUYtlM0tW4r5zuGUNm7KWqX6H3OeGQRFrEywpzK7BsVc6L3EWZ6eI3S5jdM2x2O-qE3JGfD_75FaQTPacrixa3a1StyP449EV14s1ILPpul464h-mg9u30/s400/Two+Handbooks.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To me, a middle-aged person who started purchasing </span><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dungeons & Dragons</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Rulebooks forty years ago, the contemporary product offerings of Wizards of the Coast seem wildly overpriced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I bought the AD&D Players Handbook in 1978 for $9.95. By the end of the next year, I would own all three AD&D rulebooks, having paid a total of $31.85. At that time, the "whitebox" set of the original three "little brown books" was still being sold for $14.95. Just a few years before, it had retailed for $10.00 - a price that many contemporary reviewers thought was quite high for a mere <i>game</i>, especially one that did not contain a board or pieces.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today, the three D&D 5e "core" rulebooks sell for a combined list price of $149.85.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now of course I realize that there has been a fair amount of inflation since 1979 (or 1974, when the first edition of D&D hit the market), but has there been <i>that much</i> inflation? One wouldn't have thought so.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I decided to find out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In fact, prices have gone up by a factor of 5.3 since 1974, and by a factor of 3.2 since 1979. (That prices almost doubled in that five-year period, as seen from those numbers, shows that inflation was raging in the seventies.) See the CPI Inflation Calculator, <a href="https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl">here</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I should note that <i>merely</i> adjusting for inflation doesn't give you the full story about people's purchasing power. Among other things, it doesn't look at how much money people actually have. One might assume that average wages and incomes have risen at least as fast as inflation over the last forty years, but that may not be the true for certain groups, including, arguably the sorts of groups - teenagers, students, younger wage earners, etc - who make up a large proportion of the RPG market. Still, adjusting for inflation is a good place to start.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From this point on, when I talk of prices or use the terms <i>expensive</i>, <i>inexpensive</i> and so on, I will be referring to inflation-adjusted 2018 dollars. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the fun of it, I made a chart of some of the most well-known versions of D&D, with their original prices as well as their inflation-adjusted prices. As you can see, I also made a second chart featuring some of the "retro-clones." Which editions are or were <i>actually</i> the most (or least) expensive? Is 2018 a good time to be a D&D or RPG purchaser (in terms of prices) or were things better back in the day? </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmcXxQ0mk0nx6VFpgFfLD8enm243kNj2JGWhnc_ZCX558ixs6zyZKkiiBXvUN4GMvPz2CQHp8SgN3p6zZ53q7pJ4zK2HL-uDANc5s6Nx_QqWntgSi9wV-oFSJv9XonnSj1MQwpWlKFy9Y/s1600/D%2526D+Prices.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="829" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmcXxQ0mk0nx6VFpgFfLD8enm243kNj2JGWhnc_ZCX558ixs6zyZKkiiBXvUN4GMvPz2CQHp8SgN3p6zZ53q7pJ4zK2HL-uDANc5s6Nx_QqWntgSi9wV-oFSJv9XonnSj1MQwpWlKFy9Y/s400/D%2526D+Prices.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are some of the most interesting things I got from the charts:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First Impressions:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In terms of its list price (3 x $49.95) D&D 5e is in fact the most expensive version of D&D ever published.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, if you purchase it through <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Players-Handbook-Dungeons-Dragons-Wizards/dp/0786965606/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522856060&sr=8-1&keywords=d%24d+5e">Amazon</a>, where you get almost a 50% discount, it ends up being the <i>least</i> expensive, at least among the editions that feature three hardcover books. (I should note that while there was some book and game discounting going on before Amazon, the magnitude was generally nowhere near as high.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Starting with AD&D in 1977-79, each successive hardcover edition would be a bit more expensive, culminating in D&D 5e, which cost almost 50% more than its first ancestor (going by its list price, at least).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The original 1974 edition sold for less than half of the price of any of the successive five hardcover editions.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, if you add in the three supplements - <i>Greyhawk</i>, <i>Blackmoor</i> and <i>Eldritch Wizardry</i> - the prices are comparable.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unsurprisingly, the "Basic" editions have always been the least expensive (and thus, given certain assumptions, have been the "best deals"), coming in at anywhere from 50% to 15% of the hardcover sets</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can buy <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17003/Players-Handbook-1e?it=1">hardcover reprints of the original AD&D 1st edition volumes</a> on DriveThruRPG for substantially less than they cost back in the day ($74.85 vs. $103.41). Not sure about the quality, but there it is. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pages and Words:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The above analysis changes somewhat if one looks at page and word counts. Of course, some would argue that more pages and words don't necessarily make a game product better - they might even make it worse. But for the sake of argument, let's assume they add value to the product at a constant rate.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The original edition of <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> may have been at the time, one of the longest game rulesets ever published, coming in at 45,000 words - almost certainly longer than the typical rulebook for, say, any of the Avalon Hill or SPI "monster" wargames of the period, and, I assume, judging from <i>Chainmail</i>, substantially longer than the typical set of miniatures rules.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Five years later, the three AD&D game books would utterly crush that record, coming in at over a half-million words. I can't imagine how this wouldn't have meant that AD&D was by far the longest set of game rules published in the history of the world. Yet, oddly, as far as I can remember, few seemed to have remarked on this. Though role-playing was still new, and though the first AD&D rulebook - the 1977 Monster Manual - was stunning in its quality and scope, I don't remember anyone saying, "uh, guys, should anyone really be playing a game with a set of instructions 500,000 words long?" It seemed a completely natural and logical development, and is, of course, taken for granted now. But the more I think of it, the more I think this is extremely odd.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With AD&D there was a massive leap in price to, I assume, near record levels for games. How many relatively self-contained games had ever cost more than $30?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the other hand, if looked at in terms of the number of words per dollar spent, AD&D constituted a massive leap in value - at least compared to earlier versions. You got <i>six times</i> the words for your dollar with AD&D than you got from the little brown books.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The successive three-volume hardcover sets would all offer comparable word value - 4,000 - 6,000 words per dollar.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, the number of pages in each book took a large leap with 3rd edition (and the number of words per page dropped off somewhat proportionately). It looked like you were getting more content even though you weren't. Of course, if fewer words per page meant more pictures per page, one could argue that you were in fact getting more content.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Words peaked at close to three-quarters of a million with edition 3.5. That's more words than are in the novel <i>War and Peace</i>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Curiously, edition 3.5 was the only multi-volume edition to feature three books containing exactly the same number of pages - 322 each, depending on how you count pages.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not counting D&D 5e at the Amazon discounted price, the best value (in terms of words per dollar) of any D&D edition was the <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17171/DD-Rules-Cyclopedia-Basic?it=1">Rules Cyclopedia</a>.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Retro-Clones:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For purposes of this analysis, I'm ignoring the fact that many of the clones are also available in free or extremely inexpensive PDF versions.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All the retro-clones seem to offer good value compared with their D&D parents. Yet, for most of the clones, if value is expressed in terms of word count, their value is merely comparable with the various Wizards of the Coast "core" books, if even slightly less.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Part of the philosophy of the clones is that less is in fact more. But still.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In terms of pages and words per dollar, the incredibly massive <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/stuart-marshall/osric-22-bw-sc/paperback/product-14596426.html">OSRIC</a> and the incredibly cheap <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/simon-j-bull/delving-deeper-reference-rules-compendium/paperback/product-22746043.html">Delving Deeper</a> are the undisputed champions. <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/michael-thomas/blueholme-prentice-rules/paperback/product-23525933.html">Blueholme Prentice Rules</a> also deserves a mention.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The three members of the "100,000 word club" (at least on this chart) - <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/daniel-proctor/labyrinth-lord-revised-edition-perfect-bound/paperback/product-15061704.html">Labyrinth Lord</a>, <a href="https://www.froggodgames.com/swords-wizardry-complete-rulebook">Swords & Wizardry Complete</a> and my own <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=seven+voyages+of+zylarthen&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</a> - are all roughly comparable in terms of overall price and words per dollar. (By the way, the words per dollar figure for the Labyrinth Lord hardcover edition, four rows down on the chart, is in error. Instead of "6,260" it should read, "3,130".) Much of the variance presumably reflects the different formats - hardcovers vs. paperbacks vs. booklets.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Zylarthen's monster book contains 35% more words per page than its non-monster books (I think this is because its "stat blocs" are presented in prose as opposed to table form, and there are no other tables in the volume). I suspect Zylarthen is relatively unique in this as it is the <i>reverse</i> of the phenomenon you get in the five multi-volumes editions of AD&D and D&D where the monster books are often 35% or so less "meaty" - presumably due to having more pictures and stat blocs. You can't see this from the charts but I just thought it was a minor (obviously, very minor) weird and interesting fact.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can buy physical versions of the two relatively "straight" clones of the three little brown books - <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/matthew-finch/swords-wizardry-whitebox-rules-softcover/paperback/product-15991261.html">Swords & Wizardry Whitebox</a> and Delving Deeper - for <i>one-fifth</i> and <i>one-tenth</i>, respectively, of what the three little brown books cost back in the day.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or, you can buy a PDF of the original <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/28306/ODD-Dungeons--Dragons-Original-Edition-0e?term=original+d&test_epoch=0&it=1"><i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> whitebox</a> itself for <i>one-fifth</i> of what you would have paid for its physical instantiation back in the day.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Life isn't all bad.</span></li>
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Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-59099071179651184322018-04-02T01:44:00.000-05:002018-04-05T17:44:59.549-05:00ZYLARTHEN Bundle (Booklets plus Deluxe PDF) Now Available on DriveThruRPG<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/238547/SEVEN-VOYAGES-of-ZYLARTHEN-5-Booklets-and-Deluxe-PDF-BUNDLE"><img border="0" data-original-height="1173" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5LKINXCrZR5aXZBTI6EA2KnKupUBN1g5_z5sYxjF3NF4k2rog0Kw_O1KbMKNQ_CKibqOCgxTfXkKzt5f4aiIC3QnmpUShziJlclK33gKAAqcbDfmn1Akkq6t5LUokZ_kdeCwMbD_Qp90/s400/Zylarthen+Bundle+Picture.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt; text-indent: 0in;">Campion and Clitherow has (finally) bundled the physical instantiations and combined PDF of its classic OD&D "neo-clone" <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/238547/SEVEN-VOYAGES-of-ZYLARTHEN-5-Booklets-and-Deluxe-PDF-BUNDLE"><i>Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</i></a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt; text-indent: 0in;">The bundle includes the five physical booklets (the four original books plus the <i>Book of Spells</i> supplement) and the 337 page deluxe <i>Electronic Edition</i>, featuring an extensively bookmarked and hyperlinked PDF that includes all of the previous plus a printable Player Reference Sheets booklet.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt; text-indent: 0in;">The bundle is priced at $34.75 on DriveThruRPG. Previous purchasers of the PDF alone will find they can purchase the bundle for $29.75, or $5.00 off the total price for the individual booklets.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; text-indent: 0in;">One of the reasons we're excited about this this is that we've noticed that most <i>Zylarthen</i> purchasers bought their booklets from Lulu but their PDF from DriveThru. Lulu prints great booklets, and I assume some people them during one of Lulu's periodic shipping sales. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; text-indent: 0in;">We wanted to create a way for DriveThruRPG people to get their own "permanent" advantage while creating a "one-stop" mechanism for new <i>Zylarthen</i> purchasers to get both the booklets and the PDF at a discount.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; text-indent: 0in;">For those unfamiliar with <i>Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</i>, the motivation was not to "clean up" or add "house-rules" to the original edition of the world's most popular role-playing game in the manner of, say, a straight retro-clone. There's nothing wrong with either of those programs, but they had already been done by, among others, <i><a href="http://www.immersiveink.com/">Delving Deeper</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/matthew-finch/swords-wizardry-whitebox-rules-softcover/paperback/product-15991261.html">Swords & Wizardry White Box</a></i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; text-indent: 0in;">Rather, it was to identify the essential elements of the original game and, as it were, "turn them up to 11."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; text-indent: 0in;">And much of this had to do with tone and set</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ting. As we remarked in the Introduction, "the brilliance and charm of earliest version of the original game was its simplicity and elegance, combined with a certain asymmetrical quirkiness. It invoked many sources—King Arthur, the Crusades, Middle-earth, the Arabian Nights, pulp fantasy, fairy tales, even science fiction. Its breadth of tone was a virtue, offering to the players a multiplicity of delights."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are the gods and goddesses of myth, as well as the goblins and witches of Faery. And here also are the Martian races described by Burroughs, as well as the androids, cyborgs and robots of speculative fiction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are treks through a fantastic wilderness or delvings into the deepest and most mysterious dungeons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Zylarthen</i> is a game you can feel comfortable playing with your children. It is also a game for adults who wish to recapture the sense of wonder they had on first being introduced to the role-playing hobby. We hope that it will appeal to role-playing history wonks as well as younger enthusiasts who wish to get become more acquainted with, as it were, the roots of the thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We hope you enjoy it!</span><br />
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</style>Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-63645724614556584592018-03-31T11:53:00.000-05:002018-03-31T11:53:05.621-05:00Villanelle for Easter Eve<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqPkZhiQPP2HaOa8Zv4LTem13Yrx_-6jd2skzeO02vpZ_aBnYbWys711e57gInE6YH5PULC4w3_3HPU4K9APg_oJtLNbAGOlzfPhJlh_jfuZLDuwtYP8iWd4TG6o262mbP1ZWlPiGgPqo/s1600/Eric_Liddell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqPkZhiQPP2HaOa8Zv4LTem13Yrx_-6jd2skzeO02vpZ_aBnYbWys711e57gInE6YH5PULC4w3_3HPU4K9APg_oJtLNbAGOlzfPhJlh_jfuZLDuwtYP8iWd4TG6o262mbP1ZWlPiGgPqo/s1600/Eric_Liddell.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The athlete and missionary, Eric Liddell</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For years, I sought to walk a godly pace,<br /> Not sensing all things rushing into God.<br />But now I run, I run as in a race. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was a stream, but one I could not trace<br />While I was wading dust as thick as blood<br />And shouting that I walked a godly pace. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was a sun, but one I did not face,<br />Nor see the hills pursue it in a crowd.<br />I did not hear it panting in its race. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But everyone who turns to seek His grace<br />Becomes a restless horse the faint breeze prods<br />And instigates beyond a godly pace. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I could not be left lonely by the chase<br />Toward Him. The ground was moving in a flood,<br />And all things sang and hurtled in the race. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And through that storm I saw how wide a space<br />I had to cross. I heard each slow step's thud.<br />For years, I sought to walk a godly pace,<br />But now I run, I run as in a race.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://sarahruden.com/a-selection-of-poems/villanelle-hidden-life/">Villanelle of the Hidden Life</a> by <a href="http://sarahruden.com/">Sarah Ruden</a></span></blockquote>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-77781964303978224582018-03-28T17:12:00.000-05:002018-04-02T21:24:05.527-05:00Fantasy Weather: How to Create a Temperature Algorithm in Just 16 Easy Steps!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTMoAZqsnTYPEUySPdkeff4tKRlIMB_N_zMfZLvsAFa7DyB4Bjfx6LkpyWqhCOS3mO0TqmWo_frw1hLmdYHFUFi94TPU6R5qoc2a0UjGUXy_3BaGCZKF_tBuHYmsmb1olhljM1U29qaw/s1600/Parrish+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="326" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTMoAZqsnTYPEUySPdkeff4tKRlIMB_N_zMfZLvsAFa7DyB4Bjfx6LkpyWqhCOS3mO0TqmWo_frw1hLmdYHFUFi94TPU6R5qoc2a0UjGUXy_3BaGCZKF_tBuHYmsmb1olhljM1U29qaw/s400/Parrish+Cover.jpg" width="356" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or at least I'm going to tell you how I did it for </span><a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/236069/THE-ALMANAC-OF-FANTASY-WEATHER-Volume-1-Swords--Sorcery" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not a computer programmer. The last (and only) programming language I learned was Fortran, as a college sophomore in 1982. (Yes, Fortran. Is it still around?) But I've always enjoyed working with numbers and logic puzzles. So, I've ended up spending a fair amount of time "programming" in Microsoft Excel. I'm not an expert, nor even close, but I've learned enough Excel to help me do what I want to do for </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">both my real-world job and gaming projects.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I also knew almost nothing about weather or climate science (at least in any formal, courses-in-school way) before beginning the <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/227118/SEVEN-YEARS-OF-FANTASY-WEATHER-Volume-1-Medieval-England?src=hottest_filtered">SEVEN YEARS of FANTASY WEATHER</a> and THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER projects.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In a sense, this post is a companion post to my <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/11/osr-art-friday-editing-batten-long-post.html">Editing Batten</a> post of a few years ago. It tracks the progress of an amateur (or more accurately, quasi-ignoramus) in "learning" a new thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't want to sound falsely modest. I do think I am pretty good with numbers. But as far as I can tell, 80%+ of OSR people are pretty good (or better than pretty good) with numbers. My impression is that many of you are IT or programming people. One of my favorite gaming blogs - <a href="http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/">Delta's D&D Hotspot</a> - is written by a professional mathematician.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As with Batten, what's notable is not that I did it, but that <i>I</i> did it. Or to put it another way, If <i>I</i> did it, then you can probably do it, too. We're all nerds here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whether you would ever <i>want</i> to do it is, of course, another question... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The problem:</b> Given a particular real-world model - say, Jerusalem - create an algorithm for realistically simulating the temperature for 365 days or 730 twelve-hour day/night periods over the course of a typical year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1. Find a data source.</b> For temperature, I used <a href="http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=9204&units=">Weatherbase</a> and <a href="https://weatherspark.com/d/98866/1/15/Average-Weather-on-January-15-in-Jerusalem-Israel">Weather Spark</a> almost exclusively. Most online weather data sources feature both the Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales. I used Fahrenheit for all data entry and internal calculations, but presented the temperature using both scales on the actual weather charts. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is some of the data from Weatherbase:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPSZu9dZgJNnFgxTVhxtaggeRmh_dKjvxz3bwRMjur56X1D9_xhfyEYmAKfgFxNHNjCTPQ9JNBeUV6L2gkrnaQx5c8BH39Z0XxICavx0ThBgT94zRALIrOx3cg-b7GOsSJ3krSEj6Zeso/s1600/Weatherbase+-+Jerusalem.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="730" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPSZu9dZgJNnFgxTVhxtaggeRmh_dKjvxz3bwRMjur56X1D9_xhfyEYmAKfgFxNHNjCTPQ9JNBeUV6L2gkrnaQx5c8BH39Z0XxICavx0ThBgT94zRALIrOx3cg-b7GOsSJ3krSEj6Zeso/s400/Weatherbase+-+Jerusalem.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And here is some of the data from Weatherspark:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I should note that the overall weather data would often differ from source to source. The <i>average number of days with precipitation</i> was notoriously variable, for example, presumably because the definition of "precipitation" differed from site to site (and many sites wouldn't explicitly tell you which definition they used). However, for temperature this wasn't a huge problem.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Determine base temperature ranges and probabilities for each season or month.</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I began, following the suggestions in Lisa Cabala's 1988 </span><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Dragon</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> magazine article, </span><a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2018/03/weathering-storms-dragon-137-and-koppen.html" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"Weathering the Storms,"</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> with </span><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">three seasons</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - Winter, Summer and Spring/Fall - each broken down into four sets of ranges. Here is what I started with for a "South Temperate Coastal Hot" climate type, similar to that of Jerusalem:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But in redesigning SEVEN YEARS of FANTASY WEATHER to create THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER I made things more granular - in this case, going from seasons to months, and from four ranges to eight ranges - and made the data specific to the location I was trying to model:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The lows and highs were taken from Weatherbase, but the ranges within the percentile chances were taken from the Weatherspark charts for the middle day of each month, using the values at the time of day that contained the peak day temperature. "Eyeballing" the values for the shades was initially annoying, but after a while I got pretty fast at it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>3. Smooth things out.</b> As you can see, unsurprisingly, the ranges can shift up or down pretty dramatically from month to month. For example, they shift up about 8 points or so from April to May. Rather than have these shifts suddenly happen</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, so to speak,</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> on the 1st of each month, I smoothed these transitions from "peak" - the middle of each month - to peak. You just take the difference between peaks and divide them by 30 or so to get the incremental change for each day. If you think about it, one problem with this method is that it might smooth things out too much - a </span><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">peak</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> is not necessarily the same as an <i>average</i>. I'll talk about how I addressed that problem in #16, below. Here are the <i>smoothed</i> numbers for the first five days of January for Jersusalem:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why are the <i>lows</i> (0.0) here 10° higher than the lows under "Lowest Recorded Temperature" in the Weatherbase data? Because, these are the base </span><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">day</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">temperatures. The evening temperatures will be, for January, an average of 10° points lower.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why is the first "1/1" cell red, and what is that "J" and "x" in the upper right-hand cells? Don't ask. My "programming" is filled with that sort of cryptic stuff. I often forget myself what some of it means myself. </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Determine how "sticky" the base temperature is.</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> Generally temperature doesn't suddenly "re-set" every 12-hours. You might get a sudden major rise or drop, but </span><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">on average</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> you don't. Early on, I settled on a 90% "stickiness chance." That is, as you go from one 12-hour period to the next, there is a 90% chance that the base temperature will remain the same and a 10% chance it will re-set. This means that a particular base temperature phase will last an average of 5 days. Of course, even if the base temperature does re-set after, say, 5 days, this might not be noticeable - it might re-set to a value close to the previous one. So even in climes and seasons with quite wide potential temperature ranges, relatively consistent warm or cold spells might persist for some time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is 90%, or an average of 5 days, realistic? I have no idea - whatever "realistic" might even mean in the context of this sort of model. But it seemed about right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>5. Determine the relationship between day and evening temperatures.</b> In virtually every climate, the day temperature is <i>on average</i> higher than the evening temperature, though, how much it might be higher, on average, will depend on climate and season. Weatherspark provides the average high (day) and low (eve) temperature averages for each day throughout the year. In Jerusalem, these high and lows differ by anywhere from 10° in the Winter to 18</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">°</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> in the Summer. In other words, if the afternoon temperature reaches, say, 90</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">° F</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> for a particular day in July, it will, on average, drop to a low of 72° F during the coldest part of the evening. This is, again, an <i>average</i>, however - the algorithm randomly determines a different actual variance each time. I settled on a variance (from the variance) of 20%. That is, the actual variance will be between 80% and 120% of the average variance. Thus, in July, the temperature might drop anywhere from 14° to 22° from day to evening. Of course, it won't <i>always</i> drop, since it's possible the temperature might re-set to a higher base during the transition from day to evening, an increase potentially higher than the average day/eve decrease. But this will be infrequent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>6. Add a completely random variance to the base.</b> I went back and forth between 1° and 2°, and I think I settled on 1°. (Weirdly, 2° made things look too swingy to me.) That would mean a base of 80° F could yield an actual temperature with whopping variance of anywhere from 79° F to 81° F. Why go to the trouble of doing this since this would obviously have virtually no effect on play? Well, so the charts would look more "realistic," of course - like real weather as opposed to made-up weather, and thus trick the reader into thinking it was real. Here, as in many other places, "realism," for me, would actually mean "apparent realism." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>7. Add an additional quasi-random small "step" cycle to the base.</b> In the real-world, you often notice small up or down temperature trends over the course of days. It's not quite a random-walk, in that once you've started to go up or down, there's a greater chance that you will continue than that you will stop or reverse. But a stop or reverse is always possible, and once you get to a peak of 3 or 4 above or below the trend line, you go back in the other direction. This adds further variance and "apparent realism" to an otherwise constant base.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is a (very rainy) first nine days of January. Can you tell which temperature changes happen around the same base and which are "re-sets"?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>8. Add in the possibility of "exogenous" shocks.</b> In the real world, sometimes particularly cold or hot years are completely random within the internal parameters of the system. But other times, some external factor - sunspots, ash from a volcano, etc. - will shift the whole system one way or another. In THE ALMANAC, every 50 days there's a chance for such a shock, which at the limit could move the ranges up or down by as much as 8° (though 8° would be very rare). Like the base temperature, these shocks have a 75% chance of <i>sticking</i> from one 50-day phase to the next. Also, as with base temperature, the shocks are often <i>not</i> shocks - the transitions are smoothed - though occasionally they are.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I thought it would be fun to indicate on the charts whether a particular month or year was <i>unusually</i> cold or hot. The player-characters or NPC inhabitants of the area would presumably know this, and it might prompt adventure or plot hooks perhaps involving higher level NPC's, monsters or even gods messing around with things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or it could just be sunspots. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>9. Optional: Create ceilings or floors for record highs and lows.</b> This is sort of a question of taste, but in THE ALMANAC, once you get to within 3 or 4 points of a record high or low for the month (based on real-world weather data often going back many years), a mechanism kicks in that will randomly re-assign you to a point also within 3 or 4 points of that high or low but in a manner that makes actually hitting the high or low less likely than getting a few points from it. That's a confusing way of saying that if you have ceilings and floors, you don't want temperatures to "bunch up" at the identical extremes. This would look odd and "unrealistic" on the charts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>10. Determine temperature minimums and maximums for precipitation events.</b> This is a basic insight, and it's sort of obvious, but as with many otherwise obvious things, I was alerted to it by David Axler's <i>Dragon</i> article, <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2018/03/fantasy-weather-inspiration-and-sources.html">"Weather in the World of Greyhawk"</a>. I initially cribbed the values from Axler, but would later modify some of them. The idea is that you always have a chance for precipitation event - determined by the climate type and month - but the range of <i>which</i> precipitation events you might get will depend on the temperature. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thus, it needs to be at least 30° F for Drizzle, 4</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">0° F for a Gale and </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">55° F for a Cyclone. It must be below </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">35° F for a Light Snowstorm and below 2</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">0° F for a Light Blizzard. For Light Fog, it has to be between 30</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">° F</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and 70</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">° F</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. For Freezing Rain or Sleet, it has to be between 25</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">° F</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and 35</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">° F</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. And so on:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>11. Make sure that the temperature won't exceed the maximums or fall below the minimums during the precipitation event.</b> Many precipitation events only last a few hours, and thus will only take up one 12-hour period, but some will last longer. You don't want to temperature to suddenly shoot up to 50</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">°</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> F during a blizzard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>12. Create a mechanism for possibly lowering the temperature if a particular precipitation event happens.</b> This is different from 10, above. The idea is that temperature is the base engine that influences everything that happens - from precipitation to windspeed. If the temperature is 100</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">°</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> F, you can still get a rainstorm, but that rainstorm would then lower the temperature - at least while it was raining.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I went around and around on this, and had a difficult time finding information for how this worked in the real world. But it just seemed sensible that rain would "cool things off," somewhat. Can it <i>be</i> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">100</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">°</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> F during a rainstorm? </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">90</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">°</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> F? </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">85</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">°</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> F? I came up with some values but am still not sure whether they were "realistic".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also, as with #10, above, you have to come up with a way to "fuzz" things, otherwise any lowered temperatures will bunch at the maximums and look dumb. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>13. Create the possibility of temperature shifts - warm fronts or cold fronts - caused by or associated with precipitation events. </b>This is different from 12 - not a temporary shift in apparent temperature, but an actual change in the base. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In THE ALMANAC, there's a 50% chance that "mild" precipitation events - Drizzle, Light Rainstorm, etc. - will cause the base temperature to shift up 1 to 3 steps, and "harsh" events - Thunderstorms, Blizzards - will cause the temperature to shift down by 1 to 3 steps. I think this is quasi-realistic, based on the information I could find.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writing this into the algorithm was tricky for me as it potentially created <i>circular references</i> (utter doom in Excel) - temperature determining possible precipitation which in turn possibly determined temperature - but eventually I figured it out. To be honest, I don't remember how.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's a case where a Light Rainstorm rode in on a (minor) warm front:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBlljHxvZ6xonq-LFH06v0IX4wmfWck1WqYTmVPkwIGgYXZbIBi0OYN1VipwlaZHIc1-NbDh1ydwtESAOoniKPOBvK3UKnU_9qxtbwhPc8zYsPp8H6pVzLTjzC5ikEiVln7bNqCh7RXbU/s1600/13+Warm+Front.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="305" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBlljHxvZ6xonq-LFH06v0IX4wmfWck1WqYTmVPkwIGgYXZbIBi0OYN1VipwlaZHIc1-NbDh1ydwtESAOoniKPOBvK3UKnU_9qxtbwhPc8zYsPp8H6pVzLTjzC5ikEiVln7bNqCh7RXbU/s400/13+Warm+Front.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>14. Add in wind-chill.</b> In the Introduction to <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/228613/SEVEN-YEARS-OF-FANTASY-WEATHER-Volume-3-Indea?src=hottest_filtered">SEVEN YEARS of FANTASY WEATHER: Indea</a>, I argued against this, but then I changed my mind, perhaps due to suffering through another unpleasant Chicago Winter - a Winter (still not over) made much more unpleasant by the wind. But I thought it would be too fussy to put two temperatures - the actual one and the "feels like" wind-chill one - on the chart. Thus, my wind-chill measurement is hidden, but it does determine the "C" rating - C-1, C-2 and C-3 - for rating the <i>effect</i> of cold temperatures. The effects of wind-chill are particularly noticeable in the Southern Mountains:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>15. Add humidity and a heat-index.</b> The internal algorithm for THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER generates relative humidity for each 12-hour period, based on the climate type, temperature, season, cloud cover and precipitation status. But, as with wind-chill, I decided it would be too busy to list relative humidity on the charts, except in a general way on the yearly summaries. But the relative humidity does help to determine my own heat index, represented, as with cold, with three ratings - H+1, H+2 and H+3 - on the charts. Along with temperature and relative humidity, the rating also incorporates wind speed - which at very high temperatures may actually make things feel hotter - as well as sun intensity. Thus, cloud cover could go both ways - more clouds might mean more relative humidity, but they also might mean that direct sunlight is less intense.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>16. Adjust the monthly weather ranges to approximate the desired averages.</b> Because of the peaks vs. averages thing and the sometime bias caused by the warm and cold front adjustments, as well as other factors - some of which remained admittedly somewhat opaque to me - the <i>average</i> monthly temperature averages I ended up with for a particular climate template were sometimes "off" the real-world model averages (as listed on Weatherbase) by a number of degrees. (The </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>average</i> averages were taken from 80 simulated years. Don't worry - once you set things up, simulating up to eight years at a time takes about five seconds.)</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here, I suppose, was another place where it's unlikely anyone would have noticed or cared, but it still bugged me. To have gotten this far, so to speak, and then to end up with, say, February off by an average of 6° was annoying. Fortunately, the problem was easily fixed by simply adding a constant (a plus or minus value) to the original monthly temperature ranges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's something satisfying about designing a completely artificial simulation which nevertheless appears to get the averages, as well as the highs and lows, variance frequencies and so on, <i>right</i> or at least apparently right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Maybe I need to get out more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is the final product - January of Year 1 for "Jerusalem":</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I mentioned in the Introduction of THE ALMANAC, while Climate Template 101: Southern Temperate may have been modeled on Jerusalem, it ended up diverging from the model in a few significant aspects. Perhaps most obviously, I added a coastal cyclone season in the Fall.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did those violent cyclones (or those gales caused by Storm Giants </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">or the occasionally marauding cluster of possibly malign whirlwinds, etc.) </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">kill all of the meticulously averaged averages previously mentioned? Actually, they didn't:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLGzYJyMu_wSti82lvsZeqMOkr2EX4QiLQcxEcrEj0_0E7DRFkyRq3vxscTPaJ3nNyielPiwdInFyR6pwUZbMfP_QCMKdUxgd5R2ThoLihe7Fpdc6NC-E_uqqDBcfOlk1AwZzMpwkxClM/s1600/Sample+Summary.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="890" data-original-width="696" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLGzYJyMu_wSti82lvsZeqMOkr2EX4QiLQcxEcrEj0_0E7DRFkyRq3vxscTPaJ3nNyielPiwdInFyR6pwUZbMfP_QCMKdUxgd5R2ThoLihe7Fpdc6NC-E_uqqDBcfOlk1AwZzMpwkxClM/s400/Sample+Summary.png" width="312" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">See, for <i>fantasy weather</i> Year 1, the average temperature in Temperate South is 60° F, while Weatherbase tells us that the average temperature for Jerusalem is - oh, damn!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">61° F.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It must have been one of those exogenous factors.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-25047602781003620392018-03-17T11:35:00.000-05:002018-03-17T11:35:03.777-05:00"Weathering the Storms" (Dragon #137) and the Köppen Climate Classification System<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRx8lbcms7yRT5P4Jv2DeCZmdmLlw0rxSjknHcwcN5FLY8ihlWcqVorjAFjquxl4KMYbj6qorHK3OqRabaU7l1PRwsyvrAO_dyEZ4sKjoJc0Kppl2NTKxf8g0VG3DoyN3dA9vSW-vYdlo/s1600/Dragon+137.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="682" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRx8lbcms7yRT5P4Jv2DeCZmdmLlw0rxSjknHcwcN5FLY8ihlWcqVorjAFjquxl4KMYbj6qorHK3OqRabaU7l1PRwsyvrAO_dyEZ4sKjoJc0Kppl2NTKxf8g0VG3DoyN3dA9vSW-vYdlo/s400/Dragon+137.png" width="302" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second major inspiration for what would later become </span><a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/236069/THE-ALMANAC-OF-FANTASY-WEATHER-Volume-1-Swords--Sorcery" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER</a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> was Lisa Cabala's article "Weathering the Storms" in </span><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Dragon</i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> #137.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The central insight of the article was to present twelve climate templates, templates that both tracked the different climate tyoes of our own world as well as (presumably) any half-way "realistic" fantasy world. The climate templates were these:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Desert</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tropical Savanna</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Steppes</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Equator</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Warm and Rainy</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monsoon</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Warm with Dry Summer</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Warm with Dry Winter</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cool and Rainy</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cool with Dry Winter</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tundra</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Polar</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each type was defined by its temperature ranges within the four standard seasons as well as the daily precipitation chances within those seasons. Those two variables and how they changed or varied (or didn't) from season to season constituted the basics of any climate type, and simply by presenting twelve of those types you could track the richness and diversity of all the earth's climates, or so it seemed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example, much of Western Europe was Warm and Rainy (5):</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unlike some other climate types, Warm and Rainy had a simple precipitation rate scheme. Daily chance of precipitation was a constant 40% throughout the year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found this to be an improvement over what I saw as the more fiddly mechanism for determining temperature presented by David Axler in his <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2018/03/fantasy-weather-inspiration-and-sources.html">"Weather in the World of Greyhawk" (<i>The Dragon</i> #68)</a>. There, the referee would, among other things, constantly be checking latitudes. Cabala's scheme also seemed more true to life. While latitude obviously affects temperature, in our own world wildly different climate types co-exist at identical latitudes. And in turn, very similar climate types appear at quite different latitudes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, the original design for my fantasy weather algorithm was to enter the climate data for the twelve climate types and then choose the appropriate one for each geographical location I wanted to model. If the average temperature for one or more seasons came out significantly different than that shown by the data for the location, I would simply make the appropriate adjustments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, in my quest for greater "realism," I soon became a bit dissatisfied with the list. As I found myself making more and more "adjustments" it became clear to me that the twelve templates offered worn't really enough. There were hot deserts and cold deserts, for example.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Somewhere along the line I discovered the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6ppen_climate_classification">Köppen Climate Classification System</a>. In the late 19th century, the Russian-German climatologist Wladimir</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Köppen had also separated the world into different climate types. After the system was modified and refined by others, there were a resulting thirty climate types (or thirty-two, depending on how you counted them). Here were hot deserts and cold deserts (and hot semi-deserts and cold semi-deserts), among other things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My inner weather nerd (yet another inner nerd this outer nerd never knew it had) became excited.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Again, one of the things that is fascinating about the climate types (if you're into this sort of thing) was how they <i>didn't</i> track latitude, at least as much as you would think. The world map above sort of gives you a sense of that, though it's more apparent if you focus on a smaller area. Such things as warm and cold ocean currents, wind patterns and so on are often much more important.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is of course a commonplace for anyone with even a minimal knowledge of weather and climate, but it was useful and interesting to be reminded. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I suspect Cabala had riffed off of </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Köppen but had wisely chosen to simplify it for her <i>Dragon</i> article. Thirty templates would have been too many for a scheme that required one to consult charts and roll dice. But if I were designing a relatively complex algorithm from scratch, starting with thirty sets of data wasn't that much more difficult than starting with twelve.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would later make things even more granular to model different areas within each type - London versus Paris, for example - in order to make each location modeled truly "its own." And in the end, the classifications themselves would fall out as I settled on basing each of my own climate templates on the raw climate data for the particular location modeled, as opposed to its </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Köppen classification (which used the same sort of data but in a more general manner).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, for example, I used Athens, Greece as a model for my internal </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Köppen template of Csa - Temperate, Dry and Hot Summer: </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But when creating my own Climate Template 101: Temperate South, which I roughly modeled on the climate of Jerusalem (also classified as Csa), I entered an entirely new set of data:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would anyone have known that Temperate South, which I claimed to have roughly modeled on Jerusalem, was in fact really roughly modeled on Athens?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes. I would have. God would have.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay, even God probably wouldn't have cared, but still.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER: Volume 1, Swords & Sorcery was intended to simulate Middle-Eastern, Central Asian, Robert Howard-ish, Fritz Leiber-ish, "Swords & Sorcery"-ish sorts of climates. And, dammit, Athens didn't really fit. Entering the data for a second Csa climate type only took an extra hour or so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And now, that one weather nerd out there who knows that it never would get down to -11 F in Jerusalem can't complain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But readers of THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER will notice that each of my own climate templates is also labeled with the </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Köppen type that it fits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Tomorrow, the excitement level ramps up. Yes, I'm talking about temperature.</i></span></div>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-76160465012471101952018-03-16T10:43:00.001-05:002018-03-16T18:54:06.618-05:00"Weather in the World of Greyhawk" from Dragon #68<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I might have mentioned before, the idea for designing what would eventually become <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/236069/THE-ALMANAC-OF-FANTASY-WEATHER-Volume-1-Swords--Sorcery">THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER</a> came to me when I was re-imagining druid spells for the <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/oakes-spalding/seven-voyages-of-zylarthen-supplement-i-book-of-spells/paperback/product-23394813.html">Book of Spells</a> supplement to <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/224895/SEVEN-VOYAGES-of-ZYLARTHEN-Electronic-Edition">SEVEN VOYAGES of ZYLARTHEN</a>. Many of the spells were directly or indirectly linked with weather, which naturally brought up the question - how do you know what the weather is?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As far as I know, none of the original rulebooks for old-school D&D - OD&D, Holmes, B/X or AD&D offered a weather generation mechanism (I didn't go back and check this, so it's possible I'm wrong), which is sort of odd considering that some of the books, such as the DMG, went into such great detail on other things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, an article by David Axler, "Weather in the World of Greyhawk" in <i>The Dragon</i> #68, offered a detailed and robust system. As I understand it, that system had been or would be also incorporated into the <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17392/World-of-Greyhawk-Fantasy-Game-Setting-1e?it=1"><i>Greyhawk</i></a> boxed set. This was where I started.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Readers of FANTASY WEATHER may note that I took many of the same names for precipitation events from that article - Light Rainstorm, Heavy Rainstorm, Light Blizzard, Heavy Blizzard and so on. Since my original intention was not to design a commercial product, I didn't initially worry about copyright, but when I did start to think about that, the naming conventions seemed generic enough to be fair game, and I did notice that much of the same list was used in some of the other newer non-TSR weather products.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I soon altered the list however. Some of the names </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">seemed too American or Western </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hurricane, Tropical Storm, Tornado, etc. - </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">or too obviously culturally specific - Monsoon - for the tone I was trying to set. I didn't want FANTASY WEATHER to sound like the weather report from a North Carolina CBS affiliate, or an AP report from Bangalore. And I folded the article's "special weather" into the more general list. If you used the calculation scheme of the original article, a desert would only get a sandstorm once every eight years, or so I figured it. Where's the fun in that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I used the article's durations, rainfall/snowfall amounts, wind speed ranges and the like for each precipitation event as a jumping off point, but soon started to fiddle with them for various reasons. For example, I soon discovered that while the rainfall amounts initially seemed realistic, if you did the math, the amount of yearly rainfall for pretty much anywhere in Greyhawk would be off virtually any terrestrial scale - often more rain (in inches or millimeters) than even the wettest place on earth. One of the first things I designed was a method to quickly alter rainfall and snowfall amounts to fit the data for the climate type being simulated. For example, if the weather results for a London-type climate yielded 400 inches of rain on average (roughly ten times the actual total) you could simply divide the rainfall for each event by ten. Of course, you could also just make precipitation events less likely (by a factor of ten) but that possibility wasn't attractive. London is pretty rainy. That doesn't mean you get a huge amount of annual rainfall, measured in inches or millimeters (it's less than New York), but it does mean that you have 150-200 at least slightly wet days per year. Reducing that to 15-20, which would have amounted to desert conditions, didn't seem right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I realize that the last consideration is more for weather nerds or "realism" nerds. It's unlikely that many readers, referees or players would know or care that the sum of the daily rainfall totals wasn't "realistic." But I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well get it right. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Weather in the World of Greyhawk" also gave me the idea for those funky rainbows (including that 1 in a 1000 chance of a </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bifr%C3%B6st">Bifröst</a></span> <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">bridge), which I thought, if nothing else, added a fun flavor to things. So I left the idea intact, though I did twiddle the percentages. Later I would add in "supernatural causes", again, suggested by the article, although I substantially modified their chances and content. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And I significantly changed how lightning worked. I wanted there to be at least a chance of it in most rain-event types, not just in thunderstorms. Again, this seemed to better match the real-world data, at least as I understood it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And, of course, I found the article's mechanism for generating each day's weather with dice to be utterly impractical. It just took way too long. That's not the article's fault per se, of course, simply an unavoidable factor of real-world physical realty. That you could do it virtually through an algorithm coded into an Excel Spreadsheet, and then present it clearly in "almanac" form, was the whole idea behind FANTASY WEATHER.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's the sum of it. I don't mean to sound critical of what in my view was the best treatment of weather and climate to ever appear in a TSR product. Along with a later article, which I'll talk about in the next post, it gave me the framework for how I would look at the problem of fantasy weather. The central insight of the article for me was framing the thing around "precipitation events" and their properties. But there's a lot more to the article than that that either I didn't talk about here or didn't find relevant for the FANTASY WEATHER project but that is still quite interesting and useful in its own right. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you have <i>The Dragon</i> #68 in hard copy or have access to the PDF, I urge you to read or re-read it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Tomorrow: "Weathering the Storms" and</i></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i> Köppen c</i></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>limate types.</i></span>Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-82352476215101802762018-03-08T11:21:00.001-06:002018-03-09T13:24:51.277-06:00THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER is now live on DriveThruRPG<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8JYvo06stpMRGEAJEbxU0_Mc3o-hr7Kpctk0qrIVDB9RKV15WUmZaUMTphHdrxHuLGcZcmr6nxFwQiHd_nHZ3_6o48b_QD-iJXuOfGtD5OVzJZDS3QF3wA8hlVbFbH7R8Bw2EKXQlIko/s1600/Almanac+Vol.+1+HI-RES+Image+3-6-18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="696" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8JYvo06stpMRGEAJEbxU0_Mc3o-hr7Kpctk0qrIVDB9RKV15WUmZaUMTphHdrxHuLGcZcmr6nxFwQiHd_nHZ3_6o48b_QD-iJXuOfGtD5OVzJZDS3QF3wA8hlVbFbH7R8Bw2EKXQlIko/s400/Almanac+Vol.+1+HI-RES+Image+3-6-18.png" width="307" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Campion & Clitherow has just released THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER. It's available on </span><a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/236069/THE-ALMANAC-OF-FANTASY-WEATHER-Volume-1-Swords--Sorcery" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DriveThruRPG</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and </span><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/oakes-spalding/the-almanac-of-fantasy-weather-vol-1-swords-sorcery/ebook/product-23550673.html" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lulu</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER is a new and greatly expanded edition of SEVEN YEARS of FANTASY WEATHER, published by Campion & Clitherow in 2017. The most obvious difference is that while SEVEN YEARS included seven years of weather for one geographical area or climate type, THE ALMANAC has <i>eight</i> years of weather for each of <i>ten</i> different climate types. Here you will find cyclone lashed coasts, burning deserts, steaming jungles, ice-covered wastes and more—enough (we hope) to provide realistic and interesting weather for an entire “Sword & Sorcery” world in the style of Burroughs, Howard or Leiber.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We have also made some other changes. Some of them are “internal” and, therefore, not immediately noticeable. I think the data sets and algorithm for SEVEN YEARS were pretty rich, but we couldn't resist tweaking them and expanding on them. We increased the number of data points and redesigned the internal format for how initial information for each climate type was represented, allowing for more diversity, complexity and pattern in the generated weather results. Thus, many precipitation events now come at the head of “real” warm and cold fronts, cloud cover varies by month and season, wind speed and precipitation often vary according to whether it is day or evening, “exogenous” factors may cause cold or warm spells for days, weeks or months, and so on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The most noticeable external changes to the weather charts are a slightly expanded list of precipitation types, the addition of a wind-chill/heat index rating and the addition of a new category of weather events—those directly caused by “supernatural” forces.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">THE ALMANAC clocks in at 1,130 extensively bookmarked virtual pages (960 pages of weather charts - 12 x 8 x 10 - plus 70 pages of text, climate summaries and spaces for notes). It sounds like a sort of monster, and in a way it is, but the bookmarks allow you to get around quickly to find or use (on your phone, tablet, computer or hard-copy print-out) only what you want or need at the moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because of its size and diversity, I think it makes for a more useful product, giving the referee many more options to choose from and match with the specifics of his or her campaign. I should note, though, that the climate types and weather charts for MEDIEVAL ENGLAND, THE ICELAND OF THE SAGAS and INDEA remain unique, and have not been "rolled-in" to THE ALMANAC.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Previous purchasers of SEVEN YEARS may purchase THE ALMANAC at a discount ($12.95 - the list price of $19.95 less the $7.00 price of SEVEN YEARS).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An email has just gone out to most purchasers of SEVEN YEARS on DriveThruRPG. However some purchasers did not include contact information on the DriveThruRPG list. If you purchased SEVEN YEARS and do not receive an email in the next few hours, send me an email at zylarthen@gmail.com and I'll shoot you the discount code.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These tables (from the Introduction) detail some characteristics of the new climate types:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And here are two months of weather from "Climate Template 102: Southern Desert", roughly modeled on the Arabian Desert:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtN97-r-cGrV_bWtWakVgiuXrOe2j34ucDidfANnJVE8VpfAbH9brWwtWHQy9Hu3v4sAKXri6CIPRVPJfK0NFdX9-c2FyapYhNKOjbLmWS16IrasklWuXWHGK6rWFu8VaXZ2tdHAPfvLw/s1600/Desert+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="694" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtN97-r-cGrV_bWtWakVgiuXrOe2j34ucDidfANnJVE8VpfAbH9brWwtWHQy9Hu3v4sAKXri6CIPRVPJfK0NFdX9-c2FyapYhNKOjbLmWS16IrasklWuXWHGK6rWFu8VaXZ2tdHAPfvLw/s400/Desert+2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nSb-WPQp8eQIghyphenhyphenlPunugyKCxe4YSnn5BocIYSD2p7cF7C4OpQmc32Dla5qtRZp55apDpyB6f5ouuQMorMq-Wva7o2M6-gae9WeWBVYGPr3Iy0zySsNB8JI-Kuu6ObNhUQhnOY9pzDs/s1600/Desert+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="863" data-original-width="692" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nSb-WPQp8eQIghyphenhyphenlPunugyKCxe4YSnn5BocIYSD2p7cF7C4OpQmc32Dla5qtRZp55apDpyB6f5ouuQMorMq-Wva7o2M6-gae9WeWBVYGPr3Iy0zySsNB8JI-Kuu6ObNhUQhnOY9pzDs/s400/Desert+1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The desert has a higher proportion of relatively rare "supernatural" weather events. (They occur, on average, roughly twice a year in most other climates but roughly six times a year in the desert.) The "ef" next to whirlwind denotes that it was caused by an Efreeti. Why was there a sudden downpour? Because it was caused by a demon or demons ("dm"). Obviously, the player-characters may not know that an event had a direct supernatural cause, though there may be signs - the clouds form unusually quickly, they can dimly see an outline of a figure or figures in the sky, etc. As always, the referee is free to alter or mix and match things to suit the specifics of his or her campaign, and ideas for how to do this are included in the introductory notes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had a blast designing THE ALMANAC of FANTASY WEATHER. It brought out by inner weather nerd (which I never knew existed). And I'm very excited by how it turned out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope you enjoy it!</span></div>
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</style>Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-28512805064739117262017-11-29T08:13:00.002-06:002017-11-29T11:52:58.643-06:00Announcing SEVEN YEARS of FANTASY WEATHER!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghCN00TkuNSB_iEF37KFmndt2K0w8Xmug_f-l46lJrMXevvl2IKCy_bHmi4x4l5wKWuPVdlFf56rCiXbQMvd9gbjYVIUlU5LOSWro6O_YcBmv615SLFrX4dW3Ly6o58NRMgNtZDvkil3U/s1600/WEATHER+Vol+1+Picture.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"></span></a></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPGREFtiF-EER3IfwCV21tE8ybLk4BdYoIkHC-KEdfY7Ewh_1BOWQVPiBRhe4spG611W8emfnpgYganXVu9V1syLYNR15NNnDO30dK9q8hMFxav08MgdsklXiAmLu_OoB_zaX6BKGfEl4/s1600/Adventurers+in+the+Snow.+The+Dragon+No.+68.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="934" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPGREFtiF-EER3IfwCV21tE8ybLk4BdYoIkHC-KEdfY7Ewh_1BOWQVPiBRhe4spG611W8emfnpgYganXVu9V1syLYNR15NNnDO30dK9q8hMFxav08MgdsklXiAmLu_OoB_zaX6BKGfEl4/s400/Adventurers+in+the+Snow.+The+Dragon+No.+68.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Adventurers in the Snow</i>, from "Weather in the World of Greyhawk," in The Dragon, No. 68</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Campion & Clitherow has just published its first system-neutral product!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's called <i>Seven Years of Fantasy Weather</i>. More precisely, it's Volume 1 of a series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can buy it on <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/oakes-spalding/seven-years-of-fantasy-weather-volume-1-medieval-england/ebook/product-23427252.html">Lulu</a> or <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/227118/SEVEN-YEARS-OF-FANTASY-WEATHER-Volume-1-Medieval-England">DriveThruRPG</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's the pitch (from the description blurb on both):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">SEVEN YEARS of FANTASY WEATHER gives you seven years of realistic weather for 5112 separate days and nights. Each twelve-hour day or evening entry includes information on temperature (in Celcius and Fahrenheit) weather events - fog, thunderstorm, blizzard, etc. - amount of rainfall/snowfall, occurrence or possibility of lightning</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, wind speed, wind direction, phases of the moon, effect on movement rates and chance of getting lost. It's an almanac for the fantasy gamer. No more annoying die rolling or consulting an app or online program to generate a random or patternless result. With FANTASY WEATHER you can see all of it at a glance. Whether you're using Dungeons & Dragons 5e, an OSR retro-clone or any other current or past game or mechanic, this is the last word on weather for your roleplaying needs, This first volume simulates the weather patterns of Medieval England, but other volumes will be forthcoming.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But the best way to describe it is to show it. Here's the first page of weather (Year 1, January) for the climate type that I've labeled "Medieval England":</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWEseqnqGAYmUeRv-HgfA5Yaf7YFDeKwJClBWTzh0enrx7yo4bnYfANaQ6RfGm3cyNIxprS74dCbtOMGZIi9VNObWw1RdBTp7ImPQPYuonAJ9ZtoHj6e3FaboEf3VIm1bu6s8uFgbrE4Q/s1600/Weather+Blog+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWEseqnqGAYmUeRv-HgfA5Yaf7YFDeKwJClBWTzh0enrx7yo4bnYfANaQ6RfGm3cyNIxprS74dCbtOMGZIi9VNObWw1RdBTp7ImPQPYuonAJ9ZtoHj6e3FaboEf3VIm1bu6s8uFgbrE4Q/s320/Weather+Blog+1.png" width="247" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The PDF of <i>Seven Years of Fantasy Weather Volume 1: Medieval England</i> contains 84 pages (7 x 12) of monthly charts, plus 7 pages of summaries for each year and four pages of ideas and rules. Here is the summary for Year 1:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_bTfh7Ta2PXvLjtYHt8Earf908yk7jDG_mbDgGUc4YBCJ3D02f25oGE8Bh0_1twUF2NnOC7z_CXKcoeeyiOBP1ct1S1lPAXonbK8BNqKtJtgNpVP5U_Qx30uD_7KCFEjRlaeFTg12sNM/s1600/Weather+Blog+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="699" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_bTfh7Ta2PXvLjtYHt8Earf908yk7jDG_mbDgGUc4YBCJ3D02f25oGE8Bh0_1twUF2NnOC7z_CXKcoeeyiOBP1ct1S1lPAXonbK8BNqKtJtgNpVP5U_Qx30uD_7KCFEjRlaeFTg12sNM/s320/Weather+Blog+2.png" width="247" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There were no Blizzards, let alone Heavy Blizzards, in Year 1 of "Medieval England" (it's England, not Alaska), though the possibility does exist. Were there any in Year 2? You'll have to buy <i>Fantasy Weather</i> to find out.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Seven Years of Fantasy Weather</i> includes four pages of introductory material featuring a glossary of weather event terms and effects and a (slightly altered) excerpt from the Wilderness travel rules section of <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/224895/SEVEN-VOYAGES-of-ZYLARTHEN-Electronic-Edition">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</a>. But the weather effects (in terms of movement and chances of getting lost) are built-in to the charts, and obviously the wilderness rules can be be used as is, mined for ideas or simply ignored.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We even managed to find a weather-appropriate illustration from John Dickson Batten for the cover (from a relatively obscure book of children's poetry):</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuVkiqifzBGBD_2vY_bZZfJALP2p3HTQpOO44rUd3LzjCztmptU7WqKEFdSLrsZZ2Lfu6A_DokcarMdxl0ieuTkJOBpAh2RF2QRS7DSMB-VycHRtQE932Pfenb6QNGHdyfcoAjAd6eYzU/s1600/Weather+Vol+1+Marketing+Photo+.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="699" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuVkiqifzBGBD_2vY_bZZfJALP2p3HTQpOO44rUd3LzjCztmptU7WqKEFdSLrsZZ2Lfu6A_DokcarMdxl0ieuTkJOBpAh2RF2QRS7DSMB-VycHRtQE932Pfenb6QNGHdyfcoAjAd6eYzU/s400/Weather+Vol+1+Marketing+Photo+.png" width="308" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are a number of weather apps and online generators out there. And I should say, I don't mean to be too critical of them. Indeed, as long-time readers of this blog know, I was quite inspired by some of them. But in the end, they prompted me to try to come up with something better. How does </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Fantasy Weather</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> differ?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The simple answer is it's not a generator. It's simply the weather. Or as one OSR game designer put it, "Instant weather, no generation required!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What's the advantage of that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, as I said above, the apps are themselves fairly simple. Or at least they appear to be. That's part of the problem. Even if there is a more underlying complexity or pattern to them, you can't see it. As far as anyone can tell, they're more or less just generating a few "random" weather data points for a particular climate type - cold, temperate, warm, etc. - and season. With <i>Seven Years of Fantasy Weather</i> you can instantly tell exactly what's going on.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Plus, Medieval England isn't just "temperate" but, well, England. Or, rather, late 14th century England when they tell us that it was 2˚ colder. There's a lot of precipitation but not a lot of total rainfall - at least when compared to certain tropical zones. You might get a blizzard in January but you probably won't. More likely it will be 45˚ F and drizzling. Or foggy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Actually, England (and especially London) isn't and wasn't as foggy as most people think. And much of the fog that there really was was attributable to 20th century pollution. <i>Medieval England</i> ramps the fog up a bit, for the fun of it, but only a bit. There's still a lot of drizzle.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Interestingly, I almost went with the weather pattern for the so-called Medieval Warm Period, lasting from the 10th to 13th centuries. That would have been perhaps more authentic for the "Medieval" label, but it was also more boring. Raising temperatures by just 4˚ means you cut down radically on the chance of snow. I like snow. Sorry Medieval Warm period. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But snow or no snow, too many weather mechanics make the mistake of introducing weather as simply another way to screw the players. Or at least, that's often how it seems. One online app usually generates only a few lines of text for the day's weather. But watch out if you get more text lines. Cold front? Roll for hypothermia. Moderate wind? Your torches blow out, missile fire is impossible and search checks are reduced by -5. Thunderstorm? You have a 1% chance per turn of being struck by lightning, which deals out 8d8 hits of damage. M</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ost adventurers - and, I assume, 99% of the general population - will sooner or later suffer death from electrocution.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If they aren't pummeled into a pulp by a hailstorm first.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's not what </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Fantasy Weather</i> is about.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What is it about?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The point is to use the weather as background to help set the tone, and to </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">sometimes</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> provide interesting choices and opportunities for players. For example, in the desert player-characters can significantly increase their movement rate by traveling at night when it's usually much less hot. This comes with other advantages - fewer wandering monsters - but also some disadvantages - the monsters have a greater chance of surprising you, and it's easier to get lost. A <i>Call Lightning</i> spell is extremely powerful in a thunderstorm, but quite useless otherwise. Can one somehow contrive a plan to lure a foe out into the open when such conditions occur? And fog or low visibility can be used <i>by</i> player characters just as much as they can be used against them. And so on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But most weather is just there, so to speak. There's no reason to solemnly announce each day that the temperature is 60˚ with a gentle breeze or whatever. But if you need it, the chart will tell you what's going on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Creating <i>Fantasy Weather</i> also brought out my inner weather nerd. And part of the reason for my inclusion of the "summaries" was simply because I found them interesting, even fascinating, and felt the reader might as well. It's notable how some averages are quite constant - the average yearly temperature was 52˚ F for five of the seven years, and 51˚ F and 53˚ F for the other two - but others are more stochastic - there were ten snowstorms one year but only two in the next.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I admit that one's "fascination" quotient may vary. Then again, I was never a weather nerd before... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Fantasy Weather: Medieval England</i></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> costs only $7.00 for seven years of weather. If your characters journey to or inhabit a different climate, there will soon be other variations, which will cover most climes from the northland of the Sagas to "sword & sorcery" jungles and deserts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whether you purchase 1, 3 or more, it will be some of the best </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"supplement" </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">money you've ever spent. And unlike, say, </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, this product is system neutral. Use it with </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zylarthen</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Swords and Wizardry</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> or Dungeons & Dragons 5e.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And finally, pitch aside, I would love for you to tell me how you use it. The point is not to impose more rules on the referee or more ways to die on the players, but again, to create interesting choices and opportunities at minimal cost in time or effort. How can the player-characters use a heavy rainstorm to get the advantage in a wilderness encounter? I have no idea. But I suspect many good players will come up with something.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope you enjoy it, and that it is as fun for you to read and use as it was for me to design. Good travels! And may the wind be always at your back!</span></div>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-35369662985744045852017-11-20T11:12:00.001-06:002017-11-22T00:34:11.700-06:00Monsters as Player Characters - OD&D vs. AD&D<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't know - it looks good to <i>me</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm taking a three-day break from demons to talk about something I rediscovered while looking for demons. I'm sure what I'm about to point out has been mentioned before, though I don't have a reference.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In <i>Men & Magic</i>, after detailing the three character classes and three additional races, Gary Gygax wrote:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Other Character Types:</b> There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e., a player wishing to be a Dragon would have to begin as let us say, a "young" one and progress upwards in the usual manner, steps being predetermined by the campaign referee (p. 8).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now I have no idea how many referees </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">back in the day</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> were coming up with stats on the fly for players who confidently announced they wanted to play a non-standard character, but I think it's indisputable that from the very first many were experimenting with creating their own new character classes, races and types to supplement the ones in the text or customary rules. Arneson's Blackmoor campaign had a Balrog player-character, and Gygax's reportedly also allowed such variations in Greyhawk (which is presumably why he wrote the passage above).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The author of the <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> "Basic" set, John Eric Holmes, apparently also enjoyed running adventuring parties of non-standard classes or creatures. And he implied as much in the text of that game:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the Dungeon Master's discretion a character can be anything his or her player wants him to be. Characters must always start out inexperienced and relatively weak and build on their experience. Thus, an expedition might include, in addition to the four basic classes and races (human, elven, dwarven, halflingish), a centaur, a lawful werebear, and a Japanese Samurai fighting man (p. 7). </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, now consider this passage (also written by Gygax) from the AD&D <i>Dungeon Master Guide</i>, six years later:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>THE MONSTER AS A PLAYER CHARACTER</b></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On occasion one player or another will evidence a strong desire to operate as a monster, conceiving a playable character as a strong demon, a devil, a dragon, or one of the most powerful sort of undead creatures. This is done principally because the player sees the desired monster character as superior to his or her peers and likely to provide a dominant role for him or her in the campaign. A moment of reflection will bring them to the unalterable conclusion that the game is heavily weighted towards mankind...</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The considered opinion of this writer is that such characters are not beneficial to the game and should be excluded.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The later Gygax is of course contradicting his earlier self. Playing "monsters" as characters is now no longer recommended. Indeed, someone who pushes for it might even have psychological problems!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In fairness, Gygax does temper things a bit. He's against doing it, but such a decision should ultimately be left up to the referee - "As to other sorts of monsters as player characters, you as DM must decide in light of your aims and the style of your campaign." And it is preferable to find ways to <i>discourage</i> the practice rather than banning it outright:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Note that exclusion is best handled by restriction and not by refusal. Enumeration of the limits and drawbacks which are attendant upon the monster character will always be sufficient to steer the intelligent player away from the monster approach, for in most cases it was only thought of as a likely manner of game domination. The truly experimental-type player might be allowed to play such a monster character for a time so as to satisfy curiosity, and it can then be moved to non-player status and still be an interesting part of the campaign - and the player is most likely to desire to drop the monster character once he or she has examined its potential and played that role for a time. The less intelligent players who demand to play monster characters regardless of obvious consequences will soon remove themselves from play in any event, for their own ineptness will serve to have players or monsters or traps finish them off (p. 21 for all references).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of course during this quasi-concession Gygax takes the opportunity to further put down players who might have such a desire - unless the goal is purely experimental, then they either have a will to dominate or are relatively stupid and inept. This might be characterized as one manifestation of what has been called High Gygaxian style. Here an air of wisdom is coupled with silly insults. That's not a criticism (of the style). In fact it's quite entertaining.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It sure beats "In creating the story of your character, work with your DM. Talk to them about your ideas, preferences and <i>feelings</i>."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is it <i>evil</i> to contradict one's earlier self? Of course not. And for all we know, Gygax had learned from the previous six years of play that people playing dragons or demons was simply more trouble than what it was worth. But it's also an example of how, as the universe of <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> was in most ways expanding (in terms of text or ruleset length if nothing else), there were walls to that universe that were simultaneously being erected or reinforced. All things being equal, I think that's something to regret.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now I confess that in saying this I feel like a hypocritical politician. When I played D&D back in the day, I never ran or played non-standard player-characters, and since my rediscovery of the game and subsequent determination that I was now firmly in the more open-ended OD&D camp, I still haven't done so. But let's just say I philosophically or aesthetically favor an approach that leaves open the possibility. Or at least I like to think that I do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you want to play a dragon, that's fine. Just give me a few minutes to come up with something.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But don't tell me about your feelings.</span></div>
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Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-39653077298068411802017-11-17T06:13:00.002-06:002017-11-17T15:41:58.253-06:00Demons in Early D&D, Part 2<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Arch-devil Asmodeus, from the AD&D <i>Monster Manual</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">See Part 1, <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2017/11/demons-in-early-d-part-1.html">here</a>.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Dungeons & Dragons "Holmes Basic" Set</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (July, 1977): There were only a few passing references to demons in this edition. I assume this was largely because they were too powerful and complicated to feature in an introductory treatment designed to take player characters only through 3rd level.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>AD&D Monster Manual</b> (December, 1977): The first AD&D book fleshed out, so to speak, the nine demonic types presented in <i>Eldritch Wizardry</i> and added three more to their number including Manes, Juiblex (The Faceless Lord) and, oddly perhaps, Yeenoghu, who we are told is "Demon Lord of Gnolls." The numbered Types I to V are also given additional names, and the Balrog is renamed "Balor." Interestingly, two of the types - Type IV (Nalfeshnee, etc.) and Type V (Marilith, etc.) feature illustrations that appear to be fairly close copies (though in mirror image) of their initial illustrations in <i>Eldritch Wizardry</i>, twenty months before. (Both sets were drawn by David Sutherland.) As far as I know, this is the only case where the <i>Monster Manual</i> made obvious use of previous art.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Type V Demon (Marilith) from </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(L to R) </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eldritch Wizardry</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and the </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monster Manual</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">EDIT: R. Nelson Bailey pointed out to me that the <i>Monster Manual</i> illustrations of the sahuagin and umber hulk appear to be exactly the same as those originally found in <i>Blackmoor</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As in </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Eldritch Wizardry</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, the <i>Monster Manual</i> suggests that</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If the name of a particularly powerful demon is spoken, there is a chance that he will hear and turn his attention to the speaker. A base 5% chance is recommended to the referee. Unless prepared to avoid such attention - or to control the demon - the demon will whereupon immediately kill, by whatever means are most expeditious, the one pronouncing his name (p. 16).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One wonders in how many campaigns a referee invoked this rule when the players were joking around.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />The <i>Monster Manual</i> tells us that "Demons are able to move from their own plane into those of Tarterus, Hades, or Pandemonium or roam the astral plane" (p. 16). </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But what </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> their own plane? It's not very clearly presented, but the careful reader can figure it out: </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If the amulet of a demon prince is destroyed, it will "T</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hus condemn the prince to abyssment for one year." As well, Manes are described as "Those dead which go to the 666 layers of the demonic abyss" (p. 17).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Monster Manual</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> also introduces </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">devils</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> for the first time. These are primarily distinguished from demons in that devils are lawful evil in alignment whereas demons are chaotic evil.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> There are eleven types of them, led by the "Arch-Devil" Asmodeus, who are the "inhabitants and rulers of the planes of hell." I actually remember these entities much better than their demonic rivals, perhaps because the illustrations are more evocative and appear to be of a higher quality, and also because of their more memorable and resonant names.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In addition, various creatures are listed outside of the </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Demons" and "Devils" sections</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - imps, larva, night hags, quasists, etc. - who are either "minor" demons or devils, are related to or associate with demons or devils in some way or who, like demons and devils, largely inhabit the lower planes. Curiously, the rakshasa is listed as a "devil" (not a demon as in <i>Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes</i>) in the Index but that fact is not mentioned in its description. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>AD&D Players Handbook</b> (June, 1978): As demons and devils were now official monsters, the second AD&D volume contained a number of references to them, just as it did for other creatures. As one might expect, many of these references were in descriptions of relevant spells such as <i>Protection from Evil</i> and so on. But demons had also apparently now reached a status in the canon where they could be used to stress the imaginative and epic proportions of <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This game lets all of your fantasies come true. This is a world where monsters, dragons, good and evil high priests, fierce demons, and even the gods themselves may enter your character's life. Enjoy, for this game is what dreams are made of! (p. 7).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the <i>Players Handbook</i> it is revealed that clerics might be able to turn or control some demons and devils, just as they turn undead. Though players would have to wait until the <i>Dungeon Masters Guide</i> (August, 1979) or the preview of it in <i>The Dragon</i> (No. 22, February, 1979) for charts on this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think two other things stand out in the <i>Handbook</i>. First, we see perhaps the first sustained reference to player-characters voluntarily interacting with the demonic in a detailed and explicit way. It's in the description for the 7th level Magic-User spell, <i>Cacodemon</i>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Explanation/Description: This perilous exercise in dweomercraeft summons up a powerful demon of type IV, V, or VI, depending upon the demon's name being known to the magic-user...The spell caster must be within a circle of protection (or a thaumaturgic triangle with protection from evil) and the demon confined within a pentagram (circled pentacle) if he or she is to avoid being slain or carried off by the summoned cacodemon...</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By tribute of fresh human blood and the promise of 1 or more human sacrifices, the summoner can bargain with the demon for willing service...</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The components of this spell are 5 flaming black candles; a brazier of hot coals upon which must be burned sulphur, bat hairs, lard, soot, mercuricnitric acid crystals, mandrake root, alcohol, and a piece of parchment with the demon's name inscribed in runes inside a pentacle; and a dish of blood from some mammal (preferably a human, of course) placed inside the area where the cacodemon is to be held (pp. 86-7).</span></blockquote>
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<div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of course it would be easy to pull this "out of context" to argue that AD&D was attempting to make occult practices attractive to children or whatever. In truth, I didn't even remember the spell, and was only reminded of it when researching this post, even though, at the time, I played AD&D exclusively and thought of the <i>Players Handbook</i> as the defining D&D tome. I suspect I'm not alone in this. Among other things, <i>Cacodemon</i> was a high-level spell and I doubt that many campaigns got that far. As always, I could be wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The second thing to note is that it was in Appendix IV of the <i>Handbook</i> that all of the planes were finally explicitly named and their nature and relation at least somewhat described or explained (using a list, a two-dimensional representation and a three dimensional representation!). So, as for evil places where demonic entities might dwell, we are introduced to:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">17. The Planes of Pandemonium of chaotic evil neutrals.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">18. The 666 layers of the Abyss of absolute chaotic evil.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">19. The planes of Tarterus of evil chaotic neutrals.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">20. Hades' "Three Glooms" of absolute (neutral) evil.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">21. The furnaces of Gehenna of lawful evil neutrals.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">22. The Nine Hells of absolute lawful evil.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">23. The nether planes of Acheron of lawful evil neutrals (p. 120).</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That demons hailed from the Abyss and devils lived in the Nine Hells wasn't mentioned in the <i>Players Handbook</i>, but the Monster Manual had made that sort of clear, and of course there was also that early chart in <i>The Strategic Review</i>. <br /><br /><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Next (Part 3): the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, The Dragon and the first modules.</i></span></div>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-76415056587414875872017-11-16T07:20:00.000-06:002017-11-17T14:29:10.551-06:00Demons in Early D&D, Part 1<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCMksyPmbnHFwCMVDSFtH3mKsk-nOIWvFQqkn-9SB2nBz0WoJFX02_4EqlksHtLiNjoWaW1k4HDzW6U-cDuQVUslbcSmWf9hvIchgGodY01iHKRMiFdqikmi3EOVndiU02Dma5-eY-cZw/s1600/Type+IV+Demon.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="835" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCMksyPmbnHFwCMVDSFtH3mKsk-nOIWvFQqkn-9SB2nBz0WoJFX02_4EqlksHtLiNjoWaW1k4HDzW6U-cDuQVUslbcSmWf9hvIchgGodY01iHKRMiFdqikmi3EOVndiU02Dma5-eY-cZw/s400/Type+IV+Demon.png" width="335" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A demon from <i>Eldritch Wizardry</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There were plenty of demons in early Dungeons & Dragons (1974-1979). Not only were there many kinds of demons, but demons could be summoned by spells, they could possess people, and characters could even make "pacts" with them, perhaps involving human sacrifices. All of this was described in "official" TSR sources such as the rulebooks and supplements or semi-official outlets such as </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Dragon</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> magazine.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was plenty of red meat for Christian fundies who worry about that sort of thing to get worried about.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But of course that only tells half the story.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While demons <i>existed</i>, they didn't exactly dominate things. In essence they were simply an additional kind of monster introduced to make things more interesting. Back in the day I never used demons in my campaign, and I can't remember ever running into them in the three or four other campaigns that I played in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For my campaign this was not because I had any particular religious objection to them (unless it was unconscious), but rather because demons just seemed too complicated. In the <i>Monster Manual</i> their descriptions went on forever (or so it seemed to me). They didn't seem Tolkienish enough (a big consideration for me at the time), and they were too high-level for my campaigns. Also I resented the imposition of the complicated and arbitrary (again, so it seemed to me) metaphysical architecture or geography that went with them - all of the hells and planes and so on and so forth. Demons were just too much fuss.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For all I know there were other campaigns that made a fetish of demons. One thing the anti-D&D people never seemed to quite understand is that <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>, especially in the early days, was what you wanted to make of it. (Of course, logically, this wouldn't have completely disposed of the worry.) Could it be a gateway drug to actual cults or covens? I suppose some people might have played it to make it look that way. But I never saw it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But the other part of the story is that while demons would eventually stake out their demonic place in the universe of 1970's D&D, <i>they didn't exist for at least the first two years of the game.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a companion piece to my earlier post on witches. Witches sort of burst out (at least implicitly) and then fizzled. But demons, while they took their time making an appearance, would by the end of the 1970's be featured all over - again not because they were the raison d'etre of the game or anything like that but simply because they had become an accepted member of the monster canon, along with Unicorns, Dragons and everyone else.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Dungeons & Dragons</b> (January, 1974): The "three little brown books" contained no demons. The Balrog would later become a demon (before having the "Balrog" part of the name deleted for copyright reasons), but he wasn't a demon then.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Greyhawk</b> (March, 1975): No demons.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Blackmoor</b> (September, 1975): Technically, the first use of the word "devil" in an official <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> publication was in this supplement. And fittingly (for Blackmoor) it was aquatic-related. The evil creatures called Sahuagin were described as "Devil-Men of the Deep."</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Strategic Review</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (April, 1975 to April, 1976): The first appearance of demons in D&D occurred in the second to last issue (Vol. II, no. 1, February, 1976) </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of this predecessor to </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Dragon</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Both demons </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> devils were featured on the first of two charts in an article by Gary Gygax discussing the D&D alignment system - an article which heralded the apparent evolution of alignment from what had seemed to be a two- or three-point system to a five- or nine-point system.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WsbdFvAmEd1D08aWHONxXumCIx0BsZSVpAcwNe-K3vvoz3okFIHKrJVegfk4mVnoj0wti_dO3JkeqcOsv6el78cnKrjew5LuIw-q6GO_vrYFRG7VIFTSEjh5q94uiyzgrPVplMkmUPc/s1600/SR+Alignment.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="697" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WsbdFvAmEd1D08aWHONxXumCIx0BsZSVpAcwNe-K3vvoz3okFIHKrJVegfk4mVnoj0wti_dO3JkeqcOsv6el78cnKrjew5LuIw-q6GO_vrYFRG7VIFTSEjh5q94uiyzgrPVplMkmUPc/s400/SR+Alignment.png" width="307" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I imagine that this chart might have been confusing to many. It named four sorts of creatures or beings - Saint, Godling, Devil and Demon - and diverse places - Nirvana, Heaven, Elysium, The Abyss, etc. - none of which had appeared in <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> before. They came from varying religious or mythical traditions but were all meticulously placed on a chart that seemed to represent some sort of deeper metaphysical or supernatural truth. Why were "Saints" (were these just really good people?) "Lawful/Good" and "Godlings" (whatever they were) "Chaotic/Good"? And why was The Devil on the other side of the chart from a Demon? </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Were Hell, Hades and the Abyss different places? Why was the Law side of Neutrality Buddhist but the Chaos side of it Catholic? And so on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some of us are so used to the religious cosmology of AD&D that we may not fully realize that it was Gygax and D&D that first made a distinction between "devils" and "demons" as two separate but similar evil supernatural beings. In Christian or European tradition, demons were usually equated with the fallen angels (they may also inhabit people and be cast out, etc.). "Devil" was used as in "<i>The</i> Devil," to denote the first fallen angel or leader of them, or was employed as a sort of slang term to describe demons or supernatural monsters in general or even just very bad people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not claiming that there's anything wrong with Gygax patching together his own novel cosmology out of many different sources, mashing them together and redefining some of the terms - after all, this is essentially what he did with the entire monster canon for D&D - only that it must have seemed a bit confusing to some at the time, especially since it came with little explanation. <i>Advanced Dungeons & Dragons</i> would of course fully flesh all of this out, but at this time, AD&D was still 1-3 years away. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Eldritch Wizardry</b> (May, 1976): Here is where demons not only made a grand entrance but positively exploded into the game, in all their myriad and numbered types. There are 94 mentions of the word "demon" in this booklet, and 4 of "devil." Nine types of demon are given statistics and described - six types simply numbered "I" to "VI" (although VI is also called "Balrog", which was still listed as a "monster" in the then available printings of </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monsters & Treasure</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">), Succubi, and the two "demon princes" Orcus and Demogorgon. Various demonic magical items and artifacts are described. Demon psionic strength is explained. And demons now appear in the encounter charts alongside everyone else from Lions to Lycanthropes. Indeed, in many terrain types you suddenly have a 1 in 20, or sometimes only a 1 in 12, chance of encountering a demon if your monster check comes up. This might have been annoying to wilderness adventurers. Interestingly, in </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eldritch Wizardry</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> demons are not given a specific home. They're said to "roam" the astral plane, but they appear to actually live in or on some other plane or planes. These are not named. The explicit populating of Hell, Hades and other such places is still months in the future - although, as we saw, it was telegraphed in that <i>The Strategic Review</i> article.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes</b> (July, 1976): There are numerous and varied demons mentioned as part of many mythologies. Their use here is quite nifty in my opinion, and it's of a completely different flavor from the sterilely labeled numbered types in <i>Eldritch Wizardry</i>. This would herald a trend in which some of the coolest treatments of D&D demons would be, so to speak, ethnic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is a description of the Rakshasa, which had earlier been introduced in the "Creature Feature" section of the <i>The Strategic Review</i>, and would appear again in the AD&D <i>Monster Manual</i>, though not explicitly as a <i>demon</i> in either of those texts:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>RAKSHASAS DEMONS OF INDIA</b></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Armor Class: — 5, Magic Ability: (See Below), Move: 18/36, Fighter Ability: 15th Level, Hit Points: 200, Psionic Ability: Class 6</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These demons constantly fought man and Gods alike. Many of their leaders were so powerful that the Gods were forced to call a truce at times and give them concessions. All Rakshasas have these powers in common: shapechange, fight invisible except against Gods, all regenerate as a troll, crave the taste of human flesh, and cannot refuse a gambling bet. Some of the more powerful ones have complete control over forces of nature.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That sort of short but evocative monster description, lumping together such diverse considerations as invisibility (though not against Gods), regeneration, favorite cuisine (people) and a weakness for gambling is in my opinion one of the defining virtues of early D&D. It would soon be lost. </span><br />
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<i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Next (Part 2): The Holmes Basic Set, the AD&D Monster Manual and the AD&D Players Handbook. </i>Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-49434981404993568842017-11-14T07:41:00.002-06:002017-11-15T23:00:54.361-06:00Witches in Early D&D<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhySeIBLTDPG-LDDlc8A3cnx__iIVg4qIZLsKGmOkckiw_7KPV-EvmidNgzTPZPIo6RsJVEM5fsDedbz4Sl5U_bV-B-in1BgOniWx7eDbyR42KfaBu59SuOWSYKW_7MzRLTv7_RwvCejfI/s1600/Dragon+Witch.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="879" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhySeIBLTDPG-LDDlc8A3cnx__iIVg4qIZLsKGmOkckiw_7KPV-EvmidNgzTPZPIo6RsJVEM5fsDedbz4Sl5U_bV-B-in1BgOniWx7eDbyR42KfaBu59SuOWSYKW_7MzRLTv7_RwvCejfI/s400/Dragon+Witch.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A witch (one assumes) from the "Witchcraft Supplement in Dragon Magazine #5 (March, 1977)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Witches have a curious history in early Dungeons & Dragons (here, I'm defining "early" as 1974-early 1980). They were never statted or described as a monster or class in any of the rulebooks. However, there were </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">two</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> illustrations of them in <i>Monsters & Treasure</i> (in that 1974 booklet, no other monster or class had more than one illustration, and there weren't that many illustrations anyway), there were </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">three</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> fairly long and detailed <i>Dragon </i>magazine articles about them in the space of just two years, and the "Holmes" edition of D&D implied that witches were soon to be a character sub-class.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But, of course, in AD&D at least, there ended up being no witches. Alas, witches were the most prominent monster or class that, for </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">whatever reason, never quite made it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's a breakdown (by quarter) of appearances of witches in early D&D: </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
01-03/74 - <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> (3LBBs): two witch illustrations; charisma example; broom of flying (1)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">04-06/74</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">07-09/74</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10-12/74</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">01-03/75 - <i>Greyhawk</i> (Supp. 1): no witches</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">04-06/75</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">07-09/75 - <i>Blackmoor</i> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Supp. 2)</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">: no witches</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10-12/75</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">01-03/76</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">04-06/76 - <i>Eldritch Wizardry</i> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Supp. 3)</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">: no witches (2)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">07-09/76 - <i>Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes</i>: Tounelea (Finnish) (3)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10-12/76 - <i>The Dragon</i> #3: "Ladies in D&D" - witches </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as high-level female Magic-Users (4)</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">01-03/77 - <i>The Dragon</i> #5: "Witchcraft Supplement" for witch NPCs (5)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">04-06/77</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">07-09/77 - <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> (Holmes): witches presented as an upcoming sub-class; charisma example; broom of flying (6)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10-12/77 - <i>AD&D Monster Manual</i>: no witches</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">01-03/78</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">04-06/78 - <i>AD&D Players Handbook</i>: no witches</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">07-09/78</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10-12/78 - <i>The Dragon #20</i>: "Another Look at Witches" player-class supplement (7) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">01-03/79</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">04-06/79</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">07-09/79 - <i>AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide</i>: no witches but there was a broom. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10-12/79</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">01-03/80 - <i>AD&D Deities & Demigods</i>: "witch of the fens" (Arthurian)</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, Snow Witches (Nehwon) (8)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. There were two illustrations of witches in the three little brown books:</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdi9G73dMJBUFfkAGpbxYjMJnIhZq60Lb3_RyUszI-j5jqTlVTs-KGfFGIthGTZKoDQ8bTT3w-A3xd19uxJH_N6-uCc7PwBkJIe8PEbTlolorqudmJQXN_81A6nU7bOjP1WRs6bBokOfg/s1600/OD%2526D+Witches+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="467" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdi9G73dMJBUFfkAGpbxYjMJnIhZq60Lb3_RyUszI-j5jqTlVTs-KGfFGIthGTZKoDQ8bTT3w-A3xd19uxJH_N6-uCc7PwBkJIe8PEbTlolorqudmJQXN_81A6nU7bOjP1WRs6bBokOfg/s400/OD%2526D+Witches+1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Men & Magic</i>, p. 17.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUvZbLc00uPBbjK60knNcVpbgSovJ3dq3hXtOvPw-KN36NSwul-aUL3yphkDFueWrc3mcza8wqD2QR9ZEWmYSyin-b_KEvLpZAxAhyphenhyphenx7uqRZAmS0Nur7Ax57jW2QKXjSr1JMHHwVBLeVA/s1600/OD%2526D+Witch+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="368" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUvZbLc00uPBbjK60knNcVpbgSovJ3dq3hXtOvPw-KN36NSwul-aUL3yphkDFueWrc3mcza8wqD2QR9ZEWmYSyin-b_KEvLpZAxAhyphenhyphenx7uqRZAmS0Nur7Ax57jW2QKXjSr1JMHHwVBLeVA/s400/OD%2526D+Witch+2.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Men and Magic</i>, p. 27. I think I've seen her somewhere before...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In addition, a witch featured in perhaps the most memorable description for how ability scores might be used beyond their explicit effects:</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In addition the charisma score is usable to decide such things as whether or not a witch capturing a player will turn him into a swine or keep him enchanted as a lover (<i>Men & Magic</i>, p. 11).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And finally, a Broom of Flying was included as one of the original 29 miscellaneous magic items:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Broom of Flying:</b> This device allows the owner to fly at Dragon speed (24"/turn). The user must know the "Word of Command" to make it function. The Broom of Flying will come up to 24" when its owner summons it with the command word. It will carry two persons but its speed is reduced by one-quarter (<i>Monsters & Treasure</i>, p. 37).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And that broom even made it into the list of long range flying speeds - being able to cover 200 miles in a day (though I assume only 150 miles with two riders):</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbTkNAkp94OPmdPaF9u6MjzOVskcKUa6WU1_MV4Nb3hKnt1RGT8IgtvqenwMS2WMgZKTB2JD2TGJ1mfv8_oUMOBcdEf5Czq7Inzu6cmDRfeH26I6vNX3bJcV6p0VKS3bqkb5rZEU07sss/s1600/Flying+Speeds.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="245" data-original-width="376" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbTkNAkp94OPmdPaF9u6MjzOVskcKUa6WU1_MV4Nb3hKnt1RGT8IgtvqenwMS2WMgZKTB2JD2TGJ1mfv8_oUMOBcdEf5Czq7Inzu6cmDRfeH26I6vNX3bJcV6p0VKS3bqkb5rZEU07sss/s320/Flying+Speeds.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures</i>, p. 16.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, out of the 77 monsters that appeared in the monster tables and subsequent descriptions, and the 75 that would be suggested as "Other Monsters," appear on the Encounter Tables or rear their heads above water in the Naval Combat section</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, Witches were not among them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. <i>Eldritch Wizardry</i> would feature much "occult" material, including a full catalog of diverse demons and a cover drawing of a naked woman being sacrificed on a stone slab. But there were no witches.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. A brief mention of a witch would occur in the Finnish Gods and Heroes section of </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tounelea:</b></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Armor Class: 9, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Move: 9"</span>, <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hit Points: 30, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Magical Spell Ability: As 11th Level Wizardress</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fighter Ability: As a Wizardress</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was an evil witch type that was opposed to Vinanamoinen (p. 39).</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. In an early <i>Dragon</i> article, "Notes on Women and Magic," also called "Ladies in D&D" in the Contents, Witches made an appearance as high-level female Magic-Users. There was some good stuff in the article, I think. Unfortunately it was drowned out by the outrageously sexist slant of the piece, which was widely derided and mocked (by both women and men) at the time (see Jon Peterson's <a href="https://medium.com/@increment/the-first-female-gamers-c784fbe3ff37">The First Female Gamers</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. In another early <i>Dragon</i> "Witchcraft Supplement," a robust non-player-character witch class was sketched out. It included good witches, bad witches and new and unique witchlike spells and magical items. Interestingly, it was authored by someone who has never been identified. It's actually a fantastic piece, and I cribbed some ideas from it (in a hopefully appropriate way) for a handful of Witch spells in <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/224895/SEVEN-VOYAGES-of-ZYLARTHEN-Electronic-Edition">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6. In the "Holmes Basic" edition of Dungeons & Dragons, intended to be a cleaned-up version of D&D that would serve as an introduction to the forthcoming AD&D, the witch keeping a "charismatic male" as a lover example was given again, and the broom of flying would make another appearance (this time as one of only ten miscellaneous magic items). Most intriguingly, however, a witch player-class seems to be promised for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are a number of other character types which are detailed in <b>ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS</b>. There are sub-classes of the four basic classes. They are: paladins and rangers (fighting men), illusionists and witches (magic-users), monks and druids (clerics), and assassins (thieves) (p. 7.).</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Note that </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">except for the witch,</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> this gets things exactly right. That seems to hint that a witch class was originally planned for AD&D but then dropped. However, a few years ago </span><a href="http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2013/11/part-4-and-half-human-half-serpent-naga.html" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zenopus Archives</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> showed that the passage in Holmes' original draft did not include reference to a witch class. Gary Gygax would </span><a href="http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2013/11/part-4-and-half-human-half-serpent-naga.html" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">later claim</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> that the later insertion of "witch" into the final text must have been Holmes trying to force the issue (Gygax didn't know then that the reference didn't come from Holmes) or a "joke" by someone at TSR: "I never had a PC class of that sort in mind for the game," he said on Enworld in 2005.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7. In <i>Dragon</i> #20, a shorter article put forth both original material and some bits cribbed from the earlier treatment in <i>Dragon</i> #5 to set forth a witch player-class.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8. And finally, witches made two minor appearances in <i>Deities and Demi-Gods</i>, TSR's AD&D reworking of their earlier <i>Gods, Dem-Gods and Heroes</i>: In the entry for Arthurian Heroes we learn that Sir Garlon (the <i>invisible knight</i>) was</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">given the power of invisibility by a witch of the fens for the promise to only use the power for evil (p. 19). </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We also learn about Snow Witches in the Newhon Mythos of Fritz Leiber:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many of the northern tribes have a group of women that have a measure of magical power. These women, after some preparation and working together, can control all forms of cold and ice spells. They also possess, among the strongest members, a limited telepathy when in direct eye contact with a human. Given a group of 5 women and 24 hours of time, limited weather control (chilling) is possible; this effect has a range of 5 miles (p. 96).</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There were a few non-rulebook accessories published in the late 1970's - 11 modules and the Monster and Treasure Assortments, among them. But as far as I know, no witches appeared in any of these products.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If anyone has any other early D&D "witch appearances" to add, that would be </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">welcome.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The witch was the most "OD&Dish" creature to have never officially existed. That's the main reason I included her in Zylarthen. She just seemed to fit the OD&D vibe so well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a player-class, a witch might have been more problematic, being fraught with potential controversial associations involving sexism, reverse-sexism and connections with the occult. I have no idea whether these considerations played a part in the poor witch's failure to emerge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">UPDATE (Noon, 11/15/17): The last paragraph of my piece was an attempt to end things on sort of a neutral but suspenseful note. But I actually don't believe that "political" considerations had anything to do with the witch's official absence. In the mid- to late-1970's the "Satanic Panic" hadn't started yet (D&D was still a niche hobby product that was still largely under the radar).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's possible that "sexism" considerations might have played an oblique roll in why the witch wasn't considered as a player-class. After all, having an entire subclass limited only to females might seem a bit odd. And, of course, there was always the magic-user. Just learn how to cackle, paint your conical hat black and put a brim on it, and you're off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But the absence of witches as NPCs or monsters is still puzzling to me. Note that there were many female monsters with creepy spells or powers - groaning spirits, lamias, nagas, night hags, etc. - in the AD&D Monster Manual. I think in the end it was just a sort of random whim of Gygax. Or perhaps he felt that a witch was too potentially complex to be a listed monster but too similar to a magic-user to be a class of its own. And then there were those <i>Dragon</i> articles...</span><br />
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Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-56750896307473464992017-11-10T11:29:00.000-06:002017-11-10T13:03:16.211-06:00"The fact that you can just randomly encounter a Longship filled with Vikings is pretty awesome."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaeJu9lQl0Q5dtebR_G8GTZT4AHIFufeAXvtpWzfXmVTpZ3cWXHUtTFeHCjb3jtr4PrZs39jVSkiup8N7CLRffi7oI7WAj2Sf5CV3aLgECAwCU4sFY195PWnd-MNxYtcG3_IznEsjzA5c/s1600/Vikings.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="779" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaeJu9lQl0Q5dtebR_G8GTZT4AHIFufeAXvtpWzfXmVTpZ3cWXHUtTFeHCjb3jtr4PrZs39jVSkiup8N7CLRffi7oI7WAj2Sf5CV3aLgECAwCU4sFY195PWnd-MNxYtcG3_IznEsjzA5c/s400/Vikings.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Every week I google "zylarthen" to see if anyone has written a new review or whatever of <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/224895/SEVEN-VOYAGES-of-ZYLARTHEN-Electronic-Edition">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</a>, my OD&D neo-clone. After I gave the game it's somewhat distinctive name, I quickly discovered that one of the benefits is that it's pretty easy to google using just the last part. With "zylarthen" you generally find the game and only the game - the small exception being various characters in obscure fantasy or science-fiction stories (I think there might be at least three) named "Zylar" who occasionally <i>then</i> do something.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">UPDATE: Actually, the "advantage" might not be so great as all that, I just googled "swords & wizardry" (without the quotation marks) using my Private Browser function for references in the last seven days. The only hits I came up with were to that game. I was somewhat surprised at this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In any case, it's not like I often find a long review by some luminary. More often than not it's board or chat room traffic. Often it's by "Anonymous." Indeed, for all I know, "Anonymous" is always the same guy. The comment is often enthusiastic - "Hey, have you played Seven Voyages of Zylarthen? It does X better than any system that I know!" - but sadly, the comment is often left hanging as people go back to discussing Molvay Basic or whatever. Such is life, for me and Anonymous, I guess.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you're reading this, Anonymous (or group of Anonymities), thanks again. I sincerely mean that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today, I found this comment on <a href="http://boards.4chan.org/tg/thread/56316288/osrg-old-school-renaissance">4chan</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyone else absolutely love the gm sided stuff to 7 Voyages of Zylarthen, the Hex Crawl resources, the great random encounter tables. The fact that you can just randomly encounter a Longship filled with Vikings is pretty awesome.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Probably going to use alot of it's stuff on a project in the near future. It just seems more traditonal and folkloric compared to most other products of it's nature.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, even though the comment just hung there (or sank like a lead balloon), I'll take it to the bank. Or perhaps more accurately, I'll take it into my heart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'd like to think it gets the vibe of the game, especially as portrayed in <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?type=&keyWords=Seven+Voyages+of+Zylarthen&x=5&y=9&sitesearch=lulu.com&q=">Volume 4: The Campaign</a>, precisely right. If you're in Fresh Water or Coastal terrain, a positive Wandering Monster check has a 1 in 20 chance of yielding Vikings (who will probably be in a longship). That's right, actual Vikings. Here's the description from Volume 2: Book of Monsters:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>VIKINGS: Hit Dice:</b> 1. <b>Armor Class:</b> 6. <b>Move:</b> 12/15. <b>Alignment:</b> Neutrality. <b>Languages:</b> Type I. <b>Number Appearing:</b> 1-4 longships, manned by 20-80 men each. <b>% In Lair:</b> 15%. <b>Treasure:</b> Class 1, plus 1-6 S.P. ea. <b>Description:</b> These warriors will always be found either on the water or within a few miles of their anchored or beached longships. However, the ships may easily traverse shallow rivers, and thus, Viking raiding parties may be encountered far inland. Each ship will have a Standard Bearer of 2nd-3rd level and a Chieftain of 4th-6th level—the latter usually armored in mail. In turn a squadron of multiple boats will be led by a High-Chieftain of 7th-9th levels. There is a 15% cumulative chance per boat that there will be 3-30 Berserkers, and a 25% cumulative chance that a Priest of Odin will accompany the entire force. Despite their fierce reputation, Vikings are generally intelligent and cultured as well as reasonable and honorable, at least in their fashion. Missiles: die 1-3 = none, die 4 = axe, die 5 = spear, die 6 = bow.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Note my rejection of anti-Viking prejudice - "</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite their fierce reputation, Vikings are generally intelligent and cultured as well as reasonable and honorable, at least in their fashion." - After they kill you, they'll probably write a saga about it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or look at it this way: It beats leeches.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now, of course, many OSR games have this sort of wild side to them. That isn't the right word. I suppose "gonzo" might be better, although it carries sort of a taint, and also doesn't get it quite right either. At least the Vikings aren't wearing clown masks. Then again...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Indeed, Vikings appeared multiple times in the original 1974 edition of Dungeons & Dragons (which is why I chose them for Zylarthen) but then quickly fell out as the system and franchise took a more naturalistic turn.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And it's not all about Vikings. What I tried to do in The Campaign was to create a mechanism or give referees ideas and tables for creating a mechanism to design a vibrant and "real" wilderness, if you will, teeming with whatever the referee thought would be fun and cool, as well as giving the players interesting challenges and problems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And again, Zylarthen is not unique at all in this. Any OSR or OD&D-like system that has the space to go into detail on this sort or thing does this, or at least should do it. If I did it adequately or even half as well as it was done in <i>The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures</i>, that would make me happy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Wilderness Encounter tables for Zylarthen were designed to be somewhat tippy. In Coastal terrain, the expected suspects - Vikings, Buccaneers, Lizard Men Giant Crabs, Harpies - each have a 1 in 20 chance of occurring. But if you roll a 14-20, you go to some other table - Flyers, Humanoids, Men, Other Monsters, etc. - which in turn might lead you to yet another table. It's possible you'll run into Cyborgs or a lone Druid on a raft or even a god or goddess. There's even a 1 in 5760 chance you'll encounter a Black Pudding in your coastal wanderings. I'd love to see what a good referee might do with that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As for Zylarthen being "more traditonal and folkloric," I'd like to think that's true to an extent, but again, I simply went back to the sources. As I discussed <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-monsters-of-seven-voyages-of.html">here</a>, every monster in Zylarthen is taken from, or are expansions on something from the 1974 or 1975 texts. It was all there right from the beginning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What's old can be new again!</span></div>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-17191836357146604242017-11-09T10:13:00.000-06:002017-11-09T13:04:31.968-06:00Jacob Bos of 5Realms is a Troll and a Liar<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic8wCLmdVkkdvkjF_7jv2V-HrBCLWF4GMMeigpOylsaVS3cMzusSaE09MayKcMyltCfY04iI9ZDKGPN6UoSYUMoabbxU901RF097QWPHzpMzngoQJ7nkdayO4ORlpa17EULPvMEu_BqUM/s1600/Jacob+Bos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="160" data-original-width="160" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic8wCLmdVkkdvkjF_7jv2V-HrBCLWF4GMMeigpOylsaVS3cMzusSaE09MayKcMyltCfY04iI9ZDKGPN6UoSYUMoabbxU901RF097QWPHzpMzngoQJ7nkdayO4ORlpa17EULPvMEu_BqUM/s400/Jacob+Bos.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Darker Side of Dungeons & Dragons</b></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm sure by now, most of you have heard the name "Dungeons & Dragons". On the surface, it's a game of the imagination, governed by strict rules, and played with dice, maps, and miniatures. Under the surface however, lies the allure of the occult, the temptation to escape from reality, and the desire for power.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So begins the first blog post from a blog called "Secret Evils of the World." Both the blog itself and the profile of the blog's a</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">uthor "Thomas Elder" were created yesterday morning from an address in Canada, with no obvious provenance in terms of the blog or the blogger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It appears to be an 80's style Christian fundie anti-D&D rant. Those red pictures on the side are depictions of hell. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You may find the link <a href="https://evilassworld.blogspot.ca/2017/11/the-darker-side-of-dungeons-dragons.html">here</a>. Or not - it may have been taken down by the time you read this. But here's what it looks like, and below is the profile of "Thomas Elder."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first post went up at 5:51 AM CST. (The time stamp is the Blogger default, which is PST.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yesterday, between the hours of 6 AM and 7 AM, a minor RPG industry guy named Jacob Bos linked to the blog's first post. He put it up in a number of places on Facebook where it received hundreds of comments and many shares, virtually all of which were </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">predictably</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hostile to the blog and post, and many of which degenerated into anti-Christian snipes and attacks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jacob Bos is the person behind the Myd'Realm fantasy setting and 5Realms Publishing, both of which have a presence on DriveThruRPG. Bos is based in Canada.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The blog post itself received 150+ comments, all of which, as far as I can tell, were directed there by those Facebook posts and shares.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first comment was posted by Jacob Bos at 6:19 AM, twenty-eight minutes after the anonymous first-time blog from the anonymous profile that was just created launched itself into the ether.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So Bos appears to have found it quite quickly on Tuesday morning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Maybe the Canadian internet isn't that big...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, Bos wrote it himself of course.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And he also inserted himself into the discussion on at least one of the Facebook places where he linked to the post - the group 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - laughing along with those attacking those bigoted and stupid Christian fundies. Here's one comment among many. Notice that he comically tries to direct attention away from the troll thesis:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bos also linked to the post in Old School Gamers, where I first saw it, his own page, his Myd'Realm and 5Realms Facebook pages and, of all places, the group 80'S CARTOONS, T.V. SHOWS, MOVIES AND TOYS ..what do you remember? He also linked to the post on his Twitter account, which ironically got no likes or retweets. For all I know, he put it up in other places on Facebook and elsewhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are a few of the ways he introduced the post:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some church.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Organized religion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are all sinners! Repent!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">LOL</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He was a busy man between 6 AM and 7 AM, just minutes after the original blog and profile was created.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "Secret Evils" blog title picture is from the TV series Freaks and Geeks. Curiously, the same picture was posted on the Myd'Realm page a few months ago (with funny "meme" writing placed on it). While it's true that a similar picture has appeared on other sites, each picture has different dimensions and pixel counts, etc., as one might expect. Except for two them - the pictures for </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Myd'Realm and "Secret Evils" are precisely the same (in terms of dimensions, pixels, etc.).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWfSfgEBEG27sWjoSpZS1TtG3PjB9AHIYGZHwh5gbK3lcVSof0HbATlIL8aCWi1aOuZosSfkLusUw79csF9wQEyx5S4YdRYZDuIkmlQgg7ScbZsTyxWdR6UkbmsLyvSiEaZtbrkB23zY8/s1600/Myd%2527Realms+Freaks+and+Geeks.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="495" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWfSfgEBEG27sWjoSpZS1TtG3PjB9AHIYGZHwh5gbK3lcVSof0HbATlIL8aCWi1aOuZosSfkLusUw79csF9wQEyx5S4YdRYZDuIkmlQgg7ScbZsTyxWdR6UkbmsLyvSiEaZtbrkB23zY8/s400/Myd%2527Realms+Freaks+and+Geeks.png" width="368" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I originally was taken in by this hoax like most (though perhaps not all) of the commenters. Indeed, as a Christian D&D player I felt it my silly duty to defend the anonymous blogger from the lynch mob, at least partially - "30%" as I put it - as well as pointing out that the whole thing, whatever the merits of the anti-anti-D&D case had partly turned into an anti-Christian thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I should note that at least two Christian ministers respectfully argued the merits of D&D back at the "Thomas Elder."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bos is of course a troll and a liar. He invented the profile, wrote the blog post and then linked to it either to create clicks and shares for his "setting" and company pages or to gin up anti-Christian hate. I suspect it's both.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He allowed it to be shared and re-shared as an alleged example of Christian or Christian fundie hate. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">See? Christians are stupid and bigoted. They want to control you and stop your fun. They want to condemn people they disagree with to hell. They can't separate fantasy from reality, etc., etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And they hate our favorite game, D&D.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Someone must have been channeling the late Patricia Pulling and Jack Chick...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Except. Not.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was Jacob Bos all along.</span></div>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-61388682252625251002017-11-01T10:12:00.000-05:002017-11-01T10:58:19.599-05:00Phantom Stalker, Spectral Hound and Twinling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Phantom Stalker from the original AD&D </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Fiend Folio</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=zylarthen&type=">Supplement 1: </a></span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=zylarthen&type=">Book of Spells</a></i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> includes three spells that annoyingly refer to Supplement 2: </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Book of Fiends</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. I say "annoyingly" because </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Book of Fiends</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> has not yet been published (It's written, but this time I'm pursuing a different option for the art):</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Phantom Stalker:</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> This spell summons a Phantom Stalker. See Supplement 2: </span><u style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book of Fiends</u><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> for characteristics and effects. Magic-Users. Level: 5.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Spectral Hound:</b> This spell summons a Spectral Hound to track opponents. See Supplement 2: <u>Book of Fiends</u>. Magic-Users. Level: 4.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Twinling:</b> See Supplement 2: <u>Book of Fiends</u>. Magic-Users. Level: 6.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not a lot to go on there, obviously. So here are those creatures (two days ago I also added them as an addendum to the <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/oakes-spalding/seven-voyages-of-zylarthen-electronic-edition/ebook/product-23389356.html">Electronic Edition</a> PDF): </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>PHANTOM STALKERS:</u> Hit Dice:</b> 6. <b>Attacks:</b> 2-12.<b> Armor Class:</b> 3. <b>Move:</b> 12/24. <b>Alignment:</b> Neutrality. <b>Languages:</b> Type J plus Simple Common. <b>Number Appearing:</b> 1. <b>Description:</b> These are invoked in a manner similar to Invisible Stalkers but their purpose is to guard and avenge. Only one may be created at one time, and they will never leave the initial area—castle, tower, underground lair—they were initially called to, unless it is to avenge the death of their master. If their master is killed, the Stalker will be implacable in tracking his killer, wishing to fulfill the terms of the summoning and return to its abode as quickly as possible. It may <u>Polymorph Self</u> and <u>Fly</u> but will usually appear as an 8’ tall, reddish humanoid with fiery eyes. A Phantom Stalker is immune to fire-based attacks but saves against cold attacks at a -2 penalty and takes an extra hit of damage per die. If slain, the creature will explode in a six-die <u>Fire Ball</u>. Of course, since the Stalker values its own life as much as any creature, he will attempt to make use of this as a threat, revealing it to his attackers if cornered.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>SPECTRAL HOUNDS:</u> Hit Dice:</b> 5. <b>Attacks:</b> 2-12 plus possible extra-powerful bite. <b>Armor Class:</b> 7. <b>Move:</b> 24. <b>Number Appearing:</b> 1. <b>Description:</b> Via a powerful spell, a supernatural canine is created that will inexorably track and close in on its target, as long as something with the victim’s scent is initially presented. The creature will take 3-18 days to reach its victim, and on the final 3-6 days the victim will hear a howling coming progressively nearer. If possible, the Hound will attack while the victim is alone, and it will usually surprise on a 1-4. If, during melee, the “to hit” roll succeeds by +4 or more, double damage will be inflicted due to the Hound sinking its teeth into the throat. In addition, after such a bite the victim will go comatose for 2-8 turns and then die at the end of that period unless surgery, a Cure Light Wounds spell or similar or more powerful magic is administered in the interim.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>TWINLINGS:</u> Description:</b> A Twinling is created by the horrible spell of the same name, and thus the victim is allowed a saving throw to immediately dispel it. If this is failed, then a perfect double of the victim—with the same current hit points, spells, magic items, and so on—instantly attacks, though it will be invisible as well as invulnerable to all others, and it will look as if the victim is batting the air. The monster will continue to attack until either it or its victim is dead. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These three monster descriptions actually give a bit if insight into the methodology behind the forthcoming <i>Book of Fiends</i>. The idea was to track and reimagine (not duplicate!) the original <i>Fiend Folio</i>. Essentially that meant four things.</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Any monsters not in the SRD (the <i>Fiend Folio</i> has many of those) or that weren't to some extent legally "freed" by Necromancer Games' 2011 <i>Tome of Horrors</i> would have to be reworked and renamed, at the least. In many cases this meant keeping some of the stats but inserting the creature into a different ontological space, so to speak. So for example, many planar or just plain bizarro creatures (the <i>Fiend Folio</i> had many) often became extraterrestrials from, say, one of Pluto's moons, or evil faerie creatures. I actually think this worked out perfectly for the Zylarthen/OD&D vibe I wanted to preserve, but I'm sure that a few <i>Fiend Folio</i> fans will miss some of their favorites.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Silly (in my opinion), broken or superfluous monsters would be reimagined. Now don't misunderstand. I love the <i>Fiend Folio</i>, and that includes loving some <i>Fiend Folio</i> monsters that most people seem to hate. (I also dislike a few that many people seem to love.) But there were a number, many of them also SRD or present in <i>Tome</i>, that I felt just didn't work, or at least wouldn't work for Zylarthen. One example is the Adherer. There's nothing inherently wrong (and a lot inherently right) about a monster that is, well, <i>sticky. </i>But the way it was initially presented in the <i>Fiend Folio</i>, including that (in my opinion) unfortunate illustration, as a sort of DM "gotcha" monster - you think it's a standard mummy, but think again! - was just (again, in my subjective opinion) annoying. So I reworked them as amphibians.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All monster descriptions would be reduced to stripped-down OD&D/Zylarthen style. One of the things I didn't like about the <i>Folio</i> (and to some extent the original AD&D <i>Monster Manual</i>) was how long some of the descriptions were. I always felt I had to reread them five times just to make sure I didn't miss some little extra spell or odd ability. In many cases, this meant replacing a page or half-page length description with a short paragraph. I like that sort of presentation much better. But, again, opinions obviously differ on this. The two conceptions are just different. One is OD&D, and one is AD&D, if you will. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But all <i>Fiend Folio</i> monsters would be represented, at least in <i>some</i> form. In many cases this "representation" is extremely tangential. CIFAL's became Wasp Zombies (actual zombies with venomous wasps crawling out of orifices in their bodies), Flinds (relatives of Gnolls) became non-described Gibbelins (relatives of Dunsany's non-described Gnoles), The Hound of Ill Omen became Prophecy Worms, Snyads became Termite Men, Mites became Water Gnomes, Norkers became Aquatic Hobgoblins and the Nonafel (Cat O'Nine Tails) became just a standard panther. And so on. Sorry Nonafels. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, the Phantom Stalkers is quite similar to its originals, or, rather, to the OGL version presented in </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Tome of Horrors</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. But the description is stripped down, and the possible planar origins of the creature are left unmentioned.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Spectral Hound was originally a Devil Dog. Not much similarity there except for the dog and the throat biting thing, I suppose. But I felt there were too many standard canine variations in <i>Folio</i> (and there already were Hell Hounds and Blink Dogs, etc. in OD&D and AD&D). So I thought a sort of less powerful version of the Invisible Stalker spell would be fun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had actually forgotten that the Twinling was a reworking of the Aleax. I kept the evil twin idea (which was a damn good one) but made it into an evil spell, as opposed to a sending of the gods, or whatever it was in <i>Folio</i>. And I thought all the extra detail about regeneration and so on was superfluous. It's bad enough to find yourself up against your evil twin in a duel to the death where no one else can help you!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By the way, just so no one misunderstands. I don't think Zylarthen's <i>Book of Fiends</i> is better than its semi-parent (such a thought would be insane). Rather, it's simply my imperfect effort to re-imagine it (or re-imagine some of it) in a legally viable and (hopefully) fun way for the Zylarthen/OD&D universe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Good hunting and happy casting!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Phantom Stalker from Necromancer Games' <i>Tome of Horrors</i></span></td></tr>
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Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-7667027351416935062017-10-31T09:52:00.000-05:002017-10-31T10:04:31.897-05:00What is Book of Spells? Part 1: Magic-Users<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUkSbLxfZtrgmNUhnDC2HrtLRUfAdR_mg9Ws99O7DDshmtBm1_elvAJhk82uNZQ8PPfV86cKnYzZcTlyicS0t3FQcta-WcWnxLM3rsjdbw9wLVg0GDTKkh8R36hwgfhJzzOc62eMCTGc/s1600/gate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="450" height="357" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUkSbLxfZtrgmNUhnDC2HrtLRUfAdR_mg9Ws99O7DDshmtBm1_elvAJhk82uNZQ8PPfV86cKnYzZcTlyicS0t3FQcta-WcWnxLM3rsjdbw9wLVg0GDTKkh8R36hwgfhJzzOc62eMCTGc/s400/gate.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Gate</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What is <i><a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Zylarthen&type=">Book of Spells</a></i>?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The short answer is that it's a spell catalog for the Seven Voyages of Zylarthen universe, containing 296 spells presented alphabetically, approximately half of which are new to Zylarthen. Some of the old spells have been rewritten and shuffled around slightly among classes and levels. Thus, Magic-Users now have 216 spells - 30 per level for levels 1-6 and 12 per level for levels 7-9. And Witches and High Priests each have completely unique lists of 40 spells - or "powers" for High Priests. In the process, the Witch and High Priest NPC classes have been somewhat re-designed. <i>Book of Spells</i> also contains new rules for age and aging, a table for item saving throws, and an optional rule for higher-level characters doing extra damage. As with volumes 1-4, it exclusively makes use of the wonderful illustrations of John Dickson Batten - all "new" ones, so to speak.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's currently available on <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Zylarthen&type=">Lulu</a>, in <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/oakes-spalding/seven-voyages-of-zylarthen-supplement-i-book-of-spells/paperback/product-23387241.html">physical booklet form</a> for $6.95 and as part of a revised <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Zylarthen&type=">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen Electronic Edition</a> for $9.95.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm going to break the longer answer up into three parts. Today I'll focus on Magic-User spells.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let me go back a step and describe what was done for spells in the original Zylarthen. In the foreword to Vol. 1, I implied that the game was based solely on OD&D's "three little brown books," published in 1974. That was true for classes, abilities and (roughly) the combat mechanism. But attentive readers of Zylarthen and these blog posts know that monsters, magic items and spells tracked the <i>first two-years</i> of Dungeons & Dragons, taking things through the late fall of 1975. Or, in other words, I made use not only of the three little brown books but also <i>Greyhawk</i> and the first four issues of <i>The Strategic Review</i>. Most spells were inspired by these sources. There were a few original ones, and we declined to use some others, most notably the upper-level Magic-User spells (levels 7-9) of <i>Greyhawk</i> and roughly half of the Illusionist spells of <i>Strategic Review</i>. Of the spells we used, Magic-Users got all of the Magic-User spells and some of the Cleric spells. NPC High Priests (clerics) got a list similar, though not identical to, the OD&D list, the bulk of it shared with Magic-Users. Witches got a mix of the most "witchlike" Magic-User, Cleric and Illusionist offerings. Again, a few were unique, but most were shared.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The original tally looked like this:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Magic Users: 120 spells (20 for each of levels 1-6).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Evil High Priests: 36 spells (5 for each of levels 1-3, and 7 for each of levels 4-6).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">High Priests: 36 spells (5 for each of levels 1-3 ,and 7 for each of levels 4-6).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Witches: 60 spells (10 for each of levels 1-6).</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, if you took out the overlaps, the number of distinct spells equaled 150. Out of the 132 Priest and Witch spells, only 30 were unique to those classes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For <i>Book of Spells</i>, we added the high-level spells in <i>Greyhawk</i> and expanded the time frame through mid-1977, thus stopping right before the start of the publication of AD&D. The additional sources we tracked were <i>Eldritch Wizardry</i>, <i>Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes</i>, the <i>Holmes Basic</i> set, and two articles from early issues of <i>Dragon</i> magazine. Not all the <i>Dragon</i> spells were used, and we should note that for spells not in the 3.5 or 5.0 SRD, if we used them, we were pretty careful to use them as jumping off points only, re-imagining and (usually) renaming them, at least in so far as their names and effects were not obvious, generic or taken from some other source - such as the Conan stories.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'll discuss Witches and High Priests in more detail in parts 2 and 3, but the idea was to give them completely unique lists, letting them keep a few of the OD&D spells, but transferring the bulk to Magic-Users. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This time, a larger number of spells (perhaps 70 or so) were either original to me or re-imagined (and usually renamed) from another early TSR game. OSRites will easily be able to identify it. The idea was to really make Witches and High Priests different from Magic-Users, as well as more witchlike or priestlike (though my angle on priestlike may surprise a few of you), while letting Magic-Users have 95%+ of the OD&D spells. Giving the vast majority to that player-character class seemed like the right thing to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So here's the new tally:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Magic Users: 216 spells (20 for each of levels 1-6, and 12 for each of levels 7-9).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">High Priests (including Evil High Priests - there is now technically no distinction in the spell lists): 40 - not separated by level.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Witches: </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">40 - not separated by level.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, many of the "new" Magic-User adds were Druid spells from </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Eldritch Wizardry</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (I always liked the spells but hated the limiting nature of the class - at least for player-characters) and the left-out higher-level spells from </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Greyhawk</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But I don't want you think that Book of Spells was merely an exercise in mashing those spells in (there wouldn't have really been a point if that had been the case). Rather, the parts and the whole had to work for the vibe of the game and for how "magic" would now be separated from witcheries and the deity bestowed "powers" of priests. I also took the opportunity to "fix" a number of spells that I either felt were broken or whose descriptions were annoyingly vague or unclear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are a few spells that I tried to fix:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Color Spray</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Heat Metal</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Magic Missiles </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(yes, the "s" is intentional)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sleep (it's scaled back a bit to its original conception of having only a 10' x 10' area of effect - but 1st level Magic-Users now have a few other nice offensive spells to compensate)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are some spells that were reimagined and (usually) renamed:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fear Touch</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hurrah!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Itch</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Surrender or Die!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Create Fog</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Call Animals (I, II and III)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Monster Summoning (I through IX - yes, you can now summon monsters at 1st level)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are some spells that have only a tangential relation (if that) to their originals:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Drain-Magic Ray</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stun Ray</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Freeze Ray</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lava Circle</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And here are some that, as far as I know, are original to Zylarthen, but seemed to fit:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Spectral Hound</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Phantom Stalker</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Twinling</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cone of Cold (sort of original - some monsters in OD&D could do it)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Create Breathable Water</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Time Travel (this is a 9th level spell, and like Teleport carries a significant chance that the result might be somewhat "off")</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have to admit that the first three require the forthcoming </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Book of Fiends</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> to be understood or used, but I'll post the necessary monster descriptions on this blog in the next few days.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As with the original Zylarthen, two versions of Raise Dead were reworked into super-healing spells. There are still no Wish spells (you have to have a ring or perhaps a sword for those). And there are only one-and-a-half spells from the set of "Phantasmal" illusion offerings - I had always felt that too many illusions and "I disbelieves" always threatened to ruin things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"White Puff Ball Spell" was TSR's <i>Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes</i> name for a spell described in the (now public domain) Conan story, "The Black Circle." Since TSR sort of lifted the spell from the story at a time when the story was not public domain, and subsequently permanently deleted it, I felt that using their wonderful name for the effect in the now pubic domain story was fair game. Alas, since Forlorn Incistment (another </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes </i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">spell name that TSR lifted - though with a different spelling - and then deleted) is from a work not yet in the public domain, I followed TSR's route in AD&D and the SRD in renaming it as the much more boring "Imprisonment."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I like the new Magic-User lists a lot. I feel that there's a great mix of spells at each level - from offensive to defensive to just useful to weird to, in a few cases, downright creepy. And while some "balance" is good - in determining which level to assign a spell to, for example - the overall goal was to make things fun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">See the end of this post for page scans of the full Book of Spells Magic-User list.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A word on round/turns: I don't really want to get into a big argument about this here, and I know that some people I respect hold a different position, but I came to feel that breaking time units down into rounds/turns as opposed to the more elastic conception of turns/melee turns/full turns was actually what Gygax and Arneson intended back in 1974, though their presentation was certainly confusing. In other words, rounds/turns was NOT a "naturalistic" accretion of AD&D. (Thinking that it was was the main reason I didn't originally go with it in the original Zylarthen.) But perhaps more importantly, Since Zylarthen's first publication, I came to feel that using an explicit rounds/turns scheme for spell duration was much less potentially confusing. So, for <i>Book of Spells</i> and the revised <i>Book of Magic</i> ALL spells were rewritten using the rounds/turns methodology. I imagine this will make some people happy while annoying a few others. But there it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the same time, for <i>Book of Spells</i> and the revised <i>Book of Magic</i>, I got rid of most instances where spell range, duration or effect varied according to level. I now feel that such variances <i>were</i> an illegitimate accretion from the original Vancian inspiration, even if they were present, at least to a small degree, even in the 1974 booklets. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Finally, how does <i>Supplement I: Book of Spells</i> impact the already existing <i>Vol. 3: Book of Magic?</i> I elected to port rewrites and changes from <i>Book of Spells</i> back to <i>Book of Magic</i>, thinking this would be the least confusing alternative. In other words, purchasers of the new Electronic Edition of Zylarthen or the revised physical booklet of <i>Book of Magic</i> will notice that the Magic-User spell lists and descriptions in <i>Book of Magic</i> are slightly different from how they used to be. But <i>Book of Magic</i> still only has 120 spells for Magic-Users, and stops at 6th level. Sleep is a bit less of a mini-nuke, but in return you get Color Spray, multiple Magic Missiles (though they still DON'T hit automatically) and if you use <i>Book of Spells</i>, you can now summon a Goblin, Giant Centipedes or even Green Slime (whatever the referee determines that to even mean) to do your bidding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unless you end up with a Butterfly Rabble.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">--------------------------------------------------</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Magic-User spell list from <i>Supplement I: Book of Spells:</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjLZp95Gpy4u8lmAnQGJd_WCJRqaP32pGGe8rQzZ_PNpLBuvValLFBi_wcFmNv6GflafzblS7R5J5T4rHfaiq2j1a9hjN7WsRo29MeReIZ23Sz0cKPIg_vNsfbhPDhHAsvq6j77yeqNAc/s1600/MU+Spells+2+Blog+Picture.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="635" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjLZp95Gpy4u8lmAnQGJd_WCJRqaP32pGGe8rQzZ_PNpLBuvValLFBi_wcFmNv6GflafzblS7R5J5T4rHfaiq2j1a9hjN7WsRo29MeReIZ23Sz0cKPIg_vNsfbhPDhHAsvq6j77yeqNAc/s400/MU+Spells+2+Blog+Picture.png" width="281" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Magic-User spell list from the <i>revised</i> </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Vol. 3: Book of Magic:</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-2426677557678733352017-10-26T12:15:00.001-05:002017-10-26T12:15:22.533-05:00Book of Spells for Zylarthen Released!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCvHlh1ykO7vd3XIdhATNFwqaOKvymnwxlqJAPAxtC1VeDPSz9NZZ1YPlFtU-aLVhsvxtG4f8gH6YAwbsneaO9D3vPL292iJF6WpmfcyXKB5bIcCIOsGV3KWsofxUIeD1r9iEFPFrnHI/s1600/Zylarthen+5+COVER.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="638" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCvHlh1ykO7vd3XIdhATNFwqaOKvymnwxlqJAPAxtC1VeDPSz9NZZ1YPlFtU-aLVhsvxtG4f8gH6YAwbsneaO9D3vPL292iJF6WpmfcyXKB5bIcCIOsGV3KWsofxUIeD1r9iEFPFrnHI/s400/Zylarthen+5+COVER.png" width="281" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's been a long time coming, but I've finally released </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Zylarthen&type=">Book of Spells</a></i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, the 1st supplement for Seven Voyages of Zylarthen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's available in booklet form and as an "extra" in the also newly released <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Zylarthen&type=">Zylarthen Electronic Edition</a>, which consolidates revised versions of the first four volumes in a bookmarked 336 page PDF file.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's an excerpt from the foreword:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Book of Spells</i>, the first supplement for SEVEN VOYAGES of ZYLARTHEN, almost doubles the number of spells in the ZYLARTHEN catalog from 150 to 296.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Part of the idea was to continue the process of “re-imagining” the original fantasy adventure game through the midpoint of its fourth year, at least for spells. Thus, some of the “new” spells will be familiar.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many of them were originally designed for a particular player-character class not available in ZYLARTHEN, although its more sinister non-player character relative survives (see Vol. 2 under “D”). Our own view is that the spells were wonderful, but the player-class itself was limiting. We think they work better if they simply expand the choices for all Magic-Users.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We also somewhat redefined the ZYLARTHEN Witch and High Priest classes. Both now have unique lists of spells—or “powers” in the case of High Priests—the majority of them being new to the universe of ZYLARTHEN as well as the original fantasy adventure game. We feel that the Witch spells make Witches more Witch-like, and the High Priest powers make High Priests more . . . perhaps alien is the right word.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the process of conceiving <i>Book of Spells</i> we’ve also slightly rewritten many of the spells in Vol. 3 and changed the level of a few of them to better comport with the range of the expanded list. The duration for most spells is now defined in terms of “rounds” (10 to a turn) or “turns” (6 to an hour), as opposed to the more elastic scheme given in the original.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Spells and powers are listed in alphabetical order. All are fully compatible with ZYLARTHEN as first presented.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Revised rules for movement and time, tables for age and aging for player-characters (especially useful when assessing the effects of attacks by Ghosts and the like) and item saving throws (for all sorts of unpleasant situations) have also been provided. Finally, there is an optional rule for increasing the damage rolls for high-level player characters—if the players or referee feel that the original ZYLARTHEN scheme places them at a disadvantage against higher-level monsters with multiple dice of damage.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'll be going into a bit more detail on what I did in <i>Book of Spells</i>, as well as discussing the Electronic Edition in subsequent posts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm happy with the results, and I hope you will be too. If you would like to purchase either product (just in time for Halloween!), you can currently find them at the <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Zylarthen&type=">Zylarthen</a> page on Lulu. (The Zylarthen box to the right will also bring you there.) But this time I also intend to offer both products at two other sites as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers! And may you always find yourself upwind from a White Puff Ball spell.</span></div>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-25756652505255136242017-09-11T08:11:00.000-05:002017-09-14T14:04:50.982-05:00"Flight 93" - Filk Singer Leslie Fish's Moving Tribute to the Heroes of 9/11<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIpvymZxlb2uzpe3UcKPcqIFhmAHvD4Dw3K_cOfE3zbSA4suYkKgTIvbTHNZkL2wSWfN_ah8XyfbrOE9kPwXLmqXVn-EI6-u7XwpAql1Yc0iLciwa-EYiV2FvSRXsxcnFV8dEF9XT9mII/s1600/Leslie+Fish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="652" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIpvymZxlb2uzpe3UcKPcqIFhmAHvD4Dw3K_cOfE3zbSA4suYkKgTIvbTHNZkL2wSWfN_ah8XyfbrOE9kPwXLmqXVn-EI6-u7XwpAql1Yc0iLciwa-EYiV2FvSRXsxcnFV8dEF9XT9mII/s400/Leslie+Fish.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leslie Fish</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This post is not really about Islam.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's certainly not about any sort of "tragedy."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's about heroism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another word for that is love. L</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ove for one's neighbor</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. Love for justice. And, yes, love for life. Even if you think you might lose it.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><br /><i>"We've nothing to fight with, and may wind up dead,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But we've voted to stand up and fight them instead,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And we might keep them from getting through."</i><br /><br />United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania fie</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ld on September 11th, 2001, killing all aboard - 34 passengers (including a near-term unborn baby) and 7 crew. 4 hijackers also died. The plane had been comandeered 45 minutes after takeoff by terrorists - confederates of the men who steered their 3 hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These hijackers were a few minutes late in their mission (the plane had been delayed taking off), which gave the passengers enough time to figure out what their mission was - a suicide strike against the U.S. Capita</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">l Building or the White House.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"One man's been stabbed, and we can't reach the cockpit,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But somehow we'll alter the flight.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>We've guessed that the target is likely the White House,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And if we fail, we'll surely die."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who is Leslie Fish?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leslie Fish is a writer, folk singer and "filk" musician - "filk" being the term for music tied to the science fiction and fantasy fan convention scene. She is a libertarian anarchist whose political activism has spanned the breadth of the movement. She has protested the Vietnam War, worked with the "Wobblies" (Industrial Workers of the World), defended gun rights and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cVOOXQo22o">praised the Moon landings</a>. On anarchism she wrote:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What sort of anarchist future would I like to see? There's no reason for a government-free society to be nothing but agrarian, no reason at all that it couldn't be industrial and space-faring.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She is a quasi-pagan. And a Trekker. Or "used to be," according to Fish:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I sort of lost interest when NEXT GENERATION came along; it's just too pussy, Yuppie-ish, and bloodless for my tastes.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fish also wrote "Flight 93," the most moving and inspiring artistic tribute yet made to those heroes of 9/11.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><br /><i>"We've nothing to fight with except our bare hands,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But we'll keep on trying until the plane lands</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>One way or the other. We've taken our stand.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>My darling, I love you. Goodbye."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you listen to it and do not agree, listen to it again. If you still do not agree, then I cannot help you. If, on any listening, you do not cry, at least a little, then you are stronger than I am.<br /><br /><i>He watched while the passengers battled and died,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And knew that no help would be found.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The guard was distracted. Just one chance to win.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>There's one case where suicide isn't a sin.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>He weighed all his chances. He said: "Auger in!"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And drove the ship into the ground.</i><br /><br />The passengers on Flight 93 almost succeeded in wresting control of the plane from the terrorists. Most believe that they effectively breached the cockpit. But there is controversy over who w</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as at the controls at the end. The song implies that it was a passenger - "Jason the pilot" - but the cockpit tapes appear to indicate that a hijacker crashed the plane, fearing that he was seconds away from being overpowered. It's also possible, of course, that there was a fi</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ght over the controls.<br /><br /><i>Flight 93 hit the ground at full speed,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And no one aboard her survives.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But the White House still stands, and a few thousand folks</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Can thank those aboard for their lives.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>There's no guarantee, when the Bad Guys come in,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>That they won't kill you all to a man.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>So when some fanatics are out to have fun,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>There's nowhere to hide and there's nowhere to run.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Then pray that the law lets you carry a gun,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But fight back however you can.</i><br /><br />So the song is a tribute but also a lesson. Don't expect the bad guys to have any scruples or mercy. Someti</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">mes, they just want to kill you, and perhaps thousands more in the bargain. No hero wants to die. But there are worse things than natural death. And better things than giving in.</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</i><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>You might not survive, but at least you can try.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Stand up and bring the ship down.</i><br /><br />A YouTube link to the </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">song follows, along with the full lyrics. Here are links to a few of Fish's other more notable songs - </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4y802_Ot-k" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Day it Fell Apart</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, a righteous anti-corporate ballad, also about heroism, in this case, hospital workers dealing with the results of a mine explosion, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSYNRlVqjfA" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Valhalla</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (warning: graphic paganism), one of her most well-known "filk" efforts, and </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO0XSreGVHY" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Gamers</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (warning: graphic nerdity), a light-hearted hymn to gamers and their battles against prejudice and the government. I also recommend her blog, </span><a href="http://lesliebard.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">LeslieBard</a>,<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> whose most recent post has a distinctly </span><a href="http://lesliebard.blogspot.com/2017/09/political-theatre-charlottesville.html" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">nonconformist take on Charlottesville</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've also included the full version of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFwu4m7a3w4">United 93</a>, a </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">straight-ahead, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">non-ideological</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">narrative of the events, which manages to also be moving and inspiring. I highly recommend it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Flight 93"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">b</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">y Leslie Fish</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She took off from Newark on a warm autumn day,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With forty-five travellers and crew.<br />They all were unarmed at the will of the law;<br />Security passed them all through.<br />An hour into flight-time, four Arabs jumped up --<br />Two Ahmeds, Ziad and Sa'eed --<br />Announced a hijacking and waved knives around<br />(Razorblades, box-knives and steak-knives they'd found),<br />And a box that they swore was a bomb up and down;<br />They thought that was all they would need.<br /><br />Flight 93 no more will fly.<br />Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:<br />You might not survive, but at least you can try.<br />Stand up and bring the ship down.<br /><br />CeeCee the stewardess had a cell-phone,<br />And called up her husband to say:<br />"The plane has been hijacked. We'll do as we're trained;<br />Be quiet and humbly obey.<br />They'll dicker for money or some social cause.<br />The government surely will pay.<br />They'll put us out somewhere and leave with their score,<br />Or maybe police will come catch them and more.<br />That's always the way this has been done before.<br />With luck, I'll be home in a day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Next was Mark Bingham, who had a phone too,<br />And used it to call up his Mom.<br />He said they'd been hijacked by "three foreign men"<br />Who had knives and said they had a bomb.<br />But some of the passengers plotted, he said,<br />To take back the plane as it flew.<br />"But first tell me, Mom, is it true what they say?<br />That three other airplanes were hijacked today,<br />Flown straight into buildings and blew them away?"<br />His mother cried, and said: "It's true."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Jeremy Glick called his wife on the phone,<br />And told of the bomb and the knives.<br />He said: "If these stories we're hearing are true,<br />We might as well fight for our lives."<br />His wife told him: "Yes, the World Trade Center's hit,<br />And maybe the Pentagon too."<br />He left the phone hanging, then came back and said:<br />"We've nothing to fight with, and may wind up dead,<br />But we've voted to stand up and fight them instead,<br />And we might keep them from getting through.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Thomas Burnett phoned his wife several times,<br />Reporting the course of the fight.<br />He said: "One man's been stabbed, and we can't reach the cockpit,<br />But somehow we'll alter the flight.<br />We've guessed that the target is likely the White House,<br />And if we fail, we'll surely die.<br />We've nothing to fight with except our bare hands,<br />But we'll keep on trying until the plane lands<br />One way or the other. We've taken our stand.<br />My darling, I love you. Goodbye."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Jason the pilot could hear the whole tale.<br />He'd signaled as well as he could.<br />He saw that the terrorists still held the cockpit --<br />And one way to stop them for good.<br />He watched while the passengers battled and died,<br />And knew that no help would be found.<br />The guard was distracted. Just one chance to win.<br />There's one case where suicide isn't a sin.<br />He weighed all his chances. He said: "Auger in!"<br />And drove the ship into the ground.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Flight 93 hit the ground at full speed,<br />And no one aboard her survives.<br />But the White House still stands, and a few thousand folks<br />Can thank those aboard for their lives.<br />There's no guarantee, when the Bad Guys come in,<br />That they won't kill you all to a man.<br />So when some fanatics are out to have fun,<br />There's nowhere to hide and there's nowhere to run.<br />Then pray that the law lets you carry a gun,<br />But fight back however you can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flight 93 no more will fly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might not survive, but at least you can try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Stand up and bring the ship down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cross posted at </span><a href="http://mahoundsparadise.blogspot.com/2017/09/flight-93-filk-singer-leslie-fishs.html" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Mahound's Paradise</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span></span><br />
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Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-44792860897995455332017-08-23T14:48:00.003-05:002017-08-24T09:12:00.870-05:00Monster Summoning for Book of Spells<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDgHWDqKTuWb5N_f56nZ8H1bQ3lPvI3fpoJPgkyZyvvF_7llPt4dnfzpN2CG3S6628JSS_vTjGnaBdqkvKHfRZxWlhFeTZBtondrQaRWaN5EGHIfnO1mBbZRP19QXwSfEigXA6kHQVTWI/s1600/Batten+Monster+Summoning.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1136" data-original-width="1540" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDgHWDqKTuWb5N_f56nZ8H1bQ3lPvI3fpoJPgkyZyvvF_7llPt4dnfzpN2CG3S6628JSS_vTjGnaBdqkvKHfRZxWlhFeTZBtondrQaRWaN5EGHIfnO1mBbZRP19QXwSfEigXA6kHQVTWI/s400/Batten+Monster+Summoning.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the forthcoming </span><u style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book of Spells</u><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, Supplement I for Seven Voyages of Zylarthen, I thought it would be fun to add a little color and detail to the </span><u style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monster Summoning</u><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> spells, as well as to add two lower-powered variations for use as 1st and 2nd level spells.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my experience, people either love or hate the <u>Monster Summoning</u> spells. We love them because summoning monsters to do one's bidding is fun. We hate them because it may seem that the monsters that one gets are not very powerful relative to other spells at that level. I actually think the set is underrated, though some of it obviously depends on the situation and what one gets. But the least I could do was to give them a bit more flavor. What actually appears is, of course, random.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For good measure, I also fleshed out the <u>Divine Aid</u> spell for Zylarthen's Evil High Priests and High Priests (see end). In that case, the Priest gets to choose the monster (if he has a choice).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Monster Summoning I-IX:</b> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNkUugmDSr_o80TThNAOCP7uzzA99YpXZsiE0pfRF8roE2yFQit4fC3EFxuI_3W5A46PBWUCei8lzYJgamKTpkQVaHwWfwaL9axaKmYmCP2gWHS_D1svR28F9vaS0eP7_VaAzvT1l1e10/s1600/Monster+Summoning+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="661" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNkUugmDSr_o80TThNAOCP7uzzA99YpXZsiE0pfRF8roE2yFQit4fC3EFxuI_3W5A46PBWUCei8lzYJgamKTpkQVaHwWfwaL9axaKmYmCP2gWHS_D1svR28F9vaS0eP7_VaAzvT1l1e10/s400/Monster+Summoning+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuxaTbG6E4D0dKmcRuuzOkZQCYtTQsdTSJatsjsVsghfTP4aiejHnZsZcA1Ttx9Kz3cesYtnH4K94zStk-mJoN43k4uLrRMCgck2FfGe65iTnYe7B5aFEEXoAS8fzirpxS3D7djwzLByU/s1600/Monster+Summoning+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="665" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuxaTbG6E4D0dKmcRuuzOkZQCYtTQsdTSJatsjsVsghfTP4aiejHnZsZcA1Ttx9Kz3cesYtnH4K94zStk-mJoN43k4uLrRMCgck2FfGe65iTnYe7B5aFEEXoAS8fzirpxS3D7djwzLByU/s400/Monster+Summoning+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBlQu_U4gkmBu3R49wRVYN5RFKVolTHJ4BXzgbtYlBfu-BRv0zVx7FWdRvkNjLaysnXgKJUR1zcmqBsIv4OcyGxKEjFmwosaD9YXZFHhxGDAAB_jDJRbMJ-eTL9nPe9n058SH_rF5JkLQ/s1600/Monster+Summoning+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="667" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBlQu_U4gkmBu3R49wRVYN5RFKVolTHJ4BXzgbtYlBfu-BRv0zVx7FWdRvkNjLaysnXgKJUR1zcmqBsIv4OcyGxKEjFmwosaD9YXZFHhxGDAAB_jDJRbMJ-eTL9nPe9n058SH_rF5JkLQ/s400/Monster+Summoning+3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Divine Aid:</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2jQBHTc9UHLA1If2nOl7vSqBBG4PTLxhX8jLfSKkrUcgYClacPQoC2LOB5R9rZo_sHRsqxI7lzFh9b-aZsOUJ9_tq0BlVRL47uo8Z9_NZFbeLLAkfjlXzJKcfTywi2Xh-vc46vw79Wg/s1600/Divine+Aid.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="667" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2jQBHTc9UHLA1If2nOl7vSqBBG4PTLxhX8jLfSKkrUcgYClacPQoC2LOB5R9rZo_sHRsqxI7lzFh9b-aZsOUJ9_tq0BlVRL47uo8Z9_NZFbeLLAkfjlXzJKcfTywi2Xh-vc46vw79Wg/s400/Divine+Aid.png" width="366" /></a></div>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6560143148581212281.post-43324890032614969522017-08-08T16:01:00.004-05:002017-08-09T00:54:48.714-05:00What do Ability Scores Mean in Old School D&D?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH-_IQf1KyeDnz__CGg6qmgbcEoWqyCaUkZ6WUd9VHnzz_KWnqy8rBk3lGCT7R0aDUk3GKL0nlelwQ09uUBTbcXz4A_ll04lPCeD3RVr_03g25ky7nKWUep6tHMw3H8mXIZIL0HPUrung/s1600/G%2527Wan%252C+Scram.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="581" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH-_IQf1KyeDnz__CGg6qmgbcEoWqyCaUkZ6WUd9VHnzz_KWnqy8rBk3lGCT7R0aDUk3GKL0nlelwQ09uUBTbcXz4A_ll04lPCeD3RVr_03g25ky7nKWUep6tHMw3H8mXIZIL0HPUrung/s400/G%2527Wan%252C+Scram.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With a strength of only 6 there was no real chance for him to become a fighter.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Over at </span><a href="http://treasurehuntersrpg.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Treasure Hunters HQ</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, Scott Anderson has written an interesting and fun series of posts on the meaning and use of ability scores in Old School D&D, specifically focusing on pre-Greyhawk OD&D (to Anderson, that's true old school). He frames the question by asking what it would mean to have a minimum score of 3 in each ability:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://treasurehuntersrpg.blogspot.com/2017/07/so-you-rolled-3-strength.html">So You Rolled a 3: Strength</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://treasurehuntersrpg.blogspot.com/2017/07/so-you-rolled-3-intelligence.html">So You Rolled a 3: Intelligence</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://treasurehuntersrpg.blogspot.com/2017/07/so-you-rolled-3-wisdom.html">So You Rolled a 3: Wisdom</a></span><br />
<a href="http://treasurehuntersrpg.blogspot.com/2017/08/so-you-rolled-3-dexterity.html" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">So You Rolled a 3: Dexterity</a><br />
<a href="http://treasurehuntersrpg.blogspot.com/2017/08/so-you-rolled-3-constitution.html"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So You Rolled a 3: </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Constitution</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://treasurehuntersrpg.blogspot.com/2017/08/so-you-rolled-3-charisma.html">So You Rolled a 3: Charisma</a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Each is accompanied by a funny and appropriate picture. I particularly liked the one on constitution - it's one of those scientific looking drawings of an anatomically see-through person communicating an airborne disease to another </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">anatomically </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">see-through person.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anderson also adds:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://treasurehuntersrpg.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-most-unfortunate-3.html">A Most Unfortunate 3</a> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(you only have 30 gold pieces)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm hoping he'll continue the series - hit points, weak spells?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But back to the abilities. One of the most intriguing but also potentially confusing (and for many, even off-putting) things about D&D as it is presented in the original 1974 three little brown books is how ability scores don't <i>seem</i> to matter very much. For the primary abilities - strength, intelligence and wisdom - they almost don't seem to matter at all, at least unless you count the marginal effect they have on accumulating experience. (Minor exception: a higher intelligence also means you can speak more languages). For the other abilities, dexterity and constitution might give you small penalties or bonuses, although some are a bit cryptically or confusingly presented, like the "chance of surviving" percentage for constitution. Oddly, as Anderson points out, it's charisma that seems to be potentially the most important ability in terms of what it allows you to do (have more hirelings), although the rules on this are often neglected.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now, it's also true that in <i>Men & Magic</i>, Gygax mentions that ability scores might have other effects that are not explicitly referenced in the rules:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Strength will also aid in opening traps and so on.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In addition the charisma score is usable to decide such things as whether or not a witch capturing a player will turn him into a swine or keep him enchanted as a lover.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But precisely <i>how</i> ability scores should be used to "decide such things" is not explained. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Interestingly, <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2011/10/d-unplugged-golden-age.html">this minimalist conception only lasted for about a year</a>. <i>Greyhawk</i>, published in 1975, pumped up the effect of low or high scores for all abilities, setting off a sort of inflationary chain reaction. If ability scores didn't make that much explicit mechanical difference, then rolling three dice in order was fine. But once their effect was magnified, an incentive was created to come up with new dice rolling schemes for abilities to preclude the creation of a "weak" character.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Xylarthen (never heard of that guy), the sample character in the three little brown books, has these ability scores:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Strength: 6</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Intelligence: 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wisdom: 13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dexterity: 9</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Constitution: 12</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charisma: 8</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This sample character has a sum of scores that are actually below average - the six scores average to only 9.8 as opposed to an expected value of 10.5. The highest score is only 13, and as we're about to see, even the primary ability score for the selected class will be 11, only a tad above average.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">According to Gygax:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This supposed player would have progressed faster as a Cleric, but because of a personal preference for magic opted for that class. With a strength of only 6 there was no real chance for him to become a fighter. His constitutional score indicates good health and the ability to take punishment of most forms. A dexterity of 9 (low average) means that he will not be particularly fast nor accurate. He is below average in charisma, but not hopelessly so.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(It isn't clear to me why if Xylarthen could have been a Magic-User, he couldn't have also been a Fighter. It also wasn't clear to me six years ago. See <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2011/10/whither-xylarthen_4704.html">here</a> and <a href="http://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-cant-xylarthen-be-fighter-ii.html">here</a>.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But by the time you get to AD&D four years later, Gygax would write: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[I]t is usually essential to the character's survival to be exceptional (with a rating of 15 or above) in no fewer than two ability characteristics.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Having a score of only 11 in one's primary ability would presumably be almost unthinkable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /> The incredibly popular and successful Holmes Basic Set, first pu</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">blished in 1977, preserved the minimalist conception. But I imagine that most players who kept up with the game sooner or later "graduated" to AD&D or the Moldvay/Cook version of D&D, both of which essentially riffed off the Greyhawk mechanic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ironically, it was some of the retro-clones, among them, <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/matthew-finch/swords-wizardry-whitebox-rules-softcover/paperback/product-15991261.html">Swords and Wizardry White Box</a>, <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/simon-j-bull/delving-deeper-reference-rules-compendium/paperback/product-22746043.html">Delving Deeper</a> and (I hope) <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=zylarthen&type=">Seven Voyages of Zylarthen</a>, among others, that sort of resurrected an interest in the more minimalist conception.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I prefer the minimalist view. Among other things, it provides opportunities for fleshing out your character in interesting ways without feeling punished or constrained by the scores. And it de-emphasizes any tendency to think of scores in terms of tiresome "power-gaming." Your fate will not be determined by your initial scores, but rather by you. Though, as always, a bit of luck is also required.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One thing I've always believed is that your ability scores are NOT (or most of them are not) representative of where you stand in relation to the general population. You have a 1 in 216 chance of rolling, say, a strength of 3. But that doesn't mean you have the strength of a five-year-old child or your bed-ridden great-grandfather or whatever. That would be absurd. Rather, the range represents a cross-section of fit adventurers, roughly tracking, say, that of contemporary athletes. A strength of 3 would be like being a 5' 10" guard in the NBA or a 150 pound baseball player, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also, as Anderson points out, there are other subtleties. Having a charisma of 3 does not mean you're a hunchback with bad breath. Rather, it means that for whatever reason, you're not an effective leader of people - at least in so far as your ability to retain hirelings is concerned. These considerations are of course mentioned in the original books as well as their spin-offs but are neglected by many. You're either ugly, sexy or average with not a lot else going on. Recall the "zero-charisma!" taunt in E.T.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the chief sticking points for me is how to detach ability scores from the real-world abilities of players. Again, you don't want to put annoying constraints on anyone (I'm referring to players not player characters). For the physical abilities - strength, dexterity and constitution - that's easy. Your own (as a player) strength, dexterity and constitution should have nothing to do with that of your character. No one would want it to be so. It's a game, after all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But with the non-physical abilities it's different. Our own intelligence, wisdom (or lack of it - "I'll open that chest!") and, yes, perhaps even charisma (in terms of leading or guiding the direction of the party) will or should come into play during the game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As an example, part of the fun of the game is using your smarts to solve "puzzles" - not just some bizarro sadistic referee created Rubik's Cube trap thing or whatever but simply surviving in a hostile underground environment with claws, tentacles and slime coming at you every few turns. But what if your player-character doesn't seem to have any smarts? Are you supposed to therefore "play dumb"? Some people, especially adults who enjoy acting like children, think that kind of role-playing is fun. I don't. I tried to solve that question in Zylarthen by equating player-character intelligence with formal education:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For player characters the term “intelligence” actually denotes formal education or knowledge, especially that relating to books and literacy. It has nothing to do with how smart the character is or is perceived to be. Nor does it match up with one’s facility with the spoken word or one’s attitude toward learning in general. A player character’s wit, curiosity and cleverness are the player’s wit, curiosity and cleverness. On the other hand, when intelligence is referenced for non-player characters and monsters, the ability will have its normal meaning.</span> </blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anderson takes a somewhat different approach. But one way or another, the problem (and I think it is a problem) must be confronted. I've always thought it was a bit weird that the issue is not really explicitly addressed in OD&D, AD&D or Basic/Classic, as far as I remember.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As has been said before, in old school D&D you're not Superman, but Batman - Michael Keaton Batman. What you might have in your Bat Belt, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">so to speak,</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - a ten foot pole, rope, a magic item or two - might help. But for the most part, you're just </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a relatively ordinary person gutting it out. There's plenty of room to make that romantic, but it all depends on you, not your stat block.</span></div>
Oakes Spaldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08078500142758654392noreply@blogger.com6