#RPGaDay2024 for 27 August: Marvellous miniature

Today's prompt: Marvellous miniature

I loved the concept of the Ral Partha three-stage mini: a set of three minis that represented your character's arc from wet-behind-the-ears novice to practiced journeyman to supreme master.

There was always one small problem, of course.

Whose character survived to high level?!

And this wraps up my participation in the #RPGaDay2024 challenge, a few days prematurely. I'm heading out of town for at least a week to the wilds of Idaho, and a combination of limited time and even more limited Interweb access means I'm tying a bow around this one right here.

#RPGaDay2024 for 26 August: Superb screen

Today's prompt: Superb screen

There can be only one.

#RPGaDay for 24-25 August: Triple-double!

Saturday's prompt: Acclaimed advice
Sunday's prompt: Desirable dice

Game time is of utmost importance. Failure to keep careful track of time expenditure by player characters will result in many anomalies in the game. The stricture of time is what makes recovery of hit points meaningful. Likewise, the time spent adventuring in wilderness areas removes concerned characters from their bases of operation - be they rented chambers or battlemented strongholds. Certainly the most important time stricture pertains to the manufacture of magic items, for during the period of such activity no adventuring can be done. Time is also considered in gaining levels and learning new languages and more. All of these demands upon game time force choices upon player characters, and likewise number their days of game life. - "TIME IN THE DUNGEON," 1e AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, p. 37

So, like a dozen years ago or so, I started theming my dice to whatever game I was playing at the time, based on the color scheme of the cover of the box set or rule book - yellow and orange for Boot Hill, black, white, and red for Traveller, purple and red for Chill. When I started planning a new Flashing Blades campaign, it was time to put together a new theme.

Kinda like the way these turned out.

If you're looking for some really spectacular dice, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the incredible creations available at Cassiopeia Dice - some terrific videos on her Twitter feed.

#RPGaDay2024 for 23 August: Peerless player

Today's prompt: Peerless player

Let's call him Rich, 'cause that was his name.

I met Rich at The War House FLGS in Long Beach, talked old school roleplaying games, and exchanged phone numbers, with an eye toward maybe playing sometime. When I learned he loved 2e Boot Hill but never played any of the published TSR modules, we decided to run a campaign linking the five adventures together. Rich was a USAF veteran wtih a good job in upper management, a family guy, and a big Wild West buff. We were different men outside of gaming, careful to stay away from politics by mutual understanding when we got together to play. As gamers, we were sympatico.

The campaign ran for a couple of years, and we'd just about made it through the last module when Rich informed us he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the summer of 2018. The cancer metastasized to his liver and gall bladder; his treatment was confined to relieving symptoms, and he was given six to eight months to live. It would be great to say he outlived his prognosis; instead he was gone by the middle of October.

Some people play with an established 'friends' group, but I tend to find new groups for the campaign I want to run each time, rather than relying on a set cadre. I'm glad I do, because I might not've met Rich otherwise, or played in one of the most memorable campaigns of my life.

#RPGaDay2024 for 22 August: Notable non-player character

Today's prompt: Notable non-player character

One of the few features of 3e D&D I really like is giving monsters character levels, a quick and simple way of making any monster unique, or at least different from its peers. I mentioned this on a forum twenty-odd years ago - probably EN World or the pre-Gleemax Whizbros forum - adding that this was somethig I'd liked about 1e AD&D as well. Demihumans, liches, lycanthropes, and vampires as described in the 1e Monster Manual may include character levels along with their given abilities. As a referee, I took full advantage of this to create interesting encounters with which to challenge and bedevil my players.

Enter Vlad Tolenkov. Appearing in Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits as one of Lolth's allies, Vlad occupies a castle in The Nightworld, a sunless realm located in an alternative part of the Prime Material Plane imediately beyond a portal from the Demonweb. In addition to his powers, Vlad is also a 15th level magic-user, with all that entails.

I first started refereeing toward the very tail end of 1977, using our kit-bashed 'edition' of D&D - the Holmes blue box, the 1e Monster Manual, Blackmoor, and The Arduin Grimoire - so right from the giddyup I'd used AD&D monsters with character levels, but seeeing a vampire magic-user in an official module almost three years later was still pretty cool to teenage me.

This whole concept of monsters who were once human, or human-adjacent, touches on the notion that the most dangerous and terrifying creatures lurking in the dark places of our imaginations are funhouse mirror images of ourselves - the horror of Jordan Peele's Us, for example, leans in hard on this. I suppose Nietzsche's, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you," applies here as well. Monsters who were once human, or are similar to humans in outlook, increase the range of motivations available in presenting the challenge - they can even imply a familiarity.

#RPGaDay2024 for 21 August: Classic campaign

Today's prompt: Classic campaign

Classic PUBLISHED campaign? The Giants campaign for 1e AD&D. Just well thought out with terrific locations and a fun backstory. I got to experince the modules as both a player and a referee.

Classic AD HOC campaign? Our 2e Boot Hill campaign a few years back, in which we strung together the five published modules for the game as a single camapign set in southeast New Mexico c. 1873 to 1875.

Classic HOMEBREW campaign? Merchant princes with LBB Traveller - started with a free trader and worked our way up to a 2K or 3K dton hauler plus a patrol escort for security. Our last trading mission brought home close to a billion credits profit!

#RPGaDay2024 for 20 August: Amazing adventure

Today's prompt: Amazing adventure

Released in 1979 by Phoenix Games, The Lost Abbey of Calthonwey is my favorite published adventure because it does so many things well. The abbey and the dungeon beneath it are thoughtfully designed as both an intriguing environment to explore and a space for adventure. It leaves open the possibility of further adventure with undefined lower levels upon which the referee can expand. It has a terrific backstory that allows it to be dropped into a homebrew campaign. It's filled with non-player characters with motivations and relationships that reward players who didn't take Charisma as a dump stat.

What makes it stand out for me is how the design of the abbey itself reflects the events of the backstory. Spaces built for a purpose by the brothers are re-purposed in ways that are interesting and make sense. This is a really big thing for me, as it adds a feeling of history to the location that doesn't involve timelines or pages and pages of exposition - it's something the adventurers can see in front of them rather than having it read to them. I'm not sure how much I did this before Lost Abbey, but it's been something I include when designing a feature in a setting ever since: how has this place changed since it was built? what are visible clues to its builders and their intended purpose?