Moldvay Basic

In a possible attempt to capture my youth, I have started to purchase old D&D rules. My last conquest was a decent copy of the Moldvay Basic set (Rulebook, B2, and even the box).

I had never owned this set, having started with Mentzer - which places me at being 10 years old when I started to play. I had had considerable fun with B2 however, and subsequently the 25th Anniversary 'Return to the Keep on the Borderlands'

I lovingly opened the box, the hole-punched side immediately caught my attention as I could not see through. There must be a piece of paper there, I first assumed that it was an invoice for the order - but was pleasantly surprised by this -

I have always scowled at the 'power gamer', I really do enjoy playing and DMing a game where the dice are a contributing factor to the outcome, rather than an annoyance on a natural 1. I still struggle to this day with 'Taking 10', if just because there are no dice rolled. I hate when I hear the words 'character build', 'dump stat', 'level dip', 'point buy', and any of a hundred other words that exist in the modern metagame vernacular.

But Borg touched my heart - I wonder when this guy was created and for what, even though I know the rules where not really looked at in the making - was the player amped about playing and then got sorely disappointed because he found nobody to play with - the lack of erasure marks speaks volumes to me when I look over items I bought for the game and never used - from time to time I look at notes I took about adventure ideas or maps I created and wish I had the time to play them all.

Looking at the sheet, I see someone who wanted to win, maybe at this point he hadn't seen where there are no winners or losers in D&D. I see someone who was afraid of the dungeon and inflated the numbers so that they didn't need to be frightened.

I am sad that no equipment was purchased, but can almost hear the guy who was going to be DM say, 'Don't buy any equipment, we will do that when you start to play.'

I see a kid that chose to be Neutral and know that Chaotic was likely not an option because the DM said so.

I am very glad that I had a chance to see this - I'm glad that whoever has owned this in the past didn't throw this out.

Trolls

'He was perhaps eight feet tall, perhaps more. His forward stoop, with arms dangling past thick claw-footed legs to the ground, made it hard to tell. The hairless green skin moved upon his body. His head was a gash of a mouth, a yard-long nose, and two eyes which were black pools, without pupil or white, eyes which drank the feeble torchlight and never gave back a gleam.'

Three Hearts and Three Lions - Poul Anderson

This truly must be where the D&D troll came from. During the fight the regenerative qualities of the monster are described and finally they figure out how to kill him.

I have finished this book, first of the Appendix N books that I have read (besides Tolkien) , first in the list of Appendix N books - overall I enjoyed the book and can see how it had an impact on the creators of the game. I wonder what D&D would be like if ALL designers were required to read Appendix N in order to get a job.

Geas, verisimilitude, and adventure reasons.

Wow, Three Hearts and Three Lions really delivers in chapter 17 - The Geas spell? although like much of D&D this has origin in mythology, Gaelic is this ones origin, which makes a lot of sense taking the whole of the novel. Real neat to see it used outside of D&D

‘I could not learn your identity, Sir Holger. A geas has been laid on every being which might have told me.' 

Verisimilitude, another strange word that I learned from D&D, never seen it outside of D&D, but here it is. It is often spoken of when talking about setting design. Here is some information for those who want it.

‘Advertising,’ Martinus admitted. ‘Corroborative detail intended to lend artistic verisimilitude.’

Adventure Reasons, this fellow makes a good point and then lays out a few different things that Holger could be doing up north, this could be re-tooled as a statement of rumors for an adventure area.

'If you wish to preserve the secret of your goal, leave not quite so much room for speculation. Tongues will wag more when no firm facts bind them. Thus, some folk will guess you intend a knightly exploit like slaying one of the trolls which infest yonder uplands, often—as I’ve heard—stealing humans to eat; though the local people with whom I’ve chatted maintain such trolls are unkillable. Then again, other folk will insist that Sir Rupert went to beard the king of the heathen. But the peasant mind being what ‘tis, most will believe you seek a treasure of gold buried somewhere there.'

Invisible Servants

A bottle and three dirty goblets floated in and landed on the table. ‘About time,’ grumbled the sorcerer. After a moment, when the invisible servant had presumably left, he went on, ‘I declare, there is no decent help to be had these days....' -- Three Hearts and Three Lions - Poul Anderson

That is a classic D&D image. The spell would be seen by many as a waste, but having it to use was very wizardly. It allowed for actions outside of combat. It showed in it's simplicity that there is more to D&D than killing things.

Silver Cords

`Yasmina!' Again that far, weirdly dreeing cry, from realms immeasurable. `Aid me! I am far from my mortal house! Wizards have drawn my soul through the wind-blown darkness. They seek to snap the silver cord that binds me to my dying body. They cluster around me; their hands are taloned, their eyes are red like flame burning in darkness. Aie, save me, my sister! Their fingers sear me like fire! They would slay my body and damn my soul! What is this they bring before me? -Aie!' 

-- The People of the Black Circle - Robert E. Howard

Outside of D&D, this is the first time I have seen mention of a silver cord.

What is neat here is that he is communicating to a Devi (which I assume is a holy woman, however it is a Hindu word), this information, which she hears as 'faint and far away'

Idea for adventure - A king has been cursed by evil sorcery. While still alive, he is trapped on the astral plane. The characters must brave the astral plane and find him. All of the information they have is in cryptic dream-like fragments spoken by the king and translated by his close advisor. An obvious twist would be the the advisor is part of the problem and has given them false information, maybe from some grudge on the characters or maybe the advisor wants some astral being defeated.

Hex Crawl Map - Redo

Well, something just seemed plain with the last version, so I added some town symbols and such and changed some of the symbols.

Also, Started on Hex 0906 in detail, not happy with the effects on the borders, so I will likely make some changes. The scale here is each small hex is 1/2 mile and the large hex is 6 miles - or at least that's the scale I'm using.

Enjoy