Gilar the Dwarf

While driving home from work today I decided that I wanted to create a character for D&D. But not any of those newfangled editions... I wanted to go back to my roots:

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition.

It's only fitting, given our recent move. I grew up in the Philadelphia area playing AD&D 2nd Ed. in the 90's. Now that I'm back, I should be spending a little time with the game that turned me into an RPG fanatic. Ever since unpacking our books, I've been reading through some of my old Player's Handbook Rules Supplements - the old brown back splat books chock full of crazy optional rules, kits, and gonzo proficiencies. 

I should be clear that I'm not making this character for any particular game. Once I'm done, they'll probably just stay here on the blog gathering virtual dust. 

But you never know.

First a few rules for this character's generation:

• I'll be rolling 4d6 drop the lowest in order. No swapping stats, no seventh roll, just the six. Am I breaking my personal rule of 3d6 in order? Sure, however this is how we did things back in the 90's. This is how Ace of Base or Green Day would want me to roll. This is how we're doing it. 
• The character will be 3rd level (or 2/2 if multi-classed). We never, EVER started campaigns at 1st level. Actually that's not true, I started one campaign at 1st level one time. That was it, and it was pretty much just a campaign with my brother. 3rd level was where the fun started. 
• I'm going to use one of the Player's Handbook Rules Supplements. I'll definitely be taking a super-swank kit as well!
• I hope I can make a Dwarf!

Here goes:

Gilar* the Dwarf Thief (Pest Controller), Level 3

*Name generated with the Dwarf Name Generator Tables on page 36 of PHBR6

• Strength: 9, Dexterity: 14, Constitution: 15, Intelligence: 16, Wisdom: 10, Charisma: 12
• HP: 15 (3d6+3), AC: 8 (Leather Armor), THAC0 19
• Proficiencies:
• Weapon (2): Dagger, Short Bow
• Non-Weapon (8+Kit+Craft): Animal Lore (K), Pest Control (K), Brewing (C), Underground Survival, Fungi Recognition, Fire-Building, Local History, Alertness, Gaming, Rope Use, Tumbling 
• Languages (5): Common, Dwarf, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Thieves' Cant
• Thief Skills:
• 5% Pick Pockets
• 60% Open Locks
• 60% Find/Remove Traps
• 50% Move Silently
• 5% Hide in Shadows
• 15% Detect Noise
• 60% Climb Walls
• -5% Read Languages
• Age: 65, Height: 3'11", Weight: 151 lbs
• Equipment: Leather Armor, 3 Daggers, Short Bow, Thieves' Picks, Backpack, Quiver, Arrows (24), 50' Hemp Rope, Grappling Hook
• Treasure: 3 gp, 8 sp

Could I have made a Mage? Yeah, sure. But I didn't want to make a Mage, I wanted to be a Dwarf, and Dwarves can't be Mages. And that's how it was during the old days. Sometimes to play what you wanted to play something in particular, you had to go with a weird build. 

Kid Wizard vs. DM Chuck - My First RPG Experience

Since the beginning of the Living 4 Crits blog I've wanted to tell the woefully short tale of "Kid Wizard", my very first tabletop role-playing game character.  I'm still not sure why it's taken me so long to write about my first experience with an RPG, especially since I hear so many gamers on podcasts share their own first times.  Actually, given the way the whole experience turned out you'd think I never would've returned to the table.  

It helps that I had an extremely talented Dungeon Master.

DM Chuck

It all started twenty-five years ago, with a simple game of Dungeons & Dragons.  Chuck, my Dungeon Master To-Be, was a year older than me and lived across our street in Levittown, Pennsylvania.  Growing up, Chuck was a natural leader and organizer, always gathering the kids on our block into various activities.  If there was football being played on "The Hill" (the mound surrounding a local drainage ditch), Chuck was arranging teams.  If street hockey was on the menu, Chuck provided the net and all the pads.  Of the eight boys who lived on the lower end of Handy Road, Chuck was the group's ever present event planner.    

I need to point out that Chuck's parents had an extremely high tolerance to loud kid voices.  Their house was always filled with children of all ages, pretty much taking over their living room, den, kitchen, bedrooms, and backyard.  I don't know how they put up with us all.  

My dates may be a little shaky, but sometime between the winter and spring of 1991 Chuck started talking about something called "RPG".  Not "an RPG", or "the RPG", just "RPG."  At first I thought the game had something to do with "rocket propelled grenades", probably because of my overexposure to Rambo movies.  I blame '80's cinema.  Eventually this conversation led to the arrival of a mysterious red box...

... the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules, Set 1 with the Larry Elmore cover!

Word got out that some of the other kids, including Chuck's two younger brothers Jeff and Chris, were "making characters" for this game.  Naturally I wanted to be a part of the group, so I scheduled some time to sit down with Chuck and create my first character. 

Okay, at the time this was probably just me walking over and asking to make a character, and then his mom telling me to come back later, but in my mind I will always remember "being summoned" for that very special moment.  

Kid Wizard

Chuck's house had a den in the very back, with a bunch of comfy couches.  That's where Kid Wizard was born!  The name sparked a bit of an argument because Chuck insisted that I couldn't be a "kid" if I were a Magic-User.  I would need a long beard and a pointy hat.  My counter argument was probably rooted in Dungeons & Dragons cartoon series, and Presto the Magician.  

Here's all I remember about Kid Wizard's stats:

• Class: Magic-User
• Language: Pixie
• Starting Spell: Ventriloquism
• Weapon: Dagger 
• Money: Not enough gold for a silver dagger

Being able to speak Pixie confused the heck out of me.  In my twelve year old mind Pixies were a combination of the fairies from The Legend of Zelda and Popples.  The starting spell also kind of stunk, especially when I realized that I could only cast it once per day.  

Really?  I'm a great and powerful sorcerer with one spell that I could cast once per day?  What good is throwing my voice going to be?

Chuck assured me that I would be the most powerful character on the entire block, because no one else was playing a Magic-User.  But this would take time, and I'd need to attain a bunch of levels before attaining true mystical might.  

Kid Wizard wouldn't last the evening.

Character creation was quick, and Chuck's dad wasn't finished cooking dinner, so he offered to run me through a short session to try out the rules.  Here's my attempt at an adventure recap of something that occurred back in 1991.

The Legend of Kid Wizard

Kid Wizard's career began in a small town.  Unhappy with only having a dagger as his weapon, Kid Wizard longed for a silver dagger to add to his arsenal.  So Kid Wizard walked into the local weaponsmith's shop and asked to purchase a silver dagger.  The weaponsmith looked at Kid Wizard's pitiful pile of silver and copper and declined to make a sale.  

"This dagger's twenty-five gold," the burly weaponsmith stated.

At first he was disappointed, but then Kid Wizard thought up a plan.  The young Magic-User grabbed the silver dagger from the weaponsmith's hand and bolted out of the shop.  But before he could make it to the nearby alley, Kid Wizard heard the weaponsmith shouting.

"Guard!  Guard!" the man screamed.

Sure enough a pair of guards saw the young pilferer and gave chase.  But Kid Wizard was prepared for this.  Using his trusty Ventriloquism spell, Kid Wizard mimicked the voice of the weaponsmith from behind the two guards.  

"Let him go!" the fake voice shouted.  

One of the two guards fell for the spell, but the other continued to chase Kid Wizard.  Eventually the guard reached the Magic-User, and cut him down with a single blow of his long sword.  Kid Wizard died, still clutching his beloved silver dagger.

The End. 

Back for More

It took a few months to get back to Chuck's table.  It wasn't long before he purchased the AD&D 2nd Edition rulebooks, which quickly became our game of choice.  My second character was a Paladin, who would die on the Isle of Dread, sacrificing himself to save the life of my friend Ryan's Thief.  I would play in Chuck's games up through high school, returning during the summer of 1998 for a reunion game using characters that we had played for years.  To this day, some of my fondest memories as a D&D player come from sitting in Chuck's upstairs bedroom during an all-nighter, battling the minions of evil until the early hours of the morning.  

Chuck's red box would eventually make it into my hands, and I remember first running D&D sessions during the summer of 1991, overly-inspired by the blockbuster hit Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  

Chuck was also my first player.  He gave me tips and pointers on how to run my own adventures, and over the years would share some of the materials he would amass from our local hobby store Allied Hobbies at the Oxford Valley Mall.  I was allowed to use his bookshelf as an occasional library, checking out a rulebook or copy of Dungeon Magazine to help further my craft.  

I will be forever grateful for that very first invite to join Chuck's D&D game.  

I've participated in countless tales told around a small table with a only handful of dice and a small stash of gnarled books and discarded soda cans.  I've met creative, thoughtful, and downright legendary game designers who have shared their own stories and experiences.  Most importantly, I've shared this storytelling art form with my children, and continue to watch them make it their own.  Hours upon hours of experiences and memories that would never exist if I hadn't rolled up one single, crappy, dagger-wielding Magic-User in Chuck's family's den.

So Chuck, just in case you're reading this, thank you.  

Thank you for bringing me into the fold twenty-five years ago, and for inspiring me to create my adventures.  I just have one question that remains after all these years...

... couldn't you let me start with a better spell than Ventriloquism?

Sand and Cyphers - Running Dark Sun with the Cypher System

Homecoming 

I fell in love with the Dark Sun Campaign Setting in September 1994.  I was spending the weekend at my friend Andy's house, and he had this old SSI game on his computer:  Dark Sun Shattered Lands.  The idea of playing a gladiator-slave desperate to achieve freedom felt so very different from typical fantasy settings.  I put in a few hours on the game while staying with Andy, and asked to borrow the game before heading home.  

By the middle of the following week I found myself completely enthralled by the world of Athas.  So I got my mom to drive me to the Oxford Valley Mall, where I traded several weeks worth of allowance for the Dark Sun Campaign Setting Boxed Set and the Brazen Gambit by Lynn Abbey.  I still have that same boxed set, worn to heck with exposed cardboard breaking through the busted corners and edges.  As I look at the box right now I am amazed...

... can you imagine that it was only $20 for the setting?  

I explored the Dark Sun setting with AD&D 2nd Edition all throughout high school and college.  My players threw off their chains and ventured out into the Great Alluvial Sand Wastes.  Since one of our player characters was a Templar, we spent countless sessions involved in the bitter disputes between Gulg and Nibenay.  Later on our Trader led the party on grand caravan ventures to Urik, Raam, and Draj.  Athas truly became our sandbox.  

Years later I returned to the wastes with D&D 3rd Edition.  At the time I was a convert to the new D&D system, and had no interest in playing the game with the older ruleset.  Fortunately, I discovered Athas.org!  Like thousands of other Dark Sun fans, I found the fan-made rules perfect for running another excursion across the sands.  That campaign would last three terrific years, and wrapped up in 2007.

Since then, I've had only a few brief trips back to the Dark Sun Campaign Setting.  I ran a short D&D 4th Edition mini-campaign in 2011, but found the drastic changes to the source material off-putting.  I'm sorry, Wizards of the Coast, but Thri-Kreen have elongated abdomens, and Half-Giants are quite different from Goliaths.  

My most recent trip to Dark Sun was when I used Athas a recursion for The Strange last year.  We came up with a few basic rules for the recursion, and used Foci to match our agents of The Estate to familiar race and class combinations.  It worked really well, and left me wanting more.  

With the Cypher System Rulebook I think I'm now ready to deliver... 

Conversion Notes

Before we move forward, I want to be clear about what I've thrown together.  I'm not one for full conversions.  Sure I could come up with a dozen custom descriptors, and another half-dozen new foci, but why bother?  

Want to play a Mul Gladiator?  A Tough Warrior who Fights With Panache fits quite nicely!

Those Gith raiders are Level 2(6) creatures, level 3 speed defense due to their springing ability.  

It really doesn't take much to Cypher this stuff... that's why I'm such a fan.  

So what I've got here is a list of quick conversion notes that you can use to run Dark Sun this weekend using the Cypher System Rulebook with very minimal effort.  To do this right you'll just two, maybe three things:

• Obviously you'll need the Cypher System Rulebook.  Pretty much a given.
• You can get the Dark Sun Boxed Set PDF on DrivethruRPG for $9.99.  You'll need this unless you've already got a copy.  Speaking of, I may need to go get one.    
• The rules for Wild Talents are based on mutations that can come from either the Numenera or The Strange rulebooks.  I've got an alternative method as well... we'll get to that soon enough.

For this post I'll be covering character generation and some basic rules for general gameplay.  I may do another post with some creature conversions, but I trust most of you reading this can do these on the fly.  Actually, if you come up with any conversion materials, or comments on what I'm sharing, I'd love to see them!

Races of Athas

Any character race from the original Dark Sun boxed set can easily be emulated using the right combination of descriptors, types, foci, or even just flavor text.  The Cypher System Rulebook goes as far as to point players towards using stock descriptors to describe an elf or dwarf.  Not every dwarf needs to be rugged, nor does every halfling have to be stealthy.  It's your game, and your character.  

So when you read my suggested descriptors and some decent foci, don't get bogged down with these being "required" in your game.  Even the Half-Giant and Thri-Kreen, each of which I've created slightly customized descriptors, could be created using alternatives.  When we played Dark Sun using The Strange our Thri-Kreen was a Lucky Paradox who Hunts with Great Skill.  

These suggestions probably work best with players who are unfamiliar with the Dark Sun setting.  Any die-hard Dark Sun fan will tell you that this isn't the world where you'll find a Jovial Elf or a Kind Halfling! 


Dwarf 

• Descriptors:  Dwarf, Driven, Mad, Rugged, Perceptive, Strong-Willed, Tough, Vengeful

Elf  

• Descriptors:  Charming, Elf, Dishonorable, Fast, Graceful, Mystical, Sharp-Eyed 
• Focus: Moves Like the Wind

Half-Elf  

• Descriptors:  Appealing, Empathic, Jovial, Mysterious, Spiritual
• Focus:  Controls Beasts

Half-Giant  

• Descriptor: Half-Giant (Custom, modified "Strong")
• Extremely Powerful: +6 to your Might Pool
• Skill:  Trained in all actions involving breaking inanimate objects.
• Skill:  Trained in all actions involving lifting or carrying objects at great lengths.
• Inability:  The Half-Giant's constantly shifting alignment causes cracks in their personality.  The difficulty of all Intellect Defense actions are increased by one step. 
• Initial Link to the Starting Adventure
1. You served as a caravan guard during one of the other PC's trips across the wastes.
2. You are an ex-slave who served in an elite unit hired by another PC's friend's or family.
3. You are paranoid that your fellow PC's will come to distrust you based on your shifting alignment.
4. One of the PC's has been able to help sooth your transition from one alignment to another.  
• Focus:  Performs Feats of Strength

Halfling

• Descriptors:  Clever, Cruel, Impulsive, Inquisitive, Lucky, Stealthy, Swift

Human  

• Descriptors:  Brash, Craven, Doomed, Impulsive, Intelligent, Noble, Wealthy

Mul  

• Descriptors:  Strong, Hardy, Naive, Resilient, Tongue-Tied
• Focus: Never Says Die

Thri-Kreen  

• Descriptor:  Thri-Kreen (Custom, modified "Tough")
• Carapace:  +1 to Armor
• Dextrous:  +2 to Speed Pool
• Skill:  You're trained in jumping and leaping
• Additional Equipment:  You begin play with a Chatkcha
• Initial Link to the Starting Adventure
1. You see all of the PC's as part of your clutch.
2. You consider only one of the PC's as part of your clutch, and have a distrust of the others.  
3. One of the PC's has watched you consume an elven friend of theirs.  
4. You have spent time teaching one of the other PC's how to use your Thri-Kreen weapons, and the experience has been very rewarding.
• Focus:  Hunts with Great Skill

Classes of Athas

To create the feel of traditional character classes from the original AD&D 2nd Edition Dark Sun campaign setting, you'll need to consider combinations of Type, Flavor, and Focus.  

Types

Warrior, Speaker, Adept, or Explorer... the "Type" is the core of a Cypher System character.  But if you are looking to emulate the "feel" of the original AD&D 2nd Edition Dark Sun, don't get too hung up on this aspect of the character.  Your Druid may be a powerful Adept with a deep connection to a guarded land, or an Explorer with a nature-related focus.  A Templar could be an Adept or a Speaker, and a Gladiator a Warrior or an Explorer.  

If you are a game master reading this post, looking to run Dark Sun as a campaign, work with your players.  Decide amongst yourselves how closely you want to link the player characters to the original builds allowed in the Dark Sun Campaign Setting Boxed Set.  They're your sands.  

Flavors

Combat, Stealth, and Magic fit best.  

Builds

What I've done is pulled out all of the traditional AD&D 2nd Edition classes found in Dark Sun, and suggested the best Foci to come up with the right builds.  You'll note that I suggest the Types and Flavors for each, but this is another place where you can have fun!  If you remember, back in the original Dark Sun there was a lot of multi-classing.  

When I played Shattered Sands, my party included a Psionicist/Thief, a Ranger/Preserver, and a Fighter/Cleric.  In a Cypher System game, my Dwarven Fighter/Cleric could be a Strong-Willed Warrior who Channels the Elements.  I certainly like the sound of the Cypher build more than the old AD&D title.  

Bard (Speaker flavored with Stealth, remember that Dark Sun Bards did not cast spells)

• Entertains
• Infiltrates
• Murders

Cleric (Adept flavored with Combat, consider the original weapon restrictions found in the Dark Sun rule book)

• Channels the Elements
• As Channels Divine Blessings with minor modifications
• Trained in all tasks related to the Cleric's chosen element
• Blessing of the Gods (Elements): Must choose Earth/Stone, Sky/Air, Sun/Light/Fire, or Water/The Sea.  Cannot choose two elemental blessings.  
• Bears a Halo of Fire (Fire Cleric)
• Blazes with Radiance (Sun Cleric)
• Works Miracles (Water Cleric)
• Throws with Deadly Accuracy (Air Cleric)
• Stands Like a Bastion (Earth Cleric)

Defiler/Preserver  (Adept)

• Bears a Halo of Fire
• Casts Spells
• Consorts with the Dead
• Crafts Illusions
• Rides the Lightning
• Wears a Sheen of Ice

Druid  (Explorer flavored with Magic)

• Controls Beasts
• Lives in the Wilderness
• Masters the Swarm
• Speaks for the Land

Fighter  (Warrior)

• Carries a Quiver
• Defends the Weak
• Looks for Trouble
• Masters Defense
• Masters Weaponry

Gladiator  (Warrior)

• Fights Dirty
• Fights with Panache
• Masters Weaponry
• Needs No Weapon
• Rages
• Wields Two Weapons at Once

Psionicist    (Adept)

• Awakens Dreams
• Commands Mental Powers
• Focuses Mind over Matter
• Sees Beyond
• Separates Mind from Body

Ranger  (Warrior flavored with Stealth or Explorer flavored with Combat)

• Hunts Nonhumans
• Pick from an Athasian dedicated foe, such as Gith or Dray
• Hunts with Great Skill
• Lives in the Wilderness
• Wields Two Weapons at Once

Templar  (Speaker flavored with Magic)

• Channels the Sorcerer-King/Queen 
• As Channels Divine Blessings with minor modifications
• Trained in all tasks related to knowledge of the Sorcerer King or Queen
• Blessing of the Gods: Must choose from Authority/Law/Peace, Knowledge/Wisdom, Protection/Silence, Trickery/Greed/Commerce,  or War.  
• All "divine" aspects are reskinned as coming from the Sorcerer King or Queen
• Leads

Thief (Explorer)

• Explores Dark Places
• Infiltrates
• Moves Like a Cat
• Works the Back Alleys

Gear of Athas

Weapons

Some of these are from The Complete Gladiators Handbook

• Light Melee:  Quabone, Wrist Razor, Singing Stick, Puchik
• Light Ranged:  Chatkcha
• Medium Melee:  Carrikal, Impaler, Alhulak, Forearm Axe, Talid
• Medium Ranged:  Dejada
• Heavy Melee:  Gythka, Lotulis, Trikal, Double Bladed Spear

New Mechanics

Wild Talents (courtesy of +Scott Robinson)

Psionics permeate all of Athas, and so every character, when upon completing translation, gain a Wild Talent, a single random psionic ability.  To generate this random ability, use the  rules for Powerful Mutations, found on page 241 of The Strange core book.  Each player gets one roll, and is given a psionic-skinned version of that power.

Or...

For each character in play, roll one random cypher.  This will be their Wild Talent.  Once used, the character can roll another cypher after a 10 hour rest.  

Sure, this isn't the most canonical version of how cyphers work, but its a way to enjoy Wild Talents in your campaign without having to buy anything other than the Cypher System Rulebook.  

Cyphers

Potion fruit, scrolls, arcane trinkets, pretty much the same as the regular Cypher System Fantasy fare.  

Defiling Magic (courtesy of +Marc Plourde)

Using magical abilities on Athas requires the spell caster to draw the life from plants and creatures around them.  While most creatures can take a small drain on their soul, and just experience a bit of nausea, plant life is another matter.  If a caster is not careful, they defile the land, causing all plant life to turn to dead ash.  This is, of course, the easiest and most direct way to cast spells.  Preserving the plant life is far more difficult, but leaves no permanent harm to the world around them.  Of course in Dark Sun, there is no "grey area", and spell casters must make a tough choice:

• When using a magical revision, or focus ability, should the player character choose to "defile", the difficulty is lowered by 1 step.  
• When using a magical revision, or focus ability, should the player character choose to "preserve", the difficulty is increased by 1 step.

Inferior Materials    (created with the help of +Jeremy Land)

Due to the relative scarcity of metal, most weapons and tools are made of bone, stone, or wood.  When using one of these items as a weapon, any roll of a 2 when using an inferior weapon means that the item breaks, and cannot be used until repaired.  If the player rolls a 1, not only do they suffer the GM Intrusion, the weapon also breaks permanently.  

Tools are often made of non-metal as well.  Non-metal tools cannot be used as assets, but merely give the user a +2 modifier to the result of the roll.   

Survival Mode (created with the help of +Jordan Cwang)

This applies to any encounters that may occur in the open wastes.  

Traveling across the sands of Athas is very dangerous, and should always be treated as an arduous ordeal worthy of careful consideration.  Similar to Horror Mode found in the Cypher System Rulebook, Survival Mode increases the Intrusion Range. 

Any journey across the sandy wastes of Athas begins with an Intrusion Range of 5.  A character who just walks out into the wastes, unequipped and unprepared, will suffer a GM Intrusion whenever they roll a 5 or less on a d20 during all actions...

... yeah, it's that dangerous!

Obviously there are ways to decrease the Intrusion Range, and all of the following should be considered as ways to move the Intrusion Range down by a step:

• Accompanying or employing a guide trained (1 step) or specialized (2 steps) in survival.  This can include a party ranger or scout.
• Traveling on a road.
• Being part of a caravan.
• Carrying adequate food and water.

So walking from Tyr to Altaruk with adequate food and water grants an Intrusion Range of 3, while journeying as part of a caravan with a guide reduces this to 1.  There is safety in numbers, my friends.

Your Journey Awaits

So that's my take on character creation and basic rules for running Cypher System campaigns on Athas.  I may do another post covering monsters, but I think this is enough to get you started.  If you have any other suggestions or rule tweaks let me know!  I'd be happy to make some modifications and give you credit!

Seller's Remorse

If it says 4E or Eberron, its gone...

Losing Your Treasures by Choice

Recently I’ve been thinking of all the role-playing games I’ve sold over the years and how I occasionally regret these exchanges months or years down the road.  But despite my tendency to kick myself for letting go, I still find myself repeating the same process over and over again.  As with most gaming collectors, I purchase far more products than I could ever possibly read or use, and while there are many that I would never give up, even if I were never to play them, whenever there is an edition change, or a new and improved update, I get the itch…

… because there is always some other product out there that I need to get my fingers on, and spare cash can be hard to come by!

I can still remember the first time I sold off part of my gaming collection.  It was at Lehigh University’s EPIC Convention in the spring of 1996.  I was sixteen years old, and showed up to the convention with my entire collection of Magic the Gathering cards.  I cannot recall why I had the cards with me, as I had no intention of playing Magic the Gathering while at the convention.  I signed up to run two RPG events, and play in another three or four, and that left precious little time for anything else.  But I had recently purchased West End Games’ Star Wars Role-Playing Game, and on a break between sessions I found myself in the dealers’ hall staring at a bunch of sourcebooks that I needed to purchase.  

Since I was in high school and didn’t have a job, money was pretty tight.  I was about to walk away when the guy behind the counter asked if I had anything I wanted to trade.  

Trade?  Really?  I could do that?

I wasn’t actively playing Magic the Gathering at the time, so I showed the gentleman my deck and we worked out a price.  An hour later I was admiring the new books I acquired.  Two years later I was lamenting my lack of an awesome White/Green deck.  

The process would repeat itself year after year all through college.  I’d buy a bunch of books, maybe play with half, and sell a few off to fund my next purchase.  For example I sold my original Planescape 2^nd Edition books to pay for Wraith the Oblivion stuff which I sold a year later for the Mordheim miniatures game and some extra figures.  In an interesting and costly merry-go-round fashion, I sold a lot of my AD&D 2^nd Edition books when 3^rd Edition came out, and then ditched most of my 3^rd and 3.5 Edition books for 4^th Edition.  But when I got tired of 4^th Edition I decided that I wanted to boost my collection of “old-school” products, and went back and re-purchased many of the AD&D 2^nd Edition stuff I ditched in the first place!

I hope I’m not the only gamer out there that treat’s their collection like a used car lot!  

Judging by eBay, Amazon.com, and Half Priced Books, I know that there is strong market for used gaming materials, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to correct some of my bad decisions as a younger gamer.  I’ve been fortunate to re-collect all of the 2^nd Edition Planescape, Dragonlance, and Spelljammer books that I ditched in the early 2000’s.  Some of the products I’ve sold over the years, like Wraith the Oblivion, I don’t exactly “miss”, but in hindsight I wish I would’ve kept because they were an interesting read, even if I had no intention to run the game again.

The reason I thought about writing this post stems from that very first trade: the “1996 Magic the Gathering for d6 Star Wars deal.”  I ended up amassing a huge d6 Star Wars  collection, only to partition it off when Wizards of the Coast released the Revised Edition and then the Saga Edition.  Those books that I didn’t sell, I gave away, figuring I’d be playing the new game, and would be completely content.  But I miss those old books.  I miss the basic rules, even the clunky parts that I mistakenly believed I had to “fix.”  I miss the Millennium Falcon screaming across the cover, and the old black-and-white sourcebooks created back when the expanded universe was still precious and the prequels were far, far away.  

I can’t say for certain that I’m completely finished trading in older books and older editions.  But I hope that “future Jim” will be more careful before letting go of tried-and-true games he grows tired of, in favor of something new and shiny.  Sometimes an old favorite doesn’t need to be replaced.  It just needs to spend some quality time on a shelf or in storage, so that it can be rediscovered like buried treasure a few years down the road.  

So am I alone?  Does anyone else buy/play/trade/and sell their books and games constantly?  If so what sales do you still regret?

Let us know, we’d love to hear from you!

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

All the players signed our last foe

When Great Gaming Groups Disband

I am sure there are some gaming groups who have been together for decades, but I’d reckon for most of us, we’ve changed “parties” at least a time or two as we’ve grown in our hobby.  I played Dungeons & Dragons for three and a half years (2009 - 2012) with a creative, sharp-witted, tremendously outgoing group of close friends.  But at the end of our epic campaign, the group split up, most of the players going their separate ways.  As a thirty-something, happily married man, this was the closest to a break-up that I have ever felt. 

Let’s rewind a bit…

… and be warned, this gets a little sentimental...

My weekly game setup

Ravenscape

Six years ago I started my first online role-playing group with some friends from Levittown, Pennsylvania, where I grew up.  I was still relatively new to social media, having just joined Facebook a few months earlier, and it didn’t take long for me to connect with people from my high school years.   Since most of us were gaming-geeks, we shared stories of our amazing quests and campaigns from the old days, and lamented about gaming as an adult.  It was the tail-end of the 3.5 Edition era of Dungeons & Dragons, and I was starting to burn out, not just on the d20 system, but on the campaigns I had been running.  

I needed a fresh start, with some creative players, and new ideas.  It would be great to get back together with my old friends, and just play a few games together.   Before I even had a method to play, I was out recruiting on Facebook and managed to dig up a terrific ensemble.  To bridge the distance between the players and myself I started plotting a way to game online.  Over the years I had tried some chatroom RPG’s, which could be fun for the occasional evening, but was slow and ponderous.  There had to be a faster and more efficient way of gaming online.  

Organizing the players on Facebook, I soon turned to Yahoo Groups and created “Qualanthorus’ Keep”, the name derived from an old NPC in a AD&D 2^nd Edition campaign.  I would use the Yahoo Group to organize play sessions and send group messages.  To talk to everyone, we used a newfangled program called “Skype”.  Since we started off with D&D 3.5 and eventually transitioned into 4^th Edition, we would need a map-grid and miniatures.  Maptool would eventually become our virtual table of choice, since it was easy to create pogs, and I could drag .jpg maps directly onto the screen.  

Our goal was to play at least once or twice per month, but after only a few sessions we all realized that we had found something special.  At the time I was drowning in homework, since I was going back to school for my MBA.  I was also trying to balance a pair of campaigns, the online game, and an offline campaign, with my personal life.  It was becoming too much work.  Given the ease of play, and the quality of our games, I chose to continue the online game, and backed away from the in-person group.  

We called the campaign “Ravenscape”, and it was a hybrid Ravenloft/Planescape setting, where the players started off as “monster themed” characters (Goliath, Tiefling, Goblin, and Shifter) in the xenophobic Demiplane of Dread.  During the early sessions the party spent considerable time having to ally itself with traditionally evil creatures, while fleeing monster-hunters and angry villagers.  Over time the campaign shifted to the planes, as we introduced a massive story-arc:  the great demon Orcus wanted to usurp the Raven Queen, goddess of death.  Some of the highlights of this “kitchen sink” campaign concept included the following:

• The tiefling bard character found out that he was the son of Orcus
• The party’s shifter escaped slavery-by-vampires on a ship called the “Downeaster Alexa”, only to return and rescue all of shifter-kind as a savior.
• The goblin sorcerer character became a chronomancer (time-mage)
• Time travel became a critical element to the campaign, and the party eventually realized that a “Tome” they had been following as an in-game “guidebook” was actually written by a party member… from the future.
• Strahd von Zarovich acted as a benefactor, and friend for most of the campaign until he killed off a beloved NPC.  
• When we added a new player, at level 21, we let him be the actual “Lady of Pain”, built as a Deva Ardent.
• The party at 24^th level came back to Barovia and killed Strahd (challenge rating 18, if I recall) by surrounding him and pummeling him mercilessly in only a few rounds.    
• The party killed the Tarrasque
• The tiefling’s drow lover became pregnant, which meant Orcus was going to be a grandpa.
• At the very end of the campaign, after introducing the Astral Sea, I threw Spelljammer stuff into the mix.

In other words, we did just about everything you could possibly do in a D&D campaign, as the party went all the way from 1^st to 30^th level.  

This dragon's nickname should be "Kitchen Sink"

The Dark Road Ahead

But in the summer of 2012, as the campaign started to approach its epic conclusion, I started feeling things slip.  Some of the players had been talking about taking a break after Ravenscape, and interest in another campaign seemed lukewarm at best.  Instead of recognizing this change for what it was, “player burnout”,  I desperately tried to hold onto the group.  I constantly bombarded the players with new ideas about future campaigns.  I felt that I just needed the proper spark to keep everyone interested, and once I found it, we would be good to go for another one-hundred sessions!  Some of the ideas I hatched were great, others were just desperate:

• I bought Shadowrun 4^th Edition and ran a demo of the game, even though there was no interest in sci-fi gaming from two of the players.
• I tinkered with an Alternity-based post-apocalyptic campaign.
• After picking up Savage Worlds in May of 2012, I offered to run a Steampunk spinoff of our Ravenscape campaign, blending Deadlands into the mix, and calling it “Plane Justice”.
• I offered to return to a classic fantasy setting, like Dragonlance.

There was some interest from a couple of the players in returning to 2^nd Edition AD&D with Dragonlance, and I pounced on the idea.  At the very last Ravenscape session, which was held at our “tiefling bard’s” house near Philadelphia for a two night “sleepover”, the party defeated Orcus, saved the multiverse, and we celebrated only briefly before trying to build 2^nd Edition AD&D characters.  In hindsight, we should’ve taken some serious time off, at least a few weeks, but I wouldn’t yield.  I felt that the only way to keep the game alive was to push it forward.  Didn’t work.  

Little did I know that when Orcus died, so did the magic of this group.

Some of the players seemed keen on 2^nd Edition nostalgia, while others still preferred the modern rules of 4^th Edition.  After an unproductive character creation session, I threw together a last ditched attempt to come to a middle ground:  4^th Edition Dragonlance.  This only aggravated the players interested in returning to 2^nd Edition.  I tinkered around, offering to try Pathfinder or D&D Next, but it was too late.  

The players of Qualanthorus’ Keep, a.k.a. the “Monster Squad”, broke up.  

As a somewhat obsessive game-master I was devastated.  After playing every week, sometimes twice, online for three and a half years with that incredible crew of players, losing the game left me feeling very empty.  I second-guessed myself constantly on how I concluded the campaign, and secretly hoped that the group just needed a short break before getting back together.  When that didn’t happen, I resigned myself to starting something new, but I didn’t want it to be Dungeons & Dragons.

My wife baked a special cake for our very last Ravenscape adventure

New Beginnings 

Ultimately the story has a happy ending.  I started playing Savage Worlds, but found myself not having enough players, so I founded a game club where we also started playing Numenera, and then I was introduced to many of you who read this blog.  Along the way I got my wife and kids to start gaming too… bonus points!  

One of the special aspects of being a game master is that you get to put your heart and soul into your ideas, your writing, and your play sessions.  You are opening your imagination to the players, and allowing them to go on a “guided romp” that is unique and special.  Truly great role-playing experiences leave you feeling warm, excited, and eager for the next encounter.  It is easy to see why so many of us who game-master, continue to take on the role.  But sharing our imagination also leaves us vulnerable when our ideas fall flat, or don’t create that spark with the players.  It’s natural to feel sadness when you end a campaign, leave a group, or lose a player, especially when things are going well.  

In hindsight, I think my fears and anxiety over our online group's end were based on a misconception that, as I got older, it would be harder and harder to find new people and share in our collective imagination.  I saw Qualanthorus’ Keep’s ending as a finale rather than just a simple transition.

I’m so very glad that I was wrong.  

Your Thoughts?

Have you had a similar “break up” of a special gaming group, or collection of players?  Maybe you moved away, leaving old friends behind?  Perhaps you still want to play Pathfinder but the rest of your party is jumping into 5^th Edition?  

Let us know.  Share your story, and let’s celebrate those special memories.  We’d love to hear about it!

PS… Tom, Frank, Randy, Tym, and Cone, if you do happen to read this I just want to say “thank you”.  Thank you for the best campaign I’ve ever had the pleasure of running.  You guys were phenomenal!