Saturday, June 24, 2023

Dungeons & Shivan Dragons: Sword of War and Peace for B/X D&D + Old School Essentials




Sword +3, War and Peace

Grants special benefits of healing and protection from against fire and evil creatures.


Healing a living subject: The wielder gains the following benefits: 

  • Healing: Restores 3 hit points of damage. This cannot grant more hit points than the subject’s normal maximum. 

Protects against evil: The wielder gains the following benefits: 

  • Save bonus: Gain a +1 bonus to saving throws against attacks and special abilities of affected creatures.
  • Defense bonus: Affected creatures gain a -1 penalty to attack the wielder.
  • Magic protection: Affected enchanted, constructed, and summoned creatures cannot attack the wielder in melee but may make ranged attacks against them.

Protects against fire: The wielder gains the following benefits: 

  • Normal fire: Unharmed by non-magical fire.
  • Save bonus: Gain a +2 bonus to all saving throws versus fire-based magical or breath attacks.
  • Fire-based damage: Is reduced by 1 point per damage die rolled. (Each die inflicts a minimum of 1 hit point damage.) 


Monday, June 12, 2023

Clerical Work: The Gods of Conan Part 2

 

Ishtar’s Midnight Courtship, 
from Ishtar and Izdubar, 
the epic of Babylon, 1884.


I recently picked up Modiphius' Conan Bundle and was reading through the Nameless Cults and thinking about using the deities presented it for a Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition campaign. I figure I'll work a few each post.


Derketa

Alignment: Neutral Good

Domains: Grave, Life, Order


Erlik

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Domains: Death, Grave


Ishtar

Alignment: Neutral Good

Domains: Order, Twilight


Mitra

Alignment: Lawful Good

Domains: Knowledge, Order, Peace

Sunday, June 11, 2023

5E vs the OSR vs What is Best for Our Group


I've spent the last year working on combating my Gaming ADD so that I could run games that would last more than 2-3 weeks. I'm glad to report it's been working. My Deadlands game is 9 months in and sadly had to go on hiatus as one of my players is buying and moving into a new house.

We decided to run a different game while he is unavailable and I started looking at the OSR and 5th Edition. On one hand, I'm royally pissed at Wizards of the Coast for their shenanigans and would like to support creators who actually care about their audience. But on the other hand I have some players in this game that want to play 5E, have never gotten to play it, and love DnD Beyond.

I did some heavy thinking about this and what I came away with is that I tend to agree with many of the 5E changes that were made while also altering many OSR games to be closer to 5E. And when I look at what has been successful for me as a DM in the last 9 months  is focusing on story and fun over game system.

In fact, when I look back at my Gaming ADD it always comes back to finding that perfect system. The 3 games that come closest to perfect for me are Castle Falkenstein, Shadow of the Demon Lord and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Right or wrong, 5E captures my vision of DnD as a game designer. I like Bounded Accuracy and Sub-Classes. If I were designing DnD it would look a lot like 5E.

After looking at all of this I went back to 5E and for my players and for me it was the right decision. I'm not giving WotC any of my money and I'm picking up excellent 3rd party products. I'm also backing Kobold Press' Tales of the Valiant as I feel that Kobold is doing some of the most exciting work on 5E.

My group is invested in 5E and I'm invested in them. They are my best friends and it's great that I get to run a game for them. I still am angry at WotC and I'm sure that will affect things at some point but honestly, I have enough material for 5E to use the engine for years to come.

I hope someone knocks WotC off of their block but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy DMing my friends.

Sunday, June 4, 2023

Clerical Work: the Gods of Conan part 1


I recently picked up Modiphius' Conan Bundle and was reading through the Nameless Cults and thinking about using the deities presented it for a Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition campaign. I figure I'll work a few up each post.


Adonis

Alignment: Neutral Good

Domains: Life, Nature


Anu

Alignment: Neutral

Domains: Knowledge


Bel

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Domains: Trickery


Bori

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Domains: Order, War

Monster Monday: Ork City's Chupacabra for Shadowdark

Welcome to Ork City! In the middle of Ork City's Hatt Island is the Park, a wild and dangerous forest filled with all manner of nightmar...