1. Ability scores generation method?

3D6 baby.

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Over the weekend, while Peggy did her shift at the animal hospital, I listened to Bob Dylan’s “Whitmark Demos.” These were songs he recorded just to get the copyright down – or so that his agent could sell them to other performers. There are some wonderful renditions on these acetates, even though some have complained that they were done rather mechanically. His version of “I’ll Keep It With Mine” – which appears on the end of the second CD in the set – is one of my personal favorites. I suppose it’s one of my favorite songs. I like all the Bob versions and I like the Nico version. I will, as it happens, listen to anyone cover that particular song.

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Are female magic users witches? I always saw witches, in a classic fantasy setting, as being too attached to one particular geographical area to do much “adventuring.” Instead, I saw them as solitary, perhaps predatory, single women rooted in isolated, rural areas. Why would they leave their spot? Even if forced out, they would want to immediately settle in a similar place.

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“CSIO remains to this day my single favorite piece of RPG material. As a boy it took my mind, pried it open, rummaged around placing wonderful new things inside, and then left the door open on it’s way out to let even more creativity leak its way in.”

– “Busman”

I could not agree with this more.

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Not to be confused with this text, which is certainly well worth reading, Underwood’s opus (reprinted last year), is a classic late ’70s, early ’80s amateur take on D&D. Written and published when Underwood was in college, this book has developed a “cult following” over the years and it makes for a quite entertaining and informative read on many different levels.

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I finally got a copy of the new OSR “domain game” Adventurer Conqueror King (ACK). It seeks to address and allow for what has been called the fabled “End Game” of OD&D. After the players have amassed enough wealth and experience – then what? They were expected to spend their wealth to construct castles and citadels, tax their peasants, and the game dynamics would move towards diplomacy, intrigue, and the kind of big, long-term projects and concerns that only wealthy and established players could indulge in. This kind of play was more than implied in the OD&D rules – as they included the costs for castle and tower construction – but few ever made it that far. Moreover, support for this sort of game, and the transitions it had to have, never really appeared. ACK seeks to address this by providing rules that will take any character from the most humble of origins and give them an opportunity to administer entire kingdoms.

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Deciding to be a GM, and to take on the tasks of running a campaign, can result in a lot of work. Fortunately, once you get invested in it, ideas can come from many unlikely sources. I found two comic books on the racks last week – both bursting with great D&D ideas.

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In December, due to a work-related issue, I found myself at a local game store – loading boxes of games into a van with an employee.

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One of my main inspirations for D&D are old issues of Heavy Metal magazine. These, mostly, European comics from the late ’70s and early ’80s often had “sword and sorcery” themes, and could be counted upon to feature decent-to-quite-amazing visual art.

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OD&D only has three classes or “types” for player characters to play: fighter, magic user, and cleric. These three venerable choices expanded almost immediately as articles appeared in TSR’s own newsletter, The Strategic Review, outlining other classes: the now familiar, paladins, bards, rangers, thieves, illusionists, etc. Beyond that point, the list of classes grew and grew. Soon, it seemed like your rpg publication had to include new player classes. The sheer number of them became dizzying. I have, so far, resisted the urge to include these extra classes in my campaign preferring, instead, to let players confine themselves to the original three options.

That said, I see nothing wrong with adding these classes… as non-player characters (NPCs).

Think about it. You can use any one of these wacky classes you want to as a thrilling NPC. Dig up some forgotten class description from an Arduin supplement or recover one from an old issue of White Dwarf and feel free to let fly. But as cool as these classes may be, they can always remain just for NPCs. Your players can still confine themselves to the simplicity of the original three options. As a friend told me, there may be any number of ways to experience your world – but for the players, the three basic classes are what they have as options. Otherwise, the creation of player characters imposes its own rules and background stories on the DM – and the DM is sudenly tasked with having to come up with the justifications and explanations for allowing all the little details in the player’s “back story.” In this sense, the players start to create a world with the characters. The DM isn’t in charge any longer.

If we look at the ways in which D&D started to “evolve” (or devolve) away from the original, we can see that the profusion of players classes is a major element in this change. I suspect that it led away from world creation, on the part of the DM, and more to the creation of characters on the part of the players. OD&D is really a DM-cenric system. When creating characters assumes the degree of importance it has, the GM’s role as the game’s ruling demuiurge has to be diminished accordingly. Going back to OD&D is all about restoring the original model and re-empowering the DM. This means player creation, and player classes, need to be accordingly simplified.

There are two kinds of “outre” style classes I am interested in using in my current campaign. The first one is the “Mycretian” class (described in The City State of the World Emperor) and the second one is the “Witch” class (described in Witches Court Marshes). Both of these classes are covered in some length and both, it appears, have received scant attention since they first came on the scene. And they interest me for different reasons.

The “lawful good” “Mycretians” are non-violent cleric types. They seem to be about injecting a kind of Gandhian ethic into D&D. How well would that fare and how would it come off? How would such figures appear to other NPCs and even the players? I can anticipate them being either the source of frustration, or of admiration, or both. How well would these “turn the other cheek” people do when confronted by the typical dangers in the wilderness? Are they the types who need civilizations to endure for very long? It would be interesting to find out, as this class is not wholly unprepared for calamities.

One of the challenges, as I see it, is not so much how player characters get along with their foes, but how well they relate to potential allies within their own alignment. Not every “lawful” character they meet may be benevolent enablers, after all. I suspect struggles existing between varying forces within an alignment grouping. Each “lawful” character isn’t obligated to get along with every other “lawful” character. In some cases, this may come down to personality conflicts and local power struggles. In other cases, a natural fellow feeling for those of the same alignment might be mitigated by other obligations – to family, town, custom, profession, etc. By being dedicated to higher principles, a “Mycretian” might draw these kinds of conflicts out. In this sense, the represent the ways in which differences existing between those of the same alignment could become more problematic that the differences existing between people of different alignments. Which ties prove to be stronger and in what context? A lot could hinge on that.

The “witch” character class- for NPCs – interests me because it appears to have the potential to be a truly malevolent, and not-so-easy-to-grasp group of solely female magic users. What kind of shadowy, twisted community would these crones work out for themselves… and how would it fit into the larger campaign ecology? I have to admit that I find these questions intriguing. I suspect that the witches carry with them a sort of heavy archetypal aura with them. Who wouldn’t want to have them in their game?

We should not confuse the timeless simplicity of the OD&D model to indicate that other elements can’t be pulled in from elsewhere – even new player classes. But vigilance must be exercised to prevent making a fetish of complexity for its own sake. One of the reasons I appreciate very simple rules sets – like OD&D and S&W:WB – is because they allow for the injection of nearly any element into the game. But as long as you keep to the basics, the play itself never becomes bogged down.