Why I like AD&D

Apart from the nostalgia of it being the version I was brought into D&D with back in the day, I find it has more, shall we say, atmosphere. Decades later, I tried getting into D&D for my boys back about ten years ago or so at the height of Potter/LoTR mania.  I purchased the version 3, then the version 3.5.  While at first the crisp, professional artwork, graphic design and elaborated rules (complete with monster stats) impressed me, I soon lost interest in much of what it contained.

To be brief, I found it was all about expanding the game as broadly as possible in order to sell more products. I found the quality lacking. The books I bought began falling apart with only scant usage, while the old PHB and DMG and MM I had from the early 80s are still in top condition.  Though, to be honest, I could make that complaint about most things today, but we won't go there.

Anyway, another thing I noticed was how 'antiseptic' the game was.  The rules were just that, rules.  They were ABC/123.  They explained everything confined to a game function.  There was little to any 'fluff', or any real attempt to inject the literary inspiration of this or that component into its game concept.

Take a little movie we watched last night, that I try to watch every year: The Exorcist. Still, after all these years, a pretty intense movie.  When my boys first saw it, that's what they said.  Not necessarily scary, but at parts disturbing and certainly intense.  Imagine what it was for audiences way back in the day, when Nixon was still president and 8-Track Tapes were all the rage.

So in AD&D, you have the Exorcism spell, no doubt fresh on the minds of the D&D audience (the PHB being released in 1978, a mere 5 years after the movie The Exorcist).   Though society was beginning to splinter already, there was still a sense of 'common narrative' that everyone understood.  People knew about the movie, even if they didn't see it (and before VCRs, that was pretty much everyone who didn't see it when it first came out).  You knew that the exorcism was no walk in the park.  In the movie, in fact, we're told that the awesomely named Lankester Merrin took part in an exorcism that lasted months!

So in AD&D, the Exorcism spell is one of the longest potential spells, in some cases able to last upwards of 100 Turns!  For a game based on minute rounds and 10 X 10 rooms, that's a lot. But it makes sense.  After all, this is where the game is: evil vs. good.  Try to argue all you want about the game being open for evil PCs, the fact remains the basic assumption of the early years of D&D was that you were the good guys fighting against the baddies.

And Exorcism is one of the most potent spells in that arsenal.  Just as most Cleric spells are longer to cast than MU spells, there must have been something about the Exorcism spell that said 'be prepared to hunker down on this one.' 

But for the 3rd edition versions?  How long does this spell of spells, this ultimate weapon against the powers of Hell take?  That would be a Full Round Action.  Wow.  My thimble runneth over.  That must be some diary of a whimpy ghost that's being cast out with that. No appeal to a source, no attempt to bring color to a bare legalistic schematic.  Just a spell that takes a full round. 

See what I mean?  One of the things I noticed was that the original D&D games (including the AD&D incarnation) were based on literary, mythical, media or any other sources that the creators were inspired by.  Later editions of D&D were based simply on D&D. And nowhere does that show more than in the magical realms, particular spells and items.  This will be one of my ongoing observations, FWIW.   

Bubble, Bubble

So the party is reunited and all is right with the world.  We lost our gnomish thief and our Paladin (strange company that), to the elaborate mechanized trap in the Larders of Ill Omen.  That separated them from the rest of the party.  They immediately fell victim to the hypnotic gaze of the strange portrait in the Spires of Ravenloft, and were captured by the witches and held along with a villager. The purpose?  Yet to be determined. 

But in a rare twist of good fortune, the rest of the party made it up the larger tower, came through the rain across the old, dilapidated bridge, and down to the lair of the witches.  Not that they accomplished much.  The witches hit them with a Dark spell, but the party was able to dispel that swiftly enough.  Seeing themselves outgunned, the witches retreated to their conjuring room and hit the door with a Hold Portal. 

The party found the three captives in the old components room, and are in the process of catching one another up on the latest.  So it is.  After that we had to break, owing to science labs and pre-calc assignments due for our resident high school Junior. 

So there we are.  The Ravneloft module has been adjusted for gameplay. Strahd is more a legend, albeit a potential opponent.  I've reduced him to dust, shall we say, ala Hammer's Dracula, Prince of Darkness.  Still, you never know when enterprising witches just might conspire to bring him back.  The goal of the party was fudged a little for the Fortunes of Ravenloft section.  They are looking for an enchanted medallion that, when worn, will suppress the Magic User's delicate situation (that is, his lycanthrope).  Then they need to return it to Mordenshire (which, in my Greyhawk World, occupies the northern shores of Furyondy).  They've traveled far and through many adventures for this medallion, and have lost many of their companions along the way.

So we'll wait and see.  Just some travel notes for myself.  Nothing that glared out at me, except a brief discussion about whether or not Dancing Lights could illumine a Darkness Spell.  It was determined they wouldn't. 

Comebacks and come back again

It just seems as though as soon as I try to get back into this blog, a healthy dose of life interferes.  I've not really had a chance to get it off the ground.  Hard to believe it's been about two years since I thought of doing it. And yet, I've not made it out of the hanger.  Much has happened since then.   The whole fantasy RPG world has changed quite a bit.  The release of edition 5, the continued changing of the digital world, the social and cultural changes that seem to happen on a daily bases - all of these make it feel as though it was a different world when I started.

All of that is to say I'll try to get back onto things.  My family and I are still going through my makeshift Greyhawk campaign.  My oldest is now 20, however, and getting together regularly is difficult. Right now, they've turned away from the original goal of exploring the monastic ruins, featuring the classic dungeon example from the original AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide.  They're going through Ravenloft.  I threw that in, as I had always wanted to do, to play off the Halloween feel.  Since ghost stories and winter go hand in hand, they can durp around there for a while.

But hopefully, come spring when my next oldest will be wrapping up his Junior year, we'll get back to basics and finally crack that original goal.  First, we'll have to bring back the original party (which was rolled up under 3.5 rules).  They disbanded when the wizard (original: Magic User) was slain by  a random encounter with Hobgoblins.  Fortunately, he's also a wererat (from their original adventure in the Haunted Keep), and in my world, if lycanthropes aren't killed with silver they come back the next full moon.

Anyway, the goal is to bring them back and finish that before life and growing finally send them on their ways.  As we do, I'll post what happens, or what I notice, or what I think about.  The fabled 'Old School Renaissance' seems to have faded, so the topics that only a few years ago were ripe for the picking appear to have dwindled.  Nonetheless, whatever tickles my fancy will be posted.  And who knows?  I might actually be able to pick up a few readers by getting my blog's name out there.  We'll see. 

PC Class sizes

Ever try to visualize just how big a Hobbit Halfling is? Or just how large a Giant is compared to a man?  I know, in later editions you had some descent enough size charts with select representatives of various size categories.  But how did a Goblin and a Halfling compare?  Or a Gnome and an Orc?  So using the classic 1st Edition Monster Manual art, I took snippets of different PC classes and set them against various baddies (and each other).  

It's not scientific, and I don't claim to have the definitive say on the issue.  But I used a scale, aligned the pictures to the scale, tried to adjust for overall body size (not just height), and compared.  I found it very interesting.  Especially when thinking on other things, like just how Hobbits really compared to Goblins in Tolkien's works?  True, he never gives actual size scales in his works, but just for fun, thinking of how a Goblin compares to a Halfling, or a Hobgoblin to a Human.  So here is the first one I came up with:

Halfling and Goblin.  Given even a slight amount of room for error, I found it interesting.  Look at the size difference! Halfings are tiny, about the size of a 5 year old or so.  Goblins are quite large compared to a Halfling.  About like a seven foot tall basketball player compared to an average person.  But with bulk.  Goblins might be canon fodder for most PCs over a couple levels in advancement, but you can see why they would be intimidating to your average Halfling. 

Whew

That was an ordeal.  Locked out of the account, then life hit.  Next thing I knew it was a new year, jobs and kids and ups and downs.  Every time I try to get this blog off the ground, they keep pulling me in!  Anyway, back.  Not much now but gathering my thoughts.  We've been off and on with playing AD&D style D&D.  Other games have come and gone, and with the kids having jobs, our oldest getting ready for college, and just the general demands of life, spending inordinate amounts of time planning for make believe knights battling make believe dragons must take a back seat.

Nonetheless, we still have our times.  Here is a bit of inspiration.  This is the dungeon.  I remember Rodney, one of the fellow in high school who introduced me to the game in the early 80s, copying this on a sheet of graph paper.  In our neck of the woods, graph paper was for shop class, and possibly certain higher math classes.  That was it.  So seeing him put pencil to rare and wonderful graph paper and copy this beauty?  Magic.  And that it was the location for my first time out playing just added to it.  Needless to say, this occupies a major place in my Greyhawk campaign, being in the southern regions of moors in Furyondy, the base kingdom for my party.

Here it is, for all its eye candy glory:

You have to love it.  One of the best D&D maps ever.  It looks like a floor plan that could, compared to most, realistically be found beneath some sprawling religious edifice.  The crypts have widened corridors.  You can almost feel the low, arched ceilings.  The single, large ceremonial chamber that brings the fallen to the crypts.  The smaller, tighter rooms for the cellars section.  It is real.  Or at least as real as you'll get in a world of 10' by 10' underground chambers and hallways.

It is the location for the main goal of our first adventure.  And we have yet to get back to it. After losing the wizard (who came back since he's a wererat and wasn't actually killed by silver), the party broke and we rerolled a newer, lower level party.  Soon they will join again, and hopefully hie to the legendary cellars and crypts beneath the ruins of Elthrage Monastery.


"In the 308th year of the Common Reckoning, the last High Abbot of Elthrage, Eustides, returned to the monastery of Veluna City. According to accounts, he was 'bare of foot and in rags, dirt covered and trembling.'"

From the Notes on the History of Elthrage Monastery
Frandan of Thornberg
523 CY