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It turns out that J.K. Revell, the same blogger behind Synapsida, which I wrote about here, also writes a blog about D&D monsters called Not A Dead Communist. I'm enjoying reading that, too. As for the name, well, there was an economist named J.R.S. Revell who he might be referring to. I'll have to keep reading to find out.
A tweet about D&D
Dec. 18th, 2020 08:54 pmReminds me of my old gaming buddy Dave. He rolled up a character with lame stats and called him Dork. The character turned out to be an OK fighter. He rolled up another character with lame stats and called him O'Dork. He turned out to be a great fighter!
Rejected image for alignment chart post
Apr. 23rd, 2020 02:28 pmI decided not to use the following image to illustrate Alignment charts from the back catalog for Throwback Thursday with music by the Harp Twins — too busy.
Evil Dave the Exterminator
Feb. 21st, 2014 04:43 pmOver at Grand Line 3.5, the artist asked for a story prompt in the comments: Tell a story about bug problems in your game!
There was a player named Dave in my gaming group who always had giant insects and spiders in every dungeon he ran. I eventually figured out that he did that because bugs frightened him and he hated them for that, so he figured that if they scared him, they'd scare the other players. He was eventually able to act out his feelings about insects in real life. He became an exterminator.
There was a player named Dave in my gaming group who always had giant insects and spiders in every dungeon he ran. I eventually figured out that he did that because bugs frightened him and he hated them for that, so he figured that if they scared him, they'd scare the other players. He was eventually able to act out his feelings about insects in real life. He became an exterminator.
Four links for forty years of D&D
Feb. 15th, 2014 08:33 pmDungeons and Dragons turned 40 years old this past month. Here are three links to articles that mark the anniversary, and a blast from the past.
Buzzfeed: At 40 Years Old, Dungeons & Dragons Still Matters
Intro and more comments on above article at io9: Why Dungeons & Dragons Still Matters
The practical applications of D&D at Quartz: Everything I need to know about management I learned from playing Dungeons and Dragons
That reminds me of this What’s New with Phil and Dixie cartoon from 30+ years ago: Lessons for Life
Originally posted to fandom_lounge on JournalFen.
ETA: I forgot to add this link from Kotaku: Ice-T Accidentally Recorded A Dungeons & Dragons Audiobook.
Finale of a coup as solo dungeon
Jan. 15th, 2014 12:02 amI have another D&D memory to follow up on the previous one. Again, it was inspired by a prompt over at One Piece: Grand Line 3 Point 5: Share a story about a player character who wanted to take over an entire town or city.
In an earlier campaign than the one with the evil cleric, One of my friend's low-level paladins became the prophesied True King for a city-state that hadn't had a legitimate ruler in a long time. Instead, it was governed by a warlord with his higher level henchmen as a junta.
When the paladin reached 9th level, I had the word spread in the city that the rightful king had returned. The citizens revolted and chased the junta out of the city. The paladin then had to defend himself against the old head of the thieves guild, an evil patriarch, and an evil sorcerer, before he could face the warlord. He killed them all in single combat in their jungle lair. Good thing he had more hit points than all but the warlord, was resistant to magic because he had a holy sword, and had a better AC.
Once that was done, he was able to rule his city-state in relative peace.
In an earlier campaign than the one with the evil cleric, One of my friend's low-level paladins became the prophesied True King for a city-state that hadn't had a legitimate ruler in a long time. Instead, it was governed by a warlord with his higher level henchmen as a junta.
When the paladin reached 9th level, I had the word spread in the city that the rightful king had returned. The citizens revolted and chased the junta out of the city. The paladin then had to defend himself against the old head of the thieves guild, an evil patriarch, and an evil sorcerer, before he could face the warlord. He killed them all in single combat in their jungle lair. Good thing he had more hit points than all but the warlord, was resistant to magic because he had a holy sword, and had a better AC.
Once that was done, he was able to rule his city-state in relative peace.
More Dungeons and Dragons memories
Jan. 3rd, 2014 02:36 amI've been reading two more campaign comics in addition to Darths and Droids over winter break, One Piece: Grand Line 3.5 and Friendship is Dragons. The writer of the One Piece comic leaves prompts in the comments for some of his strips, which got me to write some incidents from the campaign I described in Dungeons and Dragons memories almost five years ago.
The first came on page 246, where the artist requested that the readers "share a story about a flaw that... turned into an advantage of sorts." Here's my response.
I have a story from the days before there were official flaws in D&D,* back when some people were still playing out of the original three softbound booklets plus Greyhawk and Blackmoor.
I was the DM for low-level group who was exploring a stronghold full of martial arts monks. The defenders were too much for the group, which was about to suffer a whole party wipe when one of the clerics prayed for divine intervention. I rolled the dice and the deity intervened. Unfortunately, the cleric was evil and so was his deity.
After killing the mob, the diety turned to the cleric, sent him on a quest to capture a high-level good cleric, then cursed him with a permanent stinking cloud, not to be lifted until the cleric was captured. The good news was that anything within 15 feet that could smell had to save against poison or collapse from disgust. The bad news was that this included the player characters. This eventually turned into an advantage when the party eventually all saved, which meant that only the monsters would suffer from the ill effects.
The party eventually was strong enough to go to Hell, defeat a couple of pit fiends, and capture the good cleric, who had been taken there by an arch-devil. It seems the cleric's deity wanted him for itself.
*Chaosium's games had them at the time, but not TSR's.
His second prompt was "Tell a story about how your GM or DM implemented a seemingly weird or out of place idea that a player introduced just for the hell of it" on page 256. My response:
In the same campaign where the evil cleric called on his deity and was cursed and sent on a quest for his trouble, the other cleric in the party decided that he didn't like the leader. It was good role-playing, as the clerics served different divinities and were of different alignments, but he decided to do something about it.
He convinced me to let him contact the local thieves guild and recruit some guides for the party. He did, but he also paid them extra to backstab the leader when it the time was right. The rebel cleric also recruited a bunch of horse barbarians to ambush the party on the trail. The idea was that the guides would assassinate the leader during the ambush. He forgot one thing; he never actually role-played telling the guides about the ambush.
So when it happened, they hung back, until the horse barbarians were starting to lose, then launched their attack. I justified it by saying that they didn't want to share credit with anyone else. They didn't kill the leader, but they escaped to harass the party all the way to the end of the campaign, even following the party into Hell. That was something I would never have thought of myself.
Ah, memories.
The first came on page 246, where the artist requested that the readers "share a story about a flaw that... turned into an advantage of sorts." Here's my response.
I have a story from the days before there were official flaws in D&D,* back when some people were still playing out of the original three softbound booklets plus Greyhawk and Blackmoor.
I was the DM for low-level group who was exploring a stronghold full of martial arts monks. The defenders were too much for the group, which was about to suffer a whole party wipe when one of the clerics prayed for divine intervention. I rolled the dice and the deity intervened. Unfortunately, the cleric was evil and so was his deity.
After killing the mob, the diety turned to the cleric, sent him on a quest to capture a high-level good cleric, then cursed him with a permanent stinking cloud, not to be lifted until the cleric was captured. The good news was that anything within 15 feet that could smell had to save against poison or collapse from disgust. The bad news was that this included the player characters. This eventually turned into an advantage when the party eventually all saved, which meant that only the monsters would suffer from the ill effects.
The party eventually was strong enough to go to Hell, defeat a couple of pit fiends, and capture the good cleric, who had been taken there by an arch-devil. It seems the cleric's deity wanted him for itself.
*Chaosium's games had them at the time, but not TSR's.
His second prompt was "Tell a story about how your GM or DM implemented a seemingly weird or out of place idea that a player introduced just for the hell of it" on page 256. My response:
In the same campaign where the evil cleric called on his deity and was cursed and sent on a quest for his trouble, the other cleric in the party decided that he didn't like the leader. It was good role-playing, as the clerics served different divinities and were of different alignments, but he decided to do something about it.
He convinced me to let him contact the local thieves guild and recruit some guides for the party. He did, but he also paid them extra to backstab the leader when it the time was right. The rebel cleric also recruited a bunch of horse barbarians to ambush the party on the trail. The idea was that the guides would assassinate the leader during the ambush. He forgot one thing; he never actually role-played telling the guides about the ambush.
So when it happened, they hung back, until the horse barbarians were starting to lose, then launched their attack. I justified it by saying that they didn't want to share credit with anyone else. They didn't kill the leader, but they escaped to harass the party all the way to the end of the campaign, even following the party into Hell. That was something I would never have thought of myself.
Ah, memories.
