How complete is your Kingdom??

My Kingdom or I should say the kingdom where my players begin there games is fairly detailed as I have 12 known towns/cities in which the players choose to come from and we would develop a storyline about why the players pc was in a certain town, what there background was running/hiding, maybe they were just out looking for trouble or to have fun.

At this point the players would eventually meet the other pc's and we would start the adventure. I have kept most of my original notes over the years to answer any questions about the area the players entered which included maps, dates & etc. I also made a detailed monetary system for the kingdom describing the thickness of the coin and what each coin of the realm is called, plus I had a calendar with days of the week and month's, moon phases. The maps are made using the Campaign Cartographer from Pro fantasy software even though I am not that great at making maps as some of the map enthusiasts out there I always had fun designing the maps and coming up with names for establishments, working on different Coat of Arms for my nobles, and just naming the main npc's the players would evenutally encounter.

For a lot of the establishments the pc's would go to I had made up the various npc's past of why he/she was running that particular business what their alignment was and any other items that could be useful to enterprising pc's, who had the where-with-all to explore other area besides the adventure they had started.

This was another contributing factor to helping keep the world we had invented fresh and new.

Till next time good gaming.

Too many Gods

Too many gods you say?? You bet your sweet bippe, especially in 2nd edition AD&D, yes you could limit the pantheon(s) the players got to choose from for selecting their god if they had a religion. But, even then they could choose from between 10 or more god or goddesses. Usually they selected one that gave their Pc a slight edge or two, letting them have slightly different weapons or magical spells that they might not otherwise be able to take normally.

I was just as guilty as the next player when it came to choosing a god for my Pc also, but when I started my PBP game, I decided enough is enough and came out with a list of 5 gods, finally settling on 6 gods for my players to choose from in the Kingdom their Pc's would be starting their adventuring career in.

The following is a list of my pantheon of gods including a small description of the god there alignment and also clerical and magical spheres they allow access to.

Gods of Arcynia:

Vanthor-God of Light and all that is Good
All lawful good to lawful neutral alignments
Followers include Clerics, Fighters, Paladins
Symbols are some sort of a Sun design
Paladins called Light Warriors
(weapons allowed Swords, Hammers, Maces, Morning Star & Daggers)
Normal Paladin abilities plus when addressing hostile crowd can sway them to his side if he can talk uninterrupted for at least 3 rounds
Clerics called Sun Catchers
(weapons allowed Swords, Hammers, Maces, & Daggers)
Normal Clerical abilities plus can cure disease once per week
Spell access Major
All, Charm, Healing, Sun, Combat, & Protection
Minor access
Summoning, Guardian, Weather
Colors ranging from Gold, to Orange, to Yellow
Avatar is usually of a strong young virile man with gold flowing hair and strong morals

Veleize-Goddess of Magic and Knowledge
Any type of alignment allowed
Followers include any form of Magic-user, Scholars, Thieves
Spell access Major
All, Astral, Charm, Divination, Healing, & Protection
Minor access
Summoning, Creation, Necromantic
Symbols are some form of a globe surrounded by two moons
Paladins called Intellect Bearers
(weapons allowed Mace, Hammer, Swords, Bow, & Dagger)
Min int of 16, Normal abilities plus can cast one 1st level mage spell once per week
Clerics called Mystical Saviors
(weapons allowed Sling, Mace, Hammer & Quarterstaff) Min int of 12/wis of 16
Normal abilities plus can also receive answer?? to one question once per week
Colors range from light Blue to light Greens
Avatars range from a motherly figure to a stern, exotic type of female

Necris-God of Death and all that is Evil
All evil and neutral alignments
Followers include Clerics, Fighters, Thieves, & Magic-Users
Symbols are a form of 2 snakes intertwined within a skull
Spell access Major
All, Combat, Necromantic, Summoning, & Healing
Minor access
Animal, Charm, Protection
Anti-Paladin called Death Dealers
(weapons allowed Swords, Hand Crossbow, Flail, Sickle, & Whip)
Normal abilities plus can take a level of an enemy once per week
Clerics called Life stealers
(weapons allowed Dagger, Sickle, Blowgun, & Garrote) Min wis of 16/chr 13
Normal abilities plus can cause sickness once per week
Colors range from dark Greens to any variation of Black
Avatar is some form of veiled figure either female or male

Perwin-God of Luck
Any type of alignment allowed
Followers include Thieves, Illusionists, Fighters
Symbols are a pair of dice or coins
Spell access Major
All, Charm, Guardian, Healing, Protection & Creation
Minor access
Animal, Divination & Sun
Paladins called Luck Merchants
Normal abilities plus can ask for additional help once per week (+3 to hit)
Clerics called Life Winner
Normal abilities plus can change luck one time per week (+3 to any roll)
Colors range from bright Reds or Oranges
Avatar is usually of a young male or female dressed in leather’s with a mischievous grin and calculated look in their eyes

Lewenares-Elven God
Followers besides Elves also include Druids and Rangers
Symbols include some form of a tree symbol ex.-Acorn’s, Leaves, to just a Tree itself
Spell access Major
All, Animal, Astral, Healing, & Plant
Minor access
Charm, Creation & Elemental
Avatar is of a female elf with green clothing and a light tinge of green skin

Y’Gdaly Strongarm-Dwarven God
Symbol is of one Dwarven arm holding a Dwarven Battle Hammer
Spell access Major
All, Combat, Guardian, Healing, Protection & Sun
Minor access
Creation, Elemental & Divination
Avatar is a stout dwarf in full vigor carrying two battle hammers and always has a never ending supply of ale at hand

As you can see, nothing too elaborate and fairly simple, I am sure I forgot some points to put in or maybe my descriptions are not perfect, but hey as a Dm that is my prerogative and that is what I am going with for now.

Still what I also had planned for my players that as they began to explore the world, they would be uncovering other secret religions or going to areas of the world where different religious pantheons would be encountered.

Till next time good gaming.

What Dungeon Screen Modifications do you use?

In my gaming group when I was Dm'ing I used my own version of the AD&D DM screen, my screen had the pictures on the original screen and then everything else was covered by my own cheat tables.

One was for location of critical hits/called shots using weapon size vs. target size, along with severity of injury. Next table lists Powers check from the Ravenloft Campaign Setting, I figured if some of my players where going to use dark/evil spells as good mages they could be affected by evil side effects just as evil mages using such spells might end up with. The 3rd table was for Fumbles with weapons if rolling a 1 to hit, and the last table had on it the Martial Arts Results, then a list of Armor type A.C. and DP points assigned to each (if the Pc failed to clean/care for equipment they owned or found then the armor would only last for so long before becoming a piece of junk.) and the final section was of a Disarm attempt if called for by Pc or Npc, where said weapon(s) might go if the Npc or Pc were successful in their disarming attempt.

I never really bothered with weapon speed or iniative too much unless some sort of special conditions applied to the Pc's or Npc's. Under a haste spell or slow spell or using a weapon they had never used before. One other thing I had considered having was a table for early firearms, but I was never able to figure out anything that would work and did not like any tables that were out at that time. If anyone has any ideas for that please let me know.

On a side note, the other day while reading a blog, someone had put a link to Gronardia's blog in which he had made some comments about the Ages of D&D back in January of last year. For me the Golden Age of D&D was 2nd Ed. AD&D the one I played the most learning the rules for and Dm'ed. The next versions after that just go downhill for me.

Maybe one day I will use this again or make up something else till then good gaming.

AD+D Game Play Rules

Without a gaming group I have been doing a lot of re-reading of most of my AD&D 2nd edition books I own, a lot of these books gave me plenty of ideas for some of my gaming sessions. While reading The Complete Fighter's Handbook, at the end of the final chapter there is a paragraph that sums up how I feel what game play in D&D should be like.

The paragraph reads "That's the end of The Complete Fighter's Handbook. Now that you've read it, the thing to remember is this: Use whatever appeals to you as the DM, and nothing more. If any rule or recommendation worries you, if you feel that it will unbalance your campaign or skew your players toward bad habits, then don't allow it in your campaign. As for all the other rules, recommendations, and guide-lines: Try them, you may like them."

This simple statement is what makes AD&D a fantastic RPG to me, the game itself tells you the DM, you can adjust the rules as you see fit. Basically making the game your own, you do not have to use every game rule or supplemental rule out there, to run the game though the basic rules do help and give you guidance. One rule I had incorporated into my AD&D game was to use the Heroic Award Point system (I can not remember what game system had this in it). But, based on a Pc's heroic actions he/she would be awarded anywhere from 1 to 5 points that the player could then use to change their fate, maybe on a bad die roll, allowing a reroll, a spell to be cast, or perhaps the Pc would be able to bend bars to escape jail. I'm sure you get the general idea.

Reading many blogs from the RPG Bloggers site and responses to different blogs it is quite evident Dm's have their own style of gaming and gaming rules, especially when it comes to AD&D 2nd edition, which I think has the largest assortment of optional/homebrew rules out there in RPG's.

So there’s my two cents on the subject for what it is worth.

How I learned to Role-play my PC's and NPC's becoming a better DM.

When I left school and settled down to working for a living, I was lucky enough to meet a friend around the area where I lived who was also interested in AD&D. He had some of the books for 2nd edition and since I was still single I already had most of the books available at the time. He had told me of his home-brew world he had created and the two of us started our own little group of just playing one on one games with each of us taking the role of heroes and villains in the story line.

We would play the pc's female or male depending on the storyline involved and where we were in his world. Sometimes playing as many as 2-3 characters each. Now maybe that seems like a lot, but it helped me be able to become a better role-player as I began to give my characters backgrounds about why they were in the area of the world, what motivated my pc's (greed, adventuring, alignment, etc.). This helped to bring the pc's alive in my mind so that I was able to get into the character of the pc effectively bringing him/her to life. So that when we played the game it was more than just rolling the dice it was developing a storyline about my pc's and what goals I eventually wanted them to achieve.

This in turn led me into expanding on his world and fleshing out more of the areas associated with it, to the point I developed my own continent and Kingdom that I ended up running within the gaming group we had formed. I had developed some major story arc's, villains, detailed cities, some maps, etc. I believe this is what helped me become a good DM, (I am not saying I was a great Dm having all these totally new ideas, but we had fun) because of all my role-playing various pc's and all the work of creating my own parts of the kingdom I was able to give the players of our group very detailed descriptions, as well as each races view of the kingdom.

So that when the party set off in one direction or the other, even if they did not accomplish the goal they had been assigned or acquire certain treasure they were after, it would set off other chain of events throughout the kingdom affecting everyone involved so that the settings were never stagnant, always giving the pc's new adventures to embark on, as well as my villian(s) plotline continuing on even if the pc's failed to stop it.

Included is a link to my homepage that talks about the world I had helped create and some of the rules I had come up with for the pbp I ran with some simple maps I had made using Pro Fantasy software at World of Arcynia*. Take a look at the sight let me know what you think and then how you eventually came to be a role-player, not just a dice roller and what skills you developed to become a better player or Dm.

*Any and all content to the World of Arcynia is the sole property of Art Brown & Lloyd Keefer.