ADD kickstarter

I don't feel like writing a long post at the moment. But there is currently an Adventures Dark and Deep, kickstarter project.

Early look at Darker Paths 2 (The Witch), by BRW Games.

The official announcement has been made that The Witch class for Adventures Dark and Deep will be available in time for Halloween. Again, I got the privilege of being one of the Proof Readers and again I am impressed by Joseph's work.

The class is just as well made as the Necromancer and is again designed with a specific archetype in mind. The Witch in this book is not a gentle herbalist or wizard with a special spell list, it is the kind of hag that grows ever more Ugly and ever more Vindictive against society.

One thing that Joseph is great at doing is showing a classes specific flavor in both the descriptive text and abilities. I can't say too much more without giving too much away, but this Witch's abilities are designed for causing pain or death.

Darker Paths 1 Is Now Available!

BRW Games has released Dark Paths 1, today. A Necromancer class for Adventures Dark and Deep or any game that is compatible with the 1st edition of the world's most popular roleplaying game.

You can get if from the BRW Games, store at RPGNow.com Where you can also download the play testing rules for Adventures Dark and Deep,

I'm very excited about this release but if you don't know much about it you can read it about it at the BRW Games Website or see my Early Look at Darker Paths 1. The announcement was made today on the authors blog Greyhawk Grognard.

ADD Campaign log 4

We left off with Eloum, Philip and Kolas exploring the corridor with the honey combed wall. By this time Einar had figured out the locking mechanism on the trap door had a time release. They got it open and everyone except Frey entered.

Einar did not realize that the time release would not let them open it from the inside until it was too late and Frey had been out outside with his horse so he didn't hear anything about the time release. Einar and the others followed the corridor after noticing there was an extra set of half-orc tracks.

Once they found the room with the laboratory they spent some time confused by the strange creature that seamed to be attacked by both Kolas and the others as well as the now dead men in robes. Eloum heard whispering come from that room and they backed away from the honey combs to check it out.

They all met back up now and Thayd also found a concealed drawer in some of the furniture. Containing a box  with two bottles of trolls blood and two bottles of acid. (I added this in a twist in healing potions if the player drinks the trolls blood but not the acid then bad results will commence)

Kol threw open the door and ran in full speed.
 Charging right inside the enveloping interior of a Gelatinous Cube

They continued on to the corridor and Kolas went ahead of them to look into the honeycombs and was quickly attacked by robber flies. The first one coming out met one of Thayd's darts and the Kol was bitten several times. One of flies flew past Kol and into the Halberd formation, but it still managed to land a bite or two on Eloum.

Alot of darts were thrown at the first two or three flies and then Lotus moved up with her claws and eventually killed one. But not before Kol managed to net one and then get bite by the other. He was near death now and Eloum just barely managed to get to Kol's pack and find the Healing Vial in time.

It took the whole party another 15 seconds just to kill the one in the net they kept wildly stabbing at it, which upset Kol when he woke up and found he didn't get to try and keep the fly to sell.

They moved on checking the corridors and various rooms finding little of anything until they passed through an antechamber and into a hall with three doors. They approached the first door with Einar listening intently. He told them heard a faint sound of two coins clicking together.

Kol threw open the door and ran in full speed. Charging right inside the enveloping interior of a Gelatinous Cube. The coins that faintly clicked just once were floating inside this Gel that was now acidicly eating at Kol and his belongings.

A few darts were thrown into it quickly having their wooden shafts destroyed and the cube attempted to force its way out of the door. Luckily the halberds quite simply tore the thing apart, spilling its insides onto the floor. Eloum used his water skin to wash Kol off as best he could and changed all of his acid soaked bandages and new bandages as well. Most likely Eloum no longer owns a robe.

And thats were we left off this time with Eloum trying to save Kol's life from his plunge into jelly.


System: Adventures Dark and Deep by Joseph Bloch
Module: B1-B9 In search of adventure
Players:
Laisa = (Thayd) High Elf, Mage/Mountebank
(Lotus) Dark Terran (drow) Assassin/Necromancer
Me = (Eloum) High Elf, Mystic/Fighter/Savant
Brandon = (Frey) Gray Elf, Mage
Justin = (Einar)Wild Elf, Fighter/Thief
Mike = Kolass (Half-Orc, Fighter/Assassin)

Hirelings of Note:
Philip 1sp Man-at-Arms

Early look at Darker Paths 1 (Necromancer), by BRW Games.

I got the privilege of being one of the proof readers for Darker Paths 1, by Joseph Bloch of BRW Games and The Greyhawk Grognard. It has been announced that it is going to be released in October just in time for Halloween.


As I mentioned in my previous post, Darker Paths 1 is a Necromancer Class for ADD and any game compatible with the 1st edition of the world's most popular roleplaying game. Now for the juicy information.

For a second I almost started writing about technical information like how many spells the book had or how many pages long it was. But what I want to talk about is what this class is, what it is not and what I like about it.

The class is a commander of the undead, with the ability to command and eventually raise massive armies of zombies, skeletons and other creatures. It is a magic user but can command undead similar to a cleric. It was originally made for human characters but there are rules for playing a Drow as well, which is part of what I am playtesting. The class has a spellbook with new macabre cantrips and has rules for making magic items.

The class is not a mage with a dabbling in necromancy it is fully devoted to it. It also is not a Dr, Frankestien or golem crafter. Also the book has a nice intro and descriptions but it is not a bunch of fluff it has well written mechanics, style and crunch in there. None of the pages are wasted.

What I like about this product is that for me this is exactly the kind of necromancer I have always imagined should exist, he isn't loosely based on commanding death and the undead, he does it. Although there are summoning spells available he is not just a summoner he can animate corpses and try to take control of another necromancers minions. It's not just another evil cleric or a negative energy mage, I know I keep repeating myself but it is a necromancer, for once.

I don't know what the price is going to be yet but I'm sure it will be worth it. Especially for an Adventures Dark and Deep game, it is a great expansion. As for the artwork right now it has some great black and white old school art. None of it is silly or weird it all fits the theme and seams dark and imaginative. However If I am remembering correctly some more art is being commissioned at least for the cover.


Update: Turns out there won't be an included adventure, but that's probably a good thing as that means more time to make sure the rest of class is a good as it can be.

Announcement of BRW Games.

Joseph from The Grey Hawk Grognard has announced his new company, BRW Games. You can now get the playtest version of Adventures Dark and Deep from the new website and there will also be a new product release in October. A necromancer class compatible with any game that is compatible with the first edition of the worlds most popular roleplaying game.

The site also mentions plans to make board-games, war-games, novels, and a new campaign setting called Erseta. I can't wait to see what else Joseph makes, so lets wish him luck.

The Announcement was made on his blog and the ADD forums.

ADD Campaign log 3

Last Time we left of with Frey having decided to camp out. This Time we picked back up right there. Frey and Einar were left back with the horse while the rest of us decided to seek out the Stirge nest. During our discussions about the threat and possible reward a wandering Dark Terran happened by.

Note: In my actual campaign setting there are no drow, but I have a race known as Dark Terrans with pale skin and white hair (occasionally black or grey for females). They come from a place known as The Dark Forest. They typically fight with claws mounted on gloves. Since they are dexterous and fight with two weapons I often use the Drow statistics as a quick way of incorporating them and allowing a player to choose a drow. A dark Terran was also featured in my recent flash fiction Nomads Alliance.

She introduced herself as Lotus and offered her assistance for a share in the "Treasure Rights". It's not uncommon for Dark Terrans to be spontaneous or unpredictable so it was agreed that she could with, but we were going to keep an eye on her.

We began searching out the Castle and found a decent share of coins and such missed by the first group that had come through. We also found "Brother Burk's" body. He was a character that was killed the very first time we entered Caldwell Castle. The goblins had drew a pentacle around him after his death because the monk scared the crap out of them.

Kol cautioned entered the Pentacle and looted the body. Nothing bad happened so they moved on. Eventually while searching a room we were attacked from behind by three older Stirges these ones were tougher and had sharper Probosces almost beak like.

Two of the Stirges managed to attach themselves, one to Lotus and the other to Philip. The one of Philip was killed, the other Stirge fled and the one on Lotus eventually released itself and was allowed to flee. We followed the blood back to the Stirge nest and found the door to that room open and clawed up.

We decided to Let Eloum and Lotus use their elven sneaking to enter the room. This completely failed and we stumble across three young Stirge. These ones had undeveloped wings and two dangling probosces. They came at our legs and attached themselves to both Eloum and Lotus..

Philip and Thayd killed the third while Kol used his net to entangle and manage to rip the Other two off of us. We used a leather chest found earlier and shoved the young Stirges inside. We found the nest up on the ledge, finished off the wounded adults and took four Stirge eggs.

We took the chest and eggs out to Einar and then continued searching the main floor. A heat wave rolled in and the horse suddenly panicked and ran inside the Castle. Kol manged to intercept the horse and almost had it calm when it was discovered that four harpys had landed on the roof and were trying to get in the sky lights.

We covered our ears and ran into a room closing the door. Kol and Thayd stayed in the back with Frey while Eloum Einar and Philip formed a line with their Halberds. This being a random encounter and harpys being higher level we expected casualties.

The Harpies entered and rushed the Halberd line, two critical hits were scored with halberds and two harpys went down. Kol missed with one blow gun needle and shot another into Eloum's neck. The third harpy stuck Eloum and was hit in return by Thayds and Frey's darts. Eloum resisted the points but was now unconscious at -9 hp. Philip dropped the third harpy as lotus moved up and began bandaging Eloum.

The forth harpy had entered and wounded Philip just before the third had gone down, it was now trying to flee but was picked off by darts and Halberds.

Eloum was fine and now conscious though injured and we finished searching the main floor and returned to Threshold after encountering a magic statue that gave us some hints about what was below.


This log is continued here as log 3.5


System: Adventures Dark and Deep by Joseph Bloch
Module: B1-B9 In search of adventure
Players:
Laisa = (Thayd) High Elf, Mage/Mountebank
(Lotus) Dark Terran (drow) Assassin/Mage
Me = (Eloum) High Elf, Mystic/Fighter/Savant
Brandon = (Frey) Gray Elf, Mage
Justin = (Einar)Wild Elf, Fighter/Thief
Mike = Kolass (Half-Orc, Fighter/Assassin)

Hirelings of Note:
Philip 1sp Man-at-Arms

Next ADD Campaign Log

ADD Campaign log 3.5

After returning to Threshold, Eloum and Frey and some others went straight to the church to rest. Thayd sold some gems to the bank while Kol found his connection with the Assassin's Guild and convinced them to buy the young stirges and eggs.

We also found a sorcerer to sell some harpy feathers too and that's what we made the most profit off of. Kol took the money to city hall and payed the taxes then paid the church for all of our healing. Then money was then divided up.

Eloum had some of his extra income donated to the Sorceress apprentices and then gave all the rest of his to a smithy for a down payment on a set of plate-mail which will take some time to be imported and finished. The slept that night with the intention of returning straight back to the castle in morning.

Kol snuck out and went into Fogor isle eventually negotiating purchase poisons with a man named Jeb and found out the Loggermans Courier was a distribution center for such things.

The next morning they set out. Kol was the first to go down the trap door, followed by Philip. He immediately checked down the corridor and half orc with a trident and net. After Eloum came down the trap door suddenly snapped closed sealing them off from the rest of the party.

Kol and Philip were suspicious of Krok as the half-orc introduced himself. But he agreed to help us find a way out. Kol made him lead the way ahead but told him to check in a door to the side. They entered a room that had too wizards working at a lab. They seamed nice at first until they shoved a knife into Kroks side.

Kol thought the wizards were suspicious of Krok or knew something and so helped them dispatch the half-orc and was then surprised when the wizards attacked him as well. The wizards fought like maniacs and Krok turned out to be something quite different then a hal-orc. He was still alive but unconscious until Kol's trident said otherwise.

We followed a corridor to the west after looting the wizards and their lab, we had to leave off her while investigating some honeycombed holes on the wall.



System: Adventures Dark and Deep by Joseph Bloch
Module: B1-B9 In search of adventure
Players:
Laisa = (Thayd) High Elf, Mage/Mountebank
(Lotus) Dark Terran (drow) Assassin/Necromancer
Me = (Eloum) High Elf, Mystic/Fighter/Savant
Brandon = (Frey) Gray Elf, Mage
Justin = (Einar)Wild Elf, Fighter/Thief
Mike = Kolass (Half-Orc, Fighter/Assassin)

Hirelings of Note:
Philip 1sp Man-at-Arms

Next ADD Campaign Log

ADD Campaign log 2

Last time we left off with the PC's returning to town after a near miss with some Stirges. Since they need ed to rest up and Eloum decided to change their arsenal (and since it had been more then a week since playing) we decided a month of time had past in game. Phillip was released for the month but expected to pick back up his duties.

Eloum and Einar shopped around for some new Halberds and got rid of Eloum's old Pike. Eloum paid for one for himself, Einar and Philip. Mean time Thayd went to Caldwell and asked him for the money to hire another person for their group.

Caldwell had already decided to plant an operative in the group (Kol) to make sure they were not wasting his money. This was also an introductory mission for Kol (The Assassin) to see if Caldwell could trust him.

An elaborate ruse was set up too convince Thayd that she had met and hired Kol at "The Old Dukes" Winery. This was almost ruined because Frey, who was given the original hirelings 50 silver, was already at The Old Dukes, trying to hire people.

The negations were successful though and only interrupted by a random run in with The Baron of Black Eagle.  Einar stopped by the market place to buy some whittling tools and then the next morning.they set back off for Caldwell Castle.

Once there they listened at the main door and for some reason, Frey decided to tie his horse to the door and pull it open. While tie-ing his horse to it a Stirge had noticed them and was coming out a window.  Kol threw his net and missed which landed on one of Einars dogs. Frey (the mage) moved up to attack with his staff and missed, followed by a dart missing from Thayd. She spent the rest of the fight missing with darts except one that hit Frey and another that Eloum.

Eventually everyone moved up with their Halberds and Kol with his Trident not to long after all the Stirges were dead. But with Frey at 1hp and Eloum at 0 and Frey having used his spell they decided to camp out.

No hits were landed from the Stirges, oddly.


One interesting thing about tonight adventures is that Kol was made by mike from a 1e AD&D players handbook and required basicly no conversion at all. His equipment was bought from ADD and his classes were filled in most of the way from ADD but everything from AD&D was fine and didn't need changed.


System: Adventures Dark and Deep by Joseph Bloch
Module: B1-B9 In search of adventure
Players:
Laisa = (Thayd) High Elf, Mage/Mountebank
Me = (Eloum) High Elf, Mystic/Fighter/Savant
Brandon = (Frey) Gray Elf, Mage
Justin = (Einar)Wild Elf, Fighter/Thief
Mike = Kolass (Half-Orc, Fighter/Assassin)

Next ADD Campaign Log

Current Projects

Saturday I will be running another session of ADD and then posting the campaign log. By next Tuesday I am hoping to get an actual session of The Secret Fire going. In the Meantime I will be building a replica of Castle Caldwell via Minecraft.

Once the replica is made I will be posting screen shots and a copy of the save file both on my blog and on my google+ profile. The replica will be following the map image shown here rather then the standard map, but I believe it is close enough to the standard map but will be easier to follow along in Minecraft.

Product Idea

Using some of the research I did on Stirges, I am thinking about adding in some of my own ideas and maybe making a small pdf product centered around Stirges. Maybe some new species, behavior, ecology, life cycle.
I might even try too make a small adventure.

One of the idea's I had for the product was too include stat blocks for multiple editions of dnd. Possible making them designed too be balanced for Adventures Dark and Deep, Legends and Labyrinths and 4th edition, That would also make it compatible with 1st edition (I hope) and 3rd edition.

What would you like too see in a product like this? What would make it most fun and useful for you?

ADD (Campaign log 1)

Last night I dm’ed/played some more Adventures Dark and Deep. Unfortunately everyone that usually joins us and all the people we invited were unable to make it. So it was just me and Laisa, but we still had fun.

In the previous session Einar had negotiated with one of the patrons of the Flying Mage tavern. He agreed to take us to see Caldwell and we would all get an equal share of pay and loot. We had all decided to accept the task of clearing out the Stirge nest and exploring below Castle Caldwell. Einar had negotiated our pay as well but the commoner from the tavern split with his share of the pay and Einar left to track him down.

This left Eloum and Thayd to complete the task so they decided to use their money too hire at least one other person to come with. The found a poor tavern “The Mason” and traded some candles for beer and information on who might like to be hired. They hired a man named Philip and offered him 33 silver for one month’s wages. (we are using a customized silver not gold standard).

We agreed too meet up with Phillip in two days at The Mason. So, Eloum and Thayd quickly went too the bank before dusk each deposited some coins they had gotten from Caldwell and also deposited Philips pay in his name. After that they Slept at “The Brown Bell Inn” and spent the next day purchasing Armor, Darts, a Lantern and other supplies.

They Slept at The Brown Bell again and then in morning met up with Phillip and they all left for Castle Caldwell. Upon opening the main doors we immediately discovered a group of three young Stirge. Even though the Stirge were surprised two still got the initiative and rushed at Thayd. One attached its self and the other missed. Philip moved up to assist Thayd while Eloum threw darts at the remaining Stirge.

The third Stirge rushed over to Eloum, who was still in the doorway. Eloum was quickly brought too negative Hit Points but one of his traits (for being a mystic if I remember right) allowed him to remain conscious. Thayd move too help Eloum and Philip now dropped unconscious.

Once Eloum was free they both killed the final Stirge and bandaged Philippe and then Eloum. We decided to retreat to town and this ended the game session.

Even though it was just the two of us playing we manage too keep a decent amount of dialog and role-playing. The session might have continued but we spent some time adapting to the new combat system. It was new in ways. I have seen it before but wife had not. We had fun and all lived even Philip and got a little experience.

System: Adventures Dark and Deep by Joseph Bloch
Module: B1-B9 In search of adventure
Players:
Laisa = (Thayd) High Elf, Mage/Mountebank
Me = (Eloum) High Elf, Mystic/Fighter/Savant
Brandon = (Frey) Gray Elf, Mage
Justin = (Einar)Wild Elf, Fighter/Thief

Next ADD Campaign Log

ADD Campaign Log 0

System: Adventures Dark and Deep

Module: B1-B9 In search of adventure

Players: 

Laisa = (Thayd) High Elf, Mage/Mountebank

Me = (Eloum) High Elf, Mystic/Fighter/Savant

Brandon = (Frey) Gray Elf, Mage

Justin = (Einar)Wild Elf, Fighter/Thief

Einar was sent too recover "sky" a stolen elven axe (from a previous campaign). He tracked the three human bandits too threshold were he found two of them dead and encountered Frey a traveling gray elf who happened too find Einar as he was searching around the human bodies with the two dogs he owns (a guard and hunting dog.)

They went into town leaving the Einar's horse at the stables and heading to city hall too check in their weapons. Einar asked about the axe and discovered (a previous character) Elf known as Maximus had already recovered the axe and had left too take it back too its rightful owners.

This left Einar free too explore this area or return home he encountered Eloum and Thayad as they were leaving the City Hall. They were originally sent down too cooperate with the logging work being done in threshold too maximize protection of the forest.

The elf were sent too relive from duty however refused too go, so they decided to join up with Einar too explore this area. We checked the billboard near the city hall and then moved on too a tavern and inn called The Flying Mage were the players heard commoners arguing about work being done for Caldwell.

In a previous adventure the main floor of castle Caldwell had been cleared but now the Stirges were becoming over populated as their nest had not been destroyed and the door leading too a way below the castle has been unsealed.

This is were we stopped for now as most of our time was spent on character creation but it leaves us in a good spot too being play next time.

Next ADD Campaign Log

Weapon Familiarity

Dravean from over on the Adventures Dark and Deep Forum has an idea of slowly removing a penalty for not being proficient with a weapon so long as that weapon is actually used in combat for a length of time.

Which inspired this idea from me:

1. Each weapon the character has access to or is proficient with he has a base of -1 to use when he first switches to that weapon type.

2. Any character can use a weapon he is not familiar with at a penalty of around -3

3. After some time of using the weapon in combat the penalty is reduced by one and possibly allowed to go up to +1

4. Once a character reaches +0 with a weapon he is not familiar with he is now considered familiar with it.

5. If switching from one weapon to a new weapon he is familiar with but has not used in sometime then the penalty may fall back down as low as -1

I don't think I would actually wait until an adventure is done too adjust the penalty or bonus but maybe base it off of getting like 5 successful hits or maybe surviving 2-3 fights using the weapon. Maybe even base it off xp.

I believe this system would give players a feeling of personally earning specialty in weapon while still allowing and even encouraging some players to switch up their weapons. Since they can gain new familiarity or maybe even switch weapons daily to try and keep a higher level of familiarity. And at the same time making it too where finding a slightly better magic weapon isn't reason enough to just drop your old one.

20+ Players

The most people I have ever DM'ed at once was around five or six. But I have heard and read about campaigns (even ran by people like gary gygax) in which there were multiple parties of chracters adding up to twenty or more players sometimes not even fully aware of each others actions so they could enter a dungeon after another group had already gone through.

This sounds very intriguing to me but I haven't had any playing experience remotely like that. I doubt I could find and manage 20 players in my area or find a group like that but maybe there are ways to simulate such a campaign. Here are the ideas I have had to try and simulate it or make a campaign world more alive.

1. I could run a group of characters into a dungeon myself, like a solo adventure and leave behind their actions for players to discover.
2. I could use official tsr adventures and look for campaign logs online and incorporate some of what they did into the adventure.
3. I could make some tables too randomly allow encountering or rolling up the effects of previous adventuring groups.

Obviously this won't be the same as actually running multiple groups but it could be interesting. Does anyone have any more ideas?

Testing my new character generation.

I finally tested my new Idea for making characters for Adventures Dark and Deep (by Joseph from the grayhawk grognard.)  using something I came up with talked about here. After two testes we decided my idea was broken as both characters did not qualify for the races that were rolled without being adjusted somehow and both were close to un-playable.

The player making the characters did have fun with the system however so maybe someday I will try to find a way to make it work. Maybe I can use it for a 3rd edition d&D game someday.

Funding Legends and Labyrinths

I just wanted to encourage even more people to help fund Legends and Labyrinths over at 8-bit funding.

"Basically, we’re looking to raise enough capital to pay top-of-the-line artists to provide top-of-the-line illustrations." ~ Justin Alexander

So anyone reading this check out their project page here on 8-bit funding.

Rolling Stats

I am a huge fan of the standard 3d6 leave them where they land method. In the past I tried a few other methodes but too me it really comes down to earning your rewards. Some people say players should start with higher stats because they are heroes. For me however, RPG's are not about being given everything you want but about earning it.

Rolling the stats randomly leaves everyone and even npc's on equal footing and allows the DM to simulate a world. I have also found that when players play simple characters with average stats that can die, then they learn to play strategically and too really value the rewards they earn and the characters that live.

Here is a great article over at Classic RPG Realms that goes further into explain the many reason's why 3d6 and leave them where they fall is a great method of rolling stats.

Character Creation Idea

Yesterday I talked about Adventures Dark and Deep from the Greyhawk Grognard. Today I'm mostly going to talk about a new way I might try to make characters that I am going to play test using ADD.

After showing Thaylie the books and layout she was almost as excited about them as I am (although I think she is a little more excited about "The Secret of Fire". Which does sound pretty cool especially for the price. I might write about that game but maybe after I play it. Although I was amazed by its testimonials from people including Monte Cook and Gail Gygax.)

So Far with ADD I have gone through most of the Player's Manual and making a character was fun and I actually am new to some of these classes so I am finding them kinda interesting. I don't exactly know what it means that some are sub-classes but I think its basicly just that they are related but harder to get into such as a paladin compared to a cavalier.

Also it was great being able to discuss my opinions and such on the play-testing forums. I think I managed to help out a little and also got what I wanted sorted out, lol.

So anyway here is my idea I might try out on my players for making some characters: (This idea basically has nothing to do with ADD except that I'm going to try it for an ADD game.)

1. Each player is going to choose how old their soul is without knowing what that is going to effect but it will determine their base race. Their options are:

• Ancient (Elf)
• Very Old (Gnome)
• Old (Dwarf)
• Mature (Half-Elf)
• Young (Halfling)
• Very Young (Human)
• New (Half-Orc)

These are based off of the maximum age of each race.

Once I know what their base race is I am going to pose them each two questions which will determine their starting alignment and then I will give them the sub race that best matches. I will most likely ask the questions in a much more dramatic and less predictable way.

The basis of the questions are:

1. You see a light do you move towards it (lawful, look around(neutral) or run back(chaotic).
2. You realize you are being born into the world, do you choose a family that will give you comfort (good), discipline(neutral) or do you not care (evil)

So once I have their base race and alignment I am going to use this list I made to determine their actual race.

• Gray Dwarf = Evil or Lawful Evil
• Hill Dwarf = Neutral or Good
• Mountain Dwarf = Lawful
• Human = Any
• Drow = Chaotic Evil
• High-Elf = Lawful
• Wild Elf = Chaotic
• Wood Elf = Good
• Gray Elf = Neutral
• Half Elf = Any
• Deep Gnome = Good
• Gnome = Neutral
• Hairfoot Halfling = Chaotic
• Stout Halfling = Lawful
• Tallfellow = Good
• Half Orc = Chaotic

2.  To figure out their stats I am going to start with all 1d6 randomly and then based on my campaign settings solar system ask them what was visible in the sky when they were born. I am then going to roll another set of 1d6's and assign the highest ones to the corresponding stats of what they choose. They will able to choose any configuration of the following being in the sky at the time of birth.

• Yellow Sun (STR)
• Blue Moon (Int)
• Green Moon (Wis)
• White Moon (Dex)
• Red Sun (Con)
• A special event like an eclipse (Cha)

3. Then I am either going to DM them through their childhood or ask more questions to simulate what they might have done in their youth. I intend to bend it too match their race and such. Depending on what they choose or do during their childhood I will assign the final group of 1d6's.

It will basically work like this I will role 6d6 and then put them in a situation. if they choose to respond in a way that corresponds to strength then the highest d6 will go to str but no other situations will have a strength way out. eventualy each d6 will be assigned.

First I'm starting with birth order

•  Middle Child (Str)
• Youngest (Int)
• Second Born (Wis)
• Orphan (Dex)
• Only Child (Con)
• First Born (Cha)

As they are growing up their family as a whole runs into troubles do you

• Do as your asked too (Str)
• Help when you are able too (Int)
• Watch how other families are getting by (wis)
• Ask your family questions about their problems (Dex)
• Run Away (Con)
• Try to fix all the problems (Cha)

Your favorite class while being educated

• Dropped out to Get a Job (Str)
• All of Them (Int)
• Alchemy or Herbalism (Wis)
• Never Went to school (Dex)
• Weapons or Fighting Training (Con)
• The Easy Classes (Cha)

How did you handle Bullies

• Join Them (Str)
• Fight Them (Int)
• Ignore Them (Wis)
• Trick Them (Dex)
• Tell on Them (Con)
• Bully Them (Cha)

What do you want too be

• Mercenary (Str)
• Scholar (Int)
• Sage (Wis)
• Rich (Dex)
• Knight (Con)
• Good Person (Cha)

The Final d6 gets assigned to whatevers left.

So by this point they should have stats similar too 3d6 randomly and they were assigned based on hopefully fun choices and also know their race. I wil then let them choose their class by offering opportunities to go get training in them.They also should have a good idea of who they are and what they have been through, especially if I do Role Play all of this.

And then to top it all of I will probably have these questions come up once the campaign is actualy under way. I did not come up with these next questions but I forget where they came from.

• Who are you?
• What do you want?
• Why are you here?
• Where are you going?
• What do you want?
• What have you left behind?

Looking back at all this I wonder if it will appear to be a complete mess to someone reading it, but I am going to see how it goes, what kind of stats and characters come out of it and what the players think.

Adventures Dark and Deep

Adventures Dark and Deep (ADD) is based off of 1st edition AD&D but under the premise of what would 2nd edition have been like if Gary Gygax had made it. I believe it was made by Joseph of the Greyhawk Grognard, and there is a great review of it at Classic RPG Realms.

It is currently in a play-testing phase and free to download.  (It is no longer in play testing and can now be purchased from BRW Games.)

I highly recommend reading the review because it does a great job of explaining what the game is and even taught me a little more about it. But what I'm going to talk about is what the game is too me.

I played alot of AD&D when I was younger but by the age of 12 3rd edition was out and since that was the edition I played for the next 13 years I am not exactly a veteran too old school gaming. I recently tried to get back into the earlier editions.

First I tried playing 1st edition since I still own the core books for that edition. It was fun for awhile but gave me head aches and my wife didn't like the edition at all, mostly I think it was because of things like font, organization and that touch of riddle Gary seams to be able to write into almost any paragraph.

When then tried the retro clones which simply felt too bland for me, and then even began playing basic D&D. Eventually switching too a version of my own that stripped alot of various aspects of charactor generation too speed things up and make them less confusing but I did it in a way as too not lose flavor at least from the players perspective.

This essentially left me playing AD&D adventures with a completely house ruled game.

Then I saw ADD, which as far as I can tell collects everything from 1e and lays it out in a format that is clean and useful but without taking anything away from the game. For example it includes many classes such as the Cavalier, Mystic and Jester I believe 17 in all.

The races chapter includes many popular subraces and the bestiary is divided into sections like Wilderness/Dungeon, Prehistoric and Extra-planar.

I can't quite explain it but it appears ADD is exactly the game I have been looking for I just hopre Joseph continues to support it for years too come.

Tomorrow I will talk about some of my experiences play-testing it and how I am going to have my new players role up their characters in what will hopefully be a very interesting way.