Confessions of a Wee Tim'rous Bushi

Sunday’s Greyhawk game (AD&D module A2) went well, and despite a one-month hiatus (I had to cancel our previous session at the last minute), we were straight back into the action with the party having to fight a cloaker. Despite taking great precautions due to the strange droning sound and stunned slaves in the great chamber they’d arrived at, they didn’t plug up their ears and decided to don the conspicuous black cloaks at the end of the chamber – one of which was the cloaker! This adventure was the first appearance of that weird monster in D&D, and it’s sonic attacks (causing Fear, Hold Person) – as well as consistently unlucky roles – really made for a tough and memorable encounter. This was our sixth session of the current module, and we’re about halfway through (no spoilers, please, as players may be looking).   When we finally finish A2 after another 2 or 3 months, I intend to put AD&D to one side for a while and run the Six Seasons in Sartar campaign for Rune Quest G

Here’s a guideline I've been working on for XP to be awarded per session in 1st edition AD&D. Before we continue, please note that this guideline is not a milestone system by another name. Rather, I've introduced it into my own Greyhawk campaign in order to provide:  (1) a baseline against which I can check whether the XP actually being awarded in an adventure, in accordance with the DMG, is commensurate with the challenges being faced and the desired rate of advancement; and/or  (2) a recommended XP to be awarded per session to ensure a graduated rate of advancement based on the average party level. Here, average party level is worked out by adding the levels of all party members; e.g., a party of seven characters, consisting of three level 5s, two level 6s, one level 7 and one level 8 would have an average level of 6 ((5+5+5+6+6+7+8=42)/7= average level of 6). As a rule of thumb, I'd treat multi-classed characters as being one level higher than their highest level. 

As you might have noticed, I haven't written anything new recently due to some minor trials and tribulations, but I'm still here. In fact, I managed to release the first episode of "Season 4" of my podcast, which details the topic of spell-switching (previously mentioned on this blog) among other topics. Besides that, I've been reading my Character Law rules book for Rolemaster Classic, as well as going over material, old and new, for Rune Quest (which I intend to run this year). I haven't played Rolemaster in about 30 years, and to be frank, I thought that the level of crunch and reliance on complex tables would be a serious put off for me today, as these days I tend to eschew crunch in favor of simplicity. Rolemaster Classic is a revised version of the 2nd edition of the game, which is the one I used back in the day, and I must say I'm quite impressed with the quick reference layout, options and numerous examples. Despite the complexity of the rules, the

Old-School Essentials (OSE) and 1980s "basic" D&D restrict magic-user spell acquisition to mentoring and research, as described here: https://oldschoolessentials.necroticgnome.com/srd/index.php/Spell_Books Notably, magic-users cannot learn new spells from scrolls or spell books that they obtain, as is the case in AD&D. At my group's OSE table, however, we've adopted the Advanced Rules for this part of the game, and have rejected the common idea that magic-users obtain a new spell upon advancing a level. As such, I've hammered out some rules of thumb for spell acquisition with the player running the magic-user . Returning to the Classic Rules for a moment, we know that researching a new spell costs 1000 gp per spell level (taking 2 weeks per spell level), whereas recreating a lost spell book requires that each spell be rewritten at the cost of 1000 gp per spell level (taking 1 week per spell level). Presumably the costs involve materials for special inks, p