IRPS NEWSLETTER April 1, 1996 Issue #1 Table of Contents: IRPS Monthly Status Report Monthly Columns Ragboy's Wild Kingdom (Paul Wolfe ) Bringing Role Players Together Over the Internet (Christopher Beattie ) The Book of Genesis (Justin Nathanial White ) Cyber Abyss Resource List/FAQ (Craig Janssen ) Thoughts from Thaos (Joshua Reubens ) Slight's Miscellanea (Steven Cox ) Monthly Stories The Quest For Magic (James Williams ) Earl's Word (Earl Harrison ) Monthly Classified Ads ------------------------------------------------------------------------- IRPS Monthly Status Report (Michael Popovich ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello everyone. IRPS is doing pretty good right now. We're moving right along in growth and we're now up to 600 members and seeking to be up to 2500 by the end of the year. Sometime around 1000 members we will start appealing to RPG companies to see if they would like to post advertisements on the club page so that the club can make money and offer it's members more benefits. As always, if you have any ideas, comments, questions, suggestions, (basically anything) feel free to e-mail me. A word of caution however, I'm a little slow at replying at times but I try to get to people as soon as possible. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ragboy's Wild Kingdom (Paul Wolfe ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the first official installment of WK. In this issue, I would like to cover the role of equipment in the wilderness campaign, and how it is affected by use, weather, stress, and both natural and unnatural phenomenon. Rather than cover an exhaustive list of equipment and relating information, I will cover some general guidelines I like to follow when determining the quality, quantity and general characteristics of a party's equipment, before, during and after a wilderness trek. So, onward then, brave reader.... Gearing Up This is one of the most important stages of a wilderness adventure, and one that is most often glossed over. A list of available gear is provided and players tic off what they buy against a pile of money, and move on. Of course, if this could be mirrored to real life, we would all have time to game more! :) But, of course, just to go out and buy groceries is a chore, what with finding your keys, driving through traffic, searching the shelves for the right brands at the right price, then standing in line forever while the guy in front of you counts out his potatoes. (I love that commercial). In a rpg, however, we gloss over such experiences for this very reason: who the hell wants to simulate such a boring, annoying situation? However, some guidelines should be layed out as to the quality, and variety of equipment your characters are likely to encounter on their shopping excursions. Not all swords are created equal, nor are handguns, laser pistols, ropes, nylon lines, body armor, etc. Using a basic percentage table, I determine the quality of an item a character buys. This quality is generally transparent to the buyer (unless he or she states specifically what quality is being sought, and has the skills to determine such.), so the modifier applied becomes relevant only after the item is used and either doesn't yeild the results expected or outright fails. This table can be applied to magical, normal, as well as technological components, as anything built, enchanted, or created by a mortal is subject to faults. Item quality table _____________________________________________________________________ % desc modifier resiliance price --------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 Exceptional +15 +50% +200% 04 High +05 +20% +100% 80 Normal -- --- --- 10 Low -10% -20% Normal to -10% 05 Flawed -20% -50% Normal to -20% --------------------------------------------------------------------- %= a breakdown of the percent of items that fall in a given category modifier=the percentage up or down a roll for "use" should be modified as per the quality of the item. For weapons, this should only modify accuracy, and not damage. (thus if you roll a 1d12 for accuracy, with an exceptional weapon, add or subtract 2 [whichever is better]) resilience= a modifier to any checks against functionality (thus if a low quality pistol is dropped in the water, and a roll is required to see if it jams, modify that result [required by your game system] by the given modifier) price= Fairly self-explanatory. If a merchant knows his sword is exceptional, he will mark it up as much as possible, however if he knows its flawed, he will, likewise, try to pawn it off for as much money as he can. Note that figures such as price and such, represent the starting values. If a character chooses to repair an item, maybe replacing bad components, etc, this could raise the quality of the item, considerably. Or, if a character demonstrates she knows the quality of an item to a merchant (esp. a below normal quality), the price can be driven down further. These are functions of role-play, however, and should never be left to a dice roll. As far as quality of wilderness survival gear goes, characters should consider finding the highest quality items they can afford (key word being survival). The boonies are hard on equipment, and low quality or flawed items could spell doom for a character in a jam. As stated, I don't recommend role-playing the purchase of every item a character needs, but for hard to find/restricted items, anything related to the overall campaign, or if an adventure can be spun off of the scene, feel free. Otherwise, rolling and notating any relevant results can suffice. The True Test Once out of the protective arms of civilization, an item's true nature becomes paramount. Likewise, extended maintenance, undo stress, and unforseen circumstances can affect how an item performs its function. All of these are valid considerations when dealing with a rural situation. The character's life, many times, depends on the performance of his equipment, thus, a system for determining this should be enacted. Many times there are functions (tables, guides, etc) within a gaming system that will suffice in (or were actually designed to) take such things into account. Usually, these are ignored, as more important things (such as unimaginable wealth, and the dragon sitting on it) are in the forefront. I say, Not So! I've lived in the boonies for 6 month stretches, at times, and had to rely on my equipment to keep me alive and comfortable. So, here are some things to consider when you want to wake your party up to the harshness of living away from three hots and a cot. Your party should have some plan as to how they will care for their weapons, and other equipment. Dust, moisture, animals, temperature, and other factors adversely affects such things as weapons, electronics, food, armor, vehicles, and clothing. Though, as with buying equipment, you should not have to role-play your characters cleaning, storing, and maintaining their gear, you should require of them both the time and the cost and storage of supplies to do this. Nothing more than saying: Okay, during his watch, Lothar the Barbarian will clean and sharpen his sword. Forgetting to say this, should equate to forgetting to do it in real life (it happens!). The effectiveness of equipment should be altered at your discretion, especially if some item has been an annoying way for a character to unbalance the course of a game, ie. a radar scanner carried by Private Snuffy that allows the platoon to never be surprised by the enemy. Should Pvt. Snuffy fail to clean the scanner every day, paying special attention to the batteries, well, one day when he turns it on ZZZZTTTT. No scanner. These rules shouldn't be used to unjustly punish your characters, but as a dash of flavor and realism, it can really go a long way to bringing out your story and your characters role in it. Magical items, for the most part, are as vulnerable as normal items to the effects of exposure to the elements, with a couple of exceptions. Magical swords and armor, and artifacts or very powerful magical items will generally be unaffected by natural elements or conditions. Of course, there could be conditions that would even harm these things, like a storm that is magical in nature and ferocity, or magical cold or heat. Definitely take any damage into effect for fragile items such as scrolls, powders, oil vials, potion flasks, etc. Wooden staves, or any non-metal item should be affectable by the environment, unless stated directly in the game rules or deemed so by the game master. Again, rules such as these shouldn't be used to club the characters with undo problems, but as both a regulating measure for those parties who are out of hand with magical gear, or as a random occurance to keep things interesting. (Mona: "Okay, sizing up the situation, Mona reaches into her pouch to get her potion of inviso power." GM: "Okay, she cuts her fingers on the shards of glass, and some of your blood feels invisible inside your hand....:) Likewise, even specialized materials, such that might be found in a technlogical campaign, have limits before the substance begins to suffer the effects of its environment. Find out or set what these conditions are, and enforce them as you will. Dropping a pistol into lava, or letting your droid get struck by lightning should have adverse effects on that equipment. In sci-fi or real world military campaigns, it is important to allow realism to creep in more often than a high fantasy game. These adverse conditions and its affects on equipment are the driving force and one of the harshest enemies in such a campaign. Many a military commander has gone insane at the thought of mechanical problems in the face of an imminent invasion. As always, rules such as these shouldn't impede gameplay, or take the fun out of the game itself, but add to excitement and realism. (Imagine Featherhead the Cyberhacker, who relies heavily on his Net gear to get himself out of a sticky situation. Well how would he react if that gear failed, with the enemy approaching? What other skills or plans does he have to use in a pinch?) Aftermath When the party finally makes it to a city, the clean up and repair bills should be waged (either in time or money, whichever is appropriate.). Keep track of those things that were damaged or destroyed, so the characters can decide (or forget) to have them repaired or replaced. (Mona: Okay, Mona goes for her the trusty dagger that her father gave her...the one she's had forever GM: Oh, you mean the one that got broken in the last adventure? Sure, you pull a hilt attached to a jagged peice of metal from your belt. The orcs begin to laugh.") Use these rules liberally, but give your characters some benefit of the doubt when dealing with equipment maintenance and effects of the environment. Your characters are heros, and professionals afterall, so they will certainly know the importance of equipment maintenance. In certain conditions, as in a firefight or other critical time, don't be afraid to heighten the tension by having an important peice of equipment fail. This will not only add a dash of realism (who's ever really needed to get to work, only to have your car not start..?), it will also spurn inventive reactions by your characters at the spur of the moment, expanding the realms of role-play to the horizion!!!! (Or it will really make them mad...and that's what a GM does best...) Next Month: Who knows? RgB ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bringing Role Players Together Over the Internet (Christopher Beattie ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION: Imagine sitting in your room, in front of your computer console, your character sheet on one side of the keyboard, a can of soda on the other. Before you, in one of your computer's many windows, a text display describes the scene. ============================================================ !DM> OK. Here's the situation. You are inside the gigantic !DM> cavern. The light is dim, and you can only see about !DM> 60' or so with your torches, but the cavern extends !DM> beyond that. In the dark distance you hear the sounds !DM> of something huge breathing. What do you do? Dathief> I try to hide in shadows and sneak around. Dartanyon> I ready my longbow. Waldo whispers to you, "Where am I?" ============================================================ While many people are familiar with table top role playing and even with role playing by regular or electronic mail, few people have been exposed to on-line role playing. Like play-by-mail, on-line role playing has its own sets of problems and advantages. It can be exciting as well as frustrating in its own unique ways. This article will describe some of the unique problems of on-line role playing, as well as some ideas for solving those problems. THE ASCII CONFERENCE ROOMS: Most on-line services have a place where members can get together and talk to each other. Many services will call these areas "Chat" or "Conference" areas. In the simplest setting what you type in is displayed to everyone in the area. There may be separate tables and rooms where small groups can privately talk to each other. Private communication can also be supported where one player can send a message to a single person in the room. Some conference room commands are useful in a role playing setting. Dice rolling is a very important feature for on-line role-playing. Most systems will support a #d#+# format, which is useful for most game systems. Other commands have been added by services as a result of features found on many MUDS and other similar games. They include: Speech: Starting a line of text with a quotation mark can cause a variety of responses depending on the last character in the string. For example: "I want a cookie. Someone says, "I want a cookie." "I want a cookie? Someone asks, "I want a cookie?" "I want a cookie! Someone yells, "I want a cookie!" Actions: Starting a line with a colon causes your name to appear in front of the message. For example: :smiles at the lady. Someone smiles at the lady. Game Master Functions: Are things that a single person, (sometimes called a moderator) can do, which for on-line role-playing falls under the Game Master. These features, when present, are highly system dependent. They can allow the moderator to display text without the normal header and speak with a different name. The moderator also has the power to gag people or declare a room so that only he or the person he delegates can speak, or to figuratively kick someone out of the room. LIFE IN 80 COLUMNS AND 24 ROWS: When people are sitting around a table there is a tremendous amount of information that is conveyed without speaking. This "Non-verbal" communication can be as subtle as who the players are looking at, if they are paying attention, or as blatant as the players waving their hands to get the GM's attention. On-line, none of this is possible. Every statement, action, and comment takes up one line of the screen. Everything has to be literally channeled through the area of the screen devoted to the incoming text, typically somewhere around 20 lines of text. This limitation on the number of lines of previous text you can see places a great tunnel vision on the on-line game that the GM must work hard to overcome. Since emotions or expressions cannot be seen it becomes imperative for everyone to express them whenever appropriate. This can be difficult to remember at first but in time can become a habit. Unfortunately, a balance must be struck between relaying enough emotions and filling the screen with less non-important information. Private messages also pose a problem for both the GM and the players. Unlike at the table where everyone can see someone passing a note, private messages are seen only by the receiver. This is good in that private messages are indeed private. Unfortunately, when a GM or a player is receiving or sending a lot of private sends they are slow to respond to public ones. In addition sometimes players can spend so much time in OOC private messages to each other that game play suffers, even without the GM's knowledge. Not only is non-verbal communication not allowed, all visual communications must be made to fit an ASCII medium. Maps, if made to be sent to the players must be made in ASCII text, must be no larger than 60x20 in order to be properly seen on the screen. Here is an example of an ASCII map of an inn I used in one of my game sessions. ; Scale . = 5' ; ; /---------| 1: Bones Alley ; 1 ////dn | | XX 2: Plague Court ; D// | D | 3: Latrine ; /| | |----| | | 4: Kitchen ; /3D |4 | 5 | |--|---| 5: Storage ; //oo| | | | up| 6 | 6: Private Rooms ; /----- --D-----D- D | 7: Booths ; | b | | 8: Dim Lane ; | b tt.t.t.tt.t.t |---| b: bar ; | b ............. D 6 | t: tables ; | b tt.t.t.tt.t.t | | .: open to balcony ; | b ............. |---| on second floor. ; | b tt.t.t.tt.t.t | 7 | ; 2 | b ............. | | ; | tt.t...tt.t.t | ; | b | ; +---W--------D-------W---+ ; 8 The semicolons are used to tell the conference room to print the text without my name in front of it, and at the same time prevent forward slashes from being taken for a command. ROLE PLAYING ON-LINE AND THROUGH ELECTRONIC MAIL. Unlike table top role playing, role playing on-line can be combined with other methods such as electronic play by mail and play by forum to provide action even when the meetings are not in session. This can be a good thing, because in an on-line session, times that are early for the west coast people are late for the east coast people and on-line sessions can be shorter than their table top counterparts. CONCLUSION: ROLE PLAYING ON-LINE IS A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE. When there are few role-players in your neighborhood and you want the real time feel that Electronic play by mail does not give, then on-line role playing is an alternative. Getting one started, however, may be difficult at first. Some games, like their play by mail counterparts might be a short duration, but others can go on for years of enjoyment. ABOUT CHRIS B: Christopher Beattie is a programmer for Tantalus Inc., a company that designs computer games for multiple players through a use of a computer service. Chris has played a variety of role playing games, and a few play by mail and is currently running an on-line AD&D game based on the Lankhmar campaign world on the Multi-player Game Network and a regular based campaign based on White Wolf's Vampire the Masquerade. Chris's real world location is in beautiful Key West, Florida. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Book of Genesis (Justin Nathanial White ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Biomes & Ecostructures Now, if you've read the last article, you should have a a map and an idea of how you want to build your world. The second step in building a super-realistic world is developing an Ecostructure. This takes a lot of time, and may not be entirely necessary. I have spent about a week and I have just progressed into the animal life of the forests of a continent the size of Australia (that's not counting the plains and stuff!) Here are some of the advantages/disadvantages to making an ecostructure for your world. Advantages: The ecostructure lets you consistently maintain what the description of a forest is. Also, when you have an ecostructure, you generally know what the cultures that you place in that area have to work with (ie, what kinds of furs to trap, what types of plants they have available for building stuff with, et cetera). It helps with the makeup of cultures (as we will discuss in another article.) Disadvantages: This is a definite time-eater. You spend hours thinking of logical matches from the smallest plant to the largest animals. This information isn't used very often in a novel or in your game except for description and realism. There are many parts of developing an ecostructure that are very important in designing your own world. Like biomes. You _HAVE_ to determine where you want your forests, your plains, your deserts and your mountains and whatever other unique/mundane biomes you can thing of (fireswamp ;) When designing the biome areas, keep in mind where your poles are, and possibly how the world is tilted on it's axle. If you've taken my advice from the last article and used that worldmap generator.. keep in mind that that's assuming your 'planet' has a 90š axle to the sun. If your planet is tilted, you add more snow to the pole that's moved farther away and put less on the closer side. Now that you have a tilt, you can generally assume the 'temperate zones'. Generally, the equator is in the centre of the earth, unless you have the axle at a flat 0š or something very close to that, then it's at the end closest to the sun, or in the case of multiple suns, it really don't matter! The equator (as you probably know) is the hottest part of the planet. You should 'paint' a biome of jungles, deserts or other biomes that are able to live in hot areas. Naturally, the poles, or at least the areas farthest away from the sun, would be the coldest area, and arctic/boreal areas would be the best. SimEarth is a good program to see the relationship of the biomes to the temperature. Also the manual will give you some excellent ideas on how to place biomes. Another good factor in determining biomes is the rainfall. More rain gives lusher plants (boreal, forests, jungles) while more arid places have less plant life (plains/tundra/arctic). Usually, rainfall is heaviest near the oceans. I know this for a fact, living in Vancouver and getting rain at least once a week, where as my brother in Calgary gets very little, but, then again, it depends on how windy your world is. A heavy wind could drag the rain farther away from the coast. Note also that 'rainfall' also applies to 'snowfall' in colder climates =o) Another good point while placing biomes is the biomes that surround the area. You probably wouldn't see a glacier next to a desert, for example (unless there is some logical reason that it's there... like magically protected [wait a minute... magic isn't logical =o) ]) would you often see a desert next to an ocean? The latter example HAS happened on Earth (I can't remember EXACTLY where... I just remember someone telling me about it). Also, it's not often that you see a jungle sitting right next to a desert. It _could_ happen, but wouldn't it be more reasonable to have an area of plains in between them? Now that you have gotten your biomes place, here comes the most time-consuming part... ecostructure! The food chain is the time consuming part. When developing a food-chain, work from the bottom-up. Develop the lowest of the plants, figure out what eats/uses that and et cetera. Work your way up to small animals like mice, then to avians or larger animals and then up into humans. You should probably include humans even though we haven't talked about cultures yet. Use your imagination on this one. Are all trees made of wood? Be creative! How about a growing tree made of rock or crystal? That was edible? An easy animal that feeds off it would be some sort of gelatinous blob that sucked on the sugar coating, and maybe a larger predictor could eat the blob. That's actually an example from my world, but it shows how creativity can make a world so much more special. Plan ahead a bit. If you are going to have a human population in the area, think about what resources it would need. A source of clothing, housing, food. Note, though, that a lack of resource could mean a lack of material. If you don't have furry mammals in the area, then the culture may just go without clothing (makes sense if you have a warm world) or they'd parade around in leaf clothes. Well, I think that's enough for this month. As usual, if you have any question you can eMail me at bwhite@cln.etc.bc.ca or BJNW@eWorld.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyber Abyss Resource List/FAQ (Craig Janssen ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Cyber Abyss Resource List / FAQ (Last Updated 3/17/96) This FAQ is always process of being updated. As I find more interesting stuff, I will add it to the FAQ. If you have any information I can use or have comments about the FAQ please let me know. Note: This FAQ is maintained by me (Craig Janssen) [daili@gate.net] ;-) This FAQ does not necessarily represent the opinions or views of anyone else. It should be noted, I am not trying to favor one CCG or magazine over another. My purpose is to provide infomation relating to the CCG industry. I will be starting up a RPG Resource FAQ in the near future. If you have any www sites or contract email addresses, feel free to pass them on. FAQ Q. What is a CCG? A. CCG stands for Collectible Card Games. While Wizards of the Coast, the makers of Magic: The Gathering were not the first to make one. WotC was the first to make a recent impact on a vast scale. Q. Where do I start? A. You can start by reading through this resource list. After that, there is many options. You can then join email lists, visit WWW sites, read Usenet News discussion groups. This resource list was made to let people know where to look for information about CCGs and the people that make them. It should be noted there are plenty of places to look as well. Q. I have played some CCGs, but want to try others. Where can I go for reviews or opinions? A. There are three places I know of to get reviews or opinions of the various CCGs in print. You can read opinions and reviews on the Usenet News Group rec.games.trading-cards.misc. This group covers most of the non-MTG CCGs. You can visit WWW sites of magazines that review and offer opinions of the various CCGs. Two sites are http://mxn117.rh.psu.edu/~spud/gamer.htm and http://www.itis.com/other-games. Lastly, you can join the email list of the CCG you are interested in and get opinions from the readers. You can ask questions and be sure of answers. Q. Where can I get price lists or a price guide to CCGs? A. On Internet, there is the Cloister price list: http://www.hhhh.org/cloister/pricelists/ This price list is developed from the auctions and sales on the various Usenet News Groups that deal with CCGs. The major problem with this list is that it doesn't deal with the different editions of cards. If you bear this in mind, the price list is very good for Internet prices. The other source for prices is the magazines that cover the CCG industry. Price guides are the basis for pricing CCG singles in stores. While a lot of people dislike using magazine prices, it is good to be familiar with them, as stores can and do use these price guides for pricing purposes. Q. Who are you? And why are you doing this? A. My name is Craig Janssen. I was the Scrye Internet Rep from issue #1 to issue #12. My position was moved inhouse at the end of December 1995. I have been playing MTG, 6 months after its start. I was a playtester for the Fallen Empires expansion set. I have had articles printed in Scrye and had a column covering CCGs and the Internet. [Hire me, Please ;-)] I started this resource list as a supplement to my column in Scrye. I have expanded it and renamed it after I left Scrye. RESOURCE LIST MAGAZINES: InQuest: InQuest is magazine that covers the CCG industry. InQuest offers reviews, contests, and a price guide for CCGs. The InQuest NetRep is Jeff Hannes. You can reached Jeff at jh003b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu. The official InQuest email address is InQuestMag@aol.com. Lotus: Lotus is a electronic magazine that covers the CCG/RPG industries. Issue #2 has an interview with Peter Adkision of Wizards of the Coast. For a copy of Lotus, email sunstar@netcom.com or daili@gate.net. Scrye: Scrye is the first magazine to cover the CCG industry and develop a price guide for CCG industry. You can reach the editor with questions or requests for advertising information at scrye@aol.com or scrye@msn.com. CCG Information Magic: The Gathering One thing to look at is Dangelo's list of Rules: These rulings are available via FTP to "ftp.netcom.com" under "pub/da/dangelo/magic" as the files "rule-*" in ASCII text, PostScript and HP LaserJet format. The latter two are formatted for easier reading. They can also be found on "marvin.macc.wisc.edu" under "/pub/deckmaster/rules" as "rule-*". If you have access to World Wide Web try: http://www.wizards.com (or www. itis.com/deckmaster a volunteer site). This site has a lot of links to other web sites and is the 'official' web site for Wizards of the Coast. MTG-L archive: There are anonymous FTP archives at ftp.itis.com you can get. They run a little behind, but I looked and they are current through the 12th (almost all the ones you want). The 1996 archives are in /pub/deckmaster/archive/mtg-l and the older ones have their own subdirectory. OTE: John Nephew, President of Atlas Games, and Woody Eblom are available for additional comment. They can be reached at (612) 638-0077, or via e-mail at atlasgames@aol.com and presage@io.com respectively. Retailers who want more information on hosting demonstrations of On the Edge in their stores should contact Matthew Grau at (612) 638-0077 or via e-mail at mdgrau@aol.com. Review materials for On the Edge, The Cut-Ups Project, Shadows, and Arcana are available. For more information contact Jeff Tidball at (612) 638-0077 or via e-mail at agjeff@aol.com. RAGE: 1) Send me your *questions* (ragecom@aol.com). If you want info on tournaments, conventions, or Silver Pack stuff, write Todd at ragetourny@aol.com. If you want info on Garou Nation (the fan club), write Justin at achilli@aol.com. MAILING LISTS: INWO: inwo-trades: this is for trading (not selling) inwo-cards: this is for discussion of new cards (made up by the subscribers, not official cards). This list is digested as inwo-card-digest (not inwo-cards-digest). inwo-list: this is for discussing everything about INWO that isn't covered in the above 2 lists. This list is digested as inwo-list-digest. To subscribe to any of these lists send e-mail to majordomo@io.com with following message: subscribe [list name] without the []'s, of course. MTG Mail Lists: Wizards of the Coast has quite a few email lists that it supports for its products. Here's what you to subscribe. First send email to listserv@oracles.wizards.com. In the body of the email put SUBSCRIBE listname YOUR NAME. Don't know what lists are available? You can send email to the listserv. In the body of the email not the subject put the word LIST. The listserv will return email to you with a list of all the current email lists. Wizards of the Coast is pleased to announce the NETRUNNER-L mailing list, for discussion of our forthcoming Netrunner(tm) trading card game. To subscribe, please send mail to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM containing the following line as the entire message body: SUBSCRIBE NETRUNNER-L Your Real Name ON THE EDGE: You can now subscribe by sending mail with the message "subscribe over-the-edge " to "listproc@buddha.intecom.com" QUEST FOR THE GRAIL: To subscribe: Send email to: listproc@buddha.intecom.com Make the body of the message: subscribe quest Your Name To Post Messages: Address them to: quest@buddha.intecom.com RAGE: rage-requests@mobius.slip.umd.edu Put: Subscribe in body of e-mail STCCG/SWCCG: stccg-discussion STCCG disccusions/talk stccg-marketplace STCCG trading/selling swccg-discussion SWCCG discussion/talk swccg-markplace SWCCG trading To subscribe to any of these lists send e-mail to majordomo@lists.decipher.com with following message: subscribe [list name] without the []'s, of course. The discussion email lists are very busy and should be concerned "High Volume" lists. FTP SITES: The marvin.macc.wisc.edu is loaded with information and files dealing with Collectible Card Games. There are very few CCGs that don't have something stored here. The ftp.itis.com(/pub/deckmaster etc) are loaded with utilities for CCGs and other information. The decipher ftp site ftp://ftp.decipher.com/pub/decipher/ has the new rules for Star Wars etc available. CCG Web sites to check are: Atlas Games [OTE] http://io.com/user/presage/agindex.html http://www.io.com/~fuzzface/ http://www.hamline.edu/~jltidbal/onte/ http://www.pacifier.com/~michael/Onte http://hamming.mathcs.carleton.edu/students/ johnsond/onte/ http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/cgi-bin/ nph-gateway/hphalle2/~peceny/spiele_e.html http://www.comet.net/quilts/spax / http://comet.net/quilts/spax http://www.io.com/~malcolm DIXIE: http://www.columbiagames.com/ Doom Trooper http://www.best.com/~eroth/booboo1.htm Dragon Dice: http:/www.itis.com/other..ragon_dice/faq1.html Galatic Empires http://ftp.winternet.com/users/kodai/GE Highlander [HL]: http://www.tcgames.com/highlander/ http://www.cnj.digex.net/~eljay/HL Hyborian Gates http://www.ccsi.com/hyborian INWO http://io.com/sjgames/inwo/ Last Crusade: http://skynet.bevc.blacksburg.va.us/cee Middle Earth:The Wizards http:/www.ironcrown.com http://members.aol.com/myamanishi/metw.html ftp://maitred.biochem.wisc.edu/METW http://www-stud.enst.fr:8080/~guilleme/ http://www.deltanet.com/users/gsmercer/metw.html OVERPOWER: http://www.swarthmore.edu/cc/staff/yue/OverPower Quest for the Grail: http://www.ccsi.com/~graball/quest Rage http://www.turnpike.net/~Mackman Redemption http://www.redemption.com ShadowFist http://www.halcyon.com/rev/faq.html SimCity http://weber.u.washington.edu/~starfish/simcity/ simcity.html Spellfire http://eaves.math.utk.edu/~stevem/ssf1.html http://pubpages.unh.edu/~matthewm/spelfire.html Star Trek/Star Wars http://decipher.com http://www.itis.com/decipher/ http://www.r8ix.com/decipher http://www.iceonline.com/home/chrisf/sw/swccg.htm http://www.isu.edu/~tangdere/starwars.html http://poky.srv.net/~duncan/swpage.html http://www.megatoon.com/~raika/swccg/swccg.htm http://www.wolfnet.com/~conner/swccg/index.html http://iqest.com/~tstevens/sarasota/listing.htm http://iqest.com/~tstevens/sarasota/aulist.txt http://www.tjhsst.edu/people/clee/ Tempest of the Gods http://www.sunrem.com/~bdp/Tempest/ cardlist_by_card.html http://www.sunrem.com/~bdp/Tempest/ cardlist_by_pantheon.html TCGames http://www.tcgames.com/ http://www.cnj.digex.net/~eljay/TCGames.html Towers in Time [TNT]: http://www.tcgames.com/towers/ http://www.cnj.digex.net/~eljay/TNT Ulimate Combat! http://www.ultimate-games.com/~shimban/ RPG/CCG Resource Page http://mxn117.rh.psu.edu/~spud/gamer.htm Wesley Crusher's COTD (STCCG) WWW site: http://www.metropolis.nl/~ldp/COTD.html MAIL ADDRESSES OF VARIOUS CCG COMPANIES OR CONTRACTS: Blood Wars tsrinc@aol.com Dixie cgi/94@aol.com Echelons of Fire/Fury pelagis@aol.com Galatic Empires cmpanion@nyc.pipeline.com Guardians JoeFPG@aol.com Heresy:Kingdom Come Monomyth@aol.com HighLander highlander-l-request@netcom.com (email list) questions: vjmurphy@netcom.com tcgames@aol.com Hyborian Gates hyborian@aol.com INWO sjgames@io.com Legend of Five Rings l5r@isomedia.com Magic:The Gathering mtg-l@oracle.wizards.com (email list) questions@wizards.com custserv@wizards.com On The Edge buford@winternet.com/atlas@io.com Quest for the Grail dfn@infinity.ccsi.com Rage ragecom@aol.com Redemption cactusrob@aol.com Sim City fprice@interaccess.com ShadowFist fisttrade-request@mars.galstar.com (email list) questions: robmh@aol.com SpellFire tsrinc@aol.com Star of the Guardians dperrin@wise-net.com Star Trek/Star Wars DcustServe@aol.com Tempest of the Gods bdpress1@aol.com Thunder Castle Games tcgames@gvi.net tcgames@aol.com Towers in Time towers-l-request@netcom.com (email list) questions: vjmurphy@netcom.com tcgames@aol.com Ultimate Combat! shimban@ultimate-games.com Vampire:TES vtes-l@wizards.com questions@wizards.com Wing Commander dperrin@wise-net.com Wyvern usgames@aol.com More Misc WWW sites: NOTE: I have not checked the WWW sites below. They may or may not be working. If the site is down or gone, please let me know. http://weber.u.washington.edu/aforster/ccgs/magic/ http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/ammist/magic.html http://www.public.iastate.edu/~blarwick/games/magic. http://www.GANet.NET/~atulv http://www-hep.phys.cmu.edu:8001/~cormier/magic.html http://rowlf.cc.wwu.edu:8080/~n8943689/mtg.mtg.html http://iquest.com/~tstevens/sarasota/ http://www.orst.edu/students/list/limmerd.ccg.html http://mox.perl.com/deckmaster http://www.crl.com/~tanis/ http://www.win.net/~zio/jyhad.html http://www.paranoia.com/~klmac/TalesHome.html http://www.itis.com/other-games http://pobox.com/~cobra/ccg Thanks for reading the FAQ, Craig Janssen ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thoughts from Thaos (Joshua Reubens ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Future of Role-Playing First a little about myself. Thaos is a character of mine. He was my first P.C. in I.C.E.'s Rolemaster, that I have been playing and GMing for a number of years. I suppose that naming this column after him was a bit like calling on the muses for inspiration. I have been role-playing for about eight years, and I actually started out by GMing. I can not claim I was any good at it, but I had a lot of fun learning. I have had little opportunity to actually play, the majority of my experience is GMing. Because of this I have read and own quite a few games of many different genres. The problem is that the area in which I live is quite void of role-players. In fact many of the people I do play with are people I introduced to the hobby. Well, that's enough about me, lets get on to something that you will hopefully find a little more interesting. "Mark Rein Hagen (head of White Wolf) claims that 'role-playing as we know it will be dead within ten years'" (Fannon 227). Hagen goes on to explain that the electronic medium will obliterate paper and pencil role-playing and that role-playing companies must evolve or die. It is an interesting thing to think about. Will there one day no longer be role-players? I spoke with a friend on this issue and we agreed that there will always be some who hold to the old ways even if role-playing in the traditional sense dissipates. I am willing to say that I will stand among those who will never put their dice away. Technology does indeed offer us much. For instance this newsletter would not exist if not for the web. I do not wish to sound as if I am putting down the advances that have been made, I only wish to make it known that role-playing could never truly be replaced by any thing electronic. The computer games that call themselves RPG's today are in truth nothing of the sort. They do not give you freedom to do whatever it is you wish, do they. Then they are not a role-playing game. It is hard to play a role when you are forced to follow certain guidelines. In a way role-playing is a bit like magic. In role-playing we can create anything, we can be anything. The idea of magic vs. technology is not exactly a new idea. Have you ever seen the movie Wizards by Ralph Bakashi? Perhaps you have even read or played the RPG, by Whit Publications Inc. The latest manifestation of magic vs. technology would probably be Mage: The Ascension by White Wolf. I think they portray it best in this game. The technology that is there is good, but we must never forget the magic. Take a look at what the future might bring. There could someday be something like the Holodeck on Star Trek. That would be role-playing. Though you still would have to program the computer with the information and it could never be ready for anything. A living GM can adapt and change no matter what the player(s) decide to do. Computers may be able to aid in role-playing games. I have in fact heard that some people use a lap top along with all of their adventures. There are actually quite a few programs out to aid and assist in the role-playing experience. Though I still say that even if computers can aid us in our hobby, they will never be capable of replacing it. Role-playing is in my opinion a great and healthy past time. It teaches us valuable things, and expands our imaginations. In a world where being like everyone else has become the goal, role-playing is even more essential. I guess that Mr. Fannon explained it best when he wrote: "If you have not played a role-playing game or if you have ever considered that RPGs may be 'bad' or harmful,' please give a careful look at them. In this hobby, you will see creativity, social tolerance, compassion, open-mindedness, insightful thinking, problem solving, historical awareness, and eyes firmly on the future-all in great abundance." (Fannon 231) I for one agree completely with this assessment, I must also say that I find role-playing to be an educational and enlightening hobby. It combines acting and reading, and in doing so creates a new art form, one that should be experienced by all. Hopefully role-playing, with our help, will extend into the future and with luck it will even reach a greater audience. Fannon, Sean Patrick, The Fantasy Role-Playing Gamer's Bible Prima Publishing, 1996. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slight's Miscellanea (Steven Cox ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Salutations! Welcome, all, to my second article! This month, we're exploring options of a more mundane nature than last month's discourse on psionics. Let us turn our minds to the topic and nature of Hit Points. Yes, I know..... this subject has been thrashed upon more than the proverbial dead horse, but you might find my take on Hit Points rather interesting. Let me tell you, dear readers, a story of Hit Points. The story begins with the character creation of two PCs - a fighter and a mage. The player of the fighter wished to play a tough-as-nails warrior, with more focus on physical toughness than brute strength. So, the player decided to put his lucky roll of 18 into the PC's constitution score. At the same time, the player of the mage specifically wanted to play a sickly mage, with little in the way of sturdiness. In this case, the player gave the mage PC a constitution score of 6. Thru many adventures, the two PCs advance to 5th level Now, you might expect that this stout fighter would have acquired many Hit Points, while the mage would still be vulnerable to being brought down with a single blow. Not so. The fighter and the mage, as it turns out, had the same number of Hit Points! Even with the fighter's exceptional, and the mage's lackluster, constitution, both ended up with 15 Hit Points. Do the math, my friends - by consistently poor/good die rolls, this situation was made possible. Okay, I'll admit it - this story never actually happened. But it does serve as an useful example of how the randomness of Hit Point acquisition can go against one's PC characterization. Does anyone really want to play a Conan-esque fighter, only to roll 1 after 1 for Hit Points? Or Raistlin when rolling constant 4's? Presented below is a system to remove some of the randomness of the Hit Point system. Enjoy! Revised Hit Points System I was wanting to mention my idea about hit points. WHY roll for random hp? Do we roll for random THAC0? Random AC? Besides a PC's basic stats, hp is the only thing that is randomized in such a way. I have an idea about a hp chart, the way we already have a THAC0 chart, based upon Con and the average hp produced from the current system. For example, a fighter gains, on average, 5.5 hp per level advancement at the moment. On my chart, a fighter would gain 5 hp per level, modified by Con. An average Con fighter would still gain 5 hp, while a high-Con fighter would gain 14 (max normal by current system - roll a 10 and get +4 hp from current Con modifier). Table X: Base Hit Points Level Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Priest 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 Psion 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 Rogue 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 Warrior 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Wizard 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Revised Table 3: Constitution HP Adjustment Con 1-3 base * 0.25 Con 4-5 base * 0.50 Con 6-7 base * 0.75 Con 8-10 base * 1.00 Con 11-12 base * 1.50 Con 13-14 base * 2.00 Con 15-16 base * 2.50 Con 17-18 base * 3.00 Con 19-20 base * 3.25 Con 21-23 base * 3.50 Con 24-25 base * 3.75 From Level 11 onwards, PCs stop using the above chart and gain hp's at a flat rate, as listed below (note that modifiers from Con no longer apply). If a given PC happens to advance at a slower rate than listed below (for example, an odd weakling of a fighter who normally gains only 2 hp per level), continue using the lower rate. Class HPs Per Level Past 10th Priest +2 Psion +2 Rogue +2 Warrior +3 Wizard +1 To serve as the first example, and an extreme example at that, let's look at a 5th level mage possessing a 18 Con. At 5th level, he would have a base 10 hp. With his near-godly Con multiplying the base hp by 3, the result is 30 hp for our mage. Seems like a lot, eh? Well, an equivalent mage under the standard rules could have 20 hp max (4 hp * 5th level), +2 hp per level for Con, for a total of.... 30 hp! How about a cleric? Same conditions - 5th level, Con 18. Base hp is 20, multiplied up to 60. A standard cleric could have 40 hp, plus 10 hp for Con making a total of 50. So, my system gives classes other than mages more hp for higher Con scores. Is that so bad, tho? As already shown, a warrior benefits from a high Con more so than other classes - why shouldn't *each* class benefit differently? Shouldn't a Con 18 cleric benefit more than a Con 18 mage, but not as much as a Con 18 fighter? While this new system does take out the randomness of hp acquisition, I was thinking of adding another element to stir things back up, while adding more options at the same time. Dependent upon campaign events, a PC might gain fewer or more hp when rising in level. For example, a fighter was severely beaten and tortured for weeks, but managed to fight his way out of captivity and, in the process, gained a level. The DM might declare that, due to extreme punishment, the fighter in question gains fewer hp than normal. This could be expounded upon as thus: whatever Con score the PC possesses for the majority of the time in the level previous to gaining a new level, that is what the hp adjustment is based upon. Basically, our theoretical fighter was reduced to a lower Con for the duration of his torture (and for most of his level), so he gets fewer hp. On the flip side, a mage spending much time in the smithy, making a hand-made sword to enchant, might have toughened up a bit and is rewarded with more hp. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Quest For Magic (James Williams ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROLOGUE RATTLE BRAINED KENDER Tas chased after Flint. The dwarf was running in a mad dash, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and that lamebrained kender. After he died those centuries ago, the old dwarf sort of missed Tasslehoff, but now that the kender was dead and in the sky with him, the dwarf wished that he was still alive. At least then, Flint thought, he could dream of finally falling into the eternal sleep and not be bothered by any doorknob kender for a while at least. But now, he'd have to put up with Tas' endless shenanigans for eternity and beyond. "Wait up Flint," the old dwarf heard the kender call. "I didn't mean to paste your beard to the forge! Gee, I never knew beards could burn so fast! It'll grow back though, trust me. Have I ever been wrong? Well don't answer that. But I could never be wrong about something like that. Could I?" Flint stopped and turned to the kender who had caught up with him. Although the dwarf was only about four and a half feet tall, he was still taller than the kender who was a few inches shorter. Tas' blue eyes twinkled like always. His hair, pulled into a topknot, was as brownish gray as ever, and just as bouncy. His face was adult, yet with the same playful, childlike appearance common to kender. A face born from the fact that kender could not feel fear. The one emotion that they lacked. Tasslehoff held back a laugh, the dwarf did look rather comical, what with his beard barely there what was left singed to an ashen black. But Tas knew that laughing at the dwarf would only worsen his temper. "Finally. . . you stopped," the out of breath kender panted. "Now, like I was saying, I am really sorry about your beard Flint, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. . . Even though I'm not sure that I know what I was doing anyway but I think it had something to do with the action of. . . Well nevermind that because I guess it doesn't have any importance now does it?. . ." "Tas," Flint grumbled. "You aren't really this stupid are you? It's all an act right? To get on my nerves?" Tasslehoff Burrfoot gave the dwarf the most confused look that Flint had ever seen in his entire living and dead life. "Nevermind. Tanis and the others are waiting on us, they said that something wonderful is about to take place down below." "On Krynn!?" Tas exclaimed, jumping up and down. "Nothing interesting has happened there since they discovered that new continent, what did they call it, of coarse, New Krynn. And I couldn't forget about when the dragons created the dragonlings to take the place of the draconians. . ." "Rattle-brained kender," Flint mumbled as they walked on. CHAPTER ONE THE DRAGON COUNCIL Hederah lifted his great old head and peered around the Cave of the Council. The darkness of the cave would not have made it hard for him to see in his younger days, but now the ancient blue dragon found that his vision had gone bad over the millennium. He had fought against Huma in the Dragon Wars, he was there when Neraka fell in the War of the Lance, and when the Knights of Takhississ and the Knights of Solomnia fought against Chaos it was his daughter, Flare that the dark knight Steel Brightblade rode. Now the great wyrm's scales were decaying, falling out along with some of his teeth. What were once sharp talons were now bent and dull. His great wings now had begun to shrivel. His flanks were covered in scars that proved that he was once a very powerful foe in a fight (for this reason he was often known to boast of these scars). He could once use his deadly lightning breath to bring down the side of a small mountain and wreak havoc on the countryside. Now he could barley let lose a small spark. And the great memory of a dragon would never be of use to him again because it had dwindled to almost nothingness. Yet the dragon's absent mindedness did not hinder Hederah from making wise decisions. It was amazing that even though he could remember less and less everyday, the great blue seemed wiser and wiser too. Hederah's great age made him highly respected in the Dragon Council. He was after all the eldest dragon in the council and therefore the eldest dragon on Krynn. What he decided usually was what happened in the council. It was on few occasions that a dragon would rival Hederah's will. It was often a young dragon who was foolish enough to say something. This naive dragon was always quickly reprimanded by his elders or even his peers. The Dragon Council only met a few times a year and today was one of them. Hederah watched as the dragons began to arrive, both from within and outside the cave. Those who arrived from inside the cave were other leaders of the council like the great blue himself. All of the council leaders were great wyrms like Hederah too. There was one for each dragon color. The oldest dragon was always the one who was picked to represent their hue. Hederah of course represented the blue dragons. The younger dragons came from outside the Cave of the Council. Every dragon on Krynn was present. Blue, red, black, green, white, gold, silver, brass, bronze, copper, sapphire, amethyst, crystal, topaz, emerald, mercury, steel, yellow, brown, deep, cloud, and shadow. All were present when the Dragon Council called a meeting. The dragonlings, a race created from altered dragon eggs were arriving with their dragon cousins. They were created from red and blue, silver and mercury, cloud and mist, and sapphire and amethyst dragon eggs. One hundred eggs from a clutch laid every hundred years were chosen from these dragon types to become dragonlings. The dragon parents of dragonlings were always proud parents because it was considered an honor to have your eggs chosen. Dragonlings were respected and treated as if they were normal dragons (even though the biggest dragonling was fourteen feet tall and the smallest dragon was ninety feet long). Some non-dragons were present as well. Humans, elves, and dwarves were present. Some kender tried to get in but most were turned away, politely, at the entrance. The races new to the people of Ansalon were present as well. The coama, a four armed race of which all were female, great warriors, and could rival the elves in beauty. The riconus, a strange barbarian like people with the shape of a powerfully built humans but the head of a rhinoceros. These races were present for different reasons, some to report a rogue dragon plaguing the countryside. Others - especially the coama and dwarves - were here to do business with the greatest creatures of Krynn. And others still were only present for curiosity, the want to see what went on in one of the fabled dragon meetings. Because of dragon fear (a powerful fear that all dragons emitted on non-dragons that left the victims screaming in sheer terror), there were only a few non-dragons in the great cave. These were some of the bravest of their races. The dragons gave a small respect to these people because the force of their will had to be very strong to overcome the powerful effects of dragon fear. After all the dragons and those non-dragons were present and quiet, Hederah prepared to start the council meeting. The dragons were seated by color, each color had a councildragon who would voice their clan's desires and opinions about anything brought up in the meeting to the rest of the council. The blue dragons would start, and then the golds, reds, sapphire, and so forth, until the mercury dragons had spoken. Then it would be the mortals turn. The dragonlings were considered part of what ever color they were. "This meeting of the Dragon Council is called to order," said Hederah, known to mortals as Flash. "I Flash will speak for the blue dragons." He turned his old snake-like head to those of his color. Then he said, "This year I understand that everything is basically alright with all the other dragons except for a mear boundary dispute between the reds and the silvers. Could councildragons Magmus of the reds, and Silvara of the silvers speak for your colors?" Magmus and Silvara stepped forth. They were both relatively young for councildragons each in their early nine hundreds. Both had claws that were still many times sharper than the tips of men's spears. They were covered in scales of red or a dull silver that served as armor against swords and arrows. They were both fine physical specimens. "Flash," both said bowing their necks in respect. The great blue gave each a salute of recognition and instructed them to continue. "The red dragons believe that the silver dragons have been disobeying the boundry pact between us." Magmus said to the council. "Twice have I heard from some of the other reds that they have seen silver dragons flying over our lands. That is our report lord Flash." "And what do you have to say to this account Silvara," asked Hederah. "Do you have an arguement for the council?" "Yes O' Flash," Grayscale repied. "It is true that I and some of my sisters and brethren flew over red dragon territory. But we did not hunt any game, be it treasure or food on your lands. We were simply escorting someone from the Khalkist Mountains to Tanser. That is all my lord." "May the council take record," Flash commanded. "That I Flash have decided that the silver dragons were within their rights flying over the Plains of Dust, a red territory. But because they did not first inform the red dragons of their plans, they must give the red dragons some sort of token, to show that they meant nothing of it." "That has been officially recorded lord Flash," said a dragonling scribe. Bowing to Hederah in respect, Grayscale and Magmus returned to there places. After the mortal races finished trading with the council, Hederah prepared to dismiss, when a small voice was heard in the ranks of the silver dragons. "O' lord Flash," the female voice said. "May I make a request?" Hederah turned to the source of the voice. Two figures, one only about five and a half feet tall, the other a foot and a half shorter stood at his gnarled feet. These two, out of every mortal in the entire Cave of the Council, were every dragon's favorite. Aletta, the coama warrior, found while still a baby, by a silver dragon in the wilderness, and Witchet Pouchbringer, the kender that was found in the same manor by a mercury dragon. Both were raised in the council and were considered part of it. Because of their long existence around dragons, neither were overcome by dragon fear when confronted by the mighty creatures. "What is it my child?" Hederah asked the caoma, calling her child even though she was seventy nine years of age. Still young for the caoma but only a fragment of time for the ancient dragon. He was very fond of this one, she had accomplished something that only silver dragonlings had accomplished, becoming a draco-paladin. "If it isn't to much trouble my lord, I would like to make a request to the council." "You know that you are respected here as if you were a dragon yourself, speak child." "Thank you. Today I was in the Dragon Library and I think I might have found a lead to magic on Krynn. I mean other than the magic that you dragons have. I am talking about magic that everybody can use." "And I helped!" Witchet shouted, jumping up and down. "And the kender helped too," Aletta sighed. "But anyway, I was wondering if I and a few dragonlings-" "And me too!" "Yes, and you too Witchet. But I was wondering if we could quest for this source of magic. It could be useful to the council and the rest of Krynn if the other races like my own could possess magic again." "I am well aware with the possibilities," said Hederah. "But I am not sure if I like the idea, we will discuss this later, assemble your party and we will talk after dusk." . . . The red glow of the setting sun outlined Aletta's lithe body. Her hair cascaded down to the small of her back, framing her beautiful face with bright silver strands. The sun made her smooth oak brown skin seem a light orange. Her four arms were crossed across her chest in a serious manor as she looked over her party. Next to her stood Witchet, the kender was incredibly restless, all this waiting around for Hederah to show up so that he could decide wether or not he was going to let them try to find magic or not was incredibly boring him. He'd much rather be trying to figure out what makes a dragon have a breath weopon. Or maybe finding out what would happen if you pulled the ring out of a minotaur's nose. But he knew that if he went off adventuring he might miss out on this one so he'd just stay for a while and see what would happen. Looking around the party, Witchet noticed something, he and Aletta were the only non-dragonlings. There was Myst, a cloud dragonling. He was the largest of the dragonlings, maybe fourteen feet tall, Witchet thought to himself, he never was good at judging size. Myst was covered in four inches of red-orange scales not too easily penetrated. He had a serious demenour to him, and was easily aggravated, especially (though Witchet knew not why), when the kender was around. One time Myst tried to rip Witchet's throat out, just because he tried to capture Myst in a bottle when he was in cloud form, an ability cloud dragons and dragonlings possesed. Then there was Firestrike, the only crossbreed dragonling ever. His mother was a red his father a blue. Firestrike had mainly blue scales, but also red streaks here and there, especially around his eyes. The most interresting thing about Firestrike, thought Witchet, was that his breath weopon was a bolt of lightning like a blue dragon, but it was surrounded by a red flame, like the fire breath of a red. Sterling, a silver dragonling stood close to Aletta. He, like her was a draco-paladin. His posture was proud and he stood tall. Like Aletta he crossed his arms around his massive chest. He looked only straight ahead, if he was anxious he wasn't showing it. The disipline of a draco-paladin shown brightly through him, like the beacon of a light house on a stormy night in the Sea of Istar. The only movement that he made was to blink, and to caress the hilt of his mighty sword with his silver scaled hands that ended in five inch long talons. And of course, Witchet's favorite dragonling, the one who he viewed as a kender in a dragonling's body, Rellium. Rellium was a mercury dragonling. Mercury dragons and dragonlings were shunned by the other dragons and dragonlings for being too playful. They were extremely kender like, in that they were very immature, wreckless, and nothing held their attention very long, usually about three minutes. What made them even more annoying was that when they spoke, it was ten times faster than a normal speed so other dragons and people had to ask them to repeat it and slow it down so that they could understand what they were trying to say. Witchet and Rellium had always been together since they knew each other. They often left Dragon's Rock to adventure to the far corners of Krynn. Usually, this was without the perrmision of the rest of the council which tended to get them into alot of trouble with Hederah. But usually they just figured that Hederah was having a bad day so they would stay inside Dragon's Rock for a few days then repeat the prosses. "Hederah takes too long," Witchet sighed, looking up until he nearly broke his back to see his friend's face. "You know we could be out doing something worth our while right now." Rellium smiled then said, "But nooo we have too wait on a two thousand year old dragon, to get permission to go off on an adventure, when Hederah doesn't really care anyway. I mean all those times when we left without permission all he did was yell, and threaten to fry us with his dragon breath. And I don't think he was serious anyway, but I would like to find out what that feels like." "Shut-up you two," Myst growled. "Quit complaining, Hederah will get here when he does, and hopefully if he does let us search for magic, he'll make you two stay behind!" Witchet and Rellium silenced- for about three minutes, and then began to chatter quietly amongst themselves. "I do wish that Hederah would hurry up though," Firestrike whispered. "I grow weary of all of this waiting." "Then wait no longer," came an old, raspy voice. "I Hederah have arrived." "And it's about time too!" Exclaimed the kender. * Characters from the Dragonlance Saga, created by Margaret Wice and Tracy Hickman, published by Random House. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earl's Word (Earl Harrison ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Borg & Timothy had searched many weeks for any clues they could obtain that would lead them to the lair of the great wyrm. They stood at the edge of the mountain gazing up the sides trying to find a glimpse of the large hole in the mountain that the dragon called its home. "THERE!" exclaims the over joyous thief, Timothy. "There just above the cliff three-quarters up to the left." "That is what we are looking for!" The thief latched onto the back of the broad barbarian as he began to climb the rock face of the mountain. The barbarian did not seem at all encumbered by the weight of the halfling as he made great leaps and bounds up the mountain. After many hours of climbing the barbarian hurled the thief onto the ledger just facing the lair of the dragon. Borg finally climbed over the edge, then stood and brushed himself off onto the now dust-free thief. So once again Timothy dusts himself off all the while snarling and cursing at the bigger man. Swiftly and quietly a large two-handed broad sword is lifted out of its resting place to gleen brightly in the sun. Two small daggers, both dull, are pulled from unknown hiding places on the body of the halfling thief. "Let's Go" commands the barbarian. As they enter the cave the stench almost becomes unbearable. After several more minutes of traveling into the cave the barbarian begins feeling the walls to find his way when light appears from a gem that the halfling has clutched in his tiny little hands. "Humans!" exclaims the thief in a very disgruntled voice. When out from the earth jumps a very large creature. He gazes upon the two heroes with no effect. A few claw and pincher attacks and the creature must now defend himself. Three swift and powerful strokes of the sword and the Umber Hulk lays at the feet of the powerful barbarian. "HA" laughs Borg as he lifts the corpse into the air and throws it into the hole that it had created to get the surprise on the two scavengers. A few more twists and turns and just yards in front of the two is more riches and treasures than they could ever hope to carry from this place. "THUD!" a huge red claw comes crashing down just inches from the thief who had been trying to sneak into the chamber and slip off with a few goodies before the real action began. Borg leaps into the air. Turns his ring and the confidence swells in him. A few well placed sword hits and the dragon rocks back onto its hind quarters. The thief jumps into the fray only to miss his first attack and the other dagger goes flying off into the darkness of the cave. The dragon rears back and belches forth a great blast of fire. Borg only laughs it off and then jumps into the dragon's face for another three strong strokes with the broad sword. After the second hit the dragon attempts a getaway, but the third and final attack strikes true and the dragon slumps to its death. Our heroes have defeated the great wyrm. "Timothy" Borg cries into the darkness "You can come out of your hiding place!" There is no answer. For several moments the barbarian searches for his tiny friend. He finds his friend burnt beyond recognition. He had taken the full blast from the dragon's breath weapon and was not as lucky as the powerful barbarian. The above scenario could be played out on any given Saturday at any DM's home, except ONE! MINE! If you would like to know how to scare your players and have them packing their books and grabbing their dice and heading for the door with the mere mention of the word dragon then read on. The average great wyrm has lived for over 750 years and destroyed countless treasure raiders, how else do you think they get all of their wealth, villages and castles in their days. How many players do you know that can boast about these things? Not many! Therefore a dragon should have countless more powers and hit points than the players do. If played "by the book" then the Umber Hulk at the beginning of our little adventure could have a real good shot at the dragon. But… Upon consideration by myself and my group we have decided that by adding two zeros to the end of the dragon's hit dice the creature now becomes the opponent that you have only heard about in fantasy books and legends. I know some of you out there are saying "If you would play the dragon correctly then you would not have to do that." Okay let's examine this. Let's take the following character against any 15 HD dragon that you have lying around in your campaign. BORG: level 15 barbarian with a CON of 18. That equals 180 hp plus the 4 hp that he gets for the high constitution which equals a grand total of 240 hp. Als give our hero an 18/00 STR, that gives him a +3 to hit and +7 damage. We can't forget the +4 chain armor and the ring of fire resistance. Oh don't forget the +5 two-handed broad sword. Now your little dragon has a very powerful enemy to fight. According to the Monster Manual you roll an 8-sided die to figure hp for a monster. With this in mind our 15 HD dragon can only have 120 hp when the dragon belches his breath weapon the most hp that Borg could take would be 60, remember the ring. If the saving throw is made then that number is now 30. Not a very powerful attack from such a noble creature. Lets take out hero and lets see the damage that he can dish out. 3 attacks with a broad sword at 3d6+12, which comes out to about 30 hp/shot. Now combine the other 2 attacks and we have 90 hp of damage for the lowly humanoid that the dragon despises so much. Next round the breath weapon is now only 30 hit points of damage at the MAXIMUM! Borg makes his saving throw and he only takes 7 hpd! OUCH HURT ME! Borg attacks and now the maid is cleaning up the mess. My little idea no longer looks so dumb. Even calculating the dragon's hp and adding one zero to that still makes the dragon a very powerful opponent. The dragon is the heart and soul of the game. Hence the name. Where there are evil dragons there are good ones. The same rule applies to these as well. To make them even more powerful seek out the handbook "Dragonomicon". The dragon spells alone are worth the price of the book. Death's Door, one of the spells, drains 50 levels from your player characters, as they walk thru it, before it becomes inactive. Try attacking the dragon now after your 20th level characters are now all 6th and 7th level. Dragons can be very powerful allies or they can be very powerful enemies. It is all up to the way the DM play them and the way the players treat them. It is all up to your group to decide how to handle them. The next time you throw a dragon at your players give my little idea a try and see if the outcome is a bit different than the players had planed. Next time I will come down to earth a bit and tell you how to chase 10th level characters out of the kobold lair. 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