D&D 30-Day Challenge: Day 11 - Favorite Adventure You Ran

I have run many, many adventures since I began DMing in the 80s.  So many that I'm sure there are more than a few that I no longer recall, either through time or the sad truth that no DM can run wickedly memorable adventures every single time for thirty years.  I've read the entire series run of GI Joe from Marvel, and I assure you for every super-memorable issue, there's another issue I can't recall off the top of my head.  So it is with DMing.

If I have to pick one D&D adventure that was extremely epic, I'd have to pick one that was epic on a couple of levels.  I ran a 3.5 campaign that was incredible.  I had just two players, my wife Mary and my best friend Randi.  Mary played a continuation of the first D&D character she ever created, Cyndi of Kelvin, a fighter and non-canonical daughter of Baron Desmond Kelvin, head of the Order of the Gryphon in Karameikos.  Randi played Illyana, a Traladaran girl of a rogue-type background who leaned more toward the gypsy archetype than the general slavic archetype suggested by the Mystara books.

This was the campaign where I merged Ravenloft into Mystara by connecting the points in the Altan Tepes mountains that form the northern border of Karameikos where it meets Darokin.  I reasoned that the Barovian people in Tracy and Laura Hickman's original I6 - Ravenloft were of a very similar background to the Traladaran people of Mystara.  So, in my version of Mystara, Barovia and Castle Ravenloft were located in those mountains before Strahd's deed caused himself and  his surrounds to form the first realm in the Ravenloft demiplane.  So the Vistani and the Barovians of Ravenloft both descend from the Traladaran people.  Strahd, as a warrior-conqueror-dude seems of a very similar tradition to King Halav, but where Halav became a Traladaran Immortal through his bravery, Strahd achieved an immortality of his own through evil.

So, Cyndi and Illyana had met by chance on the Duke's Road running east from Specularum toward Luln.  A group of black wolves with glowing red eyes chased them into the same area, but before the women could fight their way out- the mists happened.  The mists transported them to Barovia and into Ravenloft.  The REAL campaign started then.  Cyndi and Illyana made friends- some of the best NPC personalities I'd ever created.  They traveled around the Dread Realms, encountering all sorts of ancient evils, including the Death Knight Lord Soth himself and a spirit that occasionally possessed Illyana.  Soth, seeking release from his prison-realm of Sithicus, tried to use Illyana and Cyndi in a bid to destroy Strahd, reasoning that as the first Dread Realm if Barovia somehow fell, the rest of the demiplane might come apart at the seams, dumping its denizens back to their original planes.  Cyndi and Illyana thought they had outsmarted Soth by accepting his offer and his information on how to get into Castle Ravenloft- their intention was simply to escape.

Now, the particular adventure of this campaign that I consider the very best I have ever run occurred during this foray into Ravenloft, and before the PCs and their new allies - including a two NPCs who would become romantically involved with the Illyana and Cyndi - returned to Mystara to thwart Strahd's attempt to invade his old home reality with a mysically summoned conjunction of the realms.

What made this particular adventure so amazing?  Well... it was a perfect storm of awesome.  First, I had a two player group, both of which had a deep investment in their characters and their campaign.  Mary had played Cyndi on and off for eight years, and Randi tends to crawl inside her characters as a matter of course if a campaign lasts long enough.  This allowed a kind of depth I don't often see in our groups.  Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of great players- but running as many games as I do for a game club means entertaining the masses becomes the primary goal.  Shifting groups, larger than optimal groups, factors that sometimes stunt RP opportunities.  In this case, I had two committed players who allowed for a much more detailed world to be drawn around them.  Mary and Randi didn't mind RPing a scene where they were just sitting around a campfire with their NPC allies and talking.  They spoke in character a LOT - which can be an uphill battle with some of our club members.  The stories of Cyndi and Illyana got to be center-stage, rather than any conflict or combat.

Second - the burgeoning relationships in the adventure led to in-game marriage and the first in-game child I've seen born outside a Pendragon campaign.  The NPCs were superb, the players cared deeply for them, and that deepened the story further.

Finally - this particular game session took place in a very special way.  Mary had bought me tickets to the Huey Lewis & The News concert in San Antonio.  They were playing, along with Chicago, at the Verizon Ampitheater.  We got space on the berm.  We arrived early, and played some D&D at the Chili's near the venue, then went on to the concert as early as they would let us in.  We spread out our blanket and pulled the D&D books back out and played until the concert started.  It was incredible.  My wife, my best friend, a great D&D campaign, and my favorite band for my birthday.  Life, that day, couldn't have been any more awesome.  And that's the favorite adventure I ran.

Come to think of it, I tend to remember the campaign as a whole, so it's hard for me to come up with which actual details happened at the concert.  I know it was after the Soth encounter and before the run on Castle Ravenloft to escape back to Mystara...  but the whole day was just such an incredible blur.  Great game.  One of the best.

D&D 30-Day Challenge: Day 10 - Craziest In-Game Experience

This one has to go to Brother Maynard during our mini-campaign at Lost Pines Scout Camp during the summer of 1989-90.  Our DM was our scoutmaster's son, Tim Goorley.  Our scoutmasters were often frustrated with us for spending so much time playing D&D while scouting, so they forced all of us who had not yet made the rank of First Class to go into this program which would gain us everything but the time in grade requirement for First Class over the course of the Lost Pines trip.  I don't particularly recall anything about the trip being that much fun save the D&D, the sailing merit badge classes, and a counselor named John who was awesome, into Lita Ford and G&R, and got bit by a spider.

Every night we played D&D.  Every night.  Until the scoutmasters forced us to turn in.  We had this epic campaign going where we were defending a town from undead, the Golden Grimoire was somehow involved, and the Big Bad we had to fight the night before we went home was some sort of demon.  Well, Br. Maynard was nowhere near powerful enough to do much to a full-on demon straight from AD&D (we were playing BECMI.)  None of us had magic weapons that would do much to it.  We were in trouble.

Br. Maynard quaffed a Haste potion and beat feet back to town to score as much holy water as he could carry from the church, since the only thing we'd thrown at this thing that even tickled it a bit was holy water, and we didn't have much of that.  So off Br. Maynard went at double speed, running for his life and the rest of the party's...

...and then a lucky crit with a +1 blade apparently saved the day before Br. Maynard could make it back to town.  So... battle over.  Day saved.  Game broke up, we packed up the next morning and went home.

On the next regularly scheduled scout campout, we of course played D&D.  Someone jokingly asked "Hey, did Maynard ever stop running?"  

And that's where this story REALLY starts.

For the next twenty damn years, in any D&D game involving anyone who was there, and some folks who just heard the story later, at random moments a Cleric would run through a scene at roughly double speed.  No explanation, just a REALLY fast guy with a warhammer wearing plate.

Then somehow it became a streaking Cleric.  NO IDEA how the armor came off.  Or the arming coat.  Or the underclothes.  And anyway, if he's naked, how the hell does anyone know he's a Cleric?

Time and again, through different groups and different DMs as the Legend of the Streaking Cleric proliferated, poor, cold and exposed Brother Maynard continues to beat feet through Mystara still trying to get that holy water back to his comrades to defeat the demon that was defeated sometime in June of 1989...

<Jack Palance>BELIEVE IT... OR NOT </Jack Palance>

D&D 30-Day Challenge: Day 9 - Favorite PC You'd Like to Play

This is a strange question.  Does this mean a pre-gen, or someone else's PC, or a concept for a character I'd like to play?

If we're talking pre-gen, then my answer is clear.  Let's go back to DL1 Dragons of Despair, the first module in the Dragonlance campaign, published by TSR way back in 1984.

Dragonlance was something new- an epic series of modules and source material that told a deep story and fleshed out a new campaign world, Krynn.  The PCs had the opportunity to quite literally save the world from evil.  The original presentation of the modules included all sorts of immersive information including sheet music for Goldmoon's song and an eventual book that included Krynnish recipes and poetry.  The Companions that would become so familiar from the novels were included here as pre-generated characters for players to use.

I.  Call.  Sturm. 

Sturm Brightblade, the son of a disgraced knight in a waning order of knighthood.  The young man who so stridently upholds the ideals that knighthood once held dear that he surpasses in the eyes of many knights with a more noble pedigree.  He has nothing but the gear he carries and the ancient armor and sword he wears, but he fights to uphold the Code and the Measure.  To dream the impossible dream, right?

That's my choice for a D&D character I'd love to play that I have never had the opportunity to play.  I think he would be a lot of fun and provide some great roleplaying opportunities for a party.

D&D 30-Day Challenge: Day 8 - Favorite PC Of Your Own

Having been tossing dice for 29 years, thinking back over all the characters I've played is an interesting endeavor.  The funny part is that one would think I'd played a lot more PCs than I actually have.  The curse of the Dungeon Master, I suppose, since I started DMing almost immediately after learning what roleplaying games were.

My first memorable character was Brother Maynard of the Holy Outhouse, a BD&D Cleric I played in Daniel Varner's and Tim Goorley's games when I was in Boy Scouts.  I recall his holy symbol being a miniature toilet seat.  We had made some teenage boy jokes about the holiest, most precious thing in a medieval D&D world being decent restroom facilities, and the very loose focus of the BD&D rules on what Clerics actually believed lent to Br. Maynard being quite effective while at the same time being comic relief. 

I'm going to have to answer this one in a two-parter (again) as my absolute favorite PC to play does not qualify, since he is not from a Dungeons & Dragons game.  The PC I have had the most fun with overall is Captain Deak Windsailor, a Corellian smuggler who flew during the Clone Wars for the Corellian Militia.  Deak is a character I played in Bobby Dean's two excellent Star Wars campaigns, and I loved every minute of him.  He was a crusty old veteran who was many times annoyed by the younger rebels with which he associated.  He was prone to showing them how it was done during the Clone Wars.  Deak was captain of a converted Mon Calamari yard tug affectionately known as the Squid Trawler.  He constantly complained that he wanted a proper Corellian ship like any self-respecting Corellian operator, but he had several opportunities to trade up and made many excuses for not leaving the Trawler behind. Many, MANY great adventures were had with Deak, and I hope to play him again some day.

Now, for a proper D&D answer. 

I am currently playing a character named Mikhail Ivanov, Misha to his friends, who is the younger son of the Baron of Luln.  He comes from a Traladaran family of deep roots who have learned to respect Duke Stefan Karameikos and are his stauch allies.  Of course, this puts them at odds with other old Traladaran families who seek to oust the Thyatian upstart and his people, but hey, it's good for the story.   Misha is the first Bard I've ever played in any edition.  As I constructed him on paper, his personality started to form in my mind.  Misha was bookish and affable, always ready with a tall tale or historical epic.  He spend his time in a series of libraries and public houses, and ended up the black sheep of his family.  What his family, who valued martial prowess and brute strength, did not know- was that Misha was at need the Red Dragon, a Zorro-like folk hero of the Traladaran people.

I modeled the Red Dragon on Bruce Campbell's Daring Dragoon from the sadly short-lived television series Jack of All Trades.  Using  his bardic abilities and spellcasting talents, Misha as the Red Dragon was able to pull off all sorts of swashbuckling daring-do while cracking wise and using his taunt cantrip to cutting effect... that is, until the Marilenev family organized an assassination attempt on Duke Stefan, and Misha was killed defending the Duke.

Misha's allies quested for a gem of adequate value to have him brought back, but in the interim, Misha had an encounter with Halav, the patron immortal of the Traladaran people.  King Halav told Misha that he would return to the world to spread the word that Duke Stefan Karameikos was the will of Halav returned to the world, and that Stefan would unite Karameikos and the Traladaran people as Halav had done in his lifetime.  This gave me some ideas on what to do with Misha...

I talked it over with the DM.  We made a couple of changes.  Misha had died having picked up the knowledge bard specialization, we brought him back switching to valor bard.  So Misha returned to the living using the Red Dragon identity less and less - and doing his own fighting more and more.  He now wears a breastplate and carries a longsword, and tells tales of the valor of King Halav and the honorable deeds of Duke Stefan Karameikos.  I can't wait to see where else his story will take him now that they've discovered vampires preying on Luln, and a mysterious mist...

D&D 30-Day Challenge: Day 7 - Favorite Edition.

Ooooh, boy.  This is a can of worms.  Yes, I'm a veteran of the Edition Wars.  The experience has left me with some insights into what makes for great games, and what gets in the way.  Oddly, I'm a bit contradictory myself about a lot of my own conclusions- so I don't find it too hard to believe that there are zealots out there who champion one edition or another to the exclusion of all else. "Your favorite game sucks" has become something of an in-joke, since it seems that no matter how universally appealing an RPG seems, someone out there hates it with the fiery passion of a dying sun.  No game seems immune, and no edition of D&D seems to be immune either.

Let me start by saying that there is no edition of D&D currently in existence that I will refuse to play.  Yes, even 4e.  I find that each edition has strong points in favor of its use.  I do have a favorite, and I'll get to that, but I want to talk about other editions first to express my appreciation for D&D in all its incarnations.

0e, or the original 1974 D&D, has only recently become something I can say I've played.  Thanks to reprints, PDFs and Swords & Wizardry, I got introduced to the original D&D game more than three decades after it made its debut.  I expected to find clunky- and to a degree, there was a fair amount of clunk to the rules.  Some classes were missing from what you'd expect.  All weapons did d6 damage.  High ability scores got you a +1, low a -1, end of story.  What this, and Scott McKinlay's excellent Dungeon Mastery showed me, was that 0e D&D could be an incredible game because of the primitive and incomplete nature of the rules.  Go for it- rules don't cover something?  Roll a die.  Any die.  I don't care.  Decent roll?  OK, you succeed.  We played a campaign that was every bit as much fun as any game with more "complete" rules.

B/X Moldvay/Cook D&D Basic deserves a shout-out here.  It's recently been the basis of many retro clone projects from Labyrinth Lord to Stars Without Number.  It's a complete, self-contained RPG in two volumes covering 1st level to 14th level.  B/X has no more levels.  B/X needs no more levels.  If you want D&D in a medium-range campaign, this is all you need in 128 pages.

AD&D 1e was the first AD&D I played, as 2e wasn't out yet.  I still love AD&D, and would readily jump into a campaign.  Yes, some of the subsystems were almost random in their rules- no such thing as a "universal mechanic" back then.  Thing is, it opened up a LOT of options, and with things like Unearthed Arcana and Oriental Adventures, there were a lot of classes and races that could be played.  Nothing wrong with 1e AD&D if one considers it a product of its time- it was the first multi-hardcover RPG.

AD&D 2e was the game I spent most of high school playing.  It launched my Freshman year, and we jumped to it almost immediately.  I loved the art, trade dress and layout of the 2e books.  I loved the brown leatherette cover splatbooks.  The 3-ring binder Monstrous Compendium.  It was a streamlined AD&D, and maintained everything we loved about AD&D.  We didn't miss the things that were left out, because we just grafted them in from our 1e books.  Again, I'd play this in a microsecond if the opportunity arose.

3.0 and 3.5...  Well, I liked them well enough.  Feats were a neat idea that quickly became open to bloat and abuse, but a lot of things we'd house ruled for years became standard.  Full HD for 1st level?  Yep.  Skills as a standard thing?  Yep.  Mages getting bonus spells for high INT the way Clerics got them for high WIS?  Yep.  I did not like the increasing complexity of PC, NPC and Monster design that the feat system wove into D&D, but all in all the system was robust enough to spin off lots of D20 System games I still like.  Spycraft and D20 Modern stand out in my mind.  Yeah, I'd do 3.5 again if a group wanted to - but I'd probably choose AD&D over 3.x if given my druthers.

4e isn't D&D to me.  Randomness seems to break 4e, it's math is built tightly to do a certain kind of game and do it well.  Old school campaigns I found difficult because of the whole formula for encounter difficulty versus encounters between levels plus it was assumed everyone in the party was the same level...  Yeah.  Now, ask me why I love it?  I love 4e, not for being D&D, but for being a tabletop RPG that rewards tactical thinking and teamwork on the part of the players.  If I wanted to run a campaign based on a traveling gladiator team, or something like Final Fantasy Tactics, this would be my go-to game.  And yes, I'd love to run that game.

5e is amazing.  I couldn't have asked for a better improvement on what has come before.  5e manages to scratch my Old School itch at the same time it scratches my New Shiny itch.  Things are simplified, streamlined, and clarified.  The game just... works.  The Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic is sheer genius.  The revamped Feats are what Feats should have been to begin with.  I love that it mixes OS with NS.  I like spellcasters having "At-Will" cantrips, it means the mage is always a mage, even when his big spells are blown.  I mean... it's just what I wanted.  But it's still not my absolute favorite.

OK, who called it?

Yes, BECMI D&D is my favorite version of D&D ever.  I know 5e is cleaner and tighter, but I LOVE this version of D&D.  It was my first D&D, and it continues to be the one I want to play above others.  I like race-as-class.  I like level titles, and "name" level, and the Mystara setting, and I find that the Rules Cyclopedia is the best single-volume RPG I own, bar none.

Is it just nostalgia?  Is it just Elmore art?  No, not really.  It has just the right balance of crunch for me.  The rules are there, but I have room to play with ability checks, or saves, or just saying "toss a die."  It has optional rules for skills, weapon proficiencies, mass combat and domain rulership.  What's not to love?

D&D 30-Day Challenge: Day 6 - Favorite Deity.

I had to think hard about this one.  I have played a LOT of Clerics over the years.  In 3e, with the Greyhawk-inspired list of deities, I always leaned toward St. Cuthbert for the healing angle.  In 4e, I really dug the Raven Queen for style and a sort of "valar morghulis" attitude.  But I guess when I get right down to it, thanks to Mystara being my favorite game world, and Karameikos being my favorite realm within that game world, I have to go with the classic Traladaran Immortals - Halav, Petrov and Zirchev.

BECMI D&D does not have actual deities as such, they have Immortals, mortals who through deed and merit ascended to become a higher being.  They are somewhere along the power level of the Greek or Roman pantheon in that they regularly meddle in mortal affairs and are themselves mortal after a fashion.  Halav was a King, and he adventured along with his companions Petrov and Zirchev.  All three rose to Immortal status, with Halav saving Traladara from invastion by "beastmen" by killing their leader.  This leads to the three becoming the patron Immortals of the Traladaran people, and sparking the Cult of Halav later when some followers of Halav believe Stefan Karameikos to be the reincarnation of their beloved King.

  See THIS article from the Vaults of Pandius for a bit more info.

D&D 30-Day Challenge: Day 5 - Favorite Die or Dice

Well, you never forget your first.  My favorite dice would have to be the ones I purchased with my own money back in 1987 to supplement the dice that came with the various games I played.  To this day, I maintain a cigar box full of dice of the same pedigree and color, although the surviving dice of my original set are in a special dice bag with many of my vintage dice.  I have a lot of the old hard  plastic dice that needed to be crayoned or inked- but like many vintage dice quite a few of them are worn and rounded.  Those dice got retired to a keepsake dice bag along with my first purchase.  You can click here and see the Koplow dice set, or its modern equivalent, that I purchased back in 1987 at King's Hobby Shop in Austin, Texas.  It was the 10-piece tube (though I remember it being 9, one less d6) that included 1d4, 4d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1 tens 10, 1d12 and 1d20.  They were transparent red dice with white ink.  And they were my first color-matched set, used to run my very first Robotech games as they were purchased the same day I got Robotech Book 1: Macross from the same shopping trip.  I use my modern clones of these original dice in the 5e D&D game I play once or twice a month, but let me tell ya- they don't roll like those first ones did.  Natural 1s all the dang time.

Honorable mention goes to the 20-sided d10s I got in my FASA Star Trek boxed set purchased for me by Mammaw and Pappaw Webb when I was in the 7th Grade, and the almost completely rounded d20 I used to play Lone Wolf game novels in algebra class my Freshman year.  I still have all three of these dice, and they are in the same keepsake bag as my first set.