Author Archives: the venomous pao

S&W Appreciation: Rogues In The Gallery

Swords & Wizardry White BoxWherein your humble scribe presents a batch of characters for Swords & Wizardry Whitebox in honor of Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day. You should have no trouble using these for any of the other flavors of S&W, though.

The party failed to run when they should have. Somebody just walked up and asked to join your public game. You need an NPC to befriend (or bedevil) your party. Whatever the reason, you need a character and your need it now.

Well have no fear, amigos. Strange Stones has made its name producing pre-made “rogues gallery” style characters for ye olde school and, just for you, here’s a passel you can pick from for your S&W game.

Fighters

Count Augerin Vonfred du Hoxenbury, The Pale Heir / Human Fighter 1 / Lawful
STR 15 INT 8 WIS 5 DEX 11 CON 16 CHR 9
HP 7 AC 4 [15] Save 14
Items: 35 gp, Chainmail, Shield, Spear, Hand Axe, Longsword

Dunthal Rockstomper / Dwarf Fighter 1 / Lawful
STR 14 INT 14 WIS 12 DEX 11 CON 12 CHR 6
HP 4 AC 4 [15] Save 14
Items: 32 gp, Chainmail, Shield, Light Crossbow, 30 Bolts, Hand Axe, Warhammer

Fletcher Dorthal of Mirington-upon-Wyestoke / Human Fighter 1 / Neutral
STR 11 INT 9 WIS 9 DEX 16 CON 9 CHR 15
HP 5 AC 5 [14] Save 14
Items: 73 gp, Chainmail, Short Bow, Quiver w/ 20 Arrows, 2 Silver Arrows, Short Sword, 3 Daggers

Astrabian Silvershine / Elf Fighter 1 / Neutral
STR 13 INT 11 WIS 10 DEX 11 CON 15 CHR 9
HP 3 AC 4 [15] Save 14
Items: 2 gp, Chainmail, Shield, Longbow, 20 Arrows, Longsword, Dagger

Sylvestri Mancuso, The Black Mercenary / Human Fighter 1 / Chaotic
STR 14 INT 11 WIS 12 DEX 12 CON 9 CHR 13
HP 5 AC 2 [17] Save 14
Items: 49 gp, Plate Mail, Shield, Flail, Hand Axe, Longsword

Alwynnia Moonstone / Elf Fighter 1 / Chaotic
STR 13 INT 15 WIS 13 DEX 8 CON 10 CHR 6
HP 2 AC 5 [14] Save 14
Items: 9 gp, Chainmail, Shortbow, 20 Arrows, Shortsword, Dagger

Clerics

Sister Catalina Rosarita Consuela Mendoza y Juarez / Human Cleric 1 / Lawful
STR 12 INT 11 WIS 16 DEX 10 CON 9 CHR 15
HP 4 AC 4 [15] Save 15
Items: 25 gp, Silver Holy Symbol, 1 vial of Holy Water, Chainmail, Shield, Mace

Brother Horace of Sherwylde Glen / Human Cleric 1 / Lawful
STR 9 INT 9 WIS 14 DEX 13 CON 13 CHR 10
HP 3 AC 4 [15] Save 15
Items: 14 gp, Silver Holy Symbol, 1 vial of Holy Water, Chainmail, Shield, Morningstar

Father Lars the Mountain Goat / Human Cleric 1 / Lawful
STR 6 INT 9 WIS 9 DEX 18 CON 16 CHR 9
HP 7 AC 6 [13] Save 15
Items: 13 gp, Wooden Holy Symbol, 1 vial of Holy Water, Leather Armor, Shield, Mace

Brother Ignacio Román Donatello, Initiate of St. Basil / Human Cleric 1 / Chaotic
STR 10 INT 14 WIS 14 DEX 9 CON 11 CHR 8
HP 2 AC 4 [15] Save 15
Items: 2 gp, Silver Holy Symbol, 1 vial of Holy Water, Chainmail, Shield, Flail

Selene Shelwyn, The Arm of St. Katerine of the Sea / Human Cleric 1 / Chaotic
STR 10 INT 7 WIS 13 DEX 10 CON 10 CHR 12
HP 5 AC 2 [17] Save 15
Items: 25 gp, Silver Holy Symbol, 2 vials of Holy Water, Plate Mail, Shield, Mace

Jean d’Urlan, Brewer Monk of the Parast Monastery / Human Cleric 1 / Chaotic
STR 10 INT 14 WIS 14 DEX 9 CON 18 CHR 10
HP 7 AC 6 [13] Save 15
Items: 18 gp, Wooden Holy Symbol, 1 vial of Holy Water, Leather Armor, Shield, Club

Magic-Users

Thorgald the Runereader / Human Magic-User 1 / Lawful
STR 11 INT 12 WIS 7 DEX 13 CON 13 CHR 12
HP 4 AC 9 [10] Save 15
Spells: Charm Person, Read Languages
Items: 109 gp, Staff

Orlanarian Treeflower / Elf Magic-User 1 / Lawful
STR 9 INT 16 WIS 11 DEX 12 CON 13 CHR 13
HP 2 AC 9 [10] Save 15
Spells: Detect Magic, Hold Portal
Items: 174 gp, 2 Daggers

Mbana Tenkanaka / Human Magic-User 1 / Neutral
STR 9 INT 14 WIS 12 DEX 14 CON 14 CHR 11
HP 5 AC 9 [10] Save 15
Spells: Detect Magic, Light
Items: 66 gp, Staff, Dagger

Halina Halx, Guardian of the Silver Gate / Human Magic-User 1 / Neutral
STR 10 INT 14 WIS 11 DEX 12 CON 9 CHR 15
HP 6 AC 9 [10] Save 15
Spells: Charm Person, Protection From Chaos
Items: 43 gp, Staff, 2 Daggers

Veridian Starlight / Elf Magic-User 1 / Chaotic
STR 12 INT 16 WIS 8 DEX 12 CON 9 CHR 14
HP 5 AC 9 [10] Save 15
Spells: Hold Portal, Sleep
Items: 76 gp, Staff, Dagger

Skag / Human Magic-User 1 / Chaotic
STR 10 INT 16 WIS 9 DEX 11 CON 15 CHR 9
HP 7 AC 9 [10] Save 15
Spells: Hold Portal, Light
Items: 80 gp, Staff, 3 Daggers

While You’re Here Looking At S&W Stuff…

Be sure to take a gander at the monsters I’ve put together for S&W as well. Although they’re not officially part of S&W Appreciation Day, you might just find something useful. These are ones I didn’t submit for the S&W Monster Book (now known as Monstrosities, apparently) back in the day.

B/X Nostalgia Photography

I thought I’d kill a little time today by taking some heavily-filtered shots of my classic B/X gaming stuff. The boxes for my old Basic & Expert Dungeons & Dragons sets are long gone, as are the dice (alas!), but the rulebooks and the modules that came with ’em are still in pretty good shape.

The books still live in the blue Trapper Keeper I bought for them back in ’82 or so. The modules live in a plastic storage box with my other assorted modules.

The presence of B2 (emphasis on the 2) in my Basic Set caused me to go out and find B1, because even as an eleven-year-old-kid I couldn’t stomach the idea of having the second issue of something but not the first. Obsessive-Compulsive disorder shows up early, I guess 🙂

Last note: I think that B/X is hands-down the most photogenic of the Dungeons & Dragons line. The bright colors, the engaging-yet-cartoony art (especially the Otus covers), the paper covers of the books and modules. These things just beg to be snapped casually.

Traveller: Pedro’s Angels

Wherein your humble scribe presents a group of characters for (classic) Traveller. All of these were rolled up by-the-book using Book 1: Characters And Combat and/or Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium.

Jaunting about the sector aboard his private yacht, El Alma y La Cruz, Baron Pedro Miguel Ramirez and his lovely companions (mís ángeles, he calls them wryly) take on missions and causes that otherwise might go unaided. The Baron feels that he and his friends are destined to help those who cannot otherwise help themselves. This sometimes puts the gang on the wrong side of the law, of course – especially when the law itself is the problem. But there’s something to be said for having strong ties to the Imperial family.

Baron Pedro Miguel Ramirez
89A86C Age 30 3 Terms (Service: Noble, Final Rank: Baron)
Hunting-1, AutoPistol-1, Bribery-2, Engineering-1, Pilot-1
Yacht
Cr250,000

Lady Solara Marte
5A348B Age 26 2 Term (Service: Noble, Final Rank: Knight)
Hunting-1, Hovercraft-1, Pilot-1, Jack of All Trades-1, AutoPistol-1
Cr150,000

April Murphree
958B37 Age 34 4 Terms (Service: Marines, Final Rank: Lieutenant)
Cutlass-1, Revolver-1, Mechanical-2, SMG-1, Ground Car-1, Jack of All Trades-1, Tactics-1, Electronics-1
Travellers’
Cr25,000

Louise Helms
3659A8 Age 34 4 Terms (Service: Scientist, Final Rank: -)
Computer-1, Survival-1, Navigation-1, Electronics-2, Jack of All Trades-1, AutoPistol-1, Medical-2
AutoPistol
Cr6,000

Happy GM’s Day

Today, March 4th, is the sad anniversary of the passing of Gary Gygax. But it is also the day we celebrate GMs everywhere. So it’s a bittersweet thing, I reckon.

RPGNow is having a big 25% off sale all week in honor of GM’s Day, including a veritable boatload of stuff from Chaosium, Goodman Games, Goblinoid Games, and a whole bunch of other publishers who produce stuff I (and presumably the folks who read this blog) care about. So treat yerself to something purty & digital this week as we pause to remember one of the giants of our hobby.

Oh, and Mongoose’s Classic Moorcock BRP titles (Stormbringer & Elric! stuff) are on sale, too. As are the GDW Classic Traveller books (though GDW didn’t seem to be listed in the publisher dropdown on the sale page). That compilation of the Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society issues looks pretty tempting…

Worlds Apart In Print

Ever since I was a wee lad I thought that Traveller could easily power a groovy little fantasy game, but other than a bunch of daydreaming and the occasional 1/4 page of initial design notes I never did anything about it. Thankfully, professional game designers are better at making things happen than I am…

Worlds Apart This morning brought the news that Worlds Apart, the OGL (Mongoose) Traveller-based fantasy game from Joseph Browning & Expeditious Retreat Press, will be available in print in game stores in the near future.

It’s also already available at Lulu, if you can’t wait until it shows up in your friendly local game store to get your sweaty little geek hands on it.

Worlds Apart has been available in PDF for a while now (including the semi-mandatory free, no art version), but having this show up in stores in print is pretty darn awesome. So if you want to check out the game before dedicating any of your precious silver to it, go snag that free version. It calls to you like the siren song of the sea, don’tchaknow?

Magic World Is Out!

Magic World CoverWell, in PDF anyway. The print version won’t be released until the middle of March, but print’s dead anyway, right? 🙂

Magic World, in case you haven’t been paying attention, is the new BRP-based dark fantasy game from Chaosium. It’s heavily based on the Elric!/Stormbringer 5e rules which, in my opinion, are some of the finest fantasy rules that have ever been released by anyone anywhere anytime. So this is pretty much a good thing.

A friend of mine has signed on to help with developing some of the supplemental materials that Chaosium is going to release a little further down the road, and I was actually able to do just a wee bit of playtesting* on MW (which I couldn’t really talk about until now) and I think the folks involved have done quality work on this game. If you’re looking for a fantasy RPG and don’t want the hassle of picking and choosing among the options in the BRP Big Gold Book, MW is exactly what you need.

Somewhat coincidentally, I’ll be joining said friend’s actual MW campaign in progress this coming weekend. I’ll try to get off my lazy duff and let y’all know how it goes.

* If any of you wind up playing MW and choose to play an elf, you can thank me personally for their awesome starting Dodge skill. I made the case that, based on their description in the game, that they should begin as quite skilled dodgers. That I’m wearing my LA Dodgers hat as I type this (I’m greatly anticipating the 2013 MLB season, but that’s a different aspect of my nerditude that I won’t dwell on here) is probably just due to the vagaries of chance.

OD&D Reprint, Other Stuff

OD&D Reprint BoxSo we’ve all heard by now that Wizards of the Coast is planning on reprinting the OD&D rules in what looks to be a pretty sweet boxed set. Some folks are uninterested. Some folks are concerned about the price. Some folks seem angry. Still others are rather chuffed. In other words, unique individuals are having their own unique reactions.

You can count me in the last group, though. For even though I own a copy of the Original Collectors Edition of the white box (as seen previously), I don’t own any of the Supplements in print form (I did get everything in PDF back when they were available through RPGNow) and I am an absolute sucker for a nice boxed set. And when that box is actual wood, well, sign me up! If nothing else, it’ll be fun to have this alongside the wooden box I sprung extra for in the Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls Kickstarter.

Go ahead and call me a consumer whore if you want to. But I will happily (and luckily for me) note that the release date on this is just after my birthday. So I get to call it my precious as a birthday present and not feel quite so bad about dropping the cash on it.

In Other News

The awesome G-Man slid me a new BoL adventure a little while back and, though I’ve been remiss in reviewing it for him (and posting it for y’all) my schedule has cleared up at last and, with a little bit of luck, it should see the light of day by the weekend. Feel free to yell at me if it doesn’t 🙂