D&D 30 Day Challenge, Day 8

Day 8: Favorite Character You Have Played

OK, well, I'm usually the GM, not a player, but I had an elf named Ethrindal whom I enjoyed playing several times.

D&D 30 Day Challenge, Day 7

Day 7: Favorite Edition

     So far, my favorite edition that I've played is 3.5, if we're sticking strictly to D&D. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed Basic D&D for what it was, and AD&D 1st edition. I played more AD&D 2nd edition than anything else, and have SO many happy memories of that, But D&D 3rd edition was great, and the 3.5 revision made it even better.

     I HATED 4th edition with a passion that would probably surprise you. It wasn't even D&D as I understand the term. I played it a couple of times, and gave up. Ugh. I thought it would make a better board game than RPG. Then, sure enough, I played the Castle Ravenloft board game  based on the 4th edition rules, and that was kind of fun - but that's all 4th edition was. A board game wishing it was an RPG.

     For the record, I have purchased 5th edition, but haven't tried it. It looks as good as 3.5 in its own way, though. I bet I would like it.

     Going beyond D&D to its near relatives, it is a toss-up for favorite between Pathfinder (which I like even more than 3.5) and Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG (which I think newer gamers would love for its style and simplicity - it has me for those, and for its nostalgia factor as well!).

D&D 30 Day Challenge, Day 6

Day 6: Favorite Deity

Probably Odin. In my campaign, spelled Odhinn. I've used him in my old AD&D/AD&D 2nd ed./D&D 3rd ed./D&D 3.5 campaign, and in my Pathfinder campaign, and in my novels and stories. I get a lot of use out of him! Expanding beyond D&D though, my Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG campaign has a cleric of Bobugbubliz who is very entertaining . . .

D&D 30 Day Challenge, Day 5

D&D 30 Day Challenge, Day 5 - Favorite Set of Dice?
     This one is easy! My favorite dice sets at the moment are from Goodman Games, designed specifically for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG (a retroclone - of sorts - of D&D), but they would work well with D&D too! These are called Hugh's Weird Dice and Shanna's Weird Dice:

       Why do I love these dice? Aside from being aesthetically pleasing (especially Shanna's black-and-gold dice!), they have the "weird" dice needed for DCC RPG's "dice chain" mechanic, including d3, d5, d7, d14, d16, d24, and d30. This supplements the "standard" D&D dice of d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d%.
     The thing is, Gamers today consider the "standard" D&D set to be . . . well, standard. Gamers today will rarely - if ever - understand the absolute wonder and excitement of using anything other than a d6! In the 70s and 80s, when I was growing up, no one I knew had ever even seen a die that wasn't a d6. I got my D&D Basic Set (the Mentzer "Red Box") and it came with polyhedral dice! Everything in the "standard" set except the d% (to roll percentiles, you rolled the d10 twice). These polyhedral dice were funky. They were weird. Heck, D&D players even had their own lingo (that has since become Gamer "standard" - calling a four-sided die a "d4" and so forth.
     So now Dungeons & Dragons is on its 5th edition, and the standard set by D&D has prevailed - D&D still uses the polyhedral dice. But DCC RPG uses "weird dice" or "funky dice" for its "dice chain" - and it's like opening my Red Box for the first time, all over again! For someone who has been using polyhedral dice for 30 years, it takes a lot to bring back the magical feeling of wonder inspired by those weird dice that were in my Red Box! The DCC dice did!

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (Patricia A. McKillip) - Appendix N and Beyond!

Title: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Author: Patricia A. McKillip
Appendix N Status: Should have been on the list . . .

     A really good story told with a simple and direct style which I envy and to which I aspire. Published in 1974, this could have been on the original Appendix N, but wasn't. I'm not sure if Gygax never read it, didn't like it, or simply didn't consider it formative, but it's exactly the kind of fantasy that was so fundamental for early D&D. The main protagonist is Sybel, descended from a wizard's bloodline, who wields power over minds and wills of others through their names (similar in some ways to the "Earthsea" books of Ursula K. LeGuin). Sybel summons forgotten magical beasts and keeps them at her home on Mount Eld. She gets drawn back into the world of mundane humans because of a more mundane relations of hers.

Fantasy RPG Elements: The powers of Sybel could be those of a Conjurer, an Enchanter, a Druid, a Psionicist/Occult character, or perhaps a Pathfinder Summoner. The unique monsters - the "forgotten beasts" of the title - could all be RPG monsters, maybe unique , maybe not.

     I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes classic fantasy RPGs. Very cool stuff!

D&D 30 Day Challenge, Day 4

Day 4 - Favorite Gameworld
      Argh, I'm supposed to be able to choose just one? OK, well, when I was a kid I loved them all. Greyhawk and Blackmoor were tied to the very roots of D&D, so I loved them, and the "Known World" of Mystara in Basic D&D was tied to my initiation into the game, and expanded through Bruce Heard's "Princess Ark" stories in Dragon Magazine. Greenwood's writing made me fall in love with the Forgotten Realms. The Dragonlance fiction sucked me in, although there was something I always found a little uncomfortable about it. Ravenloft was one of my first and favorite AD&D modules, and when it became its own world, I fell in love. So many worlds . . .
     But these days, my favorite Gameworld - official published on, I mean, not one I created - is Áereth, the Gameworld created by Goodman Games for the Dungeon Crawl Classics series of modules for D&D 3rd, 3.5, and 4th edition. It combines so much of what I loved about Mystara, Greyhawk, and the Forgotten Realms. Great stuff. It's also the default setting for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, which has evolved from D&D.

D&D 30-Day Challenge, Days 1-3

I intended to start this on April 1st, and circumstances conspired to prevent it. For religious reasons, I could not begin on April 2nd (a dies ater). So here we are . . . the D&D 30 Day Challenge, days 1-3:

Day 1 - How you got started
     I don't remember exactly how I got interested. But once I did, I was hooked. I really got started with the Frank Mentzer "Red Box" Basic set, with the Larry Elmore cover. Classic:

     From there, I quickly got into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st edition):

     This was the cover of my first DMG! Anyway, from there, I got into all kinds of RPGs. Always loved D&D, though. I was an early adopter of 2nd edition. Thought I would hate 3rd edition but loved it (and 3.5, and Pathfinder). Thought I would love 4th edition but hated it. And while I like the look of 5th edition, I have not yet tried it. The Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG has recently brought back all the mystery and wonder I felt when I first opened my Mentzer Red Box. 

Day 2 - Favorite Playable Race

     I don't really have one anymore, but I have always loved elves (I was half an elf myself, growing up, spending as much time wandering alone in the forests of New England and dreaming of immortality and magic). I've recently really begun to appreciate under-rated races like gnomes and halflings. 

Day 3 - Favorite Playable Class

     I always loved playing the magic-user, mage, wizard, whatever it was called. I like the idea of sorcerers and how they evolved from the classic wizard class. In the more recent editions, I love the idea of the warlock class, but have never played one (yet!).