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Incline Damsels, Adventurers, and Dragons Myths of Malignost Long Term Campaign

mastroego

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AD&D 2E, like its predecessors, is a You Can Try System. You think of something to do and you try it. As the DM, I adjudicate using the rules as is. It's actually better since it doesn't put you in a straight jacket of If You Don't X You Can't Do Y. That's all modern editions of DANDINO do.

For example, I had an Elven Swashbuckler Bard that was 1st level with the max of 6 hit points. This is the first session so the entire party is in the tavern. My character is on the second floor looking to see a prostitute. Down below in the main drinking room, a fight breaks out between a group of rowdy drunks and the party. My character decides to climb on the railing to leap onto the chandelier. He was going to cut the rope after swinging the chandelier back and forth to get momentum then use the chandelier as a ride to land on top of a few guys threatening the party mage. DM tells me to roll under my Dexterity of 19 because there wasn't an Acrobatics skill. I got a 20...
I don't know, I hear a lot of this stories, but I've been playing recently a game with skills, ran by a DM with good "instincts". If you want to do something that anyone can reasonably attempt, you'll just make a correlated ability check as you did there, with a reasonable difficulty level. Otherwise you'd enter the realm of specific skills. But generally everyone can try everything (unless it's something you absolutely can't do without training, such as speaking a foreign language or playing an instrument).
It all rests on the DM's wisdom and common sense in any case. But skills are useful to give more depth to the characters.
And I wasn't talking just about skills, but rather about mages being able to cast at least cantrips all the time, fighters having special abilities and moves to make them more interesting, and so on, things were AD&D felt a bit lacking.


As such, if you can think to do something and want to try it you can. It's not my place to sit there and say you can't do it because you don't have x. Thus, mechanics are not necessary in a properly run game.

Aknowledged... then again, you wouldn't need the other rules either, if we apply this kind of reasoning everywhere.


Why do you need a mechanic when you can put that into your character's background and personality? See it makes sense with Hero System and GURPS because there is a mechanical benefit to do so. In AD&D there is no such benefit other than role playing.

I wasn't talking about backgrounds, I haven't read that part yet. I'm talking about the mechanic that allows to retry a roll and pick the best result (or force you to use the worse one, if you have dis-advantage at something).


I had a 3rd level Blade Bard that had just started in the new Dark Sun campaign. All characters start at 3rd level in there. In the first tavern we were in my character decides to have the party mage, a female, be my assistant as I put on a show. The very first dagger he threw hit next to her head as intended. The next two daggers missed their targets around her body and struck her in the chest and right arm. She nearly died. The crowd was outraged and chased my character out in the desert. He was forever banned from that town due to an honest mistake. That doesn't need a mechanical benefit.

Agreed, it's something that happened and you shaped the rest of the story around it, as you would probably do with any game system after all.
This doesn't really have much to do with rules, and it's not like the ones from AD&D, including those that make no sense (like, for instance, the rules for dualclassing), improve on this in any way.
I don't think it's heresy to say it, there are several things in AD&D that just weren't completely thought through, and I felt this way even 2 decades ago.


What's NWP? Additional rules I suppose?
NWP are AD&D skills and stand for Nonweapon Proficiencies as you have Weapon Proficiencies. They were first introduced in AD&D 1E and weren't well done. In AD&D 2E, they are a lot better in how they're done. Every class gets a base amount of skills that is modified by their Intelligence. The higher your Intelligence the more skills your character has.
Ah, ok, I didn't remember.

Oh, and don't get me wrong, I'm just debating for the hell of it here.
Again, I love AD&D. It's been the game of my youth. I just think it was far from perfect rules-wise.
 

JamesDixon

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about mages being able to cast at least cantrips all the time
In this setting the mages would have to create them. None of the spells in AD&D 2E are there until a wizard researches them.
fighters having special abilities and moves to make them more interesting
This is an imagination of the player vs. what limits the game designer put in issue. If you can think it you can try it you don't need rules or approval from the writer of the RPG. All you need is the okay from your DM/GM.
allows to retry a roll and pick the best result
Save scumming which is a terrible thing when it comes to storytelling. If I had chosen to reroll the fall on my swashbuckler or the by misses blade bard then I wouldn't have a cool story to tell 30 years after it happened. Sometimes there are just some ideas that are terrible.

I agree that the rules are far from perfect. That's why you need good DMs/GMs to get the most out of it. I rarely house rule anything in my games. The rules are just good enough to have fun. ;)
 
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JamesDixon

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NecroLord

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What can we expect to encounter and battle? Magical beasts? Dragons? Demons?
 
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Comte_II

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Sorry got lost in the shuffle but will you have a comliness (spelling?) Stat for appearance and then Charisma? We used to have a comliness stat when we played 2 edition.
 

JamesDixon

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Sorry got lost in the shuffle but will you have a comliness (spelling?) Stat for appearance and then Charisma? We used to have a comliness stat when we played 2 edition.

Yes, there is Appearance as a stat that has it's own modifiers. This way you can have an insanely beautiful character that is completely repulsive personality wise or the opposite.


I'll send you a message on discord. :lol:
 

mastroego

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In this setting the mages would have to create them. None of the spells in AD&D 2E are there until a wizard researches them.
That's cool, neat angle, actually.
But I was talking about the fact that they attempted to make mages able to use at least a bit of magic all the time, instead of having to sit in an angle when they finish their spell slots.

This is an imagination of the player vs. what limits the game designer put in issue. If you can think it you can try it you don't need rules or approval from the writer of the RPG. All you need is the okay from your DM/GM.
I see your stance and I agree with it.
I'm just saying AD&D is a system where if you dual-class (sorry if I'm using the same example for bad rules) you can't go back to improve your original class ever. I mean, what?
How is this not an arbitrary limit to the player's freedom?


Save scumming which is a terrible thing when it comes to storytelling. If I had chosen to reroll the fall on my swashbuckler or the by misses blade bard then I wouldn't have a cool story to tell 30 years after it happened. Sometimes there are just some ideas that are terrible.

I agree that the rules are far from perfect. That's why you need good DMs/GMs to get the most out of it. I rarely house rule anything in my games. The rules are just good enough to have fun. ;)
I don't think this is fair criticism to the advantage rule. It's not save scumming. It's just a simple system to refine chances. If you try something while the conditions are particularly favorable for some reason (or for your class), you can roll twice and use the better result. If they're unfavorable for some reason, you must roll twice and pick the lower result.
You may not like it but it's not save scumming.

Anyway, I feel like we're debating the sex of the angels here.
Sure I agree with what you said last, the point is to have fun :)
 
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I'm just saying AD&D is a system where if you dual-class (sorry if I'm using the same example for bad rules) you can't go back to improve your original class ever. I mean, what?
How is this not an arbitrary limit to the player's freedom?
Like basically everything in AD&D, there's a reason this exists.






...I actually don't have it on hand, might have been in a dragon article(by gygax.) I'll ping Zed Duke of Banville and see if he finds it first.
 

JamesDixon

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use at least a bit of magic all the time
Cantrips in AD&D 2E took up a level 1 spell slot. Once you used all your slots it was done.
I'm just saying AD&D is a system where if you dual-class (sorry if I'm using the same example for bad rules) you can't go back to improve your original class ever. I mean, what?
How is this not an arbitrary limit to the player's freedom?
As with anything in AD&D 2E, certain things exist for a reason. I never used dual classing at all with any human character I played. I rarely multi-classed as well. No, I don't know the reason for the rule either, but I imagine it has to do with the lifespans of humans. The fact that training takes time leads me to believe that post 5th leveling was to be a multi-year process to get to the next level. By the time a character reached 9th-11th level they would be in their 60's and ready to retire.

Once thing that I did change for Malignost is that demi-humans can't multi-class at all. They are subject to the same dual class rules as humans. Also, demi-humans have the same life expectancy as humans. That can only change if a wizard researches a spell that increases life spans.

I don't think this is fair criticism to the advantage rule. It's not save scumming. It's just a simple system to refine chances.

In other words, you're save scumming to get a different result. I don't believe in do overs on a fair roll. You and I can disagree on it, but that's old school for you. You either succeed or your character dies and you start over again.

Are you interested in joining the playtest? :lol:
 

JamesDixon

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Are you interested in joining the playtest? :lol:

Still very interested, just a bit uncertain.
I wouldn't want to be the guy who spoils it ;)
You already have a scheduled date?

Ask JarlFrank and Ninjerk about how I GM. I work with my players to give them the characters they want. I'm also extremely fair to them. I do not cheat on rolls or the like which does lead to hilarious situations.

Nope, I'm waiting for players to sign up. So far it's just JarlFrank and maybe Ninjerk.
 

mastroego

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I have every confidence about your GM abilities ;)
The reservations I have are only those I posted earlier, mainly about possible "frustration" for "non updated" rules and for not playing in my beloved nostalgia settings.
Please consider that I *didn't* get to keep playing D&D, I've been missing it since, I don't know, 1997?
(the thoughts that give me pause would sound something like "if I don't try to play again in Forgotten Realms right now, I may not have the chance to do it later" if spoken aloud...).
So, absolutely nothing to do with your setting, which sounds wholesome.

But I'm inclined towards yes (if you'll bear with me being still a little undecided for a while longer), trusting that the setting and the characters in it will grow on me.
If you have additional information you can share about the campaign, I'll gladly read it. :)
 

JamesDixon

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I have every confidence about your GM abilities ;)
The reservations I have are only those I posted earlier, mainly about possible "frustration" for "non updated" rules and for not playing in my beloved nostalgia settings.
Please consider that I *didn't* get to keep playing D&D, I've been missing it since, I don't know, 1997?
(the thoughts that give me pause would sound something like "if I don't try to play again in Forgotten Realms right now, I may not have the chance to do it later" if spoken aloud...).
So, absolutely nothing to do with your setting, which sounds wholesome.

But I'm inclined towards yes (if you'll bear with me being still a little undecided for a while longer), trusting that the setting and the characters in it will grow on me.
If you have additional information you can share about the campaign, I'll gladly read it. :)

There aren't any characters designed yet as the game begins right after the world was created and all the races have awakened. Your characters will blink in the early morning sun to see the god and goddess that created you and the party's 5 characters each and up to 120 NPCs of your race. You literally start play as the first generation to walk on Malignost. The heroes and villains are the characters you and I create.

Imagine it's the mid-1970s, you're sitting around a dining room table eager to play this new fangled Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. You don't know what to expect as this is the first of its kind. There aren't any published settings, except for Tolkien's Middle-earth and Moorecock's Elric. The guy tells you his company is making this new thing called a role playing game. He wants you to help him test his world of Greyhawk and use your character to form the pantheon and stories for the world.

That's where you and the other players are at. A vague world that you have the keys to make as your own. It's unique because the players in it are unique.
 
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Ninjerk

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mastroego If it helps you make your decision (and I know you've already mentioned you have confidence in his GM abilities), the only reason I've not mind up my mind to do the playtest at this time is because I've found myself being spread a bit too thin over the last couple months with my new job and have had to reprioritize and reduce other commitments. Were it merely a matter of the tabletop environment, I'd probably be in because I myself haven't played ADnD 2nd since maybe 99-2000 (my cousin was the GM and passed away and I couldn't roleplay anymore without thinking about it).
 

mastroego

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Time constraints are actually an issue for me too.
But if I never start this is never going to change, so I'm trying not to consider it among the issues...

Say, JamesDixon, what rulebooks from AD&D are you planning to use?
I could start reading some of them again, and see where it leads me :D
 

smaug

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I CAN PLAY!!!

Invite me and everything thanks. I've never played tabletop D&D before so might as well start now.
 

JamesDixon

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Time constraints are actually an issue for me too.
But if I never start this is never going to change, so I'm trying not to consider it among the issues...

Say, JamesDixon, what rulebooks from AD&D are you planning to use?
I could start reading some of them again, and see where it leads me :D

I'm using the AD&D 2E Premium Edition. It's the same as the AD&D 2E Revised but with different covers.
I CAN PLAY!!!

Invite me and everything thanks. I've never played tabletop D&D before so might as well start now.

Sure PM sent with discord server information.
 

JamesDixon

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Here's some screenshots of the table I set up for the game.

20220918131647_1.jpg


DM's seat with everything needed to run an AD&D 2E game.

20220918131653_1.jpg


20220918131701_1.jpg


Two views from the player's side. They have note storage, a journal with 84 pages with the storage holding 18 more, a hit point tracker, a dice tower for rolling, character sheets, and the PHB.
 

JamesDixon

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Everyone loves maps. Here's Malignost in four different types of maps.

First up we have your standard altitude map. I'll be mapping the borders of the counties and duchies onto it.

Malignost_Altitude.JPG


The next map is the Climate of the planet.

Malignost_Climate.JPG


The third map is the amount of rainfall of the world.

Malignost_Rainfall.JPG


Finally, we have the temperature map. Malignost is a rather pleasant planet.

Malignost_Temperature.JPG


The base map was made in Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator. I converted it to Fractal Terrains 3 as a height map and created everything from there. It was exported to Campaign Cartographer 3 as altitude, climate, rainfall, and temperature maps.
 

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JamesDixon

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I decided to blend the altitude map with rainfall and temperature as two different pictures to show the landmasses.

Malignost_Altitude_Rainfall.jpg


Altitude plus Rainfall

Malignost_Altitude_Temperature.jpg


Altitude plus Temperature
 

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