Fantasy Role Playing Games

Back in my college days I was introduced to a game unlike anything I'd ever seen before: Dungeons & Dragons. This was actually the second edition called AD&D (for advanced) which was released in the early eighties. The original game was a shoddy collection of confusing and conflicting rules and terminology that that were thrown together in an amateurish package with graph paper, pencils and oddly shaped dice. It didn't matter because the concept was perfect.

It was amazing!

Despite the flaws of the first edition it developed a loyal fan following of high school and college kids who dreamed up amazing stories and adventures for their characters. The beauty of the game was those flaws, those gaping holes in the logic that left so much to interpretation. This game is played like an epic story being told, and you are a character in the middle of it. The narrator of this "story" does not play along with you, he is the referee. He describes the events that you play out, he plays the part of anyone you might meet, be they a person or a monster.

The "Dungeon Master" (DM from now on) is the key to a great game.They weave the incredible tale, create back story, set mood, dream up fantastic treasures, diabolical puzzles, interesting and deadly encounters. The best ones can keep you on the edge of your chair, They build up the feeling of danger, they force the players to act and decide. They are swift and terrible and deadly, but always fair. The players usually know what they are getting into, and if they plan well and act carefully they have a good chance of success and survival.

The creators quickly went to work, compiling an abridged set of rules for the second edition. The players handbook, dungeon masters guide and monster manuals 1 & 2 were gorgeous hard cover books, loaded with information, pictures and ideas. The levels and material for the character classes was expanded to make the game play last indefinitely.

There is much to learn if you want to become a DM. Playing the game seems complex at first but with a few experienced comrades to help you along, you can have a character created and equipped, ready to go, within an hour. I will break the game down into 5 sections.

The players create a "character" to play. The setting is the middle ages, with magic and all the races found in heroic fantasy: Elves, Dwarves, Halflings (Hobbits), Orcs, Gnomes. Once you have chosen a race, there is also your character's class, which is their area of expertise: Fighter, Thief, Wizard, Cleric. Each class has particular strengths and weaknesses that makes playing each of them a different experience.

The choices you make here will determine your abilities as well as strengths and weaknesses. Humans are the most balanced race, while others have bonuses in some areas, and penalties in others. Some of the advantages are obvious: Hobbits make exceptional thieves. Elves excel with magic. Dwarves are expert miners and builders which gives them advantages underground and within castles and buildings of stone.

Racial choices can also prevent good relations with fellow party members. Orcs and Dwarves don't get along. Ever! Don't even bother trying.

Your character will have randomly rolled attribute scores for the following:

Strength: Your weight / load allowance, ability with weapons, damage done
Intelligence: Ability with magic, languages, detecting traps & magic
Wisdom: Primary attribute for prayer, resisting magic, reading magic
Dexterity: Ability to avoid damage, use ranged weapons, climb / jump
Constitution: Health, resistances to poison / disease, ability to heal
Charisma: Ability to influence, gain trust.

Each attribute is a factor in aiding or penalizing dice throws that you will have to make throughout the game. A players understanding of their character's abilities and modifiers would be able to determine odds for various actions, much like our own split second decision making in crisis situations. There is still random chance that can backfire in your face despite the 98% chance of success. Such is life, and death in the world of D&D.

This is the one that got some religious folks upset. The alignment is how your character will act, and react to situations. It guides your decisions and your fate. It allows players to step outside themselves and play someone totally evil and diabolical, crazed and chaotic, holy and zealous. We don't mind when actors do it so I could never figure out why people were so afraid of this game. Players are actors and the DM is the director.
Good Evil and Neutral are the alignments. Add to this Lawful and Chaotic as tendencies.

Lawful Good: Believe in law and order, strict code of conduct. King Arthur.

Chaotic Good: Believe in good over evil, free will, willing to break the rules, Robin Hood.

Lawful Evil: Believe in evil over good, strict rules / code, diabolical, Arch Villian

Chaotic Evil: Believe in free will, promote evil over good, random, maniac.

Neutral: well you can figure it out. I always found neutral a cop out, but it was good for playing monks (they are the only true neutrals without law or chaos).

There is a lot of dice rolling in the game for every reason imaginable. Anything that you wish to do, to interact with might have some effect that needs to be quantified. For example, your party of 5 adventures have been exploring abandoned sewers outside an ancient town for a rumored stash of gems. As you prowl the sewers any number of random things can happen. The DM will make periodic rolls to determine chance encounters, traps, random events. All of this is in addition to the nasty surprises he has waiting for you, hoping that you'll take that wrong turn and run into a large poisonous cave spider. If you did, the following might happen:

DM: "A huge cave spider darts up from the dark opening in the floor and attacks" He makes a dice roll to see if the party is surprised (allowing the monster to go first). One of the players has an elf character. Elves are rarely surprised so he gets a "saving throw" roll of the dice. He makes his roll so the DM allows him to act

ELF: "I thrust my torch at the spider while I draw my sword" The DM checks the elf's dexterity and sees that it is high enough for him to draw his sword while attacking with the torch. The player makes a dice roll and scores a hit. The amount of damage is rolled according to the weapon type,

DM: He checks the damage and 4 "hit points" of damage was done to the spider who has 12 points available. Now down to 8 hit points, The DM describes the hit on the spider: The spider has one of it's legs badly burned and it darts back hissing. It lunges forward and attacks the elf. A dice roll is made and the spider succeeds, stinging the elf.

The elf has a "saving throw" to make vs the effect of the poison. His constitution is factored in and he rolls the appropriate dice. He fails the throw and falls back, paralysis quickly taking effect.

By this time the other players have recovered from their shock and are leaping into action. The ones with the highest dexterity will be acting first, wizards mumbling incantations to launch an offensive spell, clerics casting a blessing that fills the party with strength and hope (+1 to any dice roll), warriors drawing swords, thieves darting into the shadows to sneak around for a blindside attack.

It can get pretty exciting and sometimes the oddest and most hilarious things happen. Just as in real life, you wouldn't believe it if you weren't there and saw it for yourself. I have experienced some of the amazing, bizarre, tragic and heroic stories by living through them and the memories are of the friends who played with me. Martin and his crazy Paladin, "Uncle Wank" and his incredible Wizard Cid, Robbie and his Half Orc Cleric.

The whole point of the game was to survive. At 1st level you were likely a farm boy with some local militia training with spears and wooden swords. You had some patchy leather armor, a battered yet sharp short sword, a wooden shield and your wits. A few supplies like torches, rope, food, and the tools of your trade and you are off to seek your fortune. Solving puzzles, completing quests, fighting opponents and finding treasure would all award you with experience points.

When your points reach a certain total, you advance in "level" to a level 2 fighter. Now all of your dice rolls are applied at this higher level which improves your chances. You are awarded more "hit points" which increases the amount of damage you can withstand. Your abilities in other area increase, depending on your class. In this case (a fighter) it is primarily fighting abilities that improve.

As your character lives and improves, they amass treasure which can purchase better weapons and armor, attract underlings (cannon fodder lol), and eventually buy or build a fortress and even build an army. Depending on the scenarios your DM has to play, almost anything is possible. IF YOU STAY ALIVE.

The Fighter is the easiest class to play and usually the most common choice of players. There are no restrictions on armor, weapons or equipment. The Fighter has the most hit points and attacks with the highest chance of success. There are many sub-classes of fighter that can be chosen, if the character's attributes meet the minimum requirements.

Strength is the primary attribute of the fighter, but equally important are dexterity and constitution. A high constitution allows more hit points which means the fighter can withstand more damage. The dexterity affects the ability to use certain weapons, to use 2 weapons at once, and the ability to avoid being hit. A high dexterity also adds an additional chance of hitting with ranged / thrown weapons.

A fighter with above average scores in 4 of the 6 attributes, can become a Paladin. They must be lawful good in alignment and follow certain rules as to their conduct, equipment, amount of wealth and magic allowed. The benefit is that a Paladin is a holy warrior who excels at combat, has the ability to heal, can detect and repel evil, and even cast Cleric spells once they reach higher levels.

Another class is the Ranger. Rangers are similar to Paladins but they are chaotic good. Rangers are less strict and constrained in their conduct than the Paladin and have far more options in most situations (for example - the Paladin must always confront and vanquish evil when they discover it). They have tracking, hunting and combat advantages over regular fighters. They are almost impossible to surprise, easily detect traps, and have extensive knowledge of wood lore.

The Cleric is a holy (or unholy) warrior-priest. In tribal groups this would be the shaman or medicine man. The power of the cleric comes from the deity that they worship. In effect, their "spells" are more like miracles as they come directly from the god that they worship. In order to maintain their powers the cleric must follow the rules of their religion as far as trying convert followers, rendering aid or zealously attacking as befits the situation (some religions can be violently opposed as we are all aware).

The primary attribute of the Cleric is Wisdom. The higher his wisdom score, the more spells and greater the effectiveness of those spells (miracles). There are minimum wisdom requirements for Clerics to rise above a certain level and be able to build and support a temple to their deity.

The Cleric usually supports and helps the party of adventurers with healing spells, blessings and the guidance of their wisdom. They are allowed to wear armor and use many weapons in combat, and are adept at a slightly lower level of performance to normal fighters. The one restriction is the use of edged weapons. Clerics favor the mace or war hammer over swords.

The Mage is one of the most powerful character classes in the game, once they reach the higher levels. Getting there can be difficult! At first level they have the lowest hit points (health) of any class, are not allowed to wear any protective armor and can only use daggers or a staff offensively. The amount of magic available at lower levels is limited in the number of spells allowed per day and the quality and effectiveness of those spells.

Intelligence is the primary attribute of the Mage. The higher the intelligence, the greater the number of spells that are available to the character. The chance of learning new spells, and often the range, duration and effectiveness is also tied to the Mage's intelligence score. Spell casting is a complex and varied procedure. Some spells require material components, gem dust, oil of bat farts, herbs. Some spells require intricate motions and gestures. Some require a vocal component. They are all detailed in the spell book and these factors determine when and where you can cast some spells, and how long it takes. For example: If you need to shout "Burnus Blastus Kafloof" to launch a fireball and your enemy has you hacking and coughing from a sulfurous stinking cloud, you are out of luck!

The mage is very important as magic is often the only solution to some of the puzzles or obstacles adventurers will face. The mage must be very careful and have the support of his fellow adventurers if they wish to survive. The mage usually marches in the middle of the group, protected on all sides, ready to offer their intelligence and magical aid where needed.

There is always one person who only wants to play the thief. And why not? Thieves are one of the most interesting characters to play and if you get up high enough in levels, extremely formidable. The primary attribute for the thief is Dexterity. Thieving abilities include picking locks, removing traps, climbing walls, picking pockets, hiding in shadows and moving silently. They are restricted to only the lightest armor (leather), and no shield.

Thieves are often used as scouts and in combat, usually fade off into darkness to creep around behind unseen, and sneak attack. Thieves attack at a level lower than Fighters and Clerics, but better than a Mage. They gain bonuses and can be very deadly when using sneak attacks.

Thieves are adept at deciphering languages, can read some magic scrolls, and even cast some lower level magic spells once they reach a high enough level. Thieves rarely pass up a chance at profit, so even when scouting for the party, a thief may see a nice score and come back later to try to steal it. This would be a brief side game with just the thief and the DM to determine the success. You never know. Your thief might get caught and be hanged the next morning. Unless of course your buddies show up and bust you out as you are walking up the gallows. We did it (back in 86) and had to fight half the town militia to get out, but we needed our fool thief for our mission!

As I have mentioned before, we tweaked the game. We had to. If you advanced a character past level 20, you were topping out all the tables and matrices used to calculate dice rolls for combat, spell casting etc. We expanded the tables for character & monster levels up to 40, another table for levels 40 to 70 (we were serious gamers). We raided other game systems for new spell ideas, created an "official list" of spells up to level 18, up from the games limit of 9. Monsters were created by us now, as nothing in the books and monster manuals were tough enough.

We even started delving into a little techno. We found weird shiny metal corridors in a dungeon we were exploring. It turned out to be an alien generation ship that attempted to colonize thousands of years earlier. The local monsters probably originated there, and were extremely fierce. Things got a little dicey when activated a glowing portal and started an invasion!

Playing at that level could complicate game play. We spent a weekend (at least 6 hrs on a Saturday and Sunday) embroiled in a fantastic battle. It involved 4 players and a small army of alien soldiers. Some weird anti-magic beings that arrived in powered armor suits attacked and all hell broke loose. We were being led by A-Cid the magic user who was level 50. Cid was chaotic evil and an all around terrible person. He was also as powerful as a modern aircraft carrier, when you consider his magic as it relates to his era.

The little energy creatures in the powered armor suits were called "X" and they came from a plane of existence where magic does not exist. We of course argued that magic works on our plane so it should affect them when they are here. The DM did not agree. X was his answer to Cid's usual decimation of his monsters, obstacles and trials. Cid did his best at blasting, frying, transmuting and disintegrating everything else and we got busy with the X.

Eventually we took this expertise in adapting and creating new "rule sets" and applied it to other games. There was a popularity boom with role playing games in the 80's. Other games followed suit, and the Pocket Box games appeared, usually for under $10. They could be found at the game shop, hanging on peg boards in a black plastic box. They usually contained a brief rule book, some maps and counters and dice.

Classics like Ogre and Car Wars made the short term tactical "war" game popular with their great balance, playability and ease of use. Ogre was a huge hit and featured a massive futuristic tank that was played by one person, and assorted small infantry and support units on the other side, played by one or more people. Depending on the scenario setup and modifying factors, the favor could easily shift from one side to the other.

Back in 83 some of my D&D buddies called me over one day to play, and pulled out this new game called Car Wars. They gave me the "Uncle Albert's Auto Stop and Gunnery Shop" book to read while they set up for the game. They pulled out some large graph paper sheets, some paper roadway sections and small cardboard counters of various vehicles from bikes and small cars to tractor trailers.

The premise is this: A bleak lawless future with national government in ruins and individual states reduced to small fortified territories. All the highways and byways of rural America are ruled by automotive gangs of thieves. Trade and commerce is conducted with heavily armed and armored convoys blasting their way through. Big corporations can afford to get their products through. The smaller operators can only afford to hire freelancers called auto duelers.

Duelers have modified vehicles that can cost 10's of thousands of dollars. They are heavily armored and are loaded to capacity with offensive and defensive weapons. Their skills are honed in the auto duel arenas and they are precise drivers and expert gunners. Advanced targeting systems and high tech weaponry is available to those who can afford it.

The number 1 entertainment in the fortified cities is auto dueling. As the story goes, it all started when someone strapped a couple of browning .50 cal machine guns under the hood for the Friday Night Figure 8 Demolition Derby Race. When the smoke cleared and the carnage was revealed, the victor claimed his $ 5000 prize and the fans went wild.

Auto dueling was born. Each city had a circuit with classes based on vehicle cost. City champions could travel to duel in other cites and soon people began to organize. The American Auto Dueling Association (AADA) became the regulating body and a national championship circuit was created.

DRIVE OFFENSIVELY!

He triggered the rear guns once more. A direct hit! The blue car skidded as the driver lost control - then flipped and caught fire, That would teach Him not to tailgate!

CAR WARS is a game of the freeways of the future - where the right of way goes to the biggest guns. Players choose their vehicles - complete with weapons, armor, power plants, suspension, and even body style. Then they take them out on the road - to come home "aces", or to crash and burn. A highly realistic grid system controls movement. If a players character survives, his abilities improve and he can accumulate money to buy bigger and better cars. Advanced rules let players design their own cars (and trucks and cycles) Playing time 30 minutes and up. Any number can play.

Look at these game components:
103 FULL - COLOR game counters (cars, vans, cycles, pedestrians, debris, smoke, oil slicks, wrecks, etc.) painted by Denis Loubet;
24 - Page rulebook with separate sheet for weapons & maneuvers.
Four 12" road sections (two with debris littered road on the back, two with pre-game planning aids on the back), stock car "shopping list", and vehicle record sheets for your own cars, trucks, and cycles.
Zip-lock bag for counter storage
And the plastic "Pocket Box" to keep your whole game together!

CAR WARS - nominated for two Origins Awards in 1982!

Game design by Chad Irby and Steve Jackson

The vehicles include motorcycles / trikes, cars, trucks, vans, buses and semis. Each vehicle chassis has 2 limiting factors, weight and space. Everything you add to the vehicle has a weight. Anything inside takes up space. Armor, exterior weapons, and tires do not use space.

The larger the vehicle, the larger the capacity. The penalties are the added cost and loss in acceleration and maneuverability. Drivers can have passengers (gunners) who can fire the weapons more accurately. The choice of weapons and armor offer almost infinite variety in tactics and game play. For example, you could load up on heavy rockets and large cannons with limited ammo, and sacrifice armor, hoping for some quick successive large hits to take out your opponent. You might want to limit yourself to a few smaller and more accurate weapons and load up on armor. Try to outlast your opponent and pick away at his tires.

Once the vehicle is complete it is assigned a rating for acceleration and maneuverability called a HC (Handling Class). Maneuvers are tracked along with other factors such as speed, taking hits, running into debris, and tire damage. These factors, offset by the driver's skill level, add to a running total that forces a player to make periodic dice rolls to stay in control. The higher the number the more often and harder the rolls. When the factor is too high you can reduce it by backing off the speed and steering in a straight line. Unfortunately driving slow and in a straight line are not advisable when there is a maniac in another car with an auto-cannon!

Each player turn was broken down into 10 segments. Depending on the vehicle speed your counter would move a certain distance on the road grid, during specific segments of the turn. To illustrate: Player A is going 60 mph so his counter moves 1 space forward in segment 1, 5 and 9. Player B is going 40 mph and moves in segment 3 and 7. The player can choose to use their weapons during any segment of the turn, but some weapons take a certain amount of time to deploy. A full turn was one second in real time of the duel.

The maneuvers were very well thought out, and as we discovered later, very accurate depictions of the actual physics of driving. If you wanted to make an abrupt swerve to avoid some mines dropped by the car ahead, you would announce the maneuver to the other player(s). A hard swerve is a 3 part maneuver so it takes 3 movement phases to complete. Each part of that movement is clearly defined in the rules and shown on a grid so you can plot the vehicle's position exactly. In this case, depending on how close you were following the mine layer, you might not be able to avoid the mines. With enough distance and a hard enough maneuver you might. Don't forget that if your HC roll isn't made you might lose control, spin out or worse.

When we started playing the game was only a year or two old. I bought the Pocket Box game for $7.95 at a game shop in the Eaton Center in Toronto. My friends and I bought all of the available supplements to the game that we could find.

Uncle Albert's, was a hilarious catalog of weapons, armor and accessories
There was an add-on called truck stop, that added the rules for big trucks.
The AADA vehicle guide contained hundreds of fully equipped vehicles.
AADA Quarterly was a magazine for duelers.

There were a few ready to play modules available but we were way beyond that. The game had originally designed a bit of re-playability into the rules but I doubt that they had intended to take it as far as we did. We immediately began playing characters over vehicles. The original game favored the vehicles and in the brutal all or nothing world of auto dueling, if you could survive a few events, your abilities would increase your chances in the dice roles and give you an advantage. Unfortunately keeping characters alive for very long proved to be difficult.

Playing the short term tactical game was great entertainment and many played it that way. As the popularity caught on, supplements were added to increase the "role playing" aspect of the game. Unfortunately by that time, my friends and I had all graduated and lost touch and stopped playing.

We left the "game engine" alone and started designing better accessories for our vehicles and drivers. Survivability was the key so the first area of focus was armor. I came up with half weight armor. It was extremely expensive and not allowed in the auto duel arenas. For dueling we stuck to the stock rule book, but when freelancing you took whatever you could afford.

Soon we added special rounds for various guns and cannons that could do extra damage or have other effects. One of my favorites was a version of fuel air explosive that went off with one hell of a bang. The damage to armor was less than half of the normal damage, but the shock wave doubled the affect on your HC. It was great for taking out groups of motorcycles, or hitting vehicles that were already performing hard maneuvers, and knocking them off the road.

EMP rounds were very helpful. Their electro-magnetic pulse did no damage except to electronic systems. There was a chance that you could damage or totally destroy your enemies targeting computers and make hitting you, much more difficult for your opponents.

As I stated before, we were interested in keeping our characters (drivers) alive so personal protection was an issue. The game allowed for personal armor and eventually they added a cool kind of health insurance dubbed "Gold Cross". The insurance company would grow some clones of you and you could go in and do a memory dump into your current clone. If you were killed on a mission, your clone was activated and would have all the experience and skills that were current as of the last update. This was hugely expensive.

We added advanced medical trauma kits that could keep you alive (barely) until help arrived or you could be placed into a cold storage stasis pod (which we also invented). If your medical support van was destroyed, you were basically screwed. Live or die was up to you, your skills and your vehicle.

First and foremost you must have a good working knowledge of the rules

You must have the creativity and imagination to "paint a picture" for your players

You must be brave and iron-willed

Running a game is hugely rewarding and probably the most fun you can have with your pants on! Being in control of the story affords you the opportunity to play god for a brief time. You are all knowing and all seeing. If you perform well, your players will be challenged and rewarded. Sometimes they will be killed. That risk is a large part of the thrill of playing.

One of the most favorite campaigns I ever ran (according to my players) was one where 3 out 4 of them were killed on the first day (in our first session). We got together and continued playing 2 more times before the first of them was resurrected. I had just finished reading "I Will Fear No Evil" by Robert Heinlein and was interested in the whole concept of a consciousness taking up residence in another person's head.

These 3 "dead" adventurers were all inside the head of the fourth who was a fighter, and I allowed some of their abilities to leak through into him. They didn't work all the time, and rarely at 100%, but he still gained some thieving abilities, cleric and magic user spells. Their bodies were left in a temple under the care of this old priest, while the fighter set out to find the magic talisman that would "return their souls" and get them out of his head.

Naturally they were all talking at the same time and trying to tell the fighter what to do. Whenever they did this I would penalize the fighter for the distraction, messing with his armor class and dice rolls in combat. After nearly getting killed by a small group of bandits (that he should have dispatched with one hand behind his back) he told all the other players in no uncertain terms, to shut the %#*& up and only speak when spoken to.

The dynamic that was created at the table was hilarious (to me at least) and they bumbled and fumbled their way to success. It was enjoyable, rewarding, and in my opinion, funny as hell. They all appreciated the creative situation and the story that they were a part of. I hope that they will tell the story to others over time, perhaps granting me a small piece of immortality.

My friend John was the best DM I ever met, and I learned from him the cardinal rule: If you don't know the rule, bluff and look it up later. Just give them a favorable dice roll and they will shut up and move along. He was running a game where there were 6 of us playing. We had a large combat in the works, so he had a 3' X 3' sheet of thin Plexiglas over several connected huge sheets of graph paper. Using dry erase markers he had been plotting out the rooms, corridors and courtyards of a castle we were raiding.

We were using figurines and the complex battle involved over 20 guardsmen, some wizards and the creatures they had summoned, and a few other non player characters (warriors, archers, etc.). John was running everything smoothly and occasionally ducking behind his DM screens to look up to hit rolls, roll random factors, check his notes and data sheets on all our opponents, and draw out the rooms from his maps.

At one break in the action we were up and about, and I happened to walk past John's end of the table. A casual glance revealed that John had nothing behind the screen but a small notepad and his dice, He had been making it up as he went along, even going so far as to carefully check the distances and angles when plotting out the map, checking behind his screens constantly. He totally sold us and we never thought to question him. In our minds he spent countless hours, accounting for every contingency, carefully crafting the story, leaving no details to chance.

John's campaigns were the best because of their fluid nature, No matter what crazy course we decided to take, he always had something interesting and fun waiting for us. I started to run my games the same way. I would still prepare but nothing was ever "carved in stone". If I came up with an interesting or funny story I would jot it down and add to it with some D&D info such as levels, spells, hit points, and I would incorporate into my story when the time felt right.

I think the funniest thing I ever did, was turn Martin into a rabbit, and Robbie into a bottle of red wine. The red wine part was particularly funny because the 2 demi-gods who were doing the "transmuting" were arguing over whether they should drink red wine, or white wine, with the rabbit they were going to have for dinner.

It's a long story but lets just say that Martin and Robbie deserved it. They got very greedy. They went way, way, way, too far, ignored several very dire warnings, and released 2 very terrible beings from a magical prison they had been in for thousands of years!

Let's face it, no matter how amusing it is to see the mighty bold adventurer step forward into the first combat of the campaign, and be decimated on the spot, it is contrary to the whole point of playing such an elaborate and detailed game. It can happen and sometimes will, but it is rare. As a referee you try to balance risk and the level of threat to the characters but despite your best efforts even pathetically weak creatures can overwhelm someone who is inherently unlucky with dice.

I have told my son on more than one occasion that he should never wager on the roll of the dice (play Craps or some similar game) because he is by far the worst dice roller I have ever encountered. If he needs a high number he rolls low, when he needs high he rolls low. I recently taught him to play and we have finished one campaign. His Paladin (Holy Warrior) has earned sufficient experience points to be on the verge of gaining his second level. It is a wonder that he has survived to get this far. Upon reaching the next level he will gain more hit points (health) which he sorely needs as he has been knocked out of a few fights and nearly died on a few occasions. (If you reach 0 hit points in battle you are unconscious and will die of your wounds unless you are attended to). If you are knocked out of a fight you unfortunately lose the experience points gained in the combat up until that point.

Picture this:

The paladin strides into the large torchlit hall, the ceiling and far walls are lost in the darkness. Snarling and barking a pack of Kobolds rushes forth to attack, short blades and spears at the ready. The Kobolds are small dog like creatures, barely over 3 feet tall. They are lightly armored and can be quick but are very over matched facing the 6 and a half foot tall armored Paladin and his deadly broadsword. Seizing the initiative with his superior dexterity he launches a huge sweeping cut that could lop several of his foes in half. The attack is clumsy and poorly timed (he rolled very low, a 2 or 3 on a 20 sided dice) and the Kobolds easily duck under and around the slash. 3 of them attack and his armor and shield protect him from harm (they didn't roll high enough).

(The Kobolds are such a low level and the Paladin's Armor Class is very good so they need a 17 or higher to hit him. With his strength and bonuses he can hit the Kobolds with a 10 or higher. He can easily kill them with a single blow due to his strength. His sword damage is calculated by rolling an 8 sided dice. If he gets 3 or higher he kills a Kobold.)

Once again the mighty Paladin swings and unable to hit anything but air. Now 4 Kobolds are leaping in and attacking the Paladin and eventually 1 manages to score a slashing attack for several points of damage. Several rounds go by with the Paladin and his fearsome martial prowess foiled by successive rolls of 2,3,4,2. The Kobolds are getting in a few lucky hits and the Paladin finds his Hit Point total dangerously low. Soon a single blow could drop him and likely kill him unless his fellow party members can drive off the Kobolds. Right now they are busy fighting off and killing the Kobolds that ran past the Paladin and attacked them. The lowly Thief and Mage manage to kill the 6 Kobolds attacking them and eventually wound and kill several of the ones fighting the Paladin.

On the few occasions that he did score a hit, the Paladin rolled a 1 on his damage roll, leaving his opponent still in the fight. The combat took so long to complete that the noise drew more attention and sent the adventurers on the run and into hiding. The end result was 10 dead Kobolds (only one and a half awarded to the Paladin) and the early usage of most of the party's healing potions and scrolls.

His unlucky dice rolling persisted throughout the campaign and as we start another one, I hope his rolling improves. The challenges will be stiffer and greater danger awaits this time around. He is venturing into a mountain stronghold to recover a stolen artifact. The one who stole it and the Giant the guards the main gates, will have to avoided for the time being. In some time, after they have gained several levels they may want to return and take care of them, but for now this must be a covert mission.

The Birth of Salem Yaltron

Late one night after far too much celebration, my roommate Blair and I decided to play a little "Dungeons & Dragons". Blair was not into the conventional game, but had played some and knew enough about it. We played for a couple of hours without touching pencil to paper and without rolling any dice. Blair set the stage with some excellent and creative story telling which had me waking up in a dark room on a cold metal slab. I was aware of only 3 things: My name was Salem Yaltron, I had some sort of technological implant on the side of my head, and I was in imminent danger. The ensuing adventure was fast paced, fantastic and far out. Days later we tried to re-capture the magic and continue the adventure but the moment, and the story, was lost forever. For the record, "Yaltron" was the brand of digital watch Blair was wearing at the time.

The Cardial Claw

My Half Orc Cleric tripping through the multiverses with Martin and his demented Paladin. My friend and original D&D mentor Martin, had a very strange Paladin who was called into service by a god who made some rather fundamental changes in him (OK we completely broke the rules on this one) and gave him the tendency to occasionally do evil deeds. We were trapped in a series of "gates" that had us traveling through various alternate universes, one more bizarre than the last. This all culminated in a massive battle with "The Cardial Claw" a gigantic robotic crab, bristling with advanced technology. This creature was lifted directly from the pages of a Heavy Metal magazine (from the adventures of John Difool), in fact the DM even showed us the picture! The ensuing mayhem was a complex battle that took hours to complete but would have lasted mere minutes in real time. I survived largely due to rolling an astonishing 5 consecutive resistance rolls, (I needed 25 or less on a 1 to 100 roll) or be blasted to bits when hit by the Cardial Claw's main gun.

Blasting our way out of Downsview Air Force Base

My most advanced Car Wars character and vehicle, teamed up with Martin and Robbie to take on an evil scientist who had built a walled fortress complex. Our referee used a map of Downsview Air Base (a Canadian Forces Base in North Toronto) for the layout, right down to the local streets, Sheppard and Keele! The walls were impenetrable and were protected by tank guns. Our vehicles were "off-the chart" and stronger than anything within the "normal" rules, but those guns would be sufficient to take us out before we got close enough to do anything. We devised a plan to bring our 3 vehicles into the fortress covertly, inside 2 tractor trailers, along with several men (NPC characters) on motorcycles, and ground troops whose job was to try to take any vehicles available within the compound, and join the fight. We played Saturday and part of the day Sunday to get in, get the bad guy, and blast our way out. I lived (just barely) and Martin survived to toast our departed friend Robbie who sadly perished just as we escaped the fortress.