Hail the Dragonslayers

 In my West Marches game yesterday, the party was searching for a rumored dragon burial mound. They didn't find it, but they did stumble across a lake with an island housing a ruined monastery. And in that ruined monastery there was a fledgling bronze dragon atop the wall. 

After much hemming and hawing about what to do (the dragon didn't talk, and seemed to be warning the party away), they scared it with some impressive phantasmal force spells (failed save and failed morale check!), then followed it into the ruins. It went into its nest to wake its brethren (as it was on watch). But a fireball wand and a magic missile spell finished them in the surprise round. 

As the party were exploring the priory for loot, they heard a larger dragon roaring outside. Cue big battle!

Except I wasn't expecting it to be as epic as it turned out to be. The "adult" dragon (8HD 'small' bronze in my version of BECMI) had way less than average hit points, only 20 when the average is 36. It did have two more wyrmlings with it, though, so the battle could have gone south quickly. But the party had initiative in the crucial early rounds. The fireball wand took out the two wyrmlings, then the parent cast darkness while one of the party's magic users cast haste and another cast web on the entrance. 

When the dragon came in, it got stuck for a few rounds in the web. It did manage to breathe on the cleric, but even though she failed her save, she had enough hit points to survive. The party managed to then inflict some serious damage on the dragon, but it then cast hold person on four of the PCs, and three failed their saves. It managed to get off both of its remaining breath weapons, but in its damaged state they didn't do much. The party finally finished it off. 

And also, one PC has an arrow of teleportation. He drank a potion of luck to ensure that he'd hit with it and teleport the dragon away. It was a smart plan, but they managed to do so much damage to it that they called him off from using it. 

It was a pretty tense battle, and I'm happy that it went on long enough to have the dragon cast a few spells and use all of its breath weapons (although I guess I should have had it use the fear gas breath after it was damaged, might have given it time to escape the web, but I didn't think of that in the moment, and the party was so spread out only one or two would have been gassed anyway).

I really enjoyed running the encounter, and I think the players had a good time as well. And now a few PCs get to level up!

Mentzer Basic Cover to Cover: Monster List - Dragon

Dragons. Half of the name of the game. The only monster to get nearly two pages of text in the Basic Set (and the fact that most monsters have gotten a whole page or more in many editions since the 2E days says something about the direction RPGs have taken in the past 25 years, but that's a discussion for a different blog post). The one monster that you really want to be able to defeat, because it's so iconic to be a dragon-slayer.

So, what do dragons look like in the Basic Set? Well, we all know the six basic colors, white, black, green, blue, red and gold. They're all here, each with increasing hit dice (starts at 6), AC, claw/bite damage, and morale (white and black are both 8, green and blue are both 9, and red and gold are both 10). XP and saves, of course, also increase with their hit dice. Movement, attacks, number appearing (1-4, in dungeons or out) and treasure type are all the same. White and blue are neutral, gold is lawful, the remainder are chaotic.

One thing I'm reminded of here, is that the claw damage implies that these dragons aren't super huge. The white dragon's claws are only as effective as a dagger or a brown bear's claw (d4 damage), while a red (1d8) and gold (2d4) have damage equal to a sword or battle axe, or a tiger's claw. The bites, though, those can get nasty, ranging from 2d8 for a white to 6d6 for a gold. The white dragon's bite is slightly stronger than the giant ant or cave bear (both 2d6), while the gold's bite is equal to the T-Rex in the Expert Set. Using that as a guide, I'd estimate that these dragons should be between 15' to 30' long or so, or their hit die size times 2.5'. The Larry Elmore box cover art for the Basic, Expert and Master Sets would seem to be slightly larger than this estimation (the Companion Set shows one of the Large or Huge dragons in that set, so that Green is much larger).

Another thing is that number appearing. 1-4 per encounter. Usually, since dragons are fairly high on the D&D monster food chain, they get used, to borrow modern terminology, as "solo" opponents. One dragon is usually enough. Also, because an encounter with more than one can easily lead to a TPK. At Basic Set levels, one is enough for that TPK, really. But it's good to remember that dragons have families/friends that may be with them, or may be waiting back at the lair, keeping watch over all that phat loot!

Under the standard stat blocks, dragons get several more columns of specialized information that informs a lot of what dragons are, and what they aren't, in the game. These tell us where the dragon colors are usually found, and their breath weapon type, size, and shape. They give us a chance that the dragon can talk (goes from 10% of whites, increasing by 10% each color up to 50% for reds, but golds get 100%. There's a chance of the dragon being asleep, starting at 50% for whites, decreasing 10% down to 10% chance for reds, and then down to 5% for golds. Then we get their spells by level. Whites that can talk can cast three 1st level spells, and black dragons 4. Greens get 3 1st level and 3 2nd level, and blues get 4 each of 1st and 2nd level. Likewise, reds get 3 each of 1st, 2nd and 3rd level spells, while golds get 4 each of 1st through 3rd level.

One thing I had always assumed (even though, as we shall see below, is contradicted by the text) was that dragons that didn't talk were just animal intelligence, or maybe semi-intelligent at best. Like the dragon in Beowulf, it may be smart enough to notice that some of its treasure is missing and that humans probably took it, but if it can't have a conversation it's still pretty much just an animal. I've always had two kinds of dragons in my game, and yes, the non-talking kind are a lot easier to defeat because of that.

Frank tells us that all dragons are big flying lizards with breath weapons, have eggs, eat meat, love treasure, and "will do everything possible to save their own lives, including surrender" (p. 28). That says a lot right there, about how dragons should be played. Each dragon should be a character!

The next paragraph reinforces that impression, telling us about how they tend to behave. Because they live for very long times, they really don't give a rat's ass about others. "Chaotic dragons might capture men, but will usually kill and eat them immediately. Neutral dragons might either attack or ignore a party completely. Lawful dragons, however, may actually help a party if the characters are truly worthy of this great honor" (p. 29). Then Frank tells us that dragons are proud and love flattery, and may not attack anyone who butters it up, if it can understand language. Obviously, this is taking cues from Bilbo and Smaug in The Hobbit.

Then we get a warning that even though they're in the Basic Set, it's probably best to only use young/smaller dragons (explained in the Age section, below, although Frank doesn't reference this here) until the PCs are higher level (Frank suggests at least 4th).

After this, we get some specialized subheadings for specific topics related to dragons.

Breath Weapon Damage: Those who have only played newer editions (2E and up) might not know it, but in these rules, a dragon's breath weapon does damage equal to their current hit points, but the dragon is limited to breathing only 3 times per day. Also, the rules specify that a dragon always uses its breath in the first round of combat. While that might not seem like the most tactically sound method in some instances, it's something that my friends and I would try to exploit when we were young. I assume we weren't the only ones, because later editions added all sorts of extra powers to dragons to keep players from using these advantages. Personally, I think dragons are fairly tough enough without needing the ability to automatically detect illusions, tremor-sense, and the like. Dragons are tough, but they shouldn't be impossible to gain an advantage over. If every encounter with a dragon becomes a battle of attrition hit point slog, that's not very fun, and it makes it a lot riskier for the PCs (or they just wait until they're a lot higher level before tackling dragons).

Anyway, after the first round, the DM can decide how the dragon attacks (claw & bite, or another breath) or roll randomly (there's a chart, of course!).

Dragons' breath weapon, as mentioned, does damage equal to their current hit points, the rules are explicit on that. I remember reading a thread on Dragonsfoot.org's forums once where people debated this, and Frank actually chimed in saying that he always had the breath weapon do damage equal to the dragon's total hit points, which makes dragons very challenging. Personally, I'm a fan of the RAW. If players are smart, they attack while the dragon is sleeping, or they gain surprise (invisibility, illusions, etc.) and get a free round of attacks in. That way, they've got a chance to lessen the effects of the breath weapon before it hits them. The RAW rewards smart play. Keeping the damage as the total rewards cautious play. I find the game more fun, both as DM and player, when a smart plan allows caution to be put aside. 

Shape of Breath: We get a short explanation of the cone, line and cloud types of breath, so that the DM can easily adjudicate who is in the breath weapon attack area and who isn't (although if you're playing without minis and a battle mat, you just need to trust the DM to be fair.

And that picture! I'm not sure why, but this picture is what convinced me that D&D was something I needed to have. I'd been watching the cartoon, and had some of the Endless Quest CYOA books, but when some of my mom's old Peace Corps friends came to visit in the summer of '84, and their neighbor showed me his BX books, the version of this picture in Moldvay made me want to buy the rules.

Saving Throws: No matter what, always save vs. breath weapon against a dragon's breath, even if it seems like another type of attack (chlorine gas/poison is the only one that seems like it might get argued the other way by some "reality lawyer" type player.

We have a bit of a curious sentence here, as it could be interpreted in two different ways. "Dragons are never affected by the normal or smaller versions of their Breath Weapons, and automatically make their Saving Throws against any attack form which is the same as their Breath Weapon" (p. 29, emphasis added). So normal versions of the breath weapon, I get. A red dragon is immune to normal fire, a green is immune to poison gas (or specifically chlorine gas?), etc. But what's a "smaller" version? That from a dragon with fewer hit points? Is it a reference put in there for reference when the Companion Set large and huge dragons get introduced? It's open to interpretation.

Talking: Frank explains that all dragons are intelligent (I mentioned this above), but not all can talk. If the dragon talks, it also can cast spells, which are chosen randomly (and it always amused me that a red or gold dragon might have a fireball spell, when their breath is usually better).

Now, I mentioned earlier that I like to have non-talking dragons be only semi-intelligent at best. That's just my personal thing. But recent editions make (most) dragons geniuses by the time they're adults (in addition to all these other powers they've tacked on), so that they're more of a challenge. Nothing in the rules here, though, state that dragons are exceptionally intelligent. It's possible to infer from the chances of talking/spell-casting that whites and blacks are not so bright, in comparison, and reds and golds are smarter. But the rules don't state that explicitly.

Again, I don't think every dragon needs to be super smart. Allowing the players a chance to outwit a dragon now and then can be fun for everyone...if the players think to try and outwit the dragon.

Sleeping Dragons: And actually, now that I've reread a few sections, I start to see why many DMs ignore the Number Appearing range of 1-4 dragons in an encounter. All of the examples, including here, say things like "when a dragon is encountered" which gives the impression that dragons are usually (or should usually be) encountered solo.

So every dragon (or group of dragons? Should the DM roll individually for each dragon? Good luck with that, players!) has a chance to be asleep when encountered. If your party is lucky enough to catch a sleeping dragon, you can get a free round of attacks and spells in (at +2 to hit) while the dragon wakes up. Unlike the sleep spell's description, you can't just auto-kill the dragon, but you can put a dent in its hit points before it wakes up and breathes on you.

Subduing Dragons: A few posts back, discussing Morale rules, someone (JB of BX Blackrazor, maybe) asked what's the difference between a dragon losing morale and surrendering, and a dragon being subdued? I think, personally, that a dragon that loses morale still is in a position to bargain, whereas subdued dragons surrender unconditionally. There's nothing explicit in the rules about this, but from a reading of the morale rules in general, and the rules for subduing dragons, that's how I'd play it.

Oh, and if you don't know, crazily confident (or magically overloaded) PCs can attack "with the flat of the sword" not doing any real damage to the dragon (meaning its breath is still at full strength) and if they manage to get it to "0" then the dragon is subdued, because it knows it could have been killed.

But the dragon will try to escape or cause trouble for the PCs, while grudgingly serving them until allowed a chance to escape, or ordered into an obviously suicidal situation, or sold. Yes, you can sell a dragon for up to 1000gp per hit point! Subduing the dragon is VERY risky, but if you can pull it off, you can get filthy stinking rich. You get the dragon's treasure and can sell the dragon for nearly as much more. I wouldn't advise it until Name Level or higher, when you need crazy amounts of treasure like that to level up, anyway.

My question regarding subduing dragons has always been, who's buying these subdued dragons? And what do they do with them once they're purchased? If that's not on Jeff Rients' list of 20 Questions About My Campaign, it probably should be.

Age: Here's a subsection I sometimes forget, because it's easy to just use the stat block as printed. But in BECMI, young dragons simply have fewer hit dice (up to 3 less), and older dragons have more (up to 3 more).

Again, maybe it's just because these are the rules I started with, but I find this simpler than the OD&D/AD&D way of having a set number of hit points per hit die by age, and the overly complex tables of a dozen different age categories in 2E/3E, each with increasing stats and powers. One reason I like it is that until that first breath weapon hits, players have no idea who many hit points, exactly, the dragon is going to have. The other is that it's a lot simpler just to add or subtract a few hit dice to a dragon to make it older or younger, than to consult all those tables.

Treasure: Their treasures are also proportional to their age, with younger dragons having 1/2 or 1/4 of Type H, and older dragons having up to double. Now, treasure type H is the most generous of treasure types, so even 1/4 of that is a pretty nice haul. So young, relatively inexperienced would-be dragon slayers would still come out alright if they can find a young, 3HD white dragon to battle.

But, as this section points out, dragons rarely leave their treasure out in the open, or unguarded. And now's a good time to once again point out that there should be 1d4 dragons per lair, meaning only 25% of the time should there be a single dragon only. Best scout out that lair before charging in!

Gold Dragons: The final section gives us a few special notes on the lawful Gold Dragon. They always talk, always cast spells, and can shapeshift into any human or animal form at will. They also get a choice of fire or chlorine gas, but still only three breaths per day, and the DM should always decide which type of breath they use.

The Dragon Sandbox: Plotting

Damn, now I've thrown my mind out of samurai/ninja gear, and into my "dragon sandbox" idea.

Plotted out what I think I'd need to do to get it off the ground.

1. Use my old Maritime Campaign maps.  Here's the Maritime Campaign that barely got off the ground a few years back.

2. Name those islands and peninsulas!  At least name ones where lairs will be placed, and ports will be located.

3. Place dragon, giant, and other large monster lairs.  At least a dozen to start, maybe more.  Maps of lairs (some caves, some ruined castles or cities, some in the wilderness, etc.), denizens (the big monster & it's treasure, plus any guardian creatures/traps, and lesser beasts that dwell in conjunction with or in the shadow of the big attraction).

4. Have a list of what sorts of information/help could be found at ports, with some info specific to each port location (sages, libraries, wizards, navigators, heroes retired and active, etc.)

5. Have at least 5 "treasure maps" of varying levels of accuracy for the players to discover (and they should likely start with at least one already).

6. Make sure each lair's treasure hoard contains some Keystone Treasures (famous named items, whether gems/jewelry like Hope Diamonds, or famous magic items like in my Unique Magic Items downloads over there on the sidebar).  For hoards that are only coins, have a history of how they got there (lost pirate treasure, cultists sacrificing to the beast, ransoms paid, or whatever).

7. Make a big ol' list of rumors of all of the above.  Make sure the players start with a bunch of rumors, not just one or two (one of the problems last time was that I still hadn't developed much, so I didn't have many rumors for the players).

8. Have a few stock ruined cities, mysterious temples, etc. that could be thrown onto unstocked islands, which would provide some clues to other lairs/important locations if they are explored.

The Dragon Sandbox?

Just had a thought inspired by Dean.  In a FLAILSNAILS game he was part of a party that defeated a crystal dragon and earned "billions" of gold (Dean's words, no idea what the actual tally was).  Anyway, this thought popped into my head.

A sandbox campaign where there were only dragon lairs as adventure locations.  Of course, there would be other guardian beasts, symbiotic creatures, or worshiping cultists/humanoids in some of the lairs.  But each and every place where you could earn XP through slaying creatures and taking their stuff would be a dragon's lair of one sort or another. 

Low level PCs would strive to just get in and make off with a bit of loot and their skins.  Mid-level PCs would then try to take out some of the younger/weaker dragons.  High level PCs would - well, whatever they want, pretty much.

It would likely be a harsh campaign, as the risks would be very high, but the rewards commensurate.  Could be fun.

Beast of the Week: Echidna

Continuing with the Greek Mythology influence, here's another nice little monster to trouble your PCs.  Echidna.  Not the mother of monsters immortal version, but the Argive Echidna, which is a better monster for mere heroic mortals to tackle.  She is a dracaena (female dragon) similar to Scylla.

Echidna
Armor Class: 0 (20)
Hit Dice: 9**
Move: 90 (30) Fly 240 (80)
Attacks: 2 + gaze
Damage: 1d6+1/1d6+1/charm
No. Appearing: 1d4 (1d4)
Save As: Fighter 9
Morale: 9
Treasure Type: G
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 2300

Echidna is a fearsome creature, half dragon, half nymph.  The beautiful head and torso of a nymph rests atop the body of a dragon.  Echidna have no breath weapon or bit attack, but they have a gaze attack that can charm as a charm person spell.  An echidna can attempt to charm one target per Round, in addition to attacking with her dragon claws.  Once per day, an echidna may attempt a more powerful charm, acting as a charm monster spell.  The victim takes a -2 penalty on the saving throw against the greater charm.

Beast of the Week: Dragon Mount

As I mentioned last week, here are the dragon-beasts that your characters could ride around on in the Golden Axe video game series (the Chicken Leg one is under the dungeon chicken post).

Dragon Mount
Armor Class: 4 (16)
Hit Dice: 5+2*
Move: 90 (30)
Attacks: 1 breath or 1 bite
Damage: 3d6 or 1d8
No. Appearing: 1d6 (1d4)
Save As: Fighter 3
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: A
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 400

Dragon Mounts are two-legged, wingless beasts related to dragons that are often trained to serve as mounts to warriors from monstrous tribes or barbaric humans.  Each may use a breath weapon for 3d6 damage (which may be a 20' long, 10' across at the far end cone, a 30' long, 5' wide cone, or a 10' cube cloud) which deals 3d6 damage.  Anyone in the area of effect may Save vs. Breath for half damage.  The dragon mount's breath may be that of any standard dragon (cold, acid, chlorine, lightning, fire), regardless of the color of the dragon mount.  On their own, dragon mounts may bite (1-4 on d6) or breathe (5-6 on d6) in combat each round.  When directed by a rider, they attack as the rider desires, but no more than one breath every two rounds.

Beast of the Week: Demodragon

Possibly because the network censors wouldn't allow a full-fledged demon prince to appear on a Saturday morning cartoon show in the 80's, Venger didn't capture Demogorgon to use against Tardos Keep.  Instead, the show's writers came up with Demodragon, part demon, part dragon, all badass.  It still has the two heads and tentacles associated with Demogorgon, but it's a big two-headed dragon with cloven hooves that breathes fire from one head and ice/cold from the other.

Let's try giving it some stats based on a combination of the Mentzer Companion Set Huge White and Red dragons.  Should make it fearsome enough!  This is a creature that only the highest level characters should face toe-to-toe.  Better hope your DM lets you find some dragonbane before you meet Demodragon!

Demodragon*
AC: -5 (25)
HD: 32****
Move: 150 (50)
Attacks: 10 tentacles/2 bites
Damage: 1d12 each/4d8+8 each
No. Appearing: 1 (1)
Save As: F32
Morale: 11
Treasure Type: H x3, I x2
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 13,250

Demodragon is gigantic gray and purple-skinned dragon with two heads, one red and one blue.  It stands upon cloven hooves and has masses of tentacles sprouting from its sides.   It is said to be half demon, half dragon, and its fearsome aspect and powers seem to support that hypothesis.  Demodragon can only be hit by weapons of +3 enchantment or better, and is immune to all spells of less than 4th level.  In combat, Demodragon can use up to ten of its tentacles each round, but no more than two tentacles can be used against a human-sized or smaller opponent each round due to their size.  Victims hit by a tentacle may be grabbed on a natural 18, 19 or 20, and then squeezed for automatic damage each round.  A save vs. paralysis with a -4 penalty may be made each round to escape.  Each of Demodragon's heads can bite or breathe each round.  The red head breathes a cone of fire 180' long and 30' wide at the far end.  The blue head breathes a cone of cold 90' long and 40' wide at the end.  Each head can breathe three times each day.

My Love/Hate relationship with Safari

Safari the makers of plastic models of animals, not treks through African wilderness (something I've yet to experience).

They've put out another dragon, this one is an Ice Dragon.

So I'll be able to finally add a large white dragon to the minis mix.  As soon as my wife allows me some discretionary funds that is...  She's getting a little annoyed at my constant buying up of dragon figures from Safari, Schleich and Papo, even if I do play with them with our son.

And I'm still waiting for a black dragon mini that doesn't have two heads.

Endless Quest #13: Dragon of Doom

"The evil magic-user Zed has used a powerful, forbidden spell to summon forth the mighty Shen, the dreaded black Dragon of Doom!  Unless you can do something to stop him, Zed will turn Shen loose on the world to spread death and destruction wherever he goes."  --from the back cover

In yet another EQ book by Rose Estes, we get a mixed experience.  The story told in the book is fairly interesting, and has a few novel differences from other EQ books, but the 'game play' of the choices is limited.

In the book, you play Morgan, a young Magic-User sent to bring your imprisoned uncle home to the Council of Nine, but quickly learn, as the blurb above says, that he went mad in his Astral prison, and summoned the Dragon of Doom, who's more of an apocalyptic force of nature than a standard D&D dragon.  So of course, you've gotta stop him.  Your only help are your pseudo-dragon friend Hinoki* and your uncle's Ring of Wishes.

The book is novel in that at three or four places, you're taken out of second person narrative, to get a look at what Shen is up to as he answers the summons of Zed.  He's none to happy about it.  And the story over all is interesting.  You have some interesting encounters along the way to the confrontation with Zed and Shen, and while young, your character doesn't do too much whining and is relatively competent.

The big downside of the book for me was that the first choice pretty much divides the book into two paths, one of which is extremely linear (and I had the bad fortune to read that one first), and the other, while slightly less linear, isn't exactly full of interesting branches until you get toward the end.

On one branch, you just head off on your own through the wilderness, get some help, and track down Zed at the end of the world.  This one has lots of choices that don't really matter.  Either way, you end up at the same place.  Or there's a 3- or 4-way choice, where one leads to a bad ending, two lead to the continuing adventure, and the fourth, if there is one, leads back to choose again.  There's some really cool imagery along this story branch, though, especially at the end of the world.

The other branch involves Hinoki leading you to the secret Valley of Dragons, where you can get killed in a few interesting ways, or end up meeting the Great Dragon in one of two good endings just before Zed and Shen show up.  There are a couple of ways to get to one of these good endings, so it's not completely linear.

The cover is by Clyde Caldwell, and the interiors are by Harry Quinn.  Caldwell's Shen is way too small, from the way the book describes him (like 747 size!), but otherwise is a good evocative piece.  Quinn's interiors are good, but not quite as immersive as the ones he did for Pillars of Pentagarn.

Overall, this is not a bad EQ book, but I wouldn't rate it up at the top, either.  Worth a read, though, for some interesting ideas and imagery.

Protagonist: a young hot-shot M-U
Sidekick(s): a not-too annoying pseudo-dragon, possibly also a girl Saffron, and her cat Grundoon
Adventure: evocative if less than stellar in its choices
Artwork: Good, gets the job done
Endings: 3 good, 10 bad--somehow, Dungeon of Dread does a lot more with 3 fewer endings
Overall: a decent read



*Hinoki is the Japanese name for the Japanese Cypress tree.  Not sure if the pseudo-dragon's supposed to be an Oriental dragon, though.  We use a cream made of hinoki extract for our son's skin.

Oriental Accents: Pi Hsi (Turtle-Dragon)

As I mentioned the other day, we found statues of this monster at a Buddhist convent last Sunday, and I have conveniently statted up the monster for my Flying Swordsmen RPG project.  Here it is:

Pi Hsi (Turtle-Dragon)

AC: 22

HD: 8

Move: 90 swim 180

Att: 2 claws, 1 bite (+3)

Dmg: 1d8/1d8/2d8

NA: 1d6

Save: F8

Mle: 9

Int: 14

Stunts: M 1d12, F 1d8

Pi Hsi are large (15' long) dragon-like creatures with turtle shells over their bodies, and dragon heads, feet, and tails. They live in rivers and lakes, which they protect. The take orders from Shui Long (Water Dragons), and sometimes serve as guardians to them. In addition, Pi Hsi are scholars, and collect ancient chronicles, poetry, or volumes of lore in their lairs. They have no special supernatural powers, but are known for their great strength.

For simple conversion to D&D, just ignore the Stunts line.  In Dragon Fist/Flying Swordmen, you don't get automatic stat bonuses for high ability scores.  Instead, you get a stunt die, and have to select which one you will use each round.  The Pi Hsi above has an extra d12 that it can use as a Strength bonus, or a d8 Constitution bonus.  In other words, each round it can choose to get either a +d12 to hit and damage rolls, or d8 temporary hit points.

So to do a more complicated conversion that fits its actual abilities in DF/FS, I'd suggest adding a few hit dice and doubling its claw and bite damage.  

Greg Christopher mentioned training my son to ride turtles.  I was thinking more along the lines of dragon riding.  You never know when you might run into one of these:

At the temple last Sunday

Last weekend, the family and I went to a Buddhist convent in one of the satellite cities of Busan.  Not much of interest to report, but I took several pictures of these statues at the foot of a bridge right in front of the temple.

My son straddles the beast!

It's a Pi-Hsi, a Chinese mythical dragon-turtle.  Likely the inspiration for the D&D monster.  You can read more about it here, at Monstropedia, a pretty useful little website (even if a lot of the text does seem to be culled from Wikipedia).

I've got a write-up of this monster for Flying Swordsmen RPG, but it's on my netbook and I don't feel like powering it up right now.  Maybe tomorrow I'll edit in the stats.  They'll work well enough with your favorite flavor of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game (except maybe not if your favorite's 4E).

Chinese Monsters

Here's a list of some Chinese monsters I'm considering for inclusion in the Flying Swordsmen RPG.  These are just preliminary notes, taken from some of my books (E.T.C Werner's Myths and Legends of China, Strange Tales of Liao Zhai, Journey to the West), and some websites, like Monstropedia.

These are just notes right now, and not all of them may make the cut into the final project. Feel free to chime in with any ideas about ones that don't seem 'kung fu' enough, or that I would be foolish to leave out of the game.

Jiao-long (alligator/crocodile, hornless dragon, female dragon)

Bai Gu Jing (white bone demon)

Bai Ze (white lion with 1 or 2 horns, beneficent, similar to foo lion)

Chimei (mountain or hill demon, similar to wang-liang)

Zhi Ren (paper ghost, like in Tenchu?)

Dragons

sky dragon tian long, guardians of Heaven, red or yellow color

spirit dragon shen long, clouds & wind, blue color

water dragon shui long, rivers and seas, green color

hidden dragon fucang long, underworld guardians of treasure, purple or black color

Huli Jing (fox fairy)

Pi Xiu (winged lion with antlers), eats gold but can't pass it.

Pi Hsi (dragon turtle)

Yeren (wildman, monkey-man, bear man, bigfoot?)

Xing Tian (headless giant, nipple-eyes, navel-mouth)

Sun Ravens Sanzuniao (fiery three-legged golden crows)

Zhenniao (poisonous birds)

Tiangou (comet dog, thunders at enemies)

Longma (dragon horse, scaly pegasus)

Ye-cha (yaksha, night demon, 1' tall pointy-toothed goblin)

Flower Fairy (spirit of flowering tree, or aromatic oil tree, dryad)

Fish Warriors (spirits of fish, turtles, shellfish, serve as soldiers to sea dragon kings)

Breath Weapon Damage (again)

I've blogged before about the discrepancy in the rules of various TSR versions of D&D dealing with dragon's breath weapons.

Do they do the dragon's full hit points at all times?  Do they decrease with damage taken?  Moldvay/Mentzer/RC are clear that it's the dragon's current hit points.  OD&D, Holmes and AD&D don't necessarily say one way or the other, but they read to strongly imply max damage.

Anyway, I finally finished up my new verse translation of Beowulf today (it sat on the shelf for quite a while) and in the battle with the dragon, there were two passages that caught my attention:

To assist his kinsman, that man in mail
aimed not for the head but lunged at the belly
of their vile enemy (in so doing his hand
was badly burnt); his sword, gleaming and adorned,
sank in up to the hilt and at once the flames
began to abate.

The 'man in mail' referenced above being Wiglaf.

Each time I slashed at that deadly enemy,
he was a little weaker, the flames leaped
less fiercely from his jaws.

Wiglaf recounting the battle to the cowards.

Quotes from the verse translation by Kevin Crossley-Holland (c) 1999.

If the Beowulf author says I'm doing it right, I'm doing it right.

Endless Quest #6: Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons

"Forced into a duel of wizards at the mysterious Rainbow Castle, you are magically separated from your teacher and grandfather, Pentegarn, who battles for his life against three evil wizards.  You must get back to him!"  --from the back cover

Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons, by Rose Estes, is unique in that it's the only non-licensed Endless Quest book that is a sequel to an earlier book (to my knowledge, anyway--I never read most of the later 'first series' nor any of the 'second series' EQ books).  The characters of Jamie, Fox, Owl, and Pentegarn return from Pillars of Pentegarn in this book.  Baltek the Fighter and Lydia the Thief do not return (maybe the official ending was one in which they died?  It doesn't say...)

Jamie, the protagonist, is now a teenager, and an apprentice wizard.  You've got only a few spells, but Pentegarn's blood gives you an innate ability with magic, so you've got a lot of potential (in other words, don't expect Ms. Estes to stick to the Vancian rules of D&D...although there was at least one place where she mentioned having to 'refresh' spells).  However, before your training is complete, word that Pentegarn is back in the Pillars reaches three evil wizards, Malus, Pothos and (I keep wanting to say Aramis) Rubus.  These three have claimed magical rulership over the district, and challenge Pentegarn to come to Rainbow Castle and duel with them.

The book starts out in a way that made me leery, despite remembering that as a kid I enjoyed this book.  The first choice is a non-choice.  Pick the wrong one and it sends you to the other choice anyway.  The second choice is the same.  Again, I get the feeling they were thrown in as a way to break up the overlong introduction.  But the third choice is where the real adventure begins, and it gives you three options that lead to three different adventure locations.

Basically, the three wizards want you out of the way while they duel so you don't cheat for Pentegarn (and they can cheat against him, of course).  So they offer to send you to Limbo, the Game Room, or the Tower.  The Tower course is the most limited, as it has a few options that send you to Limbo or the Game Room, but can lead to its own good ending.  The Game Room option again has a way to lead to Limbo, and has two good endings that you can find.  The Limbo option also has two good endings.  Bad endings in this book pretty much mean death (or permanent magical transformation).  There's only one neutral ending I remember where you escape with Owl, leaving Pentegarn and Fox to their fates.

There are some fairly interesting things to encounter in the book, and some nice, unusual locations.  It doesn't read like a typical D&D adventure, but it doesn't feel 'wrong' either.  One oddity is that there is a place where you can meet a guardian who has some magical colored stones that you need to arrange to escape.  The book actually has a half page illustration, and suggests cutting them out or tracing them to actually do the puzzle yourself.  The opposite page is an illustration, so you wouldn't lose any text if you did cut them out, but I wouldn't want to.  When I was a kid, I'd checked this book out from the library so of course I couldn't (I remember I did trace them, though, and did the puzzle).

The rainbow dragons are a bit weak, actually.  There aren't that many ways you can encounter them, and they breathe rainbows as a breath weapon.  That may be the reason the three bumbling evil wizards were able to oust the dragons from Rainbow Castle.  But despite that, the book is entertaining.  It's not quite as good as Pillars of Pentegarn, but then I think that's one of the top books in the series.

The art is pretty good in this book.  The cover is a rare Easley painting rather than an Elmore.  The interiors are by Harry J. Quinn, who did Pillars of Pentegarn, so there's a feeling of continuity with the art. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book.  It has a few flaws, but it's got a lot of good ideas, and some non-standard situations that break some D&D tropes in a good way.  It has a variety of paths that lead to good endings despite the linear beginning. 

Protagonist:  Apprentice Wizard, much improved over his first appearance
Sidekicks:  The bickering Fox and Owl return for more of the same
Adventure:  Interesting.  Not quite D&D, but varied and strange.
Endings:  Quite a few good endings, mostly deadly bad endings.
Art:  Nice cover (Easley), cool interiors (Quinn)
Overall:  Good

A new take on the Gold Dragon

I've had my eye on Papo's fairly new "Dragon of the Rising Sun" figure for a while now.  I've never really been a fan of AD&D's styling the Gold Dragon after the oriental 龍*.  I'd always imagined them as winged dragons, just like the other dragons in the Basic Set.  But it would scratch my itch to have a Gold Dragon figure to plop on the table, and would serve double duty for when I run OA campaigns.

But today I noticed that Papo has also now released their two headed dragon model (which I was considering to fill the Black Dragon niche) in gold.

Now, according to the Basic Set, Golds have a 100% chance to speak and cast spells, and a mere 5% chance to be caught napping. 

A dragon with two heads would be much less likely to be caught fully asleep.  One could rest while the other kept watch.

A dragon with two brains would be more intelligent, one would assume.  More likely to speak and be able to use magic.

A Gold dragon has two forms of breath weapon--fire and chlorine gas.  One type from each head!

A Gold dragon is lawful, and a two-headed intelligent dragon would need to have both heads operating in harmony to function.  Seems like a fairly lawful mindset to me.

The only thing that doesn't fit by the book would be that a Gold only has one bite attack.  But then at 6d6 damage, that's fairly nasty just for one bite.


I don't know that I'd actually re-envision Gold Dragons in my campaign to all be two-headed just because I may buy the figure.  If I do get the black two-header, I definitely won't be applying this logic to Black Dragons.  But it was fun to think about.


[Pimping Michigan Toy Soldier Company in my links, because I've always got great service from these guys.]

*"long" in Pinyin, "lung" in Wade-Giles for those of you who don't read Chinese.

Endless Quest #16: The Dragon's Ransom

"You have been honored by being chosen treasure seeker to raise the ransom that must be paid to the Golden Dragon who stands guard over the Land of Oon.  But first you must face danger from fierce orcs, trolls, hobgoblins, and...what else?"  --from the back cover

The Dragon's Ransom, by Laura French, is not one of the best Endless Quest books, but it's close to the top.  Something about it really appeals to me, so much so that I've used the basic premise of the book in my own Silverwood Campaign.  A dragon guards the land, and while it protects the people, it demands tribute every month.  So the local authorities sanction adventuring parties to bring back loot to give to the dragon.

In this book, your character is a 13 year old Cleric named Leondal.  You're on your first adventure.  You can cast Detect Evil, Command, Remove Fear, and Cure Light Wounds.  Of course, as a kid, reading this before I'd seen the AD&D rules where Clerics get spells at first level and bonus spells for high wisdom, I thought young Leondal must have been at least 4th level--but how could this be his first adventure?  Anyway, don't worry too much about translating the game mechanics to the story.  They don't really follow so well.  Both spellcasters can pretty much use any spells at will in the book, but it doesn't hurt the narrative at all.

As Leondal, the very first choice you're given is to set out on your own, or to take along three companions who equal you in age: Drawg the Fighter, Pantel the Thief, and Kyrel the Magic-User.  Drawg is big and strong, but dumb.  Kyrel is small and weak, but can use Burning Hands and Comprehend Languages at will.  Pantel is a skilled Thief, but is reckless and thrill-seeking.  The first test of your wisdom--do you need an adventuring party or not?

Well, let's just say that if you don't, you get a surprise from a nasty beastie, or else you go back and take them along after all.  The big down-side to the book, might as well get it out of the way now, is that there are lots of choices that are non-choices in this book.  You make a choice, and it sends you back to make the other one, or both paths then end with a choice that is identical.  This happens quite a lot in this book.  Where some EQ books manage to make the adventure feel sandboxy by allowing you to explore and go back, The Dragon's Ransom feels much more railroady, at least for the first half.

On the plus side, though, this is one of the few EQ books I've encountered where you have a proper adventuring party, with all four of the iconic character classes.  And while you're just a 13 year old kid and so are your sidekicks, all of you are also competent adventurers.  Another plus is that while the first half of the book is quite linear, there are a lot of interesting encounters, including a side-trek to an orc lair where you can either complete your mission, die trying, or decide to give up and continue on to the hobgoblin lair that is your goal.

And the hobgoblin lair (the second half of the book) is pretty interesting.  They're busy mining the hillside with their carnivorous ape pets, and the Pech slaves they captured when they took over the mine.  This means they've got a lot of treasure, and there are quite a few interesting ways to get that treasure once you're in the lair.  There are also some times you bug out with little to no treasure, and a few where you meet your end. 

All in all, I really like this book because of the fact that you've got a full adventuring party, your goal is treasure hunting (rather than taking down some BBEG or acquiring some macguffin item), and there are a lot of various D&D monsters to encounter.  All in all, it's a very D&D kind of book, even if the spellcasters don't follow the Vancian memorize and forget system of the game.

The art work is good.  You've got a decent cover by Clyde Caldwell (although it depicts a scene that isn't in the book).  The interior art, by Doug Chaffee, is nicely done.  It's detailed, evocative, and really shows the personalities of the four adventurers and their opponents.

Overall, this isn't one of the 'rock stars' of the EQ series, but it's a good solid entry and I really enjoyed it as a kid, and still found it interesting re-reading it as an adult.

Protagonist:  A competent but untested young Cleric on his first mission.
Sidekicks:  A dumb but strong Fighter, timid but powerful Magic-User, and a reckless but skilled Thief
Endings: A mixed bag.  Lots of good endings with little fanfare, quite a few neutral endings, and in the first half especially plenty of bad endings.
Art: Good.  Decent, if not quite relevant Caldwell cover, nice interiors by Chaffee.
Overall: Very Good

Skeletal Dragon, on the cheap!

Yesterday, Eli at I SEE LEAD PEOPLE wrote about the cheap dinosaur skeletons he found at a dollar store. 

I mentioned in the comments to his post I'd also found those toys in Japan, and using some of them cobbled together an undead dragon.  Here's the pic:

The body was a T-Rex, or maybe a duck-bill (Hadrosaur maybe?), the head is a Triceratops minus the frill, and the wings are from a Pteranodon.

Random Weekend Stuff

It's Sunday night here, I'm a little bit sick, and fairly stressed out about some work stuff.  But I figured I should post a bit anyway.

Got a double-shot of Sigurd-esque dragonslaying today.  I finished reading The Children of Hurin, and finally got around to watching The Barbarians.

For those of you who maybe don't know, Sigurd is the hero of the Volsungasaga, the Icelandic version of the German Nibelungenlied (made famous by Wagner's opera).   It's about how Sigurd slays the dragon Fafnir, takes his cursed treasure, then gets involved with valkyries, a pair of brothers who covet the treasure and the valkyrie, and even Attila the Hun.  It's one of those stories I think should be on an Appendix N type reading list.  Good fodder for any gamer.

Anyway, watching the Barbarians, I'm reminded of how cool the character called Dirtmaster is.  Just look at this guy.

Dirtmaster will definitely have to appear as an NPC sometime soon in a game I run.

Megadungeon Random Encounters

I've just finished (well, I'll likely tweak it from time to time, especially once play begins to keep things from getting stale) a personalized modification of the Mentzer dungeon wandering monster charts for my own game.

It all fits on a single (A4, watch out Americans) page, has encounters for my above ground ruins (Outer Works and Keep), as well as Dungeon levels 1-10, and separate sub-tables for human types (to get more monsters on the tables), dragons, and oddities (random magical effects, traps, etc.). It's also got a little sub-table for motivations for creatures (hunting, slaving, returning to lair, etc.) and NPC party strength (how beat up are they, how many spells and magic items have they exhausted)

Download it here or from my sidebar.

More scans: My first original dungeon

So this is the dungeon I whipped up after completing the Mentzer starter dungeon that I posted earlier. This was created during the Christmas vacation of 1984 (got the Basic set as a birthday present 2 weeks earlier).


Level 1, a system of caves, except the walls are all smooth. I don't think it ever came up why the place was like this, apparently natural caves from the outside, but apparently worked from the inside.

The big room at the top was expanded later on. The gold dragon that lives there became an important NPC when my friend Todd's fighter, who had a ring of telekinesis (probably from the red dragon), tried to steal a few gold coins as we were passing through one day. Once our characters had made it up to the Companion levels, I thought I'd better beef him up, so he became a Huge Gold (toughest of the tough) and his room was expanded.


The highlight of level 2 of course is the red dragon. Why a red and gold both lair in the same dungeon, no one knows. How the red gets in or out is also a mystery. Maybe enough low level adventurers keep coming that he doesn't need to go anywhere?

Back then, I sometimes restocked dungeons, but other times, certain monsters 'respawned' (to use a more modern term) and were always there. Realism and consistency were not issues back then. The red dragon, of course, always respawned. The Cloud Giant is obviously a later addition through restocking, as I didn't get the Expert Set until a year later, as a Christmas present.

You go up to level 2 in this dungeon, but down to level 3. I don't remember if anyone ever found and used the secret entrance/exit to level 3 or not. The 'bottomless pit' at the dead end on the lower left did come in handy a few times, including one time when the red dragon was tricked into drinking a potion of diminution, stuffed into a bag of holding, and then a race was on to get there and dump him in before the potion wore off. Good times.

Looking back on these maps, of course the stocking of them is random and pointless, but the design of the dungeons is actually not bad for a beginner. There are lots of paths and loops, secret ways that can be discovered (several concealed doors and the secret entrance), and some cool atmospheric weird things like a talking skull and a small lava lake.