Magic-User in B/X, Tenkar’s

 Magic user in B/X. Low levels, how to. Tenkar’s. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8L0nTXKffA&t=326s

Levels 1-3, job is support. 

Stay behind 2 bodies from front. 

Avoid open rooms. 

MU should hide among these to avoid archers, which are the main danger. Remember, any hit will waste your spell.

• Corners
• Pillars
• Darkness

Shadowdark spells new

 Listed https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VOn6JD9rCs8&t=665s

Druid

Downdraft - tier 3 (lvl 3 )- target flying creature. Str check or forced to land. Larger than you creatures have adv on roll. 

Cool metal- tier 2- 1d4 dmg per rnd. No save  

Cal lightning- toer 3 - 3d6. Outside only. No saves

Elemental breath - tier 4 - cone, near, 3d6+3 dmg to all. No saves  

Fire shield- tier 3- 2d4 fire dmg if enemy close. And u take half dmg deom cold. No saves for enemy

Freeze surface - tier 3- freeze water 5 rnds. Can just coat the top of something with ice too  

Fey cloak - tier 2 - lije inviz if dont move. Turns off and on for 10 rnds. Every time stop moving u r inviz again  

Fey door- tier 4- go into big rock, bring 1 friend, teleport somewhere u can see  

Greater sleep - tier 3- lvl 4 or weaker category creatures. Dmg or super shaking them wakes  

Earth tremor - tier 3- mini earthquake, rocks pop up, u fall amongst them take 2d4 per rmd for 5 rnds… dex save 13 dc means zero dmg each round u make save  

Ice armor - tier 2- lasts 5 rnds, +2 ac, +4 on crit success. Creatures near take 1d4. 

NECROMANCER

Deathly whispers - tier 2- u soeak thru any dead body or undead creature u have previously touched. U cant see or hear from it tho. 

Talking skull - tier 2- 25 words , then skull inert. But u pick trigger

Fighting Fantasy - Vault of the Vampire, chest riddle

 

Idea for dnd riddle. From Spellsinger’s yt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsXCFx-7FWM&t=837s

The text

Gfgfho sid bqnnvq pe Thffgqjde

Sid dgbho lbhm ng sid wzmhbmu nod

Ugsdf gvmeqfc bme ejeux tdqzszud mhojt

Ng ejmfru zslptsdr dqbeu

I thought bqnnvq might be armor, but then it was so misspelled as armmur I figured not, then I quit trying after the first line and a glance at the rest (figured some 2 letter words were “of” and some three letter words were “and” or something… shoulda tried harder).  Well turns out it sure was armor… spelled “armmur”. I mean “armour”, since it’s the British way of spelling. They got me. Looked it up, found answer on blog below. There are some actual misspellings (how many? Just the first word maybe… great, since we start at the start) in there to throw u off though. 

Here’s the answer https://berolisden.blogspot.com/2011/11/vault-of-vampire.html

 123: You remember that Lothar referred to the Count saying "Forward and back" and laughing. You translate the code on the chest by advancing every other letter one place in the alphabet, and regressing the remaining letters one place. 

Herein the armour of Siegfried

the chain mail of the valiant one

three hundred and fifty separate links

of finest armourers craft

I started to translate based on https://berolisden.blogspot.com/2011/11/vault-of-vampire.html

Hehin the amour of 

Archaeology yt ideas dnd and just plain interesting

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c1f_fBMuhQ

5:50 time, Bark hut early in vid

9:30 time, Human sacrifice… like 55 at a time in Illinois.

Time 16:30, the Egyptian symbols (r kinda like Soviet ones), like Farming and Herding. Hook and flail. Crook? It’s the shepherd hook. 

Underdark Ecosystem - Flumph is useful

 Never knew. Thanks to: https://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/ again. 

I don’t think there’s been a more humble origin than the flumph, introduced in the 1981 Fiend Folio as a hovering jellyfish that floated around defending itself as needed. But later publications turned it into an interesting and useful part of the Underdark ecosystem. It detects strong positive and negative emotions and changes its own colors to reflect its mood, making it a valuable companion that can sense the approach of violent monsters with ill intent.

Details: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Flumph

2e Orc/Goblin Art, inspired by LoTR/Hobbit cartoons.

 Let's discuss some 2e Orc/Goblin Art, inspired by Lord of the Rings/ Hobbit cartoons. 

These orcs or goblins are much like the style from the cartoons of old. The large almost toad-like mouths, the tiny noses, etc. 

Hexcrawl or Wilderness clues, and dungeon clues

• Tracks in the morning dew. (spiderwebs in grass with dew)
• Disturbed spiderwebs.
• Crunched up leaves from likely large feet or many boots.
• An odd vine that turns out to be a rope or snare on closer inspection.
• Mismatching leaf patterns of the ground (covering a pit trap).
• Bushes or brambles recently cut out of an older path.
• A hack mark on a tree indicating someone wants to remember it (something hidden near?) or use it as a trail blazing guide.
• The lack of birds in the area.
• Startled birds from a distance.
• Missing sounds (no birds or angry squirrels in the day, or no crickets at night).
• A swarm of flies and a smell of rot (dead game, corpse, or undead?).
• Bones, cloth, burnt out campfires. …
• And some advice from earlier tonight I was a player, don’t send the whole party to investigate a distant out of place green “grassy?” mound in the distance when there are rumors of a lazy green dragon in the area, heh.

I replied to a guy here, one of Tenkar's, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2hgtCsc6s

And Tenkar has great dungeon examples halfway thru. 

Lone Wolf - game book choose your own adventure type

 https://lonewolf.fandom.com/wiki/The_Masters_of_Darkness

Thanks to this guy again: https://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/

Some interior illustrations from Lone Wolf 12 - The Masters of Darkness. Brian Williams, 1988.

Drow Tactics

 

• Patrol groups usually separate into smaller bands to prevent foes from trapping them in a narrow tunnel or dead end passageway. 
• Scouts go in front and behind a patrol
• Ambushes and counterambushes are common, and
• hit-and-run tactics are the norm. 
• A favorite drow tactic is to levitate near a cavern ceiling while cloaked in magical darkness
• Silence bubbles (not the full 15' radius, b/c it makes you deaf)

Dwellings:

• gotta have many escape routes b/c, many things burrow through stone

Mining is noisy aka dangerous:

• Mining expeditions are particularly dangerous, for they generate a great deal of noise and must be defensible.
• Dwarves and svirfneblin always establish traps and blinds in the surrounding tunnels before excavating, and they
• keep numerous escape routes ready.

Drow Infravision vs. Darkvision

Starting in D&D 3e, they went to Darkvision, b/c Infravision was more troublesome in game apparently. 

I'm struggling a little to just do Darkvision. The more I remember from the Drizzt books, the more I read on some of the source books from 1993, etc. ... the more the infravision is cool. But it's hard to run as a DM/fair game surely. So let's list some of this out. 

Book, Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark - 1993. Reading it now. 

This site lists some things about Infravision that make me think: https://ladyinferus.tripod.com/drow/mysite3/darkvision.htm

• Inviz spells would be a problem, if they could see your hot footprints. But the site says Drow's inviz spell works perfectly to hide that, too, while upper world spells do not. 
• Water and mirrors wouldn't reflect normal light. Just show a temperature. 
• Inks and writing wouldn't work without extra light.
• I do recall them using faint light for this sort of thing in the Drizzt books, right?
• "Furthermore a Drow can identify how long ago an object has been held or an area has been passed through based on its 'visual' temperature."
• Seems like trouble... you could never escape easily.
• Hiding:     The usual ability to hide, assumes that you can hide in shadows, or out of site. The Drow have mastered a special form of hiding only possible in a lightless world. They can pick a spot in a cave wall that more closely matches the temperature of their clothing and blend in. Anyone else attempting to hide from a Drow would be spotted instantly even in the darkest corners.
• Yeah. Problem.
• Ranged Weapons:     There is little purpose in carrying a long ranged weapon in the underdark, first of all because most caverns wind long before maximum range, and second because drow darkvision only extends to 120 feet. Therefore the standard hand crossbow is the ranged weapon of choice.

Well that site is likely going away any second, so let me just copy paste all the text. Sorry for the duplicates. 

The Underdark is a lightless place, yet Drow have developed eyes that can see down here. They use the infra-red spectrum to pick out differences in heat. Unlike Low-Light Vision however, they can see almost anything in great detail, since their eyes are so sensitive to even minor differences in temperature. This great adaptation also puts the Drow at a disadvantage if they ever see real light, the drow will be blinded while their eyes slowly adjust - remembering the genes of their Elven forefathers.

A Drow can see shades of red and white through darkvision (infravision). The brighter the red, the hotter the source, white results from very hot sources or real light that's not quite bright enough to make the drow shift into the regular spectrum. Here is an illustration of what the Drow actually sees with her eyes:

Because of the absence of light, several things are done differently by Drow than would be done by surface dwellers. First of all the heat sense allows a Drow to easily identify the state or arousal of another drow, as well as states of emotion. Furthermore a Drow can identify how long ago an object has been held or an area has been passed through based on its 'visual' temperature.

Mirrors:   There are extremely rare in the Underdark. Since mirrors relly on reflected light to work, such a device would be quite useless. Only in the presence of real light would the mirror show a reflection. Similarly, liquids don't show reflections, but are usually cooler than their surroundings.

Inks and writing:     A few minutes after a Drow writes a letter, the parchment and the ink become of a homogenous temperature and look blank. Wizards and Priestesses often use real light in the form of candles expressly for the purpose of reading scrolls or spell books. Special fluorescent inks are also available, however these are expensive and never last forever.

Faerie fire; dancing lights:     Faerie fire and dancing lights is one of the drow's innate abilities, the light produced by these sources is too faint to even read by however and in no way disrupts darkvision.

Darkness:     The special ability of all Drow is to create a globe of darkness, like with the wizard spell, even darkvision doesn't allow sight within the globe.

Hiding:     The usual ability to hide, assumes that you can hide in shadows, or out of site. The Drow have mastered a special form of hiding only possible in a lightless world. They can pick a spot in a cave wall that more closely matches the temperature of their clothing and blend in. Anyone else attempting to hide from a Drow would be spotted instantly even in the darkest corners.

Ranged Weapons:     There is little purpose in carrying a long ranged weapon in the underdark, first of all because most caverns wind long before maximum range, and second because drow darkvision only extends to 120 feet. Therefore the standard hand crossbow is the ranged weapon of choice.

Invisibility:     Invisibility cast by a Drow functions perfectly, masking even heat emanations. Invisibility cast by a surface dweller makes the caster invisible to a drow, but you can still see the warmer spots where the caster is standing on the ground.

Bright Light:     Bright light hurts the Drow's eyes and blinds them temporarily. It is often used as a weapon.

 

DROW DOs and DONTs

Do. 

Pay attention. The smallest detail can save your life (or ruin it).

Think only of yourself. No one else will.

Work together. When an enterprise benefits both parties - why not?

Speak when spoken to. Volunteering information is considered suspicious.

Control your emotions.

Assume the worst.

Make yourself appear stronger than you really are.

Gain power.

Don't

• Refuse a Priestess.

• Kill a Spider.

• Talk back to the Matron.

• Make TOO many enemies.

• Try to make friends. The Drow don't even have a word for 'friend.'

• Assume someone is your friend.

• Tell them all you know.

• Speak out against Lolth.

• Attempt to invoke pity. You will not get any.

• Be satisfied with what you have.

• Trust anyone.

• Appear weak.

• Forget

• Fail

D&D lotsa old art blog err tumblr - really good unique

 https://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/

He's got some good stuff. Oh, tumbr, not blog. Says some interesting things per pict, where it came from, etc. Tons of stuff I've never seen before. 

Examples:

 Lone Wolf 12 - The Masters of Darkness. Brian Williams, 1988.

From Wizards Handbook 2e AD&D 1990.

Gargoyle in B12 Queen's Harvest, 1989. 

OK probably saw this: orcs in 1989 B11 King's Festival by Carl Sargent.

Ivy Siege, 6th level druid spell (Enchantment), causes damage to structures equivalent to a small catapult across several turns. (Jeff Easley, The Complete Druid’s Handbook for AD&D 2e by David Pulver, TSR, 1994)

BECMI HITDICE D8 for monsters

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lBa551SCZBQ&t=1069s

 Woah Nellie, I forgot that. Was thinking d6 even for BECMI. 

SAVE AS: F1 means like a Fighter at lvl 1. Look at that chart.

Asterisk  * means pay attention special stuff. Reqd desciptioN.  

Name w a * means gotta hit with silver or magic weapons. 

Hitdice w a number of * means that many special abilities. 

Some hidden top 10 d&d, Brit guy Owen Edwards.

New  Brit review  guy Owen Edwards. (((note, he is fine w/ Labyrinth Lord, science-fantasy stuff too, so has a less narrow taste than many)))

• NIGHT BELOW box by Carl Sargent has The Sunless Sea… old one about Underdark. City of the Glass Pool. (Gold as XP. ). 3 adventures. Levels 1-12. AD&D 2e. 
• Return to the Tomb of Horrors (he likes this new one pretty well, despite other reviewers not)
• D3, but loves all Gygax. Drow are weirder and eldrich than in Salvatore’s. 
• Nightwolf, he loves that author.
• Fabled city of Brass City one, about Efreeti
• Broken Castle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKINq-YFqYk&t=981s

Commenter thuumhammer says Khosura, Baklin, and Castle Xyntillan by Gabor Lux (and honestly anything by Gabor)

Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage by Chris Perkins et al (actually has had some really good content for my 5e campaign) Incandescent Grottoes by Gavin Norman (really good OSR tutorial dungeon) Genial Jack Vol 1 & 2 by Jonathon Newell (well written and illustrated adventures inside a god whale) Blackmarsh by Rob Conley (unsure if a hexcrawl counts as a module but very good) Volo's Guide to Waterdeep by Ed Greenwood (again unsure if splatbooks count but it really paints a picture of the city and its locales) I actually picked up Huso's City of Brass at GaryCon, but haven't had a chance to read through it yet. The map is truly beautiful.

Another guy Jeffgsim says

• Xyntillan
• Time the Mad
• Valley of Kishar
• Dawn of the Ivory Sun

Ned leeds says

• T1-4
• Against cult reptile god
• Sinister secret saltmarash
• Castle Mistamere
• Rats in the walls
• Screech hag crawl
• Sunless citadel
• Veiled society
• Keep on borderlands 
• Nihts dark terror
• Lost city 
•