Danial Boone inspires D&D

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FkNRw6aQevI&pp=2AbQAg%3D%3D

Vision at night. 

1. Indians chopping to make a raft to cross river to get em. Looked low under the fog… 

2. Vs panther. Dropped deer meat to avoid panther. *** fire behind him so could see panther eyes lit up but not affect his human night vision. 

Spellburn’s intro song?

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KZDs5zpHK2A&pp=0gcJCYcKAYcqIYzv

What somg is this!? Been looking for 15 minutes no luck. 

Some lyrics sound like

“Riding your dragon to [ lands of] the wizard

Carry the sword that legends [are born]

Bilbrons advice on Spells

Remember throughout, Bilbrons is awesome, but he is very defensive minded. He's going for the safest route and doesn't mind if things take a long time or are goofy. Cool ideas, but I'm still going to be offense minded no matter what. 

Skills https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aEIUNUYuR8o

• focus on combat of course
• Arcana is critical they say, and basically only the Wizard will be good at it. (Was this Bilbrons or somebody else saying that?)
• His S-Tier = Perception, Stealth, Athletics (Don't forget my new game DM doesn't do passive perception)
• His A-Tier includes Arcana and Insight.
• His B-Tier includes Investigation and Acrobatics (High Dex even if low Str, use it)

2nd level Spells top 10 (remember, he's defensive) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1xIJ394WgRo&t=453s

• Tasha's Mind Whip = level 2, 3d6 psychic or half, debuff = no reaction, can only do one thing next round. 
• Rope Trick is so powerful, many people use it sparingly b/c too cheezy. 
• Web
• Misty Step
• Levitate - use offensively too
• PwoT - Pass without Trace.
• Phantasmal Force
• Silence
• Shield
• #1 = FIND STEED - wow. Paladins get to keep it all day or something. 

Other spells:

• ~Phantom Steed my notes - LVL3, it is RITUAL spell. Lasts an hour... but it's a RITUAL SPELL. 
• ~Pyrotechnics - LVL2, obscurement no concentration! https://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:pyrotechnics …. Oops, dragons can have blindsight, problems. 
• ~Summon Greater Demon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ4dmvcPvYc - level 4 spell, but changes when upcast of course. 

Cantrips https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uOJlEyfIrcs

• Dancing lights can light up enemy, but leave u in dark hidden. Wait it needs concentration!!!!! Nevermind!
• Light. Says you need at least one of them, either dancing or regular light. I do love light to cast on a rock to throw constantly down hallways. 
• My ideas. Use prestidigitation to cover a tiny speck of a pebble in mud, dry it out. Now throw it and when the mud shatters, bam, light (but before shatter, maybe almost zero light? Ask DM.)
• Mold earth is meh for me. I like the comment "It's not for battles, it's for warfare and good at that. Digging under a castle wall to put a ~bomb~ thing. Redirecting rivers. Multiple casters using it to make a trench for trench warfare". 

—

Sleet Storm -   https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VqSf-WOHT8c&t=314s

• Not so great unless your whole party does blindfighting. Then you'd only use it for retreat. 
• If everybody in the party can see through it, then it's awesome. 

Wizard builds from this site

 https://tabletopbuilds.com/basic-build-series-wizard/

Great ideas… read level 1 strategy

Rest casting mage armor not cheezy cuz have to save a slot https://tabletopbuilds.com/rest-casting-dnd-5e/

yukihiro akama art

 Super cool wood carvings of houses(?) that look sort of surreal medieval Japanese fantasy or something. Really cool. 

D3 - how to prepare -DmGeezerJim

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd8PCT3WCXw&t=443s

DmGeezerjim explains what to do around time 7:30 as in what maps to make youself. Maps of noble houses etc. 

Time 10:00 about mass combat. 40 baddies at once. Be ready. I say, represent 5 or 10 with one big mini or something. Better yet, 3x3 paper with the number 10… put a single mini or the orc or whatever… then uodate the paper number. 

Time 22:00, if ur party wont want to explore , ok. Don’t worry about this side blank area. 

Petroglyphs for d&d inspiration

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7X2c9VTbJM

DCC or just d&d can use ideas

Is his cave voice same as the niner 49er

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX5Kd1rwUUg

Did Fred’s voice on Scooby Doo. 

Miner 49er?

Megatron. Dr. Claw

Roy Clark super classical guitar

Yeah Roy Clark is insane. Hee haw, but watch yt of him. Fast, inventive, incredible. 

D&D words - Geas pronounced GESH; Draught is DRAFT

TIL the real pronunciation of Geas. Reddit. 

It's pronounced "gesh". With a hard g, and an e like in the word "bed". It's apparently derived from Gaelic.     

Another Irish dude says he says it like "Geese". Like the bird? 

Another Irishman here and while my fluency as gaeilge is not 100% I've heard in this word used in stories and folklore pronounced phonetically identical to guise (as in disguise) and gas. Never with a 'sh' at the end.

     

draught is pronounced DRAFT. It's just the dern Brit spelling of draft. Holy cow. 

Ah, but you also have the English word drought, which is pronounced "drout".   As in "drOWWt" as in, it's super dry, we are in a drought. 

Haste spell in B/X mentions "Speeded Up", and sure enough, that is considered proper English, though less common than "sped" or "sped up". 

B/X style Magic Spell rules, https://epicsavingthrow.com/b-x-spell-rules-summaries/

 https://epicsavingthrow.com/b-x-spell-rules-summaries/

Very helpful to remember old B/X rules. 

Maybe this too: https://vanishingtower.blogspot.com/2017/03/bx-spellcasting-by-book.html

• Haste doesn't affect spells or wands.
• Slow doesn't affect spells or wands.
• Lightning Bolt: A bright 5-foot-wide, 60-foot-long blast of electrical energy, heat, and thunder burst from a point up to 180 feet away from you. Anyone caught on this path suffers 1d6 damage per your caster level, or half that damage if successful on a saving throw versus spells. If the lightning bolt strikes a solid surface before reaching its 60-foot length, it will extend back toward the caster until it reaches its full length.
• Mirror Image: You become surrounded by 1d4 illusionary duplicates of yourself. Any attack targeting you will instead target a duplicate, which then instantly vanishes regardless of the attacker’s “to hit” roll. All remaining mirror images of yourself vanish after one hour.
• Phantasmal Force: A moving illusionary vision covers a 20-foot cube (20x20x20) at a point up to 240 feet away. If anything touches the illusion (Armor Class 9), the spell is broken and the vision disappears. If the illusion appears to attack someone or create a damaging hazard (fire, a collapsing wall), targets may make a saving throw versus spells to disbelieve the illusion. This spell never inflicts any real damage; targets that fail the save will believe they have been hurt and become unconscious at “zero hit points,” or suffer some other appropriate consequence (paralyzed if “turned to stone”). Fooled targets remain affected for 10 to 40 minutes (1d4 x 10). The illusion persists as long as the caster concentrates, remains in position, and is not targeted by an attack; otherwise, it disappears and does not return.
• Raise Dead/Finger of Death: --When reversed, this spell forces one target within 120 feet to succeed at a saving throw versus death ray or immediately die. 
• Read Magic: For 10 minutes, you know how to read one magic-user spell scroll and understand how to cast it at any point in the future. This spell may also be used to learn spells from the spellbook of another magic-user.
• Shield: For 20 minutes, a magical barrier gives you an Armor Class of AC 2 against missiles and AC 4 against other attacks.
• Silence 15-Foot Radius: A point within 180 feet becomes the center of a 15-foot-radius area inside which no sound can be made for two hours. Noises from outside this area can still be heard from within the spell’s radius. If this spell is cast directly at a creature, the target must make a saving throw versus spell or become the center point of the silence zone for the duration, even if moving away. If the targeted creature makes the saving throw, the spell immediately takes effect in the surrounding area instead.
• Sleep: Within 240 feet, up to 2d8 Hit Dice/levels of targets with each 4 Hit Dice or less fall unconscious. (Ignore pluses on Hit Dice; treat “2d8+2” as two Hit Dice). This spell can instead target one creature of 4d#+1 Hit Dice. For mixed groups, lower hit die/level targets are affected before higher hit die/level targets. Any targets with more than 4d#+1 Hit Dice (or of 5th level or higher), along with all undead creatures, are immune to this spell. Any sleeping creature may be awakened by force (such as a slap). A sleeping creature may be killed (regardless of its hit points) with a single blow from any edged weapon.
• Sticks to Snakes: You transform 2d8 sticks within 120 feet into snakes that obey your commands (Snakes: AC 6, HD 1, 4 hit points, MV 90 ft. (swim 30 ft.), one bite attack per turn for 1d4 damage, Save as Fighter Level 1, Morale 7, Alignment neutral). There is a 50% chance the transformed snakes will be venomous, forcing those bitten to make a saving throw versus poison or die. Each snake reverts into a stick after one hour or immediately when its hit points are reduced to 0.
• Striking: (I recall from the arcade game) For 10 minutes, one normal weapon within 30 feet becomes enchanted to harm creatures only hit by magical weapons. The weapon also adds +1d6 extra damage to hits against any opponent, but the spell has no effect on an attacker’s “to hit” roll.
• 
  

Other B/X type rules

• 1 round = 10 seconds
• B/X Moldvay/Cook says: Treasure, and this is in regards to the magic item known as Scrolls. Here a spell casting character can cast a spell without memorizing it and can also be of a spell level beyond their current ability. The magic-user/elf classes are restricted by needing to cast Read Magic on the scroll in order to understand it so that it may be used later.
•  

Opt out of Firefox AI stuff ~Dec 2025, ~Jan 2026

 https://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-and-remove-all-ai-features-in-mozilla-firefox/

DCC is wordy. The pros and cons. Room descriptions and stuff.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2XI8Cfs-aU&t=305s

Comments he points out r good food for thought. 

Personally, I loved the two DCC modules we did… but the kid did have to skip a ton of detail with the NPCs when he was the DM. I also had to read Sailors’ like 3 timew, which is a lot. And did have trouble finding info. But part of me likes the old style look without blocks and super highlights.  But logically I love bolded and blocked out stuff to find it fast. 

1e adnd, orcs n goblins were LE; movement and combat

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF-3OMTFL2U&t=301s

Yt guy does 1e a lot. Australian? Comments about CE vs. LE. 

I forgot goblins and orcs were LE in the old Monster Manual. Why did they change that? Maybe because wanted higher damage. Or did the LOTR movie do it for 3e or something (nope, years don’t match up)? Or maybe 2e did it? Nope, still LE. https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Orc_(Creature)

So I guess it was 3e for probably tactical reasons and variety reasons.  As in

Goblins CE 

Kobolds LE

Hobgoblins LE

Orcs CE

But gnolls and ogres stayed CE the whole time, right? In which case… no clue. Maybe they were always pretty chaotic anyway. 

Oh, forgot forgot, in OD&D, chaotic mostly.  B/X was chaotic eh?

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/172267/when-were-orcs-changed-from-lawful-evil-as-in-add-2e-to-chaotic-evil-as-in-d

In the beginning, Orcs were either Chaotic or Neutral. (Men and Magic, page 9, 1974). (In contrast, Goblins were only Chaotic, Men could be Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic).

This was before the two-axis model, which was first seen in Strategic Review #6 (page 4, Feb 1976), and that placed Orcs in Chaotic Evil on the grid. The Holmes 1977 Basic D&D had them on the grid there as well.

They were listed as Lawful Evil in AD&D 1e, and remained that way for AD&D 2e.

In B/X and BECMI (Molday/Mentzer/Et al). which were printed after AD&D 1e was published, orcs are listed as Chaotic (in the red Basic box, DM Guide, page 35).

Startplaying [dot]com - online TTRPG games you can jump into

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bceeMVJuQ0I&t=206s

Startplaying[dot]game    or something, not .com actually. 

Around halfway

$ but can play online quick. Many many versions of dnd type games. 

UPDATE:

• Some are one-shots apparently. I saw the new B/X only guy doing $10 one shots at decent times. That seems fine, I don't see how you'd get overcharged. 
• If you sign up for a long term thing, sounds like you just get auto-charged over and over maybe 15+ times... and no real way to undo it without relying on somebody else to unsign you up. Hard to trust that. 
• But a lot of ppl use it, so maybe there is a way to feel OK about it. Need to research more. 
• ***ONLY 5 star reviews allowed. LOL. 
• TIP BEGGING, great. 
• Hidden service charge fees per session. 
• They have a secret back-end "three strike" rule with a totally opaque appeals process
•      you're signing up for a subscription service
• Their online moderation is ruthless. They police and scrub social media and discord for negative feedback
• yt link "You should give it a go, it might take a while to get off the ground as a GM, but I have run some of the most satisfying campaigns I have ever run on this platform. Having financially committed players really makes a difference. They REALLY want a great game."

Reviews from 4 yrs ago on Reddit:

I just played my first session on there last Sat. and have my second in 15 mins. Zero complaints, definitely recommend checking it out. I've been wanting to explore some non-D&D systems and this turned out to be a great way to find a decent/experienced GM.     

Actual CRITICAL REVIEW here.  2yrs ago, so it's still going, but apparently you gotta watch out for BS. 

If it makes the game better, I am happy to pay. To start out, I wanted to pay a highly-reviewed GM. That's harder to do than I thought! Many highly-rated people with great reviews don't list games. I see that there are highly-rated GM accounts where where you try to join their game, but the listing says the GM will actually be someone else. "(So-and-so) will run this game and he has my full confidence." Okay, but that means the good reviews were for some other GM? So what is the point of having a platform and a review system? Seems pretty sketchy!     

ANSWERS: 

       No idea what's happening here.

the listing says the GM will actually be someone else

This feels like a violation of the terms of service. Might be worth emailing SPG directly.

Many highly-rated people with great reviews don't list games

Experienced pro GMs tend to build a pool of players on SPG, then move their group off of SPG. The GM collects payment directly from the players. SPG takes a service fee, so doing this means more revenue for the GM.

If you see a GM you like just message them directly. Ask what they got going on and if they have anything coming up. Personally, I love it when players message me. It lets me tailor my next campaign to their specific interest. 

•        Regarding the disappearing listings, games drop out of the search 4 hours ahead of the listed time and then completely at 1 hour iirc. This prevents last minute joins and other stuff that can make onboarding players kind of stressful.
• With the highly reviewed folks, it doesn't show full tables so they may be at max. In terms of someone else running a game, this is a growing occurrence where folks are operating as a collective or co-GM setup, I'm friends with a duo like that where they share the workload. 

ONESHOTS:

One shots are tricky for some reason. The ones that seem to succeed are either offered for free or the GM has cultivated a following. People I guess are just not as into them. With that being said, I have played several one shots on that platform so it does happen.

Your best bet at joining a one shot is to go in with a friend. One shots are much more likely to actually run if there are two or more seats filled, and they do fill up pretty quickly once you've got those two starter seats filled.  

     

 

Health - 10 minute intense exercise (could be) beating up on cancer

 https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/10-minutes-of-intensive-workout-can-trigger-powerful-anti-cancer-effects/

Evidence is pretty good. And it sure can't hurt.

The Newcastle researchers found that exercise boosted the activity of genes that support mitochondrial energy metabolism, enabling cells to use oxygen more efficiently.

At the same time, genes linked to rapid cell growth were switched off, which could reduce the aggressiveness of cancer cells, and exercise-conditioned blood promoted DNA repair, activating a key repair gene called PNKP.

The study involved 30 volunteers, male and female aged 50–78, all overweight or obese (a risk factor of cancer) but otherwise healthy.

After completing a short, intense cycling test lasting approximately 10 minutes, researchers collected blood samples and analysed 249 proteins. As many as 13 proteins increased after exercise, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), which helps repair the DNA of damaged cells.

“These results suggest that exercise doesn’t just benefit healthy tissues, it may also create a more hostile environment for cancer cells to grow,” said Dr. Orange, a Clinical Exercise Physiologist at The Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

“Even a single workout can make a difference. One bout of exercise, lasting just 10 minutes, sends powerful signals to the body.”

Words: Doom meant Judgement or Law in Old English

So Doom meant Judgement or Law in Old English. That's just kind of weird, don't you think? Word meanings change all the time, but associating law with our current purely negative meaning of doom is pretty sad. Or maybe in the old days, the only time you dealt with a law is when it was coming for you. Still, kinda sad. 

Spotify - get better randomization

 MORE RANDOM. Gonna try this:

• Open Spotify on a real PC
• Cntrl+A, drag them to a new playlist. 
• Put that playlist "through a shuffler". As in, some 3rd party tool somehow. I used https://spotifyshuffler.com , and it supposedly let's you sort of kill your account on their website if you want. I might. 
• Works, after a couple of tries. 
• WELL I cant find a way to "delete my account". It just auto logs in after the first time you log into spotify and give it access to ALL YOUR INFO. Annoying. How do I undo this now, to be safe? 
• FAQ says: 
• How can I close my account?
• The shuffler only ever has temporary access to the Spotify account. Each time you return to the site access is requested again [[[this is misleading the way he words it]]]. If you'd like to remove the access you can do so via the following link: https://www.spotify.com/uk/account/apps/
• Or more like https://www.spotify.com/us/account/apps/
• Resave new playlists... so you can see it on your phone
• Obviously this is one point in time, and you'll have to keep redoing this to get 
• new random orders of songs
• and even just new "faves" that you add each week. Boo. 

Super inconvenient. And the fkers at spotify say they'll never give true random. I see a bunch of websites for shuffling, but surely that is for PC only. UPDATE: Yeah, you have to install the "windows app" and then do it there. Then u see on phone too, after. 

Media Quality -

I'm turning it from "auto" to HIGH. Tempting to go Lossless (aka actual super high) but,... cellular sucks so maybe not. 

Monty Haul Origins, Gygax. Plus Holmes info not common

New to me YTer: On Holmes https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m2B8Pnyz1tc&pp=0gcJCU0KAYcqIYzv

Monty Haul, re: Gygax, re: the Monty Haul style is fun: https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-origin-of-monty-haul.666872/

• James (Jim) Ward says he still writes modules and puts a lot of treasure in there, but a lot of folks complain. He says it is fun, just scale up difficulty of encounters. 
• A blog with another story by him: https://themagictreerpg.blogspot.com/2008/10/adventures-of-monty-haul-1.html
• Other ppl talking about still putting in some hard things in 5e so players still might have to run away (we do that). 

Obscure Zines that had some cool cover art. One named Monty Haul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHN1k13RTj8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=017eiDYvGG0

https://www.youtube.com/@HammerDiceAnd/videos

 

Some still current blogness on Monty Haul Zines and whatnot:

https://rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2020/08/fanzine-focus-xxi-monty-haul-v1-0.html

Bucketlist d&d and OSR Modules

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1h3k68b50Yg&t=192s

Lich house has a big list 

Lichhouse's lists below. Some wotc ones, i havent done. 

B/X or BECMI

• X1 The Isle of Dread - dino
• X2 Castle Amber - more and more ppl talk about it. I think a "funhouse" style. Yellow + giant busting up a castle from up top cover. 
• B1 In Search of the Unknown
• B2 The Keep on the Borderlands
• B4 The Lost City - the purple one with the guy wearing the golden monster deity mask and multi-flail thing. 

AD&D (or kinda) 

• Tomb of Horrors S1
• Ravenloft i6 - Yep, was solid. Still felt weird putting "dracula" into D&D, but it was well done. 
• G1-G3 - the giants, almost done.
• Vault of the Drow D3 - coming up soon!
• The Temple of Elemental Evil
• Night Below - I've heard this one a lot lately, including the British folks. 
• The Caverns of Thracia - one of the big Jaquays ones. 

WOTC (including 3e 3.5e, 4e, and one 2e maybe)

• The Gates of Firestorm Peak (looks like 2e?)
• The Sunless Citadel - one of my favorites. 
• Lost Mine of Phandelver
• Tomb of Annihilation
• Curse of Strahd - used some of this when we did Ravenloft/i6.
• Thunderspire Labyrinth (4e) (Instead of Keep on the ShadowFell)
• [The Red Hand of Doom] - another guy brought it up. Buy pdf or convert to 5e, new blogger site, https://chaoticneutralchronicles.com .
• part 1
• part 2
• part 3

Some OSR ones like

• Stonehell Dungeon
• The Hole in the Oak
• Tower of the Stargazer
• Barrowmaze
• Deep Carbon Observatory - (graphic in vid was the one w/ the hidden title) review - 
• Don't think this is my style:
• Various factions are racing against the PCs, but none is as iconic as the Crows, the nastiest rival adventuring group I've ever encountered in 20+ years of TTRPGs
• Evil NPC with "murdered mages" and An opium pipe.
• [Veins of the Earth] [this wasn't his list, but another]. https://www.nobleknight.com/P/2147664688/Veins-of-the-Earth
• Oh, by or for the super duper duper "adult themed" Lamentations of the flame Princess. I think I must pass.  

Quote for Veins of the Earth sounds awesome though -

Blurb from the publisher: 'The endless descent...

At the deepest point of the dungeon, behind the throne, beyond the rooms where the battles took place, after everything is done and the enemy dead, there is a crack. A black empty space where the wall joins the stone floor, a foot and a half high and three wide. A breeze comes out. You'd never notice it. You could lie on your belly and fit inside.

It never ends. 

You have existed, up to this point, on the illusion of a plane, bordered by mountains, rivers, seas or the politics of maps, and this life has been a lie. Its borders are made up, its seas are gateways, its mountains are cradles of deep life. There is no plane.

You were raised within a history running back through recorded time, written in ink, carved in stone, scooped from clay, hidden in songs. Your primal myths are an eye-blink of the memory of that place. Your history is a candle burning out.

The real world, the deeper, more true world, is bordered only by light above and fire below, and perhaps not even by that.

When you loathe gold for its weight and count your wealth by a radius of illuminated rock and think yourself lucky to do so, then you have passed into the Veins of the Earth.

Expertly written and profusely illustrated by the veteran team of Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess

Magic-User in B/X, Tenkar’s

Level 10. 

Level 25. 

Level 35. 

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

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

1. Levels 1-3, job is support. 
2. Stay behind 2 bodies from front. 
3. 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

And naturally, a LOT of people rely on the DM to give them something. I mean, at least a Sling would be fine to do something, I mean seriously it would get boring. But a lot of ppl give scrolls or a wand that does low damage ranged spells. One commenter gives his MU a wand power that does 1d3 + level dmg, but with "save against wands" for enemy. 

BTW, in the AD&D sense:

https://themagictreerpg.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-good-is-first-level-wizard-anyway.html

• What Good is a First Level Wizard?
• “Whenever possible, stay away from the enemy."
• Even choosing among the basic weapons is tricky. Each offers a distinct advantage. First, consider the melee weapons. The staff is a likely choice: it inflicts the most damage of any of the wizard’s weapons and costs the least. A good bargain. If lost, a staff is easily replaced. It is also likely to be found in magical form. If the DM allows for it, a fine quality or exceptional quality staff able to provide non-magical attack or damage bonuses could be commissioned at low cost — if a weapon maker skilled at constructing staves can be found. For that matter, a better quality weapon of any sort allowed by a wizard should not be too expensive.
•  The only advantage here is that the wizard is virtually guaranteed first selection of any magical protections that the party may come across. Magically protective rings, bracers, cloaks, etc. are almost always given first to wizards. These items weigh little and most provide saving throw bonuses as well as Armor Class bonuses.
• A knife or dagger can be used either as a melee or missile weapon. Although it causes less damage than a staff, a dagger, too, is frequently found in magical form. Knives and daggers have the benefit of being easily concealed. Several should be carried and at least one kept handy in case the character is caught in a net or in close quarters.
• Both the dart and the sling are effective missile weapons. The sling is cheap, highly concealable, inflicts good damage if bullets are used, has virtually limitless backup ammunition in the form of stones, and has excellent range.
  
  
  Darts, however, are the weapon of choice in close combat. Despite their seemingly puny damage, their high rate of fire means both higher total damage than the sling and multiple target capability. Also, if a wizard’s attack or damage capability is magically enhanced in any way, the higher rate of fire capitalizes on that improvement. Improving damage by +1 means only one more point of damage each round with a sling, but potentially three more points of damage with the darts.
• AND
•  Even a beginning mage can probably afford a trained war or hunting dog. 
• 
  

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- tier 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. [UPDATE: the screw up on that first word is considered a mistake, apparently. ]

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. 

My 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)