#Basic D&D

[oldschoolfrp]

The calendar tell me it's July 27, Gary Gygax's birthday, so I rolled up a character -- 3D6 rolled six times in order referencing Holmes' 1977 basic D&D rules (his tidy edit of Gygax and Arneson's original 1974 little books):

Srength 8

Intelligence 13

Wisdom 10

Constitution 8

Dexterity 10

Charisma 8

In old school D&D this is a perfectly viable character with no penalties, before 50 years of stat inflation was built into the rules. He could be almost anything, but will be most capable as a magic-user, receiving a +5% bonus to earned experience for having a 13 in the prime requisite ability.

Magic-users and thieves get only a D4 for hit points in early editions, and as often happens I rolled a 1. Survival past the first few levels will be extremely unlikely, but it always was for those classes. He'll need to hide in the middle of the party and hope for the best.

3D6 x 10 for starting gold pieces results in only 60, but he doesn't need much gear. He'll carry some basic tools and a bundle of empty sacks to help carry treasure after his one and only spell is spent.

With Int 13 he has a 65% chance of having a specific level 1 spell in his book, and will have a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 8. He can roll in any order, and can reroll from the list if they fail to meet the minimum. On the first pass through the list he fails to know Detect Magic, Magic Missile, or Hold Portal, but his book holds Charm Person, Dancing Lights, Protection from Evil, Read Languages, Read Magic, Shield, Sleep, and Tenser's Floating Disc. From that list of 8 he can choose one spell each day to use, only one time per day. In combat Sleep and Charm Person will be useful for reducing the number of opponents.

[thecreaturecodex]

Bekkah

"Alien Cat, step 2" © Cary Narveson, accessed at their ArtStation page here

[The bekkah seems to only appear in the Creature Catalogue, not having come from a Basic D&D adventure nor being reprinted in the Mystara Monstrous Compendium later on in AD&D. It's also not entirely clear what it looks like; the text just refers to it being black, but there's a picture of a sabertooth lynx with the Big Cat entry that might be it, or might just be the giant lynx. The third eye is unique to the art I'm using, but it fits in well with me giving it greensight, inspired by the medieval bestiary lynx being able to see through solid objects. As is often the case for big cat monsters, the damage is high for a creature of its CR; I compensated by bringing down the AC.]

Bekkah CR 11 LN Magical Beast This great black cat is the size of a bear, with a short tail, long ears and oversized paws. It has eerie gray eyes, a third of which sits in the center of its forehead.

The bekkahs are supernatural black-furred felines native to the deepest jungles. They are apex predators, and do not brook intrusion into their territories by other large carnivores. Humanoid hunters are tolerated as long as they do not overhunt, and they pay the bekkah proper deference. This deference is usually in the forms of offerings of meat, although especially desperate or evil societies may do so through humanoid sacrifice. Bekkahs do not go out of their way to hunt humanoids, but are willing to consider them prey.

A bekkah’s combat style does not differ much from those of mundane big cats. They stalk prey and attack from ambush, grabbing their foes in their enormous paws and tearing with claws and teeth. The special offense of the bekkah is in its roar, which carries supernatural fear. A creature that hears a bekkah may be rooted to the spot, unable to flee and thus singled out for a brutal pounce. Bekkahs do not kill needlessly, and if attacked by a party may kill one as a warning to the rest and then retreat with the body to feed.

A bekkah is rarely found unless it wants to be; they are very difficult to track and have magical defenses against divinations. They usually lair in the densest vegetation, which they can pass through without difficulty, anywhere from tangles of roots to the canopies of large trees. Their territories are demarcated with scent marking, deep grooves carved in tree trunks, and oversized paw prints left on trails. Bekkahs are solitary, with males leaving their territories every several years in order to find a mate. Females are good mothers, raising one or two cubs for three years before they leave to find their own territories.

Bekkahs speak Sylvan, but have little to say except to fey creatures and to each other.

Bekkah CR 11 XP 12,800 LN Large magical beast Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., greensight 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +17, scent

Defense AC 23, touch 13, flat-footed 19 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +10 natural) hp 138 (12d10+72) Fort +13, Ref +12, Will +9 DR 10/magic; Immune fear, paralysis; SR 27 vs. divinations Defensive Abilities elusive

Offense Speed 50 ft. Melee 2 claws + 19 (1d10+8 plus grab), bite +19 (2d8+8) Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. Special Attacks pounce, rake (2 claws +19, 1d10+8), roar

Statistics Str 27, Dex 19, Con 21, Int 6, Wis 16, Cha 16 Base Atk +12; CMB +21 (+25 grapple); CMD 35 (39 vs. trip) Feats Ability Focus (roar), Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Stealth), Toughness Skills Acrobatics +14 (+22 when jumping), Climb +18, Perception +17, Stealth +13 (+25 in forests); Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +4 Climb, +8 Perception, +4 Stealth (+12 in forested environments) Languages Sylvan SQ woodland stride

Ecology Environment warm forests Organization solitary or pair Treasure incidental

Special Abilities Elusive (Su) A bekkah gains a +20 bonus to the DC to follow its tracks, and is treated as being under the effects of a nondetection spell as a supernatural ability. Roar (Su) As a standard action once every 1d4 rounds, a bekkah can unleash a terrible roar. All creatures within 120 feet must succeed a DC 21 Will save or be shaken and unable to move from its current space for 2d4 rounds. A creature that succeeds this save is immune to the roar of that bekkah for the next 24 hours. This is a mind-influencing fear effect, and the save DC is Charisma based. Woodland Stride (Su) A bekkah’s movement is not impeded by natural vegetation.

[radiantmorningstar]

Holmes Basic Rebirth 1: The Wandering Graveyard of Kargash-Mir

Dr. J. Eric Holmes with a few of his D&D Figures, 1979. [DM Note: someone convinced me to go back to basics, since I was experiencing one of my (sadly, all too frequent) solo gaming slumps. The suggestion felt extreme: not reverting to an OSR retroclone, but reaching all the way back to the origins of the hobby. Retroclone reinforcement has sometimes been a successful strategy for restarting my creative solo RPG engagement the past. But it hasn't seemed to work more recently. In fact, "retroclone burnout" has left me a bit distressed, compounding my sense of disconnection. Feeling desperate, I decided to take the back-to-basics advice as far as I could, starting a short campaign with the Holmes Basic D&D blue book from 1977. I'm pleased to say it worked, and I've recaptured my sense of wonder, creativity, and fun. Of course, as someone with about 40 years of RPG experience, I can go back to basics, but I can't deny all the innovations and interesting evolutions of TTRPGs since then. So I've also incorporated numerous solo tools, supplements, etc. into this session. For fellow gamers, who like to look at the technical side, I'll link what I'm using below. Thank you for reading! ]

Technical TTRPG Profile:

Dominant Rule Set: Holmes D&D Basic Set (1977) - note that Hasbro-WotC has decided to disappear this rule set in favor of other versions of the Basic Set, but this version is special, perhaps because it demonstrates more than any others how player imagination—as opposed to insidious subscription models, aggressive branding, and corporate meddling—can create great experiences. Read about Holmes Basic here: https://sites.google.com/site/zenopusarchives/. If you look around, you should be able to find a free PDF of it online. I would revert to the Moldvay-Cook D&D Basic Set Rulebook if I could not find a copy of Holmes. But I highly recommend Holmes as a way to get back in touch with the raw power of fantasy roleplaying.

Setting: Ondaris.

Solo Gaming Structure: Trey: Solo Roleplaying.

Oracles and Tables: Old School Revival Solo Role-playing Guide; Loner: Steel & Sorcery; Tales of Argosa.

Starting Equipment: "fast packs" from Dragonslayer.

The Story: three childhood friends, Iovis (fighting man), Ruvin (magic user), and Dain (thief—in this case, a military scout), return to their hometown of West Withly after three years of professional training in their respective guilds (Iovis, with the Semlohe Mercenary Guild; Ruvin with the Tower of Xolark in Misty Harbor; and Dain with the Rivercross Confederation of Guides and Scouts).

In Ondaris, one apprentices with a local practitioner of an art and then serves in a guild for three years at a time with one-year stints back home to serve one's community and pay one's initial master back.

While catching up over ales at the Inn of the Blue Dragon, they're approached by a group of town aldermen, who offer them 80 gold for rescuing the mayor, Joco Havlish, and his mistress Sareena, both of whom are being held hostage by the ruthless ogre, Drazrur Blackbite. The ogre is said to keep his lair in the northeastern foothills beyond the Beast River. Though the precise location of his cave has never been established.

Recently, Blackbite snuck up under cover of darkness and hammered down a crude wooden sign, affixed to the pole of a nidstang and written in blood, demanding a tribute of 50 sheep and five virgin girls lest he execute the hostages. Obviously, this is unacceptable; though, local heroes willing to fight an infamous ogre, who understands curse magic, are in short supply.

(A typical Ondarissian Nithing Pole used for cursing and sometimes making a very serious point to one's neighbors.)

Seeing this as a fitting way to begin their year of professional practice back home and establish a reputation, Iovis, Ruvin, and Dain obtain permission from their families and former masters and accept the offer.

They provision themselves and set out to find the ogre. The Beast River is half a day to the northeast on foot. They go quickly over the flat grasslands and have no encounters or problems on the way except for sighting a brightly dressed gnome sailing past on a raft. The odd creature waves at them and shouts that they should turn back "before the spirits rise." They have no clue what he's talking about, but it doesn't sound good.

The day is almost finished when they reach the beginning of the foothills, known locally as Zaphod's Reach, due to tower of the ancient mage, Zaphod Zaphodinteries, which supposedly stood there in the times before the Scarring of Ondaris. Now there is nothing but a perpetual chill mist hanging a few feet over the ground and dark foothills extending to the limits of sight. Not wanting to face anything in the night and tired from their journey, the three friends make camp on the northern bank of the Beast.

In the morning, they realize (strangely, since it was not there the night before) that they have been camping in a graveyard. It's one of the wandering graveyards of Kargash-Mir. Ruvin, in his lore studies in the Tower of Xolark, learned about the wandering graveyards. He explains them to Iovis and Dain over breakfast.

They are an inexplicable fact of life throughout the land. Sometimes, a graveyard will "wake up" and animate itself the same way "naturally occurring" undead in Ondaris will sometimes rise from their graves.

When an entire graveyard wakes and starts to move, it is considered a "Kargash-Mir," essentially a "beast of graves" in the old language of the Beastmen. As a Kargash-Mir travels, it will absorb any other graveyard it comes into contact with and grow proportionately larger. Sometimes they move on a "circuit," appearing in a the same places over time. This one apparently stretches for miles.

Such wandering graveyards are said to contain all manner of dark fae, undead, and sometimes even deep crypts, dungeons, and fragments of towns (even cities) lost to the knowledge of men. Twisted demonic creatures, like ogres, blood orcs, ur-goblins, soot trolls, gnolls, and dragons are also said to live in them. For time runs differently in a Kargash-Mir and old things, long passed away, are ever present there.

Ruvin begins to explain the metaphysical theories involved in an entire graveyard animating and silently shifting through the landscape, but Iovis and Dain are worried. If the ogre, Drazrur Blackbite, has his lair in a Kargash-Mir, it means this one probably moves in a set pattern. It means they're going to have to explore the place in the not-so-certain prospect of finding his lair. And it means the ogre is naturally protected by whatever other nasty creatures may be calling the place home. Still, they have little choice. So they forge into the graveyard, feeling trepidatious but determined.

They move through the seemingly endless, dank, and misty Kargash-Mir for what feels like the better part of a day, encountering nothing but headstones, mausolea, and crypts. Dead trees hang their brittle branches against the darkened sky and crisp leaves crunch on the twisting pathways.

Eventually, they do encounter a giant death's head moth—a predator that may have been hunting them for some time. Its wingspan is at least six feet wide and it rises up suddenly from behind a cluster of headstones, wailing the Acherontian death dirge that can burst the heart of a grown man.

These highly intelligent flesh-eating hunters are found throughout the dark places of Ondaris, but especially in graveyards, where they feel most at home, secreting their vile nests in empty crypts, where they drag their victims to be fed upon for weeks.

Iovis is affected by the moth's mournful cry and loses all self control, running off between the crypts. Ruvin is also affected, paralyzed to the spot, unable to speak or move. Only Dain resists the affects of the death dirge. He raises his light crossbow, fires, and hits the creature in its furry abdomen.

The dirge immediately stops and the creature flaps around to face Dain. It has an unnaturally human face with red eyes. Its fangs drip yellow bile and venom. You have killed me, it sputters, but you'll not escape this boneyard intact! Then it drops to the earth, its body immediately beginning to steam and melt into the pure black sludge of elemental evil of which it is composed.

Dain shakes Ruvin out of his terror-stricken paralysis and shouts that they need to find Iovis, who has disappeared into the mist . . .

[crash-likes-cookies]

So for anyone interested in the differences of earliest DnD, I found this thread and made it visually easy to access.

(all credit for this goes to Adam Dray, check the link for the entire post)

[inbarfink]

[3liza]

incredible to me that in the age of spending minimum $100 for groceries for one person every three weeks where i live, people are still online like "dairy is bad for you because it has a lot of calories". at this point im calculating calories per dollar at the grocery store and youre still stuck in "fat bad" mindset from 1980. you are an absurd person to me. laughable

[lillaray]

Yall seen teen beach movie?

I inserted some lifers into it (^_^)

(Click for better quality)

[wishfulsketching]

Little continuation to this sketch

[glasskoi]

there's a bartender ace au that i want to make real sooo badd...

[deadpoolsmom]

as far as one piece antagonists go Crocodile truly gets absolutely scooby-doo’d at unmatched levels

He immediately falls for a phone scam and from basically little garden to rainbase he doesn’t even know the strawhats are alive (and clowning towards him at incredible speed). As soon as he does, they’re in his house tearing at his walls and bringing marines into his villain lair.

He uses a literal floor trap door over a gator pit to catch them, gets phone scammed again, full scooby-doo chase scenes after Chopper through the streets while still missing him, and suddenly his prisoners have escaped his impossible cage, and his giant bananagators are dead. and Nico Robin saw it all happen.

He then spends rest of the arc complaining about those meddling kids and their dog “strawhat pirates and their weird pet” and at no point does he even know how many strawhats there are.

Like yeah he keeps having plans on top of plans to stop everything Vivi can do but also she keeps coming up with a new thing to do (Tom and Jerry ass dynamic).

Part of it is that he’s underestimating them and keeps grandstanding villain monologuing but also teens keep killing hundreds of his grand line bounty hunters and he straight up does not know what is happening.

Cause he IS trying to kill them he’s sending top assassins after them and ripping out luffy’s organs, the whole time he’s yelling HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?? DIE. as whack-a-mole Luffy keeps inventing new ways to hit him.

[oldschoolfrp]

Zargon awaits beneath The Lost City -- Kevin Glint updates the look of a classic encounter from module B4, first drawn by Jim Holloway:

Quests from the Infinite Staircase (July 16, 2024) will include 5e conversions of 6 D&D/AD&D adventures from the 1980s:

B4: The Lost City by Tom Moldvay (1982, originally for Moldvay's version of Basic D&D)

UK4: When a Star Falls by Graeme Morris (1984, originally for AD&D)

UK1: Beyond the Crystal Cave by Dave J Brown, Tom Kirby, and Graeme Morris (1983, AD&D)

I3: Pharaoh by Tracy and Laura Hickman (1982, AD&D)

S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth by Gary Gygax (1982, AD&D)

S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks by Gary Gygax (1980, AD&D)

[thecreaturecodex]

Ryujishin-Mushi

"Beetle Dragon" © Pauliina Linjama, accessed at her deviantArt here

[The earthquake beetle, or jishin-mushi, is a Japanese artistic entity that has undergone significant derangement in English sources. For one thing, the name; most English adaptations call it the jinshin-mushi, which means "humanity beetle", not "earthquake beetle". They can be enormous or small, have dragon-like heads or not, and are in general a wide breed, as befits a monster that existed originally more as a bit of iconography than any established narrative. There's even two of them in 90s D&D! This one was called the earthquake beetle in the basic D&D Creature Catalogue, and is colossal and dragon-headed, and the Kara-Tur Monstrous Compendium had a medium-sized, more beetle like jishin-mushi as well. The name I gave this, meaning "dragon earthquake beetle", is a neologism intended to cover if I ever loop around to covering the Kara-Tur version.]

Ryujishin-mushi CR 18 N Magical Beast This titanic monster has the carapace of a beetle, reddish orange above ten black furry legs ending in scything claws. Its neck is long, and ends in a head like that of a horned dragon.

The ryujishin-mushi, or earth dragon beetles, are enormous creatures with features of arthropods and dragons. They are of animal intelligence and are primarily motivated by their appetites. The bulk of their nutritional needs are supported by consuming metal ore and gemstones, but they occasionally come to the surface to gorge themselves on meat before returning to dig in the depths. Only the strongest armies and boldest adventurers have the ability to fight back against these raids—for everyone else, evacuation and rebuilding are their only hope.

A ryujishin-mushi’s body is so dense that its very movement causes the ground to shake. The tremors that come with its burrowing are often the only warning surface dwellers have before the creature is in their midst. Earth dragon beetles focus their attention on the largest and tastiest looking morsels at first, but will fight back if creatures are capable of actually wounding them. They can punch holes in armor and snap weapons in half with their adamant teeth and claws, and often do so. Ryujishin-mushi possess a powerful acidic breath weapon, but they rarely use it unless reduced to below half hit points; melted flesh and oxidized slag is much less appetizing to them.

The reason for the great size and draconic aspect of the ryujishin-mushi is debated by scholars, and none of the proposed explanations are much comfort. One school of thought holds that ryujishin-mushi are dragon-like as a form of Mullerian mimicry; appearing to be a more magically adept creature to intimidate other monstrous hunters of the Darklands. The other hypothesis is that these creatures are descendants of Festering Ulunat, the first of the Spawn of Rovagug. How ryujishin-mushi reproduce is a mystery, and whether they have sex and lay eggs in the deep like normal beasts, or have stranger and more esoteric ways of replication, may shed light on this mystery.

Ryujishin-mushi CR 18 XP 153,600 N Colossal magical beast Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +30, tremorsense 120 ft. Aura frightful presence (120 ft., Will DC 23)

Defense AC 29, touch 6, flat-footed 25 (-8 size, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +23 natural) hp 310 (20d10+200); fast healing 10 Fort +22, Ref +15, Will +16 DR 15/magic; Immune acid, fear; SR 29

Offense Speed 60 ft., burrow 40 ft. Melee bite +24 (4d6+12), 4 claws +24 (1d10+12/19-20) Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft. Special Attacks adamantine claws, breath weapon (3/day, 120 foot cone, 20d8 acid damage, Ref DC 30), trample (4d10+18, Ref DC 32), tremor step

Statistics Str 34, Dex 17, Con 31, Int 2, Wis 26, Cha 16 Base Atk +20; CMB +40 (+44 sunder); CMD 54 (56 vs. sunder, 70 vs. trip) Feats Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Dodge, Greater Sunder, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Staggering Critical, Stand Still Skills Climb +16, Perception +30

Ecology Environment any land and underground Organization solitary Treasure standard

Special Abilities Adamantine Claws (Ex) The natural weapons of a ryujishin-mushi are treated as adamantine for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction and hardness. Breath Weapon (Su) A ryujishin-mushi can use its breath weapon three times per day, but must wait 1d4 rounds between uses. Tremor Step (Ex) Whenever a ryujin-mushi moves at least half its speed in a turn, all creatures touching the ground in a 100 foot radius treat the area as difficult terrain and must succeed a DC 32 Reflex save or fall prone. The save DC is Strength based.

[radiantmorningstar]

Holmes Basic Rebirth Extra: Revised & Rewritten Character Sheets

Ruvin and Dain are looking for their friend, Iovis, who is lost in an otherworldly traveling graveyard, called a "Kargash-Mir." With two sessions complete, I realized I had to tweak a few things on Ruvin's and Dain's character records. I used the Moldvay basic set and the Holmes 1977 book (which is my primary rule set) to do this and just rewrote the sheets. At first, I printed out some appropriate character sheets, but it felt more meaningful to keep it all "longhand" in my little steno pad.

[ruporas]

right by you (id in alt)

[glow-in-the-dark-death]

To Be Wooed

I blacked out and wrote this. This is so silly to me.

Enjoy!

Look Danny didn't mean to kill the Joker it was an honest mistake, he was still recovering from escaping the GIW and whatever they had used on him had still been in effect when he honest to Ancients ran into the fake clown.

Of course it doesn't look like an accident with how he left the Joker

But it was!

Really it really was!

Whatever the GIW did was out of his system, but that still left a very dead and coreless Joker.

Yeah...apparently Joker had a core, but not anymore because he ate it like it was pop rock candy, if the weird cousin spicy version of it. He still feels like he has some of it stuck in his teeth.

Anyways! Not the point!

Joker! Very dead at his feet, what is he supposed to do-

THUMP

Oh Ancients he's going to die again that's the Red Hood!

"Uh...I can explain, well not really. But it was an accident! I promise and-"

"You killed him?"

"I'm really sorry? He bumped into me, it was an accident I swear!"

"Go on a date with me."

WHa-what?! Did he just hear correctly why would he ask him out out of nowhere it made no sense and..oh.

Red Hood's been touched by Death not like him but enough to count, and enough to have some ghostly instincts.

Okay ghostly courting he can do that, he totally can, no sweat!

Shit who is he kidding he may have the instincts but he was never actually taught how he's supposed to use them or anything.

Well he's always been good at making it up as he goes, and at least his instincts will help push him in the right direction.

So he should just do what feels natural to him.

"Yes I'll go out with you. If I were to make jewelry and knives out of his bones would you accept them?"

"...For me to wear and use. Yes."

~

Danny freaking out about just killing and kinda eating someone: I'm in so much trouble!

Jason behind him fixing his appearance: "Well hello there handsome come by here often?"

~

Joker bumping into Danny: "ahAHA you will make a good experiment!"

Danny is high as a kite and getting the munchies: "I didn't know I could order food with my mind!"

Joker: "Whut-"

~

Jason seeing Danny absolutely wrecking Jokers shit: *Ghost Instincts Activated*

~

Jason falling fast for Danny without even knowing his name: "Can I pretty please kiss you?"

Danny realizing what's going on but still being clueless: "Does that mean you will accept these gifts made from Jokers bones?"

Jason's Ghost Instincts rising to a fever pitch: "I'm going to woo the fuck out of ya and then we'll get married then we'll fu-"

~

Danny's Ghostly Instincts being connected to his 'Protection' & Jason's to his 'Revenge' showing these kind of specific gestures towards them is incredibly romantic.

~

Jason and Danny's relationship basically:

~

~

~

#They're like Morticia & Gomez absolutely smitten for each other

#Jason brings a crying & beaten up GIW who has been stalking Danny

#Danny almost swooned

#They start flirting with each other while standing on top of the GIW dude

#Jason's goons are happy that their boss found 'The One' apparently but can they please stop eyefucking each other while they're there and-

~

Just an Idea

[soaked-doors]

pov the reaper that’s dragging away your boyfriends soul says something so freedomphobic you hit his corpse with the nika stare