#d&d 2e

[oldschoolfrp]

"High above the mountains and rocky hills of most lands flies a sharp-eyed monster known as the peryton. Intelligent, patient, and malevolent, it waits for prey whose heart it might pluck out." (AD&D 2e Monstrous Compendium 11: Forgotten Realms Appendix, TSR, 1991 -- Looks like this one is by Mark Nelson.) Though the peryton was first described in the 1950s, most early illustrations depict a noble-looking creature that could have stepped out of medieval heraldry. This one appears much more dangerous, a viciously fanged diving raptor. The 2e text finally mentions the peryton's human shadow, shown in the 1e Monster Manual but not described there.

[probablyfunrpgideas]

Planescape Creature Idea: Referearch

These wispy and striped spirits hail from the Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia. There, they preside over polished courts or neatly mowed and painted fields, allowing creatures to visit for a wholesome competition - as long as they can follow the rules. Sometimes they visit other planes as well, to learn new games and update their knowledge. From the gory contests of battle on Acheron to the psychic art duels of Limbo, there is not much that can harm the incorporeal Referearch. They do clash with the Valkyries of Ysgard, who love competition but are more concerned with style than with regulations.

If a Referearch witnesses someone cheating, fighting unfairly, or using unsportsmanlike language, they usually give them a Yellow Token of Dishonor, which is a cursed item preventing them from taking hostile actions or moving more than half their speed for one minute. A repeated offense or serious infraction invokes the Red Token of Banishment, which sends the creature to its home plane (or a random location about 100 miles away, if it is on its home plane.)

Some mortals have seen a vision of a Referearch and decided to follow their example, wearing a striped shirt and blowing a whistle to imitate their trademark screech.

[inbarfink]

[universe-in-the-void-in-the-cube]

D&D and Pathfinder RPers tell me what you think.

[missrosiewolf]

Found the elf life stage chart

[badragonplays]

DragonFinds I got a real DND treasure today. I found the original Council of Wyrms DND2e boxset today. this complete box is one I have fond memories of though we had the book instead.

[probablyfunrpgideas]

“We’re here interviewing the people of Falkovnia, who seem to have only great things to say about their ruler. So, friends, who do you think burned down the Mistral farmhouse with the Mistral family locked inside? A freak gust of wind you say…”

Idea: be the first people in Ravenloft to invent Chicago style citation format! Wait.

Idea: a Ravenloft Domain of Dread based on the gangsters of 1920s Chicago!

New D&D party - True Crime podcasters who are trying to make episodes on the various Dark Lords

[oldschoolfrp]

The gorynych is a very rare dragon with three wolf-like heads and three thick tails that branch into twelve whip-thin ends. Its long body is covered with tiny blue-green scales which almost look like feathers across the wings. It has no breath weapon but will claw twice, bite three times, and whip with its tails three times to ensnare man-sized prey. (Terry Dykstra for "The Dragon's Bestiary" entry by Spike Y Jones, Dragon magazine 158, June 1990)

[theshunbun]

Kani, my level 5 Ban Lung (Earth Dragon) Geisha/Pirate from my AD&D 2e Kara-Tur game 💕

[missrosiewolf]

We start our journey with...well, we're going alphabetically (for now). So Araleth, step on up. The spotlight is yours.

Araleth Letheranil is a Lesser God of Light and he is also called the Prince of Stars and The Twilight Rider. His symbol is a Shaft of Light (really creative there, my guy). He makes his residence in Arvandor in the House of Glowing Stars, a welling that is beset by drifting, glowing stars. Since he is a god of light, naturally he is also considered to be a god of moon, sun, and stars. Just as naturally, because he is a god of light he is opposed to darkness. In fact, he will encourage his followers to battle evil, especially if that evil is darkness-loving creatures. I was not surprised at all to find that the prime targets are, well:

- "The Elfin Gods," Dragon Magazine #155, p. 20

Like I said, not at all surprised. The Seldarine do not like Lolth and they do not like drow. Surface elves do not like Lolth and do not like Drow. It's a...I want to say 'kill on sight' kind of thing, almost, if a drow is spotted on the surface and while it sucks big time (for a good drow), it is and understandable reaction considering all the terrible things [evil] drow have done on the surface and to surfacers, especially surfacer elves. You don't know if this drow you saw some miles outside your village is a scout for a raiding party or something much worse.

On the Seldarine side, they have a long-standing enmity with Lolth and it's mutual too. She's done a lot of things to get the pantheon angry at her (Sehanine does have quite a few reasons to hate her guts. There's the Lolth whole seduce Fenmarel thing too, which they've never forgiven each other for). So, it makes sense that Araleth would consider drow elves to be prime targets when fighting evil. Because drow, under Lolth's influence, have done a lot of things. A lot of bad things. But it's not just that. As the god of light, he is opposed to evil. He is constantly fighting against darkness and evil.

There is also the fact that Lolth personally injured Araleth:

Before the god knew what had happened, Lolth jumped at him and sank her fangs into his shoulder, pumping venom into the wound. He cried out and plunged his magical sword into her abdomen.

and...

Araleth still bears a dark scar on his right shoulder where Lolth wounded him, and he uses it to remind his followers of the need to destroy evil.

- (p. 22)

After reading that, I wonder if the oppose darkness and destroy evil tenet has become a tad more personal to Araleth after being dealt a serious wound that left a permanent scar on him. For him, it reminds him of how he could have died, how Lolth could have killed him and won the battle. For him, it's a reminder that the powers of darkness and forces of evil cannot be allowed to grow, to gain a foothold, that they must be destroyed no matter what.

It makes me wonder if Lolth and her drow, in Araleth's eyes (especially after this conflict), are sort of a symbol of this is what happens when you don't stamp out evil, this is what happens when you do nothing to stop darkness from growing. You get Lolth — twisted, petty, whimsical, evil Lolth — and her drow, who suffer under her thumb but do whatever they have to in order please her and earn her favor.

When drow come up from the underground, he does not wait around for them to cause problems. He goes after them.

- "The Seldarine Revisited," Dragon Magazine #236, p. 13

Something of note is that in both #155 and #236, Araleth's aggressive stance makes him a favorite choice of adventurers (especially elven and half-elven).

- "The Elfin Gods," Dragon Magazine #155, p.20

- "The Seldarine Revisited," Dragon Magazine #236, p. 13

I can see why, especially if the adventure(s) in question is dedicated to fighting / eradicating some kind of evil, whatever that evil may be (physical or magical, big or small, world-ending or a threat to a small part of the world, etc). If you're chasing down evil, then yeah. Araleth would probably be a favorite pick for a deity — especially for an adventurer who is also a paladin or cleric.

Other gods, outside of the Seldarine, that he associates with are:

Seker

Frey

Xan Yae (WG)

Selune (FR)

Celestian (WG)

Seker and Frey, he associates with because they have similar objectives. I don't know who either Xan Yae or Celestian are because I don't read much of Greyhawk — I might have to come back to fix this part later after some more research. Selune, I'm guessing it's because they are both deities associated with the moon, but that might be bit of a stretch.

Also, something that I think is interesting is:

- "The Elfin Gods," Dragon Magazine #155, p.20 

It states here that he "frowns at any unnecessary usage of darkness spells." This isn't an odd stance for him to have because it actually makes sense since he is a god of light and as a god of light, he is naturally opposed to darkness — as I've stated before.

What's interesting though is that there seems to be an unspoken using a darkness spell is okay if it's (absolutely) necessary. My takeaway from that is Araleth might be understanding if a darkness spell is used in a situation that is dependent on someone dropping a darkness spell, a situation where it is absolutely necessary and vital that a darkness spell be used. Outside of that, not really. He will be displeased if a darkness spell is used all wily-nily, without good reason.

That's...actually pretty reasonable. It reminds me almost of Corellon's stance on the Shadow Weave — that it's too corrupt for elves — but not quite. Because Corellon gets angry if an elf so much as experiments with the damn thing while Araleth only seems to get angry if the use of a darkness spell is unnecessary. Again, this makes sense. It's understandable. This isn't either of them being a dick (I can't believe I'm saying that about Corellon). For Araleth, it's all about his opposition to darkness. For Corellon, it's because the Shadow Weave is literally a corrupting, harmful force of magic.

- Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd Edition, p. 57.

Corrupting, dangerous form of magic do not fucking touch.

With that bit of information? Yeah. Yeah. I think Corellon's anger in this instance is understandable.

Unlike the Shadow Weave, a darkness spell is not going to corrupt and/or injure the person casting it. At least I would hope not.

Moving on so that this doesn't become a tangent.

- "The Seldarine Revisited," Dragon Magazine #236, p. 13

Araleth is already doing infinitely better than Tethrin. Araleth gets his own holidays, unlike poor Tethrin.

Anyway. Reading this, I'm reminded of Corellon's holy days because Corellon's worshippers are also sacrificing objects of great beauty. The major difference is that this holy day happens monthly (it's a quarter moon holy day) whereas Araleth's (or at least this particular holy day) happens every spring equinox. It begs the question: is this common throughout the Seldarine? Does each and every one of the Seldarine have a holy day where beautiful items are sacrificed to them? That'd be kind of an interesting and I hope that eventually as I write more and more Seldarine-related posts I'll have the answer.

Curious. The text mentions that Araleth's clergy prefers to start their prayers at dusk because that's just about the time they can feel Araleth's presence in the heavens. I wonder if that's due to him being the Prince of Stars and The Twilight Rider. Or if it's something to do with him being a god of light in general.

That's just me speculating and trying to read between the lines beucase the article doesn't really say why.

Also is it only on his holy day(s) or just a general thing wrt to them feeling Araleth's presence in the heavens at dusk? I'm not sure but I'm going to hesitantly and cautiously choose the former. I don't know why but the former makes somewhat sense to me.

Furthermore, on holy days and when confined to the church, there seems to be some kind of dress code. The clergy is required to wear robes of white. However, outside of those time, they are free to wear whatever they want just as long as it isn't something dark in color:

- "The Seldarine Revisited," Dragon Magazine #236, p. 13

God of Light. Makes some kind of sense. Him and darkness doen't mix and that apparently extends to dark-colored cloth.

Good to know.

[oldschoolfrp]

Great discussion about an AD&D 2e megadungeon campaign, examining the interplay of architecture design, random encounter rolls, and player choices

Since I've had a few people asking about megadungeon stuff recently, and I am an avowed megadungeon megafan, I thought it might be fun to walk through an actual example of megadungeon play that exemplifies what I like best about it.

This post is going to be the first in a series talking about a room from a megadungeon that I ran over 20 years ago (brushing past that fact quickly lest the horrors set in.) It was a major room, probably the most complex and important in the dungeon, and the players passed through it frequently throughout the campaign. In this post I'll introduce you to the room, and then in later posts I'll talk about what it does well and how to use that lesson more generally. Below the cut is a reproduction of the map as I remember it.

Without getting into The Lore too deeply, some dwarves accidentally dug into hell, as one does. Classic trope, nothing wrong with using them. They quite sensibly shut the mine down and sealed if off, but word got out. A human king heard about this, and took over the mine, expanding it into a temple complex to curry favour / barter with hell. It went badly, as such things do.

This concourse connects several wings of the dungeon, spanning several floors. An enormous devil face statue emerges from the northern wall, above the second floor balcony and below the fourth, and a column of light shines through a hole in the ceiling onto the center of the floor. Several floors of balconies overlook the chamber, though the stairs to the fourth floor balcony have long since collapsed.

This chamber was not too far from the main entrance, with the party first encountering it on their second delve into the dungeon, though it would take two more delves for them to gather the courage to enter it. At the time they first encountered it, it was swarming with imps and other little devils worshipping the big face.

I'll summarize the key:

A. Hallway from the Entry Chambers, the first and easiest section of the dungeon.

B. Doorway to the Pilgrim's City.

C. Doorway to the Unholiest of Unholies. Sealed and warded against simple spells.

D. Doorway to the Old Dwarven Quarters.

E. Doorway to the Nobles' Section. Barred from the far side.

F. Portcullis to the Pilgrim's City. The mechanism has rusted out and no longer functions.

G. Doorway to the Halls of the Clergy.

H. Doorway from the King's Inner Sanctum.

I. Doorway to the Archive.

J. Doorway to the King's Inner Sanctum, locked.

K. Doorway to The Indulgences.

Stairway from floor 1 to floor 2.

Light from the hole in the ceiling.

Broken stairs from floor 2 to floor 4.

Big ole devil face. Its eyes are a one-way illusion, allowing anyone within the face to view the room below.

Okay that's a lot, thanks for sticking it out. While I don't want to wander too far off topic into the rest of the dungeon, I'll just briefly note that the Pilgrim's City and Old Dwarven Quarters are easier sections of the dungeon, the Nobles Section and Halls of the Clergy are slightly more difficult, the King's Inner Sanctum, Archive, and Indulgences are very dangerous, and the Unholiest of Unholies is, as one might expect, where the worst things (and best loot) in the dungeon are. This was 2nd edition AD&D, so there was not a presumption of fights being balanced, and traipsing through more dangerous sections of the dungeon at lower levels wasn't uncommon. The players also understood the varying levels of danger fairly implicitly, since the custom at the time was that any time you went a level further away from whatever the ground floor was, things got more dangerous. The only exception to this is the Unholiest of Unholies and I think we can agree that when it's beyond a magically sealed door under a giant devil head the danger is telegraphed.

Next post I'll start talking about what made this room work so well in practice.

[2dmax]

jaguarundi catgirl catfolk swashbuckler/former gladiator for a pathfinder 2e westmarches i may jump into

[fantastictalesofadventure]

IT'ᔕ ᒍᑌᔕT ᗩ ᗪOOᖇ!

[magikkbeann]

Playing a 2e ADND campaign as a silly mushroom girl in the Underdark! Her name is Truffle, other than being a cleric she likes to skip around the party and nap on the ground a lot <3

[internetreferenceibrary]

I played a pixie in a 2e campaign and they remain one of my favorite characters at all time. Yeah monster races weren't what you'd call "balanced" or "fair" but they had cool abilities that felt properly inhuman. Polymorph at will Invisible at will Three cantrips a day That's the 2e pixie ability set. I can still recite it over a dozen years later. Fuck yeah 2e.

yes it is true i have been dungeons and dragons DM for over three decades and still only play second edition. had great time talkin to RASCAL NEWS about the big time campaign i run and my thoughts on what makes a good role playing trot

[anim-ttrpgs]

Your post detailing a story in ad&d of a band of warriors delving into a dungeon filled with large lads and undead inspired me to look into ad&d 2e myself and so far I have found myself enjoying the mechanics greatly. So thank you for that do you have any advice for those just getting into ad&d?

Thank you! I love AD&D and am happy to help get more people into it, or any other rpg that has similar pre-WotC dungeon crawling gameplay.

Here’s a few rapid fire tips off the top of my head for those trying to get into AD&D2e and similar games:

Everybody Reads Both Rulebooks

Really this is my stance for basically any TTRPG, but I think that everybody should read the Player’s Handbook and the DM Guide. A session of any game will always go smoother if everybody has read the rules instead of one guy being tasked with remembering them all.

Check the Wiki

There’s a very useful wiki for AD&D you can use.

While I still recommend you read the rulebooks themselves to get a full understanding of the game you’re playing, the wiki is way better than a crusty old PDF or questionably formatted and nearly-falling-apart-by-now physical copy for quickly checking rules mid-session, and for waking you through character creation.

Start Small

Even before WotC brought the D&D brand and made it the overwhelming monopoly it is today, D&D was a juggernaught if the industry, and, even though I think from reading them that TSR-era D&D was very much written with more passion than just trying to soullessly sell products, TSR still had the dollar signs in their eyes and released like a million supplement and all that crap.

My suggestion: Stick with the DM’s Guide and Player’s Handbook at first. There’s just too much shit otherwise, and a lot of the later additions and supplements have a lot of very questionable content that will not really improve your experience. For instance, why did they introduce a fucking proficiency for eating and drinking?!

Use Even Older Adventure Modules

AD&D2e is retroactively compatible with the adventure modules made for previous editions, and I suggest you use these instead. While I think AD&D2e is the best ruleset to come out of TSR D&D, the adventure modules saw a pretty sharp decline around that time. This is when adventure modules started to be more like scripted stories rather than the dungeon crawling sandboxes they previously were.

Some suggestions that should get you started and keep you going for many many sessions are:

In Search of the Unknown

The Sinister Secret or Saltmarsh

Keep on the Borderlands (get the later version not the original version.)

Village of Hommlet

Throw Everything You Know from D&D3e Onwards Out the Window

If you aren’t sure how to handle something mechanically, do not default to assuming you do it the way it works in later editions. For instance, there are no skill checks in dialogue. You might roll Charisma once at the start of a conversation to determine if the other group trusts the PC or not, but that’s it. Everything else it just talked out.

Also, encounter balance? Throw it out. PCs will have to negotiate, sneak past, run away from, or use clever tactics to survive encounters. It being unbalanced is the whole point. You should be playing this like you would play an old survival-horror game like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, not like an action game. The PCs are fragile and will die easily if they just try to take everything head on.

This is another reason that everyone should read both rulebooks. If you don’t, then you’ll default to playing I like WotC D&D, which is a totally and completely different game.

Run it as a Challenge Game

These games only work if you run them as “challenge games,” which means they are scenarios meant to challenge both the PC and the player. No one should ever fudge dice, adjust HP values of monsters, change the solution to a puzzle just to be what the players thing is right, etc. It’s a dangerous gauntlet and you see if they live or die based on their own decisions and your descriptions. If the GM bends reality to ensure the party’s success (or ensure their failure, but everyone already knows that’s bad) then the whole game and whole story is invalidated. There will be a story, but it cannot be preplanned, it will emerge from seeing what these PCs do and who they turn out to be when they encounter these challenging scenarios. That has to include the possibility of unceremonious death.

Run a Troupe Campaign and Play Multiple Characters on Large Parties

A “troupe campaign” is one where instead of a small party, there are dozens of PCs which form a pool or roster to select from. Like you read in that post, we do ours as a mercenary free company. They get hired to do this stuff.

This makes it so that, in a highly lethal game like AD&D, the “story” doesn’t end as soon as a PC dies, which also means you’re less inclined to cheat to keep them alive when they shouldn’t be. That was just one of dozens of main characters.

Also, get used to playing multiple PCs at once. Make everyone create 3-5 PCs at the start of the campaign, and everyone bring at least 2 of them per adventure. This may take some getting used to but it is really not that hard, especially if you learn to play in third-person like Eureka tells you to.

Get used to party sizes between 6 and 15 PCs. Despite ironically being less focused exclusively on combat than WotC D&D, AD&D doesn’t pretend it’s not descended from wargames.

Ignore Alignment

Yeah alignment still mostly ranged between being pointless and being bad back then too. It meant something back in the very earliest editions of the game, but by the point of AD&D2e it was already mostly a vestigial system that you can and should ignore for most classes. You can keep it for, like, Clerics and Paladins if you want, that’s what we do.

But generally you should give up on the idea that your PCs will even be good guys at all, they’re amoral mercenaries and/or treasure hunters. This doesn’t mean they’re necessarily “bad guys” either, it’s more complex than that.

(art by @chaospyromancy)

Sir Ferdinand, one of my PCs and Captain of the White Company, is a scoundrel who overcharges his employers whenever he can get away with it; does dirty mercenary jobs like raiding, robbery, and extortion as much as he does heroic jobs like rescuing kidnapped children and protecting towns from raids, sometimes even at the same time. Recently he calmly and politely told a village of lizardmen they had better swear fealty to the local lord while subtly implying that something terrible could happen to their home if they don’t. In an adventure before, while overcharging a town for protection due to a threat that the White Company knew was not credible, once the company stumbled upon a secret smuggling and slavery operation that had been kidnapping people from the town and nearby village, he put every effort towards rooting it out despite it not being their job and even later being ordered by their current employer to stop sticking their noses in it. As he said before engaging an extremely dangerous and magic-wielding man in full plate armor while he himself had only maille at the time, he could not call himself a Christian in good standing if he turned a blind eye to slave running.

What alignment is Sir Ferdinand? None of them. He doesn’t have alignment, he has values.