Online Gaming Back in 1983? Yup, Welcome To "CB D&D"

It's fairly plain to see that the world of gaming is going to be online for the foreseeable future. Sure, I miss going to conventions and face-to-face table gaming. And I've heard more than one person lament that they refuse to try remote game sessions as "it's not the same." But to those folks, I gotta tell you you're really missing out as remote gaming has been around since gaming started. (In fact, I found an interesting article that suggests chess was played remotely via correspondence as far back as the 9th century!) In fact, yours truly is an old hand at remote gaming...

I recall playing by mail back in the 1980s, where I gave several of the games run by Flying Buffalo a try (still going strong today!), and I even played Silverdawn over the course of a summer back then. But my favorite session of playing remotely was the time I played D&D over my CB radio.

My first car was a 1972 Ford Pinto handed down to me from my mom. No AC, black plastic interior, AM radio (that didn't work), but it had a CB radio that still worked left over from the 1970's CB radio craze. I used it to listen to truckers gabbing as they passed by my house on the interstate about 1/4 mile away.

Anyway, during our weekly D&D game, my cleric (Brother Jarrod) got separated from the rest of the party deep in a long-forgotten crypt. My DM, Roger, decided he would run the two groups separately until they met up again. Due to circumstances, he and I were unable to get together that week. And my parents made it clear that tying up the phone line playing D&D ws out of the question. Roger, who lived about 5 miles from me, remembered that I had a CB radio in my car.

"Hey, I think I have a CB base unit down in the basement," he said. "How about we do this over the CB?" I thought it was a great idea, so around 7 pm on a Tuesday night (school was out for the summer), I got in my car, laid my character sheet and dice on the passenger seat, fired up the CB, and Roger and I played a one-on-one game over the airwaves. My handle was "Brother Jarrod", and he was "The Overlord", as I recall. We followed CB protocol as best as we could, finding an open channel (so we wouldn't tie up "real" communications), and ending each statement with "over."

"I listen at the door. Do I hear anything? Over."

"Nope, it sounds empty. Over."

"OK, I swing open the door and charge in! Over."

We got through a few rooms, and I managed to not die in combat as a lone 3rd level cleric lost in a tomb. Roger said, off in the distance, I saw a glimmer of torchlight - likely the rest of the party. (Over.) So I ran to meet back up with them (Over.), thus ending the session. The CB game probably lasted about 2 hours and was tons of fun. And, of course, just as we were wrapping up and signing off, an amused laughing voice broke in...

"What the hell are you two kids doing on this channel? Playing some kinda game?"

Yup, it was "some kinda game", all right! Over.

Wizards, Mutants, Lazer Pistols Issue 7 Now Out!

After a two-year hiatus, one of my favorite independently-created RPG 'zines is back! The long-awaited Issue 7 of Wizards, Mutants, Lazer Pistols is now out!

Picking up when Issue 6 left off, in this issue you'll find:

• An interview with Jennell Jaquays about the early days of RPG zine production!
• Part 7 of the mega-dungeon Beneath the Ruins, where the players will explore The Pools of Pus!
• A quick-fast DM city map of Duren!
• Magical Items of Interest to enchant and vex your PCs!
• And a new character race, the mysterious Tong!

Issue 7 of Wizards, Mutants, Lazer Pistols is $5.00 shipped in the U.S., $6.50 to Canada, and $8.00 international. Although Issues 1-6 are sold out, you can score a compilation of the entire WMLP library at Lulu in both print and PDF. Sniderman says, "Getcher copy right HERE."

[Kickstarter] The Complete Oracle AD&D Fanzine Reprint From 1982-83

One of my favorite gaming archival organizations is the Play Generated Map & Document Archive (PlaGMaDA) which takes materials created by players and GMs and gives these handcrafted gaming treasures a home. (I even made a donation of my own to the archives.) Every so often, Tim Hutchinson of PlagMaDa will compile some of these materials into a new supplement for players, collectors, and gaming historians. His most recent Kickstarter was the amazing "Habitition of the Stone Giant Lord and Other Adventures From Our Shared Youth" that collected eight D&D modules written by players during the D&D heydays of the 70s and 80s.

Tim has launched a new Kickstarter for another amazing compilation -- this one collects all five issues of "The Oracle," a D&D fanzine from 1982-83 featuring new character classes, new adventures, new rules, as well as movie/game reviews and original fiction. This new compilation looks to be 200 pages and will be a limited-run hardbound book for collectors. Within 24 hours, the fundraising met its goal, and now Tim is adding new stretch goals to the project including more supplementary material and the only issue of The Augury -- a companion 'zine to The Oracle.

I love stuff like this. I love homemade gaming materials. I love 'zines. And a hardback collection of D&D gaming zines from the 80s? Count me in. If you have a similar tastes, you should absolutely help fund this slice of gaming's past -- a past you can bring to your table and play!

RPG-A-DAY 2015 Day 17: Favorite Fantasy RPG...Adv. Dungeons & Dragons

17. FAVORITE FANTASY RPG...

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
My first RPG. My longest single game. Decades of memories, adventures,and fun.

RPG-A-DAY 2015 Day 16: Longest Game Session Played...96 Hours Of AD&D

16. LONGEST GAME SESSION PLAYED...

During summer break of my junior year of high school, my D&D group met every weekend to play. Sometimes Friday night, sometimes Saturday, sometimes overnight...1983 was a banner year for dungeon delving. At one point in the campaign, we reached the "endgame" -- our final confrontation with the evil anti-paladin who had been the bane of our games all summer. (Who was based on Frazetta's Death Dealer, per 1980's RRPG gaming cliches.) Since it was getting late, we ended the night's gaming at that point, and made plans to get together on a Thursday afternoon to start The Grand Finale. On Thursday, we gathered at Roger's house, around the game table in the basement. We had brought many 2 liter bottles of cheap store-brand cola, a dozen bags of chips, and 40 cheeseburgers from Burger King. We had all made arrangements with our respective parents that we wouldn't be home until the Bad Guy was dead. Oddly enough, all of our parents were fine with this.

And the dice began to fly.

We stormed his castle defenses. We slaughtered his undead army. We defended the village at the foot of the mountain. Sometime Friday afternoon -- after 24 hours -- we all crashed for about 4 hours and slept. When we got up, we took our places at the table and began where we left off.

We fought his second-in-command -- a lich necromancer. We traversed the Negative Material Plane to retrieve a magical artifact to defeat him. His ghoul legions fell at our feet. We blew up his tower fortress. We ate cheeseburgers, and we crashed again for a few hours.

We woke Sunday at 5 am, and we drank soda and rolled dice and yelled and gamed and shouted and IT WAS EPIC. It was Gaming Nirvana. It was fighting the good fight. It was hanging out with good friends. It was the end of an awesome story.

By Monday morning, we were half-crazed with sleep deprivation and malnutrition. But we put an end to the anti-paladin once and for all, as he dissolved into a sticky puddle upon the final blow. (Though there was an eerie laughter floating on the breeze, hinting that we'd only banished him until a future showdown.) I think I slept for 3 days afterward, but that gaming session will never be surpassed for sheer concentrated awesomeness.

"United We Roll" D&D Shirt Available At Teespring

Whether your Dungeons & Dragons tastes run toward D&D, AD&D, 2e, 3/3.5e, 4e, or 5e, this t-shirt from Teespring has you covered. Can't see the awesomeness in the image above? Here, try this enlarged version (excuse the aliasing):

 

Old school, new school... Regardless of your favorite edition, this shirt proclaims Dungeons & Dragons is loved by all gamers. "United We Roll!" Act fact if you want the shirt as the offer for this design is live for the next 10 days only. Click the link below or the images above for ordering info:

United We Roll shirt available at Teespring

Wizards, Mutants, Lazer Pistols Volume 1 Compilation Now Out!

Woo-hoo! By now you've seen me praising the gonzo RPG fanzine Wizards, Mutants, Lazer Pistols. This fantastic zine resource is chock-full of bizarre fantasy-sci-fi-horror-humor gaming good stuffs. And now all six issues (so far!) have been compiled into one master edition! Presenting the Wizards, Mutants, Lazer Pistols Volume One Compilation!

The 138-page book collects all six issues of WMLP with resources, new monsters, new classes, new treasures, new weapons, new scenarios, and support for such games as:

• Dungeons & Dragons!
• Labyrinth Lord!
• Mutant Future!
• Encounter Critical!
• Cryptworld!
• And the six-part mega-dungeon "Beneath the Ruins!"

Wizards, Mutants, Lazer Pistols Volume One Compilation is available at Lulu for $16.99. Plus, there's a current 20% Lulu coupon, so punch in SHOW20 for an extra $3.40 off. Sniderman says, "Go get some."

Classic D&D Walkthrough Prints Now Available For Pre-Order

I'm sure many of you have seen and enjoyed the classic D&D module walkthrough maps posted over at Wizards of the Coast. Well now pre-orders for prints of those amazing works are now being taken over at Mockman Press!

The prints cover many of the classic module maps, all drawn up in an amusing cartoon-like manner. All of the major encounters are noted, and the detail is amazing on each one. The adventures illustrated include:

• Tomb of Horrors
• White Plume Mountain
• Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
• Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
• Slave Pits of the Undercity
• The Isle of Dread
• Ravenloft

The smallest of the prints looks to be around 13" x 18", whereas the largest are around 18" x 36". Print pre-orders are from $20 to $30 depending on the map and size, and you can pre-order all seven for $150. I plan on picking up Tomb of Horrors for my own gaming room, as it was the the first module I ever ran as a DM. (Yeah, my players were thrilled about that first TPK.)

D&D Meets Reality TV: "The Quest" Premieres July 31

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for themed reality game shows. I loved The Mole (conspiracy/espionage), Murder in Small Town X (police procedural), and Pirate Master (errr...pirates). (And, although not a "game show," The Colony's post-apocalyptic angle fascinated me.) With the proliferation of reality shows nowadays, I had wondered why no one had yet tapped into the "fantasy world" genre. Well, looks like that's exactly what's coming to U.S. television in a few short weeks. The Quest will premiere July 31 on ABC. Here's the description of the show:

Announcing "The Quest," a reality show that literally takes contestants and audiences to an amazing, imaginative realm, where the ogres are advancing in the woods, the dragons are stirring, agents of a dark lord are infiltrating the keep, and the only thing that stands between peace and chaos are 12 very unlikely heroes. From the producers of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, paired with the producers of "The Amazing Race," "The Quest" is a fully immersive experience. In and around this castle, our fantasy realm comes to life with state-of-the art projections, animatronics, prosthetics, real-time motion capture and art direction. The narrative and mythology of "The Quest" is deep and fully imagined, and it was designed to incorporate seamlessly with the unexpected actions and decisions of our contestants – fantasy comes alive as it never has before in this genre-bending series. 

Gotta admit I'm intrigued enough to tune in for the first episode. Here's the trailer for the show:

The Tale Of "Willie The Nadstabber"

All of the online talk about D&D 5e has me reflecting on the classic D&D games of my youth. The adventure, the excitement, the acts of valor and chivalry. Then, there’s the one hysterical event that derailed the game so hard, we had to break for the evening to regain our composure…

The game was a low-level one with most in our party hovering around level 2 or 3. One member of our group was playing a kender thief named Willie who was armed with only a dagger. During a typical wilderness random encounter, we met an ogre who swiftly trounced everyone but Willie. As the only one left conscious, he knew he was the only thing standing between us and a TPK.

"I run between the ogre's legs and stab him as I dart through!" the player announced. The DM nodded, and the player rolled a successful hit.

Now then, the guy playing Willie meant to say he was stabbing at the ogre's LEG as he ran through, hoping the ogre would drop to the ground where he could fight it better. Instead the DM assumed Willie was stabbing UPWARD as he ran through.

"OK, you run through his legs and stab up and under his loincloth as you do so,” the DM said. “His groin takes 4 points of damage.”

Howls of laughter erupt from the table, and Willie's player smiles.

"OK, I do it again!"

The orge took a clumsy swipe at Willie, missing handily, and Willie darted through its legs again with a successful called shot to the ogre's plumsack.

"You stab it in the nuts again, and it takes double damage. The orge screams and staggers a bit. It’s clutching its groin and cursing in orgrish, but it's still on it feet."

Half of us are on the floor, laughing ourselves sick due to the absurdity of the fight. By the time the fight ended, Willie was victorious, and the ogre was dead due to multiple called shots to its junk.

From that day forward, Willie demanded that we call him "Nadstabber."

Forgotton Fiends From The Factory Flying Forth!

Stumbled across this in my Google+ feed this morning. I'm a huge fan of the original "Fiend Folio" for AD&D, and it stands as my favorite monster book. It was filled with gonzo creatures submitted by readers of White Dwarf to their "Fiend Factory" column. But White Dwarf wasn't really available in my neck of the woods, so I never saw the critters that didn't make the cut into FF.

Until today.

Making the rounds is a compilation of  EVERY Fiend Factory article that appeared in White Dwarf magazine. This 155-page PDF was jokingly referred to as "Fiend Folio 2," and I think that's as appropriate as any moniker. Hundreds of weird creatures like Winter Kobolds, Weed Delvers, Flymages, and gods for inhumans fill these pages. Great stuff and plenty of fodder for your games.

Go grab it by clicking this link.

RIP Dave Trampier

Thought I'd toss in my condolences and thoughts on the passing of a great gaming artist. I always enjoyed Dave Trampier's artwork and, in fact, his imagery DEFINED Dungeons and Dragons for me in my formative years. Probably you too.

I don't know about you, but I had the Player's Handbook with me close at hand at the table. Staring at that image of the party looting the statue's eye-jewels while we played in our own game always put me in the mood and painted a vivid evocative picture in my mind.

Meanwhile, whenever I wasn't glancing at the PH cover, I was staring at THIS image. My DM was always lurking behind his trusty DM Screen. I'm sure you've spent many an hour contemplating your next move while staring at this same image.

Trampier is known for so much, much more, so I won't belabor the point any further, except to share one other piece he created that defined me as a gamer. He's the artist responsible for the cover art of this:

Thanks Dave for fueling my imagination and illustrating my thoughts so well.

For Inspiration: The Random Fantasy Adventure Module Title Generator

After posting yesterday's B Movie Title Generator, I wasn't sure if I had shared this other gem with you folks. It's the Adventure Title Generator from the apparently defunct blog Sundering Wrath, and I use it quite a bit for inspiration. The titles it generates are similar in feel and tone to the titles of the classic D&D modules you may have seen on the shelves of your FLGS (though the generator is apparently based on the 4e D&D world).

Stuck for ideas some time ago, I used this generator to create a batch of titles for potential adventure ideas. One that popped up, "Warlord of the Sacred Library," became a Thundarr adventure I ran at Gary Con earlier this year. Another title, "The Scourge From Beyond Infinity," is earmarked for a future DCC RPG funnel. (If I can find time to write it!) Here's a taste of what a few clicks brings up:

Bargain of the Ghouls

The Book of the Cruel Underdark

Queen of the Marksman's Guild

The Plague Widow

Through the Spider Tomb

Below the Bloody Catacombs

The Bard's Last Will

The Inn of the Cursed Knight

Quest of the Living Dead

Vecna's Tribe 

(C'mon, you long-time D&D players can't tell me you wouldn't LOVE to run  through "Vecna's Tribe"!)

[Review] The Habitition of the Stone Giant Lord and Other Adventures From Our Shared Youth

I have recently stepped into a time machine and popped up behind the DM screens of eight very creative DMs back in the 80s. And you can too...

I was a supporter of a recent successful Kickstarter campaign launched by Tim Hutchings of the Play Generated Map and Document Archive (PlaGMaDA). Tim has taken several donations to the Archive and -- with the permission of the original creators -- compiled and laid out eight D&D-style modules in a compilation tome titled "The Habitition of the Stone Giant Lord and Other Adventures From Our Shared Youth." And it is a thing of beauty to anyone who cobbled together their own D&D-style adventures Back In The Day using a loose-leaf binder, some graph paper, and maybe your family's Atari 800 printer (if you were lucky).

(click any photo for a bigger, better look at the details)

Each of the eight homemade, handwritten (or typewritten) modules in this 112-page volume were written by kids during the heyday of the 70s-80s D&D bubble. The titles within this collection include:

• The Habitition of the Stone Giant Lord
• Stone Death
• The Crack at Garn's Canyon
• The Ring of Gaxx
• The Golden Scepter of the Trollfens
• The Tomb of Areopagus the Cloaked and Japheth of the Mighty Staff
• The Lair of Turgon
• The Maze of Death

Rounding out the contents is an overview by Hutchings, and an Introduction by Jon Peterson, author of Playing at the World. Peterson's Introduction offers some fascinating investigational insight, as he examines each module, pointing out what the author was inspired by or how each adventure fits into the D&D cosmos timeline. Peterson's overview really gives you an idea of how each was written and the steps these young DMs took to fit their works into TSR's published worlds.

Now then, I will not be reviewing the textual content of this collection as, well, they're unpolished adventure modules written by kids back in the 80s. Spelling errors, unbalanced encounters, and hackneyed cliches abound, but that's part of the charm of this collection. The unbridled enthusiasm these budding game designers had for their work is seen in each word, each sketch, each attempt to emulate the format and feel of The Professional Game Writers.

The pages of each module was scanned in high resolution color, so you get a feel of the originals' production. You can see the notes written on ruled notebook paper, the pencil sketches on graph paper, the handmade construction paper covers, the yellowing tape holding the maps in place, the dot-matrix patterns left by the printer, and every crease, wrinkle, and erasure smudge found on the originals. Several of them created their own covers to look like those made by TSR, pretending they were Big Name Game Designers. And now, here in late 2013, those eight young game designers got their wish, and their adventures are printed, published, and being played by gamers throughout the world.

Thumbing through the book is like standing behind the DM screen beside the respective dungeonmasters as they ran their players through a dungeon of their own design. When the respective authors assembled these handmade adventures, most of them took pains to emulate the feel and look of the professional efforts with covers. For example, "Habitition" was numbered by the author as "Dungeon Module G22", meaning it is intended to fall within the original "Against the Giants" series of adventures, possibly between G2 and G3. (If you're running your players through the series, how about shoehorning this sidetrek in there to throw off anyone who's read up on the original classics?)

The book is a fascinating look at our gaming past. It will give most of you a satisfying recollection of your own Great Killer Dungeons from your youth. And, according to the back cover, "it's a relic of the past you can play." I suggest taking one of these adventures and running your players through it. I cannot think of a better legacy to those eight kids who originally put pencil to paper than to run their creations at your own table.

The Habitition of the Stone Giant Lord and Other Adventures From Our Shared Youth is now available for purchase at The Hutchingsonian Presents for $30 plus shipping.