New Oe/BX/1E Monster: Mudloc

DESCRIPTION Mudlocs are a race of frog-like semi-humanoids who make their homes in the mud pits of active volcanic areas. They are grayish brown in color and are able to camouflage themselves in active (bubbling) mud pits, allowing them to surprise on a 1-2 (on 1d6) under such conditions. The physiology and dense skin that allows them to live under such extreme conditions further provides them with an immunity to all flame- and heat-based attacks. A mudloc’s main form of attack to is take into their mouths either a large amount of hot (volcanic) mud or a moderately-sized rock (approximately 4-6” in diameter, including hot or flaming rocks), and then “spit” the mud or rock at a target. The amount of damage caused by such attacks is determined by the type of item spit, per below: - rock (normal): 1-4 - hot mud: 1-6 - flaming rock: 2d4 Any attack with a flaming rock does 1/2 damage (or 1d4) to any creature immune to the effects of flame-based attacks.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 4-40 ARMOR CLASS: 5 MOVE: 9” HIT DICE: 2 % IN LAIR: 50% TREASURE TYPE: Q (x 2) NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to flame/heat MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below INTELLIGENCE: Animal ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: M PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 5 HIT DICE: 3 MOVE: 90’ ATTACKS: 1 special DAMAGE: 1-2, 1-4 or 1-6 NO. APPEARING: 4-40 SAVE AS: Fighter: 1 MORALE: 7 TREASURE TYPE: L (x2) ALIGNMENT: Neutral

From the Vault... StoryCode AG Sketches (mid-1990s)

This weekend, I dug pretty hard through the garage, trying to get rid of a lot of trash and preparing for the upcoming garage sale my wife and I are having. As is inevitable every time I dig in the garage, I find old game stuff (e.g., my previous posts regarding the undertemple map and the map of the wizard's keep.)

While going through some old sketchbooks, I came across (or should I say "finally found") the sketchbook with my initial sketches for the anime RPG I started working on in the mid 1990s (originally titled "Gokko" but renamed "StoryCode AG"). Regular readers of this blog (particularly those that have been around a while) might recall my posts about the tri-color dice mechanic, or the quick-character generator (all characters in StoryCode AG were to be randomly created - very OSR in my opinion.)

Anyway, here are some of the sketches I worked up in the mid-'90s. (The first one is the sketch I did for the cover, with a recent envisioning of the cover layout.)

d30 DM Companion Discount + Lulu Sale = Save $2.50!

For the duration of Lulu's silver medal "Olympics" sale, I've discounted the list price of the d30 DM Companion print copy to $8.05 (from $8.95). Add in the 20% savings for Lulu's sale and that means you get the d30 DM Companion for $6.44 (a $2.51 savings over the standard price.) But you'd better hurry, because by the time the first events get going GMT on Saturday, the sale will be over and the discount price goes back up.

Click here to go to there.

New Oe/BX/1E Monster: Giant Woodpecker

I've been wanting to do this one for a LONG time. I finally got off my butt and did the illustration (which is the time-consuming part of coming up with a new monster for me). Best of all, this one feels particularly BX to me, and fits right alongside with things like the giant shrew. My favorite part of the illustration is the (what to me was meant to be a) female elven druid controlling the giant woodpecker (though she technically has to be half-elf, since elves aren't allowed to be druids, though I suppose she could just as easily be a magic-user).

DESCRIPTION Giant woodpeckers are carnivorous, and normally found in forests and woodland habitats, particularly those inhabited by giant insects and worms. Like the smaller variety of woodpeckers, giant woodpeckers have a "sticky" tongue that aids in capturing prey. On any natural "to hit" roll of 20 against an opponent of 4' or smaller, the victim will be pulled into the giant woodpecker's beak (in addition to the damage caused by the beak attack). The victim does get the chance to attack the giant woodpecker and if a successful "to hit" roll is made against the bird, the woodpecker will release its victim. However, should the victim fail to make a successful attack, the giant woodpecker will have succeeded in pulling the victim into its beak and will begin to chew, doing 1-4 points of damage per round, beginning on the following turn (from the successful attack), and will continue to chew until the victim is dead, or until the woodpecker has been killed or fails a morale check. The brain of the giant woodpecker is particularly small, giving it a relatively poor AC (despite its size) and a inordinately high morale.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 1-12 ARMOR CLASS: 9 MOVE: 6"/36" HIT DICE: 4 % IN LAIR: 10% TREASURE TYPE: Q NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-6/1-6/2-8 SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Animal ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: L (18' wingspan) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 9 HIT DICE: 4 MOVE: 60'/360' ATTACKS: 2 claws + 1 beak DAMAGE: 1-6/1-6/2-8 + special NO. APPEARING: 1-12 SAVE AS: Fighter: 2 MORALE: 11 TREASURE TYPE: L ALIGNMENT: Neutral

The 3 Tenets of Magic I've adopted* as I put my head back to The System: Expanded

I. Magic is a talent

II. Magic can be learned and mastered if the talent exists

III. Magic is dangerous (at any "level" of experience)

Inspired by Faust Aleph-Null, the serialized version of the book Black Easter by James Blish.

Should Druids be Allowed to Cast the Spell Hallucinatory Forest?

Simply put, Hallucinatory Terrain is the only clerical or druidic spell in the 1e Player's Handbook that falls under the "illusion/phantasm" classification. I can understand the rare divination spell like locate plants and even necromantic spells like cure disease. After all, those types of spells seem to fall into areas where a cleric or druid would have some spiritual "domain". But there just seems to be something out of place about a single illusion/phantasm spell from out of approximately 150 cleric AND druid spells (counting individual spells available to both, like cure light wounds, as 2 spells) that is an illusion/phantasm spell.

Discuss.

New Oe/BX/1E Monster ("Zine Style"): Leech-man

In celebration of my recent purchase of a long-reach stapler (from Staples), as well as three reams of legal paper (for about a buck each at an estate sale), as well as anticipation for what that means... I present today's monster of the week... ZINE STYLE!