AD&D DMG Appendix P: ¿Como se huh?

Never heard of it.

"let's see...Appendix L, M, N, O....."

Until this past weekend, that is.

I was poking around locally last week for some B/X D&D to either join or start if need be, but really had no takers. I then decided to add 1st edition AD&D as a possible option too. That's when I got a bite. The local D&D Meetup around these parts seems to pull in mostly 3.5 and 4e players. I have met up with them at a couple past meetups and played 4e at both of those with other members of the meetup crew.

The bite came from one of the organizers of that meetup. He invited me to join their existing 1st edition AD&D game that gets together somewhat irregularly, which actually is a bonus for me. I'm already committed to one weekly gaming night, and I can't add another strict commitment to my calendar. So an irregular hookup for some 1st ed AD&D sounded very cool to me.

I was informed that the party consisted of 2 rangers (one of them multiclassed as a cleric), a fighter, a thief, and an every-once-in-a-while cleric. They would appreciate another caster, but I could play anything I wanted. I went with magic-user. I don't think I ever played one in 1st edition AD&D, so that would be fun.
I was told to that I could roll up a 5th level character either prior to the session or when I got there. This is where I was directed to Appendix P of the DMG. "Appendix P? WTF is that?"

Well, I haven't played in a true tabletop PnP 1st edition AD&D game since somewhere in the mid '80s. I'd say probably during the 1983-85 timeframe. That campaign was highly homebrewed, mixing in some B/X, some AD&D, and some of whatever our DM wanted. It was a blast back then, but it could possibly cause me some issues jumping into an existing game like this new one.

Now, I do occasionally play in a 2nd edition AD&D game, online using a chatroom with a built-in voice program, with some friends of mine around the country. We all met playing DDO (the D&D MMO) and make use of it's chat/voice/dice functions to play every few months. That game, however is very homebrewed, as the world, races, classes, etc have been customized if not altogether created from scratch in many ways. It's been a ton of fun and I should write a post about it soon as well.

At any rate, the point is I was a little out of touch with 1st ed AD&D, by-the-book.

So, I pulled out the old DMG and looked for Appendix P, whatever that is. If you don't know (you all probably do, but still) it's a quick way of creating a level X character or party. In fact it is officially stated as APPENDIX P: CREATING A PARTY ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT. You still roll 4d6, drop the lowest for abilities, arrange as you like, pick a class/race, adjust based on that if able, and then the fun comes in. You get to roll for magic items!

Seeing how my new M-U was 5th level, it is presumed that he may have come across some sweet loot in his 5 levels of smoothness. So I rolled the bones and got tons of cool stuff, right? Wrong. I will say that I felt very blessed to have rolled very good on the Ring of Protection in the armor section, as having succeeded on the initial roll (75% chance) to see if I got one, I also rolled good enough to bump it to a +2. That was a measily %5 chance, IIRC. Yay, me!

But sadly, that's where the yay ends. I did not get bracers (20% shot). No scrolls (75%). No weapons (75% for a +1 dagger). Not even a single freakin' potion (50%). Ah well, +2 Ring of Protection it is.

Now I understand that this method of generating a level X character isn't some massivively amazing finding, but it was something that I missed in all the years of owning a 1st ed DMG, and I think I got mine back in '81. Imagine that. Ok, maybe '82, but that kinda ruins the vibe, right?

Anyway, on to the play session...


The group was very friendly, very helpful, and very open to me jumping into their group, even it might be with very sporadic frequency. My character found employment with them while hanging out in a local tavern. Crazy, right? Skipping right along, off we went on a journey together.

I won't go all into the story, but I will tell you that the first day of adventuring was pretty hilarious. Reason I say that is the only spell-casting the party ever saw me do during that first day (and that's questionable if they actually saw me do it or not) was one shield spell. Ya' see the problem was that I memorized sleep (x2), shield (x2), web (x2), and a fireball. Sounded pretty good to me. Sadly, things didn't quite gel with that spell array. For one, the DM had originally (and admittedly) created this romp with no caster in mind, so many of the baddies were either immune or highly resistant to these selections. We faced zombies (they don't sleep very well), hell hounds (hit dice to high, and the whole flaming thing), a door mimic (again with the high HD, etc), more zombies, a few crab-like creatures with tentacles? (drawing a blank here and at work without my books to help me out - I'll find them and edit the post), more hell hounds, and finally a pair of Bone devils, IIRC (waaaaay to high HD, not to mention magic resistance).

Actually the last few there were in day 2 of the adventuring. Seeing how I was pretty useless with my original selection, I memorized a slightly different batch for that day's work. I went with one sleep ('cause, well, it's still sleep for Pete's sake), one shield (still a bit of a wuss M-U, and the AC bump is nice), one web (again, maybe they'll let me use it at least once, even if it's to help in our escape from the place), but threw in magic missle (x2), one ray of enfeeblement, and one lightning bolt. I was gambling that the fire-based baddies would continue to pop up, and maybe lightning would harm them better, and magic missle would be good for just about anything.

See, I originally went with a more controlling approach to my magic-user, making him lawful neutral and RPing him a little on the "there must be order in this crazy world", "I'll put you where I want you and keep you there", stuff like that. Well, the party was kinda used to a little more of an offensive night out, and they must have had some bad experience with web before, as they really didn't want me to cast that...ha!

They were basically all frontline fighters (save the thief, who tried to do his thieving tasks and then get the heck back - smart man), so firing offensive spells into the mix was very risky. The melee folks dished out a real nice wallop when needed, and actually for most of the encounters they really didn't have much trouble. Fire damage from the hell hounds' breath weapon attack was probably the most trouble early on. The mimic was a little touchy as he grabbed the thief during his find/remove traps and open locks checks on the door. Still, not too bad of a fight for the rest of the thugs in our party. The zombies were a pushover for our cleric/ranger, even though they did come back from turning quite quickly.

Turned, and returned. Screw it, just waste 'em.

There was a clue to the last fight, that I guess my character was supposed to pick up on. Although in this case, it would seem that I the player would have to pick up on it, using some knowledge that I just don't have: a symbol for sulfur. Originally, the party thought it was a directional, as it did look a bit like an arrow pointing which way to go. However, I was later told by the DM that my character recognizes it as a symbol for sulfur. Ok, well we had been discussing salt, and how it might affect certain creatures (undead?), but still none of us had any on us. I recalled some bags and boxes that we had not checked yet in some rooms earlier in the crawl. In the end, we were told that that mark also symbolizes demon or devil. I'm not sure if I was supposed to have known that or surmised it, but if I had we might have known what was luring behind that final doorway. Ah well.

Regardless, I was still having a blast playing with them, even though they were worried that I was bored, as I hadn't really been able to contribute much. The thief actually RP'd some "I'm beginning to wonder if we really did hire a wizard." To which my guy replied "well I have this pointy hat, these robes, and this staff...isn't that the right getup?" (muttering "that costume shop back in town better not have steered me wrong...")


My big, bright shining moment came (or would have came) when we reached the big bad devils. I could be wrong on the type of devil, I just recall the size, the hooked weapon, the wall-of-ice (I'll get to that), etc...so I'm thinking they were Bone Devils. Anyway, they had just suggested (possibly part of their fear attack?) our main damage dealer into joining their team or at least siding with them to some degree, and feared our other frontliner (who also happened to be our healer - multiclassed cleric/ranger) into running away. So that left our thief, who doesn't dig the up-close-and-personal, another party member PC who was basically mapping for us as an intern (ha!), and me the wuss magic-user. Well, I got an idea. They were basically lined up for me, one in the doorway and the other back inside the room a bit, with a nice wall right behind him. So I let loose a lightning bolt hoping to hit one, then the next, then the back wall them back through those two again for max damage (60 hp to each of them), of course, right? RIGHT?!?!?


Everyone was geeked for this uber spell to save the day. I rolled those 5d6 down through the old dice boot/tower, and stared down at a whopping 13 damage....ugh. Ah well, 26 hp to each of them with that backlash double strike would still be ok. Certainly they would both fail their saves and had no magic resistance to speak of, right? RIGHT?!?!?!? Well they both saved, both times, and even with half damage, their 40% MR basically said...nope, sorry, try again sir. Sadly that was the only shot I had, with only one level 3 spell in the aresnal.

There went my shining moment. The only good thing to come out of the attempt was that the thief became a believer. He witnessed electricity arch from my fingertips and blast across the room. Ok, so it didn't seem to do anything to the big baddies, at least he felt confident in his hiring procedures, believing me to at least be the magic-user I claimed to be. I think.

At this point our main frontliner shook off the suggestion/fear so she started to engage them, along with the thief. Yes, I said the thief. See, he happened to notice that the fleeing cleric/ranger dropped his nice sunblade when he decided to run away. This looked like a nice choice for a weapon (shortsword, IIRC), so he decided to demo it on these devils. I readied a magic missle (well, 3 missles actually, being 5th level), and was about to let them fly, when the devils threw up a wall of ice on the doorway, blocking me out and our fighter and our thief in. The good guys put the fatal smack down on the baddies, with the thief stealing a 1 hp kill shot on the last one...ha! Awesome, but that's kinda what a thief does...steals. Our intern cartographer had tackled our cleric/ranger to hold him down until he shook the fear effect, and we all began picking away at the wall of ice. Man, sure could use a fireball right about now. Ugh.

In summary, I had a blast! It has been far too long since I've played 1st edition, especially in person, across the table from the rest of the crew. Even though my magic-user was fairly useless this time around, I still had a ton of fun, and I really appreciate the gaming group for allowing me to join them. It turns out that they actually try to meet up more frequently than I can commit to, but they often have issues with that anyway, as others in the group have other RL conflicts too. Hopefully I can join them at least once a month dust off the old books, as well as the old skills, all from back in .... errr ... close enough.

B4 - The Lost City boxer shorts?!?!?

Oh the humanity!

My apologies for not yet posting the follow-up to my romp through M1 - Blizzard Pass. I still have to get the audio sorted from my son's run through it. If it doesn't work out, I'll just summarize the session. Kinda like ending one season with a cliff-hanger, and then having the show canceled. I suck, I know. Sorry. It'll be up soon.

Anyway, I was cleaning up my hard drive here and found a saved pic of the awesome cover art for module B4 - The Lost City captured on the front of a 3/4-sleeve concert jersey. Now that is freakin' cool, eh?

How appropriate. Setting the way-back machine to 1982...anyone wanna come along?


Well, I am a huge fan of basically all of the old Basic/Expert D&D and 1st ed AD&D artists, and Jim Holloway's works are most certainly some of my faves. His awesome art is a constant source of inspiration for gaming, blogging, and just plain fantasizing in general.

On top of that, B4 is an incredible module, loved by many. Of course Tom Moldvay deserves most of the credit for that affection, but Jim's artwork helps solidify B4 as one of my (and numerous other players'/DMs') favorite D&D modules.


From the home page at www.jimhollowayart.com you can find the link featuring his work on t-shirts, mugs, and stuff. The first one you'll see is the B4 cover, but you can get several other Holloway D&D/AD&D gems at this site too. Heck maybe I should snag this one too. It's the absolute inspiration I used when imagining Beechum, the halfling I played in JimLotFP's recent online Labyrinth Lord game. I'm not kidding when I say I had that illo printed out right next to my PC. Maybe a golf shirt version would be best. That way I can get away with wearing it to work. Business Casual? Sure.

So if you dig Holloway (and if you don't, you should), and especially if you dig B4, then head on over there and snag a jersey or a coffee mug...maybe even a wall calendar. Oh and don't forget the boxers! If you need any further prodding, check out the item description on the site:

"Enjoy the roomy comfort of our sexy boxers as underwear or sleepwear. They're 100% cotton, open fly for thinking outside the boxers. Boxers, because you don't want to be brief."

You may wanna hurry up though, as it looks like a few of these guys might be needing a new pair soon enough too. I know I sure would.

Ohhh @#$%!!!

"Irontooth": 2008 4e D&D villian or 1981 Judges Guild region?

I was just perusing my blog list and saw James Mishler's latest post at his very cool blog Adventures in Gaming. He is selling some Judges Guild stuff that he recently unearthed from his pile of old-school gaming coolness.

I am having a very hard time not buying the lot. Must...be...strong! Must...not...cave!

Anyway, just looking through his list, I saw a number of JG items that I had not seen before. This particular item caught my eye - Portals of Irontooth:


Now I know that some of you are pure OD&D-ers and AD&D-ers, and that's cool. But I like to play 1981 game one day and the 2008 one the next. Sure I love no version more than my Moldvay/Cook/Marsh boxsets of B/X D&D, however I've also fallen pretty darn hard for 4e D&D too.

If you happen to be in the 4e camp (either just cracking it or already a vet) then you very likely have run across the name "Irontooth." If not, then you might wanna snag H1 - Keep on the Shadowfell:


You can get it free now in a pdf download they are providing (you know the whole "no more pdfs of our stuff" thing...meh) here.

Anyway, enough of the 4e module thing, and back to the JG stuff. Here's a snippet from the Portals of Irontooth describing a new magic item. Oooooooooooo...:

Iron Dragon's Tooth: Each adult or older Iron Dragon has two teeth which grant special magical abilities to beings who wear them on a chain around their neck next to their skin. Anyone so wearing a tooth gets a +3 to all saving throws versus Dragon's Breath and a -1 to each die of damage from Dragon's Breath. It should be noted that not all the Dragon's teeth have this power, only the two smallest ones.


I do have some Judges Guild modules and supplements, etc, but I would like to get some more. So maybe I'll hit James list again and see if I can talk myself into it. If you dig any of their stuff, you should hit it too. Grab that bag of gp and head on over there!

M1 Blizzard Pass: Basic D&D solo mod'n without the cool invisible ink pen

So recently I've been blessed to have a regular local weekly game of D&D (4e in this particular case) for the past 4 months or so. It began as the WotC/RPGA sanctioned Delve Night series, in which I played an 8th level Elf Ranger (Archery Style) sniper... errr ... "striker." That then morphed into a custom campaign where I played a level 4 Bastard Sword wielding human Cleric of Kord (let's just say he liked to get up in there, ok?). This campaign was created and DM'd by the DM of the Delve Nights at my friendly local game store, Blue Dragon Games.

Now I'd usually link the store's website to that last phrase there, but ya see that's when "teh suck" struck.

"Uhm...ouch."

Out of the blue, the store closed. Boom. Blam. Done. No warning. In fact I got an email stating from the site's fourms stating that as of right then, they were closed for good. Wow.

I was stunned. Not only was this store a great source of gaming items, which I purchased quite frequently, but this was the place that got me back into playing real tabletop PnP D&D, no matter what version it might be. It just so happened to be about 5 miles from my home, which was the freakin' icing on the cake.

Now look, the economy blows... understood. We are especially feeling it in the metro Detroit area (ugh), so I won't comment on the store owner's reasons. I'm sure it has been tough making money, so my best wishes go out to the store owner in whatever direction he decides to go next.

The part that leads us to this blog entry is that even though I played every Sunday night with the same crew for 4 months, I have no idea on how to reach them, now that the common ground has been removed. Sadly, I never got their cell numbers, or even their last names...jeesh! I guess I just got spoiled on just calling up the store if need be to chat with the DM (he was an employee/manager/etc of the place) if there was ever a question of game on/off.

At any rate, until I either reconnect with the members of that group, or find a new local one, I am in severe need of some adventuring!


This past weekend I got a little fix from the Worldwide D&D Gameday - Monster Manual 2 event, but I had to drive about an hour and a half to the next closest gaming store that was running it. I did have a blast with the gameday, playing the part of the bravura tiefling warlord "Chance" and I think I'll post a little about my xp with that gutsy general. Additionally, I have been to that particular store before (Heroquest Comics), purchasing a fair amount of stuff, and they would be a great replacement for the other (now defunct) store, if they weren't so far away.

So...

Time to bust out the old solo/solitaire modules again. The terms solo and solitaire get a bit tricky with some of these old modules. Sometimes solo means a single player and a DM. Other times solo means solitaire, just you the player, no DM required. I'm talking here about those solitaire mods (even if they call them solo mods...ha!).

Looking back to last fall, I had some fun playing through the Basic D&D solitaire module BSOLO - Ghost of Lion Castle:

I never actually finished that one, so I could hit that again and see if my sucky Elf can get past a Giant Fire Beetle or a Rock Baboon before dying (twice) this time.

I also have tons of Tunnels & Trolls solitaire adventures, and those are all kinds of quick and easy fun, so maybe I'll run a couple of them.

However, first I think I wanna take a shot at the M1 - Blizzard Pass, the invisible ink Basic D&D mod by David Cook:

Now, as the blog post title states, I will be taking on this quest sans magic pen. Ugh! Some folks have said that a yellow highlighter can work, and my kids have some more modern invisible ink pens that they use to reveal sections and words in little Spider-man books etc, but I don't think those are gonna work. We'll see.

I do have 2, maybe 3, copies of this thing, but they are all in varying degrees of "revealed ink" status. So I need to kinda watch how I progress thru it, and try not to accidentally reveal a choice too soon. Wouldn't wanna spoil all the fun, right?

On that note, one very cool project that I found online is this one here, where some folks have put some serious effort into compiling (most of) the invisible entries into one big entity. That just might be the route I will have to take, at least for Blizzard Pass. Thanks to all of those who helped compile those notes. Very, very cool.

After MI I may have to keep the solo mode going for a bit, unless I find a good local group. If so, these beauties are all waiting in the wings:

M2 - Maze of the Riddling Minotaur:

XS2 - Thunderdelve Mountain (At least I think I have this one...man, I need to get organized!):

XSOLO - Lathan's Gold (Similar in style to Ghost of Lion Castle, IIRC):

CM5 - Mystery of the Snow Pearls (Ooooooo, a Companion Level mod...nice! - utilizing the Magic Viewer thingie too.):

MV1 - Midnight on Dagger Alley (1st ed AD&D here - using the viewer again to reveal parts of the map.):

Rage of the Rakasta (An early '90s D&D Game Box module, which is mostly spent exploring a palace. It can be played with or without a DM. In pure solitaire mode I don't think it's much more than "enter this room, fight this baddie, rinse repeat" but I could be totally wrong...never played it. I'm not sure if I have the stand-up figs with my copy...hhmnnn. Again the need to get organized.):**EDIT**: When I first posted this, I had this mod mixed up with another in the same series, In the Phantom's Wake. That mod takes place mostly on a boat. See below. **END EDIT**

In the Phantom's Wake (Another in that same early '90s D&D Game Box series. This is the one that features a boat floor plan. It's recommended for 4-6 players, (so not a solitaire mod...kinda), butit can be played with or without a DM....weird. So I guess a person could play solitaire, playing all 4-6 characters, with no DM. So that's like playing in accompanied solitary? Regardless, I'll still include it here because of that possibility. Both of these '90s D&D Game Box mods reportedly can be played with those Game Box rules, the Rules Cyclopedia, the Dragon Quest game, or even 2nd ed AD&D witha little fudging, I presume.):**EDIT**: Added this one here late, after checking them at home and realizing I mixed it up a bit with Rage of the Rakasta. See above. **END EDIT**

Wshew! Well that's quite a little bit of solo-play (man, that just sounds wrong) to be had, if need be. I've only messed with one or two of these mods listed above, and that was a loooooong time ago. I recall buying some of these, but never really needing to play them, as we always seemed to have the old kitchen table group back in '81 (and '82-'85 too). Even if sometimes the "group" meant a whopping two of us. A few others I aquired later in life, and just never really got around to playing them.

So that being the case, do any of ya'll have any favorites in this list, or any advice on which one(s) I might enjoy more? Do you favor the invisible ink over the magic viewer? Or is the good ol' "choose you own adventure" style of Ghost of Lion Castle still the best way to go? I think I'll start with Blizzard Pass and see if I dig the invisible ink thing. But if you have a better choice, please let me hear it.

Until then I'll be kickin' back enjoying a little "solo time" (still sounds just as bad, dunnit'?):

"Purple worm, purple worm..." - starring 1977 Monster Manual inspired Reaper minis

Confess! You are either humming the Prince tune or you are trying very, very hard not to. It's ok, you can admit it.


Now for the half of you that haven't yet closed your browser window, I'll quickly move on to the true inspiration of this post. And no, it's not Morris Day and the Time, either. It's none other than that periwinkle wriggler himself, the Purple Worm.


Ok, remember this heart-warming little scene, by one of the (sadly late) greats, Mr. David Sutherland, from the back cover of the 1977 1st Edition AD&D Monster Manual?:


Of course you do.

Well as I seemingly can't stop dorking around with these things, here's another very simplified remake of an old masterpiece of the vintage D&D/AD&D era. This time we watch the scene unfold as our fuchsia fiend moves in on some (apparently completely) unsuspecting dorks... err... orcs:


These little green men are Reaper's orcs, from their Legendary Encounter pre-painted series. As noted before, and seen in a few different prior posts here, I really like these Reaper minis. I have been using them for two current tabletop characters of mine, an Elf Ranger (archery style) and a Human Cleric of Kord. I feel that in most cases they have better sculpts and paint jobs than comparable current offerings from WotC. I still have tons of the WotC figs, and I will keep buying them, but I really like these Reaper minis.

Now for a direct comparison of Reaper vs WotC, in regards to worms of the violet variety, here's a shot of the WotC version appearing ready to chow down on the Reaper version:


Sorry for the difference in lighting there, but different days, different shadows, etc. I just take these pics on the kitchen table (it just seems to fit the "back in '81" theme, ya'know?...ha!), and whatever light I get, I just deal with it.

Anyway, I actually really like the WotC worm too. I think it has a completely different vibe to it. IMO, it looks more Alien than D&D. The size difference could be a deciding factor, but I choose not to go down the "my purple worm is bigger than your purple worm" road. Just not gonna do it. Aw man, I just did, didn't I?

Either way, I like them both and would happily use either one of them on the tabletop, if the adventure called for it. However, for the representation of the old MM back-cover shot, I figured I'd go with the worm that gives me more of an old-school feel, and that would have to be the Reaper mini.

Speaking of old-school feel with new minis, Otherworld Miniatures has (or had) an amazing Purple Worm mini, along with all of the rest of their very cool line of figs. Jeff Reints of Jeff's Gameblog posted on that mini a while back, with this pic along the same lines of that MM back-cover (I hope it's ok to re-post that pic here, Jeff - it's a copy, not a link to your site, so hope that avoids any bandwidth issues):


That shot really reminds me more of the entry on the Purple Worm inside the pages of the old MM. Maybe it's a tail thing...dunno. Check it out:


I do like the fact that Otherworld's worm has the tail included, but IMO the graphic of the work busting out of the ground in the Reaper and WotC versions is even more cool. Diana, Hank, Eric and Presto seem to be diggin' it too:

"Hewwweeeeee!"

Reaper does have an unpainted metal version that seems to cover the best of both worlds in those regards. Here is a shot of that:


However at $27.49 for that bad boy (according to that link), I think I'd have to pass on that, as cool as it does look.

And finally for the real penny-pinchers out there, there's always this option:

Jeff Dee's "Land of Umber Hulk Confusion" drawing: yep, more old lead minis stuff

"It's yet another in a long series of diversions in an attempt to avoid responsibility" - Chris Knight, 1985




As true as that description by one of my all-time fave characters in one of my all-time fave movies may be, this crap is still a lot of fun.

Here's a real cool drawing by Jeff Dee, from the pages of 1980's TSR AD&D module C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness, of an umber hulk seemingly putting "the whammy" on some poor sap:

And here's me dorking around with some minis again, doing a very minimalistic representation of that scene:

The umber hulk fig is one of my favorites from the old collection, a Grenadier blister pack which contained this Umber Hulk and a Xorn. My Xorn still has his 3rd arm as a separate entity. In other words, I never attached the darn thing. Ah well, another project for another day.

The "poor sap" in my shot is the Fighter with Sword mini from the 1983 AD&D Fighters, Rangers & Paladins box set, a set which has rewarded me over and over again.

You may notice, from the back of the TSR box that this guy bears a strikingly resemblance to a popular TSR iconic(?) fighter. Here he is cropped from that back-of-the-box pic:


And here he is gracing the cover of 1986's The Book of Lairs, a book of short adventures by TSR for AD&D:

His name escapes me...anyone? How 'bout you there big fella?

"Huh?"

Trampier's "Giant Frog vs (insert tiny humanoid-ish type here) " drawing: more lead minis reenactments

So lately I've been dorkin' around with some old school D&D/AD&D illos, trying to recreate the scenes depicted in them (in very, very simple form) using old lead minis, newer plastic minis, kid's toys, etc. Well this one here basically slapped me in the face and said "Hey punk, recreate this!"


Yep, it's a goofy one alright. A nice little ditty though, by Dave Trampier, from the 1st ed AD&D Player's Handbook, in the spells section.

This kooky pic has befuddled even the most 'nardish grognards (and BTW, that's a compliment fellas...hehe). The discussion over there at GROGNARDIA covers every angle from what type of creature the little dude on the right actually is (elf, halfling, hobbit, gnome, pixie, brownie, etc) to what the actual scene is supposedly representing (temporal stasis, time stop, shape change, etc). The post and it's comments are a very fun read, and I highly recommend you check it out.

At any rate, for the purposes of this dorky little post here, let's just say some little generic demi-human thug just said some very nasty things about a certain giant frog's mother. Here's some fun I had reenacting the scene with a Giant Frog mini (love those oxymorons) from the WotC D&D Deathknell series and a heavily used and severely abused old lead Halfling Thief from the Grenadier Thieves box set from their AD&D Solid Gold Line:

Sadly, the frog in my scene isn't quite the pouncer, but he certainly looks like he's diggin' that halfling... err... pixie... err ...whatever.

"Pucker up, buttercup!"