"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'?):

old AD&D figs vs new D&D minis: "That Was Then, This Is Now"

Ok, ok...I confess. A shot of Uhura, old vs new, has nothing at all to do with D&D minis, AD&D figs, Paladins, Rangers, Fighters, Thieves, or even Lizardmen. Although, truth be told ol' Gorn here fits that last role pretty nicely:


Anyway, tangent dismissed. Let me begin.

So ya see, I go through these phases. I dig something out of the pile-o-the-past and then I get all "into it" again....ugh. So, as of late I've been playing with some D&D minis with my kids. Well that of course leads itself to digging up some of the old minis from back in....errr....you know.

Now I already posted a couple times about my Lizardman and my Pally from those early days. In fact I even included some pics of them: my first ever D&D character, the now nameless Lizman and then my all-time-fave, a Pally named "Eridon." Ol' greenie himself even got some follow-up action in a later White Dwarf article post.

Anyway, back to the present-future... err...the recent past-preset... errr...a few days ago: I was dorking around with a bunch of my modern D&D minis (the WotC stuff), and found a nu-skool Lizardman in the bunch. So of course my mind immediately jaunted (hey check out that publication date...nice!) to my old Grenadier Lizardman. I just had to take a look at "old-vs-nu" and see how these badboys stacked up against each other.

My first D&D character (and my first fig) "theeeee Lizzzzzardman" vs some '90s-Godzilla-animated-series-ish-looking Lizardman:


Honestly, the static stance of my old guy there loses out a little to the dynamic pre-swing of the new guy, I still take my old Lizardman over the new guy any day of the week and three or four times on Sunday and Monday. Maybe it's just me. Dunno. Oldskool Liz could take this new punk even with his sword broken off at the hilt. Kinda looks like he's holding an ice cream cone there, eh?...ha!

Having fun with that one, I then proceeded to find some more old-vs-nu comaprisons. Here are the rest of them.

My favorite AD&D character, my old Pally Eridon vs the new often-controversial Dragonborn Paladin:


I actually am ok with the DB race in 4e, but I don't like to see it overdone. This particular mini is mine from playing him as one of the pregen'd 11th level characters in the most recent Worldwide D&D Gameday event. Even though the only new features of this particular character in the PHB2 promo event were the sneak-peek at some new powers from the forthcoming 4e Divine Power book, I got to keep this mini, and so far Dragonborn minis are kinda hard to come by. So I dug it. I just wis they would have chosen a sword for the cast that didn't look like some ridiculous mushroom-head, phallic symbol. That thing looks silly, IMO. Again, I favor old-school Grenadier Human Paladin here, but I'm sure it's purely sentimental. That Dragonborn looks like he could serve it up pretty good to my boy Eridon, but I got my boy's back here too, ya'know?

Ok, on to some Ranger love...err....something. Old TSR AD&D (Human?) Archer/Ranger vs new WotC Archery-style Elf Ranger:


Now here's where I turn the tide and go nu-skool. This may also be due to the fact that I use this particular mini for my current badass 4e 8th level Elf Ranger character. Even so, the old TSR has that whole Michael McDonald look going on. Not sure where that came from, but that's all I think of every time I see this fig. "Ya mo be there..."


Ok, so sticking on the demi-human vibe, here's an old TSR AD&D Dwarf Fighter vs one of his current kin from WotC:


Apparently in 4e they still don't have eyes. Ah well, who needs 'em down in the rock, eh? At any rate, in this case I think I'm leaning towards the leaner here, the newbie. I mean, I really like the old-school horned-helm look and all, but the new guy seems to probably kick a little more butt than the old guy, IMO. Maybe it's due to the missing hammer, dunno. That never stopped my old Lizardman from performing massive beatdowns with just a sword hilt (or ice cream cone) in hand, but here it kinda makes a difference to me. I like the old guy too, but he just looks like he'd get pushed around by the new bully there.

Ok, back to the elves. Here's what 1983 TSR miniatures box called a "Male Elf Fighter" (IIRC - writing this without the box for reference) vs a modern fighter-type dude with a huge tower shield:


Again, I'm going with the modern mini here. And again it may just be because I'm currently using that particular mini for a 4e Human Cleric of Kord that I'm playing in a level 4 campaign. That cleric is pretty balanced STR/WIS (18/18, I think), but he's definitely a front-liner. It's a small group (stared out as only 3, but now a solid 4), so he has to dish out some damage as well as heal/lead. His Righteous Brand is ...well...freakin righteous! That is a main tactic to set up our Brutal Rogue for some major boost to hit. Anyway, my guy is using a Mage's Bastard Sword (no feat required...awesome!) for the high proficiency (+3 for Bastard), and he's a sword&boarder, so this fig just screamed "use me!"...err something. Gotta do something about that ever-curving blade, though....jeesh! Oh yeah, and that old-school Elf looks like a dork. He loses this round.

Ok, that leaves us with one last comparison. Here we see old-school Grenadier "Robber" (well, that's what I call him) vs the same deal, nu-school style from WotC:


Sadly I never painted the old Grenadier version. In fact, I think my whole thieves set is still unpainted....hhhmnnn. Maybe that's a good thing. I might just have to bust out some Testors jars and go at it...ha! Funny thing is I still have the TSR paintset from this 1983 line of figs. My son saw it and was all giddy, thinking he and I would paint some stuff. Then I opened up the jars. OMG! Yeah, those babies are nice and dry. Big huge chunks of dried up 1983 paint. Still a cool box and cool memories, so I keep them, dried-up or not.


Anyway, as much as I like the sneaky look on the new WotC robber mini there, I think I'm gonna give this round to the old-school. He's survived all of these years and still has a full sack! Ok, now that just sounded wrong, didn't it?


So,wrapping things up here it looks like we have a tie 3-3. I guess I'll have to keep digging for another good comparison duo to serve as a tie-breaker. Gonna have to dig deep in the piles of nerdliness in the basement to find the "back in '81" (ish) version of this modern mug:


Of course those old-school eye tyrants looked a bit like beach balls with dreadlocks....err something.


Side out, mahn!

Dungeon Tiles + a 5-year-old boy's imagination = abounding coolness

So a couple weeks back, I got out the Chessex BattleMat and some Dungeon Tiles for my kids to use while dorking around with some D&D minis. We've been playing a very simple form of minis battles lately and this just added to the fun.

Last time I only posted about their dungeon designs on the Chessex mat and the fun we had playing through Bobby's dreadful rooms and Anna's chaotic caves. So this time I wanted to display my son's handiwork using some Dungeon Tiles to create a fun little room in which he and I could continue our dorking-around. And thus...

Here's a (somewhat suckily-focused) shot of Bobby's creation:


And here's a closer shot looking into the room. Crazy fire traps there, eh? Must be something good in some hidden door behind the big one. Hmmn.....:


Dig those two orcs standing over the swirling portal of doom (or whatever). Here we see the orc leader Tarqo as he beckons to his 2nd in command and is all like "well Grund, WTF is that big orange thing?!?!?"


"Dunno." replies Grund. "Shine some frakkin' light on it, mage!"


"Ah-ha! 11? I think that's a 'miss'. Dunno tho'...INT is my dump stat." reveals Grund.

"Ya' mean *one* of yer dump stats, ya clumsy, pig-faced, motherless, wuss!" clarifies the mage before he quickly casts Dimesion Door and safely departs.


Ok, all seriousness aside (hehe), I love what my son did with these tiles. He stacked and unstacked them, placed and replaced them, adjusted and ...err...well...adjusted them some more, until he got the exact design he wanted. He had that "don't bother me, I'm workin' on something huge here!" look in his eyes....with his tongue curled up and out to one side in that total concentration facial gesture....you know the one...

No, not that one, silly.

Try again.

Now come on! Jeeez! That is one freakin nutty pic though.

Last try...

Yep, there ya go!


Anyway he made a nice little room for us to use for our (short) battle session that night. With the Chessex mat session and the design phase of this room behind us, we didn't have a whole lot of time left to fight with our minis. Ah well, he'll just have to wait until next time to embarrass me...err....engage my troops.

Until then, we'll be waiting for him...

"The Keep on the Borderlands" redesigned by a 5 year old and 2 year old...sorta

Well, as promised (and I consider it my son promising me that we'd play "that D&D game" again), we played that D&D game again last night. Now, keep in mind that "that D&D game" to a 5 year old boy and a 2 year old girl can mean anything from rolling dice and having our minis fight each other, to laying out dungeon tiles and seeing how cool they look. Last night we did all of that, and a little more. This post will focus on the "little more" portion. Let me explain...


Approximately 12 seconds after I walked into our house, after racing home from work yesterday evening, with a huge grin on his face, my son asked me:

"Daddy, do you remember what I asked you this morning?"

Approximately 12 pico seconds later, I replied:

"Yes! Yes, I do."

I then 1-upped him by adding:

"I also have another surprise for our game tonight. Do you remember that cool Battlemat that is rolled up in a tube, standing in the corner of the room? Well we're gonna use that too. And you get to draw whatever kind of dungeon you want on it. Cool?"

"Cool!" he said.

We both smiled wide and rushed off to the den/office to gather up some dice, minis, tiles, and the mat and markers. My daughter saw the flurry of 2 little boys (me included) rushing past her with all of this cool stuff and said "can I play?"

"Yes! Yes, of course you can."

So we set it all up in the kitchen. Seriously is there really any more iconic a table to play D&D on, especially when your a kid, than the kitchen table? Nope. I unrolled the mat first to let it relax the rolled edges, and got out the markers. I figured for their first use of the map, we'd stick with the hex side. If they're gonna hose it up somehow, I'd prefer it not to be on the square grid. Still, I had to have a little pre-game discussion about how these are the only markers that we can use to write on the mat. Additionally, no pens, no pencils, no crayons, and especially "no permanent markers!....got it?!?!?"
Once the formalities were done, I gave them free reign to draw whatever they wanted on the mat, while I got the rest of the stuff out. A few minutes later, when I looked back at how they were coming along, I was blown away. Check out what I saw through my "back in '81" glasses as a minimalist redesign of B2 The Keep on the Borderlands:

Here's Bobby's take on the Castellan Keep:

And Anna's version of the Caves of Chaos:

Here's a little clip of them explaining some of their awesome designs:



Now look, I know that I'm just being a proud Daddy, and that this really is just two kids doodling and having fun, but I really was surprised to see what they decided to draw.

His multiple rooms, along with room numbers, and some of the items and dudes he put in them, is freakin cool. OK, so a couple of the numbers are written backwards (he did write some of them upside down, so that is an excuse of sorts), but check out that top-hat-wearing, armless, snarling creature he put in the main room. Yikes! I wonder what it's stat block looks like...

When I asked him about that dude he explained "It's a guy walkin'. He's trying to get this way, but he doesn't know which way he's goin'." I should have asked him to make a Dungeoneering check, eh? Or just keep the old school flavor they had going there have the guy just poke around a bit with a 10' pole. That always works, right?

Now, Anna's design was bit more...organic. She kinda got on a theme there and ran with it. I called them "caves" - she corrected me, stating "dat's ovals." Okie-dokie.

Anyway, we populated the dungeons and I let them just explore a bit, roll some dice, and attack stuff. It would have been cool to actually run them through these things, in real encounters and such, but for this session, we kept it reaaaaal simple. Little sister doesn't have the patience no the time to play the way Bobby and I do. She's got appointments to keep, and things to do, ya'know?

Here's a couple shots of them duking it out:

Bobby's pre-battle "intimidate" attempt:

Anna rolls "to hit":

It was a fatal strike! What was he, a minion?

Ah well, fatalities aside, fun was had by all. But mostly by me, and I never even rolled a single polyhedron!

When your child asks "Daddy, can we play that D&D game again tonight?"...

You reply, "Yes! Yes we can!" as fast as humanly (or demi-humanly) possible.

I was in our front den/office this morning, packing my stuff for work, when my son came in to see what I was up to. As we chit-chatted while I gathered my work crap, his eyes wandered to the stack of D&D Dungeon Tiles sitting on my desk.

"Hey Daddy? Remember that day we were gonna play that one game with the 'little green guys' and all of those little square pieces..."


"...but it was gonna take way too long...so instead you got out those cardboard things that snap out of those pages...and we used them for our 'dragons and dungeons' guys?"
(little sister got in on the action last go 'round...wonder what she just rolled there...a crit?)

"Can we play some more of that tonight when you get home from work?"

Details (like which came first: the dungeon or the dragon?) and long-winded questions (genetics, I must admit) aside, ya gotta like the idea of a (barely) 5 y.o. diggin' on D&D, minis, tiles, and even goofy vintage TSR board games from "back in '81."


Anyway, with the speed of a 4e Archery Style Ranger quickdrawing his longsword/shortsword combo for a chance at an opportunity attack on a suddenly-adjacent foe (I really think that should be possible, BTW...some folks disagree), I exclaimed...

"Yes! Yes we can!"

His face just plain lit-up, but I bet not nearly half as bright as mine.

Thing is, he's really itching for me to bust out the Chessex Battlemat and markers too. He's a very creative little artist and I bet he could design some absolutely insane dungeons on that thing. Now that I mention it, I'm logging a quick reminder for myself to set that up for us tonight too.

Ah well, talk (and blog text) is cheap, so time to get down to some work here so I can bust outta here on-time...maybe even a little early. After all, based on our previous sessions here, here, here and here, I fear my son has a big battle in store for me.


I've created a monster! Isn't he just great?


"Yes! Yes he is!"