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!

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!"

sweet D&D loot found during weekend getaway

So my wife and I went up north a bit to spend the weekend away for her birthday. Yeah, yeah, I know...2-1/2 hours up north in Michigan, isn't much of a vacation, but hey! - we're in a freakin' recession around here, ya'know?

She digs casinos and we wanted to get away together, even it was just for a little while, just a little ways up the highway. We usually make a yearly jaunt to Vegas (stay with relatives) but this would have to do for the casino trip fix this year. We had a blast, but that's not the subject of this post. No way I'm draggin our personal alone times into this mess...ha!

Anyway, I scouted a couple local game shops in the area in which we were staying, and before we left to come back home, we stopped by to see if they had anything cool. They did.

I snagged a few modules, some dungeon tiles/maps, and some loose minis from the cheap/promo bin. All good. Just thought I'd share my findings with the rest of you, my fellow looters:

B10 Night's Dark Terror - a Basic D&D mod that was missing from my pile of nerdliness - finally got it...sa-weet!

UK4 When a Star Falls - an old AD&D mod from across the pond - I have most of the UK series, but not this one...until now.

Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff - silver anniversary release of the old faves G1-2-3, with some new encounters mixed in to make a full campaign. Seen this one around a lot, but it was ridiculously cheap, so I snagged it. Yay!

GameMastery Map Pack: City - I already have tons of WotC's Dungeon Tiles packs, a stack of various fold-out maps and such, and a Chessex Battlemat, but these were cheap (the store owner just wanted to sell something, I think), so I figured WTF, I'll try them sometime.

And then there's the various loose minis. There are more, but these are the ones I can recall ATM:

Derro - love these little guys - plus the UK4 mod above has some in it....cool! I should have bought more of them.

Giant Frog - I'd like to see if I can make this guy work as a Beastmaster Ranger's Beast Companion (4e Martial Power Book Ranger class style). I mean I can't help but think the eyes and tounge just jump out and say "Hi, I am Dar's bud. Ribbit!"

Choker - "...with the Kung-Fu grip!"


Ethereal Filcher - "nevah heard of it....next!" - I think I need to go dig up some books and look this bad boy up...drawing a blank on him...err...it. Cool multiple attacks possibilities though.

Dolgrim - talk about multiple attacks! My son is gonna luuuuuuuuv this one, with his imaginative flurries he likes to bust out in our EZ-rules mini battles. I can hear it now: "Ok Daddy, my guy's gonna bash you with this pointy ball club thing, stab you with this spear, shoot you with this little crossbow, smack you with this spiky shield, kick you in the head with both feet, and bite your face off...TWICE!"

So in summary, we may have "donated" to the Casino, but we really did have a blast together, just getting away from RL for a little bit. Plus, ya gotta love a little loot run thrown in for good measure.

Now off to devise some strategy to fend off that double-face-bite-off move...it's coming...trust me.

"to-hit" isn't quite what it used to be

Still yet, this post is a few weeks late from when it's events actually occurred...getting close to being current. B^]


As I noted in my first 4e D&D experience (a bunch of folks probably already know this but I am just now learning), the theory of "to hit" (or "Attack Bonus") being a focus point in 4e is something that other players (vets, included) have advised me of. It was something that I could see a lack of with that 1st level Dwarf Fighter, but I blame that more on the sucky dice rolls. I wonder if I mistakenly grabbed one of my old 0-9 (twice) d20s. I really don't seem to recall rolling anything above a 9. Hhmmnn.... Sadly, that was not the case. I guess my forgot to keep my pimp-hand... err... dice-hand strong that night.

Regardless, I also noticed the new weakened "to-hit", bonus-wise, when making a higher level character. I mean look at the Weapon Focus feat, for example. I was used to it enhancing my + to hit (limited 3.5 experience, mainly via D&D Online), but in 4e it enhances your + to damage. Same with some other gear, and such. I could be wrong, but that's how it looks to me, and that's how others who play a few times per week for the past 6 months see it.

Here's some more example: Look at this 8th level Elf Ranger of mine:

his basic ranged Attack Bonus ("to-hit"):
1/2 level = 4
ability (20dex) = +5
no + for Ranger as a class
Prof (a GreatBow is a +2 prof weap) = +2
no + for any feats
Enhancment (magical weapon: +2 Vicious Greatbow) = +2
no Misc +

So hit Basic Ranged Attack bonus at 8th level = +13

Honestly, that's not as high as I (a 4e newb) was expecting. Obviously one should try not be too quick to judge these things vs previous versions without looking at the other aspects of the characters abilities and the game features/rules. So, I will hold some judgment here on trying to directly compare this to OD&D or 3.5 D&D or anything in between. It's just weird when you are used to a certain named feature doing one thing, and then a new rev changes that feature, yet keeps the same name. /shrug

The cool thing, however, is the potential damage on some of these attacks that this Ranger has. Some cool attacks/powers that he (hopefully) will use are 2 attacks (2 arrows) per use (Two-Fanged Strike, Twin Strike, Split the Tree, etc).

This GreatBow, although it took a proficiency feat to use (Exotic weapons are now called "Superior"), is a 1d12 bow. Yikes! Plus it's Vicious. Double yikes!!

Anyway, I would love to go on and on, cuz this stuff gets me all giddy, but I am such a newb still with 4e, that I need the books in front of me to reference in order to not totally hose up anything else I'm blabbering about.

I will say that the "Adventurer's Vault" and the "Martial Power" books are very cool, and I highly recommend them. Again, this is with a whopping one whole play session and one whole planning session under my belt....hahah...so take it as you wish.

Still, real play experience aside: I like books. Books are cool. These two books are neat. I buy books. I am a book dork. ;>]

In which I make a Ranger who actually ranges (4e D&D: round2)

Again, this post is about a month late from when it's events actually occurred. I'm a little bit behind, but I'm catching up. ;>] Anyway, here it goes...

So my next foray into 4e was a lot more "local"...we're talkin' like 5 miles from my house...cool. Anyway, there is a local gaming store (Blue Dragon Games) that has a few campaigns going with 4e (some still 3.5, and some other games too, but they are doing a lot of 4e there, so that's cool).

Now, I'm having trouble committing to a constant weekly group thing, as I have very little time as of late in RL. Well, they have scheduled some "sanctioned" RPGA events at the shop, including a series called Dungeon Delves (or something). It's basically broken down into sessions that include 2 encounters each, and are supposed to be sorta like 1-shot pickup games on a weekly basis. I think the deal is you can show up for one and miss the next, maybe show up for the 4th one, etc. We'll see. This is the sorta thing I need, since I cannot commit to a weekly thing fully.

So I went to the 1st session, and it turns out I was the only person on the planet that even knew about it, save the store owner and an employee/manager (DMing these). I only knew about it because I was in the store on New Year's Eve day, just out shopping (returning a gift or two from Christmas) and stopped in the store for a little browsing. They have added it to their website, so I hope there are some folks that show up next time.

Anyway, I got to at least make my character that night. The DM told me that everyone who joins in would have to make an 8th level character....whoah! Now that may be old hat to some, but a brand new system, with all new powers, skills, feats, classes, races, etc is kinda tough to jump into 8th level. But man, was it fun!

My 8th level dude, is a Ranger of the Elven variety.

He is actually going to "range" things. The Ranger in my 1st (level 1-2) group was a melee guy. This dude of mine will pop things from afar (whoah!). He has some sweet powers (at-wills, encounters, dailies) and feats, and even a little gear (you get to pick 3 magic items at that level, one at level (8), one below (7), and one above (9), so that helps out a little), mostly all geared to maxing his ranged damage.

He is gonna use a +2 Vicious Greatbow almost exclusively. The vicious is different than what I've seen before (3.5?, D&D Online/DDO). No damage back to the user, but it does nice work on a crit. Now I won't crit a lot, cuz they don't have the true improved crit stuff that I've grown used to (in DDO, especially), but when I do crit it will be massive!


In encounters Rangers get to tag their closest foe as their "quarry" once per round. Anyway, when you do that you get some nice bonus damage on them (1d6). With a feat that I took (Lethal Hunter) this additional 1d6 of quarry damage increases to a 1d8. Oh and as an elf, I can re-roll some misses, Eleven Accuracy or something....so on the big attacks, I can use a power to re-roll some of them...cool! This is gonna be fun!

Man, I just hope I get to actually play this dork, as it took forever to make him. The employee/manager of the store (the future DM of these sessions) was *very* helpful and sat there the whole time with me pouring thru the books and such. Another player who is frequently at the store, playing in several campaigns, was also very helpful with some of the creation process. It was pretty daunting for a 4e newb, especially making this guy 8th level to start.

It was a ton of fun, and I never even rolled a single polyhedron....ha!