Rumors in the GM Toolkit

“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Would you trust any rumors about
this crazy hermit?

One of the first elements of Basic Dungeons & Dragons that impressed me came in module B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. Here, in the supposed base for characters exploring the Caves of Chaos, one could talk to the keep denizens and get information to inspire or aid their adventures...and some of that information was accurate, and some was patently false. I’m developing a new, system-neutral fantasy roleplaying game setting (mostly because, after The Greydeep Marches, I’m a glutton for punishment) and, as I work out key personalities, factions, and locations, I’m tempted to offer a vast menu of rumors to goad characters into exploring different aspects of the region. And I don’t really feel obliged to note which rumors are true and which are false.

Monsters & Motivation

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

As I mentioned back at the end of my New Year’s missive (“Rejuvenating after the Lost Years”) I’m developing a medieval fantasy setting (possibly using B/X Dungeons & Dragons, maybe system-neutral; that’s a debate for another day). It’s a vast moorland of heath, mires, and hills created ages ago when kingdoms banded together to destroy the power of a great mage. Rather than rely on the usual explore-slay-pillage tropes on which some games and gameplay rely, I’m trying to focus more on the relationship of the region’s inhabitants with both the environment and each other. So in designing this setting I’m looking beyond basic, superficial stereotypes and trying to craft for each faction, individual, and even monsters a relevant motivation when interacting with each other and with player characters. This inevitably leads me to examine the role we give “monsters” in fantasy roleplaying games. like my favorite B/X D&D.

Collect All the D&D

 “We like lists because we don’t want to die.”

– Umberto Eco

For many the yuletide holiday season involves lists: lists of ingredients for traditional meals; lists of things to do in preparation for whatever winter holiday we celebrate; and lists of gifts, both that we hope to receive and that we’ve accumulated to give to our friends and loved ones. In the weekly hometown newspaper I use to work for we’d run a story every December about the various letters to Santa the local post office received, getting some idea what kids were asking from Santa that year. Kids send their lists of desired toys to Santa, while St. Nick himself keeps a list of who’s been naughty and nice. During this season of list-keeping I look back to my own idyllic youth to a list, of sorts, I kept: the 1981 TSR Hobbies, Inc., “Gateway to Adventure” catalog that came in the Basic Dungeons & Dragons boxed set I got as an Easter gift in 1982.

Normalizing 4D6

“As the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions.”

– Plato

I was surfing online this weekend looking for interesting dice sets, just for fun. While a majority of polyhedral roleplaying game dice I noticed contained one each of the “standard” dice (including the D% ten sider), I was surprised to see a number of them – primarily in my search for “Koplow dice” – included four six-sided dice (4D6). I’ve seen a few sets in stores that also pack 4D6. I checked the “starter” boxes I have for Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition and realized the dice set provided with the Essentials Kit also included 4D6 (the Essentials Kit offers character creation rules, while the Starter Set does not). This seems to indicate a shift over the game’s almost 50-year history from several methods of rolling character ability scores to the one most geared toward what some might call a heroic play style; one where player-characters aren’t simply grunts sent through a meat-grinder adventure to meet horrible ends, with only the most “worthy” surviving, but where they begin as heroes who all have value in the overall storyline.

Schweig’s B/X D&D Notebook

I’ve had hopes recently about introducing my son and a handful of his school friends to Dungeons & Dragons. (Granted I’m ignoring the inherent stigma D&D arouses in these regressive regions, but, ever the naïve optimist, I want to trust most parents these days would see the benefits of roleplaying games rather than assume they’re tools of Satan....) Unfortunately 18 months of the covid-19 pandemic – with its requisite precautions of social distancing, avoiding gatherings, wearing masks, plus an entire year of school online – put those aspirations on indefinite hold. But I can still dream and prepare. Besides, I sometime dabble in solitaire D&D play, reveling in rules, procedures, and imaginary action that once inspired me in my long-ago nostalgic youth. These urges lead to the inevitably inflammable question of “Which edition of D&D are you going to run?” Well, my own edition, of course.