Appendix N: Three Hearts And Three Lions

So I just finished reading Poul Anserson‘s Three Hearts and Three Lions, which has the unique distinction of being the first book listed in the (in)famous Appendix N of the 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide. The book was clearly an influence on the good Mr. Gygax and company, though its prominent place in the alphabetized list is probably due to the author’s last name as much as anything else 🙂

The book itself is interesting enough, though I found myself somewhat disappointed with what seemed like a rushed ending right at the moment things were about to get truly epic. The characters are generally solid and there’s plenty of set pieces that feel rather like encounters in an RPG. Some of these are even handled with cleverness rather than steel (imagine that!).

As far as its influence on D&D goes, Three Hearts and Three Lions is likely the source for the whole Law vs. Chaos alignment thing^*, big-nosed, regenerating trolls^†, several Paladin-y things, and perhaps a few other concepts.

I don’t know if I’d call it an absolute must read, but if you’re looking for some enjoyable heroic fantasy that draws on the Carolingian cycle and features what might be the earliest heavily-accented Dwarf (and some nasty human-hating elves, too) in our geeky literary history, then you could do much worse than giving Three Hearts and Three Lions a bit of your time.

^*Of course, Moorcock’s works also focused heavily on this concept, and probably drew from Three Hearts as well. Anderson’s book does pre-date the melancholy albino’s first appearance by a few years, after all.

^†And it’s a much scarier troll than any D&D troll has ever felt like to me. Maybe that’s because we all know you just need to hit the damned things with fire. Man, I hate playing with people who break character to bust out their encyclopedic knowledge of the Monster Manual (and similar works), don’t you? I mean, can we have some effing immersion occasionally, please?

LL/RoCC Rogues Gallery: The Outcasts Of Nogoloth

Wherein your humble scribe presents what might be an Adventuring Party for Labyrinth Lord/Advanced Edition Companion plus the brand new Realms of Crawling Chaos. These characters are all 1st level, were granted maximum HP (advanced style), and have a bare minimum of equipment. They were all created with 3d6 for stats, more often than not in order.

Driven out of the gloomy seaside town of his birth by the superstitious village elders, Jerald Istholam wandered southward along the rocky coastline of Nogoloth, pausing too often to stare out at the grey and moody sea that seemed to beckon to him darkly. Drawing upon the last reserves of his strength he turned away from the whispering waves and headed inland, intent upon making his way to the great city of Khaarm. There, amid the wisest sages and holiest priests, he would find the answers to the eldritch riddle of his lineage. Along the road to his ultimate fate he would befriend others whose very natures made them unwelcome in the petty and inconsequential civilization cobbled together by those sad creatures known as “men.”

Jerald Istholam / Sea Blood Cleric 1 Chaotic Good
STR 13 INT 10 WIS 15 DEX 10 CON 10 CHR 12
HP 8 AC 4 Gold 40
Mace, Shield, Chain Mail, Silver Holy Symbol
Cleric Spells: Command, Create Water, Fear

Lara / Subhuman Fighter/Thief 1/1 Chaotic Neutral
STR 16 INT 6 WIS 7 DEX 13 CON 16 CHR 11
HP 10 AC 7 Gold 96
Scimitar, Dagger, Leather Armor, Thieves’ Tools

Losh / White Ape Fighter 1 Chaotic Good
STR 16 INT 13 WIS 7 DEX 17 CON 16 CHR 7
HP 12 AC 4 Gold 97
Spear, Short Bow & 20 Arrows, Studded Leather, Shield

Dha’yacha / White Ape Hybrid Fighter/Magic-User 1/1 Chaotic Good
STR 12 INT 16 WIS 5 DEX 14 CON 10 CHR 8
HP 7 AC 5 Gold 67
Flail, Dagger, Light Crossbow & 10 Quarrels, Studded Leather, Shield, Spell Book
Magic-User Spells: Divine Weather, Magic Missile, Sleep

In Praise Of Noble Knight Games

Odds are you’ve heard of Noble Knight Games by now. But if not, you owe it to yourself to give ’em a look. They’re pretty much the absolute best online RPG shop, and they have a strong focus on out of print games.

Part of how they fuel that side of their business is by taking trade-ins from nerdly folks like me. I just did a big deal with them and was treated quite fairly. Heck, they even paid for shipping on that big box o’ games I was never gonna play again.

So if there’s something you’re looking for that you can’t find anywhere else (or if you just want to order online) I highly recommend giving the folks at Noble Knight a bit of business. They’re good people who do right by their customers. Heck, you might even wind up with something I used to own.

BoL Character: G’antonin Ancente Ecchius

Wherein your humble scribe presents yet another Barbarians of Lemuria character he put together as an NPC for use in his own (highly-derivative) Kaalmuria setting. More will follow at highly irregular intervals.

A priest of Sunere Luculum – an obscure Lirian deity opposed to the use of magic – G’antonin Ancente Ecchius acts as judge, jury and executioner in a never-ending battle against dark wizards and those who consort with demons. He mostly confines his activities to the city of Liria and its surrounding regions – both areas are all quite rich with sinners – but has been known to travel the width and breadth of Kaalmuria in pursuit of powerful sorcerers and witches. G’antonin is a man obsessed; stern, brooding, and hard to travel with. But when battle against the dark forces becomes inevitable, there are few men in all of Kaalmuria anyone would want at their side.

Essences
Lifeblood 11
Hero Points 5

Attributes
Strength 1
Agility 2
Mind 2
Appeal -1

Combat
Brawl 0
Melee 3
Ranged 0
Defense 1

Careers
Priest 1
Assassin 1
Hunter 1
Torturer 1

Boons
Magic Resistance
Detect Deception
Nose for Magic

Flaws
Distrust of Sorcery
Taciturn

Languages
Lirian, Thaxian, Kellic

Equipment
Sword, d6+1
Dagger, d3+1 (or d3 thrown)
Light armor, d6-2

Ia! Ia! The Stars Are Almost Right!

In case you missed the news, Dan Proctor has announced on his blog that we may be seeing Realms of Crawling Chaos within the next several days. Now that’s more exciting that an internet brawl over the future of S&W WhiteBox, innit?

Already my brain is beginning to spin up a short campaign concept wherein the heroes are cast from the Lovecraftian character races listed in the Table of Contents as glimpsed (1/1d3 SAN) in the Labyrinth Lord Society members-only sneak preview of RoCC. What’s that? You haven’t seen the preview? That must be because you’re not a member of the LLS. You should probably rectify that, naughty person.

LL/AEC Deities: Daraith Aidhe, Mistress Of The Frost

DARAITH AIDHE Mistress of the Frost

Lesser goddess

ARMOR CLASS: -1
MOVE: 180′ (60′)
HIT POINTS: 273
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 (axe & breath)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 3d10 and 4d12
SPECIAL ATTACKS: none
SPECIAL DEFENSES: none
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 50%
SIZE: L (26′ tall)
ALIGNMENT: CN
WORSHIPPER’S ALIGN: Any
SPHERES OF INFLUENCE: Cold, Ice, Snow, History
SYMBOL: A white 8-pointed star against an ice blue field
TYPICAL WORSHIPERS: Barbarians, Frost Giants, White Dragons, and Scholars
CLERIC/DRUID: 9th level Cleric, 14th level Druid
FIGHTER: nil
MAGIC-USER/ILLUSIONIST: 10th level Illusionist
THIEF/ASSASSIN: 14th level Thief
MONK: nil
S:16 I:17 W:19 D:16 C:19 CH:16

Daraith Aidhe appears as an immensely tall alabaster-skinned woman with ice-blue hair worn in long braids. She wields an axe made of purest ice and can breathe a 90′ long, 40′ wide cone of cold air upon her enemies. She is a whimsical goddess, coming and going as she pleases, and just as likely to help as harm one who calls upon her. She holds great enmity towards creatures and deities of fire and flame and is in turn despised by aquatic, reptillian and insectoid gods.

Her position of power over recorded history is somewhat incongruous with the rest of her nature, but the scholars of Thos Nabura have ascribed this role to her because of the frozen nature of the past. She is mostly bemused by this “honor,” but takes her authority seriously and is quick to act against any who would challenge her mighty by attempting to alter the past, either via temporal magic or by distorting or denying historical events for their own purposes.

That Living Social/Amazon Deal

In the unlikely even that you’ve missed it, I figured I’d point out the Deal (-eal-eal) of the Century (-y-y-y): A $20 Amazon gift card for only $10 at LivingSocial.com. Yep, you give Living Social $10 and they give you $20 to spend at Amazon. For reals.

Sure, you have to sign up, and they’ll undoubtedly pester you in the future, but hey, $20 at Amazon will buy a nice edition of Clark Ashton Smith or Robert E. Howard, don’tchaknow?

Anyway, it never hurts to share these things. I think 🙂

Stars Without Number: Characters & Not A Review

Wherein your humble scribe presents a group of characters for Stars Without Number. These characters are all 1st level, were granted maximum HP, and have a bare minimum of equipment. They were all created by the book, with 3d6 for stats, more often than not in order.

What do a mercenary, a con artist, and a psychic healer have in common? Wanderlust and an eye for adventure, that’s what! All natives of Bragan IX, this group of old friends have returned to their homeworld for a reunion of sorts, and thus reunited seek their fortunes in limitless space.

Kara Starr / Human Warrior (Soldier/Mercenary) 1
STR 15 INT 9 WIS 12 DEX 14 CON 11 CHR 8
HP 8 AC 4 Credits 150
Business-0, Combat/Projectile Weapons-1, Combat/Unarmed-1, Culture/Bragan IX-0, Culture/Traveller-0, Tactics-1
Woven Body Armor, Revolver, SMG

Delfino Mars / Human Expert (Con Artist/Criminal) 1
STR 8 INT 14 WIS 12 DEX 13 CON 10 CHR 17
HP 6 AC 5 Credits 415
Business-0, Combat/Primitive-0, Culture/Criminal-1, Culture/Bragan IX-0, Gambling-0, Perception-0, Persuade-1, Security-0, Stealth-1
Woven Body Armor, Semi-Auto Pistol, Knife (2)

Vance Di Coromere / Human Psychic (Noble/Healer) 1
STR 6 INT 14 WIS 18 DEX 14 CON 14 CHR 13
HP 4 AC 4 Credits 325
Combat/Primitive-0, Culture/Bragan IX-0, Culture/Traveller-0, Leadership-0, Perception-0, Persuade-0, Tech/Psitech-0, Tech/Medical-0
Psychic Powers: Biopsionics-1 (Primary), Telepathy-1 (Secondary)
Psi Power Points: 3
Woven Body Armor, Sword, Knife, Lazarus Patch (5)

Definitely Not A Review

This is not a review of Stars Without Number, but I thought I’d make a few points.

Character creation is pretty darn fast in SWN, despite the handful of extra steps that it adds to the classic D&D-style process.
Character creation is decidedly not random, at least not in comparison to Traveller. You’re pretty much in control of who you’re going to play here. Whether this is a good thing or not depends on what you want from your RPG experience.
I’m not entirely sure why I’d play SWN instead of Traveller, but the game seems quite solid on my brief skimming of the rules.
That said, I find myself oddly ill-at-ease with the two distinct task resolution systems present in the game. I’m not a “one task system or die!” kind of guy, but having a d20 system for combat (and the similar, but not exactly so D&D-style saving throws) and a 2d6 system for skills – where both are modified by the same numbers (skill levels, attribute bonuses) feels off to me. I’m sure it works fine in play, but it’s not quite copacetic in my head. I really don’t know why this bothers me. It might just be something in the air.
I haven’t read the Faction rules yet, and those may well be the thing that makes SWN preferable to Traveller for some purposes and playstyles.
The plethora of random tables makes SWN worth downloading regardless of anything else.

In the end, Stars Without Number seems like an interesting blend of D&D and Traveller. And though in my mind it doesn’t replace Traveller, I can see where it would have significant appeal for anyone already familiar with old school D&D (or any of the retroclones thereof) who either didn’t have access to, or didn’t have interest in, the big daddy of scifi games. If that’s you, this may be the game for you. And if not, it’s still worth the bandwidth to download.

Mystery Men: Los Defensores De Monterrey

In case you missed the news, the beta of Mystery Men is now available. That means it’s time to whip up a few characters to see how the rules work. I opted to start these heroes with 40,000 XP for power building. That might be a bit high, but at least it’s not the planet buster/demigod level noted in the rules. And now, without further ado, let’s check out Mexico’s favorite crime-fighting trio, Los Defensores De Monterrey!

El Aguila Solar

One of the country’s earliest superheroes, El Aguila Solar represents the sun and its power and importance in Mexico. Crusading attorney general Hector Diaz y Montenegro is the third man to wear the mantle of El Aguila Solar, and was hand-chosen by the previous Aguila Solar. When not prosecuting criminal in accordance with the laws of Mexico, El Aguilar Solar serves the people by defending them from threats minor and cosmic.

Name: El Aguila Solar
Secret Identity: Hector Diaz y Montenegro
Background: Attorney General
Class: Adventurer
Level: 8
XP: 10,200

Strength: 15 (+4)
Intelligence: 2 (+0)
Will: 5 (+1)
Dexterity: 3 (+0)
Constitution: 8 (+2)
Charisma: 11 (+3)

Attack Bonus: +6
Feat Bonus: +3
Hit Points: 64
Defense Class: 10 (14 w/ Shield)
Speed: 2

Money: $170,000
Equipment: –

Powers: Energy Blade [P], Energy Bolt [P], Flight [P], Light II [P], Shield [P], Strike Blind [L], Sunbeam [S]

El Misterio Verde

Bumbling stage magician Miguel Oroto – who performs under the name El Miraculo! – is the last person anyone would suspect of being the greatest sorcerer in all of Latin America. Which explains why no one quite knows where El Misterio Verde disappears to when he is not needed by the people of Monterrey. Yet when danger rears its terrible head the green wizard appears from nowhere to defend his city.

Name: El Misterio Verde
Secret Identity: Miguel Oroto
Background: Stage Magician
Class: Sorcerer
Level: 6
XP: 6,700

Strength: 6 (+1)
Intelligence: 6 (+1)
Will: 9 (+2)
Dexterity: 8 (+2)
Constitution: 6 (+1)
Charisma: 8 (+2)

Attack Bonus: +3
Feat Bonus: +2
Hit Points: 30
Defense Class: 12
Speed: 2

Money: $700
Equipment: –

Magic Pool: 15,000 XP
Powers: Hypnotic Pattern [P], Illusion III [P], Invisibility I [P], True Seeing [S], Zone of Truth [L]

Profesora Mañana

Daniela Campos, professor of science at Universidad de Monterrey, uses her keen intellect and astounding technical skills to fight the criminal element throughout Nuevo Leon. No challenge is beyond her capabilities and no villain has yet been able to stand against her amazing devices.

Name: Profesora Mañana
Secret Identity: Daniela Campos
Background: Science Professor
Class: Scientist
Level: 7
XP: 8,700

Strength: 4 (+0)
Intelligence: 15 (+4)
Will: 6 (+1)
Dexterity: 5 (+1)
Constitution: 4 (+0)
Charisma: 5 (+1)

Attack Bonus: +3
Feat Bonus: +3
Hit Points: 33
Defense Class: 11 (15 w/ Armor)
Speed: 2

Money: $8,000
Equipment: –

Invention Pool: 18,000
Powers: Analyze [S], Armor* [P], Entangle* [P], Heal Wounds II* [L], Hypercognition [S]

* Powers marked with an asterisk are object-based and therefore cost 1/2 as much

5 Room Dungeon Compilation PDF

Ok, so this went faster than I thought. It’s a long way from professional, but it at least gets the five 5 Room Dungeons for Mini Six/Open D6 into one location. It was also good practice for future compilation PDFs I’m hoping to do (hello, Demons of Adad Untash and Tlactoztlan). So, without further ado, here it is, your chance to…

Download the 5 Room Dungeon Compilation (19513 downloads )

If you print the cover separately and then duplex the rest you should be able to have a dandy little booklet, even. I failed to make it booklet-able without that step, though. Because I’m not really all that good at layout it seems. Enjoy it all the same!

Strange Stones

a nerdy rpg blog