E - the alphabet grinds on!

I have been remiss, real life gets in the way as always, so this post is on the fly because I saw the MM and decided to go for it. 

This means that E is going to be as much of a surprise to me as it is to you!!

Without further ado;

Eagle, giant - if you ever needed confirmation that Gygax was influenced by Tolkien then this is it - carrying stuff ability, friendship with elves and dwarves as well as a penchant to attack evil creatures, what can I say?

Ear seekers - a player f*** you monster, you can just imagine what the original campaigns were like when a beastie like this was a staple element. Avoid.

Eel - three different types (none screaming unfortunately). Why am I doing this, it’s a freaking skinny fish!!

Efreeti - now we’re talking real fantasy. Actually not a brilliant description as it goes, a fairly tough foe and a better servant, though how you get it to grant those three wishes without it coming back later with a friend simply to mess you up is a bit of a mystery. 

Elemental - just read through and got a bit bored, basically a bunch of hit points, though of course a good DM could ramp up the role playing. 

Next up is the elephant, why are we giving out experience points for this?

Elf - okay I admit I am defeated. First mention of the drow then on to Ettin, floating eye and eye of the deep, this has been an ill-conceived idea I feel. Never mind, F next and who knows what fun that will bring?!

( actually I can’t leave it there.  Wow, eyes of the deep are weird, and potentially nasty and of course every DM has had the original idea to have the two heads of an ettin have an argument (tell me I’m wrong, I dare you!)

Until later

Be safe

Carl

My complete published works in White Dwarf

A quick post, actually a rather nice callback to some of my recent missives.

Here it is, the one and only time I made it into print in a gaming

So, one mystery solved, this was issue 89 from May 87 which was actually a bit later than I had thought. That been said I did send this ad in a lot earlier because I was completely unaware that my mum was going to be selling our house, and by the time this got published we had moved. So clearly no luck with me swapping my stuff. This is also strange because I had assumed I was trying to sell up but it turns out I was just trying to get different stuff - also clears up for me what White Dwarfs I need to collect as this tells me I owned 40 onwards - again I could have sworn I had started collecting earlier than this but clearly not. 

Reading through ads in other issues this week I actually saw the request of an Internet buddy in issue 91. It turns out he had rather more luck in his searches than I did, talk about born under a lucky star.

And briefly, concerning issue 89. It had this

That’s right, a review of Heroes for Wargames!! This must be the place I found out about this book, again, I was buying stuff much later than I thought. The review is quite similar to mine, so I know I’m not a complete idiot after all.

The  issue is okay, good CoC item on phobias by Carl Sargent (a genius), the Paranoia Electric Sheep scenario (fun) and Eavy Metal featuring the legendary Phil Lewis - good times. 

Again, a stream of consciousness, hope you liked it 

Carl

D is for Dragon - though not really

I’ve gotten round to reading about dragons in my old MM.  A couple of things have come up and given me cause for thought though the main one is I am NOT going to do an in depth review of dragons. I’m beginning to think the alphabet thing was a poor idea.
But that being said I have read the section and need to make a few comments. Firstly it is completely clear in the monster limit that dragon breath always causes damage totally the beasts total hit point value and not it’s current value. I seem to recall we had loads of arguments back in the day about this, players stating that once injured it’s potential to cause harm lessens. And who knew, it’s all here in the MM, plain as dad and incontrovertible - my god but we were idiots back then. I sometimes think that we weren’t mature enough to play games and enjoy them without it becoming a festival of bickering, bitching and point scoring - teenage boys in the 80s, what a bunch of twats!!

Secondly, read the section on dragon sundial. Easy peasy to do and very worthwhile financially. Why everyone wasn’t doing it is a mystery to me now - the rules and restrictions were right there in black and white High Gygaxian. That been said it’s a bloody nonsense of course, dragons are highly intelligent apex predators, particularly at the higher age categories and should be treated as such. Any DM worth his salt should be playing them as the greatest of bad guys, always ready to flee to fight another day if needs be. If I ever start playing again I will hold the dragon in high respect.

On the subject I can highly recommend the series “Dragons of the North” by Ed Greenwood. It was serialised in the Dragon and later appeared on the WOTC website statted up for third edition. This is how dragons should be. A great look at Firgotten Realms lore as well as insights into the machinations and desires of the Uber-monster, great stuff and well worth rooting out.

Anyway that’s it for now, stay safe in these strange times.

Carl