Day 3: First Dungeon you explored as a player or ran as a DM

The first dungeon I explored was "The Caves of Chaos" in B2, "The Keep on the Borderlands."

It is, of course, a classic.

I still have extremely fond memories of exploring the "Shrine of Evil Chaos" portion.  My DM, Brian, really managed to evoke the atmosphere of the place.

It holds such a fond place in my memory, I later "converted" it to Savage Worlds.

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The first dungeon I ever really "ran" as a DM was of my own creation.  It was "The Evil Temple of Fraz'urb llu."  You can find it here.

Day 2: First person YOU introduced to D&D

Though it probably seems strange, the first person I introduced to D&D was probably my Dad.

You see, there were all these cool adventures to play (you could check modules out from the public library) and I needed a DM!

Dad could do it!  :)

He was a good sport about it.  He never really understood what he was doing.  I always had to help him "move through" the adventure.

In reality, I was probably a co-DM and player.  :)

The adventure he "ran" for me was "The Isle of Dread."

We skipped over the hexcrawl stuff and mostly dungeon crawled.  Funny how I always seemed to know where the good treasure bits were located...

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Later in life, I introduced my girlfriend (eventually wife) to the game.  She played a wizard in a 3+ year campaign.  Myrrinne Moonbow.  She has also played Fudge, FATE and Savage Worlds with me.

I also introduced two of her sons (my stepsons).  I still play Warhammer 40k with one on a regular basis.

I've also introduced my grandkids.  3 of 4 have played at one time or another...

Day 1: Person who introduced me to D&D

Way, way back in the summer of 1981, my family had just returned to Arizona from California.  We had spent that summer in Concord, CA, holed up in a small hotel room, because my Dad was working in San Francisco.

My Dad was a union electrician, IBEW 134, and there weren't a lot of jobs to be had in the Phoenix area.  He did big industrial jobs (power plants, mines, etc.) so we frequently moved wherever the work could be found.

We had purchased a house in Mesa, AZ and had just moved in around Christmas of 1980.  Dad was working to build the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station and thought it would be stable.  After all, they had 12 reactors planned.

Nope.  He was laid off in the spring, so he headed to San Fran.  We waited for school to be out and then we followed him.

The summer in SF was good.  As good as it can be when you are stuck in a hotel room.  We did enjoy exploring the city on the weekends.  Alcatraz, Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not, The Presidio, Sausalito, etc.  Oh and this cool place called "Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza!"  Lots of video games.  Asteroids was my favorite!

Anyway, it was good to be home.  I had missed my friends and my books and stuff.  Dad came back with us.  Rumor had it that Palo Verde would be starting up again, so he wanted to get his name on the books at the union hall.

Before the summer had gotten away completely, I wanted to go see my friend Brian.  Maybe hang out and swim at his house -- or maybe a sleepover!  :)

I made arrangements with him.  His parents called my parents and we got it all confirmed for a Saturday night.

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When Saturday afternoon arrived, I packed up my tatty mustard-yellow duffle bag and Mom dropped me off.  They'd pick me up after breakfast on Sunday.

I headed over to Brian's, expecting we'd hang out, swim and do whatever.  Just like we always did.  He and I shared a passion for Star Trek TOS (I was Kirk, he was Spock) and computers.

I had no idea what surprise was in store for me!

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That evening, Brian revealed an amazing treasure to me -- The Holmes Blue Book!

He explained that it was a game you played using "characters" while making a map on graph paper!  Amazing!

We didn't "roll up" characters, we jumped right in by choosing classes, giving them names and picking out equipment.  

I had a fighter named "Berserker" (I was a big fan of the Doomfarers of Coramonde by Brian Daley,) a hobbit named "Bilbo," a wizard named "Gandalf" and an elf named "Legolas."  Not terribly creative.

We explored the "Caves of Chaos!"  I think we started with the goblins!  I remember them yelling "Bree Yark!"  How we survived that encounter, I'll never know.

Eventually we moved on to the "Shrine of Evil Chaos!"  My favorite part of B2 to this day.  :)  Brian did a great job with the descriptions and evoking the mood of the place.  

It was FANTASTIC!  I was absolutely HOOKED!  I couldn't stop thinking about the game and I had to get my own books!

Eventually I did get a 1st Ed. DMG (still have it!) and a Monster Manual.

The rest, as they say, is history!

Thank you D&D and thank you Brian!

HabitRPG

Like many people, I struggle with my weight.  It's not easy to eat right and exercise.  I'm doing my best, but I'm always looking for ideas that can help me.

One idea is tracking all my food.  I use "MyFitnessPal" to do that.  It's a great site/app if you are interested.

Another site that I'm liking a lot is "HabitRPG"  It turns behaviors into a game.  My friend Ryan told me about it during our Warhammer 40k game on Sunday.

Do the right thing, you gain XP and Gold.  Do the wrong thing, you take damage.  :(

I just leveled up!

You get to set the Habits you want to reinforce.  Here's a bit of my list --

You don't have to do these every day, but if you do, you get XP and gold.

Then there are Dailies.  Things you want to do every day.  Skip these and you take a hit!

You can set them (like Blogging) to not happen "daily" but on some subset of the week.

You also have the chance to make To Do's.  Long term projects you'd like to get done.

So far so good with this site.  It does make me more conscious of the habits I want to reinforce.

It might work for you too!

Cavern Geomorphs (one set finished)

Previous posts here and here.

So, I abandoned the square cavern geomorphs.  My tests just didn't work out.  Over on the DM's Craft board, a person named @onethatwas suggested hexes.

This idea worked better.  I had a few quality control issues making sure that the hexes were exactly the same size, but they'll work fine.

Here are some pics --

The hexes are double-thick cardboard and the walls are a single layer.  The "door" gap is 2" and the hexes are 10" across.  I spray-painted them black and then I drybrushed the edges with grey.  I also used a sponge to highlight the "walls."  In some spots (you can see it on the tile above) I used the sponge to make slime/mold/fungus on the tiles.  Just for visual interest.

At this scale, they will integrate with my Dwarven Forge Game Tiles, so we'll see how that goes.

Crazy Initiative Idea

Cool chart by Telecanter - http://recedingrules.blogspot.com/2010/10/visual-weapon-chart.html

A single caveat --

• This idea is completely untested.  Sometimes you have to get ideas out of your head to see if they work...  :)

How I actually do things --

• When I do initiative, I roll a d6 for the monsters and the players roll a d6 for the party.
• High roll goes first.
• If the dice match, it all happens simultaneously.
• I have a deck of cards that I use to randomize the order of the PCs and the monsters within their initiative roll.

OK, now for the idea.

• High rolls are best.
• You get to add your DEX bonus (if any) to your roll.
• If you have a polearm, and are in position to use it, roll the better of 2d12
• If you have a fast/nimble weapon (rapier, whip, throwing daggers, arrows, darts, loaded crossbow, etc.) roll d12
• If your weapon is long (like a spear or 2h-sword,) and you are in a good position to use it, roll d12
• If you have an "average"melee weapon (sword, axe, flail, etc.) roll d10
• If you have a short melee weapon (dagger, shortsword, fist, shield bash, mace, crossbow that needs to be loaded, etc.) roll d8
• If you have a spear or 2h-sword up close where it's difficult to use, roll d6
• If you have a polearm up close, but there is still room to maneuver, roll d4
• If you have a polearm, spear or 2h-sword and you can't maneuver.  Drop your weapon and use something else.

Whatcha think?

DIY Ice Troll Miniature

Ice Troll:  HD 8+8; AC 2[17];  Atk 1 large claw (1d12), 1 small claw (1d6); 1 bite (1d8); Move 12 (24 through ice/snow); Save 8; CL/XP 13/2,300; Special: Ice and Snow Powers, Immune to Cold, Regenerates

Whether this beast is an elemental, or some kind of magical construct, is up for debate among the sages.  Suffice to say that this creature is inimical to sentient life and has been known to waylay travelers and attack remote villages when it appears.

In lieu of a large claw attack, the ice troll can fire an icicle bolt at a single target for 4d8 damage (to hit roll applies; no save) or an icicle storm against a 20' radius area for 3d10 damage; save for half).  In lieu of any melee attacks (it can still use its icicle power,) it can create a wall of ice twice per day.

Each round that the ice troll spends at a temperature below freezing, it regenerates 2d4 HPs per round.  If destroyed, it will melt into liquid, slowly freezing back to ice over 2d12 rounds and then regenerating as normal.  Once it is at 1/2 HPs, it will look and function as an ice troll.  Prior to that, it looks like a mound of ice and snow.

If standing on a substantial amount of ice or snow, the monster can dissolve into it and reappear up to 24" away as its movement action.  Because of its large, snowshoe-like feet, the ice troll can move about atop snow and ice with no penalty.

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This model was part of the December "World of Craftwar" competition at The DM's Craft.

Here's a link to the "how to" if you'd like to see how I made this beast!