RFisher said:
Two years! Argh! Those tales had really re-energized my desire to play (and DM), even though it wasn't really in need of re-energizing. I feel like those stories have given me some fresh and valuable insights into how to play the game, which seems to be awfully rare after 20 years of playing. Unfortunately, since I wasn't getting much else out of Dragon, I let my subscription lapse some time ago.
When you do get around to making a book of them, you should try to include some of the other tales of the early days that have already been told. Like Rob's telling of the Robilar & Mordie's experience in Arneson's City of the Gods in Oerth Journal.
I just sent in my 28th and 29th colum essays regarding the old adventures in the Greyhawk Campaign. In checking my notes, i have only one more springboarded, but Rob is likely to have a fiar store of tales to recount, so the zine should be supplied with material through this year at least. Perhaps I can come up with a few more tales of adventuring that I think are worth retelling.
If rob owns the copyrights to the account of Robilar and Mordenkainen in "The City of the Gods" it would be a worthwhile addition to the contemplated book. So too the story of "Tenser and the Giant's Bag," which i have recounted elsewhere. That sort of material, as well as some possibly theretofore untold stories of Castle Greyhawk, will certainly be hashed over when the project is ready to go forward.
Another couple of questions have come to mind (and I guess it goes without saying to please forgive me if they've been covered before):
Before I encountered D&D, the word "dungeon" meant to me merely an underground cell (or maybe a few cells). Was there precedent for using the word for a complex or were the dungeons under castles in the games merely turned into complexes for the sake of having someplace to explore?
Underground mazes have been treated in mythology, fairy tales, and authored fiction (siuch as
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth ) long before this device was made a central feature in the D&D game. (My favorite one from fairy tales is the one about the 12 princessess who danced holes in their slippers every night.) Anyway, the expanded underground environment featuring dungeons was indeed meant for exploration, mapping, and as a place for strange encounters.
If a new player in an OAD&D campaign says he wants a character like the Grey Mouser, would you just advise him to be a thief and accept that a PC can't easily combine the talents of the literary character? Would you suggest the dual class rules? Would you make up something special?
Personally, I've usually opted for the first route. While games and literature can inspire one another, they are vastly different things. I've had players, however, that bristle at the fact that the TSR Lankhmar products had to "break the rules" to accommodate those iconic characters.
I would advise the player to develop a thief character that was of his own creation, albeit it one that was modeled after a fictitional hero. If the PC stats were good enough, I'd then point out that the character could begin play as a fighter, and then be switched to thief later on so as to have a dual class one akin to the Gray Mouser.
Unabashed plug: This difficulty highlights the drawback of a class based RPG. Because I was unsatisfied with having disappointed players, the LA game system's skill-bundle base allows for the creation of just about any kind of character the player (of GM) wants, and at the same time retains archetypes.
Cheerio,
Gary