Recent content by Flying Toaster

The Lich from Adventure Time is an interesting case of a villain who is both generic and specific. He does not even have a real name of his own, just his generic moniker as THE Lich, because he is a cosmic spirit of pure evil older than existence itself, from a time “before there was nothing.”...

I remember reading an editorial note that made it clear to one curious reader that it was not that Roger Moore... 😅

This issue came out around the time I was really getting into D&D, although I only bought it somewhat later as a back issue. It is interesting to contrast Gygax’s upbeat tone with what we now know about the chaos happening behind the scenes at TSR. During EGG’s sojourn in Hollywood trying to...

I would have been almost nine years old when this issue came out, and just getting interested in RPGs as the D&D craze peaked in the USA. I was friends with these two brothers whose parents were friends with my parents, and the older one had many of the popular RPGs of the time, including B/X...

“Aethelwulf the Uncanny! I have had it up to here with your shenanigans! Casting Cloudkill to wipe out the wererats in the sewers? Unleashing a purple worm to fight the Tarrasque? Your latest antics have got the Lord Mayor and the Council of Nobles breathing down my neck! One more screw-up...

Yes, IIRC that was exactly the way my junior high school AD&D groups did it. 2E made THAC0 more official, but we were already used to using it anyway. Players always had their PC’s THAC0 written on their character sheet, and all of the DMs owned some version of the official TSR DM screen, so...

If this revised high level wizard is so focused on casting powerful high level spells that they no longer bother with a complete roster of low level spells, then they would have an additional incentive to take on apprentices and minions. They could handle routine low level spellcasting duties...

Depending upon the theme, lightning casters could also get thunder, weather, and/or storm spells to help bolster their list.

And what if they use the original cover art? The blond woman swooning in the vampire’s arms had dark roots in her hair, and a peasant dress with a plunging neckline. She looked like she came from an MTV music video with a Gothic horror theme, made for a 1980’s hair metal band like Cinderella...

I must say I am a bit baffled by some of the more extreme opinions expressed in this thread. As a DM it is “my way or the highway”? You can make that stick if you are the only DM in the area, but as soon as someone more mellow and agreeable comes along, players may well jump ship. And of...

“Always choose long sword as your primary melee weapon if your character class allows it. If not, pick short sword or footman’s mace.”

I knew there were similar insectoid beings in science fiction and in the RPG homebrew community of the 70’s, but I could not find anything in Web searches. Gygax thought that everyone else in the early gaming scene was stealing his ideas, and singled out the Arduin Grimoire for particular scorn...

Oh I am definitely not recommending having a small pool of players or DMs as a general remedy for any kind of problems with a gaming group, just musing about how it worked out in one particular situation. Most of us were friends anyway and D&D was one of our main activities, so nobody wanted to...

I definitely remember arguments about “killer DMs” in the Forum column of Dragon magazine, but never met any in real life. I believe that the very small size and relative isolation of my teenage AD&D groups actually curbed antisocial behavior by both players and DMs, as everyone implicitly...

As a Gen-Xer, Transformers and TMNT came along just a little too late for me to get into them. D&D was already a 1980’s Saturday morning cartoon, and a line of action figures. Sometimes I toy (heh) with the idea of a light-hearted campaign using ineffectual recurring villains inspired by...