Things you didn't know about D&D...

[Ave Rage]

we'll i must say i was rather surprised the last time i played. My cleric had just reached eighth level when my DM said to me.

"We'll Joe your character's reached 8th level. I think it's time you really learn to cast spells."

so now i have the real power!


joe b.

So you get the real power and Black Leaf doesn't even get a fort save?

TO THE FIFTH LEVEL OF HELL WITH YOU!!

*goes back to trying to summon demons IRL *

For those of you who do not know what we're talking about

 

[Piratecat]

Originally posted by Piratecat:According to my Fiend Folio, the shadow demon was created by Neville White, who is also credited with having created the stunjelly and the qullan.

That's right! Neville White is also known as Alex White, aka Plane Sailing. How cool is that?

 

[Plane Sailing]

Darn it Piratecat, you've blown one of my cover identities! Do you know how much false identity papers *cost* nowadays?!?

p.s. I was really stoked when the Shadow Demon made it into an official adventure, one of the "Desert of Desolation" series.

My trivia contribution: The Monk and Assassin classes where originally introduced in the Blackmoor supplement, the monk started off with 1d4 HD and did 1d4 damage with his open hand attack. And they complain nowadays! Of course, if anyone survived to 16th level Monk (grandmaster of flowers) he was getting 4 attacks per round doing 4d10 EACH.

Bugbears used to have pumpkin heads.

 

[Dr Midnight]

-Back when the TSR staff was maybe eight or ten people, apparently Gary Gygax would once a day throw a fit in trying to deal with writing the rules. "To hell with this," he'd shout, and walk out of the office. He'd be back an hour later, usually with ice cream.

-One of the earlier modules that ALMOST saw publication featured musical interludes. The module would have been published with a thin plastic record (remember those?) and players woiuld have to improvise lyrics to defeat a part of the adventure. Reportedly, dancing was also involved. In-game.

-The very first D&D-induced wedgie was given in 1975, when Patrick Grumboldt from Erie PA told a TSR member at a convention about a bizarre and hostile reaction to the game from a football player he'd tried to introduce the game to.

-For roughly three months, Dave Arneson would only respond to his character's name. This stopped when people started avoiding him in the TSR halls.

-The story about Gary Gygax accidentally "creating" the green slime after coughing up phlegm on the game mat is not only false, but rather disgusting.

-Rob Kuntz's first reaction to the eagerly anticipated Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil was to put it down, sigh, and shout "What the hell?"

-The above is all made up, but was fun to write.

 

[Dave Blewer]

Lolth was originally detailed in the Fiend Folio and although she did have an AC of -10 (which counter intuitively was the best AC you could have in 1st and 2nd edition) she only had 66 HP!

This meant that the Demon Queen of Drow must have lived in constant fear of her sneaky treacherous spell using drow followers.

 

[Azure Trance]

-The above is all made up, but was fun to write.

Damn you! And they were so entertaining too! Its people like you who start urban legends. While I was reading down the list and talking to a PC on AIM I started pasting the info to him ... watch it spread

 

[Azure Trance]

-The story about Gary Gygax accidentally "creating" the green slime after coughing up phlegm on the game mat is not only false, but rather disgusting.

Actually, since you're saying this didn't happen, it would be true regardless.

 

[Azure Trance]

So you get the real power and Black Leaf doesn't even get a fort save?

TO THE FIFTH LEVEL OF HELL WITH YOU!!

*goes back to trying to summon demons IRL *

For those of you who do not know what we're talking about

The links not working, and I can't find it on the site. Can't show friend who Black Leaf is ;(

 

[EOL]

I'm by no means the expert on this but it's my understanding that TSR had some early trouble with the Tolkien estate over use of the term hobbit, mithril and balrog, of which hobbit, since it was the title of a book was the only thing they really had a case with, but the rest I believe were changed just because it was easier than the potential legal battle.

Also, I know that initially since the d10 is not a regular polyhedron in the early days they numbered d20's from 0-9 twice and then you would ink or color in one half of those numbers to indicate which was set 11-20 and which set was 1-10. Then some one "invented" the d10 and that particular kludge was no longer necessary. How, when and by whom the d10 was invented is beyond the scope of my knowledge.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Also, I know that initially since the d10 is not a regular polyhedron in the early days they numbered d20's from 0-9 twice and then you would ink or color in one half of those numbers to indicate which was set 11-20 and which set was 1-10.

Say what? Isn't this what everyone does nowadays? I think all my treasured percentage dice have half the 0-9's coloured in to facilitate using them as d20's !

- over in the UK they were originally sold as percentage dice, hence the 0-9 business. d10's were very rarely used back then, but d% were extremely common.

Cheers