Dungeons and Dragons, "Writing is a Skill"

Standard Introduction

            I have been writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge.  As I have done those a couple times before it seemed remiss not to jump on this one.

            If you want here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).

Day 31- The Challenge

            Why do I bother with these 30-day challenges?  A few years back I set out to write 1,000,000 words to follow the adage, “The first million words are practice”.  I hoped to improve my writing thru practice.  More importantly it could not just be practice that only I would read or would only appeal to my own whims, you do not improve by writing something down and letting it mold in the basement, unless you are Emily Dickinson.

            To improve as a writer (or for anyone to improve as a writer) it is important to be able to respond to prompts, produce lots of content in a short period of time, and be willing to put one’s work out into the world for people to scowl at.  I managed to write more than 34,000 words in July, that is not bad for a hobbyist.

            I also set a goal to have a blog entry for every calendar day, 30-day blog challenges provide me with an excuse to sew up a month that previously had a lot of days with no entries (October is now the one with the most holes) so that I can bang out material and have a blog entry to post for everyday of the year allowing me to psychically stroke myself with a repost each time Facebook says, “Here are your memories”.

            Filling in the calendar is a pointless goal, but one that encouraged me to keep blogging and keep driving toward my goal of a million words.

We didn't start the fire.

30 days of Dungeons and Dragons

            Why “Dungeons and Dragons”?  Because it is a hobby I have been doing for more than 15 years, I was already writing about it every week or so, and there actually aren’t too many writing prompts in the 30-day challenge format.  I was kind of shocked by that.  Once you get past the big ones of “Movies” and “Video Games” things get real niche.

            I had to heavily workshop my Disney Challenge which had too many asinine prompts, and even this blog challenge had a lot of “What?”  Who gives a shit about “Favorite Energy Type”?  And what value is there in discussing my “Favorite Non-Magic Item”?  Those are just meaningless.

            “I like Fire!”

            “I like Chairs!”

            “How about we do the best of both worlds?”

            “What an intriguing idea.  What do we do?”

            “We just have to light some chairs on fire!”

            “YEAH!”

This is the original list of blog prompts that contains a lot of what I would consider junk.
Nothing to be ashamed of, it is hard to come up with topics, especially 30 of them.
Below is the list of titles as they ultimately became.
My altered list is what I would recommend using if you plan to write your own blog series.

Some Context, Days 1-4

“How I Got Started”

“My Favorite Edition”

“My Favorite Setting”

“My Favorite Deity”

Favorite Character Stuff, Days 5-11

“My Favorite Fantasy Races”

“My Favorite Classes”

“My Favorite Player Character”

“My Favorite Group of Characters” (“Favorite Character You Haven’t Played”)

“My Worst Player Character”

“Some Ideas for Player Characters” (“A Character You Want to Play in the Future”)

“My Favorite NPC”

Favorite Monsters, Days 12-21

“My Favorite Aberrations”

“My Favorite Animals” (“Favorite Animals/Vermin”)

“My Favorite Fiends” (“Favorite Evil Outsiders”)

“Celestials” (“Favorite Good Outsider”)

“Best Evil Fantasy Races” (“Favorite Humanoids/Giants”)

“Dragons” (“Favorite Dragon”)

“Creatures of Nature” (“Favorite Fey/Elementals/Plants”)

“Legions of the Undead” (“Favorite Undead”)

“The Worst Monster”

“My Favorite Monster” (also has "Favorite Dice" as bonus sub entry)

Best Miscellaneous, Days 22-26

“Locations and Dungeons” (Favorite)

“Puzzles and Traps” (Favorite)

“Cursed Items” (Favorite)

“Magic Items and Technology” (“Favorite Magic Item”)

“Some Talk of Spells” (“Favorite Spell”)

Best Experiences, Days 27-30

“Best 3e Adventure” (“Favorite Adventure”)

“Craziest Game Session”

“Random Poetry Interlude” (was supposed to be “Best Experience as a Player”)

“Best Game Running Experience” (was supposed to be “Best Experience as a GM”)

Coming in the Future

            While I did manage to write out a number of topics on DnD and close out many of my thoughts this stuff, there is always more to talk about with this hobby.  Like I said, I was writing an almost weekly blog about Dungeons and Dragons before this 30-day thing, and will probably continue with that.  Along with writing about other topics, I actually have some other stuff in mind related to several horrible things happening in the world right now.

            If you liked my stuff, please follow me on social media so that you can occasionally step in and read my ramblings.  I hope this was entertaining and gives some insight into why I write.  Please try to further your own writing by putting yourself out there more.  People will be harsh (there is lots of poor writing on the internet and people like to put it down), but hopefully some of that harshness comes from a place that is constructive and hopeful, a place that wants to critique in hopes of improving people’s work and not just scaring off newbies.

            Go on and have fun.

______________________________

            If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click that link to follow me), Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Dungeons and Dragons, "Best Game Running Experience"

Standard Introduction

            I have been writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge.  As I have done those a couple times before it seemed remiss not to jump on this one.

            If you want here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).

Day 30- Best Game Running Instance

            I talked about a group of players that managed to go the distance on an especially long campaign with me and there was ultimately a long and cohesive story that got weaved thru the game.  This allowed me to build up to 2 “Season Finale” episodes and 1 “Series Finale”.

            The season finales revolved around a cloaked figure that had gathered together forces of giant spiders, jackal men, yugoloths, gnolls, and mummies into a semi-workable (though multi-level challenging, and that is the important part) battle force.

            The first season finale involved the players rushing in with a cadre of mercenaries and managing to take down a gaggle of monsters.  The hooded figure managed to escape and killed the party’s monk on the way out (the monk got better).  The cloaked figure getting away with a mysterious item which it had just unearthed from a broken fountain.  This all took place in an abandoned castle in the middle of a haunted wood.  Because spooky.

I evoked some Hastur the Unspeakable imagery.

            The second season finale was the final defeat of the cloaked figure, the revelation of the item he had taken (along with several identical items the players had found), and it all took place in a gladiatorial arena and involved the players teaming up with a small Justice League of other heroes from around the continent who had shown up to compete in a massive fighting tournament “Street Fighter” style.  The monk by this point had gained the ability to channel positive energy and the cloaked figure was pulverized into undead mash rather quickly.

The Series Finale

            The Series Finale is the one I especially liked.  Because that dealt with what the cloaked figure had been scared of and was gathering power to try and oppose.  An alien invasion.  This had been set up, with strange lights in the sky being reported (scouts), damage to various fields and forests (crop circles), and visions by PC allied spellcasters.  It was a big looming threat that the PC’s had time to prepare for, and they drew upon the considerable resources they had tapped during their adventures.

            During the length of the campaign the PC’s had found several things that they thought might be able to help solve an alien invasion.  Giant Pilotable Monsters.

BWAAAAAAH!

            First thing for battling aliens was a dead god of undersea monsters (C’Thulhu in all but name) whose brain they pulled out and replaced with a control room (they were friends with a mad scientist).  Finding the giant monster concluded a different quest chain that involved an archeological Easter egg hunt (I actually talked about it briefly in a different blog).  Acquiring this monster was a mid-season finale.

            Second, was the giant Clock Tower built by the campaign’s warforged to be a super computer, one able to figure out the meaning of life (a reference to Deep Thought from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”) and was then modified with a stolen alien power core (called “Star Hearts”) to transform into a giant robot to serve as the new god of Warforged and gifting them all with souls.  This too had been set up, as the warforged leadership had asked the players to retrieve or protect some key components and texts they needed to write the robot’s “software”.

            Third, and lastly, a group of wizards led by the party’s Druid managed to fall into a pocket dimension that was the extradimensional prison turned tomb of Oberon, lord of all fey.  After centuries cut off from the natural world Oberon was now nothing more than a nature spirit, but he was still a conduit for the natural mana that flowed thru the world.  The group rescued his soul from the extradimensional prison.  So freed, Oberon became an Awesome Sized Elemental switching between Fire/Water/Earth/Air (I would have had giant Animal/Plant forms too but ran out of time before the game).  This was actually a call back to the PC’s first adventure, being trapped in a game left over from Oberon’s abandoned summer palace (this was also the Player’s first ever adventure which I used to introduce them to the game).

I can't draw, so enjoy this art from a variety of sources that kind of work for what I am talking about.
Source 1, Source 2, Source 3

            I wanted to tie in as many previous adventures together as I could so that the adventure could serve as a culmination rather than just a stopping point. Ultimately the event came, a dozen tripods landed with energy beams and the players each piloted one of the monsters.  The Ranger took the Dead God (Chaotic Neutral), the Druid merged with the Giant Elemental God (True Neutral), and the Monk channeled and controlled positive energy to pilot the Giant Robot God (Lawful Neutral).  It was a Kaiju versus Tripods Final battle for the fate of the planet.

            What was more, once the players won, it was revealed that all over the world the gods and higher being of the world had been pulling out weapons and kaiju to fight the invasion.  A two-headed star dragon helped the Monk’s giant Robot fly into orbit and take out the fleet of ground troops that was poised to begin landing.  The fact that the gods played out so many of their resources became a plot point in the sequel campaign.

            Also in the sequel campaign, the players new characters found an area in which the tripod landing was successful and had to help a resistance movement wake up the defeated kaiju that had previously failed to stop the invasion doing their best to hit the unshielded and resting aliens.

            My Games get pretty fucking weird sometimes.  But I feel that the weirdness is earned and enjoyed.

Coming Tomorrow

            Tomorrow I am going to talk about this 30-day blog challenge of which this is the last actual entry. I will show you the original prompts and list all of the entries so that if you want to do your own, you’ll be able to.

            I am definitely gonna need some time off writing DnD after this.

______________________________

            If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click that link to follow me), Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Dungeons and Dragons, "Random Poetry Interlude"

Standard Introduction

            I have been writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge.  As I have done those a couple times before it seemed remiss not to jump on this one.

            If you want here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).

Day 29- Best Player Experience

            Gotta be honest, I could not think of one.  I am not much of a player and I prefer being the guy running the game.  I am more about Puzzles, Monsters, and NPC’s then I am about PC’s.

Filler: A Poem

            I occasionally take poems off the Poetry Foundation and rewrite them.  I am a multi-dimensional nerd in that regard.  So here is a link to the original poem, “Evening Hawk” while below is my re-do of that poem.

            And yes, I am reworking the poetry of the United States’ first Poet Laureate.  Because I have an ego?  I guess?  Or maybe it is just that it popped up while I was researching poems about the end of the world.

Rising Owl

From plane of light to pane of glass,

Out of the peak’s black angularity of shadow,

Wings dipping thru geometries

Riding the last tumultuous avalanche of light

The light above pines and the guttural gorge

The gorge filled with orchids that the sun built

The Owl comes.

Its wings scythe down another day,

The motion that of the honed steel-edge,

Hear the crash less fall of stalks of Time.

Heavy with the gold of our error

Each stalk head falls.

Look!

Look!

It is climbing the last light

Who knows neither Time nor error,

Under whose eye, unforgiving,

The world, unforgiven,

Swings into shadow.

Long now,

The last thrush is still,

The last bat cruises now

In sharp hieroglyphics.

The star is glimmering and green,

Its wisdom is ancient and immense.

Over the mountain.

If there were no wind we might,

We think,

Hear the earth grind on its axis,

Or history,

Drip in darkness like broken flesh.

Coming Tomorrow

            Tomorrow I am going to talk about my best experience running a game.

            Tomorrow’s entry will actually be about Dungeons and Dragons rather than another random poetry interlude.  It will also be the last “real” entry in the 30-day challenge, day 31 is just a rundown of the whole thing.

______________________________

            If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click that link to follow me), Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Dungeons and Dragons, "Craziest Game Session"

Standard Introduction

            I have been writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge.  As I have done those a couple times before it seemed remiss not to jump on this one.

            If you want here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).

 

Florida Gulf Coast University

Day 28- Craziest thing to Happen Out of Game

            For my undergraduate degree in Political Science I attended the then new and tiny (10,000 students), Florida Gulf Coast University.

            One night back in 2005 there was a power outage.  I, being a tabletop gamer was able to just walk over to my group’s dorm room knock and we set up a game to keep us busy.

            We were rolling dice and chatting about how we could hear a ton of noise outside.  Lots of voices of the people deciding to go night swimming in the artificial lake to pass the time (at the time that fake lake looked like the world’s widest puddle, these days it looks a great deal more inviting).

            My group and I, being somewhat stuck up nerds were hmm-ing and hah-ing at the idea that people were getting so loud about a power outage, and kind of laughing at their expense because it was October, and even in Florida it would be too cold to swim.

            That is when we heard people yelling and we decided to gaze out the window to the “beach”.  A group of people had lit one of the tiki themed picnic tables on fire and it was going up completely.  Campus police pulled up, dozens of students scattered, and the power was back on shortly after (I think it was off for a total of about 90 minutes).  For the next few weeks there were charred remains of a moronic activity gone awry sitting down by the water.

            This did not have anything to do with me, but it is the craziest activity to happen proximate to a game that I was playing in.

 

Maybe it is wrong to point to these grass topped things and call them tiki themed picnic tables.
I don't know what to call them.  I also don't know when this pic was taken.

Coming Tomorrow

            Tomorrow I am going to talk about my best experience playing. 

______________________________

            If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click that link to follow me), Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Dungeons and Dragons, "The Best 3e Adventure"

Standard Introduction

            I have been writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge.  As I have done those a couple times before it seemed remiss not to jump on this one.

            If you want here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).

Day 27- Favorite Adventure

            This is going to be a short entry.

            I had a subscription to Dungeon magazine and enjoyed reading it and breaking up the individual encounters and maps, but I rarely if ever ran an entire mission as presented.  The adventures tended to be meat grinders.

            Published adventures always seem to be much harder than advertised, I guess when you write rules for a living you worry about not providing a meaty enough challenge, and then you decide to get super clever.  The problem with that, is that guys like me who only run a game once a week are less able to deal with “clever”.  Hence why I need to pull these things apart into more digestible chunks.

 

I wonder if this thing qualifies as iconic?
Do you recognize it without reading the next paragraph that tells you what it is?

            My favorite adventure in theory is “The Shackled City”.  This full 20 level campaign gives you a really interesting giant city around which all the action turns and a whole cadre of supervillains working toward an interesting goal.

            “The Shackled City” did so well that (I get the impression) it is regarded as the best thing Dungeon magazine produced for 3^rd edition, and it gave so many credibility points to the magazines publishers (Paizo) that they had the clout to release “The Age of Worms,” the other best adventure ever for 3^rd edition (though far less lauded).

            Those adventures doing so well (and Wizards of the Coast leaving Paizo holding the bag in regards to 3^rd edition ending and Dragon and Dungeon magazine being canceled) left Paizo in a position to create Pathfinder.  The Pathfinder books were a continuation of the 3^rd edition rules that were so well produced art and supplement wise, that they threw 4^th edition on the ash heap of history.  Pathfinder is still going, while 4e was replaced by 5e two years ago.

            That is right, “The Shackled City” was so good, it could be given some credit for 4^th edition being a failure.

Coming Tomorrow

            Tomorrow I am going to talk about The Craziest thing to happen outside of the Game.

______________________________

            If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click that link to follow me), Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Dungeons and Dragons, "Some Talk of Spells"

Standard Introduction

            I have been writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge.  As I have done those a couple times before it seemed remiss not to jump on this one.

            If you want here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).

Day 26- Favorite Spells

            There are certain spells that are demonstrably better than others.  There are also those that are more iconic due to internet meme-ing.  Unless I want to just pick the one everyone already knows… Magic Missile I guess I will just have to list a few of these.

            I am feeling pretty lazy though… No, I’ll do something.  I guess.

Boring but Practical

            There is a divide in the game between combat (which is a BIG part of the game) and non-combat (smaller than it should be).  An obstacle as simple as a heavy locked door can in many cases totally kill all progress because the players do not have access to the means to open it, that is where the spell “Knock” comes in.

"Dude, other people need to use the bathroom."

            “Knock” opens doors, and can open bigger and bigger doors if you are higher level (for some reason 3^rd edition saw the need to scale even this spell with level).  If there is an unfortunate side effect to the players having access to this spell is that if the DM was hoping to create a key-hunting dungeon the players can completely bypass all that with one low level spell.

Flashy but Impractical

            Here is a combat spell that was so complicated in the original 3^rd edition rules (not 3.5) that a single casting of it was an entire combat encounter, “Evard’s Black Tentacles”.

Okay, what are those emerging from?

            This spell, which was level 4 (hardly a game breaking level), could summon an entire cadre of attacking tentacles that would damage and stop cold anyone in the area of it being summoned.  It required a comical amount of tracking where the tentacles were, what they were attacking, and how much damage they were doing.  It required prep time to cast and compared to the rational amount of time other spells of a level could demand was impractical.

Flashy but Practical

            Generally speaking, this covers all of the classic elemental attack spells.  Ice Storm, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, or Flame Strike.  This also hits on all of the intentionally flashy spells like Color Spray or Prismatic Spray.

This is from the Deviant Art account of Clint Cearley, who does work on Magic the Gathering.
His stuff is lovely.

            The fun aspect of this has to do with it all being in your head.  Players have to describe how these things resolve and it gives some impact to role playing to say that your lightning bolt takes shape as a cursive spelling of your character’s name, or is a particular color.  These are spells that will be used a million times and they should be seen as something that can be used to make the game more magical in a fun way, otherwise they are just a boring exchange of numbers.

Boring but Impractical

            This has more to do with 3^rd edition (because 3^rd edition is what I have the most experience with and know what is most baffling).  3^rd edition was the one most dependent on magic items.  Ability scores increased with magic items, attack bonuses increased with magic items, armor class increased with magic items, and saves were all augmented by magical items.  Each player would have several items that would make their statistics higher in ways that were necessary for the game to function.  Without magic augmentation, a player would be turned into bloody mist.

            Each item (especially those affect basic statistics) would create ripples thru the rest of the character sheet.  One number gets altered and suddenly dozens of other numbers would be twisted.  This is why “Anti-Magic Field” was such a pain in the ass.

"As the song goes, 'Can't touch this'."
"You are such a nerd."

            Creating an area in which the innumerable items that a player had incorporated without annotation into their work meant a half hour of chasing numbers to make everything make sense for a combat encounter that would last maybe 20 minutes.  Imagine if you walked into work with an expense report and as you passed thru the door to the office every “7” got turned into a “3” and you had to go thru the whole report adjusting the math by hand, it is retarding to progress in the story.

            “Anti-Magic Field” is boring because it is taking magic, a key part of the game, out of the game.  It is like taking the molten core out of a volcano cake.

Coming Tomorrow

            Tomorrow I am going to talk about my favorite adventure.

______________________________

            If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click that link to follow me), Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Dungeons and Dragons, "Magic Items and Technology"

Standard Introduction

            I have been writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge.  As I have done those a couple times before it seemed remiss not to jump on this one.

            If you want here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).

Day 25- Magic as Technology

            Generally speaking, I like my magic to be goofy and unpredictable.  The idea that power is not only corrupting (look at yesterday’s entry on “Cursed Items” for that) but can also be hard to understand, hard to use, and just a source of chaos and disruption is (in theory) a good metaphor for knowledge in a culture.  This is basically anti-intellectual horseshit when you give it any real thought.  I regard knowledge as the cure to ills not the cause of them.

            Magic as a metaphor for technological advancement is a popular one, I think “Conan” is the perfect example of that.  Civilization is seen as an unnatural and corrupting force and magical powers are almost always the unnatural element holding such social orders together.  “The Tower of the Elephant” stands as a symbol of wealth and power because of the secret magical knowledge that rests within.

This is arguably the best of the original Robert E Howard "Conan" stories.
Especially as a source of inspiration for gaming groups.

            I also think that metaphor, that “magic = technology” is mostly wrong.  Technology is not mysterious, it can be complicated, but it exists as a consistent and ubiquitous way for normal people to harness the forces of nature and turn them toward producing something more.  To build and repair technology you do need information or training, but that knowledge is readily available in manuals, schools, or internet tutorials.  Magic is not like that by flavor or design.

            Magic is magic, it is not harnessing natural forces, it is manipulating and violating those forces.  It is not information that is readily available, it is arcane, mysterious, or lost to the mists of time.  Magic is not facilitating civilization, it is compelling it.  When a technological society collapses, the “magic items” left behind don’t work because the infrastructure that made the batteries or ammo for them to function no longer exist.  When a magic society collapses, the items left behind are the same stuff that is produced readily by nearly any blacksmith, except slightly better.

My Favorite Magic Item

            My favorite magic item is the Rod/Wand of Wonder.  It is a silly, damn near useless item that gives me the opportunity to roll percentile dice (which is pretty rare) and is just goofy.  I like that magic can be playful in a game, rather than a strictly calculated element with range, area, casting time, chance of failure, and any number of other subsections.

            I have a chart, I point the silly looking stick, and it might shoot butterflies or turn me purple.  I like it.

Coming Tomorrow

            Tomorrow I am going to talk about my favorite spell.

______________________________

            If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click that link to follow me), Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Dungeons and Dragons, "Cursed Items"

Standard Introduction

            I have been writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge.  As I have done those a couple times before it seemed remiss not to jump on this one.

            If you want here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).

 

While I am sure this thing would be totes evil in any story written about it,
It is for sale on Etsy at time of writing.

Day 24- Cursed Items

            Cursed items are a classic arc type in fantasy literature.  One of the earliest fantasy stories, “Ring of Gyges” by Plato is the story of a magical ring which granted the power to become invisible.  The story explored whether an intelligent person would remain moral when no longer afraid of being caught doing immoral things.

            You could argue, and I do “Gygas” has more in common with what we would consider science fiction, with how it treats the fallout of the ring as a technology to be utilized for good or ill, but that is not too important for the purposes of this discussion.

            Let’s ignore the sci-fi aspect, let’s ignore the fact that Plato invented the One Ring of Power and I am uncertain if Tolkien was directly referencing or inspired by this story.  Let’s also ignore that “Gyges” sounds too much like “Gygax”.  Instead we’ll focus on the fact that this magical item does not have a curse built into its rules, but is cursed in a more thought provoking way.  That it corrupts simply by being super powerful.

            The magical technology of “Gyges” is not being super common and thus it is a source of ethical conundrums.  The desire to transgress when given the ability to do so almost demands its wearer use it for such things.  Curses in mythology, generally speaking are not often all that literal, and more often function in the vein of this ring.

            Aside from the Ring, most cursed items in myth are more like the Hope Diamond, vague misfortune or great plight befalling those who have the item, but none of that plight directly relates to having it.  Readers should understand all of these stories for what they are, morality tales.

 

"It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing."
-Boromir, on the topic of the One Ring

Moral Curses

            Having a powerful magic item or weapon necessitates its use.  If you’ve got it, flaunt it, so to speak.  The idea of a sword that cuts thru armor like cutting thru cloth, or a dagger that never misses its mark when thrown means that the wielders of such weapons will not feel the need to seek a more difficult peace when they could have an easy victory in battle.  They will become merciless, they will become violent, and over time that behavior will warp and consume them.  When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail; when all you have is a sword, everything looks stab-able.

            When you have power, every verbal argument turns into a duel, and when people realize they can’t win the duel, every disagreement gets pushed aside or hidden and allowed to boil into something more dangerous.  The holder of the Vorpal Sword or the True Strike Dagger will soon have to check their food for poison because they are now only vulnerable in states of rest.  And as paranoia consumes them, the holder of the sword or dagger begins to turn on all those they once trusted, killing their friends, their family, and ultimately sitting alone atop a throne of blood.

            The best curses in fantasy are also the best metaphors.  Let’s look at two examples, one is super well known and the other is classic but not nearly as in the popular consciousness.

 

Here is an interesting concept,
even though this prop is kind of underwhelming looking,
the connotations of it make it cool looking.

The Iron Throne (aka, the super popular one)

            In “Game of Thrones” the Iron Throne is a massive chair that serves as the symbolic seat of power for the king of Westeros.  It was created by melting down hundreds of swords into a hard place to put one’s ass, and due to a lack of proper buffing/smoothing the damn thing has metal burrs all over it.  It was created by the first king of Westeros and serves to illustrate the role of the king, uncomfortably sitting on top of the largest number of military arms that can be cobbled together as a single unit.  You know, like an army.

            The Iron Throne is a symbol of conquest, they are after all the weapons of the defeated.  It is also a symbol of rulership, only by sitting on powers that are uncomfortable (and often cut you if you are careless) can you call yourself king.  This point is often illustrated by unworthy rulers like Joffrey or the Mad King, as they cut themselves on the armrests, or when Eddard Stark sits on the chair briefly to pass judgment on Gregor Clegane’s butchery and notes his discomfort sitting in the place of power.

            Different would-be kings mention putting cushions on the Throne, illustrating how they miss the point.  In the TV adaptation, Littlefinger and Varys (the two most devious people on the continent) mention how the modest sized throne (it was made smaller for the show) doesn’t contain nearly as many swords as is often claimed… Subtle, it is almost like the show keeps reminding the audience of how the pursuit of power has forced everyone to overextend and bluff their way into situations they can’t handle.

            The Iron Throne isn’t literally cursed, aside from one shout of “The Throne Rejects Him” when Joffrey cuts himself, nobody really believes that.  But the Throne does hold symbolic weight that could be interpreted as a curse.  It is a stand in for all the trials and tribulations of rulership.  Why would anyone want to sit on such an uncomfortable chair?

 

Aside from its general radness.

Stormbringer, the Black Sword (aka, “Sorry?  What?  I don’t know that one.”)

            This is the more obscure but is also the more blatant example of a curse.  Stormbringer is a sword of black metal with deep runes carved into its blade and is wielded by Elric, the King of Melnibone (please ignore that Elric is an anagram of “relic”, I am not sure that is even symbolic).

            Stormbringer grants strength and power to its wielder and can cut thru any armor not protected by magic.  Beyond that, even the slightest wound to an opponent steals that victim’s soul because the sword is actually the earthly manifestation of a demon named Shaitan… Which definitely sounds a bit like “Satan”.  A real big bit.

            Elric is a physically weak person and the strength and power the blade gives him is all that keeps him from losing his throne to members of his own family that are far crueler than him.  But that is the rub, constantly fighting to keep his throne leaves Elric all alone and in the end, he too is consumed by the blade.

Elric is an albino, which is apparently a dire fate in his culture.
He is perhaps the best example of the tortured-loner-badass in fantasy before Drizzt Do'Urden showed up.

            It is comically on the nose to have a cursed sword this transparently evil (and there are lots of these swords in the series, all demons operating as weapons).  A sword, a weapon of war that all at once is the classic symbol of nobility (Excalibur), classism (because you need a lot of leisurely free time to practice), and in many cases virility, is made into a literal devil.  It is almost like the actual villainy is a toxically masculine culture that forces its rulers to value strength just to hold onto power instead of valuing mercy and compromise.

            For heaven’s sake, the weapon grants strength but steals souls, how is that not considered preachy?  I guess sometimes you need to be really on the nose with symbolism when you want to tell a story about how power corrupts.

            Being not-subtle has its place.  Say what you will about “Game of Thrones” being excellent (it is), but there are still people in the real world arguing about who should be king at the end of the story; guys, the correct answer is, “Kings are bad because their power is derived not from the will of the people but from strength of arms derived mostly from manipulation and bullshit.”  What the world of Westeros needs are a fantasy Oliver Cromwell and a fantasy Robespierre to show up and start moving things toward a Democratic-Republic.

My Favorite Cursed Item in DnD

             “The item is intelligent” and “it doesn’t really like the fact that you own it and thus will not do what you say all the time.”  No specific item in question, just items with this drawback.

            Much like Stormbringer this does push the players toward certain tactics if they want to be able to use a potent item, but they can just as easily not compromise their values by simply not utilizing the item.  I feel that is a rather fair arrangement and allows for roleplaying while at the same time presenting a mechanical incentive to character “growth”.

 

There is also magic "items" like Golems who inevitably turn on their creators.

Coming Tomorrow

            Tomorrow I am going to talk about my favorite Magic Item.  It is goofy.

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Dungeons and Dragons, "Puzzles and Traps"

Standard Introduction

            I have been writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge.  As I have done those a couple times before it seemed remiss not to jump on this one.

            If you want here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).

Day 23- Puzzles and Traps

            One of the books I enjoyed from 3^rd edition was the “Book of Challenges”.  Prior to them releasing numerous hard covers with rules, monsters, and encounter locations as part of a great big all in one strategy for their supplements, the emphasis for 3^rd edition was soft cover books.

            Soft covers were often targeted either to players (with books made almost entirely of prestige classes, weapons, feats, and spells) and those that were for the GG running things emphasizing NPC’s and adventures.

This is the cover art of  the "Book of Challenges"

            “Book of Challenges” was definitely for the GG in that regard.  Rather than an adventure or a bunch of flexible characters that could be put into the world it was instead a bunch of clever/exotic traps and rooms that could be put into dungeons.  It was super narrow in focus but it did something distinct by showing how the rules of the game could be made into puzzles.

            The first issue of Dragon magazine I ever bought (and read to the point that it started falling apart) was #282 an April Fool's issue that had a substantial section on building puzzles in game… a section I considered nearly unreadable at the time.  The Dragon article was too dense and in need of more practical instances rather than a discussion of theory.  “Book of Challenges” did not have that issue and after more than a year playing (I bought the “Book of Challenges” a good while after it came out) I wanted to see more complex things put into action but wanted the help of people who did it professionally.

This was the cover art of Dragon #282 by Phil Foglio.

            I find it ironic that the magazine article in this instance was the more philosophically dense while the book was the one that had only the limited use practical applications.  Ideally, I think that the article from Dragon should have been a chapter in the “Challenges” though decompressed with some examples of each part (like logic puzzles) being used in the game.  I think Wizards of the Coast and other gaming companies have gotten much better with these sorts of theory and practice couplings in the 15 years since then.

My Favorite “Challenge”

            The “Book of Challenges” gave a variety of encounters, and while I have modified many over the years for different groups one has stood above the others as a positive example and I want to present it here, it is called “Curse of Iron” with a challenge rating of 4.  It is kind of a lame name, the door is iron, but the “curse” is a trap with a disarm switch you have to find.

            The Description reads, “Ahead is a large iron door. It has no features except a

message carved into its face in large letters.”  You are then provided with an image of the door.

 

Click for full size.

            The idea is that the door has a grid of buttons, each letter of the phrase has its own button and there are numerous blank spaces as well.  One of the buttons opens the door, the rest trigger a shocking grasp trap (or more violent traps should you want to make the challenge for a group of a higher level).  The phrase on the door is a clue to which button should be pressed.

            Feel free to try and solve which button should be pressed and post your answer in the comments (and why), and then maybe suggest other phrases that could be put on a similar door.  Or, just look up the answer because this book is 15+ years old and readily available for pirating online.

My Current Puzzling

            After participating in an escape room I started thinking of my own puzzles and after wringing my brain I got one.

            I invented for my players a new type of puzzle that involves dice with letters on them rather than numbers (I had to make my own with grid paper, color pencils, and tape; which with my huge fingers was a delicate process).  While it is solvable and I gave hints in the rest of the dungeon that would allow it to be solved more easily, it might actually be too clever.

            The dice, when arranged properly form the password to lock.  The lock has slots for each of the dice and based on how the dice are arranged lots of words can be made.  Since the dice effectively scramble the letters over a 3 dimensional space the players have a hard time seeing all of their options for how to arrange the dice into words, often they have to copy down all the letters off of each dice to see the potential jumble.

            There is an indicator about what order the dice go in, but it is not readily apparent, usually 1 of the letters on each die is a different color or written in a noticeably different way, and those marked sides can be arranged in a particular order.  When the dice are in that order, the other letters can then be arranged to form words.

If they look shoddily made, that is because they are.

            I considered it the ideal type of puzzle, one in which each step to solving it being obvious in retrospect, but there being such a chain of steps, and each step being difficult enough that the puzzle is SUPER HARD when put altogether.  In hindsight, I should have introduced the puzzle with only 2 or 3 dice rather than the 6 I used.  Like at an orgy, TOO MANY OPTIONS MAKES THINGS TOO HARD.

            If this were a youtube video I would demonstrate the puzzle but as this is written I will just leave you with this vague description in hopes that enterprising Game Runners will be inspired by what I have said enough to invent their own puzzle from the premise.

Coming Tomorrow

            Tomorrow I am going to start talking about magic items with the best Cursed Item.

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