Goodman Games

The problem here is the OR on door 4. Does it mean that if supposition A is true, B must be false? Or does it mean the truth of supposition A is independent of supposition B's validity? My first supposition must be true since both 4 and 2 cannot be true. My guess is that 4 is the true door since ot...

Well, the campaign is now rolling along quite nicely! We had another player, Brendan, jump in. I decided to have him make three 0-level plebes and if they survived the session, they hit first level. Here's the summary: http://dungeoncrawlclassics.webs.com/adv3.htm At that link, I saw a puzzle with ...

You bring up an excellent point, and one that is difficult to address. I don't think that the main protagonist dies in Appendix N fiction any more than the main protagonist dies in any other fiction, if this is the point you are raising. Conan never died in the stories. Fafhrd and Mouser didn't die...

Lol in all seriousness though I don't see corruption as a big deterrant to "limit" casting. Definitely won't work in one-offs or short campaigns, and it actually encourages some types of players who will want to see just how crazy they can make their character look. Add in old school meat...

Guys like Gandalf have lots of power, but clearly his spell choices are limited to the weaker spells. This seems to be by choice, and while Gandalf explains that he simply wants to avoid being noticed by Sauron it’s possible that it could be because his magical style is non-corrupting. Harold Shea ...

I mean, if you're worried about a wizard player quitting because you're just roleplaying lots of people hunting him down as an aberration (something like Dragon Age: Origins), and he doesn't want to bear the consequences of his reckless abuse of magic, you're better off without him. No, I'm worried...

I can picture in my mind NPCs that just don't care for mutations 'cos they live alone in a dungeon, surrounded by various monstrosities. If a first level wizard casts so much as to get tentacles, lizard eyes, albino skin and a lion mane... I think that any other person in the realm will hunt him do...

Michael Pfaff wrote:I know a way to limit corruption.

Limit your spellcasting.

The problem is that gonzo spellcasters will embrace Corruption. You'll get guys casting as often as possible because they want to play freaks with tentacles.

Hi everyone. I suggest: 1) Few Core Spells - even fewer than we have now. ... 3) Give precise guidelines to create our own spells. Those two elements add up to a freeform spell system. There are a few notable freeform systems. 1. Castle Falkenstein allowed some customization; 2. Ars Magica was a mi...

So where is this reflected in DCCRPG? Obviously these "psychic powers" do not have anything to do with the corrupting effects of external forces/beings. Yeah, Howard's idea of wizardry is very different than Leiber's idea, and both of them differ from Moorcock's idea, and all three of the...

I ask again, what is a Rahksha? Is it human? How strong is he? He really only casts a single spell: the dominate person spell. The flaming cloud thing could be a magic item. His strength could be innate. This is not an amazing display of magery. There were at least four special effects: mesmerism, ...

wavemotion wrote:If you want a sturdy wizard with infinite spells - 4e is a better fit.

If you mean "fourth edition of Ars Magica," then we can agree.
If you mean "fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons," then we'll have to disagree.

I'm looking through Howard stories and counting all the things that Gygax would have forbidden. Let's start with Khemsa, from People of the Black Circle : This warrior, leaning on his spear, and yawning from time to time, started suddenly to his feet. He had not thought he had dozed, but a man was s...

As I have said several times, I don't think a lot of spells are needed for this game. Appendix N stories are not about wizards flinging spells left and right to solve problems. Gandalf can't fly or teleport. His best spell effect is 1e AD&D's pyrotechnics. A set of ritual spells makes a lot mor...

Another option is to make spell burn a random roll. If a wizard chooses to spell burn roll a d6 and are forced to spend that many points. In fact they can just roll the d6 with the d20 when casting the spell. Easy and quick and removes the loop hole and mental math that goes on. It just seems odd t...

However, if rules don't work when the judge says they don't, it is no longer a game of rules; it is a game of judge fiat. I think that's kind of what "old school" is all about. More power to you if you can recruit players for that. The future of gaming belongs to those who show up. If jud...

Some of them might be lesser deities since they are lords of the elementals, but it's not clear from Moorcock's writing whether they are gods or just greater elementals. I think Moorcock often tried to stick a thumb in the eye of traditional Western religious ideas. Considering his "Eternal Ch...

Don't forget that in addition to the mechanical drawbacks of spellburn there are roleplaying drawbacks as well. Or, the player could burn 8 points and find, oddly, that even though he got the bonus, he didn't lose the points. The next time it's most inconvenient, the wizard's patron shows up and sa...

What an enlightening post. Thank you! I love Jack Vance's Dying Earth book (though I find its sequels forgettable). You're very welcome. I'm not an expert on pulp literature, but I wager that there are many readers of this board who can fill in the gaps of my knowledge. For example, Leiber's Lankhm...

How about an option for "Cautious Casting"? It would take more time, or perhaps have a penalty, or both, but the cautious spellcaster can then add a bonus to the corruption roll (if one results), or maybe simply have a chance to avoid corruption altogether. I don't think casters should ha...

I think DCC judges might be interested in how Jack Vance actually had a coherent theory of how Dying Earth magic worked, but Gygax mostly ignored it. Vance's Dying Earth clearly emphasizes the importance of knowledge, analysis, independent thinking, research, empiricism, as opposed to rote memorizat...

The problem with saying "Magic can hose you permanently, so you should be careful of using it" reminds me of my Jedi characters in my d20 Star Wars game. Jedi were headed a lightsaber and a bunch of force powers, then told that per the Jedi code, violence and force use should be a last re...

A wizard is using the patron as a source of power to attain their own goals. The wizard may have some overlapping goals with the patron but ultimately doesn't see the patron's goals as anything but bargaining chips. A cleric on the other hand exists to spread the power of their deity and will seek ...

They're all reasonable answers, but the whole thing seems a bit more 'justifying how D&D does it' than 'simulating how Appendix N does it'. I agree. D&D was very bad at a key theme of fantasy fiction: the notion that wizardry involves an empirical investigation of the world. Jack Vance, Cla...

BUT - in the Corruption section it says He suffers the effects of spell failure and corruption, so that could be taken to mean roll on both charts. I'm thinking that spell failure just means the spell fails to go off... you wouldn't role on the spell fumble chart unless your corruption roll indicat...