The 'Right' Side of History

I have been watching the Medici series on Netflix lately, and they bring up the concept that people want be on the 'right' side of history, and this isn't the only show or movie that has pushed this idea in the last few years. I don't know if he originated the term, but I first heard it used by Obama, and since then this idea that someone can be on the 'right side of history' has become part of the popular culture.

First I hate the use of the term in period pieces like Medici, because the entire idea is ahistorical. This is not how people thought about history 500 years ago. There are other anachronisms in the show, like conflating the terms republic and democracy, and ideas of what is good or bad, but when they brought up the 'right side of history' argument I was extremely peeved.

There is no such thing as a 'right' or 'wrong' side of history. History is history, how you feel about what individuals did in the past has nothing to do with what happened. The study of history is of course always influenced by our personal biases, yet that doesn't mean that there is one definitive interpretation of history or that we have the prerogative to judge people in the past based on our own societal norms. History is simply the study of the past; any interpretations of that past are only that, our interpretation. This notion that History itself can judge people disgusts me.

Practical Religion

I just finished reading A Guide to Jewish Knowledge by Chaim Pearl and Reuben Brookes. In it the concept that Judaism is really a collection of practices, taboos, and accepted behavior and not a religion with a clearly defined theology, is discussed to a limited extent. I think that idea applies to most religions. Religion is more about the practice than belief; granted, people perform religious practices because they believe. Throughout most of history people practiced the religious rituals of their parents and community and so a belief in the efficacy of those rituals was built up at the same time. The people's belief was invested in the rituals handed down by their ancestors, not in specific dogma or doctrine. Belief about the divine was directly related to religious practices.

So, what's my point? Well, first off, Judaism is not unique in that practice takes precedence over theology. And second, related to D&D/RPGs, too often the religion of a country or setting is defined by the gods or pantheon worshiped and what they believe, and too little focus is given to how religion affects the lives of the people, particularly the PCs. When talking about religion in D&D too much focus is given to belief and not enough is given to practice. There were some good blog posts I read recently about how to build a religion based around rituals and taboos first, before even looking at belief, but I don't remember where I read it exactly. My takeaway is that we should develop a system of laws and taboos, and ritual and festival, etc when developing new religions for D&D instead of focusing so much on the gods and their dogma.

Religion of the Cleric Addendum: The Druid as Hermit

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Spurred on by this post by Timothy Brannan I've decided to present the Druid as an Advanced (or prestige) Class of the Cleric. This is is the first of many such Advanced Classes I plan on adapting to be compatible with Old School Essential and B/X. Basically I am going to use OSE as my base game with some of the subsystems, like a revised weapon mastery, from BECMI tacked on and also a system implementing Advanced Classes for characters who reach name level.

First off, I really dislike the habit of D&D taking specific cultural roles and tacking them on to the game in haphazard way that completely ignores who that group of people were historically. An historical druid was nothing like the Christian Priest after which the D&D cleric is based, and therefore should not use the same rules or have a similar role in the game. Both the druid and the bard were part of a religious caste within their societies, but they were not priests in the modern sense of the word. This is the major reason I cut druids out of my game for a long time.

However, after going through all the clerical spells/prayers and analyzing how they would affect the theology and religion of the D&D cleric, I can see implementing the Druid as presented in the Companion set. The Church and God of the D&D cleric has much greater ties to the natural world than real world Christianity, resulting in this Cleric who goes off to study nature seeming to be more plausible. If I only had the option of using the AD&D druid I would still ban them from my games (at least until I had developed new rules/systems to represent a historical druid and bard). But in the companion set, the Druid is an experienced cleric who shuns civilization and the hierarchical system of the Church and finds enlightenment in nature. This doesn't describe a druid, this describes the type of hermit presented in tales of King Arthur and other romantic tales. This Hermit is still a good christian, but lives away from civilization, often guarding a shrine; they come closer to God by getting closer to the work of His hands, the natural world. So, without further ado, here is the Hermit as an Advanced Class:

Hermit

A Cleric reaching Name (9th) Level may choose to become a Hermit. A Hermit is a Cleric who chooses to study nature in order to have a closer relationship with God. They shun 'civilization' and the organized Church. The Hermit's way of life is devoted to a balance with nature and all living things. They believe that God can be found in all living things, and that civilization is a corruption of God's purposes; God intended that mankind should live in harmony with the natural world. Hermits view themselves as caretakers of a given territory, be it a woodland, a shrine, a single meadow, a lake or fountain. Hermits will act to punish the desecration or damage to these territories.

A Cleric choosing to follow the path of Hermit becomes a 1st Level Hermit upon reaching 10th Level as a Cleric. They continue to advance in experience, to hit bonuses, and saving throws as a Cleric. e.g. A 4th level Hermit would have a THAC0 of 12,  Save vs Death with a 3, ave vs Wands with a 5, Save vs Paralysis with a 7, Save vs Breath with an 8, Save vs Spells with a 7, and require 700,000 xp to become a 5th level Hermit.

Restrictions:

• A Hermit must live at least 3 miles (an hour's walk) from any human settlement.
• A Hermit may not use metal armor of any type, nor use metal weapons or tools. Hermit items and equipment are all made of things that were once alive (leather, wood, bone, etc.). "Dead" things that have never been alive are repulsive to the Hermit; the character will simply won't want to use or touch them. However, the character may still use such items if conditions require it, and won't object if others use "dead" things.

Special Abilities:

• Energy Resistance Hermits gain a +2 bonus to saving throws against the effects of natural lightning or fire (not a Dragon's Breath)
• Identification Hermits can identify all plants and animals of the same Biome that the Hermit makes their home. and will also know the location of all sources of fresh water within a week's journey from their home.
• Path-Finding Hermits cannot get lost within a week's journey of their home, and halve the chance of getting lost elsewhere.
• Pass without Trace At 3rd level, a Hermit gains the ability to pass through natural environments without leaving any tracks. The character is also able to move through overgrown areas at normal speed and without impediment.
• Sylvan Languages At 3rd level, a Hermit learns to speak a language used by Sylvan or Fey creatures. An Additional language may be learned each level thereafter.
• Charm Immunity Hermits of 7th level and above are immune to the charms of Fey and Sylvan creatures.
• Shape Change At 7th level, a Hermit gains the power to change into the form of a reptile, bird, and mammal (once per day each). The animal may be of any size up to twice the bulk of the Hermit's normal form. Equipment and clothing is not absorbed into the animal form. The Hermit assumes all the characteristics, except mental, of the animal while transformed, including Hit Points, Attacks and Damage, Movement Rate, etc. If injured while transformed the Hermit will retain the Injuries in animal form, and vice versa. If killed while in animal form, the Hermit will revert back to their original form.
• Coerce Animal Hermits retain the ability they gained as a Cleric to turn undead, but do not advance any further on the Turn Undead chart. Instead they may coerce animals. This uses the same chart as Turn Undead; They advance along this chart by animal HD and their Hermit level (a 10th level Cleric/1st level Druid needs a roll of 7 to coerce animals of 1HD). In this chart replace any 'T' with a 'C' for Coerce, and any 'D' with a 'B' for Befriend. A successful coercion has the same effects as the AD&D 1st level Cleric 'Command' Spell, except that it only applies to animals, and lasts for 1 Turn (10 Minutes). Befriend has the same effects as the AD&D 1st level Druid spell 'Animal Friendship'.
• Prayers (spellcasting) Hermits retain their Clerical ability to perform miracles through prayer (cast spells), yet they do not gain any further ability in this area. Instead they begin to advance in the ability to say new prayers (spells) using the same clerical spell chart applied to their new Hermit level. Thus, a 1st level Hermit/10th level Cleric could say 3 1st, 3 2nd, 3 3rd, 2 4th, and 2 5th level clerical prayers, and no hermit prayers; a 5th level Hermit/14th level Cleric would be able to say 3 1st, 3 2nd, 3 3rd, 2 4th, and 2 5th level clerical prayers, and 2 1st level, and 2 2nd level Hermit Prayers.

Prayer List

1st Level Prayers

1. Faerie Fire
2. Locate
3. Predict Weather
4. Detect Danger
5. Entangle
6. Invisibility to Animals

2nd Level Prayers

1. Obscure
2. Produce Fire
3. Warp Wood
4. Heat Metal
5. Barkskin
6. Slow Poison

3rd Level Prayers

1. Call Lightning
2. Hold Animal
3. Water Breathing
4. Protection from Poison
5. Growth of Plants
6. Tree Shape

4th Level Prayers

1. Control Temperature 10' radius
2. Plant Door
3. Protection from Lightning
4. Summon Animals
5. Hallucinatory Forest
6. Hold Plant

5th Level Prayers

1. Anti-Plant Shell
2. Control Winds
3. Pass Plant
4. Dissolve
5. Commune with Nature
6. Protection from Plants and Animals

6th Level Prayers

1. Anti-Animal Shell
2. Transport through Plants
3. Summon Weather
4. Turn Wood
5. Wall of Thorns/
6. Create Normal Animal

7th  Level Prayers

1. Creeping Doom
2. Metal to Wood
3. Weather Control
4. Summon Elemental
5. Animate Rock
6. Survival

Interview: Equipment Packs for D&D

I've got all these Interviews recorded on Anchor, but I have yet to put any work into transcribing them(who has that kind of time?) So I finally caved  and used a paid transcription service, in this case otter.ai, and it actually worked pretty well, all I had to do is replace some places where we say letters like B4 or Pack A instead of standard words. This particular interview took place just last week, It's about the equipment packs pretty much all our characters had. When I get a chance to scan it, I will upload an image of the original pack list my Dad used.

Oh and you can listen to the Interview on Anchor


Lance Duncan  0:01 
Okay, um, so this episode, we were gonna go through module B4 because we had thought dad had run it for his adult group before you started running us for us kids. But it turns out he never ran B4. He just bought it and read it, intended to run it, and never actually played it. But I do have a couple of questions about it. So in B4 there are some on the back cover, there's a list of packs, the fast pack and there's also a list of packs in B3. I think somewhere else has it, but I don't know where. Um, so my question is, is this the first place you saw pack lists?

Bruce Duncan  0:48 
it most likely would be yes.

Lance Duncan  0:51 
Okay. And then I've also given you your list of, you have six packs packs a through what is If yes so, um did did you intend for the packs you made to be given to specific classes? Yes. Can you tell me which ones

Bruce Duncan  1:19 
Okay, pack A would be for almost anybody, just basic. I don't have enough money give me a Pack. pack B starting to get a little bit more specific. C? Still basically for anybody let's see okay. Pack C Okay pack C is where it gets starts to get more specific pack C is a thieves pack Pack D is a clerics pack

Lance Duncan  2:15 
it also has oh nevermind

Bruce Duncan  2:26 
pack E is a magicians pack and pack F is a high level clerics pack

Lance Duncan  2:40 
now did you.

Bruce Duncan  2:41 
 money what determines who got what pack?

Lance Duncan  2:45 
So did we automatically start with a pack? Did we get a choice?

Bruce Duncan  2:50 
I gave you an inheritance of money,

Lance Duncan  2:53 
right because you decided what pack you want because the default money is a 3d6 times 10 right and you subtracted the pack value from that?

Bruce Duncan  3:03 
Yes.

Lance Duncan  3:03 
Okay. And and you gave that to people just so we didn't have to spend an hour looking over what equipment we wanted. Yeah.

Bruce Duncan  3:12 
I found when I was playing with my first group that it didn't make that big a difference because they all knew what they wanted everything right. But when you're getting with people that don't know, you know, it should be people who have never played

Lance Duncan  3:27 
Yeah, I've seen the same thing.

Bruce Duncan  3:30 
They don't know what to get, and they miss out on a lot of things because I didn't buy this. They didn't buy that.

Lance Duncan  3:36 
And they can just take a long time. Deciding

Bruce Duncan  3:38 
right, And so by generating packs of my own after looking at this B4 pack list. I found that it made the preparation go a lot faster.

Lance Duncan  3:57 
And what was it about the B4 packs that you Were unsatisfied with. Well, because for Pack C that's basically they made that for either a cleric or a thief, right. And the other ones just seemed general to

Bruce Duncan  4:13 
right. The one that was for the cleric or the thief got my attention. And I was thinking, why not just set it out one pack for cleric, one pack for a thief and have it more specifically to what a cleric would use. When would a cleric ever need iron spikes? You know,

Lance Duncan  4:40 
yeah,

Bruce Duncan  4:40 
or 50 feet of rope. You know, it's nice to have but rare that you would ever use it as a cleric.

Lance Duncan  4:48 
Yeah. Yeah, and like, so like I made my own pack list. I don't think I made six. I think it was four or maybe five. I've actually made two different I made one back in the day when I was in high school DMing for DND? And then I made one more recently, um, for university. Um, but like I made ones, I made them specifically tailored to each class,

Bruce Duncan  5:18 
right?

Lance Duncan  5:19 
And I made them because I couldn't find this piece of paper that has your packs on. Because I knew you had packs, but I didn't know what was in each pack.

Bruce Duncan  5:27 
Right?

Lance Duncan  5:27 
And whenever we asked when we played with you, you would just tell us you didn't give us the list,

Bruce Duncan  5:31 
right?

Lance Duncan  5:32 
Oh,

Bruce Duncan  5:33 
by that point, I'd gotten to the point where I knew this backwards and forwards.

Lance Duncan  5:36 
So so when I needed packs to give to my players, I made my own list.

Bruce Duncan  5:41 
Yeah.

Lance Duncan  5:42 
And honestly, I like your list better than any of the lists I made.

Bruce Duncan  5:45 
Like I said, I went through it very extensively.

Lance Duncan  5:48 
Well, in most cases, I might make a separate one for a magic user that's different than once you made? Because my magic usually list includes spell book with the price for the spell book.

Bruce Duncan  5:58 
oh. Okay. Yeah, cuz I figured that they would need to buy a spell book from the place where they're studying.

Lance Duncan  6:10 
Yeah, well you're supposed to start with spell book but yeah

yeah

anything else we have to say about the use of packs in the game?

Bruce Duncan  6:24 
My envision was the each pack had a different size and had different compartments and stuff. So it was like a day pack camping.

Lance Duncan  6:33 
Right?

Bruce Duncan  6:34 
It then you had your overnight pack. And then you had your compartmental pack. And then you had your what we now do for the military your grub sack.

Lance Duncan  6:49 
Yeah, yeah. i konw what you're talking about

Bruce Duncan  6:52 
You can put everything in there. You can carry it. One shoulder two shoulder Two different ways to carry it two shoulder or even one shoulder and you can fit everything in it. The more modern ones are compartmentalised. The older ones were not. And so all of those aberrations, were available in the packs that I got.

Lance Duncan  7:39 
I guess that's all my questions.  Yeah. for that. Alright, that's it for now.

Tinkering with Vancian Magic-Users

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I was thinking about how I could modify the rules for vancian spellcasting I outlined here more to my liking.

Here's an idea, the number of spell points, let's call it mental facility, still uses the D&D spells/level chart, but is limited by the magic-user's intelligence. So, a magic-user with 10 INT would be limited to the 1st level spell column, an 11 INT would add the 1st and 2nd level spell columns together, a 12 INT would combine the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd columns together, and so on. so intelligence would play a role in what level of spell could be cast, but it is not limiting it directly. Here's a chart:

	Mental Facility
Level	10 INT	11 INT	12 INT	13 INT	14 INT	15 INT	16 INT	17 INT	18 INT
1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
3	2	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
4	2	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
5	2	6	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
6	2	6	12	12	12	12	12	12	12
7	3	7	13	17	17	17	17	17	17
8	3	9	15	23	23	23	23	23	23
9	3	9	18	26	31	31	31	31	31
10	3	9	18	30	40	40	40	40	40
11	4	10	19	31	41	47	47	47	47
12	4	12	24	36	46	52	52	52	52
13	4	12	24	36	46	58	58	58	58
14	4	12	24	40	55	67	67	67	67
15	5	13	25	41	56	68	75	75	75
16	5	15	30	46	61	73	87	87	87
17	6	16	31	47	67	85	99	99	99
18	6	16	31	47	67	85	99	107	107
19	6	16	31	51	71	89	103	119	119
20	6	16	31	51	71	95	116	132	132
21	6	16	31	51	71	95	116	132	141
22	6	18	33	53	78	102	123	139	157
23	6	18	36	60	85	109	130	154	172
24	7	21	39	63	88	118	146	170	188
25	7	21	39	63	88	118	146	178	205
26	7	21	42	66	96	126	161	193	220
27	7	21	42	66	96	126	161	201	237
28	8	24	45	69	99	135	177	217	253
29	8	24	45	73	108	144	186	226	271
30	8	24	48	76	111	153	195	243	288
31	8	24	48	76	111	153	202	150	304
32	9	25	49	81	121	163	212	268	322
33	9	27	54	86	126	174	223	279	342
34	9	27	54	90	130	178	234	298	361
35	9	27	54	90	135	189	245	309	381
36	9	27	54	90	135	189	252	324	405

To prepare a spell beyond their Mental Facility the magic-user must make an ability check versus Intelligence with a penalty equal to the spell level.

Still not sure what to do for miscasting spells, I'd like to get rid of adding extra dice rolling. On the other hand maybe it fits, as my modification of Clerical casting also requires dice rolling. Maybe I should only require a check for miscasting when the spell is interrupted or when casting a spell of a higher level than the magic-user's level? Hmmm . . .

Ok, I think I got it; a magic-user only needs to roll to see if they miscast up to certain levels. this is based on the spell/level chart and when a new spell level is given. So they no longer check for miscasting 1st level spells when reaching their 3rd caster level. 2nd level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 5th level. 3rd level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 7th level. 4th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 9th level. 5th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 11th level. 6th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 15th level. 7th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 18th level. 8th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 21st level. 9th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 26th level (beginning of the Master Set and quest for Immortaility).

Also instead of chances to Miscast based on percentile, I think it would be easier to us a Saving Throw vs Spells. The penalties would remain basically the same, 1 point per spell level, 2 points per AC granted by armor or shield, and each Intelligence score modifier point (+1 to +3) would give a bonus. The spell backfires instead of fizzling out if the roll lands on the Saving Throw number. Also, if a spell is interrupted it is automatically miscast, at which point a failure to Save vs Spells results in the spell backfiring.

Now I'm satisfied with the system, and I think I will use it. I feel it represents the fiction well, while still retaining the simplicity and essence of the D&D ruleset.