I’ve been thinking for a while on how it would look to combine the editions of D&D together into a single, streamlined game that could appeal to both the OSR and New School.

I currently own AD&D1e, 3.5e and 4e, so I’ll be basing my thoughts on this.

There are different elements that people really love from different versions, so I was thinking about how these could be implemented together to create a great game. Here’s how I would piece it together.

From 1e: Simplicity

First Edition provided a much simpler game for players. From the start, this has been the OSR’s main dig at anything after 1e. I recently got the first of the Dragonlance modules for 1e, and I’ve gotta say, I really, really like that each PC can fit onto a character sheet the size of a business card. Everything you need to know is right there. So from 1e, I would take the paring down of classes, as well as the simplifying of how the classes work. The reason I haven’t switched over to Essentials from 4e, is because if I’m going to be playing 4e, we’re going full 4e, not parsed down Martial classes. However, if there was a simpler version of 4e out there that really stripped things down, I’d take a look. I would make sure to avoid including the multiple types of dice used for all different types of tasks. This of course brings me to…

From 3e: Unified System

In 3e, they stepped away from the convoluted rules (when do I roll a handful of d6′s, and when do I roll a percentile?) and instead created a unified rolling system. Roll a d20, add modifiers, beat the target number. All the time. 3e made the game accessible to people where older editions hadn’t been in a long, long time. It’s easy to explain the rules for 3e and 4e, thanks to this unified system. There’s no worry about THAC0 or anything of the sort. This had a big impact on gaming; at least on the D&D side of things. The skill system is also something that was, in my opinion, sorely needed in D&D. It helps give players specialization in a myriad of abilities in the world. Now, this skill system was incredibly long, which leads us to…

From 4e: Streamlining

The 4e System simplified a lot of previous issues: grappling, a fairly massive skill system, hundreds of Classes (though they’re on their way to achieving that in 4e), the convoluted 3e multiclassing… 4e really helped repair all of that. I think a combined system could definitely used the smaller skill set, as well as the skill challenge system. I really enjoy that combat-based powers happen quickily, but non-combat ones take time (rituals). I’d love to see that incorporated in there.

So…

Where do we go from here?

We have the OGL and GSL, which could be used for this. In fact, since you can’t combine the GSL and OGL together, lots of the things from 4e could be adapted to the OGL, easily.

If anyone is out there and interested in making a hybrid of systems, let me know. Seriously.

A while back I wrote a post on my worst game ever. After I described a situation, I ended up with a ton of comments, most coming down to “you’re an idiot.”

Mind you, it was  written about nine months ago, and I’ve been getting comments on it as recently as a month ago, the most recent calling me a crybaby. To quote: “The fact that you quit a game over one minor incident like this speaks volumes as to your own attitudes about gaming and being part of a group, and it is not flattering.” Ouch.

I even had someone today write up on my post On Etiquette that I really should take my own advice and make characters closer to the style of the party. It’s like the Gnome Bard has become a meme within the blog itself.

I’m not sure what caused such a vicious, visceral response, except that, perhaps, it really did come off as me being a crybaby.

As I commented on that post, it should be mentioned that I was young and fairly new to being a player at the time, fairly set in my ways as to what to do as a DM.

So, to everyone who hopped to the DM’s defense, you’re right. I should have come up with a better concept, and not expected the DM to “coddle” me as one person put it.

It should also be noted that this event did take place quite a few years ago, and I would hope that I’ve grown as a DM in the process.

That is all.

Following the last couple of days, we have a new campaign concept, the Empire of Tel.

Magic, as we know it, vanished over 200 years ago. The fey races have faded, leaving humanity as the sole power in the world. Magic is, by many, thought to be merely that of legend, as are the elves, dwarves and gnomes.

The only other civilized race still present are the halflings, smaller than humans, and living in rural settlements throughout the Kingdom of Tel. A few have ventured into the cities, setting up a normal life, but in more outlying villages, they are looked upon with distrust and derision.

The Honor Guard of Tel are the knights and warriors of the land, charged with protecting it from without and within. Those who choose may ally themselves with the Church of Six, serving the gods and taking on the mantle of a paladin or cleric. There are rumors of quiet cults deeply embedded in society where the darker aspects of the will of the gods is carried out by divine agents by means of assassination and revenge.

Every 10 years, a crusade is sent out from Tel Crossia to the south, where hideous monsters lie. Those who survive return with tales of horror at the hands of trolls, orcs, and worse, though many claim these to be the ramblings of mad men. The worst creatures the Kingdom has faced was a dragon attack nearly 40 years ago, one which devastated many cities, and was only stopped by the combined efforts of the knights and paladins of the land.

Beneath this shining veneer, there is a crumbling building, for the Kingdom is collapsing on itself. Years of disinterest in the world around them, aside from the crusades, have left them vulnerable to attack.

Ancient legends tell of a 7th god, sinister and ancient, who will one day rise from beneath the earth and consume the Kingdom. There are secret cults who worship this unnamed god, though some call it ”Terrasque.” They wait for the day it will return, hastening his return through dark rituals and murder.

This concept is a very low-magic setting, only allowing for a few races: Humans, halflings, and perhaps, a half-elf (though no one would know they were). Using Inherent Bonuses from DMG2 for 4e, you can easily remove magical items. This is the concept I’m using for the new campaign Bridget and I are going to be doing, allowing our heroes only one wondrous item, and it has to be a mundane-seeming item. Steadily introducing elves, dwarves, and magic into the system can make for pretty interesting games, I think.

Continuing on from yesterday’s post of campaign concepts, I present the idea of running a campaign in a war-devastated world: There Is Only War.

One hundred years of warfare takes its toll. The once great cities of the Empire have fallen into ruin. Survivors hide in the rubble, facing the armies of Tieflings, Orcs and worse creatures. Dragons soar over the skies, burning all in their wake. What promise of peace once existed has now burned away with the cities and fields. The world is a devastated wasteland.

But then, a hope arises. The ancient books of lore, thought lost, speak of a magical staff, one so powerful it could vanquish any foe the Empire faces. Any brave enough to journey across the blighted ruins of the land may claim this staff from the very forces who have ruined the world.

I like the idea of Stalingrad in a fantasy setting, combined with Reign of Fire. This allows you to present the heroes with an insurmountable foe, encouraging them to truly be the last hope of civilization.

I’ve been thinking about new campaign concepts recently, how to break the mold from the traditional fantasy game, and have come up with a series of different concepts I think could make for some pretty great roleplaying in your next D&D campaign. We’ll begin the series with what I like to call: The Colonists.

Humanity’s history stretches back into antiquity. The iron cities have always existed, as far as history traces; tall towers of self-contained cities, their smooth sides without windows, and impervious to any weapon, magical or not. Some rooms of the mile-high cities are sealed off, and always have been. Each race has a different variation of the cities: The humans have their tall towers, the elves their wide, round iron cities hidden within the foliage of the forests, the dwarves cities embedded in the mountainsides. Orc iron cities look patchwork and rusting.

One day, a sealed-off room in the human tower of Pelam opened unexpectedly. Venturing in, the explorers discovered a complex labyrinth of hallways and tunnels, with strange synthetic ropes, tables made of glass with glowing images dancing across them, and strange magical items. One of the explorers accidentally flipped a lever, and a voice rang out throughout the tower: “Emergency launch sequence activated. Initiating lock-down of all airlocks.” Some escaped, including a few of the explorers to tell the tale of the tower lifting out of the ground and soaring into the air, disappearing into the stars. If the other iron cities are the same, it raises many questions as to where the races came from…

This campaign concept allows you to focus on bringing technology-as-magic into the game, making magic weapons just super-advanced technology. I know it’s been done in the past, but it’s a concept I’ve always loved.

Keep an eye out tomorrow for the next in this series!

One horrifying artifact from older editions of D&D was the Deck of Many Things, an object of supreme power that could either shape or destroy campaigns on a whim. For those of you who are new to D&D via 4e, here’s basically what it is:

Basically, a deck of cards which grant you different boons and horrors. One may allow you to gain a level, or gain 1d4 Wishes, while another will imprison you in the realm of some dark god or, as one puts it, “your body remains, but your soul is imprisoned elsewhere.” You can see the rules for it in 3e here.

But what would it look like in 4e? At-Will posted up his idea of it, or, at least, a “minor” version of it, which makes sense for 4e. 4e is less about screwing over players, so minor setbacks and benefits would make more sense here.

Have you ever encountered the Deck? I’d love to hear your horror stories.

It’s been more than a year since I’ve done one of these, so I decided to do an Off the Shelf Review. For those who don’t know what that means, it means I grab a random game book off my shelf and talk about it for a bit.

Today’s review is for Fantasy Flight Games’ Legends & Lairs supplement “Cityworks.”

While this is a D&D 3.5 supplement, there’s nothing keeping a 4e DM from using a lot of aspects of it for their own game, or hell, anyone running a fantasy RPG from any game system.

It’s your typical Legends & Lairs book, in that it’s cover matches the rest of the books, as well has being filled with some great black and white art throughout.

The first chapter deals with different characters in the city, explaining each character class and what they’d be doing in the city. It should be noted that because it doesn’t have any mechanical rules for this section, you can definitely use it in your 4e game. For example, they talk about how a Cleric within a city can serve as an emissary to temples, and high priests with political power in the town.

The introduce three more character classes, the Acrobat, the Assassin, and the Pit Fighter, as well as introducing some urban prestige classes: the Kingpin, Speaker of the City, and Street Stalker. All of these would be great introduction to your campaign, including the Speaker of the City, who are druids who have embraced the sprawl of the city as a necessary “node in the web of life.”

As with any 3e book, there’s a smattering of new feats and spells, before the book delves into City Basics.

In the City Basics chapter, it talks about how cities originate, how to develop your own city’s history, different city archetypes such as a religious city or a war-torn outpost, the government and how it could be organized, law enforcement, economics and religion. This chapter talks in great detail all about different aspects of city life, a lot more than I would have thought of on my own. Mixing and matching different parts of this chapter will help you in moving on to the next chapter: City Construction.

In this chapter, it breaks down in great detail how to build a city, with all kinds of districts detailed, giving you lots of tables to roll on to give more spice to your town. This is a great resource for any DM, as it doesn’t really talk too much about the rules system, but introduces one of its own for planning out a city.

The City Adventures section helps a DM put together a ton of different kinds of adventures, detailing different kinds of urban environments, including chases, crowds, fires, rooftops, sewers, tavern brawls and stunts. There’s also different types of urban events such as plagues and the like.

Overall, it’s a good, solid book, which I would recommend to anyone who would be running an urban campaign in any fantasy setting. It’s definitely worth picking up and checking out.

I was sent a free review copy of the Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook recently by Conflict Roleplaying, and have perused it.

Conflict is a roleplaying game supplement by Mark M. Scott for the Pathfinder and OGL d20 rule systems, allowing for a group of players to play PVP combat while making sure the game is balanced for any rules the players may be using from any supplement.

The book is 120 pages of gaming goodness, providing some very interesting ways of dealing with arena type campaigns where your sole goal is to wipe your enemy off the map.

The book details types of matches, map elements, feats, and some pre-generated characters.

This almost completely redesigns how character creation is done. You aren’t trying to create a compelling character, you’re creating a battlefield terror, intent only on destroying your enemies. The cover of the book is a well painted piece of art detailing two knights in combat (as you can see on the right) and the rest of the book is in greyscale, with decent art throughout.

This book looks like it took a lot of time and a lot of playtesting to pull off.

The idea of the Battlepoints system is that, based on your level, you are given a certain number of battlepoints to spend on your class, magical and non-magical items, as well as different battlefield conditions. The DM plays the role of the referee, which allows for secret movement and orders by the players through sheets called “passcards” which let the players write out their plans on them, including what attacks they’ll make, what square they’ll be moving into, and any other condition the DM needs to know.

There are many different game types, including “Ambush,” “Kill of the Hill,” “Hellbreak,” “Regicide,” and “Brother’s Keeper.” Each one has specific win conditions that must be met in order for one team or the other to win. Within each type of game, there are other variants, so you aren’t likely to run out of options any time soon.

Conflict Laws are special rules the DM can apply to nearly any game, adding even more options, such as Dead Lands, which cancels out all magic in the battle, or Fog of War, which makes it more difficult to attack the enemy with range attacks.

There are 15 team feats presented, which allow you to benefit not only yourself, but others on your side. Mostly involving distracting an opponent so the other can move in for a hit, or holding the enemy while another lands blows on him.

There’s also a pair of hefty guides within, once for the DM, the other for players, and gives some good tips on different conflicts and how they can be run.

In the game Bridget and I tried, we had a blast, pounding the snot out of each other across the excellent map provided. It was pretty awesome.

Overall, this is a very solid product, with some great options for a game group who is tired of the standard grind and wants to take their aggression out on one another. It’s definitely a book I would recommend to any Pathfinder and 3.5 players out there.

You can order Conflict from their website.

Want to learn more about Conflict Roleplaying? Read on…

• Atomic Array: Episode 042: Conflict Roleplaying
• Mad Brew Labs: Adding PVP Conflict to Pathfinder
• Apathy Blogs: A new way to play Pathfinder
• Know Direction: Episode 008
• Creatively Anomalous: Review
• Emerson’s Bookshelf: Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook

"Click for a larger image."

Have you ever looked over a spell list and wondered what it’s doing among such powers as polymorph and fireball?

I found a post up online titled “Spells Not Worth Memorizing.” Here it is, for your amusement.

1  Acid Trip

2  Affect Abnormal Fires

3  Affect Normal Foyers

4  Air Breathing  (land-dwellers only)

5  Airshape (like Stoneshape, but with normal air)

6  Airy Air

7  Alamir’s Freeway Breakdown

8  Alamir’s Fundamental Theorem

9  Algorithm  I-III

10  Anger God

11  Animate Bread

12  Anti-Anti-Magic Shell  (Pro-Magic Shell?)

13  Anti-Magic Eggshell

14  Anti-Magic Magic Missle

15  Anti-Magic Magic Mouth

16  Antipathy Orb

17  Audible Grammar

18  Audible Hammer  (of the M.C. variety)

19  Auditable Glamour

20  Augmented Chord I, ii, III, iv, V, VI, vii

21  Bad Lighting

22  Badly Programmed Illusion

23  Become Dead  (reverse of Resurrect Self)

24  Bigby’s Assertive Finger

25  Bigby’s Clenched Teeth

26  Bigby’s Critically Fumbling Hand

27  Bigby’s Glove  (colors the various Bigby’s Hand spells, no bonus)

28  Bigby’s Groping Hand

29  Bigby’s Hairy-Palmed Hand

30  Bigby’s Insulting Hand  (the second finger is rather prominent)

31  Bigby’s Limp-Wristed Hand

32  Bigby’s Shadow-Animal Making Hands

33  Bigby’s “Shush”ing Hand

34  Black & White Spray

35  Blind Self

36  Bold Monster

37  Bookworm Blast

38  Break-Wind Wall

39  Break the Wind

40  Bubbling Rainstorm

41  Burning Hands  (Yours, ouch)

42  Can Trip (And does!)

43  Change Elf

44  Charm Dead

45  Charm Friends

46  Charm Groupie

47  Charm Potted Plants

48  Charm Self

49  Charm Undead (X rated version)

50  Cheeseball

51  Circling the Square  (i.e. Times, Trafalger, Tiannemen)

52  Clause of the Lawyer

53  Clear Audience  (usually follows Delayed Blast Flatulence)

54  Clone Undead

55  Clown

56  Color Safe Spray

57  Compulsive Disorder

58  Cone of Bubbles

59  Conjure Emmenthaler

60  Contact This Plane

61  Continual Bad Lighting

62  Continual Right  (a political spell)

63  Control Casting Time (controls the casting time of this spell only)

64  Control Feather

65  Copyright Shroud

66  Crass Suggestion

67  Create Coat Hanger

68  Cure Animal Hide

69  Cure Light Winds

70  Cure Smoked Ham

71  Cure STD

72  Current Life

73  Cylons, 10′ Radius

74  Cymbal

75  Dalamar’s Whoopee Cushion  (things that make you go hmmmm)

76  Darkness, 15 micron radius

77  Daylight (material components: must be cast outdoors in bright sunlight)

78  Deathwish

79  Deeppocket Lint

80  Delayed Blast Cantrip

81  Delayed Blast Flatulence

82  Delayed Blast Spitball

83  Demand Blindness

84  Demi-Shadow Puppets

85  Deny Reality

86  Detect Crying

87  Detect Dead (Yep, he’s dead alright…)

88  Detect Detect Spells

89  Detect Hound

90  Detect Lightning Bolts  (area: 5′)

91  Detect Pervert

92  Detect Pink Bunny Rabbits

93  Detect Self  (allows you to see if you are yourself)

94  Detect Strikes and Spares

95  Detect Tragic  (oooh, theres a sad happening over there!)

96  Detect Unseen Butler

97  Detect Visibility (Yep, I can see that)

98  Detect Weevil

99  Detect Wind

100  Differentiate Without Error  (Hey, you never know…)

101  Dimension Doorknob

102  Dispell Nonmagical Reptiles & Amphibians

103  Dispurse Self

104  Doug

105  Doug’s Generic Spell

106  Drain Vaccuum

107  Draw Upon Religious Right

108  Drawmij’s Court Summons

109  Drawmij’s Instant Cake Mix

110  Drawmij’s Instant Coffee  (components: hot water and cup)

111  Drawmij’s Instant Death  (Drawmij’s CON must be about -30 by now…)

112  Earthly Chorus

113  Enchanted Toothpick

114  Enlightening Bolt

115  Enrage Dragon

116  ESPN

117  Ethertalk

118  Evard’s Black Growth (range: 0)

119  Evard’s Black Testicles

120  Evard’s Blue Testicles

121  Explosive Familiar  (it’s *your* familiar)

122  Explosive Friends

123  Extension Cord I, II, and III

124  Extinguish Match  (casting time: 5 rounds)

125  Face Grasp

126  Fear of Sunmotes

127  Feather Brain

128  Feather Flail

129  Feign Life  (as if the caster has one)

130  Feign Orgasm

131  Find Acquaintance

132  Find Floor (somatic component: falling on face)

133  Find Hand

134  Finger of Near-Fatal Injury

135  Finger of Plead

136  Fire Alarm

137  Fire Rap

138  Fire Stick

139  Fireball (reversed)

140  Fiscal Projection

141  Fist of Flesh

142  Fleshskin  (range: self)

143  Fool’s Lead

144  Foresee Unseen Butler

145  Forget Spells (area: self)

146  Forehead

147  Foreskin

148  Fourier’s Transformation

149  Furball

150  Furry Fire

151  Gaze at Reflection

152  Geese

153  Get Flu

154  Get Life

155  Glassteal  (swipe that beermug from that unsuspecting peasant)

156  Globe of Vulnerability

157  Grate

158  Graze reflection  (if someone hurts your knee)

159  Guess Alignment

160  Hair Extension I, II, III

161  Hallucinatory Escape

162  Hallucinatory Train

163  Hand of Skin

164  Hatch Egg (somatic component: sit on egg)

165  Heal Monster  (only works on opponents during combat)

166  Heel

167  Hold Bladder

168  Hold Mustard

169  Hold Self

170  Hornung’s Gas

171  Hornung’s Police Dispatcher

172  Housefly

173  Hug Self

174  Illusion Debugger  (for Badly Programmed Illusions)

175  Illusionary Crypt

176  Iggy’s Invisible Illusion

177  Illegal Thoughts  (That serving wench looks older than 18)

178  Implosive Runes

179  Impress Plants

180  Improper Suggestion

181  Indirection  (address register postincrement)

182  Indivisibility  (The caster is a prime number)

183  Insect Plague, 5′ Radius

184  Integrate  (reversible, Differentiate)

185  Invisibility to Inanimate Objects

186  Invisibility to Dead

187  Invisible Talker

188  Irritate Self

189  Kender Summoning I, II, III

190  Kitchen Sink

191  Knock Knock

192  Know Own Alignment

193  Know Person  (in the biblical sense of the word…)

194  Kooshball

195  Legend Bore

196  Legend Lore, Extended Dance Mix

197  Leomund’s Condemned Shelter

198  Leomund’s Grass Hut

199  Leomund’s Mortgaged Shelter

200  Leomund’s Risky Tax Shelter

201  Leomund’s Secure Chest Cavity

202  Leomund’s Sturdy Music Box

203  Leomund’s Tap

204  Leomund’s Underfunded Homeless Shelter

205  Level Water

206  Lightning Blot

207  Limited Dish  (Sorry sir, the Dover Sole is off)

208  Limited Wash

209  Locate Right Hand

210  Locate Self  (tells you where you are, relative to your location)

211  Locate Tongue  (requires verbal component)

212  Locate Wizard  (the _nearest_ wizard)

213  Lorloveim’s Shady Deal

214  Lose Familiar  (Get lost, ya wee booger!)

215  Lower Cholesterol Level

216  Lower Inhibitions

217  Maggot Missle

218  Magic Boomeranging Missile

219  Magic Gristle

220  Magic Jar-Jar

221  Magic Missal  (A really boring prayersheet)

222  Magic Moth

223  Magic Orifice

224  Magic Shotglass  (as opposed to Magic Jar)

225  Mail of the Banshee  (victim gets letter saying “Waaaaaahh…”)

226  Maize

227  Matrix Addition

228  Mauve Earth

229  Meld, Canasta Version

230  Melf’s Acid Bow

231  Melf’s Acid Trip

232  Melf’s Minute Rice

233  Melodramatic Phantom Defenders

234  Memorize Spell

235  Meatier Swarm

236  Meteor Swan

237  Micrometeorite Storm

238  Mildly Surprising Grasp

239  Minor Delousing

240  Mistaken Identify

241  Mistaken Thought  (Gee, guys, it _looked_ like a Gas Spore)

242  Moaning Spirit

243  Mordenkainen’s Agnostic Hound

244  Mordenkainen’s Aroused Hound  (can’t get it off of the nearest leg)

245  Mordenkainen’s Big Ears (+1 to all hearing checks, ear size quadrupled)

246  Mordenkainen’s Bored Cat

247  Mordenkainen’s Celery

248  Mordenkainen’s Conjunction (Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?)

249  Mordenkainen’s Faithful Mosquito

250  Mordenkainen’s Freeway Junction

251  Mordenkainen’s Lubrication

252  Mordenkainen’s Sword, -1 Backbiter

253  Mordenkainen’s Unfaithful Wife

254  Move Venus

255  Muenster Summoning I-VII

256  Murder Darkness

257  Murdoch’s Featherless Fryer  (Verbal component: “Butterball”)

258  Murdock’s Feathery Pillow

259  Nahal’s Banana Peel  (appears under random ally’s foot)

260  No Time

261  No Vacancy

262  Nystul’s Undetectible Aura

263  Otiluke’s Happy Fun Sphere

264  Otiluke’s Resilient Ear

265  Otiluke’s Room Temperature Sphere

266  Otto’s Irresistible Disco-Duck

267  Otto’s Resistable Dance

268  Paraphrase Magic

269  Part Hair

270  Pastel Blade of Warm Fuzzies  (9th level Drow spell)

271  Penultimate Fall

272  Phantasmal Fork

273  Phantasmal Morse

274  Phantasmal Thriller

275  Plane XOR

276  Polymorph Mother

277  Power Word Missing

278  Power Word, NO!

279  Power Word, Noogie

280  Power Word, Puke

281  Power Word, Pun

282  Power Word, Smirk

283  Power Word, Spam

284  Power Word, Wedgie

285  Protection from Catnips

286  Protection from Elvis, 10′ Radius

287  Protection from Evil Knievel

288  Protection from Halitosis

289  Protection from Normal Air

290  Protection from Normal Missals

291  Protection from Normal Oxygen

292  Protection from Normal Pillows

293  Protection from Self

294  Protection from Weevil

295  Psychoanalyze Without Error  (Zo, ven dit you shtop lofink your mutter?)

296  Purge Memory

297  Putrefy Offal

298  Rainbow Enhancer

299  Random Casualty

300  Rary’s Mnemonic Cancer  (eats away at those favorite spells)

301  Rary’s Mnemonic Device  (makes silly acronyms out of things)

302  Rary’s Pneumonic Cough (range: self)

303  Read Common

304  Rectum of Retention

305  Reincarnation Door

306  Remove Hand  (yours)

307  Remove Minus Sign (reversible)

308  Remove Nurse (“Good-Byyyeeee Nurse!”)

309  Remove Reality

310  Remove Self

311  Remove Strong Language

312  Reservation

313  Rest Erection

314  Resurrect Living

315  Resurrect Self  (problem: must be alive to cast the spell)

316  Reverse Graffiti

317  Rice Storm

318  Rock Summoning I

319  Sepia Cake Sigil

320  Serten’s Smell Immunity

321  Sheepskin

322  Shocking Gasp  (usually follows Tenser’s Shocking Suggestion)

323  Silence of the Lambs, 15′ radius

324  Sleep with Dead  (yuck… unless you’re a real Necromancer)

325  SmorgasMorph

326  Soap-on-a-Rope Trick

327  Solid Frog

328  Speak With Boring Monsters

329  Speak With Dead Plants

330  Speak With Grateful Dead

331  Speak With Living  (components: two tin cans and a string)

332  Speak With Mud

333  Speak With Self

334  Sucker  (for those of you who actually cast the spell)

335  Summon Allergy

336  Summon Death  (Death arrives and kills the caster)

337  Summon Self

338  Swift Envelope

339  Tape Mount

340  Tasha’s Controllable Mildly Unpleasant Laughter

341  Tasha’s Uncontrollable Bladder

342  Tasha’s Uncontrollable Hideous Daughter  (a.k.a. ST:TNG’s “Sela”)

343  Tasha’s Uncontrollable Hideous Die Rolls

344  Tasha’s Uncontrollable Hideous Flatulence

345  Tasha’s Uncontrollable Hideous Gesture

346  Tasha’s Uncontrollable Hideous Hand

347  Tax Avoidance

348  Taunt a Second Time

349  Teleport Environment

350  Teleport With Lots of Errors

351  Teleport Without Destination

352  Teleport Without Terror

353  Tenser’s Double-Sided, Double Density Disk

354  Tenser’s Floating Point

355  Tenser’s Formatted Disk

356  Tenser’s Gloating Disk

357  Tenser’s Shocking Suggestion  (you want to WHAT??!)

358  Tenser’s Slipped Disk

359  Tenser’s Deadly Resurrection

360  Tensor Transformations

361  This Space for Rent  (fills up space on a scroll or in a mage’s memory)

362  Time Start

363  Tonguetwister Change

364  Tons

365  Transmute Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust  (priest spell)

366  Transmute Friends to Enemies

367  Transmute Head to Butt

368  Transmute RGB to HSV

369  Transmute Rock to Stone (reversible)

370  Transmute Rock to Jazz

371  Trap the Sole  (see Limited Dish)

372  Turn Friends Into Enemies

373  Turn Pebble  (rotation, not banishment)

374  Undefined Symbol

375  Unenlightening Bolt

376  Unheard Servant

377  Unscented Cloud

378  Unseen Manservant

379  Unseen Pervert

380  Unseen Sympathy

381  Vampiric Breathing  (perfect for harassing phone calls)

382  Vampiric Crutch

383  Varnish

384  Visible Stalker

385  Walk

386  Wall of Dog

387  Wall of Horse

388  Wall of Non-Dairy Creamer

389  Wall of Non-Violent Protestors

390  Wall of Normal Air

391  Wall of Paper

392  Wall of Velcro

393  Waste

394  Wink

395  Wizard Eyebrow

396  Wizard Lick

397  Wizard Nostril

398  Wizard Stain

399  You Wish!

400  ZX-Spectral Force

Big applause for Wizards, who have released, for free, a version of D&D for kids entitled Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod. Apparently, it’s based on a new book D&D is coming out with.

"Aw, that Bullette is just so friggin' adorable!"

What I really like is both the simple art, as well as the simple rules. The game is designed for children as young as six to be able to play. Great!

It comes with five pregenerated characters, as well as four different monsters: a bullette, a swarm of feral pixie fairies, a dragon, and a beholder.

Hit points are very low, just like 3e, and there aren’t any encounter and daily powers, so it’s very akin to 3e.

I would definitely like to see a character creator, which would be very easy to do with such simple rules. All you’d have to do is have some rules for race, some rules for class, and mix and match to put the two together.

You should definitely check it out. The pdf can be found here.