Under WhiteFang Mountain

Our five characters (cleric, thief, agent* and two fighters) in our party fought our way with ease through the tunnels of the troglodytes. The wily troglodyte shaman unleashed his worse on us; poisonous snakes, flaming strike, devil rays, but to no avail, he and his minions were soaking up damage. Realizing all was lost, the trog shaman tried to flee behind an obscuring mist. But our pseudodragon, Whiskers quickly tracked the cool trail of blood from the retreating shaman to a arrow crevice. The wounded troglodyte made a defiant final stand with his viper rod, but was decapitated by my battle axe.

This all was leading up to a showdown with a scheming dragon, Rathulagon. Our hope centered on the other fighter, George making a lucky hit from his masterwork composite bow with an arrow of evil slaying.

Upon entering the dank lair of the evil Rathulagon, the thief was well-prepared with his potion of invisibility and his stealth sword. My fighter, Clovis drank his potion of haste. The lawful good cleric blessed the party and cast fire resistance upon Clovis (front and center), then hung back in gaseous form waiting to aid the injured or dying with her staff of curing. Whiskers flew high and right armed with a wand of magic missiles. The agent (house rule - mage/thief), Lexus prepared her lightning bolt spell. Our intention was to scatter quickly; the dragon wouldn’t get all of us, but I feared, he would get enough of us. The surprise/initiative dice were rolled . . . Drat, a tie. At least we weren’t surprised, and ties go to player characters.

“Who disturbs my rest?”, bellowed the mighty Rathulagon (AC 23, 152hp).

Clovis’ reply was a solid strike in the chest with a javelin of lightning. Lexus let loose with a lightning bolt to the head. George rolled a ‘2’ and his arrow of evil slaying bounced pathetically and impotently off a stalactite. The red dragon shrugged off the 40+ hit points (hp) of electrical damage and breathed fire, searing both fighters, Clovis and George. Fortunately, we both made our reflex saves and were only moderately injured (18hp).

The next round, our thief pounced from hiding, rolling a natural ‘20’, but Rathulagon had a +12 fortitude save and no critical hit was obtained. The thief inflicted merely 6 hp with his back stab. The thief earned no glory that day, but he did gain the ire of an all ready angry dragon. The rest of our party did their best to inflict damage with melee weapons, but Rathulagon was a brutal and dangerous adversary. This was going to be a brutal battle of attrition; axes, swords and magic missiles, versus fangs, talons and dragon fire.

Six rounds latter, after failing his attempt to take escape, the smoldering dragon corpse lay adjacent to the bodies of an eviscerated thief and a crispy critter, we used to call George. Battered, burned and bleeding, the survivors gathered up the loot; gold, silver, gems, a flaming sword, and a mithral suit of elven mail. It was going to be expensive to reincarnate our fallen comrades, but our previous good deeds had earned us the respect and sympathy of the provincial church. Fortunately, our prior generosity also allowed us access to a high level (10th) priest.

Fliers

Built into the hull of a flier are buoyancy tanks which contain the eighth Barsoomian ray or the ray of propulsion. This ray is “constantly streaming from the planet constituting a force of repulsion to gravity which when confined is able to lift enormous weights from the surface of the ground. It is this ray that enabled them to so perfect aviation such that battleships far outweighing anything on Earth sail as gracefully and lightly through the thin air of Barsoom as a toy balloon in the heavy atmosphere of Earth.” (PM, XXI) Altering the concentration of the eighth ray in the flier’s buoyancy tanks allows the craft to vary altitude; however, the Red Planet’s thin atmosphere makes heights in excess of five haads (1000 ads or 2 miles) suicidal.

Noiseless engines with concentrated, highly flammable, fuel power the propellers that drive these vehicles to speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour. The flier is steered either by using large rudders or by varying the relative performance of the propellers. Each modern flier is equipped with the “ordinary Martian Air compass, which, when set for a destination, will remain constantly fixed thereon, making it only necessary to keep a vessel’s bow always in the direction of the compass to reach any point upon Barsoom by the shortest route .” (TMM, II)

The scout flier (not pictured above) is the smallest and fastest of all fliers. “The body of the one-man air craft is about sixteen feet long, two feet wide and three inches thick, tapering to a point on each end. The driver sits on top of the plane upon a seat constructed over the small, noiseless radium engine which propels it.” (PM, XXI). It is capable of exceeding speeds of 150 miles per hour. The scout flier is utilized in scouting, patrolling, and relaying messages.

Does anyone know where I can obtain good miniatures to represent Martian fliers?

the OSR is flaming again !

I go on vacation one week
and we have another family feud ; - 0

just like MENSA,
it is very difficult to keep you
intelligent, creative and independent
types together . . .

I am not here to add to THAT discourse
but to show you how i

RANDOMLY STOCK ENCOUNTER AREAS

When designing encounters for a balanced PC party;
total all PC & NPC levels (counting zero-level NPCs as ½)
, then divide by five to obtain the party level or X.
X = encounter level (EL) or challenge rating for each monster encountered.

After you have drawn up your dungeon map
Or use
http://www.gozzys.com/article.php?cm_id=8
and have an idea for the adventure plot, use a d10 to
stock the rooms, caverns or encounter areas.

1)…Monster whose EL = X -1,
…..Treasure value = X squared, times 100cp.
2)…Monster whole EL = X -2,
…..no treasure.
3)…Monster whose EL = X,
…..Treasure value = X squared, times 100sp.
4)…Monster whole EL = X ,
…..no treasure.
5)…Monster whose EL = X +1,
…..Treasure value = X squared, times 100gp, +
…..% chance of magic item = 5X%.
6)…Secret door to hallway or another room
…..chance to find is 1 in 6 for each searching character. Chance of encountering a wandering monster is doubled, if party does not post a watch or look out.
7)…Hidden treasure, value = X squared, times 100 sp, +
…..% chance of magic item = X squared.
…..chance to find is 2 in 6 for each searching character. Chance of encountering a wandering monster is doubled, if party does not post a watch or look out.
8)…Trap, typical damage is d2X, attacks randomly,
…..chance to find / avoid is 1 in 6 for each searching character. Chance of encountering a wandering monster is doubled, if party does not post a watch or look out.
9)…Truly empty room, except for room features,
….. invent your own or
…..use Monte Cook’s table 3-11, DMGv3.5, p.65.
10)..Prisoner, 90% of prisoners are commoners;
…..otherwise, NPC’s level = dX,
…..roll 2d6 to determine race of prisoner,
…..roll 3d6 to determine ability scores for NPCs.

ROLL…..RACE

…..2…...eXotic
..3- 7...Human
…..8…...Dwarf*
…..9…...halfLing
….10…..Orc
….11…..Elf**
….12…..Half-elf***

*Dwarf prisoners without a designated class are 1st level fighters,
**Elf prisoners without a designated class are 2nd level mages,
***Half-elf prisoners without a designated class are 1st level in class corresponding to their highest ability score.



Recalling the advice from the Land of NOD

Only half of all treasure is found in the portable form of coins, gems or jewelry; the rest will be in the form of trade goods. Some sample trade goods are

100 cp = one hundred pounds of wheat
100 cp = fifty pounds of flour
100 cp = two kegs of beer (40 lbs each)
100 sp = ten pounds of salt
100 sp = six pounds of cinnamon
100 sp = three pounds of ginger or pepper
100 sp = three kegs of fine wine
100 sp = three adult pigs (100 lbs each)
100 gp = six pounds of saffron or cloves
100 gp = ten square yard of silk (10 lb)
100 gp = three saddles (30 lbs each)

Open Gaming License

WELCOME,
This is a blog about classic role playing games and
Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian Chronicles - - 
If you are here by accident, have a look around.

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above image from: http://
media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/17/91/af/stone-age-times.jpg

Dungeon Ecology

Now in order to feed all those underworld nasties,
I propose the UTOW
(feel free to create your own stats):

Utows are a ubiquitous worm that have the unique ability to extract heat energy from the planet’s soil and convert it to biologic mass. The planet has a molten core, that radiates heat at an unsteady and alarming rate. Utows, aka ubi-thermo-worms play an important role in maintaining environmental stability by cooling the surface; otherwise, internally-generated heat from the core would burn and desiccate the root systems of the planet's flora.

Although not usually large (size = 2d6 -3), nor tasty; the utows are nutritious and are the foundation of the diet of subterranean reptiles, amphibians and humanoids. Utows are a subterranean krill that have their greatest concentration 10 to 20 feet below the surface. In general, larger utows are found deeper below the surface. Naturally, utows are rich in vitamin A, a key component of retinol (infravision).

Neither agile or aggressive, utows can deliver a savage bite and the worm’s gizzard will contain (1d6 x Size) coins of varying denominations.

the Dungeon Dozen
has some more creative ideas
(April 2013)

Character Names

here is the quick and easy way to get a Fantasy/ Barsoomian sounding character name

go to the white pages of your phone book, place finger on any page (randomly)

take first five or six letters of last name (space)
followed by first three letters of first name

examples . . .

Charle Mic
Hilli Lar
Tompk Deb
Watso Ali

OR if you dont like these, try rearranging . . .

Mic Charle
Lar Hilli
Deb Tompk
Ali Watso