Fencing Styles in Dungeons & Dragons

Art by Virgil Finlay

In the early 90s, TSR published a series of “Historical Reference” sourcebooks for use with second edition D&D.  The fourth such sourcebook, A Mighty Fortress, presents a setting “drawn from European history comprising the 101 years from 1550 to 1650.”  Although the setting is self-contained, we are assured that “France, Spain, England, and the Holy Roman Empire could easily be transplanted into any setting, including Faerun and Oerth.”

Fortress describes two schools of fencing:  Spanish and Italian.

The Spanish style “can be learned as a weapon proficiency.”  It costs one slot but either rapier or saber proficiency must be purchased as a prerequisite.  “The Spanish school grants an AC benefit of +1...[and every] additional slot devoted to this proficiency increases the AC bonus by one.”  However, slots after the first can only be acquired once every three levels.  The AC bonus only applies when a character is using a rapier, saber, dagger, or is unarmed.  Like the Dexterity AC bonus, “If the character cannot move or see the attack coming, he does not get this benefit.”

The Italian style costs two weapon proficiency slots, and rapier proficiency is a prerequisite.  We learn...

...an Italian style swordsman cannot be attacked with a small- or medium-sized melee weapon if he has the initiative.  His opponent, regardless of his school, must win initiative in order to attack.

The Italian school also allows a character to parry attacks in a manner different from that detailed in the Player's Handbook.  After a character is hit, he may choose to parry by making an attack roll against his opponent; if successful, “the attack is parried and it has no effect.”  Every round, the character is entitled to one free parry.  Normal attacks can be “converted” to parries but such additional parries “must be declared before initiative is rolled.”

In order to parry, the character must have a dagger in his left hand or have some other sort of protection for the hand.  A leather glove, a cloak, or a floppy hat are the most common; a silk handkerchief is sufficient.

In 1986, Mayfair Games published a 'Role Aids' adventure called Beneath Two Suns.  This product is an “authorized and approved module” based on the Dray Prescot series of sword & planet novels.  By sheer coincidence, the Age of Dusk blog today posted a review of this adventure.  The superficial details I discuss here are largely distinct from the cogent Age of Dusk review, so your kind perusal of that review will not be a waste of your time (assuming you do not consider reading a review of a 32 year old RPG product to be a waste of time.  Then again, you wouldn't be here, would you?).

Beneath Two Suns takes place on the Antarean planet Kregen, specifically the city Zenicce (similar to Renaissance Venice).  In Zenicce, “bands of thugs and hoodlums” use Florentine fighting; hence, such rules are necessary.  Also, two of the provided pre-generated characters are trained in Florentine fighting.

Florentine fighting costs two weapon proficiency slots with rapier and dagger proficiencies as prerequisites.  Florentine fighting can only be used when armed with either (i.) a rapier and a dagger or (ii.) two daggers.  A character “using Florentine fighting is allowed twice as many attacks per round.”  However, unless a character using Florentine fighting has a Dexterity of at least 16, the character suffers “a -1 modifier on his to hit roll.”  Additionally, a character “engaged in Florentine fighting has his Armor Class increased by 1 (-1) against all close-in melee attacks,” but this modifier does not apply against attacks from the rear.

It is assumed that player characters participating in the adventure are not native to Kregen.  The adventure is intended for four to six characters of levels 6 - 8.  The “majority should be fighters” (but paladins are not allowed); however, we are advised to include “at least one magic-user of not higher than skill 6 and one cleric of skill 6 - 8 in the party.”  (“Skill” is Mayfair non-trademark-infringing-code for experience level.)  The Player Introduction implies that “smashing orcs” is “normal business” for the player characters prior to seeing the star Antares sparkle and being “mysteriously transported from Earth to [the] strange, wild planet called Kregen.”  This suggests there are orcs on Earth or – on a fantasy campaign world called Earth – the constellation Scorpio is visible.

The eight pre-generated characters are all from different time periods on Earth.  Some of these characters are Dray Prescot himself, a “Centurian” (sic), and a Victorian cutpurse named Careful Dodger.  Other characters have magical abilities; for instance, Lo Khan – a Mongol ranger – has the “Speak with Animals” spell available.  Evidently Greek, Tyresias Homer is a “Skill 8 Cleric” and is described as a “Healer.”  Additionally, Ramseus is a “Skill 6 Mage” who is a “Wise Man” of an unspecified time period and culture.

The Player Introduction also explains that – on Kergen – the player characters “are in slaves' chains and are dimly aware that [their] bodies have been functioning for several weeks without the benefit of [their] full consciousness...[and they] retain a dim memory of the past weeks and have learned something of [their] strange circumstances...”  This explains how the player characters have picked up something of “the universal language of Kregen.”  It does not explain how they can read a message in a bottle they find.  Perhaps the 'Read Languages' ability of the Victorian cutpurse (40%) comes into play here.

The player characters arrive on Kregen with “no items other than the clothes on their backs and the shoes on their feet.”  For the duration of the adventure, the belongings of the characters “are kept in 'limbo.'”  Given that first edition rules are in effect, the absence of material components and his spellbook would be especially problematic for Ramseus.

Omegakron (spoilers)

A post-apocalyptic Mod Squad

Art by Dave Billman

Have you ever wanted to use the history of your home town as the basis of a rollicking RPG adventure?  Neither have I.  Yet Tom Moldvay, not being me or you, took the idea and ran with it until he couldn't run any further.  Had Moldvay come from Chicago or San Antonio, this probably would not merit mention; however, he hailed from the Buckeye State... specifically Akron.  Lacking the élan of Cincinnati or the gravitas of Cleveland or even the je ne sais quoi of Toledo, Akron might not be the most marketable of Ohio's cities.  Maybe it was home town pride, maybe it came about because of a dare; regardless, the third (and last) of the Lords of Creation adventures features the (former) Rubber Capital of the World.  Toss in a dead abolitionist and – in Moldvay's estimation – you have suitable components for a commercially successful role-playing romp.

“Omegakron” refers to the greater Akron area two centuries after a world war using nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.  The result is a combination of science and savagery populated by intelligent animals, street gangs, mutants, cyborgs, and androids.  The player characters can arrive at this future setting via the dimensional gate from the conclusion of The Yeti Sanction, but “the Game Master can choose any means he wishes...”  On page 3 we read, “The simplest method is to have the characters mysteriously appear in the city.”  The setting of Omegakron was “an obscure probability branch diverted from the main time-flow.”  Instead of leading to the Imperial Terra setting, the main-time flow 'now' leads to Omegakron due to a temporal shift.  “The characters entrance into Omegakron was a way of nature seeking to restore the proper time-flow.”  Of course, the player characters don't realize this at the start of the adventure; they just “mysteriously appear.”  However, before arriving, the player characters “see a vision of Prometheus” and receive a 31-line poetic message.  “Even if the characters have never before seen Prometheus, they will recognize him as friendly.”  Naturally, the “cryptic message...holds the key to the success of the adventure.”  The adventure consists of several missions.  “Each time the characters succeed at one of their ten missions, the old town bell will mysteriously ring.”

Omegakron is dedicated to three TSR alumni:  Mark Acres, Jim Ward, and Steve Sullivan.  Given the time travel aspects of Omegakron, Acres makes sense due to his association with TIMEMASTER.  Given the gonzo post-apocalyptic nature of Omegakron, Ward makes sense due to his association with Gamma World.

Various factions exist in the Omegakron area, some of which are races of intelligent, mutated animals.  There are anthropomorphic raccoons who ride semi-intelligent buffalo, anthropomorphic woodchucks who ride semi-intelligent wolves, and anthropomorphic squirrels who ride mutant rhinoceri.  Although not anthropomorphic, there are also intelligent tigers and bears.

Player's Aid #1 is “A Short History of Akron,” a pamphlet with eight pulse-pounding pages of canal building and rubber litigation.  This pamphlet “contains clues woven into the manuscript which will help the characters solve most of the mysteries in the vision of Prometheus.”  The player characters are meant to find this pamphlet early in the adventure; however, the location of the pamphlet is considered sacred to the intelligent animals.  When the intelligent animals catch the player characters violating their shrine, they give the characters three options.  The first option is to fight against a hundred animal warriors and undoubtedly die.  The second option is to submit to a trial in which “one character chosen at random will be killed.”  The third option is to endure an ordeal that will allow the characters to become tribal members, thereby absolving them of their trespass.

The ordeal consists of running along a path to the Cuyahoga River while avoiding booby-traps and fending off animal warriors.  In game terms, the ordeal “has been designed abstractly.”  This means the characters will have 41 - 60 chances for encounters in the course of the ordeal.  For each chance, 1d10 is rolled; a result of '1' indicates an encounter and a table is then consulted.  So, 1d10 is rolled up to sixty times.  The adventure even acknowledges that “it can become boring for the players to watch the GM roll dice.”  Why not just have 4 - 6 encounters?

One of the factions in Omegakron is Novos Akros.  It has a high level of technology, including longevity treatments and “a small intergalactic spaceport.”  Novos Akros has a small 'Manager' class that exerts Orwellian control over the 'Worker' class.

A 12-hour work day is still common in Novos Akros.  Education stops at age 12, when the youths join the labor pool. Workers are kept hopelessly in debt. Any rebellious attitude is immediately crushed.  Offenders are kept in a state of drugged obedience.

To maintain the sophisticated technology of Novos Akros, there are “about 1500 technicians on loan from Old Akron,” a democratically ruled faction established at the University of Akron.  Old Akron has a level of technology roughly equal to the late twentieth century.  For reasons not explained, Old Akron helps a tyrannical regime maintain a technology superior to that which Old Akron enjoys.

The Akros Rangers are the police force for Novos Akros.  Rangers are recruited from personnel not native to Novos Akros.  The player characters are enticed into Novos Akros so they can be drafted into the Rangers.

While drafting the characters might appear to be an underhanded trick at the time, it is actually a way of helping them succeed in their ultimate mission.  As Akros Rangers, they can go anywhere in Omegakron with reasonable safety.  Even the street gangs and intelligent animals hesitate to attack Akros Rangers...

Noted radical John Brown was once a resident of Akron.  This association is all Moldvay needs to bring John Brown's ghost into the adventure.  We learn from Moldvay's pamphlet that “John Brown was one of the world's foremost experts in appraising wool.”  However, he was financially ruined when people refused to buy his overpriced wool.  (If people don't pay the price you set, can you really be considered an expert at appraisal?)

Anyway, the player characters encounter the ghost of John Brown who wants to liberate the “wage slaves” of Novos Akros.  (“For the adventure to work best, it is suggested that the GM make sure the characters join the Akros Rangers before meeting John Brown.”)  The player characters can successfully foment a worker revolt in Novos Akros only if they steal a copy of the Bill of Rights from Old Akron.

By completing all of their missions, the player characters “opened the way” for the Time Adjustors, “a mysterious group of individuals who strive to maximize the time flow.”  (Maximizing the time flow entails the preservation of the branches of time “which lead to the most successful of all possible futures.”)  The Time Adjustors explain to the player characters about such concepts as time flow, temporal shift, and probability branches.  The Temporal Adjustors can recruit the player characters to seek out the reason for the temporal shift that redirected the main time flow toward Omegakron.  This would have lead to the fourth, unpublished Lords of Creation adventure, The Towers of Ilium.  Moldvay claims “the GM should be free to use his impression of the Time Adjustors” and thus provides little detail about them.

Art by Dave Billman

The Book of Foes

Art by Dave Billman

Included in the Lords of Creation boxed set was The Book of Foes with 64 pages (including covers).  According to the book, 'foe' is a term of convenience for “any being who is not a character.”  This broad term includes animals, gods, extraterrestrial species, folklore races, legendary beings, historical persons, mythological monsters, and figments of Tom Moldvay's imagination.  Beings tied at having the least experience value are baboons, cobras, (average) goblins, (average) mandragoras, and wolves.  An entity named Romerac Elerion has the largest experience value.

Romerac Elerion (rom'-er-ac el-er'-e-on) seldom appears twice looking the same.  His favorite guises are a pot-bellied, balding man with a beard; a 7 foot tall gray-eyed blond man with a jagged lightning scar criss-crossing his body; a brown-haired, blue-eyed minstrel; a tawny-colored Feline; a dwarvish jester dressed in multi-colored rags; a small gray cat; and a 200 foot long Dragon.  Romerac is whimsical, but once his fancy is caught he follows the whimsey to the end with rock-hard purpose.  He has all skills and powers.

Experience value being “the maximum number of experience points the characters could receive for surviving a determined attack by that particular foe.”  Los has the next to greatest experience value while the number three position is occupied by Wayland who...

...looks like an ordinary human man but he is actually one of the most powerful Lords of Creation.  Wayland is the master technician.  He can build almost anything.  He specializes in fantastic creations and has built many of the powerful objects in the world.  He also takes contracts for constructing special “pocket universes”.  Wayland has all powers and skills.  He sometimes goes by the name of Welland or Wayland Smith.

One of the settings described in the Lords of Creation rule book is the Elder Lands, featuring fantasy versions of various cultures of the Bronze Age (more or less).  This allows Moldvay to include in The Book of Foes game stats for gods who didn't make the cut for Deities & Demigods.  Among these are the gods of the Scythian pantheon.

Moldvay's interpretation of mythology is not necessarily traditional.  Outside of the Elder Lands, for instance, Moldvay describes the Einherjar as “the most valiant Viking warriors raised from the dead (as biomechanical constructs)...”

Art by Dave Billman

The first two entries in The Book of Foes – Abiku and Acephali – often work in tandem with Kinnara for reasons not expressly stated.  Abiku are described as “three foot tall humanoids with gray mottled skin, long claws, and fangs.”

Acephali (ak-e-fal'-e) are six foot tall creatures with brown, barrel-shaped bodies.  They have three legs arranged like a tripod and two long tentacles instead of arms.  They have three eyes spaced out around their bodies for all-around vision.  Acephali can teleport through space, time, and other dimensions.  Wrapped in their tentacles, Acephali can carry six small individuals, three human-sized individuals, or one large individual.

Kinnara are described as “thin, 5 foot tall humanoids with oversized heads.”  They are telekinetic.

Art by Dave Billman

Psyschokillers (cue Talking Heads) are...

...clones of psychotic killers with a genetic disposition toward murder.  They are raised in an environment designed to foster paranoia then surgically altered to be more efficient killers.  Ownership of a Psychokiller is highly illegal.  A Psychokiller is an arch-assassin, never stopping until its victim is dead.  Psychokillers have the powers of Plasteel Body, Exoskeleton, Backup Metabolism, Physical Control and Energy Control.

It's “highly illegal” to own Psychokillers?  When you outlaw Psychokillers, only outlaws will have Psychokillers.  Is it only slightly illegal to make them?  How do Psychokillers feel about being owned?

Art by Dave Billman

Scavenger Wheels are animals that have a 4 foot wide, spherical body covered with tentacles between two 6 foot tall, wheel-like appendages.  They hunt by rolling over the ground (usually wind blown, though they can move laboriously to a hill top, using their tentacles, then rol down when they sight prey).  As they roll over prey, they scoop it into their mouths using their tentacles.

Art by Dave Billman

According to page 61, “Vorian Death Maggots are winged serpent-like creatures 10 feet long.”  The never-published fifth Lords of Creation adventure was to be titled Voria.  Doubtless, these venomous foes would have played some part.

The Yeti Sanction, part III (spoilers)

Art by Dave Billman

At the conclusion our previous installment, the player characters had just received unexpected assistance from allies of which they were unaware.  As such, the characters were free to pursue Kahai the Yuga and Anton Markov “to a large room with circular walls about 100 feet in diameter” and “which is filled with strange alien machinery.”  Although the characters do not realize it, they have followed Kahai and Markov onto “the bridge of the Yugan space ship.”  (“Most of the Yuga ship is underground in a huge silo.”)

How formidable are the characters' two opponents?  Kahai has the powers of Mind Block, ESP, Electrosensing, Electrosleep, Hypnosis, and Persuasion.  In addition, he has an energy shield and is armed with a proton beamer (”A rifle-like weapon that shoots a beam of charged proton particles” inflicting 5d6 damage) and a varilance (“A 6 foot long tube that projects a beam of controlled energy that can vary in length from 3 feet to 9 feet” and causes 1d6 + 1d10 damage).  Markov also has a proton beamer along with an energy vest.  Incidentally, Markov possesses the powers of sensual chaos, invisibility, and fear.  You might wonder how an insane, former KGB spymaster gained such powers.  Don't you think it's a little late in the game to start asking questions like that?

Anyway, Kahai “initiates the liftoff sequence that will take the ship off the planet Earth.”  Once “the battle ends, the characters will be pressed to the floor by the high acceleration of the take off.”  The ship's hyperdrive automatically engages after about five minutes whereupon the characters “experience brief disorientation and mild hallucinations for a few seconds.”  Due to damage caused during the battle, the hyperdrive control catches fire when activated and becomes nothing but slag by the time the characters put the fire out.  The characters are now “lost in hyperspace.”  Do Kahai and Markov survive?  Perhaps; they are not referenced at any further point in the adventure (even though Beeveesome, “the ruler of all Yeti,” promised the player characters he would reward them if they bring the villains to him).

After aimlessly travelling through hyperspace for several – evidently uneventful – days, a tractor beam seizes the ship and pulls it toward an asteroid which is “part natural and part artificial.”  A message transmitted from the asteroid is announced via the ship's radio.  I suppose the ship's computer conveniently translates the message into English or maybe all languages are universal in hyperspace.

By the Archon's order . . . no course deviation will be permitted . . . this ship is confiscated . . . all life forms aboard will prepare for termination . . . resistance is futile . . . prepare for docking inside Arcanus 16.

Does preparation for docking take precedence over preparation for termination?  Is docking preparation intended only for entities that aren't life forms?  Answers to these pertinent queries are not provided.  Via the ship's viewing screens, the characters can see the docking bay which is apparently their destination.  At “irregular intervals” the tractor beam partially malfunctions and the ship “nearly breaks free of the beam.”  Somehow the characters realize that they may be able to take advantage of the beam's partial malfunction “to deviate slightly from the present course, so that the ship crashes down upon the the death squad sent by the Archon” even though they have no knowledge of said death squad.  Incidentally, the death squad consists of ten Giant Mantises; this number is reduced to five if the “crash landing” stunt succeeds.  “Since this encounter is potentially deadly to all the characters, it is suggested that the GM use discretion.”

Assuming the player characters prevail, television cameras inform them that twenty more Giant Mantises are approaching the docking bay via the left tunnel.  “There is little choice but to run from the Archon's death squad,” so the player characters presumably flee down the right hand tunnel which “opens into a passageway leading downwards toward the asteroid's interior.”  Eventually, the player characters encounter three air elementals guarding “the entrance to the Cave of the Winds.”  The characters can either defeat the elementals or enter into a magical contract with them allowing “unhindered passage across the Cave of Winds in return for aid in an attempt by a Baroness of Air to take to control from a Duchess of Air.”

If the characters opt for the contract, they and Cerulea (the Baroness) fight Pneuma (the Duchess).  If Cerulea wins, she tells the characters how to escape from the asteroid.  If Pneuma wins, “The only chance for the characters to live...is to accept a magical contract with her.”  Pneuma then gives the characters the same information about escaping from the asteroid since – given the contract – it is “in her best interest to see that the characters survive.”

Beyond the Cave of the Winds, there is “a huge plateau about 20 miles wide” in the center of which “is a giant pyramid of obsidian.”  The pyramid is huge – “several thousand feet high.”  A black sun illuminates the plateau with “dark and hazy” light having “a purplish-blue tint.”  (“One particular aspect of the 'sunlight' is that nothing on the plateau casts a shadow.”)  The characters are informed that “their best hope of escape lies in the gate atop the Obsidian Pyramid, and that they will need the control box owned by the creature that lives in the Black Sun, plus the crystal prism and master tape cartridge owned by various creatures inside the pyramid.”

Art by Dave Billman

The creature of the Black Sun is an Urlar.  What's an Urlar?  According to The Book of Foes, “Urlar are space for faring [sic] amoebas about 30 feet in diameter...[that] can change shape at will (it takes 10 turns to form a new shape).”  Aside from having all powers from the Cyborg, Projector, Telepath, and Invoker sets, the Black Sun Urlar has a gamma raygun* implanted in it.

Attached to one side of the pyramid is “a castle built from rainbow-like quartz.”  Apparently, the only way into the pyramid is through the rainbow castle.  Inhabiting the castle is the Bestiary Grand Council, an organization of animal rulers.  According to The Book of Foes : 

Every type of animal has both a ruler and guardians who personify and protect that type of animal.  It is possible for the characters to make pacts with animal rulers and guardians so that the ruler or guardian may be summoned by the characters.  All rulers and guardians have the ability to Travel Between Dimensions to answer a summons.  The pact upon which the summons is based must be mutually rewarding.  Usually, the characters must either bargain for a service after meeting the ruler or guardian face-to-face, or was rewarded the pact for some action that was extremely beneficial for the type of animal associated with the ruler or guardian.

(While humanoid in aspect, animal rulers should not be confused with humanoid races having animal characteristics or the leaders of those races.  For example, sharkmen are a humanoid race with shark-like properties.  Bloodhook is the lord of the sharkmen.  The animal ruler for all sharks is named Skulo.)

The council will permit the characters “to pass through the rainbow castle into the interior of the pyramid only if the characters can prove themselves worthy.”  To accomplish this, each player character must engage in single combat with an animal guardian.  “The characters will be judged worthy to enter the obsidian pyramid if at least half of the characters are victorious in their individual combats.”  A character who loses to an animal guardian will be under magical contract to that guardian.  On the other hand, if the animal guardian loses, the guardian will be under magical contract to the character.

Should the player characters be permitted to access the pyramid, the council will provide them with a magical compass that will lead them through the pyramid's “maze of tunnels.”  (If the characters managed to avoid Cerulea and Pneuma, the council will tell them about the three devices they need to escape the asteroid.)  In the pyramid, the characters confront trolls, Fomorians, and a  Wendigo to obtain the needed devices and reach the top of the pyramid.  Actually, the pyramid is truncated.  “The top of the pyramid is a square plateau about 1000 feet to a side.”  Seventy-seven statues ring a pond of mercury at regular intervals.  “Fifty-six of the statues depict giant humanoids sitting on thrones,” the remaining statues are empty thrones.  In the middle of the pond “is an obsidian platform about 20 feet square.”  On the platform is an obelisk “covered with dials, meters and switches.”  The characters can use the devices to operate the obelisk, “which locates and locks on to an interdimensional gate.”  However, when the gate opens, one of the statue humanoids becomes animated.  Said humanoids are actually Archons.

What's an Archon?  According to The Book of Foes, “Archons...look like large muscular humans, though they can Shape Shift at will three times a day.”  Unfortunately, The Book of Foes doesn't explain what Archons are; we must garner clues from The Yeti Sanction.  We learn that, “The race that built the asteroid and created the Archons has long since ceased to control the asteroid.”  Also, “the Archon remains true to its original purpose:  to kill all unauthorized intruders.”  Since the creator race no longer controls the asteroid, no authorization is possible.  So, Archons are synthetic and would not seem to be capable of independent thought that would overcome their programming.

Of course, the Archon attacks the player characters.  Chiron appears from the gate.  “He will join the characters, telling them: 'Prometheus thought you can use some help.'”  In The Horn of Roland, Prometheus provided assistance to player characters (and vice versa).  The Yeti Sanction claims that any character who participated in Roland “will know that Chiron speaks the truth, since the friends of Prometheus can always recognize each other telepathically, even went they have never met before.”  Somehow the characters know this.  Of course, it's possible that the Yeti player characters did not partake in Roland.  How and why Chiron would assist the characters in this instance is not explained.

Presumably, the player characters and their new centaur friend defeat the Archon, allowing the characters to access the interdimensional gate.  “The GM can use the escape through the gate as a prelude to the character's [sic] next adventure.”  Specifically, “The escape was designed to be used as a background to the adventure module: Omegakron.”  However, “The GM does not have to let the gate lead to Omegakron.”  In any event, Chiron does not accompany the player characters; he returns from whence he came (presumably under the auspices of Prometheus).

Art by Dave Billman

* “A submachinegun-like weapon that fires a ray of gamma radiation.  There is no known natural defense against a gamma raygun, and it is illegal to own one.”  It inflicts 6d6 points of damage.