The Heart of Dorkness Day 23-24

23 Least Favorite Monster

I touched on this earlier, but plant monsters suck. Or more accurately, I have no idea how to DM them.

With any other monster, they move as do the PCs, and so encounters are a collision of forces. Plants… not so much. They’re just there. If you enter the garden/jungle/arboretum, you have willingly stepped into their territory. Most murderhobos at this point go Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore and tell the DM they’re on double secret alert and start dropping napalm everywhere. If anyone wants to share how they DM plants, feel free to tell me below.

Although I probably still won't use 'em....

24 Favorite Energy Whatnow?

This is some reeeeal non OSR post-2E sheeot going on with this question. Alright, I’ll let Johnny Rotten reply for me:

HERE

30 Day Challenge 7 & 8

Lucky 7! What edition do you prefer?

Easy! 4th edition is the best!
The old Games Workshop green cover with the great painting of Elric atop ruins as he destroys the Young Kingdoms. You have some rules clarifications from preceding editions (demon summonings & skills), and it adds in the material from the Companion.

Oh. We're not talking about Stormbringer? D&D? Oh, then definitely NOT 4th edition.

I played 4e once. ONCE. Two hours to build a character. Made me want to cry.

I've read 3e, seems needlessly complicated. The Midnight campaign setting I'd easily poach, though. Damn good. Easily portable to Basic Roleplaying, hell there's even a BRP retroclone called 'Age of Shadow' that tacitly does this.

I played a whack of 2e games back in the day. Lots of fun, and tons of great settings. Planescape is basically the Multiverse. Spelljammer and Dark Sun were nicely gonzo and deserve retro-clones. Mazatlan and Al-Qadim were interesting experiments. You could also play a whole campaign out of the Vikings, Celts, or Rome splatbooks. I dunno why they didn't do one for every major culture's mythos. Even Lankhmar got some adventures & sourcebooks.

Never played 1e - by the time I was gaming in earnest, people had moved on to the cleaner 2e rules.

I started with D&D, but I'll be damned if I know which book. Most probably a mishmash of BX and BECMI.

I'm dying to try Swords & Wizardry Whitebox, maybe with Age of Conan. Peanut butter and chocolate.

I'd have to say my favorite edition is whatever I'm playing at the moment. The differences before 3e seem really inconsequential to me. My recent Labyrinth Lord experiences with Vaults of Ur felt the same as all that came before, and markedly different from the 4e I suffered through. And I'd have to chuck in some houserules (mainly skills) anyway, so it's all good.

8 - Favorite Character You Have Played

Funnily enough, all D&D characters I have played were ill-defined, probably because 'world-building' was never a big thing back in the day. The gameworld in the late 80s and 90s was more like that endless loop of scenery in the background when Scooby and Shaggy were hightailing it from some suited goon - just a means to get to the dungeon.  I noticed how things had changed when I played in Vaults of Ur last year - Justin's gameworld was incredibly vivid and detailed. It takes a bit more player investment and GM work, but I think it is a great development in the art of gaming.

Enough digressions - my favorite fantasy character I ever played was Emile (Eh-meel), deposed King of Wallachia and Bard.

It was in a GURPS Fantasy campaign back in the day. While everyone maxed out fighting skills, Emile was good at rapier, but a master in singing, dancing, storytelling, and just about any other social skills. He also was deluded and believed he was deposed king of the non-existant kingdom of Wallachia, which appeared on no maps. He seduced barmaids and queens, sent minions into dungeons while he lounged around the tavern, and was finally assassinated by a powergamer who HATED the way I subverted the game.

I consider that a thing to be proud of.