HomeReviews And WalkthroughsArduin Grimoire, Part XII

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Arduin Grimoire, Part XII — 4 Comments

  1. Hi Mr Lizard!

    I’m loving these blog posts – thanks for writing them!

    I think I can shed some light on the “double 1” fumble thing. Back in the day, 20-sided dice weren’t numbered 1 to 20, but 0 to 9 twice. IE, percentile dice. Before them darn kids with their crazy new-fangled “d20s” came along, to generate a number from 1-20 you rolled a d6 and a single percentile die. If the d6 read 1-3, you read the percentile die as is, taking 0 to be 10. If the d6 read 4-6, you added 10 to the percentile die, for a result from 11 to 20. So, a critical with a 6 and a 0 could be super-awesome, and a fumble with a 1 and a 1 would be super-bad. I still like to use this d20 rolling method at cons to scare the young ‘uns. Plus rolling two dice is twice the fun!

    A pint of Rumble Tummy’s to you, sir!

    Sarah 🙂

    • Ah! We always colored in our D20s (numbered 0-9 twice, as you note), so we didn’t adopt the d20+d6. Instead, we got into arguments over if “red was high or blue was high”. 🙂

  2. Just love the viciousness of the text…calling out “turkeys” and “idiots.” Makes me want to write something along those lines…um, thought perhaps under a pseudonym.

    You’re right: great art from that guy. Oh, and the original Top Secret had a fiddly HTH system like what you describe, very different from the shooting combat.

  3. he sci-fi fandom crowd, drawn into D&D from a non-wargame background, who saw RPGs as their way to have Mr. Spock fight the Balrog

    Of course! As Joe Fischer’s article “Hints For D&D Judges” put it:

    When it comes to ordinary monsters for guarding normal treasures, D & D,
    Greyhawk, Blackmoor, and the Creature Features in The Dragon have everything you
    need. But when it comes to those special treasures, then look to the fantasy writers
    like H.P. Lovecraft and his gods and demi-gods to help you. Or the terrible sand
    worms of Frank Herbert’s Dune. And if you can’t find enough in the field of fantasy,
    then check out the science- fiction writers of today. Like Larry Niven’s “Puppeteers,”
    Dickson’s “Dorsai,” H.G. Wells’ Martians, or the creatures and peoples of the Star Trek
    Series. (How would you like to be walking down a corridor in the dungeons and be
    transported to another strange looking corridor, on the “Starship Enterprise”? With a tall
    humanoid with pointed ears saying “Highly illogical”?) Or even worse is not using
    fiction at all, but fact. In other words your players could find the Bermuda Triangle and
    what causes it!.

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