In my game setting, almost everyone interacts (to some degree) with gods, goddesses, and Otherworld beings like elves, dwarfs, and land wights. Most do not question their existence since it is part of the assumed cultural worldview. All recognize the need to appease and respect such beings in order to maintain well-being and prosperity. Conversely, people also desire to avoid harm, sickness, and disease through the regular upkeep of ritual acts. Propitiatory rites, offerings to seek favors, and votive acts linked with oaths are widespread among common folk and highborn alike. Players, too, are able to engage in such practices. Mechanically, I handle such practices and interactions using OD&D’s existing reaction rules.
Category: OD&D
What? Am I about to walk back everything I just said about infravision in my previous post? Am I about to engage in rambling hypocrisy? Nope. I still prefer to run D&D games without infravision as a character ability for demihumans like dwarves and elves. Nevertheless, I wasn’t being completely straightforward about infravision in OD&D. I didn’t lie, however. Infravision doesn’t show up, at least directly, as a demihuman ability in the three original booklets. However, a case can be made that demihumans were understood to possess infravision even in the three original D&D booklets. One just needs to refer to Chainmail.
Personally, I don’t like infravision as a demihuman ability, and I haven’t run a game with demihuman infravision (or “darkvision”!) for years. But hey, that’s just me. There is, of course, nothing wrong with running a game using infravision. I’ve run and played in games with infravision and had a blast. However, in the original Dungeon & Dragons three booklets, the classic demihuman choices (dwarves, elves, and halflings) did not have infravision. Men & Magic contains no mention of this ability in the demihuman descriptions. The ability exists, but it is a 3rd-level magic-user spell.
Infravision: This spell allows the recipient to see infra-red light waves, thus enabling him to see in total darkness. Duration: 1 day. Range of infravision: 40-60′.
Dungeon & Dragons, Men & magic Vol. 1