OD&D – Page 5 – The Rambling Cleric

Infravision. No, Thank You.

On July 6, 2021

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

The Fortress of Zulma Kal & the Red Hands

By The Rambling Cleric

On March 28, 2021

In Campaigns

Well, I was hoping to get another post out earlier this week about some sword & sorcery campaign ideas; however, other life stuff took precedence. Work at the hospital this week wasn’t too bad since I was not super overwhelmed like much of the past year. Instead, the week was steady, not overwhelming, and I had a lot of meaningful visits with patients and families. Still, I’m definitely glad to have the weekend off! I threw down with some chicken wings last night, and I was even able to enjoy some cocktails and beer on the porch. Feeling good. Anyway, I want to get some of my initial ideas out for this new campaign setting. Everything is preliminary, of course. For this post, I’m just going to include some basic writeups of notable areas and a little about the Red Hands.

Discerning & Conceptualizing Wisdom in D&D

By The Rambling Cleric

On February 21, 2021

In Ability Scores

Wisdom rating will act much as does that for intelligence.
D&D Vol. I: Men & Magic, 1974

Helpful quote, I know. Besides acknowledging that wisdom is the prime requisite for clerics, along with some guidelines on how a wisdom score can be adjusted to affect a character’s overall experience point bonus, the above sentence is all the original three Dungeons and Dragons booklets ever said about wisdom. Despite my love for OD&D, that’s a pretty half-baked conceptualization for one of the three primary abilities. At least it was half-baked in its originally published form. It seems Gary Gygax just needed a mechanical parallel to the strength and intelligence prime requisites for fighting-men and magic-users, respectively. What wisdom actually measured had to either be deduced by the dictionary meaning of the word or ascertained in actual play with other players.

Digressive Musings on Old-School D&D

Tag: OD&D Page 5 of 6

Infravision. No, Thank You.

The Fortress of Zulma Kal & the Red Hands

Discerning & Conceptualizing Wisdom in D&D