Adventurers make careful plans regarding their next adventure.
Adventurers make careful plans regarding
their next adventure.
| Dragon | - | Best of Dragon, Vol. IV | - | Dragon 79 |
| Behavior during the adventure | Staying alive after the adventure | - | Using magic wisely and well | Adventuring and Referees |
T h i s i s n o
t a n a r t i c l e a b o u t
t h e s e c r e t s
of successful fantasy role-playing, for
the
simple reason that there are no secrets.
T h e q u a l i t i e s
t h a t c h a r a c t e r s , a n d
t h e
players of those characters, must exhibit
to succeed in a fantasy adventure are
founded on the ideas of common sense a
n d c o o p e r a t i o n ;
v i r t u a l l y a l l
o f t h e advice set forth in this article is derived
f r o m o n e o
r t h e o t h e r , o r
b o t h .
The following text normally assumes
that the players know each other and
have played together at least a few times,
although most of the advice applies
equally well to a party of strangers. It
also assumes that the objective is for
everyone in the party to live and prosper.
The adventuring party's best chance of
survival occurs when everyone in the
party survives.
| Elementary precautions | Whom do you trust? | Know your objective and stick with it | Gather information | Keep a monster chronicle |
| Provide for rescue/escape | Equipment | - | Security in camps | Be Aware, Take Care |
Elementary
precautions. Make sure you
have sufficient equipment and food
for
the trip, extra horses if you're riding,
spell books, and so forth. Try to have
a
balanced set of professions (classes) and
skills in the party so that at least one
character can meet any problem you
might encounter. Think defensively. As
long as you stay alive you can ?win? in
the long run. In a choice between firepower
and protection, lean toward the
latter. Sure, the best defense is a good
offense, but all the big-hitting spells
in
the world are no good if the enemy incapacitates
you with his first attack because
you lacked protection. In an AD&D
game,
for example, I like to have two or three
dispel magic spells in a powerful
party,
in case one of the spell casters is charmed,
possessed, or otherwise magically incapacitated.
A dispel magic can be worth a
lot more than a fireball or
lightning bolt.
You can always run away as long as all
members of your party retain free will
and free movement.
Whom do you trust?
Let's hope you
trust your fellow adventurers; but how
do
you know you can trust everyone in the
party? I've seen players introduce new
(evil) characters into a party and betray
the rest at a crucial moment, if only by
fleeing during a battle. And a subtle referee
can introduce ringers,
dopplegangers,
or other evil types disguised to
look like trusted party members. After
all,
your character can?t constantly keep tabs
on what other PCs do
between expeditions, in town or elsewhere;
there are many opportunities for
substitution. No one in his right mind
will agree to adventure with someone he
knows nothing about, but on whom he
might depend for his life. In a world
fraught with the pitfalls of possession,
control, and disguise, who wouldn?t at
least informally test his ?buddies??
The methods used will depend on the
rules. In the AD&D
game, for example,
know
alignment is a great spell, as is
detect charm. ESP is also very useful,
but
can be deceived in some worlds. Alignment
language can be employed as a
recognition code. And what happens
when a character drinks holy water of the
opposite alignment? Pass some around
and find out. (Some referees will allow
a
character to drink holy water, or hold
a
sword of opposite alignment, and suffer
injury without showing it in any way
Don?t be too quick to believe that someone
has passed your test.)
In games that don?t provide such convenient
tests, long conversations may
reveal a ringer's lack of knowledge of
?his? own past. Although it isn?t likely,
metaphysical or religious discussion
might draw out an evil character. In some
universes, asking a suspected character
to
pray aloud to his supposed god might
force him to give himself away
Similarly, if you ?rescue? someone during
an adventure, be suspicious.
A doppleganger
may look like a damsel in distress; a werewolf
may look like a lost or
victimized farmer; a prisoner of an evil
character isn?t necessarily good. Try putting
silver
manacles on the farmer; use
detection spells; don?t let that ?damsel?
get into a position dangerous to you.
Know your objective
and stick to it.
Each expedition should have a particular
objective, beyond the typical desire to
eradicate evil and gain a little gold
on the
side. Perhaps on a past adventure you
found a treasure map or riddle; your
objective could be to follow that map,
or
to acquire information which will enable
you to solve the riddle (and thereby gain
whatever advantages accrue). Or you may
have stumbled onto an orc
lair, or a
dragon
lair, on a past adventure. Organize your expedition, then, with the specific
purpose of looting this lair
If you don?t have any information to
lead you to a specific goal, then make
this
adventure a scouting expedition. But that
means you should gather information,
not get into fights. Your spells and the
composition of your party should be
arranged with a particular objective in
mind, such as scouting; if you try to
accomplish something else you?ll have
less than optimum chances of success.
The worst thing you can do, from the
standpoint of survival, is wander about
with no particular purpose in mind.
You?ll manage the standard encounters
all right, but when it comes to the really
tough tasks, you?ll be on the losing end.
Gather
information. The more you
know about the obstacles between you
and your objective, the better your chance
of success. These obstacles may be psychological,
social, economic, or political,
as well as physical. Show me a party that
sets off for parts unknown as soon as the
members are given a mission by the referee,
and I'll show you a party that
wouldn't survive in a tough world
(including the "real" one). How you
gather information will vary with the
rules of the game. In any game, you can
seek information from rumor-mongers
and storytellers, from local inhabitants
and sages,
from libraries and old inscriptions. Even the bartender might know
something important. Bits of information
can add up to important revelations.
Write down those bits, and look them
over occasionally to discern patterns or
juxtapositions you didn?t notice before.
Keep a monster
chronicle. A really avid
player-tactician will keep a notebook of
important facts about monsters -- for
example, the
immunity of demons to certain types of attacks.
While most referees don't allow players
to consult rule books
during play, they are unlikely to prohibit
characters from keeping notebooks
about
monsters. At worst, the referee may
require a player to keep a separate notebook
for each character, putting in it only
information gained through role-playing
that character. In this case, the player?s
characters should frequent places where
adventurers meet, in order to gather
information. They should also search
libraries for
relevant memoirs and
bestiaries.
Provide for
rescue/escape. This is easier
said than done, of course. The idea is
to
try to arrange with local politicos or
with
adventurers who aren?t on the expedition
to rescue you if things go wrong. Think
about how you might escape if the expedition
collapses. If you?re hunting a
dragon
in an AD&D adventure, for example, you
don?t have any means of escape
except teleport
or (in some situations)
dimension
door. But if you?re stalking a
gang of orcs
in a dungeon, you might
take along an apparatus which will enable
you to shut a door as you flee through
it; or you might take a web
spell earmarked for blocking a corridor if you
need to retreat.
E q u i p
m e n t . The most insignificant
bits of material can save lives. For example,
a hollow tube to breathe through
while under water could allow a character
to elude pursuit. (Editor's note:
For a
long discussion of specialized adventuring
equipment, see the article "More than a Sword"
in issue #69 of DRAGON®
Magazine.)
Security in
camps. In many campaigns,
one of the worst ordeals is to suffer a
night attack when encamped, because the
referee won't allow anyone to sleep in
armor. What can be done to minimize the
danger of night attacks? <cf. Good
Sleep vs. Bad Sleep>
First, try to buy, borrow, or steal a
magical sleeping bag that enables you to
sleep in full armor! If necessary, commission
someone to make the item. Anyone
who has, in AD&D
terms, fought in AC
10 or AC 7 instead of AC 0 or better
knows how much difference armor
makes, and there's no game in which the
difference isn't significant.
Second, use alarm
spells, such as magic
mouths,
set around camp or in the center
if only one is available. Put a wire or
rope
perimeter around the camp, suspended
about six inches above ground, with lots
of small bells attached.
Third, don't make a fire -- it attracts
monsters -- but keep some coals burning
in covered pots or other contraptions so
that a fire can be started quickly to drive
off animals. It?s a good idea to have the
makings of a large fire ready to be ignited
at need.
Fourth, put impediments around the
camp. Barbed wire would be wonderful,
but I know of no referee who allows it;
anyway, it would be difficult to pick up
in the morning. A number of bear traps
can at least indirectly provide some warning
of attack, and may even incapacitate
an attacker. Large caltrops can do the
same job. You can carry more caltrops
than bear traps, but bear traps are easier
to retrieve the next morning. In either
case, you might be wise to leave at least
one unobstructed path in the protective
circle through which to flee unimpeded.
It would really be nice to build a fortified
encampment as the Roman legions
did, but unless you travel with a hundred
slaves you won?t be able to do much. You
could dig some pits or foxholes around
camp, but this requires time and effort
sufficient to reduce your travel distance
for the day.
Horses and
other domesticated animals
should be securely tied in a location
within the protective perimeter of the
camp. If anyone in your party is especially
good with horses, say a druid or
beastmaster,
let him sleep nearest the
animals. If you have some horses trained
to fight, and other which aren?t, separate
them. You could tie the untrained horses
less securely, since they?re going to bolt
anyway and are less valuable. Your hope
is that the untrained horses won?t carry
the trained ones along with them if and
when a stampede occurs.
Avoid mental passivity
in battle. While
it?s unhealthy to make bad moves, it?s
often worse to make no moves at all.
Once a battle begins; a player may forget
that there is still something he can do
to
improve the position of his party, to
influence the battle favorably.
Much of this attitude is caused by over-
excitement. When the battle begins, play-
ers are eager to throw the dice for the
next
attack, to heroically slaughter the enemy
sword- to-sword. Unfortunately, they
forget about other, usually more sensible
options. He who lives by the sword ?
when something else will work better
?
will sooner or later die by the sword.
And
even in hacking and slashing, it is often
possible to move more attackers into a
line, or to fall back to gain a better
posi-
tion, or to sneak behind the enemy.
If each player controls only one charac-
ter, options of this sort will usually
be
noticed by the players whose characters
presently have nothing to do. But if, as
in
the majority of cases, each player controls
two or three characters (whether player
characters or NPCs), it is common for a
player to forget about his characters who
aren?t presently engaged. When the dread
diseases ?dice-itis? or ?hackitis? strike,
the player forgets even to move the char-
acter in the battle, let alone any others
that might not be currently engaged.
A remedy to this is simply to slow
down and make sure you look at the tac-
tical situation, to choose the best
maneuvers before you start the next
round of attacks. A tactical display, with
miniature figures or cardboard to repre-
sent adventurers and monsters, helps
players see what they need to do.
Another remedy is to make a list of all
magic items,
or at least the major ones,
the party possesses. Then, even if the
owner forgets that he has an item which
may be useful in a given situation ? and
we all know this does happen ? at least
one of the other players will notice it
on
the list. The list is a wonderful stimulus
to creative planning. Just look at the
items and combinations, and all kinds of
wild, but occasionally useful, plans come
to mind.
Coordinate
efforts. It should go with-
out saying that the key to survival in
most adventures is cooperation among
the characters, with the group utilizing
each character?s skills to best advantage.
In an AD&D
adventure, for example, the
party has the advantage of ?combined
arms? cooperation between offensive
spell casters (magic-users), defensive
spell
casters who double as infantry (clerics),
physical combat power (fighters), and
stealth (thieves). If players spend more
time suspecting one another than they do
watching out for monsters, they?ll be in
big trouble in the more dangerous places.
While some referees arrange their places
of adventure to take suspicion and back-
stabbing into account, most do not.
Merely negative action ? that is, not
attacking each other ? is insufficient.
The characters must actively work
together to achieve their ends. If the
thieves wander away on their own, if each
character does what seems to him to be
the best idea at the time, the adventurers
may get nowhere and they may even
accidentally kill each other. Take, for
example, a party of thieves, fighters and
magicians on a plain of tall grass,
encountering a group of men.
Some of
the fighters move into a nearby forest
and
then shoot anything that moves with
their bows. The magicians turn invisible,
move around a bit, and prepare to cast
fireballs.
The thieves and other fighters
start sneaking through the grass, individ-
ually rather than in a group, trying to
surprise the
enemy. No rendezvous is set,
no one knows what anyone else is doing.
The enemy could leave the area and the
party might still lose several members,
as
archers shoot
at moving grass, thieves
inadvertently backstab their own sneak-
ing fighters or magicians, and the magi-
cians burn up areas occupied by the
sneaking characters.
Keep reserves in
reserve. In a fantasy
adventure fight, especially one outdoors,
the side with the last surviving reserves
usually wins. This is often true of great
battles, but adventurers tend to forget
the
principle of reserves ? in particular,
spell-casting reserves, who can remain
hidden one way or another, then inter-
vene at a crucial moment. Thus, at least
one magic-user should become invisible
and hang back, or work his way behind
the enemy. At least one character, prefer-
ably two or three, with dispel magic
spells should be free to use them if the
party is hit with incapacitating magic.
The reserve magician,
meanwhile, should
look for enemy reserves, particularly
invisible ones, and should try not to
reveal himself until he?s sure he knows
where all the enemy are. In effect, the
main party is helping to ?fix? the enemy
in position, a la the Napoleonic French,
while the reserves become the hammer
striking the anvil.
In this connection, a party of mid- to
high-level characters in a dungeon in an
AD&D
game, or any other game with
fireballs or the like, should maintain
con-
siderable separation between 2 or 3
groups, so that any detrimental magick
will affect only 1 group. Why put ev-
eryone on ground 0 for a fireball
or
web spell,
for example? The likelihood of
becoming permanently separated is rela-
tively small, particularly if there?s a
thief
in the middle area to help maintain con-
tact. Signals with light and sound can
be
arranged, but generally the separation
need not be so great that the 2 groups
can?t see and hear one another. The
length of the separation depends entirely
on the propensities of the referee. Some
referees would never fireball a party,
but
love to divide it. Others never try to
split
up a party but have no qualms about
tossing fireballs and lightning
bolts. The
party should stay much closer together
in
the 1st case than in the 2nd.
Don't take separate
routes. There?s
often a temptation to go separate ways;
don?t do it unless you have planned it
from the start in order to defeat a known
enemy, and only if you haven?t suffered
damage. The sum of the parts of a party
is greater than the whole, because of
?combined arms? cooperation. An 8-man
party can be ready for anything, while
two 4-man parties will suffer from severe
weaknesses of position if nothing else.
For example, if the only spell caster in
your 4-man party is held, what can you
do? If he?s in an 8-man party, the other
spell caster(s) can use a dispel to free
him.
And how can you protect the ?soft-
skinned? members of a 4-man party?
There?s no way to block both rear and
front if the enemy wants to get at your
middle. In an 8-man party you have
enough armored characters to completely
block both ends. (Inside a building or
dungeon,
anyway; the problem is more
difficult outdoors.) In order to provide
reserve capacity in case some party
members are killed or unconscious, an
adventuring party ought to include at
least 8 characters, unless the pre-
scribed mission specifically dictates a
dif-
ferent party size.
Concentration
of attacks. How should
individual attacks be directed in a large
skirmish? Ordinarily, each character has
little choice but to attack whatever is
in
front of him. But let?s say that there?s
more freedom of movement ? perhaps an
archery duel out in the open with little
cover. Typically, a player will have his
character shoot at ?whichever one shot
at
me? or ?whoever plugged me last
round.? The effect is that each character
fires at a different target in most cases.
Now this would be fine if the targets were
battleships, insofar as accurate fire would
force the enemy out of the battle line
and
throw off its aim. But if the target is
a
human or
monster, the incoming missile
is unlikely to affect his shooting unless
the referee is one of a small minority
who
takes such things into account.
If it will take 2 or more successful
shots to kill 1 opponent, spreading the
party?s fire among many targets means
that it will be a while before any target
is
incapacitated. A better method is to con-
centrate attacks on 1 target at a time,
or
2 if there are many attackers, until that
target is taken out. Then all adventurers
should shift to the next target down the
line. (In an archery duel, for example,
everyone shoots at the nearest enemy, or
the leftmost enemy if all are equidistant.)
Granted, this method may waste a shot or
2 if the target is hit several times simul-
taneously. But by concentrating attacks,
you assure yourself of eliminating one
enemy as soon as possible, and that
means 1 less adversary shooting at you.
The sooner you shoot down an enemy,
the sooner the enemy group as a whole
may be subject to morale failure.
The same principle of concentration of
attacks applies in melee combat. For
example, if you?re fighting 2 giants,
and you can send 3 characters against
each or 4 against 1 and 2 against
the other, the 4-and-2 tactic is likely
to finish off one giant sooner than other-
wise. In either case, each giant is going
to
attack just 1 character. A possible
drawback of the concentration scheme, as
employed here, is that either of the 2
characters fighting the 1 giant is more
likely to take damage than any 1 of the
4 characters fighting the other giant;
and after several rounds of battle 1 of
the pair of characters may have to drop
out of the fight, leaving just 1 character
to face that giant.
You can't beat everything.
This is axi-
omatic, regardless of the style of your
referee, because there?s always somebody
stronger, if only the gods, and sooner
or
later you?ll run into this somebody. When
you do, recognize that you?re licked, cut
your losses, and run.
But this needs to be
a group decision. The worst thing that
can happen to any party is that half stay
to fight while half run away. Both groups
are much weaker, confusion reigns, and
death will
probably follow. The single
quality that most separates good tactical
play from bad is the ability to recognize
when the odds are too much against you,
when it is time to avoid a fight.
Sometimes a situation which is too dif-
ficult for a partially depleted or unpre-
pared party can be adequately dealt with
by the same party after the members have
rested and prepared. You might not have
memorized the right spells to use against
a particular menace. If you go away, to
return later with different spells, you?re
much more likely to win through. Or
perhaps the menace requires lots of hand-
to-hand fighting, and you have a party
with lots of magicians. Go away, come
back with a fighter-heavy party, and slay
the enemy. Furthermore, if you leave the
1st time without alerting the enemy, you
can gather information (from storytellers,
commune
spells, etc.) that may make a
difference between victory and defeat
when you try again.
Get out while you
have some "bot-
tom." In most fantasy
games, the ulti-
mate power is the magic spell. Don?t con-
tinue your adventure after you?ve begun
to run out of useful spells, and be sure
to
take a spell inventory frequently. The
temptation to try just 1 more room, or
go over just 1 more hill, kills as many
adventurers as anything else. You must
always assume that you?ll have to fight
at
least 1 battle after you leave the place
of adventure but before you reach a place
of safety or replenishment. When you?re
down to one-battle-capability in spells,
it?s time to head for shelter. If your
fight-
ers are
heavily wounded, get out.
A party is like a boxer. A punch which
wouldn?t hurt much at the start of round
one could knock out the tired, hurt boxer
in the 13th round. Your ?boxer?
should end the adventure before late-
round vulnerability sets in.
Never flee into
unknown areas. In my
campaign, the only time an ochre
jelly
(which I rarely use) ever killed anyone
was when a party fleeing from undead
ran down an unexplored corridor, rather
than back the way they?d come. Before
they could stop, 2 magicians ran into
the jelly and died. When you?re explor-
ing, your escape route should be straight
back the way you came. If you have good
reason to believe that there?s a shortcut
available to your pursuer, you could try
to take it yourself, but in most cases
the
only safe retreat is the route you already
know about. Also, when you plan an
attack make sure that each attacker has
at
least 1 escape route, and preferably
2, in case something goes wrong. If
you?re in tunnels and need to flee into
unknown territory, follow a definite pat-
tern of travel so that you can find your
way back. Alternately turning left and
right is better that always turning in
the
same direction, which is liable to take
you in circles.
Don't back
yourself into a corner. In
virtually every case, it is better to have
too
many options than too few. This is
related on 1 hand to the military prin-
ciple of alternate lines of approach and
action, of contingency plans. On the
other hand, it is related to the fundamen-
tal idea behind good play in any game ?
that a player should control the course
of
the game,
not let the game control his
actions. As long as you have alternative
courses of action, you can hope to control
your fate. When you are reduced to only
1 choice, you are probably in big
trouble.
Guard your spell
casters. This seems
elementary enough, but some parties
don?t seem to practice it. It won?t help
to
have spells left if your spell casters
can?t
use them. The magicians, in particular,
should not be in the front or back line
indoors, or in the outer line outdoors.
Magicians are your last resort, your ?out
pitch? when the bases are loaded against
you. If you let the enemy get to them,
you?ve taken the first step into the
underworld (that is, death). And it?s not
enough to guard the front and rear. Intel-
ligent enemies know who in a party is
most dangerous, and where they?re likely
to be. If possible, they?ll drop someone
into the middle of your party to kill
magicians, or at least stop spells from
being cast. Keep a decent melee-capable
character in the center of the party to
fight off such intrusions. In an AD&D
adventure, for example, a cleric or brave
thief will do.
Make lists.
The more things you think
about and write down ahead of time, the
fewer problems you?ll have during a
game. I have a list of special and not-so-
special equipment
to give to the referee
before the adventure; a list of reminders
for questioning prisoners or talking to
charmed monsters or characters so that
I
don?t, for example, forget to ask him who
his boss is or if he knows where any trea-
sure is; a list of creatures I might poly-
morph
into, with the advantages of each
form; and a list of precautions I custom-
arily take when staying in a city, town,
or
a place where I can?t expect to be pro-
tected by other adventurers keeping
watch. (This last I put together after
a
friend, who had taken no unusual pre-
cautions while staying alone in an inn,
was assassinated.) Also, I have a checklist
of pre-adventure and post-adventure
safety checks, used much as an airline
pilot uses his checklist. Finally, in games
using wish
spells, you should write down
a wish ahead of time, in case you?re sud-
denly given the chance to make a wish
provided you do it quickly.
Other precautions.
There are some
seemingly minor precautions you can
take during an adventure, rather tedious
but occasionally life-saving. For example,
always look for evidence of regeneration,
even if the creature you've just killed
doesn't normally regenerate. As a general
practice, it doesn't hurt to cast remove
curse
on the body of an irrevocably dead
comrade, lest he return as an undead.
<Ceremony:
Burial is the right spell, not Remove Curse>
Caution now can prevent catastrophe
later.
Staying
alive after the adventure
| Search for enemies | Search for hidden treasure | - | Examination of items | Be Aware, Take Care |
One of the more dangerous times for
the adventurer is the period directly fol-
lowing the ?end? of an adventure. The
character has relaxed, and is looking for-
ward to rest, recuperation, and remunera-
tion (for treasure items found). He is
off
guard, and his friends have spread
throughout the village, town, or castle
to
attend to their private concerns. This
is
the time when secret foes and hidden
dangers encountered during the adven-
ture may manifest themselves. One of the
party may be possessed or charmed; an
enemy who escaped may send an invisible
stalker
or an assassin after the party; a
slithering
tracker might be following the
party. Now, the enemy strikes 1 adven-
turer at a time.
There are ways to avoid some of these
dangers, and other problems which may
occur after the adventure. A cautious
party should go through a routine to try
to root out these problems before the
members split up. This routine can be
divided into 3 sections: the search for
enemies, the search for hidden treasure,
and the examination of magick items. The
examples below use spells from the
AD&D
rules, but other games also have
spells that are useful after the adventure.
Search for enemies.
Gather in a large
clearing. 1st, use know
alignment and
detect
charm on all party members to
ascertain that they are not dopplegangers,
polymorphed demons,
or possessed or
charmed friends. ESP
might help. Be
ready for a fight if the enemy realizes
that
he?s been discovered. Next, use detect
invisibility
and detect evil to search
for
nearby hidden enemies. If you?re in a
clearing during this action, the enemy
might watch you from out of spell range,
so you might want to move into some ter-
rain that will force the enemy closer.
In
some situations a detect
magick might
reveal something.
Now try to get back ?home? (if you?re
not there already) by a devious route
which will help you lose any pursuer. At
some point, stop and set up an ambush
for the hypothetical pursuer. A dusty are
<?>
that will reveal the passage of a slithering
tracker
or an invisible monster is ideal.
Depending on how your referee interpret
an invisible
stalker?s prowess, a trip on a
river or across a lake might help throw
such a monster off your trail, but gener-
ally this is too bothersome unless you
have reason to feel that one is after you.
Search for hidden
treasure. This will
take several days, but who?s in a hurry?
Ideally, you should check all the coins
you?ve obtained for numismatic value. A
?mere? copper coin might be worth 50
gold pieces to a collector, if your referee
has been diabolical enough to create such
?treasures.? Check random coins for
counterfeiting or gold
plating over
copper. Cast
detect
magic (and possibly
detect
illusion) on the entire monetary
treasure. Some referees create magickal
coins or gems which are mixed with
ordinary treasure. Look for secret com-
partments in what appear to be standard
magickal items. (I once found a magick
ring
in the handle of an otherwise ordinary
war hammer. If I had tried to use the
?magick? hammer against a monster, it
would have been a waste of time.) Detect
magic
may help you discover dangerous
treasure.
Examination
of items. Cast detect
evil
on swords and other items which may be
intelligent. Cast neutralize
poison on
items you haven?t touched yet, as an anti-
dote to contact poison. Cast remove
curse
on scrolls ? and other items, for that
matter ? and don?t forget to look for
explosive
runes. When someone must
pick up an item to test it, you have 2
choices: strip him of his equipment and
tie him up so that he can?t do anything
to
harm the rest of you, or load him up with
gear so that he?ll have a chance to take
care of himself if he is suddenly trans-
ported elsewhere or must fight a monster
singlehanded. If there?s a ring
of regener-
ation
around, the magic-tester should be
wearing it. Always ESP
the tester to ascer-
tain whether he retains possession of his
own mind.
The foregoing discussion assumes that
you?re not crazy enough to try to test,
or
even touch flesh to, magick items during
the adventure (if it?s a one-day trip),
and
that your referee hasn?t been soft-hearted
enough to provide you with cheap, relia-
ble, and wholly trustworthy analysis by
a
local magician or alchemist. If you do
use
an analyst, remember that a powerful
magick item may tempt him to try to
switch it with a look-alike.
| Deception in place of magic | Phantasmal forces and illusions | Imaginative use of spells | Dimension door or teleport | Be Aware, Take Care |
Never employ magic to accomplish
something that can be done safely by
non-magical means, unless time is short.
The spell you use now may be greatly
missed later. For example, in a variant
of
the D&D
game that I recently played,
magic-users were allowed to choose spells
at the time they cast them, rather than
memorize them before the adventure.
During the adventure, a magic-user was
told to open a stubborn secret door with
a
knock spell.
He refused; soon afterward,
the door was forced. Later, the magician
used the spell capability he had retained
to cast a web
which saved the party from
an orc horde
? and this was his last
spell. If he had wasted it by casting the
knock spell,
at least some adventurers
would have died.
Deception
an place of magick. Whatever
game you play, you should be able to
devise ways to duplicate the effects of
magick by using weaker magick, or no
magic at all. My favorite ploy of this
kind
is a fake truth potion. Carry with you
a
liquid mixture of oddities in a standard
potion container (if there is such a thing).
Use a bit of blood, rust, or whatever to
make it look, feel, and smell like a real
magic potion. If possible, add a mild
drug so that the ?potion? actually makes
the imbiber feel abnormal.
Now, when you take a prisoner, try to
get him to say something, even if you
think he?s lying; at least, loosen his
tongue. You may want to give him quite
a grilling if if there?s time. Then feed
him
the potion. (Hold his nose so that he
can?t breathe and he?ll have a hard time
not drinking, if he wants to live.) Now
tell him, in the most positive manner you
can muster, that he has just ingested a
truth potion. As long as what he says is
true, he?ll live, but if he lies, the potion
will kill him inside of 24 hours.
The prisoner now faces a horrible
dilemma, especially if members of your
party have made the whole thing more
believable by remarking about how much
fun it is to watch the potion kill a liar,
or
perhaps talking about how they'd rather
torture the prisoner. (Good-aligned char-
acters might argue about how un-good it
is to condemn the prisoner to a slow
death.)
The prisoner can either tell the
truth, take his life in his hands and lie,
or
say nothing at all. The latter will be
harder to do if he?s already been talking.
If too many prisoners take the last option,
then tell the next prisoner who drinks
your ?potion? that he must tell the truth;
if he keeps silent, the potion will kill
him
anyway.
The potion trick will be more likely to
succeed if you can confront the prisoner
with the appearance that another pris-
oner has lied and died. For example,
before the intended victim returns to con-
sciousness or enters the room, render
another prisoner dead or unconscious
without leaving evidence of how this was
done. Strangling might do in some cases;
poison is best. (Of course, many charac-
ters will be unable to go to these lengths,
owing to alignment or personality.) Use
a
potion bottle that is half empty. Then
bring in the prisoner, give him the
remaining potion, and show him what
the potion did to someone who lied.
Imagine yourself presented with such a
scene, and think about whether you?d lie.
The success of this ploy depends on
how the referee plays his part (usually,
that of the prisoner). But it helps if
you
can be sure that no one who is questioned
in this manner lives to tell of it, because
once someone lies and gets away with it,
the story could get around. For this rea-
son, you should use the trick sparingly
if
your characters cannot allow prisoners
to
be killed in cold blood.
The more realistically your referee
plays the monsters and NPCs, the more effective
?deception
magic? is likely to be. For example, if
your party lights some colored candles,
the more thoughtful non-players are
going to wonder whether these are magi-
ckal, and perhaps hesitate or waste time
dousing them. The unthinking NPCs
will just dash ahead. Why, you might
even be able to block or delay pursuit
merely by lighting some funny-smelling
candles, or by throwing colored flour
(?dust
of sneezing and choking?) on the
floor. On the other hand, sometimes the
best tactic in a sword-and-sorcery fight
is
to dash in before the enemy has a chance
to prepare his magick; so who knows when
these tricks will work?
Phantasmal
forces and
illusions work
best when they reinforce expectations of
the observer. For example, if you use a
knock spell
to blow open a door from a
distance, and follow it directly with an
illusion of someone pushing the door, the
image will be more believable and may
draw enemy fire. Once, I (my character)
put a skull in a sack at my belt; when
I
met a chimera,
I cast phantasmal force
and pulled the skull, now looking like
a
medusa-head, from the bag, averting my
eyes at the same time. What happens then
depends on the referee, but it can be
interesting.
Given the variety of spells available in
most games, it should be possible to mis-
<?>
such as assassins hired by those you?ve
despoiled, ?gunslingers? looking to make
inform potential but unknown enemies,
a reputation, and ordinary thieves. This
will help protect you when you?re not
adventuring. For example, you might
want a false rumor to be spread. You
could simply ask friends or acquaintances
to spread the word around, but in some
cases the rumor will be so unbelievable
that your enemies might use magick or
other means to check its accuracy. Why
not, then, hypnotize
your agents so that
they truly believe what you?ve told them?
When the enemy checks, they?ll find that
your agents are telling the truth ? as
they know it.
Imaginative
use of spells. Read
through the spell descriptions of your
game?s rules to look for new ways to use
magic. For example, take the minor
globe
of
invulnerability in the AD&D
rules. If
you have a wand
of fireballs or lightning
bolts,
you can become a 1-man wreck-
ing crew by casting the minor globe on
yourself. Enter an enemy lair, accompan-
ied by a couple of fighters to keep the
opposition from hitting you, and dump
fireballs
all about. It?ll be messy, but the
enemy won?t last long, and you and your
friends will be safe. Or, cast the globe
and
polymorph
into a flying creature to scout
the enemy lair or to get into position
for
more violent business.
If you don't know 1 spell, you may
be able to duplicate its effects with
another. For example, if you don't have
Nystul's
magic aura, which creates a
bogus dweomer on an object, you can do
the same thing if you turn it invisible,
then paint it. Or, put a magick
mouth on
it with orders never to speak -- some referees
rule that a magick mouth does register
when detect
magick is cast.
Use magick to save effort. For example,
charm an orc,
then polymorph it into
a
more powerful monster: If it retains the
orc?s mentality, won?t it still be charmed?
You can also try tricks like charming
rodents or dogs in order to polymorph
them into big monsters. A friendly cleric
or monk can speak with the ?dog? using
speak
with animals. If you have a pet
dragon
or griffon to feed, polymorph
an
insect into an elephant
or a horse; why
spend a lot of money?
If you have powerful magick you can
use it for protection in the wilderness.
Spells of hallucinatory
terrain, plant
growth,
or semi-permanent walls of stone
or the like (arranged in a circle), will
pro-
tect against most unintelligent menaces.
In some worlds adventurers never have
trouble getting through doors or gates,
but in others some guile and magick is
required when strength is unavailing. For
example, passwall
your way through, or
use a knock
spell. Polymorph into
an ant,
black
pudding, or other creature that can
go under the door. Dimension
door will
get 1 or 2 party members through.
Presumably, once someone is through, he
can open the door from the other side by
pulling the lever, unbarring the door,
or
whatever. A gaseous
form potion or
something producing etherealness
will
also get someone through. Lacking these
means, something more destructive might
serve. For example, turn an area of stone
beside or below the door to mud (trans-
mute
rock to mud) and quickly dig
around the door or gate. A conjured
earth
elemental
is a last resort.
Some spells can help troops of slaves
build fortifications faster, for example
wall of
stone and conjure
elemental. For
a hiding place, use a passwall
and dig out
a small room at the end. It is sealed when
the passwall
expires, and can only be
reached by use of that spell or by dimen-
sion
door. (I?ve heard of referees who
allow characters to create a passwall
in
the floor under an enemy, then use dispel
magick
to get rid of it, leaving the enemy
entombed in solid rock. In my opinion,
this goes too far to be allowed.)
Use spells in new ways to affect the
morale of opponents. For example, cast
invisibility
on a person, but not on his
armor. The ?ghostly? apparition of an
animated suit of armor may frighten sav-
ages and others ignorant of magick. A
skull in conjunction with a ventrilo-
quism
spell can accomplish the same
purpose -- the skull is a "demigod" or
some such.
Dimension
door or teleport
capability
is great for getting behind an enemy, not
just for getting away. I have a magick-user
character who levitates
with magick boots,
puts a magic
broom between his legs,
casts invisibility
and other protections,
and finally dimension
doors into the air
well behind the enemy, while the main
party comes at them through a tunnel or
other narrow access. The magick-user can
look around for enemy reinforcements
hiding out of sight of the tunnel, then
either cast spells or move around with
the
broom. It’s not the safest of maneuvers,
but it seems to work well.
I’ve heard of a group of characters who
like to put explosive
runes on paper, fold
the paper into an airplane, and throw it
at the enemy. If an opponent looks at the
runes, boom. I would rule that nobody in
the world knows how to make paper air-
planes, nor would they even think of the
idea, but others might be less strict.
Some readers may feel that treating an
adventure as a tactical exercise is some-
how wrong. We don’t ordinarily see the
hero of a novel planning ahead in this
way, calculating every move, so why
should our characters do it? Well, the
literary heroes are heroes partly because
they take these precautions naturally,
not
even having to think about them. And,
let’s face it, literary heroes are incredibly
lucky, much luckier than our characters
can expect to be. The average soldier of
fortune must
look for every trick to keep
himself alive; must strive for every advan-
tage, however small; must always be
thinking. To the average player,
it’s just a
fun game; to the character,
it’s his life. In
short, the suggestions made here are a
summary of how a smart, wary character
would approach an adventure, not merely
a litany of good moves in a game. This
may be too realistic to fit some ideas
of
heroic fantasy, but that doesn’t make it
wrong.
| - | - | Be Aware, Take Care | - | - |
The advice given here cannot possibly
take into account the preferences — per-
haps demands — of individual
referees.
One referee may expect or require player
characters to act in order to succeed in
a
manner which would be suicidal if per-
formed with another referee. One referee
may set up his adventures with the pre-
conception that the players will always
go forward, regardless of how difficult
the
opposition seems to be. This referee will
in all likelihood, take good care of the
PCs by fudging things so
that they will survive. A different referee
may expect his players to withdraw,
regroup, and return with a more suitable
force if and when the opposition looks
too tough. In such conditions, if players
continue forward despite evidence that
their characters are in above their heads,
those characters will probably die or be
captured.
In either case, players should always
take the course more likely to result in
survival: pull out. Unfortunately, a ref-
eree of the 1st type may be so annoyed
by this reaction that he’ll double the
enemy’s strength in the interval before
th
characters return. He may even ambush
them on the way back, as “punishment.”
In many other ways, some as fundamen-
tal as this, referees differ in what they
consider to be good play. Consequently,
the 1st rule of good tactics in role-
playing may be to “Know thy referee.”
In connection with this problem of dif-
ferences between referees, you may come
across a referee who is an habitual
“fudger.” He tends to set up a vague
adventure and then alters and adds to it
as
the game progresses in order to make the
adventure easier or more difficult. Fre-
quently he fudges in favor of, rather than
against, the PCs in order to
enable them to survive an adventure in
which an objective observer would say
they should have died. This kind of ref-
eree discourages good tactics, because
regardless of how well or how badly you
play, the outcome is roughly the same —
you survive.
How can a player accustomed to pursu-
ing good tactics cope with this kind of
referee? 1st, continue to try to use good
tactics. Complain when the referee may
be fudging against you, trying to help
the
monsters when
your tactics are too good
for them. And most of all, “play the ref-
eree.” Whether you’ll want to say flat
out
that he fudges is up to you. But when
things don’t seem to be going well, try
to
think of events which might occur that
would help your side. Talk about them
— try not to be too obvious in suggesting
them to the referee — and perhaps he’ll
adopt one as a “piece of fudge” to be used
in your favor. Keep talking; do your best
to convince the fudger that your side
needs help, that the adventurers are in
bad shape, so that he won’t help the
monsters. When something occurs which
might be a fudge for the enemy — the for-
tuitous appearance of additional mon-
sters, or of a secret door the monsters
use
— then work on the ref by hinting that
he’s being unfair. And when you’re really
in dire straits, think of anything
that
might help, even if it sounds a little
silly,
and meanwhile complain about how
impossible the adventure has been.
The most blatant “fudge” I’ve expe-
rienced was when a referee allowed a few
war horses
to start a fight with a group of
su-monsters
after all the adventurers had
been knocked out. The horses managed to
drive away the surviving su-monsters and
save the party. In this case the referee
knew he’d been too tough, and was look-
ing for a way out. When a player hap-
pened to ask if the war horses were going
to attack on their own, that was all the
referee needed to get started.
You should never give up until you’re
dead and gone in any game,
but espe-
cially not when the referee is a fudger.
And hardly any referee never
fudges . . . .
<I hate fudging; I use Luck Points instead>
Another example: A character was cap-
tured, partly his own fault. The enemy,
which is to say the referee, asked the
character if there was anyone who might
pay a ransom for him. Obviously, the
referee was looking for a way to keep this
experienced character alive. The player
controlling this character should have
lied, hemmed and hawed, thought of
other reasons why he should be kept
alive, anything to give the referee a
chance to fudge — anything
but his
actual answer, which was “No.” The
enemy executed the character, of course.
Any RPG is a verbal con-
test as well as a game. You’ll find that
you can help your character by purely
verbal means, by subtly influencing the
referee. This works with any referee, not
just a fudger, insofar as virtually any
ref-
eree doubts that he’s always fair to the
players. You work on those doubts. For
example, in a situation not defined by
the
rules, the referee must decide what is
likely to be the result of a given action.
If
he’s unsure of the matter, or is groping
for a word, and you can supply some-
thing that sounds reasonable, he may
accept your suggestion. If you wait for
him to come up with something, chances
are it’s likely to be worse than what you
would have suggested.
* * * *
I really must protest the
general philoso-
phy of the article "Be
aware and take care"
(DRAGON #79). The
level of caution and
precaution advised in that
article may be
conducive to efficient game-playing,
but can
only hinder good role-playing.
For one
thing, if I were to believe
that the guidelines
Mr. Pulsipher offers were
of value, then
they should be followed for
every character.
But these suggestions are
so activity-
restrictive (You should always
. . ., etc.)
that I would end up playing
the same char-
acter over and over. Worse
yet, that charac-
ter would be a paranoid,
neurotically
cautious, pessimistic cretin
with a reputa-
tion for irrational behavior.
The "Whom
do you trust?" section
shows not only the paranoia
of Mr.
Pulsipher?s characters, but
a flagrant dis-
play of illogic. What happens
when a char-
acter drinks holy water of
the opposite
alignment? Nothing, unless
the character
(or ?ringer?) is somehow
endowed with the
power of an Outer Plane,
or the Positive or
Negative Material Plane.
It?s just not pow-
erful enough to detect the
subtle energies of
Prime Material alignments.
And since
they?d probably taste the
same to everybody
(though evils might find
good holy water
too sickly sweet, and goods
might be a little
more revulsed at the taste
of evil holy wa-
ter), you couldn?t really
tell by their facial
expressions. And putting
those manacles on
that farmer would be more
likely to make
him distrust you. Or
at least wonder
whether or not he was better
off in the
dungeons of the Evil Count
What?s-his-face.
Magical sleeping bags? If
it weren?t for
that, the section on camps
wouldn?t be too
bad for a specific character.
If this form of
caution is in character for
the fighter or
whatever that you?ve created,
then by all
means go ahead. Otherwise,
it?s a bit too
much like work. Besides,
you could proba-
bly sleep in your armor,
it?d just be incredi- <Yes, one can sleep in armor. See the WSG.>
bly uncomfortable. If your
character will
put up with this sort of
self-abuse, fine. I
believe most fighters would,
unless they
were in plate mail or weren?t
very adventur-
ous anyway.
The section on "playing" the
DM, while
falling just short of cheating,
is hardly in the
spirit of the game. Using
the tactics outlined
here would cripple any chance
of role-
playing on the players' parts.
If the charac-
ters had a hard time with
a given monster,
they would probably comment
on it to one
another afterwards. If they
had an easy
time, they would be grateful
to their gods.
They would not be constantly
complaining
about their lot to the all-powerful
deity
known only as "DM." Anyway,
it's fairly
obvious to the DM whether
or not the
characters are having a hard
time, based on
damage taken, length of melees,
etc. Carp-
ing about imagined hardships
would put me
off fudging in a minute,
and if it kept up
they might find themselves
up against more
than they can handle, so
they can tell the
difference in the future.
I usually only kill
people when they have done
something stupid,
and that fits the bill.
Lastly, and most importantly,
the really
good role-player is self-limiting.
This means
that if a certain action
seems in character or
simply the logical outcome
of a given situa-
tion, then even if that action
might hurt the
character?s chances for survival
slightly (I
don?t expect ultimate sacrifices
from any-
one), the player will take
that course of
action. For example, if I
was playing a
fighter of near-barbarian
temperament, and
I thought this guy would
be proud of and
like to show off his battle-scars,
I might
have this character disdain
clerical healing
for all but the most grievous
of injuries, so
that he has natural scars
to show off. An-
other example might be a
Champions- style
martial artist, who after
a failed kick is
struck by an attack. If it
seems likely that
the attack hit in the leg,
the player might
assume that using the legs
for kicking would
be quite painful and therefore
inaccurate.
The character might refrain
from using his
martial kick at least for
the duration of the
battle or until it can be
tended to, settling
instead for the lower-damage
martial
punch.
Let me make it clear that
I am not com-
pletely opposed to Mr. Pulsipher?s
article,
lest people think that I
prefer characters
who charge blindly into danger
with no
precautions and as many limitations
as
humanly possible. Many of
the ideas in the
article were good ideas,
but all of them
should not be used by any
one character or
group. Adventurers should
be as varied as
any other group. Some will
be cautious,
maybe in the extreme, and
others will be
equally careless. The important
thing is that
they should be individuals,
and their play-
ers should be concerned with
role-playing,
not milking any given situation
for every
last copper, while pursuing
a paranoid
obsession with minimizing
damage.
Mike Mrozek
Ferndale, Mich.
(The Forum, Dragon #81)