After my last post, I remarked on the Swords & Wizardry G+ group that this just shows that I need to get into a game soon. An offer soon came, and hopefully I'll be playing in a game on Wednesdays. I might even get up the confidence to run a game on G+, but time will tell.

In one sense, I'm up for playing anything in the next game I play, except an Assassin. I want to be a Lawful or Neutral character.

• Fighter? Okay, I can solve problems with my sword and shield. Rabbit stew, comin' up!
• Cleric? By the sacred bones of Skienwald, I shall purge this evil by my faith and large hammer. (Not necessarily in that order, mind you.)
• Magic-User? Bug Shub-Niggurath naflron nnnR'lyeh Hasturor h'ah phlegeth, Nyarlathotep s'uhn Yoggoth shagg Dagon nnnch' ph'Nyarlathotep, ebunma shagg nafluh'e ehye f'mg.  (Did it work?)
• Thief? Sure I can get it, but it'll cost ya. Double if you ask me where I got it.
• Druid? All I'm saying is that those can be some really mean vegetables.
• Hewcaster? If I can just study this things' essence back at the lab... Wgah'n Hastur shoggnyth throd. Okay, we got one minute to run from that thing before it comes to. No, I got only two more times I can cast that spell, why do you ask?

Yeah, I can have fun being any class, when it comes down to it. I tend to play by thinking just enough to avoid being stupid, but not enough to avoid a chance at the epic.

In another sense, I enjoy doing having the character do some things they tend to do between sessions. One of the reasons I love ACKS, is that at 9th level, Magic-Users can do some serious stuff. They can make crossbreeds, they can make some crazy magic items, they can do spell research and so on. Just once, it would be fun to ask the rest of the party if they wouldn't mind swinging by my tower before we go back to the dungeon. Seems that one of my experiments escaped and this one might get close enough to town...

I'm also working on a spell wielding class that makes a skill roll to cast. The link points to a post using the USR system, but I am porting it over to my S&W based system. This same skill roll is used to do spell research. The interesting thing about this class, though, is that they gain new descriptors every third level in order to develop a set of specialties unique to them. Added to this is that they can perform spell research from the 1st level, not the ninth.

From the example, the spellcaster could have a bonus to cast Healing spells and Fire based spells. When this character does spell research, the player will tend to invent ways to use on or both bonuses. So instead of a Cure Serious Wounds spell, a character with Healing and Fire bonuses might invent a spell called The Fire that Heals. I let the player write the spell description that is that. The same system also helps me to provide unique spells for scrolls in future adventures.

The research system sets the difficulty based on effect, which in this case would be heal 2d8 hit points. The fact that the player incorporated fire into it somehow, is just his or her creativity at work.

If someone would GM my house rules or if they would allow this spellcaster classes into their world, I would love to play either one, especially between adventures. I'd email the GM and ask if there were a couple of months between adventures in game time (not real life) to see if I could invent something crazy and possibly useful. The GM could totally ban me from taking it with me, just seeing if I could make it is fun enough.

I also like being able to do stuff between sessions, because it gives me things to look for, during sessions. I can totally see something like this happening:

Hey, that myconid is valuable. Let me cut off a small piece before we barge into the next room. I can use this back at the lab.

So what character would I like to play next? I'll have fun playing any character, but I'd really like to play some alternate spell casters that can do things between sessions at lower levels. Maybe I should get my house rules in a form to download for free so that you can tell me whether or not I'm totally nuts.

Oh, and One More Thing

Outside of D&D and its clones, I'd also really like to play a gun mage in Warrior, Rogue, Mage, by Stargazer Games. It's like being Gandalf and Clint Eastwood at the same time. 🙂

As I've said before, I didn't play much when I began the hobby, I usually was the DM. I did play pretty regularly, but unfortunately, I don't remember much about my life as a player. Even in college, I remember playing Champions, Marvel Supers, D&D, and Ars Magica, but not enough to even remember my characters' names. I seemed to jump around a lot, never letting a character do a lot before changing to a new character or a new game.

To give you an idea, here are the character sheets I have managed to save over the years, despite losing half my gaming history to an impounded car:

Gary was the only one to have a name. As Halflings go, I'm sure he would have been great, maybe even epic. The other two characters don't even have names. You'd think that they were meatshields, but I wrote them up in a different way. These characters were intended to be played, but for some reason, the issue of a name never arose.

I am proud that the fighter killed a rust monster already in his young career. He'll live in infamy for grabbing a tree limb and beating the thing to death. More than that is lost to the shroud of time.

These have to be from 1984 because I used the Red Box character sheets most of the time during that year. (I used to love to go to my dad's workplace and make copies.) When I ran out of copies, I made them on notebook paper to look just like them.

One character from that time stands out as I look back now, Glendon the Elf. He was 7th 8th level with all sorts of insane equipment. I submit for your approval, the character sheet of Glendon, the Elf.

You'll note that Glendon slew the dreaded Biogre. This foul, two-headed fiend was a cross between an ettin and an ogre. It was 11 Hit die, but otherwise was the same as an ettin. I sure wished I remembered why on earth he slew a giant black cat.

Update:

After an exhuastive search, I located my Ars Magica Companion and Grog as well as our original 1e Oriental Adventures party. They were in the box of the Companion Set. (Go figure).

My favorite though, remains Glendon. Who knows what we might have done at 9th level...