Dungeons and Dragons Knowledge Compendium

ScurvySeaDog writes "Like me, I would bet many slashdotters where D&D players before they got their first home computer in the early 80's. This site seems to have every book, module, supplement ever published along with scans of the covers. They also have current collector values for you packrats. It was nostalgic for me to browse around looking up all the old modules and books."

Comments

Re:dictionary

[Anonymous Coward]

Were you say!!

Counter

[Alorelith]

Ooohhh, a counter. *Reloads website*

Re:Counter

[A Rabid Tibetan Yak]

You hit the counter with your +1 "HTTP GET". The counter is still standing, and glaring in your direction. The gazebo next to it isn't looking happy, either.

Re:Counter

[The Cat]

Yes, yes, but have the shrubberies moved? ;)

Re:Counter

[Jugalator]

You hit the counter with your +1 "HTTP GET". The counter is still standing, and glaring in your direction. The gazebo next to it isn't looking happy, either.

Moments later, the Slashdot Effect approaches acaeum.com and strikes with his +5 vorpal Siteslayer while muttering "damn those webservers thinking they are something". Then he goes back to his eternal rest, only awakened by new sounds from Members of Slashdot approaching a site.

Re:Counter

[Jugalator]

Well, thank god I'm not foolish enough to use a primary e-mail address that matters then. :-)

Re:Counter

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn, you can't explain how much fun roleplaying is to all these kids playing Counter-Strike...

Re:Counter

[Anonymous Coward]

I hereby congratulate you on being the first intelligent person on Slashdot. (well, I can't really call you a victim, can I?)

Do you have any idea how many people have responded, even to automatically posted replies with threatening messages, some even naively posting legal threats? *smirk*.

Re:Counter

[danger42]

YESTERDAY
Visitors since Nov 21, 1999: 18

TODAY
Visitors since Nov 21, 1999: 129537

D&D Adventures in NWN?

[DamnYouIAmALion]

Is anyone working on putting the adventures from the original D&D sets into Neverwinter Nights? It would be great to go and play them again. I might even try and track down the crazy DM I used to play with!

Re:D&D Adventures in NWN?

[Jugalator]

Yes.

I'm afraid I don't know any specific URL's but there's a lot in the works.

Some maniacs are linking together a whole lot of servers to form the major parts of Faerûn. See Alandfaraway.net for more info. Sadly they're not taking player applications right now, so I haven't been able to try it out. Here's the mind-boggling server maps (click on a part of the map to see the server numbers).

Some other guys are implementing the city of Sigil with some planes as well.

And here's a module list on one of the largest fan sites. Most aren't D&D campaigns from "the books" but some might be.

Keep in mind that it's pretty time consuming to do large campaigns, but there *are* groups working on D&D adventures from the books while I type this.

Re:D&D Adventures in NWN?

[Anonymous Coward]

NWN Vault at IGN

Tomb of Horrors is there as well as a nearly complete Against the Giants series.

Re:D&D Adventures in NWN?

[WWWWolf]

Maybe... actually, I dragged my entire (classic) D&D stuff collection across the country to see if that could be translated to NWN.

Even found a couple of game magazines and 2nd ed AD&D modules sent by people. The only problem was that NWN doesn't have "erotic painting" and "beautiful young woman chained to the altar" tiles, and this makes converting the reader-made modules a bit tricky, because those things appear in just about every one of these for some obscure reason... =)

Re:D&D Adventures in NWN?

[godscent]

The official site has a list of modules that you can download here.

Re:D&D Adventures in NWN?

[colmore]

"Erotic Painting" Hmmmm... now that's a texture you could never find on the internet.

Re:D&D Adventures in NWN?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm working on the Miyama province from the OA module Sword of the Dayimo right now.

Pretty much just using it as a campaign setting however, using only a few of the cooler encounters from the official module and creating most of the plot encounters/areas from scratch....

Anyone else really hoping Bioware develops some rules and animations for martial arts styles and oriental tilesets?

Also working on a conversion of the Lankhmar: City of Thieves (can't remember if that's City of Thieves or City of Adventure, oh well....)

Re:D&D Adventures in NWN?

[WWWWolf]

A bit hard to use them in NWN, though - even signs don't have visible texts, just show whatever they have when examined or such. I couldn't find a frame-like object to put custom textures to... much less one to place to the *ceiling* of the room (since the ceiling can't be seen in the game anyway).

Or maybe I'll just take a sign and put there a dialogue bit/description that says "This sign has an erotic painting." Simple enough. =)

Re:D&D Adventures in NWN?

[Martin Blank]

Try adding a trigger to each entrance to show the description, similar to the description seen when entering the house in Port Llast (I don't remember the owner's name) that is owned by the guy that sells you the anti-werewolf stuff.

Gah... This is so lame.... I should know the name and I can't remember it... I think you should know what I'm talking about, if you've been there.

Re:D&D Adventures in NWN?

[Fuyu]

Dragonlance Adventures is working to recreate the original 15 DLA modules in a single player and multiplayer module.

The Neverwinter Nights DragonLance Project has a number of Dragonlance based modules.

D & D

[Gizzmonic]

Does anyone remember those Capcom 2D arcade games that were Dungeons & Dragons themed? Shadow Over Mystara I think one was called....you could play 4 players with dwarves, fighters, thieves...I always liked being the cleric.

D & D as an action game was an interesting take...wonder if anyone will ever try that again?

Re:D & D

[3.5 stripes]

Yeah, you can still find them for mame, they were well done, although I would have liked a bit more depth...

Re:D & D

[Anonymous Coward]

They were called D&D: Shadows over Mystara and D&D: Towers of Doom.

Re:D & D

[Anonymous Coward]

I also remember King of Dragons.

xmame rulez.

Re:D & D

[Rydia]

Yeah, those were great. Even better were the "Gold Box" SSI Dragonlance games. Then again, SSI was the major RTS publisher and those games were, of course, RTSs... and it always seemed to me that they worked best that way, better than the Gauntlet-ish arcade and the might and magic-esque Myth Drannor series.

Re:D & D

[PhoenxHwk]

Two of my friends love Shadows Over Mystara so much that when the local arcade was selling it, they bought it! It's scary how much they know about that game.

Re:D & D

[Xaoswolf]

Clerics were the best, I would sit there and cast sticks to snakes, then watch all the goblins and kobolds run around with snakes hanging on them.

I just wish they would put the system back in somewhere around here again, I miss playing it.

Re:D & D

[Xaoswolf]

Ever play Dungeons and Dragons for the Intellivision. It was a simple 4-bit dungeon crawl, but it was still pretty cool.

Re:D & D

[ronfar]

Actually, there is a game that is sort of similar for the GP 32 called Dungeon & Guarder:

Dungeon & Guarder

I keep getting killed though... it isn't easy!

Re:D & D

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

For $9.99 you can buy an AD&D game pack at Wal*Mart or K-Mart that includes most of the SSI gold box games, plus parts I-III of the Eye of the Beholder series, Hillsfar and Blood & Magic.

I just picked it up and I'm in the process of playing the original (and still the best!) Pool of Radiance.

It's amazing how great a game you can fit in 1.5 MB of space...

Re:D & D

[ProfKyne]

For mindless D & D -themed hack 'n' slash, nothing beat these arcade games:

• Golden Axe (also released for Genesis)
• Gauntlet (so popular it even came out for Mac II)
• Magician Lord (actually a Neo Geo game but appeared in arcades)

Few will probably remember Magician Lord, but it was really an amazing game. Picture Castlevania with amazing graphics (in 1992), but you can have multiple characters that follow you around and fight for you...

Re:D & D

[colmore]

I was at an indie rock show a few weeks ago, and the band on stage had brought along a pretty drunken friend to sing with them. There was one lyric where the lead singer and the drunken guy clearly said different things, and during an instrumental section of the song the following dialouge occured:

Lead Singer: Dude, the lyric was "I'll call you if you want it, what the hell were you singing?"

Drunken Guy: Oh! I thought it was "I'll beat your ass at Gauntlet"

Lead Singer: Well it is now!

amazing...

[The Tyro]

Not slashdotted yet!

I actually got to view the featured site without having to wait until either the next day, or a multiple of mirror appear...

Woot!

VAST?

[Perdo]

there was a D&D database called "Vast Database". Seems like everyone added their house rules to the database untill it was this monsterish download.

I can remember spending 2 days on a 14.4 modem on some BBS in Hawaii. I was in Alaska. My parents were VERY upset with the phone bill.

Has anyone seen it around? It had the # to another BBS to send updates/recieve updates. In mid 1992 it was 101 mb. That is about the last time I saw it. BBS died and the new "internet" thing was rolling.

Even now, no one has the bandwidth to host such a file given it's exponential growth rate. Given that it always seemed to take up half my hard drive, it ought to be up to about 80 gigabytes by now.

Re:VAST?

[TheSHAD0W]

Is this it?

Re:VAST?

[ymgve]

There is a SLIGHT difference between an 101MB file and an 1MB file. This is not it.

Re:VAST?

[TheSHAD0W]

Doh. Well, unless it's the "Tome of Vast Knowledge" available here, I give up.

Re:VAST?

[Anonymous Coward]

The DB in the article is FAR from complete. I find if you troll around on Kazaa(Lite of course) you'll find pretty much anything D&D related you want. Mmmm Spelljammer. Shame so few liked that...

Re:VAST?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can remember spending 2 days on a 14.4 modem [...] In mid 1992

Wow, lucky you 14.4 in 1992 huh? Did you make it yourself?

Re:VAST?

[Anonymous Coward]

do a google search on D&D and netbooks, the entire collection of books up to 2nd ed is online, and then user made books are HUGE

D&D on emulators..

[propstoalldeadhomiez]

You can play D&D using this Commodore 64 Emulator. Finding a copy of the disk to play it with is pretty easy with a search of google.

Connections

[Overcoat]

The link between computers and RPG's goes back as long as either existed. Geeks' love of Role Playing Games has affected computer culture for decades: from "Adventure" and "Zork" which were both originally programmed on mainframes, to the heavily D&D-influenced classic "Nethack", both computers and RPG's have developed together to the point where today we have... um... faster computers and more elaborate RPGS.
...
Damn, I was hoping for something more profound to come out of that line of reasoning...

Re:Connections

[Anonymous Coward]

Insightful my arse

Re:Connections

[myster0n]

Only the Goatse man could make such a comment !

Re:Connections

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I was going to say how much I doubted that D&D influenced "Adventure" (since Crowther began work on it around 1975), but lo and behold, I find that he himself credits Gygax's game as an influence.

D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[Xouba]

It's true that many people started with D&D, but I guess that, while it has a lot of nice features (being quick and clean the one I like most), also many people got soon tired of the stereotypical characters it allowed and the poor realism of its rules. That's why I've always liked RM (RoleMaster) more. Much better (and complex, and maybe slow, yes), IMHO.

And it's a pity there's no good shop to boy RM things, as it seems there's for D&D (on-topic protection, yes :-D). Sure D&D is the most "mainstream" of the RPG rules around, and that's the cause.

But only my 0.02EUR, of course :-)

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[Phocker_]

I think people let the rules of any certain RPG system worry them too much. Combat is only part of role-playing...and certainly everyone's least favorite part. We've all spent entire sessions in town doing nothing but screwing around hand having fun. D&D all depends on the DM. DMs that stick exactly to the rule book are boring....
On that note i hate being a paladin..nothing is more boring than being lawful good.

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[bakes]

On that note i hate being a paladin..nothing is more boring than being lawful good

Verily, thy comments strike deep into mine soul. If thee is unable to play the part of the paladin with a joyful heart, then thy effort is short of that deserving knightly honour. Surely thou canst piss off all thy friends with an ancient dialect, at the very least?

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[Hittite Creosote]

Hmm, I used to make up my own rules. Or even better, ignore them altogether. The best games were when I decided that what happened was basically what I felt like happening. Bar room brawls were the best, pulling out a crossbow got you a bottle in the face, while beating someone to the ground with a stuffed fish (still in the sturdy glass case) was more useful. Of course, this only works when the players trust the DM (or are at least having fun).

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

> screwing around hand having fun?

sounds like your DM really deviated from the rule book...

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[Bahamuto]

On that note i hate being a paladin..nothing is more boring than being lawful good.

Wow that's so not true. I have a Lawful Good Cleric I currently play, and he's so much fun to play. I go about trying to convert people and telling them that following Torm is the way to go. Its also fun discussing the different ways to do things with the other party members who aren't lawful good. I think it can be fun playing any alignment.

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[Fiver-rah]

...while it has a lot of nice features (being quick and clean the one I like most), also many people got soon tired of the stereotypical characters it allowed and the poor realism of its rules.

Quick? Clean? Who were you playing with? Your campaigns were quick and clean? You didn't have people you were playing with who acted perversely for the express purpose of annoying the DM? You didn't have a DM who figured out how to keep these freakish people in line by ever-increasing creativity?

The character guidelines were a list of suggested career paths, really. You took your statistics and you decided on a character that you would enjoy playing. You act based on what you think your character would do, not according to some stupid rule book. Anything else and you're just writing numbers on a paper and rolling dice, while accruing imaginary tokens. D&D should be role playing, not Sim City.

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[simong_oz]

I loved the simplicity of the original D&D system (basic, expert, etc version). AD&D was a good step up, but the entire alignment system bugged the hell out of me. Unfortunately I never found a satisfactory solution to it - it's tied to too many other things to completely remove it. I was brought back to AD&D by the Birthright campaign system though - that was a fantastic product; very, very mature by TSR standards.

Also played RM (the original edition, with all the companions), much more than DnD, and it's definitely one of the best systems out there. It is very complicated, but if you have a few people who know the frequently used rules well (and can help the newer players along), I think it's a pretty fast system. I love the detailed character development and tailoring of characters - far better than any other system I've ever played. And it really encouraged the non-combat aspects (skills) for characters because combat is so deadly, which really helped flesh out characters.

RM products seem to have all but disappeared, and there's very little resources on the web for it too. D&D (esp since WotC took over) seems to have become the Microsoft of the rpg world - a real pity IMO.

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

RM was a great system. Very flexible.

Iron Crown Enterprises (the maker of RM) is still around.

Check out:
http://www.ironcrown.com/

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[xTown]

On that note i hate being a paladin..nothing is more boring than being lawful good.

I think it's in the second edition PHB, but somewhere the authors remind you that alignment is not a straitjacket. "Being lawful good" can be interpreted many different ways. You don't have to be a robot; the last paladin I played was anything but--she was a hard-drinking, tough-ass fighter who was on a "mission from God". If you have a good DM, you'll be presented with choices between what is good and what is right, and you'll have a difficult time deciding between the two. Alignment informs you about your character's outlook, but tells you nothing about how your character behaves.

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate people who misuse thou, thee and thy! That includes you, Lord British!

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[intermodal]

RoleMaster's great...if you love buying paper and pencils, and if you're a huge fan of math and complex linked spreadsheets. I remember my brother running a LotR RPG game once ... they spent the first three sessions just rolling up their characters. IIRC, I think you have to even take a special skill to know how to run at all...

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

>she was a hard-drinking ...

Ohhh, I hope you are a female in real life, xTown. There was nothing I hated worse than when ol' Todd showed up at our D&D games. He always made a big deal out of being a female elf. I never was quiiiite sure if he thought it was funny, or if he had some real gender issues. Either way, he was annoying as hell.

Hope he's out of therapy by now.

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[gmhowell]

While you were running your mouth, I picked your pocket, stole your sword, and sold it to feed some starving orphans.

That's what being Chaotic Good is all about.

Putz.

Re:D&D? No thanks, RM please :-)

[Tycho]

> On that note i hate being a paladin..nothing is more boring than being lawful good.

Oh you've never had fun with being a paladin. Once as a paladin, I tried to convince the other group members that we really should leave the lich in the swamp alone. I mean who aside from the lich wants any part of a swamp. The lich's minions only attacked the people who trespassed into his well defined, domain with stable borders. The lich wasn't trying to take over the world, he just wanted to be left alone. Why was it necessary for our group to go in and destroy him?

Re:dictionary

[Anonymous Coward]

But whe're part of the "All your base are belong to us" foneticly spelin generashon!

Insisting on Slashdot Editors' Quality

[erl]

I agree with the previous poster that we (Slashdot users) should be allowed to insist on the editors doing a good job.
If they don't (as in this case not correcting an obvious spelling error), I think the comments to the posting is a reasonable place to critisize also meta-issues, like the selection of articles to be posted, or spelling errors.
As far as I know, there is no other forum for discussing the work of the Slashdot editors.
Therefore, I think it is wrong for moderators to mod-down meta-comments as off-topic, as long as there is no other forum on Slashdot where it is on-topic!

(Puts on the Asbestos suit)

Re:Insisting on Slashdot Editors' Quality

[mshiltonj]

we (Slashdot users) should be allowed to insist on the editors doing a good job.

You could give them an ultimatum:

Improve editorial quality, or:

We will bitch about it, but still come to the site every day.

That oughta get 'em hopping.

Re:Insisting on Slashdot Editors' Quality

[Xaoswolf]

You could post in your journal, then link in your sig. I have found that if you put a link in your sig, several people will click it. Whether it be for the goatse guy, or even something that actually pertains to the story.

Re:Insisting on Slashdot Editors' Quality

[Anonymous Coward]

we (Slashdot users) should be allowed to insist on the editors doing a good job.

because of all the money you pay them?

Re:Insisting on Slashdot Editors' Quality

[ConceptJunkie]

Slashdot has editors?

Sometimes I wonder...

[CreatorOfSmallTruths]

You just have to wonder how is it that a game called "rules for medieval miniatures" had such success...

Re:Sometimes I wonder...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ooooohhhhh!!

A "Chainmail" reference!!! I gots one of those little books - quite the interesting read..... just not interesting enough to play (yet)!

Re:dictionary

[Anonymous Coward]

the editors fuck cans? do you have any pictures?

motivation

[great throwdini]

Maybe now I can find the motivation to unload the 600+ issues of Dragon Magazine clogging up my apartment ... oh, well, someday.

Casual perusal of the Web site didn't turn up reference to the (failed) attempt to collect the "Wormy" cartoons into a single volume. I believe the artist was making a stab at self-publishing, selling "shares" to interested individuals. I must have been thirteen or so at the time, but I sent off for my "share" only to have it refunded months later due to insufficient share sales. I believe I still have the nifty printed scrap of paper somewhere.

Also of note are the "Phil and Dixie" volumes published by Phil Foglio long after its run in Dragon Magazine. Again unlisted, but I guess the site focuses on direct TSR publications only? Perhaps that's why the CD-ROM collection of a substantial number of Dragons is also missing (it gets brief mention in the "What's New" section. Maybe I'm simply too tired to comb through the site for the info.

Re:motivation

[Mathness]

"What's New?" and other Phil & Kaja Foglio material can be found here and here (Adult!)

"What's New?" contains material from Dragon Magazine, Duelist and other sources. Probably why it is not avaible at TSR, besides Phil often do his own publishing.

Re:motivation

[fdiskne1]

I picked up the What's New 2 volume collection. They were printed by Pilliard Press in 1991 and 1994.

Pilliard Press c/o Dreamhaven Books
1309 4th St. S.E.
Minneapolis MN 55414-2029.

The first volume was called "The Collected Adventures of Phil and Dixie" and the second just "Phil Foglio's What's New? 2". Funny thing is, I saw the first one on a table at a SF convention in Minneapolis several years ago (probably the time the first one came out). I instantly picked one up and handed the guy behind the table the money. I then looked at him and realized it was Phil himself! Of course he autographed it. Looking at the book right now, it's a 1st Edition! Still not as good as a friend's original of the first full-color What's New? I'm jealous of that one.

Re:motivation

[crumbz]

Search Google for Wormy or Dave Trampier and you can glean some additional info on Wormy. Always was my favortite from the old Dragons.

Never really got into AD&D...

[blackcoot]

... too many (*$#^@^# different dice! That's why Steve Jackson gave us GURPS ;-) Incidentally, these were the folks that got raided a while back for their BlackOps supplement...

Re:Never really got into AD&D...

[RWarrior(fobw)]

The raid on Steve Jackson Games was for the GURPS Cyberpunk supplement, written by Lloyd Blankenship (and a first-printing autographed copy sits proudly in my collection). It is now out of print.

Re:Never really got into AD&D...

[Jugalator]

The 3rd edition D&D probably partially solves this problem, since the game "mechanics" there are based on the d20 system and a lot of rules use... well, the d20. :)

Re:Never really got into AD&D...

[blackcoot]

Whoops --- wrong book, right guy ;-) As for D&D 3rd ed. meh. The rules still feel clumsy, and damnit, I want to be able to call shots to the groin! (-3 to hit, [humanoid male] characters need to start worrying about being stunned if memory serves me -- very effective for those of us that like to fight dirty and move on to the raping and pillaging ;-))

Re:Never really got into AD&D...

[B1ackDragon]

Oh man! Having like a gallon of different of differnt dice is the best part. You can buy them by the cup full at gaming conventions and stuff. D4's, D6's, D8's, D10's, D12's, D20,s D30's.... Not that you use more than like 3 of them.

Re:Never really got into AD&D...

[Allen Varney]

The raid on Steve Jackson Games was for the GURPS Cyberpunk supplement, written by Lloyd Blankenship

GURPS Cyberpunk wasn't a reason, it was an excuse. The Secret Service and the Chicago Computer Crime Bureau raided SJG as part of the "Operation Sunfire" raid on the hacker group the Legion of Doom. Blankenship (aka Mentor) was a former member of the Legion at that time. They raided his home and his place of work, SJG. When it became clear to the feds that they'd found nothing in the SJG raid, they offered as a face-saving pretext the preposterous idea that GURPS Cyberpunk was "a manual for computer crime."

I second the recommendation of the fine Bruce Sterling book THE HACKER CRACKDOWN, linked in another post on this thread.

Re:Never really got into AD&D...

[breon.halling]

Amazon's got a few used copies here.

Re:Never really got into AD&D...

[blackcoot]

Aah, see, I still do use the bucketfuls of dice --- the make great missiles for use in disciplining unruly players :-P

Re:Never really got into AD&D...

[Lord Custos]

In other words, AD&D 3e is more "GURPS-like..."

Monster Manuals

[Anonymous Coward]

The Monster Manuals were always my favorite D&D books. Where else could you find the intelligence level or hit points of a vampire or Dracula himself. Monster Manual 2 even had the stats for omnipotent beings who existed on multiple dimmensions simulataneously. The Old Ones, the Greek/Roman Gods and other legendary monsters were all systematicaly categorized with pictures as well. The monsters descriptions, "special attacks", and stats all followed traditional monster lore to a T and geeks appreciated this.

Re:Monster Manuals

[AndroidCat]

Bah! Gods and omnipotent beings should never be in Monster Manuals. That takes all the mystery and terror out of an encounter.

Remember: If it has hit points, it can be killed.

Re:Monster Manuals

[Anonymous Coward]

The books with all the gods and stuff was called "Deities and Demigods".

Trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

troll n. First recorded at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad in I 471, but must predate this by some time. Still extant at the time of the War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age

Divisions: Cave-trolls, Hill-trolls, Mountain-trolls, Olog-hai, Snow-trolls, Stone-trolls

Meaning: 'Troll' is a word from Scandinavian myth, used as an English translation of the Sindarin torog, of uncertain derivation

Lumbering evil creatures originated by Melkor, and said to have been made by him 'in mockery of the Ents'.

Re:Trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

troll n. First recorded on Usenet c. 1990, but must predate this by some time. Still extant at the time of the World Wide Web at the end of the 20th Century

Intelligent witty creatures originated in mockery of Slashdot and the ignorant, fools who think that they have something useful to share with the world.

Re:Trolls

[hazyshadeofwinter]

The bite covered troll rises from the dead! --more--
It hits with a goatse link--more--
You hear the howling of the Frrstpost--more--
It hits! You die! Do you want your possessions identified?

Re:Spelling....

[Anonymous Coward]

you are just like so clever d00d

whats beef?

[Anonymous Coward]

beef is when you need two gats to go to sleep

there were also...

[Bum]

MUDs: dikus, mushes, moos, etc. I started out with Merc, a modified Diku based MUD by Kah, Hatchet, and Furey and was completely hooked. If I'm not mistaken, Diku was based on some other type of MUD and so on, and was originally based on D&D in some form or another. DikuMUD was a very popular MUD which spawned Merc, Circle, Copper, Viel, Silly, Pirate, Sequent, TheIsles, Envy, Rom, and others. Of course it isn't the same as D&D, but it's very fun if you're into text based adventures. telnet://mad.rom.org:1536

Re:there were also...

[Jugalator]

it's very fun if you're into text based adventures

Hmm... Too bad I'm so hooked on a hardware accelerated 24-bit 3D adventure with 3D environmental effects right now... :-P

Re:there were also...

[Anonymous Coward]

The only REAL mud is AberMUD, written in part by Alan Cox himself!

Re:there were also...

[eyepeepackets]

Hiya MaDROMer! Glad to see there's more than just me from MaDROM who visits this geeky place.

Should I go into a vast diatribe describing the many wonderous advantages of text-based over graphics based RPGs? No, fact is both have their advantages.

Cheers from MP,

Re:there were also...

[jeddak]

<HOLIER>
<THAN>
<THOU>

While I am fascinated by the current standard of 3D realism, I still find that the complete absence of graphics yields a more submersive experience, as one's imagination becomes more engaged.

Same reason I lean more towards books than movies.

The old "hot" media vs "cool" media debate - see McLuhan et al.

</THOU>
</THAN>
</HOLIER>

Re:What you missed was learning how to fuck.

[Anonymous Coward]

hardcore? never. black and ugly as ever.

Watermarked cover scans?

[galaga79]

Taken from the Credits & Legal section of the site

Our scans are watermarked, and have been since the site's inception (albeit for a completely different reason); modifications to the image will not remove this watermark, and distribution or public posting of a watermarked image, without permission from The Acaeum, is prohibited.

Is this actually possbile? I noticed the images are stored in JPG format so wouldn't the watermark perhaps be lost in the compression scheme?

BTW Can you even copyright the scan of artwork/cover of which you don't even own the copyright?

Re:Watermarked cover scans?

[Hast]

Regarding watermarks, there are algorithms which can survive most types of tampering. You could print the image, fax it, and then rescan it and the watermark would still be intact. AFAIK it's not trivial to remove the watermark "by hand" neither.

I'll agree with you that the "copyright" thing is odd. If it was back in the old days this site would have been "TSR'ed" before it'd been slashdotted. ;-)

Re:Watermarked cover scans?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re Watermarking: Yes, it works. Read up on it.
Re Copyright - who says they dont have a license?

Re:Watermarked cover scans?

[bellings]

So, they've taken a scan of someone else's copyright images, but they'll be torqued if you used the scan without permission?

Fair use probably gives them the right to scan and display TSR's copyrighted artwork in this way. It also gives me the limited right to some use of their scans. In fact, I'm using one as a desktop wallpaper right now, just because I legally can!

It's incredibly funny to me that they, of all people, would post the standard "use without permission is prohibited" crap. They have to realize that the claim is totally without merit, because otherwise they wouldn't be copying and distrubting TSR's artwork -- artwork which almost certainly has the same meaningless phrase printed on it somewhere.

If they didn't know the words were meaningless, they wouldn't have the site in the first place. Since they know they're meaningless, why do they have them on the site?

Re:Watermarked cover scans?

[Jugalator]

I'll take one of those pictures and apply my Ultimate Anti-Watermark Procedure to them and *then* see who's laughing:

1. Apply Emboss.
2. Apply Blur.
3. Apply Sharpen.
4. Apply Solarize.
5. Apply Mosaic.

Readable? Hell no, but I got the bastards!

JAIL NELSON MANDELA

[Anonymous Coward]

That's right.

even better........

[Anonymous Coward]

kill nelson mandela

I can retire!

[nagora]

Hoo-ray! My piles of GW character sheets and original Chainmail, D&D + suppliments and obscure modules have finally paid off. Pity I don't want to sell them.

I can't believe anyone would really pay that sort of money for my old floorplans and city geomorphs.

On the other hand, I'd pay a lot for the original Petal Throne maps.

TWW

Re:I can retire!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd pay a lot to see you hung, drawn and quartered

Re:I can retire!

[nagora]

I'd pay a lot to see you hung, drawn and quartered

Arguments are next door; this is abuse.

TWW

Re:I can retire!

[Anonymous Coward]

homosaywhat?

Re:I can retire!

[Anonymous Coward]

bite the ass of the world you poor excuse for an AC!

Re:I can retire!

[CharlieG]

Me too - I just looked at the price for my 1st edition Chainmail and First edition Monster Manual! OH BOY - two #5s

I actually met my wife playing D&D (NOT AD&D)

Re:I can retire!

[nagora]

I actually met my wife playing D&D (NOT AD&D)

Perhaps AD&D is where one finds mistresses?

TWW

Re:I can retire!

[CharlieG]

mistresses? Who needs em - I have everthing I want with my wife (a HAPPY married man)

Re:Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

I worry about anyone under the age of 14 who uses
this website. Taco will be sending them emails, and
arranging to meet them in chat rooms.

The resurgence in D&D...

[TheSHAD0W]

Is thanks to the new game, Neverwinter Nights.

FYI, User Friendly's latest cartoons are about a game of AD&D...

Re:The resurgence in D&D...

[night_flyer]

um, no. The resurgance is because they completly redid the ruleset in the 3rd edition about two years ago. it hasnt tapered off since then.

Re:The resurgence in D&D...

[Anonymous Coward]

He's right. There would be no NWN if not for the 3rd Edition rules. Where do you think the attacks of opportunity and feats came from? They weren't made up for NWN, they were added to the game back in the august of 2000 when the new game was released.

Re:The resurgence in D&D...

[Gamethyme]

There's more to it than just that.

The fact that they're allowing third-party support of "d20" products under the Open Gaming License and the d20 System Trademark License -- two free licenses companies can use -- means that there are more companies putting out D&D compatible products. Which, in turn, drives sales of the Core Rules (In this case, the Player's Handbook for D&D)

Re:jiste zatje

[Anonymous Coward]

Ja, graag Meneer Troll! Met melk en suiker
alstublieft.

NWN

[Citizen-Y]

Gold Box Series > NWN. 2nd rules > 3rd

Re:NWN

[Anonymous Coward]

yep. thats a really useful post. what not have 5, Insightful.

In case you are an american, sarcasm is the lowest form of humour, and it is being used to your detriment

The site

[bjtuna]

The books on that site are good if you're studying for your Ph.D&D.

Re:The site

[sckeener]

The books on that site are good if you're studying for your Ph.D&D

It's true. I would have k i l l e d to have a site like this when I was getting my PHD from Miskatonic University.

Go Pods!

LOL -nt-

[Jugalator]

No Text

The Hacker Crackdown

[wiredog]

Has several chapters on the raid. The full text of the book is available at Bruce Sterling's site.

I know that site

[Graspee_Leemoor]

I am familiar with the site in question. It is nowhere near as comprehensive as the story suggests. They seem to have all the 1st edition and earlier stuff but hardly any 2nd edition and no 3rd edition.

This is, I think because it's mainly a site for collectors, and 2nd edition stuff doesn't fetch as high a price as 1st edition stuff. (Although I have seen a lot of 2nd edition stuff fetch lots more than some 1st edition stuff).

Details of modules etc are confined to differences between printings, rarity, etc.

This is definately a site for collectors, not players, and people wanting a stroll down memory lane (complete with random encounters) should look elsewhere.

graspee

Re:I know that site

[Anonymous Coward]

This is because 2nd edition AD&D sucked ass. 1st edition was written by Gary Gygax and was not PC at all. You got to see hot nudie monster babes and plenty of gore, just like in my real fantasies.

2nd edition was taken over by some woman who hated geeks. It became a politically correct fantasy world with no rules, no T&A, and it wasn't that much fun. I enjoyed hours after hours of first edition and when 2nd edition came out, we all said, "What the hell is this?"

Slashdot Effect

[Anonymous Coward]

"It was nostalgic for me to browse around looking up all the old modules and books."

The operative word being "was."

It doesn't have every D&D book ever published.

[jw32767]

Looking at my shelf and I count no less than 15 different books that they don't have listed on their site. In addition 10 modules of which they have no mention. That site isn't as good as it looks.

Interesting

[Dexter77]

Once as a young boy I invested most of my money in (A)D&D materials.
It seems that I made a wise choice since someone is now willing to pay 150$ from the books I bought with 5$.

...I just wish it would be as easy to give up these as it is to sell my stocks.

Re:Interesting

[Darkstar9969]

I'll bet TSR didn't over-inflate their earnings to create false profits either so they might actually be worth MORE than your stocks!!! :) :) :)

My tongue-in-cheek 1d2,

On a related note...couldn't you CREATE false profits in AD&D? :)

RM =! realism

[Qbertino]

Listening to those RM guys ranting on D&D and calling their RPG 'realistic' allways has been a good laugh.
Fact is that D&D and RM are RPG's that follow very much the same 'classical' principle of Charakterclasses, Levels and Hitpoints (aka 'CLH' RPG). And tons of pointless table-filled books to decash the junkies ;-) .
Anyway, talking about realism in an RPG is silly even if the rules come as close to being plausile as it can be (GURPS and Milleniums End kinda go that direction).
To me the hilarious paragraph-and-rulebook tonnage of CLH RPG's allways was the major downside of playability and fun. Torg was one of the first real reliefs I expierienced - and the Dramadeck is so much of an encouragement to drop CLH Hack'n'Slay I couldn't believe it.
RPG's have come a long way since D&D (the DOS of RPG's), RM and it's heritage , it's kinda a shame people still stick to those game mechanisims that actually hinder roleplaying quite a bit (one would be suprised).
Bottom line:
If you wanna get an RPG, buy one of those which don't have Characterclasses, Expieriencelevels and Hitpoints. Everway, Torg, GURPS, and Milleniums End are a few that apply to that rule - and are worth looking at.

Oh, and please spare the endless "if you don't like the rules you can change them" and "rules aren't important, the people are" - I know those allready. Here's the response: You can by a good RPG in the first place, saves you a lot of time. And I usually pick my friends first, then pick the RPG. Might aswell be a good one.

Re:RM =! realism

[simong_oz]

I don't agree with your RM assessment, but this:

And I usually pick my friends first, then pick the RPG.

is fantastic advice. 'nuff said.

Client!

[Rydia]

Where's my client?!?!?! ... oops, wrong thread! :O

PC + D&D

[NorthDude]

Thou shall bow before the Loard of the ping!

Or is it... I'm all confused now!

Re:It doesn't have every D&D book ever publish

[dillon_rinker]

Read the FAQ on the site and check the publication date of your books. They don't appear to cover anything after 1990, when the 2nd edition came out.

+1 Parent

[MattW]

/me falls over. I wish my mod points hadn't just expired.

DM: "You enter a clearing, and near the center, you see a gazebo."
Incredibly Ignorant Paladin Player: "Has the gazebo seen me?"
DM: "Um, no."
IIPP: "I approach the gazebo."
DM: "Ok."
IIPP: "It still hasn't moved?"
DM: "No."
IIPP: "I attack the gazebo!"
DM: "Ok, you swing at the gazebo. Pieces of it are flying off."
IIPP: "Is it attacking me back?"

The good news is, roleplaying will improve IIPP's vocabulary.

RuleMaster?

[Trespass]

Charts! Tables! Modifiers! Oooh!

The full Gazebo Story

[Jugalator]

Eric comes quite close to being a computer. When he games, he
methodically considers each possibility before choosing his preferred
option. If given time, he will invariably pick the optimum solution.
It has been known to take weeks. He is otherwise in all respects a
superior gamer, and I've spent many happy hours competing with and
against him, as long as he is given enough time.

So... Eric was playing a neutral paladin (Why should only lawful, good
religions get to have holy warriors? was the rationale) in Ed's game.
He even had a holy sword, which fought well and did all those things
holy swords are supposed to do, including good or evil (by random die
roll). He was on some lord's lands when the following exchange
occurred:

ED: You see a well-groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you
see a gazebo.
ERIC: A gazebo? What color is it?
ED: (Pause) It's white, Eric.
ERIC: How far away is it?
ED: About 50 yards.
ERIC: How big is it?
ED: (Pause) It's about 30 feet across, 15 feet high, with a pointed
top.
ERIC: I use my sword to detect whether it's good.
ED: It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo!
ERIC: (Pause) I call out to it.
ED: It won't answer. It's a gazebo!
ERIC: (Pause) I sheathe my sword and draw my bow and arrows. Does it
respond in any way?
ED: No, Eric. It's a gazebo!
ERIC: I shoot it with my bow (rolls to hit). What happened?
ED: There is now a gazebo with an arrow sticking out of it.
ERIC: (Pause) Wasn't it wounded?
ED: Of course not, Eric! It's a gazebo!
ERIC: (Whimper) But that was a plus-three arrow!
ED: It's a gazebo, Eric, a gazebo! If you really want to try to
destroy it, you could try to chop it wih an axe, I suppose, or you
could try to burn it, but I don't know why anybody would even try.
It's a @#%$*& gazebo!
ERIC: (Long pause - he has no axe or fire spells) I run away.
ED: (Thoroughly frustrated) It's too late. You've awakened the gazebo,
and it catches you and eats you.
ERIC: (Reaching for his dice) Maybe I'll roll up a fire-using mage so
I can avenge my paladin...

At this point, the increasingly amused fellow party members restored a
modicum of order by explaining what a gazebo is. This is solely an
afterthought, of course, but Eric is doubly lucky that the gazebo was
not situated on a grassy knoll.

Re:The full Gazebo Story

[MattW]

Haha, excellent! I knew I was botching it a bit, but it is quite hilarious. So, I hear this all went down at a convention, and that the story was circulating like ~15 years ago, so when did it actually happen, and at what con? And since you're referring to Ed, is that greenwood? I really have to have this all down for posterity ;)

Re:The full Gazebo Story

[Jugalator]

I don't know which Ed it is...
Wait, I'll check for the post in Google Groups.

There... It's over here.

That's were I got it actually. Perhaps you can find out more with some research.

Good luck - or whatever. ;-)

Re:The full Gazebo Story

[JabberWokky]

That particular telling of the story was from Knights of the Dinner Table, a comic that appeared in Dragon and a few other gaming magazines and is now it's own little empire under Kenzer and Co. They even bought D&D 1st Edition, and released rulebooks for "Hackmaster Fourth Edition", the heretofore imaginary game that is played by the Knights, and published by the imaginary (and amusingly named) Gary Jackson.

Another really good spoof of D&D is "Freebase", a tiny newsprint manual folded *inside* Dirt Merchant Games' (the "evil games" division of Black Dog, which is the "adult games" division of White Wolf) Buttery Wholesomeness, a suppliment to the very gamer injoke laden HOL: Human Occupied Landfill. Alignment is "Liberal, Noncommital, Conservative" against "Estabishment, Noncomittal, Granola". Potion of Sleep is pictures as a Nyquil bottle, and Potion of Speed is Dexatrym. Baggies of Spell Storage contain a dried leaf. The monster manual includes Cabbies, Delirium Tremens ("may appear as anything from tiny plaid spiders to miniature clones of Carol Channing scaling their prey's back with shrimp forks"), Hos and their leaders Hokings, and Register Jockeys. All of which is laid out, including deliciously beautiful parody artwork, just like D&D 1st edition.

--
Evan

Re:The full Gazebo Story

[Jugalator]

After some research on my own (too curious.. hehe) I found out that the persons in question are:

Ed Whitchurch (DM) and
Eric Sorenson (Dudlee Duerite)

Re:The full Gazebo Story

[Transient0]

anyone know if knight of the dinner table is available on-line?
or in a cheap print-publication?

Re:The full Gazebo Story

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like the same approach D&D geeks take to women too.

Re:The full Gazebo Story

[JabberWokky]

Knights of the Dinner Table is a comic book - the original cheap print publication. It's been published regularly for several years, and is up around issue #70 or so. Back issues have been compiled and are available as "Bundles of Trouble" with some extra stuff (strips from magazines, etc). Walk into your local comic book dealer, and he'll have it. Most gaming stores also carry it... look around the magazine stand. If those two don't work (and on;y if they don't - support your local dealer!), you can get it right from the source at http://www.kenzerco.com/. There are also several spin off comic books like Hackmasters/EverKnights, whick follows the "in game" plotline, jumping occasionally to the table with KotDT strips. The artwork in those is *SIGNIFICANTLY* better than Knights of the Dinner Table - KotDT is a strip comic drawn by a guy who can write jokes and pretends to draw, but the spinoffs are real comics with quite excellent artwork.

--
Evan

Re:The full Gazebo Story

[yandros]

The `Gazebo' story is older than KotDT, which is a fine publication (gamer cartoon plus news, reviews, original material for Kenzerco products, etc). The strip (not the magazine) started in Shadis, an old game magazine that ended well before Kenzer bought the current Knights group.

Also, Kenzer didn't `buy' D&D 1st edition; they have a license from Hasbro/WotC for some of their products, including the basis for Hackmaster, which bears a distinct similarity (but is also noticably different).

Re:The full Gazebo Story

[Prion86]

How many gazebos do you she-males need?

Re:The full Gazebo Story

[JabberWokky]

As I said at the very start of the thread (go back and look), this particular "telling" of the story is the one from KotDT. I've heard it in many many variants, usually involving throwing dice, and generally naming other similar stuctures or "unattackable things" like padogas (sp?), zephyrs or knolls. It's a hoary old tale that gamers like to relate, and has become well worn with many flourishes and variants.

Also, Kenzer didn't `buy' D&D 1st edition; they have a license from Hasbro/WotC for some of their products, including the basis for Hackmaster, which bears a distinct similarity (but is also noticably different).

For the purposes of the single sentence sidenote, I judged that "bought" ~= "licenced". Not only is the layout of the book itself almost identical, but the game mechanics are very similar. No, it's not identical (I seem to have left out the implied "and used it as the basis of"), but it is a very fun rework of that classic game with a very expansive original spell and monster library, plus a zillion little extra rules that make lawyering so fun with it.

The Ghods know, I've spent enough nights playing through 1st edition adventures to recognize the similarities, heh. I still have my battered to hell and heavily marked up first hardcover, plus I've owned every boxed set and a good chunk of the modules, plus the large three ring binders containing the worlds I've built meticulously on photocopied (and even mimeographed) hex and graph paper.

I'd imagine that many Slashdot readers are smiling and nodding and know exactly in which closet, cabinet or bookshelf their similar collection resides.

--
Evan

Dice (was Re:Never really got into AD&D...)

[jeddak]

I was always interested in the game mechanics (programmer-mind is hard to suppress).

For years I've been meaning to take some time and analyze the differences between the d20 system, where all results are of equal probability (need tables to weight the odds) and the 3D6 system found in Steve Jackson's The Fantasy Trip and GURPS games, where the results form a natural bell curve.

Not having played D&D since *long* before WotC took over, I have no experience with the current d20 system. My impression is still that GURPS is more elegant and potentially realistic (especially when enhanced with tbone's Gulliver extensions - http://www.io.com/~tbone/gurps/).

OK, I admit game systems were my hobby-horse of choice before I discovered operating systems.

"Gimme a G!

"Gimme an E!

"Gimme another E!

"Gimme a K!

:)

Dr. Dimento's D&D

[mshiltonj]

Go on gnutella or your preferred p2p and search for "demento dungeon dragon".

There's an mp3 (the original) and an mpg (someone created a computer animation to go along with the soundtrack).

If you played dnd in high or junior high (now called middle) school, you will love this. You won't be disappointed.

Re:Dr. Dimento's D&D

[Anonymous Coward]

BTW, copying this is probably not too unethical since its creators (The Dead Alewives) freely offer it for downloading on their website. Of course they retain copyright, etc, etc.

Re:Dr. Dimento's D&D

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you are refering to a bit by the Dead Ale Wives(www.deadalewives.com) and the animation was a promotional material for the game Summoner. http://www.summoner.com/downloads.cfm has is the Offical site, with a link to the animation in HiRes bink, LoRes bink, and an avi, however the links are dead. http://www.ifilm.com/ifilm/product/film_info/0,369 9,220487,00.html seems to be YADL(Yet Another Dead Link). Maybe if you harras the webmaster for THQ you can get original files (40ish MB for hires, is an executable), but TechTV has a horribly reduced copy encoded with.. Windows Media..http://www.techtv.com/extendedplay/videofea tures/story/0,24330,3013475,00.html
Maybe your googles will be more kind than mine were trying to find it again.

--I don't believe in formating
--I forgot my damn password

Re:Dr. Dimento's D&D

[DLWormwood]

A more direct search for those into counterfeiting music, use the term "Dead Ale Wives." Or just visit www.deadalewives.com...

Re:Dr. Dimento's D&D

[TibbonZero]

"Where's the Mountain Dew?"
"If there are girls there I wanna do them"
"I wanna cast a spell"
"I wanna cast Magic Missile"
"I attack the darkness"

Great clip, what's better is the 2nd one in the series...

Re:Dr. Dimento's D&D

[joekool]

The animation is an easteregg on the ps2 game summoner. just for those who cared

The Art

[ckotchey]

Wow. This is such a wonderful trip down memory lane. One thing that jumped out at me right away, looking at the covers for the modules, was how amazing some of the artwork on the covers is! Just think how many there were, and how much effort went into these wonderful covers. It'd be really interesting to see a compendium book simply featuring the artwork of D&D, including all the small pictures featured throughout all the manuals, etc.

Solo adventures ruled

[ColonBlow]

Did anyone actually follow the rules for fighting monsters in these modules? From the second encounter on, I would just think "Okay, I killed the shit out of this [centaur, wooly mammoth, etc], what's my prize? Sad, I know, but I was playing D&D by myself. How much sadder does it get? :)

Mirrors please!

[cecil36]

I got the main page and a couple of the price lists before the /. effect kicked in.

And people said playing D&D would warp our min

[nexusone]

Back when I would play D&D with my friends all night... people would say that we where playing with evil and we would be warped for life, becomming axe murders and the likes...

BTW anyone seen my battle axe!!!!

Greatest D&D Vid *ever*

[Damaged Brain]

Check it out. Its from the game summoner and its funny cause its true.
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilm/product/film_inf o/0,369 9,220487,00.html

Re:D&D? No thanks

[DarkMan]

D&D was, for it's time, an incredible piece of work. It managed to put across so much that's now taken for granted. For example, the fact that you play just one character was near revolutionary for the time - D&D was the first to get that across sucessfully. Were it not for D&D, RPG's would exist . (Okay something else would have taken it's place, but that's a given).

Since then, however, there's been a large number of different RGP's produced, some more or less like D&D (such as RM), some a bit different (Call of Cuthullu, Vampire:the Masqurade, etc), and some rather different (Sorcerer and
De Profoundis.

Some of them really push the envelope of what RPG's are. Some are just kick ass fun. With all the nostalgia, remeber to try some of the newer stuff.

On RM Leisure Games based in london, will mail order, and have a stock of
Rolemaster gear. They will deliver outside the UK (including Spain), but that costs extra. Hey, if it's the only place to get it...

My Character Sheet

[mulhall]

Okay,

So who else still wants to draw a little shield for Armor Class on their CV? :D

STR, CON, DEX etc. would spice things up a little too.

Mecca

[Reverend Beaker]

My question is; how many slashdotters pray towards this website every day? I know I do, every day before lunch in my +3 Vestiments of Faith.

It probably wouldn't work

[tmark]

When I first heard about Neverwinter Nights, I thought "Great, I can go and code all those modules I had when I was a kid"...then I started flashbacking to all my favorite modules' codes...D3, S2, Q1, etc.

But I realized it probably wouldn't work very well. The best modules always had a problem-solving aspect to it that just would never translate well to a the game frameworks that we have now. Neverwinter Nights is just not going to allow you the flexibility to really solve puzzles without cueing you so obviously as to what the solution might be.

The only game framework I could imagine that could really capture the essence of the best modules and campaigns is an Infocom-style framework - where the textual descriptions are so rich and your range of actions so potentially large that the solutions to the problems - and even the problems themselves - aren't painfully obvious. A puzzle isn't very satisfying when you only have to select one of 3 solutions from a menu, or when you just have to show up with an item and walk close to some target character, etc.

But sadly, this framework is almost completely incompatible - almost by definition - with Baldur's Gate-style graphics.

Re:It probably wouldn't work

[frankie]

A puzzle isn't very satisfying when you only have to select one of 3 solutions from a menu, or when you just have to show up with an item

That's why you still need a DM. NWN includes a DM client that can take control of gameplay, allow freeform dialogue, and cause things to happen manually. Yes, even a good NWN module will have scripted puzzles of the choose-your-own-adventure variety, but a really good module will let a human DM turn those off and force the players to think harder.

Re:It probably wouldn't work

[beme]

Have you dug into the scripting tools available? If so, never mind, but if not, I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss the possibilities. One of the bioware guys created a module you can use to play chess with another person. That's not exactly like building a complex puzzle, but it does speak to the capabilities of the toolset.

Re:It probably wouldn't work

[Futaba-chan]

The only game framework I could imagine that could really capture the essence of the best modules and campaigns is an Infocom-style framework - where the textual descriptions are so rich and your range of actions so potentially large that the solutions to the problems - and even the problems themselves - aren't painfully obvious.

Then what you want isn't Neverwinter Nights -- it's Inform, which lets you do precisely that. And it's free, and it's available for just about any OS you might possibly name (including Linux).

But sadly, this framework is almost completely incompatible - almost by definition - with Baldur's Gate-style graphics.

Not necessarily -- Version 6 of the Z-Machine, HTML TADS, and Glulx all allow graphics and sound. The problem, I think, is that designers of many graphical multimedia games worry too much about pretty pictures and sound, and not enough about good plot, good characters, good writing, et cetera. It's getting better, though.

See rec.arts.int-fiction for more about all this....

Re:It probably wouldn't work

[tbarrie]

Then what you want isn't Neverwinter Nights -- it's Inform [inform-fiction.org], which lets you do precisely that.

No, not Inform, TADS! TADS rules! Inform sucks!

(Work with me here and we can drum up a lot of interest for IF. The Slashdot crowd loves a good holy war between two pieces of software which are more-or-less equivalent.)

Re:It probably wouldn't work

[ronfar]

Bah, what about AGT, I was using that on my 8080XT... It's old enough to have had the bugs worked out...

Speaking of which, I hated the 8080Xt Vendex Headstart. It was vastly inferior to my Atari 800...

I could have made some $$ from my set...

[bogusflow]

I bought the original edition, 5th or 6th printing, for $3 at a yard sale when I was 12 or something (1986)...then a few years later traded it for a box of Estes model rocket motors! One nerd commodity for another.

I got more "mileage" from the motors however...

Wait until WoTC Employees read /.

[Krieger]

I'm betting that it won't take long till a cease and desist arrives at the door.

All of this is especially funny because Wizards (whom I hate because of all of the collectible card games) is in fact the best RPG company I've dealt with. They produce the best qualtiy (and proof-read) books that I've bought in forever. Anyways. Wizards has made a good effort at making all of the old D&D materials available at their site either for free or for a nominal fee and you can download them all as PDFs.

See Wizards page for Classic downloads So ultimately you don't have to go to a pirate site to download someone else's copyrighted materials, but can in fact "do the right thing" and download it for free from wizards or pay for it...

Re:Wait until WoTC Employees read /.

[Heironymus Coward]

of course, since this news article is wrong about D&D books being available for download, maybe WotC won't send a cease and desist order to this "pirate site".

they do have some out-of-print modules available for download. looking at the list, I notice this phrase repeated many times: "This is a link to the Wizards of the Coast web site's download section." the exceptions are some maps that were missing from specific modules and one module that seems to be a non-TSR release.

Re:Wait until WoTC Employees read /.

[Anonymous Coward]

Any downloadable looks to be linked directly from the wotc downloads page.....

FAQ for WoTC classic downloads

[Krieger]

Unfortunately I forgot this in my last post.

Wizards is committed to making all of the old books available for those of you that "must have them all". It's also probably cheaper then scrounging in old bookstores to get beat up copies of all of the books. Though Ebay might make it easier these days.

Re:FAQ for WoTC classic downloads

[Sabby]

Wizards no logner does this service, they outsourced it to Bastion Press. I'm thinking that Wizards will continue to sell them, but Bastion controls which ones will be scanned, in which order. I talked to Jim Butler there (God, I love excuses that let me email game designers) and unfortunately he says that he's tried to convince them to release a bunch on CD, but that they didn't go for it. So, mail the wizards people and politely ask them if they would be interested in making a CD chock full of these ESDs. It would be Oh So Cool! (I'd rather pay $100 for a ton of ESDs than pay $5 for one. I end up burning them on a CD myself anyhow.)

Don't miss the movie!

[Anonymous Coward]

It goes a little something like this:

http://www.lipsinc.com/qtmovies/summoner.html

This is me at age 13 playing D&D with my friends.

Re:D & D - Saturn versions

[Nick of NSTime]

These two games are available for the Japanese Sega Saturn. They come in a double-CD set. They're very faithful arcade ports and I still play them to this day, five years after the set came out.

You may be able to find them on Ebay, and Saturn systems are quite cheap these days.

Rob

I have something similar to this site....

[SamTheButcher]

...It's called "a box in my basement."

I hate people who do this

[Anonymous Coward]

Same with a LOT of fandoms. People think that just because they scanned it, they own it. My Little Pony and He-Man fans are the worst.

If you're going to play a RPG...

[Ruger]

...you have to follow the rules closely or you have no game. It would be like letting a guy run down the court with the ball tucked under his arm...that wouldn't be basketball anymore.

And as for the LG comments...
Anyone can be Chaotic, being Lawful (Good, Evil, whatever) is a much more challenging alignment to play. 20 years ago when I used to play AD&D it was so fun to DM a game and try to push a Lawful character outside their alignment...make them do something totally selfish. One Lawful Good character, IMO, was a must for almost any party...they tended to be the glue.

Anyone having trouble with NWVault?

[frankie]

here's a module list on one of the largest fan sites

Is anyone else getting weird defects when visiting NWVault in Mozilla? Yesterday any page I tried would load about 90%, then go to gray and start over. Today the pages load but I'm seeing black text on a black background.

Some settings info: no popups, no status bar scripting, no cookies from ign, no 3rd party images

Re:Anyone having trouble with NWVault?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. No problems here.

Re:Anyone having trouble with NWVault?

[Anonymous Coward]

WFM (Works For Me). Almost same settings as what you have. 3rd party images enabled, and with cookies. Probably that makes the difference. Change it and test it and then send a bug report to /dev/null^W^Wthe webmaster.

Re:It doesn't have every D&D book ever publish

[AndroidCat]

Of course not. It's a site for collectors, and the more recent stuff, while collectable, just isn't notable.

I'll have to pull out my near-mint The Dragons and Strategic Reviews and total them up...

Prices quoted on Acaeum

[Walker]

I collect 1st edition modules and use this site extensively to guide my bids on e-Bay (Which is an excellent place to get fair to very good modules, but not mint/near mint). Unfortunately, the prices are a bit old and are guided by the auctions at conventions (Which I cannot always get to). The prices on e-Bay these days are much higher, most likely because of the resurgence of D&D with 3rd edition. For example, it is rare to see a good copy of "Egg of the Pheonix" go for less than $100 on e-Bay these days.

Re:D&D? No thanks, diceless please :-)

[frankie]

I've always liked RM (RoleMaster) more.

Bah. RuleMaster is a pain. Real roleplayers do it with no dice and no rules, just imagination and character play. :p

xDND is like Windows and x86 -- it's annoying and kludgy, still based on old cruft that was a bad idea 25 years ago. But it's also the predominant standard.

Anyone want to complete this analogy for GURPS, Hero System, RuleMaster, RuneQuest, etc? ;)

--
FDND now available

I never told anyone

[StarbuckZero]

but I'm a real life gold dwarf. =)

Re:It doesn't have every D&D book ever publish

[Creepy]

For that matter, it doesn't cover anything except TSR modules (that's in the FAQ).

I have several Role Aids and Judges Guild modules, but most of my actual AD&D modules were stolen with my first edition books in junior high (someone stole a backpack they were in). Which one of you bastards was it?!? :P

Wow, Does that bring back Memories

[DigitalSorceress]

I first played D&D somewhere in late '79 or early '80. Looking at the Acaeum site and seeing the values placed on some of those modules... I still have quite a lot of them... I don't think I could bring myself to ever part with the stuff. It's been years since I've even looked at it, but somehow, it's a part of my life.

I love computers and computer gaming, but I am really quite glad that I was at just the right age to get involved when D&D was at its peak. (God I feel like an old fart for saying this...) Today's kids will never find the intellectual and creative stimulation from their consoles and gameboys and PCs that many of us did from books and dice and mountains of graph paper. (To this day, I still always keep a pad of the stuff nearby)

I've played through Neverwinter Nights, and enjoyed it thoroughly, but as other posts here have said, much of the joy of roleplaying AD&D is just not possible to emulate in a graphically oriented paradigm. Until someone can develop an AI computer that is 1 part actor, 1 part genius, and 2 parts off its rocker, computer based D&D games will never measure up.

Re:Wow, Does that bring back Memories

[Gonarat]

I hear you. The best part of D&D was the getting together, bringing some chips, pop, or beer (no getting drunk) and gaming away. Other than a few figures to mark our party's order, everything else was left to the imagination. Accurate mapping was a must -- an inaccurate map could lead to disaster. It seemed that the best maps and worlds (IMHO) were the ones that the DM created him/her self -- that way no one had the advantage of seeing or playing the Dungeon before.

Now to dig out my books (from 1981) and see which edition I have...

Re:Wow, Does that bring back Memories

[Anonymous Coward]

I started a few years after you guys, in '86, and would have to agree with you that PnP roleplaying was much more of a workout on the imagination than any CRPG system to date.

However, the thing I like about NWN is that it's the closest to recreating the PnP experience I've seen so far. It seems to be designed for the small group of 4-8 players and a DM to sit down, "virtually" and play a module/campaign, rather than most other multiplayer systems whose main thrust seems to be fantasy genre chatroom w/ animated avatars w/ occassional camping at the spawn point of your favorite mob..... Without a DM however, most of the excercise of the imagination takes place in the creation of new modules then in playing through them.

Apparently Not

[virg_mattes]

> . Surely thou canst piss off all thy friends with an ancient dialect, at the very least?

Verily, thou canst not do even such a thing. For by sooth, thou wouldst say, werest thou worthy of thine attitude, thus:

Verily, thine comments strike deep into my (or mine own) soul. If thou art unable to play the part of the paladin with a joyful heart, then thine effort is short of that deserving knightly honour. Surely canst thou piss off all thine friends with an ancient dialect, at the very least?

Virg

Re:Apparently Not

[Anonymous Coward]

Forsooth, thou hast verily schooled his ass!

While I'm Sure...

[virg_mattes]

...that there are those who would pay to see him hung, I think you mean "hanged, drawn and quartered" (at least, I hope you mean that).

Virg

Begginers AD&D Site?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone know of one? I did a little hunting and came up with nothing. I just want to know what i need to play and such.

Re: correlation money / quality

[erl]

What does paying someone money have to do with him/her doing a good job?
Especially in the context of the open source / free software movement.

Ravenloft

[lsoth]

This site looks like a compilation of other sites. If anyone is more deeply interested in the Ravenloft setting check out this site:

http://www.kargatane.com

Treasures in the attic

[chiph]

I'll have to dig my books out to be sure, but it looks like I have a couple of rarity 4's. None better than "Very Good", though.

Who would have thought that the game that got me flunked out of college could be worth something after all?

Chip H.

Re:Stats?

[Lord Custos]

Hey, um...does anyboyd know how much AC and Magic Resistance of a Gazebo? Or what its Thac0 is?

Animal Training

[virg_mattes]

Nay, I say, for I am unable to train such a recalcitrant beast! but still, well and verily hath I schooled his arse.

Virg

Re:D&D? No thanks, diceless please :-)

[Lord Custos]

SJGames "GURPS" is Linux, TSRs "Marvel Superheroes (Classic)" was Mac OS7 and Mayfairs "DC Legends" was Amiga.

Speaking of nostalga..

[Anonymous Coward]

All you old BBS users might want to check out this website i recently came across. it's a great idea... just needs some use.. it lets you look up old BBS's and get in touch with the users of those systems. http://www.bbsmates.com

Dang it, Keep on the Borderlands isn't rare?

[mactari]

Boy that was neat. From figuring out where the authors of Dragonlance got their start to dating yourself by which version of the Basic rules you had (I was 9th-11th printing, it seems), this really is a fun blast from the past if you played some D&D.

About the only thing I've got worth a rip is my copy of Deities & Demigods, which might be a first print. Every other book still has imprints from placing character sheets over top of them to change armorments, hit points, etc. :^)

Looks like they spent more time on the site than I did playing, and that's saying something. The search page helps if you're like me and remember the pictures on front a little better than the module names.

My first experience with the mud races

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember the first crime committed against me was when I was in high school and some fucking mexican stole my dungeons and dragons book. I knew who it was who stole it (there were only two mexicans in our school) so I'd ask him to return it, but he wouldn't. If it happened today I'd just beat the fucking mexishit senseless, but then I was a limp wristed computer geek, so I just did without it.

Try reading the site?

[Anonymous Coward]

For all those commenting that it's not a comprehensive site - read it! http://www.acaeum.com/FrontDesk/Intro.html -> "What You Won't Find Here:

Much information at all on items produced 1990 and later. The primary focus of The Acaeum is on items of collectible value; the sad fact is that most items produced after the mid 1980's are pretty much still going for cover price at auctions."

Re:It does work.

[Freaky]

There are player made modules that are full on riddle fests cut/paste link. http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/modules/categories/Pu zzles2.shtml. One of these requires you to "shout" the correct answer to the riddle... not just pick one off a list. This is an amazingly dynamic system and they are letting the geek player base make it better.

Last time I looked they had 535 player made modules for download off the bioware site. Many of those are remakes of the old modules.

Cogito cogito, igitur cogito sum.

Re:D&D sucks

[CableModemSniper]

Hey i'd liek to say that I am a moron geek/nerd. I am also drunk but goddamn I love D&D. The really question is is this recent enuff to actually get modded down?

Munchkin

[Burnon]

If you haven't already run across it, Munchkin is a card game that contains a Gazebo monster. The game's pretty good for a laugh.

What would Tyler Durden do?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now why do guys like you and I know what a gazebo is? Is this essential to our survival,in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word?

DungeonMaster or GamesMaster?

[gfreeman]

Well, neither. Thesedays you can usually find me being hostmaster, postmaster, and even (horror!) webmaster.

Scroll of thesis (orig from nethack mod)

[Mandelbrute]

The books on that site are good if you're studying for your Ph.D&D.

DM: You find a scroll

Player: What is it?

DM: It is a scroll of thesis.

Player: I read it.

DM: You can't, your scroll of thesis is blank!

magic items

[townmouse]

After reading an enjoyable list of Spells Not Worth Memorising (Tenser's Formatted Disk, Bigby's Insulting Hand, etc.), I was inspired to create the following list of magic items not worth collecting, based heavily on the AD&D 2nd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide.

Armor of Origami
Beads of Sweat
Beard of Disguise
Belt of Tightness
Book of Sticky Pages
Boots of Strolling
Boots of the Mermaid
Carpet of Fraying
Chain Mail G-String +4
Dust of Dirtiness
Elven Chain Letter
Eyes of the Worm
Flooding Boat
Gem of Glinting
Gin Bottle
Hammock of the Titans
Horn at Awkward Moment
Compulsive Lyre
Philter of Lameness
Potion of Belching
Potion of Gargling
Potion of Hedonism
Potion of Water Drinking
Racket of Protection
Robe of Useless Items
Rod of Fishing
Scarab Versus Mecha-Scarab
Scroll of Curing Blindness and Dyslexia (self only)
Slippers of Spider Squashing
Unionised Staff of Striking
Stare of Withering
Stone of Kidney
Sword +-1
Ultimate Solute
Vorpal Guillotine

But I'm sure the rest of you have much funnier suggestions to share.