Character creation

I've decided that new characters start off at 150 points, as that seems roughly consonant with an AD&D first level character. This is a little bit of a problem because the Dungeon Fantasy Adventurers' templates cost 250 points. There are a few ways around this:

1. Pick a template from Adventurer’s and build your character on 250 points, then scale back to 150 using "Dungeon Fantasy on the Cheap". Players can also/instead scale back other abilities in the template; DF on the Cheap is pretty much focused on ability scores.
2. Pick a 125 point template from DF 15: Henchmen that mimics an acceptable template from Adventurers, then spend the extra 25 points for any of: a race, part of a 50 point occupational ‘cross-class’ lens from DF 3, or the complementary 125 point lens from DF 15: Henchmen

Acceptable Templates:

(From DF 1)

·         Barbarian

·         Bard

·         Cleric

·         Druid

·         Holy Warrior

·         Knight

·         Scout

·         Thief

·         Wizard

(From DF 15)

·         Any. However, note there are restrictions inside the templates so that they won’t mimic unacceptable templates. Generally, they’re common-sensical, here are a few:

o   Apprentice: Can only choose wizard package

o   Initiate: Can choose Druid or Good Cleric

o   Sage isn’t allowed, since there’s no point to it

o   Any ‘Eastern-flavored’ portions of the templates should be ignored

The lenses to add on top of them follow the same rules.

Races:

Races can be found in Dungeon Fantasy 3: The Next Level. Acceptable races include Human, Halfling, Wood Elf, High Elf, Dwarf, and Half-Orc. Half-orc isn’t liable to be a good idea, at least at first.

Advancement (aka why would I use a henchman template?):

The optional rule, “Changing Professions” in DF 3 on pg 42 will be in effect. In brief, you're stuck with the template you've chosen until you have all the primary abilities that template grants.

Using Dungeon Fantasy on the Cheap usually scales back core stats to remove points from the templates. This can make advancement fairly boring. To alleviate some of that, when you use such a template, only half of your earned points at any given time need to go into attribute advancement; the other half can go into various abilities already provided by the template, whether you took them or no. So, for example a Knight could increase his primary sword skill or his Born War Leader Talent; a wizard could purchase more spells or increase Magery or Energy Reserve.

The henchmen templates, on the other hand, are only 125 points, so you aren’t locked in for as long a journey, and the lenses provided offer more interesting choices than just putting points into attributes.

Also, more generally, the rules under Adding New Abilities (starting on DF 3 pg. 42) and Training Costs (ibid.) are in effect.

Notes for Magic Users including druids, clerics, and wizards:

(Taken in large part from Peter over at Dungeon Fantastic, by way of this post on the SJ Games Forums.)

Instead of the standard fatigue-based magic, we’ll be using Threshold magic. Standard Threshold is 30, and you can buy more at 1 for 1 point. Recovery rate is high enough. You cannot buy Energy Reserve except via a familiar. Other energy sources – power items, paut potions, etc. – still exist. Also, wizards can burn HP for spells at standard rates (and penalties), but druids and clerics cannot. Further, you can concentrate while grappled, if you make a Will-6 roll. If you attempt and fail, you must Do Nothing

                Spells:

• Shape Earth and Earth to Air only work on unworked stone
• Walk Through Earth can only be cast on yourself
• Wizard 'appendages' (Wizard Eye, Wizard Ear, etc) do not exist.
• ‘Mass’ versions of spells take no longer to cast than their Minimum Costs, in seconds.
• Geas and Enslave require ceremonial casting on a helpless target, and they take an hour per point
• Only a small number of Meta college spells exist: Ward, Counterspell, Great Ward, Dispel Magic
• Counterspell requires you to know the spell countered or five spells in the same college; same with Ward. Further, these spells require that the source of the spell be the same as your source; e.g. clerics cannot counterspell wizards.
• The Machine, Metal and Energy colleges don’t exist. If their spells are part of another college, then those spells can still be learned.
• Magical missiles get a save chance vs. Missile Shield and Reverse Missiles
• Force Dome and Utter Dome, along with their Wall types, don’t exist.
• See Secrets only works on things that are within plain view. Thus, if there’s a secret door that you can’t detect because it blends in with the wall, See Secrets will show it. However, if it’s hidden behind a tapestry, See Secrets will not work.
• Explosive spells (Explosive Fireball, Explosive Lightning, etc) use the old 3^rd edition explosion rules, meaning that for each hex out from the center, you drop the highest die, rather than dividing by 3 x distance

Languages:

I don’t have room here to do the subject justice, so here’s the basics. The gritty details must needs wait on another post.

 Halflings and Humans get Common Native/Native, and Tengwar (Common) at Native (it’s written only).

Elves of both types get Elvish Native/Native and Common Native/None. If it ever matters, the Elvish written form is Tengwar (Elvish). They don’t have another sort.

Other races get their native tongues at Native/Native and Common at Native/None. Note that for other races the native writing form is not Tengwar.

Finally, Barbarians of any race only get Spoken proficiencies. Thus, barbarians of any type have 3 points to spend somewhere else. Human barbarians get to choose another language to speak natively, if they so desire.

Miscellaneous:

The Outdoorsman talent costs only 5 points, and doesn’t include Fishing.

Druids and Wizards can consider animal companions/familiars as part of their starting templates, if you so desire.

Healing potions are 1/5^th the cost if bought at start.

In Dungeon Fantasy, trading cash for points gives you the same amount of money as buying signature gear. Why would you ever do the former? Well, for one, the cash from Signature Gear must needs all be spent in one place, on one piece of gear. If your signature gear doesn’t cost some multiple of $500, too bad. Also, Signature Gear cannot be used to purchase perishables such as rations, torches, or healing potions. Finally, Signature Gear provides protection, but it also ties you to the item, meaning you can’t easily upgrade later. If you find a better sword, you can’t just leave your Signature Gear sword at home, sorry.

Last note:

The point totals above are for beginning characters. Once the median point value of the party is 200, new characters will start with 200, and so on – the starting value will bump for every 50 points the median increases.

Elmo, Ranger of Verbobonc

Elmo is a drunken lout the PCs find about town in Hommlet who's interested in adventure!

Okay, so not really. Really, he's a 4th-level ranger in Hommlet on orders from the Viscount of Verbobonc 'for the purpose of observing newcomers, to insinuate himself in their expeditions'. Using Collective Restraint's level guide for GURPS, I built him off 210 points.

Here's his statblock in T1:

Elmo: AC 1 (equipped) or 8; Level 4 Ranger
(HD 5); hp 41; #AT 1; D 5-12 (battle axe)
or 6-9 (dagger) each including magic and
strength bonuses); XP 375
S 18/43 I 15 W 16 D 16 Co 17 Ch 11

and also:

 If employed, he
dons his own mail (see below) in place of that
given (or under a lighter type), and uses his
own magical battle axe as well.
Elmo's valuables are hidden in a lead-
lined oaken chest buried in the dirt floor of
the barn: chain mail +1, shield +2, battle
axe +1, 100 sp, 50 gp, 10 pp, and and small
pearls worth 100 gp each. The lead will foil
all attempts at magical detection. He also
owns a longbow with two score arrows,
half of them silver-tipped, though he does
not bring this weapon on adventures.

This guy is serious! Look at those stats! Also, as someone who never played AD&D, it was at first a surprise to me that he'd leave his bow at home. After all, rangers are ranged weapon folks, right? Of course I was wrong, and pleasantly so; rangers in 1st edition seem much closer to the source material, being fighters with some wilderness experience. Here's the character sheet.

Update: It has been asked what Elmo's role would be in my game. Really, I should have included a piece on that here without prompting, but it slipped my mind.

Elmo will try to latch onto the PCs and go adventuring with them, attempting to make himself attractive first as a hireling, then as a cut-rate fellow adventurer. He'll go so far as to take only a half-share of the treasure, if need be, to induce them to take him...which should make the players suspicious, but what's a King's spy going to do? At any rate, if they don't take him along, he'll shadow them into the dungeon, coming forward to aid them if they look like they need it and are worth aiding, or making their lives difficult if they seem likely to be working for the Temple.

Specifically, he could become a thorn in their collective side if they ally themselves with Lareth, or if they seem too willing to work for the traders. Also, he offers a way to help the party come to grips with the deeper plots surrounding the village, especially if he goes adventuring with them - an observant party will quickly see through his ruse of incompetence once actually in the dungeon.

Laying the Foundations

I fully expect this whole renovation metaphor to play out very quickly.

Before getting into the mechanics of porting the modules from the old ruleset to new, there are a number of decisions to be made. Dungeon Fantasy embodies different assumptions about play than AD&D. Specifically, Dungeon Fantasy intentionally abstracts away town time and really anything that isn't directly dungeon delving itself, assumes competence out of the box, and the tone is at least a little silly.

Town: The Temple of Elemental Evil has three of these, actually. There's Hommlet, Nulb, and Verbobonc, the last of which is the nearest large city at half a week to a week away. Verbobonc is the easiest; it's outside the scope of the adventure, and it's large enough to have anything the adventurers might want, so I'll just use the DF rules straight - I've no interest in fleshing out a large city. Furthermore, it's large enough I can just assume that most things desired are available, which isn't the case with either of the two villages. That gives the party an incentive to go there, but it's far enough away that they won't want to stay there, since a week across open country is expensive and potentially dangerous. (The area is mostly lawful, but with the resurgence of the temple, the Prince is seeing an upswing in complaints about banditry and roving bands of demihumans.)

Once the party gets to Nulb, they have a choice as to where to stay. That means that I need to differentiate the two somehow, in a way that doesn't make one clearly the better choice. Nulb isn't treated with the same level of detail as Hommlet, either; mostly because by the time the PCs have moved on, they have a large dungeon to focus on, shifting away from town adventure.

The flavor of the two should certainly be different; the module makes this clear. Nulb will be dangerous, with brigands even possibly assaulting the PCs in the streets, if they come back weak and loaded down with treasure. It's a hive a scum and villainy. Why would the PCs ever stay there instead of Hommlet, where not only is it safer, but they're already well-liked by this point?

First, Nulb is a much better place to pick up hirelings. The only hirelings available in Hommlet are some adventurer-types who want far too much coin, a limited number of laborers, and one priest from the temple of St. Cuthbert who I'm throwing in as a backup healer if the party wants to take him along. (I firmly believe no one should be forced to play a cleric if no one wants to.) In contrast, in Nulb you can find the entire gamut of hirelings available in DF 15 - Henchmen (which I picked up yesterday and highly recommend for anyone who actually wants the sort of game where PCs hire people).

Second, Nulb is closer to the dungeon, being only half a day's journey over relatively safe ground from the Temple of Elemental Evil. From Hommlet, you travel for a day and a half, and you either cut through a rather dangerous forest or go through Nulb anyhow.

Third, you can get some things in Nulb you can't get in Hommlet. In Hommlet, there's no potionsmaster. There's a druid, to whom you can go for 'natural' potions (like monster drool poison and antivenin) - if he likes you - and there's a mage who will sell various small magical consumables, but no potions. Since Nulb is larger, I'm willing to abstract away buying most mundane goods, even those of quality (though you may have to wait a week in town if you order something particularly rare). Weapons and armor, in specific, are available, being mentioned by name in the module. In addition, if you need strong clerical magic, Nulb is the place to go, since the main priest of the Temple of St. Cuthbert in Hommlet is away. Also, sponsorship is easier to get here, and Nulb offers some training options not possible in Hommlet (clerics, holy warriors, thieves

Finally, Nulb is the only place for PCs to pick up rumours about the dungeon. People in Hommlet don't know much about the Temple, and they don't want to know.

One way in which Nulb is not going to be different is cost of living, which will be $150/week for each PC (plus cost of hirelings). In Verbobonc this is standard. In Hommlet, the Inn of the Welcome Wench is both the only gig in town and specifically mentioned as expensive. In Nulb, the food and lodging are cheap, but the extra money goes toward garnering rumours, being scalped for non-food sundries (cleaning your clothes, caring for your horses, etc.) and hiring guards to watch your stuff while you're asleep or paying protection money to some of the bandit gangs. If PCs think to ask, they can skimp on this, getting by on $100/week instead of the full cost, but they won't get a rumour and the chances of being attacked and robbed while in town will be substantially higher.

Hommlet at first will be much like written in the book, because T1 is in large part about the town adventure of finding the place the PCs need to go, feeling out the local politics, and inserting themselves successfully into the village. In short, for a little while Hommlet is the site of the adventure, and should be detailed as such. However, once PCs get to/through the Moathouse and/or resolve the tensions in the village, I want to largely abstract it away as a distraction from the dungeon.

Hommlet offers several advantages over Nulb. It's basically safe, with little to no chance of people being assaulted in town, and random encounters happening nearby only on a lower chance (6 or less instead of 9-12 or less, I'm thinking), and not all being bad besides. There's a temple, traders, money-changer, druid, and wizard's keep, along with various craftsmen, meaning most mundane needs and some magical ones (including healing and charging power items) can be taken care of. Some templates can only get training in Hommlet. Finally, what hirelings that can be found here are likely to be more reliable than those in Nulb.

A last note about training: T1 and T2 are very specific about the people that are in Hommlet and Nulb, and T1 is very specific about those that aren't in Hommlet. To that end, the two also differ in what PCs can find training in the two places.

Hommlet: Barbarian, Druid, Knight, Scout, Wizard

Nulb: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Holy Warrior, Knight, Scout, Thief

Yes, this will create some tension in where people want to spend their weeks. This is intentional. However, I don't want this to be crippling, either, so I'm ruling that you can still spend points in your template when you spend time in a town without a teacher, but not for new spells or primary skills (ones you already have are fine), nor power-ups or primary abilities you don't already have points in. Thus a Knight couldn't learn a new weapon, but he could train with the one he has, and a druid couldn't purchase a new animal companion, but he could improve spells he already has or dump more points into Power Investiture.