These short stories are pastiches I wrote, mostly published in & Magazine and similar Dungeons & Dragons-themed free magazines. The first one written – Gree-Kin – was written about the grandparents of one of my children’s AD&D characters. I wrote the pastiche as a way of making Marissa and Trajan come alive, and as a […]
This was the second pastiche written, to accompany the bereaver article published in & Magazine Issue 5, Ecology of the Bereaver. I’m still not sure why I ended it the way I did. Gree-Kin was the beginning of the trio, this was the end. Everything written after this fills in the details. The writeup of […]
Kevin invented this one — it proved deadly for lower level parties, especially when the spore spitter kept making spores faster than we could kill them. This monster was originally published in & Magazine, Issue 8, and the short fiction that was published along with this description is here. Spore Spitter Frequency very […]
My first campaign as DM had a number of experienced players. This was a first attempt at shaking up the experienced players by providing encounters for which they could not be prepared. While we never used all the types listed here, the Gem spore was entertaining, as was the Invisibility spore. Gas Spores Frequency […]
Since getting back into AD&D I periodically search the web for new ideas. A while back I spotted the Black Orc on Dungeon Delver’s site. Thought it was a great variation and immediately added it to my campaign! More recently I started rewriting home-built monsters in a write-up style similar to that used by more […]
I was looking for a new type of friend and/or enemy for a new campaign, and the Circle of Jocelyne developed over the course of a few weeks. Circle of Jocelyne The Circle of Jocelyne formed two thousand years before the first War of Rendelshod, the creation of a group of secular savants who eschewed […]
A while ago I stopped using the term “ogre mage”, and started using the original Japanese name, oni. Ogres and oni have nothing in common, so the original name makes more sense. I also realized the common oni was scalable, and I like scalable monsters. I developed the idea that oni are commoners, and giving […]
A challenge was posted on Dragonsfoot some years ago to translate monsters from AD&D to OSRIC, as not all monsters were translated when OSRIC was written. This is my response to the challenge. The Beholder is the poster child for AD&D monsters that were poorly written. The details are often vague and have produced a […]
Figuring out the “dungeon level” of a monster was a mystery for decades, as I missed a small table on page 174 of the Dungeon Masters Guide. It’s easy to miss as it has 5 lines and is not formatted like other tables in the book. It’s simple enough to use — just look up […]
When thinking of material for & Magazine, issue 10 (Shapechangers), I watched The Blood Beast Terror, a 1968 movie starring Peter Cushing. This is a weak lycanthrope, suitable for lower level parties. Lycanthrope, Were-Moth Frequency very rare No. Appearing 1 (2d8) Armor Class 7 Move 120’/240′ (MC:B) Hit Dice 1 to 2 % in Lair […]