Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site reed.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!reed!shigeta From: shigeta@reed.UUCP (Ron Shigeta) Newsgroups: net.games.frp Subject: Re: High Tech in AD&D (help). Message-ID: <2338@reed.UUCP> Date: Sat, 18-Jan-86 18:52:20 EST Article-I.D.: reed.2338 Posted: Sat Jan 18 18:52:20 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 20-Jan-86 05:36:12 EST References: <1277@hpda.UUCP> Reply-To: shigeta@reed.UUCP (Ron Shigeta) Distribution: na Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon Lines: 69 Summary: This is not a direct answer to the asked question, but I think it is interesting in any case. After several years of buying every game in sight and a subsequent lack of play due to seperation, my high school gaming group decided to play an eilmination-style tourniment of the systems. This included AD&D, D&D, Traveller the fantasy trip, Car wars, Top Secret, Aftermath, Tunnels and Trolls, Rune quest, and a hybrid fantasy system which we had made out of D&D and runequest. To overcome the hassle of interpreting every stupid detail, the rule of thumb was that every thing a contestant did would be implemented under that system's rules and the target of an attack, spell, etc. was treated as much as being under the same system. For example a Tunnels and trolls character with a adds of, say 155, would, since a D&D character has no adds on his sheet, do 155 points of damage to the average D&D character. Or almost anyone was susceptible to charm spells since only D&D characters have the saving rolls in their system. On the other hand, a Runequest spirit attack would do nothing, since it's opponent has no POW attribute. In any case, I will account the most interesting of the rounds that of modified D&D vs Top Secret. The cavern was a 5 mile by 2 mile cavern with a cieling of a mile or two with six caves, two of which led to an underground labyrinth for dirty close quarter fighting. Top Secret had had it's moment of popularity with us and there were al- most a hundred agents due to one zealous person in our group who was building Top Secret characters for a NETWORK in his spare time. Even though things like WISH and TIME STOP and the LORDSHIP OF TIME (T&T) were banished to make things interesting, the modified RQ-D&D hybrid system (a.k.a. Doug's system) had some of the most powerful characters ever played by our group including an elf who could fire his Arrow of In- stant Return to the Quiver of the Arrow of Instant Returning SIXTY FOUR times per melee round- about the equivalent to two or three Top Secret machine guns. The agents had a biplane spraying nerve gas on our side of the cavern in the first few turns. The MUs had changed all the worthless magicless characters into a bunch of rocks using a massmorph spell and moved them to a far island behnd enemy lines while flying on invisibility. The dwarf put the biplane out of commission with a few shots from his +5 returning hammer and a lightning bolt . The pilot bailed out and as a rescue Blue lightning chopper came out to get him, I CHARMED him and told him to wait until he had a good chance, and then kill as many people as he could. Minutes later, a suprised man in a jumpsuit was thrown out of the Air Wolf 361 chopper and the helicopter turned to strafe a mountain top gun emplacement and it's home field hospital. Meanwhile the dwarf homed in on a caravan of armored vehicles. The road was split open by an earthquake and a hurricane dumped the rest of the vehicles into the lake and split open a very expensive yacht. The only moral for the boys in three piece suits lay in a group of 20 men sweeping the perimeter. The machine-bow elf popped out of invisibility and started firing, killing ten in the first round, when a little dead-man switch was tripped and the whole squad went up in a huge explosion. If it hadn't been for the ring of regeneration, we might have lost a man... Finally, all of the strange opponents with wands of lead throwing dis- sappeared: they went into the caverns, determined to make one last stand and to use every little bit of dirty close quarter in-fighting they knew. Sadly, this was not meant to be. Instead, both entrances were walled up with 10 feet of stone with a 2 inch hole in either end and a Bottle of everlasting water was tipped to one of the holes. The on-going revelry at either end lasted for foru several days. In contrast to this sad scene, let us look at the match between The Fantasy Trip and traveller. The round, as related to me, was pretty tight. Most of the little weenies on either side were wiped pretty easily since the improvised FIRST FUSION Squad defoliated three quarters of the cavern area and Asmodius with his wonderful 10000 point ST battery were taking out the high tech wimps with a combination of Reverse Missiles and Wizard Fire bolts. When things got realy hard, though, the Traveller group showed it's strength. What's this here? No, not that, this... Psionic strength? Mindblast? While the warlocks kamikazied into the tougher generals and admirals' Battle Armor +2 with suicide teleports, Asmodius and his elite Excelsior troop suddenly found their brains as the proverbial poodle in the microwave, and the game was over. The point is, that while a lot of saving rolls are made, a techno or\ a magic user can have just as much an advantage no matter what the situation since the GM can decide how much an advantage the superior experiance with strange technology or magic will allow. Do invisible objects appear on radar or LI/IR goggles? that sort of thing.