Maneuver, Initiative Order, and Multiple Attacks

By neglecting some rules in “Rules the Pandemonium Society Doesn’t Use,” Phenster obliges us to clarify. He also adds a house rule for acting later in a melee round. To all that, I add multiple attacks per round, suggested by a L’avant garde reader in response to Phenster’s earlier article.

Each house rule is followed by a category designator in parenthesis. See “About the Reedition of Phenster’s” for category descriptions. Text under headers sans designator is just me talking.

A Word About Figurines

Holmes mentions the use of figurines, claiming, “The game is more exciting and spectacular using the lead miniature figures” (5). Many gaming groups of the ’70s and ’80s had and used figurines at the table. I suspect the majority did not employ them in combat in the meticulous manner assumed by some later D&D editions.

My experience with figurines in the ’80s and ’90s, other than admiring the paintwork, was limited to their use to designate order of march and the occasional table arrangement to show the more complicated battle arrays. Even in this later case, we didn’t often use figures to represent monsters. Too many monsters, not enough cash. We just said, “The [monster] is over here,” sometimes placing dice or a soda can.

Phenster never mentions figurines in relation to combat. In the reedition, I intend to keep the rules light enough that one is not forced to break out the miniatures.

For example, in the following rule for maneuver, I avoid delimiting a certain distance a character can move in combat and eschew terms like “square.” I prefer the Holmes term “space,” which leaves the theater free of any grid.

You may, of course, employ figurines, or not and to any degree, as you please.

Maneuver [E]

While engaged in melee, a combatant may move into any open space behind or beside. If the combatant turns their back on the opponent or is otherwise distracted, the opponent gets a free attack, as if the combatant were fleeing. (See Holmes, 21.) This movement occurs after the melee round with any other movement (see Holmes, 20).

Disengagement

When using the maneuver rule, ignore the suggestion, under Caveat in “Weapon Damage and Attack Priority,” to use the parry rule (Holmes, 21) to disengage. With the maneuver rule, disengagement is simpler. If an engaged combatant steps away from the opponent, the opponent may follow at the same time. In this case, disengagement does not occur. If the opponent does not follow, disengagement occurs.

According to Attack Priority by Weapon Quality [E], without the necessity to parry, a character armed with a long weapon may step back from an opponent, and, assuming the opponent does not follow—to avoid being flanked by another enemy, for instance—the character may strike the first blow in the next round, while the opponent cannot return the blow, unless it is also armed with a long weapon. The character may remain in position on subsequent rounds, getting the first blow without the chance to be attacked. This is essentially what Phenster calls a “phalanx,” which he covers later.

“Withdraw” or Retreat

Holmes’s description of withdrawing from melee (21) implies the character’s back is to the enemy. Suffering a “free swing” at +2 and not counting shield seems more like a retreat. Using maneuver, if a combatant moves back a space, and the opponent does not follow, the combatant may, in the next round, turn tail and run without consequence.

Drop Items on Surprise [E]

Ignore the rule that says a surprised character drops any items in hand (Holmes, 10).

One-sixth of ⅓ is about 5%. Before arguing about whether the chance is too high or too low, we drop the rule because an extra dice roll per character, including entourage, every time the party is surprised (2 out of 6) is too much for what it gives the game.

I put this one in the [E] Extra category. Holmes straight up, I use the rule as written. It’s unique to Bluebook D&D.

Initiative Order

The following rules assume the use of the initiative-by-Dexterity system in Holmes. In that system, a normal round starts at 18 and counts down to 3, where combatants act on the “count” equal to their Dexterity score.

Simultaneous Combat [E]

Ignore the instruction to dice for first blow when two opponents have similar Dexterity scores (Holmes, 21). If opponents act on the same count, the actions are simultaneous. The success or failure of all simultaneous actions are determined before results, usually damage, are applied.

Hold Action [E]

A character may wait to take their action on a later count in the initiative order. An action might be held so as to work in conjunction with another’s action or to interrupt it. Holding one’s action changes the character’s initiative count in subsequent rounds to that on which they act in the current round.

To hold an action, the player states their intention on their normal initiative count. The character then takes the action when the situation matches the intention. The player may, at any time, change their mind and take some other action. An action not used may be executed at the end of the round or held until the next round.

Multiple Attacks per Round [E]

Referring to weapon classes in “Weapon Damage and Attack Priority,” a combatant wielding a weapon two classes lighter than that of the opponent gets two attacks per round. Three classes lighter, three attacks.

No matter the difference in weapon class, combatants are still limited to one attack per phase: beginning, middle, end. (See heading Go First, Go Last in “Weapon Damage and Attack Priority.”) Usually, the last of two or three attacks is taken at the end of the round; the second of three is taken in the middle. The usual case may change, for instance, when the combatant holds an attack. If not using those phases, the DM may adjudicate whether the combatant can get in all attacks.

A combatant gets only one attack per round when closing to melee or in any round after moving, not including maneuvering.

With a weapon of a heavier, same, or one class lighter than the opponent’s weapon, a combatant gets just one attack per round.

Embrace the Heart of Darkling

This one taunts me. It crouches on one knee at the bottom of the “Ideas” drawer. When I open the drawer, it gawks at me. Its protuberant eyes—perfect circles, all whites—fix me with unmoving stare. Dark blue lips, segmented like two worms, rim the inky hole mouth. It has not teeth nor gums, only bare jawbones that gnash the air when it speaks.

Certain has it crept from far beneath the lighted world, through cramped passageways, mayhap along the very watercourse whose banks are lined on the water-stained pages it presses under a flabby arm.

Jaws gnashing, blue lips quaver in slow undulation, and in a voice, not a whisper but so quiet one must bend into the drawer to hear, it rasps, “The horror… the horror…”

 

It would be a huge project. To date, Dyson Logos’s Heart of Darkling comprises 28 maps for 17 adventure locations. On the Dodecahedron, Dyson states his intention: 20 locations on the subterranean river and the lake at its mouth, the number of maps for which could exceed 40.

The taunt: to stock the score of adventure locations of Heart of Darkling to complete the underworld campaign.

Not that I myself would ever undertake such an endeavor. Should one be so daring, a Heart of Darkling campaign might be inspired by Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness, augmented by Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now Redux (2001), and filled out with a study of critical analyses on both to include their themes and devices in the campaign.

As a major theme of the novella is criticism of colonialism and its exploitation of indigenous peoples, a campaign might take the opportunity to address issues with which DUNGEONS & DRAGONS now struggles. They are, generally, how the game portrays various fantastic races and how alignments are used in the game setting. This should be done well, with respect and empathy, or not at all.

Moreover, I’m not convinced that addressing such delicate issues within the game itself is a good idea. Our notions and attitudes about race and alignment in the game are ever-changing—one hopes toward the more inclusive. An attempt to portray better ways to handle these elements in a product would be only a snapshot of progress at the time of publication.

On the other hand, like Conrad’s novella, a work of art is often such a snapshot. A snapshot taken of a moving shoreline along a journey through our own hearts of darkness.

The Pillars - Heart of DarklingThe Pillars.

In conversation with the map god, he might give away his intended location, obvious when we read the text, for the climactic scene as the Pillars, where abides the charismatic ur-priest and its flock of deep-dwelling humanoids.

“The horror! The horror!”

Rules the Pandemonium Society Doesn’t Use

Following Phenster’s first house-rules article “Pandemonium Society House Rules,” two letters in L’avant garde #33 (September 1980) show a mixed reception.

Giving his home address, Keith Menard of Garden City, KS, admonishes, “Munchkins should not play with rules. They might hurt themselves.” Menard then offers to send his old copy of Greyhawk to the Pandemonium Society, “as I don’t use it since I started playing Advanced.”

Middleton reader Todd F. G. Nils writes that he introduced the concept of “first-and-last-attacking weapons” into his AD&D game. “It’s more intuitive than speed factor, but it doesn’t account for multiple attacks per round for faster weapons.” To rectify the deficiency, Nils adds an additional rule:

I use the idea of heavier and lighter weapons to give weapons two classes lighter (which is like faster) 2 attacks per round, and weapons three classes lighter get 3 attacks.

Phenster makes no reference to either critique in his next contribution, printed in L’avant garde #35 (December 1980).

Rules the Pandemonium Society Doesn't Use

Some rules we don't like, so we don't use them. Like the rule that says you can't move while you're in melee. After a while, combat got kind of boring. It seemed like we all just took turns hacking at a thing until we killed it or it killed us, if we didn't run away first. We want to be able to maneuver while we fight, like Sinbad. Whenever Sinbad was fighting a monster, he was always moving around a lot, jumping up on things and pushing things over and falling back before the monster's onslaught. It's more exciting that way.

So, in our game, even when you're fighting hand-to-hand, you can still move, just not very far. And you can't turn your back on the monster, or it can attack you and you don't get to fight back. It's still hard to get out of combat, because the monster can move same as you, so it'll just follow you unless someone else is fighting it too.

We don't use the drop-your-weapon rule either. You never see Sinbad drop his weapon just because he got surprised because a monster showed up. One kid dropped what he was carrying so much, we made him carry the 10' pole. When we saw a monster, he had to drop the pole anyway. We started calling him Jinx, and we didn't let him hold the lantern either.

There's another rule that says you have to roll to see who goes first when your dex score is close to the monster's. We do simultaneous combat instead. Whenever your dexterity is the same, you both go at the same time. That way, you might kill the monster, but it could kill you too.

A thing we allow that isn't in the rules is that you can wait to take your turn until someone does something or something else happens. Like when you know the evil wizard will probably throw a spell, instead of shooting him right away, you can wait till he starts moving his hands and chanting, then shoot. If you hit him right then, the spell fails. You can also wait for someone if you want to do something together. Whenever you wait like that, your initiative count changes for the rest of the combat. One time, we were fighting a mummy, and I had a torch, and Jinx was going to throw a flask of oil at it. But Jinx had a lower dex than me, so I had to wait for him to go. He missed, of course. I threw the torch anyway and set the oil on fire behind the mummy. Beowulf had to charge with his shield to push it into the fire, and then we all threw oil at it until it stopped chasing us through the dungeon!

2B. Menturoc, Ardent Champion

Herein is described a sublevel of the Deep Halls, the site of our dungeon exploration in Dreaming Amon-Gorloth. Numbered encounter areas refer to the keyed map in “Keys to the Deep Halls.”

During the war, Menturoc, Ardent Champion1 of the Solar Goddess, and the Nine Companions led an assault on 132. Gate of the Inner Redoubt (5G). The assault succeeded, and the dreaming priests were vanquished. But Menturoc and the Nine Companions fell in battle, all slain except the ardent champion, who was in a state of profound unconsciousness.

Though his wounds were slight, Menturoc appeared dead. The Radiant Host entombed the comatose body in 6. Hall of Menturoc’s Tomb and interred the Nine Companions in sarcophagi in 5. Mausoleum of the Nine Companions.

α2 A sour odor of offal pervades the corridor between areas 4, 5, and 6.

4. Shrine to the Solar Goddess

The odor in this room smacks the face. The opposite wall is painted with symbols around a blank central area. The symbols are pitted and cracked, as if by blunt instruments, and smeared with offal. The blank area is marked by two stonework protrusions. Before it, an open pit is filled with refuse and crawling with giant beetles, mandibles sawing.

This room was originally a shrine to the Scarab God. Before the redoubt’s storming, when victory was close at hand, Menturoc converted it to the worship of the Solar Goddess. He modified existing symbols to fit the chief divinity and mounted a lion’s head, carved from stone and gold-plated, on the northeast wall. Menturoc fixed a decanter of endless water within the lion’s head to make a fountain. Digging through the floor, he built a bath, where the faithful might cleanse themselves.

Returning after the war, the dreaming priests desecrated the shrine and removed the lion’s head fountain. Not taking the time to reconsecrate the shrine to the Scarab God, they now use this room to keep bombardier beetles3. Adepts dump the priests’ organic waste into the former bath. They sometimes lead a few beetles out of the level. The beetles then roam the Deep Halls until they find their way back to the feed trough.

Inspection of the mural reveals many scarab symbols showing through fading over-painted areas.

Bombardier Beetles (3-12)

The beetles stay in the pit unless lured out. If they are disturbed in any way, or if a light source remains for more than two turns without a feeding, they release a defensive cloud of noxious gas with an explosive noise.

Common Knowledge:

  • The scarab is a heretical symbol, for it was thought to push up the sun each morning—a task reserved for the Solar Goddess.

Research:

  • The scarab is the symbol of a god who represented the rising sun and the daily renewal of life in the Amwan Culture (religion).

5. Mausoleum of the Nine Companions

Stinking offal is piled high just inside the door. Beyond, nine open sarcophagi line the walls of the room. The lids are on the floor, some broken.

After removing the heads from their corpses, the dreaming priests animated the Nine Companions, who now roam the Deep Halls in search of their skulls. (See 2. Reliquary, 2A.) Now, adepts use this room to store refuse that will be fed to the beetles in 4. Shrine to the Solar Goddess.

Other than refuse in the near sarcophagi, all are empty.

Refuse Heap: Searching through the offal may reveal the following items (50% chance per turn).

Treasure (d6)
1-3 Pouch containing 50 c.p.
4-5 Gem (10 g.p.)
6 Scarab, faience (25 g.p.)

6. Hall of Menturoc’s Tomb

Murals on the north and south walls, stretching into darkness, depict ibises, papyrus plants, tablets and styluses, apes, and moon discs. In the middle of the hall, a stairway descends.

On the other side of the stair well, an anthropoid sarcophagus rests on a 10' × 6' dais, 1' high. The sarcophagus is 8' × 5' and 5' high. Carved from limestone, its cover depicts a male figure in armor and headdress, a sword upon its breast.

Each door in this room is framed by a carved motif of repeated symbols.

  • East Door: Ibises.
  • North Door: Tablets.
  • South Door: Styluses.

The murals continue on the walls of the west corridors, wrapping around the ends and coming back, to meet at the wall behind the sarcophagus, which hides the painting’s lower portion. On that wall, just above where the sarcophagus meets it, is the symbol of a tablet and stylus above an inscription in Sacred Signs [described later].

A TOOL TO REMEMBER
A TOOL TO FORGET

Menturoc’s Tomb

The sarcophagus rests against the far wall between the west corridors. It’s three exposed sides bare the following decoration.

East

An inscription:

ARDENT CHAMPION
OF THE SOLAR GODDESS
MENTUROC

North

Another inscription:

MENTUROC

VANQUISHER OF THOSE WHO DREAM
BUILDER OF THE FOUNTAIN SHRINE

FELL IN THE STORMING OF THE INNER REDOUBT

THE SOLAR GODDESS SHINES FOREVER ON THE SUN KING

South

Representation of a door, 5' × 3', carved and painted with images of a warrior wielding a sword, confronting enemies. Vanquished foes lay beneath his feet. The door is framed by a series of ram-headed humanoids with long, curling tongues extended.

Formerly a shrine to Thawt, god of wisdom, writing, and magic, this hall now houses Menturoc’s tomb, constructed by the Radiant Host.

Some time after the Radiant Host’s departure, a dreaming mage known as “the Renegade” reentered the Deep Halls. Discovering Menturoc’s comatose state, the Renegade spoke to the ardent champion in dream. The two agreed that Menturoc should remain entombed until the time is advantageous to take on the dreaming priests again.

Door to Dreams: The Renegade set a dweomer upon the tomb. Touching the false door triggers a sleep spell. In that way, Menturoc may speak with any visitors. See Menturoc’s Quest, below. The spell effects all creatures within the hall.

Menturoc’s Quest

Any characters who sleep or otherwise fall unconscious in this room slip into a dream. As the dream begins, the characters are lying on the floor in the same position as when they went to sleep. Looking around, they can see everything in the chamber, except any waking characters—that is, any creature not dreaming. Though there is no light, they can see anything within line of sight, as if physical objects are illuminated from within. They hear a hissing noise and a slither as a giant snake enters from the southern west corridor.

Dreaming characters have all equipment and resources, including hit points and spells, as at the moment of sleep. They can perform any action, as normal, but may interact only with other dreaming creatures.

Waking characters do not see into the dream. In the waking world, their dreaming companions are sound asleep. They may of course rouse their companions in the usual way. But events in dream happen quickly; play out the full encounter before the characters wake.

Upon waking, any character who took damage or cast spells in the dream must make a save vs. Death Ray. Success indicates any damage is ephemeral and any spells cast are remembered. Failure means any damage manifests in the physical body as the character wakes, and any spells cast in the dream are forgotten.

Any other resources expended in the dream, such as ammunition or oil, are present.

The states waking and dreaming are fully explained later.

Snake, Rock Python (1)

The dreaming priests discovered the sleeping trap and put a dream guard in the hall. The giant snake attacks any dreaming characters. In the first round of combat, the ardent champion exits the tomb, ducking through the door. He is armored and fights with a sword, attacking the snake in the second round.

Dreaming Ardent Champion, Menturoc

After the combat, Menturoc addresses any dreaming characters:

“If you will defeat the dreaming priests, cleanse the defiled shrine and reconsecrate it to the Solar Goddess. For it will then serve as a haven for those worthy of its protection.”

After delivering the quest, Menturoc dispells the sleep spell with his sword, a holy sword +5, and the characters wake only moments after having fallen asleep.

To complete Menturoc’s quest, the PCs must rid 4. Shrine to the Solar Goddess of the beetles and remove all refuse. A cleric of the Solar Goddess must then perform a consecration ritual. But first, the PCs must restore the lion’s head fountain, which is in 17. Pit of Heavy Hearts.

Opening the Tomb

The sarcophagus cover and its seam bare no marks or any other indication that the tomb has ever been opened. The 8' × 5' lid with the anthropoid relief, is 1' thick. It weighs three tonnes. To the DM to adjudicate attempts to remove the cover or break through it. The dreaming priests used a passwall spell (cast by a dreaming mage) to enter and remove all grave goods, including Menturoc’s armor and sword.

Common Knowledge:

  • Demons are commonly depicted as humanoids with animal heads and out-stuck tongues.
  • Often depicted on tombs, a false door is the means by which the soul departs on its journey to the underworld.

Research:

  • Demons guard a series of gates through which a soul must travel to the underworld (religion).
  • Thawt, inventor of the tablet and stylus, presented them to Amon, who said, “Thawt, with the stylus, man writes memories on the tablet and forgets them” (religion).

7. Forgotten Archive

Threadbare rags and broken pottery litter the floor.

Here, the dreaming priests discard useless items that cannot be fed to the beetles. The clay is shards of tablets and a broken cup. The few visible glyphs on the shards are too fragmented to be deciphered. The inside of the cup is stained dark green.

8. Workshop

Three large bowls on the floor are filled with water and clay. Hanging from a wooden rack, a couple of filled linen sacks drip water. Two small mallets lay next to several damp clay tablets on a wooden table.

In the west end, carved into the wall, a human male figure with an ibis head stands eight feet high. He holds a tablet in one hand. The other hand rests on the mounting frame of a lever, which resembles a stylus and protrudes from the wall at an upright angle.

The dreaming priests recycle unfired clay tablets in this room.

Thawt’s Lever: Pulling the lever has two effects: One, the character who pulls the lever forgets everything that happened in the last 24 hours. No memories remain, including all spells, clerical or magical, acquired during that time. Two, any objects or creatures in 7. Forgotten Archive are teleported to 143. Labyrinth of Forgotten Dreams.

Sometimes, in their interpretation of the channeled dreams of Amon-Gorloth, its priests make errors. To rid themselves of any unfortunate manifestations as well as purge their memory of the error, a priest places the artifacts in 7. Forgotten Archive then pulls this lever.

Thawt’s Lever
Thawt’s Lever of Forgetfulness

Wandering Monsters

Wandering monsters on this level are Dreaming Priests, adepts (1-3), from level 4D on an errand.

Wandering Monsters, Level 2B (2d4)
2 To dispose of an item in 7. Forgotten Archive
3-4 To haul refuse to 5. Mausoleum of the Nine Companions
5-6 To feed the beetles in 4. Shrine of the Solar Goddess
7-8 To fetch tablets in 8. Workshop

1 An “ardent” is a paladin; a champion is 7th-level.

2 I use lower-case Greek letters to denote details within a level but outside encounter areas. I’m not sure that I’ll put them on the keyed map.

3 Given the bombardier beetle’s description in Blackmoor (OD&D Supplement II, 18), I assume its appellation is an alias for dung beetle, a species in the subfamily Scarabaeinae. In Egyptian mythology, the Scarabaeus sacer, or sacred scarab, is associated with the rising sun.

The Holmes Spirit: Simple and Unique

I hesitate to put into words what I mean by “the Holmes spirit.” Certain qualities of the brief rules booklet set it apart from other D&D editions. Holmes’s simplicity is one. Keeping—or rather reinstating—d6 weapon damage from OD&D is an example. Another example, while some might use the term incomplete, I count the lower-level limitation within its simplicity.

The Dexterity-based initiative system, simpler and faster than rolling for it, is unique among editions. The Editor sourced it, not from OD&D but from a set of house rules that have come to be known as the “Perrin Conventions.” Revisited and revised 23 years later though it was, we hardly recognize its influence on 3rd Edition.

The Bluebook’s special demand for house rules lends, at the same time, to its simplicity as well as its uniquity. That it was intended only to introduce players to AD&D, and that we desire to—and do—play it as our own necessarily customized version of the game, also make it unique.

In that regard, the 48-page rulebook serves as the research question of a game designer’s thesis project: The goal is to turn these rules into a complete game. Each of us sets the criteria for a successful defense.

For, while simple and unique are the best adjectives to describe my own sense of it, more likely, the Holmes spirit means something different for each one of us who learned how to use those crazy dice reading text from eggshell pages in a pale blue book.

Basic D&D, 1977 - J. Eric Holmes, Editor

 

The original text of this article erroneously cited Warlock, a 1975 D&D supplement, as Holmes’s source for the Dexterity-based initiative system. In fact, the source is likely the “Perrin Conventions,” a reprint of which you can find on Christopher Helton’s Dorkland! blog (the Dexterity section). The text above has been corrected. [18:10 19 May 2022 GMT]

A DM’s Use for Solo Play

YouTuber Daniel Norton of Bandit’s Keep talks in his latest episode about how Dungeon Masters can use solo play to improve their games.

In his affable style, Daniel covers several topics that apply to any D&D edition and probably to most other role-playing games. I haven’t much to add to what Daniel says so well. I can only tease you with Daniel’s list of ways a DM might use solo play.

  • Play test adventures
  • Create adventure hooks
  • Plat test encounters
  • Map and stock a dungeon
  • Create interesting NPCs
  • Learn game mechanics
  • Rehearse published adventures
  • Build your world

The most ambitious projects on DONJON LANDS are solo endeavors. Not all use D&D, but they are all for one D&D campaign or another.

  • Wyrm Dawn uses How to Host a Dungeon to create a history for Wyrmwyrd, a B/X D&D campaign.
  • The Battle of Throrgardr is a 12th-level B/X scenario, which decides a pivotal moment in Wyrmwyrd’s history.
  • The Valormr Campaign uses rules for strategic-level wargames to play out events in a war that revealed major details about the history, including the origin and use of the Wyrmwyrd.
  • The latest project is Dreaming Amon-Gorloth, a Holmes campaign, in which I’m stocking a large dungeon as I explore it with an adventuring party.

I find solo play especially useful for large projects, because I can set my own pace and play the particular game that fits the purpose. While Valormr, for example, could have taken years with a group or even just one other player, I wrote the rules, prepared the scenario, and played it in a summer. Not to mention the prospects of finding another player as interested as I am in such a wargames campaign.

To close the video, Daniel invites us to let him know if we would like to hear more from him about solo play. Of course we would.

Please visit the video “Playing Solo D&D can make you a better Dungeon Master” (7:48) on YouTube to leave a message for Daniel in the comment section, and see his other YouTube channel Bandit’s Keep Actual Play for more old-schoolery.

A Dungeon and Wilderness Adventure Campaign

Dreaming Amon-Gorloth is a dungeon and wilderness adventure campaign for a party of six to ten characters, levels 1 to 9, intended for use with any old-school edition of the world’s most superlative role-playing game.

As Melqart and the Company of the Blind Seer explore the Deep Halls, I make notes and stock the dungeon. The results are given by dungeon level and wilderness area. Information for each includes necessary background information, details of encounter areas, and wandering monster tables.

Your Own Deep Halls Campaign

You don’t have to wait for me to stock it for you. To run a similar Deep Halls campaign, see “These Deep Halls or Where to Start.”

I play the campaign solo, running a main character and two companions, plus an entourage of hirelings and henchmen, using Holmes Basic with Phenster’s Pandemonium Society House Rules.

Forbidden Knowledge

If you want to explore the Deep Halls as an adventurer, stop reading here. The tunnels beyond are twisted and nightmarish. Therein lurk creatures yet unimagined, neither living nor dead but dreaming—dreaming dreams of unknown ages, ages long past, ages that never were, ages that were never meant to be. The author of this work bears no responsibility for the perils that may befall the casual explorer in the Deep Halls.

The dungeon map is the Deep Halls by Dyson Logos. The wilderness environment is the Outdoor Survival map board.

The Campaign So Far…

We proceed with caution, for within the Deep Halls lies forbidden knowledge. Firmer minds than ours have been feebled by its acquisition.

A 1st- to 9th-Level Campaign
 

Weapon Damage and Attack Priority

With his first house-rules article (see “Pandemonium Society House Rules”), Phenster attacks the most salient problem in the Holmes edition. In a world where all weapons do the same damage and light weapons attack twice per round, daggers get a lot of use, and we wonder why swords—or indeed any other weapons—ever came under the blacksmith’s hammer.

Charming Solution

By far the simplest solution is to ignore Holmes’s varying number of attacks per round by weapon. Thus, every weapon strikes once per round and does d6 damage. Weapon choice then becomes purely aesthetic. This solution has its charm.

Using the following weapon damage and attack priority rules together disarms the dagger-wielding fighter and gives the adventurer meaningful choices when considering arms.

Damage Dice by Weapon Class [H]

Phenster notes a d6 modified by -1, +1, and +2 for three weapon classes. I assume he intends a fourth class for medium weapons—Holmes uses “ordinary”—which inflict damage equal to an unmodified dice.

In the table below, I note the weapons in each class. Where neither Phenster nor Holmes (20) specifies, I use the weapon damage versus man-sized opponents from Greyhawk (OD&D Supplement I, 15) as a guide.

Damage Dice by Weapon Class Table
Class Weapons Damage Alternative
Light Dagger, sling (stone) d6-1 d4
Ordinary Bow (arrow), hand axe, javelin, light crossbow (bolt), mace, spear d6 d6
Heavy Battle axe, flail, heavy crossbow (bolt), lance, morning star, pike, pole arms, sword d6+1 d8
Extra-Heavy Halberd, two-handed sword d6+2 d10

I show an alternative method, not considered in Phenster’s article, that is more familiar to us from B/X. Comparing it to the d6 method, the average damage is the same or, in the case of d6-1, comes close: 2.5 for a d4 versus 2.67 for d6-1, but the ranges of possible results differ.

d-6 Based Damage vs. Alternative Method Comparison Table
d6-Based Average Range Alternative Average Range
d6-1 2.67 1-5 d4 2.5 1-4
d6 3.5 1-6 d6 3.5 1-6
d6+1 4.5 2-7 d8 4.5 1-8
d6+2 5.5 3-8 d10 5.5 1-10

Heavy and extra-heavy weapons have a higher minimum and lower maximum possible result than the alternative method. Light weapons, while they have two chances in six to do 1 point of damage, might do up to 5.

I like the alternative method, because it makes use of more of the “crazy dice.” But it tilts the rules terrain toward B/X, and that’s a slippery slope. Moreover, it veers from the Holmes spirit. Rolling a d6 for damage feels more like Bluebook D&D.

Attack Priority by Weapon Quality [H]

To determine who gets the first blow, Phenster gives priority to certain weapons, which I separate by melee and missile and sort into three qualities each: (melee) Short, Long, and Two-Handed—if my interpretation of “Two-handed swords, et. al.” is correct—and (missile) Slow, Fast, and Loaded.

Engagement

From Phenster’s “when you’re fighting something” and from the example of Beowulf versus orcs, I derive the term “engagement.” An engagement occurs between individual combatants. A melee comprises one or more engagements.

Phenster’s example:

So, when Beowulf is charging into a horde of orcs with his two-handed sword, he gets the first blow against the first orc that's fighting with an axe. But after that he goes last, until he wins the fight and goes to fight another orc.

L’avant garde #32 (August 1980)

Attack Priority by Weapon Quality Table
Melee Weapons
Quality Weapons* Attack Priority
Short Dagger, hand axe
  • Last blow in first round of an engagement.
  • First blow in subsequent rounds of an engagement.
Long Halberd, lance, pike, pole arms, spear, two-handed sword
  • First blow in first round of an engagement.
  • Last blow in subsequent rounds of an engagement.
Two-Handed Battle axe, halberd, pike, pole arms, two-handed sword
  • Last blow in a round unless also Long.
Missile Weapons
Quality Weapons* Attack Priority
Slow Heavy crossbow†
  • Shoot every other round.
Fast All bows†, dagger
  • If otherwise inactive, make second attack at end of round.
Loaded‡ All bows†, all crossbows†
  • Shoot first in first round.

* Unless otherwise specified, a weapon’s priority is normal. That is, the wielder attacks in initiative order.
† Though it does not effect attack priority, bows and crossbows require two hands.
‡ To gain the Loaded quality, a bow must be readied (arrow knocked) and a crossbow must be loaded before combat. During combat, if the bow- or crossbowman does not shoot in the normal initiative order, the weapon may gain the Loaded quality.

Go First, Go Last

Phenster gives no indication as to how we should integrate first and last strikes into the initiative order. Assuming the Pandemonium Society uses Holmes’s initiative-by-Dexterity system, we might do it the same way we integrate the Editor’s directions about magic spells and missile fire:

“When there is time, or when a magic-user says he is getting a spell ready, magic spells go off first. This is followed by any missile fire…” (Holmes, 21)

In play tests, I divide a round into beginning, middle, and end phases, handling all actions (missile, magic, melee) within each phase in Dexterity order.

I add the Loaded quality to bows, in the case where a bowman “knocks an arrow” just prior to impending combat. Note that, unlike a crossbowman, the bowman’s arm tires quickly, so the knocked state cannot last long.

Caveat to Short and Long Weapons

When an attacker with a short weapon gets inside a longer weapon’s reach before the defender can react, the DM might rule that the short weapon gets the first blow.

For examples, when striking from behind, of course, and when closing on an opponent already engaged in melee with another.

Similarly, a combatant with a longer weapon (e.g., normal vs. short or long vs. normal) may use the parry action (Holmes, 21) to step back, thus disengaging. If the parry is successful, i.e., the parrying combatant is not hit, and if the two opponents come together in the next round, it is considered a new engagement, where the longer weapon again gets the first blow.

Source

Though Phenster does not mention a source in the 1980 article, the attack priority system for melee weapons yields results similar to the man-to-man initiative system given in Chainmail (25-26), and the missile weapon attack priorities are not dissimilar to its mass combat rates of fire (11).

Example: Attack Priority

In this example, I ignore movement rates as well as hits and misses. I also ignore Holmes’s instruction to dice for first blow when “dexterities are within 1 or 2 points of each other” (21), as does Phenster [covered later]. The first two combat rounds are shown, divided into beginning, middle, and end phases. Any movement, which usually takes place after the melee round, is included with the character’s action.

The order of march gives the character class of each party member and their weapons with any notes, including weapon qualities (in parentheses). Dexterity scores are shown [in brackets].

Player Party Order of March:

  • Fighter [12], sword
  • Fighter [6], spear (Long)
  • Magic-User [11], dagger (Short)
  • Thief [15], bow (Fast) and dagger (Short)
  • Elf [10], light crossbow (Loaded) and sword

While the party traverses an intersection of two 20'-wide corridors, three gnolls, approaching from the corridor on their right, see the light and charge. The 1st and 2nd Gnolls [14, 9], armed with maces, lead the charge. The 3rd Gnoll [7], wielding a halberd (Long, Two-Handed), trails, so, closes to melee in the second round.

Neither side is surprised. During the gnolls’ charge, the two fighters (Swordsman and Spearman) step in front of the magic-user, who prepares to cast a spell. The thief could knock an arrow, thus adding the Loaded quality to the bow, but the gnolls’ charge catches the player flat-footed.

First Round

Beginning:

  • Magic-user [11] casts shield.
  • Elf [10] shoots crossbow (Loaded) at 1st Gnoll.
  • Spearman [6] (Long) attacks 2nd Gnoll.

Middle:

  • Thief [15] shoots at 1st Gnoll—who is not yet engaged in melee; see next.
  • 1st Gnoll [14] attacks Swordsman—now it’s engaged.
  • Swordsman [12] attacks 1st Gnoll.
  • 2nd Gnoll [9] attacks Spearman.

End:

  • Thief [15] shoots bow (Fast) at 3rd Gnoll.
  • Magic-user [11] draws dagger, steps up to flank 2nd Gnoll.
  • Elf [10] drops crossbow, draws sword, steps forward.

Second Round

Beginning:

  • Magic-user [11] with dagger (Short) attacks 2nd Gnoll—because the gnoll is already engaged (see Caveat above).
  • 3rd Gnoll [7] with halberd (Long, Two-Handed) attacks Elf.

Middle:

  • Thief [15] drops bow, draws dagger, moves to attack from behind (next round).
  • 1st Gnoll [14] attacks Swordsman.
  • Swordsman [12] attacks 1st Gnoll.
  • Elf [10] attacks 3rd Gnoll with sword.
  • 2nd Gnoll [9] attacks Magic-User.

End:

  • Spearman [6] attacks 2nd Gnoll.

Should the Spearman fell the 2nd Gnoll at the end of this round, he may then engage the 3rd Gnoll, attacking in the beginning of the next round.

2A. An Unheeded Warning

Herein is described a sublevel of the Deep Halls, the site of our dungeon exploration in Dreaming Amon-Gorloth. Numbered encounter areas refer to the keyed map in “Keys to the Deep Halls.”

A century ago, after the war in which the Radiant Host eradicated the dreaming priests, the nomarch ordered the entrances to the Deep Halls blocked. Departing troops broke the lintel and provoked a cave in, which barricaded the entrance under rubble. To further discourage entry, the nomarch had engraved a warning message on the cliff face. The dreaming priests, on their inevitable return, made a way through the rubble. They left the message intact.

1. Entrance

A spur of the track leads to a level yard of packed dirt. Beyond it, a hill rises in an abrupt slope. A narrow passage opens in the hillside, dark, like an empty eye. On the ground, a long, carved stone, broken in three, edges the entry, which is shored up by a wooden beam on two posts. Outside to the left, in the face of a rock cliff, is carved an inscription:

DANGEROUS DUNGEON
DO NOT ENTER

Inspecting the broken rock at the entry, characters may note the following:

  • It is a lintel carved from granite.
  • The lintel bears a maker’s mark: the silhouette of a stepped pyramid.
  • (Dwarves only) The lintel’s exposed breaks and the inscription on the cliff face are the same age, several decades old and much younger than the lintel itself.

Through the doorway, the corridor is 15' wide. The barrel-vaulted ceiling is 10' high. On either side, murals, painted in once-bright hues, depict hyena-headed humanoids dancing, naked, in two rows, above and below a wavy line. Below the line, the humanoids all face down the corridor southwest. Above the line, they face the opposite direction, northeast.

Mural with Hyena-Headed Humanoids and Moon-Disc Motif
Mural with Hyena-Headed Humanoids and Moon-Disc Motif.

The murals are trimmed at top and bottom in a moon-disc motif. The bottom edge shows the moon’s waning phases, from full to new. The top edge shows the waxing phases, from new to full.

North Wall: A small stone, painted dark within a lower half-moon, opens the secret door when pressed.

Common Knowledge and Research

Information that is commonly known among the general populace, given under the heading Common Knowledge, should be given out as characters interact with the environment. Common knowledge often concerns the present culture.

Information about the previous culture may require research. I’m working on a simple system for use when PCs conduct research in the base town at the temple archive and the magic-user’s guild library. Information that may be learned through this method is noted in each room accompanied by the domain(s) to which it belongs: arcane, history, or religion.

Common Knowledge:

  • Hyena-headed humanoid figures escort the soul of the dead to the underworld and back to the world of the living, where it is reborn.
  • The soul’s journey is completed in a day.

Research:

In contemporary writings, the Amwan Culture refers to that of the peoples who lived during the time of Amon. (See “the Myth of Amon-Gorloth.”)

  • In the Amwan Culture, the soul travels to the underworld and returns in one month (religion).
  • The Amwan Culture divides a lunar cycle into 12 phases, with five phases between each full and new moon (arcane, religion).1

2. Reliquary

A flame burns in a rough-hewn depression in a central floor stone. It casts light in a 15' radius to fill the room. Fashioned in the north and west walls are twelve niches, six in each wall, at chest height. In nine of them, a skull is set, upside down.

Torches, lanterns, and light and continual light spells do not shed light in this room.

Upon reinvesting the dungeon, the dreaming priests found the decaying remains of the Nine Companions who fought aside the Ardent Champion Menturoc in the redoubt’s storming. The priests removed the heads, boiled them to remove remaining flesh, and mounted them upside down in niches.

They carved the depression in the central stone, cast continual darkness on the stone, and bid a fire kobold [described later] to protect the skulls.

Continual light cast on the central stone dispells the continual darkness.

If any skull is disturbed, the fire kobold extinguishes itself, leaving the room in darkness. The kobold then causes mayhem in its invisible state.

Fire Kobold (1)

Common Knowledge:

  • Decapitation prevents the soul’s return from the underworld.
  • Turning its skull upside down prevents the soul’s rest.

3. Grand Entry Hall

The dimensions of this chamber are lost beyond torchlight. Footfalls echo off unseen walls. Just within range of illumination, a wide central column, engraved and painted, reaches into the darkness.

Out of sight, two more columns in a line beyond the first support the vaulted ceiling 90' up. Painted engravings on each column show lunar phases and a symbol on the near and far sides. They also show, wrapping around the column, various scenes with human and non-human figures.

First Column
Lunar Phases (Near/Far) Symbol Scenes
Full Ankh Human figures, male and female, adult and child, in common tasks, such as sowing grain, baking bread, picking flowers, catching fish.
Full
Second Column
Lunar Phases (Near/Far) Symbol Scenes
Greater Waning Gibbous1 Eye Hyena-headed humanoid figures dancing (as in corridor 1. Entrance).
Greater Waxing Gibbous1
Third Column
Lunar Phases (Near/Far) Symbol Scenes
Lesser Waning Gibbous1 Scales Large hyena-headed figure, this one human male wearing a kilt, weighs a heart on a scale against a feather. A smaller human figure stands in a boat. Other human figures, still smaller, walk through a gate. Another small figure hangs above the open jaws of a crocodile head atop a lion body.
Lesser Waxing Gibbous1

West Door: Crude scratches shape the form of a scarab beetle on this door. Smell of offal.

South Door: Skillfully engraved into this door and embellished with inlaid silver is a glyph in the form of two diamonds, one inside the other. Close inspection of the door reveals a faint odor of lavender and ammonia.

Hartshorn Gas: When the south door is opened, gas spews from above. It smells of lavender and ammonia. Any characters in the doorway must save vs. Poison (+4 on the dice) or die. Dreaming characters within 20' must save vs. Spells or wake. [The states dreaming and waking are explained later.]

Wandering Monsters

Wandering Monsters, Level 2A (2d4)
2 Dreaming Priests, adepts (1-3)
3 Bombardier Beetles (2-5)
4 Gnomes, trading caravan (6-36)
5 Gnolls (1-3)
6 Goblins (2-12)
7 Orcs (2-8)
8 Harpies (1)

1 In our world, we generally describe eight lunar phases, with three phases between new and full moons. In naming the additional phases, I split each gibbous and crescent phase in two and add prefixes lesser and greater.

About the Reedition of Phenster’s

In “Pandemonium Society House Rules,” L’avant garde #32, Phenster takes offense at the accusation that the Pandemonium Society plays an unsophisticated children’s game. As proof their D&D game is “plenty sophisticated,” he gives examples of the group’s house rules. Many more house rules follow in later issues of L’avant garde.

Phenster’s style, while explanative, is verbose and haphazard. My purpose in the reedition is only to make the rules more concise. Where I make assumptions or attempt to patch any holes Phenster leaves, I make it clear in the text.

Sources

In the August 1980 article, Phenster hints the starting point for the house rules is the Holmes edition of Basic D&D, which, once the perforated leaf is removed, has 46 pages. Later, he also writes that he started playing D&D when he got “a strange game that came in a box with a dragon on the top with 5 crazy dice” as a gift for Christmas in 1979.

He doesn’t specify the edition of Holmes. From the late date, we might assume 2nd or 3rd Edition. Other clues bear out the hunch. One article in the series adds a curious assortment of rules. Three entries among them come from the earliest printings of the D&D Basic Set:

Phenster adds an “enormous type to the spider list,” which has 6+6 hit dice. A new magic item is a “ring of plate mail,” and “Throwing salt on zombies makes them dry up and wither.”1

…[Phenster] started playing D&D when he got “a strange game that came in a box with a dragon on the top with 5 crazy dice” as a gift for Christmas in 1979.

That these are added as house rules further supports the idea that Phenster’s base rule set is not the 1st Edition (first three printings) of Holmes. The presence of only five dice in the box narrows the field to the fourth or fourth+ printings—both 2nd Edition, or the seventh, which is the last printing of Third Edition Holmes.2

The dungeon Phenster mentions in his “Welcome” message in Paradigm Lost #1 (April 1980) is titled “The Great Halls of Pandemonium.” The name suggests there are multiple Great Halls, and the adventure locale described, “Great Crone Hall,” bears cosmetic resemblance to the Caves of Chaos from Dungeon Module B2. The dungeon consists of several rooms, densely populated by monsters. The accompanying narrative “dungeon report” indicates Great Crone Hall is higher up a cliff face from the previous dungeon and makes the conclusion “so it’s more dangerous.”

Similarities to the Caves end there. The map of Great Crone Hall shows the straight lines of stone-block construction, not natural or rough-hewn cavern walls. In the narrative, player characters 3rd-level and higher encounter monsters of up to 10 hit dice. Though when two player characters are felled and others wounded and short on spells, the party goes “back to the fortress to heal and get the gemstones appraised,” activities typically conducted in a base town.

But this only hints that Hazard, the DM who we presume made the dungeon, had some experience with The Keep on the Borderlands, which circulated by then in the sixth and seventh printings (November-December 1979) of the Holmes boxed set. I don’t know when the module became available separately in stores. In any case, the similarity does not mean B2 came in Phenster’s Christmas set.

…this only hints that Hazard, the DM who we presume made the dungeon, had some experience with The Keep on the Borderlands

Although Phenster claims the single book in 1980, some additions and rules changes in articles from later years appear to be inspired from other sources. For examples: He makes specific reference to pole arm articles in the Strategic Review. He notes, in separate articles, that the Pandemonium Society uses the experience point tables for high level characters from Men & Magic and Greyhawk, and psionics from Eldritch Wizardry.

Categories

Phentster’s are a diverse array of house rules. He covers topics from the mundane cost of a sling, through the fantastic summoning of infernal beings, to the gonzo “rod of ICBMs.”

I class the house rules into the following four categories:

[H] Holmes

These house rules patch the Holmes edition to make it a more coherent game, while maintaining its simplicity. In this regard, Phenster does a decent darning job without sewing a whole new garment.

Examples: Damage and attacks per round by weapon class.

[E] Extra

Not strictly necessary, the rules in this category extend the game beyond 3rd character level and add elements that most gamers were used to even in the early ’80s. While these come with more complexity, they also add real value to the game without interfering with play.

Examples: Additional adjustments to ability scores, advancement to higher levels, wilderness exploration.

[C] Campaign

This category adds elements as suggestions or models to apply to a campaign. These ideas might be applied to a bare-bones campaign to give it some ambiance without much effort.

Examples: Coins of the realm, human languages, birds of war.

[P] Pandemonium

These are additional house rules employed by the Pandemonium Society. They often go a step—sometimes leagues—beyond fair or useful. But they can be fun.

Examples: Magic-use without spell books, combat complications, a number of improbable and horrific monsters, and “the Boomtown Rule.”

While Phenster’s start point is Holmes, many of the house rules are applicable to other old-school editions of the world’s most superlative role-playing game.


1 Again, Zach Howard’s Zenopus Archives cast light: in the Holmes first printing, an “enormous” 6-HD spider lurks in Room J (44), a ring of protection “serves as plate armor +1” (38), and zombies are vulnerable to salt (14).

2 See the Acaeum for an exhaustive list of D&D Basic Set contents by printings.