Hi there folks,

I really appreciate this opportunity to share one of the first (mostly) successful PC groups that Sam & I put together in high school. I have to mention Sam because it was mostly us two D&Ding into the evenings & late weekend nights. We pretty much perfected two player D&D gaming. Believe me it cut out a lot of confusion as far as which player goes first, arguments (well, we managed to have a bloodied nose or two, just because we couldn't agree on a particular rule or two...), a traitor PC (for some reason, I remember just about everytime we had 3 or more players, someone always decided to slay the rest of the party within MINUTES of entering the dungeon!), and those players who would've rather just play ATARI. (That's right, I'm that old!)Sam (as the player) would have one or two PC's & the rest of his company were made up of equal level or lower NPC's controlled by me (as the DM). Sam's campaign was firmly set in the Known World (what's Mystara?), & he used Basic, Expert, Companion & Master D&D Rules. My characters would mostly die or get retired way before 5th level.

Cor the Barbarian

Class: Barbarian Lvl: 6th Race: human (Suel & Flan) Align: CN(CG) Patron

Deity: Crom (then Trithereon)

Age: 25 black hair, blue eyes, deep tanned skin Height: 6 ft. Weight: 200 lbs.

Origin: Corusk Mts. Hold of Stonefist

Str: 18(00) Dex: 13 Con: 14 Int: 13 Wis: 10 Chr: 16

AC: 0 (+3 chainmail & shield) hp: 66 Weapon of Choice: +3 Broadsword or his Two

Handed Bastard Sword

Weapon Proficiencies: Broadsword, Two Handed Bastard Sword, Battleaxe, Longbow,

Dagger

Non-Weapon Proficiencies: Blind-fighting, Hunting, Running, Survival,

Horse-riding, Endurance, Ambidexterity

(proficiencies were added several years later when I went through all the

characters I had collected & updated them to 2nd Edition)

Languages: Common, Flan, Orc

Besides the clothes on his back, Cor also owns a small sailing ship which is moored in Hardby, roughly 3,200 silver & 800 gold.  My campaign was firmly set in the World of Greyhawk. Many of those first games were slapped together by me, but strangly enough, some of those adventures were the most memorable (at least to me).  

One of Sam's first characters was Conan the Barbarian (who hasn't had a barbarian named Conan?), but I finally talked him into changing his name because the REAL Conan was getting rather angry that some other barbarian was wandering he Flannaes using his name & defaming his reputation. So "Cor" it was. Simple. One name. One syllable. THREE LETTERS. It was the beginning of a legend!  

Cor came naked & alone from the Corusk Mountains on the borders of the Hold of Stonefist in the year 578 CY. One of the first things Cor did was enter the own of Midmeadow & get into a barroom brawl. The bartender had to break it up using a Blunderbuss he hides 'neath the counter. Cor actually apologized & gave the man 20 gps to fix the hole he blew in the roof. Somehow I coaxed Cor into the Gamboge Forest to battle the Jabberwock. I think it was all the smashed huts in town & tell of a monster that 'snicker-snacked' all of Midmeadow's guardsmen. Cor acquired one of my tailor made NPC Party to help him out.

He eventually found the monster's lair & found a Vorpal Blade left there by the last hapless Paladin who failed in his quest to defeat the Jabberwock. Cor dispatched the Jabberwock in glorious & bloody combat, then he threw the Vorpal Blade away. "It stinks to Crom of magic; I throw it away!"

Cor & his band of oddballs ( a human druid/illusionist, a human thief, a halfling thief, & a fighter in full black platemail) eventually made it south to the Wild Coast & made it through three of the four Slavers series modules. It was after leaving his npc companions that he met up with all the other characters that we'd played intermittantly in one another's games. He eventually got tired of throwing away these magical swords I let him find & settled on a +3 Broadsword and +3 Chainmail. (I was guilty of having lots of magic items for treasure, but I was stingy with money! If a character managed to find a cache, I'd make sure the King's tax collector came around soon after, OR, let the barbarian spend all of it on wine & women; Sam was always true to role play what HE would do if he had that kind of money!)

To make conversion easier, we made some house rules to accomodate our characters in each other's worlds.I modified the Attribute adjustments of the AD&D stats to match the D&D attribute adjustments. There were a lot of rules I never used just to keep things simple & unconfused as possible. (It's ironic that I remember that the D&D companion, master & immortal systems being FAR more complex than "Basic" AD&D 1st Edition rules!) Our character names were not original at all. Since then, I changed the names of a couple of my characters (I'll let you guess which ones...)

Alazar Greyhood of Urnst

Class: Priest/Mage Lvl: 11/12 Race: half elf/half human Align: LG Patron Deity:

St. Cuthbert

Age:40 long black/brownish hair, green eyes, bushy beard & untrimmed mustache

Weight: 168 lbs. Height: 6'4"

Origin: Duchy of Urnst; near Nellix

Str: 16 Dex: 15 Con: 18 Int: 16 Wis: 17 Chr: 12

AC: -4 (platemail +5 & shield) hp: 76 Weapon of Choice: Flail +1 or Mace +2

Weapon Proficiencies: flail, mace, warhammer, staff

Non-Weapon Proficiencies: Ancient History (Suel Migrations especially), healing,

herbalism, Read?write: Common & Suloise, Religion, spellcraft, horse-riding

Languages: Ancient Suloise, Common, Orc, Sylvan Elvish

Spells(mage): (original copy of Alazar's spellbook & commonly memorized spells

were lost; please make up your own list until I do some research & come up with

his spells!)

Spells(Priest): (these too, were lost, ((sob)) & must be replaced)

Besides his traveling spellbook, Alazar usually has the Staff of the Magi with him, a Bag of Holding, one or two magical rings, & various potions of healing, scrolls of protection (various), healing spells & other religious magical items( incense, candles etc.) Alazar has accumulated over 12,000 gold pieces for the restoration of a castle overlooking the most traversed trail through the Abbor Alz; a group project spearheaded by Lord Elliot of Sterich. Alazar is a half elven mage/cleric of St. Cuthbert. He was ex-communicated from the Urnst branch of the Church of St. Cuthbert for possessing the skills & powers of a mage. Alazar argued that magic was part of his half-elven heritage, but the human church heirarchy were disstrustful of the elves & half-elves of the Celadon Forest, & they ruled against him. Alazar was exiled from the lands of Urnst, until such time as he renounces the ways of elves & magic & returns to accept penance & repentance. Alazar wandered for a time in the Cairn Hills, Abbor Alz & the Bright Desert helping common villagers & peasants, working for his meals & a place to sleep. he discovered that being excommunicated didn't prevent him from casting priest spells, & through prayer & guidance of St. Cuthbert, Alazar gained in level. A chance encounter in the Celadon Forest with his elven mother's kin revealed a family legacy. He was given his Grandfather's Grey cloak & told of his great leadership of the sylvan elves. As his fame grew with the elves of the Celadon, the Duke of Urnst lifted the excommunication & encouraged his reinstatement of the Priesthood.

The Duke then set Alazar on a quest to catch the thief who had stolen the most prized possession in Urnst; The Soul Gem, held by the Grand Viser of Urnst in the Duke's own castle! This chase led Alazar Greyhood over the Nyr Dyv, Greyhawk City, Dyvers, the Gnarley Forest, the Wild Coast & eventually the heretofore unknown & unexplored Olman Islands. Alazar met his companions along the way: Elliot of Def a warrior of reknown from Sterich, Tasmara the Phantasmist from Leukish, Aldo Nova a Sylvan Elf mage/thief of Silverwood, Cor the Barbarian, & Styx the Renegade, a high elf mage/thief from the Dreadwood.

They failed to recover the Soul Gem, but...They had a hell of a blast!

That's it for this installment! I've plenty more where that came from, and for those of you who like to nit-pick & be rules lawyers, there are proficiencies & rules adjustments that are common in MY world of Greyhawk.

ENJOY!

BobJester

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