The Diary of A Simple Man

Still working on it. Sorry, I haven't applied any formatting yet; I'm basically just spewing it out as quickly as possible in order to actually have some text to work with.

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More to come...

I'm working on the sheetless roleplaying article as a Google doc. It's nowhere near finished, but I thought you might find the work in progress interesting. I'm open to feedback, of course.

I haven't been using boldfacing or italics because I'm going to add those later on, when I convert it to a webpage.

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Gary Gygax died today.

I tangled with him a few times over the years. Once someone wrote and told me that something I'd written about him had hurt his feelings! I was kind of proud about that at the time.

That all seems so long ago, now...

I finally got a roleplaying-related question on Askville!

The question was how to take a walled human city with a comparatively small besieging force of orcs, a dragon, two mini-dragons, and some orc shamans.

"How would you recommend taking a city in a fantasy setting with inferior numbers?"

I gave it some thought, and here's what I came up with:

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"Air power, fire, and gravity"

Your idea of damming the river is a good one, but it alone may not be quick enough. Historically, fire has been one of the greatest tools for besiegers in a hurry. Since the goal is to raze rather than to occupy, I'd say fire should be your primary tool.

I am assuming that a reasonable portion of the city's architecture is flammable, of course. But if not, there are still some options. I am also assuming that there are no common spells which are highly effective fire extinguishers!

I'm sure I don't need to tell you the basics on how to use fire. If oil is available, or some form of Greek fire, that would be ideal. I'd strongly recommend against using any of your drakes for direct fire attack; that would almost certainly bring them within range of enemy spellcasters and bowmen, a very bad idea indeed.

On the other hand, you can use your larger drake to drop flaming oil-soaked trees (dry pine, if you can get it) on the city from a considerable height. Assuming that you have access to trees, of course. The season and recent rainfall or snowfall will also be important factors. You may want to have the twisted drakes light the trees just as the full drake drops them, if your full drake is vulnerable to fire or particularly clumsy.

I'd suggest that you have your people cut down as many trees as possible, as early as you can in the siege; that will start the drying process, so they'll burn better later on. A small point, but it might help a little.

Depending on the strength and endurance of your full drake (and possibly the two twisted ones) it may be practical for them to drop a large number of trees on the city. That way, even if the city is mostly non-flammable the defenders will have to deal with the flaming trees themselves. And if you've successfully dammed the river, that should put additional pressure on their water situation; do they drink, or put out the fires? That's certainly the kind of question you want your enemies to be forced to consider.

If you can get enough trees and/or the architecture of the city burning, you may even be able to generate a firestorm. That would pretty much guarantee the complete destruction of the city.

Another possibility which is quite interesting is to simply exploit your command of the air. Have your full drake take a good-sized boulder - one weighing at least a couple of hundred pounds, preferably more, but whatever weight it can handle repeatedly - fly up as high over the city as it can, and then drop it. A city is a big target; it's hard to miss. And a big boulder should do a lot of damage. If you keep your drake dropping boulders, it should definitely soften up the city defenses. Particularly if they're also trying to fight fires at the same time.

Your twisted drakes can get in on the fun as well. They can carry buckets or canvas bags (as large as they're comfortable with) of good-sized rocks weighing at least a pound or two apiece, and dump them from high up over the city. The rocks will spread a bit (the drakes can encourage that by throwing the rocks out sideways), and at terminal velocity, they'll pack quite a wallop! They won't do as much damage as a boulders, but they're likely to keep people nervous and cause some serious injuries. Which will make the defenders use up their healing magic, always a good thing.

Of course it will be important to keep all of your fliers out of range of enemy activity. If there's a hill or hills near the city that they can use as a takeoff and landing field, that would be ideal. Apart from that, the goal is to keep your fliers as busy as possible, dumping as much rock and/or fire as possible on the city. I think you'd want to keep them on an alternative cycle, so that there's never a time when it's safe for the defenders to set up effective aerial defenses. Plus the drakes will be able to keep an eye on events in the city, which may be useful.

Your full drake may even be able to learn and improve its missile-dropping skills during the siege, allowing it a chance to target interesting buildings such as hospitals, troop quarters, enemy command posts, churches, temples, palaces, food stores, water cisterns, and orphanages. Okay, not orphanages; I'm just a little bemused by the sheer evil of what I'm writing here. :D

As for your shamans, it's hard to know what your specific shamans can do; the rules for shamans vary so widely from system to system. But traditionally one thing that shamans are associated with is disease. Normally they cure it, but the odds are good that the can turn that process around and cause it, or at least encourage it.

Disease is the besieger's friend. Population in a besieged city is generally packed tight, fertile ground for quick vectoring. The defenders are also under extreme stress, with frequent injuries, and are short on critically needed medical supplies, provisions, and water. You may not have enough time for diseases to be very effective in actually killing the defenders, but the psychological pressure of knowing that you're trapped in a disease-filled town should be a great advantage for you.

Good luck!

Sources: Roleplaying experience, research

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So far no one else has answered the question.

From yesterday's session.
( Beware! D&D geekery inside! )

So it goes.

Tonight I went out to my D&D game. Sebastian was sad when I told him that I had to go out tonight after dinner - in fact, he said "I'm very sad!" - but I told him that when I came home I would give him some kisses while he was sleeping.

So he said "I'm going to keep my eyes open until you come home, and give you a big hug!".

I just came home. He's asleep, of course. In my bed next to Teri, with a space for me on the other side. You can't imagine how sweet my baby boy looks.

I'm so lucky.

There's some sort of live commercial roleplaying game or interactive adventure company...right across the street from where I work. Strange.

Has anyone ever heard of these guys before?

Last night's D&D session was interesting.
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And that was the session.

Advice: I've been going a bit insane with the advice column; it's really kind of addictive (obligatory joke: "Now I know how George W. Bush feels about wine and cocaine". Updated version: "Now I know how George W. Bush feels about wine, cocaine, lying in order to send poor young people off to die in Iraq, and shredding the Bill of Rights^* )".

Anyway, I've answered 44 questions so far. My current average rating is 5 (which is perfect, of course), and I have 70 feedback points. Of course, I'll probably be crushed by the first less-than-perfect rating I get. :/

HAH! I walked away from my computer before posting this, came back, and sure enough, someone just gave me my first "4". Most unfairly, too. I was the only person to even TRY to answer her question! Oh well.

RuneQuest: Something strange: I was just added to the Mongoose RQ playtest group after all. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from Greg Stafford's remarkable rudeness, though, so right now I'm not very excited. Still, I'll check the rules out soon.

Dreams: Another funny thing: The night before last I dreamed a neat and funny idea for a roleplaying scenario. I even dreamed that I was writing a snatch of poetry for it. When I woke up, I ran to the computer and noted it all down. The couplet wasn't bad, I guess (it sounds a little familiar, though), but it doesn't actually fit into the scenario at all:

I could not save him, although I tried;
I rode to live, he lived to ride.

Health: It was a sinus infection. I'm 99% sure. Steady pain in the lower sinuses, and random pain EVERYWHERE. Every little movement hurt. Every bump hurt 10x more than it should have. So I took a lot of Tylenol over three days, and used saline on my sinuses just before bed for two nights in a row.

But man, the saline hurt. Even WITH Tylenol, the sheer pain kept me up for more than an hour each night. Agony. On the plus side, I didn't have to use the saline or the Tylenol last night. I'm mostly better.

Apology: Apologies to Kat for kinda stealing her subtopic style. But come to think of it, I used to the the same style back when I was writing for The Wild Hunt and Interregnum.

So maybe she stole it from me.

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^* Except the Second Amendment, of course.

Some company called Mongoose Publishing has announced that they'll be putting out a new version of RuneQuest - "a completely new system that will look and smell like the original", a phrase which does NOT fill me with confidence. If it's a new system, it's not RuneQuest!

There has been a lot of discussion on a thread over at the RPGnet forums. And I, of course, couldn't resist putting in my own two cents.

And now I'm REALLY gone on vacation...