The White Stag - Magyar fairytales

Kreo Drizzt

These things are tiny.

Elric of Melnibone

I've been wanting to reread the Elric books but I ended up misplacing this the first book in the series. It seems like the series has become much more involved since the days of the Berkley reprints and there just didn't seem to be a kindle edition of this particular book. The entire run of these reprints isn't much in page count. I know that some fantasy series have almost as much text in a single book as all six of these books contain together but Moorcock puts more into these short novels than other writers put into a 1,000 page tome of verbiage.

I find Moorcock to be an uncomfortable writer to read. His ideas are rich and his setting evocative and his stories well worth reading but to me they have seemed more tragic than uplifting and I need to be in the right mood for Moorcock's kind of story.

The Winter Queen's Handmaiden

The Fox God has many terrible children, but his daughter, the Winter Queen, is perhaps the least unfriendly to mankind, She rules an icy realm near the roots of the Tree of Life and the spirits of the lost and tormented dwell there. Her Handmaidens protect that realm. The are creatures of great beauty but show the signs of death. Their eyes bleed tears and their hands end in nails that drip a deadly venom. They feast on the bodies of those who intrude on the Winter Queen's realm. The voice of a Handmaiden is a song that can charm man or woman, beast or monster and they will have a following of such charmed creatures about them always.

Coins

I like to use props as a DM and I was a bit dismayed by the coin weights in 1e AD&D so I used USA coins instead so that players could get a tactile sense of the numbers on paper that represent treasure.

Copper Piece = Half-Dollar = 2/ounce = 32/pound
Silver Piece = Quarter = 5/ounce = 80/pound
Electrum Piece = Nickle = 5/ounce = 80/pound
Gold Piece = Penny = 10/ounce = 160/pound
Platinum Piece = Dime = 10/ounce = 160/pound

So if you find 2,000 coppers you have lug over 60lbs of coins with you which has a value of 10 gold. The equivalent gold pieces weigh 1 ounce and take up the room of 10 pennies. 

I have found that rather being a fiddly way of dealing with coins it brings a sense of reality to the game. The player's get a sense of the coins, the feel, the weight, even a better idea of what jewelry and ornaments might be worth lugging out of a dungeon. Finding a goblet or crown of solid gold that might weigh a pound or two can be reasoned out in the weight of coin not just notes on paper. Higher level player characters begin to loathe the sight of copper and even lower level characters need to work out how to transport the stuff in quantity.

As a side note I also use alternate currencies especially spices. Saffron, I believe, was worth up ten times its weight in gold during the middle-ages. There was a time when Salt was a currency and one which you could use in the most rural hamlet or greatest urban center. A farmer might not want to sell his mule for gold but spices and other trade goods would certainly interest him.

Lone Wolf Bk1 AD&D Conversion Part 1 - The Watchtower

The adventure begins with 4 first level characters, students from the Kai Monastery, sent to bring fresh supplies and take their turn at watch. The tower is about ten miles distant from the Monastery toward the South-East.

The tower is on a hill about 80ft above the surrounding forest. The woodlands are thick and wild with only hunting and animal trails nearby and the wagon road that leads back to the monastery. There is a roadway some distance away that follows the valley floor and heads from Toran to the North to Holmgaard to the South with a branch leading toward the Kai Monastery but it is hidden by the tall trees of the forest.

What can be seen from the roof, which is 60feet high, are the towers of the Kai Monastery, some open fields to the west where crops are grown, cattle raised and small farms scattered about, and the tops of trees for the most part to the North, East and South. The tower is used as a fire watch for the most part and sometimes a waystation for hunters and rangers, especially during the winter.

1. The interior of the tower has a large hearth against one wall and a smaller iron stove more frequently used against another. There are wide benches used for beds or storage against the walls and two long tables with benches in the center of the room. A trapdoor leads to a root cellar and small opening near the hearth is a well that goes down a spring beneath the hill.

The stairs lead to the top floor where the watchers sleep and keep emergency supplies and signaling equipment. A short set of stairs leads to the roof which slightly curved so that water will roll down into gutters along the side and collect in rain barrels below.

2. The stables are large enough to hold a dozen horses and contain a small forge and anvil.

It from this rooftop that the Player Character see a dark cloud envelope the Kai Monastery.

If they make their way to the monastery they find the swirling black cloud to be impenetrable.                      

Gamma World Pic 1