Moldvay Musings XVI, Part 1: The Briny Deep

'The sea is an awesome place, the home of terrible monsters, the source of unpredictable currents and strange mists, and the scene of terrible storms that can smash the strongest ship to splinters. Perhaps the most deadly of the sea's hazards, however, is the lack of landmarks. Once out of sight of land, there is little to steer by. A small mistake in navigation or a sudden storm can drive a ship hopelessly off course until a familiar shore is sighted. Only the bravest and most hardy adventurers dare challenge the sea!'

-X63 

                      

I've talked a lot about aquatic encounters but so far haven't discussed water travel itself. You can find most of what you need rules-wise in Cook's section "Part 9: Special Adventures." It really could have been named "Adventures at Sea", since the only topic really covered is waterborne adventuring.

It seems that things like ocean travel are somewhat uncommon in many D&D games. Or if it does happen, it's mostly just getting from point A to B a la Isle of Dread so that the "real" adventure can start. I'm not saying it never happens, but it's far from the norm.

That's a shame, since Part 9 includes nearly everything one needs (with a little common sense interpretation) to run a full-on nautical campaign. Granted, it doesn't include "Sea Machine" style rules for huge naval battles, but that's true of BX for land battles as well. Let's take a look at what rules a DM would realistically need to have an oceangoing-based campaign, and how Moldvay/Cook addresses those needs.

It seems to me that nautically specific rules would need to include:

• Ships and their stats: things like capacity, speed, toughness.
• Wind and weather
• Navigation
• Monster/animal encounters
• Ship to ship combat: maneuvering, attacking, and ship damage.
• In the water: fighting, swimming, and drowning.

Rather than regurgitate every rule from the books, I'm simply going to cite the relevant sections for now. Later, we'll show some examples of the rules in action.

1. Ship stats: This one is pretty obvious. There is a fairly comprehensive list of waterborne vehicles on page X63, from rafts to warships, along with most of the relevant figures. In addition, the purchase costs are in the equipment section on page X9. Obviously the ship names are fairly generic here, but that's a benefit really. For instance, it wouldn't take much imagination to use the river boat listing for a chinese sampan.
2. Wind and weather: To my thinking, the weather section on X63-64 is one of the most impressive examples of BX's ability to provide detail without sacrificing brevity or clarity. In less than one column of text, it offers both "basic" and "expert" rules (see what I did there?) to choose from. A DM can use the simple rules, which address everything from being becalmed to wrecked in a storm with a roll. Or one can use the optional Weather Modification chart for more granularity while staying consistent with the original mechanic. 
3. Navigation: Navigators are nicely covered under the specialists section of the Expert rules.  
4. Encounters: X57's wilderness encounters charts offer options for swamps, rivers, and oceans. I use the rivers table for freshwater lakes as well.
5. Ship combat: I confess to never having used the BX ship combat rules on X64 in play. Not because they are bad, but it simply hasn't come up. The last game I ran where a ship was attacked, a barge was attacked from the riverbank then boarded. The rules here cover visibility on clear or poor weather, surprise, evasion, and the fighting itself. There are rules for ramming, catapults, burning ships, repairing damage, grappling/boarding, and sinking. [SIDE NOTE: It always bothered me, the idea of sailing vessels having catapults. Logically the rigging (sails/ropes/masts) would interfere with the arc of the projectiles. In re-reading the section for this post, I see that this was actually taken into account. Only warships (which cost extra) can have catapults. The conceit being that their decks are modified to allow a clear field of fire.]
6. In the water: BX keeps rules for things like swimming simple. By default, PCs know how to swim. Metal armor or heavy loads will drag you down. Fighting in the water is difficult. Pages X51 and 63 give you enough to make intelligent rulings from. 

In part two of this topic (next post), I'll put up a sample ocean voyage, complete with weather, encounters, and an enemy ship! 

RMA: Aranea

While the Aranea isn't from the rulebooks' monster listings, it is in the classic module X1: Isle of Dread by Moldvay & Cook, so I feel it qualifies as a BX critter. It's probably not fair to say it's obscure, since so many people have played X1 over the years. The Aranea also was included in BECMI's Creature Catalog (AC9) and even later editions of the game, so it has some staying power.

What caught my eye about this monster wasn't its stats or its prowess in battle, but how the creature was fleshed out in quasi-gygaxian naturalism. Let us explore. First (as always) the stats:

Aranea (from X1)

Armor Class: 7
No. Appearing: 1-3 (1-6)
Hit Dice: 3**
Move:60' (20')
     -In web: 120' (40')
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d6 + poison
Save As: MU3
Morale: 7
Treasure Type: D
Alignment: Chaotic

So this fella has lousy AC, so-so HD, and only one attack. Admittedly it can force a save or die, but still not a huge threat to an expert level party. No, what makes the Aranea so fun are the extra, not necessarily combat, tidbits.

1) They can cast spells. Each Aranea is basically a 3rd level MU. Think about that. Imagine a pony-sized spider casting Sleep on a party. Or having access to Invisibility? But let's not focus just on combat spells. What about ESP? Locate Object? Or even just plain old Read Magic? This ties into the next part of the critter I liked.

2) They're intelligent. The Aranea's spellcasting ability isn't some natural talent, like a Blink Dog's teleport. They are human-level smart (Creature Catalog says INT 14). It also says "...they spend much of their time in magic research." They also have almost human-like fingers on their forelimbs, which allow them to craft and write. Which means they're GIANT SPIDERS WITH SPELL BOOKS! How cool is that?! Further, their lousy morale indicates they aren't really that interested in fighting. Possibly setting a chance to parley or negotiate? (Break out the reaction table!)

3) Bugbear Buddies. This little throwaway line in X1 tickled me to no end. "They are friendly with bugbears and often hire them to guard the forest beneath their lairs." Perhaps that's intended to only be for the Araneas on the Isle, but there are bugbears all over, so why shouldn't such a relationship be possible in other regions? I expect the bugbears would be happy with a friendly wizard living above their home and the Aranea would have more time to spend on research if it knew the territory below its home was guarded.

I can imagine a fun low-level adventure where the party must enter the bugbears' domain in order to parley with an Aranea for some valuable piece of magical knowledge or intel. Perhaps the spider sends them to retrieve some substance or grimoire in exchange for what they want? The Aranea in question could even become a recurring NPC. Their alignment is Chaotic, though. So trusting it might be another matter.

Typing Treasure

One my favorite quirky bits of old-school D&D is Treasure Type. Cross-referencing the letter code to the table and rolling each category to see what goodies the monster has is great fun (to me). Thumbing through, as I glanced at TTs N and O, I was struck with how specific they are:  No coins of any denomination, no gems or jewels, but N gives a 40% chance of 2-8 potions, whereas O has a 50% chance of 1-4 scrolls; and only those items! What's more, no creature in the BX rulebooks has either of these listed TTs. The only creature I did find? The Kopru, from X1's Isle of Dread, and it has TT: I + N

Another Otus gem!

"I" is another interesting Type, by the way. In the core books, it only appears with Rocs. It emphasizes platinum and gems with a slight chance of one magic item. I guess when you can eat elephants, you can be picky about the shiny objects that litter your nest.

But back to N & O, I wonder what creature(s) the gang at TSR were thinking of when creating those listings. Someone (something) that had ready access to potions or scrolls, obviously. Perhaps alchemical-inclined or spellcasting monsters of some sort?