THAC0 with Advantage

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D likes to make us drop everything else in the hobby for the last month when we aren’t even playing.

Have you ever died in a D&D game? No. Not you. Your character. That’s part of what Ang and Jared are talking about on this episode along with healing, resurrection, reincarnation, and everything to do with death and healing in DnD.

The first rules that let people survive after they dropped to 0 hit points appeared in the AD&D 1st Edition DMG. If you were at -3 hit points or less, you were still alive, but you kept losing hit points until you hit -10 and died. If you reached -6 or lower, the DM could just decide to maim your character. Plus, your character was incapacitated for a week without being able to get back any hit points. Best case scenario, one of your buddies carries your body out of the dungeon. Worst-case scenario, your friends just watched Weekend at Bernie’s and decide to bring you into that encounter with the local Mind Flayer.

• Deep Magic 2 (with some Black Flag compatibility stretch goals)
• The Oracle Character Generator for Fantasy RPGs by Nord Games — Kickstarter
• Dungeon Denizens by Goodman Games — Kickstarter
• Grim Hollow: Valikan Clans by Ghostfire Gaming — Kickstarter
• Home-Field Advantage – A Compendium of Lair Actions

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is a gaming tradition that transcends whoever owns it at the moment.

What are your favorite memories from each edition of dungeons and dragons? That’s the question Ang and Jared answer in this episode, plus there might be a bonus song on the end titled My Favorite DnD things.

A company called Mayfair Games started making unofficial D&D supplements in a line called Role Aids in the early 80s. TSR threatened to sue them, not for the content of the supplements, but because they said they were compatible with AD&D. In the 90s, they went back to court over how well Mayfair abided by their previous agreement. In some corners, this wasn’t seen as a move to enforce the agreement, so much as a move to force Mayfair out of competition. Thankfully, that was the last such instance in D&D history . . . wait, there seems to be some papers stuck to the back of this . . .

• Legal Eagle on OGL 1.1
• Green Ronin’s 3rd Edition Era Megabundle

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D followed us home and we want to keep it.

It’s a pile of gold with gems, three swords, a suit of armor, a small cask, 27 gold ingots, a statue of a dragon with a series of gems embedded in it, there’s also a bunch of silver, and a lot of copper on the bottom. Oh, don’t forget to grab that gossamer sheet that looks like it was made out of fairy wings. Hey what’s this? Nope. Put it all back. Treasure is tainted. It’s got Electrum pieces in it.
All jokes aside. this episode is all about treasure and rewards. So let’s grab our dice and begin our adventure with Jared and Ang.

From the Bardic College: Electrum is a real thing. No really. It’s a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, and it was used for coins in Greece, Carthage, and Rome. So when you get 2000 electrum pieces, don’t think “this could have been 1000 gold pieces,” think “people actually used these things.” Then think, “we need to get this converted to 1000 gold pieces.

• Shannon Applecline’s year-in-review for 2022 on RPGNet
• The Oracle Story Generator

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is our sanctuary, so you’re only going to hurt us with an area attack.

We’re back with a hefty episode about the One D&D Playtest. Ang and Jared dive into the cleric changes and some new designs surrounding the Ardling and Goliath. That’s right. You can play anthropomorphic animals or a variety of giant types. Also. They included a change log. Thank the gods.

D&D was born of a lot of conflicting influences, and the Cleric is a great example of this melting pot of pop culture. It was originally introduced in the game as a class specifically about hunting the undead, but then picked some some limitations based on assumptions from characters like Archbishop Turpin or Odo of Bayeux using clubs or maces in their depictions. Have fun staking a vampire with a blunt stake!

• Shard VTT
• Empire of Exiles by Erin M. Evans

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is our favorite pillow, and right now, it’s on the cool side.

Tiers of Play have been a part of D&D since the inception of the game but never codified until the 4th edition. The hinting at of your character growing in power and scope from titles, box sets, or just in the purchase of a keep were all there back in the day. So these tiers matter but how do they matter? Ang and Jared take a deep look at that very topic in this episode of Thac0 with Advantage.

The Dungeons & Dragons used to be divided into Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and the version of D&D that was introduced in 1983 became known as BECMI, because it was divided into different tiers of play by boxed sets: Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, and Immortal. Because it makes the highest level you can reach is 36th level, before becoming a god, which was a missed opportunity to make the secret of life available at 42nd level.

• Seth Skorkowsky’s YouTube channel

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is like pizza–if you don’t have it at least once a week, can you really say you like pizza?

The digital age is upon us and there’s now a bevy of virtual tabletops you can choose from to play games on. Join Ang and Jared for this information packed and educational look at a variety of VTs they’re experienced with.

The 3rd Edition D&D Player’s Handbook originally came bundled with it’s very own Character Generator CD for you to use on your PC. This disk was marked as demonstration version 1.0, because it was the beginning of . . . absolutely nothing. Thank goodness all of WotC’s future digital tools managed to avoid any pitfalls. As long as you don’t look at 4th edition press material or pre-D&D Beyond 5th edition tools.

• Solasta-Crown of the Magister
• The LEGO ideas D&D contest

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing DnD a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is like a childhood friend, so why not mercilessly nitpick it while forgetting to tell them how much we love them?”

What’s your favorite DnD setting? The whole episode is about that. From the lightning rails and skyships of Khorvaire to the many doors of Sigil. The Sword Coast to the grand city of Zobek. Absalom, Lankhmar, the Astral Sea, and Castle Ravenloft are all on the travelogue for today.

Jakandor was a D&D setting that came out in 1998, and was comprised of three books, Isle of War, Isle of Destiny, and Land of Legend, which presented the setting from the perspective of the two major civilizations of the setting. The problem being, one side were megalomaniacal necromancers, and the other side were a bloodthirsty warrior culture, so it was a little hard to figure out who to root for. But it’s still fun to randomly post on social media “Jakandor Confirmed!

• Legends of the Twins sourcebook
• The War of the Lance sourcebook

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is like a childhood friend, so why not mercilessly nitpick it while forgetting to tell them how much we love them?”

Today we’re going to finish looking at the latest One D&D Playtest Unearthed Arcana, for Expert Classes. It’s all about the classes this time. The Bard, Ranger, and Rogue.

The AD&D 2nd Edition Product Player’s Option: Skills and Powers introduced sub-ability scores, which split the traditional ability scores into pairs, like Stamina/Muscle, Aim/Balance, Health/Fitness, Reason/Knowledge, Intuition/Willpower, and Leadership/Appearance. This was well loved by everyone playing AD&D at the time. To convince you that is true, I would need to roll under my Leadership score, because it was an obvious lie, and Leadership is the skill you use to instill an attitude or a belief

• Dungeon Dudes – DM Burnout
• Rise of the Mimic Moon for 5th Edition(PDF) – Kobold Press Store

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is like a childhood friend, so why not mercilessly nitpick it while forgetting to tell them how much we love them?”

Today we’re going to start looking at the latest One D&D Playtest Unearthed Arcana, for Expert Classes. We’re not going to be done with this in one episode, so today, we’ll start with the updates to the Rules Glossary and feats, and in a later show, we’ll start looking at the classes.

Lots of people know about the Time of Troubles in the Forgotten Realms that transitioned AD&D from 1st edition to 2nd edition, but the Fate of Istus anthology set in Greyhawk could kill off people with a  plague if the PCs screwed up their class’ section of the anthology. Edition changes are the worst time to vacation on different campaign worlds.

• Into the Wilds Kickstarter
• Dungeons & Dragons – Hasbro Pulse

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is like a childhood friend, so why not mercilessly nitpick it while forgetting to tell them how much we love them?”

Today we’re talking about Appendix N and what we think would be in the new Appendix N but that’s after we let you know what’s been going on in our games. If you could only include one new item in an Appendix N for D&D what would it be?

In 1985, Unearthed Arcana was released for AD&D 1st Edition. This supplement introduced the Barbarian, who hated magic so much that they got experience points for breaking magic items. You know, those really rare magic items that you couldn’t purchase or really make on your own. Just broken for the barbarian’s XP. Which they didn’t share with you at all.

• Designers and Dragons: The Complete Set Bundle
• The Odyssey: Translated by Emily Wilson