Sometimes I fear that what I write comes across as grandpa telling the grand kids how bad he had it back in his day. You all know the story, how he had to walk five miles both ways uphill in the snow for school. But in some cases the old school was the school of hard knocks.
Most of the early role playing we did was done with just graph paper and the players pointing out where they were when something started. Then miniatures became popular enough that we could find them but that involved lugging around boxes of heavy lead and if they were painted having to treat them with kid gloves.
I mentioned previously how V&V modules mentioned having cardboard characters that could be used and this was a selling point. Back then it was as there were no tokens or paper characters. We ended up using coins and poker chips a lot of the time.
Today not only are there retail packages available like the one above from Swords & Sorcery but there are ones that can be downloaded sometimes for free. The counter collection here provides a fair cross section of counters. It states that there are over 55 distinct counter images. These are spread across 450 counters. These offering also include sample adventures and other have additional material included.
These collections are nice if you do not want to use the prepainted plastic miniatures which to me weer a godsend. The other options are the monster tokens that started as freebies in Dungeon and Dragon magazines and are now retail products. I still like these as they are inexpensive and as I said can be found for free or real cheap online.
I have one other collection from Sword & Sorcery. I will post about it sometime and if I have a chance to pick up any more I will. If anyone has any suggestions on what ones are worth buying please let me know.
Spell:
Sense Magic
Level: Fourth
Range: None
Duration: 1 Turn + 3 Rounds/Level
Ares Effect: 9" Radius
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 4 Segments
Saving Throw: None
This spell is an upgrade to the first level Detect Magic spell. This spell allows the caster to sense magic in a larger radius. The also do not need to be facing the direction of the item.
The spell allows them to detect magic in a 360 degree area. In addition they will be able to tell in which direction the strongest emanation is coming from. This will allow them to use the spell similar to how a Locate Object spell would work.
This spell is not blocked by stone walls as Detect Magic is. Items that are in metal containers that are more than two inches thick will be shielded though. Magic items in magical containers will also be shielded but the containers themselves may be detectable.
The material component of this spell is any other magical item. The magic in the item is drained with the caster of the spell. The item used may not be a cursed item though. If such an item is used then the curse becomes part of the caster very nature and only a Wish spell can remove the effect.
Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the write ups last, were all written up or conceived of back in the 80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :) Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.
PS ....and Happy Birthday Gary. Hope you know how much you are missed!
