Thursday, December 20, 2012

Articles never written, circa 1996

In the past week I've finished grad school, had a minor medical procedure (totally routine), my daughter turned 6, and am desperately trying to find time to put up the Christmas tree which is living on our front porch. In a bucket. Tomorrow I drive 8-hours round-trip to pick up my Mom and bring her back here.

I will sleep so hard in January....

Anyways, back in ye goode olde days of TSR and AOL, we'd write up "articles" and post them in TSR's file library to share.  I wrote several, and outlined a rather ambitious series of articles.  Of the list below, from April, 1996, I actually wrote & released the Halfling Warden, the Githtorai, the Illithid, and the Wizard's Collections 1-3.


            Classes:
Assassin -- A revised assassin for the 2nd edition AD&D game...complete with kits: blooders, bone men, burkers, executioners, glassmen, hawks, quicks, and scrags!
Fili -- A master bard and true jack-of-all-trades, the fili combines warrior, wizard, thief, and druid into one (play-tested) character!
Halfling Warden -- A halfling "paladin"/defender, this file includes 16 (or so) new and rewritten priest spells for use by wardens, halfling clerics, and other priest characters.
Mage-Smith -- Part mage, part warrior, the mage-smith is an artificer and creator of the highest caliber, able to fashion magical items of nearly any sort.
Monk -- Life, beliefs, philosophy, and kits.



Races:
The Complete Book of Half-Humans: Half-elves, half-orcs, half-ogres, half-goblins, tieflings, aasimar, alu-fiends & cambions, half-fairys, half-dryads, half-satyrs, half-drow, half-aquatic elves, half-dwarves, and more.
The Githtorai -- The last race of the gith-kin, the enigmatic hunter-killers of the UnderDark...the only race less trustworthy than the drow...the githtorai (coming soon to a really nasty, despicable area near you).  [githtor.txt]
The Host of the Sidhe: Asgard, Vanaheim, & Jotunheim -- The races of aesir, jotunkin, and vanir in the realm of Faerie!  Details on relations between the vanir & the Fair Folk, the troldfolk & the jotun, and the aesir & fir bolgs.
The Host of the Sidhe: Dwarves & Gnomes -- Dwarves in Faerie; wood gnomes and stone gnomes; the gifts of Faerie.
The Host of the Sidhe: The Fair Folk -- The four races of Sìdhe: sidhe, gruagach, sithkin, and pooka.  Notes on Sidhe magic and the realm of Faerie.
The Host of the Sidhe: The Giantkin -- Fir bolgs and formors in Faerie, and other giantish races.
The Host of the Sidhe: The Outcasts -- Changelings, shadow elves, and humans in the realm of the Host.
The Host of the Sidhe: The Troldfolk -- Three new PC races: bridge trolls, trollborn, and trow; and a new troll "monster", stone trolls.
The Illithid -- One of the nastiest, most despciable, revolting villainous races can now be a PC!  Don't you just want to cheer? [illithi.txt]



            The Wizard's Collections:
Wizard's First Collection: Notes from Raliard the Mage -- A hodge-podge of thoughts and ideas from 5 years of DMing and 10 years goofing around with AD&D, Wizard's First Collection includes a revised reincarnation table, 3 new wizard kits, and details on a unique magical weapon. [wizcol1.txt]
Wizard's Second Collection: More Notes from Raliard the Mage -- Includes 3 new (and well-received) spells: Lesser Spellease, Dragonbond, & Spellease, revised experience table, and information on a new player character race, the wrowl. [wizcol2.txt]
Wizard's Third Collection: Notes from Tuernathen the Deceased -- The UnderDark edition in this fine series of stuff from my hard drive...thoughts on the magical radiation and special abilities; two new underdark PC races:mreen and tarikik; Gereint the Dark, his Holding, and pages from his Grimoire. [wizcol3.txt]
Wizard's Fourth Collection: Raliard's Chapbook  (chapbook: a small book containing ballads, poems, tales, or tracts.  Webster's 9th New Collegiate Dictionary) -- Information on the Order of Seven, various characters from the True World, Campaign Notes, and perhaps a tale or two, and some other neat stuff.  (No poetry though.) [wizcol4.txt]
Wizard's Fifth Collection: Welan's Workbook -- Mage-smith kits, enchantments, and magical items.  Welan Artorius, an NPC mage-smith.  Moulder dwarves, a new player race.
Wizard's Sixth Collection: Observations of Raliard the Mage -- Revised Ranger and Druid classes.  Magical items, kits, & Campaign Notes.
Wizard's Seventh Collection: Notes on the NewLands -- Detailing the NewLands campaign setting, including history & culture; races & classes; and new kits.
Wizard's Ultimate Collection (One?) -- Wizard's Collection 1-4,  mage-smith & halfling warden classes, illithid & githtorai races (with S&P info).


5 comments:

  1. Well, then, Nathan - get cracking! Lot's of potentially great stuff there, and if you've got time to sleep, you've got time to write instead!

    I'd love to see the Halfling Warden stuff, and then the Fair Folk article you never wrote.

    Ah to be young again - endless time to play games...

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  2. *sigh*

    Then "Life" got in the way of Nathan's "good deeds." Tsk!

    Well, it "ain't" January yet, so . . . CRACK! Get to it!

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  3. Sorry for performing necromancy, but:
    The Githtorai, do they exist anywhere today?

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    1. The githtorai don't currently exist anywhere on the internet I'm aware of, but they absolutely exist on my hard drive and I intend to include them in a project I'm working on. (As torai, not githtorai. Legalities.)

      Huh. I just did a search, and they get a couple (3?) mentions, but those link back to a comment I made on EN World way way back when.

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    2. That's how I found you and this post, I've been hunting down any "official-ish" 3rd party Gith. The Torai and the githzada are all I have left to track down. It's nice to hear you're using them and they aren't lost to time.

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