Character Challenge 2026 - Catching Up - Willy Pete and his Merry Band

If I mean to catch up and create 31 characters for January, I need to start doing 3 or more characters at a time. Here we go. 

Let's start with the overt commercial: 

I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials, but picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.

When I create characters for myself, I love to create backstories for them. The odder the better. 

Meet Sergeant William Peterson, U.S. Army. He was drafted back in '71 and served in Vietnam, quickly becoming a sergeant. With a name like William Peterson, the jokes flew like crazy. At mailcall, soldiers would "mail" him anything labeled "White Phosphorus": grenades, canisters, box lids, etc. 

Good times. 

After the war, he married his high school sweetheart and started a family. Jenna and William had a daughter named Jane. William became a chemist at a local factory. He kept close ties with his Army buddies. 

In the late 70's, there were strange happenings at the local Army base. All kinds of weird shit was happening there. Lights in the sky, strangely dressed people, creatures no one had ever seen before. Before anything was resolved, the base closed up, and William's former unit was moved clear across the country. 

The former base was supposed to be converted into a public park, but the funding stalled. It was too far from the town. Besides a few picnic tables, a playground, and a lonely OV-01 display, the park was never completed. Jane, Jenna, and William pressed the local government to continue the project, but it was an uphill battle. For the most part, only the Petersons visited the place for weekend picnics as the base slowly decayed.

One rain-soaked morning on their weekend outing, the Petersons disappeared. Again, strange lights in the sky were reported, but like the park, nothing ever came of the investigation. The family simply vanished. 

William and his family awoke on the Isle of Dread, near location 10. The Phanton Settlement. Using his knowledge of jungle environments, William carved out an encampment for his family and hid the family car. They quickly discovered the Phantons and made friends with them. They have a mutual support pact with the little creatures. They have loose contact with the other natives of the island. 

They tried to find a way home, but as time passed, they adopted the ways of the people of the island. William is a Magic User/Fighter. Jemma is a Cleric/Fighter, and Jane has chosen the middle ground, becoming a Druid. 

William Peterson Fouth Level Fighter and Fourth Level Magic User 

Strength: 12
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 13
Dexterity: 11
Constitution: 7
Charisma: 12

Hit Points: 39
Armor Class: 9 He doesn't like to wear armor

GP: 117  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 0 Gems: None  

Spells: Various fire-related spells
Languages: Common

Equipment: 

Axe
Dagger
Crossbow

Alice Pack: 
2 canteens,
7 Days of Rations
Bedroll
Change of Clothes
Shoulder Bag
Map

The Peterson Compound
Sans Trees

Jane Peterson Fourth Level Fighter, Fifth Level Cleric

Strength: 14
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 10
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 14
Charisma: 16

Hit Points: 49
Armor Class:  6 Leather Armor and Shield

GP: 117  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 0 Gems: None  

Spells: Healing spells mostly. 
Languages: Common

Equipment: 

Hammer
Dagger
Crossbow

Alice Pack: 
2 canteens,
7 Days of Rations
Bedroll
Change of Clothes
Shoulder Bag
Map

Jane Peterson Third Level Druid

Strength: 14
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 10
Dexterity: 11
Constitution: 16
Charisma: 10

Hit Points: 20
Armor Class:  6 Leather Armor and Shield

GP: 117  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 0 Gems: None  

Spells: Druidic spells
Languages: Common, Phanton

Equipment: 

Dagger
Spear

Backpack:
6 Torches
Tinderbox 
2 Waterskins
2 Sacks
7 Days of Rations
Bedroll
Change of Clothes

The Petersons don't have magic items, but William has surrounded their treehouse with working mortars and tripwire flares to defend against dinosaurs. He can make excellent fire-starting tools like firebows and tinderboxes. Jane and Jenna know modern first aid and CPR. The villagers tend to avoid the "weird ones" but will bring the injured and sick to the family for assistance. The Phantons are on very good terms with the Petersons. 

Being a chemist, William has a cave to the west (2 hexes or 12 miles away) stocked with dangerous chemicals and a makeshift lab. Of course, some of this is Willy Pete. He does keep small amounts of materials closer to home, but since the house is wooden, he doesn't like to keep a lot around. 

Character Challenge 2026 - 10 Days Late - Nodonn, Human, Fighter, 4th level

 I've always meant to do the #CharacterChalllenge. And I always miss it. For 2026, I am going to try to catch up with two posts a day. 

Let's start with the overt commercial: 

I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials, but picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.

As before, I stole Nodonn from a book. Nodonn Battlemaster is a lord from the book The Nonborn King, a part of the Many-Coloured Land Series. He is an alien, but I cast him as a human. His people, the Tanu, are the prototype for Elves. The link above goes to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Nodonn Human Fourth Level Fighter 

Strength: 15
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 13
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 13
Charisma: 10

Hit Points: 33
Armor Class: 3 Ghosty Platemail (+1)

GP: 12  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 20 Gems: None  

Spells: None 
Languages: Common

Equipment: 

The Ghosty Armor (Plate)
Two-Handed Sword
Dagger
Bow and 24 Arrows

Backpack:
6 Torches
Tinderbox 
2 Waterskins
2 Sacks
7 Days of Rations
Bedroll
Change of Clothes
Shoulder Bag

Aside from the Ghosty Armor, the other special thing about Nodonn is that he is a human with elf-like features. 

Ah, Ghosty equipment is diabolical. 

I'll do a full write-up later, but the basics are: it is hard to perceive. It bothers people. It imparts bonuses because people can't see it. 

This is not magical armor, but high-tech armor. When I run X2, Castle Amber, I will see how well it works out. I have a couple of plans to make it work, plus a few fallbacks because I don't want a passive item to cause too many saving throws. 

We will see. 

Character Challenge 2026 - 10 Days Late - Ana Khouri, Post Human, Fighter, 4th level

I've always meant to do the #CharacterChalllenge. And I always miss it. For 2026, I am going to try to catch up with two posts a day. 

Let's start with the overt commercial: 

I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials but picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. 

Next topic: My campaign world is post-apocalyptic, so Ana Khouri is stolen from a series of science fiction novels, Revelation Space. This is a link to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Ana Khouri has travelled to the stars before returning home to Earth. She is thousands of years old, thanks to high-tech rejuvenation nanites and time dilation. She has been many things: spacer, soldier, mother, and assassin. 

Ana Khouri Fourth Level Fighter  

Strength: 15
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 11
Dexterity: 17
Constitution: 8
Charisma: 12

Hit Points: 32
Armor Class: 4 Elven Chain  

GP: 34  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 0 Gems: None  

Spells: None 
Languages: Common, Elvish, Halfling  

Equipment: 

Elven Chain Armor
The Ghosty Sword (+1)
Dagger
Bow and 24 Arrows

Backpack:
Lantern
4 flasks of oil
Tinderbox 
2 Waterskins
2 Sacks
7 Days of Rations 
1 Flask of Brandy
Bedroll

Special Abilities: Infravision, Starlight Vision, Max Hit Points per level, effectively immortal.

The "character sheet" above is adapted from the ones that appear in BSOLO - Ghost of Lion Castle. 

Since she is a post-human, I wanted to give her some special abilities without making them overpowered. She receives max hit points per level due to her nanites, despite having a low Constitution. Ana receives no bonus hit points for her stats and has lost the hit points she had in her various past lives. 

The nanites also make her immune to the spells Slow and Haste, for better or worse. Her vision is incredible. She can see in the dark like a starlight scope or use infravision. It takes a round to switch. She might be momentarily blinded by a sudden change in light levels, but she is quick to adapt. 

As mentioned in a prior post, Ana probably started with 18 in every stat, but these are slowly falling, leaving her pretty average. She is not subject to aging in the normal sense. Ana is effectively immortal unless killed by something. Ana was once an Assassin, but that was so long ago that she has forgotten all of those skills. Besides, that was another world or two ago. She doesn't have access to those types of high-tech weapons anymore.

Ana Khouri does have one high-tech weapon: The Ghosty Sword. It is a +1 Vorpal long sword. It has one other trait: it is hard to look at or focus on, improving the wielder's AC by 1. I will post more about Ghosty equipment because several of these new characters have them. 

Ana Khouri's daughter and several husbands are presumably alive, someplace out there, just not on Earth. She hopes to see them again someday, but doesn't have the means to search the galaxy for them. As you can imagine, this fact has created several weird conversations with the normal people of Earth. She only brings it up when speaking to true friends, and rarely at that. This topic of conversation gives her a headache. 

House Rule - The Magic of Magic Swords (Part 1)

Magic swords are special in my campaigns. In the various rule sets +1 swords are denoted as special, but aren't the first magic weapon the characters get their hands on. These special weapons and tools are found right in the equipment lists. 

Silver daggers, holy water and symbols, wolvesbane and garlic are all magical weapons. So why can't a player purchase a magic sword right from the get-go? 

Because it's annoying and unbalancing for players to get a bonus right of the gate. In my campaigns, I have a system in place to limit the use of magical weapons.

Being a history buff, magical equipment in my campaigns mirrors the idea of Cursus Honorum from ancient Rome. Sulla was an exiled Roman who managed to set himself up as dictator for life. Since his ultimate plan was to step down from power, he set up the Cursus Honorum to prevent other people from making the power grab he did. Basically, he set up a system of term limits, age and rank requirements for every level government. If one wanted to be a Concul, one need to be 42 years of age and must have held the rank of praetor. Every rank on the Curus Honorum had criteria for eligibility. 

Although not intended by Sulla, the Cursus Honorum created a concept of superiority. This came about when people coming up for office were elected to that office in their very first year of eligibility. This was referred to as "in your year". A praetor who was elected in his year put on the airs of being superior by virtue of nailing his election to office the first time he was eligible. He was better than a praetor who was elected later in life. 

Anyway, back to magic swords. In pretty much all versions of D&D actually have this concept baked in. On the to hit tables, characters are sorted by levels and their relative combat effectiveness. Fighters beat clerics who are better than the lowly magic user.The tables prefer actual skill (level) over a magical weapons. Each bracket improves the to hit roll by two. So a 3rd level fighter with a +1 sword is not better than a 4th level fighter with a non-magic sword. The only negative for a higher level fighter with a non-magic sword is the ability to hit magical creatures. 

In an effort to get around this in my campaigns, I count silver weapons as magical, whether or not they impart a bonus or not. In this way, a high level character can hit magical monsters with silver, rather than a magic one. I have to do less adjustments on my monsters and encounters, because I can just follow the to hit table to determine how hard the event will be. 

An additional house rule is, one must have "ranks" necessary to hold a plussed weapon. Anyone can hold silver, but characters must be within a specific band to hold a weapon with a bonus and of a higher band to use it. Sort of like, "in your year". 

Silver  1-3 levels
+1       4-6 levels
+2       7-9 levels
+3      10-12 levels
+4      13-15 levels
+5      16+ levels

I like this schedule as a first level fighter could be given an heirloom +1 sword but can't use it. They don't need to search for a great weapon, they have it. 

At levels 1-3, they can merely carry it. At level 4, they can use it. The sword will refuse to be drawn for low level characters. If the character somehow figures out a way to draw it, it operates in reverse in the hands of the unworthy. It imparts a minus. This simulates a battle of wills between the magic of the sword and the would-be wielder. In the case of an heirloom, the character is fighting the spirit of the former owner(s) for control. It still counts as magical, even if the magic is a detriment to the player. 

This method also creates a game logic to specific tools. Characters, especially fighters, have a mechanical way to assess weapons which is linked to the settings. 

(I have all kinds of wiley player who find ways to get swords out of containers. I'm ready for them.)

Please let me know what you think of the classic +1 sword in the comments below. 

Click here for part two and click here for part three of this series. 

The Post About Fighters

Gurwinder as Keeper

Welcome back. I haven't posted much about D&D and AD&D lately.

Gurwinder as Warrior

Let's fix that with some thoughts on fighters. In B/X D&D fighters were characters who specialized in putting their weapon on someone and hard. Exactly what kind of guy or gal he was was totally in the theater of the mind. They could be any kind of fighting man or woman.

Not so in AD&D. Fighters gained sub-classes, the ranger and the paladin. For years, no decades, I always thought of paladins as being the guys with great armor and heavy weapons and rangers were archers due to the their outdoorsy nature and good dexterity. Plain old fighters were a mix of the two, using a short bow, sword and board. While fighters might have horses that they use and care for, the paladin has a horse built into their character but rangers often had dogs and wolves as companions. And these animals were not so friendly company.

However, the big thing that sets rangers and paladins apart from fighters is their use of magic. Paladins have spiritual magic while rangers have arcane spells.

Not Venus Genetrix,
but Venus Bellatrix. 

In the campaign I have been playing, there is a fighter, Gurwinder A’flumine. She is a small woman with a bow and knife. She wears a stola, palla and tunic at all times. She is reserved and calm, but the player has done her best to make her the leader of a band of misfit rangers, mages and daredevils. There was no declaration of intent, but she leads from the front.

While I rolled her up and foisted her off on the player, that player accepted her as she was designed, a fighter. But as she played, the character changed.

A slight change her stats to that of a paladin mechanically alters very little, except retainers. Gurwinder would have a modest boost in strength and constitution, which would not change her combat stats. Her charisma would climb by 7, which is huge but not out of character as with a 10, she was the de facto leader of this motley band. She retains no monies for herself, has not sought a horse or armor, or even better weapons. This player has redefined how I thought of fighters and their subclasses since I began playing.

What do you think? Let me know if I should offer to retroactively reclass this character as a paladin in the comment below.

A Spaceship Study

Here are some draft ideas for a spaceship, perhaps a snub fighter. I will ink this one at some point but the design idea was fun verse realistic.

The initial design was rather slight.

A few details that I wanted to look at where the cockpit and shielding for the crew. The movable panels came from details of the drooping nose on the Concorde.

I decided to make the ship beefer. Those rounded rectangles are fuel tanks, not engines. Although parts are rounded, this ship is not aerodynamic. 

Each square is about a meter, so the ship stands 8 meters high. It is loaded out with 14 missiles, a centerline minigun and two large wing tip pods. There are 4 retractable radiators, the items with the 2x3 grids on them.

I hope to revisit this design again with ink, smoother lines and better proportions. This ship would be good in several rule sets like Traveller or Star Frontiers.