Wednesday, april 29, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 9
Fantasy game . .
Continued from Page 2
Player level also affects the dexterity, speed, intelli
gence and strength of a character-all play a part in how
much the character can carry in the way of treasure or
weapons. If the player is a magic user, the level affects
what type of spells he may cast.
During the course of a game, the player also can earn
his own riches (to buy horses, potent weapons, aid), learn
languages (including dragonese, wild horse, elfin) and con
tract new spells that may be necessary (like cure-disease,
fear, magic boxes), all of which come with levels.
AU of the written rules for D&D stem from Gygax's
four books, Hie Dungeon Masters' Guide, the Players'
Handbook, the Monster Manual and Deities and Demi
gods. According to Thaut, the rules are shaped just
enough so that the master still can vary the game at his
will.
Players attempt to become familiar with the handbook,
as well as the Monster Manual, since the master offers
only a limited description of exactly what they are facing,
and never tells them how to defeat it.
"Every monster you run across takes a lot of thought
and strategy to defeat," Sklenar said.
Sunday afternoon
Sklenar, a fourth-level ranger, plays D&D with several
other members of Harper Nine at Davis' apartment on
Sunday afternoons. A recent happening in their current
adventure lost them one of their regular players' charact
ers and almost his friendship.
"It happened like this," Hitch explained. "We had been
paid so much by this king to take a message to some elves
in the middle of a forest. First we ran into these stirgies
(giant mosquitos with fewer than nine points hit),
and then a pack of tigers. We didn't lose anybody, but our
hits were hurt enough so that when we got to the forest,
monsters hit us so hard there was no way we were all
going to live through it," Hitch said.
"But, somehow, the group survived through the first
attacks, but a Displacer Beast (panther-like animal with
snake-like appendages) rendered all but three of the group
unconscious.
"Finally, the stag beetles came at us," Hitch said. "We
had set up some logs to fall on anything that moved in,
but they missed. Then we brewed two of them with fire,
and there was just this one left."
The only hope was to ward the beetle away from the
camp.
However, player Brent Welch decided to attack the
beetle regardless of the odds and his own diminished hit
point count.
Only one blow
Tt only took one blow from the beetle to knock him
out," Hitch said. MI can't remember exactly what the
beetle did then, but I do know that we ran out, and more
or less, threw Welch at the beetle to satisfy him and lead
him away from the camp. It worked, because after he
chewed up Welch, he went away."
The action pleased everyone in the camp except for
Welch.
"I'm sure those guys fed me to the stag beetle. They
could have saved me, but what did they do? And after all
I did for them . . ." he said.
"Did he ever get mad at us after that," Hitch recalled.
"He went into Bob's bedroom and pouted till the rest of
us were finished. We went down to McDonalds' after that
and he still wouldn't speak to us. Even when he got over
glaring at us and ignoring us, that was all we heard for
weeks. We still hear about it."
The whole success of the game hinges on ow vivid
and real the player can make it, Alonzo said, and it's that
aspect Gygax thrives on.
A national tournament called "Gen Con" for D&D
players has been in existence since 1975. Miniature pieces
that the master can manipulate for a more realistic aspect
sell well, according to Thaut. These sell for between $10
and $200.
Despite bad publicity D&D got when a 15-year-old
Michigan State student disappeared while allegedly play
ing it in 1979, the game is still popular, at least on a cult
level.
"People like to imagine and get away from the real
world sometimes," Alonzo said.
i
Think Summer
Think jobs, vacations, and summer courses
you take with you.
If you want to earn college credit this sum
mer but you won't be on campus, the UNL
Division of Continuing Studies Independent
Study Program may be just right for you.
For information on the wide variety of
college credit courses that go where you do,
call 472-1933 or come to 5 1 1 Nebraska Hall.
K
Campti
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its academic, admissions or
employment programs and
abides by all federal regula
tions pertaining to same.
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