Sunday, January 4, 2026

[2E AD&D] Elf Mage/Thief Spelljack Kit

So weird thing here, I'm actually playing in the first 2E Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign I've played in, in like, 25 years. I am having a good time playing an elf mage/thief named Indel Silverleaf

However, I note that the only kit for elf mage/thieves is the "Spellfilcher" (such an... unfortunate name) which kind of sucks. 

So, I've made an equally poorly named kit, the Spelljack, and am awaiting DM approval. 

It has been so long since I've played 2E I've no idea if it is properly "balanced" or not. Those of you who play 2E please let me know...

Spelljack Kit
An Elven Mage/Thief Kit

Bonus Weapon Proficiencies: Dagger.

Bonus Non-Weapon Proficiencies: Appraising, Reading/Writing, Spellcraft.

Arcane Trapmaster. Unlike normal thieves, your magical talent allows you to use your full find and remove traps skills on magical traps; these skills are not halved for you when you are looking for or disarming magical traps.

These can be trap-like spells (such as explosive runes, fire trap, and so forth) and more esoteric traps that have magical aspects or deal magical damage.

Additionally, you can increase the chance to find a magical trap, and if found remove the magical trap, by expending a memorized spell. You add 10% to your chance of success at each for every level of the expended spell (the bonus applies to both find and remove the same trap).

Spellblade. You are able to enchant a dagger into a spellblade. This requires one hour and the expenditure of 50 gp of magical unguents, oils, and reagents for every level of experience you possess as a mage. You can use the spellblade to spelljack spells from spellcasters (see below).

The spellblade also counts as a magical weapon for purposes of hitting monsters that require a magical weapon to hit but has no bonuses (you can enchant a magical dagger as your spellblade).

Your spellblade loses this enchantment if you roll a Natural 1 on your saving throw when you make a spelljack attempt; if you roll a Natural 1 on an attack against a creature that requires a magic weapon to hit; if it is subjected to a dispel magic or antimagic field; or if another spellcaster takes the spellblade and holds it for more than 10 minutes.

You begin play with a spellblade already enchanted. You cannot have more than one spellblade enchanted at a time.

Spelljack. You can attempt to siphon a spell away from your target and use it for yourself.

When you hit a spellcasting target with a successful attack with your spellblade, you can choose to forgo dealing damage in order to attempt to steal a memorized spell from the target.

Spelljack has no effect on innate spell-like abilities.

You can choose which spell to steal if you know that the spellcaster has it memorized; otherwise, the DM determines the stolen spell randomly.

You can automatically steal a spell of a level you can cast.

You can attempt to steal a spell of a higher level with a successful saving throw versus Spells, with a penalty equal to the level of the spell. If you roll a Natural 1 on this saving throw, you suffer 1d6 points of damage per level of the spell you attempted to steal via internalization of the magic.

The target of a successful spelljack attack loses the spell from memory; they can memorize the spell and use the spellcasting slot as normal after the usual amount of rest.

You retain a spelljacked spell in your memory for up to 1 hour per level; you can cast the spell once. Once the spell has been cast or the time expires, the spell fades from your memory. You cannot add a spelljacked spell to your spellbook nor scribe it onto a scroll.

At any one time, you can possess a maximum number of stolen spell levels equal to your class level. For instance, at 4th level you can have two stolen 2nd-level spells, or one 2nd-level spell and two 1st-level spells, or any other combination of spells totaling four levels. If you steal a spell that would exceed this limit, you must choose to lose stolen spells sufficient to reduce the total number of stolen spell levels to no more than your maximum.

If your maximum number of stolen spell levels is less than the level of the spell you just stole, you suffer damage from the spell as though you had rolled a Natural 1 on your save, as above.

Spontaneous Casting. You can expend a memorized spell to cast a detect magic or read magic spell. The spell is cast at your level as a mage. You gain no additional benefit if you expend a 2nd level or higher spell to cast the spell.

Oh... and yes, my character is modeled after this Indel...



Thursday, January 1, 2026

Happy New Year! Here's to a New Year of Gaming!

Well, I'm back.

For now, at least.

I'm not one to make New Year's Resolutions, so I'm not going to, but I hope to be present on this blog at least once a week in 2026, maybe even more often.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to focus on game play more, and engagement in gaming as a hobby more, so for now, I'm setting aside James Mishler Games and concentrating on those other aspects of gaming -- though the writing bug strikes me from time to time, so who knows.

Right now, I am playing in two games. It has been a long time since I've just played rather than DM'ed!

Weekly (or thereabouts) I am playing in an online Shadowdark campaign with some old, old friends (some of them the guys I games with in Middle School). It is a weird, alien style fantasy campaign world, so that is totally new.

Twice monthly I am playing in a local, in-person 2E AD&D campaign. I have not played 2E in more than 25 years. The differences between it and 1E/ALL are really minimal, though one surprising difference that bit me in the ass was that multi-classed magic-user/thieves cannot wear normal thief armor, only elven chain! That was a surprise. But it has been a fun game so far, I am really enjoying it.

I plan on playing in more games, if I can finagle it. I would like to avoid DMing for now, as I "recharge" my gaming batteries by playing.

I also got the chance to play some Star Wars - Battle of Hoth by Days of Wonder. I love the Commands & Colors system, and hope to play more Hoth, and maybe Memoir '44 and others, in the new year.

I hope to post here regularly; about the games I am in (with DM permission) and other gaming stuff. I feel the need to engage in gaming qua gaming, so we will see how it goes.

Good gaming in 2026!



Saturday, November 22, 2025

James Mishler Games OSR Gobble-Them-Up Sale!

OSR Gobble-Them-Up Sale

In honor of the delicious sacrifice our fowl turkey friends are making this season, all James Mishler Games products are 33% off! 

Enjoy extra helpings of OSR goodness!

Go to the sale on DriveThruRPG!



 

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

[RPGPOTA] Planet of the Apes Hexcrawl Map in Progress

I love the new Planet of the Apes RPG. It is awesome! As I posted elsewhere:

The game design is a modified version of the West End Games D6 System used with the original Star Wars RPG. It cleaves fairly closely to that system, making a few adjustments due to the less tech-oriented nature of the setting. It is a skills-based system, where you roll a set of d6s based on your attribute and subskill, seeking to match or exceed a target number. You choose your race and skill set when you start play, then improvement continues with skill use or practice and training. As with Star Wars, this system works very well with a cinematic style of play. Characters suffer damage as wounds rather than as hit points, for example, with effects that adjust their abilities in play.

It hits the sweet spot of balance of system and setting; the authors really, REALLY know and love the POTA (I've been a fan since before Star Wars, have seen all the movies and TV shows, read all the comics and books, etc., so I can tell they REALLY know their stuff). The knowledge and love of the material really comes through.

Adventure and campaign style and direction can vary greatly, depending on which era you set your campaign and what your mix of characters are. The eras span everything from all the films, from the 1970s to the 40th Century. The RPGPOTA core book provides all the basics needed to run a game and start your own campaign; The ANSA Files sourcebook provides all the details, including amazing depth of history, tech, and NPCs, for all five films.

There are hints from the comic book and the live-action TV show as well, but those are not delved into in any great depth.

There are several primary character types: Apes, Modern Humans (Astro-nauts in the far future), Primitive Humans (the mute humans from the first two films), and Mutants (from Beneath). Guidance is provided for groups of one or mixed types, and all sorts of adventures can be had.

You could, for example, run Escape from the Planet of the Apes with your own ape characters! You could run Conquest or Battle with a mix of allied apes and humans. You could run Planet and Beneath with your own Astro-nauts. Or develop something in-between, like the TV series or even the animated TV series... the possibilities are endless, and between the core RPGPOTA book and The ANSA Files, you have everything you need for infinite campaigns or adventures.

Into the Forbidden Zone is a boxed set campaign that provides even further information on the Forbidden Zone, a complete series of campaign adventures, and a ton of additional random tables and other information to develop even further adventures and campaigns.

Like any other RPG, it is whatever you make of it. You can create one-off adventures, a series of related adventures, a sandbox campaign -- whatever you and your players want to do. You could even use the Star Wars RPG or other D6 System based RPGs to add in other flavors... maybe the POTA is actually a planet in the Star Wars Galaxy. Maybe instead of mutants, there are super-heroes? Maybe you can add magic, and the orangutans are real priests with magic spells, and there are chimp wizards?

The RPGPOTA provides enough to make your own campaign; The ANSA Files gives you everything you need to fit that campaign or any adventure perfectly into the frames of any movie (with your PCs as the new stars or as new side characters); and Into the Forbidden Zone provides a solid example of how to design and run a campaign.

Essentially, if you love POTA, you MUST HAVE THIS! If you like science-fiction in general, especially PA sci-fi books or games (such as Gamma World), this is also a must-buy.

And here is my WIP on a campaign map in the area of the original POTA (New York). Scale is 5 kilometers/3 miles per hex:

POTA Map of Simia and the Eastern Forbidden Zone
Right click to embiggen


Sunday, August 31, 2025

Expanded Random Appendix N Campaign Concept Generator

Trey over at From the Sorcerer's Skull posted a Random Appendix N Campaign Concept Generator, and I took it and ran with it, expanding out the list to include sub-tables for each of the 20 authors (or author combos), plus I included Robert E Howard (I collapsed L. Sprague de Camp with the "L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt" entry).

Warning: My choices and emphases for each author might not match your own.

AUTHOR (d20)
1 Abraham Merritt
2 De Camp & Pratt
3 Edgar Rice Burroughs
4 Fred Saberhagen
5 Fritz Leiber
6 Gardner Fox
7 H.P. Lovecraft
8 J.R.R. Tolkien
9 Jack Vance
10 Leigh Brackett
11 Lin Carter
12 Lord Dunsany
13 Margaret St. Clair
14 Manly Wade Wellman
15 Michael Moorcock
16 PJ Farmer
17 Poul Anderson
18 Robert E. Howard
19 Roger Zelazny
20 Sterling Lanier

ABRAHAM MERRITT (d10)
1 Burn, Witch, Burn!
2 Creep, Shadow!
3 Dwellers in the Mirage
4 Seven Footprints to Satan
5 The Face in the Abyss
6 The Metal Monster
7 The Moon Pool
8 The Ship of Ishtar
9-10 Short Story

L. SPRAGUE DE CAMP AND/OR FLETCHER PRATT* (d20)
* Mostly

1 Genus Homo (de Camp & P. Schuyler Miller)
2 Invaders from Rigel (Pratt)
3-4 Krishna/Viagens Interplanetarias Series (de Camp)
5 Land of Unreason (de Camp & Pratt)
6 Lest Darkness Fall (De Camp)
7-8 Novarian Series (de Camp)
9-10 Pusadian Series (de Camp)
11 Tales from Gavagan’s Bar (de Camp & Pratt)
12 The Blue Star (Pratt)
13 The Carnelian Cube (de Camp & Pratt)
14-16 The Compleat Enchanter Series (de Camp & Pratt)
17 The Glory That Was (de Camp)
18 The Well of the Unicorn (Pratt)
19 Short Story by de Camp
20 Short Story by Pratt

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS (d6)
1 Barsoom Series
2 Caspak Series
3 Pellucidar Series
4 Tarzan Series
5 Venus Series
6 Other Works

FRED SABERHAGEN (d6)
1 Berserker Series
2 Books of Swords/Lost Swords Series
3 Books of the Gods Series
4 Dracula Series
5 Empire of the East Series
6 Other Works

FRITZ LEIBER (d6)
1-3 Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Series
4-5 Gather, Darkness!
6 Other Works

GARDNER FOX (d8)
1-4 Kothar Series
5-6 Kyrik Series
7 Llarn Series
8 Other Works (including DC/Marvel Comics)

H.P. LOVECRAFT (d6)
1-3 General Mythos
4-5 Dreamlands
6 Other Works

J.R.R. TOLKIEN (d8)
1-4 The Hobbit
5-6 The Lord of the Rings
7 The Silmarillion
8 Other Works

JACK VANCE (d12)
1-3 The Dying Earth Series
4-5 Lyonesse Series
6-7 The Demon Princes Series
8 The Cadwal Chronicles
9 Alastor Series
10 Durdane Series
11 Tschai Series
12 Other Works

LEIGH BRACKETT (d6)
1-3 Mars & Venus Series
4-5 Skaith Series
6 Other Works

LIN CARTER (d20)
1 Callisto Series
2-4 Gondwane/World’s End Series
5 Hautley Quicksilver Series
6 Tales of the Near Stars Series
7-9 Terra Magica Series
10 The Chronicles of Kylix Series
11 The Green Star Series
12 The History of the Great Imperium Series
13 The Mysteries of Mars Series
14-16 Thongor of Valkarth Series
17-18 Zanthodon Series
19 Zarkon – Lord of the Unknown Series
20 Other Works

LORD DUNSANY (d20)
1-9 The Pegana Series
10-13 The King of Elfland’s Daughter
14-16 The Chronicles of Shadow Valley
17-18 The Blessing of Pan
19 The Last Revolution
20 Other Works

MARGARET ST. CLAIR (d6)
1-3 Sign of the Labrys
4-5 The Shadow People
6 Other Works

MANLY WADE WELLMAN (d8)
1-3 Hok the Mighty Series
4-6 Silver John Series
7 John Thunstone Series
8 Other Works

MICHAEL MOORCOCK (d10)
1 Elric Series
2 Corum Series
3 Hawkmoon Series
4 Cornelius Series
5 Von Bek Series
6 Erekosë Series
7 Sojan Series
8 Kane Series
9 Jherek Carnelian Series
10 Other Works

PJ FARMER (d6)
1 World of Tiers Series
2 Riverworld Series
3 Khorkarsa Series
4 Dayworld Series
5 Dark is the Sun
6 Other Works

POUL ANDERSON (d20)
1 After Doomsday
2 Brain Wave
3 Hoka Series
4 King of Ys Series
5 Maurai and Kith Series
6-7 Operation Otherworld Series
8 Polesotechnic/Terran Empire/Long Night Series
9 Psychotechnic League Series
10 Question and Answer
11 Rustum Series
12-13 The Broken Sword/Hrolf Kraki’s Saga
14 The High Crusade
15 The Last Viking
16 The Merman’s Children
17-18 Three Hearts and Three Lions
19 Time Patrol Series
20 Other Works

ROBERT E. HOWARD (d6)
1 Conan Series
2 Kull Series
3 Bran Mak Morn Series
4 Cormac Mac Art Series
5 Solomon Kane Series
6 Other Works

ROGER ZELAZNY (d6)
1 Chronicles of Amber Series
2 Dilvish the Damned Series
3 Lord of Light
4 Damnation Alley
5 Jack of Shadows
6 Other Works

STERLING LANIER
1-3 Hiero Desteen Series
4-5 Brigadier Ffellowes
6 Other Works