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In a shocking turn of events, Im actually writing my April column during the last week of March, rather than the first week of March as I would prefer to do. Alas, our Harried Editor is probably wondering if the Demons of Procrastination have possessed me as they have done so many of the other staff writers here at Collector Times. Well, if they have, they have not succeeded yet in getting me to wait until the absolute last minute! This is still being written with a WHOLE WEEK left in March!
Since my last installment, weve played our second game of AD&D. While the loot from the second adventure was nil, we did manage to score enough EXP points to LEVEL UP! Whoo Hoo! This means that I am no longer a dinky 1st level Gnome Sorcerer. I am now (fan fare, please) a dinky 2nd level Gnome Sorcerer. So, when my daughter and son in law came over this past week for dinner so we could give them their Anniversary presents, I took the opportunity to "Level up" my character with the "expert" on hand to ask questions of.
Allow me to indulge in a little "side topic" here. Another thing Ive learned rather quickly in this game is that one should always take care of ones GM. It does not take long in the game to realize that the GM is, for all intents and purposes, the god of the game. If the GM decides that fire from heaven flashes down and consumes your character on the spot, it happens. Therefore, it pays to keep your GM happy. Treat your GM like a god, and things should go better for you in game, at least theoretically. How does one treat a god? Well, there are sacrifices of "service". "Service" can be anything menial that requires doing, such as schlepping numerous loads of stuff from an old apartment to a new one. On this note, it pays to check out a GM before playing a game with them. If your "candidate" GM happens to collect large, heavy objects and moves frequently, its probably a good idea to find another GM to play with, unless you just happen to like schlepping stuff from location to location for someone. If, by some strange quirk, your candidate GM also used to be a Drill Instructor for any of the Military branches, run for the nearest exit, lest you find yourself with some heavy object playing "Pick it up! Put it down! Pick it up!
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Another historical service given to the gods were the "meal offerings". Treating your GM to dinner is always a good way to help be sure theyre in a good mood before the game. If youre a good cook (or happen to be married to one) invite them over for a nice home cooked meal. If youre not a good cook, be sure to order some good "take out" to serve to them. Bringing a bag of "Big Macs" to the game to feed your GM is likely a good way to bring about the "Fire from heaven" mentioned before. A good quality pizza is a much better choice. Here again, doing a "background check" on GM candidates is a wise move. If the candidate has been banned from every "All You Can Eat" buffet in town, youre probably not going to want to try feeding them into a favorable disposition, and refusing to feed them is again inviting that "fire from heaven" stuff. Look for a GM who, about three quarters through one plate of food, starts protesting that theyre stuffed and couldnt eat another bite. Your grocery budget will thank you.
Still another form of service was in handiwork. You can make your GM happy by offering them unique, crafted items suited for them, such as Renaissance Faire Costumes and accessories such as "wizards staffs". Here again, if you discover that a GM candidate has aspirations of dressing as Henry the Eighth or Joan of Arc for the Ren Faires, you might be better moving on to more modest aspiring GMs. Royal vestments or female armor either one will monopolize your crafting time so much, you likely wont even have time to play the game. By the time youve completed the task and won the favor of your GM, theyve moved on and youre starting all over again with a new GM candidate.
Of course, we cannot forget the offerings. Giving appropriate gifts to your GM can be very helpful. "Appropriate" here means that you give gifts when its proper to do so, such as birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. Giving gifts at improper times can mean that youre treading a fine line between showing affection and appreciation, and teetering over into "sucking up" and bribery. While some GMs may actually like the latter aspects, its best to avoid those kind of people when searching for your game group. This is especially true if your last name is not "Gates" or "Trump", or if your dont happen to be the favored offspring of a Mid-East Oil Sheik.
Now that weve made our GM happy and thus have high hopes of her looking favorably upon us, we can resume the process of leveling up our character. Leveling up is kind of like a child turning from one year old to two years old. To everyone else, its not much different, but to the child, it seems like a big step. You know, like going from "Pampers" to "Pull ups". Youre still in diapers, but at least it sounds better. My first "step" in leveling up was to roll the 4 sided die to see how many "hit points" I would gain from this. Since my Gnome Sorcerer had only 4 HP to begin with, a good roll on this one was very important to me. Surprisingly, I rolled "4" on the first try. You see, that was part of currying the GMs favor, because if Id rolled a "1", itd be nice to have the GM say, "That roll sucked. Roll it again!" (If your GM is unhappy with you, expect to hear them say, "Too bad. You get a whopping 1 increase on your HP for this level up!"). I was surprised that this was the only "random" factor in leveling up. I figured Id have to roll at least a couple of more dice before the process was finished. (Feel free at this juncture to point and laugh and say, "What a n00b! Didnt know how to level up!!!")
Part of my leveling up was selecting a new spell to "know". As a 2nd level character, I get to know one more 0th level spell than I knew as a 1st level character. This is another lesson in the game. 1st level spells are nothing special, and 0th level are even worse. Im not sure yet how high Ill need to get before the magic my character commands will be something really powerful. For now, I remain more of a "nuisance" factor to any enemies we encounter, as opposed to being a serious threat. For my new spell, I picked the ever popular "detect poison". At least its something that might prove useful when the time comes that were prowling dungeons. Or, when my fellow players have gotten tired of dragging around a dinky Gnome Sorcerer and start offering me boxes of candy and such.
Next came adding "skill points". With my stats, I had 6 points I could distribute across the skills table. Deciding whether to bolster existing "dinky" skills, or adding new skills, became another place of questioning. After a little discussion, I decided it was better to bolster my existing skills than add others that would still not be high enough to be useful. So, 2 points each to "Concentration", "Hide", and "Spellcraft". Currently, my highest skill is "Hide", which, when youre dinky and have only 8 hit points, can be very important. When the Barbarian realizes that the "Candygram for Mr. Hoomi" didnt work, its helpful to hide from his battleaxe until he cools down again.
The other increases I realized were somewhat basic. My "Will Save" went from a measly 2 to a whopping 3, my "Ranged Attack" went from 1 to 2, and the number of spells I can cast per day went from five 0th level and four 1st level to six 0th level and five 1st level. That last increase may be one of the most valuable, along with the HP increase, of anything that leveling up did for me. I'll find out next time we play whether being a 2nd level character is much better than being a 1st level character. See you then.
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