Monday, December 24, 2018

12 Blog Posts of December: Day 5: Baum's Santa Stories Are Perfect Fodder For RPGs



On the first day of my 12 Blog Posts of December I gave to thee, my take-aways from my very first halberd-wielding D&D PC. On the second day of my 12 Blog Posts of December I gave to thee, my five take-aways from the first Tier 2 Season 8 module. On the third day of my 12 Blog Posts of December I gave to thee, a polymorphed PC fighter smashing things as a triceratops.


Told you, I would begin with a more festive opening!


Tonight's Christmas Eve.  It's also Day 5 of my 12 Blog Posts of December.


Through social media, I've learned a gamer on Patreon is adapting the characters from L. Frank Baum (the creator of the Wizard of Oz and other Oz stories) Santa Claus stories to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons stats.


Admittedly I've never Baum's Santa stories. I do have fond memories of watching the 1985 Christmas special adaptation of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus as a kid. Compared to other Christmas specials for kids it was dark and sophisticated. Santa along with his supernatural and mundane (if you count a lioness as mundane) companions contended with goblin-ish and demonic-like creatures in order to spread cheer to the children of the Laughing Valley. They had to use their cunning and their wits against a more formidable foe culminating in an epic battle. Perfect inspiration for Table-top role-playing games!


Found out after years of playing Dungeons & Dragons that the creator of Oz wrote the story that inspired the special that enthralled me as a kid.


It's been a long time since I lost saw it. The copy I enthusiastically watched was on VHS; and I never picked up a DVD replacement. Alas, I've only found a couple clips on YouTube. Here they are:


Opening credits:








Another clip featuring dialogue:








Pretty epic stuff!


There's also a clip featuring the song 'A Child'; but I never cared for the segment and the one lone weakness of the special in my eyes.




Despite not being able to watch the 1985 special, the story is available in the Public Domain. If you're not picky about formatting, you read the story and a sequel short story on Gutenberg for free. Here are links for The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus and A Kidnapped Santa Claus. File choice is left open to you.


Now that I've referenced the source material, time for the links to D&D 5E stats.


I have never sponsored anyone on Patreon before. However, reading an example of Armies of the Christmas War, which adapts the Immortals (Santa's allies) and Awgwas (the bad guys) to 5E stats both as monsters and PC races attracts my interest. For instance here is the Nymph. Baum's nymph differs from the Greek mythology and D&D nymph as you can see. Based on my memory, the adaptation seems to fit the material. The stat block appears complete enough. The PC race looks cool although based on what's been provided for free more fleshing out is needed. For nostalgia's sake, I am definitely interested in this. Cause as an Adventurers League player, I am unlikely to ever use the PDF collecting everything...


If on the other hand, you only want to use the Awgwas as traditional D&D foes and you're not quite willing to shell out the money for the Patreon material, there is another way. The very same author has provided re-skins (adapting existing D&D 5E monster stats) simulating them. Just hop on over to EN World. As aside, I am an old, old, old member of the forum dating back to Eric Noah's D&D 3E spoiler page! I haven't frequented the page in a very, very long time partially because I forgot my password and stubbornly refused to re-set it. The site went through a complete overhaul. Note: it's not an https site if you're concerned about security...


Here is the Santa War: Army of the Awgwas.


Overall, I am quite pleased with the re-skins. Never read the story? Never watched the special? No worries. Each foe is described. Following the recommendations, the PCs can match sword and spells against the Awgwas!


Should I become a Patreon supporter and thus download the PDF, I will provide a review.


Therein ends Day 5. Only seven consecutive days more of blogging to go.


Merry Christmas Eve!

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