Gnolls

The ultimate modder's challenge...

Sturmgeschutz & Sorcery...

Once upon a time, E. Gary Gygax did an adventure involving a time rift outside of the stronghold of an Evil High Priest. The opposing forces were a patrol of the German SS. The battle was designed for and conducted with table-top miniatures, which goes back into the earliest days of the D&D history. Mr. Gygax wrote an article on the ensuing melee which was entitled "Sturmgeshutz & Sorcery, or How effective is a panzerfaust against a Troll, Heinz?" It's a rather lengthy affair, so I don't think I'll go into all of it here. The servants of the "Gatherer" (a communist euphemism, perhaps?) forced the SS patrol to retreat, and they were equipped with an Armored Car (20mm cannon), 2 Half-tracks, 3 light machine guns, 3 panzerfausts, a 60 mm mortar, flamethrower, and assorted small arms. 31 "modern" men vs. a 12th level EHP, 2 4th level fighters, a 6th level magic user, 2 mummies, 3 ghouls, 3 ogres, 4 trolls, and 19 orcs. Great stuff! I liked it so much that I wrote a dungeon for my friends to play based on the post Gulf War world, involving weapons inspectors, Iraqi WMD, and a technology based on "The Philadelpia Experiment". A hole was torn in the fabric of the multi-verse when a small nuclear device was tested under an electromagnetic invisibility shield; this allowed magic to exist in a technological world, and vice-versa. In order to fix it and return home, the PC's had to figure out what was going on and put an end to it. T-72's and BMP's with Republican Guards vs. our high-level party of adventurers...ah, the good old days.

Too bad someone can't mod a tank...

 

Actually I didn't, I knew about being able to bribe them so I snuck up to the leader and tried to talk to him...unfortunately he took one look at me attacked me. Maybe he found me too ugly with my charisma of 7. Either way, who has fireball at the moat house? I could barely cast magic missle.