Chronicles of the Motley Force

In 2011, I started playing again, first running Ulthar for a while in Scott's campaign, where Rich (lower right) also plays. It was Scott (at rear) who originally taught Rich the game.

Later, I joined a couple of traditional gaming groups, where I played games like early editions of D&D, Castles & Crusades, and Empire of the Petal Throne. I also started attending conventions again, where I've been lucky enough to have had the chance to play with some of the legends of gaming.

In early 2016, I finally restarted the campaign I ran back in the early 80's in Sheboygan, based on the BX module The Lost City. For more information on that campaign, see the campaign summaries here (AD&D) and here (C&C) and my plans for a new Lost City campaign here.

From about 1992 to 2000, I played in a memorable Dungeons and Dragons campaign run by Rich Lotz, Dungeon Master Extraordinaire. Years later, I was thinking about the campaign, and out of curiosity, checked to see if I still had the notes I took (I usually brought a laptop with me). Surprisingly, there were quite a few, and I went through them to try and reconstruct what game narratives I could. Some of the files (originally written in Lotus WordPro for OS/2) were lost and had to be typed in from printed copies, some were typed in from barely-legible pencil notes, and some had to be reconstructed from word processor files using a hex editor (an old version of StarOffice, as nearly as I can tell). My character sheets and spell and item lists are also intact; the starting date on the character sheets is 1992-05-17.

Some game narratives are quite detailed, while in others, I obviously couldn't bear to tear myself away from the action long enough to take notes. For a few games, I found a sheet of paper with nothing more than a date and some hit point tallies and monster and treasure lists. In particular, there is little detail about Ulthar the Mage's beloved familiar Nimbus, the pseudo-dragon. This is indeed a pity, as the two were very close. I've included the notes from my favorite sessions below right.

Game Narratives

1994-10-29 The Battle on the Island

1995-08-06 Dinner with Pazuzu

1995-11-10 Gargantuan Brain Spiders

1996-01-13 Dernameth trashes our house

(including Ulthar's family history)

1998-04-25 Riding in Otiluke's Resilient Sphere

1998-08-22 Motley Force goes to Hell

Lufkin and Jupiter (the story of our guardian angels)

2000-07-22 The Pink Wall and the Illithid

At GenCon '95, Rich and I met the late Gary Gygax, the father of D&D, who posed with me for this Polaroid. I remember us telling him with pride that we only played First Edition.

Mr Gygax also kindly autographed most of my D&D rulebooks at various GenCons.

Portrait of The Motley Force (click to enlarge)

Dramatis Personae

Favorite character death: We were traveling by ship after a difficult battle, and Rich rolled for encounters: "You see a whale." Karnov, in a fit of exuberance, said "I attack the whale!", which of course turned out to be a killer whale, and combat ensued. Eventually Ulthar ran out of useful spells and item charges, and in desperation, tried the Wand of Wonder. The appropriate dice rolls were made... and a rhinoceros appeared on the deck of the ship. Its weight caused the ship to tilt sharply, and Windrush (who was wearing plate mail), failed a DEX check. She slid off the deck into the water, sank like a stone, and drowned. I don't remember what happened to the rhinoceros.

Ulthar is a male High Elf, 5'11" tall and weighing 53 pounds. He is 212 years old (not yet entered into middle age). His hair, however, has been turned entirely white due to his part in the assembly of the Rod of Seven Parts. There is one scar on the right side of his head from a spike trap on a scroll tube, and another where a mind flayer split his head open and almost ate his brain. There is a small pitchfork tattoo 1" long on the back of his neck just below the hairline (the mark of the Aquarian Elves). He has green eyes. His left ear was bitten off by a demon. He has a scar on his right forearm where another demon ate some of his flesh; on the left forearm is a life-size blue and black tattoo of a dagger (which can detach to become a real dagger +3). His right index finger has been changed into a talon (which can cast Feeblemind three times per day).

Although he originally dressed very conservatively in a grey hooded robe, he currently wears the white Robe of the Archmage. Underneath, he has taken to dressing in the Talislantan style, with a black leather vest and dark blue "M.C. Hammer" pantaloons, which look totally cool on him.

He typically carries several wands or staves, and currently wears an elaborate pair of bracers made of platinum, each with a huge diamond mounted in it.