H. M. Hoover's The Delikon Review

Title: The Delikon

Author: H. M. Hoover
Year: 1977
Pages: 148 pages
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ten year old Atla, 12 year old Jason and 307 year old Varina are children in the palace at the time of the coup. H. M. Hoover likes hooks like that, and this hook is fabulous.

Not all that is described is as it is. Hoover weaves a tale of an alien teacher guarding her charges as the world turns upside-down. Her prose is sanitary, succinct as is the world these characters exist in. As a Young Adult book should be as it is meant for children.

The focus of the story is the many dilemmas faced by Varina as she tries to guide her charges to safety. Varina's people have reshaped Earth's society and reshaped Varina to navigate between these societies. This creates a number of problems as Varina protects her charges in a place between two worlds-gone-wild.

This book holds itself against progress as the technology described is either utterly fantastic or totally pedestrian, with solid plot and story reasoning for both.

The Delikon is a drama, pasted on top of a world that could be utterly violent. The reader, like Alta and Jason are effectively screened from the violence of the world, while still being touched by the urgency and import of such events.

The Delikon is a wonderful read, a quick page turner. I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Books by H. M. Hoover on AbeBooks.

AD&D Spell Magic User - Aware Air

Aware Air

Level: 3                                                                                                    Components: V, S, M
Range: 0                                                                                                   Casting time: 1 segments
Duration: 6 rounds                                                                                 Saving Throw: None
Area of Effect: 36"

Being caught in melee is an occupational hazard for magic users. Aware Air gives the spell caster a supernatural ability to track threats out to 36" (360 feet indoors, 360 yards outdoors). Casting the spell takes but a single segment, but precludes attacks and other magic for the round of casting and the next round.

Aware Air will alert the magic user to moving targets in a 360 degree sphere, regardless of line of sight or illumination. This awareness gives them a bonus of 1 to AC and also means that moving targets cannot flank or sneak up behind them, even if hiding or invisible. They can't see details of the invisible person, only the fact that something is there. The spell will give the caster a bonus of 1 against illusions as it is one more point of data to allow them to disbelieve it.

The caster is aware of trees, bushes, etc. moving in the wind but will filter them out as non-threats. If the caster is in a body of water, they can only see above the surface. Moving liquids are opaque to this spell. Casting this spell underwater is ineffective, however it will create a sphere of airy water for two rounds before dissipating, out to 36". 

The caster is NOT aware of non-moving targets. They cannot see barriers, meaning there could be a wall between them and the tracked target. In respect to flanking and backstabbing, if the enemy is already in position, within reach to attack and motionless, the mage will NOT see it coming. They do keep the bonus to AC. Likewise, the spell doesn't reveal traps because they typically don't move until sprung.

Creatures that teleport cause the caster duress, they will jumps-startle when something teleports within the sphere of the spell. This completely breaks their concentration. Blink dogs are particularly distressing. When fighting Displacer Beasts, the mage will see two copies of the creature and will be unable to detect which is real until someone either makes or fails a strike on the beast. If an Air Elemental is within the range of the spell, it will be the ONLY target tracked. Air Elementals in range of the spell can speak directly to the caster, as if they are whispering in their ear.

If the caster moves faster than a jog, they can only detect targets to their front and in their path of travel. If the caster stops running, the spell becomes a spherical effect again.

The material component is a feather plucked from a living bird. Found feathers do not count.

Never, Ever Do I Ever... Horses, Drownings and First Aid.

I never let my characters have a skill called "horsemanship", "swimming" or "first aid". Know why? Killing a player because they don't have these skills is painful. Boring. Nothing is worse than being in bored and in pain. I wrote a book just for that reason. 

If a player wants to role play that they can't ride a horse, the other players can cart him around like a bag of oats. No need for silly rolls. I'm not prepping a campaign for players where one of them wants to die of a horseshoe to the face.

How hard it is it to jump in the ocean in a full set of plate armor, shield and sword? Super easy. Why roll? It's obvious as to what happens next.

One time, I amused myself with this very scenario by having the player to roll a four to succeed. As an epic battle of life and death raged around him, he was the only person not in on the joke.

"No... you're still aliv- er, hanging in there... keep rolling..."

I have this rule that characters aren't dead until they hit -10 hp and once you hit zero or less, you lose one point per round. Anyone attending to that character stops to the hit point drop. It creates an interesting scenario where the wizard drops to -4 hp, and all the way down to -7 before the cleric hits him with a cure light wounds for 4 points leaving them at -3 until they heal naturally. It's a couple of days before the wizard wakes up.

No need to screw any of the characters by telling them the medic couldn't figure out the arrow was the problem due to a bad roll. This is realistic for some reasons and total BS for others. In the Middle Ages, if you didn't respond to treatment, they'd bleed you. Save vs. Barber? No thanks.

Why do this? Because I like to reuse bad guys. A dude with a club isn't assured of killing someone with it unless they beat that person downed and beyond. If THAT doesn't occur to the players, well, I can be lazy with their enemies and they can have endless rematches with opponents. My NPCs can have names.

Which is more legendary, beating someone to death in a dark, dank, dungeon or having a horde of people who refuse to fight you because they don't want to be whupped again, third time this month? 

In my last aborted campaign, the "heroes" hacked apart 4 raiders that wouldn't surrender and took two captive. The captives were obviously intimidated by the PC's bloodthirsty treatment of their friends. Although the campaign ended, one of the players put two and two together and realized that the prisoners were the ones responsible for most... actually all of the raiding parties kills in the village. The 4 guys killed were a patrol that didn't mix it up with anyone. They let the wrong people live.

Trust me, that would have come back to haunt the party.

The lesson is, don't give people stupid skills.

#Inktober2019 collision - D&D meets Ink

This is an inktober2019 collision. I've been working on a map of a Roman themed city called Nace for a D&D campaign. The characters found a villa, but I really didn't have any idea of what it looked like. 

I tried a couple of sketches and mostly liked the results. I don't know why my scanner is clipping the edge. If I get time, I will update these scans.

#Inktober2019 Update - Tiny maps

I'm still working on Inktober projects. I have started doing tiny maps. Sometimes, when you are working on a large product, taking a break and doing something against the grain is helpful or at least destressing.

This is a motte and bailey castle layout, as yet uninked.

It's a copy of one of my dad's castles, a type of shell keep. While it won't end up in one of my D&D campaigns, the finished item could be good for yours. I'll scan it when I'm done.

Enjoy. 

Update: