Holmes For The Holidays

I was planning on running Holmes Ed. D&D for my family this weekend.  I really want to start out with B1: In Search of the Unknown, and while doing so web searches I found a wealth of information on this one module.  I may postpone a week just so I can take in some of these extra fan-made work.  Lots of great stuff compiled on Zenopus Archives  and D&D Shack has a great map of Quasketon Tower.  I'm really not sure why the tower was mentioned in the original material but wasn't mapped out?  Then again maybe it was meant to be left up in the air.

I'm looking forward to running the B series and hope to bring in "The Keep on the Borderlands" and others in as well for the campaign.

All's Quiet On The Blogging Front ...

... but not for long.  I've been occupied with other things, but will eventually get back on the horse.  I'm happy to say my hiatus was due to some illustration related work I was able to be a part of.  I've been doing some illustrations for the upcoming release of Judge's Guild's "City State of the Invincible Overlord"!  This to me is a dream come true, I've been an admirer of their products since I cut my teeth on role-playing back in the 80s, and to be a part of the City State is just great!

Alright, no more gushing but I am really excited for this release!

Meta Humans In A Swords and Sorcery Campaign: Elves

Many of the OSR publications boast how they draw from "Sword & Sorcery" literature rather than "High Fantasy". Which has always left me wondering why Meta Humans like Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, etc. have been included in the rules if they're mostly absent in the literature that has inspired them?

Now that was just a rhetorical question, I know the reason. But I think that the classic "High Fantasy" races can be handled in a "Sword & Sorcery" style. Here's my ideas on Elves (Aelfar or Vanir, I use them interchangeably).

Elves are reclusive from humanity and they somewhat despise mankind for encroaching on their lands and the exploitation of nature. Elves are terrible spirits of nature and can be wild and unpredictable as the weather. With power over the forces of nature they sometimes sending wolves and eagles to harass human settlements. They meet human adventurers with distrust and any excursions into the sylvan territories are usually met with violence.

The world of men prefer to avoid contact with Elves and some worship them and even leave gifts of tribute outside of wooded areas. Foolish young men pursue Elf maids only to find themselves ensnared and never heard from again.

Elves who become adventurers are usually sent out into the world of man as a rite of passage or they are outcasts of Aelfheim and must now fend for themselves. Becoming trackers, mercenaries, archers or spell slingers in the service of an adventure party or in service to a human king.

These are just some ideas I've had in keeping Elves as a player character race, rare and in a more Sword & Sorcery mentality.

Dungeon Crawl Classics

As most of you know, Goodman Games is offering a beta of their Dungeon Crawl Classics game along with a Quick Start Rules.

When I first heard about DCC and that it was based on 3.0 I was really skeptical as to how "Old School" it would actually be. After all 3.0 is the beginning of why I was growing tired of D&D as a system.

Some of the gaming glut DCC is doing away with is as follows: Prestige Classes, Attacks of Opportunity, Feats and Skill Points.

They're keeping the following things:

-Race and Class as the same thing like in the Original Edition.

-Ascending Armor Class

-All attacks, saves and skill checks are resolved with a d20 roll.

Vancian magic seems to be somewhat here, the ability to recast a spell will be dependent the success of the spell being cast (seems like a good way to handle it).

One thing I'm not sure I like is that spell's success and results are determined by a die roll. It's not a make or break issue with me though.

There are quite a lot of tables like the occupation table determining your characters lot in life, luck table, critical hits table, etc... That's a bit of a draw back for me.

Character classes include: Cleric, Thief, Warrior, Wizard, Dwarf, Elf, Halfling. Just like in OE!

Skills are included in the system and to me this is a biggie in my opinion. I think the introduction of skills is a big reason why the free-form system of D&D started to disappear. I know that it started with 2nd Ed. but I've only played 2nd ed. a few times so I associate skills with 3rd ed. Although the way it is presented in DCC abates my fears a bit. It's only to be used when the situation isn't really covered by the rules. This would also take away the DM fiat issue, I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

Overall it's an interesting book that is presented very well and has some great "Old School" art in it. So far the Beta clocks in at 168 pages, when most of the OSR tomes are around 60-100. It has enough of 3.0 in it that makes it hard for DCC to win me over, but I will check out the book when it is released. At this point I'm going to wait until it's release to decide, but for me personally I don't need another clone I can just go back to the original source through "Rules Cyclopedia" and supplement that with the many OSR products or I can still play an enjoyable and rules light game with Tunnels & Trolls!

Keep Rockin' and Roleplayin'!

The One Ring RPG

I've been a Tolkien fan since I was in Fourth grade and I haven't looked back since. Yes, I've read a lot of Sword & Sorcery novels by the likes of Robert E. Howard, Fritz Lieber, Karl Edward Wagner, and Michael Moorcock. And I've read plenty of Science Fiction, but I keep finding myself re-reading The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion, Lost Tales, etc.... I will always find Tolkien's Middle Earth fascinating!

In Junior High I discoverd Iron Crown Enterprises' Middle Earth Role Playing Game and also The Riddle of the Ring boardgame. Decipher released a LOTR rpg, it looked impressive but I felt it relied too heavily on the movies rather than the books.

Cubicle 7 is due to release The One Ring rpg this August and I for one am really excited about it! It looks like it won't rely on the films, but will try to remain true to the books. Set in between the books The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings although I'm sure they'll expand the timeline eventually. It's also going to feature a lot of artwork from classic Tolkien artists like John Howe. The first release will be two core books with 4 more books to be released in the next two years. Read more about it on the MERP website!

Paranoia - "Trust the computer, the computer is your friend!"

I've always been intrigued by the game Paranoia. It's got great tongue-in-cheek style humor (albeit dark humor), and lot's of action.

The basic setting is a utopian (dystopian?) society, where "The Computer" controls the underground city called "Alpha Complex." You as a citizen soldier called a "Trouble Shooter" must root out various conspiracies hatched by subversive groups like The Communists, mutants, PURGE, Humanists, Psion, Frankenstein Destroyers, Free Enterprise, Illuminati, and the Sierra Club. But be warned, these groups may try to kill you or even worse, blackmail you.

Now this game ironically came out in 1984, so it's dated in concept. Mongoose has a current version of the game, and I was thinking about getting it but I wasn't sure if it would translate very well to today's times.

Until I read this.....

The Perfect Citizen is almost a Paranoia trademark infringement! Could it be that our government is trying to make this almost 30 year old RPG relevant again? Or is it just art imitating life?

"SERVE THE COMPUTER THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND!

The Computer wants you to be happy. If you are not happy, you may be used as reactor shielding.

The Computer is crazy. The Computer is happy. The Computer will help you to become happy. This will drive you crazy."

Pendragon

When I was in middle school, I loved knights and anything to do with chivalry. I would check out books from the library on heraldry and medieval life quite regularly. I remember coming across Pendragon one day, at my local game store and instantly fell in love with it.

Most of what I knew about the Arthurian myth came from Disney's "The Sword In The Stone" and "Excalibur", I hadn't at this point discovered Malory's "Le Morte d' Arthur" or Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" and I had just recieved a copy of Rosemary Sutcliffe's "Sword At Sunset" but hadn't finished yet. I still had the romantic view of Arthur but was just learning that the historical Arthur sprang from the early Dark Ages rather than the high Middle Ages.

I ran it a few times for my friends and my brother, and we had fun with it but I think as a game it was a little beyond our comprehension. Most of what the game entails is courtly intrigue and knightly manners rather than adventure, monsters and fighting. So it didn't really hold my interest, as a pre-teen any ways.

It was a great game system, based on Chaosium's basic fantasy system. I've heard that White Wolf might be making a 6th edition of the game. I'm not a big WW fan but I hope that the rumor is true, I'd like to give the game another go. I still have my original copy of the 1st edition box set so I could could run that, but I'd like to see what they do with a newer edition.

Here's my first character that I did as a 13 year old!

New Old School: Dragon Age?

I was at my local game store, and I came across the Dragon Age RPG. I was a little skeptical because it's an RPG based on a video game. Then I thought about it, how cool is that? A video game being turned into a table top rpg, instead of vise versa.

I checked out the contents of the box (yes that's right it's a box set). The contents are a 64 page players guide, 64 page game master guide (sounds kind of old school) , a map of one of the regions of the game world and 3d6. I'm not sure how gameplay works or anything but this certainly sounds like a game styled after a classic Fantasy RPG. Here's a quote directly from the publishers Green Ronin :

"Fantasy roleplaying goes back to its dark and gritty roots with the Dragon Age RPG"

I know that a lot of grognards and old school gamers shake their fists at the kids these days with their Ipods, and their little pants ,and their Lady Gagas, and their video games. But this is certainly encouraging that a video game company would have a classic table top rpg made set in their world, and done in a classic D&D box set style. Plus it says box set 1 for levels 1-5 on it, so they are planning more products.

So if you consider yourself old school, stop throwing rocks at the kids on your lawn, get into your Pinto and drive to your local game store and check it out!

The Black Lands of Sab'bath map

This is a quick map I did for the Black Lands of Sab'bath.

1. Tomb of the Iron Man-God (based on Matt Finch's Tomb of the Iron God)
2. Sabra River
3. City State of the Lord of This World (The ruler of the City State is a benevolent warlord Iomoti)
4. Dionian Forrest
5. Spiral Tower of the Mad Sorcerers (who stare Into The Void in The Hole In the Sky)
6. Snow Blind Mountains (home of the Dwarf clan, Clan Frost Bear)
7. Keep of the Neon Knights (who are the first defense against the War Pigs)
8. War Pig Wastes (this area used to be rich with settlements, but now is a sundered realm populated with Orcs)