The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope

Why is the OSR not producing a fanzine like this?

2012-01-26T02:22:00.000-05:00

There are many fine amateur and semi-professionalpublications out there in the OSR, but I sense there’s a niche that needs to befilled. We need our very own “armpit slick” fanzine complete with covers donein the style of the men’s adventure magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. Hell,most every cover blurb for the stories inside scream to be transformed into aroleplaying adventure (OK, maybe not “The Diet That Can Double Your SexualBatting Average,” but still I make a good point).

I can’t do it. I’m booked solid and I’d make a lousypublisher anyway, but couldn’t you see a quarterly OSR fanzine done in thisstyle and containing adventures for Callof Cthulhu, Weird Adventures, andother RPGs of that ilk? Man, I’d be all over that slick, especially if itoccasionally did tell me about “The Nation-Wide Shame of Teen-Age Sin Clubs”and where I might find one in my neck of the woods.

FLAILing Around in Stonehell

2012-01-25T14:36:00.001-05:00

An account of last evening's FLAILSNAILS game with David of the Tower of the Archmage and run by Nicholas Mizer. You can read Nick the Pick's version here.

In the days following his journey to the wild coast ofCornwall, Lemmikäinen, that enigmatic elf who claimed Hyperborean descent, wasseen visiting some of more wretched dives along the London waterfront, speakingin hushed conference with men and other races of low character and sinistermorals. Having acquired a small sailing ship and its crew, Lemmikäinen’smonthly expenses had grown ten-fold and unpaid sailors are notoriouslydifficult to trust. If he wished to continue his ownership of the vessel, money—andlarge sums of it—would have to be acquired soon.

In the riverside taverns, Lemmikäinen heard tales of anancient and crumbling prison located in a distant realm. If the rumors weretrue, great riches awaited those brave enough to face the former gaol’smonstrous inhabitants. A clandestine meeting with a one-eyed mummy smugglerfrom Cairo resulted in the northern elf’s acquisition of a faded map purportedlyshowing the location of the Island of Doors, a small, rocky islet situated offthe southern coast.

The Island of Doors was legend for the many odd,free-standing portals that stood along its landscape, each rumored to lead to aforeign and oft-times alien shore. Gathering his crew, Lemmikäinen set sail forthe Island. Despite fog-shrouded waters and strange tides, the expeditionlocated the islet where the map claimed it lay. Landing upon the rocky strand, Lemmikäinenconsulted a small, crimson-bound book filled with weird sigils and signs,seeking the proper one that would designate the door he sought. A brief surveyof the Island revealed the portal that would take him to the lands in which themoldering prison—referred to in tales as “Stonehell”—was to be found. Steppingthrough the weather-beaten door of unfamiliar wood, Lemmikäinen left thisworld.

The elf found himself in a small town that showed all thesigns of a stagnant economy and lack of civilized comforts. Despite his unfamiliaritywith this new world, it was a small matter to locate a tavern whereprofessional fortune-hunters held court in a dank, stinking taproom. In thatplace, Lemmikäinen met a human fighting-man with the unfortunate moniker of “Nickthe Pike,” undoubtedly earned by his acumen with a pole-ax. Nick was organizinga venture into Stonehell to seek some talisman a local shaman or preacher hadtasked an acquaintance with recovering. Having little interest in suchbackwater trinkets, but a great desire to fill his dwindling coffers, Lemmikäinenagreed to accompany Nick and his band of hired men-at-arms and link boy intothe old prison. After acquiring some hounds from a bumpkin cult’s dog temple,the party headed into the hills where the dungeon lay waiting.

Near the entrance, Lemmikäinen and cohorts detected areturning band of adventurers, some bearing wounds from their own sojourn intothe dungeon. As they were unburdened with obvious treasure, Lemmikäinen’s partychose to fade behind cover and allow them to pass without confrontation. Afterthey vanished around a trail bend, the elf, pike-man, and hirelings entered thedungeon proper.

With Nick’s knowledge of the dungeon gained during aprevious delve, the party swiftly found their destination: a place called theQuiet Halls. Prior to entrance into these corridors, they encountered asolitary orc, who Lemmikäinen pressed for information. The bestial creaturewarned them that the Quiet Halls were roamed by the un-dead and Lemmikäinencursed their lack of clergy amongst the party’s ranks. After revealing thatsome feud existed between the orcs and Stonehell’s goblins, the orc was allowedto leave with a silver or two for his troubles.

Entering the Quite Halls, the band followed the trail Nick’sprevious party had blazed, avoiding a known pit trap and discovering an oddhall that bore ominous scorch marks and a bovine statue of iron. Pressing pastthis strange sculpture, the party found a large hall beyond. At least twopassages granted entrance to its dark interior and upon reaching thesouthernmost one, the band hurled blazing brands into the darkness to revealits contents. From out of the gloom, poured un-dead: skeletons and zombiesnumbering a score or more!

The party was forced to hack their way through an undeadthrong to avoid being surrounded by the stinking, clacking animations. Theyfought a running battle back north, Lemmikäinen firing shaft after shaft ofkeen-edged arrows into the horde until the party reached the pit trap they hadpassed. There, at the far side of the cavity’s edge, they stood, forming ashield wall against the dead.

The first few skeletons stumbled across the trap’s cover,springing the pit and causing them to tumble into the darkness below. Thezombies in the horde’s rear ranks shuffled mindlessly ahead, plowing moreskeletons into the shaft. The party met each oncoming wave with spears,halberds, and arrows, whittling their numbers down until only the zombiesremained. These creatures hungrily hurled themselves across the abyss, someplummeting down the pit, while others collided with the shield wall and begangnawing upon the hired men-at-arms. One hireling was pulled to his doom by theshambling horror that consumed him, but with their superior position andtactics, it was only a matter of time before they prevailed and the last zombielaid low.

The horde defeated, the party returned to the great hallfrom which the undead emerged, but found it empty but for bats and pillars.Several corridors departed the room, and the band headed north, passing an irondoor and crossing an intersecting passage. A wooden door was opened and anancient embalming chamber was found beyond. Deciding to exit the dungeon whiletheir luck held, the party gathered anything of seeming value, loading down Lemmikäinen’smagical conveyance to haul the items of questionable worth back to the surface.Negotiations would be necessary with the local merchants before Lemmikäinen sawany wealth from his venture, but he did acquire a set of oddly-shaped embalmingtools as a souvenir of his journey into the dungeon known as Stonehell. Hecurrently awaits his share of the booty, pondering whether to remain in theplace or seek out new realms in need of exploration and tomb-robbery.

Kingmaker

2012-01-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Paizo: Their Beginners Box haseffectively cast its spell upon me and is working as intended. As I mentionedin a previouspost, I was very impressed with their introductory boxed set for Pathfinderand, after reading it, I decided to dip my toes back into the often-timesmuddied pool of 3.5-based gaming.

Ever since Paizo released the KingmakerAdventure Path back in 2010, I’ve had a lingering itch to play it. When afriend lent me the first module in the series, I read it halfway through beforeputting it down. Not because I was disgusted with it, but because I reallyhoped that one day someone would run it and I’d have the opportunity to visitthe Stolen Lands for myself. After a year and a half of holding onto that hope,it finally became apparent that nobody was going to run it for me and I’d haveto take on that burden for myself. And thus, my latest campaign was born.

The other reason I decided to run Kingmaker is that I’vebeen looking to do a campaign that has a beginning, middle, and end. Most of mygames have tended to be open-ended, but I know from personal experience that myinterest in a specific campaign wanes after time, leaving me looking for thenext “big thing.” Hopefully, Kingmaker’s structure will allow me to avoid that.It also has the benefit of getting to the “D&D endgame” much quicker thantraditionally happens. By the second module, the PCs are already involved inthe domain-building and administration process, and Kingmaker has someinteresting mechanics to adjudicate that.

My original intent was to simply use the materials in theBeginners Box to run it, but after I read deeper into the campaign, I realized thatrunning a primarily wilderness-based adventure without allowing the playersaccess to classes like ranger and druid would be cruel. And since I alreadyowned a copy of the Pathfinder Core Rules, I instead opted to limit the campaignto the races and classes included in that tome. I sank the cash into aPathfinder Bestiary and I’m now ready to roll.

One of the great things about having a campaign world thatis not completely detailed, quantified, and mapped is that it is extremely easyto pick a blank section of the map and plop down whatever I feel like runninginto that portion of terra incognito.And so it was that the Kingdom of Byrsk came to be placed on the far side ofthe aptly named Wayfarer Mountains that border the Eastern Reaches in the worldof R’Nis. Its placement confirms something I’ve long suspected: my campaignworld has definite “zones” where specific game rules hold dominance. Theeastern edge of the major continent is home to 3.5 and Pathfinder; the centralregion around the fabled Ring Sea is AD&D land; and the western coasts arewhere B/X and Labyrinth Lord hold sway.

Last Monday, I gathered with a new group of players toofficially dive back into old but somewhat unfamiliar territory. This group iscomposed of players from several diverse gaming groups I’ve played in over thelast few years. One is a veteran of my Labyrinth Lord game, two I met during myD&D Encounters experience, and the last comes from a group I’ve played inon and off for several years. All in all, it appears that they are moreinterested in just hacking and slashing and crawling through dungeons, which issomething I’ve been trying to avoid for a while, having led to my lack of enthusiasmwith the old Labyrinth Lord campaign. Amongst the four of them, they rolled upa half-orc barbarian, a human cleric, an elven ranger, and a human wizard. Themix looks good and I’ve made the goals of the campaign very clear from theget-go. This is going to be a campaign about nation-building and all the funand tragedies that accompany such ventures.

Currently, we’re running through the sample dungeon includedin the Beginners Box. I wanted to run a prelude adventure that would allow theparty a reason to be adventuring together, give then some experience and magic,try out their various character builds, and allow myself a chance to becomeacquainted with the Pathfinder rules. They’re halfway through the Caves of GoldLight and we should finish that delve at Thursday’s session. After that, it’soff to the Stolen Lands to forge their legacies.

It’s my intent to run this as a true Pathfinder game and tryto avoid my prejudiced attitudes about what D&D is. I’ve accepted the highmagic aspects of the setting and familiarized myself with the skill system andDCs as best as I can in the limited time available. I’m making rules notes inmy campaign notebook as they crop up in play. I figure that since I’m always onthe lookout for new freelancing opportunities, becoming fluent with the rulesfor the other 800 lbs. gorilla in the industry can only be a good thing. Ofcourse, fun and cool always trumps mechanics, so we’ll see how often thoseaspects come into conflict as the campaign goes and make allowances when theydo.

With a new campaign rolling, I’ll likely have to startupdating the Archive of the RottedMoon again. I’m not certain how detailed my session reports will be, but arunning log of events is always useful to my increasingly decaying brain. Itlooks like I’ll need to write up my last few Stonehell forays and start chroniclingthe Kingmaker campaign there as well. I’ll mark the posts as applicable sofolks can read or avoid them depending on their interests.

From the October Country: Writhing Madness

2012-01-24T12:36:00.000-05:00

Another refugee from Secret Antiquities. Although I don't play the skirmish miniatures game Malifaux, I've become quite enamored of some of the castings. The sculptors and I seem to share a common mindset and a lot of the Malifaux line fits in quite nicely with the October Country. When I saw this one, I knew it needed a place in that odd world. The entire mini is coated in transparent Day-Glo paint and emits an eerie phosphorescence under a blacklight.

Sunday's game saw the PCs going toe-to-toe with members of a group called "The Silence." Led by a manimage, a sorcerer whose spells deal with madness, the Silence was in the midst of conjuring up a madness "elemental" from the spirits of the dead inmates at the Crow Tree Asylum when the party showed up. Things did not go well. I take a lion's share of the blame for that, as the encounter I designed was more formidable than intended. I'll fix things next play session. In the meanwhile, here's yet another unusual occupant of the October Country.

Writhing Madness

STR: --
CON: --
SIZ: --
DEX: --
INT: 3d6 (10-11)
POW: 4d6 (14)
CHA: 3d6 (10-11)

Move: 8
Average HP: 14
Armor: Immune to non-magic attacks

Attack: Bite--60% Damage: 1d6+d2+ madness (POW vs. POW or succumb to temporary madness)
Other Skills: Dodge: 40%

Conjuring Cost (as per rules on pp. 35-36 of the GORE rule book): 20 MP

Summon Writhing Madness
MP Cost: 1+
POW Cost: 0
Range: 20’

This spell summons forth a swirling maelstrom of madnessfrom the Nightmare Lands and impels it to do the magician’s bidding. The spellmust be cast in an area where madness was once common, such as asylums,hospitals, slums, or other locations of the referee’s choosing. The total MPcost of the spell is dependent on the size and power of the entity summoned as perthe rules on p.36

FLAILSNAILS Fun

2012-01-22T19:45:00.001-05:00

For far too long, I’ve been on the fence about Google+, ConstantCon,and the FLAILSNAILS phenomenon. My hesitance was due largely to technicalissues (lack of webcam and an older PC) and a few bad experiences with onlineroleplaying games in the past. But this weekend I finally overcame my aversion,bought a middle-of-the-road webcam from Best Buy, and dipped my toes back intothe Google+ pool. Thanks to several kind folks sharing their FLAILSNAILS/ConstantConcircles with me, I quickly became acquainted with the OSR community on Google+.

This afternoon, I got my first taste of FLAILSNAILS gaming.My technical worries proved to be baseless and my aging PC handled the hangoutwithout a problem. By the time the session ended, I was kicking myself for notjumping into this sooner. The adventure took an entirely unforeseen turn, tosay the least, and I can’t wait to play again with my now seasoned FLAILSNAILScharacter, Lemmikäinen.

Lemmikäinen, an elven Veteran-Medium, recently departed tothe wilds north of Cornwall in the company of Philip the Bloody and NolanBracegridle. They returned some time later in command of a small sailing shipand reticent to speak of their exploits along the coast. Lemmikäinen was lastseen shopping for new armor, his old suit of plate mail having somehow acquireda large, neatly circular burn mark in the back plate.

Thanks to everyone I played with this afternoon for grantingme an unbeatable introduction into the world of FLAILSNAILS gaming. You knowwho you are and why.

Metamorphosis Alpha: “The House on the Hill” Now At Reduced Rate

2012-01-20T11:49:00.001-05:00

CraigJ. Bain from WardCo. chimed in on my last post to say that his Metamorphosis Alpha adventure, “The House on the Hill” is nowavailable at the reduced rate of $13.99 for the rest of January. If you’relooking for an introductory module to run along with your brand-new printedcopy of MetamorphosisAlpha, here’s your chance to pick one up and save some scratch. Fromthe adventure description:

This is an introductory adventure for the classicsci-fi advenure RPG, Metamorphosis Alpha.The book includes a sample adventure set in a Round House Modular Dwelling Unit(RHMDU) and also includes tables for generating your own RHMDUs and ensuringthat each of them is unique.
The adventure is designed to be challenging(despite the size of the RHMDU) and humorous, yet deadly to the unwary orover-confident.

Swing by CreateSpace and pick up your copy today!

If You’re Thinking of Buying Metamorphosis Alpha…

2012-01-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

…you should probably know that Lulu is offering 25% off withthe coupon LULUBOOK305. That coupon is good until January 31^st,2012. That applies to all Lulu purchases, not just MA, so feel free to pick up a few other goodies whileyou’re at it!

Signs & Portents

2012-01-19T20:02:00.000-05:00

So by now you’ve all heard that WotC’s re-releasing the trioof core 1E books for D&D. There are of course caveats to the release(limited release, available in North America only, new covers, quality andquantity yet to be determined, etc.), but on the whole this seems to be a goodthing. Maybe it’s merely a publicity stunt by WotC to try and generate somegoodwill amongst older gamers or a test run to see if there’s a market forsimilar releases in the months ahead. Frankly, I’m not privy to any insideinformation, so this is speculation at best.

Others more versed is such matters have undoubtedly alreadyaddressed some of the issues I’m about to mull over, but I’ve been head-downtrying to catch up on projects and haven’t had much time to wander theblogosphere and the forums to see so for myself. Please forgive me if you’veseen this hashed to pieces already.

Having mulled over this news for most of the day, I’mwondering what this means in the long term for the OSR and the retro-clones. Ifthis is indeed a limited run, never to be repeated again, the re-issue won’thave much of an effect other than generating more interest in the “obsolete”forms of gaming we’ve all been harping on for years now. That, I think we canall agree, would be a good thing.

However, what if this is a sign that WotC is dedicatingthemselves to finally getting their ducks in a row and cleaning up the messthey made for themselves with the release of 4E? I’m not edition bashing, but Ithink we can all agree that the release of 4E was a bit of a fustercluck whoselong term effect was to fracture the consumer base. The wide differencesbetween 3.5 and 4E systems made it difficult to use material across editions,thus impacting sales. And as much as we like to harp on the fact that Paizo isnow at least equal to WotC in the market, can anyone dispute that Paizo’ssuccess was not predicated by WotC fumbling the D&D ball?

Unless you’ve been marooned on a deserted island for thelast few weeks (and if that’s the case, why are you reading this blog and notout drinking your bodyweight in booze and chasing people with lax moralstandards?), you know that WotC’s plan for D&D Next is to end the editionwars once and for all and bring us all back under the D&D tent. Obviously,there’s been debate as to the feasibility of this goal. I’m not going to go onrecord to say that WotC can’t do it, but it’s going to be a hell of a task todo so.

Continuing in this vein (and remember this is merespeculation), what happens if the 1E books sell like hotcakes at a lumberjackcompetition? Wouldn’t the next logical step be to see if more out-of-printeditions have a place in the market? Is the OD&D bookcase set we’ve beenasking for, one to put in the game closet next to Monopoly and Trivia Pursuit,an inevitability? Again, this is a good thing.

Unfortunately, if this is indeed the future of things tocome, it’s going to have an impact on the OSR publishers out there, especiallythose individuals currently responsible for the retro clones available. Thesuccess of Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, and OSRIC is based on thefact that the rules they are reproducing are out of print and increasinglydifficult to acquire. There’s already a percentage of the player base thatshuns the retro clones on the grounds of “Why play this when I already have the‘real’ books?” Admittedly, the intent of the retro publishers is to keep thesetypes of games available in a market that had no official support, to provide ameans for amateur and not-so-amateur designers to create material for the gamesthey love, and to keep this form of gaming alive. However, I think it’s goingto be hard going for these same publishers if WotC steps back into themarketplace and re-introduces the real thing. Those of us active in the OSRmight continue to support the old school retro clones, but when push comes toshove, the average gamer is going to pick up Basic D&D over Labyrinth Lord.It’ll be a shame if the OSR did win the war as some posts have claimed inrecent months, only to succumb to its own victory.

Now assuming that WotC continues with an OGL with theirreleases, the 3^rd party market will survive. We must remember thatthe original plan for the OGL was so that 3^rd party publishers wouldtake up the slack and produce adventure modules for D&D that are notoriouslysmall sellers and don’t constitute a large part of the overall profit pie. WotCcould continue to concentrate on the big sellers and let the little guys nibbleon the crumbs. As we know, this isn’t the way things worked out, but this mightstill end up being the case for the publishers currently supporting the OSR. I’mnot crying that the sky is falling, but I doubt anybody with a stake in the oldschool market isn’t at least considering this possibility today. I sure there’sbeen a few closed door conferences going on over at Paizo HQ in recent days aswell.

I might be reading too much into this announcement entirelyand completely outside the realm of reality. Nevertheless, I think there are interestingtimes ahead for us all in the months to come and I’ll be watching futuredevelopments very closely. The reprints of 1E have certainly lit a fire undermy own ass in regard to getting Stonehell completed and out the door on theoff-chance we’re in for a very severe sea change in the hobby and the industrythat supports it.

Want Metamorphosis Alpha 1st Edition in hardcopy?

2012-01-19T01:15:00.001-05:00

According to anannouncement made by Craig J. Bain of WardCo. in JimWard’s Q&A thread over at Dragonsfoot, you can nowpurchase reprints of MetamorphosisAlpha through Lulu.com. The reprint is, Bain says, “the 1976 edition with a shortadventure included and the corrections - the same as the RPGNow edition,minus the hex-sheet page at the back of the book.” It retails for $14.99.

Back from Black

2012-01-18T23:56:00.000-05:00

Readers attempting to visit this blog yesterday discoveredthat it did not exist. I hope I caused no undue alarm, but I pulled the Societyof Torch, Pole and Rope down in support of the boycott against SOPA and PIPA. Ifigured my readership is smart enough to twig to that and no clarification wasnecessary, especially once the Society reappeared after midnight. As it turnsout, the blackout was successful in demonstrating that many are unwilling tolet corporate interests curtail the Internet and several of the legislations’sponsors withdrewtheir support of the bills. I guess an election year was the wrong time totry and muscle these bills through.

We now return to your regularly scheduled, non-politicalprogramming.

From the October Country: Architurgy

2012-01-17T09:01:00.000-05:00

The old house had stood near the crossroad since the Uld Dominion still controlled these lands. Now a rotting shell, its roof sagging like the broken back of a dead cat and obscured beneath a shroud of brown ivy, the building warned away all who approached with threats of imminent collapse and possible haunts.

The Hard Case Krewe arrived just as the moon rose, making their way through the once-fine front door and gingerly stepping over the shattered glass that littered the foyer. In the rotting sitting room, the youngest of the krewe moved to a mildewed divan and took a seat. Brushing a wayward strand of auburn hair away from her ear, she closed her eyes and listened. The rest of the group, arm, alert, and nervous, peered intently into the shadows around them.

High above them, the wind blew through the holes in the roof and pushed gently against the eaves. Ancient beams groaned softly and warped, water-damaged floorboards moaned as the decrepit house shifted in the breeze. The wind died abruptly and the young girl opened her eyes.

“The gold we seek is hidden beneath the floor of the nursery, but there is a spotted carnithing lurking in the attic that needs be dealt with first,” she said, staring up at the peeling ceiling overhead. Standing, she rejoined her comrades who were already drawing their blades and pistols and moving towards the creaking stairs that lead to the ruin’s upper floors…

Architurgy (base 0%) is a rare talent found both on Earth and in the October Country. Scholars of esoterica debate whether it is a true psychic ability or a form of minor, innate magic produced spontaneously by a gifted, yet untrained few. Whatever the case, architurgy (sometimes called domuscopy or “speaking the architongue”) is a potent if limited form of divination.

The successful use of architurgy allows the possessor of the talent to understand the “language” of old buildings. What sounds like the groaning of beams, the creaking of hinges, and the general noise of an old home settling is actually a secret language spoken only by buildings with long and often eventful histories. Using the talent requires a few moments (1d10 minutes typically) of quiet sitting and listening. If the environment is too loud and drowns out the building’s ambient noise, the talent cannot be used and the architurge must wait until quiet once again pervades the structure.

If conditions allow the use of the talent, the architurge focuses his or her mind on a question they wished answered or a condition regarding the house they’d like to know. When successful, they deduce the answer to their inquiry by the noises of the house. The clarity and detail of each answer depends on the age of the building: the older the house, the more detail it tends to provide. Unfortunately, with this detail comes greater difficulty in understanding what the building is saying. Most old buildings suffer from “emotional static”—emotions and psychic residue created by highly charged events that occurred within the building during its history. Breaking through that static is difficult, but if the architurge can do so, she can learn a lot about the building in which she stands. Architurgy cannot be used on a building less than 50 years old and suffers a -5% penalty for every 10 years past 100 that the structure has been standing.

Using the architurgy talent requires the expenditure of 1 MP for each condition or question the architurge wants to know about. An architurge can make a number of inquiries equal to half her CHA score, but must make a successful skill roll and spend a MP for each one. A failed roll indicates that she can coax no more information from the building and cannot attempt to learn more with the talent until she has advanced in its skill.

From the October Country: Boglins

2012-01-16T11:56:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned previously, I'm going to be transporting some of the material I generated over on my Secret Antiquities blog to the Society so as to compile all my game designs under a single roof. This is the first of such transfers.

For almost two years I've been working on a new campaign setting that contains all the weirdness I enjoy and which would allow me to run nearly any form of role-playing adventure I might set my mind to. I've been using Goblinoid Games' free GORE system as the rule frame to build upon and have had a few play tests of that material. Tentatively entitled The October Country for the time being, I remain committed to one day compiling this setting, its inhabitants, and various new rules and systems into a single tome to share with other interested folks. The October Country mixes fantasy, "screampunk", conspiracy, Wild West, and other high weirdness in one delightful soup of a setting. I've purposely peopled it with unusual monsters that don't always conform to your usual fantasy expectations. Most of the recent material and play tests all revolve around the city of Midnight located on the edge of the Snakewater Swamp, an October Country analog for the Louisiana bayous and 18th century New Orleans. Let's meet one of the residents of the October Country now:

Out in the Snakewater Swamp are small hamlets inhabited by arace of green-skinned, violent, and stupid creatures known as Boglins. Thesevicious little brutes make their living by scavenging, banditry, and thebrewing of “bug juice”, a potent liquor made from ingredients best not askedabout. Although small in stature and dim-witted, Boglins have a knack forsimple devices and can jury-rigged rifles and shotguns from the assorted trashthey find, small items they steal, and the occasional horn of black powder theyswap bug juice for. This talent, combined with their clannish nature and remotevillages, make Boglins a persistent menace in the Snakewater. Those travelinginto the backwaters of the swamp should be careful, as Boglins often ambushtravelers on remote bayas, rising up from the murky waters to attackunexpectedly.

Boglins average 4’ to 5’ in height and weigh between 100 and125 lbs, although certain “bosses” grow much bigger (and have their own separateentry). Boglins tend to dress in either homespun clothes or the oversizedgarments taken from their victims. Duster coats, wide-brimmed hats, and clunkyshoes are popular Boglin fashion, as is any item of clothing made from gatorskin.

It is said that Boglins have distant relatives in themountains who eke out a similar life in the hollers and dark forests thatpunctuate the hills. Known as Hoglins, these repulsive cousins keep semi-tamedhogs as attack animals, beasts of burden, and, some whisper, share a commongene pool with the porcine creatures.

Boglins

STR:3d6 (10-11)
CON: 2d6+6 (13)
SIZ: 2d6 (7)
INT: 2d6 (7)
POW: 3d6 (10-11)
DEX: 4d6 (14)

Averagehit points: 10
Move: 7

Other skills: Baya Lore-55%, Boating-80%, Conceal-86%, Craft(scavenge-tech)-65%, Dodge-55%, Language (Patois)-85%, Move Silently-75%, Notice-70%,Survival-85%, Swimming-90%. Some have Mechanick Arts-65% or Elemental Magic-50%

DamageModifier: -1d2

Attacks
Shotgun or Rifle: 65%--4d6/2d6/1d6 or 1d6+2
Club: 60%--1d6
Bite: 50%--1d4 damage

BugJuice: This swamp liquor will either get the drinker drunk as a skunk or killthem, so it’s best sampled by those with a death wish. A 4 oz. drink of bugjuice affects the drinker depending on his CON score and the potency of thestuff. To determine the lethal threshold of the drink, the referee rolls 2d6+1prior to consumption. Any creature with a CON score less than or equal to theresult of that roll must immediately make a CONx5 roll or suffer 1d6+1 damagefor 1d3 rounds.

Creatureswith CON scores above the bug juice’s potency roll are affected less severelyand need only make a successful Opposition Roll against the liquor’s potencyscore each time they consume a drink. Failing even a single check renders themextremely intoxicated. Those drunk on bug juice suffer a -10 penalty on theirstrike rank and all skills are halved for the duration of the drunkenness,which lasts 2d10 hours.

Astropia

2012-01-16T09:01:00.000-05:00

I’m not a big fan of what passes for “nerd comedy” when itcomes to film and television. Part of my aversion for it lies undoubtedly in beingself-conscious about the fact that all too often the arrow hits a little closerto home than I’d like to admit when geeks are portrayed on the screen. However,this is not the sole reason for my distaste. When it comes to comedy, I prefermy humor to have a certain craftsmanship, to take the more difficult roadrather than go for the easy laugh. This is seldom the case when nerds, geeks,and gamers show up in a comedic film or TV show. Lazy writers slap some Spockor elf ears on a cardboard character, make him or her socially paralyzed when itcomes to human interaction, and expect hilarity to ensue. This is even the casewhen the people being mocked are the very same audience being targeted. The BigBang Theory, I’m looking at you.

On the other hand, geek comedy can go too far with theirreliance on obscure subject matter, making them completely inaccessible tosomeone who’s never rolled a d20 or can't tell the difference between a Dalek, aKlingon, and a Wookiee. Anyone who has ever watched something like The Gamerswith their non-nerdy, but entirely tolerant other half knows exactly what I’mtalking about.

However, every so often you come across a film or TV comedythat manages to walk the fine line between both of these extremes. Last night,I was pleasantly surprised to find one of these rare creatures in the 2007Icelandic film, Astropia.

Astropia, releasedin the US as Dorks & Damsels(because apparently no American-born geek would ever see a movie like thisunless it mocked them and the hobby they enjoy), is the tale of the beautifuland privileged Hildur who, when her rich and exceedingly blonde boyfriend issent to prison for tax evasion and embezzlement, must get a job to makeends meet. Desperation forces her to accept a job at Atropia, the neighborhoodcomic, sci-fi, and games store, where she is immediately immersed into a worldshe has no understanding of—she’s put in charge of the role-playing gamessection. Although originally hired to increase business, it’s not too longbefore Hildur finds a place in this alien world.

While not completely free of the various stereotypes one mightpredict with such a premise, it’s kinder than most, and Hildur’s co-workers areportrayed with greater depth than could be expected in a similar, lazier production.Gamers and comic buffs will enjoy the name-dropping that occurs in the store(Mark Millar, Grant Morrison, and Monte Cook all get mentioned), and it takes afamiliarity with the hobby to fully comprehend Hildur’s faux pas of trying to sell a copy of The World of Darkness to a customer looking for The Book of Vile Darkness.

Unlike The Gamers and other films marketed solely to the niche audience,Astropia is not all geek humor. Hildur’srelationship with her standoffish nephew gives the film some pathos, while herboyfriend’s attempts to acclimate to prison life (Note to self: Although cigarettesmay be prison currency, the Icelandic equivalent of Virginia Slims have limitedvalue in lock-up) and his ultimate ShawshankRedemption-inspired attempt to escape provide laughs that cross audienceboundaries. The film’s final climax where the lines between fantasy and realityblur is satisfying enough and mixes a Leroy Jenkins joke with the dangers ofsecond-hand smoke.

While not a comedic masterpiece destined to survive theages, Astropia is a pleasant enoughdiversion, one that can be shared by gaming geeks and their straight-lacedfriends and family with equal enjoyment. Most satisfying of all, from a gamerperspective, is that the role-playing group Hildur joins, while not completelyfree of cheap shots, is closer to the reality than most other depictions I’veseen. There’s not a pair of elf-ears in sight…at least until the DM starts theadventure, anyway.

Pacesetter is Back! No Time-Machine Required

2012-01-12T23:58:00.002-05:00

Dan Proctor announcedyesterday that GoblinoidGames has acquired the rights to both the Pacesetter logo and brand. This comesin the wake of Goblinoid Games’ acquisition and re-printing of Pacesetter’s TIMEMASTER game.Unfortunately, former Pacesetter titles like CHILL and STAR ACE remain tied-upwith other property owners for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, this marksthe next step in Dan’s plan to revive old games and produce new ones based onthose titles, much like he did with the recent release of ROTWORLD. Expect moreannouncements in the vein in the months to come.

For the record, I’ve told Dan that if he ever gets his handson SANDMAN, I’d be the first in line to volunteer finishing that funky-assexperiment that Pacesetter started, but never saw to fruition. Oh man, what I’ddo with that crazy game…

Change is Good

2012-01-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

No, this isn’t a post about the just-announced andforthcoming version of Dungeon & Dragons (but we’ll get to that in amoment). This is about looking forward to 2012 and new directions in the yearto come—which may be important on the off-chance the Mayans knew something wedon’t.

Last year, I announced that this blog would be coming to anend. I felt that I had taken the Society as far as it could go based on myoriginal purpose of chronicling my return to the gaming fold and wishing tocontribute something to this nebulous thing we call the Old School Renaissance(or whatever OSR stands for this week). In some ways, I still believe that. I’vedone what I set out to do and succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.

Since its inception, this blog and the material produced forit allowed me to establish a presence hitherto undreamt of—by me anyway— in thegaming community and the industry that supports us. I don’t think anyone candispute that The Dungeon Alphabet and Stonehell Dungeon remain examples ofsome of the better works created by this movement. The Dungeon Alphabet wasespecially well-received and is one of the few works that achieved successoutside of the OSR, drawing praise from not only grognards but folks whoentered this hobby in more recent years. That continues to blow my mind.

Having done what I set out to do, my choices were to eitherstart anew or shut down. My workload made me more inclined to the latter. Butwith the start of the New Year, my attitude has changed. I’m hacking away atthe “To Be Done” list, and although I expect it will fill up again (at least I’mpraying it will), I think I’ll be able to dedicate some more time to this blogo’ mine. The Society has been around for more than three years now andmaintains a steady readership. And while it doesn’t have the number of fanssome older and more prolific blogs have, SoTPR is still in the upper echelon ofold school blogs. It seems as shame to throw away all that hard work now.

So what to do? First off, it’s high time this place got arevamp. In the weeks ahead I will be playing with the design a bit to come upwith something new, but still legible. I’ll be editing and updating my linkssection and playing with ideas for a nifty new banner up top (I remain one ofthe few elder statesmen of blognards who has never gone beyond a text header).It’ll likely be a hack job since the visual arts is not my forte, but I’ll endeavorto keep it classy and discrete.

Secondly, I’m going to fold my side blog Secret Antiquitiesinto this one. The premise of having a secondary blog for material not directlyrelating to fantasy gaming was sound, but the end result was two blogs Iignored and not much progress made on either. Seeing as we’re all gamers, I don’tthink anyone will mind too much if I post the occasional design ideas for asystem other than D&D and its various clones. Unless my readership startsabandoning the joint in droves, expect to see some reposting of things fromSecret Antiquities here as I integrate both blogs into one.

Thirdly, and I know I’ve stated it before, 2012 will be theyear the Stonehell sequel is finally released. The fact that it is so farbehind tears me up more than I’d like to admit and since my name is synonymous withthat dungeon, I feel its failure to see the light of day reflects poorly on me.To correct this, I’m committed to producing one new quadrant of Stonehell aweek. While that might mean it takes all year to complete the manuscript, slowprogress trumps no progress.

Lastly, although connected to the above, 2012 will see me atGaryCon IV. I intend to try and play as much as I can, but I will be bringingStonehell with me to Lake Geneva, hopefully with brand new material to testdrive. There are no official Stonehell sessions on the schedule, but if youcorner me, I’ll gladly run it during the open gaming portions of the con. I’lleven allow your FLAILSNAILERS to bring your PCs for a visit if that’s cool withhow things work in FLAILSNAIL-land. As always, Stonehell’s Save Your Ass T-shirts will behonored, so grab one now and edge out your competition for loot.

More projects and plans will be announced as they develop,but I think the above is going to keep me busy for awhile.

OK, with that out of the way, let me say my piece on the 5^thedition which isn’t the 5^th edition of D&D. In all honesty, Iwas completely indifferent about the announcement. That surprised me a little,but it’s the truth. There’s no gnashing of teeth or rending of raiment here.The game will come, I’ll check it out, and if it’s fun and captures myinterest, I’ll play it from time to time. I’ve no expectations that it willheal the great edition rift or create the greatest version of the game ever. Imight run it or I might not. I signed up to get a look at the beta version onceit’s released, but I suspect that will be the extent of my involvement. I’mcertainly not going to attempt to steer its direction. It will be whatever Mikeand Monte design within the boundaries laid down by management. I wish them thebest and hope Wizards comes out with an entertaining diversion that attractsmore gamers to the fold. After all, more tabletop gamers are good in the grandscheme of things.

I don’t expect to give much coverage to the game here sothis may very well be the last words I say on the game until it is released.Others will certainly be following its development with close scrutiny. I’llsay this though: “5E” looks really, really strange when seen written out to myeyes. I must be getting older.

They were Gods in those Days

2012-01-07T11:22:00.000-05:00

Jeff Rients recently wrote two postsregarding the wild and zany antics the boys in Lake Geneva got up to back inthe early years of this hobby. Inspired by those anecdotes, I wanted to shareone of my favorite old war stories from years gone by. This one was recountedby Roger E. Moore in an editorial on fear that appeared in Dragon #156 (April 1990)

I was in a GAMMA WORLD game that Jim Ward ran a few years ago. Itscared me to death. Jim has a habit of rolling huge numbers of dice of damageat the snap of a laser, and his campaign was full of amusing things such asCthulhu-size lake monsters and deathray satellites that diced up ground targetswith impunity. But his most famous creation was the subtly named Death Machine,a nice little military relic of the Social Wars of the game’s background.

What’s a Death Machine, some of you may ask. Here’s a story: A fewyears ago, when I was in the Army, I told everyone in my gaming group to eachpick his or her favorite deity from the AD&D® game, and prepare to role-playthat deity in a special scenario I had developed. The next hour was spent infeverish excitement as a large assortment of gods and supermonsters met on a desertedplain and awaited their opponents. Suddenly a huge space-time warp opened up infront of the incredible assembly . . . and out of the alien warp came threebrand-new, fully armed, fully powered Death Machines on random programming.

Two gods diedin the first 10 seconds of combat, each taking over 700 hp of damage. A thirdgod died before the minute-long fight was over, and two other gods (including Demogorgon)fled the battlefield in utter panic. All the rest of the deities were poundedwith atomic missiles, lasers, bombs, rockets, shells, bullets, force fields, anddeath rays. Thor bent the nose of one Death Machine with Mjolnir but took a nukein return. If I had not used random attacks, all of the gods would have died in30 seconds, no sweat. It was wonderful.

I think we needmore of this sort of thing. Thank goodness there are still referees who indulgein these sort of antics and keep the wild and wooly days of yore alive.

Why I'll Never Be a Superstar

2012-01-04T19:26:00.000-05:00

An email popped into my inbox tonight reminding me that the Paizo RPG Superstar 2012 competition is underway and that the deadline for the first round of entries is January 6th. Normally, this is something that I'd not be moved to participate in, but every since I got my hands on the Pathfinder Beginners Box, I've been examining the game in a somewhat different light. About ten minutes after I received that email, an idea for an entry popped into my head and I figured, "What the hell. Why not submit it?"

Then I read this in the rules: Anyone with a cover credit on a hardcover RPG book is ineligible.

Damn you, The Dungeon Alphabet! If only Goodman Games had been cheap bastards and gone with a softcover rather than a stylish and durable hardcover I might have been the next RPG Superstar! Looks like I'll have to become one the old-fashioned way. Back to work for me.

Oriental Adventures Minis for Trade

2011-12-30T12:10:00.002-05:00

As mentioned in my last post, I'm going through my miniatures collection looking for things that need to be culled or repainted. I've got several pieces up on the chopping block and I thought I'd see if there was anyone would like to become their new proud owner. I'd be interested in swapping these lots for items of equal or lesser value (or greater weirdness). If you've got something you'd like to get rid of and these look interesting to you, please comment here or email me at poleandrope (AT) gmail (Dot) com. I'm especially looking for plastic or metal miniatures, either of common monsters or truly strange ones. I'll leave these guys up for a week and make a decision on who to swap with after everyone's had a chance to make an offer.

The first lot is a collection of Ral Partha minis hailing from the days when Oriental Adventures and ninja films were all the rage. Some are missing weapons and all have been poorly painted. Since my purpose is to clear out the dead wood in my collection, I'm swapping this as a lot rather than individual sets. However, I'm open to negotiations if you want a few pieces and somebody else wants the others.

Oriental Adventures Lot (Ral Partha Bushido Miniatures and Grenadier Fantasy Lords First Series)

Ral Partha 53-909 Kappa

Ral Partha 53-904 Budoka and Yakuza

Grenadier Fantasy Lords First Series152 Ninja Hit Squad (all missing weapons)

Ral Patha 53-908 Oni

Ral Partha 53-911 Dai-Bakemono & 53-912 Dai-Oni (Dai-Oni missing naginata)

'Ware the Chaos Giant!

2011-12-28T12:07:00.000-05:00

The end of the year saw me engaged in a little miniatures inventory, refurbishing, and preparations for painting in 2012. As part of this process, I came across the box that once contained my only membership in Grenadier's Dragon Lords Giants Club: The Chaos Giant. Although the giant himself is long gone, I still own the obelisk and the guy about to be smooshed under the Chaos titan's foot.

I almost threw the box away as it's in pretty poor condition, but decided to retain it for nostalgia's sake. On a whim, I pulled up the foam padding at the box's bottom and was astonished to find that the insert that came packaged with the box was under there. Since that's the kind of thing well old schoolers apparently jones for, I've scanned it and posted the images below. Click to embiggen. I think it's pretty safe to assume that there's now going to be a Helwaste somewhere in my campaign world.

Lord of the Rings Miniatures Terrain Question

2011-12-27T14:42:00.000-05:00

To those readers who are/were either fans of Games Workshops' Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game or just followed the GW production schedule in general, a question:

Did GW ever produce this statue as a stand-alone piece or was it always part of their Lord of the Rings Terrain Pack? I could have sworn that I once saw it for sale as a single piece, but all my searching seems to indicate that this was just something I cooked up in a fever dream rather than an actual sighting on the Web. I know for certain that I'm not thinking of a Thomarillion production (although those are quite cool, too), but this particular sculpting based on the statue that appears in the films.

I re-watched the trilogy over the holiday and absolutely love all the little background scenery Jackson sprinkles throughout the films. It does a wonderful job of imparting a sense of history to Middle-Earth and that's something I always shoot for in my own games--successfully or not.

Wildwyck County Map

2011-12-23T11:25:00.000-05:00

If you don't follow my spottily updated Secret Antiquities blog, you might not be aware that I'm doing a series for Fight On! magazine that introduces a 1920s historical horror setting for use with GORE and other percentile-based rule systems. The premier article covered the history of Wildwyck County and provides an introduction to the area that will be elaborated on in further detail as the series progresses. Due to what I assume was space restrictions, the black and white map of Wildwyck County that Ravi created was not included with the first article in my Wildwyck series in issue #13 of Fight On! The back cover of the magazine does feature Ravi's aged version of the map in glorious sepia-tone, but I thought that readers might like a clean black and white version for reference and playablility as the series develops. You can download the high-quality version of the map here.

What the Heck am I?

2011-12-22T12:24:00.002-05:00

Anybody recognize me? I'm a mystery miniature from Mike's youth (as you can tell by my hideous paint job). I have scratched on my base "© 82" and the initial "P" but no other identifying marks. Heck, I don't even look like anything in the Monster Manual. Can someone identify my maker and what the hell I'm supposed to be. I don't seem to be on DnD Lead and that place has everything.

Old School Art from DCC RPG

2011-12-19T15:33:00.000-05:00

Goodman Gameshas been releasing a series of sneak previews featuring the work of various oldschool artists that appear in the forthcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.Even if you have no interest in the game itself, perhaps names such as Jeff Easley, Jim Holloway,Diesel LaForce,RussNicholson, and the late and sorely missed Jim Roslofcan entice you to stop by the websiteand see what these fine artists have done lately.

Lulu Coupons All Holiday Long

2011-12-17T10:03:00.001-05:00

Lulu.com is offering 12 separate coupons through the holiday season. Some may be useful, others maybe not, but if you'd like to check them out each day and see if there's an offer that appeals to you, you can point your browser to Daily Deals & Holiday Specials. Today is Free Ground Shipping (in the US, I believe) with the code 17DEC. I'm hoping the new issue of Fight On! is released today as planned so I can take advantage of that coupon myself.

An Open Letter to Paizo

2011-12-15T09:01:00.000-05:00

Dear Paizo,

Greetings! It’s been a long time since welast communicated and we’ve both gone through many changes since then. You’veleft the shadow of Wizards of the Coast to pursue your own efforts to produceenjoyable game products for one of the more fickle recreational audiencesimaginable, while I’ve gone back to the roots of this hobby and rediscovered mylove for the simpler, and often times rougher, systems of the past. We’ve both beenquite successful in our endeavors and this has put some distance between us. Inevertheless understand you’re doing well.

I’m writing you today to bridge that distance. The occasionfor this is that I recently purchased one of your products. I admit that I’venot be a supporter of your efforts financially in the past. Previously, Ipurchased your Classic MonstersRevisited after reading a positive review of that book (and Iconcur with that review), and some months ago I purchased your PathfinderCore Rules thanks to a large discount and a gift card from thenow-defunct Borders Books. I’ve paged through one or two of your AdventurePaths, but these were loaners, not purchases.

My impression from these books was that your designers areobviously very passionate about the game and world you’ve created. Your artistsdo a wonderful job of breathing life into this setting (even if I do find theoccasional rendering of a barbarian with a sword the size of her own body more laughablethan cool) and more often than not I find an illustration that really leaps outand says “Don’t you wish your character encountered/did this?” So, although I’mfar from a rabid fan, I do appreciate your hard work even if Pathfinder itselfis a bit bloated for my tastes.

Make no mistake—it is bloated. You did a good job cleaningthings up from its predecessor, but when my preferred game systems have rulebooks that number between 64 and 128 pp., it’s a little difficult to getexcited when confronted with a rulebook the size of my local telephonedirectory. As interesting as I’ve found Pathfinder and the adventures you’veproduced for it, rules of that length are simply a deal-breaker for me.

That brings us to my recent purchase: the Pathfinder Beginner Box.Like ClassicMonsters Revisited, I heard a few surprised murmurs amongst mycolleagues regarding this product recently. And, finding myself confronted bythe box at my local Barnes & Noble with a gift card in my wallet, I decidedto pays my money and takes my chances. After exchanging $38.00 and change (taxincluded), I took the box home. Hours later, I opened it.

Perhaps the greatest compliment of my own I can give you isthis: I’d play this game. Hell, I’d even run this game! After even a briefoverview of the set I could see that you fine folks at Paizo really, really getit. This product is obviously created by gamers with a love of gaming. Folkswho at least had some familiarity with old TSR boxed sets, even if they weren’tthe gateway into this hobby for all of you. Having seen the Dungeon &Dragons 4E “Red Box,” I can say that the Beginner Box is a vast improvement incomparison.

My immediate impression was that of the old Holmes’ basicset. While the Pathfinder Beginner Box (a name of which I approve of) is not acomplete rules set, neither is it “crippleware.” Obviously, it serves yourbusiness model to steer newcomers to the game towards the more complete andpricier Core Books, but you’ve nevertheless packed enough material into theBeginner Box to not only allow gamers to extract a sizeable amount of enjoymentfrom the set, but, for the mad homebrewer or those who prefer a “rules lite”game, you’ve provided a solid skeleton for these types to build their own worldsupon. You deserve both accolades and respect for that. A truly, excellent,excellent job.

A suggestion: If you were to release an Expert orIntermediate Box in a year’s time or so, one that covered levels 6-10 andintroduced 3-4 new classes along with new monsters and spell, I think you’dhave another hit on your hands. I for one would gladly purchase such a product,as would some of my compatriots amongst us older gamers. You’ve certainlygenerated some goodwill with the Beginner Box and, given its “Pathfinder lite”rules, may even win some converts from those of us who enjoy simpler andsmaller game systems—ascending Armor Class notwithstanding.

Paizo, you stand at this moment the king of the roleplayingheap. You’ve wrested the title from your former masters simply by understandingyour audience and respecting them while still turning a profit. The BeginnerBox is another step in the right direction and your exalted position in theeyes of both the gaming community at large and the industry is yours to lose.As a friend and a fellow gamer, I offer you this heartfelt advice:

Do not fuck it up.

Sincerely,

Michael Curtis

Wanted: Boot Hill (3rd Edition)

2011-12-07T15:10:00.001-05:00

I'm looking to get my hands on a physical copy of TSR's Boot Hill (3rd edition, 1990 TSR7005). I own an older edition, but I've had some odd ideas lately and a 3rd edition copy that I could peruse at my leisure would be very useful. I'm looking to trade swag for it and it need not be in pristine condition. If you've got a copy taking up space and have no need for it, maybe we can come to an agreement. I've some gaming stuff cluttering up my shelves and other odd swag I'd be willing to part with. Drop me an email at the addy listed to the right or leave a comment and we'll see what we can do, pardner.

More Holiday Savings (30% of!) on Stonehell Dungeon and Others

2011-12-06T10:17:00.001-05:00

Lulu.com keeps thediscounts coming this holiday season. Until the end of day tomorrow, you cansave 30% on all orders with the code WINTERSAVE305 at checkout. And although you can’tcombine the offers, if you don’t get your order in by Wednesday, remember thatyou can save 25% off the price of any book with the code BYMYBOOK305 until December 14^th. ‘Tis trulya great time to be stockingup on OSR books!

Thank You, Shoppers

2011-11-29T10:04:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was a banner day for StonehellDungeon. As is normal for a book that’s been on the market now for justover two years, sales have slowed down. However, thanks to both the holidayseason and Lulu’s CyberMonday sale, I moved a lot of books yesterday. I’m verythankful for that as I have my own spending to do this coming season and thebelt remains very, very tight here in the Curtis Tower. Lulu does not provideinformation on who bought what and how many, so I can merely offer a blanketand hearty “thank you” for everyone who bought a book, both yesterday or ever.

Lulu’s cybersale continues another day and if you want toget in on the Stonehellselling frenzy, you can use the code CYBERTUESDAY305 to save 30% off until November30, 2011 at 11:59 PM PST.

CyberMonday Sale

2011-11-28T09:19:00.001-05:00

Today and today only, Lulu.com is offering 30% off your purchases. Use the code CYBERMONDAY305 at checkout to enjoy the savings. You know where to start your shopping...

Holiday Sale at Lulu

2011-11-23T11:30:00.001-05:00

From now until December 14^th, 2011, enjoy asavings of 25% on your purchase of Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Hallsor other fine books over at Lulu.com. Simply enter the code BYMYBOOK305 atcheck-out to receive the discount. And even if you don’t buy something of mine,help out the other fine OSR authors out there trying to make ends meet thisholiday season. Thanks!

A Dungeon Alphabet Question

2011-11-21T12:36:00.001-05:00

I’m very pleased to announce that The Dungeon Alphabet isheading for a third printing. Thanks to the interest of not only those whopitch their tents in the OSR camp, but to gamers of all ages and stripes whoenjoy great art, useful tables, and low sticker prices, The Dungeon Alphabetremains a commercial success. I’m very pleased that so many gamers haveembraced the book and consider it to be one of the better resources to havecome out of the OSR in recent years.

To mark the occasion of a third printing, Joseph Goodman andI have been tossing around some ideas to make the next print run unique. Butbefore anything is decided on, we thought we’d see if the readers who made thebook a success had anything to say. So our question to you is “Readers, whatwould you like to see in a third printing of Dungeon Alphabet?" Someoptions are already on the table, but we’re interested in hearing from youbefore we forge ahead. Please feel free to use the comments section to leave your input or drop me a line at the email addy listed to the right. Thanks!

Here's Brian Blessed as M.C. Escher

2011-11-18T11:06:00.001-05:00

I'm cleaning out the old hard drive and I found this. I'm sure I had a purpose for saving it, but for the life of me cannot remember why. Nevertheless, I thought I'd share it with you.

Psst! Wanna Know a Secret?

2011-11-16T12:03:00.001-05:00

I'm shilling again. Lulu.com is offering a Secret Sale from now until the end of November 18th. During this time, you can buy one book at the regular price and get a second for 50% off. You don't need to know the handshake needed to get this deal, but you will have to enter the code SECRET305 when you check out. You obviously need to order two book for the promotion to work and you can only use it once. Hope on over the Lulu.com, start here, and then fill in your OSR library with another great book from any of the numerous titles dedicated to this thing of ours.

Help Bail out the Warden

2011-11-04T01:07:00.000-04:00

As some of you know, legendary designer James Ward has beendealing with health issues that have placed a severe financial burden on himand his family. To that end, Jim’s friend and former TSR co-worker, Tim Kask,has established Friendsof Starship Warden to help defray Jim’s medical expenses.

This past Tuesday, Jim underwent a “coronary procedure” thatturned into a triple bypass. As of tonight, Jim is in the ICU, recovering. TimKask reports:

“This just in from Jim's friend: Just aquick update on Jim as of now (Thur. evening)...he is still in ICU, but hisdoctors feel he is doing well. The surgery went well -- he had several largeblockages which would almost certainly have caused a heart attack in the nearfuture had they gone unattended. When I saw him earlier today he was still abit groggy/drugged, but in great spirits and very appreciative of everyone’sprayers and positive thoughts. Keep it up. At this point, he expects to be inthe hospital until Monday or so.”

Suffice to say, the operation was a costlyone that will add to Jim’s financial difficulties. For those of you wishing tohelp Jim out and help pay back the man for the many hours of entertainment he’sprovided down the years, please consider visiting the Friends of StarshipWarden and making a donation to help Jim and his family pay down some ofmedical bills.

Say What You Will About RPG Blogs, But...

2011-10-28T17:22:00.001-04:00

They seldom make me contemplate gouging my eyes out with a spoon or make me feel as if my I.Q. dropped thirty points from stupidity contamination. That's something that I can't say about most of the RPG-related forums out there on the ether. Ey-yugg.

Visit Stonehell for Halloween and Save 20%

2011-10-24T22:00:00.002-04:00

Between now and October 28th, Lulu is offering 20% off on all orders, allowing those of you who've yet to purchase Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls, its second supplement, Buried Secrets, or Realms of Crawling Chaos a chance to save some money. And that's no trick! So why not treat yourself by entering the code BURIED305 at checkout. OK, enough with cutsey shilling. Go buy a book and help keep the bill-collecting trolls from my door this season. There's enough scary monsters out there as it is.

New Horizons

2011-10-21T11:25:00.000-04:00

I am without a doubt undergoing a sea change in my gaming preferences. I’ve lost all enthusiasm for level-based fantasy games in the last few months and I now realize that I’ve hit my saturation point. This doesn’t mean I’m done with them for good, but it will be some time before I’m running D&D in any of its myriad forms again. Playing the game is fine; running it is another story.

This also doesn’t mean that I’m finished with writing for them either. In fact, I just finished up my work for another level-based fantasy game and have another contribution in that vein on my schedule. However, when it comes to my personal life, it’s time to change things up.

The downside of this realization is that Stonehell is effectively in stasis for the foreseeable future. I hate to do it, but my lack of interest in writing dungeon adventures is blatantly obvious when I look over what I’ve written so far. I have high expectations for the sequel and I’m not meeting them. I’ll come back and write the second book once I can get excited about the dungeon again. My apologies to those of you who’ve been looking forward to the sequel, but I’m not going to take the sleazy route of writing a piece of shit and asking you for your money for it.

“OK, Mike, if that’s how you feel, what’s next?” I’m glad you ask.

Unless something gets changed (which is entirely possible), the next issue of Fight On! will feature the first of a series of articles I’ve written aimed at “modern” horror and fantasy. I use quotation marks because the default period is the 1920s (all the better to fit classic Call of Cthulhu) rather than the 21^st century. I’m extremely proud of this series, more proud of it than anything I’ve done for my own enjoyment in some time. The article features a map (a glimpse of which is below)done by cartographer Ravi Shankar who I met over at the Cartographer’s Guild. Ravi does some excellent work and I encourage you to check out his portfolio—especially if you’re looking for a good cartographer.

The series details a quaint little portion of upstate New York located in the Hudson Valley region. In real life, the Hudson Valley has a great deal of folklore attached to it. One finds stories of everything from headless horsemen to Bigfoot to UFOs. After I’m done with it, there will be even more weird goings-on reported. The purpose of the series is to present a sandbox setting in which referees can place their own historical horror games. Tired of Arkham? Come visit Wildwyck County. If I do my job correctly though, the place can be used for more than just Call of Cthulhu. It’d make an excellent Colonial Gothic campaign if you roll the clock back or a World of Darkness setting if you advance the timeline ahead. One could even remove all the serial numbers and turn it into a fantasy-based campaign using Lamentations of the Flame Princess or Realms of Crawling Chaos.

The series has personal connections for me, which is one of the reasons it has me so excited. Wildwyck County is based on real life portions of New York State where I had many happy experiences. The chance to return to that place (even in a fictionalized and highly spookified form) is a great pleasure. In fact, it’s even inspired me to return there in real life for a few days to engage in some R&R&R (rest and relaxation and research). I plan on taking some photos to use in future articles to support the artwork I’ve already contributed (chosen, but not created by me, thankfully) for the initial article.

Connected to the ‘Wyck (as the locals call their home)are the eternal autumnal lands of the October Country. I’ve been rambling about and designing for the October Country for over two years now on the blog Secret Antiquities and it represents my second big project. I’ve got enough material to begin playtesting the setting and I hope to assemble the finished material into a book once I’ve worked the kinks out. If I had to pick a work that I’d consider my magnum opus, the October Country would be it. I call it my Rosetta Stone setting because any story I want to tell—fantasy, horror, intrigue, pulp, or weirdness—can find a home in the October Country. It’s a personal place, but one I hope has enough common touchstones to be universal.

I’m not sure how I’ll handle that setting in the future. I’d like to see it in print, but I’m not certain I want to go down the road of self-publishing again. I’ve gotten lazy and like it when all I have to do is string the words together and let somebody else worry about the art, the editing, the layout, etc. Unfortunately, I’m hesitant to relinquish ownership of the material, so self-publishing may be the only course. But that’s all carts far, far in front of horses for now.

This brings me to my last concern: the future of this blog. My original plan was to keep it up until I released the Stonehell sequel and then quietly retire it. Now, with the sequel on hold for the foreseeable future, I’m at a loss at what to do. I have no interest in writing more about fantasy games like D&D here for now, but this blog draws a lot of traffic and has a robust following. Do I mothball the blog until I come back around to level-based fantasy games again or do I repurpose it to reflect my new interests? And if I do that, what happens to Secret Antiquities? Frankly, I don’t know.

That’s my future, folks. One which may or may not be of interest to you, but I thought you deserved a heads up as to where I’m headed. Things have been very, very quiet here as of late and this is the reason why. I hope this glimpse at where I’m going and my future plans sparks some interest and you hang around here or follow me where I’m going, but I understand if you’re more comfortable remaining where I’ve been. It’s all good either way.

Question Authority—Especially if that Authority is Me

2011-10-13T18:03:00.000-04:00

I’ve noticed something about my own players and several others that I’ve shared a table with over the last two years, a phenomenon that I’ve not been able to deduce the whys and wherefores of. It might be a strictly local trend, one that doesn’t occur elsewhere, but it could also be indicative of the way the game has changed after the release of the 3rd edition. Maybe you’ve seen this happen too.

My players don’t ask a lot of questions in-game. This is completely alien to me because that’s all I ever do when I’m playing. Maybe it’s because I’m a referee or a designer or simply because I play these games to temporarily lose myself in the fantasy we create and becoming invested in the shared world makes it easier to do so. Most of my players, however, and others that I’ve gamed with are seemingly content to lay back and assume a completely submissive role in the play experience. Unfortunately, this can be fatal to their characters.

Here’s a recent example: I was running a quick filler game using the material I created for my Out of the Box campaign. It got off to a good start with the players going to the tavern and one making an inquiry about any recent goings on in the area. The barkeep revealed that some settlers had been attacked on the road recently, and had been kidnapped by forces unknown. I was happy. The guys were interacting with the campaign world at large, which was a big step forward for some of them. But then old habits kicked in.

They learned that the local temple couldn’t provide any healing potions, but heard a rumor that a witch in the woods might be able to. Rather than ask any more questions, they figured they’d just stumble around in the woods for a while and run into her. Things got worse after they decided to leave the safety of the keep and go dungeon-crawling. There were three options on a map that a local had, all of which were merely names on a paper. The party picked one at random and headed for it, not even pausing to see if anyone knew anything about the site they had chosen. As it turned out, the dungeon they picked was scaled for 3rd level characters and the expedition resulted in a massacre.

The same tendency occurs during the actual adventure. In my Stonehell game, the PCs occasionally encountered phenomenon or items that they didn’t recognize. Occasionally a player might ask something like, “Does my magic-user know anything about this?” or “As a dwarf do I recognize that?” When I answer “No,” they seem to take that as “No and you never will.” The thought of seeking out an NPC expert doesn’t even occur to them.

Compare this to my approach in the Labyrinth Lord game I’m participating it. We were running through the Village of Hommlet and the party, after learning of the Moathouse, decided to head out there and loot it. Immediately. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I cried. “Let’s see if we can’t learn a thing or two before we go out there.” My magic-user asked around town and learned of the backstory behind the Battle of the Moathouse and talked to a few soldiers who had been there that day. In doing so, he got a rough sketch of the exterior and learned that there was a single known dungeon level underneath the fort. He also got Rufus to kick in some troops and offer up a bounty for exploring the place. Sometimes knowing these little facts and whether you’re bound to run into goblins instead of orcs can save lives, especially fragile, 1st level lives.

After a bad run in with the frogs, my magic-user consulted with the local druid, thinking that if anyone could offer some advice about giant frogs, he’d be the guy. This lead to us getting a magic orb that created a cloud of monstrous flies and helped draw off some of the big batrachians in our path.

Maybe I’m just an exemplary player or perhaps reading all those “advice to the players” articles in Dragon back in the day stuck in my brain. Whatever the case, I’m just not seeing this trend in the gamers I’ve been playing with and I’m wondering why. Is it merely because they are “poor” players or is this symptomatic of a larger cause? Have video games that feed the players tidbits of information at predetermined points made gamers more passive? Did including a “Gather Information” skill make players think that the only way to get important information was to make a skill check and when that skill is missing from their plate of options they believe that information is unavailable? Am I a sucky referee who runs a game that provides no impetus for the players to peer beyond the surface? I really don’t know.

This had been on my mind a lot lately, mostly because I’m re-examining what types of games I enjoy running and because of some changes in my regular group. I look at Jeff Rient’s Twenty Questions and part of me wonders if it’s even worth answering them if nobody’s going to make those inquiries in the first place. This also explains my request that folks interested in play testing not “lay back and think of England” but get excited and get involved. A great deal of my lack of enthusiasm for continuing to run Labyrinth Lord comes from this absence of investment in the shared world we’re supposed to be creating around the table.

I’m not trying to be harsh or rude to my players, but it’s something that I have noticed in the year and a half we’ve been together. Not from all of them, but enough that it affects me and my own interest in running a game. And with my plan to introduce a new setting/game that I consider to be my most personal and immersive campaign ever, these concerns make me think that this is not the right time or group to do so.

Am I alone in noticing this trend in gamers, especially younger ones? Is this a singular phenomenon or has this affected your own games as well? I’d really like to diagnose this affliction and see what might be done to address it.

Forming

2011-10-12T16:16:00.001-04:00

I the Emperor proclaim
Us the masters we rule the game

Those of you located in the Long Island area may be interested to know that I’m in the process of putting together a play testing group in order to stress test a few projects that are fast approaching the end of their writing phase. One is my own construction, another is a new game for another publisher, and a third will be an adventure written for a soon-to-be released game system.

I’m specifically looking for people with the natural inclination to take a setting or rule system and run with it rather than lay back and think of England while I have my way with them. I’m never going to figure out if the project is going to hold together unless you help kick the tires with ideas or situations I’d never think of. If you’re interested and on the Island, please drop me an email at poleandrope (AT) gmail (dot) com.

Dave’s Day

2011-10-03T12:44:00.000-04:00

I’d make a lousy reporter. I simply lack the ability to observe events as they occur, preferring to participate whenever possible. This means that any attempt I make to provide a comprehensive picture of what occurred at a function or event is doomed to failure. The 3rd Annual NYC Dave Arneson Memorial Game Day is no exception, so please forgive any oversights I might commit in the following paragraphs or names I might accidently misattribute or misspell. I’ll leave the task of providing a wider, more accurate account of the day’s events to another.

After waking at the crack of dawn to make the drive into Brooklyn, I finally managed to find a parking spot a few blocks away from the Brooklyn Strategist. Entering the space, I immediately met John, the mind behind the Brooklyn Strategist and its operator. The Brooklyn Strategist is not so much a game store as it is a neighborhood resource. It shares time in a community space and serves as “a unique, community-based, interactive board and card-game center, café and social club.” Open Tuesday through Thursday every week and on first and third weekends of the month, it provides a place for game enthusiasts of all ages to get together and share a common love for games of all types. In addition, they run “Game Modules,” weekly series of games with common themes (Ancient Strategy, Sports, Empire Building and Civilizations, etc) that run several weeks and introduce players to games of increasing complexity as they grow familiar with the Game Module’s theme.

For those who can’t commit to a regular Game Module, the Brooklyn Strategist provides a four hour block of play time for $10 dollars. Slap your money down and choose from any one of the many game available for play. If you don’t know the rules, the staff is more than willing to get you familiar with the game so you can play. That’s an excellent way to give a new game a shot before plunking down the $50 a high end board game goes for these days.

The space is clean and open, although the lighting could be a little brighter. Tables are sawhorse affairs surrounded by folding chairs. The entry way serves as business counter, game display, and game sales, and the place is wheelchair accessible. As we gamers know, gaming and the munchies go hand-in-grease-covered-hand, and the Brooklyn Strategist has you covered there. They operate an on-site concession stand, Strategic Snacks, which is stocked with comfort foods made from scratch. The mint lemonade and chocolate chip cookies were both excellent. I really can’t recommend the Brooklyn Strategist enough. If you’re in the area and looking to play a game that doesn’t involve renting shoes or paying a table fee in a snooker hall, the Brooklyn Strategist is worth a visit.

After getting acquainted with the Strategist, I got down to the game floor to see a few familiar faces. Tavis Allison was already up and running a Blackmoor hex crawl for a group of children and adults. This was the second time I’ve met Tavis and I was again amazed at how effortlessly he keeps young children engaged and focused on a game with complex rules. He had a “hex map” laid out on the table constructed from Heroscape Terrain, which struck me as a brilliant idea. If somebody out there could produce a series of hex-shaped markers illustrated with classic fantasy cartographic symbols that attached to one another quickly and easily (maybe magnetically), they’d probably make a mint from gamers. Just a suggestion to would-be entrepreneurs...

Also sighted was James Carpio of Chapter 13 Press. I met James earlier this year at ICON 30 and got the opportunity to chat with him and Frank Mentzer after the con had ended. James was at the Strategist to run Death Race Z, a new game from Chapter 13 and had artist Ben Morgan with him. Together, James and Ben are the creators of Spookybeans, the gothic comics RPG. Imagine roleplaying in the world of Charles Addams and you’re halfway to understanding Spookybeans. James and Ben have been playtesting the game for five years now and are finally getting ready to publish it. I had a gander at the game in a rough form and it looks interesting. Ben’s art really sets the mood for the game and with adventures with names like “Dave of the Dead” it seems to have a built in audience with anyone who enjoys Chez Goth, the quirky worlds of Tim Burton, Shaun of the Dead, or just likes poking fun at heavily eye-shadowed folks with too much spider-themed jewelry.

I grabbed a table after greeting everyone and catching up with what was going on for the day. Unpacking and unwinding after the drive in, I talked with John from the Strategist who gave me the information I reported above about the place. I promised I’d snap some more pictures once the place got busier, but unfortunately I only got the few I posted in this article. Before I knew it, things were happening all around me and I forgot to try and document the day in photographs.

With more people trickling it, some of whom were children, Tavis gathered the kids together to introduce them to Blackmoor and Adventurer, Conqueror, King. The two adult players from Blackmoor drifted over to my table to make room for the kids. These were Mike R., who turned out to have a strange synchronicity with myself besides just a name, and Tim H., the mind behind the Play Generated Map and Document Archive (http://www.plagmada.org/).

Since a few more faces were needed before I could break out the special Dave Arneson Stonehell adventure I’d written for the day, the three of use sat down to play InSpectres, refereed by Tim. It was my first experience with the game and it was a tremendous amount of fun (I’ll have more to say about it in another post). In short, you play the employees of a Ghostbusters-type paranormal extermination service. Game play is fast, simple, and very much in the new school of game design. Players have almost as much say in the game narrative as the game master and a session can be wrapped up in an hour or so.

Halfway through InSpectres, we got a new player, John, who turned out is a regular reader of this blog (Hi, John!). John took up the mantle of Sally the Intern and saved Mike and I when we got imprisoned in our own mystical glyph like a pair of mimes stuck in an invisible box—an invisible box surrounded by goats that had tasted human blood!

When the game finished (triumphantly for the players, I might add), I asked James and Ben to join us and we sat down to play Labyrinth Lord run by myself (Do I need to submit a detailed report for my Labyrinth Lord Society XP, David?). The tournament/demo style scenario involved the plundering of the Hidden Vault of Evaders Noan. The five players chose from a stack of pre-generated PCs and, after getting the background, entered the vault in search of three extremely valuable gems. Not long after they entered, two more players came over and asked to sit in. That’s how Andrew (a newcomer to Labyrinth Lord and old school RPGs) and Dave (another reader of the SoTPR) joined the party. I’ll have more to say about the scenario in another post, but the party was largely successful (one of the gems was recovered) and I’m pretty happy with the debut of the adventure. It needs a few tweaks, but it might become my convention/on-the-road Stonehell adventure of choice.

It was 3:30 when the Labyrinth Lord game finished up, and after enjoying some compliments on my refereeing, I took a look around the room to see that it was filling up nicely. Tavis had finished ACK, many of the panellists had arrived and were chatting with acquaintances new and old, families were playing board and card games at the tables around the Strategist, and someone (I think it was Paul Hughes from Blog of Holding) was running 4E D&D with a bunch of kids in one corner of the space.

I had some time to kill before the panel started at 5 PM and I largely spent the next hour and a half chatting with people and sampling a snack from the concession stand. These conversations included:

Talking with Tavis and Darren Watts, President of Hero Games, about Dave Arneson, Braunstein, and the simple, but radical idea Dave had about playing games where your “piece” got better at them thanks to the experiences had in previous games.
Having Luke Crane of Burning Wheel and the Mouse Guard RPG remind me of the Milton Bradley board game Conspiracy, a game that I had completely forgotten about and must now acquire at all costs.
Comparing notes with Tim H. on Dwarf Fortress, its complexity and usefulness, and the fact that it lacks any sort of intuitive introduction to game play for people like me.
Chatting with Darren Watts out on the sidewalk about Kenneth Hite and how the mark of a good designer is the ability to compartmentalize your own creations, especially when creating for different systems owned by different publishers.

After grabbing a quick bite of Mexican at the Fast Burrito Deli, it was time to grab a seat, for the panel was about to begin. A film crew was on hand to record the discussion, but due to audio issues with the microphone, it’s uncertain if any of the footage will appear online as intended.

The panel consisted of Darren Watts, Luke Crane, Brian Driotcour, David Ewalt, Ethan Gilsdorf, and Nicholas Fortugno, whose credits can be found in this post rather than reproduce them here. The discussion was interesting and very respectful of Dave Arneson’s contributions to the game industry (even in light of the occasional turkey like DNA/DOA). The entire industry of gaming –be it tabletop or digital—would be in a completely different state if it hadn’t be for Dave’s simple yet radical idea. Listening to the panel reminded me exactly how much we gamers owe to Dave and reinforces the sadness that he’s not better recognized for his contributions. As many people there admitted, they came into the hobby through D&D, but had no clue about who Dave was or what role he had in the game that Gygax’s name dominated. It’s a shame that Arneson is only now beginning to gain the accolades he richly deserves at a time when he’s not around to enjoy them. Tavis (and the rest of the organizers) are doing a great service to the hobby, the next generation, and Dave’s memory with these annual Game Days and I hope they endure for many, many years.

The panel ended, leaving me with not only a renewed respect for Dave, but a few laughs (I thought I was the only one who considered the mathematical formulae for explosion damage in Twilight 2000 to be a point of high mockery), and the realization that role-players vary much more than I imagined (apparently the Danes have attitudes about roleplaying that Americans would find almost alien, but that’s one of the beauties of the hobby and the mindsets of those who play it).

It was 6:30 PM by this time and the day was winding down for me. Between only a few hours of sleep in the previous 48 leading up the event and a full session of gaming under my belt, I was feeling pretty beat and facing an hour and a half drive home. There was also uneven ratio between game masters and players, and since I had already run a session, I thought it best if I let someone else run something instead. I had one person, Eric, another reader of this blog and owner of The Dungeon Alphabet, come down looking to play Labyrinth Lord with me at the helm, but I was pretty wiped out and I had to disappoint him (sorry about that again, Eric). I gave him my copy of the Hidden Vault of Evaders Noan as a small consolation prize because I always hate to let somebody down.

A little after 7 PM, I collected my things, said my goodbyes and walked back to my car. To my delight, it was exactly where I left it, free from parking tickets, and I made my way back into the quiet suburbs of Long Island, tired, happy, and proud to have been a part of the 3rd Annual NYC Dave Arneson Memorial Game Day. I hope to be there again in 2012. Maybe you’ll be there too.

New Realms of Crawling Chaos Review

2011-10-02T21:06:00.001-04:00

It has fallen out of public view in the past several months, which is only natural given the sheer amount of good stuff that's been coming out of various OSR publishers (professional and amateur), but I've seen signs that people are beginning to give Dan Proctor's excellent Lovecraftian supplement for Labyrinth Lord another look-see. People still seem to enjoy my paltry contributions to the book as well.

A new review of Realms of Crawling Chaos is up over at Reviews from R'lyeh. Swing on by and give it a read if you've been wondering if this might be the book to spice up your old school D&D game.

Thanks, Dave

2011-10-01T23:07:00.000-04:00

I just got home from the 3rd Annual NYC Dave Arneson Memorial Game Day. It's been a very long, but very entertaining and sometimes enlightening day. I'll have a little more to say about it during the week ahead, but I did not get nearly as many pictures as I had hoped and things were still going on when I left.

Suffice to say, none of that fun would have been possible without the contributions of Dave Arneson. Thanks so much, Dave. You changed the world with a simple idea. Thanks also to Tavis Allison for organizing the event and to all the game masters and panelists who came down to help out. It was well worth braving the wilds of Brooklyn and getting up before dawn to do so.

More on the Dave Arneson Memorial Game Day

2011-09-22T09:49:00.006-04:00

As I mentioned previously, I’ll be one of the guest referees at the 3^rd Annual Dave Arneson Memorial Game Day held on October 1^st, 2011 at the Brooklyn Strategist. The day runs from 9 AM to 11 PM, so if you’re in the vicinity, please come down to share in the fun and honor the memory of Dave Arneson. The following kind souls will be providing adventuring opportunities to attendees:

Tavis Allison will be judging a mini-campaign in which players attempt to rebuild Blackmoor Castle and clear out its dungeons, using the Adventurer Conqueror King system. Tavis is one of the developers for ACKs, and will have a new "Men and Magic"-style player book of its character creation rules.
Joseph Bloch will be running dungeon expeditions using Adventures Dark & Deep, of which he is the designer. Joseph will have a never-before-seen version of the Bestiary at the Gameday.
James Carpio will be running demos of the forthcoming Death Race Z. James is the game's designer (as well as one of the Gameday's organizers), and will be contributing works from his company, Chapter 13.
Luke Crane will be running one of his favorite Shadowrun modules, DNA/DOA, which was written by Dave Arneson. Luke's session will use his long-awaited "Mouse Run" hack of his game Mouse Guard, and he'll bring copies of his new Burning Wheel Gold to sign and contribute.
Michael Curtis will be refereeing adventures in Stonehell Dungeon using the Labyrinth Lord rules. Michael is the creator of Stonehell and will be signing copies of its Three Castles award nominated first installment, Down Night-Haunted Halls.
Paul Hughes will be running adventures of the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons, using the wandering monster charts from the original edition Arneson co-authored. Paul will have these posters of these charts illustrated in his inimitable infographic style, instantly recognizable to fans of his posts at Blog of Holding.
Jeff LaSala will be running the Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure The Transmuter’s Last Touch he wrote for Goodman Games, which he will specially convert to the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons as an introduction for new gamers.

In addition, there will be a panel discussion “The World Dave Made: Arneson's Legacy in Modern Culture” featuring:

Luke Crane is one of the most influential role-playing game designers working today and an outspoken advocate of self-publishing. His participation as panelist and game-master affords a chance to see both theory and practice.
Brian Droitcour is a staff writer at Rhizome--an organization supporting art that engages emerging technologies based at the New Museum--and a regular contributor to Artforum. He is currently organizing an exhibition titled “Big Reality” that takes role-playing games as a starting point for considering how consumer technologies have integrated fantasy and play in everyday life. He will offer some thoughts on the place of role-playing games in contemporary culture, and examples of how it is reflected in the work of some artists.
David Ewalt is a senior editor at Forbes Magazine, where he reports on the game industry, and is writing a book about Dungeons & Dragons, which will be published by Scribner. David will be sharing insights from his interviews with people in all walks of life who were influenced by roleplaying games.
Nicholas Fortugno teaches the Game Design and Interactive Narrative program at Parsons New School for Design and is the co-founder of the NYC game design studio Playmatics LLC. Nicholas will be talking about why learning to play Dungeons & Dragons was simply the most influential element of my childhood and has profoundly shaped his career, his identity, and his life.
Ethan Gilsdorf is the author of the award-winning book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, his travel memoir investigation into fantasy and gaming subcultures. He also blogs for wired.com’s Geek Dad, and writes about movies, books, and pop and geek culture for Salon.com, The Boston Globe, and The New York Times.

More information on the panel can be found on here on Facebook.

A Kickstarter effort has been launched to help cover the costs of the Game Day and a suggested $10 donation at the door goes to juvenile diabetes research. Additional information about the event and what’s going down there can be found on Facebook at the Third Annual NYC Dave Arneson Memorial Game Day. We hope to see you there, but if you can't make it, please consider pledging to the Kickstarter effort and be sure to spend Saturday, October 1^st remembering Dave with fun and games amongst family, friends, and even complete strangers.

Brother, Can You Spare a Shield?

2011-09-17T15:25:00.004-04:00

I’m currently sorting through my old minis to determine what needs to be stripped and repainted and what needs to be culled completely. Amongst them, I found one knight who is missing his shield. I’m not sure who produced Sir Aegisless the Exposed, but he obviously hails from the period in the mid 1980s when mini companies decided to mold their figures separately and include plastic shields to attach to a boss on the miniatures’ arms. I’ve looked online to find a replacement, but truth be told, I just need a single shield and not an entire sprue of them. Does anyone have a spare they’d be willing to pop in an envelope and mail my way? I could probably rig a replacement from a washer and some green stuff, but I thought I see if anyone has some extras lying in the bottom of their mini box first.

Here’s Sir Aegisless so you know what I’m talking about:

Visitors from Nowhen

2011-09-12T02:57:00.002-04:00

As much as Stonehell Dungeon has become a commercial venture, at its heart it remains my own personal dungeon and that means I oftentimes add things to it merely to please myself. Take the following:

It is not widely known that deep in the belly of Stonehell Dungeon stands a certain cave mouth. It is not a particularly interesting cave opening. It is rather narrow, no more than a cleft in the rock face in which it stands. Many adventuring bands have passed it by without a second glance.

Of the handful that have entered it, none have traversed its entire length. The cave is merely the mouth of a long, long, sinuous tunnel that seems to stretch for miles. One brave soul who ventured farther than any other reportedly encountered the tunnel’s guardian: a portly, faceless demon dressed in nondescript robes and bearing a number of glowing, green eyes in its otherwise featureless hood. He fled before the guardian could challenge him.

Although none have passed through the tunnel from Stonehell, there is a tale that says two persons once emerged from the cave, obviously arriving from whatever strange lands lay at the opposite end. The peculiar, mismatched duo became involved in several convoluted schemes in the cities of Ilrahtyr and Xultvar before eventually vanishing from sight. Some believe they returned to the weird lands that birthed them; others proclaim they set sail on the Western Sea and have never been sighted since. Perhaps one day the two will again be encountered in Stonehell by those who probe the dungeon’s deepest mysteries…

Fritz Leiber's tale, "The Adept's Gambit," is a blessing to we referees who love his work and want to include a taste of Nehwon without necessarily setting our campaigns there. Thanks to the magic of Nin's cave, the Twain can show up for guest apperances just about anywhere. I've long had the idea to have Fafrhd and Mouser visit R'Nis, staying just long enough for the PCs to get involved in whatever scheme the two are planning (or perhaps rescuing the Twain from their own ill luck). With that idea in mind, I picked up an appropriate set of minis for the Boys from Lankhmar. Recently, I finally got around to painting them

The Fafhrd figure is Reaper's Fafnir Of Kjord. You must admit the likeness is uncanny.

My Gray Mouser is also a Reaper figure, Kurff The Swift. The match isn't perfect, but it's close enough for my purposes. The gray paint job and crouched stance help maintain the illusion.

Sneak Peek at DCC Adventures

2011-09-08T21:40:00.003-04:00

I'd like to draw your attention to this thread over at the Goodman Games website forum. Since Joseph Goodman included it in the thread, I offer you the following without commentary. Look for more info to emerge in the weeks ahead.

September Savings

2011-09-08T15:34:00.005-04:00

This is a reminder that for the month of September, the following codes will save you some cash at my Lulu storefront. I’m keeping an eye out for Zazzle discounts for September and will post them when they become available for those interested in picking up Stonehell Tees.

SEPTEMBER305 is good for 20% off your order at Lulu, but it expires at midnight tomorrow (whether that’s EST, PST, or GMT is anyone’s guess).

AWESOME305 will save you 15% off your Lulu order and is good until the end of the month.

SHIRT4SCHOOL is a 10% off code for shirts over at Zazzle. I'm not sure when it expires, however, so use it soon!

Three Years and Then Some

2011-08-31T09:01:00.000-04:00

On August 21st at 4:05 PM, the Society of Torch, Pole and Rope achieved three years of existence in the blogosphere, which, while not being a Herculean task is nevertheless no small potatoes in longevity when it comes to the intertubes. Other blogs have risen and fell since I started posting these scribblings and I’m proud to have been up and around when things started to really get rolling in the OSR. The question that now stands before me is “What does the future hold?”

I’ve stated that I believe this will be the final year for this blog and my recent hiatus confirms that belief. I simply lack the interest to pursue this project much further. I’ve been blessed with a modicum of success and the things that I would once write about for this blog I now scribe for publication. As reasons to stop a blog go, that’s not a bad one. I’m keenly aware that there hasn’t been a lot of useful material produced by the Society in quite some time and that the signal-to-noise ratio is at the worst its ever been. Could I turn it around? Yes, but I don’t really care to.

As you can gather from the title of this blog, I started it with the intention to chronicle my return to the hobby by means of the classic dungeon crawl. My initial plan was to blog about my creating a megadungeon and getting a regular game going again; a plan that succeeded past my wildest imaginations. But alas, the megadungeon doesn’t have the luster it once had and my thoughts are going to places beyond the old Saturday night dungeon crawl. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not condemning it or the dungeon, but after three years of eating the same meal, one desires to sample other repasts. Add in the fact that most of the paid work I’m doing relates to fantasy and/or the dungeon, and I think you can understand my desire to do other things for recreation.

This doesn’t mean that I’m abandoning Stonehell Dungeon. I’m still working on it (unfortunately as slow as ever) and progress accumulates in between other, shorter projects. I will nevertheless be ecstatic when the second book is complete and I can close the Stonehell chapter of my life for a while. I’ll return to it after a well-deserved rest so long as people are interested.

Once I’ve written the final words for the Society, I plan to leave it up for an unspecified duration. I have no plans to burn the place to the ground as I walk out the door, but neither do I intend for it to remain up for whatever passes as eternity in the ether. At some point it will come down, but with plenty of warning—like a year’s worth—so don’t sweat it.

I remain interested in blogging, but I’m not certain if time and energy will allow for it in the future. Once Stonehell is out of the way and I can concentrate on other pursuits with more focus, we will see how things go. I have some cool stuff coming out and another project being discussed at the moment which might scratch an itch that I’ve been having. I’m cheerful about the future, even if the blog isn’t part of it.

This is not goodbye yet, but it is coming in the months ahead. It’s been fun, challenging, annoying, surprising, and enlightening, and I’m glad you all stuck around for so long. It is greatly appreciated by a guy who considers himself very, very lucky. I hope that even after I leave the Society behind that you’ll follow my efforts and hard work in whatever other forms they next appear.

Thank you all so very much,

Michael

BÖC-Hurricane Party Video Mix

2011-08-27T11:43:00.001-04:00

If you never hear from me again, I was swept out to sea.

Stonehell from the Party's Perspective

2011-08-21T22:06:00.002-04:00

Or at least how they perceived Level One before they noticed that the layout had undergone...changes...since they last ventured inside.

Otherworld Miniatures' Labyrinth Lord Boxed Sets 1 & 2 Available for Pre-order

2011-08-19T12:12:00.004-04:00

It was announced back in March of last year that Otherworld Miniatures and Goblinoid Games were teaming up to provide a series of miniature boxed set that correspond to the various levels of the dungeon. After some delays, the first of those boxed sets are now available for pre-order at the Otherworld Miniatures store. Both are expected to be released September 20th of this year and will cost £60.00 now and £75.00 after release.

Originally, each boxed set was to include a 3-4 page adventure that would link together to form a larger dungeon complex. I do not believe this is still the case and that the adventure concept has been discarded--which is a shame since I participated and submitted my level on time so that I could get a set of these bad boys myself, but such are the whims of fate.

Third Annual NYC Arneson Memorial Game Day

2011-08-17T14:54:00.002-04:00

This is a “Save the Date” sort of thing. More details as they emerge:

On Saturday, October 1st, 2011, the Third Annual NYC Arneson Memorial Game Day will be held at the Brooklyn Strategist to honor the life and accomplishments of Dave Arneson. As of right now, Tavis from The Mule Abides will be running Adventurer Conqueror King and I will be running a delve into Stonehell Dungeon. Others are encouraged to volunteer to participate by either running a game of their own or merely stopping in to play. More details will undoubtedly be posted here, over at The Mule Abides, or on this thread at the Original D&D Discussion Forum.

Early Conan the Barbarian Review

2011-08-17T11:04:00.002-04:00

Marcus Nispel's new "Conan The Barbarian" is the film equivalent of having someone punch you in the face for two straight hours while someone screams in your ear.

Warning: there be spoilers in the review.

Mike’s Mid-Week Gaming Tour

2011-08-16T16:51:00.002-04:00

For those of you in the greater New York and Long Island area looking to log some gaming time before the weekend, you’ve got two options to not only do so, but to do so with me.

Tomorrow night, I’ll be running D&D Gamma World as a place-holder in between the last D&D Encounters campaign and the next one. The regular DM is out-of-town for the next two weeks and I volunteered to run the only 4E-related game I own to keep the home fires burning until he gets back. So, if you want to give the latest incarnation of Gamma World a whirl and have free time between 7PM and 9PM this Wednesday, drop by Brother Grim Games and Collectibles in Selden, NY. I’ll have pre-gens ready to go.

Secondly, I’ll be attending the Gamerati Tour 2011 stop at The Compleat Strategist this Thursday in NYC. It’s been at least ten years since I stepped into the Compleat Strategist and I’m looking forward to pressing the flesh and playing some new games. The tour stop runs from 3PM to 7PM and you can get more information either here or at the Mule Abides.

I hope to see some of you there!

Stonehell Dungeon T-Shirts Now Available

2011-08-16T09:01:00.001-04:00

Over a year ago, I had a single “Official Stonehell Dungeon T-Shirt” made to help publicize the book. I’ve worn that shirt to conventions, my weekly game, and to other roleplaying-related events. After more than a year of wear, the shirt remains in good condition. During that time, I’ve had several people ask me where they could get a shirt of their own and up until now they couldn’t. But thanks to an agreement with artist Carl Nash and the good folks at Zazzle.com, Stonehell Dungeon T-Shirts are now available to the general gaming public.

There are three varieties of shirts currently available at the Stonehell Dungeon Store. The first is the cheap white T-shirt with the iconic Ogre Face Arch image and Stonehell Dungeon logo. It retails for $18.00. The second is the basic “gamer dude” black T-shirt with arch and logo. The shirt is higher quality than the cheap white T-shirt and sells for $25.00. Lastly, there are the “I’m both ashamed and proud that I came up with this idea” official “In-Game Bonus” T-shirts. Coming in four varieties, each shirt grants a special modifier to the character of the player wearing the shirt. Roughly class specific, there is a shirt for clerics, fighters, magic-users, and thieves. They each retail for $35.00.

For the purposes of complete disclosure, the shirts vary in production. The cheap white T-shirts have the image directly applied to the fabric (I’m not certain if this is silk-screened or not; I don’t have the knowledge of the process involved). The black and modifier tees have the logo and image applied as an appliqué, not too dissimilar in method to the rockin’ “iron ons” we had as kids, but of better quality. The in-game modifier text on those shirts is applied directly to the fabric. I’ve had mine for over a year and the appliqué has suffered very little wear despite many trips through the wash.

I’m not expecting these to sell like hotcakes, but since people have asked and any extra money that comes in allows me to cover some bills while I finish the sequel, I’ve taken my final step into crass commercialism and selling out. I hope this will mark the end of that journey, but I should if ever become possible to create Stonehell Snuggies™ I’m so going to.

Zazzle offers a 30-day “replace or refund” guarantee so if you get a bummer or have second thoughts, you’re not out your cash. Also, much like Lulu, Zazzle offers regular discount codes on their products. In fact, until August 31st, the code SAYITTSHIRTS will save you $5.00 on each shirt you buy.

Stonehell Dungeon “In-Game” shirts are official in my own version of the dungeon, regardless of whether I’m running it at home or on the road. Individual referees can choose to accept or disallow Stonehell “In-Game” shirts for their own games. For the official rules regarding their use, click here, and remember to get your ref’s OK before buying an “In-Game” shirt.

Check out the Stonehell Shop and help support the Stonehell Dungeon sequel, coming this year from yours truly.

Stonehell Dungeon Official In-Game T-Shirt Rules

2011-08-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

This is so the game masters out there running Stonehell Dungeon have official “by the book” rules to point to if Mr. Rules Lawyer or his cousin Knuckleheaded Gamer Guy start being a problem.

Rule Number 1: It is the game master’s prerogative to allow or forbid the modifier granted by a Stonehell Dungeon “In-Game” T-shirt in his or her game session. If they say the shirt’s modifier doesn’t apply, it doesn’t apply. Stonehell Dungeon “In Game” T-shirts always grant their bonuses in any game run by me, Michael Curtis.

Rule Number 2: The player’s character gains the benefit of only one shirt at any given time. Shirts do not stack regardless of how many the player is wearing at the game table. Only the topmost shirt grants it bonus and the player is allowed to change shirts during a game session (but see Rule Number 3 below).

Rule Number 3: The shirt’s modifier must be plainly visible at all times to be claimed by the character. If someone standing behind the player cannot read the text on the back of the shirt, that player cannot apply the shirt’s benefit to their character. This means that “In-Game” shirts worn under other clothing do not grant a bonus; shirts obscured by the back of a chair or other situation where the player need only lean forward or to one side to reveal the game text still grant their bonus.

Rule Number 4: If your campaign allows for “shields to be splintered” to avoid damage, the Stonehell Fighters Tee can be used in lieu of a shield. To claim this benefit, the wearer must physically tear his or her shirt off in their best Hulk Hogan fashion and slam the strips of cloth triumphantly on the game table. All other players and/or bystanders must immediately give that player a standing ovation. The first person to send me a video of themselves or another player performing this action in actual play will receive a special Stonehell-related gift from me of my choosing.

Rule Number 5: The benefit of wearing a Stonehell Dungeon “In-Game” T-shirt is completely negated if the player is also wearing an “RPG guy hat.” “RPG guy hats” include, but are not limited to: fedoras, sombreros, fezzes, cat ears, Australian -outback style hats, surplus military hats, Viking helmets, and other headwear that no self-respecting person would wear, yet the player mistakenly believes makes them cool, quirky, or more stylish than everyone else. If there is any debate as to whether a hat qualifies as an “RPG guy hat,” a vote of all players present is taken and majority rules. The in-game modifier is only negated if the shirt owner insists on wearing his or her “RPG guy hat” at the table. I can’t stop you from wearing it to and from the game (as much as I wish I could).

Rule Number 6: If any other uncertainties or debates regarding the modifier granted by a Stonehell Dungeon “In-Game” T-shirt arise, see Rule Number 1. The game referee always has the final say and his or her decisions trump Rules Number 2-5.

The Secret Fire is Burning Down Tenkar’s Tavern

2011-08-10T15:25:00.005-04:00

I’ve been concentrating on other things for most of the summer (and some announcements about those things may be cropping up in the near future) and I completely missed the progress and changes that Legends & Labyrinths had been undergoing since I sat in on a playtest back in June. Luckily, Tenkar of the Tavern seems to be covering the game post-release in painstaking if random detail.

Obviously, the biggest change was the fact that it got a new title: The Secret Fire. It also seems that some folks have been coming out of the woodwork to praise George Strayton’s creation. As I said after the playtest, the game incorporates elements from all the editions, utilizing them and improving on some of them to very good effect. I’ve not had a chance to read the released version of the game yet (ahem), but from what Tenkar’s been reporting, it sounds like the playtest was very indicative of the final result.

There are some interesting game mechanics in The Secret Fire and even if the game turns out not be the one you going to be playing, those on the lookout for different options and unconventional designs will want to take a look at the game. But don’t take my word for it: Keep reading Tenkar’s coverage and make up your own minds.

Over the Wire & England Invaded

2011-08-08T09:01:00.000-04:00

I’ve let it be known that I have a fondness for that historical period spanning from the end of the American Civil War to the end of World War I. I find this era fascinating; so close to our own world-view yet oh-so-different.

While tooling around online looking for Victorian period minis, I happened upon a mention of the miniature skirmish wargame, England Invaded. Produced by Over the Wire Games & Miniatures and available from Warrior Miniatures in the U.K., it seems to be set in an alternate history timeline where World War I broke out a couple decades early. The minis are the perfect mixture of the Victorian and the Great War, and cover the English, German, French, Turkish, American, Cossacks, and a few independent forces (the Americans all have cowboy hats).

I’m not much of a mini wargamer and have no interest in pursuing a second career as Warhammer general, but this line tickles me in just the right places. Has anyone out there had any experience playing this or with the minis? The prices aren’t bad for buying them overseas, but not cheap enough to justify spending the cash without doing some research.

My attitudes and interests when it comes to RPGs have been heading in strange directions lately, and if this turns out to be a winner, I can see strange fruit being born from peculiar trees.

More Call of Cthulhu Recommendations

2011-07-29T14:33:00.002-04:00

OK, since you were all kind enough to offer me advice on various scenarios (of which I’m still weighing my options between running something pre-fab or writing my own), I thought I’d make another request.

My Call of Cthulhu game library—as opposed to my fiction library which is much greater—is of modest size. It contains the following:

Call of Cthulhu 1st edition boxed set (second printing)
Call of Cthulhu 4th edition
Call of Cthulhu 6th edition
Call of Cthulhu 30th Anniversary Edition (en route)
Call of Cthulhu d20
Keeper’s Kit (5th edition)

Delta Green
Delta Green: Countdown

H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham
H.P. Lovecraft’s Kingsport
H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands
H.P. Lovecraft’s Dunwich

Secrets of Morocco
Secrets of New York

Ramsey Campbell’s Goatswood
Miskatonic University: The University Guide Book
Cthulhu Invictus
Tatters of the King

Our Ladies of Sorrow
New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley

On PDF, I have Beyond the Mountains of Madness, the Quick Start, and one or two other adventure compilations. I also have the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana which bridges the gap between Mythos fiction and game aid.

My question to those of you who play is “Aside from the above, are there any Cthulhu supplements you’d consider indispensible?” My interests lay more to the classic era as opposed to modern, but I am anticipating the reissue of Cthulhu by Gaslight supposedly coming in late summer. I would love to own a set of the original Grenadier investigator minis and a print copy of Escape from Innsmouth, but for expense and/or availability reasons, those remain beyond my grasp for the moment.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Fight On! For Five Dollars

2011-07-27T17:05:00.000-04:00

This just in: Effective immediately, all Fight On! PDFs are just $5. This is a price reduction, not a sale. And, until June 29th, you can save an additional 25% with the coupon code TIME305. That means you can grab your first, third, or twelfth issue of Fight On! in PDF form for a measly $3.75. Drop by the Fight On! site to buy yours today!

Odd Job for Odd Linguists

2011-07-25T13:57:00.000-04:00

Captain America is all in the news lately and I’ll admit that I’ll be waiting for the DVD if ever to catch it. However, the buzz around it got me thinking about Cap’s old nemesis, HYDRA. I was shocked to discover that HYDRA, despite its spelling, is not an acronym. I always assumed it was like S.H.I.E.L.D. and was some god-awful stretch of names to make a cool acronym. Then I was reminded of P.A.G.A.N. (People Against Goodness and Normality) from the forgettable 1980s’ Dragnet movie and one thing led to another.

I’m playing around with a new setting and I want to throw in some enigmatic cabals with weird ass names. The atmosphere I’m going for is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen meets Hellboy—steam-punk, Victorian Era, world-shaking cabals, etc.

It’d be easy to create a half-dozen groups with acronyms that spell out appropriate English words, but I’d like to throw in a few world-spanning evil groups. So, with that in mind, does anyone with a command of a language other than English have any suggestions? The acronym could be a word in any language, but since the target audience is English speaking, an organization whose name “coincidentally” spells an English word would be most appreciative. Perhaps K.R.A.K.E.N. is something particularly fiendish in German, Russian, or even Portugese…

If anyone has any suggestions or personal favorites, I’d love to hear them.

From New York to Oslo

2011-07-23T10:55:00.003-04:00

You are in our thoughts. Vi elsker deg!

Spiders from Stonehell

2011-07-19T09:44:00.004-04:00

A little while back, I asked whether I should stick to pure Labyrinth Lord for the sequel of Stonehell Dungeon or allows additional material from the Advanced Edition Companion to sneak in. The majority of you confirmed that my inclination to us the original book's material as a basis and fill in the blanks with my own creations was the correct one.

Limitations are remarkably useful in the creative process. Without a large population of canonical monsters to fall back on, one must make them from scratch. When I needed a beefy spider for the lower levels of Stonehell, one different from the standards encountered higher up in the former prison, the following spun a web in my head and came chittering out of my ear to plop down upon the page. Meet the glider spider:

Glider Spider
No. Enc: 1d4 (1d4)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120’ (40), fly 60’ (20’)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 5
Attacks: 1 (bite)
Damage: 1d6, poison
Save: F3
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: VII

Glider spiders are huge, albino arachnids averaging 10’ in diameter. Web-spinners, they hunt in a peculiar fashion. Glider spiders form parachute-like sails out of their silk and ride the thermals until they spot their prey. They then drop atop the unsuspecting target with a 50% chance of surprise, paralyzing them with their venom. They can also throw webs as the spell.

Glider spider venom immobilizes its victim, paralyzing them for 2d4 turns. The victim seldom survives that long, as the venom dissolves the internal organs of the prey, automatically inflicting 1d4+1 damage each round. A save vs. poison negates both the paralysis and damage, but the toxin is strong and imparts a -2 penalty to the saving throw.

Fight On! to the Twelfth Power!

2011-07-14T19:39:00.002-04:00

Mutants! Androids! Robots! Pure Strain Humans! Fight On! is back, with another 88 pages of gut-wrenching, laser-pulsing, fist-pounding action! Rules variants, tables, adventures large and small, science fiction and fantasy, races, classes, monsters, spells, magic items, NPCs, history, opinion, and lore can be found herein! Featuring art and articles by Mark Allen, Ian Baggley, Lee Barber, Erin "Taichara" Bisson, Daniel Boggs, David Bowman, Simon Bull, David Coleman, Fat Cotton, Michael Curtis, Liz Danforth, Ndege Diamond, Ron Edwards, Kelvin Green, Tim Kask, John Larrey, John Laviolette, Lester, Gabor Lux, Heron Prior, Jeff Rients, Chris Robert, Zak S., Alex Schroeder, Jason Sholtis, Tim "Sniderman" Snider, Jennifer Weigel, and this issue's dedicatee James M. Ward, alongside many others! If want to take your FRP experience to the next level, don't delay - buy this issue and Fight On!The print version is available here:

http://www.lulu.com/product/16258333

and the PDF is available here: http://www.lulu.com/product/16258563

To encourage you to check us out, we have put two other products on SALE along with the release of Issue 12. These prices won’t last forever! The Fight On! Compiled Compilation +4, combining our first four fabulous issues under one cover, can currently be purchased for $19.99; and Roll the Bones, our well-reviewed collection of fantastic fiction, is available for just $14.99. We’d be honored if you checked one or both out!The compilation is available here:

http://www.lulu.com/product/15712103

and Roll the Bones is available here: http://www.lulu.com/product/14939306

If you buy by the end of the day TOMORROW (July 15), you can save even more on all of these – lulu is offering a site-wide discount of 20% off everything with the coupon BIG (BIG305AU, BIG305UK for some foreign readers), making this one of the best times to check us out for the first time or check back in if you’ve missed a few issues! While you’re at it, check out some other lulu gaming products – there is a ton of good stuff on there from all kinds of producers.Thanks for your interest, and whether you pick up an issue or not, keep fighting on!

Table of Contents

Champions of ZED (Daniel Boggs) 3
Fast Company II – Nonhumans (Schroeder & Shieh) 11
It’s All in the Cards (Michael Curtis) 12
The Tomb of Kaman-Doh Rey’d (David Coleman) 17
The Apen (Andrew “The Venomous Pao” Trent) 20
Geologians (Tim “Sniderman” Snider) 22
The Witch Doctor (Scott Moberly) 24
Knights & Knaves (Barber, Green, Rients, & Cal) 25
Grognard’s Grimoire (Erin “Taichara” Bisson) 27
The City State of Dusal Dagodli (Gabor Lux) 28
The Darkness Beneath (Heron Prior & David Bowman) 32
Education of a Magic User (Douglas Cox) 44
Doxy, Urgent Care Cleric (J. Linneman & K. Green) 45
Sir Tendeth (Tim “Sniderman” Snider) 46
Creepies & Crawlies (T. Snider and Jeffrey P. Talanian) 60
Monstrous Ecology (Ron Edwards) 63
Random’s Assortment (Peter Jensen & Random) 64
Curses Gone Wild! (John Laviolette) 65
Artifacts, Adjuncts, & Oddments (Jason Sholtis) 67
Treasure Types (Simon Bull) 68
Dungeon Modules: The Rondo Rooms (Jeff Rients) 69
Pigdivot! (Chris Robert) 72
Where the Action Is (Zak S.) 80
Merlyn’s Mystical Mirror (Gabor Lux & Jo Kreil) 84
Notes from a Master (James M. Ward & Tim Kask) 86

Front cover by Mark Allen (marjasall.com). Back cover by Kevin Mayle. Fight On! logo by Jeff Rients. Jim Ward photos by John Sapienza, Jr. and Breck Ward. Interior art and cartography by Jason Sholtis (4,9,21,67), OSRCon (osrcon.ca: 6), Fat Cotton (7,80), karenswhimsy.com (10), Anthony Stiller (12,64), Black Blade Publishing (blackblade publishing.com: 13), Liz Danforth (15), Hudson Bell (16), David Coleman (17), Netherwerks (netherwerks.blogspot. com: 18,42), Lawrence Raymond (18), Ndege Diamond (19,33,40,47), Lester (22,60,61,86), Centers for Disease Control (24), Kelvin Green (25,45,65), Lee Barber (26,51, Creepies & Crawlies logo, Knights & Knaves logo), Alex Schroeder (27,34), Gabor Lux (28,29,30), Antonio Sant’ Elia (31), Robert S. Conley (batintheattic.com: 32), Heron Prior (37,48,51,52,53,57), Bronze Age Miniatures (bronze agemin.com: 41), Douglas Cox (44), Tim “Sniderman” Snider (46), DEI Games (deigames.com, 46), John Larrey (54,63), Ian Baggley (62), Jennifer Weigel (69,74,79), Matthew Howerter (70), Kevin Mayle (72), Greengoat (75), Peter Schmidt Jensen (83), Henchman Abuse (henchman abuse.blogspot.com: 84), and F. Douglas Wall Publishing (fdouglaswall.blogspot.com: 85).

You John Carter Fans Are Smoking Dope

2011-07-14T13:24:00.003-04:00

So all morning long I'm seeing that everyone in the OSR is having a geek fit over this new John Carter movie. I haven't been following the buzz on it, but after all the OMG!!! posts, I decided to track down the trailer and see it myself.

You all are going to spend your hard-earned cash on this tripe? Bah!

Suggested Call of Cthulhu Scenarios?

2011-07-12T21:18:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday, I got the opportunity to run Call of Cthulhu as a fill-in game in our group’s schedule. They were all novices to CoC and I had the great joy of running them through “The Haunted House.” Despite playing on a bright, Sunday afternoon in a gaming store where a CCG tournament was underway, they were still terrified by their experiences in the Old Corbitt Place. It seems I still have a knack for the spooky.

The game was so well-received that we’ve all agreed that CoC will become the backup game whenever the current referee needs a week off. With that in mind, I’m looking for suggestions on what Call of Cthulhu scenarios to run for the guys. I’m looking for shorter ones, the kind that can be completed in 4-5 hours of play, but I am interested in hearing about people’s experiences with some of the longer campaign series as well—just in case CoC becomes the next game after our current Labyrinth Lord game wraps up.

If it helps, the investigators are operating out of a town near the Catskill region of New York State—one roughly the size of Arkham. I own a few Call of Cthulhu supplements, but by no means have a complete set. I’ve got a sizeable collection of White Dwarf magazines and I know that they published a slew of scenarios in the past.

So what are your favorite scenarios to either play or run? I’m all ears.

Mike’s on the Chronic…

2011-07-07T07:26:00.002-04:00

…Rift, that is. I recorded an interview with the New York-based podcast the Chronic Rift last week as part of the celebratory tour of wining the Three Castles Award. Host John S. Drew and I talk about the Dungeon Alphabet, old school gaming, and why my OSR membership card is in jeopardy. For those of you wishing to hear my dulcet tones, you can go here, download the podcast directly over here, or get it through iTunes or Zune.

Bad Ass Erol Otus Elf

2011-06-30T18:57:00.004-04:00

I've been on an elven kick as of late for reasons I'll not yet reveal, but the result is that I'm looking at a lot of roleplaying supplemental material covering our pointy-eared counterparts. When it comes to roleplaying material for elves, Roger E. Moore's articles on the demihumans in D&D certainly stands out. There's a reason that the deities he created in those articles still linger on in the game to this day.

It has been awhile since I read his "The Elven Point of View." I haven't looked at it since my return to old school gaming and thought I should reacquaint myself with its contents. I fired up my Dragon Magazine Archive and found it with a quick search. And there, right smack in the center of the article's first page was this

I certainly did not remember this depiction of an elf, but it is truly a bad ass one. This ain't Orlando Bloom chewing fletchings off an arrow. This is an elf that's going to wreck your day with either his twisty staff of flying lanterns, his eldritch eye magic, or his long sword of Dead Kennedys.

Sometimes all you need is an alternate take on a stereotype to change your entire world view. From now on, all my elves have this guy as a relative.

Your Adventure Design Homework for the Weekend

2011-06-29T16:29:00.004-04:00

I read this quote today in an interview with Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks, OFF!) and it sounds like just the sort of adventure the OSR minds would cook up. My plate's full, so someone else is going to have to take this one.

Hercules versus The Three Stooges. Or, the Three Musketeers get transported to Mars where they’re going to fight the evil king of Mars, and, as it turns out, Mars is like the party planet; all the women are running around naked and there aren’t very many guys, so it’s kind of like Australia where there’s like 10 girls to every guy. Something like that.

Extra bonus points if you can squeeze in Bigfoot.

Stonehell Deities, Religions, and other Strangeness

2011-06-28T23:12:00.003-04:00

One of the members of the Stonehell Dungeon Facebook group asked for a list of all the deities, religions, cults, and other such powers found in the upper levels of the dungeon. Never let if be said that membership doesn't have its benefits, as he and other Stonehell fans got a free, no-frills PDF of all those entities.

Since I'm a mostly swell guy, those of you who are not members now have access to the same PDF. Click here to download it. It's nothing fancy, but if you want a little more info on the gods of Stonehell (including a little behind the scenes trivia), it'll do you good.

Legends & Labyrinths Playtest

2011-06-28T18:31:00.003-04:00

I forgot to mention that I had the opportunity to sit down at my FLGS and play test a convention scenario for the upcoming RPG Legends & Labyrinths. There is literally something for everyone in the rules, no matter what edition you started with and some very innovative and interesting mechanics to the game. You can learn more over at the L&L website, including some blurry photos of the dungeon we were exploring (and a glimpse of my folded forearms).

Let me extend my thanks to George Strayton for coming out to the wilds of Suffolk County to run this session. George and I finally got to meet in person after several ridiculous near-misses and I hope to work with him in the near future. Thanks, George!

New Lulu PDF Trial

2011-06-28T16:47:00.005-04:00

As I mentioned, there will be issues involving the current crop of Stonehell PDFs available on Lulu starting in the middle of next month. I've been making the necessary changes behind the scenes to (hopefully) allow for an uninterrupted availability of those files. To make sure all is working as intended, I'll need a little help.

If you have a moment to spare, could you please download Stonehell Dungeon Supplement One: The Brigand Caves to your computer, mobile, or whatever medium you use to view such files? Please use the link in this post. This is not a new edition and is theoretically identical to the original. However, you may wish to save it in another location on your device so as to not overwrite your current working version just in case there is a problem.

Let me know if there are any issues in downloading or reading the PDF. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Nevermind

2011-06-17T19:35:00.002-04:00

After successfully running the PDF of Stonehell Dungeon through the eBook Wizard, I’ve since downloaded the converted file to discover that it was converted into…a PDF.

When I originally uploaded my PDFs, there was no eBook category available to list them under so I chose to label them as digital files (others who put PDFs on Lulu prior to my own may have done the same). It seems that Lulu is using the term “eBook” in a generic sense and not a specific format for tablets, Kindles, Nooks, etc. I’m both relieved and puzzled at this, but unless there are other factors I’m unaware of, I don’t think there will be a problem down the line.

Stay tuned to be safe, however.

Strange Things Are Afoot at the Double Ell

2011-06-17T17:48:00.002-04:00

I received an email yesterday from Lulu.com informing me that they “must retire certain products and services that have not proven to be as popular with our community of customers as we initially thought they'd be. As a result, we will no longer be offering your Multimedia for sale on Lulu.com.” Maybe you got one too.

The short of it is that Lulu will no longer support and sell digital projects such as CDs, DVDs, images, and (here’s what affects me) “digital files.” This means that all the various PDFs I have on Lulu will removed after September 18th. This confused the hell out of me at first, but I now see that they're trying to push these projects into an eBook format.

Lulu offers a free eBook Wizard service to convert PDFs and other files into that format, and it seems that I’ve successfully managed to convert the two PDFs I’ve used as trials. I’ll admit that I’m not quite up to speed on the differences (if any) between PDFs and the various eBook formats and readers so I’m not certain what this going to mean down the line. In a perfect scenario, all my PDFs will convert, you’ll be able to read them in whatever format you choose, and I’ll just have to alter the links to the new eBook versions and we’ll all get along fine.

The worst case is things go all pear-shaped and I have to stop selling my books via Lulu completely, which would likely mean that I start investigating other options like going through RPGNow or perhaps even another game publisher.

I’m not going to sweat this too much at the moment as I’ve got other irons in the fire and a few months to worry about it, but I thought I’d bring it up now to keep you all abreast of possible changes in the future. If you haven’t bought or downloaded any of the various Stonehell PDFs but keep meaning to, my suggestion is to do so before July 19th, which is the date when the first wave of alterations to the Lulu Marketplace will begin and prohibit the editing of currently offered digital files. After that, I can’t be confident what will happen over there at Lulu.

You will all be informed as more on this develops.

One Hell of a Bookend

2011-06-14T16:37:00.004-04:00

Again, let me extend my thanks to everyone who helped me get to this point. I remain honored and very much humbled by your support.

In case you're wondering, the award has an encumbrance of 80 cn.

I Beg to Differ

2011-06-13T18:45:00.002-04:00

I wanted to point this out because I’ve been seeing it a few places online now and it just needles me. Maybe you’ve see it too.

I’m referring to the ads for Dungeons & Dragons Daggerdale, a new title for the Xbox. I’m not one for console gaming, but it’s not that there’s a D&D video game which irks me. It’s the fact that they use this quote as part of the advertising campaign:

That’s pretty much the most asinine statement I’ve heard in recent weeks. OK, I’ve vented; back to lighting candles and not cursing the darkness. Sorry about that.

Promos & Discounts

2011-06-09T12:53:00.003-04:00

No, really, I’m taking the summer off. But before I get back to work on SH2 and myriad other projects, I wanted to let you all know that the now-award winning The Dungeon Alphabet remains available in hardcover at many online venues including Amazon, Amazon UK, Noble Knight, F-Shop, and other discerning venues. The PDF can be purchased via RPGNow and Drive-Thru RPG.

In related news, I somehow missed that this was announced over at the Legends & Labyrinths development blog, but here it is: The Dungeon Alphabet tables will be incorporated into the L&L rules in a piece of cross-company synergy. You’ll still need a copy of the DA to get the full use of the tables, but they’ll hopefully help neonate referees design their own subterranean nightmares to inflict on their players.

Finally, before I get back to work, Lulu is having another 20% off sale, so this is the perfect time to stock up on print or PDF copies of Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls or its second supplement, Buried Secrets. Just plug TOP305 into the designated field by June 13th during checkout to enjoy a fifth off the cover price. Buy extras and put them under windshield wipers at the mall parking lot or make them into decorative hats that makes Paree say “Oui!” this summer.

"The door opens and you see this!"

2011-06-08T09:24:00.003-04:00

I never heard of Shrek the Sheep until his passing, but now that I've seen a picture of him, I want to include a monster based on him in Stonehell 2. He looks like some sort of coral-encrusted beastie or maybe a laboratory-bred "brain sheep."

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Beta: 6/8/11

2011-06-06T09:57:00.003-04:00

Word on the street is that the Open Beta of Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG begins on Wednesday, June 8th. You can grab a PDF of the rules off of the Goodman website on that day, and then on June 18th, go down to your FLGS for Free RPG Day to pick up the DCC RPG Adventure Starter module. Then go home and see what all the fuss has been about.

Thank You All Very Much

2011-06-05T10:26:00.005-04:00

As reported over at Grognardia, The Dungeon Alphabet received the first Three Castles Award last night at the North Texas RPG convention, culminating a process that began back in October of last year. I am immensely honored and humbled that the judges, all of whom have many years of experience in the game industry, chose my debut book as worthy of the award. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the convention this year to accept the award, so I’ll have to present my acceptance speech here.

I was honestly surprised to discover that the book had won. After the final nominees had been announced, I was certain that Jim Raggi’s the Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Roleplaying was going to take the award and I sent him an email to wish him luck and to say that I thought LOTFP: WRPG was the title to beat this year. Jim replied that he was certain the Dungeon Alphabet was a shoe-in, which goes to show that not only does Mr. Raggi have a better sense of prophecy than I do, but that writers are wracked with self-doubt about the quality of their own work. In this case, I am pleased to have been proven wrong.

This is not to slight the other nominees. I own a copy of Rob Conley’s Majestic Wilderlands and found it to be a great book. Plus, as a fellow Goodman Games alumnus, I simply have to support his efforts and wish him well. Jonathan Becker’s B/X Companion has garnered its own fair share of acclaim and he too came out of nowhere to produce a book that was welcomed and respected by the old school roleplaying community. It was an honor to be included amongst them and I certainly hope they continue their efforts and submit their follow-up work for adjudication next year. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for them.

Winning this award is a fitting coda for a very strange and unexpected chapter of my life. I don’t speak much about my personal life on this blog, preferring to keep such matters to myself outside of the occasional game-related anecdote or observation. But in this case, a revelation is in order. A little over three years ago, I was quite literally homeless, living in my car and in skeazy motels when I could afford it. My life was in shambles and I was trying to follow a wildly-spinning compass that provided no direction. Luckily, before things could get any worse, I managed to find new guidance and started putting my life back in order.

Part of that process involved rediscovering what I enjoyed doing, which led me back to my earlier love of roleplaying games. That rediscovery guided me to the then burgeoning old school renaissance and then to this blog, a venue where I hoped to record my efforts to return to the hobby I had enjoyed and to give something back to the online community that had welcomed me. I expected nothing more.

Then, in November of 2008, what I considered a throwaway series of posts intended to buy me some relaxation time away from the blog caught the attention of the gaming blogosphere and catapulted me into the upper echelon of old school game blogs. This resulted in my getting noticed by Joseph Goodman, who approached me with the opportunity to expand those essays into a book. As a native New Yorker, I was skeptical (“What sort of scam is this?” was my first impression upon reading his email if I remember correctly), but some research allayed my fears and I started down a most unexpected path.

Like a lot of gamers, I remember wanting so badly to grow up and work at TSR. I read the TSR profiles in Dragon magazine with great interest, imagining how cool it would be to work with what appeared to be the most diverse and zaniest crew my young mind could comprehend. And while my interests shifted as I grew older and began worrying about making a living that could pay the bills and/or allow me to create art, I never truly lost my desire to maybe make games for a living. Joseph Goodman was kind enough to take a chance on an untried writer and designer to give me that opportunity—something which I will always be grateful for.

The Dungeon Alphabet continued to grow after I submitted my draft, nurtured by Joseph Goodman’s efforts. The occasional emails I received on its status staggered the mind as Joseph gave me progress reports on who was signed up for the art: Easley, Holloway, Roslof. Only Dee escaped the drag net due to other obligations. When the email that Erol Otus was doing the cover arrived, I knew that there must be some mistake. This was all intended for somebody else and an oversight at the Karmic Bureau had obviously occurred. I waited patiently for celestial agents to arrive on my doorstep and inform me that I’d be going back to sleeping in my car down by the river now. But that never came. The book, however, did and you fine, discerning folks embraced it and praised it. It remains (probably for only a short while longer) the most successful book Goodman Games has produced.

The success of the book and its suitability for winning this award does not rest solely on my shoulders and I’d be a fool and hypocrite to suggest otherwise. My writing merely served as a framework that Joseph Goodman provided the land for. Jeff Easley, Jim Holloway, Doug Kovacs, William McAusland, Brad McDevitt, Jesse Mohn, Peter Mullen, Erol Otus, Stefan Poag, Jim Roslof, Chad Sergesketter, Chuck Whelon, and Mike Wilson made that frame aesthetically appealing. Peter Bradley made sure the beams were lined up and the concrete had settled. Elizabeth Bauman ensured that the floors were level and free of typos to trip over. And David “Zeb” Cook, one of those people covered in Dragon’s TSR Profiles which I had read with great interest decades ago, stepped in to cut the ribbon and welcome visitors across the threshold. Without their efforts, The Dungeon Alphabet would still be a moderately successful, three-year old post series and nothing more. They are as worthy of this award as I am. For simplicity, I’ll keep it at my place, but they are all welcome to stop by to see it any time.

The Dungeon Alphabet led to other opportunities, the first being my other nominated book, Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls. I’d like to think that that book had something to do with my receiving the Three Castles Award as well, allowing me to demonstrate my design talents above and beyond the construction of interesting tables and instructive essays. Stonehell Dungeon would never had occurred had it not been for the work of David Bowman and Michael Shorten, both of whom I’m very grateful to and who I hope continue to produce and share their own creations with a wider audience. You guys both have talent you’re keeping under the bushel basket. Stonehell also owes a debt to Dan Proctor of Goblinoid Games who assisted me with my questions and was impressed enough to ask me to play with his Lovecraft action figures in that horrific sandbox know as the Realms of Crawling Chaos.

Despite these successes, it’s not been an easy year. Like a lot of Americans, I was hit by the downturn in the economy. My career is always somewhat dicey at best, being largely dependent on grant monies and other financial windfalls that can blow away all too easy in the financial breeze. I’ve been out of full time work for over two years now, making end meet with frugal living and by the occasional royalty check my game design work earns. Needless to say, any opportunity to do paid design work and writing is a welcome one, and I find it impossible to say no to those opportunities. (If you’re reading this and are looking to hire a new and now award-winning designer and writer, feel free to contact me. I can be there in a week if it’s a full time gig.) This award came at a time when I’ve been feeling especially low. It was a welcome respite from the doubts that have been plaguing me. Now, I’m filled with all new ones, the kinds experienced by the winner of “Best New Artist” each year in the record industry. Do I share the ultimate fate of Hanson, now? I shudder at the thought.

I think that I’ve carried on long enough. I’d like to close by offering my sincerest and deepest thanks to my friends who’ve supported and encouraged me during the last few years and to those designers who’ve welcomed me across the line between gamer and professional and offered me their own insights and wisdom in the process. And of course, I give my complete and utter gratitude to my family for being there for me even when I wasn’t. I love you all.

Michael Curtis
June 5th, 2011

Summer Sabbatical

2011-05-30T11:03:00.001-04:00

After much thought and soul-searching, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Society is no longer high on my list of “Things to Be Done Now!” So, rather than painfully pretend it is, I’m effectively shuttering the place for the summer months so that I can concentrate on the projects that require the most attention. Posts may occur from time to time, but I’d rather them be unexpected surprises than disappointed my readership by having them awaiting posts that never arrive. While I’d rather be able to do everything I have planned for the summer months, it’s obvious to me that something has to go to prevent anxiety and creative log-jams, and unfortunately the Society is that thing.

Be well, have a safe and happy summer, and I see you when I see you, hopefully with a Stonehell sequel almost completed in hand.

-Mike

25% Off Stonehell Dungeon (and other fine OSR tomes)

2011-05-27T11:07:00.003-04:00

I should mention that Lulu is having a 25% off sale through May 31st. Use the code CYBERMAY305 at checkout to save on all your Lulu purchases to help kick off the summer. Or as I like to think of it, "Buy 4 Stonehell Dungeons, Get the Fifth Free!" Use those pretty pictures over there on the right to speed up your shopping day.

School’s Out Week: 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

2011-05-27T10:41:00.002-04:00

We’re a day late and a dollar short on this post. Please excuse us; it’s been that sort of week.

I can think of no better way to close out the School’s Out Week than by turning our attentions towards what many consider the poster boy for “what went wrong”: 4th Edition D&D. I’ve had time to weigh the pros and cons of the latest incarnation of the venerable roleplaying title due to my recent (and highly unforeseen) involvement with the title.

A few weeks ago, one of my Labyrinth Lord players announced that he’d be orchestrating the D&D Encounters program at our FLGS and he kindly invited me to attend. He was well aware of the fact that I’m firmly in the school of “less is more” and that 4E is really not my “go to” edition for D&D (he said, understating the subject), but left the offer open. When the next Wednesday rolled around, I stopped by to make sure he had enough players to go through with the matter. Having experienced what it takes to get a group of gamers going, I wanted him to succeed and if that meant having to sit in so he’d have enough guys to run, I was willing to do so. And that’s exactly what happened due to some miscommunication with the store about scheduled start times and dates. Thus, Mike took up the role of Brandis the human paladin and set forth to defeat the darkness (literally).

My previous experience with 4th edition was the singular playtest my group ran of D&D Gamma World some months ago. This time, I’d be on the other side of the DM’s screen. Out of respect, I kept my mouth shut and my mind open and did my best to treat it as a roleplaying game and not a miniatures battle game. The results were mixed.

First off, let me say I’m not here today to tear down 4E. I realize that I have no axe to grind anymore, if ever, with WotC. I’ve developed a lot of sympathy for the guys down in the design trenches and have the sneaking suspicion that they’re not really happy with the direction things have taken and would much rather be paid to take the game in another direction. Since a steady RPG design gig is a rare bird, I don’t blame them and might do the same thing in their position.

Also, any criticism that follows is not directed to Dave, who has taken up the challenge of running the Encounters sessions (which is a really bad choice for a name because it sounds too much like the swingers’ group that meets weekly at the A-Frame). He’s running the program they sent him and is inhibited by the material. I also respect anyone who is out there running a game rather than sitting at home bitching about the fact they’re not.

After sitting through two Encounters sessions, I’m ready to speak openly about my experience with 4E. It isn’t much different from the impression I got when running D&D Gamma World and is one I’ve seen repeated in several places. Ultimately, when the books are put away and the chip bowl has been emptied, 4th Edition D&D is a decent skirmish miniatures game. When paired with the weekly, two-hour long Encounters program, it becomes even more engaging. The players have a set goal and know that they’ll be headed home once it’s finished, not unlike putting aside two hours to watch a movie. I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed the past two weeks.

The Encounters program is obviously geared toward a specific type of gamer, one with limited time and perhaps lacking the means or social skills to cultivate a group on their own. Each session starts with a little light roleplaying that is essentially a guise to determine what this week’s goal is. Are we to defend the orphanage? Kill the bandit chief? Maybe pursue the sinister gnome who ran down the alley into the obvious ambush? Once that’s out of the way, the tactical map is put down, the counters are placed, and the dice start rolling. When the last body hits the ground, you pack up and head on home.

This isn’t a bad way to approach 4E and it is much more enjoyable to me than I suspect participating in an ongoing 4E campaign would be. There is no investment needed other than a small block of time each week. My character is pre-generated and all his powers are neatly written on the back of the laminated character card, so I don’t have to drop a dime on confusing rulebooks (which one is official this week?) or power cards (I’m not spending another $10 because I want to play a warlock this time). I sit down, chuck some dice, and go home. Of course, the downfall to this is that I’m not invested in my character any more than I’d be with my race car piece in a game of Monopoly. This takes me to my real difficulty with 4E.

I cannot lose myself in the game the way I can with older editions. This is not the fault of the DM or the adventure, but the rules themselves. The rules in 4E, especially their dependency on creating unambiguous rulings, never disappear into the background for me. I can occasionally erect a thin veneer of roleplaying, but this comes crumbling down the first time I’ve got to start counting adjacent adversaries to see how big of a bonus I get to attack. The most recent WTF moment that threw me completely out of the moment came when I suggested that, rather than expend some out our limited healing surges to recoup after a fight, we return to the chapel we had just come from and ask the priests there if they could drop some of their heavenly mojo on us. That was when I was told that magical healing in 4E is tied to your character’s healing surges and even potions deduct from them. Huh?

For me, 4E simply misses the boat when it comes divorcing oneself from reality and reveling in the shared delusion of roleplaying. I’ve always been a fan of “fluff” over “crunch,” so 4E is like eating a cotton candy cone filled with nails, screws, and broken glass for me; just when I’m trying to enjoy the sweetness, I bite into something that ruins the experience. But also like cotton candy, it’s best when sampled infrequently and in small portions.

School’s Out Week: Star Was (D6)

2011-05-25T09:33:00.006-04:00

In the world of old school D&D, popular sentiment is that the game is intended to be an open “sandbox” affair, a place where the players are free to choose their own destinies. The dice fall as they may, the death count can grow impressive, and the characters are working-class stiffs who possess the possibility of becoming heroes—so long as the dice and good fortune go their way.

West End Games’ Star Wars is about as antipodal to that school of thought as you can get. The players are heroes with a capital “H”, the adventures are laid out long before the group gathers, and the game master is instructed to regularly fudge the dice to make sure the players stay on that track so as to ensure the story reaches its intended climax. That makes the school of thought behind Star Wars “far, far away” from that which is prevalent in the OSR.

But is this necessarily a bad thing? When it comes to D&D, my mind set is similar to that of my old school mon frères. D&D is meant to be played as a wide-open game of exploration, with story coming from the events as they occur. The nascent possibility of heroic exploits and the renown that accompanies such trumps that of built-in heroism and nigh-superhuman accomplishments. But this outlook doesn’t work with all roleplaying games and can be in fact detrimental to some of them.

Star Wars is one such case. It is a game that was designed not to ape a particular genre, such as D&D was intended to do, but to recreate a very specific series of stories and the world(s) in which they occur. With an intent like that, a narrower focus is naturally needed. This is not to say that you can’t run an open sandbox campaign set in the Star Wars universe, but why pound round pegs into square holes when a more generic sci-fi rules system would work better?

Players approach the Star Wars universe with certain preconceived notions. After all, in many cases, Star Wars is as close as one gets to a lingua franca or common religion amongst gamers. No matter what our backgrounds or ages, the 20th Century Fox fanfare and those scrolling words hits a shared nerve, carrying us immediately to a specific time and place even if we couldn’t necessarily pinpoint that location on a star map or timeline. They’re going to expect to encounter Wookiees and Jawas, to shoot bounty hunters and race speeder bikes, and to swing across chasms and duel with lightsabers. Any game master who doesn’t meet those expectations is shortchanging his players (and probably shouldn't be playing Star Wars to start). And thus, there is a need for at least a narrow-gauge railroad to the campaign.

This has been on my mind a lot lately because I’m now running a Star Wars game. Some weeks ago, I realized that the Stonehell sequel will likely occupy my summer and I was not looking forward to working on the book AND running my Labyrinth Lord game at the same time. I’ve been getting close to the fantasy saturation point and I needed something to cleanse my palette. Since summer is traditionally the time for sprawling, no-brainer movie blockbusters, I figured why not spend this summer with the biggest blockbuster of them all? My players happily agreed to put Watchfires & Thrones on the backburner and to tread the myriad worlds of George Lucas’ universe. But, as an old saw goes, you can take the boy out of the old school, but you can’t take the old school out of the boy.

One of the nagging problems with Star Wars or any other licensed roleplaying game is that the players are aware that no matter what they do or accomplish, they are never really the big damn heroes of the setting. Somewhere out there are NPCs more renowned and respected than they’ll ever be, because only one person can ever blow up the Death Star (OK, maybe two people) or defeat Voldemort or be the chosen vampire slayer. The players are forever second banana to that person’s exploits. I simply couldn’t have that. I can make concessions, but not if there’s a way around them and I luckily had an idea to do so. Enter “A New New Hope.”

The premise of my summer Star Wars campaign is that the events of the first movie (and you know what I mean by “first”) didn’t happen. Rather than take up the campaign after the Battle of Yavin, which is the usual default time for most D6 Star Wars games, this story begins just prior to that first title crawl. The PCs have just stolen the Death Star plans from a secret Imperial R&D facility and must now get them safely into Alliance hands. How’s that for an opener? In just the first session I managed to squeeze in a speeder chase, a planet consisting of both icy glaciers and rivers of lava, exploding starships, Darth Vader, salvaged droids, and, as a nod to the fact that this isn’t a sandbox setting, a speeding mag-rail train (I’m so meta sometimes). But I run a loose railroad and although the players are all bound for Pittsburg (figuratively speaking); at least they get to choose what route they're going to take to get there.

Topographical Mapping Help Wanted

2011-05-23T20:39:00.001-04:00

At the risk of biting off more than I can chew, I’ve had an idea for a project in my head now for several months. This would not be a for-profit piece, but rather a submission for one of our beloved fanzines. I’ve already talked with Iggy of Fight On! and got the go ahead to submit it, but I got sidetracked and had to put the piece on the backburner. Now, to give me an outlet from Stonehell 2 when one is needed, I’d like to continue to tinker with it for eventual submittal.

Without going to much into it, the piece really needs a map to accompany it and I have the perfect topological map for it. I’ve taken a stab at it, but I’m not satisfied with my efforts. The map I’m working from is an old U.S. Geological survey map so it is quite detailed. What I’m now looking for is a gifted mapmaker who could render such a map into one more suitable for a roleplaying aid, but retain the character and sense of realism found in the original. It would end up being a large map, roughly 11” x 17”, suitable for a two-page spread and lots of room for adventuring locales. This is not necessarily for a fantasy world, so an eye for the realistic is a plus on this. If you could give it a 1920’s feel too, that’d be even cooler. In return, I’d gladly share the byline on the eventual article with you.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, please drop me an email at poleandrope AT gmail DOT com. If you’ve got a sample of your work or a link to some, feel free to include that as well.

School’s Out Week: Dungeon Crawl Classics

2011-05-23T09:01:00.001-04:00

I’m going to start off S.O.W. by talking about Goodman Games’ upcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. That’s a bit of cheat because, while DCC is based on the d20 mechanic, its design DNA falls much closer to that of “old school” games than it does to later versions of D&D. Nevertheless, the elements of 3.5 are obvious to all with even the slightest familiarity with them.

In the interest of complete disclosure, I obviously have some connection with Goodman Games through the Dungeon Alphabet and I maintain a good relationship with Joseph Goodman. And while I’ve not been asked to sign any NDAs, I’ll avoid getting into specifics regarding the DCC system as I’m not sure what Joseph wants revealed at this stage and the rules continue to be improved and modified while playtesting continues. I’ve been involved with the later stages of DCC’s development in a tertiary fashion, helping to playtest the system and contributing suggestions as to how to improve it.

Let's get down to it in plain terms: I predict that DCC is going to turn heads when it becomes available for open playtesting and after being commercially released. You heard it here first. Joseph and Harley Stroh had a luxury in developing DCC that Gygax and Arneson did not have: a preexisting rules base to work with. “Big deal,” you might say. “So did Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams.” The difference here is that Cook, Tweet, and Williams were looking to redesign D&D. Goodman and Stroh aren’t.

DCC’s strongest selling point for old school gamers is that Joseph and Harley went to the same source material that inspired Gygax and Arneson and sought ways to use the existing game system to recreate the feel, look, and expectations of the classic pulp sword & sorcery tales. Everything from cover design to the way magic works in DCC draws from those stories—and it does so very, very successfully. This is not “You’re Conan and I’m Gandalf. We team up to fight Dracula.”[1] This is “You’re Kane and I’m the Gray Mouser. We team up to storm the Tower of the Elephant, steal the jewels of the Overlord of Lankhmar, fight the priests of Cthulhu, and engage in pacts with the Lords of Chaos to do so.”

Now this is great for us old-timers, but what about those players that came along in the post 2nd edition epoch? How are they going to react? I won’t lie: There is going to be some acclimation required. The lack of skills and feats in DCC and the lower abilities scores on average means that you can’t grab a Pathfinder adventure and expect to run it "as is" with DCC. But the good news is that those players who are used to the “kewl powerz” bells and whistles from later editions aren’t going to be disappointed. They’ll still be able to play a mighty warrior capable of doing outlandish actions in battle. Players with a penchant for wizards and clerics are undoubtedly going to go ape over a magic system that allows spellcasters to employ magic more often and with more spectacular effects than even 4th edition provides for. DCC just may very well hit the elusive sweet spot the appeals to both old and new gamers alike. That’s no bullshit, people.

Are there tradeoffs to this melding of styles, preferences, and expectations? Of course there are. As Rob Conley mentioned in the comments of a recent Grognardia post regarding DCC, spellcasting is table-intensive, which might not be to everyone’s liking, but neither is it insurmountable. There are also various charts to add color to battles and help adjudicate some of the crazier events that occur in combat. These are again subject to game master preference, but if the final layout of the book is well done, accessibility and placement should help speed their implementation. And no matter what, there are going to be those who bitch about having to buy special dice just to play.

Like any roleplaying game, Dungeon Crawl Classics’ success at the gaming table is going to rely on the referee running it and the players participating in it. The rules place a lot of emphasis on becoming familiar with the "old ways" and the inspirational sources that birthed the game. Hopefully this will encourage players and judges to either dust off their copies of the pulp classics or to pick them up and read them for the first time. Even if they don’t, Goodman Games is currently working on several adventure scenarios (two of which will be available in the Free RPG Day release) that almost literally drip with pulpy goodness. The ones that I’ve had the pleasure of playtesting with my group featured supernaturally mutated beast-men, hideous subterranean gods, cursed tombs, chaotic towers, lumbering brass constructs, treacherous double-dealings, and sorcerers bound by infernal pacts with the hoary hosts of Chaos. And that, my friends, is heady stuff when using rules especially designed to foster that kind of atmosphere and gaming mindset. Even if you have no interest in any fantasy roleplaying game published after 1981 or so, I suspect that you'll find things to lift from DCC for your own games. It's just that good.

All Next Week: School's Out for Summer

2011-05-21T12:45:00.000-04:00

What with the edition kerfluffles and the coming End Times, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to turn the Society's attentions on games that do not fall comfortably inside the OSR's tent. Watch in horror as Mike turns in his old school membership card with posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday of next week! The Old School's out for summer. Maybe even forever...

And Miss All This?

2011-05-21T11:50:00.001-04:00

NEA: Video Games are Art

2011-05-17T16:07:00.004-04:00

The National Endowment for the Arts has expanded their list of art forms deemed acceptable for the awarding of grants to include "interactive technologies and media delivered by satellite or internet" meaning that interactive games are now recognized as an art form. Developers looking to create works that enhance the public good are eligible for grants up to $200,000 so long as they intend to release their work for free.

As tabletop roleplaying and technology continue to merge, one can only wonder if this means that traditional RPGs will eventually be granted the same "interactive game" status as video games and what this might mean to the future of the industry. Could we one day see the rise of "roleplaying artistes" who survive on their avant garde gaming contributions to society?

A Stonehell Dungeon Two First Look

2011-05-16T09:53:00.003-04:00

As mentioned last week, I’ve made the first glimpse of the lower levels of Stonehell Dungeon available to members of the Stonehell Facebook fan group. It is now time to let everyone in on the first of several looks at the sequel to the wildly successful Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls. That sneak peak is available here for download.

Stonehell, like many of its megadungeon predecessors, is a locale that gets stranger and stranger the deeper one gets. This first glimpse is that of an antediluvian sepulture, the tomb of a seemingly extinct race that lies forgotten in the dungeon’s lower depths. It introduces several new monsters and magic, and provides the first inklings that the sequel may prove to be more expansive than its precursor. Like any draft, the information presented here is likely to change as the project continues to grow, so simply enjoy this first look for what it is: a glimpse at what might be to come in Stonehell Dungeon Two: Something Something.

The Internet is Useless in Certain Endeavours

2011-05-11T19:18:00.000-04:00

Such as determining what a certain flower smells like, for instance. In perhaps my strangest search yet, I've been attempting to pinpoint and identify a specific floral scent that I always associate with my time in Los Angeles, and I'm finding that near impossible without "scratch and sniff" computer technology. Just when you think we've made great strides with technology, we discover new limits.

Any L.A. natives (or as close as one gets to being native in a city composed of transients) know the scent I'm thinking of? A light, floral smell that seems most potent in the winter months? I may have to start haunting florists to nail it down

Stonehell Two Preview Now Available to Facebook Fans

2011-05-11T12:00:00.001-04:00

As I’ve long threatened, work on the Stonehell sequel has finally begun and I’m working my way through Level Six. It’s taking me a bit to reengage the Stonehell gear in my head, but the process is coming along nicely. I expect it will be a few months before the draft is completed, however, so please have patience.

I mentioned a little while ago that Stonehell Dungeon has a Facebook fan group. As a reward for those who regularly sacrifice their anonymity to participate, I’ve made the first glimpse at the sequel available to those members. I’ll be providing my regular readers with a link here on the blog in a few days (although it’s not really that hard to find the file if you want to expend the effort). Those of you who want to see it now can head on over to the Stonehell Dungeon Facebook Group and apply for membership and we’ll try to get you in as soon as possible.

Flying Casual

2011-05-10T22:50:00.003-04:00

I am so in the mood to play D6 Star Wars right at this moment. Ah, to relive those last pleasant memories before I completely fell out of love with Star Wars...

OK, back to work.

In Order to Discover New Places, You Must First Throw Out the Old Maps

2011-05-09T10:52:00.002-04:00

My Labyrinth Lord campaign recently experienced a complete party wipe, which can happen if you decide to let events unfurl naturally rather than guided by a firm yet biased hand. I look upon it with mixed emotions. It puts a damper on campaign momentum, but also allows me to introduce a few changes, ones I was lamenting over in my yearly review not so long ago.

In retrospect, I realize that I made an error in introducing material from the Advanced Edition Companion. Not because the supplement is flawed, but because it essentially undermined my whole purpose for going back to the roots of the hobby for this campaign. The campaign began to resemble AD&D in rules and style, and if that was the case, why wasn’t I just playing AD&D? It was time to chuck all the extraneous material and go back to basics and cultivate anew.

One of my primary goals in keeping to the basics and building from there was that I was hoping to create a game that was uniquely my own and not just another standard D&D world. This has been a mental hobgoblin of mine for quite awhile now, one which gets aggravated every time someone decides to expand the types of playable classes and wanders into the same old paladin, ranger, bard, druid, etc. territory. Having seen some of that appear in my own world, I had had enough and was seriously looking to break out of these same old variations on a theme.

It was a route I had taken before with both my Mule and Octopus class—solid, yet unorthodox player classes that explored what you can do with a class-based fantasy RPG—and one I plan to continue following. So, instead of adhering to the classic fantasy archetypes, I’ve become more inspired by other driving forces: “Is it something I’d like to play?” and “Is it something different?” The answers to these questions so far are indeed inspired.

As an example of where my mind had been wandering, an instance I’m most proud of, I’d like to present you with my latest class: the ghost. That is not a metaphorical name; it is a dead adventurer who continues to practice his former profession, unwilling to let a little thing like kicking the breathing habit slow him down.

I’m continuing to tinker with a trader class, one that relies more on role-playing than combat and avoids the granting of magical powers, which is a route I’ve seen before, but never quite understood. There are a few other classes (or races, rather) in the stew pot and I’ll either debut them here or submit them for publication as they come to completion.

The ghost may not be for everyone, and it is certainly not for all campaign worlds. My vision of what D&D continues to change, even more so after a year-plus of old school playing. It is unlikely that I’ll ever return to what I once considered its default settings, and I’m looking forward to what this new territory contains.

Download the ghost class here.

Robert E. Howard Days

2011-05-08T11:18:00.001-04:00

I’m going to break ranks a little with the old guard and admit that, although I respect his work and creations, Robert E. Howard is not my “go to” literary figure for swords & sorcery and high adventure (Leiber likely holds that title for me). Nevertheless, when I come across something such as this, I cannot help but wish that I was not roughly two thousand miles away from Cross Plains, Texas.

Robert E. Howard Days is a wonderful yearly get-together of fans, scholars and friends, all gathered to celebrate the life and work of Ol’ Two-Gun Bob Howard, a true Texas and American original. It’s an open-air-under-the-Texas-sun informal meeting of folks from all over honoring the Legacy of Robert E. Howard with fellowship and friendly conversation, and you can do so on the very ground where he walked and wrote his wonderful works.
[from the website]

Between the North Texas RPG Convention on June 2nd-5th and then Robert E. Howard Days on June 10th and 11th, Texas is the state (of both geography and mind) to be in for June. Anyone care to subsidize a Yankee blogger looking to head for the wide-open plains this summer?

Cauldron Spirits

2011-05-05T10:44:00.002-04:00

Some magic-users eschew the traditional familiars and homunculi for another form of servant: the cauldron spirit. These beings are traditionally recruited from the ranks of the recently-deceased and bound within the mage’s primary cauldron, crucible, forge, or alembic. A cauldron spirit is part-magical item, part-living creature, and can only be created by magic-users or elves of name level or higher.

The creation of a cauldron spirit begins with the mage making contact with a dead soul. Usually this is accomplished with the assistance of the clerical spell, speak with dead, but negotiations with cognitive ghosts is another possibility. The soul to be used in the creation of a cauldron spirit must be willing to serve the mage, and will likely barter for a limited duration of service or some reward that might be of use to the spirit (assistance to living relatives, providing resurrection for the spirit after service, destruction of a hated enemy, etc.). Truly desperate or evil magic-users have employed trap the soul to gain the spirit they need.

Once an arrangement with the spirit has been made, the magic-user performs a ceremony to bind the spirit with its focus object. This rite takes 1d4 hours to complete and costs 5,000 gp in materials. Any interruption before the ceremony’s completion negates both the rite and the components involved, requiring the magic-user to start from scratch.

Each cauldron spirit has a loyalty score as determined by the spell-caster’s Charisma. This score can rise or fall depending on how the magic-user treats his spirit or abides by the agreement struck with the ghost prior to its employment. Any command the magic-user gives the spirit which goes against its nature requires a successful loyalty check for the spirit to comply and assist its master. A cauldron spirit who refuses to comply with its master’s command may be forced to follow directions. In order to compel the spirit to abide by its master’s orders, the magic-user must spend two complete rounds forcing its will upon the spirit. The cauldron spirit must then make a save vs. spells or concede to the spell-caster’s wishes. Each time a magic-user successfully compels the spirit to obey reduces the ghost’s loyalty score by one point.

The physical destruction of a cauldron spirit’s focus item or a successful dispel magic cast against the same releases the spirit from its bonds and negates the item’s ability to house another such ghost. For this reason, most magic-users keep their cauldron spirits safe at home. The creator of a cauldron spirit can free its ghost at any time by conducting an hour-long rite that employs 500 gp worth of materials.

The benefits of having a cauldron spirit are threefold. Firstly, all spell-casting times (if used) are reduced by half. Secondly, the cost of creating magic items and researching spells are reduced by 25% as is the time required to create them. Thirdly, a cauldron spirit can “store” spells as if it were a magic-user equal to half its master’s level rounded down. These spells are typically utilitarian (detect magic, read magic, dispel magic, etc.), but some spellcasters trust their cauldron spirits enough to allow them to hold offensive magics in case their laboratories should come under attack. These spells are cast as if by the magic-user, himself. There are no innate restrictions keeping a cauldron spirit from turning its stored magic upon its master, however, and magic-users are advised to keep this in mind before gifting their magical servants with powerful, destructive spells.

“You awaken in a cold sweat…”

2011-05-04T21:58:00.003-04:00

The dream your PC had last night was:

1-Your comrades were sitting around the campfire, gnawing on cooked human limbs. Their meal interrupted, they looked up at you with eyes that shone like a cat’s. Putting down their gruesome meal, they began crawling towards you as you struggled to free yourself from your bedroll. Wound as tight as a shroud, your arms were pinned as your friends stalked ever closer…

2-You were lost in the fetid halls of an ancient dungeon, one you’ve never encountered before. A thunderous rhythm, like a demonic heart, filled your ears as the shadows gathered about you. Turning a corner, you found yourself confronting the leering skull-face of the first companion you ever lost. With a rictus grin, he beckoned you to join him down into the dark…

3-You were enjoying a lavish banquet meal in the hall of a strange king. The provender was good, the wine excellent, and the companionship superb. A tickle in your throat interrupted your dining, stubbornly resisting all attempts to clear it. Then, the first of many small, hairy spiders began to climb from between your lips and onto your plate. This trickle quickly became a torrent, followed by your skin splitting as a horde of skittering arachnids broke free from their nest inside you…

4-You stood alone on a rocky strand, the waves breaking against the unnaturally sharp rocks that lined the water’s edge. A clump of pallid kelp rocked on the tide, coming closer with each breaking wave. As you watched, the kelp rolled over, revealing it to be the water-logged and crab-picked visage of your mother. Her dead eyes stared at you accusingly and her sodden lips worked silently, mouthing accusations of your past faults and failures. Soaking arms grappled you from behind, spinning you about to face the barnacle-spotted face of your father, his beard strung with dead anemones and jellyfish. He leaned in to kiss his favorite child…

5-You stood atop a craggy promontory, perched hundreds of feet in the air. Before you lay a wasteland of fire and ash; in the air above it, great black birds with yellow eyes and tattered feather rode sinister thermals and their hoarse cries croaked loudly in your ears. The sun glared hotly, revealing the picked bones of a thousand nations in the sand and soot below. You had the power to stop this, but your fear would not let you do what needed to be done. A shadow, like that of a titan rising from his restless slumber, blots out the landscape, shrouding you in night. SOMETHING approaches from behind. You feel its talons reaching for you, but you cannot—will not—turn to face what can only be the agent of your deserved punishment…

6-The ground gives way as you walk down a narrow forest path. A sound like ice breaking in the spring thaw hits you ears immediately before the pain explodes from your legs. With legs broken by the fall, your arms flail, struggling to keep yourself from sliding deeper into the earth as you grasped for plants that ripped free from the ground as gravity continued to claim you. Then, the first pair of fangs stabbed into your legs. You disturbed a nest of vipers in your fall. Your legs and waist became targets for their knife-like fangs as they struck again and again, pumping searing venom into your calves, thighs, and groin…

Pleasant dreams.

Dragontales: “Sir George”

2011-05-03T13:07:00.004-04:00

The Dragontales anthology (and yes, I’m still working my way through it) does its best to appeal to everyone, no matter what their preferred flavor of fantasy might be. So far we’ve seen game fiction, pulp sword & sorcery, and second-wave feminist faerie tales; it must therefore be time to delve into the comedic to lighten things up. We get it in the form of Carl Parlagreco’s “Sir George.”

Like most of the authors whose work resides in Dragontales, Parlagreco seems to have been an unknown writer who caught the eye of Kim Mohan & company when assembling the anthology. It is possible that this Carl Parlagreco is the same one associated with The Spartacus File (the dates seem to fit in any case), but again a cursory web search reveals little about the author’s post-Dragontales writing endeavors.

What is evident is that Parlagreco has a fondness for puns, play on words, and is undoubtedly familiar with the works of Douglas Adams: “Sir George” is that kind of tale. In it, we are introduced to the eponymous protagonist, a dragon who awakens one morning to deal with both a sore throat and a bold (if inept) knight named Byron Elpus, Lord of the Pristine Lands. Yes, that makes him “Lord Elpus,” who is just the first of several outlandishly-named characters.

Lord Elpus needs George’s head so that he can marry his beloved, the glorious Maiden Form. George, being rather attached to it, manages to convince the knight errant that a solution exists that would allow him to keep his cranium while still meeting the conditions placed upon Elpus. And thus an unlikely buddy tale in the vein of Dragonheart is born.

The illustrations that accompany the story are the work of an artist who signs his or her work as “Yeehan,” “Seehan,” or “Geehan” depending on how one interprets the first letter in their signature. The pieces are all competently rendered and their style fits a lighter, funny story.

Sir George is a one of the shorter tales in the anthology and being a comedy piece (especially on that relies on a lot of puns to deliver its comedic punch), there’s not a whole lot of depth or subtext to read into. That doesn’t mean it’s a poor tale, however, although one’s enjoyment will largely depend on your own attitudes towards word play in humor. Some of the puns are more dated than others, while still others are likely to sail over the heads of younger readers. It also ends on a slightly ominous note depending on how one chooses to read it.

Wong & Boris, Culinary Masters and Chefs of Renown

When the jaded palettes of nobility grow tired of stag, peacock tongue, and turkey-stuffed-with-chicken-stuffed-with-duck, they summon the legendary chefs, Wong & Boris. Once word arrives in their Kitchen Stronghold that their talents are required, the two masters of the culinary arts sally forth with the caravan of prep cooks, mobile larders, and chest of endless herbs & spices to wherever their skills are wanted. They charge a fortune for their efforts (one banquet they prepared for the Sultan of Yugglestan resulted in the economic collapse of the county’s infrastructure), but the results are well worth it.

It should be noted that Wong & Boris provide only the means to prepare and serve a meal, and the necessary garnishes and seasonings that accompany it, not the dish itself. For that, they typically rely on their employer or any number of wayward adventurers with empty pouches, loose morals, and questionable common sense. More than one out-of-work adventuring band met their end on a quest that bean with the appearance of an apron-clad, funny hat-wearing, mysterious stranger with an outrageous accent who sidled up to their tavern table with an offer of work.

These adventurers are tasked with the job of locating, killing (or sometimes capturing), and returning with the carcass of creatures running the gamut from anhkhegs to dragons to purple worms to tarrasques—all of which Wong & Boris have a dozen recipes for. Those adventurers who succeed with aplomb may even be granted a seat and plate at the meal (although usually seated at a small folding table near the kitchen).

The Society will now come to order.

2011-05-01T20:53:00.001-04:00

Yes, it’s May and the month-long A-Z meme has come to an end. At last, I feel free to emerge from my cave, blink the bright spring sunshine out of my eyes, and eat a hiker. For those of you who participated, I’m glad you all had fun. It wasn’t to my liking because I thought it was too forced and too long a meme (I thought the same about “Hot Elf Chicks” but that was only a single day so I grinned and endured it). Happily, I get to have my own opinions without caring what everyone else thinks or needing to justify them just like you do. I nevertheless hope this turns out to be a one-time experiment.

While everyone was alphabetizing themselves, I decided that it was a perfect excuse to dodge out of the blogosphere and attend to other business—and I got a hell of a lot done. I didn’t miss composing posts at all, leaving me even more certain that my decision to draw things to a close here on the Society of Torch, Pole and Rope is the right one. It’s definitely getting to be time to move on to the next thing for me. What that is, I’m uncertain, but this is the final year of the Society for sure.

April saw the near completion of the two projects that stand between me and committing myself full time to the Stonehell sequel. There likely remains a little cleanup work to be done on those, but I anticipate that in the next few weeks, Stonehell 2 will be my main concern. It’s time to finish that once and for all. More details on the mystery projects will be forthcoming when I’m allowed to speak openly about them.

Somehow I managed to fit in a sci-fi and fantasy convention during the 90k words I was writing, and I spent three days annoying the hell out of Frank Mentzer and the rest of the gaming guests at ICON 30. Having first attended ICON 7 or 8 and sporadically returning throughout the years, this was the first time I felt that I was on the other side of the wall. I was not attending as a fan, but as someone with a vested interest in the state of gaming. In the past, I’d be doing the celebrity Q & A thing. This time, I was attending workshops on the future of RPGs or how to sustain your interest and finish a freelance writing project in order to keep yourself and your publishers happy. The last one was responsible for one of those “Holy shit, I’m actually a writer” moments. Ending the convention by playing OD&D with Frank Mentzer was a nice way to bring the weekend to a close, although it didn’t really end then. I left the con to run my Labyrinth Lord game and promptly killed the entire party when negotiations with a young red dragon broke down.

Between the TPK and breaking for Easter, I think the year-long campaign has started to lose momentum, something which can be terminal for a game if not corrected. Today’s game had to end early because I was in too much pain from an old back injury to keep things going until our normal stop time. Plus, we lost 3 of the 6 replacement PCs on the first level of Stonehell (exploding flame toad & two potions of poison) so it was time to call it a night. With Mother’s Day next weekend and a playtest of something else the week afterwards, it won’t be back to Labyrinth Lord until May 22nd. That’s a long break and I hope we can recover.

A lot of my uncertainty about the future of the campaign can be blamed on the fact that it’s now spring. My long-time friends know that as soon as the weather changes, I get spring fever and go a little flaky. The last thing I want to do is sit inside and pretend to be outdoors when there are woods to be walked, beaches to be visited, and friends to see. But I can’t pretend this is the sole reason. I’ve been running hot and cold on vanilla fantasy for a while now and it might be time to do something very different. I’ll have to see how things play out in the next couple of weeks.

On the “News of the Highly Implausible” front, due to some strong suggestions by unnamed individuals, I finally broke down and got on Facebook. Some of you have already discovered this and sought me out. I’m pretty open about befriending fans and contemporaries, but don’t expect exciting insights into the mind of Mike and whatever I’m working on. I did join the Stonehell fan group though, and I might release advance looks at the dungeon through that page a week before I post them here. We’ll see.

The blog roll will be returning slowly starting tonight. I’ll undoubtedly overlook some folks, so please don’t take it as a slight if I do. There’s just so much more out there now and I can’t (and don’t) follow everyone’s work. There are more comprehensive lists than my own.

And there we go. I hope we have some fun again together before I turn off the lights and lock the door.

S&W WB Acquired

2011-04-28T08:14:00.005-04:00

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who contacted me in regards to my White Box search. Deals have been made, swag negotiated, and arrangements...er, arranged, so I'm all set. You guys are indeed the greatest role-playing fan base in existance today. I'm proud to be a part of the OSR, whatever that means this week.

Some of my regulars know that I'm a slave to whimsy and odd ball ideas. My latest has me thinking of projects to tackle once Stonehell is complete.

That vein of thought has managed to merge itself with a discussion I had with someone a few weekends ago, and I'm now thinking of coupling it with Swords & Wizardry White Box.

I'm aware that the WB rules remain available, but part of my idea involves taking a seed and nurturing it to its ultimate end--for weal or for woe. Thus, BHP White Box is almost ideal for my purposes.

Having just missed an eBay auction for one, I thought I'd cast my net upon the waters of my readers and see if someone has a gently used set they'll never find a use for. If so, before you put it up on eBay or offer it up to Noble Knight, drop me a line and we'll see if we can come to terms in either cash or swag.