My own posting is going to be very light for the next week or so, as (real-world) work is severely kicking my keester (yay, SOX audit season!). But I did want to point out this excellent series of posts over at Blog of Holding, asking venerable Lake Geneva alumnus Mike Mornard about his early experiences with the game as Gary and they played it. Well worth reading for students of D&D history. Enjoy!
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Monday, 6 February 2012
Now the news can be told! As announced on the Jennisodes podcast...
I am pleased to be able to announce that the summer of 2012 will see the release of Adventures Dark and Deep™: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore, published by BRW Games and available exclusively through RPGNow.com.
This book will not be a stand-alone game, but will be a rules supplement intended for use with AD&D, OSRIC, S&W, and any similarly-compatible games. It will feature much of the new material that will be included in the stand-alone game, including the bard, jester, mystic, savant, and mountebank classes, scores of new spells suitable for use therewith, an alternative combat system, new monsters, and much more. The rules have been in an open playtest for more than a year to help make them as solid and playable as humanly possible. A large number of people have requested the ADD material be released in the form of a supplement as well as a stand-alone game, and their wishes have been heard.
Adventures Dark and Deep™: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore will give dungeon masters around the world the opportunity to try out the new material in their own games. The material is completely modular, allowing dungeon masters to incorporate any options they see fit. Use the bard, don't use the combat, just take the spells and roll them into your already-existing cleric and magic-user spell lists; the choice is yours.
The book, which will be approximately 150 pages, will be available in hardcover, softcover, and pdf versions. A Kickstarter campaign will be launched this spring to raise money for first-class artwork by one of the great artists of the OSR and professional editing; more news on that when the campaign is launched.
Adventures Dark and Deep™ is an attempt to explore what the game might have looked like if its creator had been allowed to keep developing it rather than leaving TSR in 1985. It will be released as a stand-alone game in 2013.
I am pleased to be able to announce that the summer of 2012 will see the release of Adventures Dark and Deep™: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore, published by BRW Games and available exclusively through RPGNow.com.
This book will not be a stand-alone game, but will be a rules supplement intended for use with AD&D, OSRIC, S&W, and any similarly-compatible games. It will feature much of the new material that will be included in the stand-alone game, including the bard, jester, mystic, savant, and mountebank classes, scores of new spells suitable for use therewith, an alternative combat system, new monsters, and much more. The rules have been in an open playtest for more than a year to help make them as solid and playable as humanly possible. A large number of people have requested the ADD material be released in the form of a supplement as well as a stand-alone game, and their wishes have been heard.
Adventures Dark and Deep™: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore will give dungeon masters around the world the opportunity to try out the new material in their own games. The material is completely modular, allowing dungeon masters to incorporate any options they see fit. Use the bard, don't use the combat, just take the spells and roll them into your already-existing cleric and magic-user spell lists; the choice is yours.
The book, which will be approximately 150 pages, will be available in hardcover, softcover, and pdf versions. A Kickstarter campaign will be launched this spring to raise money for first-class artwork by one of the great artists of the OSR and professional editing; more news on that when the campaign is launched.
Adventures Dark and Deep™ is an attempt to explore what the game might have looked like if its creator had been allowed to keep developing it rather than leaving TSR in 1985. It will be released as a stand-alone game in 2013.
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Saturday, 4 February 2012
I've got to say, this post over at ENWorld is quite insightful. The upshot of it is that there are two distinct schools of thought as to what constitutes combat as it should be in D&D. It's long, but well worth reading the whole original post and the ensuing thread. Here's the idea in a nutshell:
The "Combat as War" faction (which would include most of the OSR) revels in unbalanced combats. They want to eke out every possible advantage, even to the point of so subverting and sabotaging the enemy that they don't even get to the point that combat even happens. They're toast before swords get drawn.
The "Combat as Sport" faction (which would include most 4E fans) loves evenly balanced, long drawn-out fights. Even to the point where one side or the other will fight sub-optimally ("Here, you dropped your sword!") in order to even things up and make it "sporting".
Personally, I vastly prefer the combat-as-war approach, but every once in a while things turn out fairly evenly matched even when each side is trying to stack the deck in their own favor. THOSE are the epic fights that everyone remembers. Not the ones that are completely mismatched because the goblins fell into the camouflaged pit traps, not the ones that were mathematically preordained to be 50-50 chances because the rules required it, but the ones that were unexpectedly close, where despite everything the whole affair hinged on a single roll or a decision to fire the lightning bolt to the right or the left, not because the rules dictated it, but because it just worked out that way.
The "Combat as War" faction (which would include most of the OSR) revels in unbalanced combats. They want to eke out every possible advantage, even to the point of so subverting and sabotaging the enemy that they don't even get to the point that combat even happens. They're toast before swords get drawn.
The "Combat as Sport" faction (which would include most 4E fans) loves evenly balanced, long drawn-out fights. Even to the point where one side or the other will fight sub-optimally ("Here, you dropped your sword!") in order to even things up and make it "sporting".
Personally, I vastly prefer the combat-as-war approach, but every once in a while things turn out fairly evenly matched even when each side is trying to stack the deck in their own favor. THOSE are the epic fights that everyone remembers. Not the ones that are completely mismatched because the goblins fell into the camouflaged pit traps, not the ones that were mathematically preordained to be 50-50 chances because the rules required it, but the ones that were unexpectedly close, where despite everything the whole affair hinged on a single roll or a decision to fire the lightning bolt to the right or the left, not because the rules dictated it, but because it just worked out that way.
So you want to learn the secrets of magic from me, eh, boy? Well, then. Imagine you are an ant living in the courtyard of a castle. And you have a horn that, when you blow it with all of your might, so hard that it sucks the life out of you, you might, just might, attract the attention of one of the men moving about the courtyard. You keep blowing the horn, and one of those men might be amused enough to drop a crumb of food in front of you. More likely, he'll just smile and keep walking, or ignore you altogether. If another ant is trying to take your crumb, he might be amused enough to reach out with a finger and flick the other one away, or crush you both with his thumb. Or, far more likely, you'll just get stepped on without the man even noticing, because although you were standing there out in the open, blowing your horn with all of your breath, he never heard it or saw you in the first place.
And you want me to hand you a horn and teach you to blow it? Are you mad? Go back to your fields, boy. Go back to your fields.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
One of the great things about the World of Greyhawk is that it isn't just one setting. It's multiple settings, all of which are adjacent to, overlap with, and/or interact with the others. Over the many years I've been using the setting, five stand out to me either as regions that I have used myself, or seem to cry out for treatment unto themselves, because they work so well as self-contained sub-regions of the whole.
Region 1 is the Sheldomar Valley. The natural boundaries that surround it render it relatively isolated and thus perfect for a self-contained campaign. On three sides there are mountains, and water on the fourth. It features a single dominant political entity (the Kingdom of Keoland), which is itself surrounded by independent and, in many cases, resentful states. On its very fringes, the mountains hold many secrets (the Against the Giants series was set in the Crystalmist/Jotens/Hellfurnaces range, of course, and there's the spaceship from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, not to mention the Valley of the Mage itself as a destination for adventure).
Region 2 is the central Flanaess. This, of course, is where Gary Gygax rooted his own campaign, and it shows. It has a great variety of terrains, from woods to plains to desert to marsh, plus the Rift Canyon. It is thematically centered around the city of Greyhawk itself, with Iuz (circa 576, remember, with Iuz only recently freed from the ruins of Castle Greyhawk and still "Old Iuz of fearbabe-talk") as a distant but still relevant enemy to be invoked. The whole revolves around the Nyr Dyv, and the tensions originally described in the World of Greyhawk folio set are really a great environment for an adventure. There's the city of Greyhawk, Castle Greyhawk, White Plume Mountain, and the Village of Hommlet/Temple of Elemental Evil. Again, not an accident.
Region 3 is South Province and the Iron League. This has intrigued me ever since the "State of the Flanaess" articles penned by Gygax and Kuntz back in the early 1980's in Dragon Magazine, which portrayed the slow and deliberate march to war between the two powers (with the added bonus of the rivalry between South Province and Medegia, itself complicated by the looming presence of the Overking in Rauxes). This would make a great place for a military-themed campaign, or even a stand-alone miniatures campaign.
Region 4 is the Aerdi Sea, and again it's doubtless no coincidence that this region was originally Len Lakofka's Lendore Isle campaign. The tension between the Spindrift Islanders and the Lords of the Isles, against once again the forces of the Great Kingdom (itself split between Medegia and the Sea Barons) would make a terrific place for a long-term nautical themed campaign.
And, finally, if you want Vikings, look no further than region 5, the Thillronian Penninsula. Put together five competing barbarian nations, and several struggling outposts of civilization under their onslaught (said civilized kingdoms very well defined, such as the Pale and Tenh), and you've got the makings of a terrific campaign.
This isn't to say, of course, that one couldn't start up a campaign anywhere in the Flanaess; one of its strengths that has stood the test of time is its versatility. But it's also a testament to both its origins as a patchwork of several campaigns of its own as well as the guiding hand of its overall original designer that it works so well on several levels.
Region 1 is the Sheldomar Valley. The natural boundaries that surround it render it relatively isolated and thus perfect for a self-contained campaign. On three sides there are mountains, and water on the fourth. It features a single dominant political entity (the Kingdom of Keoland), which is itself surrounded by independent and, in many cases, resentful states. On its very fringes, the mountains hold many secrets (the Against the Giants series was set in the Crystalmist/Jotens/Hellfurnaces range, of course, and there's the spaceship from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, not to mention the Valley of the Mage itself as a destination for adventure).
Region 2 is the central Flanaess. This, of course, is where Gary Gygax rooted his own campaign, and it shows. It has a great variety of terrains, from woods to plains to desert to marsh, plus the Rift Canyon. It is thematically centered around the city of Greyhawk itself, with Iuz (circa 576, remember, with Iuz only recently freed from the ruins of Castle Greyhawk and still "Old Iuz of fearbabe-talk") as a distant but still relevant enemy to be invoked. The whole revolves around the Nyr Dyv, and the tensions originally described in the World of Greyhawk folio set are really a great environment for an adventure. There's the city of Greyhawk, Castle Greyhawk, White Plume Mountain, and the Village of Hommlet/Temple of Elemental Evil. Again, not an accident.
Region 3 is South Province and the Iron League. This has intrigued me ever since the "State of the Flanaess" articles penned by Gygax and Kuntz back in the early 1980's in Dragon Magazine, which portrayed the slow and deliberate march to war between the two powers (with the added bonus of the rivalry between South Province and Medegia, itself complicated by the looming presence of the Overking in Rauxes). This would make a great place for a military-themed campaign, or even a stand-alone miniatures campaign.
Region 4 is the Aerdi Sea, and again it's doubtless no coincidence that this region was originally Len Lakofka's Lendore Isle campaign. The tension between the Spindrift Islanders and the Lords of the Isles, against once again the forces of the Great Kingdom (itself split between Medegia and the Sea Barons) would make a terrific place for a long-term nautical themed campaign.
And, finally, if you want Vikings, look no further than region 5, the Thillronian Penninsula. Put together five competing barbarian nations, and several struggling outposts of civilization under their onslaught (said civilized kingdoms very well defined, such as the Pale and Tenh), and you've got the makings of a terrific campaign.
This isn't to say, of course, that one couldn't start up a campaign anywhere in the Flanaess; one of its strengths that has stood the test of time is its versatility. But it's also a testament to both its origins as a patchwork of several campaigns of its own as well as the guiding hand of its overall original designer that it works so well on several levels.
When they're done right, the glossy looking historical (or, in some cases, fantasy) drama series are really great things to behold. Rome was absolutely terrific, and it was a shame that it was so expensive to produce that it only made it to two seasons. The way they managed to insinuate Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus into the affairs of the mighty, but also kept them well-grounded in their own mundane world, was a model for how such things could be handled in an RPG.
I loved The Tudors as well, and it's really colored my notions of how a campaign focused more on what is sometimes called "domain level play" could go; lots of intrigue and politicking, and caring deeply and passionately about things that ordinary folks (or, ordinary adventurers) don't normally give a fig about; dynastic succession, wars of religion, and international politics.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand and its prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena attempted to regain the mantle of Rome, but it really fell flat. It tried hard, but it almost seemed... vulgar... compared to Rome, and the fact that such comparisons are inevitable was probably unfortunate for it, but it seems to have hit a niche, and the series is still going strong with Spartacus: Vengeance. I might be tempted to give it another try.
Last year two new series in the same started off and I was instantly hooked on both. Game of Thrones is, of course, based on George R.R. Martin's enormous (and enormously successful) fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, and The Borgias is a more historical drama concerning itself with the papacy of Rodrigo Borgia (aka Pope Alexander VI) and his family, including the lovely and infamous Lucretia Borgia. Both series had successful first seasons and were picked up, and the premier of the second season of each is within sight.
First off, beginning on April 1 is Season Two of Game of Thrones on HBO:
Next, starting on April 8 we have Season Two of The Borgias on Showtime, staring Jeremy Irons:
I'm very much looking forward to both of these, and I'm finding that not having read A Song of Ice and Fire didn't hurt my enjoyment of the series at all, and might actually be contributing to it, as I'm not making comparisons to the books and complaining that this or that got changed. I'm also finding that plot twists came as genuine surprises (Ned Stark, anyone?) and it's a lot of fun not knowing what's about to happen. All in all, it'll be a good Spring for television.
I loved The Tudors as well, and it's really colored my notions of how a campaign focused more on what is sometimes called "domain level play" could go; lots of intrigue and politicking, and caring deeply and passionately about things that ordinary folks (or, ordinary adventurers) don't normally give a fig about; dynastic succession, wars of religion, and international politics.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand and its prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena attempted to regain the mantle of Rome, but it really fell flat. It tried hard, but it almost seemed... vulgar... compared to Rome, and the fact that such comparisons are inevitable was probably unfortunate for it, but it seems to have hit a niche, and the series is still going strong with Spartacus: Vengeance. I might be tempted to give it another try.
Last year two new series in the same started off and I was instantly hooked on both. Game of Thrones is, of course, based on George R.R. Martin's enormous (and enormously successful) fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, and The Borgias is a more historical drama concerning itself with the papacy of Rodrigo Borgia (aka Pope Alexander VI) and his family, including the lovely and infamous Lucretia Borgia. Both series had successful first seasons and were picked up, and the premier of the second season of each is within sight.
First off, beginning on April 1 is Season Two of Game of Thrones on HBO:
Next, starting on April 8 we have Season Two of The Borgias on Showtime, staring Jeremy Irons:
I'm very much looking forward to both of these, and I'm finding that not having read A Song of Ice and Fire didn't hurt my enjoyment of the series at all, and might actually be contributing to it, as I'm not making comparisons to the books and complaining that this or that got changed. I'm also finding that plot twists came as genuine surprises (Ned Stark, anyone?) and it's a lot of fun not knowing what's about to happen. All in all, it'll be a good Spring for television.
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