Rogue Games Tabbloid -- September 19, 2009 Edition

19 September 2009

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OSRIC Supplemental: Open Call for Contributors

Interview: Ed Greenwood (Part II)

SEP 18, 2009 08:03A.M.

SEP 17, 2009 11:01P.M.

Kellri posted the following over at his blog:

7. Does that mean then that your own Realms campaign was very “light” on the use of rules of any sort? I ask because I’m fascinated by the different ways gamers incorporate random elements into their games — things beyond the ability of either the players or referee to anticipate beforehand.

Preliminary work is getting under way on the Knights & Knaves Alehouse for a new book tentatively entitled the OSRIC Supplemental. Discussion right now is centered on what material will & should be covered - including wilderness travel & hazards, planar cosmology, magic item & spell creation, mass combat, strongholds, aerial combat, sample dungeon maps and more.

Yes, it was rules-light from the viewpoint of, say, someone who plays D&D tournaments at GenCon, and expects everything to proceed “by the book.” (And I speak as the guy who won the Best Player award in the AD&D Open at GenCon in 1984, which won me a nice trophy that came wrapped in . . . yup, diapers.)

In keeping with the spirit of OSRIC, this will be entirely an open collaborative project by and for fans of Gygaxian 1e AD&D. If you’ve always wanted to write for your favorite game, have a talent for creating old school maps and artwork, or just want to give us your two cents worth now is your chance. Come on over and dive in!

A DM’s job is to entertain their players (because the play sessions are eating time out of their lives), and the DM should tailor style of play and content (HOW the game is played, from casual chatter or footballquarterbacking to ham acting with funny voices and Shakespearean vocabulary or even costumes, and WHAT happens: hack and slash or intrigue and solving mysteries, urban or wilderness, subterranean or undersea, pirates or paladins, etc.).

I’m tempted to submit something to this myself, but we’ll see if time allows it. Regardless, it sounds like a very exciting project and I’ll certainly be paying close attention to it, especially with Kellri acting as compiler and editor. His Old School Encounters Reference is a work of genius and one of the best things ever to come out of the old school renaissance. I have little doubt that OSRIC Supplemental (or whatever it

Well, MY players loved to roleplay (acting), and so do I, so I played the NPCs to the hilt, and prepared for hours beforehand and afterwards, knowing my players wanted to find out which NPC was related to which other NPC, what scandals had gone on in this village thirty years back, and so on and on and on . . . so I gave it to them. They always wanted to TALK to everyone, and there were nights (six or seven hours of play, with a tea-and-chips-and-chip-dip break in the middle) when no player character even drew a weapon; it was ALL intrigue and roleplaying conversations, confrontations, investigations, trade dickering, and so on. Hack and slash seldom interested us (though when battle did come, all the frustrations were let loose!), and as DM I wasn’t trying to “win” any fights against PCs, so I tended to always give them initiative unless they walked into a trap or bowmen with arrows ready at, say, a city gate, but during battle I kept the pace up by demanding swift answers (like a rapid-fire auctioneer) to “What’re you doing this round? Ten-nine-eightseven-six . . .” and they’d better blurt out something, or I’d move on. So it was almost all acting, and almost no rules. Which was great for newcomers to the game enjoying the play sessions; they were never intimidated by the thick rulebooks. If someone jumped in to defend themselves with a rule, I automatically “gave in,” and so was never seen as an adversarial DM, so we settled into a playing style that suited us.

winds up being called) will be every bit as excellent.

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Not for everyone, but it’s what OUR group collectively wanted. Players could always DEMAND we apply rules in a particular combat or encounter or situation, and I would comply, but we tended to find doing so ate up so much time that we could have more fun “ham acting” in, that we kept such occurrences very rare and for very important situations.

I make no apologies at all for the layer upon layer of exhaustive detailed Realmslore (which I still provide in answer to gamer queries in my thread in the Chamber of Sages at forum.candlekeep.com) that’s built up in over thirty years of play, because that’s what my players wanted. Others can take or leave just as much of it as they want; I’ve always thought that if you’re paying me or any other freelancer for providing something you as DM could do for yourself, given time, that we should give you MORE than you need, so you get your money’s worth and more. If we go too far, ignore what doesn’t suit you - - but we never want to shortchange you.

8. It’s interesting that your home games are so rules light given the number of spells, magic items, monsters, and character classes you’ve designed over the years. Do you see any contradiction in this? No. Few “newer” gamers realize how things were in the early D&D hobby; how EVERYONE read DRAGON and memorized or nearmemorized every word of most articles therein, plus every word of the published rulebooks.

9. How much of the material you produced in Dragon had its origin in your personal campaign? I ask because, as a younger man, I always appreciated the “lived in” feeling that articles like “Pages from the Mages,” “Seven Swords,” and “Six Very Special Shields” evoked.

I wanted to encourage good roleplaying by having players whose characters were faced with a spherical monster with eyestalks NOT say, “well, it’s either a beholder or a gas spore, so . . .” and NOT pick up a horn in a dungeon treasure hoard and say, “Horn of bubbles or Horn of Valhalla?” Or “That enemy wizard just cast a fireball, so he’s gotta be X level or higher! Right, we’ll—“

My “home” Realms campaign generated a lot of what became articles, because I had SUPERB roleplayers who always wanted to find out more about the world around their characters (so when playing the characters, they frequently talked to old folks or librarians or sages to find out old lore, and even asked questions like detectives to try to piece together “the truth” when they thought clergies, rulers, or guilds weren’t telling them what was actually happened), and because ethically I felt it was only fair to hit my players with new monsters, spells, magic items, poisons, and so on AFTER I’d published them in DRAGON. For one thing, EVERYONE who played D&D read or tried to read DRAGON in those days (even if only by standing in a hobby shop, paging through issues), so whatever a player could remember of what they’d read helped to simulate what their character “might have heard” in life, and so “felt fairer” to me (and of course the editors had examined my writing and could “fix” anything way out of balance or misworded; I don’t recall them ever doing so, but I felt they had the “stamp of approval.” The Featured Creature (later Dragon’s Bestiary) columns even carried a little note at the bottom saying the monsters published in them were “as official” as anything in the rulebooks, so I got to contribute to the game!

Likewise, this NPC stranger your character is facing could have all sorts of abilities and powers your PC has never seen before (because, yes, players back them memorized things right down to monk and bard level abilities, too, so they could right away shout “Aha! This guy’s a monk of X level!”). One of the best ways of doing this was to increase the number of lookalikes and magic item and spell choices so NO ONE could keep track of them all. This dumped players out of min-maxing, using-theiromniscient-rules-knowledge mode back into playing their character in the world, as their characters face the unknown. Makes the game more gripping, forces better roleplaying, and makes it all more fun for those already in the habit of roleplaying. As I said earlier, I didn’t think doing this was quite “fair” to my players unless my creations (monsters, magic items, or spells) had been published (vetted by other designers AND giving the players a chance of having read them), so I sent them off to DRAGON. I seemed to have a knack for crafting these things, so they wanted more. LOTS more. So I wrote more. :}

By the way, the titles of almost all DRAGON articles were chosen by the editors, not article writers.

It was all great fun, I was having a ball (and so just kept going), and from time to time editors were giving me assignments to write more of this or that (they still are; I just sent off a batch of new monsters yesterday). As for the home campaign - - well, a DM’s job is to entertain his/her players, and my players loved detail, really immersing themselves in the Realms, and all the plots and subplots adventurers will uncover if they settle into a large town, wayside dale on a major trade route, or city. So that’s what our play sessions were filled with, and why it’s really hard to try to convey the “feel” of the “home” Realms campaign to other gamers - unless they “sit in” with my original players.

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but the editor held onto that piece for a later (issue 34) “theme” issue on the game. In the meantime, I had started creating monsters for the game (I’m still designing them, and did so many that for a time, I was known at TSR as “the Monster Man”), and the monster known as the Curst was my first publication in DRAGON, in issue 30. It was closely followed by the Crawling Claw in 32, and by then I was flooding the magazine with articles, which soon led to my being named Contributing Editor (an unsalaried title) and starting to write not just what struck me as interesting, but assignments from the editors (like the Ecologies articles).

Ken St Andre Interview SEP 17, 2009 05:54P.M. My latest column for “Days of High Adventure” in The Escapist is an interview with Tunnels & Trolls creator, Ken St Andre. Ken answers some questions about the origins of T&T, game design, and related topics. It’s one of my better interviews, I think, and there’s more of it to come, since Ken provided — and is still providing — me with more material than I could use for the article. Expect to see more here at

2.. You mentioned Divine Right, does that mean you’re a fan of military/political simulation games?

Grognardia in the days to come.

I’m a fan of all sorts of games, military/political simulation and otherwise, from DIPLOMACY to WINTER WAR. I’m not fond of games that take days or weeks to play, or that have rules so complicated that actual lawyers have to spend hours puzzling them out, or games where knowing Arcane Rule 336(b) will result in a guaranteed win for one side, always. I’m also not fond of games that experts can enjoy but a novice feels lost or bullied or unhappy when playing with experts (from contract bridge on up through various board, strategy, and card games - - and yes, I include the later editions of MAGIC: THE GATHERING in this, wherein all the instants and interrupts and mutable lands and all the rest resulted in a game great for tournament enthusiasts but no longer fun for your Mom and Dad to try to learn).

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Interview: Ed Greenwood (Part I) SEP 17, 2009 06:35A.M. As I mentioned in my retrospective yesterday, I’ve been a fan of Ed Greenwood for a long time, having enjoyed his many articles in the pages of Dragon. It was here that I first heard of the Forgotten Realms, long before anyone at TSR had the bright idea to turn into an official AD&D campaign setting. I was therefore very gratified when Ed agreed to be interviewed here, resulting in what is probably the longest interview I’ve yet conducted, the first part of which appears below.

However, give me something NOT entirely governed by the luck of the cards or draw or whatever, and that has a cool terrain board with strategic roads, bridges, or other areas, and I’m in. Everything from MYTHOS (the card game) to BATTLE OF BRITAIN (the West End games one-player game) to AWFUL GREEN THINGS FROM OUTER SPACE or ELEFANT HUNT. What I lack is time and opportunity, not enthusiasm.

Ed has agreed to answer any questions readers might have as a result of something he said in this interview. Feel free to post them in the comments and I’ll collect them all at the end of the series and pass them along to him for reply. When he gets round to doing so, I’ll make another post or two in which I’ll share his answers.

3. What do you recall most about the early days of the hobby? 1. How did you become involved in the hobby of roleplaying? Mimeographed and photocopied “homemade” adventures, APA-zines like ALARUMS & EXCURSIONS, and because I lived in Toronto, the stores Mr. Gameway’s Ark and later The Battered Dwarf. More than all of these, however, it was the general sense of community, despite poor communications and lack of money on the part of most local gamers. We drove long distances for get-togethers in strangers’ basements and public libraries we’d never heard of or seen before, just to get together with other gamers. There were no local conventions for roleplaying. Wargames, yes, but roleplaying, no.

From my very earliest memories, the house I grew up in, and those of grandparents and uncles and aunts I visited, were full of books, music, adult converse, and games. From cribbage to chess, various NATO strategy games to euchre to checkers, we played games constantly. Back in DRAGON #218, in the First Quest column, I told the story of how a remarkable young woman named September, who soon died of cancer, introduced my group of school friends to Dungeons & Dragons, then in its fledgling stages (1975, also when I attended my first GenCon, Gencon 8, in Lake Geneva). I started running and playing in campaigns a little later, in 1978 (and my next GenCon was number 13; after that, I missed a few years, then attended GenCon 17 and every one since).

4. As I understand it, you first conceived of the fantasy setting that would become the Forgotten Realms when you were still a child. How of that original creation survived as the Realms was developed in later years?

I first started reading DRAGON regularly, devouring its contents each month, with issue 19. An incomplete rule and a mismatch between the number of armies for one kingdom between the counter sheet and the rules in the TSR fantasy boardgame DIVINE RIGHT spurred me to write my first article for DRAGON, a short suggested errata piece for the game,

Yes, I was six when I first thought of the Realms and started writing (short stories) about it. Almost all of my original creation and concepts survived as the Realms was published, although a lot of it still hasn’t seen

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print (and probably won’t, now, with the “time jump” between the 3e Realms and the 4e Realms), though my Moonshae Isles were replaced by an existing “Celtic/matter of Britain” campaign Doug Niles, a TSR staff designer of the time, had been working on, and there have been many additions (such as Kara-Tur) or recastings of my largely-offstage kingdoms like Unther and Mulhorand to more closely resemble realworld historical (or “Hollywood historical”) settings.

needs for specific elements (“We need a pirate ship setting; where in the Realms would we find one? Where would Conan-like barbarians come from? Do you have a larger city we could publish?”) for the unfolding game line. I have designed, including writing rules, for the first three editions of the game, but have always been a freelancer rather than an employee of the game’s publisher.

The great majority of the Realms map, cities, countries, and characters you read about are my creations, and a fair amount of them predate the D&D game.

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Update

5. Do the Realms have any literary antecedents? That is, are there are any particular books or authors who strongly influenced you in the creation of the setting?

SEP 16, 2009 07:40P.M. This is becoming a trend, the Fungus Forest has been added too.

Yes and no. No, no authors strongly influenced me in the creation of the setting. However, the setting was born out of my love of all sorts of fiction, particularly fantasy fiction, that I read voraciously in my youth. Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & Gray Mouser tales influenced me in that when reading the new ones as they first appeared in the pages of FANTASTIC, I noticed they were stand-alone episodes but took place in the same setting, and that by reading a bunch of them, one learned more and more about the setting without the stories ever stopping to really turn and impart information about the world. I borrowed that idea in my fledgling Realms stories, which concerned the aging, wheezing, sly old crook of a merchant, Mirt the Moneylender (based on Falstaff, Poul Anderson’s Nicholas van Rijn, and Guy Gilpatrick’s Glencannon), traveling along the Sword Coast from port city to port city - - usually a step ahead of creditors and foes who wanted to put swords through him!

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Retrospective: Forgotten Realms Campaign Set SEP 16, 2009 08:05A.M.

However, I drew on everything fictional I loved (Dunsany, Zelazny, and many, many more) to imagine the sort of fantastic world I’d like to visit, and then wrote about it. 6. In those early days, what would you say was the relationship between the D&D rules and the Forgotten Realms? That is, did the nature of the rules dictate how you developed the setting or did you bend the rules where they were incompatible with your own ideas? I didn’t worry about rules at all; I was concerned about presenting the world (which predated the game, and most of the time was already detailed in, say, a city or the lineage of a ruling family or local legends, before the game rules came along) in full detail, so it could “seem real.” In many instances, describing the world for a TSR printed Realms product pointed out where there were gaps in the game rules (oops, we have nothing to help DMs with, say, poisonous gases blown by winds across a battlefield), but when you see “hard” rules in a Realms game product, they were almost always written by a staff designer from my detailed notes of the situation. I developed the 2nd Edition character stats “shorthand” for the game, purely to save wordcount when cowriting the FR ADVENTURES hardcover, but my “development” of the setting predated the game, so game rules couldn’t dictate it. What DID influence the development of the published Realms was TSR’s wants and

I’ve often said that, as a group, we gamers have very short memories. Worse than that, though, are selective memories, which we also possess in abundance. I bring this up in the wake of the still-ongoing debate raging in the comments of my recent post about the D&D/AD&D Chronology. 1987 saw the release of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set, which, for some, is as much of a harbinger of The End as I consider the release of Dragons of Despair to be. While I understand some of the ire directed at the setting, I nevertheless remain committed to the notion that the original boxed set describes a world whose old school pedigree is no less “pure” than that of Greyhawk or Blackmoor. Granted, the treatment of the Forgotten Realms as a brand, by both TSR and WotC, has often been less than ideal, to put it very charitably. Indeed, Jeff Grubb’s introduction to the DM’s Sourcebook to the Realms

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(one of two books contained in the boxed set) makes this quite plain:

with any essential qualities of the setting itself. If one looks carefully at the original boxed set, what you find is a wild world beset by evil, where communication and travel are slow and local problems loom far larger than epic, world-shattering plots.

About midsummer of 1986, TSR was shopping for a new world. We had experience in world-building under our belt, with two versions of the WORLD OF GREYHAWK™ campaign setting, and the creation of Krynn, home of the DRAGONLANCE Saga. This time, we were after something different; a world that we could continue to develop over the years that will follow, and set all future AD&D game modules into. A place where a variety of talented individuals could all contribute to its creation and its development. Rather than one view, a combination of views that would grow and develop through adventures, sourcebooks, short stories, and books.

Ed Greenwood’s own campaign was far more localized than was Gary Gygax’s Greyhawk campaign, for what it’s worth, and the power level of the PCs much lesser to boot. And this is all quite clear in the original boxed set, whose treatment of most topics is sketchy and suggestive rather than definitive. It’s a superb sandbox setting for heroic fantasy. Now, not everyone wants a heroic fantasy sandbox and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, I think it unfair to expect the Realms to be Greyhawk or Nehwon or the Dying Earth; it was never intended to be. What it is is the product of a longstanding D&D campaign, played by real people, which puts it head and shoulders above many later beloved TSR settings who owe their origins solely to finding new ways to squeeze yet more money from the game’s fanbase.

Please take note of the of the bolded section in the quote. As it turned out, TSR did not in fact set all future AD&D modules in the Realms, but they certainly made a good effort at it, producing reams of Realmsrelated products over a very short period of time. In the process, they certainly gave the impression that AD&D and the Forgotten Realms were synonymous, an impression that left a bad taste in the mouths of D&D fans.

If I sound defensive on this point, I apologize. I make no bones about the fact that I have been a fan of the Realms since I first read Greenwood’s articles in Dragon. His setting always struck me as the kind of campaign I wish I had run — not just the setting itself, although I did love it, but also the group of regular, steady players whose characters grew slowly over time and many exciting adventures. That doesn’t blind me to the fact that, over the years, the Forgotten Realms product line has included many, many silly things and has thrived on a constant stream of auctorial one-upmanship in an effort to sell more supplements and novels. But I don’t think that has any more bearing on the quality of the original Campaign Set than does the existence of the Rose Estes Greyhawk novels (or, for that matter, the later Gygax-penned “Gord the Rogue” books) have on the World of Greyhawk.

Coming as this did so soon after the ouster of Gary Gygax from TSR, a mythology has grown up around the Realms that I think is both untrue and unfair. If one examines the Campaign Set on its own merits, it’s not much different than what was found in the 1983 World of Greyhawk boxed set. There’s more room given to NPC descriptions, it’s true, but the vast majority of those NPCs are 9th level and below — precisely the sorts of people with whom an average adventuring party would likely interact. There are a handful of higher level NPCs, including the much-reviled Elminster, but their descriptions make them appear almost as “scenery,” no different than describing noteworthy cities or landmarks. There’s little implication that Elminster or Khelben Arunsun are traveling the world, righting all its wrongs. If anything, the implication is exactly the opposite: evil in the Realms is too strong for any one person or group of persons to overcome, which is where the PCs come into play.

Critics often forget that the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set was the last campaign setting released for First Edition. Though the 2e era is where the Realms were flogged to death, it was 1e that gave birth to it and that’s quite visible in the product itself, if one cares to read it with unbiased eyes. In reviewing my copy for this retrospective, I found myself able to forget all that came after it and enjoy it for what it is: a huge, wide-open setting drawn in broad strokes, just waiting for individual referees and players to fill in the details — exactly what a good campaign setting

I think it’s here that one of the largest fault lines lies for those who dislike the Realms. The Realms in unambiguously a world in need of “heroes,” not merely “adventurers.” A Realms character is far less likely to be venal and self-interested, doing good more by accident than by design. As a fan of morally ambiguous protagonists, I can certainly appreciate this critique of the Realms, even if I don’t find it a damning one. Not all fantasy literature is Howardian/Leiberian swords-andsorcery and not all swords-and-sorcery tales exist in a moral vacuum. There is room for a type of fantasy where fighting evil is the primary focus.

should be.

The problem, I think, is that, when the Realms made their debut, TSR attempted to push the setting as its sole vision of what D&D was and should be. You either signed on to it or you were left out in the cold. At least that’s how it appeared to many gamers, who soon resented the Realms and its popularity, all the while forgetting that much of what they disliked about the setting had more to do with TSR’s marketing than

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Like parents naming their child, a player’s choice of name for his character is a statement and I think it’s almost always better if that statement can be made without any strings attached.

Update SEP 15, 2009 04:51P.M.

That’s why I don’t hand out a list of “acceptable” names to my players or vet their choice of name, even if I don’t really like it or consider it somehow peculiar. I do this, first, for the reasons I stated in the previous paragraph and, second, because experience has taught me that “silly” names generally resolve themselves over time. Characters with purely joke names don’t last long, because their players tend not to care even minimally about them. They make foolish mistakes and engage in selfdestructive actions and, before long, Zippo the Fire Mage is no more.

A nice update to the Fungus Forset has been posted. This is a huge level, and it will be posted over a period of time.

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The schedule is a changing SEP 15, 2009 03:53P.M.

Of course, that doesn’t always happen, especially a character with a silly name somehow manages to survive in spite of it all. In such cases, the player starts to treat them as something more than a random collection of stats and, once in that state of mind, they start to think differently about the character. That’s one of the parts of gaming that really intrigues me: the moment when a character is “born” from a collection of random game statistics. Many characters never truly come alive, but enough do that I enjoy watching it happen.

So, the planned releases are undergoing a revision. Nothing is being dropped, in fact a book is being added. Starting next year there will be three Colonial Gothic releases. As things stand now, there will be a release in the Sping, Summer and Winter. Why all of this? To meet demand. So what is coming?

What I have noticed is that, once it does happen, the player of such a character starts to attempt to rationalize everything about his character, so that it “makes sense.” If the character has a genuinely silly name, the player will try to rationalize that too, claiming it’s a nickname or nom de guerre or creating a backstory to explain it. I never insist on such things to start, since there are no guarantees in my games and characters might well not live long enough to justify such effort, but neither do I discourage them. My feeling is that characters are made in many different ways and some of the best ones I’ve ever encountered came into being weeks or months after their first appearance, once they’d had a chance to get a few adventures under their belts and become more than just Fighting Man #6 or The Thief.

Have patience. I can tell you that both the Gazetteer and French Indian War book is out next year. The third book will be kept under wraps. Next year is shaping up to be a big year for us. In all 6 books will be released next year. You will have Colonial Gothic, Thousand Suns, and a little game we’ve been talking about called Shadow, Sword & Spell.

Rationalizing silly names is made easier if the referee keeps his campaign setting only as detailed as it needs to be for play. Too much detail means that players must conform their characters to the world from the start and, except in very specific circumstances, that’s not something that interests me anymore. I’d much rather give a wide berth to my players and then worry about fitting their characters into a grand scheme later, if ever. Besides, one of the joys of old school refereeing is rolling with the punches and making things up on the fly. Finding ways to incorporate silly names into a campaign setting is pretty small beans, when you think about it, and, much like rolling randomly for many things, silly names can sometimes be a good way to shake a referee out of a rut, encouraging him to think differently, even whimsically, about his game. That’s always a good thing.

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In Praise of “Silly” Names SEP 15, 2009 10:42A.M. In preparing my online Dwimmermount campaign, I was reminded of something I missed about so many of my campaigns of old: “silly” names. Now, by “silly,” I don’t necessarily mean absurd or ludicrous names, like Groucho or Sneezy, although names like that are among those I seek to praise in this post. Perhaps a better word is “inappropriate,” although even that isn’t quite right. You see, I have this strange notion that a character’s name is important. All characters should have names, even in old school games with a high mortality rate. Naming one’s character is one of the things that separates even combat-intensive RPGs from wargames, which is why I’m insistent on every character’s having one. I also feel a character’s one is one of the few things a player can freely give to his character without having to take into account dice rolls, game mechanics, or any other external factors.

I may be biased, of course, since several characters from my old campaigns had silly names that, over time, ceased to be silly as the character survived and developed beyond being a collection of numbers on a sheet of paper. Likewise, I know all too well my predisposition toward stolid seriousness. Silly names are good medicine for my soul and help remind me that I’m just playing a game. The point is to have fun,

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after all, and if one of my players has fun by calling his character’s henchman Justin Case, who am I to argue? Indeed, why would I even want to argue? Looking at the earliest RPG campaigns like Blackmoor and Greyhawk, silly names were pretty much par for the course. Silly names don’t necessarily imply silly campaigns and, even then, so what? I think we could all use a lot more silliness in our lives.

ambivalence: you either love her writing or you hate it. For myself, I love it, although I’ll admit that I cannot take it in large doses, as it’s exceedingly rich — “florid,” some might call it — and I find it very easy to get lost in it without any real comprehension of what I’m reading. That’s particularly true of her 1978 novel, Night’s Master, which is the first in her “Tales from the Flat Earth” series. The series is so called because they take place in a fantasy realm that really is a gigantic, flat square floating within a sea of eternal chaos. Above the Flat Earth is the Upperearth inhabited by the ethereal, distant gods who have little to no contact with the mortal beings that live below. Beneath the world is the Underearth, which is the realm of demons, who, unfortunately for humans, are not nearly so distant as are the gods.

And so I salute the memories of Morgan Just(ice), Hercles, Ogla O’Dell, Ichabod Duck, Theinberger the Thief and his brother Weinberger, Dalastie Dave, and countless others I have forgotten. My gaming was all the better for the existence of these characters.

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The novel itself concerns Azhrarn, who is the Prince of Demons, who functions both as its protagonist and antagonist — such is the conflicted nature of this otherworldly being and his relationship with the human beings he at once despises and loves, as they give meaning to his existence. The book itself is a peculiar one, both in form and content. I’ve already noted that Lee’s writing is rich, possessing a dream-like quality to it, which is perhaps fitting since Night’s Master is less a traditional novel and more a collection of episodes in which Azhrarn engages in his task of inspiring wickedness in humanity. There’s a dark fairy tale quality to the entire book and Lee is very good in maintaining this quality throughout. As I said, her writing is not to everyone’s tastes, but there’s no denying that her talent.

Superheroes SEP 14, 2009 11:13A.M. Does anyone have any idea about the origin of the term “superhero” in early RPGs like OD&D and RuneQuest? I suppose it’s possible that it’s ultimately derived from comics and then re-purposed in fantasy gaming, but I don’t get the sense that that’s the case, or at least I get the sense that there’s more to it than that. Mind you, that’s purely a gut feeling rather than anything more substantive, so I’d love to know the truth of the matter.

Compared to many treatments of Lucifer-like characters, Night’s Master is much more subtle and complex. While we’re clearly meant to sympathize with Azhrarn on some level, he doesn’t come across as a heroic but doomed rebel, a prototype for idealistic revolutionaries striving against irrational tyrannies and I’m grateful for that. Azhrarn is a very unpleasant being and his actions are usually despicable. What the novel does do, though, is provide some insight into what drives the Prince of Demons to do what he does and it’s here that I find it most interesting. Far from being a black hat from central casting, Azhrarn is a fully-realized villain — but villain he is. Night’s Master is thus an excellently mythological take on the psychology of evil, set in an interesting world and supported by gorgeous prose. Even if you don’t

Anyone out there know?

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Pulp Fantasy Library: Night’s Master SEP 14, 2009 08:09A.M.

enjoy it as much as I did, I think it’s worth reading at least once.

In my experience, Tanith Lee is an author about whom few have any

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both, as I think many gamers from that era do, even though now, in retrospect, I can what they presaged for the game and the hobby. The Master Rules are thin gruel intended to fill out a schematized business plan rather than any compelling need within the game. There’s yet more licensed properties (Lankhmar) and even more modules than 1984. Of these, only Gary’s The Isle of the Ape is a stand-out and even it is marred somewhat by its heavy use — and dependence on — material from Unearthed Arcana. However generous one is willing to be to 1983 and 1984, I don’t think one can easily argue that the Old Ways were all but dead by 1985.

The start of a new update SEP 11, 2009 08:21P.M. We have not forgotten about this project. We have just been a bit busy, and waiting on some of the volunteers to turn in their sections. We have a new one getting ready to go live now. How does a Fungus Forest sound? You can see the maps at Level 2B — The Fungus Forest. The key will be

1986 Not one but two hardcover books released this year, both of them largely worthless (though I loved them as a young man). Clearly, TSR had come to the conclusion that more hardcovers equals more cash and ran with that idea, laying the groundwork for what was to come. The Immortal Rules are even less useful than the Master Rules, being effectively a different game entirely and not a particularly interesting or welldesigned one at that. If I’m going to play a wacky immortal in training, I’d rather play Tom Moldvay’s Lords of Creation any day of the week. Tons of modules, most of them forgettable, appear this year as well. The only standouts in my opinion are B10, which is unexpectedly good, and the Blackmoor modules.

posted over the next few days.

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Thoughts on D&D;/AD&D; Chronology (Part II) SEP 11, 2009 07:14A.M. Here is another collection of random thoughts related to Chris Tichenor’s chronology of D&D/AD&D products. Today’s post begins with 1983, an important transitional year in my opinion.

1987 Yet more hardcovers and not very good ones at that. It’s also the dawn of the Pre-Fab Campaign Age, with the release of not just the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (which is better than its reputation among old schoolers would suggest), but also Kara-Tur and the GAZ line for D&D (which is more of a mixed bag in my opinion). Lots more modules — including the Official RPGA Tourney Handbook — but, once again, only the Blackmoor modules hold much interest.

1983 Though my fondest memory of this year is the release of Monster Manual II, for which I still have an inordinate love, the main event was the publication of the Frank Mentzer-edited Basic and Expert sets. My love for these is not great, as I’ve noted before, but I’m apparently in the minority among gamers, since, by most accounts, these were the bestselling versions of D&D ever. I personally find them too slick and soulless, compared even to Moldvay’s rules and there’s no question that the esthetics of the Mentzer edition are rooted in the Silver not Golden Age. 1983 also sees the release of a large number of modules, including the conclusions to the “Desert of Desolation” series and Ravenloft, forerunners all to what awaits the hobby in the following year.

1988 One more sub-par hardcover, Greyhawk Adventures, and tons of campaign setting accessories, both for the Realms and the Known World. Indeed, the number of actual adventure published this year is negligible, as they give way to setting information as the new cash cow of TSR, something that would reach its fullest flower in a few years. This is also when Castle Greyhawk appears, a module whose origins and purpose remain subjects of much debate more than 20 years later. Regardless of the true intentions behind it, I think it’s a fitting capstone to the end of

1984 With the exception of the D&D Companion Rules, which I actually enjoyed, the majority of this years releases were modules — a lot of modules, most of them quite forgettable. Among them are the first five Dragonlance modules, about which I’ve written before. I also notice two other things. First, there are a couple of licensed modules (the Conan ones), but also a great many geared toward supporting the Basic, Expert, and Companion rules sets. That’s almost as big a story as Dragonlance in some ways, since it suggests that TSR sees adventure modules as the pre-eminent support product for these lines and, by extension, the primary means by which the game is meant to be played.

the post-Gygax AD&D.

1985 Not a good year in my opinion, although many products made their debut, among them Oriental Adventures and Unearthed Arcana, two flawed “classics.” I call them classics because I have fond memories of

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Q. Will Dolphin run on 12°?

Days of High Adventure

A. Yes. The mechanic is perfect for a game of this type. Dolphin is more narrative in the type of adventures you run and play in. 12° is a good mechanic, that when you take it to the core, allows for easy task resolution. It does not get in the way, and does not make things too complicated. The type of actions that take place in the game, needs a mechanic like 12° to drive it.

SEP 10, 2009 05:06P.M. I’d neglected to mention that The Escapist, an online magazine covering gaming and gaming culture, recently began a weekly column called “Days of High Adventure,” which is dedicated to tabletop roleplaying games, particularly those of an old school character. I’m fortunate enough to be one of their regular columnists, along with Allen Varney, Monte Cook, and fellow blogger, Christopher Brackett of A Rust Monster Ate My Sword.

Q. If you are using 12° will this be similar to how the mechanic is used in either Colonial Gothic or Thousand Suns? A. No. Both of those games are different in tone and the type of rules you need are different as well. Both games need — let alone require — rules allowing for Skills, structured combat, and add on features that a game such as Dolphin does not require. The best example of this is Skills. Both Colonial Gothic and Thousand Suns need them. Dolphin does not. Why? For a couple of reasons.

Aside from the opportunity it’s afforded me, I’m particularly pleased to see this column in a widely read and much-respected “outside” gaming journal. It’s rare nowadays that tabletop RPGs get much exposure in the wider world, so I’m very grateful to the editors of The Escapist for expanding their focus into the part of the gaming world I love best.

First, the player characters are all dolphins, and because of this, they pretty much are all able to do the same things. What Dolphin will do is merge Skill Tests in with ability Tests. By that, if you want your PC to fight, it is a Strength Test. Abilities — in Dolphin — set your skills. This is similar to what is done in Toon, but unlike Toon, you will not have a list of skills listed under each ability. Instead, all Tests, are driven by the appropriate ability.

ROGUE FEED

[Dolphin] Q&A; SEP 10, 2009 04:58P.M. Before I dive into the next post, there are a few questions I want to answer. These are answers to some emails, tweets, and messages I have gotten since I first started talking about this.

Secondly, these are dolphins after all. I am going for a different tone with this game, and because of this, I do not need the complexity that is found in Colonial Gothic and Thousand Suns.

Q. Is Rogue Games going to publish this? Q. So what is the tone? You mentioned Finding Nemo before, are you trying to do a game like that?

A. Yes. Q. When will this be released?

A. Yes, and no. What I want with Dolphin is a game that allows me to run — and play — adventures that are more drama. I want to run a game that can be more cienamtic, as well as one, that does not bog down the play. What I am doing with this game, and what the players have been doing, is more narrative.

A. When it is done. Q. Really, there is no plan to this? A. No.

Anyway, this should bring you up to speed on the what and how. Next post will be about the setting.

Q. You’re crazy. A. Yes, I know. That is not a question by the way.

Posted in entertainment, Games, Rogue Games, thoughts Tagged: 12°, design notes, Dolphin, game design, Games, Rogue Games, thoughts,

Q. Is this going to be a roleplaying game?

writing

A. Yes. Q. So, let me get this straight. As a player, I play a dolphin? A. Yes. All characters are dolphins. The entire game takes place under the sea.

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The Wiki’s Subscribe

SEP 10, 2009 02:53P.M.

© 2008 Rogue Games With the website move done, the RSS Feeds for both the New World Almanack and the Encyclopedia Galactica have changed. You can subscribe to them using the following links:

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The Soldier at Home, 1781 Subscribe to the Encyclopedia Galactica Feed

SEP 10, 2009 09:24A.M. THE SOLDIER AT HOME FROM noise of camps once more I come, To snatch from care a short repose ; All hail thou tranquil much lov’d home, That war nor dread misfortune knows.

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So why should you subscribe? Every time the wiki’s are updated, you will get the updates in your newsreader.

Thus, far remov’d from hostile bands, May’st thou heart-pleasing home remain ; Curs’d be the murderous foreign hands That dare with blood thy bosom stain. ROGUE FEED

Oh haste, ye generous few I love, Again in social converse join; With me the sweets of friendship prove, And to the winds your cares resign.

MainMenu SEP 10, 2009 02:45P.M. Adventure Seeds Background The Colonies Conversion Notes Fate and Prophecies Floor plans Heroic Lifestyle Heroes of the Colonies Items of Significance Magic in the World Rituals Supporting Characters Creatures Villains At Play Write Ups Play Aids Submit Colonial Gothic The Gazette

But oh ! to recollect how soon The period comes that bids me hence ; A sadd’ning momentary gloom Steals half my joys, and clouds my sense. But why indulge that care-mix’d thought ? The happy day may yet arrive, When tyranny shall fall to nought, And liberty alone survive. Then with my friends in jocund mood, I’ll tell what dangers have been mine ; And how Americans have stood At Germantown and Brandywine. Here we’ll remember martial Gates, He taught the proud Burgoyne to yield ; Who frowning at his adverse fates, Surrender’d on the well fought field. Then each gay friend shall swell the tale, With hardy deeds of bold emprise ; Again he sees our arms prevail, And long-lost ardors now arise.

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Here Howe, says he, (and marks the track,) The British troops did proudly form ; And here with adverse lines compact, Brave Washington did swell the storm.

But oh ! how we hurried and scurried, Our cowardly enemies scorning ; There we run away over night, And there we waited till morning.

‘Twas here I was, and points the spot, (As he had traced on the ground,) What bursts of thunder, showers of shot, Yet there great Washington was found.

Parliaments squabble and gabble, Ministers wonder and stare ; Armies march backwards and forwards, Americans stand as they were.

At Monmouth’s plains, where Lee retreated, Great Washington did then push on ; Sir Harry’s chosen troops defeated, Then laugh’d his tyranny to scorn.

But oh ! how bloody and stout, Struts the commander-in-chief ; He’s as sharp as a snipe at the snout, And lacks nothing but wisdom and beef.

These happy days are yet to come, Then why repine at such a fate ; Bear well the woe that is your doom,

This lord bids him go up, That lord makes him run down, T’other drives him first backwards and forwards, And a fourth makes him skip and turn round.

And joy can never come too late.

With such mighty armies and fleets, With commanders and ministers true ; We bully all kingdoms and states, Tho’ to beat one we cannot tell how. But so we go up, up, up, &c.

ROGUE FEED

New Year’s Day, 1781 SEP 10, 2009 09:18A.M.

As for our credit and wealth, The pride and the strength of John Bull ; The nation’s as poor as myself, Tho’ Lord North swears his budget’s quite full So we go up, up, up, &c.

Written in America, and published in a music sheet, entitled “New Year’s Day, 1781, to the tune ‘Get you gone, raw head and bloody bones.’” It also appeared in the anti-ministerial English and American newspapers of the time. NEW YEAR’S DAY

Oh ! for a gibbet and block, Oh ! for a hatchet and cleaver ; How well would a home-hit stroke, Prove a just and a kind reliever. Then would old England go up, Instead of going down, down-a; We’re tired of backwards and forwards, Tis’ time that things were turn d round-a.

OH ! old England, old England ; And oh ! the New Year’s day ; Such a new year as this A blind man would gladly see. How we go up, up, up, &c. Now we are at a dead stop, And so we sink deeper and deeper , Little Greorgey’s as sound as a top, And his Primy’s an excellent sleeper.

Then would we lop ‘em and crop ‘em, Bring traitors at once to a level ; The junta should lead up the dance, And the others the way to the devil. Then would old England go up, &c.

Oh ! the navy, the navy, Of Britain the safety and boast ; Lord Twitcher has kept it so safely, Our foes on the seas rule the roast.

At court we make snuffers and buttons, Great folks must have something to do ; Bully Bagshot cures drunkards and gluttons, The king gallops from Windsor to Kew. See him tit up a tit up, &c.

Here’s an inferior fleet, With an admiral wrapt up in flannel ; By which we’re insulted abroad, And with which we sneak into the channel.

Oh ! religion, religion,

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I mean to be seriously grave, Archbishops and bishops raise papists, The protestant cause for to save. So we go up, up, up, &c.

• General Sullivan’s Song, 1777 • The Heads, 1776 • A Hymn, 1778

See Murray and Wedderburne both, O’er our lives and our fortunes preside ; And its lucky for England, in troth, No such lawyers are bred south of Tweed. So we go up, up, up, &c.

• Independence, 1776 • Lord North’s Recantation, 1778 • A New Ballad, 1779

So we’re abolish’d, demolish’d, Yet no man stands up for his right ; But, my friends, while the kingdom’s on fire, The Scots make their way by the light. Then help old England up, And knock all her enemies down, Let us join as all Englishmen ought,

• A New War Song, 1776 • New Year’s Day, 1781 • Old England, 1778 • The Present Age, 1779

‘Tis time that things were turn’d round.

• The Rebels, 1778 ROGUE FEED

• The Recess, 1779

Songs

• Saratoga Song, 1777

SEP 10, 2009 09:17A.M. • Sergeant Champe, 1780 • A Ballad, 1776 • To the Commons, 1776 • A Ballad to the tune of “Smile Britannia,” 1776 • Volunteer Boys, 1780 • A New Song, 1779 • A Song About Charleston, 1780 ROGUE FEED • Affair of Honor, 1778

SiteSubtitle

• An Appeal, 1780

SEP 10, 2009 09:10A.M.

• Battle of Trenton, 1776

A regularly updated resource for the Thousand Suns roleplaying game by Rogue Games

• British Light Infantry, 1778 • Brave Paulding and The Spy, 1780 • The Cow Chace, 1780 • Dutch Song, 1779 • Expedition to Rhode Island, 1778 • The Fate of John Burgoyne, 1777 • The Gamester, 1778

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information for my tastes, but I suspect I’m in the minority on this score.

Thoughts on the D&D;/AD&D; Chronology (Part I)

1978 A big year — an annus mirabilis, as Delta called it. We see not only the release of the Players Handbook, but also a series of superb adventure modules. Nevertheless, you can detect a shift in the game. The PHB added a fair amount of complexity to the game, both in terms of detail and rules. Likewise, the appearance of modules marks a move away from homebrew adventures as the default way that people played D&D. I don’t think these shifts are, in and of themselves, bad ones and I actually think there’s much to be said in favor of modules — in another post perhaps — but the game is clearly changing by this point.

SEP 10, 2009 07:13A.M. Lots of interesting commentary resulted from my post yesterday about Chris Tichenor’s chronology of D&D/AD&D products released by TSR between 1974 (the release of OD&D) and 1988 (the last year of 1e). Today, I’m going to offer my own rambling thoughts on the first part of the chronology, using each year as a touchstone for whatever comes to mind. I’ll do a second post on the remaining years later today or tomorrow.

1979 A strangely sedate year. Yes, there’s the release of the Dungeon Masters Guide, which is, in some ways, one of the most important books ever released for D&D. Beyond that, though, support for the game is sparser than in 1978. Only three modules are released — all classics, again — and the remainder consists of record sheets and a referee’s screen. I can’t help but wonder if perhaps TSR was, at this stage, under-staffed and over-worked, which is why you see many new employees in 1980 and ‘81.

1974 Not much to say here, since it’s Year 1 and there’s only a single product available. 1975 In many ways, 1975 is the “true” birthdate of D&D, as we know it today, since the release of Supplements I and II was the first appearance of many of the game mechanics and features now indelibly associated with D&D (such as the thief class, for example). It’s also also where the creation of D&D‘s own unique “mythology” kicks into high gear, with the addition of monsters like the beholder, umber hulks, rust monster, carrion crawler, sahuagin, and so forth. The LBBs largely content themselves with monsters from real world sources, but Greyhawk and Blackmoor describe far more monsters who have their origins in D&D campaigns rather than in myths or legends. This is the start of the game’s creative self-referentiality.

1980 The fourth AD&D hardcover appears, along with a handful of modules, most of which have their origins in convention play, a phenomenon that becomes ever more important to the way the game is designed. We also see the first official campaign setting for D&D. 1981 The Fiend Folio marks the rise of the game as an international hobby. The slew of modules are a varied lot, but what stands out is the presence of so many new writers. The big events of the year, though, are the release of the Basic and Expert Sets, which were the first serious attempts to make the game appealing to the mass market.

It’s also worth noting that, between them, the two supplements to OD&D constitute more pages than the three LBBs combined: 128 half-pages vs. 112 half-pages.

1982 Modules have obviously become a mainstay for TSR, which releases nine of them this year. Again, they’re a varied lot with a variety of authors, among them Tracy Hickman, whose Pharaoh, while still rooted in many aspects of the old school, points the way to the future of both module

1976 This is the year D&D was supposed to “end,” according to the introduction to Supplement IV by Tim Kask, at least in terms of “official” supplements. That obviously didn’t happen, but it’s still interesting to consider a world in which Kask’s proclamation came true — where further development of the game was confined to periodicals like Dragon and where published support came in the form of products like Dungeon Geomorphs or related spin-off games like Swords & Spells.

design and D&D itself.

1977 This year is an interesting year. We see the first AD&D product — the Monster Manual — as well as re-working of the LBBs into an “intro” product. The only support products are more geomorphs, monsters and treasure assortments, and character sheets. From my perspective, the complexion of the game hasn’t changed all that much. The MM is still, in many ways, a support product for OD&D, despite its branding, since the stats are quite compatible (indeed there are some OD&D-isms scattered throughout the text) and the monster format of OD&D isn’t conducive to ease of use. Granted, I do think the MM frequently provides too much

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Accessories: Supplement I: Greyhawk Supplement II: Blackmoor

An EPT Oddity SEP 09, 2009 11:33A.M.

1976: Accessories: Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes Swords & Spells Dungeon Geomorphs Set One

In re-reading Empire of the Petal Throne recently, I noticed a peculiarity in its use of percentile dice. Take for example this passage on seeking permission to change one’s alignment at a temple: It is possible to change one’s alignment by going to a temple of one of the Gods (not a Cohort) of the opposite alignment and seeking permission to change. This is granted upon a roll of 60 or more on two percentile dice.

1977: Hardbacks: Monster Manual

This is opposite the usual practice where a referee might judge a 40% change of gaining permission from the temple, with the player succeeding in the roll if he success 40 or less on D100. This peculiar practice appears throughout the rulebook, such as on the table for acquiring bonus spells as a character gains new levels. The table only makes sense if one must roll a certain number or higher on percentile dice. Otherwise, the chance to gain a Group I spell (the least powerful type of spell) decrease from 80% to 70% once a 2nd-level character gains 3rd level.

Boxed Sets: Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (Holmes ed. Sutherland cover art) Accessories: Character Record Sheets (Tom Wham cover art) Dungeon Geomorphs Set Two Dungeon Geomorphs Set Three Outdoor Geomorphs Set One: Walled City Monster & Treasure Assortment Set One Monster & Treasure Assortment Set Two

Granted, this “higher is always better” interpretation is consistent with Professor Barker’s freeform “Thursday Night Rules,” but it’s very different than the way percentiles have been used in nearly every other game I have ever played. Or is it? Perhaps I’ve missed something somewhere. Can any think of using percentiles in a fashion like this

1978: Hardbacks: Players Handbook

elsewhere, particularly in the early days of the hobby? Accessories: Monster & Treasure Assortment Set Three ROGUE FEED

Adventures: B1 In Search of the Unknown D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth D2 The Shrine of the Kuo-Toa D3 Vault of the Drow G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief G2 The Glacial Rift of the Front Giant Jarl G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King S1 Tomb of Horrors

D&D;/AD&D; Product Chronology SEP 09, 2009 07:19A.M. Chris Tichenor compiled an excellent list of all the products released by TSR for Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons between 1974 and 1988, which I’ve reproduced below. What I like most about this list is the way it reveals trends in both the kinds of products TSR was publishing and the way that D&D was conceived of by the company. Later today, I’ll post my own year-by-year thoughts about this list, but do feel free to make your own comments about it beforehand. I’m curious to see how much intersection there is between my own opinions on this matter and that of my readers.

1979: Hardbacks: Dungeon Masters Guide Accessories: Character Record Sheets (golden-rod w/ pink/purple Erol Otus art, later blue Jeff Dee art) DM Screen (Yellow/Gold Erol Otus cover) NPC Records Folder Permanent Character Folders Official AD&D Coloring Book

1974: Boxed Sets: Dungeons & Dragons (original 3-volume set) 1975:

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Adventures: B2 Keep on the Borderlands S2 White Plume Mountain T1 Village of Hommlet

S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth U2 Danger at Dunwater WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun X2 Castle Amber (Chateau d’ Amberville) X3 Curse of Xanathon

1980: Hardbacks: Deities & Demigods (Reprinted in 1983 as Legends & Lore)

1983: Hardbacks: Monster Manual II

Acessories: DM’s Adventure Log The Rogue’s Gallery World of Greyhawk campaign folio Dungeon Geomorphs Set One-Three (re-print) Monster & Treasure Assortment Set One-Three (re-print)

Boxed Sets: Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules (Mentzer ed. Elmore cover art) Dungeons & Dragons Set 2: Expert Rules (Mentzer ed. Elmore cover art) World of Greyhawk Accessories: AC1 The Shady Dragon Inn

Adventures: A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan C2 Ghost Tower of Inverness Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits S3 Expedition to Barrier Peak

Adventures: B5 Horror on the Hill EX1 Dungeonland EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror I4 Oasis of the White Palm I5 Lost Tomb of Martek I6 Ravenloft L2 The Assassin’s Knot M1 Blizzard Pass M2 Maze of the Riddling Minotaur O1 The Gem and the Staff U3 The Final Enemy UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave UK2 The Sentinel X4 Master of the Desert Nomads X5 Temple of Death

1981: Hardbacks: Fiend Folio Boxed Sets: Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (Moldvay ed. Otus cover art) Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set (Cook w/ Marsh ed. Otus cover art) Accessories: Player Character Record Sheets (Roslof cover art) Adventures: A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords A4 In the Dungeon of the Slave Lords B3 Palace of the Silver Princess D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth (re-print) G1-2-3 Against the Giants (re-print) I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City L1 The Secret of Bone Hill U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh X1 The Isle of Dread

1984: Boxed Sets: Dungeons & Dragons Set 3: Companion Rules Accessories: AC2 Combat Shield & Mini-adventure AC3 3-D Dragon Tiles featuring The Kidnapping of Princess Arlena AC4 The Book of Marvelous Magic AC5 Player Character Record Sheets (same format, different cover art as 1981 sheets)

1982: Accessories: Monster Cards, Sets 1-4

Adventures: B6 The Veiled Society B7 Rahasia B8 Journey to the Rock BSOLO Ghost of Lion Castle C3 The Lost Island of Castanamir C4 To Find a King CB1 Conan Unchained! CB2 Conan Against Darkness!

Adventures: B4 The Lost City I2 Tomb of the Lizard King I3 Pharoah N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God

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CM1 Test of the Warlords CM2 Death’s Ride CM3 Sabre River DL1 Dragons of Despair DL2 Dragons of Flame DL3 Dragons of Hope DL4 Dragons of Desolation DL5 Dragons of Mystery MV1 Midnight on Dagger Alley N2 The Forest Oracle O2 Blade of Vengeance UK3 The Gauntlet UK4 When a Star Falls UK5 Eye of the Serpent UK6 All that Glitters… WG5 Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure X6 Quagmire! X7 The War Rafts of Kron X8 Drums on Fire Mountain XL1 Quest for the Heartstone XSOLO Lathan’s Gold

T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil UK7 Dark Clouds Gather WG6 Isle of the Ape X9 The Savage Coast X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield XS2 Thunderdelve Mountain, 1986: Hardbacks: Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide Wilderness Survival Guide Boxed Sets: Dungeons & Dragons Set 5: Immortal Rules Accessories: AC9 Creature Catalogue REF2 Character Record Sheets REF3 Book of Lairs Adventures: A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords (re-print) B10 Night’s Dark Terror CA2 Swords of Deceit CM7 The Tree of Life DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor DA2 Temple of the Frog DL12 Dragons of Faith DL13 Dragons of Truth DL14 Dragons of Triumph GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders (re-print) H2 The Mines of Bloodstone I8 Ravager of Time I9 Day of Al’Akbar I10 Ravenloft II: The House on Griffon Hill IM1 Immortal Storm M2 Vengeance of Alphaks M3 Twilight Calling N3 Destiny of Kings N4 Treasure Hunt OA1 Swords of Daimyo OA2 Night of the Seven Swords RS1 Red Sonya Unconquered X11 Saga of the Shadow Lord

1985: Hardbacks: Oriental Adventures Unearthed Arcana Boxed Sets: Battlesystem Dungeons & Dragons Set 4: Master Rules Accessories: Lankhmar: City of Adventure AC6 Player Character Record Sheets AC7 Master Player Screen featuring The Spindle AC8 3-D Dragon Tiles featuring The Revenge of Rusak (a/k/a AC3, a/k/a AC5) REF1 DM Screen Adventures: B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond C5 The Bane of Llywelyn CA1 Swords of the Undercity CM4 Earthshaker! CM5 Mystery of the Snow Pearls CM6 Where Chaos Reigns DL6 Dragons of Ice DL7 Dragons of Light DL8 Dragons of War DL9 Dragons of Deceit DL10 Dragons of Dreams DL11 Dragons of Glory H1 Bloodstone Pass I7 Baltron’s Beacon M1 Into the Maelstrom

1987: Hardbacks: Dragonlance Adventures Manual of the Planes Boxed Sets: Forgotten Realms Campaign Kara Tur, the Eastern Lands Acessories:

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19 September 2009

AC10 Bestiary of Dragons and Giants AC11 The Book of Wondrous Inventions FR1 Waterdeep and the North FR2 Moonshae GAZ1 The Grand Duchy of Karameikos GAZ2 The Emirates of Ylaruam GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri GAZ4 The Kingdom of Ierendi REF4 Book of Lairs II

Adventures: DL15 Mists of Krynn DL16 World of Krynn FRC1 Ruins of Adventure H4 Throne of Bloodstone I14 Swords of the Iron Legion OA5 Mad Monkey vs. the Dragon Claw OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes WG7 Castle Greyhawk

Adventures: B1-9 In Search of Adventure (re-print) C6 Official RPGA Tourney Handbook CM8 The Endless Stair CM9 Legacy of Blood DA3 City of the Gods DA4 Duchy of Ten DQ1 The Shattered Statue H3 The Bloodstone Wars I3-5 Desert of Desolation I11 Needle I12 Egg of the Phoenix I13 Adventure Pack I IM2 The Wrath of Olympus IM3 The Best of Intentions M4 Five Coins for a Kingdom M5 Talons of Night N5 Under Illefarn OA3 Ochimo: The Spirit Warrior OA4 Blood of the Yakuza S1-4 Realms of Horror (re-print) X12 Skarda’s Mirror X13 Crown of Ancient Glory

ROGUE FEED

Retrospective: Masks of Nyarlathotep SEP 08, 2009 11:01P.M.

1988: Hardbacks: Greyhawk Adventures

Masks of Nyarlathotep has often been called the greatest adventure ever written for any roleplaying game and such praise is not undeserved. Published in 1984 for Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu, Masks might be called “an Adventure Path done right.” Starting with a scenario set in New York City, when an old friend of the Investigators asks for assistance shortly before his suspicious murder, the adventure soon takes on global proportions, with clues pointing to London, Cairo, Kenya, and Shanghai. In each city, the Investigators gather more clues about the actions of a cult dedicated to the Crawling Chaos and seeking to usher in the reign of the Great Old Ones upon the Earth.

Boxed Sets: City System (orange box Waterdeep set) Accessories: DM’s Design Kit FR3 Empires of the Sands FR4 The Magister FR5 The Savage Frontier FR6 Dreams of the Red Wizards GAZ5 The Elves of Alfhiem GAZ6 The Dwarves of Rockhome GAZ7 The Northern Reaches GAZ8 The Five Shires GAZ9 The Minrothad Guilds GAZ10 The Orcs of Thar REF5 Lords of Darkness

Two things, in my opinion, make Masks stand out. First, once the New York scenario is completed, there is no single “right” way to proceed. The players may choose to pursue any of the clues they’ve amassed anywhere around the world. There’s no expectation that the London scenario will immediately follow the New York one, for example. This gives a great deal of freedom to the players, something that’s essential in investigative scenarios if they’re to avoid feeling like railroads. Second, while there is a “ticking clock” to keep the Investigators moving briskly to defeat the cult of Nyarlathotep, it’s a long enough one that they can afford to take their

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

19 September 2009

time and undertake their investigations thoroughly. As in most Call of Cthulhu adventures, it pays to be methodical and hunt down every scrap of information you can get your hands on. Knowledge is more than power; it’s the key to life and death.

ROGUE FEED

Of course, the flexibility and open-endedness of Masks comes with a price: it’s a very complex adventure for the Keeper to run. There are five different “main” scenarios in total, each of which includes many minor and side adventures the players might choose to undertake. Likewise, the interconnections between the scenarios, as well as with the overall arching plot of the cultists, are many and take some effort to keep straight. There are dozens of NPCs too, most of whom have secrets of their own. The end result is a massive, occasionally bewildering adventure that, if handled properly, is arguably one of the most interesting adventures the hobby has ever produced and certainly one of the best ever produced for Call of Cthulhu. Handled by an inexperienced or untalented Keeper, though, Masks is likely a recipe for disaster.

Center Stage Miniatures has licensed the right to produce Swords & Wizardry miniatures, and they are running a contest for Knockspell Magazine readers! Write up the best new monster and Center Stage will sculpt it and put it into their Swords & Wizardry line. Here are the rules: (1) it has to be a monster; (2) it has to be roughly human-sized; (3) the description has to be in Swords & Wizardry format; (4) the winner has to sign a contract allowing Center Stage to produce the minis for as long as they want to. There’s not a money prize, but it isn’t every day you get to see one of your own creations immortalized in metal.

Miniatures Contest SEP 08, 2009 07:24P.M.

How to enter the contest: send your monster description, in Swords & Wizardry format, to [email protected], attention Matt Solarz, who is the president of Center Stage Miniatures. Center Stage will judge the entries, and the winning entry will be sculpted and sold in the Swords & Wizardry line of miniatures, as well as being published in the magazine. The monster description will also be printed on the packaging for the miniature, with your name as author.

Still, I count myself among the many admirers of this adventure. I called it an “Adventure Path done right” above and I firmly believe that. Rather than having a single path from scenario to scenario, players are free to take whatever route they deem best. Investigative scenarios are very prone to railroading and often founder on a single undiscovered clue. By providing such an open-ended structure, players won’t feel as if their actions are dictated by the plot nor should they run into many brick walls. Consequently, Masks has an almost sandbox-like quality to it, making it superior to most other Call of Cthulhu offerings, including Shadows of Yog-Sothoth. It’s a very demanding format, both to produce and to run, which is why I suspect so few products have followed in its footsteps. That’s a pity, because Masks ably takes full advantage of all the qualities that make roleplaying games unlike most other forms of entertainment, most especially the ability of the referee to improvise based on what he already knows about the overall scenario.

The first contest runs from September 1, 2009 until December 31, 2009. Fire up your creativity and make some monsters!

If I have any real complaints about Masks of Nyarlathotep it’s that, like so many Call of Cthulhu adventures, it doesn’t feel particularly Lovecraftian. Sure, the bad guys serve Nyarlathotep and there are lots of Mythos-related tomes and creatures to be encountered, but the whole things feels more like a pulp serial or an Indiana Jones movie than an exercise in cosmic horror. I’m willing to overlook that, since I’m not convinced that cosmic horror would actually be all that fun to play and because Masks is such a brilliant adventure in its own right, so brilliant that, it’s definitely deserving of the accolades it receives in many quarters. Is it the best adventure ever written? That’s really hard to say, since tastes — even my own — vary, but it’s without a doubt in contention for the title and well worth a look if you’ve never had the chance to do so.

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