Welp, I Died...

Diomedes, my 2nd level cleric of the Toad died.  Ugh!

I do have to get some sleep now (I've gotta' be up 'ere break o day for a hot air balloon ride), but I fully intend to do a complete run down of events both here and over at campaign blog site.

[and just FYI, I can think of at least three mis-steps that directly led to my demise, so I ain't blaming anyone but myself, though I would have liked to have lived a bit longer...]

Ok, ok, ok, ok...my "happy fingers" want to blog all night long but I absolutely HAVE TO get some sleep.  Later, gators!

The ORIGINAL "Adult Fantasy" RPG

Note to Self: No posting after cocktails. Beer: okay. Wine: okay. Absinthe and champagne: big no.

However, that's fine...I may have written some fairly random comments on other folks' blogs (sorry!), but my own post, while silly, doesn't appear to embarrassing.  Now...onto the news of today.

Walked down to the local game store this morning (I LOVE Greenwood!), and picked up two copies of the Holmes Basic set ($8 a pop) on the way to the coffee shop. In 25+ years of buying games and game supplements, I have never owned or had the chance to purchase this edition. 

Now, I've got two...in the original boxes, no less!

Normally, I'm not someone who "stocks up" or doubles up on games.  Yes, I collect 'em, but generally as long as I own one useable copy, I'm content.  Heck, there are several copies of the original cover PHB, some in better condition than my own...but mine works fine...and so I leave them on the shelf for some other curious soul or collector to find and purchase.

But here I acquired BOTH Holmes boxes, leaving nothing for anyone else.  Man, am I a jerk or what?

Okay it WAS a bit selfish of me, but I had good reason. Although neither came with dice, both included their "introductory module"...and each box contained a different adventure! One has a copy of B1: In Search of the Unknown, the other has B2: The Keep on the Borderlands.

The B2 is in pristine condition, the pages stiff as if never thumbed through or played...the cover shows no sign of wear or tear and no markings of any type. Quite the contrast to my own.  Also, now that I have it, I see that it IS somewhat different from my own copy. The artwork is different! Certain images with which I've been familiar for decades have been replaced by similar but different images, Willingham drawings with Otis illustrations.

Fascinating...I'll have to compare the two side-by-side for writing and lay-out differences.

B1 is not in pristine condition having pen-marked notes on the maps and a definite used look about it. Still, I am thrilled to have it. Any pre-1985 module I can get my hands on is terrific (these I rarely see...ever...in the game shop). But B1 is one I've never owned, held, or even seen in the flesh. It always confused me in the past why the pre-packaged B module with my Basic set was B2 and not B1.  B1 would have come first, right?

Well, B1 DID come first...but with a different Basic set than the one with which I grew up. 

Anyway, I'll be anxious to read it. But first, of course, I've got to read Holmes himself. I've been doing that all morning (hey, what do you know: purple worm in this edition, too! And it's bite attack is more fearsome than any other edition).  I find this a fantastic piece of gaming history, and more...I see why so many people have kept this as their "true" version of the game.  From what I've read/skimmed so far I think it's well written and quite a complete/polished game.

Well, with the caveat that one needs to bring their own imagination to it...but that's written into the rules, too!

I will  "blarg" more later this weekend, but I just want to say this: I love the fact that it says "The original ADULT fantasy role-playing game" on the cover. This was NOT a game for children originally...well, not ones under the age of 12 (kids became "adults" a lot earlier in the 70s...).

: )

Oh...that and this passage:

"...Also a female with high charisma will not be eated by a dragon but kept captive. A charismatic male defeated by a witch will not be turned in a frog but kept enchanted as her lover, and so forth."

And so forth...

Who knew Charisma had such incredible practical benefits? These "rules" are totally going to be part of all my future D&D games (in fact, I should put them into my Companion set!)!

Absinthe Post...Sorry!

Gaah! You kids today!  With your "gold pieces" and your coke and your whores! What do you know about "tough times?"  Gah!

I've been drinking absinthe cocktails tonight while watching belly dancers and eating some (very paltry) Franch cuisine...then I had a little community theater improv for dessert. I tell you this: Greenwood (Seattle) is God's Country.

Just so you know.

Dammit beagles! "Donkey" (as I refer to the younger beag) continues to bay at a cat outside, and is definitely in need of a beating which I will probably NOT administer (knowing me). But he's interrupting my brain wave, dammit!

BEFORE the absinthe bar, the wife and I stopped by the local game store and I made a terrific find...not one, but TWO (2) copies of the Holmes' Basic set in the used game section...in frigging BOXES!  Not only that, they each included a module, in addition to the game book.

[not that they included any dice, BUT...]

HERE's the kicker. One box had B1: In Search of the Unknown. The other box came with B2: The Keep On The Borderlands!  I was having this debate earlier (either on this blog or another) about what module came published with the game...apparently it was an EITHER/OR kind of thing.

As I've never owned a copy of the Holmes edition (!!) I've made plans to publish BOTH boxes (couldn't get 'em tonight as my hands were full, walking the dogs). The copy of B2 was in frigging PRISTINE condition...I've never seen a module look so clean, stiff and unused. I mean, f'ing MINT, like never opened...and it has to be AT LEAST 30 YEARS OLD.

I'm going back to the shop first thing in the morning. If someone picked 'em up after I left the shop (unlikely since I was in there 15 minutes before close) I will kick myself for a good, long while. 

Shoot. There was also a box of Mentzer's Companion set that I considered picking up (just to have a copy) but the booklets were in worse condition than my own 1.5 sets...and do I really need a box?

But the Holmes...shit, I'm gonna' buy both. F-- it.

'Night fellas...gotta go beat the beagles (they're BOTH howling now).

Vainglorious Campaigns

So I was eating lunch…a meatball sandwich from Seattle’s 2nd best sandwich shop, Tat’s…and thinking about my favorite film maker of all time: Quentin Tarantino. I don’t believe any of his films are my favorite of all time (that would probably be a tie between Casablanca and The Life Aquatic…and possibly Peter Jackson’s King Kong). But consistently, I’ve quite enjoyed his films.

And as I was thinking about QT, and wondering if I should try to catch his latest greatest sometime this weekend (still haven’t seen the latest Hairy Bottom film, and my wife would like to catch that in the theater), and, AND I can’t help but think how well Mr. Tarantino’s films can act as analogies to past role-playing campaigns and/or characters with which I’ve been involved.

Whether identified by plot, theme, or something else, I present the following list for my own amusement as much as anyone else’s:

*Reservoir Dogs: my Last (AD&D) campaign
True Romance: my 2nd (AD&D) campaign
Pulp Fiction: my Original (B/X-AD&D) campaign
Four Rooms: Over The Edge (lots of finger chopping)
Jackie Brown: Advanced Marvel Superheroes (Blitz & Mr. Slash); also Bladehawk (character)
*From Dusk Till Dawn: my first Vampire the Masquerade saga
Kill Bill vol. 1&2: Shadow Run with hints of 1st edition Stormbringer
*Death Proof: my original, long running AD&D character

I wonder what I’ll equate Inglourious Basterds with…it’s been a long-time since I’ve run (or played in) a game with more than a couple sessions.

Actually, I'm not wondering that much; even just watching the previews I’m already associating the film in my mind with Pat’s On-Line B/X Campaign.

I DO wonder if any of our characters will be dying tomorrow night.

* means an especially good example/analogue of the campaign/character

: )

My Plate Over-Floweth

Well, folks, another bloody week gone by and yet more time lost surfing the void. Didn’t get all the posts I wanted this week and probably won’t today as I have to:

a) Get some real life work done (ugh)
b) Get ready for tomorrow’s B/X Skype game (way behind)
c) Hopefully coordinate some behind-the-scenes-between-adventure activity with the “B/X boys” (Meepo’s back in town)
d) Really want to knock out a couple/ten pages on the monster section for my B/X Companion.

The last is something I was working on yesterday (when I wasn’t attending work tele-conferences or screaming myself hoarse ate the Sounders game…). Monster crafting I find to be A LOT tougher than writing up spells (done) or magic items (done). It’s an area where my perfectionist tendencies really start to bog me down.

Thing is, I’m striving for consistency, right? Consistency between my own monsters, consistency between other B/X monsters, consistency with other D&D monsters (several are being taken from AD&D 1st edition, and at least one from 2nd edition).

Putting together the list itself has been no picnic, as I strive to gather a selection that is both worthy of high level B/X play and (again) consistent with prior lists in the Moldvay and Cook/Marsh rules. Right now the list is up to 76 individual entries, comparable to both the Basic and Expert sets, and some of those will be (hopefully) combined under one heading. But the list is constantly changing as I try to represent many different things.

This morning for instance, I’ve all but decided to exclude the skeletal warrior from my list…and he’s been on there since the beginning. I’m not ashamed to admit that many of the monsters added are personal favorites from other editions; however, they all have to have some justification for being present (i.e. they should be useful or appropriate to a high level campaign). Since transforming oneself into an undead, like a lich or greater mummy, could be a valid (if not particularly worthy) goal of play…old characters looking for a little immortality…I figured the skeletal warrior would be a way to “throw a bone” to fighters.

Except that I really have no way to do it. Fighters don’t pursue magical research and while I could have created a magic item that changed ‘em into “skeletal warriors” it simply felt too contrived. The original Fiend Folio entry states that they were given their form by an evil demigod…and if such is the case, I prefer to leave it in the hands of individual DMs whether or not their demigods take such an active hand in cursing folks (plus, aren’t these type of curses pretty individual? And yet, there’s a whole troop o these guys?).

No, they seem more the type of “unique” encounter for a one-off adventure module (oh, you find this golden circlet…oh, there’s this lich-looking dude with a big sword chasing you). You catch my drift, I’m sure.

So, much as I totally dig on the skeletal warrior, he’s getting the axe today (hmm, excuse me, I had him listed as a “skeletal lord” not warrior…same thing, though). There…down to 75 names on the list!

[and it’s not like the skeletal warrior/lord is difficult to write up anyway…he’s got the same stats as a fighter of level 10th-15th but he’s undead. Big whoop.]

Some of the monsters on the list seem strange inclusions. For example, I’ve got both the Asag (the Sumerian name for the demon that the xorn appears to be based on) and the Underminer (an umberhulk, though I am still toying with calling it a CHUD) on the list, both pretty close to their AD&D stats. Neither would seem to be a particularly challenging monster for characters over level 20 (both have less than 9 hit dice) and neither is one of my personal favorites.

However, one has to think of what they represent…and the context in which they are used. By the time PCs reach the companion levels, many will be settling down into strongholds…and strongholds needs SCOURGES to challenge and test dominion rulers. These underground monstrosities are fantastic and relatively “realistic” scourges that could be encountered by dwarves in their mountain strongholds (moreso than a balrog anyway), and might even be potential invaders of a thief’s sewer-located hideout. AND if a war breaks out between the Dokkalfar and the surface world, you can bet your sweet ass there’ll be at least a couple units of umberhulks…er, “underminers” in the dark elf army. That’s just D&D!

Yes, there are some “big bads” on the list including a number of extra-dimensional “demon” types (I’m not building any kind of Outer Plane cosmology into the Companion…that’s for individual DMs to put together themselves…so there’s no Devils, Demons, Daemons, Slaadi, etc.), there are quite a few smaller creatures as well. While some, like the Jubjub Bird or Luck Eater have special powers that make them interesting challenges for higher level characters, most of these “weenie” monsters are representatives of tribes or societies that could come into conflict with PCs and their dominions…or represent huge cities of foes that need to be explored…or are units that would be vicious additions to an army (like Black Orcs, for example).

Anyway, it’s tricky…right now the ever-changing list seems fairly set, and I’ve got near completed stats for two-thirds of the creatures on the list. But other than the four monsters I’ve posted to this blog, I’ve got no blurbs written up for my critters, simply names and stats on an Excel spread sheet.

Fortunately, writing blurbs comes pretty fast/easy for me. It’s just those damn stat blocks and my endless tweaking! Ugh!

All right, as I said, I have other things to do. I’ll give y’all more progress reports as things come together. Monday will be my first day off, all-to-myself, in three+ weeks and I am really looking forward to getting a ton of writing down. Things are going so well so far! I just need more f’ing free time!

Hasta tarde…

Mentzer Mayhem

Wow…I so wanted to comment on the recent news that Frank Mentzer is throwing his hat into the Old School ring, but I mean…what can I really say? I have following first impressions:

- Welcome to the club.
- Um, you want money because…why?

The whole thing seems like a combo of band wagon jumping and mid-life crisis…except these guys are past middle age. So what gives? Probably some type of Saturn return.

Anyhoo, I don’t see it as a bad thing except that some otherwise perfectly normal movers and shakers in the OSR community might express undue paranoia that famous names of the ORIGINAL “old school” may steal their thunder. Personally, I don’t buy into THAT and I’m not about to stop plugging away at my own OS project. The only people that really seem to care about the names of Mentzer and Kask etc. are Old Schoolers…and Old Schoolers (elitist snobs that we are) already know who’s been leading the Old School charge.

Not Frank Mentzer.

But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be welcomed as yet another publisher of fine OSR materials (assuming his company DOES end up publishing “fine OSR materials”). Hell, if Mark Rein-Hagen wanted to throw down a Labyrinth Lord module, I’d give it a glance.

Here’s how I really see it, folks: the more, the merrier. Anything that helps return table-top gaming to a fun, popular hobby is a GOOD THING. If Mentzer and company can pull people in, good. If name recognition counts enough to pull some Pathfinder or 4E folks to check out Mentzer & Co.’s LL or Osric or HackMaster stuff…cool.

James Raggi recently called for people in the OSR to start providing firm and real ("honest") criticism to those writing and publishing OS stuff, instead of just warm-fuzzy pat-on-the-back fluff pieces. I agree with him. And as such, I am hereby withholding any more judgment on the entire Mentzer “announcement” until I see something actually for sale…at which time I will check it out with as objective an eye as I can. As folks should be doing with ALL OSR stuff.

I hope he’s not mad about me dismantling the War Machine…
; )

Where Do The Old Gamers Go?

Apparently they go to Queen Anne.

Just ran into a blast from the past tonight...my buddy Michael.

Going to school in Seattle, or the U.S., you can't throw a rock without hitting at least two or three Mikes (in Seattle, you also hit two used bookstores and half a dozen coffee shops...maybe a sushi place). To distinguish 'em each had a different name...Mike, Mick, Mikey...many just got called by their last names or some variation thereof (like "Schmidty" for a guy named Schmidt, right?). Michael was always Michael. Just worked better that way.

Michael was the point man for my second wave of role-playing. When I went to a high school and left my old gamer buddies behind (not entirely by my choice please understand), he was one of the new passel of buddies I picked up. Fortunately for me, he was also a gamer.

And a great one. Oh, he was a golden boy, too...very sharp and quick witted, well read, a part of our State champion swim team, and a damn nice guy. But also a heck of a gamer.

Michael, of course, had played D&D growing up, but when I met him in high school he was pretty much playing all Palladium games. Ninjas & Superspies. Robotech Defenders. Heroes Unlimited was a big one. Prior to meeting Michael and his gaming buddies, my only exposure to Palladium had been brief toe dippings into the first edition of TMNT (dammit! heroic animals are cool!). Through him, I was able to enter a wider arena of Siembeda games.

Not that I didn't return the favor. I introduced him to Stormbringer, Vampire the Masquerade, and (Palladium's) Rifts. The guy was a good egg all around, with an open mind and a willingness to try new things. I was a heavy metal head and he was a die-hard Beatles-U2-kind of guy, but he was willing to admit Motley Crue's rendition of Helter Skelter "was pretty good" once I convinced him to listen to it.

Strangely, I never actually played Dungeons and Dragons with Michael. He was in a long running AD&D campaign with our (mutual) friends, twins named Ben and (surprise) Mike. And by long-running, I mean even prior to high school (they'd met in grade school). They played the entire T1-4:Temple of Elemental Evil as well as H1-4 (complete with BattleSystem rules). He ran two characters in the campaign...a wizard called Aristobulus ("Ari") and a paladin or ranger-type guy. The other Mike (Ben's brother) is the guy who'd one day be present at my one experience as a 2nd edition player (he was the ranger, "Keldern"). His character in Michael's game was: a ranger named Keldern. What a maroon.

[Oh...just realized I've mention Michael before when I was talking about Stormbringer. See the earlier post. His farmer was a lot of fun...till he fell off a cliff. And just when he'd started learning sorcery, too.]

Anyway, a good egg. Outside of gaming, we worked together (acting) in several plays, both in high school and college. Often, Michael would seem more ham than craftsman on stage, but this is a guy with very little ear for music that self-taught himself to be a passable singer and piano player starting around the age of 16 or so. He knew his stuff.

Of all my friends from high school and college (we both went to Seattle University, though he studied medieval history and I majored in dramatic arts), Michael was the only guy, other than myself that I considered "Jedi" material...smart AND "goody-good." The difference between us, as I once told him, is that I was far more likely to fall to the Dark Side than him.

Welp, it's been 20+ years since we first met and probably close to 15 years since we hung out regularly. He got fairly heavy into on-line "MUD" games towards the end of college and we kind of went separate ways. These days he lives in Queen Anne (a neighborhood just outside of downtown Seattle), I believe he's been unemployed for a few years (my understanding is he's well-set financially) and picks up a lot of girls on Craigs List. Oh, and he's been losing hair faster than me.

But at least he's not fat.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I wonder what he does with his time. He told me he can't drink beer anymore (and he was quite the connoisseur in the past...his late father brewed his own). Still, he does still enjoy cocktails, though he prefers vodka to my favorite, gin.

Probably he's a level 80+ paladin on the World of Warcraft. I really couldn't bring myself to ask if he still gamed.

Plus, I was out walking the beagles with my wife, and he was on a date with some young thang (he didn't bother introducing her...jeez, man!), that he left hanging while we chatted. I elicited a pseudo-promise that we would TOTALLY hang out sometime...my wife travels a lot for business, and there's no reason not to show him the new house, or at least go out for drinks.

I really, REALLY hope we do. If at all possible, I'd love to run a game or two with the guy. Not just intelligent and quick on the uptake, but clever and funny, he brought some real pathos to our Vampire saga at times...really, the only guy willing to take it far at all. If I could put together a gaming "dream team" he'd be on it...along with my old friend Jocelyn.

Unfortunately, she's living in Eastern Washington these days.

Yeah, Michael. Shit. A total blast from the past. We're even "friends" on facebook, but neither one of us ever checks into that garbage. Man. What a guy. He really helped me survive what otherwise would have been a complete drought of gaming in high school. It kept me friggin' sane.

Seattle really is a small town. A small town but one where it's too damn easy to disappear into your own respective 'hood.