Sand Zones, Star Scepters, And Pharoid's Legacy

SO...looking back over my old blog posts, I thought for sure I'd mentioned my love/fascination with Micronauts somewhere. Clearly this isn't the case. I suppose another dive into my personal history is necessary.

My earliest memories of Micronauts are, of course, the toys which for several years (I'm guessing 1977 to 1980 based on release dates) would inexplicably appear beneath my Christmas tree on Christmas morning.

I say "inexplicably" because (as far as I can remember) I never asked Santa (or my parents) for a Micronaut toy ever (at least, not till the very final series) and they were largely off my "kid radar;" I didn't see ads on TV for them (Saturday morning cartoons had not yet started marketing toys via serial tie-ins to children), my cousins/friends didn't own them (so far as I knew), nor did I ever see them in the stores (not that I frequented these regularly as a small child).  In later years, following the first batch's appearance on Christmas morning, my brother and I, now familiar with them, would sometimes pore over the Sears "wishbook," divvying up which Micronauts each of us would eventually own (as we did with ALL toys appearing in such catalogues)...but we never went so far as to actually LIST these, so far as I can recall.

Typical Micronaut
Antagonist

As a matter of fact, this led to tears (on my part) one Christmas morning when I received a Galactic Command Center and my brother received a Star Wars "landspeeder." While the Micronauts base was, by far, the more interesting and useful toy of the two gifts, all my young mind could process was the fact that my brother had received a Star Wars spaceship...and I had not. Where was my tie fighter? Where was my X-wing? Ah, well, I did get over it (even the same day) as children do, and while I have immense affection for all the Star Wars toys and action figures I received over the years of my childhood, the Micronauts, in retrospect, are far more interesting. There are many times I've thought that I'd wished I'd been a bit older when they'd been released so that I'd appreciated them more.

Then again, if I had been older would they have gotten so tightly woven into my subconscious imagination?

If you had asked me, as a child, which was my favorite Micronaut toy EVER, I would probably cite the last one received: centaurus, with his laser crossbow and glow-in-the-dark (removable!) brain. That's a figure I absolutely wanted and asked for...even saw it on a store toy rack before Christmas. And even today, it's still solid...one of the coolest action figures I remember owning. But two other figures stand out as being exceptionally loved and played with by Yours Truly. One was the (original) Acroyear, whose dagger I managed to retain for years, despite being of the age when one loses accessories right and left. The other was Pharoid and his Time Chamber which fascinated me endlessly. I took it with me to Christmas morning Mass (the only toy I ever treated with such reverence) and recall spending long hours just...fiddling...with the thing. Opening the tomb. Putting him in the tomb. Taking him out. Repeat. What was the story of this guy?

Such a weird toy.

[if I had to guess, the Egyptian motif probably had much to do with the fascination. The King Tut exhibit traveled to Seattle in 1978, and was another momentous experience in my formative years]

But regardless of childhood toys, it was the Marvel comics written by Bill Mantlo that really cemented my love of the Micronauts.  I am 99.9% sure I started reading Micronauts with issue #34 (circa 1981) in the middle of the whole "Enigma Force" storyline (guest starring Doctor Strange!). I mean, talk about starting with a bang: mysticism, magic, super science, alien species, drama, betrayal...and, of course, a murderous band of gunslinging adventurer-heroes...all in the desert environment ("Sand Zone") of Aegyptia, with its towering tomb monuments, said to house the giant ancestors of the Microversians.

In addition, there was also Pharoid and Acroyear, Force Commander and Baron Karza. 

Well, whatever. I collected more than a few of the comics during its 50-some issue runs, including several of the back issues...mostly ones that were Micronauts-specific rather than crossovers with the X-Men and such. See, I wanted stories steeped in the lore of the specific IP, strange as it was, weird as it was...and, often, quite "dark" in nature (considering the concept's origin as a children's toy line). Some of those body bank stories...brr, frighteningly gruesome. A lot of body horror in Ye Old Micronauts, even the first issue of "The New Voyages" (the last issue I ever purchased, summer of '84) when protagonist Commander Rann was forced to sever his own hand at the wrist. 

[and people wonder why I like to make player characters suffer...]

Okay, okay, enough with the nostalgia: why am I writing about the Micronauts? Well, the last few days I've been working with the Desert of Desolation module series (I3: Pharaoh, I4: Oasis of the White Palm, and I5: Lost Tomb of Martek), seeing if there is some way, somehow, that I can twist them into something fun and functional for use in my own D&D campaign.  After all, they ARE just sitting there on my shelf, and I have fond memories of them as a child. Plus, they seem to be...more or less...in the proper "level range" for my current batch of players.

Mm. I won't lie. They're all pretty bad. Or, maybe, "inconsistent" is the operative word. Take Martek, for example: it's got some pretty cool ideas in it. The Cursed Garden. The Abyss. The Moebius Tower. But it's a real stinker of an adventure...just really poorly designed and fatally flawed in several gross ways (the Skysea is AWESOME...but it also one of the easiest TPKs I've ever seen in a TSR module). As well, it is just...missing...stuff. Things to do. Monsters to fight. Places to explore...in a non-linear, nor railroad fashion. There are several "here's a place that the DM can develop...so long as it doesn't PCs too long from the story being told" instances. Why the heck not? Because we're in such a hurry to get onto the next story? 

[probably...considering the absolute dearth of requisite treasure levels in these modules]

SO...interesting concepts/ideas, poor-to-terrible execution...and as with my analysis of I6: Ravenloft, I find that a LOT of this adventure would work just fine for LOWER LEVEL CHARACTERS. There is really nothing "mid-level" about this adventure, save that all the Hit Dice of encounters have been pumped up...to no good end.

FOR EXAMPLE: You don't need these unique "noble class" djinni and efreeti...a normal 10 HD efreet with max hit points would work JUST FINE for characters of levels 3 to 5 (remember also that the MM specifically says there are noble djinni with the same HD as an efreet). You don't need all these 4 hit dice dervishes and air lancers...just make them standard dervishes and nomads of the MM. And these new undead? They're just 8 and 10 hit dice NOTHINGS that cause fear and hit for 1d10 points of damage. Just what the hell are we playing at Hickman? It's not like the treasure count justifies a party of 6th - 8th level!

And remember that whole post about how much water you need to carry? In AD&D (the edition for which these adventures were...ostensibly...written) a cleric receives the create water spell at 1st level. By 5th level (the minimum suggested level for I3: Pharaoh), a cleric with a 16 WIS can cast five such spells per day, each casting conjuring 20 gallons of water per day...enough for some 25 humans. As with my review of I6: Ravenloft, it appears that Hickman's design assumptions are based on an earlier rule set (in OD&D, only a 6th level bishop can create water...and doing so leaves the character without the ability to neutralize poison, cure serious wounds, or cast protection from evil 10' radius). 

[side note: when I ran the Desert of Desolation series in my youth, the party tackled it withOUT a cleric, making the adventure considerably more difficult]

*ahem*

SO...the modules are crap, but they're crap with interesting bits. They're railroads and poorly stocked, but they've got a bunch of maps that ain't terrible. So when I think of how to fix them...to take their interesting bits, and make them both playable and (if possible) more interesting...I keep coming back to the Micronauts and those images from my youth: Giant, upright sarcophagus-tombs. Ancient tech/magic lost centuries before. Techno-bedouins riding giant, domesticated "ostras" (think: axebeak) against horse-headed "centauri" (re-skinned centaurs) in tribal warfare. And somewhere, lost in the sands, a laboratory-temple housing the ghost of Baron Karza, waiting to be resurrected and resume his conqueror's ways.

Lots of ways to spin and 'skin this thing. And probably a lot of ways to do it in a way that doesn't require a large group of mid-level characters. A post-apocalyptic, desert wasteland concealing generational secrets buried beneath riddles, legends, and sand. Sand and blood and treasure. Dig it.

Who needs "Sambayan air lancers"
and "Thune dervishes?"

R is for Religion

[over the course of the month of April, I shall be posting a topic for each letter of the alphabet, sequentially, for every day of the week except Sunday. Our topic for this year's #AtoZchallenge? Revamping the Grand Duchy of Karameikos in a way that doesn't disregard its B/X roots]

R is for Religion, an organized form of worship, of which Allston's GAZ1 provides us with three (two?) for Karameikos.

I got a little sidetracked this weekend, what with birthday parties, treasure hunts, baseball games, and Easter festivities. It was pretty busy all around, though fortunately everyone had a great time (the kids especially). Now...back to the grind.

B/X doesn't have any specific setting attached to it. Yes, there are some sort of gods (or goddesses); this is made clear in the B/X description of the cleric (see the quote in this earlier post); but it's left up to individual DMs to decide what the cosmology of their campaign setting looks like. Nothing is defined, faith-wise, in the Expert set's brief description of Karameikos, and the countries of the "Known World" described in X1: The Isle of Dread offers nothing extra (folks might infer from Thyatis being "similar to culture of the medieval Byzantine empire" that there is something there, but remember that no connection had yet been drawn between it and Karameikos).

None of the "B/X era" modules offer anything like a consistent cosmology...just random deities appropriate to the adventure (X1, X2, X3, and B3) or generic "lawful" chapels and "chaotic" temples (B2). The early (pre-GAZ) BECMI modules aren't much different; it's only with the advent of the "Mystara" concept that there starts to be anything like a setting cosmology (based on Immortals as pseudo-deities).

Dave Cook's B6: The Veiled Society is interesting for the picture it paints of Specularum, capital city of Karameikos. Written in 1984 (post-BECMI, pre-GAZ1) it states:

"The city has several churches, most for Lawful clerics. There are a few Neutral churches, but not many people attend. There are even Chaotic churches; these are very secret and do not advertise their existence in any way. If the characters need healing or similar help, they may obtain it if their cleric goes to his church. Of course, the player characters are required to make some type of offering (anything from flowers to magic items) and may be required to do some service for the church."

Recall that Mentzer's Basic set states that clerics are simply humans "dedicated to a great and worthy cause" and that this cause is "usually the cleric's Alignment." Furthermore, it is explicit that D&D "does not deal with [ethical and theological] beliefs, and they do not affect the game;" instead they are simply assumed "just as eating, resting, and other activities are assumed." Clerics draw their spell power from "the strength of [their] beliefs;" there are no religions or gods, no tenets of their faith, no prayers or divine rituals that need to be performed.

Cook doesn't seem to have gotten the memo...though one might have gathered as much from his 1983 module X5: Temple of Death (the whole country of Hule is steeped in religion and religious fervor). I suppose a church is an easy substitute for Alignment as a "worthy cause" of devotion (duh), but I'd hardly say this is an example of theological beliefs not being a part of or having an impact on the game...rather it is a motivator of action, even in B6 (first level characters are probably going to want healing at some point, and PC clerics receive no spells prior to 2nd level). At some point PCs will have to interact with these institutions and, presumably, whatever ethical and theological beliefs they have. Probably Cook's long association with D&D (for years prior to TSR's cutting the cross off of clerics) has something to do with his methods.

[ha! As written, there is absolutely no reason for clerics in BECMI to make use of a holy symbol, unless facing a vampire...and then the use is the same as any other player character. The description of the item is simply "A sign or symbol of a cleric's beliefs. Used in Turning undead." However, no mechanical/rules effect is provided. In B/X all clerics MUST possess a holy symbol (page X10) as it is a symbol of the deity a cleric serves. BECMI clerics can save the 25 gold]

Allston's approach in GAZ1, for the most part, is much more in keeping with the party line. As stated, Karameikos has three native faiths: The Church of Karameikos, The Church of Traladara, and The Cult of Halav. The Cult of Halav is much more a cult than a full-blown religion...it's members are true believers in Arthur-type legend of Halav, but other than waiting for his "coming again" (and believing that Archduke Stefan may be his reincarnation) they have no real laws or tenets of faith. Interestingly, Allston writes:

Despite the fact that most people consider the Halavists to be insane, it's a fact that their clerics do work magic. This means they must be receiving aid and inspiration from some Immortal.

...from which I infer that even Allston assumes gods (or whatever passes for them in BECMI D&D) are granting spells. *sigh* Makes sense, as he's the one who wrote Wrath of the Immortals.

The other two religions have codified commandments and discussions of "sin" but no mention at all of deities or how these religious doctrines interact with clerics and their magical spells. Here is Allston staying true to the definition of the BECMI cleric, even if he's not ignoring theological and ethical beliefs per Mentzer's instruction. However, between the two there is very little difference in doctrine...aside from wording and the Traladaran church's encouragement to engage in superstition and stereotype Gypsy fortunetelling, the main difference I see is that the Church of Karameikos sees couples living together outside the "sanctity of matrimony" to be a sin on par with abuse and murder, while the Church of Traladara sees the relationship between man and woman to be "a personal matter, not involving the philosophies of the church." Both otherwise break down into "be a good person," similar to the basic (Lawful) teachings of most commonly practiced (real world) religions.

Mmm. I've got Game of Thrones on the mind at the moment, and I can't help but see certain analogues between Martin's major religions of Westeros and those of Karameikos. Aside from its lack of gods, the Church of Karameikos could easily substitute for the Faith of the Seven (or vice versa), and the Old Gods of the First Men for the Church of Traladara...heck, even the militant Order of the Griffon (in GAZ1) has an analogue in the Faith Militant of the ASOIAF novels. And there's a part of me that just says, well, this side-by-side dichotomy of competing but not-so-different faiths work pretty good in Martin's fiction, why not just let it stand in Karameikos?

Fervor is no substitute for
healing magic.

But then I remember that Martin's churches don't have spell-casting clerics. Only the fire cultists of Essos (followers of the "Lord of Light")...and they're the ones viewed as crazy persons in Westeros. D&D is not about rival churches competing for souls; its cosmology is based on sword & sorcery pulp not medieval Europe. The religions of the region should reflect that, in my opinion.

Despite Allston's care and thoughtfulness, I find his work on these churches to be a "miss." I'd re-skin the Church of Traladara as an ancient (and suppressed) religion of the goddess Petra, and the Church of Karameikos as something of a mishmash between the Faith of the Seven and the old Roman cult of Mithras. The Cult of Halav would indeed be a bunch of crazy folk (no clerics, as Halav is no god...nor even a demigod)...but perhaps something with the potential to become a new militant order of knighthood, like the Order of the Griffon, but for the worshippers of Petra.

Still, that's not really enough for a "typical" B/X campaign (if there is such a thing), which is generally filthy with random deities, cults, and strange faiths both ancient and new. A better model than Game of Thrones might be 1st century Jerusalem with its combined political and religious tensions. The "Church of Karameikos" is replaced with the polytheistic Roman pantheon imported from the Thyatian Empire by "true believers" who need a land outside the scandalous, political cesspool of the home nation to cultivate a "purer" form of worship. Heck, maybe they've brought an enclave of Vestal Virgins (because Vestal Virgins are awesome).

[of course, with multiple gods and multiple priesthoods, religious infighting and jockeying for political power (and influence with the Archduke) provides all sorts of nice little adventure hooks as churches hire adventurers to raid each others' temples]

Rather than a traditional thieves guild, the Traladarans have religious Zealots and "dagger men" working to overthrow their Imperial masters in the name of their goddess. Meanwhile the "shadow man of the woods" (the chaotic deity of Traladaran forests) woos malcontents and sociopaths from both cultures to his cause: the overthrow of Law and civilization. Evil druid-types, seeking a return to the wilderness and a more primal state of humanity...yeah, that's kind of cool.

Also some sort of toad god. Of course.

Sinbad

A few weeks (months?) back, one of my readers commented or emailed me that I should check out the new "Sinbad" television show on the SciFi (or, rather, "SyFy") network. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do so until this last week, when I caught about four episodes (the only ones "On Demand"). I'm a little sorry now that I missed the show but it's not too improbable. For one thing, I watch too much TV anyway (with what little free time I have). For another, I almost never watch series shows that are "fantasy" or "science fiction" in nature...for my fictional viewing pleasure, I'm usually watching stuff like Downton Abbey, MadMen, or (more recently) House of Cards. Even Vikings (which I wrote about a while back) is at least semi-historic in scope (it is on the History channel, after all)...but as I'm a sucker for anything with axe-wielding Norsemen, that's hardly indicative of my usual tastes.

Sinbad is not an original SyFy series...instead it was an English television show produced circa 2011. The cast is mainly young, but quite good considering their age (the lead actor, Elliot Knight, had not yet graduated drama school when he was cast to star in the show). Unfortunately, per the internet it was cancelled after it's first season, which is too bad for a number of reasons...however, it wasn't what I'd call Emmy-award winning television, and many of the cast members have already been picked up for other projects (it's always nice to see young actors getting work in their trade).

As said, I wouldn't call the show exceptional, at least with regard to quality of its writing...probably somewhere around the same quality of CW shows like Arrow or Supernatural. There's an ensemble group of misfit characters, an over-arching plot arc, and a series of weekly "adventures" usually serving to reveal a little something of one or more character's backgrounds...pretty formulaic stuff, though with quite adequate special effects and set dressing. What was interesting to me was the fact that the series and the protagonist characters could easily be lifted straight from a campaign/saga using my 5AK rules. There are a couple exceptions, sure (I don't have a "noble" or "academic" class that would be suitable for the characters Nala or Anwar) but everyone else? Yeah, pretty much.

A rather motley crew.

It's funny: a lot of the press I've seen on this show has to do with the diverse ethnicity of the cast, including the non-caucasian Mr. Knight in the title role. To me, though, this is totally reasonable for the setting...Basra of the 8th century had many people of different ethnicities and quite a few folks of mixed heritage due in no small part to the Arab slave trade (said slaves being mainly foreigners conquered by the armies of Islam, and many of whom earned or were granted freedom within their lifetime). A Sinbad of mixed heritage (as the show's character is: both his grandmother and mother appear to be caucasian), would not have been unusual, nor would it have been unusual for a member of the ruling class to be of dark skin and a street urchin-thief to be caucasian. For the setting and time in question, the real class lines were drawn along religious ones (Islam was the ruling party, and non-Muslims tolerated if still 2nd class).

Which leads me to my one gripe about the show: the complete lack of religion or spiritual worship on display. At least in the episodes I watched I didn't see anything...hell, I don't remember hearing the name "Allah" uttered by any of the characters (there may have been some reference to God when the Naveen Andrews character was getting sworn in as the new Emir, but I don't remember this being the case). And that's pretty utterly ridiculous. In the Sindbad translations I've read, they're pretty much in agreement that Sindbad started his adventures from the city of Basra (only later, after many voyages and accumulation of wealth did he eventually move to Baghdad). And this particular "re-boot" of the Sinbad legend likewise cites Basra as his city of origin (and in this particular the case, the origin of most of his troubles).

Well, Basra was established by the Muslims in the 7th century...it was a originally a military garrison that grew into a thriving port city due to its proximity to the sea (and the trade from the Baghdad up-river, which was itself founded by the reigning Caliph only a hundred years later). This was not an Arab or Persian metropolis that later converted to Islam...it was founded by Islam with the express purpose of defending Islam and its interests. Yes, there were individuals of other faiths (and those lacking any faith) walking its streets, but mosques and minarets and calls to prayer and the teachings of Koran should have been at least been somewhat on display for a city permeated by religion during the height of Islam's Golden Age. The conspicuous lack of religious undercurrent bugs me; compare that to the Vikings television show and the attention it pays to this important aspect of medieval life and you can a big reason why one comes off as a rich "slice of (historic) life" and the other as a somewhat bland (if exotic) adventure show.

And it's too bad because it's not a terrible adventure show by any means. Again, it's highly reminiscent of my 5AK play-tests, and not just because of the setting. For the most part, the character's aren't particularly "fight-worthy." Which is to say, they don't all emulate RPG characters designed to "kick ass" in their own particular niche. Instead, the foes they face - both supernatural and mundane - have to be circumvented in other ways: through evasion, or deception, or negotiation. A trained soldier in full mail armor, mook or not, is no one to be trifled with...and a pack of such soldiers are something to be avoided at all costs, not faced down with a sword and a bandolier of throwing knives and a ready fireball spell.

Of course, there is no "fireball" spell in 5AK nor (apparently) in Sinbad; at least, not in the episodes I watched. Magic and the supernatural (in many forms) is present in every show I watched, but definitely of a more understated, sorcerous variety...the same kind that I tried to incorporate into 5AK. But then, I also tried to link magic with the Jinn mythology of the Middle East and this, too, seems to be lacking from the Sinbad show.

Anyway, I'm not really trying to nitpick the thing...really. It's an interesting show, and it IS cool to have such an ethnically diverse cast of characters starring in a show where the issue is neither forced nor contrived (just like it's nice to see young actors getting work, it's nice to see non-white actors getting quality roles that aren't dependent on stereotypes. I mean, the only character that's really "stereotyped" in Sinbad is the blonde, ex-Viking...but what can you do about that?). And it's especially neat to see an adventure serial that doesn't have every episode wrap up with a sword fight or gun fight or other type of encounter requiring violence and force for the protagonists to win the day.

At least I think so...but what do I know? The show was cancelled after all.

Sailing off into the sunset...

Religious Fairytales

Officially, last night was play-test #1 of 5AK, the fantasy heartbreaker I’ve been working on that is MY entry into the “build your own D&D” craze that’s been going on with gamers since…well, since long before Gary Gygax passed away (you can probably mark a start date of circa 1975 when Ken St. Andre first published Tunnels & Trolls…). ANYway, unofficially this was play-test #3, though play-test #1 was really just an adaptation of my D6 rules to AD&D (a converted Dwellers of the Forbidden City acted as the staging ground), and play-test #2 was done prior to the setting material being hammered out (back when I was still calling the game Blood, Sand, and Silk…yes, that’s terrible, I know).  

Well stuff IS hammered now…plenty hammered…and last night was the first foray using rules that are about 85% complete (it’s just the “writing it all up” thing that I’m still working on…damn monster/spell lists!). The SYSTEM(s) are in place…everything except for mass land combat and maritime adventure…and I felt confident that the game is put together enough that it would “work.”

And it did.

So far anyway. Unfortunately, I’m starting to second guess myself a bit about the setting. In doing heavy research into 8^th century Arabia, both its reality and its folklore (see the Arabian Nights for info) I may have gone too far towards the “fairy tale” genre with the setting. Right now, the game feels a little “goody-goody” as tends to happen when you involve monotheism (or an over-arching “good” deity as the head dude in your game), and where things like customs, family, religion, and romance are given some semblance of importance. In other words: “when it’s not your usual D&D game.”

Thing is, part of the reason I went this route was to move the game away from Tolkien-esque or King Arthur-esque fantasy (moving things out of Jolly Old England) and more towards a Middle Eastern flavor which feels (to me) much more Howardian or “Gor-ean”…more sword-and-sorcery-and ass-kickery in other words. Hopefully from the backs of giant birds (rocs rock, okay?).

But rather than Old Persia and dancing girls I moved the setting forward to a post-Islamic statehood, and the inclusion of Islam (and the Golden Age of Baghdad) has given the thing a much less “gritty” flavor, despite the presence of “abominations” and “beastmen.” Why o why did I do this, then?

1. 800 CE is the time/setting of the Arabian Nights stories (even though many of them are culled from pre-Islamic folk tales, I realize)…and the Arabian Nights stories are a HEAVY influence on both the game and myself.
2. I dig on Islam and old school monotheism (like the Coptics and medieval Catholicism) in general.
3. Without monotheism, I really can’t justify the cleric class.

When I first started doing my heartbreaker (the one that got play-tested with the Dwellers of the Forbidden City) I didn’t have a cleric class in it…only the fighter, mage, and “adventurer.” There was a “holy man” tack-on ability that any class might have (kind of like AD&D psionics) which gave each class a different flavor…kind of like a paladin (holy fighter) versus priest (holy mage) versus itinerant saint (holy adventurer).  But then I scrapped all those rules and started over again.

I’m sure some folks are wondering, “why include a cleric at all?” If you want a gritty, Howardian (or Moorcocking) style S&S game, why bother with any type of divine adventurer, especially considering their lack of literary precedent (in the pulp adventure literature I like)? After all, there’s no such character in the Arabian Nights tales either…one could keep Islam or a monotheistic cult as a religion in the setting AND still exclude the cleric. And then, if I decide to make the game grittier and knock it back a few centuries prior to the rise of Christianity and Islam (back when you only had those “crazy Jews” with their temple and Holiest of Holies)…THEN if you decide to go that route, you can and “priests” can either being magic-users (if they happen to know and use magic) or not (if they don’t). Why O why even bother putting clerics in the game?

Good question. I think I did it for the spells.

Well, for the spells and for Joan of Arc. I LOVE Joan of Arc…that is to say that, for whatever reason, I find her story/legend to be fairly cool and inspiring and I use her as an archetype cleric (though one could, of course, also model her using a “crazy fighter” with a high Charisma score). I don’t know…I also dig the idea of a “war priest” or any type of primitive chieftain who is also the spiritual leader of a people. You see that archetype a lot in history and across many cultures. Hell, it wasn’t all that long ago that the monarchs of Europe were considered to have “divine right” to the throne. And isn’t the English monarch still also the head of the Anglican church??

The point is, whether you’re Mohamed or Saint Joan or some pagan priest of Thor or Mithras or whomever, I kind of dig the idea. On the other hand, my “fantasy adventure game” is trying to get away from being a “war game,” since war can be a boring, one-note story while “fantasy adventure” can encompass a lot of different tales.

But then, let’s go back to the spells.

I know that some people (who prefer a more Sword & Sorcery style game) axe clerics from the mix. They either add cleric spells to the wizard spell list OR they code magic as “black” and “white” (and maybe a couple other colors) OR they just add extra healing rules (like “surges”) OR they just axe ‘em (and their abilities) completely and give the game a much grittier feel due to the high mortality rate.

I know those are all options. I just don’t like them.

Or rather I prefer to have cleric spells (“divine miracles”) separate from the magic of a wizard. I like to think that there are SOME things magic cannot accomplish (arcane limits). I also prefer the rules as written with regard to healing (or with possibly even LESS healing) because I think the rules as written are “plenty gritty” depending on the edition of D&D you’re playing. Inflating PCs to superheroic proportion is the bigger expunger of “grittiness” from your campaign than the addition of a cleric class with a handful of healing spells.

So I LIKE that. I like a separate class that has a separate (and limited) type of magic. In fact, I’ve found ways to limit clerics even more with regard to their spell use, which I find to be very cool AND prevents them from becoming too much the “party medic.” But the ONLY way I’ve found to do what I want…which is to have two very different types of magic, each limited (or powerful) in their own ways…is to have one set of spells be granted by a divine force. Something capable of granting miracles to the truly devout.

Now, this of course, doesn’t model my real world mentality of the divine and religion…no more than my wizardry spells model what I think of “real” magic. Personally, I’m a big believer in the power of human mind and thought and its ability impact the world in ways one might seem mysterious. I am also a believer in the power of ritual (whether we’re talking Wiccan circle magic, hermetic voodoo, or the Catholic Mass), and of humans bending their thought and intention (i.e. “prayers”) towards an end and having that end met…in the manner that is favorable to the divine Will of God (or the Universe, Fate, whatever).

But that New Agey stuff is NOT what I want in my fantasy adventure game. I want to hearken back to a time when illiteracy and superstition mixed with folklore to give rise to legends of wizards and their spell books, back to a time when people feared attacks from literal, corporeal demons, and when the reading of a holy text (whether the Bible or Koran or Talmud or what have you) could banish said demons and cast off evil and perform miraculous miracles. I want my wizards to look into crystal balls or scrying pools and see far off places or future happenings…AND I want the power of prayer to protect holy men and women from the maleficent effects of sorcery. Astrology and tarot card reading is just side note “color” – I want my witch to make a flying potion with a few nasty ingredients and zoom around the Dome of the Rock three times, flaunting his mortal form. Now, if he ends up shattered and broken by the power of a true Apostle (as happened to Simon the Mage)…well, that’s the price you pay for being flamboyant with your sorcery.

I like that dichotomy…that “push & pull.” Unfortunately, it does seem to lend the game more of a fairy tale or fable type of feeling…instead of a wining and wenching and lotus eating bloody-sword-in-meaty-fist feeling. Which was what I initially set out to create.

Conan never seemed to give much thought to his mortal soul; he was a very secular adventurer. Which was probably the case for most ancient sell-swords and mercenaries…it’s hard to put too much stock in God and religion when you’ve put a lot of screaming people to death with your blade (especially when a lot of them were praying to God to save them from such a fate). A fighter like Conan is more likely to disregard religion…but such wasn’t really the case with most folks for most of human history (up till say, the 18^th or 19^th century). In the middle ages you were at church every Sunday not because you wanted to be a “good Christian” but because you imperiled your mortal soul by skipping the service…and that was a threat that used to carry a lot more teeth than it does in our jaded and decadent age.

Conan (and Elric and Leiber’s heroes, etc.) are products of the 20^th century and 20^th century ideologies and ethics. Gosh, maybe S&S literature could simply be termed “Godless fantasy.” Which is kind of ironic when you consider how many high priests and pantheons and mad gods and fire worshippers, etc. are found throughout the pages of those books.

So, yeah, I’m second guessing myself a bit, because I wanted to get back to more of D&D’s “literary inspirations” and instead it’s reading a bit more like an Arabic version of the Brothers Grimm. Which isn’t terrible (plenty of people get beheaded, poisoned, beaten, enslaved and cannibalized in those old Arabian Nights stories)…but it’s a little unsettling to have strayed so far from the path I originally intended. Just in tone.

And speaking of “straying from the path”…sheesh, I started this post with the intention of blogging about the actual play of the game session and here I wandered around for three pages, airing my tangential thoughts instead. I guess I’ll do a separate post on the play itself.

I don't know why I try...

...to be original in any way, shape, or form. Clearly, I am constantly to find myself duplicating efforts that have already been done.

Picked up a copy of Al-Qadim today, the "Arabian adventures" campaign setting book for 2nd edition AD&D. Ugh. How can someone steal idea 20 years before you even have it?

Al-Qadim was written in 1992 (carrying the by-line of Jeff Grubb, a designer for whom I have immense respect due to the Marvel Superheroes RPG). It basically sets out to do everything I intended to do as background material for my D&D Mine project, drawing on the "three distinct versions of Arabia" for its material:

1) the historical Arabian Empire

2) the legendary or "mythic" Arabia

3) the Hollywood (TV and movie) Arabia

Which is exactly what I was drawing from as well.

Other sources of irritation:

• the "Holy Slayer" (i.e. assassin) carries the same hard-line guild requirements that I included in my version of the assassin. Remember I was saying I still wanted to use the problematic assassin class because I dig my version/rules for the class? Well, Grubb did it first.
• they include lamellar armor, dammit! Here I thought I was being all cool and innovative with that. Of course, AQ still keeps "scale mail" instead of replacing it with the former, which is kind of lame.
• the magic-user classes, ESPECIALLY the shi'ar kit, is done better than my own spell-using classes, which adhere too closely to the original game rules (even as they don't...more on that later). Double-ugh...it makes me want to scrap the whole mage concept and ONLY use a knock-off version of the shi'ar. Dammit!

I suppose I could just make my game MORE generic (i.e. more like "classic D&D"), but I agree with the conclusion Noisms came to the other day: having a particular authorial flavor or personality makes rule systems a lot more palatable (if not more digestible) than more generic, "bland" RPGs. I guess I'll just bite the bullet and accept that I'm not terribly original.

Or maybe I'll throw more Gorean elements into the game/setting.

; )

I am NOT tempted to re-write Al-Qadim wholesale (say, as a B/X campaign setting, something I was looking at doing with Dark Sun for sure)...it looks a little over-worked and under-whelming in most areas, and even though I LIKE a lot of what's in the book, I'm not sure it really delivers what it promises. And how can they get away with NOT presenting the True Faith as an option for character worship?

That being said, I fully intend to keep this one on the work bench, and may well borrow some of its cooler ideas (like the shi-ar class or random sandstorm tables) for my own game.

Salaam!

: )

Spartacus, Gin, and Tonic

Took a break from the "madness" today, meaning no mailings. Well, barely did any writing on my other "mad" projects either (got caught up in work-type-work). However, the main reason for the lack of post office flurrying was my lack of vehicle today (the beagles needed a teeth cleaning...very pearly-white right now). I've got five new orders and they'll be going out manana.

Mmm...today was hell. It's almost enough to make one want to stage a slave revolt at the office. I'm sure some of you working stiffs out there can relate (probably not Raggi, though...he's living the dream).

Thinking about the historical Spartacus as a model for gladiator type action on the B/X playing field makes me even MORE sure (I guess I'm up to 110%) that I don't want to separate Fighters into additional, crowd-pleasing classes (didn't the Big S lead a few thousand troops around the mountains of southern Italia?). I think simple arena rules, probably based on standard Reaction rolls (and thus subject to Charisma modifiers) is the usual system du jour to use.

On the other hand, I don't want to go TOO over-the-top with arena rules...after all, I'm not writing a Circus Maximus game based on B/X. What I AM doing, is knocking off a certain campaign setting published by a certain game company that tends to stink up the joint (in my not so humble opinion). That's right, you heard me...a CAMPAIGN SETTING.

Why a campaign setting, you ask? And well you should. I could give you the long answer (or just post a .pdf of the introduction, already written, which explains my exact feelings on the subject)...or I could just say: because.

Because I can. And frankly, because I think I can do it smaller, and cheaper, and better (if perhaps not glossier).

But we'll see. Right now, the main thing I'm worried about is the "smaller" part. I'm certain I can boil everything down to 64 pages...but I'm shooting for 32-40. It'll be meaty and probably short on illustrations (by the way, I love-Love-LOVE my artists from the B/X Companion, but at this point I don't feel I can exploit them more than I already have. Someone ought to get paid, and that means less art over-all I'm afraid)...but I want to show what can be done. And I mean "done nice and tidy."

[like my G&T here...*clink*]

By the by...if you think I'm talking about a retro-clone of a certain 2nd edition game world, you definitely ARE mistaken. Reading Mr. Maliszewski's recent musings on "game world bloat" really touched a chord in my heart, and anything I make is going to be as short and sweet...and functional...as possible.

Which is going to mean sharpening up my editing skills...and definitely leaving some stuff on the floor.

All right...my drink is finished and it's time to walk the beagles. From what I hear, they had a helluva' day, too. Later, gators!

: )

Fire Up the Hookah

I quit smoking close to ten years ago. Cold turkey. Zip, nada, nothing.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say I quit smoking January 1st 1998, but then started again around the time I met my wife (who was a smoker). Then, when she was ready to kick the habit (close to ten years ago), I had no problem going back to my life as a non-smoker. After all, I'd already decided I preferred to live and breath (nominally) clean air rather than cigarette smoke.

And while I don't have "cravings" for cigarettes, it wouldn't be accurate to say I don't sometimes miss it. I always loved smoking. I haven't had much of a sense of smell since age 12 or so (don't ask) so that part never bothered me. In fact, if the damn things didn't completely F you up and kill you, I might still be smoking today. The one thing that made me want to become a non-smoker again was just that...I wanted to live, and wanted to live to a ripe old age. Smoking was not in the game plan for that kind of goal.

But they DO kill you, and so I have cut them out of my life (and good thing, too, now that their prices are soaring). I don't put anything into my lungs anymore if I can help it; but sometimes I wish I did, so that I could have the chance to fire up a hookah at smoke some Turkish tobacco.

No, I am not talking about bongs or even water pipes, I mean real honest-to-goodness hookahs. Seattle has a fair number of hookah bars in town, where one can rent and smoke and commune with others in a real Old School Arabic fashion. Even though smoking indoors has been banned in Washington State for several years, hookah establishments can get away with this by being "private clubs" (membership is cheap) after a certain hour of the day. Some are simply gyro shops for lunch and hookah clubs at night. Plus, who doesn't enjoy coffee in which you can stand up your spoon?

However, the hookah scene didn't really get going till after I gave up the habit (or rather, replaced it with the breathing habit), so I never got to sample this particular branch of Seattle night life. Which is kind of a shame...since a hookah would seem to go quite well with my recent acquisitions from Gary's Games in Greenwood:

- The Complete Psionics Handbook (2nd Edition)

- The Dark Sun boxed set (2nd edition AD&D)

Now, I'm sure many of you are thinking, JB must be smoking something to blow his hard earned dough on 2nd edition junk which he hates-hates-hates. But as I said, I don't smoke anything anymore...and no I haven't been drinking either.

What I have been doing is fighting a "summer cold" the last two-three days...and most of the time it's felt like I've been losing the fight. My head is stuffed to the gills, I haven't been thinking clearly, I haven't been sleeping well...hell, I've even voyaged into the land of feverish dreams once or twice (probably not helped by a recent viewing of Inception at the theater).

And when everything starts to lose cohesion, or become surreal, and when I'm bored and frustrated and want to lash out like a half-giant gladiator (sorry, I don't like being sick very much) my half-baked brain tends to come up with half-baked schemes. Like writing a 64 page setting book for B/X play, modeled on a certain sorcery ravaged setting. Including weird-ass psionics and strange dweomers of the kind only Vance (or a guy hopped-up on sudafed) could ever imagine.

See, I've mentioned before that Dark Sun has always held a strange and terrible fascination for me. First off, you're reading the writings of a dude who loves psionics and gladiators (which right there might be a warning you should STOP reading). Second off, I don't find the setting terribly original, as my old AD&D group did something similar years before TSR ever published Dark Sun.

At least, according to wikipedia, Dark Sun was first published in 1991. Well in 1988 my long-running game group had decided to scrap our existing campaign and start anew from scratch, in a world ravaged and left barren by ancient sorcery, a post-apocalyptic fantasy world modeled much on the imagery of the ancient Roman Empire (especially the gladiatorial games), where strength of arms was as important as the powers of the mind. Oh, yeah...and half-ogres were used as a standard race.

Well, unfortunately this was our last campaign together as a group, and we only ran one or two sessions before a falling out that sent us all on our separate ways. Which was unfortunate for a variety of reasons (we had all been quite close friends), but had the additional loss of never seeing where our cool campaign setting would take us. And I always thought it had a ton of potential (and no, it wasn't my brain-child anyway...I was just a player, not a DM).

Of course, now I don't even play AD&D, let alone 2nd edition AD&D, so it would be quite a challenge to see how hard it would be create a similar setting using the B/X rules. Personally, I don't think it's nearly as ambitious as the other couple things I've been considering with my fuzzy brain: B/X De-Constructed and a little space opera RPG that finally has a name and is NOTHING like B/X nor Star Wars (still 64 pages, though).

We'll see which of these ideas (if any) bear fruit. Right now, it's nap time.

Light, If Inspirational, Reading

Welp, the wife got home Saturday and my work on my B/X Companion tanked for the rest o the weekend, as I figured it would. Ah, well. She's heading out again for a few days come Tuesday and I should be able to get back to it (assuming I don't spend all my time watching 80's fantasy flicks). The bad news is my wife will be gone a few days and the beagles and I miss her terribly when she's gone.

Anyway, I DID get a chance to do some light re-reading, and it was nothing if not inspirational, causing me to update and several items in my Companion (I did do some work). The book: Hassan but the esteemed (or at least commercially successful) author Piers Anthony.

As a kid and teen, Mr. Anthony's novels captivated me as much as any role-playing game...I found his work to be just wht I needed even into my late teens. I read most of his Xanth novels with relish (despite my loathing of puns), his Apprentice Adept series, and the first three or four novels of his Incarnations of Immortality (always thought I'd finish those someday...). But as an adult, I've found myself somewhat cooled to his works...actually "frozen" might be a better term. For the most part, I just can't stand his stuff anymore.

The exception is Hassan. Re-reading it again...either the 3rd or 4th time I've done so...I was surprised at how enjoyable it is. Maybe because I love Arabian Nights-type entertainment (his novel is based entirely on one of the original Arabian Nights tales, Hassan and the Bird-Maiden), perhaps because it's a somewhat more mature piece of work (despite being one of his first published novels), perhaps because the story just resonates with fortunate slackers like myself. Whatever...I dig it.

And, like my recent foray into Dragonslayer, it has provided me with inspiration for my game. As I wrote earlier, I'm trying not to fall into the trap of simply making my set echo earlier works (Mentzer's BECMI, Gygax's AD&D). I've said it before and I'll say it again: I feel B/X is the true inheritor of OD&D, and as such has much more "wide open" potential than just doing "basic" knock-offs of AD&D systems and "goodies." Not that I don't do SOME knock-offs (some spells, critters, and magic items are too cool or achetypal to leave out). But when one has the opportunity to do something cool versus "same-old-same-old," well, hey, let's err on the side of something cool.

All right, more later (as always). ("real") Work's been pretty busy today, and promises to look the same tomorrow, but there will be more coming this week, I swear O My Brothers!

All glory to Allah! (or whomever you like to worship)

: )

Top Module #8: Oasis of the White Palm

For all the grief OS folks give Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman, I have got to say that I really don't share in it. First off, while I read the (first six) Dragon Lance novels, I never played (or owned until the last couple years) any of the DL modules. My fellow DM, Jocelyn, did own three or four, but because of the cement of the setting and story-line, we never bothered to actually run any of 'em.

Furthermore, while Ravenloft WAS run in our campaign (again, by Jocelyn) I didn't take part in the adventure that particular session, so I can't tell how it went at all. The one time I tried running Ravenloft myself, we (everyone at the table) got bored with it and gave it up before we even met our first gypsy witch. Truth be told, while I own the module still, I don't remember hardly a thing about it.  I should probably re-read it one of these days.

No...besides the Dragon Lance novels, the main experience I have with the Weiss/Hickman duo is the awesome Desert of Desolation series (I3, I4, and I5).  I've never owned the "super-module" version, but I have two copies of each of the original modules.

What a great set...what a great setting! I've written before that I love blood and sand adventures, and anything vaguely "Sinbad" or Egyptian falls readily into that category as easily as Rome and gladiators, so it's not surprising I'm a fan. However, I came to these modules rather late in my DM'ing career...I actually never had the opportunity to run this for my original gaming group (Jocelyn, Matt, Scott, Jason, etc.).

First off, while I saw I4: Oasis of the White Palm and the grinning djinni on the cover many times at the game shop, it never intrigued me. A giant blue man? Nah. He was smiling for god sakes! If the cover had had a glaring efreet....well, maybe. Secondly, it was only for mid-level adventurers. The PCs in our games were a LOT higher than 8th level. Taken together, the module just wasn't as sexy an option as other choices on the shelf.

Then, of course I finally acquired it and found that it was part 2 in a three-part series...and it took me years before I was able to find a copy of I3: Pharaoh. Completionist that I am, I only ran I4 as a stand-alone for the occasional one-off game (cousins, my brother and his buddy, etc.), not for my regular game group.

Too bad really, because it is fantastic.

Of the three, I find Oasis of the White Palm to be the best and the only one worthy of my Top Ten list of "best modules" (coming in at #8).  Truly, all of 'em are great and they offer real old school AD&D entertainment: plenty of dungeon crawling, monsters and undead, tricks and traps galore.  Yes, there is a very specific plot and some end objectives, but the characters themselves are more of the hoodwinked than heroic variety. And while a party may fail to break the curse that created the "Desert of Desolation," there are still rewards to be had...the fate of the world does NOT rest upon the PCs. Also, the adventures do NOT tell the story of some uber-NPC.  The PCs either help the NPCs in the modules or they don't...but they are the protagonists in this particular adventure.

I3: Pharaoh and I5: Lost Tomb of Martek, the book ends of the series, are mainly dungeon crawls...yes, there is some outdoor travel with a few planned encounters, but for the most part they are just "what happens on the way to the dungeon." Oasis is the real meat and potatoes adventure. 

I4 can be used as a stand-alone adventure readily. I've read other folks' accounts on-line where they spent weeks and weeks of game play in the Oasis because they couldn't "figure out what to do." The fact that you can do so much with the module speaks volumes. The adventure includes two full multi-level dungeons, a city in ruins, and a detailed town (the Oasis of the title) in addition to the desert wilderness setting...really a ton of adventure packed into not very many pages.

The dungeons themselves are nothing but the coolest of non-standard encounters with fiendish, fiendish traps.  The "maze of light" is the kind of thing I was designing in my own adventures, and the Pit of Everfall is just a bowlful of awesome. A pit that leads to Pandemonium? The minions of Set?  A gigantic chasm filled with an ARMY OF UNDEAD and only a single bridge across?  Holy guacamole! 

The fact that the wandering desert encounters has the equivalent of lance-wielding bedouins riding pegasi and the gigantic vicious purple worms just make the thing all the more crazy-cool. But I absolutely love the intrigue and adventure that can be explored in the Oasis itself...a desert outpost with legends and history that tie directly into the adventure's story.  

This is adventure design at its finest.  I think Weiss and Hickman really reached their peak with I5, regardless of the "cool maps" and plotting of Ravenloft.

I know I haven't mentioned him in awhile, but I would like to note that Alejandro and Company cut their mid-level teeth on the Desert of Desolation series (from Pharaoh to Martek). This was before Alejandro picked up Blackrazor (and a good thing too with the abundant legions of walking dead!), back when Big Al was simply a two-handed sword Weapon Specialist rather than the force of destruction he was to become.  

[I do recall Al and Arioch  finding a copy of the Necronomicon in the Oasis bazaar, but I don't recall the party ever using it (never a good enough reason to risk insanity I suppose). However, it seemed to fit the whole genre...was Set and Elder God? Perhaps. This question was never answered in the campaign]

ANYway, it IS an excellent adventure module and one worthy of praise (in my opinion). I would certainly be willing to run it again, and if one isn't too tied to the original game background, it wouldn't make a bad "jumping off" point for starting an Arabian Nights (or Knights) type of campaign.  If I were to ever convert it to B/X I would probably do just that...starting the players off in the Oasis itself, allowing them to find the Pharaoh's or Martek's tomb only after acquiring the need for the Star Gems...hmm, not a bad idea at all, really.

Ah! The place is set! I must do this!

As soon as I have the free time, of course....

**EDIT: I actually finished this post at 11:38pm after getting home from a Seattle Mariners game. I don't know why these things insist on carrying the timestamp of when I started the post!**

Blood on the Sand

"Joey...do you like movies about gladiators?"

- Captain Oveur, Airplane!

I have to say that I am a huge fan of "Sword and Sandal," flicks...always have been.  And it's not just 'cause I think the Russel Crowe movie is great (though I did cheer when it won the Oscar for Best Picture), or 'cause Eric Bana is so righteous as Hector in Troy (booo! he should have gutted Brad Pitt!).  No, I've been watching blood on the sand films for a looooong time.

Even before I started playing D&D, I can recall watching some sort of gladiator movies on the TV.  Every Sunday (before and/or after going to Church), I'd flip through the (four or five) channels on my TV to find something with dudes dressed like Greeks or Romans or Israelites...I seem to recall watching Hercules and Samson movies, biblical stories being interchangeable with Greco-Roman myth.  In retrospect, these movies were probably filmed in Italy, dubbed in English, and featuring some Italian bodybuilder, a la Lou Ferrigno (just kidding...Lou was born in Brooklyn, folks...but someone like him).

And it's not just "gladiator" movies specifically. From the Sinbad movies to the Greek mythology to the 1001 Arabian Nights tales to the Arabian Knights cartoon...if it involves curvy swords, dry climates, turbans, flying carpets, and ivoried elephants then its MY type of fantasy.  From the Mediterranean to the Aegean Sea to the Middle East...I guess I prefer warm weather for my adventuring climate.

It may come as some surprise that I have never owned, borrowed, or read the Dark Sun campaign rules, nor any of it's supplementary material.  There are several reasons for this, not the least of which I wasn't play D&D (any version) in 1991 when the game was released. Another reason is that the setting of Athas and its history was eerily similar to the last D&D campaign in which I played prior to AD&D2...circa 1987 or so. 'Course we used half-ogres instead o half-giants.

Fact o the matter is, though, that while swords and sandals may play (as a D&D campaign), gladiatorial combat does not...at least, not very effectively.  D&D combat is simply too abstract to represent the give-and-take, the ebbing of the crowd, and the spirit needed to triumph in man-to-man combat.  Hey, I've tried it before (Thyatis, anyone?)...it's simply a no-go.  It's a real case of system DOES matter.  Of course, it's pretty hard to model the gladiator mood effectively in game play...I've purchased, downloaded, and attempted design of several gladiator-themed games, none with any satisfying results.

Thing is, there has to come a time when you step OUT of the arena...personal, individual glory only matters so much within a limited context.  If you're not out exploring the world (or a dungeon) or righting wrongs and saving folks...or conquering and carving out a kingdom...personal prowess in the ring is a shallow thing indeed.

But still, it calls to folks...and I think, in its way, D&D (especially the Old School variety) represents something of the gladiator in our game play.  Characters are still competing, still facing death, and still seeking the adulation of the crowd (in this case, the oo's and ahh's of fellow players, including the DM). The arena exists, in the form of the shared imaginary environment.  Survival and earning glory do not always go hand-in-hand, sometimes the choice comes down to one or the other.  But there is some drama in that, if you make room for it.

More on this later.