Maps And Distance

Driving home from Montana this weekend...a return trip I was making for the third time in the year 2023...I was again struck with wonder by the majestic landscape that stretches along Interstate 90, from the Gem State of Idaho to the Cascade Mountain range. Just incredible vistas of rolling hills and rocky cliffs, forests and mountains, the Gorge, the mighty Columbia, and miles and miles of nothing between the small towns and communities.

Per my Google Maps, the total distance between Missoula and my home in Seattle is approximately 484 miles, in a (more-or-less) straight line, along a well-maintained highway. About 24 days of hiking, if one considers a 20 mile per day march of the typical D&D party. That's a long, long distance.

I use the Pacific Northwest as the setting for AD&D campaign these days. While I've probably mentioned (many times) that I'm rather terrible at drawing maps...especially wilderness or "outdoor" maps...what I probably have not mentioned is that since switching over to actual (real world) geography, I don't even bother trying to do "hex maps." Never was much good at them anyway, and thanks to Ye Old Google Earth, I can chart distances just fine with the laptop and an internet connection. And with those distances (and being able to zoom in on the terrain) I can calculate travel times, resource depletion, wandering encounter rolls, etc.

Who needs hexes?

But here's the thing...the real thing: I know "hex crawling" is a thing: so many internet videos and blog posts discussing it, talking about best practices, extolling the virtues of using hexes to have "true" "sandbox" (i.e. open world) play. People love their hex crawling wilderness adventures...people want those hexes for the play it facilitates. Huge, multi-hundred page supplements/adventures have been published adding "interesting encounters" to each hexagonal shape on the hex map. What a fun, what a useful resource to have at one's fingertips, right?

Thing is: those hexes are too big. Too big to have "one interesting thing" in each one. I don't even care what scale you're using...six mile or twenty or 24 (B/X suggests 6 mile for small scale maps and 24 mile hexes for large). Folks need an idea of just how much space fits into an area this size.

We're all relatively familiar with the Keep on the Borderlands, right? Has a wilderness map in it, remember? One of the complaints I've read about B2 over the years is the tiny size of the outdoor area: 5200 yards by 4000 yards (that's about 3 miles by 2.25 miles). Even following the meandering road, the titular Keep is roughly two-and-a-half miles away from the Caves of Chaos...that's right next door! Heck you could fit multiple B2 wilderness pages inside a single 6-mile hex; there's too much crammed into that tiny, tiny space to be "reasonable" is the protest.

Okay, here's a screen shot from Google Earth of a portion of King County, Washington, including much of Seattle. The gold box on the screen is roughly the same size as the wilderness map in module B2. The northern border lines up with the northern city limits of Seattle proper (at 145th street); the southern border lines up with North 85th Street, two blocks from my home in the Greenwood neighborhood of north Seattle.  You could fit something like 9-10 "B2s" within the city limits of Seattle.

Now, I'll give you a close up of the area:

I'm sorry I can't provide more detail, but this area is huge: absolutely enormous. Hills and buildings (not to mention forested parks) block line of sight more than a few blocks in any direction. The area contains multiple schools, libraries, churches, a large hospital campus, movie theater, numerous "big box" stores, supermarkets, parking lots, large cemeteries, the largest shopping mall in north Seattle (Northgate...now the Seattle Kraken Ice Complex), several lakes, and numerous parks, motels, businesses, strip malls, and TWO 18 hole golf courses. Two major arterials (Highway 99 and Interstate 5) divide the area into three vertical strips, each one with distinctly different character. And it's mostly residential: thousands of people live in this area, in houses with yards, duplexes, condos, and apartment buildings (in addition to at least half a dozen retirement/assisted living complexes), as well as homeless tent encampments and RVs parked under bridges and overpasses.

I am intimately familiar with this region of Seattle...I've spent most of my daily life within it and, perhaps, an additional mile radius for the bulk of the last 26 years. And even so there are giant swaths of the area that I don't know, have never visited, and have no clue about. I walk my neighborhood a lot, but I don't usually go more than 15 blocks in any particular direction without a car. And many areas are simply inaccessible by foot. 

It would be easy to drop SEVERAL dragon dens in an area this size...assuming enough food to sustain such alpha predators. Which shouldn't be too tough: the 1910 census showed Seattle to have more than 237 thousand people living within the city limits, and that was long before modern refrigeration technology. The entire population of B2, humanoid monsters included, amounts to only a few hundred...and it's not like the area around the Keep is portrayed as some sterile, desert region.

I will reiterate: this is an area three miles long from north to south. The Isle of Dread (module X1) is 144 miles long across its north-south axis. That's the same, straight-line distance as from Seattle to Portland, Oregon. That's a ridiculously huge amount of wilderness. Only an idiot would attempt to walk through the forests and mountains between those two cities (I-5 actually takes a longer, more circuitous route bending towards the coast). And yet a party of six to eight adventurers are going to try exploring the interior of a dinosaur-infested island with thick jungle and active volcanoes? Really?

Driving back along I-90 Sunday morning, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to try traversing such a distance without the aid of the beautiful highway I was zipping along on at 80ish miles per hour. Insanity, I concluded. Miles and miles of wilderness...probably extremely hostile wilderness, especially in the heart of summer and the dead of winter. We don't account for SEASONS in our overland exploration...mountain passes are simply impossible with heavy snow (and spring rains cause avalanches and rock falls). But long before reaching the mountains, all but the most prepared (or fortunate) groups trying to cross the state would probably perish from starvation in the dry landscape.  Lewis & Clark certainly never tried it...they crossed into Oregon from Idaho and travelled down the Columbia River to the coast.

Anyway...

We should not underestimate the distance of distance. I'm sure that sounds silly, but when you're talking about a lost temple, a ruined fortress, or a monster lair (the usual "dungeon" sites)...such places can hide very easily within a landscape. Ye Old Internet tells me most medieval cities took up less than one square mile in area..,though I'd guess that's just the walled perimeter and that the surrounding farms extended much farther. But so long as your local dungeon isn't spewing forth hostile predators looking for townfolk prey on a regular basis, there's no reason such a place couldn't be relatively close to the PCs' "home" community.  

Just my thoughts of the last few days; thanks for reading.

; )

Loot The Music...Er...Body

When I say "I live in Seattle" I actually mean it (unlike some folks)...my home is about 3.6 miles south of the northern city limits. Seattle is a big town (or small city, depending on your POV) and trying to get scheduled for a Covid vaccine in town is tough to say the least. So it was that Saturday morning found me driving north on Interstate-5 to the Skagit County Fairgrounds vaccination site for an 11am appointment...about an hour's drive...to get my first Pfeizer shot.

One of the things I enjoy about the new car the family purchased 2-3 years ago, is the "satellite radio" subscription we got with it: instant access to good music based on genre depending on whatever mood you're in, and even if there's a lousy/annoying song on your favorite genre station, chances are you can find something good on one of your other favorites, without commercials. It's not PERFECT, but for road trips it beats the hell out of the old alternative of slugging away a ton of CDs or mix tapes that you've already listened to a gazillion times. Saturday was a loooong drive (as noted) and rather than listen to the usual hair metal stations I gravitate towards, I listened instead to a rebroadcast for Casey Kasem's American Top 40 from the week of April 21st, 1973. Like, the whole thing (minus commercial interruption). 

It was a good time, and one thing I noticed about the top pop hits from that week in history (the year I was born) was the songs tended to fall into three general categories: 1) songs that I'd never heard before that seemed to be "gimmicky" (like Funky Worm by the Ohio Players), 2) workman-like songs from established artists (both Neither One of Us from Gladys Knight and Call Me by Al Green were completely forgettable pieces), or 3) true classics that I have heard countless times over the last 47+ years including Killing Me Softly (Roberta Flack), Danny's Song (Anne Murray), Stir It Up (Johnny Nash), Love Train (O'Jays), Space Oddity (Bowie), and Drift Away (Dobie Gray).

And the thing that classics like Stevie Wonder's Sunshine of my Life or Steely Dan's Reeling in the Years have over songs like Skylark's Wildflower or the Stylistics' Break Up to Make Up isn't necessarily head-and-shoulders better musicianship or better production values. It's a combination of songwriting (lyrics and instruments) with interesting, memorable touches that makes a song stand out from what has come before. Some cats just have that "it factor" and you can hear it in the way the song has been put together and recorded...even if you don't like a particular song (I'm not a huge Stevie Wonder fan), you can appreciate why he's one of the all-time greats.

I say this by way of introduction to the band Loot the Body, who just sent me a preview copy of the new album Hex for review. Spoiler alert: probably not destined to be a classic.

Loot the Body is "the brainchild of singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Levi Nunez." Nunez writes songs "based on classic D&D" and cites "proto metal" and "proto psychadelic rock" as his musical references. I explained to Mr. Nunez that I wasn't a music critic...I'm not steeped in the industry, I haven't the practiced vocabulary for the writing or the library of musical knowledge to draw upon...but he still said he'd appreciate me writing my impressions of his songs. Says the "music blogs" don't really know what to do with him. 

Okay.

Hex is a six song EP with each track taking its name and theme from a classic D&D adventure module: White Plume Mountain,  Dwellers of the Forbidden City, Castle Amber, Tomb of Horrors, Ravenloft, and The Keep on the Borderlands. I've had some previous exposure to Loot the Body through The Barrier Peaks Songbook, which to me seemed more like a fun little project/experiment than a serious attempt at...well, a serious attempt. The new EP shows, no, Nunez IS actually serious about this wedding of D&D and music...there's a lot of obvious effort here...and whether he's trying to carve out a niche for himself or this is "just what he does," it's certainly doesn't appear to be throwaway trash.

That being said, the first word that came to mind as I listened to to Hex was "sophomoric," despite this being his third effort (I only just discovered he has an earlier album, Random Encounters, which I haven't had a chance to hear). I actually dig on the concept of the album (the idea he was going for) but my overall impression is one of flawed execution, and the thought that the music could have benefitted from some collaboration, or a strong hand in the production/editing with regard to the songwriting itself.

Musically, Hex reminds me quite a bit of Blue Oyster Cult, and shares some of the issues I have with BOC, especially the vocals. I'm okay with BOC (I've seen them live in concert) but they only have three songs I care to listen to, and despite their talent, I find most of their music to be disappointing and forgettable. I'm just not a fan of wispy, gutless singing that takes few chances vocally or lyrically. That's probably too harsh, but (for me) I like my singing to stand out and apart from the other instruments, not just become a drone in the background. I have this problem with more recent bands like Muse and Radiohead, too, although the latter band makes up for it with layering and originality. Perhaps it's music that's designed to act as a soundtrack to the group gathering around the bong, without "harshing the buzz" or acting as a distraction...and, sure, that's "okay." Elevator music is okay, too...in an elevator. But, man, it gets old after a (very short) while. 

Nunez does have musical chops, but his singing talent doesn't stand out, and his instruments...at times creative, at times highly derivative...suffer on most tracks from composition. See, this is the part where me NOT being a music critic fails me: I don't have the words to describe it. Often, he fills up the song sheet with lyrics withOUT musical breaks, rushing to get the words in, rather than letting the ear rest from the drone and just groove into the hooks and melodies. There are parts in every song where the ear wants a break from the singing...and gets none (or not enough). The bridges are too short. Another verse is needed instead of another repetition of an overlong chorus. Things like that. 

Lyrically the songs are hit-and-miss. To ME...an old school D&D guy...some of the songs are especially grating when they lift whole swaths of background text from the adventure modules from which they are derived. The album is at its best when Nunez goes "off script" with his lyrics...writing about the feelings and actions of adventurers in the dungeon, rather than the dungeon itself. 

I've listened to every song on the album multiple times. For me, the best of the bunch are Dwellers in the Forbidden City, Castle Amber, and Tomb of Horrors with Dwellers being my favorite track on the album. Castle Amber has some of the best lyrics on the album, but is scattered in its musical themes, and needs tightening. Tomb would be pretty good (despite some fairly derivative musical hooks) but suffers from the aforementioned issue of arrangement/composition...too bad, because it has one of the best bridges/choruses on the album.

White Plume Mountain, and Keep on the Borderlands are just heartbreaking (or embarrassing, depending on your point of view). When you have one of the worst villain names in the history of D&D ("Keraptis" sounds a bit too much like "crap") you don't spend the entirety of the lyrics on the dude and his history in the module's "background" section, and nothing about the adventure itself (what? no mention of Blackrazor, Wave, and Whelm? Come on). Definitely NOT the song to lead off the EP. TKotB isn't quite as bad, and is fine sitting at the end of the album as coda...just wish it was more than adventure background. 

Ravenloft, like the adventure it's based on, is just gimmicky in tone. It feels like the worst of BOC and irritates me every time I've tried listening to it (it's a struggle to listen to the track for more than two minutes,)...and yet it's the ONLY track that has a decent musical interlude (sans vocals) in the middle. Unfortunately, while it may be the best composed track on the EP it has an incredibly annoying chorus. Ugh.

Should you buy this album? Mmm. There's definitely worse musical projects to throw money at. Like anything produced by Pitbull. AND if you're a fan of droning, stoner rock...especially if you're tickled by themes inspired by classic D&D adventures...then, sure, yes. Because chances are, that's the only way you'll be getting a chance to hear these tracks. I don't think you'll be hearing these songs on the radio any time in the near future. 

And as I come to the end of this review (marveling at how any sane person would ask me to express my honest opinion of their work knowing how caustic and negative I can be..."gutless?" really?) and I finish listening to Hex for what must be the 10th time, I find myself coming to the conclusion that the best track on the album, despite its flaws, is Tomb of Horrors and not Dwellers of the Forbidden City. Even though I prefer the rock hook and lyrics of Dwellers, Tomb is the better song...Dwellers is just too short, needing more time to unwind, gel, and melt into your mind. Plus, Tomb's got the better, hookier chorus; I'll probably be humming it the rest of the day.

All right. That's enough of that.

Loot the Body's new EP Hex is scheduled for release June 4th and can be found on Bootcamp and elsewhere.

Comparing Pulp

This post is probably going to ramble a bit. Sorry. I'm in the middle of guzzling coffee, so hopefully my lucidity will improve. Hopefully.

Good podcasts are hard to find. Okay, that's not exactly accurate. Finding podcasts regarding the exact bit of minutia you want to hear can be hard to find. Which just goes to show how reliant on the internet we've all come to be (well, me at least). I'm trying to find comparison reviews of ancient D&D adventure modules and I get irritated when I can only find one or two...this wasn't even a thing five years ago! Sweet Jesus.

But that's what I've come to these days: those who can't do, teach...or blog. Those who can't blog listen to podcasts on the subjects they want to blog about. The other day I listened to a three hour recording of an on-line group playing Dwellers of the Forbidden City (I was doing housework at the time)...and while there's a lot I could criticize about their game, it doesn't change the fact that I listened to (most of) it! And thank goodness I was able to FIND something...those guys were a GODSEND in my "hour of need."

[it was terrible though...I kept wanting to reach through my headphones and throttle them all. First, spending three hours on a single encounter...in AD&D!...is pretty inexcusable. But mainly it just irked me that the DM wasn't prepared to run the encounter. Yes, yellow musk creepers are outside the norm of your usual goblin infestation, but then you should have spent some time figuring out (beforehand) how the creature and its various abilities are supposed to work. The dragging out of the encounter was a direct result of the lack of prep]

I'm inclined to blame Delta for this, by the way...Dan's new video channel (with fellow Wandering DM Paul) have become "must-listen" material for me when I'm doing dishes late at night, or running around doing errands. Both of these guys are long-time, experienced DMs, who aren't afraid to step outside their comfort zones and try new things...or adapt new methods...when it comes to their gaming. For the most part, I don't find them trying to "teach" folks how to run games, but are instead talking about things that worked and didn't work at the table...which is really what I'm looking for. Most of the podcast stuff (and here I'm including videos and "vlogs," too, as I only listen to it, I don't watch the screens) about gaming, especially the "teaching" stuff, is pretty damn lame. Dan and Paul gave me hope that there was better stuff out there. That's why I blame them.

So what I've mostly been searching for is stuff about older adventure modules because (as I wrote yesterday) there are packaged modules that I like that I would like to incorporate into a campaign setting. 

Dwellers of the Forbidden City is one. The Isle of Dread is another. Despite the inclusion of bugbears in both (still need to write my "bugbear hate" post), both of these adventures have a lot of elements that I love. Really, they're both decent settings for long-term (multi-adventure) play...what the kids playing 5E these days term "campaign play." Both are large sites, both have multiple access points, both provide multiple "starter ideas" for possible reasons for exploration/adventure, both have numerous potential factions for players to encounter and ally with (or piss off), and of course both have a ton of treasure to be plundered.

The treasure count for both modules are pretty similar, despite one adventure being written for AD&D and the other for B/X. X1: The Isle of Dread has a total "loot count" of 123,010 g.p. divided as follows:

Main Island encounters: 89,810 g.p.

Central Plateau: 15,000 g.p.

Taboo Island (the target objective): 18,200 g.p.

Okay, this IS a beautiful map.

A lot of this requires additional work, ingenuity, and outright feats of engineering to pull the treasure out: gold to be mined, trade routes to be established, etc. As a large island, there are plenty of opportunities to establish additional lairs (and loot) for various monsters on the wandering encounter tables...including a red dragon, black dragon, centaur clan, dryad grove, and cyclops...all of whom have no way to get off the island (it's too far to fly to the mainland) and all of whom probably have some place their bedding down at night. The average treasure yield for those five creature types is 128,500 g.p. (more than the total treasure in listed encounters!) and even scaling down for smaller tribes and younger worms, you could probably still expect to increase the total value of X1 adventuring by 50% or so. That's probably enough to earn adventurers another level...or close to it, anyway.

I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City has (as listed) a larger haul of treasure: 136,323 g.p. value, but almost all of it is straightforward looting and cash grabs. There isn't a lot of heavy lifting necessary (as in X1) nor a number of cursed treasure items (B2) nor even pricy antiquities requiring specialized buyers (Return to B2 has a lot of these). What it does have is a sprawling ancient metropolis with hostile factions/tribes that will try to bushwhack small parties of treasure-laden adventurers and an adventuring site secluded far from any "civilized" area (i.e. places where wealth can be spent or pawned). Yes, the Isle of Dread is 800-900 miles off the coast of the mainland but (despite historical inaccuracy) once treasure is loaded aboard one's ship the return voyage is relatively safe and easy compared to overland travel through miles of (presumably) hostile jungle. 

[running out of food and water at sea just doesn't have the same sting when players have access to high level cleric spells]

Just like X1, Dwellers has plenty of room for expanding the scope (and treasure) of the adventure. While the yuan-ti are reputed to be the "main bad guys" of the city, no detailed lairs or strongholds of the creatures are presented in the adventure. While they may be more independent than the clannish mongrelmen and tasloi, there're definite hints of organization and cooperation among the demon-men, and no reason not have pockets of wealth scattered all about the city (where are they putting all those trade goods stolen from jungle caravans?). Most of the adventure ideas presented at the end of the module require DMs to create additional lairs within the (rather ample) city confines...and lairs mean treasure. There's no reason the Forbidden City couldn't be expanded to accommodate higher level play by increasing both the opposition present AND the wealth available for plunder.

Now, I realize that more than one DM blogger out there has run these two adventures in conjunction (setting the Forbidden City on the Isle of Dread...usually in place of Taboo Island). Heck, James Maliszewski even had a Forbidden Isle project in the works at one point, though I don't think it was ever realized. For me, while I'd like the presence of both pulp adventure sites in my campaign setting, I don't believe they work well together. You can tell me I lack imagination, but I just don't want my Lost World dinosaurs mixing with demon-bred snake-men; to me, that's much more distasteful than mixing fantasy and science fiction (something I kind of love that a lot of people hate). "Reptillian" ain't a unifying theme, and throwing yuan-ti on the backs of velociraptors (or whatever) is just too gonzo ridiculous for my taste. 

Still, I like the idea of having both adventure sites in the same world, and I'm not sure how exactly to do that. And, no, I'm not into the "demi-plane" idea. 

Anyhoo, got to go. More thoughts on this later (perhaps). Or I might talk about swords instead.

All About the Benjamins (Part 1)

Damn, it's hot again.

Sitting in the bar, in a t-shirt and my phone reads its about 77 degrees and it feels quite a bit hotter. No, Seattle is not Montana but it's still sweat-worthy (town hasn't had rain in more than a month...ugh). I'm sure it will cool down by the Seahawks first home game (a week from Sunday) and I should probably be enjoying it now...but I get thirsty when it's hot and strong drink makes my head swimmy and my spelling messy. Well, messier than normal anyway.

[okay...short interlude while I grab another drinky...hold on...]

All right...all good.

So, quick update before I begin. No apologies this time: my family (wife and child) got back in town Sunday before last after being gone a week-and-a-half and I've spent the time since mainly enjoying the pleasure of their company. Took a long weekend over Labor Day and travelled to Montana to visit the relatives and unwind a bit and did...um...pretty much ZERO writing when I was out there (though the wife and I did manage to power through most of Downton Abbey, season 2, on DVD. Best show I've seen from TV land since, perhaps, Firefly for sheer damn quality: acting, writing, emotion, art direction...good stuff and top notch). Now, well...the wife leaves for Paraguay again on Saturday and I am preparing to once again be a single parent for a week. What with the NFL season breaking into full force on Sunday, you can expect little blogging out of me in the foreseeable future.

Well, maybe. Thing is, it's just been a bitch getting on the internet weekdays the last couple weeks because of my job location. The only place I can hit up to post is a school campus library (don't ask) and it's been mostly closed during the last couple weeks for the school break. Since nights aren't free...well...

All right, like I said I just wanted to do a QUICK update. Now, prior to my family coming home folks might remember me doing a scratch poll asking what folks would like me to work on, writing-wise, while my fam was out of town. The Top 5 requests were fairly surprising to me:

#1 D&D Mine (?!)

#2 Land of Ice

#3 CDF

#4 B/X Space Opera

#5 Clockwork (?!)

[oh, and just by the way...it appears there is a current crowd-funding project going on to raise money for a new Clockworks RPG (note the "s") using the Savage Worlds system for a web-comic by the same name. Personally, the numerology isn't good enough to fight someone over the name, so I will probably rename my cyborg-Boot Hill mash-up. However, I will note that MY Clockwork micro-game was first published (on this blog) 9-8-2009. On the other hand, the webcomic is older (having begun June 2009) though the settings bear little resemblance to each other...whatever]

Well, anyway, I'm sure folks are anxious to know what I spent my 10 free days working on. Right? Sure you are.

None of the above. I wrote a new game.

Even had a chance to playtest it a couple weeks ago. Basically I took a lot of the ideas I've been working with in D&D Mine, wrapped it around a turn-o-the-century (1900, not 2000) setting and added all the old school Lost World tropes found in Verne and Haggard and Doyle, etc. Dinosaurs, people. I don't know why but these days I have an unhealthy obsession with hunting dinosaurs with elephant guns.

The great thing is, using a B/X starting point allowed me to simply adapt X1: The Isle of Dread as a near-perfect introductory adventure.

I say "near perfect" because I grow more and more tired with "generic adventure modules." Not because they aren't useful or well-done but because the systems I've been writing lately all make the player characters (slimly out-lined though they are) more richly detailed...in such a way that they call for tailored adventures specially made for their own particular foibles and extravagances.

For example, our Lost World characters (in the play-test) consisted of a debonair (if debauched and corrupt) Portuguese criminal, a disgraced and exiled Moscovian scientist-professor, and an American ex-pat, Davy Crockett-type living in Panama (these all created by the players...I don't like to play-test with pre-gens as part of the testing involves testing the chargen rules). While it was fairly easy to shoehorn the three together after a little discussion/consensus-building by the time they got to the "mysterious south Pacific island" I was wishing I'd set the whole adventure in the Amazon, preferably with ties to each character's background. It just would have made so much more sense.

As it was, it was still fun and many of the rules worked (though I acknowledge the info I provided to the players was pretty damn scant: "roll this." "roll that." "take damage." etc.). However, there were definitely things that didn't work, especially with regard to motivation and the push-pull dichotomy I intended to set-up with PCs between ethics (Victorian or otherwise) and temptations to be bad. And while players (and designers) of indie-games will say "duh, you need to sculpt a game with those things in mind, not based on a wargame chassis, doofus," I know what I'm aiming for and one-off, premise addressing narrative game design is NOT it.

And after some contemplation, I realized a very fundamental concept of fantasy adventure games which is what I'm more and more becoming interested in and that is...

Wait. Wait. "Fantasy adventure games?"

Yeah. I'm getting tired of "story games" and "role-playing games" (the term...really) and I'm not very good at "war games" due to my somewhat over-competitive nature (my buddy Mike used to tell me 'it's not that you're a sore loser, you're just such a bad winner'). And, of course, the whole boxed-board game-thang of 4th edition really isn't my cup-o-tea.

I want fantasy adventure. No, I'm not being dumb. Try to catch my drift from this point o view: it's not about being an interesting character. It's not. It's about doing interesting things. You can use your imagination to daydream about about being...well, pick your well-cut action hero celebrity of choice. But I can do that withOUT a game. What I can't do is have an imaginary adventure...where the plot is unknown and the ending is unknown and my reaction to events is unknown until they're presented. I want to have a fantastic, imaginary adventure...something outside the normal adventure of average life.

Not that there ISN'T adventure...perils and intrigue and romance and whatnot...in daily life. There is (it really is a matter of perspective)...but still, you can't fly through space or fight trolls or wear a six-shooter on your hip in daily life (at least, you probably shouldn't). The fantastic experience, coupled with the (melodramatic perhaps) adventure is what I'm looking for.

And shit...I got distracted by DNC highlights and now my computer's almost out of juice and I haven't even gotten to the tagline. (*sigh*)

To be continued...

Getting My Dino On (Terra Nova)

Back in early February or late January I saw a television commercial (probably during last year’s NFL playoffs), previewing some crazy-ass new show featuring 21st century people (humans) being menaced by dinosaurs. I had no idea what the hell this show was about, but I was damn excited to check it out.

No such TV show ever appeared.

This last week, while again watching football, I saw another ad for this same TV show. Apparently scheduled to start up at the end of the month (appears the thing might have experienced some shooting problems through most of 2011).

The show will be on Fox, a station that has managed to put out some quality fiction shows over the years (The Simpsons, Firefly, Arrested Development, the first season or two of 24), many of which they completely mishandle and wreck/cancel (Firefly, Arrested Development). The prospect of a decent (if quickly cancelled) series is a real possibility, but who knows...TV execs often make decisions that are a complete mystery to me; chucking good, creative art in exchange for the most insipid and ridiculous of “reality TV.”

That’s probably one of the reasons I’m not a wealthy business tycoon. Anyway…

Called Terra Nova it has an interesting premise that blah-blah-blah HUMANS VERSUS DINOSAURS!

That’s really all you need to know. Well, all I need to know anyway.

I love most anything that mixes “modern man” with dinosaurs…it’s just one of my favorite pulp fantasies. Peter Jackson’s King Kong, the first Jurassic Park book/movie (before the Goldblum character got resurrected…wtf?), S.M. Stirling’s Sky People novel, all those lost/hollow world kind of movies, not to mention the Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX) Role-Playing Game (though why does it have to have Nazis, dammit).

I don’t know why I dig it so much. As a kid, Land of the Lost was definitely one of the weirdest/coolest TV shows on Saturday Mornings (at least with the original cast). I still love the premise of the show and would love to do something with it (what exactly? Who knows…).

Also as a kid, I remember reading old Turok Son of Stone comics. Back in Montana, my uncles weren’t too much older than me (maybe 10 to 15 years) and there were always old comic books of a “non-superhero” variety laying around: The Two-Gun Kid, Sergeant Rock, the Unknown Soldier, Turok, House of Mystery, Dracula, etc.

Turok was about an American Indian and his younger brother (?) who had somehow been transported to prehistoric times where, duh, they were often hunting or running from dinosaurs. I don’t remember any of the specific stories/plots from my childhood, I just remember being very taken with the illustrations, even (or especially) non-action ones: a half page image of Turok and his brother over-looking a bluff, watching a herd of honkers grazing in a pastoral valley, for example. Things like that.

The last couple years I spent a lot of time looking for old issues of the awesomely illustrated Xenozoic Tales (author: Mark Schultz). I had finally given up when I happened across the recently published trade paperback collecting every issue into a single volume. It took me a few days to read it cover to cover, but the thing is a real work of art, with beautiful story, pacing, characterization, and illustration.

[I’ll talk more about Xenozoic…and its associated RPG…in a later post]

No, I really don’t know what it is about the mix of people and dinosaurs that get me juiced; it’s just one of those things like Vikings/axes and sand-and-sandal fantasy that tends to fire my imagination. Dinos are just so HUGE and monstrous (always depicted with big, sharp teeth) and the idea of hunting them so ridiculously foolhardy…I mean it can’t result in anything but crazy heroics (or digested heroes).

Strangely, I almost never use dinosaurs or lost world tropes (Neanderthals, ape-men, etc.) in my D&D games, B/X or otherwise. The Isle of Dread is the only “dino-sanctuary” I’ve ever depicted in the game, and then but rarely. For whatever reason, the thought of fighters in plate mail attacking a T-Rex with his trusty magic sword just seems wrong.

But modern day heroes (18th century and later)? That seems the perfect protagonist for a dinosaur-infested campaign. Silly perhaps, but that’s just me.

I would love a good pulpy game that pitted dinos against heroic player characters. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find such a game (more on that in a latter post, too).

All right, all right. I've got some stuff to take care of right now. Perhaps more dino-stuff later.

Player Versus DM Expectations

Not-so-hot-on-the-heels of some other posts, I figured I better put some of these thoughts down before I forget them...

A couple days ago, I posted about un-finished dungeons...basically, regarding my poor track record of ultimately completing or "cleaning out" pre-packaged adventures. The comments generated a lot of food for thought for Yours Truly.

Later I read this post over at Father Dave's regarding the thief...a post I think is fascinating for its implication in adventure/dungeon design. Today, I was reading about Chgowiz's wife's encounter with a smoke dragon...and how it nearly led to despair and a throw-up-your-hands-and-dice moment at the table.

I kinda' wanna' tie all this stuff together.

In designing an adventure module for publishing (still sharpening that axe, folks!) I've been going over a lot of the do's and don't's I think it's important to consider. Certainly I don't want to repeat bad trends of the past or do something that doesn't result in a fun adventure romp for players. But let's look at expectations for a second.

While I am a big believer in background "creative agendas" I believe few, if any people, actually come to a game table with an initial attitude that can be described as narratavist or gamist. I think it's fairly safe to say that MOST people sit down at the gaming table wanting #1 to have fun and #2 to escape a bit from the humdrum of "everyday life." Once they've had THOSE needs met, similar to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs...only THEN do they start looking to meet these secondary creative agendas.

In other words, if they're not getting the fun and the escape, they never bother to worry about the other stuff.

Now I think that these primary goals (of which escape is probably secondary to fun except for folks with slightly skewed psyches...for whatever reason) are fairly explicit in the text of earlier versions of Dungeons and Dragons...especially B/X D&D. But they sure seem to get lost in later versions, which instead extoll slightly different objectives, perhaps based on the perceived need of their target gaming community. Game balance, in whatever form that phrase rears its ugly head, is considered to be paramount IN ORDER TO HAVE FUN, according to the rules...and this is a justification for the extensive and intricate rules of editions like the 3rd and 4th edition.

But game balance is NOT required to have fun...thinking so is an F'ing illusion, folks. Balance is only an important component of fun (and not even a necessary one!) in games focused on the GAMIST aspect of play, where players want to be on an equal and level playing field.

And again, it's not even necessary of gamist play, as some players prefer an even GREATER challenge, with the odds stacked against 'em. For example, I've ALWAYS been drawn to the idea of the doughty halfling warrior, sticking it to the big guys, ever since I saw the illustrations in the DMG in the "random dungeon section." Look at that little guy go! THAT's the character, I want to play!

[sorry, I don't have a copy of my DMG with me at the moment...I'll post an image later if I can find one]

So putting aside the whole discussion of whether later edition characters (or earlier edition for that matter) are balanced against each other, look at the advice given to DMs in adventure design as to how to balance encounters in adventure design: basically, it boils down to "make sure you have a little something of everything for all character types." There should be some undead, for example, for clerics, or some challenges that can only be overcome using a thief's skills. There should be some fighting for fighters and some places where a magic-user comes in handy, and perhaps a few instances where character racial abilities (like elves ability to find secret doors) come in handy.

Gross!

To me, this feels plainly contrived. Not only THAT, it also ends up limiting players' choice as they are suddenly required to take "a little bit of everything" with them into the dungeon. If they don't, they face potential dead ends (as Father Dave found). What's more, you get that "last-person-to-arrive-takes-the-class-no-one-wants" mentality that Frothy Friar talks about, most often seen (by both him and me at least) with the cleric.

[actually, in my old campaigns the "last picked" role was probably split equal between clerics and thieves...and these weren't even D4 hit dice thieves!]

Frankly, to a player this sucks. Like it or not, one of a player's first two needs on the Gamers' Hierarchy of Needs pyramid is having fun. BEFORE "meeting the challenge." And if I get forced into a role because it's necessary based on a game design meant to cater to the possibility or expectation of a mixed group of adventurers, than you just chopped a chunk off my free will, and part of my enjoyment just went with it!

So let's talk about a DM's expectations and "hierarchy of needs." Are they different? Somewhat. I think DMs want to have fun, too, but instead of the fun of escaping into the shoes of a different person, they get the fun of "playing God;" being a creator of worlds, in other words.

And here's where there can be a bit of a disconnect.

While certainly the DM seat attracts an egomaniacal variety of individual [note: Me as Exhibit A, blogging my little blog thoughts] that's not the point of the Role of DM. It really ain't. World creation, or reality creation, or story creation...whatever you want to call it...is a collaborative effort between DM and players.

It's got to be, otherwise you aren't playing an RPG. Instead you're doing a play with improvised lines and some dice rolls.

And while I LOVE the theater (actor, remember?) it's not anything theatrical that attracts me to RPGs. REALLY. Like many, I am drawn to the escapism part (which is also something that draws me to acting) which to me is fun...but there is no urge to talk in funny voices or dress up in costume, at least when I am acting as a player (as a DM I will use different voices to distinguish between different NPCs in conversation). I do like imagining myself as an "adventurer" (whether heroic, roguish, or an outright villain makes no nevermind to me) and exploring a fantasy setting. I don't think I'm alone in this, either.

The DM's role, sometimes forgotten, is one of facilitator. What the DM does is facilitate this world/story/reality creation. Adventures are designed, settings are written, NPCs and obstacles placed...and then there is acting as adjudicator and referee for the players as they explore the game world. This exploration, in collaboration with everyone at the table, is what CREATES the shared environment. NOT the DM alone.

When a DM "puts on airs" and thinks he or she is wholly responsible for world creation they are deluding themselves. Pure and simple. If you want to author a world, write a book, don't play an RPG. If your players abandon your game, all the background and backstory in the world means nothing.

AND (this is the important part) if you DO allow players free reign in your carefully designed game (in other words, if you're a good and competent DM that doesn't force your players down your own linear story arcs, etc.), they are going to muck it all up. They will go "off book." They will want to push the game and exploration into areas you haven't detailed or thought of. They will not "do what you want them to."

It's like the talk of these huge ass adventure modules. The DM may make some giant, ambitious adventure...that frankly bores the hell out of the players. At least if the players intend their characters to do more than explore that single adventure over the life of the campaign.

Now I already said in the earlier post that some modules, like B2 and X1, are excluded from my bile on the subject as they are intended to be something of introductory campaigns. They provide an extensive setting for characters of the requisite levels to explore in order to learn the Basic and Expert rules.

Other module sets, like the Slaver series (A1-4) and the GDQ series ARE, in fact, actual campaign settings. They are designed to take place over many, many game sessions as adventurers plumb the depths of their multi-dungeon scenarios. When running through one of these, your players are pretty much committed to the long haul. The same is true for the Desert of Desolation (I3-I5) series and even I1:Dwellers of the Forbidden City (if played as simply its original, tournament "rescue the prisoners scenario" the adventure is short-and-sweet, otherwise it provides an extensive sandbox for campaign game play).

But other "one-off" modules are simply ridiculous.

Let's look at I6: Ravenloft. Garbage. This is billed as a single adventure...and one from which there is no escape for the players until it's completed (killer fog!). How many encounters are there in this module?

103. Of 45 modules I reviewed for "# of numbered encounters" only one other module had more: X3: Curse of Xanathon with 107 by the somewhat inconsistent Douglas Niles.

As a DM prepping a game or a player slogging through one, that's a nightmare. By contrast, B2 only has 64 encounters (outside the Keep) and X1 has 51...both of these can provide multiple sessions of gameplay and multiple levels of advancement. What if someone is holding to a strict "no more than one level gained per adventure completed" rule? After weeks of exploring Ravenloft you get one level? That's a shit-load of work for little pay-off, in my opinion.

[the idea of a high-level magic-user vampire isn't even very original...Q1 had the moody gothic vampire world with the 15th level magic-user vampire in 1980, folks]

Compare that to adventures like S1 and S2. The Tomb of Horrors has 33 numbered encounter areas, White Plume Mountain has 28. Those are nice little adventures that can be finished in one or two sessions. These are good examples of single adventures, as opposed to a campaign setting.

Just as with "world creation" DMs and designers can go over-board with adventure/module design. Except for campaign settings (like the Stonehell Dungeon mega-dungeon, for example) it's generally unnecessary to have too much wedged into an adventure. Usually, the players are not looking for anything beyond their basic objectives (unless understanding a dungeon's "history" is required for resolving a particular "puzzle" or challenge). The rest of that shit is superfluous. It's design masturbation.

So with a little time and energy, I could probably boil all these thoughts down into some Great Commandment of Adventure Design. However, I'm not going to do that right now. Instead I'd like to let this post stew a bit while I work on an actual writing project (the aforementioned adventure module I'm doing) and give readers a chance to weigh in and comment on the thoughts expressed here. These I will later distill into some Commandments (don't even know how many yet!) so feel free to try your hand at your own...or blow me out of the water if you disagree with anything written! Ha! I'm feeling a little rambunctious this morning, I guess.

Probably the smell of the NFL play-offs in the air.

: )

Unfinished Dungeons

No, I am not talking about writing projects left un-done. I’m talking about adventures that have never been completed. For example, has anyone ever actually seen a Kopru in game?

I have NOT…and I’ve run X1: The Isle of Dread at least four or five times. It is, after all, one of my Top Ten Modules of all time. But in all, I think only one adventuring party ever made it to the central “island within an island” and I don’t recall anyone getting beyond the 1^st or 2^nd level of the temple.

Is this strange to people? It ain’t to me. I’ve run many games that were never finished, their secrets never discovered, their depths never plumbed.

Reading Mr. Maliszewski’s retrospective the other day on S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth reminded me of this. S4 is one of the modules I picked up in that treasure trove of adventures the other day. I had owned it as a kid, and had also thought it was great. I also remember reading it and despairing at the thought that MY regular adventure group could ever uncover the secrets of the central chamber…just in reading it, the thing seemed damn nigh impossible.

I mean, I’d seen my players (I was always the DM in those days) stumble through the Tomb of Horrors, and THAT adventure at least had a riddle of clues to help players through (multiple parties reached the end of S1, even though none had the proper gear to harm the demi-lich in the slightest). But this thing with the doors and the teleports? Who but the most anal-retentive of spelunkers and map-makers could figure out such a thing? Personally I know I would never have the patience.

Plus the booby-traps at the end, should they actually uncover the treasure? Sheesh!

I did make two attempts to run the Lost Caverns, though. The first time, my players were never able to even find the damn thing in the wilderness. The second time I skipped the wilderness altogether and just said, “all right you found it and are sitting on the door step…what do ya’ do?” They never made it past the first level, getting washed out through an underground river as I recall.

Now certainly some of these adventures were left un-finished by my group due to Total Party Kills (even if their PCs were later “wished” back to life by their friends in town, they’d say “I ain’t going back THERE!”). But often I think the modules were simply too long, too large in scope.

While the players in the campaigns of my youth were clever and creative, and adventurous, NONE of them were of the take-it-slow-and-systematic variety. This idea that people make multiple forays into a dungeon, cautiously mapping and retreating to recover strength? Nuh-uh. The only time they were going back to town was to pick up replacement PCs for the guys that had met their ends underground.

Now part of this can be blamed on the DM (me) NOT making resource management a huge component of the game…I have a noted tendency of playing fast-and-loose with certain game systems especially encumberance, time, movement, and food. D&D isn’t a board game, so I never worried too much about characters’ movement rate…until they were in pursuit or being pursued by monsters. And if you stop worrying about movement, you stop worrying about turns…and how long torches/lanterns last (after 3^rd level the characters would generally have access to continual light anyway). Better for the lights to go out at dramatically appropriate times (like when they get dropped in the middle of combat) than after 6 calculated turns.

Encumbrance puts a real limit on the amount of time one can spend in the dungeon…at least if one is hauling up thousands and thousands of coins in treasure. But bags of holding and portable holes certainly ease this burden, as does the B/X rule “all miscellaneous goods = 80coins weight.” When I moved to playing AD&D I continued to retain THAT rule.

As a DM, I never enjoyed being caught up in the minutia…I already had enough on my plate, dammit! Knowing the rules and being able to adjudicate, knowing the player characters and how THEIR gear and abilities worked, balancing player personalities, not to mention trying to know the adventure, DM it, and making the whole thing fun and exciting. If the minutia got dropped, it sure wasn’t missed!

But when the only “resource management” that needs to occur is managing of hit points and spells (I’ve yet to see characters ever “run out of arrows,” though we were pretty good about marking off ammunition)…well, it makes for fairly gung-ho players. Right up till the axe drops.

And that could easily happen when you’re three levels deep in the Halls of the Fire Giant King (unless, of course, you’re armed with Blackrazor…that sword was born to be used with a gung-ho style of play) or at the bottom of the Lost Caverns, or trapped between levels 4 and 5 of the Barrier Peaks nightmare without the correct colored card. If you push deep into the jungles of the Isle of Dread and get lost…well, that food issue will catch up to you eventually (if a wandering dino doesn’t use you to solve ITS “food issue”).

I’ve said before that I think S2: White Plume Mountain is perhaps the best adventure module ever designed, not only for its showcase of D&Disms, but for its over-all LENGTH. It can certainly be finished in a session or two, whether a party is taking it slow-and-steady or blazing away (remember the novel of the same name? THAT protagonist wasn’t making multiple expeditions into the volcano). With 27 different encounter areas (28 including the “end note” optional encounter), S2 has less than half the numbered encounter areas of B2: Keep on the Borderlands or X1 or S4.

And it IS the quantity of these numbered encounters that are important, not what they contain. Even a room that is empty of monsters, traps, and treasure will be thoroughly ransacked, prodded, and poked by the average party of adventurers. I’ve played in games where many loooong minutes were spent poking through a pile of rocks in a corridor despite their (to me) obvious use as a simple “no trespassing” sign. 60 to 80 numbered encounters? That’s not an adventure, that’s practically its own campaign!

Now before I go any further, let me say that I am NOT knocking B2 or X1. These modules are DESIGNED to be mini-campaigns, not one-off adventures. They illustrate their particular play rules (Basic – Dungeons; Expert – Wilderness) and give lots of room for exploration and experimentation with those new rules. Of course, neither one has real “end goals” either…there’s no “winning” of B2, unless I suppose you clean out the entire series of cave complex (though there are notes that new monsters will move into cleared caves). The same holds true for X1 (though I suppose you could extinguish every living monster on the island and turn it into some sort of tropical resort). But modules like S3 and S4 are crazy huge, despite having semi-specific “goals” inherent to ‘em. They might as well be called “mini-mega-dungeons” for the amount of time required for exploration…and modules like I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City, I3-I5 (Desert of Desolation series), and X4-X5 (Desert Master series)…well I can’t think of these as anything less than mini-campaign settings.

And if your players are like the ones with whom I used to run, this ain’t what they’re looking for. They don’t want to sit down at the game table every week or two and say “ok where are we again? Oh, yeah…still there in that adventure.” My old players wanted new, fresh locales and challenges every session or two. They wanted to explore their characters while adventuring in the game world…they weren’t interested nearly as much in exploring some designer-author’s magnum opus of a dungeon.

When you have episodic adventures…or a campaign composed of them…the PLAYERS begin to create their own meta-plots and story-lines (well sometimes). When you’re stuck in a long, drawn out adventure, sub-plots and such MIGHT form but they become secondary and attached to the adventure at hand…which to me is a stifling of creativity for both players AND DMs.

[hmm…I wonder how Oddysey and Trollsmyth’s current on-going campaign developed. Odd has said this is the first time she’s played in a campaign that took things to this particular depth of character interaction…were her former games played in the mini-campaign or forced plot setting? Or is their current gaming style simply built on mutual rapport and understanding of narrative agenda needs?]

ANYWAY…attempting to tie this back to the original premise, I’ve worked a LOT of modules in the past and have only managed to complete a few…and then only with a lot of diligence and/or particularly “captive” audiences (like my little brother!). And I played A LOT of D&D in the past…the same core group of players, weekly or bi-weekly sessions, with full day and all night stretches. And the majority of these modules were simply never finished. The adventures BETWEEN adventures were (as Oddysey and Trollsmyth could perhaps attest) far more interesting…the intrigues, the rivalries, what was “going on” with the adventurers in the larger campaign world. For me, White Plume Mountain is the biggest site based adventure I want to explore…and think about this: it’s a whole goddamn mountain! Why should a dungeon set in a ruined keep or tower be bigger (what are the dimensions of the biggest tower in the Expert set? 30’x30’ maybe?).

Just some things I’m considering as I set about writing an introductory adventure module to go with my B/X Companion.

: )

Speaking of the Nephews

Forgot to mention that my nephews, S. and Z., of whom I've blogged on several occasions are moving away...as in, the other side of the country.

This is a sad turn of events for yours truly (and my wife, too, to be honest) as we will miss these guys a lot. But their dad got a very good promotion that entails them moving to the Washington, DC area and after February we don't anticipate seeing 'em too regularly. Though you never know...their parents may send 'em west in the summertime.

Oh, and we do get out to the DC area every now and then...maybe every other year or so...but I doubt there will be much time for gaming in our short visits.

Still, I'm pleased I have sowed the seeds I have. The kids love D&D and Labyrinth Lord. The wife and I got to attend S's birthday a couple-three weeks ago, and I got him a new set of dice and four classic B/X modules: B3: The Silver Princess, B6: The Veiled Society, X1: Isle of Dread, and something else I don't remember right now...maybe X2: Castle Amber? I know it was an Expert set module and one that I already owned, but I don't think it was X4, and I wouldn't have given him X5 without the other.

Anyway, both he and his older brother were very excited to get both. I may have mentioned earlier that they've been trying to run Labyrinth Lord but have complained that DM'ing the thing is too hard (or complaining that one or the other "doesn't do it right"). I think those of us that grew up with the original B/X take for granted the inclusion of introductory modules: B2: Keep on the Borderlands and X1: Isle of Dread for the Moldvay and Cook/Marsh rules respectively.

I feel very strongly that these adventure modules help to inform play...that is, they provide a template for beginning DM's, a "how-to" for running an adventure.

Heck, it's possible that some of the ubiquitous "okay your adventurers all start at the local tavern" scenarios descend in part from the tone set by those initial adventures set in B2 (not that the action begins in a tavern, but the tavern of the Keep is a fairly detailed location in the module, providing much in the way of assistance, hirelings, rumors, and of course food).

Anyway, I haven't had a chance to check in with those kids (busy, you know?) but I'm certain this year's winter break has featured at least some LL adventuring for them. And I'm glad I got to show them the ropes...the game is one they can carry with them wherever they go in the future.

Ok...gotta' catach a couple hours sleep now. Today is going to be a HUGE day.

: )

A True Expert: Dave Cook Kicking Ass (Part 2)

[sorry, my earlier post was about to explode into an unwieldy amount of text...figured I'd break it up]

Let me just quote a paragraph from the text or two, so you can see why I just saw more and more awesomeness in the X4 and X5 modules:

In encounter 2 of Part 4 (X4:The Master of the Desert Nomads), the adventurers are relaxing with some caravan buddies, elated from an earlier victory over an attack by bandits (by the way, Cook makes good use of all the human "monsters" of B/X...bandits, Normal Men, nomads, dervishes, etc....not just character classes).

If the party remains, they will be the guests of honor at the night's feast. After a thick, syrupy coffee, the merchants will carry in a large platter of camel meat (still on the bone) laid on a bed of rice. Over this will be ladled burning hot grease and melted camel butter until it flows over the side of the tray. Lamshar will then invite the characters to eat. They will be expected to dip their fingers into the tray and pull out balls of meat and rice, dripping with grease. Lamshar and Khel will dine with them, offering the player characters choice bits of camel meat that they have pulled out. After the characters have had their fill (and to only eat a little would be insulting), the other merchants will take their place at the tray. The meal will finish with somewhat green dates.

!!!

Now all that text is DM's Eyes Only stuff...this is not boxed text to be read to the players (though both X4 and X5 include some boxed text). Cook creates a whole culture and adventure EXPERIENCE in under 30 pages of text.

Some might think, that with this kind of loving attention to the background material, the adventure would be short on action. No way. He still has room for a full set of wilderness encounters and a 60+ encounter dungeon (the Evil Abbey), as well as including half a dozen new monsters, pregenerated characters, and mini-mass combat rules. And that's JUST X4! X5 is another great 30 pages...this is practically a mini-campaign setting between these two modules.

X4 was published in 1983, the same year Mentzer's Basic set was coming out. X5: Temple of Death was also released in 1983. This is before Mentzer's Expert set or Companion rules hit...

X4 has no shortage of interesting tricks and traps (here come some spoilers folks). For example, back to the previously quoted encounter: all PCs taking part in the feast have to make a save versus poison ("I don't know if it was a piece of under-cooked camel or the green dates, but I'm not feeling so hot..."). Those that FAIL are up all night with indigestion. However, those that are AWAKE get a shot at stopping a sneaky little critter that ransacks the camp that night.

How cool is that? The characters that SUCCEED get to brag about their iron constitutions, but the ones who FAIL get a shot at being heroes later on!

There are a several of these kinds of switcheroos...an ancient Champion of Law that is so obviously the inspiration behind the Scorpion King of The Mummy Returns film (yep, it's now gone bad...)...others friendly NPCs that aren't what they seem (similar to The Jade Empire video game)...plants and double-agents. And am I the only one that sees the Nagpa monsters the direct antecedent of Games Workshop's Lord of Change greater daemon?

Cook also corrects one of the issues I have with X1: The Isle of Dread, though it sets a bit of a bad precedent to later adventure modules. In X1, adventurers can wander around a huge island wilderness for days or weeks without encountering anything but wandering monsters due to encounters being in certain set locations. Players (and the DM) basically have to get lucky (or fudge) if they want the party to run into a particular set piect. In X4 and X5, the wilderness map is set, but the location of the encounters are not...players will experience each encounter when the DM deems the time is right.

Now when I say this is a dangerous precedent I say it comes dangerously close to a linear railroad type adventure...where the only thing that can happen is "players succeed at encounter and move onto next" OR "players fail at encounter and die ending adventure." Adventure path or "story path" in the end all you're doing is living the author's fiction...with widely varying degrees of control (depending on the level of authored NPC involvement). When this happens, it doesn't matter how cool and interesting an adventure...your game play is no longer a collaboration between creative minds, and that's a shame.

Cook avoids this pitfall, and he does so through a number of ways:

1) With a couple exceptions, wilderness encounters need not occur in a particular order. The DM is just ensuring they occur...that's part of the adventure (just like dealing with the throne room or the demi-lich is part of the Tomb of Horrors...there are specific bottle-neck points).

2) Success or failure at a particular encounter does not necessarily derail the adventure. For example, in X5: Temple of Death players don't HAVE to get into the flying ship (flying ship? Yeah, as I said, both these modules are frigging awesome). And in fact, even though it would expedite some things, doing so leads to its own dangers (I shan't elaborate for the benefit of folks that haven't played).

3) In both modules there is a centerpiece dungeon that players will eventually find, and unlike, say other modules, there is nothing linear or pre-scripted in what happens once "on-site." Hell, the dungeons don't even include the boxed text that is present in the wilderness encounters! They are wholely Old School dungeons, complete with Gygaxian ecology and wide open for exploitation by creative adventuring parties.

4) There is no force used upon the PCs through the machinations of NPCs. Players are still calling the shots about what happens in the adventure.

For all these reasons, I don't feel the modules are forced or contrived. Heck, they're even less so than the Desert of Desolation series, with which they share certain superficial traits. Despite the lower production value, Dave Cook's two-part series may actually blow the Hickman and Weiss masterpiece out of the water. Well...it's hard to say, though, as I've had such a love of the I3-5 series for so long.

As far as a B/X adventure? It is easily the best pre-packaged adventure I have ever read for B/X or BECMI. Hands down...it is head-and-shoulders above both B2: Keep on the Borderlands and X1: Isle of Dread. And seeing as how THOSE two made my Top Ten All Time list...well, I might just have to re-do the list.

The thing is, Cook's modules are not designed for kids. Or maybe they are, but they have a very mature, adult sensibility. The power of organized religions? Demons and possession? The need to use wits and stealth over hack/slash/fireball tactics? This ain't no pick-up game for ten year olds, no matter what the Expert set box says.

Of course, we ARE talking Dave Cook here. The designer behind I1:Dwellers of the Forbidden City and A1:Secret of the Slavers Stockade. Snake people and slavers? The guy has a Swords & Sorcery mentality that doesn't quit.

And he brings that S&S style to both X4 and X5. THESE are the potential of the D&D Expert Set...THIS is the kind of mentality I am trying to bring to my Companion set. If Cook had written the sequel to B/X instead of Frank Mentzer, I might have never moved over to AD&D. And, heck, I HAVE made B/X my game/drug of choice after all these years...

Dave Cook is my F'ing hero. Like Gygax and Arneson he should be up on the pedestal of RPG Masters. And, yes, I do realize the total irony with which I write that given his spearheading the design of 2nd edition AD&D leading to the saturation of TSR with sub-mediocre material...but you know, anyone who could take the original mishmash of AD&D and re-organize it has got to be appreciated for design chops regardless of how one views the end result...and I DO appreciate it, even as I loathe the game itself.

Mr. Cook, even as I try to dissuade folks from playing 2nd edition, I will heap praises on your name for your Expert work. And X4 and X5 are shining examples of why B/X is indeed the best version of the game to play. Bravo, sir.

Um...but one, little, tiny issue, Mr. Cook sir. Encounter #2 in the Catacombs? In X4 on page 28? There's no such thing as a "permanent Magic Mouth spell" in B/X D&D...there's no Magic Mouth spell at all.

But one flaw in two modules (for a guy publising in two editions at the same time), is pretty flawless in MY book.

: )

A True Expert: Dave Cook Kicks Ass

Sometimes I worry that I'm a crashing bore. Sometimes I worry that someone I know is going to read something uncharitable I say about them and feel hurt. Sometimes I worry that I'm going to step on someone's feelings just because I couch my opinions with in a bit of inflammatory prose.

Mostly though, I don't worry too much about it...I know I've got my insecurities, and my worries are only as strong as my thought that I'm throwing typos and grammatical errors left and right. If I stopped to worry about all this...well, I guess I'd just be reading blogs instead of writing one.

But folks who've been reading know that I do detour off into the occasional attack post regarding...oh, pretty much everything at one point or another. But those same readers know that I save an especially large share of my bile for a particular edition of D&D...the 2nd edition. I mean, I have turned the cold shoulder to D&D3+ and completely ignored the fact that 4E exists at all. Why, why must I rail against all things 2nd edition.

Um...habit? Who knows? Who cares? Damn...it's just one guy's opinion!

However, in launching so many attacks at the game, it's possible (however slightly) that I might be pissing all over David "Zeb" Cook, the lead designer for that particular edition of the game. I don't know...does he consider it his "baby?" Well, anyway, if it seems like I've got a bone to pick, let me state right for the record now that I do NOT.

Dave Cook is a frigging' genius.

Maybe genius isn't the right term...I want a term like savant, but in my head that always has the word "idiot" at the front and I don't think of Mr. Cook as an idiot. Master might be a better term...you know, like the Old Masters of the Italian Renaissance?

Dave Cook is one of the true masters of D&D. If Gygax is the equivalent of Da Vinci, Cook has got to be Michaelangelo. Maybe that's not a fair comparison (Robert Kuntz might feel he's heir to the Michaelangelo title)...but certainly Dave is one of those Ninja Turtle names.

Mr. Cook's old school cred is not in question...he was working at TSR for a long time, and prior to AD&D2 worked on a whole slew of things. Just looking at the works credited to the man on wikipedia, I see a whole lot of stuff that I've owned and continued to own, all of which I certainly enjoyed in my youth: Unearthed Arcana (with Gygax), Star Frontiers, A1:Slave Pits of the Undercity, B6:The Veiled Society, BH2:Lost Conquistador Mine, X1:The Isle of Dread (with Moldvay). I can honestly say that I have used and played everything I've ever owned that was written by Dave Cook. And some things...noteably X1 and I1:Dwellers of the Forbidden City...I have used and played extensively with multiple gaming groups.

Of course, just being the hand behind a lot of good product isn't enough to qualify one as a "master" in my book. Lawrence Schick hit a homerun out of the park with S2:White Plume Mountain, but in my opinion one (exceptionally wonderful) adventure ain't enough. And quantity's not enough either...Doug Niles, I'm looking at YOU.

[there I go talking smack again! bad JB!]

It's only the last couple days that I've decided Cook is firmly in the master category...and this is DESPITE AD&D2 and the non-weapon proficiencies of Oriental Adventures. I've been reading his modules X4:Master of the Desert Nomads and X5:Temple of Death.

They are superb.

Taking into account his work on X1:The Isle of Dread, I can only come to the conclusion that Mr. Cook is a true master of B/X, ESPECIALLY mid-high level play or what might be termed "Expert D&D" (hell, even I1:Dwellers of the Forbidden City is designed for characters level 4-7). No wonder of course when one considers he was the main force behind the incredibly underrated (in my opinion) D&D Expert Set.

Underrated? Hell yes! I played Expert for a loooong time just subbing in the AD&D Monster Manual before I ever got a DMG or PHB. And many of the standard rules from the Expert set were simply 'ported in to AD&D once we started playing AD&D, including all wilderness movement and naval combat stuff. Sure Expert, like Moldvay's Basic, was just a streamlining and codifying of the original LBBs, but they were done in such expert fashion that they were a lot easier to use than either the LBBs or AD&D. And let us not forget that aside from a few extra clerical spells and Larry Elmore art, Mentzer's Expert set is pretty much word-for-word the Cook/Marsh book. And a lot of people still prefer BECMI and the Rules Cyclopedia.

But let's talk about X4 and X5. Wow. Just wonderful. First off, now I understand why the Expert set bothers to throw both Nomads and Dervishes into the mix. Cook uses every last scrap of Expert goodness in these two adventure modules. After playing through it, players will never relegate ESP and Dispel Evil off into the realms of the "optional miscellaneous" and creative use of spells in general is going to be particularly important. Heck, just about every magic item in the Expert set makes an appearance in one place or another, and scrolls and potions feature prominently...the NPCs sure aren't afraid to use 'em to good advantage!

The monsters are clever and their tactics explicit (very nice for a DM, very challenging for the players...and thanks to the fact this is B/X not 3.5, combats are still a dream to run). The new monsters are especially cool...comparing the Soul Eaters to the Death Leeches of CM2 for example and Cook's creations win hands down as interesting, challenging, while not being "F the players" AND they all have nice "personality." I prefer the new critters in X4 to the ones in X5 (the Fraggle Rock geonid look downright silly), but the Dusanu and Malfera are totally worthy opponents.

There are a LOT of demonic type creatures in the game...monsters like the Malfera, Spectral Hounds, and Soul Eaters all hail from different dimensions or planes (the Nightmare Dimension? the Vortex Dimension?) that don't conform to any particular "D&D Cosmology." I LOVE this. Cook displays what the REAL potential of B/X is...you can make your games a grim Sword & Sorcery tale and completely leave out the Immortals of BECMI or the planar/clerical specifics of AD&D and later games. B/X has THE EXACT SAME OPEN-ENDEDNESS OF OD&D, except that the rules are better written and organized.

And Cook only uses what he's got...unlike Moldvay's X2:Castle Amber, there is no speculation of what a 25th level character would be like (c.f. Stephan D'Amberville). The highest level character in either book is 14, where he ended his own Set. His additional rules are nothing that would later need to be retconned.

For example: the people of Hule worship Chaotic deities. Which Chaotic deities? Who knows? Who cares? Doesn't matter because they are DEITIES and they work in mysterious ways, granting strange powers to some and undying life to others, and flaming damnation to the poor souls that drop down the wrong chute. Ha! Does everything need to be codified (BECMI, D20...I'm looking at YOU)? Nah...I don't think so.

These modules reiterate all the things I love about AD&D that I hated in later editions...edginess and open-endedness ("an anything goes mentality"). Except it uses B/X...wow.

And that's not just the half of it....

Crap...Cannibals

Nearly missed my bus this morning as I got sucked into reading up on Raggi’s latest over at LotFP and its associated links. I know I’ve heard of Cannibal Holocaust before, but I’ve never seen the film nor do I know much about it.

Sheesh…cannibals.

I don’t know why the idea of cannibalism turns my stomach as it does. I have a fairly high tolerance level for acts of violence, filth, and depravity but cannibalism is one of the few things that really “get me.” Whether we’re talking scenes from comics (Frank Miller’s Ronin comes to mind) or scenes from film (Doomsday comes to mind). I don’t know why.

Not that watching TV shows about historic cannibals (whether the Donner party or the Maori tribes of New Zealand) bother me. Certainly I have no beef (forgive the pun) with cannibalism when it’s handled tastefully (inexcusable pun!). Observe the cannibalism in John Wick’s Orkworld…nothing incredibly terrible about eating folks whien it's part of the native traditions of a culture, in my opinion.

I guess the thing that makes me say, “ew, gross,” has more to do with the exploitive use of cannibalism in fiction…the idea that a group of folks (again, I’m not talking serial killers, as the occasional Hannibal Lecter aberration is to be expected in our crazy society), yes the idea that a GROUP of folks would hunt other humans for the purpose of using them as their preferred choice of food. THAT’s what gets me and makes my skin shudder.

And, of course, this may be the very purposeful reaction intended by the author of such “horror” works that include the eating of people. Really…you want to talk about a fate worse than death? It’s being held captive waiting for your turn on the butcher block. Ugh!

Anyway, as relates to role-playing in general and D&D specifically, I find it interesting that, in looking back over my own gaming history, I have never made cannibalism a part of my games. Not for horror, or suspense, or even humor (the Bugs Bunny in the stew pot variety). Human sacrifice, yes. Impalement and head-hunting, sure. Cannibalism…big, fat no. And this is despite playing many adventures set in “savage” or “lost land” settings (Dwellers of the Forbidden City, the Isle of Dread, and my own knock-offs). If I wanted to take the journey into cannibalistic terror, I had the vehicles to do so but the thought NEVER EVEN OCCURRED TO ME. It is like a curious blind-spot that (in retrospect) appears to stem from my queasiness surrounding the topic.

This is all just musings, folks...I don’t know if it means I’ll be adding cannibals to my future D&D games or anything, just got my brain going this morning. I give lots of props to Raggi for coming up with yet another interesting (and spine-chilling) idea for an adventure module. I hope he gets it done!
; )

From The Jaws of Certain Death (Expert Adventures Part 3)

AKA "The End of the Adventure"

In case anyone's wondering, I personally prefer these extra long blog "stories" to be broken up into parts for easier consumption...that's the main reason I don't post this all as one looooong blarg entry.

(continued from here)

I neglected to mention that after the first couple of earth-bound battles, Roland started to memorize cure light wounds as one of his first level spells. His reason for this was practical...the dwarf warrior was taking damage in fights, and he wanted to be able to heal him (which he would do most every morning). Later on, Roland chucked light from his prayer list...they weren't traveling at night anyway...and started memorizing the spell twice. Things became much more dangerous as the party penetrated deeper into the island interior.

The Phanatons did not know of any giant pearls or lost cities, but they did know of the central plateau located within the mountains interior. They explained that if the party headed northwest they would find the great river, which they could follow all the way to the central plateau. This the group did, only encountering a few groups of (friendly) giant antelope as tey made their way through the mountains.

Once they found the river I could (mercifully) stop rolling to see if they got lost. The journey upriver was fairly uneventful, save for a small party of lizard men they encountered. The lizards approached with signs of peace, perhaps because of the enchanted snakes Roland had conjured as soon as they were spotted (the cleric appeared to be some sort of reptile friend/angelic being). However when Roland was unable to communicate with them, they grew angry and attacked (a 3 reaction roll!) and attempted to spear the blasphemer. However, Roland's party was able to slay all four lizard folk quickly (in one round!) with the help of the cleric's poisonous companions.

Soon enough, they found themselves at the foot of the 3000' high plateau. With no thief to scale its sheer surface and only a couple hundred feet of rope they were at a loss as to how to get to the top. Fortunately Marvello the Magnificent once again proved his worth! The magician had been memorizing fly twice per day since infravision had not been needed in the wilderness in daylight hours, and a quick perusal of the Expert rules showed it could be cast on others. He cast it on both Gorm and Roland, then cast levitate on himself and the party used the mage's magic to reach the top (Narcolim was carried, lashed to Marvello).

Once on the plateau, Roland and Co. made ready for the last push towards the center. A trembling of the earth did not deter them, an ominous warning of what was to come.

From a copse of trees the party was surprised yet again, this time by four ravenous dire wolves! The huge beasts came sprinting from their hiding place to pounce on individual party members, dragging down both Narcolim and Marvello! Poisonous snakes, axe and hammer, all served to slay and drive off the creatures, but not before they had managed to ravage the two magic-users mortally.

Now the raise dead spell in the Cook Expert set is available to clerics of 7th level, but the description makes the time frame for raising subject to the character being at least 8th level. As such, I ruled that a 7th level cleric could only raise a deceased character within one day of death (this was discussed by S. and me at the outset of the adventure when talking about the limitations of the spell). As such Roland was now faced with a choice of whom to raise from the dead...the flying guy that could talk to the phanaton, or the dark mage with the raspy voice that had the mucho useful lightning bolt spell.

S. elected to raise Marvello. As he said, "Narcolim sounded like he was already on his last legs" (I had role-played him with a raspy, sleazy voice...think a combination of Robotech's Khyron and Raistlin from Dragon Lance). He did search Narcolim for the advance money he'd paid him (not there), and took the mage's gear and spell book ("maybe Marvello can use the lightning bolt when he's healed up!").

They then made plans to return to one of the earlier, friendly villages they'd encountered. Roland was not against continuing the adventure with only one mage, but he needed that mage able to fight and cast spells...and walk! And the recently raised dead have a two week recovery period before they're fully functional. Roland was not about to wait on the mountain!

They set off back to the edge of the plateau. As they followed the river to the falls, they encountered two cave bears fishing. Roland cast speak with animals and approached the bears in a friendly fashion. Marvello was strapped to his back. The bears reaction roll was a 3! They attacked! "Run!" yelled Roland. The bears pursued! A swipe at his back re-killed Marvello! The second cave bear mauled the hell out of Gorm. The dwarf attempted to die fighting. He succeeded!

Roland ran to the edge of the cliff, caught his grappling iron on a thick clump of prehistoric shrubs, and threw himself over the side. A check showed the grapple held! The rope nearly jerked out of the cleric's hands but (check and) he held! He slammed against the rock face, but managed to find a crevice within which to wedge himself for the night.

The bears eventually left.

The next morning, Roland climbed the rope back to the plateau. He found Gorm's and Narcolim's bodies had been dragged off by the bears for consumption. He once again raised Marvello from the dead. "Why bother to bring me back if you're just going to kill me again?" croaked the mage.

Strapping the magician to his back (again), the cleric began circumnavigating the plateau, looking for another way down besides the sheer drop. He avoided the giant antelope he encountered. He evaded the pair of wild boar that were rooting through the scrub grasses on the plateau surface. He eventually found an ancient suspension bridge, several hundred feet long, leading to a nearby mountain pass. Fortunately he was able to cross without incident.

[adventure note: there is a 75% chance that flying pteradon's attack parties crossing the bridge...in the past I've seen half a party decimated by their swoop attacks. Roland was fortunate in the roll]

Somehow, he managed to find his way back to the Phanatos village without getting lost. Once Marvello was fully recovered the two, guided by their furry clan mates (they had been made honorary members of the tribe with a 12 reaction roll!), led them safely back to the walls of Tanaroa. There, they found Captain Garrick and his men had been living it up with the tribal villagers for the last several weeks. Boarding their ship, the Lucky Lady, they sailed back to Specularum arriving without incident about a week later (I did not bother with weather/lost/encounter rolls for the return voyage).

THE END

(epilogue to follow)