HUGE RUINED PILE

New blog at Wordpress

2011-08-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

I've switched to Wordpress and will be posting all new stuff here. The old blog will remain as is but will no longer be updated. I'm still learning the Wordpress interface but like it so far.

Thank you for your patience.

Considering a move to Wordpress

2011-08-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

I don't feel like fucking around with the eventual Google Grand Conjunction, I'm still aching from getting blasted in the ass by G+, and tonight's abortive attempt at fixing up the now-imageless archives of this blog proved too irritating and depressing to even go into, so I'm thinking of starting over again with Wordpress.

If I move, I'm leaving this blog up as is, with a link to the new one. No import, because that does nothing to obviate the image issue.

Any tips or feedback from current Wordpress users?

Housekeeping

2011-08-01T04:14:00.000-07:00

I'm more or less over my initial butthurt at the loss of the blog's associated image album, whether it was because of an ambiguous "glitch" on Google's part or something I did wrong. If it taught me anything, it's that in troubled times, I have community support.

(It also taught me that if you want a sharp spike in incoming traffic even when you're not posting anything new and in fact are wailing about not doing just that, you might try getting YDIS to bemoan your loss of fapworthy images.)

I'm going through the blog archives in the next few days and deleting some old posts that were basically nothing but a title and an image. For posts that actually had some accompanying "content," I'm deleting dead image links, with or without a pasted edit indicating that there used to be pictures there but, you know. I'm also cleaning out some of the superfluous personal posts, so the next time I flake out I can act like it's the first time it's happened and we can all pretend no one remembers otherwise.

I can say with certainty that I'm not fucking around with G+ again for a while. Even the densest hilljack will, after being burned once by the bug zapper, thereafter exercise some degree of circumspection in reaching towards it again, even if there's a really big moth just flapping and sizzling away on there.

Thank you for your patience.

Taking a break

2011-07-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

The recent disappearance of every single picture on the blog has me irritated, and I need a break anyway, so I'm taking one. I'm still running the chat game and I'm still planning to distribute the Dwarf-Land stuff.

I'm not going anywhere permanently or long-term, nuking the blog, anything like that ... it's just disheartening to lose like 300 posts worth of pictures, because I'm sure as fuck not uploading them again. Maybe I did something wrong in the course of deleting Google+, but I'm certain I toggled the button to delete G+ content only.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be back, although I have no idea what I'm going to do about those godawful question marks where my images used to be. Like I said, really disheartening.

Missing images

2011-07-29T21:53:00.001-07:00

Right on the heels of deleting my Google+ account, it looks like my images uploaded to Blogger have disappeared. All of them. Neat. Blood in, blood out, apparently.

Bailed on Google+

2011-07-28T22:05:00.001-07:00

I deleted my Google+ account tonight. I don't seem to have a real use for it right now. I read a very narrow spectrum of things on the internet, and I'm already reading about as much of that as I want to, so its function as a delivery system for more internet content was superfluous for me. In my case, it seemed to be functioning much like Facebook, only with mostly gamers I know from online instead of mostly people I know in the meat world.

Anyway, I'll probably be back on at some point, especially if I ever succumb to the urge to run a pickup game using the video chat feature - that seems to be the one relevant feature that everyone's rightfully excited about. Beyond that, it just looks like regular social networking with a different crowd and a better content filtering system.

EDIT: Is anyone else having issues with images in their old posts disappearing, or is Google exacting its pound of flesh for me leaving?

"The Caves" mapping process, and cave symbols

2011-07-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

Above is the very first dungeon map I've started for the Foulrevel dungeon, the uppermost level of "the Caves." It's on standard letter-sized grid vellum, 10 squares to the inch, meaning that in terms of physical space, it's a sprawling level with lots of wide passages and large caverns. I drew it straight on with a sepia Micron, and have scanned it so if I make any horrible mistakes, I don't have to go back and redo the whole damned thing.

Next up, I'm adding "cave features" using the symbols promulgated in .pdf form here. I'm consciously avoiding the dungeon commonplaces familiar from various old blue dungeon maps and seeing what I come up with just dicking around on my own. The symbol list contains a lot of "stuff that I don't know what it is" and I'm hoping for a bit of dungeon dressing and special feature inspiration from that quarter.

I plan to add ample ledges, pits, and at least one crevasse. One or more of the caverns will extend vertically to the second level of the Caves. The main entrance for delver purposes is the one to the west of the map. The northeast tunnel leads up to a secluded location on the surface, and the tunnel to the east leads down to the second level.

I also plan to add a few secret areas and the odd door and other construction. (The as-yet-undeveloped backstory is that, as is usual for OD&D, there was a race of advanced Men or Man-like beings who occupied the area in the distant past, even before the various fairy races. Thus dungeons.)

Unlike many, I'm not a fan of confederated Man-type groups on a dungeon's very first level, opting rather for various vermin, Undead, and magical beasts, along with the odd Dungeon NPC and perhaps roving bands of Man-types from other dungeon levels. I design dungeons with an eye towards use with players of varying experience with the game; for a potential first experience with dungeon delving, I much prefer the "wandering through a weird wonderland" tone of Quasqueton to the tactical slog and small-unit skirmishes of the Caves of Chaos. There's plenty of time for the latter after one's been exposed to the basics of dungeon exploration.

In fact, I hesitated to use a cave system for a potential introductory dungeon level, as I usually draw up the first level or two with mostly nice right angles and rectangles. Precise mapping of the cave system from a player perspective is obviously right out, and I expect most experienced groups will devolve to the "line and balloon" style. But even (or especially) n00bs need to build character.

I plan to place a decent amount of treasure in the Caves, but because of the nature of the denizens, the first level's treasures will be mostly concentrated in a few hoards. Experienced (read: grubby and acquisitive) players will soon send their delvers in search of portals to other, presumably more lucrative dungeon levels.

Foulrevel cross-section, and evil "Man-types"

2011-07-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

Pictured is the first draft of the Foulrevel dungeon cross section after I decided to roll my own rather than using the Judges Guild "4-level dungeon." Click to enlarge.

It's not even remotely to scale right now, and I forgot to add surface connections to the "caves" region. The names are currently placeholders.

Additionally, two of the regions, the Undertemples and the Dwarf Grottoes, aren't really meant for looting and pillaging, although there's really nothing preventing completely antisocial parties from giving it a go.

The regions of the dungeon and their equivalent "dungeon levels" are as follows:

Undertemples: 2 levels, dungeon levels 1 and 2.

Dwarf Grottoes: 1 level, dungeon level 1.

Caves: 2 levels, dungeon levels 1 and 2.

Goblin Grottoes: 3 levels, dungeon levels 1-3.

Lesser Evil Temple: 2 levels, dungeon levels 3 and 4.

Evil Magician Level: 1 level, dungeon level 3.

Deep Caves: 2 levels, dungeon levels 4 and 5.

Greater Evil Temple: 2 levels, dungeon levels 5 and 6.

Maze of Despair: 1 level, dungeon level 6.

People who've been following the project may note that I've wrapped the "Maze of Despair" dungeon into the lowest level of Foulrevel.

Also, here are my current notes on evil Man-types and their adaptation to the dungeon environment:

Delvers will quickly ascertain that the dungeons of Dwarf-Land are the haunts of various evil Man-types in the service of secret societies and weird gods, as well as bands of miscreants up to mere skullduggery. For unknown reasons, the troglodytic lifestyle and an enthusiastic commitment to diabolical mischief confer certain advantages upon these malefactors, mainly such shopworn but useful gimmicks as the ability to see in utter dark and to pass through doors that prove stubborn to delvers not similarly immersed. Such avowedly bad apples are marked with the Evil descriptor and operate unimpeded in the dungeon in the same manner as other "natives."

Dungeon life is not, as best as is known, particularly associated with first-generation albinism or melanism. Evil Man-types look just like other Man-types, albeit with a tendency to opt for blackened armor, distinctive facial hair, and other commonly accepted signifiers of malevolence.

Where did Verbosh go???

2011-07-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

In my teens, I had a lot of fun with the Judges Guild campaign supplement Verbosh. (That part of my life is a blur, but I think I just spitwadded it onto my giant stupid weird homebrew.) It was stupid but in a good way, and the Judges Guild products had an underground DIY feel that really appealed to me at that stage. Not that anything's really changed.

My impression was always that it was a common among commons, and I've had several copies pass through my hands over the intervening years. I think at most I've paid maaaybe $10 for it.

I was just looking for another copy. I have no intention of running it - it's one of those things I now look at and think, "Hell, I can do that" - but I'd like to read it again for shits and giggles and have it lying around for inspiration when I'm working on something kind of half-assed, low-budget, and goofy, i.e., always. I fully expected an eBay search to yield at least a dozen results, from the reasonably priced up to the delusional "RARE VINTAGE OOP LOOK!!!!" one often sees with Judges Guild commons.

eBay has none. Noble Knight has none. Different Worlds has none. What the hell?

I'm not necessarily looking to get pointed towards a copy because like I said, there's nothing in there I can't do myself. I'm just completely puzzled that it's easier to find copies of the woodgrain box or Dwarven Glory than it is to find frigging Verbosh of all things. Seriously, what the hell?

The Gate to Venus

2011-07-21T22:02:00.001-07:00

There's a Gate to Venus on the 4th level of the "4-level dungeon" published by Judges Guild (which I happen to be using as the top four levels of the Foulrevel dungeon for Dwarf-Land). I've been thinking of various Awful Things that could have emanated from the Gate; with the encroachments of the Venusians, the S&S-styled Men of the Empire of Zoob, and the odd Chinese warlord, the poor Dwarves' whimsical, dark fairy tale vibe is ultimately doomed, it's just a question of who will strike the death's blow in the setting's future. But I haven't figured out what the Venusians were.

I had settled on a race of weird Lizard Men, but decided they were too much like Glorantha's Dragonewts. I also considered Firenewts, Yellow Musk Creepers, Land Kelpies, and Mind Flayers*, but I'm trying to only centrally feature monsters from OD&D + supplements + Saturday Night Specials. Finally, I considered Green Slime, perhaps in ambulatory form, but that creates a whole set of issues with dungeon doors and fixtures and so on.

I'm more and more fond of the idea that maybe the "Venus" to which the Gate leads isn't the planet after all ...

* Based solely on the initial description of Mind Flayers in The Strategic Review, there's nothing to suggest that the Flayers are necessarily squidheads. I thought about making them look like Men, with the exception of four flabby waving catfish-type barbels on their chins. Still thinking about it, actually. It's a pretty creepy image.

The Snow Queen of Blitzendrang

2011-07-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

In the early years of his reign, King Flim IV scandalized court and commons by taking to wed an Elf-bride, the Princess Aurtne. Advisors solemnly predicted dire consequences, including but not limited to an infestation of the castle by coteries of sniggering, befrilled, knife-wielding Elvish dandies. This did not come to pass, however, as Aurtne quietly took up residence and collegially accepted the services of Dwarvish retainers in lieu of attendance by her countrymen. In short order, her ethereal beauty and demure manner won over all but the staunchest partisans against Elfdom until there was scarcely a blade in Blitzendrang that would not have drawn blood on her behalf.

By all accounts the King and his new Queen enjoyed a happy and unusually fruitful union, producing robust young Princes and Princesses, each with but a hint of the Elvish line. The castle was filled with the gusty squawls and melodious laughter of children, and the mercurial Flim settled into some measure of serenity.

So it was that one winter midnight, when Queen Aurtne died in childbirth putting forth the youngest Prince, Xerxy (now styled "the Black"), Flim set off into the snow in a towering storm of rage and grief. Finding no succor in the Dwarf Gods or the Mabs, he sought out the eternal crone Granny Grimtits in her decrepit windmill.

That most ancient of the Mabs ("the Children," as the mightiest and darkest Warlocks and Witches of Blitzendrang are called) rebuffed the King's request and laughed at his offers of endless riches or, in the alternative, dire royal vengeance, for even she held no true power against the Reaper. Her cackles took a lower, more ominous timbre, however, as she set forth an alternative. The King, mindless of consequences, bade her cease her incessant screeching and make it be so.

The old Mab hobbled to her ramshackle shelves and drew down a tattered scroll. Dust and bats blew forth as she unfurled it. Glancing at it briefly, she nodded and said it could be made so. Flim, through his tears, missed the malicious twinkle in her furtive sideways glance.

The King himself gathered piles of pristine snow, heedless of the incipient frostbite that later cost him his left ring finger. Horrid guttural syllables were spoken, and the King, now shaken even in his misery, returned to the castle dragging a sledge. Granny watched him go with a whispered aside to an unseen watcher.

It was soon announced that although the childbirth had been difficult, the Queen had merely fallen into a fugue and - against all odds and the diagnoses of the Doctors Royal - pulled through, although she could as yet do little more than take the wide-eyed new Prince to her breast. Certain trusted retainers were assigned a grim task and sworn to the utmost secrecy with the direst of oaths. The Bishops and the more sensitive Mabs, of course, knew that something was afoot but were quietly told in no uncertain terms to leave the matter alone on pain of death.

The Queen emerged from her bedchamber in short order, having effected a miraculously quick recovery, albeit with a (perhaps understandable) new distance and awkwardness to her demeanor. This thankfully passed, although she thenceforth took little company, even from her handmaids, shunning her former confidants to spend hours roaming the castle grounds and battlements with little Xerxy.

In the years since, the esteem of the populace for their lovely, alien Queen has only grown, although the Black Prince's self-imposed exile to Castle Kroog has made her melancholy, and she spends more time on the battlements than in court. Only a handful of folk have noted the passing odd smile at the mention of tragedy; none are privy to her velvet-lined music box lined with skewered slugs and houseflies, and even if they were, none would dare the wrath of her devoted King.

She has, after all, been through a lot.

*****

Game notes: Granny Grimtits used a Spell Scroll to cast the spells necessary to create a Simulacrum from snow, which replaced the dead Queen. As the "original" was dead, the Simulacrum quickly reached its 90% duplication potential. The leftover 10% is very bad. As, it turns out, is Prince Xerxy.

The true Queen's body was consigned to an unmarked grave which Flim visits with increasing regularity.

Not related to this Elf:

First batch of Dwarf-Land PCs

2011-07-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

We've finished initial character generation. The only glitch I discovered after the fact is that we generated a Gnomic Fighting Man and Dwarvish Thief for one of the players, both of which characters are technically impossible under the Dwarf-Land rules. (Things get confused generating multiple characters in chat with a ruleset no one else has.) If it were just one character, I'd say fuck it and make him an exception, but since it's two, I'm proposing that we just switch the races of the two characters. That's what the listing assumes but I haven't talked with the player about it yet. Whatever, we'll get it fixed before play starts.

Each player generated three characters, any one of which they can play at a time. No new PCs are generated by a player until his old ones are all dead. I don't honestly care if the party pools gold, writes in backstories where all the guys with jackass ears are related to Uncle Assfucker McGillicutty, etc.

I'm conflicted on reseeding the Trait tables after a certain number of duplicates. Since we rolled up 12 characters, obviously there was some duplication of racial traits. However, that also produced some interesting synchronicities. This is essentially a playtest, so we'll decide after playtesting.

All the characters will presumably acquire names, equipment, and a background (also known as "a sentence") before the start of gameplay on Tuesday. (I haven't used real names because I didn't think to ask for permission and a couple of the players go by handles in the blogosphere.)

Player #1

1. Dwarvish Fighting Man. Str 17, Int 13, Wis 11, Con 16, Dex 7, Cha 9. hp 7. DUCK FEET, HANDLEBAR MUSTACHE. Lives in A SUBTERRANEAN GROTTO.

2. Gnomic Warlock. Str 9, Int 13, Wis 8, Con 6, Dex 8, Cha 17. hp 1. LEPRECHAUN BLOOD, HAND OF GLORY. Lives in A HILLSIDE SMIAL.

3. Dwarvish Druid of Krampus. Str 12, Int 12, Wis 8, Con 10, Dex 11, Cha 11. hp 3. GOAT HOOVES AND HORNS, SUMMON A NORTH WIND. Lives in AN ANCIENT BARROW.

Player #2

1. Dwarvish Fighting Man. Str 9, Int 4, Wis 9, Con 16, Dex 11, Cha 15. EARS LIKE A JACKASS, CLEAVES TO THE OLD WAYS. Lives in A COZY COTTAGE.

2. Gnomic Thief. Str 10, Int 9, Wis 10, Con 9, Dex 9, Cha 6. Lives in A SUBTERRANEAN GROTTO.

3. Dwarvish Cleric of the Dwarf Gods. Str 9, Int 10, Wis 14, Con 14, Dex 10, Cha 16. hp 5. DISTANTLY RELATED TO THE KING, VIAL OF HOLY MICTURATION. Lives in A TEETERING TOWER.

Tenkar

1. Gnomic Warlock. Str 12, Int 13, Wis 6, Con 7, Dex 11, Cha 14. hp 5. VERY LONG NOSE, KISSED A DEVIL'S ASS [LOL]. Lives in A VERY LARGE MUSHROOM.

2. Dwarvish Fighting Man. Str 15, Int 5, Wis 11, Con 13, Dex 7, Cha 14. hp 3. GOAT HOOVES AND HORNS, TOO TOUGH TO DIE. Lives in AN ANCIENT BARROW.

3. Dwarvish Cleric of the Dwarf Gods. Str 16, Int 9, Wis 13, Con 9, Dex 12, Cha 9. hp 6. GOAT HOOVES AND HORNS, HOTLINE TO GOD. Lives in A TEETERING TOWER.

Player #4

1. Gnomic Thief. Str 13, Int 13, Wis 9, Con 15, Dex 14, Cha 8. hp 3. LEPRECHAUN BLOOD, OUTRUN THE BEAR. Lives in A SUBTERRANEAN GROTTO.

2. Dwarvish Cleric of the Dwarf Gods. Str 7, Int 8, Wis 7, Con 11, Dex 9, Cha 11. hp 6. DUCK FEET, WORK IS NOT YET DONE. Lives in A HOLLOW TREE.

3. Dwarvish Fighting Man. Str 15, Int 12, Wis 13, Con 11, Dex 10, Cha 7. hp 5. EARS LIKE A JACKASS, CLEAVES TO THE OLD WAYS. Lives in A TITANIC BOOT.

Dwarf-Land going live tonight?

2011-07-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

Since I've obviously had it on the brain, it looks like the chat game players are cheerfully humoring my latest flakiness and switching over to a Dwarf-Land OD&D game. (The last couple of years, I've lucked into good [sane and functional] players.) We're doing chargen tonight, testing out the spiffy/goofy new tables, and getting everything in order to explore the first level of Foulrevel next week. Which means I'll have to actually get off my ass and work some more on the first level of Foulrevel.

So Dwarf-Land is getting played before I expected it to. Maybe I'll include some First Fantasy Campaign/Ryth Chronicle-style campaign notes in the supplement.

Scans of current Dwarf-Land map

2011-07-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

I've added settlements and castles. The western half of the map is where the initial action is, so to speak, so it's a bit more "populated" at this point than the eastern half. I still have work to do, including adding more features and naming/lettering the features that I've already got.

Below are an overview photo of the map in its entirety, a detail photo of the Dwarf-Town and Castle Blitzendrang area, and scanned images of parts of the western half of the current map. Click the scans to see larger versions.

I don't yet have any idea how useful the hex numbers will prove with even a first-generation photocopy, much less second-generation and later. Sorry. I'll endeavor to provide "directions" other than hex numbers in the text.

(Please keep in mind that this is just a fun project intended more as an example of how I do things than as a finished setting I actually expect anyone to run.)

Mapping progress

2011-07-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

I've laid down the mundane geographical features for the homebrew Dwarf-Land map. I still have to add settlements, castles, major lairs and dungeons, "weird" features, and general fancying up. I also have to do lettering once I've decided what's what and where.

I went with "cloud"-style forests so they can be easily picked out and differentiated from hills and swamp, and colored in the lakes with a Micron brush pen so they stand out from the forests.

(Side note for your reference: I inked the map, a standard JG blank numbered hex map, with a variety of pen sizes including some heavy brushing, and not a drop bled through to the other side. I've never actually used both sides for permanent maps, but it seems to me one could easily do so. People ask me all the time about the blank maps, so there's the link.)

Below are a couple of images. The first is the current state of the map, the second is a zoom on a haunted lake I've marked with a little ghost. Because it's haunted.

Communing with the Revered Elders, and the Ribald Residence Table

2011-07-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

Despite having access to more classes than in Men & Magic, the Dwarves of Dwarf-Land still top out at 6th level, so the "high priests" of Dwarvish cults are at best Bishops without access to the Commune spell.

However, Clerics of the Dwarf-Gods are not without powers of communion with the spirit world. In the endless dripping catacombs beneath the Temple of the Dwarf-Gods in Castle Blitzendrang are interred ancestors and heroes known collectively as the Revered Elders. These worthies exist in various states of sullen, grasping Undeath and are approached only with a high degree of caution and circumspection, for they resent intrusions by the living (and the cultic covenant with the Elders renders all attempts at Turning inefficacious).

Any Cleric of the Dwarf-Gods who has reached Priest level or higher may descend into the deep catacombs of Blitzendrang to beard the Revered Elders in their domain. This journey has a similar effect as the Magic-User spell Contact Other Plane, but rather than choosing a plane of remove, the Cleric chooses an analogous depth to which he will descend from the 3rd to 12th levels of the increasingly shade-stalked labyrinth. Considerations of sanity and survival conspire to make trips into the catacombs quite rare, but in no event may a Cleric attempt to consult the Elders more than once in a week; more frequent presumption yields the direst possible result.

The Revered Elders' knowledge and veracity is determined per the usual table, as is the Cleric's chance of returning with his sanity blasted. There is also a 10% chance per journey, checked independently of other rolls, that the jealous Undead will claim the Cleric for their own. In such a case, the character is retired from play and joins the ghastly ranks of the Elders, although he may (at the Referee's discretion) reach the threshold and gasp out some or all of his hard-bought knowledge before being dragged shrieking and gibbering back into the depths by unseen hands.

*****

Player characters in the Dwarf-Land campaign are Dwarves and Gnomes, generally assumed to be natives and citizens of Castle Blitzendrang and its surrounding estates. It is therefore also assumed that each player character has a place to live. To determine what sort of residence an individual player character maintains at the start of play, consult the following table:

RIBALD RESIDENCE TABLE (1d8)

You live in:

1. A Hollow Tree

2. A Very Large Mushroom

3. A Titanic Boot

4. An Ancient Barrow

5. A Cozy Cottage

6. A Hillside Smial

7. A Teetering Tower

8. A Subterranean Grotto

The lavishness of the residence's appointments will naturally increase over the character's career through the routine expenditure of upkeep costs and whatever improvements the character independently undertakes. As always, the Referee is encouraged to expand the table and replace entries as necessary to maintain variety in the milieu.

Mapping Dwarf-Land myself

2011-07-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

Slowly excising other people's IP besides the D&D rules ... the latest to go is the Outdoor Survival map. I'd like to have the freedom to publish maps, and to make the terrain exactly how I want it. I really wanted a Merman or Triton city, for instance, and didn't have a place to put one on the OS map. So fuck it, making a map.

I'm not a good cartographer, but I've started a new blank JG map for the Dwarf-Land wilderness. I don't expect it'll take me long to fill it out in a slightly gussied-up "Known World" hex-style.

Below are very early screen shots. I usually get the mountain ranges down, then rivers, swamps, forests, settlements, castles, and dungeons. I've also placed a few dungeons already that you may recognize. Or not, I'm a shit artist.

(I'm placing Quasqueton, Galap-Dreidel's Tower, Acererak's Tomb, and White Plume Mountain. It looks like I may get to run a small tabletop thing here shortly, so I'm peppering in a few of the more "modular" classics. The Tomb of Horrors is waaaaay over to the southeast part of the map.)

I figure it'll take me a few days to get the map about where I want it. I'm contemplating doing my own dungeon maps, too, so I can put them in the supplement along with very sparse keys.

Enchanted jewels of Dwarf-Land

2011-07-17T06:35:00.001-07:00

The tables for gems and jewelry in Monsters & Treasure yield a small chance for the random generation of very valuable items, e.g., there's a 10% chance of generating a 1,000 gp gem, then a 1 in 6 chance of "upgrading" that gem to a 5,000 gp value, then a 1 in 6 chance of upgrading a 5,000 gp gem, and so on. A string of 1s yields a gem of staggering value.

In Dwarf-Land, such items have power. If a gem of 5,000 gp or greater value or a jewelry item of the highest value is randomly generated, that item is automatically an "enchanted jewel" and the Referee consults a table of possible powers and curses.

Spectacular jewels are beautiful, obviously, but that beauty fuels avarice, and their early histories are often steeped in blood, misery, and treachery. It is thus rare for the magical effects of such baubles to be uniformly beneficial, and almost all enchanted jewels carry at least some minor baneful effect, if not an outright curse.

I'm developing a fairly short table of suggested magical effects for use when an enchanted jewel is indicated. I'm also writing up a table of names for some of the more famous or infamous known gems or items of jewelry.

Note that I'm not connecting the "name" and "effect" tables - I prefer for such matters to be matters of supposition and rumor rather than definite assignment. Legends notwithstanding, no one's really sure what the diamond-studded platinum chain known as the Tentacular Tongue of Vroonops does.

Inspiration for the tables comes from S&S stories, Earth legends about famous gems and their curses, and the reputed mythical properties of jewels as drawn from the DMG 1e and the moony suppositions of people who spell magic with a "k".

For instance, the Eye of Termagant may turn out to be a 10,000 gp diamond which serves as a Stone of Good Luck when carried by a female character, but a Jewel of Attracting Undead Attacks when carried by a male.

The Carbuncle Crown of Blitzendrang

2011-07-16T07:09:00.001-07:00

King Flim IV, ruler of Castle Blitzendrang and first among the loosely confederated peers of Dwarf-Land, wears the ancient Carbuncle Crown as part of his regalia*. The Crown is of great antiquity and not so opulent as jewelry crafted today, being forged of dull red copper and encrusted with cunningly faceted crimson garnets.

It is known that the Carbuncle Crown is enchanted, for it magically fits the brow of the sovereign who sits the throne. What is not known by any currently living** is that the Crown, crafted when the Dwarves were more fey and fickle, is in fact a Helm of Chaos (Law). Thus is explained the frequent historical instances of capricious Princes becoming reliable administrators and generals in the years following their coronation, and the increasingly erratic behavior and incipient power-madness evinced by the formerly constant Flim IV.

(Ironically, it may be that if the treacherous Black Prince Xerxy were to achieve his goal, he would eventually become the finest King that Dwarf-Land has known.)

* The Donnerhammer, another Dwarvish artifact traditionally associated with the rulers of Castle Blitzendrang, has been lost to the depths of the Maze of Despair dungeon.

** Granny Grimtits has her suspicions but keeps her own counsel.

The Alternative Combat + Weapon Type Matrix

2011-07-15T06:43:00.001-07:00

(For background, see here.)

Rather than teasing out an individual matrix for each class and level cluster (e.g., Fighting Man 1-3, Cleric & Thief 1-4, etc.), I've compiled a single matrix and noted the appropriate bonuses to hit by class and race.

I know some folks are averse to the idea of a unified table to which bonuses are applied. Sorry. For what it's worth, it's a pretty simple matter to cut and paste the original table for each additional progression, then apply the appropriate modifiers formulaically. I just didn't see the point. If that's something you feel you might like to do, I can send you the original table in .doc or .odt format.

The following text accompanies the matrix:

OPTIONAL COMBAT MATRIX

The Referee may choose to use the matrix below in conjunction with the alternative combat system detailed in Men & Magic to determine successful hits in combat.

Note that the matrix should not be considered the ultimate arbiter of the relative desirability of each weapon in all circumstances. No table should trump common sense, which the Referee must apply in adjudicating combat situations.

For instance, certain weapons requiring a great deal of room to bring to bear, e.g., flails, two-handed swords, and the like, may be difficult or impossible to employ in the often narrow confines of the dungeon game.

Other weapons may provide an initial bonus to initiative determination, but prove useless in close combat, e.g., pikes and other pole arms.

These situations lie within the Referee's discretion and must be adjudicated on a case-by-case basis.

Monsters, even Man-types, do not use this table under normal circumstances, instead using Attack Matrix II: Monsters Attacking regardless of weapon class.

Each missile weapon class has a number listed in parentheses. This number is the maximum effective range of the weapon. Modifiers to hit are based on this range. The first number is for short range, the first 1/3 of the maximum range; the second number is for medium range, the next 1/3; and the final number is for long range, the last 1/3.

Only one matrix is provided, with guidelines for use with characters of higher level. It is left to the conscience of each Referee to decide if use of a unified table with character-specific modifiers is a step too far down the road to perdition and apostasy.

And here's a screenshot of the matrix itself and accompanying notes re: bonuses:

If you'd like a .pdf copy of the matrix, please drop me a line at hugeruinedpile at gmail dot com and I'll be happy to provide it. I have no idea if this matrix will prove useful to anyone but me, but it'll be presented as an optional variant in the Dwarf-Land supplement.

EDIT: This was absolutely inspired by the table in the Ryth Chronicle, although I had to independently arrive at the conclusion that a unified table worked best for me. I'd mentioned elsewhere that I was reading it, but I wanted to mention the inspiration and provide a link for anyone who hasn't seen it yet and who doesn't track my every inane blathering on social media. Thanks to Risus Monkey for providing this gnarly resource to everyone.

"Alternative Combat System" + Weapon Type vs. AC matrices - any interest?

2011-07-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

I'm fried and unfit for work for the rest of the evening, so I'm starting my Dwarf-Land combat matrices, which combine the original matrices from Men & Magic with the weapon-type-vs.-AC matrix from Greyhawk. Each class will have its own combat matrices - one for melee, one for missiles - with the number needed to hit each AC listed by weapon.

I don't use variable weapon damage, and I don't use ability score modifiers to hit other than the Dexterity mods listed in Men & Magic, so determining hits is almost entirely a matter of checking attacker's weapon and level, defender's armor type, and rolling on the appropriate matrix. For missile weapons, range is also a factor.

Most monsters are considered "unarmored" but there will be frequent exceptions for lightly-armored (as leather), moderately-armored (as chainmail), and heavily-armored (as platemail) creatures. For the Dwarf-Land supplement, I suspect I'll provide both my updated matrices and a listing of "armor type" for each monster.

Anyway, before I get started - is there any interest in this outside of the Dwarf-Land application? And has someone already done it so I don't necessarily have to do it again? If anyone wants the tables when I'm done, I'll stuff them in a .pdf divorced from any Dwarf-Land dross.

EDITED to add screen shots of my initial go:

Dwarf-Land screen shot: Languages and some other crap

2011-07-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

Dwarf-Land screen shot: my Spell Scroll rules

2011-07-13T12:15:00.001-07:00

Taking a break for a few minutes and wanted to post another excerpt from my notes thus far. Keep in mind that spells in Dwarf-Land are cast "spontaneously," meaning the practical effect of a Spell Scroll is that a Warlock (or other Magic-User) can, once per day, trade in a 1st level spell slot to cast a spell on the Spell Scroll. This makes them pretty damned good items, depending on what's on them. Each has its own "Scroll of ________" name (Scroll of Dacoltoth, Scroll of Ishain, etc.).

I think of most of these scrolls as roughly on the same level as a Wand - you can't spam with them like you can with a Wand because of the "once daily" restriction, but they're more flexible if they bear multiple spells, and they don't use charges. They're also made of paper, though, which is a potential fragility issue. One does not necessarily want to get hit with a Fire Ball or a Cloud Giant's sword, which goes without saying anyway.

There are a couple of randomly generated scrolls in the campaign that are very powerful, e.g., the Master Scroll of Muadelc, which contains Darkness 5' Radius, Wizard Lock, Locate Object, Massmorph, Monster Summoning II, Cloudkill, and Move Earth. I consider such an item to be of a great magnitude of enchantment, much like a Staff of Power or Wizardry, likely to be possessed and jealously guarded by the most powerful NPCs, monsters, and traps in the setting.

Anyway, I don't like for everything magical to be completely standard, so I thought I'd tinker a bit. Keeping in mind that these scrolls should be placed in accordance with their new power level, I think it's an interesting variant.

Dwarf-Land screen shot

2011-07-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

I've had no time to mess with the Dwarf-Land stuff this week, as I have two sets of habeas corpus pleadings due on Friday. (Rather than spending my Tuesday night with the T&T chat game or reading A Dance With Dragons as I'd like to have been doing, I spent it reading a stack of transcripts, watching the All-Star Game, and making asinine comments on Facebook. Yay.)

However, I did get to make some notes over the weekend, and below is a screenshot from the notes on existing monsters as they're found in Dwarf-Land. I apologize if it's not readable without zooming.

Martian White Ape miniatures by Bronze Age

2011-07-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

I mentioned previously that while stocking Dwarf-Land using the OD&D tables, I randomly generated two castles with EHPs as their lords. Both of these evil temples got "White Apes" as guardians. I decided that these were two rival temples of the Cult of Zoth, an as-yet-undetailed evil deity associated with the usual sinister culty naughtiness (Demons, Undead, squiggly knives, etc.) in addition to extraterrestrial simians*.

For OD&D games, I like to use the four-armed White Apes of Barsoom rather than the boring two-armed troglodytic White Apes of Moldvay's Basic**. While looking for good images of the great Martian apes, I ran across these "Mutant Apes" by Bronze Age Miniatures. They look dead on to me. And although I haven't seen pics of them next to other minis, they look like big bastards (especially if one uses old 25 mm minis for PCs).

I'm always on the lookout for miniatures to represent commonly-encountered-but-rarely-sculpted monsters***, so I thought I'd share.

* The major background conflict in Dwarf-Land is between the currently dominant Dwarf regime (with its fairy-tale tone) and the encroaching Men of the Empire of Zoob (with its S&S trappings). There are also Venusian Nomads and Chinese expat colonies in the mix, but the bottom line is that in the long run, the Dwarves and Gnomes and Elves with their curly shoes and quirky enchantments are no match for the truculent, prolific invaders.

** I can understand wanting to file off the Burroughs serial numbers, I guess, but I can't understand being faced with "two arms or four?" as a real design question re: giant white gorillas and opting for the former. Especially when Moldvay's selected monster set is so pulpy anyway.

*** Reaper's good for this sort of thing occasionally, and their monsters are usually very well-done. I suppose their characters are, too, but they haven't stayed in business for so long by not knowing their market, so the character sculpts are increasingly chunky and comic-book-y with giant stupid Cloud Strife swords and so on.

While I'm thinking about it, if you remember what WFRP really means and were a Fimir enthusiast (as were all right-thinking people), you may enjoy the "Bog Raiders" here.

If I were recommending minis for a Dwarf-Land game - or if I were running one with miniatures myself - I'd go for the MegaMinis "Townfolk" catalog for characters, NPCs, humanoids, and some monsters, and fill out the non-humanoid monster ranks (where scale matters less) with Reaper and other modern lines. (The MegaMinis character offerings are cheap, decently sculpted, and of a suitable scale to mix with the odd classic Grenadier, Heritage, Minifigs, or Ral Partha.)

The Dwarf-Land "sandbox", dungeons, and city

2011-07-09T18:24:00.000-07:00

Although I'm personally using a transcribed version of the Outdoor Survival map for Dwarf-Land, I've decided against providing a Wilderlands-style numbered hex key for the castles, lairs, and so on. It's unreasonable to expect most readers to not only have access to Outdoor Survival but to bother transcribing it accurately onto a blank Judges Guild hex map they don't own either.

Instead, I'm listing the same information for the map elements (settlements, castles, dungeons, and lairs) as I had planned, but will simply list the kind of terrain surrounding the map element on the off chance someone would want to place it or something similar on their own map. I'll also provide short blurbs re: geographical features I'm using, such as the Eldritch Alps, the Wortmarch, and the Lesser Everglooms, for easy lifting or other use*.

I'm less sure what to do about the dungeons Foulrevel (the 4-level dungeon) and the Maze of Despair (Sunstone Caverns). My instinct, for the same reason, is to simply provide a very brief level-by-level guide to common monsters, factions, tricks, notable treasures, and so on. The dungeon maps are more easily available in usable form than the Dwarf-Land version of Outdoor Survival, but it's still a bit of a pain for the reader.

Finally, for the same reason, I'll probably provide a short writeup on the major players and businesses of Castle Blitzendrang, divorced from the original Thunderhold map. If someone has that map and wants to use it, it'll be easy enough to do so, but the supplement won't assume that everyone has it.

On the bright side, this makes me feel less guilty about using JG material in a fan project; although I'll almost certainly provide notes about using Dwarf-Land with the relevant products, they're no longer integral parts of what I'm distributing.

I'm hoping to have something worth mailing out in the next two or three weeks. I imagine I'll send out about twenty copies and let it distribute itself as it will. There's been more interest expressed than I expected, but I suspect everyone who wants a copy will get one.

* I personally get the most use out of other people's campaign notes and supplents as examples to inspire my own stuff. I love looking at other folks' campaigns but rarely actually use anything - one of my favorite products ever is First Fantasy Campaign and I don't think I've ever actually used a word of it.

Settlements and Castles of Dwarf-Land

2011-07-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

What I've got so far. I'm planning to flesh out all of the castles by inhabitants' treasure types as I've done with 4121 CASTLE DEATHCAP below, so that player characters can potentially hear various rumors and suppositions regarding specific fabulous treasures in specific sinister citadels. This is a first draft so cut me some slack on any typos and inconsistencies (but still point them out).

Settlements

0118 GLUMEN. 600 Dwarves.

1917 DWARF-TOWN. 3,000 Dwarves.

2201 THREEN. 1,000 Men.

2233 PLETRA. 4,000 Men.

2313 ULV. 3,000 Men.

2317 THE GNOME KNOLLS. 500 Gnomes.

2322 ISP. 600 Dwarves.

2717 FLONKERTON. 500 Dwarves.

4318 TARKA. 4,500 Men.

Castles

0317 MALIFER CASTLE. 234 Dwarves, leaders are 1 Myrmidon, 2 Swashbucklers, 2 Heroes.

0824 CASTLE PHUME, THE FORTRESS OF FECULENT FEAR. Vladovarius the Ghoul King (Lich Wizard, 16th level), Ross and Al the Greater Ghouls, 29 Ghouls.

0930 CASTLE BLIX. 134 Bandits, leaders are 1 Lord, 2 Myrmidons, 4 Heroes, 1 Neutral Wizard (11th level) with 3 Basilisks.

1014 CASTLE DARKDURDLE. 262 Dwarves, leaders are 2 Heroes, 4 Swordsmen.

1117 THE SNICKERING CITADEL. 187 Gnomes, leaders are 2 Magicians, 2 Conjurers.

1211 CHMORP CASTLE. 195 Gnomes, leaders are 2 Magicians, 1 Theurgist, 1 Conjurer.

1404 CASTLE DRASMETH. 171 Elves, leaders are 1 Hero-Warlock, 2 Warrior-Thaumaturgists, 1 Warrior-Conjurer.

1508 THE FEARFUL FANE OF ZOTH. 163 Brigands, leaders are 1 Evil Lord, 2 Myrmidons, 1 Swashbuckler, 5 Heroes, 1 EHP (11th level) with 11 White Apes.

1616 THE TITAN'S TUMULUS, TEMPLE OF TERMAGANT THE TERRIBLE. 157 Dervishes, leaders are Patriarch (11th level), 6 Heroes.

1832 CASTLE UNDRAC. 181 Brigands, leaders are 1 Myrmidon, 2 Swashbucklers, 6 Heroes, 1 Evil Necromancer with 7 Werewolves.

1922 CASTLE RURSLIV. 207 Dwarves, leaders are 1 Myrmidon, 4 Heroes.

2127 GLUDIF CASTLE. 150 Elves, leaders are 1 Hero-Warlock, 1 Warrior-Thaumaturgist, 1 Swordsman-Conjurer, 1 Hero-Seer.

2205 CASTLE ORLOCK. 196 Dwarves, leaders are 4 Swordsmen.

2308 ***CASTLE BLITZENDRANG***. 1,500 Dwarves, leaders are King Flim IV (Dwarf Myrmidon), 4 Myrmidons, 9 Swashbucklers, 10 Heroes, 13 Swordsmen. 500 Gnomes, leaders are 2 Magicians, 3 Thaumaturgists, 3 Theurgists, 4 Conjurers.

2423 CORMORANT CASTLE. 248 Dwarves, leaders are 2 Myrmidons, 1 Hero, 3 Swordsmen.

2510 CASTLE KROOG. 232 Evil Dwarves, leaders are 1 Myrmidon, 4 Swordsmen.

2703 THE TENEBROUS TABERNACLE OF ZOTH. 136 Brigands. EHP (10th level), 6 White Apes.

2719 CASTLE SAWBLEED. 213 Dwarves, leaders are 1 Myrmidon, 2 Swashbucklers, 2 Heroes.

2805 HEXID CASTLE. 153 Elves, leaders are 1 Hero-Warlock, 1 Swordsman-Thaumaturgist, 1 Warrior-Thaumaturgist, 1 Veteran-Seer.

2927 CASTLE PLUGH. 197 Dwarves, leaders are 1 Myrmidon, 3 Heroes.

3414 CASTLE XYZZY. 205 Dwarves, leaders are 4 Heroes, 1 Swordsman.

3625 PAK'S PERFIDIOUS PAGODA. 158 Brigands, leaders are Warlord Pak (Evil Lord, 9th level), 2 Champions, 2 Myrmidons, 5 Heroes, 1 Hopping Vampire.

4121 CASTLE DEATHCAP. 195 Evil Gnomes, leaders are 1 Magician, 2 Theurgists, 1 Seer, Cacogenia the Medusa Sorceress with 1 Gorgon. 9,000 gp, Wand of Fear, Potion of Giant Control, Potion of Treasure Finding, Potion of Invisibility, Scroll of 2 spells.

4203 NUCKELAVEE CASTLE. 208 Gnomes, leaders are 1 Magician, 2 Theurgists, 2 Conjurers.

Hinterlands of High Dudgeon

2011-07-04T14:33:00.001-07:00

I was the only human in the house all weekend. In between catnaps and the occasional melee with rodents and mustelids, I wrote up 16 pages of 10-point monotype and did a pencil draft of the Dwarf-Land/Outdoor Survival map on a blank Judges Guild "beige map."

I'm dividing most of the material up roughly along the same lines as the original OD&D books - characters and magic, followed by monsters and treasure, followed by dungeons and wilderness. In addition to a sketchy key for Castle Blitzendrang, I'm keying the wilderness map, mostly using the guidelines in the 3LB. This has been a lot of fun, resulting in robber castles, fairy-fortresses, and a few "specials" like the Fortress of Feculent Fear, a.k.a. the Lich-Lair of Vladovarius; the Petrified Palace of the Masked Medusa, who decorates her immaculate terraced lawns with those Gnome servitors who have displeased her; and the as-yet unnamed "Lawful Dungeon", an enclave of do-gooders to whom skullduggering parties can put the boot.

The work so far includes settlements, castles, and lairs keyed to the numbered JG hex map. It looks like I'm ending up with something reminiscent of such inspirational early game aids as Wilderlands of High Fantasy and Verbosh, although my own work obviously suffers in the comparison for being so highly derivative of the work of others (and the fact that neither I nor anyone else can be Bob Bledsaw, Sr. like he could).

Other tidbits:

* I renamed the Sunstone Caverns as the Caverns of Despair. I figured a perfectly vanilla name would serve as a nice contrast to my usual anagrams and obscurantist alliteration, especially since the best anagram I came up with was "Nun-Snot Crevasse".

* Castle Blitzendrang's Warlocks and Witches belong to the Shadow Mirth Lodge. In the original Thunderhold key, it's an inn. (I think. Haven't looked at the original info since I started this project and don't plan to.) In my campaign, it's a creepy fairy hybrid of Wizard's Guild and coven. Seriously, I'm not wasting that name on an inn.

* The nastiest magic sword thus far generated is Wrathspackle, the Abysmal Estoc of Sorcerous Slaughter, a Neutral blade the special purpose of which is to impale Magic-Users.

* Dwarf and Gnome names are strange to outsiders, often consisting of seeming nonsense words (Xerxy, Glangin, Wargarbl, Plimk, Zmexut) or odd compounds (Moonmouse, Weedgallow, Beambones, Gobshite, Cramcoffin).

* I've reseeded the magic item tables to deal with the issue of being about a million times more likely to get a magic sword than a Potion of Healing.

* I generated two different EHP castles, each with White Ape servants. I decided these are rival temples of the same cult, so Zoth the Undefined Evil Deity Associated With White Apes now has both a Fearful Fane and a Tenebrous Temple on the campaign map.

* One of my current placeholder castle names is "Brigands of Bastion Balabushka".

* There are a couple of nasty Dragon lairs on the map. I randomly generated White Dragons as the type for both lairs, but will probably do my own Dragon variants.

* Some of the "lairs" I generated are begging to have mini-dungeons built around them, like the lair of 3 Balrogs hanging out in the middle of the plains for some reason.

* The OD&D random wilderness encounter tables generate a shitload of Lycanthropes, Bandits, and Brigands.

* At some point, I'm distributing Dwarf-Land for free. I don't like .pdf's and will mail out some number of xeroxed copies for personal use to a few people who ask for them, and would appreciate it if each of those people would agree to distribute it by mail or hand only, and to make a copy for another person or two if asked. I figure maybe a half-dozen people, a dozen if I'm lucky, will want a copy under those terms, and I think I can manage photocopies and postage for that.

* The Dwarf-Land supplement will make reference to but won't include proprietary maps of the Judges Guild and Avalon Hill.

* Although all my gaming stuff is a labor of love, or at least temporary ardor, I recognize that in the grand scheme of things, this is a piss-ant fan project. I have no desire for it to be anything else. I'm not bothering with the OGL, retroclones, or any of that shit, and I don't feel like spending money on or begging for art. I'd actually love to talk to Chris Beaumont, the guy who did the cover for White Dwarf #1, about using that piece because it perfectly encapsulates what I'm going for, but I have no idea how to get in touch with him and I'm not going to rip my hair out trying.

* This is the current intro blurb to the wilderness section of the document:

Outdoor Survival map to Judges Guild blank hex map

2011-07-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to discover that the Avalon Hill Outdoor Survival map transcribes almost perfectly to the old Judges Guild numbered hex maps - starting in the far NW corner, it maps exactly to the Y-axis of a blank Judges Guild map, and it leaves enough room to the right of the X-axis for a decent legend and compass rose.

Above is a pic of the initial pencil draft, which has just become the Dwarf-Land campaign map. Now that I have the transcription done, I can put the OS map board back in its box and get to work prettying up and inking my campaign map and stocking the towns, lairs, and castles.

More Dwarf-Land tables: Progressive Perdition and Druid Traits

2011-07-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

The following tables are, as usual at this stage, early drafts. My likely practice, in order to keep things interesting, would be to replace with new material any entries rolled by player characters.

PROGRESSIVE PERDITION

Even Lawful Warlocks must engage in some level of ritual perfidy and secret trafficking with leering otherworldly sorts. Such unseemly behavior is helpful in accruing arcane power, but causes progressive degeneracy which, though most often minor, potentially implicates all aspects of one's person from toenails to spiritual integrity. Accordingly, whenever a Warlock gains a character level beyond the 1st, he must roll on the Progressive Perdition Table to determine the deleterious effects of his dealings.

PROGRESSIVE PERDITION TABLE

1. You cackle uncontrollably at the tragedy of others. You may shed only three honest tears in your life.

2. You carry a faint ambient reek of formalin. Clerics can turn you as an Undead of equivalent level.

3. You must turn widdershins thrice before sitting.

4. You have a superfluous nipple in a conspicuous location. The nipple occasionally hisses.

5. You live in mortal terror of eggs, convinced that their contents are fatal to you. You may be correct.

6. You acquire a new wart every solstice and equinox. The warts are prone to shifting positions.

7. Silver is sovereign against you. Even silver crossing your palm may paralyze you, and a wound from a silver weapon causes you to save vs. poison or die.

8. Your skin is waxy and clammy, and you emit small puffs of spores when wounded. Left alone in proper soil, the spores will eventually sprout fat stinking mushrooms with crude likenesses of your face.

9. Your night soil writhes and burbles.

10. You owe your soul to a Devil and have long since squandered whatever you sold it for.

DRUID* TRAIT TABLE

1. You ALWAYS HAVE CANDY. Regardless of your personal circumstances, you can instantly produce a small supply of low-to-middling confections such as candy canes, butterscotches, and hard ribbony bits. More involved lollies such as Turkish delight and peanut brittle are beyond your dweomercraft.

2. You can SUMMON A NORTH WIND of brief duration, complete with a light dusting of snowflakes. The gust is not quite sufficient to douse torches but may cause the unprepared to squint and tear up. It is especially efficacious in adding a foreboding atmosphere and for causing one's hair to whip about in an impressive fashion.

3. You can MAKE TOYS. The quality of the toy depends on the circumstances. Given enough time and proper facilities, you can produce splendid jacks-in-boxes and intricate little clockwork gendarmerie; hard pressed on the spur of the moment, you are limited to naff gewgaws and gimcracks such as pinecones with googly eyes.

4. You have a PUNCH DOLL ON A STICK. The doll talks to you, albeit through your mouth, with your lips moving, and with a high-pitched version of your own voice. You can unerringly detect the relative level of niceness or naughtiness of a tot's moral constitution, and can additionally use the doll to Detect Evil once per day on adults, vicinities, items, and the other usual targets of such divination. The doll communicates its findings in a shrill stage whisper. Children understandably find you fantastically creepy.

5. You can PULL A SILVER COIN FROM A CHILD'S EAR a number of times per day equal to your character level. It is inviolable custom that the coin be turned over to the child from whom it was yanked, on penalty of ear-piercing shrieks from the offended urchin and the shocked, censurious clucking (and possibly worse) of all right-minded onlookers. Shoving the moppet down a coal chute and pocketing the lucre for one's own upkeep is simply not done, at least if anyone else is about.

6. You can ASCEND AND DESCEND CHIMNEYS at your usual movement rate, regardless of the narrowness of the chimney or whether the flue is open. Your locomotive powers are even proof against associated cozy fires, although you emerge with some picturesque smears of soot even if no fire is lit. You always wear tinkly bells.

* Clerics of Krampus are Druids and function generally as detailed in Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry.

More like alone-ment languages

2011-07-03T05:13:00.001-07:00

A contrarian impulse - as well as a desire to actually use the "stupid" rules in OD&D where possible because they often turn out not to be so stupid - has led me to leave alignment languages in the Dwarf-Land campaign. Am I the only person using the things?

Dwarf-Land miscellany

2011-07-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

First things first: It's obvious by now that the Dwarf-Land material I'm working on has no connection whatsoever to my own version of the Wilderlands, and is connected to the original Wilderlands of High Fantasy only insofar as I'm using the Judges Guild's Thunderhold, Sunstone Caverns, and "4-level Dungeon" maps. I'm therefore dispensing with the Wilderlands connection altogether. The wilderness region of Dwarf-Land is now the Outdoor Survival map, and I'll be renaming Thunderhold ("Castle Blitzendrang") and Sunstone Caverns (fuck if I know).

A few more miscellaneous notes from the burgeoning campaign document:

* I've decided to reserve the Cults of the Thrumming Sphere and the Quiescent Cube for a different game, perhaps the ongoing Idrizoob dungeon game. They don't really have the right feel for Dwarf-Land.

* The Warlocks and Witches of Dwarf-Land can arm themselves not only with daggers, but with pitchforks and tridents, and with magical staffs.

* The Warlock common spell list* no longer includes the Sleep spell. Although it's undeniably useful to novice PCs, it makes the early game a bit boring and predictable. Since casting in Dwarf-Land is spontaneous, players will hopefully be able to find something useful to do other than "rock dice, everyone falls."

* Clerics are unrestricted as to edged weapons but cannot use magic swords, which will only serve warriors (not priests and burglars).

* There are three temples on the Thunderhold map. Two are consecrated to the Dwarf-Gods - one in the Outer Castle for the commons, and one in the Inner Castle for the nobility and well-heeled. The latter has catacombs in which the dead walk or waft, depending on level of retained corporeality. These revered restless dead are consulted occasionally by the temple priests but are sullen and unpredictable. The clergy of the Dwarf-Gods are standard Clerics of all three alignments. Anti-Clerics are unknown among the Dwarves.

* The third temple is the Church of Krampus. The Dwarvish clergy of Krampus are Supplement III Druids, and are more concerned with the distribution of rewards and punishments to the nice and the naughty than with the balance of nature. They still use mistletoe. They tend to Neutrality but may be of any alignment, which factor may affect their outlook on the reward/punishment scheme.

* I'll need to jot down a Druid Trait Table, and will refrain from including a MISTLETOE BELT BUCKLE.

* There are no ability score minimums for the classes used in Dwarf-Land.

* The Warlock common spell list is now as follows:

1st Level

1. Charm Person

2. Detect Magic

3. Hold Portal

4. Light

5. Magic Missile

6. Protection from Evil

7. Read Languages

8. Read Magic

9. Shield

10. Ventriloquism

2nd Level

1. Darkness, 5' Radius

2. Detect Invisible

3. ESP

4. Invisibility

5. Knock

6. Levitate

7. Locate Object

8. Mirror Image

9. Pyrotechnics

10. Wizard Lock

3rd Level

1. Clairaudience

2. Clairvoyance

3. Dispel Magic

4. Fire Ball

5. Fly

6. Monster Summoning I

7. Protection from Normal Missiles

8. Slow Spell

9. Suggestion

10. Water Breathing

Dwarf-Land Trait Tables: The first lot

2011-07-02T16:26:00.001-07:00

I'd eventually like to expand these to 12 entries for each table, but this should give the idea. Prior to the start of play, each character rolls once on each appropriate race and class trait table. Some of the entries are "better" than others, and I may replace each entry once a character rolls it.

This is a draft that I literally just typed up, so if there are typos or inconsistencies, cut me some slack.

If you have any ideas for additional entries, let me know and I may adapt (steal) them and act like I thought of them myself.

TRAIT TABLES

Dwarf Trait Table

1. You have DUCK FEET, which you may use to swim very well or to swiftly put out flaming bags.

2. You have GOAT HOOVES AND HORNS. You have only half the usual chance of failure at any climbing attempt. You may butt unarmored opponents for a die of damage. You chew tobacco like it's your job.

3. You have BROWNIE BLOOD. You're a dab hand at shoe repair and can do trade as a cobbler in your off time, thus disregarding the usual monthly upkeep costs. Your own shoes have posh silver buckles and are unimpeachable.

4. You have EARS LIKE A JACKASS. Double your chances of successfully listening at doors, but automatically fail your saving throws vs. Harpy songs and the like. Your laugh is fearsome.

5. You have a CAST IRON STOMACH. You may digest anything you can eat, and are immune to ingested poisons. You are always hungry, and the emanations from your fundament are sufficient to shake one's faith.

6. You are DISTANTLY RELATED TO THE KING. You are invited to weddings and galas, though you don't get choice seats and must suffer the prim hectoring of forbiddingly wealthy dowagers. Once in your life, you may beg audience with the King on short notice and be assured of getting it, along with a not entirely unsympathetic ear. You have access to the better sort of tailors.

Gnome Trait Table

1. You have a VERY LONG NOSE, reminiscent of a cucumber. You have a keen sense of smell and are prone to sneezing and snotting when within 10' of at least 1,000 gp worth of gold.

2. You have LEPRECHAUN BLOOD. You may cast Dimension Door on yourself once per day, to any destination within range and sight, but you must quickly drink at least a pint of strong ale to do so.

3. You have PIXIE BLOOD. You may cast Invisibility on yourself once per day, but you must giggle and titter audibly at least once per round for the duration of the spell.

4. You have EYEBROWS LIKE CURLING ANTENNAE. +1 Intelligence. Your dreams are portentous but inscrutable.

5. You have TEETH LIKE A RAT. You may chew through ropes and the like with great vim, and may bite unarmored opponents for a die of damage. Your zeal for cheese is infamous.

6. You GET ON FAMOUSLY WITH VERMIN. Thrice in your lifespan, you may prevail upon one of the local creeping or flying things to carry a message to a single person anywhere on the Thunderhold map, and may trust that it will somehow make itself understood. After the third such boon, further attempts result in your being savaged on your nether parts by an earwig.

Fighting Man Trait Table

1. You have the DESTINY OF A HERO, QUITE POSSIBLY. You roll an extra damage die on all successful attacks against Demons, Dragons, and Giants. You are frequently plagued by adoring urchins, grasping slatterns, and yearning horse-faced spinsters.

2. You CLEAVE TO THE OLD WAYS. +1 to Reaction Rolls when interacting with Old Money, the aged, and other traditionalists. You always speak in rhyme and refuse salted food.

3. You have an outsized and flamboyant HANDLEBAR MUSTACHE (or, if female, LOCKS LIKE SPUN GOLD). +1 Charisma. You are perpetually stood to drinks in exchange for ribald stories.

4. You have a FLUGELHORN. You may blast a stirring reveille which bolsters the morale of your retainers for the duration of the current combat against all but magic-induced rout.

5. You are TOO TOUGH TO DIE. You remain temporarily ambulatory, if a bit addled, up to and including a negative hit point total equal to your character level. You can't trundle along for long in such a condition, and it would be best to see a Cleric to look at that with all due haste. Thereafter, you occasionally see the Reaper in the periphery of your vision.

6. You TAKE THE PERIL OUT OF PARALYZATION. You automatically make your Constitution-based survival rolls against paralysis, petrification, and so on. You grow increasingly and perilously nonchalant about these experiences. You have a reputation as a bit off.

Warlock (Witch) Trait Table

1. You have a HAND OF GLORY. You may use it to cast the Sleep spell a total of five times as if that spell were on your common spell list. Each use burns up a finger or the thumb, with the middle finger going last.

2. You affect a TOP HAT AND FROCK COAT (or, if a Witch, a POINTY HAT AND SMOCK DRESS WITH CRINOLINE) WHICH YOU WEAR WITH INIMITABLE ELAN. +1 Charisma, and targets of your Charm and Suggestion spells suffer a -1 penalty to their saves.

3. You have a BEDBUG FAMILIAR. In return for the odd drop of blood (yours or whatever), it gives counsel. You double all chances of learning interesting rumors, and are privy to the intimate details of your compatriots' physiques and assignations.

4. You have KISSED A DEMON'S ASS. Targets of your spells roll their saving throws with a -1 penalty, but another spellcaster's Protection from Evil spell will keep you out.

5. You have a PITCHFORK OF GREAT ANTIQUITY. You may use it once to cast any spell you know without using one of your allotted spells for the day, even if you're utterly knackered, spellwise. Upon the completion of this conjuring, the pitchfork crumbles to dust with an exhausted sigh.

6. You can PUTREFY VICTUALS AND POTABLES with a glance. You eat at taverns for free but are occasionally haled into court by angry bumpkins.

Cleric (Anti-Cleric) Trait Table

1. You have a HOTLINE TO GOD. Once per character level, you may pray for Divine Intervention with a percentage chance of success equal to twice your character level. If you roll doubles on your percentile roll, your god takes you into its bosom or analogous nook, never to return. (If your roll was successful, the god grants your prayer before snatching you up or down.)

2. You have a single vial of HOLY MICTURATION from a saint, deceased pontiff, or your god itself. When fully consumed, it will do one of the following: heal all hit point damage; cure any one malady such as disease or paralysis; or act as a Restoration spell. The drinker must, if he is not already a devotee, pledge allegiance to the god at the nearest temple at the first opportunity or retroactively and immediately lose this benefit.

3. You are a SNAKE HANDLER. The Snake Charm spell is on your common spell list. You have a bucolic accent and possibly a well-gnawed corncob pipe.

4. Your god has plans for you and thus, in time of great need, you can CHEESE IT. You may speak the Word of Recall once, whisking yourself away to your temple sanctum. The shades of any compatriots slain after you bugger off will haunt you, proving astonishingly resistant to turnings and exorcism.

5. YOUR WORK IS NOT YET DONE. The first time you die, you are Reincarnated in your temple sanctum as a random monster of the same dungeon level as your character level, re-rolling any results indicating Undead and other anathema or otherplanar creatures. If your new form is humanoid and can speak, you retain your character level and most or all of your old abilities and may gain some new ones, depending on the form. If not, you will be taken care of as a temple mascot, possibly aiding your sect in grifting the faithful.

6. You are SANCTIMONIOUSLY OBDURATE, receiving a +1 bonus on your saves against all mind-affecting spells and effects. You must get the last word in any conversation or argument or you will literally explode.

Thief Trait Table

1. You have GYPSY BLOOD. Add 10% to your chance to pick pockets and to the value of your monetary treasure share for each adventure. Your compatriots must replace silverware, doorknobs, and drawer handles after your visits.

2. You can OUTRUN THE BEAR. In any situation in which you and one or more compatriots are being pursued, your movement rate is at worst 1" faster than your slowest compatriot.

3. You have a FIDDLE. You can wrangle an invitation to any secular social gathering. Devils are wise to you and will refuse any fiddling challenges, insisting instead on backgammon.

4. You are the object of the OCCASIONAL ATTENTION OF AN ITINERANT TWEEN. When you and at least one compatriot attempt saving throws against the same effect, you may elect to add a +1 bonus on your saving throw. All of your compatriots then suffer a -1 penalty on their own saving throws.

5. You have a keen inborn understanding and acceptance of MORAL RELATIVISM. You can literally change alignment at will, requiring only a trip to the temple for a new Rite of Alignment to seal the deal. Any magical effect that is contingent on your character's alignment affords you the opportunity to change alignment as appropriate to avoid negative consequences. A tenured academic position in the liberal arts awaits you upon your retirement from adventure.

6. You are a PANDER (or MADAM). You have an interest in a typically lucrative local fleshpot and may safely ignore the usual monthly upkeep costs in addition to enjoying the perquisites. You automatically learn one new rumor between each of your adventures. One has difficulty imagining any possible complications.

The Dwarf-Land setting blurb

2011-07-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

As you may know, I advocate very little pre-game exposition. Anything beyond that is either implied in the house rules or can come out during play. Here it is for Dwarf-Land:

On a crag in the shadow of the Majestic Mountains lies enchanted Castle Blitzendrang, the Thunderhold, glimmering fortress of Dwarf King Flim IV. The castle's cottages and surrounding fields, furrows, and groves are the haunts of sturdy Dwarves and cozening Gnomes. The furtive Dwarfkin see to their business and industry in shadowed fairy-taverns and misty lamplit streets untrod by Men, remaining vigilant against terrors from the forsaken dungeons of Foulrevel and the Sunstone Caverns. Heroes brave these perilous purlieux and the old enemies - Goblins, Giants, Dragons, and worse - to reclaim rivers of gold, fabulous jewels, and the lost Donnerhammer of the ancient Kings.

Poll: Which Bugbear?

2011-07-02T05:30:00.000-07:00

My initial random monster generation yielded a lot of Bugbears in Foulrevel and Sunstone Caverns. I'm curious about the blog community's Bugbear of choice - the pumpkin-headed "Jack-o'-Bear" type of Supplement I, or the macrocephalic fuzzy type of the Monster Manual and later depictions. I used to be all in for the former, but I've grown somewhat partial to the latter.

I've posted a poll to settle this vital question of our time.

EDIT: The big-headed fuzzies won over the pumpkin-heads by a decent margin.

Dungeons of Dwarf-Land: Foulrevel and Sunstone Caverns

2011-06-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

There are two dungeons marked right on the Thunderhold map: the Sunstone Caverns, which is an extensive one-level dungeon, and the "4-level dungeon", which is actually at least a 7-level dungeon based on the keyed connections, not counting the Gate to Venus. Each dungeon has some details published in the original City State of the Invincible Overlord supplement, all of which I'm completely ignoring. Today I broke out the 3LB, Supplement I, and the Monster and Treasure Assortment ("MTA") and did a bit of work on both dungeons.

I promptly named the 4-level dungeon "Foulrevel", which I think sounds cool (and which is an anagram for "four level"). It's designed for beginning and mid-level adventuring. I'll only be detailing 7 levels, which is plenty for a setting in which characters top out at 6th level, barring Wishes and the like. Sunstone Caverns has only one level, and is designed for mid-level adventuring - its average level for purposes of gauging peril and reward is 4th or 5th, which means that it will quickly overwhelm beginning parties on anything other than the briefest sorties.

I had actually forgotten how much fun it can be to stock a dungeon using random generation as the primary tool. My method so far is totally pulled out of my ass and has been as follows:

1. Count the rooms on the level.

2. Per OD&D, about a third of the rooms are populated by monsters, so use the MTA to generate a number of level-appropriate* monster encounters** equal to a third of the rooms on each level.

3. If the monster has a treasure type entry in OD&D, jot that down and generate the treasure, not bothering with prorating the treasure for the number of monsters***. If it doesn't have a treasure type, don't worry about it because it'll probably all even out.

4. Mush together all the monsters on each level, consolidating like monsters, and figure out interesting interactions between different monster groups, boss types, monsters of like and different types on neighboring levels, etc.

5. Mush together all the treasure regardless of level, then parcel it out across the levels and among the monsters as appropriate, so the randomly generated Staff of Wizardry isn't in the hands of a Kobold on the 1st level of the dungeon. Probably.

6. If there aren't obvious leader types and boss monsters on each level, or if you want additional factions or opportunities for roleplaying, politicking, etc., add a few more potential leaders, bosses, and "dungeon NPCs" to each level.

7. Add "Saturday Night Special" monsters and treasures, such as weird shit from Venus.

8. Add some traps, set pieces, and goofy shit.

9. Develop wandering monster tables for each level or area based on what you've done in the previous steps.

10. Develop a few rumors that PCs can hear about fabulous treasures, horrible monsters, forgotten evils, eldritch portals, and so on, based on what you've done in the previous steps.

I've made it about halfway through steps 4 and 5 for each dungeon. Using the MTA, one winds up with a traditional "classic" monster array, from Kobolds and assorted scuttling spuds on the first level all the way "up" to EHPs, Vampires, and Demons on the lower levels. Random treasure generation has interesting results - I wound up with some neat stuff to distribute, including a Dwarf-type +3 Warhammer, several Magic Swords (one of which is pretty insane), a Ring of Many Wishes, a bunch of other cool items, and the aforementioned Staff of Wizardry.

I'll probably have the first three or so levels of Foulrevel mostly stocked in the next day or so, and will then set it aside for a while. I know what's in the Sunstone Caverns but am not messing with it for a bit.

* When using MTA, I don't bother with the OD&D table that provides for the possibility of monsters of lower or higher level on a particular dungeon level, as the MTA tables obviously incorporate something like that.

** My version of MTA has several monsters on each level that appear in B/X but not OD&D; I either bumped these to the next monster that does appear in OD&D, or figured I can stat something like a Giant Rattlesnake in literally about 5 seconds.

*** As far as I'm concerned, it's a good idea to overstock dungeon levels with treasure to allow continued advancement in the face of character death, multiple parties, energy drains, treasures that are never found, etc.

Dwarf-Land house rules so far

2011-06-30T07:37:00.001-07:00

Unlike some folks, I don't frontload a ton of house rules these days. I just pick an old ruleset I like, make a few alterations, then get things started. My house rules tend to develop on their own as needed - a player question requires a judgment call which is scribbled down and later codified, or someone wants to play a non-standard character requiring some new rules, or a flash of inspiration hits and something unusual is developed and introduced to the ongoing campaign. That sort of thing.

I'm still unsure of the level of house-ruling I want for Dwarf-Land. At the very least, I'm designing a table for each race and class to determine weird fairy characteristics like long noses, jackass ears, rat teeth, leprechaun blood, handlebar mustaches, fancy hats, and the like at the start of play. These tables will probably use d12 or d30, depending on how peppery I'm feeling when I get around to it. Effects will range from minor to fairly significant, and from helpful to baneful (often both).

(I suspect that as I develop more setting material, it'll get wrapped into the rules. We'll see.)

The Dwarf-Land stuff is (right now) technically part of my Wilderlands of Darkling Sorcery setting, but a Dwarf-Land campaign would likely be self-contained and separate from the greater setting, so I haven't really given any thought to the implications of the rules or setting material as they affect the WDS proper.

These are the house rules I've jotted so far. Note that I am using alignment languages.

D W A R F - L A N D

A Dungeons & Dragons Supplement by Scott Driver

Last Modified on June 30, 2011

Rules

Dwarf-Land uses the original Dungeons & Dragons rules published in 1974, including Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, with modifications as noted below. Familiarity with the Dungeons & Dragons rules is assumed.

Characters

All player characters in Dwarf-Land are Dwarves or Gnomes, distinct subtypes of the same fairy racial stock. Dwarves may be Fighting Men or Clerics. Gnomes may be Warlocks (Witches) or Thieves.

Under normal circumstances, characters in Dwarf-Land may not exceed the 6th character level.

Dwarves

Dwarves are doughty fairy creatures, stolid by the standards of their kin but sly and fey by human lights. As with all fairies, there is a high degree of physical variance between individual Dwarves. The "average" Dwarf is about 4' tall, with twinkling eyes, pale complexion, and a predilection for curly-toed shoes and distinctive hats and hoods. Those Dwarves who grow facial hair do so formidably.

Dwarves may be Fighting Men or Clerics.

Dwarves are hardy, with a high level of magic resistance, and so roll all Saving Throws as if they were 4 levels higher. They note slanting passages, traps, shifting walls and new construction in underground settings. When listening at doors, they hear noise on a 1-2 on 1d6, rather than 1 on 1d6 as for Men.

Ogres and Giants have a difficult time hitting Dwarves, and score only half the usual damage against them.

Dwarves of all alignments are common, but they tend towards Lawfulness and Neutrality.

In addition to Gnomic, Common, and the appropriate languages for alignment and Intelligence, Dwarves are fluent in the Kobold and Goblin languages.

Prior to the start of play, each Dwarf character rolls once on the Dwarf Trait Table.

Gnomes

Gnomes resemble Dwarves in most particulars, but are slightly smaller and more cunning.

Gnomes may be Warlocks (Witches) or Thieves.

Gnomes are not as resistant to magic as their Dwarvish kin, but are equally adept at noting unusual underground features and are similarly keen of hearing.

Ogres and Giants have a difficult time hitting Gnomes, and score only half the usual damage against them.

Gnomes of all alignments are common, but they tend towards Neutrality and Chaos.

Gnomes speak the same languages as Dwarves.

Prior to the start of play, each Gnome character rolls once on the Gnome Trait Table.

Fighting Men

Except as noted below, Dwarf Fighting Men function as detailed in Men & Magic.

When engaged in melee combat with opponents of 1 Hit Die or lower, a Fighting Man may make one melee attack per round for every level of experience he has attained. Thus, a Hero fighting Orcs would make 4 melee attacks per round. If a Fighting Man is engaged in melee combat with even one creature above 1 Hit Die, he does not gain the benefit of these extra attacks.

Prior to the start of play, each Fighting Man character rolls once on the Fighting Man Trait Table.

Warlocks (Witches)

Except as noted below, Gnome Warlocks (Witches) function as Magic-Users as detailed in Men & Magic. All references to Warlocks apply equally to Witches, who are female Warlocks.

A Warlock may cast a number of spells per day as detailed in the Men & Magic tables for Statistics Regarding Classes. The Warlock need not prepare specific spells ahead of time, but may choose the spells that he casts on the spur of the moment.

Warlocks are assumed to acquire grimoires containing all common spells of the levels they can cast, one book per spell level. If a duplicate set of such books is desired, the cost is 2,000 gp for a book of 1st level spells, 4,000 gp for a book of 2nd level spells, 8,000 gp for 3rd level, and 16,000 gp for 4th level.

Warlocks select their daily allotment of spells from their personal grimoires, which contain the appropriate common spell list as well as those spells they have themselves researched. There is no known limit to the number of spells a Warlock may have in his grimoires.

The Read Magic spell is necessary for a Warlock to read any magical writing other than that he has scribed himself. This includes spell scrolls.

Prior to the start of play, each Warlock character rolls once on the Warlock (Witch) Trait Table.

Clerics

Except as noted below, Dwarf Clerics and Anti-Clerics function as detailed in Men & Magic. Anti-Clerics function as Clerics except as otherwise noted.

Clerics who belong to the Cult of the Dead or the Cult of the Thrumming Sphere function as standard Clerics. Clerics who belong to the outlawed Cult of the Quiescent Cube function as Anti-Clerics.

A Cleric may cast a number of spells per day as detailed in the Men & Magic tables for Statistics Regarding Classes. The Cleric need not prepare specific spells ahead of time, but may choose the spells that he casts on the spur of the moment.

Clerics are assumed to acquire holy texts containing all common spells of the levels they can cast, one book per spell level. If a duplicate set of such books is desired, the cost is 2,000 gp for a book of 1st level spells, 4,000 gp for a book of 2nd level spells, 8,000 gp for 3rd level, and 16,000 gp for 4th level.

Clerics select their daily allotment of spells from their personal holy texts, which contain the appropriate common spell list as well as those spells they have themselves researched. There is no known limit to the number of spells a Cleric may have in his holy texts.

Anti-Clerics cast reversed versions of certain spells, and may not turn the Undead.

Prior to the start of play, each Cleric character rolls once on the Cleric (Anti-Cleric) Trait Table.

Thieves

Except as noted below, Thieves function as detailed in Supplement I: Greyhawk.

A Gnome Thief opens locks and removes traps as if 4 levels higher than his actual character level.

A Gnome Thief moves silently and hides in shadows as if 2 levels higher than his actual character level.

Prior to the start of play, each Thief character rolls once on the Thief Trait Table.

Hit Points

A character's hit dice are the dice rolled to determine how many hit points of damage the character can take. "Plusses" are the number of points added to the total of all dice rolled, not to each die. Thus, a 5th level Fighting Man gets 5 hit dice + 1. They are rolled and score 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, totaling 12 + 1 = 13 hit points.

Upon attainment of a new experience level, the advancing character re-rolls all hit dice as indicated for his new level. If this new total is higher than his current maximum hit points, then the new total becomes his new maximum hit points. Otherwise, the character retains his old maximum hit point value. This mitigates the effects of unusually high or low hit point rolls over the course of a character's career, as the character's hit point total will tend towards the mean as play progresses.

Alignment and Alignment Language

Dwarves and Gnomes have respective racial tendencies towards certain alignments, but each alignment is openly represented in the society of Dwarf-Land, and there is no particular stigma attached to any alignment. Most Dwarves and Gnomes are open about their alignment among friends and family, and many display their allegiance publicly.

Lawful does not necessarily mean "good," and Chaotic is not equivalent to "evil." There are Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic members of each clan and cult, and there are good and evil adherents of each alignment.

A Lawful character may find a Chaotic character's broad ethical stance to be frustrating or even intolerable, and vice versa. However, insofar as doctrinal and ethical disputes occur at any widespread level, these generally evolve along political and religious lines rather than according to strict alignment divisions. An example is the violent sectarian conflict over the true shape and vibrational characteristics of the Thrumming Spheroid (Quiescent Cube), which conflict implicates adherents to all three alignments on each side.

All player characters and most non-player characters and speaking monsters in Dwarf-Land are fluent in the appropriate alignment language. The ability to speak an alignment language is supernaturally acquired through the Rite of Alignment, a magical ritual undertaken in the character's temple around puberty. It is incredibly rude and intrusive to address a stranger in alignment language.

If a character's alignment changes, he loses the ability to speak alignment language until he undertakes a new Rite of Alignment.

Alignment languages do not have written forms.

Locations on Thunderhold map

2011-06-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

The following locations are marked on the Judges Guild map Thunderhold: Castle of the Dwarven King, which is the main campaign map for my new Dwarf-Land project. I plan to detail each of them to some extent, and several seem pretty interesting just based on their names, e.g., "Shadow Mirth Lodge".

Keyed locations:

A. Marblehead Tavern

B. Engineer

C. Lofty Inn

D. Summit Saloon

E. Bounty and Bludgeon Inn

F. Master Smith

G. Jeweler

H. Wheelwright

I. Master Armorer

J. Souring Mug Saloon

K. Toymaker

L. Towering Tavern

M. Emerald Tankard Inn

N. Crossbowmaker

O. Sage

P. Scarlet Archer Alehouse

Q. Shadow Mirth Lodge

R. Animal Trainer

S. Stage Coach

T. Border Warders' Barracks

U. Jewel Thief Pub

V. Mountaineer

W. Scribe

X. Woodcutter

Y. Mercenary

Other locations:

* Cave entrance to the 4-level dungeon

* Sunstone Caverns

* Goat Trail

* Vagabond Trail

* Rorystone Road

* Rocky Rapids, with a bridge crossing

* Pastures and groves

* A small bog

* Axe Banner Legion Barracks

* Several other barracks

* Two temples*

* High Keep

* New Keep

* King's Pasture

* Assorted lamplit streets

* As of right now, one of the two main cults of Dwarf-Land is centered on the veneration of revered ancestors, many of whom are still active in the temple catacombs despite their deceased status. The other is centered on the worship of a sentient thrumming spheroid, with subcults devoted to its oblate and prolate aspects (and an outlawed cult promulgating the heresy that the object of devotion is, in fact, a cube).

Dwarf-Land

2011-06-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

I've settled on the project I sketched out earlier today. The entire canon is pictured above, with the possible addition of the Illusionist class from the Winter 1975 issue of The Strategic Review, depending on how I decide to handle the spellcasting Gnomes.

I decided on base OD&D because I'm just more comfortable with it at this point, and I personally find it easier to customize. I'm developing house rules for the magic-using Gnome character class, and possibly for the local weird degenerate Venusians known as the Moon-Men.

I'll probably also come up with a few relatively minor front-end customization options to make playing Dwarf and Gnome PCs a less uniform experience from character to character, since there will probably only be two or three character classes.

The region I detail will be relatively isolated and self-contained, with a lower power level for campaigns set there owing to the level limits on non-human characters in OD&D. It's assumed that action takes place in Castle Thunderhold and its immediate environs, including the 4-level dungeon and the Sunstone Caverns.

A "demihumans only" campaign is virtually the opposite of the sort of campaign I usually run, and that - combined with the unusually low implied power level - should make for a fun exercise. Since the setting I'm contemplating covers such a small area, I'm hoping to have the time to eventually describe the region and its citizens, cults, monsters, treasures, and so on in a reasonable amount of detail. I may do a short (free) OD&D-style supplement if I come up with enough material.

Wilderlands of Darkling Sorcery: Thunderhold

2011-06-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

I'm still deciding on a setting project to work on while I'm running the Idrizoob dungeon game. My potential trial for this morning, as expected, didn't go, so I had a bit of time to think.

One likely idea is a campaign set in my Wilderlands of Darkling Sorcery setting but confined to the Dwarf-land of Yimkal-Azim, aka Thunderhold. I did a bit of work on the Dwarves and Gnomes of my Wilderlands but was never satisfied with the results, and would like to take another crack with a more or less blank slate.

I checked my small stack of remaining RPG materials and was happy to find that I still have my Judges Guild maps of Campaign Map One, Thunderhold, the Sunstone Caverns, and the "4-level dungeon." As usual, that's all I'd work with, disregarding the published canon and sketchy keys of those areas except as vague inspiration.

Action would be confined to Thunderhold and its immediate environs. Characters would be Dwarves or Gnomes, or possibly Moon-Men (the "Moonrakers" of canon, actually stranded and degenerate Venusians in my campaign). If I don't use the Moon-Men as a PC race, then Dwarf or Gnome spellcasters will be available - Clerics of some sort, and either Dwarvish Magic-Users with an alternate spell list, Gnomish Illusionists, or both.

Adventures would involve reclaiming the 4-level dungeon, the Sunstone Caverns, and maybe eventually the ancestral Dwarf-land of the Majestic Fastness if I keep that storyline.

I'd use OD&D (probably) or AD&D 1e (maaaybe).

Thoughts?

Thank you for your input

2011-06-26T11:56:00.001-07:00

The poll wound up yielding a result very close to a four-way tie. Since there were only five choices, the only thing I really learned was that no one other than my current players wants me to work on Idrizoob.

The choice I'm going with is "none of the above." I don't know exactly what that means be yet. I'm leaning towards a "primitive-traditional" OD&D setting encompassing the original three little books, Outdoor Survival, and nothing else. Everything in the 3LB would be present in the setting, and nothing not in the 3LB would be present in the setting. Even with that set of constraints, I think there's an awful lot of space to work.

I realize this sort of thing is either old hat or tragically hip to great segments of the blogosphere. I can only guarantee that, if that's the project I work on, I'll do my best to be neither boring nor ironically "above" the material - I want to play it as straight as I'm capable of doing.

Anyway, I have a lot of work to do this week, along with a possible trial tomorrow morning, so I'm not making any final decision yet. Input is obviously still welcome.

Pick what I work on next

2011-06-23T08:55:00.001-07:00

I was looking through some of my old setting posts from this blog and others, and have the urge to mess around with some "outside the dungeon" stuff for a bit. I've posted a poll in case there's anything in particular that anyone cares to see more of. Otherwise, I'll probably roll a die or something, as I'm waffling between things I've already worked on or making myself come up with something new.

(Note that the "Wilderlands" option barely resembles the canonical Wilderlands at all at this point - it's only retaining the name because of its original inspiration - so if you're a Judges Guild or Wilderlands of High Fantasy fan, it may not be to your liking.)

Toxic Tower chat game, session 4

2011-06-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

Cole's map and key here.

(The first levels of my dungeons are easy to map, with standardized construction, simpler puzzles, more vermin and vanilla monsters, more obvious traps, etc. Not necessarily "boring" (hopefully) but more forgiving, for lack of a better word. Things get weirder and more dangerous the deeper one delves. I believe this is the default model for early dungeon-based RPGs and it makes sense to me.)

Last night we had three players, with a fourth who was online and in the chat but may have been having the same storm-related connection issues I had throughout the night. Our fifth, who plays the junior vampire PC, stopped by the chat long enough to bow out due to illness. The PCs were:

Quintus Quiggly, Warrior, adds +4

Samuel Smartypants, Wizard, adds -2

Rathman Brecht, Wizard, adds -2

The delvers continued to explore the initial Great Hall, this time taking a northern corridor leading to a set of weird metallic beige double doors with a sigiled panel to the right. Experimentation confirmed that this was in fact an elevator connecting the first through third levels of the tower.

The delvers decided to risk popping briefly up to the second level. The elevator doors opened to reveal what appeared to be a large temple chamber dedicated to Gnophke-Ptorast, along with at least a half-dozen of the worm-corpses thus far ubiquitous in Gnophkite areas of the dungeon. The delvers promptly buggered off back down to the first level.

The delvers then headed back through the thrumming arch - which didn't thrum this time around, suggesting to them that either the dungeon was "learning" their identities or that the arch recognized the eyestalk-smiley badges they wore. They briefly conversed with the ancient robed Fezbian in the registry chamber, then entered a side chamber.

The side chamber contained a quartet of sinister-looking grinning monkeys in little monkey outfits, each wearing a different hat that seemed ludicrous in a simian context - cowboy hat, sombrero, top hat, and miter. The monkeys surrounded a large basket of the picnic type, and were more or less identical*. The grinning monkeys spoke in creepy unison, informing the delvers that the basket contained four bananas, and that each monkey must be given a banana, with one banana remaining in the basket. They further indicated that if this distribution were accomplished, the monkeys would serve the delvers, but if not, and quickly, the monkeys would rip them limb from limb and eat them, and that flesh was as good to them as a banana.

This being a simple "first level" puzzle, the delvers promptly figured out that the first three monkeys could be given a banana each, and then the basket - with the fourth banana remaining within - was given to the final monkey (Sombrero Monkey).

The monkeys devoured their bananas, and Sombrero Monkey solemnly and Spanishly informed the delvers that they had done well, and the monkeys would serve them. The monkeys all piled into the basket and closed the lid behind them.

Taking up this newfound monkey bounty, the delvers explored further, coming to a large chamber in which a four-headed troll stood guard over a large treasure chest and several doors. Unlike most of the dungeon residents encountered thus far, the troll proved utterly unreceptive to parley and attacked.

The delvers unleashed the horrible monkeys and a pair of Take That You Fiend spells; although the troll fought viciously, and seemed to regenerate to some degree, the combination of magic, monkey savagery, and good old hacking reduced the beast to bones in a trice. (The monkeys devoured the troll's flesh, lamenting the effects of regeneration on their digestion.) It was, however, soberingly clear to the delvers that without the aid of the monkeys, the troll would have been a horrifying opponent requiring creative thinking to defeat or bypass without casualties.

The delvers were very pleased to find that the treasure chest contained a significant quantity of coins - silver nerps and gold snids, 1,000 of each. They transported the whole chest out of the dungeon, visions of new armor, spells, and magic staffs dancing in their heads, and we ended for the night with all three PCs having achieved 2nd level.

Everyone seems to be having fun so far, but the limitations of the T&T combat system at its most basic are showing. Essentially, whoever wins the first round or two of combat is likely to win the entire combat, so it behooves the delvers to front-load their best magic and attacks to win the first round by a significant margin, after which there's little drama. This is probably realistic - most opponents fight less effectively once you fire a sizzling psychic bolt or two into their faces while sticking swords in their guts - but gets a bit boring. As I noted above, my first level monsters tend to be vanilla, consisting of MRs only and maybe a minor special ability. Higher level monsters are more complex, with full ability scores (or at least Constitution) to obviate the "death spiral" problem; thus I don't see it being a long term problem, or a dealbreaker if most combats with wanderers and other non-"special" monsters continue to use the abstract system. But it is an issue that the Referee should recognize when running T&T.

I'm waiting to see how the newly minted 2nd level delvers distribute their bonus points, what spells and goodies they buy, and so on. T&T has a fairly elegant system for ensuring that each choice has a trade-off, e.g., Luck-spamming every level is the most effective way to increase raw Combat Adds, but combat characters also have to juggle the scores necessary to wield the most effective weapons. Similarly, spellcasters have to satisfy the Int and Dex requirements to learn spells as well as the increasingly staggering Str costs to cast the best spells. Character advancement is a pretty neat little web of a mini-game, and it occurs incrementally and without an insane amount of bookkeeping. Cool stuff for 1979.

Fun is apparently still had by all.

* The cowboy monkey seemed slightly more rootin'-tootin', the monkey with the top hat slightly more posh, the miter monkey more magisterial, and the sombrero monkey evinced a thoroughly offensive "Hispanic" accent that'd make the designers of Warhammer FRP 1e blush.

Toxic Tower, Level 1: screen cap of player map

2011-06-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

Session report coming tomorrow. Until then, here's a screen cap of a map that one of the players has been keeping. Notations and keying are his.

A Quick Mandragora Primer

2011-06-21T05:41:00.001-07:00

Below are some excerpts from the original Mandragora blog - example NPCs, monsters, rules, etc. - in case you didn't see it the first time around, or saw it and don't remember it (not wholly unlikely, considering I wrote it and don't remember it). Hopefully this conveys some useful information about the setting and its tone. I've only edited a couple spots, so it's scattershot and some of it probably wouldn't apply if I were to run a Mandragora game tomorrow.

I originally envisioned Mandragora as a B/X campaign but shifted it to T&T 5th. I have no idea what ruleset I'd use if I were to run it now, but I think most of the stuff below assumes either B/X or T&T.

ABOUT MANDRAGORA

Short version: "The Brothers Grimm join the Judges Guild."

Long version: Mandragora is a fairy-tale-influenced setting inspired by public domain sources such as Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, the works of Lord Dunsany, the travelogues of Sir John Mandeville, and especially traditional fairy and folk tales as collected in Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, presented with a healthy dose of 1970s and early 1980s gamer culture. Visually, it draws inspiration from a variety of classic fantasy artists including Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Sidney Sime, John Bauer, and Henry Justice Ford.

Mandragora is very loosely placed in an undefined medieval-to-Renaissance corner of "fairy tale Earth." That's as specific as it gets. I'm including plenty of references to, and NPCs/monsters/items from, various Earth countries like Persia, Cathay, France, Spain, Africa, and so on. But the action won't ever shift there, and I don't plan to "locate" Mandragora or worry about anachronisms or relative geography.

THE GOBLINS OF MANDRAGORA

The island kingdom of Mandragora is named for its best-known indigenous species, a malicious lineage of Goblins known as the Mandragora or Mandrake Goblins. The Mandragora are, like all Goblins, Chaotic fairy-creatures antagonistic to Men, but are distinguished from other Goblins by their peculiar affinity for plants and vegetable matter.

It is said that the Mandragora spew forth from a thoroughly foul and wretched demesne on the Isle, some forsaken vale or sodden moor wreathed in snapping flytraps, flabby vines, reeking corpse-flowers, and blood-soaked fields of unhallowed loam from which new Mandrake Goblins sprout.

The Mandragora have been mostly driven out of the regions of the Isle settled by Men, but still haunt the surrounding wilds. Uniformly vile and hateful, they are responsible for a panoply of atrocities, including baby-snatching, well-fouling, milk-souring, and the occasional abduction of some more-or-less innocent goat-maid. They delight in the mortification and consumption of human flesh, and will even go so far as to render down the bones and skin of their victims into a gruesome stew, in which the Goblins soak their rooty feet.

The "baseline" Mandrake Goblin is a man-like thing about the size of a human child, clad in rags and perhaps a soiled hood, with a twisted form, fantastically ugly features, and wide mouths full of needle-sharp fangs. All Mandrakes exhibit one or more distinctly vegetable characteristics -- mossy eyebrows, wooden horns, carrot noses, gourd heads, and so on. The touch of iron is painful to Mandrakes, and they use only weapons and implements with wooden hafts -- spears, rakes, hoes, pruning forks, spades, and so on.

Larger Mandragora exist, including gnarled Hobgoblins, pumpkin-pated Bugbears, and venomous Thouls. Smaller unintelligent Mandragora, the writhing Manikins, are often used as sentries by virtue of the piercing shrieks they emit in the presence of Men; it is unknown if these are immature Mandrake Goblins or some sub-species.

The Mandragora are ruled by a caste of Witches who fly about on magic brooms, brew vile potions and poisons, and presumably engage in other practices accepted by learned men to be part and parcel of the craft of Witchery. About them little is yet known, although it is believed they hold Sabbats at which they pay tribute to a hideous Bugbear Warlock, or perhaps kiss the arse of the Devil himself.

THE FAIRY OF THE DESERT AND THE YELLOW DWARF

Mandragora is a patchwork of tiny kingdoms (sometimes literally, e.g., the Mouse Kingdom or the Empire of the Ants). I'm sifting through my source literature for an idea of who and what I'm placing on the map as significant sovereigns, monsters, and other encounters. The following two NPCs are adapted from Madame D'Aulnoy's "The Yellow Dwarf" as presented in Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book; they are two of the setting's most vexatious Fairy creatures, and are frequently involved in plots to bedevil Men or even Kingdoms. The Fairy of the Desert is, in fact, one of the most powerful Witches in the setting.

[Note: I keep NPC write-ups pretty brief, and don't necessarily follow every detail from the stories.]

The Fairy of the Desert: A malign and fickle Fairy of great sorcerous power, the Fairy of the Desert is a tall crone, hobbling on a crutch, clad in ragged red robes with a black taffeta ruff and red velvet hood. She can take the form of an incomparably beautiful maiden to ensnare youths who catch her fancy, but she cannot disguise her gnarled and filth-encrusted feet, no matter her form.

A variety of monsters serve her as mounts, beasts of burden, and guardians. When traveling by land, she squats in a cart pulled by fire-breathing turkeys; by air, she vaults through the skies in a bat-drawn chariot. She lives in an splendid bejeweled magical palace with emerald walls, diamond arches, and the like.

When wrathful, the Fairy bears a deadly lance and sits astride a fierce Griffin, and swaddles her neck and shoulders with venomous snakes. She is a dab hand at melee combat, but is most fearsome as a Witch.

The Yellow Dwarf: A tiny, ugly little bald man with a yellow face, yellow coat, and long ears, the Yellow Dwarf is fond of lurking in trees, munching citrus, and hatching plots or extracting promises to ensnare this or that Princess or other Beauty in matrimonial durance. When roused to battle, he is a quick and merciless fighter, riding a great housecat and wielding a wicked knife.

The Yellow Dwarf lives deep in the Desert in the Castle of Steel, a polished edifice with red-hot walls. It is here that he sequesters the many pretty maidens who have fallen under his power. He works hand-in-glove with the Fairy of the Desert, often riding in a box in her cart or chariot.

Both the Fairy of the Desert and the Yellow Dwarf are served by, or can summon, a variety of fearsome magical beasts -- sphinxes, dragons, giants, and two-headed red lions.

Because the pair is so infamous and obnoxious, other Fairy creatures, good Kings, Talking Animals, and Spirits will sometimes aid those who contend against them.

THE WINTER LORDS: ST. NICHOLAS AND KING FROST

The North and South Poles of the Mandragora setting are, respectively, the domains of St. Nicholas and King Frost. Each Pole is the site of a village from which its Winter Lord sets forth to perform his distinctive winter and Yule functions - St. Nicholas spreads holiday cheer and rewards good children, and King Frost encrusts villages in rime and punishes willfulness and disobedience, sometimes abducting or killing the particularly naughty.

The Winter Lords each have specialized servants: St. Nick has Mrs. Claus, industrious Craft-elves, and Flying Reindeer, and King Frost has the Snow Queen, relentless Snowmen, and swarming Snow-bees.

Note 1: Half the reason I wanted to include King Frost in the setting was as an eventual excuse to paint the "Monstrous Snowmen" figures from Reaper, pictured below. The other half was probably the kick-ass classic Ford illustration.

Note 2: Because of the familiarity of the source material to the general reader and potential player, my notes on Mandragora are much sparser than was the case for World of Thool. Not everyone knows about Hodgsonian Borderlands Pig-things, but there's only so much explanation necessary for what Santa does.

There are other holiday figures with domains in Mandragora, from the well-known (the Easter Bunny, Cupid, Jack-o'-Lantern) to the more obscure (the King of Fools, the Beltane Badger), operating with wildly varying degrees of influence and benevolence. Most are of the vaguely-traditional-but-Americanized stripe, much like myself.

LANGUAGES IN MANDRAGORA

The "Common Tongue" of Mandragora is English. All PCs and most NPCs, Fairies, Spirits, Talking Animals, and so on speak English.

For each point of initial Intelligence greater than 12, a PC speaks one additional language. If a player has a particular character concept in mind, the Referee may allow selection of one or more High Tongues rather than random determination.

PCs may not choose to speak a Low Tongue at the start of play, nor can they learn such languages during play in the usual manner except under very unusual circumstances.

The player should have wide latitude to explain how his character came to learn any randomly determined languages.

All High Tongues and some surprising Low Tongues have written forms. Assume that a PC can read and write all languages he speaks (if they have written forms) unless he's Rustic or Simple.

The High Tongue listing is, as usual, rife with oversimplifications, omissions, anachronisms, and outright inaccuracies. It is also highly Eurocentric, as is the bulk of the source literature.

The Low Tongues are the languages of mundane, non-talking animals. Such animals can communicate little in the way of sophisticated ideas, or any concepts at all outside of their limited critter bailiwicks.

There is some overlap suggested by the chart, e.g., a character who speaks the Language of Birds can probably get his ideas across to a barnyard chicken, although he'll doubtlessly come off as intolerably highfalutin to the bucolic poultry. The Low Tongues are intentionally left very vague to allow for Referee adjudication.

The High Tongues (01-75)

01-07 Arabian

08 Backwards

09-11 Chinese

12 Egyptian

13-20 French

21-23 Gaelic

24-31 German

31-35 Greek

36-38 Hindi

39-46 Italian

47-49 Japanese

50-57 Latin

58-63 Russian

64-71 Spanish

72-74 Viking

75 Welsh

The Low Tongues (76-00)

76-77 Barnyard

78 Bear

79-80 Bird

81 Bug

82-83 Cat

84-85 Dog

86-87 Fish

88-89 Horse

90 Jungle

91 Marsupial

92 Monkey

93 Pig Latin

94-95 Rodent

96 Squamous

97 Swamp

98-99 Woodland

00 Pick a Low Tongue. The character speaks that language, and also has great facility in communicating with a particular type of speaker of that tongue, e.g., Canine [Wolf], Bug [Spider], Squamous [Dragon], etc. The selected animal type will, under most circumstances, be sympathetic to the speaker unless severely affronted.

ADVENTURES IN MANDRAGORA

My vision for this project is "a setting for old-school fantasy gaming with fairy tale elements" rather than a warping of the gaming experience around a quest for fidelity to the fairy tale genre and its conventions and trappings. In other words, I want a setting in which groups of adventurers can do the same sort of things they've traditionally done in RPGs - band together in armed groups, enter dangerous locales, fight monsters and other fantastical enemies, gain treasure and experience, then go do it again.

I have quite a few ideas for what sort of adventure opportunities will exist in the initial campaign area, a small sandbox-style section of the greater setting. Because of my to-a-fault tolerance for anachronism and incoherence, the locations I'm considering don't seamlessly dovetail with each other. I consider this a design feature rather than a bug, considering that theFairy Books from which I'm drawing inspiration include tales from a wide variety of cultures and time periods.

Here are a few of the possibilities for location-based adventures (or "dungeons" or whatever) in the initial campaign area. I've provided placeholder names for the locales; these are certain to change as I get things worked out.

1. "Mordant Manor": Inspired by Gothic and faux-Gothic entertainments like The Castle of Otranto, "The Fall of the House of Usher," Tegel Manor, the Walt Disney Haunted Mansions, and fairy tales involving Bad Houses. Designed around historical floor plans such as may be found here. The usual crumbling ancestral manse of a noble clan gone to perdition. Cobwebs, gables, gargoyles, cellars, attics, mad relatives, premature burials, necromancy, restless spirits, the family cemetery, a hedge maze, etc.

2. "Tulgey Wood": An Enchanted Forest of groves, clearings, cottages, hollow trees, and the like, all accessible only by tunnel-like paths in the thorns, briars, and impassable thickets. Designed as a flowchart ("from here, can go east to _____, west to _____") in the manner of a text adventure game, solo module, or - for practical purposes - any traditional dungeon. Wolves, Woodsmen, Trolls, Bears, a Gingerbread House, etc.

3. "Dwarf-land": Caverns, grottoes, and vaults cunningly delved by a tribe of greedy Dwarfs in service to an evil King. Populated by those malign beings and their pets, as well as a fire-breathing poisonous Wurm and her spawn. Stocked with treasure and captives stolen away by the sinister fairies, including a Princess or three. Designed as a straight-up dungeon.

4. "Sabbat Peak": A mountain peak of ill omen, atop which the Witches of the region hold their Sabbats and Esbats. Infested by Mandrake Goblins, Ghouls, Werewolves, Hell-hounds, Vampires, Devil-worshippers, Black Cats, etc. An extremely dangerous "high level" location, especially on holidays when Witchery is afoot.

I also intend to include plenty of "micro-dungeons" on the map - small-scale lairs, towers, villas, and so on.

Mandragora: The Mandrake March

2011-06-20T20:01:00.001-07:00

Someone just commented approvingly re: Mandragora, a setting I worked on a while back inspired by the Lang Fairy Books. To be 100% honest, I'm pretty sure I had literally forgot it ever existed until just now.

Mandragora was the last of my setting-specific blogs before I figured out that I should probably just have one big non-setting-specific blog so I didn't have to change blogs every time I changed settings, i.e., three times a year. For someone who likes to think of himself as reasonably bright, it sure takes me a while to catch on sometimes.

If I recall correctly, Mandragora was similar to Thool in that all of the literature (the Lang Fairy Books) and inspirational art were in the public domain in the United States. Rereading it, it seems like there was some fun stuff there, so I'm posting a link in case anyone's interested in that sort of thing. I think it had an interesting conceit and aesthetic that may bear revisiting occasionally, a la World of Thool and Wilderlands of Darkling Sorcery, when I'm feeling bored.

If you've never seen it, have a look and let me know what you think. If there's any interest, maybe I'll dick around with it some more.

The blog's focus or lack thereof

2011-06-20T18:04:00.001-07:00

I haven't been posting much about gaming lately. Oddly, when I'm actually running a game, even if it's just online, I don't seem to have as much need for game-related blogging as a creative outlet. Which is good for me, but probably bad for people who'd like to read something other than a bunch of uninformed horseshit about music.

Since Blogger has supported linked pages for a while now, I may take advantage of this feature to start a separate page for my current album library and wish list. That way, the few people who've been following along with me as I acquire and listen to stuff can continue to do so without me cluttering up the feed, as the lists themselves hardly require continuous real-time updates.

However, I'll continue to post about non-gaming stuff as the mood strikes me, particularly since I don't currently have Facebook as a microblogging proxy for venting my generalized spleen into the ether. I thought about starting a different blog for non-gaming blather, but honestly, fuck that. I barely maintain this one to any standard.

I apologize in advance for posts that are unlikely to be of any interest to anyone but me or people who know me personally. Or, more realistically, anyone but me.

20th anniversary of Death's Human

2011-06-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

I currently only listen to albums I actually own on CD, after years of listening to music primarily in digital-only formats (and ditching almost all of my old CDs long ago). That means a big chunk of my discretionary income these days goes to rebuilding a library. Most purchases are things I haven't heard before, or haven't really given a proper listen (e.g., jazz albums). Others are old favorites I haven't owned in CD format for a long time (e.g., Naked City, Cynic).

I recently asked for recommendations of metal bands I might like, given that I like Atheist, Cynic, and Death. I listened to a bunch of the recommended bands and liked quite a few of them, but ultimately I think I'm sticking with the three bands I listed. I don't need that much metal in my life, and there are albums by those bands I've not listened to that much, if ever (I don't think I've ever heard Sound of Perseverance, and I only recently learned that Cynic even had a second album). So a lot of that shit's new to me, or new to me since I started growing Jazz Ears.

I've picked up new copies of Focus and Unquestionable Presence to throw back in the rotation, with an eye towards eventually picking up other albums with which I'm not as familiar. As it happens, there's literally no shop in a 50 mile radius that stocks Human, the Death album I'd like to add in there initially, so I looked online for a new copy.

Apparently, Tuesday is the 20th anniversary of Human's release, so it's being reissued as a two-disc set. I'm not super interested in hearing Death doing a KISS song - I'm not interested in hearing KISS do KISS songs, for that matter - so the bonus material isn't really of interest to me. I also don't really give a shit about the remastering, because death metal albums always sounded like they were mixed in a literal giant bucket of shit and it never seemed to bother anyone enough to make a difference. I'm honestly just depressed to realize it's been twenty fucking years since that album was released.

Anyway, if you're into bonus tracks or remastering and so on, Human gets reissued on Tuesday. I'll be picking it up simply because I no longer have it on CD, and I live in a cultural wasteland where anything decent is only available through mail order anyway.

On a kind of unrelated note, I got in a stack of John Zorn albums yesterday afternoon and spent most of the evening listening to the PainKiller boxed set in its entirety. It's probably not as "deep" as some of Zorn's other projects, and therefore may not be as rewarding of repeat listenings, but I'll be darned if it's not one of my favorite things I've heard in recent memory. Clearly, different people have different definitions of "accessible" because it clicked with me immediately and effortlessly, but I find so-called mainstream jazz much more difficult, even supposedly accessible stuff like Kind of Blue. Weird.

Current jazz wish list

2011-06-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

I snagged the pictured books yesterday. It'll probably be a week or so before I do more than crack the Monk book. I flipped through the Blue Note book last night while waiting for a call on a mental hygiene client* and got a huge kick out of it, not only for the cool graphic design of the album covers but for the ample depictions of jazz musicians' take on American Ivy League style, an area of special interest for me.

I also put in an order for a buttload of John Zorn albums - the first Naked City album, which I haven't owned on CD in years, along with a 4-CD Pain Killer boxed set, an Electric Masada live set, and The Big Gundown. My animals fucking hate John Zorn.

This is my current wish list for jazz albums. As I noted yesterday, I'm not trying to solicit any of them - people have already been so generous with their collections that I feel like a giant goddamn bum. But it should give a good idea of where my interests are heading at this early stage.

~~Albert Ayler, Spiritual Unity~~

Peter Brotzmann, Machine Gun

Clifford Brown and Max Roach, s/t

~~Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come~~

~~Bill Evans, Sunday at the Village Vanguard~~

Errol Garner, Concert by the Sea

~~Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto~~

~~Dave Holland, Conference of the Birds~~

Keith Jarrett, The Koln Concert

Stan Kenton, City of Glass

Roscoe Mitchell, Sound

Modern Jazz Quartet, Django

Oliver Nelson, Blues and the Abstract Truth

Charlie Parker, Jazz at Massey Hall

Alexander von Schlippenbach, Swinging the Bim

~~Cecil Taylor, Jazz Advance~~

McCoy Tyner, The Real McCoy

At this point, the main purpose of the list above is for me to get something by each artist rather than get deep into the catalogs. The artists I have in my current collection and can already tell I'll want to further explore are Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Sun Ra, and later Miles Davis and John Coltrane. There are others I like, but those are the ones that have really jumped out at me so far.

* In the last few months, this jurisdiction has started getting cases involving bath salts abuse. That shit is as bad as anything I've ever seen in my life, and I've done a lot of drug cases (and drugs).

No chat game session last night

2011-06-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

... so no session report this morning. Since I'm not going back to school in the fall, I'm quickly rebuilding a full criminal practice and am fairly busy on the front end of that. Barring catastrophe, I'll be back to running the game next week.

We missed last night because I ended up in a trial yesterday. It was a misdemeanor criminal matter with potentially significant implications for a later civil case, so I was asked to handle the criminal end and get it knocked out so the civil guys can go full steam ahead. We were all treated to the surreal spectacle of a roomful of civil lawyers participating in and observing a piddlefuck criminal trial. We won, but I was knackered by the time it was over, and was kind of befuddled that it had happened.

By way of celebration - and again, I couldn't believe I was celebrating a win in a matter so piss-ant on the surface - I snagged a few CDs: the last of the Steely Dan albums I wanted, and Andrew Hill's Point of Departure. (Also can't believe I just typed "the last of the Steely Dan albums I wanted" referring to a number greater than zero.)

I'll probably post my revised wishlist later, not in an attempt to curry charity because God knows I've got enough of that recently, but to give the few jazzbos out there an idea of what I'm getting into now, and so I'll have an online list I can access whenever I'm out buying shit.

I should have a new Source Literature Tournament matchup posted in the next day or so.

Today's haul

2011-06-13T16:00:00.001-07:00

... with thanks to the sweet Borders cashier girl who let us use two different 50% coupons. I've actually revised my wish list a bit based on further research and a growing sense of what I like, don't like, and think I'm likely to like. (Short version: it's becoming clear that I like bebop, post-bop, free jazz, and avant-garde more than older stuff like swing and Dixieland.)

Weekend logorrhea

2011-06-11T09:21:00.001-07:00

I've recently deactivated my Facebook account on a temporary basis because I have a lot of shit to get done. I have a few too many distractions, and I'm apparently not disciplined enough to ignore some of them without removing them from the table. So instead of the maybe 10% of my "friends" list who can actually see my statuses, it looks like the blog readers are the audience for my random bullshit today.

* One of the cornerstones of my personal philosophy is that nearly all conversations are both optional and awful, and that one's best percentage lies in opting out of nearly all conversations. I've become "better" at internalizing and implementing this philosophy lately, mainly by asking myself "Why in God's name would you have this conversation? Why would you talk to this person when you can choose not to??" whenever I find myself on the verge of engaging with a dipshit. This means my life is less fraught with exhausting and pointless exchanges, but it also means that I'm also turning into even more of a weird loner spending most of his time in an echo chamber and nodding approvingly at Pentti Linkola quotes.

* I found something that makes me sleep 10-12 hours a day and not hate everything. It's called Prozac. I now mainly hate Prozac.

* Related to the first two bullets: I have literally no opinion on LotFP: Grindhouse Edition, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Peter Mullen's art, or whether PCs should be "heroes," and having viewed the respective products and positions, can't understand why anyone would have a strong opinion about any of them or feel driven to advance that opinion publicly.

* I listened to nearly everything recommended in the comments section of my post inquiring about fruity-ass jazz/tech death metal. I liked some of the recommendations, especially Gorguts, Necrophagist, Portal, Today Is the Day, and Opeth. However, I also discovered that some of the regular old jazz I'm listening to seems heavier and more extreme to me right now than overtly "heavy" or "extreme" music.

* The exception is Painkiller. The main John Zorn project I've listened to is Naked City, so I just did some focused listening to Painkiller on Youtube. Pants-crapping levels of joy ... most of the Painkiller tracks sound like the parts of Naked City I like best.

* I can't get past high-pitched power metal vocals or whatever they're called. I know a lot of those guys are talented, I know death growls are just as stupid in a different way, I get it. But it fucks up the whole effect for me personally and I can't help it. I'll be listening to something otherwise awesome like Spiral Architect or Watchtower and the singing starts and I'm like WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT :(.

* Same with corpsepaint. It just automatically makes me think "prize asshole."

* I don't really like vocal jazz.

* I know it's lame and trendy and so on, and that the name is repulsive not only per se but because of what it represents (and represents itself as), but I'm too old to be above everything, so I love the Hipstamatic app and its faux-vintage effects. This susceptibility to bullshit nostalgia appeal is nothing new for me.

* Apropos of that, here's my current jazz and fusion rotation:

* My girlfriend got me the Weather Report's Heavy Weather yesterday, and the CD was a coaster that wouldn't play in any of my players. Major bummer. It did, however, give me a chance to see Joe Zawinul in his full 1970s glory, pictured below, far left. (Still looks like less of an asshole than King Diamond.)

Source Literature Tournament, first round matchup: Robert W. Chambers vs. Fritz Leiber

2011-06-09T19:05:00.001-07:00

In the last matchup, John Bellairs beat Margaret St. Clair. I think the total was 38-10.

I knew when I set up this exercise that I'd included some marginal authors, and that I'd doubtlessly regret some omissions. In retrospect, Robert Chambers shouldn't have been in the mix; I over-represented the Mythos, even as I left off William fucking Morris because I was worried I'd skewed things too hard to the early English fabulists because of my own bias. (I don't have an excuse for leaving off Cabell, other than that ... er ... I hadn't read him at the time. We all have our inexplicable blind spots.)

If I had it to do over, I wouldn't have included Chambers. He's known for The King in Yellow, the core stories of which are influential on, if not central to, the modern Mythos. I've read that volume and The Maker of Moons and liked them better than most people seem to; at least the main King cycle stories are effective, I think, by any lights. The King figure itself is quite a nice, weird image, and the fictional play conceit adds a layer of illusionary depth I enjoy. What the Mythos means to most modern readers and what it meant to Lovecraft (insofar as that coinage would have meant anything at all) are two different things, but I'm glad for Chambers's contribution whereas I rue certain others.

The inclusion of Chambers is moot, of course, since he's matched up with Fritz Leiber. I like Leiber and would consider my library woefully incomplete without the two Lankhmar omnibus volumes on my shelf. If there's one author whose fingerprints are most evident on early D&D, it's Leiber. But he doesn't resonate with me as strongly as he did with Gygax and as he obviously does for many other gamers. Perhaps it's another sign I'm dead inside, or just too fucking precious, but he doesn't come close to cracking Eddison or Dunsany or Peake or (now) Wolfe territory for me. I put him there with Howard as an obviously influential and talented author worthy of multiple re-reads who just doesn't make it to my core pantheon.

Mileage obviously varies. The important thing is that Leiber's going to blast Chambers, rendering my eccentric and probably erroneous inclusion of that latter author entirely academic, and he's probably a shoo-in for the Final Four. (In my personal bracket, he loses to C. S. Lewis, but I don't expect that result when it's put to a larger vote.)

My vote here would go to Fritz Leiber. Can't imagine this will be anything but a laugher.

Resumption of Source Literature Tournament, and assorted crap

2011-06-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

I was in a Dunsany mood tonight and picked up The King of Elfland's Daughter again this evening for its occasional re-read. I made it no further than the preface when my usual reaction kicked in, i.e., "why can't more things be like this and less like the things that most things are like?"

It also got me thinking that I want to take up my little Source Literature Tournament exercise again in the next day or so. I can't find my original bracket but can easily reconstruct it from my old blog posts. I just want to play things out and see who the folks who read this blog wind up voting through to the end. So if you were ever voting or following that whole dealie, it'll be back very shortly.

Next, I'm curious if anyone's actually reading the session reports from the Toxic Tower chat game. I realize those posts don't require or encourage the same level of feedback as, say, posts asking about fruity-ass jazz metal, and that even people who may find them interesting are likely to read them, say "OK" and move on. I'm simply wondering if anyone other than my players actually reads them - I don't blog to get more followers, but it's pointless to put up shit that no one but me cares about, because I can just think about it instead.

Finally, I just got way more excited than I should have when Andrew McCutchen's walk-off homer in the bottom of the 12th put the Pirates at .500 in the second week of June - way later in the season than anyone could have predicted with a straight face. (Clint Hurdle doesn't count, his face is made of a waxy rind-like substance I've started thinking of as LaRussium.) Anyway, fuck it, the Pirates are really fun to watch this year, the starting pitching's been pretty awesome, and I'm enjoying watching McCutchen before he's inevitably traded for magic beans.

Toxic Tower chat game, session 3

2011-06-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

The last session ended with one of our intrepid heroes in the clutches of Morguma, Priestess of Gnophke-Ptorast and probable undead or booglie of some sort. The other delvers' inquiries back in Idrizoob revealed that Gnophke-Ptorast's sect was driven out of the city years ago and was, to no one's surprise, up to its bejeweled nipples in necromancy and blood sacrifice. Furthermore, Morguma's manifestation was consistent with legends about both vampirism in general and Gnophke-Ptorast in particular.

Meanwhile, back in Morguma's lair, Umanzor the left-behind delver attempted to a) sweet-talk and seduce Morguma and b) entrap or hoodwink her in the afterglow to make his escape. The seduction itself was relatively easy, as my notes indicate that Morguma is vain and lustful. Although I did have a bit of fun when the SR came up double 2s, telling the player that a 4 was autofailure before cackling and explaining that he got to roll again and add.

The second part of the plan went down to the wire, with double 1s rolled on the first set of SR dice, and a 2 on the first of the "exploding" dice for doubles, leaving the PC with three outs on the last die. Alas, it was not to be.

However, given Morguma's personality, the PC's high Charisma and successful seduction, and the fact the last roll was sooo close, I gave Jamie the option to have Umanzor enlisted into Morguma's service as a "junior vampire," basically, and we'd work out the details as we went. He jumped on this.

I'm generally not a proponent of ringer PCs in the party, but it seemed to both make sense and be funny, so I went with it. My idea is that the vampire initially gets a small stat bonus, the standard vampire vulnerabilities, "darksight," maybe regenerates a little from draining sentients, and that's that at 1st level. In the mode of OD&D's infamous Baby Balrog example, I figure that as the vampire PC levels up, maybe other traditional abilities and requirements "unlock."

Morguma sent Umanzor back out into the world as her agent, where he'll no doubt be up to various junior vampire/Renfield-type tasks. I've thought about making a little between-sessions table with a small chance of being discovered, staked by a Van Helsing, hunted down by citizens with torches, etc. Don't know if that's half-baked or not, but it's a possibility.

Anyway, Umanzor pretty much copped to his nascent vampirism as soon as he joined back up with the party, which was completely unexpected, and they shrugged and said "welcome back, please don't bite us," which was about three-quarters unexpected. (I expected the players to twig to what was going on quickly but for it to take a while for the PCs.) Since he was now out to the party, so to speak, I gave Jamie the option of Umanzor having a widow's peak, hairy hands, access to well-tailored formalwear, and other bitchin vampire hallmarks. Or he could be all fucked-up and Nosferatu-looking, or whatever. Not sure if he's going with any of that or not.

Back to the dungeon. Our delvers avoided Morguma's precinct for some reason and set off to other parts of the complex. They entered a chamber with an iron door and a rat statue. The door was carved with sigils of a horse, a bear, and a pig (HORSEBEARPIG). The rat statue held a bowl, in which were three oval stones - red, blue, and green. Examination revealed that the sigils had oval depressions to receive the stones, and that the stones and the door were magical.

The delvers discerned the simple pattern and placed the stones in the depressions according to letter count (pig = red, etc.). The door opened, and the torchbearers retreated to allow vampire Umanzor to check things out with his new darkvision.

To Umanzor, the room appeared normal except that the floor was smooth and utterly featureless. When the torches came back, however, it appeared that the room had stairs leading down to a lower room level. In the center of this lower level was a comely young lady asleep (?) on a bier, surrounded by a thorny array of roses. (Your Garden Variety Fair Maiden, heh heh.)

Of more concern, encircling this whole array was a wingless, serpentine dragon or worm with long toothy jaws. Upon the party's entry, it seemed to be regarding them with a half-open eye; it quickly shut this and played possum.

The party tried to parley with the beast, but it ignored them other than to twitch its spade-tipped tail. Further investigation showed that the lower level of the room was, in fact, separated from the upper area by an invisible force barrier of some sort. Our delvers moved on.

In a different area of the dungeon, the delvers found weird frescoes showing hooded figures throwing Gorbels at a variety of bizarre antagonists, then passed through an arch topped by a thrumming purple stone. They soon encountered an ancient man in robes and a fez, sitting at a desk with a quill in hand and open tome before him. He inquired after their names and occupations, duly recorded this information, and handed out little yellow buttons, each resembling smiley-faces with three eyestalks. The delvers put these on and took their leave of the old Fezbian after confirming that he was, in fact, in Tox's employ.

Finally, our delvers encountered a privy area with a gleaming, sigil-covered commode, complete with flushing apparatus and toilet paper dispenser. The commode radiated magic. We ended the session there for the evening, as my upstairs AC is out and it was hotter than balls in the room in which I game.

The vampire development was, as such things are, a bit unexpected for me, but T&T is a simple and flexible system and I play it pretty fast and loose - if something seems entertaining and not detrimental to everyone's fun, then fuck it, I'll usually go with it and figure out the details later. That's exactly what we're doing with Umanzor's vampirism, and we'll see how it goes. If it gets out of hand, we'll retire him or stake the fucker and move on. Until then, it should be fun to figure out little powers, drawbacks, and implications of junior vampirism for this campaign.

(Like the one that occurred to me during play: If you stand in an enchanted commode and keep flushing, does that count as "running water" for purposes of keeping away a traditional vampire?)

Last night's session was pretty funhousey/crazy wizardy, with no combats and a lot of puzzles and goofy shit. I'm incapable of running a truly po-faced, solemn immersion campaign, but something about T&T just really brings out the idiot in me and "goofy shit" is the order of the day. I asked the players about this afterwards to make sure this implementation isn't TOO over the top and distracting, and they seem fine with it so far, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm having fun, at any rate.

Question for the metal fans

2011-06-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

I've obviously been listening to a shitload of jazz, jazz-rock, and fusion lately. Yesterday at the used record store/head shop, my girlfriend got me the album pictured above, which I haven't listened to in years but with which I'm more familiar than "real" jazz. Listening to Mahavishnu with new ears, I can hear an obvious (to me) influence on Cynic and Atheist, two of the bands that got me thinking about jazz in the first place.

As I've said before, I'm about as far from a "metal guy" as it's possible to get - I like and am familiar with a few of the early Florida metal bands, and that's about it. I don't even really know if you'd call them "death" or "technical" metal or what. But I'm moving a few of those bands back into the rotation, along with the jazz-rock, fusion, and fringey avant-garde stuff I've been integrating with the more mainstream jazz that makes up the bulk of my current library.

So, let's say by way of example that I like Focus by Cynic, Unquestionable Presence by Atheist, and Human by Death. Let's also say that, although I'm not super clear on all the aesthetic and subcultural divisions, I tend to like things I think of as "death" much better than things I think of as "doom" or "black metal"; I'm obviously leaning these days towards jazz, technical, and proggy stuff; and I always thought Cannibal Corpse was pretty retarded but could live with Carcass.

What other bands and albums would you recommend in the vein of the albums I listed?

Holy flurking schnit - 18 new albums

2011-06-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

As it does every couple of years, my caffeine intake has spiraled up to toxic levels. After a couple of days, I've abandoned an attempt to kick cold turkey, as I've got too much work to be lying in bed essentially dopesick. I'll try again when I've got a few days to spend completely inactive.

My girlfriend woke me up from my withdrawal-induced coma yesterday to hand me a parcel; Erin D. Smale of The Welsh Piper continued the trend of blogger jazz largesse by sending me eighteen, count them, eighteen albums, more than doubling my collection again.

I received the following albums:

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, A Night in Tunisia

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Caravan

Dave Brubeck Quartet, Gone with the Wind

Kenny Burrell, All Day Long

John Coltrane, Giant Steps

John Coltrane, My Favorite Things

Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool

Miles Davis, Porgy and Bess

Miles Davis, '58 Sessions

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Best of ... on Verve

Richard "Groove" Holmes, Blue Groove

Lee Morgan, The Sidewinder

Sonny Rollins, Tenor Madness

Wayne Shorter, Et Cetera

Horace Silver, Song for My Father

Jimmy Smith, The Sermon!

Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery, The Further Adventures of Jimmy & Wes

Steely Dan, The Royal Scam

As is so often the case when people behave better than one has any right to expect, I'm so nonplussed as to be inarticulate, other than to offer an inadequate "thank you" to Erin and everyone else who's taken an interest in my interest. Hopefully I can repay my debts - if not directly then karmically - by releasing some more books or albums into the internet wild in the near future.

Change of plans

2011-05-28T06:10:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I've been looking forward to going back to school full-time in the fall. After a lot of thought, I've decided it's not a viable option. I have quite a few significant goals. Several of these are financial, or contingent on stable finances, and it's become evident that paying thousands of dollars a year out-of-pocket to attend school for the foreseeable future is at cross-purposes with those goals. Particularly when the end result is that I'd be making less money than I make now, probably in a location with a higher cost of living.

Thus, I'm regretfully shelving my plans for a midlife career change and getting back to the full time practice of law. There's some possibility of at least taking the language courses (Latin and Attic Greek) in the fall, and I'd very much like to do that for my own personal edification, but I'm not holding my breath.

Toxic Tower chat game, session 2

2011-05-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

Last night was the second session of the Toxic Tower chat game. We had five players in all, with the following characters (all human, all 1st level):

Quintus Quiggly, Warrior, adds +4

Samuel Smartypants, Wizard, adds -2

Umanzor, Warrior, adds +1

Rathman Brecht, Wizard, adds -2

Poojan Thakkar, Rogue, adds +1

This time around, we started at the Dolorous Doors, bypassing any exploration of the upper works. Our delvers headed straight for where they left off last time, noticing in passing that no trace was evident of the undead they slew on their last delve.

Passing through a set of normal double doors, our delvers found themselves in a weird shrine centered on an idol depicting a corpulent androgyne with a great hand where its head should be, this hand bisected by a vertical mouth. A stained altar with chains and shackles abutted the idol, and a very large curved sword rested against the altar, its blade shiny with a thick reeking patina of blood. The delvers were immediately set upon by the shrine's guardians, four more of the worm-ridden walking corpses; by dint of judicious spell use and tactical withdrawal, the delvers quickly dispatched these horrors. The blade proved to be magical, the idol mundane, remarkable only for its gruesome aspect and its jeweled nipples (carnelians), which were quickly confiscated by the acquisitive crew.

Beyond the shrine lay a torture chamber and adjoining locked cell. The torture chamber was guarded by a trio of walking dead, which were quickly slain. The torture implements had clearly seen repeated frequent use, and those most portable were gathered for possible sale or other employment. A statue of a robed woman held a brazier filled with oil-soaked coals; in the course of appropriating the coals, our delvers discovered a brass key which opened the cell door. The cell itself contained only restraints and mundane skeletons, from one of which the delvers gleaned a couple of gold teeth.

From the torture chamber, our heroes entered a small network of interjoining tunnels; encountered a locked iron door to which the found key did not provide access; and finally entered a chamber decorated with frescoes depicting a parade of atrocities being carried out by the androgynous idol and attendant demons. A lidless sarcophagus rested against one wall, mists coalescing above it, and soon enough a beautiful woman materialized - raven hair, oxen eyes, ruby lips, diaphanous open gown and highly impractical metal bikini.

Imperiously addressing the delvers, the woman called herself Morguma, last priestess of Gnophke-Ptorast, and questioned them closely. Taking note of the rather-difficult-to-conceal 6' sword the delvers were carrying from the shrine, she ordered that they return what had been taken, which they did. She also demanded that the delvers leave after selecting one of their number to remain behind. Which they did.

Umanzor stayed behind with the lovely Morguma, his fate to be determined between now and the next session. The other delvers retreated to the surface world to conduct some research and perhaps, better prepared, launch a rescue mission to deliver their compatriot from durance vile in the clutches of the pulchritudinous peril.

My impression is that we had a fun session, accomplishing a reasonable amount of adventuring. T&T is well-suited for chat play, and combats go very quickly. The old 5th edition bogeyman of the Monster Death Spiral has arisen, although I don't know how much of a problem it actually is. Absent special abilities, once a monster group loses a couple of rounds, it becomes fairly pointless to drag things out as the outcome is in no doubt. This, along with the "bounce" effect with two closely matched and well-armored sides, is the obvious impetus behind Spite Damage. I honestly don't know that this mechanic is necessary - there are plenty of instances in, say, D&D when combat becomes a mere formality - but I definitely understand why the mechanic was introduced.

I'm being very liberal with the rules for awarding Adventure Points - everyone gets the full AP award for Monster Rating, and everyone gets a new "dungeon level" award each session for each dungeon level they delve. Obviously this will result in quick advancement, particularly once the delvers gain access to elevators, shafts, ramps, and other means of visiting multiple dungeon levels per session. This is by design ... I'd just as soon have this group gain a few levels and delve some dangerous dungeon areas, as opposed to the all-too-usual online model of rolling up a bunch of mooks, playing for a few months, then retiring at 1st or 2nd level.

I've drastically truncated the scale of the dungeon, as it became evident that 9 sheets per level for an online game was pure overkill. It's now less of a grind for me to stock the levels and stay a step ahead of the delvers.

Anyway, I'm having fun and am looking forward to the next session.

Four more albums!

2011-05-24T09:36:00.001-07:00

I realize this is turning into Scott's Overenthusiastic Fruity-Ass Jazz Beginner Bullshit Blog, but I want to thank Paul of Quickly, Quietly, Carefully for the above-pictured albums. I'm quickly concluding that jazz fans, or maybe just gamers who like jazz, are just about the coolest fucking people on Earth.

John Zorn, Wargamer

2011-05-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

I've been a fan of John Zorn's Naked City work for a long time - I guess about twenty years, which is a bit depressing to realize. When I say "fan" I mean I like the three albums I've heard (Naked City, Grand Guignol, and the Torture Garden comp). But he's a prolific guy and I've honestly not bothered following his career or delving into his catalog in any meaningful sense. And until I recently started reading some jazz history, I haven't given much of a shit about most musicians' personal lives, so anything I learn about them is incidental.

So I didn't know that John Zorn is a wargaming buff, and that he's synthesized this hobby with his day job in what's apparently a pretty famous performance piece, Cobra. From the Allmusic entry:

One of the central sources for the conception behind this piece, oddly enough, was the Avalon Hill game company, which created strategic simulation games involving arcane sets of rules, dice rolls, etc., in an effort to approximate, for example, war planning and theory. Zorn, a games aficionado with an affinity for elastic rules systems, developed a unique, expansive, and highly flexible series of prompts and rules, taught and distributed them to many of the downtown New York City musicians of the early '80s, and staged numerous highly entertaining performances of the ensuing "conflicts." At such an event, inevitably more viscerally enjoyable than a recording of same, Zorn would hold up cards with symbols, usually choosing certain small combinations of players. These symbols could instruct, among many other things, that the musicians improvise in a certain style (surf guitar, free noise, punk, etc.) and/or could delimit the duration, volume, and so on. He would thus spontaneously organize a composition that, for all its apparent anarchy, was actually following a relatively strict set of assumptions. The kicker was that the players could counteract his commands, forming ad hoc blocs, cooperate or betray said blocs, form alliances "against" other players, etc. As an audience member, one saw a wonderful display of real-time politics combined with art creation, and the result was often spectacular.

[Lack of fucking paragraph breaks in original.]

A bit of looking around on Google indicates that this is really something to see in person, and that Zorn based his "ruleset" on the album's namesake Cobra, a WWII simulation of Patton's French offensive published by SPI (not Avalon Hill) in Strategy & Tactics.

This strikes me as really cool. Did anyone else know about this?

Jazz collection as of May 22, 2011

2011-05-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

A week ago, I posted my wish list of classic jazz albums. I had a grand total of two. I now have eight, having been given six in the space of less than a week. My collection quadrupled through no effort of my own other than apparently being a reasonably entertaining flake; my girlfriend got me two CDs at Borders with 50% off coupons, and Max sent me four. Crazy.

I also snagged a Steely Dan album I wanted, Countdown to Ecstasy, out of the clearance bin, and gave a cool soundboard bootleg from that era a few listens before deleting it. (I'm not shy about listening to bootlegs, pre-release leaks, and so on, but I don't keep them around on general principle. In some respects I'm surprisingly Lawful.)

This is my jazz collection as it stands now:

Dave Brubeck, Time Out

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue; In a Silent Way; Sketches of Spain

Eric Dolphy, Out to Lunch

Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage

Jackie McLean, Destination Out

Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um

I've only devoted repeated close listenings to Kind of Blue so far (and when I say "repeated" I'm not bullshitting), but I've listened to everything else at least a couple of times through. I like them all. So far, the one that really jumps out at me as "this is fuckin' gnarly" is Eric Dolphy, and the Miles Davis Spain album makes me want to break out Dunsany's Don Rodriguez and The Charwoman's Shadow.

I'm also developing a weird affinity for jazz-rock noodlings that used to be my personal kryptonite, e.g., Steely Dan, early Blood Sweat & Tears and Chicago, etc., and I'd like to pick up some actual fusion, e.g., Mahavishnu, Weather Report, and Return to Forever. I feel like I'm turning into some kind of lounge lizardy Bizarro version of myself and will soon be wearing a rayon three-piece and snorting monster rails of cocaine, crushed Quaaludes, and powdered herpes.

I've decided for the time being to only listen to albums that a) are jazz or "jazz-influenced" and b) that I actually own on CD. This means that my entire current iTunes library consists of eight jazz albums and a Steely Dan record. That's a bit of a change. The rest of my collection is backed up to a 150 gig iPod Classic which I'm praying doesn't lunch out on me, but I'm happy concentrating on the very small library for right now.

Progress on the Toxic Tower dungeon

2011-05-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

I took off today and I'm taking off tomorrow to relax a little, and am using some of this time to work on the initial levels of the Toxic Tower dungeon for my T&T game. Each level of the dungeon is roughly structured around nine sheets of quadrille graph paper. I selected this large scale mainly so I'd have room for things to sprawl out ... the individual sheets aren't filled to the same density as, say, the original Dungeon Geomorphs, although there are regions that are pretty packed (and Tox makes use of Zagygian "thin wall" technology).

I'm pretty liberal with my interlevel connections, so I'll have to do a bit of work on the first three levels. I've mapped out the three southmost sections of the first level, and tomorrow I'll probably map out the areas of the second and third level that are easily accessible from those sections. Over the weekend, I'll at least map the remainder of the first level; stock the sections that I think there's any chance of the delvers visiting in the next couple weeks; and finish up the encounter tables for the first few levels.

(My dungeon encounter tables are built on bell curves, with entries on the ends for lower or higher level monsters and multiple encounters. To the extent I bother with an ecology, it's wrapped into the encounter tables.)

This particular dungeon is quite "busy" in terms of dungeon dressing, tricks, "Saturday Night Specials" and other weird shit, and it skews higher than my usual standard for treasure, both mundane and magical - I think I can safely say it's potentially one of the most lucrative dungeons I've designed since my teens.

I avoid the "kobold and goblin option" for initial dungeon levels; in fact, I usually don't stock the first dungeon level with intelligent, organized opposition in any pervasive way, instead favoring various vermin, undead, automata, lone monsters, and dungeon NPCs. I find that using traditional tribal humanoids with experienced players leads to a skirmishy tactical approach that's a bit at odds with the more free-wheeling "exploration of the unknown" vibe I like. So I save the organized opposition for later levels. Just a matter of personal preference.

I've already scattered a selection of magic items and effects throughout the first level, many of which are pretty goofy. There are also a few deadly but entertaining traps and irritating tricks. Something about T&T encourages that sort of thing to a greater extent, for me, than even OD&D.

So, that's where I'm at with the dungeon design. I'll probably get to do significant work on it tomorrow and all weekend before getting back to paying work on Monday, so I expect to have a respectable stack of scribblings in the next few days.

Current house rules for T&T 5th edition

2011-05-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

These are the house rules I'm currently using for the Toxic Tower campaign. They're pretty close to the rules I've used since I started running T&T, with the major difference being more liberal experience awards. I've frankly never had an online campaign last so long that generous AP awards are likely to unbalance the proceedings.

I try not to house rule too extensively, and I'm happy to report that the entirety of my current house rules - many of which are more like clarifications than rules - fit on one page of 9-point Times New Roman.

HOUSE RULES, T&T 5th EDITION

Power Level

My campaign is low-powered compared to the T&T presented in the default rules and modules. There are no non-human Kindreds available for initial play in Idrizoob, and powerful attribute-raising effects and items are rare insofar as they exist at all. Thus, the average character will sally forth with Personal Adds based solely on his attributes as generated on 3d6 and increased by gaining experience levels. This is in contrast to the default rules in which non-human characters may see their Strength multiplied, or the modules in which they routinely find magical weapons with outlandish Dice + Adds.

Not only does this affect the effectiveness of PCs in physical combat, but it makes higher level spells more difficult to learn and to cast. This is reflected in the Monster Ratings assigned to opponents and the relative difficulty and peril of other hazards faced by the PCs.

The Implications of High Attributes

T&T attributes commonly rise above 18. This does not necessarily mean that such attributes are "superhuman." The normal attribute range for starting characters is 3-18, but once a score of 18 is obtained, any further increases may simply indicate that the character is further and further into the top percentile of human ability, rather than above the possible range of normal human ability. Attribute scores of great magnitude may indicate superhuman ability.

Because Wizards power their spells with Strength, they must necessarily increase their Strength scores in order to effectively cast higher level spells. This has the odd effect of making the party's Wizards stronger than its Warriors in many cases. There is, however, ample precedent in the source literature for Wizards with preternatural physical strength, and of course the Wizard's Strength score will decrease with magical exertion. Additionally, even with a high Strength, a Wizard is no match for a Warrior of equivalent level in physical combat.

Kindreds

All player characters are humans.

Languages

All player characters and most non-player characters and talking monsters speak Zoobish, the Common Tongue of the land. All player characters can read or write Zoobish unless they are particularly barbaric, rustic, stupid, or otherwise unlikely to be literate.

Wizards are also fluent and literate in High Zoobish, the nearly forgotten classical form of Zoobish used in ancient texts and magical grimoires.

Height and Weight

The height and weight charts in the rulebook are purely optional, at the player's sole discretion.

Combat

In most cases, the abstract default combat system will be used, as modified by circumstances and common sense. These matters are handled on a case-by-case basis, but in general, the preference is for the abstract default system (i.e., one combat roll for each side, with modifications for magic and unusual actions as appropriate).

Missile Combat

The optional "Saving Roll vs. missile attack" variant is not in effect.

Saving Rolls

Saving Rolls are used not only to determine whether a character can avoid or mitigate the negative effects of spells and hazards, but to determine success at non-standard combat actions and non-combat endeavors. Obviously I can't anticipate or list all such potential actions, which will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Players are encouraged to be creative. Difficulty will depend on a variety of circumstances including the characteristics of the target, the conditions of the physical environment, and so on. In some cases, the chance of success may be modified by the character's overall concept.

A good baseline for a non-standard combat action would be that success results in the character dealing maximum damage with his weapon, which damage is added to the party's combat total, and failure results in the character dealing no damage at all and adding nothing to the party's combat total. Again, other effects are possible, and players are encouraged to be creative.

Spite Damage

No "Spite Damage" rule is in effect.

Adventure Points

Each PC is awarded Adventure Points based on the dungeon levels explored on the delve. This award is 100 AP multiplied by the dungeon level for each dungeon level, cumulative. Thus, if a party explores the 3rd level of the dungeon, each PC receives 600 AP - 100 AP for the 1st level, 200 AP for the 2nd level, and 300 AP for the 3rd level.

Each PC is awarded Adventure Points for combat equal to the total Monster Rating of all monsters defeated. Thus, if the delvers defeat monsters with a total Monster Rating of 250, then each delver receives 250 AP.

Characters receive Adventure Points for other actions and achievements as detailed in the T&T rulebook.

Charisma Effects

Ignore the "Charisma Effects" entry in section 3.5 of the rulebook.

Auxiliary Characters

The cost of buying or hiring slaves, hirelings, and other auxiliary characters is determined per the rulebook. However, players do not get to "engineer" auxiliary characters to specifications; the Referee will indicate what auxiliary characters are available for purchase or hire, with costs determined accordingly, and the player decides whether or not his character is interested in the terms.

Berserker Fighting

Ignore the "Berserker Fighting" entry in section 3.8 of the rulebook. PCs and most NPCs will never, under normal circumstances, go berserk.

Marksmanship and Accuracy

Ignore the "Marksmanship and Accuracy" entry in section 3.11 of the rulebook.

Toxic Tower chat game, session 1

2011-05-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

Last night, we got the chat-based T&T dungeon game underway. Four players: two Warriors, two Wizards.

Quintus Quiggly, Warrior, adds +4

Samuel Smartypants, Wizard, adds -2

Umanzor, Warrior, adds +1

Rathman Brecht, adds -2

Play began at the base of the Great Bridge crossing Lake Orgulus to the island preserve upon which the Tower squats malignantly. Our delvers had obtained salvage rights pursuant to the recent edicts of Tox and Count Pnamtu. They further learned from Pnamtu's Midget Dragoons that a contingent of Vroonopsi fanatics, malcontents, and jail dregs had set up a camp on the island from which to launch their holy fatwa against the apostate Tox and his foul works.

Crossing Lake Orgulus, and taking care not to look directly at the nauseatingly iridescent surface algae of that body, our delvers set foot on the island, now choked and overgrown by copses and groves of fleshy, flabby fungi and weird grasping trees with cilia-like undergrowth. They encountered a large stone statue of a killer whale in a miter with a crook, raising one flipper as if in benediction. They transcribed some glyphs from the statue's plinth and moved on.

Several trails led hither and yon through the grotesque growths; our delvers picked one and began making their way in a direction they surmised would take them to the Tower itself. On the trail, they encountered a quartet of creatures something like walking catfish, each carrying a short trident. Our delvers attempted to communicate with the fish-creatures using the transcribed glyphs, which caused no end of gabbling and burbling, and soon our delvers found themselves escorted towards the Tower and the Moat (passing, along the way, a forlorn Gazebo which filled them with dread and foreboding).

Reaching the Moat, the delvers discovered that these creatures were the Moat Monsters, and that there seemed to be some burbled disagreement between two factions as to what should be done with them. Shortly, a very large Moat Monster surfaced, wearing ornate golden goggles and carrying a great silver scepter. This Moat Monster Margrave spoke Zoobish and demanded to know the delvers' allegiance re: Vroonops and Count Pnamtu. Upon the delvers' disavowal of any such allegiance, the Margrave was mollified and became receptive to parley.

Disappointed that the delvers had brought no extra food, the Margrave asked that this oversight be rectified on future delves. He also cackled happily over a bronze mirror tossed into the Moat for his edification. Negotiations concluded and detente reached, our delvers crossed the Moat Bridge to the Tower courtyard.

The delvers briefly examined an ornate mermaid fountain before approaching the Dolorous Doors leading into the Tower. Attempts to parley with the Doors were stymied by the fact that the Doors are non-communicative inanimate objects. The Doors were opened without anyone losing a soul so far as is currently known, and the delvers entered Toxic Tower.

The first chamber entered was a vast Great Hall, the extent of which is still unknown. In what is assumed to be the center of the Hall was a raised rectangular dais, in the middle of which floated a fist-sized ruby. Ascending to the dais, our delvers discovered that the ruby was shielded by an invisible barrier.

Exploring the southeast reaches of the Hall, our delvers found a statue of a robed humanoid with the head of a solifugid or similar awful arachnid. The statue did not radiate magic, but our delvers were still wary and did not prise loose its eight small gemstone eyes.

Exploring further, our delvers found a wide archway from which hung a heavy brocaded tapestry depicting men and women doing all kinds of nasty shit with a variety of arthropods - fine craftsmanship, but clearly the product of a diseased mind.

Passing through the tapestry to the east, our delvers entered a long, wide passageway. They didn't travel far before encountering a pair of putrescent, worm-seething corpses in stained cerements. Erring on the side of overkill offense, two Take That You Fiend spells were volleyed in the first round, and the walking dead soon entered the T&T death spiral and were hacked down into puddles of deliquescent detritus and burned in clouds of oily smoke.

Our delvers continued down the corridor, which terminated in a set of double doors less ostentatious than the Dolorous ones. We stopped play for the evening.

I believe fun was had by all, and T&T seems pretty well-suited for chat gaming, I think - the combat with the worm-corpses using the default mass combat system took literally a couple of minutes. In retrospect, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the island/"upper works" section - on the one hand, it adds a bit of versimilitude and setting information, I suppose, but honestly this is a dungeon campaign and I'm not too worried about that stuff. To the extent I do worry about that stuff, it's easy to communicate those elements in the dungeon setting. I'd rather have had an extra hour or so in the dungeon rather than fucking around up top with the Moat Monsters. In the future, I think we're just going to start each session at the dungeon doors. We'll get more "done" that way.

The dungeon itself is, in T&T tradition, a "funhouse" dungeon. There's lots of weird crap that exists for no other reason than to be weird and crappy - set pieces, death traps, goofy monsters, magic statues, etc. It's literally and unapologetically a Crazy Wizard Dungeon, albeit with a level of internal logic, so I hope no one's expecting anything else.

Anyway, I think things went well, although I'd just hop straight to the dungeon if I had a do-over, and I'm looking forward to the next session.

Toxic Tower chat game starts tonight

2011-05-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

We're starting our chat-based dungeon game for Tunnels & Trolls 5th edition this evening. I've detailed a small chunk of Toxic Tower's first level, along with a micro-sandbox "upper works" section of the small island upon which the Tower sits. I've also done a bit of work on the several factions vying for control of the Tower's immediate environs.

As some folks have noted, the tone isn't particularly serious even by my standards, and I'm expecting a fun time. I'll post short session reports if the action proves interesting, and will probably provide mechanical information to the extent it won't spoil further adventuring.

Four more jazz albums

2011-05-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

... courtesy of Max of the torpid-but-lamented malevolent & benign blog. This literally trebles my jazz CD collection and was both unexpected and greatly appreciated. I'm always genuinely surprised at how cool people can be.

Toxic Tower rumors

2011-05-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

The following tidbits have been gleaned by our delvers in the taverns and opium dens of Idrizoob prior to the start of play.

* The Moat Monsters recently elected a Margrave and have fought several skirmishes with Count Pnamtu's elite Midget Dragoons in the Tower courtyard.

* The Cult of Vroonops takes umbrage at Tox's apostasy and has granted amnesty and Dervishing licenses to a virtual who's who of notorious brigands, lunatics, and mopers who seek to plunder Toxic Tower.

* Horrible croaking Pigeon-Gargoyles jealously guard the Tower's upper precincts and will rip to shreds any presumptuous fool seeking entrance through the windows rather than the Dolorous Doors.

* The Wizards' Guild of Idrizoob offers 10,000 gold snids for the capture of the renegade warlock Malfeezus the Maniacal, believed to have retreated with his coven of simpering pervert Elves into the depths of the Tower.

* Tox's personal coat of arms - a rampant red Gorbel on a black field, motto "PROVOKED I EXPLODE" - serves as a pass in certain Tower environs.

Congratulations ...

2011-05-14T14:56:00.001-07:00

... to my better half, who officially graduates from college tomorrow. I couldn't be more proud and am looking forward to a fun couple days of grad-related festivities with her and her family.

(And yes, I'm aware I've outkicked my coverage, so to speak.)

Second jazz album: Eric Dolphy, Out to Lunch!

2011-05-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

I had a 40% coupon for Borders, good for this weekend only, and the only album they had on my list was this one. I'm wearing out Kind of Blue before I work anything else into the rotation, but I've listened to this through a couple times now and really like it. I already dig some relatively noisy stuff like Mr. Bungle, John Zorn, Nurse With Wound, early Current 93, etc., so I suspect a lot of the avant-garde or free dissonance will hit my ear just fine.

I posted my wish list in the comments of my first jazz post, but it got eaten once and I'm posting it again here, partially for my own future reference. I'm planning to work through the list more or less in order with detours for steep discounts, trades, etc. as opportunities arise.

EDIT: Strikethrough indicates I have the album.

EDIT AGAIN: I'm still interested in getting most of these albums, but my priorities shift as I listen to more and more stuff. Q.v., the "Jazz Library" link in my sidebar for more updated listings.

1. ~~Miles Davis, Kind of Blue~~

2. ~~John Coltrane, A Love Supreme~~

3. ~~John Coltrane, Giant Steps~~

4. ~~Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um~~

5. ~~Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus~~

6. Louis Armstrong, Complete Hot Fives & Sevens

7. ~~Eric Dolphy, Out to Lunch~~

8. ~~Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come~~

9. ~~Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage~~

10. ~~Bill Evans, Sunday at the Village Vanguard~~

11. ~~John Coltrane, Blue Train~~

12. Oliver Nelson, Blues and the Abstract Truth

13. Wayne Shorter, Speak No Evil

14. ~~Dave Brubeck, Time Out~~

15. ~~Miles Davis, In a Silent Way~~

16. ~~Miles Davis, Bitches Brew~~

17. Charlie Parker, With Strings - The Master Takes

18. ~~Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool~~

19. Clifford Brown & Max Roach, s/t

20. Matthew Shipp, Harmony & Abyss

21. ~~Frank Sinatra & Count Basie, At the Sands~~

22. Charlie Parker, Jazz at Massey Hall

23. Billie Holiday, A Musical Romance

24. Wynton Marsalis, Live at the Village Vanguard

25. Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz

26. ~~Jaco Pastorius, s/t~~

27. Dave Holland, Extended Play/Live at Birdland

28. ~~Wayne Shorter, Adam's Apple~~

29. McCoy Tyner, The Real McCoy

30. ~~Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald, The Best of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on Verve~~

31. ~~Thelonious Monk, Straight No Chaser~~

32. ~~Art Blakey, Night in Tunisia~~

33. ~~Cannonball Adderley, Somethin' Else~~

34. Jason Moran, Bandwagon

35. Modern Jazz Quartet, Django

36. Miles Davis, Bags' Groove

37. Various Artists, Ethiopiques 4

38. Peter Brotzmann, Machine Gun

39. ~~Art Blakey, Moanin'~~

40. ~~Sun Ra & His Arkestra, Jazz in Silhouette~~

41. Jimmy Smith, Back at the Chicken Shack

42. ~~Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto~~

43. Duke Ellington, At Newport

44. ~~Herbie Hancock, Head Hunters~~

45. Errol Garner, Concert by the Sea

46. Charles Mingus, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

47. Charlie Parker & Dizzie Gillespie, Bird & Diz

48. Keith Jarrett, The Koln Concert

49. Benny Goodman, Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert

50. ~~Dexter Gordon, Go~~

Jazz, or, the Culmination of the Aging Punk Rock Kid Life Cycle

2011-05-12T07:28:00.000-07:00

The arc of my musical interests over the decades has followed what I've observed to be a fairly common progression for bright kids of my generation and upbringing: riffy butt-rock --> punk rock, hip-hop, Florida death metal --> college rock --> various proggy shit, unlistenable anti-music, post-rock, bleepy bloopies, and music from other cultures co-opted by Brooklyn and Williamsburg douchelords and combined with bleepy bloopy. We now arrive at the endpoint of this progression, in which my metamorphosis into a walking stuffwhitepeoplelike is complete - I'm getting into jazz.

I have a pretty huge music library of the above-listed genres but was honestly getting so bored I wasn't keeping anything in the rotation for longer than a week. Again, like many members of my generation, I not only remember "albums" but I remember the pre-internet days of intimate familiarity with every album in one's collection due to scarcity - if you only have twenty albums, you know every hiss and pop. If you have thousands, some of them literally never get listened to. As an avowed nostalgist, I found this enervating.

I recently started listening to some classic Florida death metal albums for the first time in forever*, including Human by Death, Unquestionable Presence by Atheist, and Focus by Cynic. The latter two bands were always thrown out there as technical death metal bands, specifically with "jazz influences." Then and now, I could tell you fuck-all about whether that's really true, but they had a cool thing going compared to the burgeoning crop of soundalikes - as with Nocturnus, you could instantly tell Cynic or Atheist from the more generic bands.

So, I'm listening to this stuff, and I decided to check out some jazz and fusion. (I think until a month ago, the only jazz-ish album I had was John Zorn's Naked City, which blew my mind about twenty years ago when I was led to it through Mr. Bungle.) The first step was discovering that ... I like Steely Dan. This was weird as hell, because if you'd asked me to name the pussiest dad-rock band on Earth when I was a kid, it'd have only taken me a beat or two to reply "Steely Dan. Fuck those guys." I've since discovered that not only do I like them, but they were sullen misanthropes who wrote sneering druggy poison pen songs and probably hated hippies as much as I did.

I then started listening to a bit of actual Jazz jazz. Not going to lie, I have a tin ear for that stuff, and am still learning to pick out the simplest elements of each song, but I kind of feel like I did the first time I heard Bad Brains and the Dead Kennedys as a kid, or when I actually sat down with OD&D a few years ago - like a door is opening and some really cool shit is on the other side. The music actually requires attention and rewards repeat listening, and there's a huge, affordable back catalog of shit that's new to me.

Being who I am, of course, I'm approaching this improvisational splendor with an obsessively detailed plan, complete with list. My jazz collection at this moment consists of exactly one album (well, CD): Kind of Blue by Miles Davis**. I'm happily listening to that fucker until I understand what's going on, or until my rip of it hits 100 plays on iTunes, then I'm picking up A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, and so on until I have a nice little library and exposure to the classics.

I'm also planning to read about jazz history, including each artist as I listen to them. My girlfriend got me Miles Davis: The Definitive Biography yesterday, and I'll probably also get his autobiography and one of the two books about the Kind of Blue sessions. Then same with Coltrane, and so on.

Anyway, I'm sure all this shit is old hat to people who've been into jazz for years, but I'm really stoked about it. I've gone from being bored with 1,200+ albums to excited about one. We've also got a couple good jazz combos in the area; one of my old friends' dads is the house pianist for Mountain Stage and has his own really tight band that plays out regularly, and I'm seeing a local guitar-based three-piece with the girlfriend tonight.

So that's what I'm up to at the moment. I apologize for the dearth of gaming content, but I've been working quite a bit, and I'm still getting ready for the chat game. (I also need to either find or reconstruct my Source Literature Tournament bracket.) Hopefully some original content is coming down the pike, or at the very least some content of interest to someone other than me. But I figured I'd share this in case there are other folks out there who've got any advice for the n00b jazzbo.

*****

* I grew up in South Florida during the rise and heyday of Florida death, and although I went to and enjoyed a show here and there, I didn't and never have thought of myself as a metal kid or a real fan of the metal genre in general. I just liked some of the Florida bands because they were fucking loud, put out good albums, and put on good shows.

** I should note here that I have a long-running interest in classic American men's style, and Miles Davis during his Brooks Brothers period was hands-down one of the sharpest-looking dudes on the planet.

Vintage vs. new miniatures

2011-04-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

First off, I'm sorry for the lack of content this week. A switch flipped with my asthma over the weekend and I wound up in the ER until 3:30 a.m. on Monday. I'm fine, just a bit drained, and the meds I'm heavy-dosing are even more irritating than prednisone, so I feel like a poorly-sealed ziploc bag of assholes.

(Another factor is trying to find a balance between a) putting up at least vaguely interesting stuff and b) not spoiling things for the Toxic Tower chat game, currently set to start in early May. I want to Tell You About My Campaign, but I don't want to mess things up for my players, all of whom read this blog.)

As you may know, I've been a miniatures enthusiast since the days when one saw a manufacturer's ad in The Dragon; sent off for an actual paper catalog and order form; ordered (with an actual check) the minis - sight unseen or, if one was really lucky, with a few representative line illos or grainy pics of purportedly representative minis in the line; then waited patiently for a package to arrive from Carthage Court, NY. (That is, unless one was missing some Grenadier Gold Boxes - which one generally was - as those were still available in mall toy shops back then.)

As you probably also know, I'm an unabashed nostalgist and sometimes choose my gaming options and aesthetics for no other reason that because they remind me of Ye Olden Dayes. Judge away. This extends to miniatures - I get a thrill out of the better vintage miniatures manufacturers, and most of the common models are available either as reissues or at reasonable prices on eBay.

I'm hoping at some point for time to resume my miniatures painting. (I'm also hoping at some point to start extruding currency from a purpose-grown orifice, but that's not happening yet either.) All other things being equal, I'd probably opt for vintage miniatures for my vintage games. But there are a few issues that make that unlikely.

The most cited reason for passing up the old minis in favor of the newer manufacturers is the sculpts. This honestly isn't a huge issue for me. Granted, some of the lower-end companies, and even the big ones occasionally, put out some pretty grotty product. But I think this guy at DnD Lead amply demonstrates that a talented, patient painter can do a lot with the old sculpts.

Another issue, this one more real to me, is scale creep. An early 1980s 25mm looks pretty weedy next to a modern "heroic 28mm" figure, and the latest Reaper Dwarves could be used next to Grenadier Gold Box minis as Ogres or squat Hill Giants. This has even been an issue within lines, if you compare, say, the early Reaper Dark Heaven Legends models by Sandra Garrity to the later easy-to-paint-but-Cloud-Strife-ized sculpts by Werner Klocke.

The final big factor to consider for me is the lack of variety in old school minis. With a few exceptions, you're looking at a very limited number of different monsters and character types represented by any sort of usable figure. You get the usual PC suspects from the PHB, lots of humanoids (with a pleasant level of morphological difference between lines), some Monster Manual stalwarts, a few weird-ass outliers, and that's about it. Contrast that with today's offerings and there's really no competition. This isn't really a dealbreaker, as one could easily design a campaign based on just the "traditional" FRPG monsters, or a humanocentric campaign such as Harn in which monsters are quite rare. One could also use vintage PCs and humanoids, mixing in scale-flexible monsters from newer lines - a Reaper Purple Worm or Dragon is that much more impressive next to a true 25mm.

So. While I'd love to start scouring eBay for the megacephalic fuzzy Bugbears I so fondly remember (or these guys, who somehow remind me of Dunsanian Gnoles or Gibbelins), it's not quite as easy as just snagging an old ruleset. Out of curiosity, is there anyone out there collecting and using old minis either on their own or with newer models as an adjunct?

Players needed for chat game

2011-04-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

If you're interested in being one of the first delvers in Toxic Tower, I'm going to run a low-maintenance, dungeon-centered chat game once a week or so. The ruleset is Tunnel & Trolls 5th edition. No previous T&T experience is necessary and you don't need to own the rules - the parts you need to know are quite simple and available for free.

Play occurs in the dungeon. There should be plenty of opportunities for roleplaying. In the dungeon.

No commitment of time or energy is expected other than showing up and playing. I'd like to keep this a low-key, lighthearted game. I'll run for as long as I can.

Last time, we ran using a combination of the gmail chat function and Adium, and I don't think we ever had problems at the client level. I'm not really up to fighting spambots and maintaining a forum right now, so I'll probably just set up an e-mail list for chargen, OOC, and administrative matters. If it doesn't look like that's going to work out, I'm going to find a different phpBB host because last time on bizhat, the Russian spambots drove me fucking crazy.

I figure 4-6 players should be about right, depending on what percentage shows up each week. We'll try to figure out a night that works for everyone.

I'd like to start in the next couple of weeks. If you're interested, please drop me a line at hugeruinedpile at gmail dot com and, if I don't know you, let me know a little about yourself. I always end up having to turn a few folks away, so please don't take it personally if I don't have enough slots to go around. Thanks in advance for any interest!

Toxic Tower

2011-04-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

I've settled on the name "Toxic Tower" for my main T&T dungeon. It's alliterative, it's a "T + T", it plays on the name of the proprietor (Tox the Mad), and it reminds me of the Jaquays classic Dark Tower.

I've also changed the name of the City State from Ichneumon to Idrizoob. I wanted something a bit weirder, goofier, Dunsanian.

Toxic Tower is a square, ornate Gothic structure teetering high above a flagstone courtyard. A brackish, noxious moat encircles the courtyard and seethes with toothy serpentine forms, and the exterior of the Tower itself is liberally dotted with jutting Gargoyles, some of which can occasionally be seen scuttling to new positions. A huge iron bell hangs from a cavernous belfry, above which an elaborate cockatrice-weathervane is a locus for lightning strikes from the localized thunderhead perpetually coalescing at the Tower's summit.

Windows are visible at irregular intervals at the Tower's middle and higher levels, and delvers willing to brave the Gargoyles and lightning strikes can climb or fly up to these windows to bypass the lower levels. The highest levels are, of course, the sanctums of Tox himself, undoubtedly guarded by the most horrifying sentries and enchantments at his disposal.

The interior of the Tower is a Bigger on the Inside structure. The main entrance is a set of double doors leading to a central foyer, from which a practically endless dungeon sprawls up and out, with abundant themed areas, puzzles, deathtraps, and other funhouse elements which please the Crazy Wizard's depraved sense of humor.

*****

I'm jotting a few more notes on the dungeon's infrastructure and administration, and then it's time to map and stock a few levels. I've tightened the focus of the campaign and my "to do" list to the dungeon itself, and I think I have some fun ideas this time around. The setting outside the dungeon will get some details, but these will be revealed to players through VERY brief exposition or things found in the dungeon rather than sandcrawling and wilderness campaigning. I'm planning and pitching this as a dungeon campaign.

"The Clean-Up Crew"

2011-04-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

As is suggested by the T&T rules, several of the modules, and anecdotal tradition, my T&T dungeon* has a Referee-alter-ego "Proprietor" (Tox the Mad). Obviously the Crazy Wizard isn't resetting every trap, cleaning up every blood (or whatever) stain, and directing the movements of every blob-o'-war. He has lieutenants, assistants, henchthings, and staff. (T&T also encourages the use of "dungeon NPCs" to provide roleplaying opportunities and keep things interesting.)

Today, I'm taking a brief look at the dungeon's cleanup crew. I'm using a few Reaper miniatures as images. Most of the cleanup goes on while the delvers are out of the dungeon, but various members of the crew may be randomly encountered during delves.

THE CUSTODIANS

Morose spirits who see to general cleanup, decluttering, and repair and resetting of dungeon features. Accompanied by the jingling of keys and a psychic impression of resignation and vague irritation. Custodians are mostly insubstantial, but can open doors, move things about, and perform various cleaning cantrips, albeit without any great alacrity.

If encountered while about their tasks, Custodians ignore delvers except to deliver withering "what are you, a bunch of fucking animals?" glares. They do not communicate except to sigh.

Custodians are immune to mundane weapons and physical interactions, but can be damaged or otherwise affected by spells and enchanted weapons. Each Custodian has a Monster Rating of 10, multiplied by the dungeon level on which it's encountered. "Killing" a Custodian dispels the spirit for a week or so, after which it reforms and goes back about its business without apparent grudge. (A week off is a week off.) An Exorcism spell will permanently destroy a Custodian, and other spells and effects may have lasting efficacy at the Referee's discretion.

Each time a Custodian is dispelled, there is a 10% cumulative chance that the Superintendent will appear to take vengeance on the responsible miscreants. Permanent destruction of a Custodian will certainly result in the Superintendent's appearance.

THE SUPERINTENDENT

The Superintendent is essentially a Greater Custodian, with similar characteristics and manifestations. However, it radiates a distinct sense of authority and not-putting-up-with-this-shit-ness. The Superintendent handles particularly difficult jobs (tipped-over monoliths, cave-ins, etc.) and retaliates against asshole delvers who mistreat the Custodians.

I haven't statted out the Superintendent yet, but it'll be a "special" monster with a relatively high Monster Rating - enough to daunt mid-level delvers and send n00bs scuttling - and some undead-type abilities.

It is rumored that the Superintendent is an ancient King of Men who delved too deeply into the custodial arts at the cost of his soul, or that he was a mighty Wizard corrupted by an eldritch artifact known as the Custodial Staff. These rumors are obviously pretty stupid.

LAI-SAAL THE CLEANER

A huge oozing mass of putrescent effluvia and sorcerous cleaning products. Accompanied by the choking miasmal reek of pine, ammonia, chlorine, sawdust, and of course the grave. Employed to clean up any significant amount of organic detritus, such as dead bodies in the aftermath of massacres.

Lai-Saal is typically accompanied by one or more Custodians who direct its activities, open doors for it, and so on. It is corporeal and indiscriminate about whether the organic matter it consumes happens to be alive or not.

I haven't statted up Lai-Saal either, but it'll essentially be a middling MR for attack purposes, a pretty big Constitution for soaking up damage, and some sort of "engulf" ability - probably keyed to its number of 6s, with a small number indicating a Glue You effect and a larger number indicating an additional Smog effect.

*****

As I have time, I'll get around to describing some of the other dungeon NPCs and factions, including Incra the Chon-Chon; the Great Wyrm Mesotheliomax; the horrors of the Pumpkin Patch; the skulking HRPies; and the savage blue Gremlins of Nilmerg.

* I don't have a permanent name for the dungeon yet. I was using "Mordant Castle" as a placeholder, but I may eventually want to use my notes on that dungeon and its resident family as written, so I need to come up with something else suitably dippy and/or anagrammatic.

Black Hobbits description from Monsters! Monsters!

2011-04-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

Occasionally someone asks what a T&T "Black Hobbit" is. I've posted a pic that I suspect was one White Dwarf reader's attempt to stat one up. I don't think any such animal as "T&T canon" exists - to the best of my knowledge, Ken St. Andre never acted the fool via screeds and edicts in the house organ. But here's the nearest thing to canon insofar as Black Hobbits are concerned, from Ken's excellent Monsters! Monsters! spinoff game. (Which, incidentally, came before Rampage, Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna, and certain other games in which one can play THE MONSTER with whatever degree of wankery.)

The Thieves' Guild of Ichneumon Idrizoob

2011-04-18T18:31:00.001-07:00

City play in the ~~Ichneumon~~ Idrizoob campaign is abstracted. Insofar as there are businesses for characters to patronize, they have some simple mechanical apparatus and effect. Rather than "playing things out" topside, a few rolls are made, bookkeeping is updated, and it's back to the dungeon.

So, for example, instead of RPing the usual Tavern Scene, players note how much their delvers are spending on their carousing, then the effects (in this case, possible rumors) are adjudicated. It's obviously far from immersive, but I suspect it's not far off from how FRPGs were played in their early stages. This campaign is about dorking around in the dungeon, not hobnobbing with the usual bunch of Central Casting gits in Fantasy Tavern #100.

Similarly, I've detailed a simple system to simulate the existence of the Thieves' Guild of ~~Ichneumon~~ Idrizoob and the availability of its members for hire. If the delvers would like to hire a Thief to accompany them on an individual delve, they may do so. The Thief malingers and lollygags, adding no dice to combat (and taking no damage), and he is willfully unhelpful in any honest enterprise, essentially fading into the background until his more dubious services are called for. He reduces the overall monetary value of all treasure gained by 10% (to simulate his nefarious gleanings), and then takes a full share of adventure points and treasure.

In return, the Thief will attempt to detect traps and open locks. He has an 18 in the relevant ability score and adds his Thief level (generated randomly on each delve by rolling 2d6) to any SRs to engage in thiefery.

The Thief is quite frail, virtually tubercular in fact, and any damaging trap he sets off may kill him at the Referee's discretion. If the delvers decide to dry-gulch the Thief and get their treasure back at the end of a delve, they may easily do so. But the Thieves' Guild has an uncanny knack for getting at the truth of its journeymen's fate, and an alarming tendency to err on the side of calling in the brethren in the Assassins' Guild to rectify potential injustices.

Delvers who are particularly pleased (or not especially displeased) with the performance of an individual Thief may request his services again. Whether this request is granted depends on how the delvers treated him on prior contracts and how much he was able to steal from them off the top.

Standard fantasy dungeon tropes?

2011-04-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

What are the elements you expect to see in a standard fantasy dungeon, to the point they've become tropes or even cliches? Examples might be magic mouths, crypts full of undead, ringers who want to join the party, cursed items, alchemy labs, underground rivers, spiked pits, fungus caverns, bridges over chasms, statues that come to life and kick your ass, and so on.

(I'm working on a "traditional" dungeon and am compiling a list of elements to include or subvert.)

City play in Ichneumon Idrizoob

2011-04-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

As I discussed here, gameplay in my beer and pretzels T&T campaign will take place in the dungeon. When the delvers leave the dungeon, their attributes reset to their normal levels, adventure points are awarded, new levels and associated benefits are gained, spells and equipment are bought, and a week or two passes before beginning play in the dungeon again. There's an entire teeming City State above the dungeon, but it is, at least initially, only a backdrop, and in-character action doesn't take place there.

Everyone likes flavor text (especially me), so I'll provide some level of backstory, news, rumors, and so on. And one never knows - if I'm actually able to sustain campaign play for a while, it might turn into a going concern, at which point I'm sure I'll flesh things out topside.

Until then, there's only so much that delvers need concern themselves with in the City - room and board, getting cured of various maladies, and buying things. We could just mark off time and money, but I thought I'd thumbnail a few establishments all the same.

Taverns: The usual wretched hives of scum and villainy. Each gold piece spent standing the proprietor, staff, and other patrons to drinks yields a cumulative 1% chance of gleaning some rumor (one attempt per delver per week).

Inns: The usual smoke-stained hearths and creaking bunks. Minimum expenditure for each delver between delves is 1 gp per level for spartan amenities; greater expenditures yield greater comfort and more debauched perquisites. [I'll probably figure out some system whereby extended expenditures beyond the minimum have some in-game effect, perhaps an increase in Charisma or a bonus to a roll on some sort of custom Carousing Table.]

The Wizards' Guild: This mindbendingly baroque structure is where PC Wizards learn their spells and purchase magic staffs. Delvers may be able to prevail upon the Guild to cast useful spells - roll 2d6, rerolling and adding to doubles. A result equal to or greater than the level of the desired spell indicates that a Wizard capable of casting the spell is present and willing to do so. This service costs as much as it would cost a PC Wizard to learn the spell, and its availability may be checked once a week. The Wizard will cast the spell in the Guildhouse, and certainly will not enter the Pile.

The Temple of Vroonops: The sinister Cult of the Weird God is the major municipal cult of ~~Ichneumon~~ Idrizoob, where the God is portrayed as a giant anteater with the ears of a jackass and the legs of a cassowary. The Temple is the only place in Ichneumon to purchase poison, meteoric kris knives, and slaves.

The Bazaar: All other mundane items may be purchased at book price from the various tents, stalls, and wagons of the Bazaar.

*****

At some point, I may start running a weekly dungeon game again over chat. I think T&T's combat system and basic game setup are ideally suited for chat gaming and would like to test that theory. Players from the Stonehell game - which I think was a success - will get precedence, but if we need additional bodies, I'll recruit here.

The Tunnels & Trolls "basic game" setup

2011-04-17T07:30:00.001-07:00

I ignored Tunnels & Trolls for decades, only discovering it maybe three years ago. Upon learning that I loved it, I launched into the usual search engine investigation for discussions and resources. I was surprised to find that (to my eyes) the best online discussion of T&T had taken place on the Forge.

I wasn't surprised to find good discussion on the Forge - I really have little experience there, and no axe to grind with Ron Edwards or his fellow travellers. I was more surprised to see how enamored Ron Edwards is of T&T. His conversations about T&T here, here, here, here, and here leave me no doubt that regardless of one's opinions of the Forge, GNS theory, etc., Ron has a pretty good understanding of what makes T&T tick and what makes it fun. It looks like he'd be a blast to play with.

Ron's preferred edition of T&T is the same as mine - plain old 5th without the .5. The version of the game he espouses is the "default" or "basic" version of T&T - in-character play takes place exclusively in the dungeon, and "town" and other out-of-dungeon setting elements exist only as a reset button upon leaving the dungeon.

(By the time 5th edition came out, Ken St. Andre and Liz Danforth were obviously aware of, and had used, modes of play other than this model - an entire section of the 5th edition rulebook addresses the development of cities, campaign worlds, and adventures other than dungeon crawls, so by 1979, the default T&T setup can't really be attributed to naivete.)

By the book, here are some assumptions of the "basic" version of T&T presented in the main rules:

* "[T]here exist numerous enchanted tunnel complexes (call them Dungeons or Underworlds if you wish) that are liberally loaded with many types of treasure, and abundantly guarded by every imaginable form of monster, magic, and trap."

* "Generally speaking, the greater treasures and most powerful monsters are found further below the surface."

* "[T]wo or three players with up to four characters apiece is ideal. When it is necessary for a GM to try and cope with more than three players, it may be necessary to limit the number of characters they can use at one time, and/or to invoke some form of parliamentary procedure to determine who gets to talk when."

* Dungeons can be themed, and may have a mastermind "Proprietor" who serves as the Referee's alter ego (and may share some of his or her personal characteristics).

* Some amount of awful humor in dungeon stocking is actively encouraged.

As Ron Edwards notes in one of those threads or another, there are nifty little mini-games of attribute and resource management built into the main game - the qualifications for and selection of weapons by Warriors and spells by Wizards, decisions about whether to press on or turn back in the dungeon, the machinations of the Proprietor in altering and restocking in response to the delvers' incursions, etc.

Unsurprisingly, this baseline setup is, in its broad particulars, remarkably similar to what we know about the original D&D games. It maps even more accurately to the setup and gameplay of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.

This is just about what the doctor ordered for beer and pretzels pickup gaming, of course, so I'm adopting the assumptions of the basic game for my little project. There's a big dungeon intended for repeat play - with smaller subsidiary capsule dungeons as "8-page modules" - run by a Proprietor who's a lot like me. There are numerous sketchily described topside locales where the delvers can blow money on goods and services, but gameplay takes place below.

Which brings me to the following shopworn campaign setup:

For centuries, decadent Ichneumon, the City State of the White Otters, has been ruled by generations of mad wizards and insane geniuses. The last of this line was the Arch-Mage Tox, a lunatic warlock of unparalleled arcane power. Fifty years ago, the Arch-Mage disappeared with his retainers, slaves, and pets into the catacombs beneath decrepit Mordant Castle and has not been heard from since. Until now ...

The strange lights and eerie sounds of the abandoned castle environs have become more intense and frightening of late, and travelers and interlopers are set upon with increasing frequency by horrible and unnatural creatures. Ichneumon's ruler in regency, the cruel and eccentric despot Count Pnamtu, has recently revealed that Tox the Mad left behind a sealed edict to be read upon the fiftieth anniversary of his disappearance. This taunting missive beckons those as would brave the terrors of ancient Mordant Castle, the Huge Ruined Pile, to enter its hellish precincts and claim the uncountable fabulous treasures which lie therein for the taking, virtually unguarded.

More shortly.

The T&T5 "monster manual"

2011-04-15T14:47:00.001-07:00

Tunnels & Trolls 5th edition doesn't have the exhaustive bestiary typical of fantasy games of its era. Because its highly abstracted default combat system wraps AC, HD, damage, and most special abilities into one statistic, it can get away with assigning some example Monster Ratings to the usual suspects and leaving it at that. Of course, because the power levels of individual campaigns are potentially so divergent - my campaigns, for instance, tend to be "human only" and magic-scarce therefore much lower powered than many others - these Monster Ratings are of limited utility.

Of great utility to me, however, is Ken's (and maybe Liz's?) list of the monsters in his campaign:

What lurks and slithers in your imagination I don't know, but in mine there are fire-breathing dragons, crocodiles, unicorns, snarks, sharks and boojums, black hobbits, giant spiders, cave lions, pythons, centaurs, toothy non-flaming dragons, wyverns, wurms, griffins, hippogriffs, werewolves and vampires, balrogs, basilisks, ghosts, jubjub birds, slithy toves, cave bears, sphinx, enchanted warriors, zombies, reptile men, flame fiends, harpies, orcs, ogres, gremlins, goblins, trolls, giants, two-headed giants, three-headed giants, mushroom monsters, cockatrices, giant slugs, banshees, mummies, barrow-wights, living statues, shoggoths, wraiths, demons, leopards, octopi (giant economy size), gnoles, minotaurs, slime-mutants, drooling maniacs, half-orcs, hydrae, living skeletons, bandersnatchi, jabberwocks, pithecanthropi, ghouls, mad dogs, poisonous vipers, blood bats, night gaunts, lamiae, cannibals, witches, warlocks, rabid rats (ulsios), chimerae, hags, giant slimy worms, yeti, tigers, gorgons, bigfoots, invisible stalkers, were-creatures of all varieties, misanthropes and misogynists, manticores and lots more.

There are any number of fun and relatively simple ways to make monsters in T&T more mechanically interesting, e.g., keying special abilities to a certain number of rolled 6s, separating Monster Rating and Constitution, assigning spells and armor points and resistances, etc., but a beginning Referee could very easily stock a dungeon and a campaign perfectly well with nothing more than this list and Monster Ratings - one statistic and a shitload of evocative examples. That's pretty cool.

In fact, I'd kind of like to try out T&T5 at its most abstract baseline level for a while. My instinct has always been to make T&T more "tactical," paying attention to such considerations as marching order, weapon length, and so on. But I've never actually tried T&T5 combat as written, that is, more or less ignoring positioning and making one dice roll for each side, affected by magic and Saving Rolls for unusual actions as appropriate. So when and if I run a b&p game online or IRL, I'm starting with that setup. (I suspect I'll eventually end up going back to slightly more tactical combat, but one never knows.)