The Wasted Lands

Rumors of My Site's Disappearance Are Greatly Exaggerated

2012-01-30T17:22:00.005-05:00

As the title says: rumors of my website's disappearance are greatly exaggerated.

I got a couple e-mails and messages lately asking what happened to my D&D resources site.

Oops.

I shuffled some things around when I bought the elflair.com domain, and forgot to create a redirect.

http://www.grey-elf.com/ now goes to my D&D page. If you go to http://www.grey-elf.com/dnd/ you will now be redirected to the current proper URL.

Sorry for any confusion, folks! My bad!

Reading Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Part 33

2012-01-29T12:26:00.002-05:00

PLACEMENT OF MONETARY TREASURE

This section is of general interest for almost every DM, though as I said in my last posting, much of what is here is common-sense and even has been covered in more detail in other areas. It talks about the need for the DM to keep in mind the economy of his milieu, tying into the believability aspect that has been previously discussed. The general idea is that of course the acquisition of treasure and wealth is of primary concern to the players and characters in a campaign, but as they rack up more--especially if they start throwing around gold and gems (or even platinum) like candy, it's going to effect the economy of the region. Prices are going to go up, as the basic laws of supply and demand kick in--the more money there is in a region, the higher inflation goes.

The problem here is that this has a negative effect on the local populace. The PCs are throwing money around willy-nilly, causing prices to skyrocket, but the poor are still the poor; they are not working any more or getting paid higher wages, and so they are forced to deal with the higher prices that have been jacked up by the wealthy, and they get poorer.

Look at the United States, circa 2005-2012 for a prime example of the failure of trickle down wealth.

There is, however, another inherent problem with allowing player characters to obtain too much wealth--why bother adventuring anymore when you've got obscene sums of money at your fingertips? For most, the love of adventure only goes so far before it makes no sense to continually put yourself in mortal danger.

In an earlier section Gygax discussed taxes and tithes as a means to control player character wealth. This section takes the idea in a different direction, and it's so simple it's elegant: they can't take it all with them.

Just because the PCs find a dragon's hoard, doesn't mean they can carry hundreds of thousands of gold pieces with them. Even the valuable art pieces therein will likely be far too large to easily remove--even if the characters have a horse and cart. Excavating a dragon horde will take weeks of effort and requires leaving the hoard unguarded (or relatively so) while they gather the resources to excavate it. Presuming that they slew a dragon to get the horde, it's likely the populace will realize the dragon is no longer around and will come to help themselves to the treasure. Let's say the PCs stick around to guard it while sending a retainer to gather resources. They're going to have to fight to keep it as people show up to take their share, to demand retribution for the hardships of the dragon--even the local lords may lay claim to the treasure, as it is in their realm and thus their property. More upstanding lords may offer a modest reward to the PCs before removing most of the treasure to their lands' coffers.

The section also includes the important reminder that just because a monster in the Monster Manual has a listed Treasure Type, that does NOT mean all monsters possess treasure. The treasure types in the MM are described as the "optimum," and it is stated that they are meant to consider the maximum number of creatures guarding them. It is absolutely not a crime for the DM, after the players have defeated a flock of harpies, to declare that all the characters gain for their efforts are a few coppers in pouches on the creatures' belts (if even that--Harpies have little need to carry coin with them). This is because the listed treasure will be held in the Harpies eyries, the location of which the PCs likely have no clue and no way to find.

Here's another good example: what if a tribe of ogres is said to be guarding a vast treasure, only when the PCs defeat them, all they find is a mountain spring? Through a series of experiments or even accidents, they discover that the spring turns anything that is submerged in it to solid gold (this includes living creatures, of course, which naturally die when it happens--no save). Sounds like a source of great wealth, yes?

Here's the kicker: the area is cursed and causes everyone who discovers its secret to be obsessed with greed to the point where they refuse to share the power with even a single other creature. A successful save against this curse imparts a sense of such revulsion in the character that he has no wish to have any association with the spring whatsoever. The trick, then, for the players becomes how to use the spring's power without being overcome either by desire or revulsion towards it?

Yes, I stole that idea from Voyage of the Dawn Treader, albeit with a couple modifications. Isn't that what the best DMs do, anyway?

In any case, should the DM, the book mentions, make the mistake of allowing too much wealth to fall into the characters' hands, he is recommended to use taxes, tithes, bandits, tolls, upkeep and training costs, and other methods of draining funds to their maximum effort.

When looked at in this light, what many might consider a Monty Haul adventure becomes not so bad after all--just remember: you can't necessarily take it with you.

AD&D: Regarding the Reprints

2012-01-27T23:36:00.000-05:00

REGARDING THE REPRINTS

Yes, I know I'm late to the party on this, but I'd like to address the reprints of the first edition DMG, PHB, and Monster Manuals. My own personal feeling is that everyone in the old school community should be preparing to buy these when they come out. I should've expected the bitter whining that has erupted in some areas (though thankfully, it seems, a vocal minority) from over-entitled gamers about this: Yes, you can get them for FAR cheaper on ebay. But you know what sellers on ebay don't have? Modern printing costs, overhead, warehousing, and distribution costs. The reason to buy these is obviously not because they're cheap. You should buy them to support the effort. Show WotC that this was indeed a good idea; that the audience is here and we are willing to buy our game again, should it come back into print.

And seriously, the costs aren't all that out of line with other gaming books of similar size. Maybe a bit higher, but so be it, really.

Really, so you hate 4e. So do I--and Hell, I found the 4th ed version of Tomb of Horrors, and the 4th ed Basic Set more than a bit insulting to my sensibilities as well. But you know what? It wasn't WotC's intent to slap grognards across the face--that such was a result was, to my mind, pretty wildly unintentional. I honestly believe that they were trying in their way to offer a tribute; it just backfired in the old school community. And more than a little of that backlash is coming from these self-same over-entitled gamers who think Hasbro is some sort of Evil Empire out to screw them at every turn.

It's now quite nice to see WotC actually recognizing the old school community and paying real tribute to the history of the game. To see them getting it right. To see them paying credit to the resurgence of interest in old editions of the game. The only thing better would be to see them re-release OD&D. Maybe in 2016, for the 40th anniversary!

As for this re-release, I'm looking forward to the new cover art, and I believe that if these versions of the books are a success, we could in fact see more official support for them again. Lord knows they've got a potential cash cow in the libraries of old modules they could re-release, in the other AD&D hardbacks, etc. But if old-schoolers turn our noses up at this effort, all it does is validate the opinions of the newer generation that we're just bitter old people for whom nothing is good enough.

We are sabotaging ourselves (once again) if we don't recognize and support this effort. And if your opinion is "We already have a thriving first edition community; we don't need them anymore," well, then there's nothing I can say to change your mind on that. And I'll keep my rather colorful opinions about that attitude to myself, save to say that you're right--we don't need WotC. Nor do most of us need OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, Spellcraft & Swordplay, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Basic Fantasy, or any of the other retro-clone or nostalgia games or publishers out there--Hell, we can get AD&D on ebay for dirt cheap and it's readily available, as are the old modules, and with some creativity we're all capable of writing our own modules for our groups.

But I, for one, am happy as a pig in shit to have them on board. Every last one, from WotC to LotFP.

Reading Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Part 32

2012-01-27T23:35:00.000-05:00

MONSTER POPULATIONS AND PLACEMENT

This section, and the few that follow, are actually a bit disappointing; though there are a few gems to be found (and I will address them) the sections largely consist of Gygax rambling on at length about the proper use of monsters, money, and magic in your campaign. The reason the sections are disappointing is because even for a new DM, most of the advice given herein is common sense, though in today's landscape, some of it is actually worth mentioning. That is, we now live in a society where "gamers" are commonly thought of as people who play WoW or are PS3/X-Box junkies, not tabletop RPGers.

In such a world, it is, in fact, important to note that in a believable fantasy world, monsters don't re-spawn.

What is perhaps incredible is that Gygax thought to mention this back in 1979, decades before the fantasy CRPG phenomenon was to erupt.

Also of interest is Gygax's assertion that the random monster encounter tables are not meant to be used all the time, in every situation, but only in specialized and emergency situations. Constant use of these tables creates what Gygax calls a "Disneyland" atmosphere, or what today we might call "Gonzo" gaming. He mentions that continuous use of random encounter tables makes it difficult to maintain long-term play, as the overall then lacks rhyme or reason upon which to build and expand the milieu. An interesting statement that makes sense, though I'd argue if you have a group of players who don't care about rhyme or reason, then it's entirely possible to maintain long-term play in such a campaign--the key is that nobody looks too closely to question why so many variant creatures are existing in relative harmony, and why the wilderness never seems to run out of monsters.

One of the things Gygax mentions here which is key to a good D&D setting speaks to the necessity of the DM to map out the populations (at least in general) of a given area. The reason for this is that when PCs move into the area and begin slaughtering monsters, they will eventually depopulate the region of hostiles. This will necessitate them moving on to continue to seek their adventure and fortunes elsewhere, a situation that most NPC societies will eventually welcome, lest these powerful and wild adventuring types become tyrants that seek to rule over them.

Think, for example, of the classic starting adventure scenario--B1: The Keep on the Borderlands. This is in actuality less of an adventure module than it is a starting point for a campaign setting. The area surrounding the Keep is stocked with various areas of adventures, of varying challenge levels, but each has specific treasures and monsters within its area. Once the PCs have gone through all of these areas, killed all the orcs, and taken all the treasure, what is there left for them to do? They could retire, certainly, but given that B1 is a low-level module, that seems disingenuous. Gygax points out that monsters will not simply re-appear in areas previously cleared--migration, as he puts it, is slow. The rationale for this would seem to be that obviously (despite PC misconceptions) monsters aren't that stupid. They are at least intelligent enough to not want to move into an area where word has it their kin and kith were all slaughtered.

Again, for a gaming group reared on World of Warcraft this sort of approach will be alien--consider a "group" quest in an MMO, where a number of characters undertake the same quest, to kill a certain monster and acquire his treasure. Instead of working as a group to kill the monster, and returning the treasure as one, they have to kill the monster and get its treasure one time for each character in the group, waiting for the monster to "re-spawn" after each killing. This, perhaps, is an illustration of the key difference between computerized "role playing" games and tabletop role playing games--in the latter, we see a single quest with a single goal, truly shared by all the players. In the former, each player has his own quest which may or may not be identical (though not truly the same, as evidenced by the need to kill the "big bad" multiple times to obtain multiple spawnings of identical treasures) as the quest by his adventuring partners. The idea of adventuring parties in computerized RPGs is more of a transparent illusion than the shared story created by a group of tabletop gamers playing in the DM's sandbox.

Another piece of advice that Gygax offers in this section, which is of particular interest and often overlooked by AD&D players and DMs, is that the DM should "Alter creatures freely, remembering balance. Hit dice, armor class, attacks and damage, magical and psionic powers are all mutable; and after players become used to the standard types a few ringers will make them a bit less sure of things." (91)

In case you're missing the obvious point of that statement: Orcs can be a deadly challenge to fifteenth-level characters. This, incidentally, is one of the core stated design goals of the in-development D&D 5th edition.

People tend to feel that monsters were too static in older editions of D&D, that an orc is an orc is an orc, but clearly, the stated intent is that it does not have to be so. Every DM should keep this vital piece of advice in mind, if for no other reason than to see the look on the face of the fighter's player when you inform him that no, in fact he does not get his multiple attacks against this particular group of orcs.

Finally, after an example of population and placement (and a pretty good one that demonstrates you can do it in a single paragraph), Gygax recommends approaching the wilderness in much the same way as you would a dungeon, with a matrix and keyed encounter areas. Again, see B1 for a good example of this. And remember, "It is certainly more interesting and challenging for players when they find that monsters do not spring up like weeds overnight - in dungeons or elsewhere. Once all the dragons in an area are slain, then they are out of dragons!" (91)

Index to an Exegesis on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

2012-01-24T20:48:00.005-05:00

I had a request over at the OD&D forums to put up an index of sorts to my "Reading Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" threads, as it was hard to read them in sequence, the poster said, using the tag search. So here it is--all the posts in sequence. I didn't take the time to list the contents of each one, as the more time I take on this is more time taken away from new AD&D blogs, and nobody wants that. These are, however, in sequence as they appear in the AD&D DMG, each blog covering a couple of sections, with "sections" defined as those bits of text that fall beneath headers that are in bolded caps in the book...hopefully that makes sense.

So, here you go. I'll try to keep this a living index as I add new sections to the series, so if you keep this post bookmarked you should always have the most up-to-date listing.

Oh, also, these will not open in a new window, so you may want to right click and "open in new window/tab/whatever."

Introduction:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/resurrecting-where-i-read-ad.html

Part 1:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/advanced-dungeons-dragons-first-edition.html

Part 2:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part.html

Part 3:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-first.html

Part 4:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-advanced-dungeond-dragons-part.html

Part 5:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-advanced-dungeond-dragons-part_29.html

Part 6:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/05/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part.html

Part 7:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/05/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_03.html

Part 8:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/05/reading-advanced-dugeons-dragons-part-8.html

Part 9:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/05/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_09.html

Part 10:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/05/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_10.html

Part 11:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/05/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_11.html

Part 12:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/05/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_16.html

Part 13:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/05/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_21.html

Part 14:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/05/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_24.html

Part 15:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/06/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part.html

Part 16:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/06/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_07.html

Part 17:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/06/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_08.html

Part 18:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/06/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_27.html

Part 19:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/06/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_28.html

Part 20:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/06/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_30.html

Part 21:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/07/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part.html

Part 22:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/07/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_05.html

Part 23:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/08/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part.html

Part 24:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/09/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part.html

Part 25:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/10/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part.html

Part 26:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/10/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_17.html

Part 27:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/10/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_20.html

Part 28:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/01/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part.html

Part 29:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/01/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_16.html

Part 30:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/01/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_20.html

Part 31:

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/01/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_22.html

Part 32:
http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/01/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_27.html

Part 33:
http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/01/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part_29.html

Age of Conan: Session Eighteen

2012-01-22T13:44:00.000-05:00

Last session we played saw the heroes make it back to King Cneph Coalhair's ringfort with the horn in hand. As they made their way to his throne room, they were ambushed by Vanir raiders who had infiltrated the fort. These stole the horn and took off running. The PCs gave chase, eventually capturing the thief just as he made it over the walls and outside. They had the horn in hand, only to discover themselves face to face with a small Vanir army who had come to challenge the fort for the horn.

Trapped outside, a few of the PCs fought valiantly as King Coalhair's men hacked and slashed their way to the rescue. In the end, the Vanir were sent running and the horn presented to Coalhair.

The next day, however, grave news came to the fort: Rorik Hodderson, one of the Vanir leaders, had captured Irda, a revered holy woman of Ymir who was said to be gifted with prophecy, and was threatening her death if the Aesir did not turn over the horn. Knowing full well that Rorik had sealed his own fate with this gambit--priests and priestesses of Ymir are off limits to both sides and come and go between the Nordheimr as they please--Coalhair entreated the PCs to track Rorik and rescue the priestess.

En route, the party encountered Irda's bodyguard, a mentally challenged giant of a man named Fist, who had been overcome by Hodderson's men when Irda was kidnapped, and Fist joined their quest.

They made it to Hodderson's camp at the ruin of an ancient Hyperborean tower, and managed to infiltrate the place to get a handle on the layout. They then staged an ambush that allowed them to take on the Vanir while Merhotep slipped into the tower to rescue the priestess.

At the climax, an epic battle took place between Hrogar and Fist, and Rorik Hodderson Halfway through the fight, Fist had a sudden epileptic fit and fell to the ground, convulsing, leaving a weakened Hrogar to face the enraged Vanir warrior alone. Hrogar emerged victorious, but only barely.

Unfortunately, as the group made preparations to head back to the ringfort, the ancient battlefield upon which they stood erupted with the now all-too-animate bodies of the putrid undead. Merhotep shouted, "quickly, into the tower!"

And that's where we left off. Tonight's game will pick up at that point.

The game tonight includes an undead siege, which I had originally intended to run with Chainmail, but not everyone in the group is an experienced miniatures player, and I am certainly not experienced at refereeing miniatures battle games. I much prefer a narrative approach to mass combat, and so I have waffled for weeks about this--even putting off the game last week to give me one more week to explore my options. In the end, the Betrayer of Asgard game contains a narrative system for handling this particular siege, and I think that I will adapt it for use with my OD&D hack--all that will really be required is reducing target numbers by four to account for the difference in average between a d20 (11.5) and 2d6 (7). What's nice about this particular system is that it allows me to grant situational bonuses to the Aesir and zombies based (a) upon preparations the PCs and Aesir make before the battle, and (b) actions that the PCs decide to take during the battle. Combining this with the Victory Point system already inherent in the adventure makes for what I think will be a pretty slick narrative mass battle which I think I can use to create a lot more excitement and mood than would a simple Chainmail miniatures battle.

Plus, I don't have to figure out how to build the ringfort and surrounding woods with the crap I have laying around the house.

I guess I'm just a narrative combat kind of guy. I've never really been a fan of tactical miniatures-based combat in role playing games, and while I'd still love to play Chainmail at some point, I think for my Age of Conan game I'm going to stick with quick-and-dirty, fast resolution, and purely narrative scenarios. I think they serve far better to paint a picture in the minds of the players, build tension, and keep the game flowing and exciting than would breaking everything down to move tokens around on a table and playing a purely tactical game.

What is actually quite exciting is that the narrative combat in this scenario could be pretty easily adapted to almost any mass combat, just by changing the victory conditions for each battle, and altering the specifics of the PC encounters during the melee.

How it works is thus: the PCs have been racking up "Victory Points" during each stage of this adventure; these VPs are applied in various ways as bonuses or penalties to climactic acts at the end of the stages. In this case they will apply as bonuses to the mass combat rolls of the Aesir against their opponents.

The mass combat rolls are simply a die roll, adding a bonus representing the strength of each side, the victory points of the characters, and situational bonuses. Compare the rolls, and the higher score wins the round. Player characters can choose to take heroic actions during the round to bolster their side and gain further bonuses if they choose (of course, failing can result in penalties).

Depending on the degree to which the Aesir win or are beaten for the round, they and their opponents suffer variable gains and losses in strength scores, representing both casualties taken and the fighting spirit of each side. Battle continues until one of several victory conditions are met.

I like this approach. I've seen a lot of mass combat systems, some that worked better than others, but most of them have the commonality that even the narrative ones get too bogged down in tracking morale, casualties, battle conditions, etc, and lose sight of the fast-and-loose elegance needed for a true narrative system. This one is pure elegance, and I may just have to adapt it as an option in my forthcoming Hyborian bestiary.

Hm, now there's a thought...narrative combat for OD&D using the 2d6 combat system. Gary and Dave's heads would explode.

Reading Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Part 31

2012-01-22T01:11:00.003-05:00

THE TOWN AND CITY SOCIAL STRUCTURE

For all of Gygax's talk in the previous section about all of the different types of ruling bodies that are possible in a fantasy milieu, he kind of falls apart in this section with a fairly rigid description of what the social structure of a city looks like. The structure listed consists, as one might expect, of three strata: Upper, Middle, and Lower Class. The Upper Class consists of nobles, gentlemen, wealthy murchant and important guildmasters. These are the lawmakers and executives, such as the mayor, burgomaster, or magistrate. The Middle Class is drawn from merchants and guildmasters, as well as master artisans. This class provides lesser officials, such as aldermen and burghers. The lower class is the peasants, tradesmen, journeyman, and laborers, the common council and administrators, petty officials such as councilors who may advise and handle basic administrative duties, but not wield any real temporal power.

The section goes on to discuss the idea that a military of a town or city is drawn partially from conscripts, the militia and police with the balance made up of mercenaries.

Now, this breakdown makes sense for a city or town in a traditional European medieval society--and even, to some degree, for a middle eastern or far eastern medieval society. But where it falls apart is the idea that Gygax established just one page earlier; that not all fantasy milieus need to follow that mold. What about a city in a democratic society, where power is wielded equally across the population and all decisions made by popular vote? What about a communist or socialist society, where ownership is disdained and all assets of the society distributed equally? There would be no classes in a socialist society, and arguably a true democracy that functioned as intended would go a long way towards the bulk of the power being distributed amongst an exceptionally large Middle Class, with the Upper and Lower Classes formed of a small minority of the populace?

Yes, folks, I'm aware that in modern society class warfare is alive and well, but we're talking about a fantasy game, so it's not outside the realm of possibility to discuss the idea of a well-functioning democratic society which eliminates the bulk of such a situation.

This section could be helped by examples drawn from other types of societies, and while the prior section on social class and rank provides a strong basis and argument for including non-traditional and non-historical types of societies in your game, this section serves only to reinforce the pseudo-historical European standard.

ECONOMICS
This section, as well as the one that follows, are (though brief) some of the most useful reminders to a DM in the entire book.

Almost as long as I've been playing D&D, various people have pointed out that the prices in the Player's Handbook don't mesh with the actual costs of items in medieval times. The old "it's a fantasy game, not reality" response aside, this section deals with that issue directly, pointing out that the prices are inflated as a result of the game dealing with situations which see a constant influx of treasure and valuables into an economy as the result of a strong and populous freeman adventuring class. When adventurers are constantly traveling between civilizations with pockets full of gold, silver, gems, and even platinum coin, inflation is naturally going to kick in. "Heroic fantasy," Gygax writes, "is made of fortunes and king's ransoms in loot gained most cleverly and bravely and lost in a twinkling by various means - thievery, gambling debauchery, gift-giving, bribes,a nd so-forth...when treasure is spoken of, it is more stirring when participants know it to be TREASURE!" (p. 90)

DUTIES, EXCISES, FEES, TARIFFS, TAXES, TITHES, AND TOLLS
This section follows up the economics section with some advice on how to keep your adventurers wanting for gold, when the entire game revolves around the acquisition of "TREASURE!" If adventurers are able to swagger around, slinging fistfuls of gems at a whim, the allure of adventure could die out quickly. Why bother to continually put yourself into mortal danger when one could easily retire comfortably? The answer, Gygax points out, lies in taxing your PCs. Cities will likely require a fee for non-citizens just to enter, as well as duties charged on any goods (read: TREASURE!) the players bring in for the purpose of sale. Beyond the duties, actual sales tax could be charged, as well as exchange fees on foreign currencies. Don't forget toll roads! The types of societies one encounters in a D&D game could well run entirely on tax levies. Such heavy taxing, when combined with the earlier-discussed training fees and maintenance of hirelings and henchmen will allow the DM to throw hoards at the players while still keeping them in need of cash.

I have no doubt whatsoever that players will gripe and whine about these sorts of things, but really when you lay it all out and stop to think about it, it makes perfect sense. Of course, for the DM who doesn't want to worry about these sorts of detailed economics, a flat "upkeep" fee can be imposed periodically on your players. This isn't in the DMG, but is a common-sense solution that was adopted in later organized play versions of D&D, and was suggested in Mongoose's Conan roleplaying game, and set at a full 50% of the players' assets, justified by the "cost of high living" to which adventurers are prone. I don't think a periodic reduction of valuables by 50% is remotely out of line for a DM to charge, and indeed I use this number in my own games. My players at first were unhappy with it, but have since learned to roll with it and accept it--indeed, they rather enjoy not having to worry about subtracting x silver pieces for every night they spend at an inn, plus y coppers for each meal they eat, etc.

That's all for tonight. Next up: MONSTER POPULATIONS AND PLACEMENT

Reading Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Part 30

2012-01-20T14:15:00.001-05:00

SOCIAL CLASS IN ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
One of the most interesting things about reading the Dungeon Master's Guide, in my opinion, is that so much of it constitutes essays on topics of interest--this isn't just a book of advice and rules; it's a book of themes, essays, and justifications. While I don't always agree with Gygax's points, he makes them effectively and they are darned fun to read.

This section begins with a discussion about why AD&D does not contain lists of tables for random determination of social rank, nor rules for adjudicating such. This is an issue that would to some degree change as AD&D went on (Oriental Adventures, for example, has extensive rules on social standing), but we'll deal with that as we get to later books and discuss the shift in philosophy. In this case, the essay is quite convincing and one that I buy into entirely. I have never felt the need to determine random social background in my games. I've had players (and played characters myself) that were serfs, slaves, knights, and nobles, and it hasn't changed the balance or nature of the game at all.

Following the justification of not including random tables and rules for social class, the section discusses different types of government that can exist in an AD&D milieu. This is a neat section and as with some other sections in the DMG, there are points here that I think a lot of folks forget: I'd say in my 30+ years of playing D&D, at least 90-95% of the societies I've encountered (and even run--I'm guilty as the next DM) have been some variation on medieval feudalism, with a king, nobles, barons, etc. But D&D is a game of fantasy, in a fantastical world populated by dozens of humanoid and demi-human races, all with different outlooks on life and societal organization. This section of the book discusses everything from autocracy to theocracy to democracy to syndicracy (government by megacorps!). I suspect that at least a few of the terms in Gygax's list were terms he invented, but they all work, if there's a bit too much overlap in some places (his definition of democracy, for example, includes "rule by elected representatives," which is his definition of republic--in Gygax's terms, all republics are democracies, but not all democracies are republics. Some people in the U.S. in 2012 would agree with this. But he also, for example, includes autocracy, monarchy, and dictatorship as three separate entries, but gives all of them almost the exact same definition.

The section ends by noting that the list is not exhaustive, and DMs should feel encouraged to invent new forms of government as appropriate for their campaign.

Next comes a few lists of royal and noble titles, both Northern European and Asian. Unfortunately, each list is formed of three columns without headers so unless you already are familiar with the titles in question, there's no way of telling what's what--especially in the Asian titles. The first two columns in the Northern European titles seem to be standard nobility titles followed by Church titles. The latter two columns, I'm not sure. The same could possibly apply for the first two columns in the Asian forms. Gygax recommends some research into various histories as well as having access to a good thesaurus.

I had hoped to write more, but RL has called on the phone and I'll need to break off here. Next time: THE TOWN AND CITY SOCIAL STRUCTURE.

Reading Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Part 29

2012-01-16T16:42:00.002-05:00

I'm kind of excited about this...my first NEW "reading AD&D" post in about four years.

To recap: We're through the Combat chapter of the DMG: specifically, up to page 87. That's right, folks: we're on Part 29, and only up to page 87. There's a looooooong way to go before we get through the DMG and move into the PHB.

So let's dive in, shall we?

THE CAMPAIGN

This section begins with some incredibly grandiose claims about what it takes to be an AD&D DM. It says that being a DM will "require the use of all of your skill, put a strain on your imagination, bring your creativity to the fore, test your patience, and exhaust your free time."

With such requisites for DMing in place, it's a wonder anyone ever became one! Certainly I couldn't run a game if it exhausted all my free time and used all my skill. Indeed, I suspect many of the DMs out there, be they old or new-school, don't spend every last scrap of free time working on their campaigns.

However, that's Gygax for you. Statements like these are part of what makes first edition AD&D so much fun to use. What some people like to dismiss as arrogance on Gygax's part, really I suspect is just a great deal of enthusiasm for the game. He makes some clearly hyperbolic comments because he was at the writing of the DMG just that enthusiastic about what the game was and what it represented.

Following this opening, he delivers what these days we'd consider to be the real, pure basics: the advice given is to start very small--all of the PCs are inhabitants of the same small settlement. They met in a tavern (yes, this is the direct advice in the DMG--perhaps the origin of the age-old cliche in RPGs, at least as far as RPG sources go. I'm sure there are examples in literature that pre-date it), and have decided to go explore a nearby ruin together to seek their fortunes.

This certainly cuts down on the struggle to get a party together. Just tell them what's what: you're all from the same place, and you all decided to adventure together because, why not? It's basic, it's simple, and it works.

The section goes on to discuss the importance of starting small, particularly for new DMs. It mentions that the milieu (Gygax uses this word--one of my favorite Gygaxian turns-of-phrase--many times in this section) will grow naturally as the players defeat the first dungeon and move out gradually around them. Eventually, the surrounding wilderness will be detailed, then the continent, etc...the DMG actually goes all the way out to "the makeup of your entire multiverse--space, planets and their satellites, parallel worlds, the dimensions and planes. What is there? Why? Can participants in the campaign get there? How? Will they? Never fear! By the time your campaign has grown to such a level of sophistication, you will be ready to handle the new demands."

It shouldn't go without mentioning that I've run games from first through 20+ level, even had characters ascend to godhood at the end of the game, and never had to detail my entire multiverse. Still, it serves to permeate the pages of the book with an infectious kind of excitement.

Setting Things in Motion
Next we have some words about novice DMs and novice adventurers, about using pre-packaged settings for starting campaigns. I found this interesting, as it hadn't occurred to me that this early in the game there were that many pre-prepared campaigns.At first I thought he might be referring to settings such as "I know a lot about the Hyborian Age from reading all those Ace paperbacks," but he refers directly to "one of the many modular settings that are commercially available." I can think of Tekumel and the Wilderlands. Can someone tell me: was Greyhawk out before AD&D? Were there a lot of pre-packaged campaign milieus (see? I love that word) available in '79?

In any case, the lesson to take away here is that he's talking about pre-planning. Have some idea where your campaign is going when you start. Know the world, even if you don't have it completely fleshed-out; indeed, he doesn't recommend fleshing it all out first, but rather says that as your players adventure, the world will flesh itself out.

Another item of interest: he mentions when he talks about the world coming to life that "this is not to say some occult power takes over"; since the AD&D/Satanism scare was still several years away when the DMG was published, it's an eerily prophetic statement.

Climate & Ecology
This is an interesting section, because while it gives some general guidelines about keeping things justifiable (areas with heavy rainfall should likely have a body of water nearby; make sure there are enough plants and animals to sustain any large predators you have in the area), it expressly says that while you should be careful to keep things justifiable, don't go overboard with real-world detail in why your ecology is the way it is. Keep things "balanced and justified," even if you make up some mineral or condition that doesn't exist in our world to do so. He also takes a shot at armchair biologists and physicists who will attack a DM based on an "unrealistic" ecology, saying that people this anal shouldn't be playing fantasy RPGs to begin with.

For dungeons, he says that if they are not balanced and justified, they should be completely gonzo and wildly improbable, this latter justifiable as having been put into play and maintained by some unnamed supernatural being. In other words, don't worry too much about it in the underworld.

Typical Inhabitants
This very brief section gives combat statistics and hit points for normal people, be they sedentary, active, or "laboring." Bit of an odd place to include the section, but it's a useful piece of information to have. Interestingly, in these rules, a zero-level commoner who is a serf (laborer) likely has more hit points (2-7) than your first level wizard, and possibly more than your first level thief.

Next up: SOCIAL CLASS AND RANK IN AD&D

Reading Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Part 28

2012-01-15T09:19:00.004-05:00

EFFECTS OF DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

These rules work. Their one flaw, perhaps, is in assuming that intoxicated =intoxicated. Any high school kid knows that someone baked on weed behavesdifferently than the same guy blasted on liquor. But as a quick and dirtycovering of players whose characters drink too much, they're just dandy andfunctional.

I do get a kick out of the old "Get him coffee" myth that they bringinto play, wherein stimulants can sober you up faster. I also like the idea of"strong" stimulants costing you permanent Con loss.

I keep thinking of the scene in Back to the Future III where they make"wake up juice" for Doc Brown.

INSANITY

Okay. Pet peeve time.

Mr. Gygax: SCHIZOPHRENIA IS NOT, AND NEVER HAS BEEN, DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITYDISORDER. IT'S NOT EVEN SIMILAR. When AD&D was written DID was calledMultiple Personality Disorder, or MPD. It was first diagnosed in the 19thcentury. I have no idea where this all-too-common misperception comes from, asthe two ailments aren't remotely similar in any way.

In fact, what the book lists as "Hallucinatory Insanity" is morealong the lines of schizophrenia.

Sure, the book says that the aliments listed are not clinically correct, butgeez, at least get the basic idea right.

Other than that: Insanities! Fun!

EXPERIENCE

Good God, was it hard to level up in AD&D. Hard, and expensive. Gods forbidyou were in the middle of a dungeon crawl in the middle of nowhere when you hitthe next threshold. Not only would you have to stop and go find a city, thentrain for weeks at a time to gain a new level, you had to spend anobnoxious amount of cash to do it. Even worse: Your XP earning stopsentirely until you do, in fact, go find someone to train you.

Ugh.

That being said, I get the costs, from a game standpoint. It keeps charactershumble and questing for money. I may start implementing full costs for leveladvancement in my games, even if I don't require the weeks' worth of training.

Of interest here as well is the primitive formula for actually determining whatamounts to the challenge rating and encounter levels for your group.Rather than using these to determine what the group should face, however,they're determined after the adventure, to determine how much XP the groupshould get. That is, rather than figuring out an EL 4 encounter for a 4th levelgroup, you build encounters based on your judgment of the group's capabilities,and then afterward you apply a formula to see just how much of a challenge theencounter was. This determines whether the PCs get full XP, half XP, or evenbonus XP. Neat stuff.

I also have to say that to this day, I adore the single XP chart. A goblin isworth a base 5 XP + 1 per level. Period. It doesn't matter who his opponent is(though using the above formula it's possible to get no XP once the goblin istoo weak to pose a threat).

Also of interest is the implied--though not explicit--ability to improve basemonsters simply by adding Hit Dice and special abilities. This chart provides(IMHO) a far easier and more intuitive method for customizing monsters than anyother edition of D&D ever did--including 3 and 4e.

That's about all I have to say about those three bits. It also brings to aclose the chapter on COMBAT.

This also brings to a close my re-posting of the original RPGNet thread. Sorry it's been so long and irregular--I've had major, serious job issues that have consumed my mind and wrecked my focus over the past nearly four years...life has been rough as a result. I'll try my best to pick it up as we move into new sections.

Well, well, well, let's see, what's in the news today? Nothing of importance, I'm sure.

2012-01-09T17:19:00.000-05:00

Oh, wait.

I guess there's this: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/01/sowhat-would-we-like-to-talk-about.html

It's already been addressed ad infinitum all over the blogosphere: the announcement of Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. Needless to say, like half the old school community, I signed up for the open playtest. I'll give it a shot. As much as I abhor 4th edition, it wasn't enough to make me swear off Wizards in disgust or anything. If anything, I've been waiting for them to decide it was time to try again.

My only concern is this: I wonder if they have any idea at all what kind of headache to which they are opening themselves? WotC has been the big dog in the pound for so long that they've been kind of locked in a bubble. Their decisions over the past decade or so have held an increasingly strong scent of "corporate," and they've been largely immune to what's going on in the industry, the trends, the thoughts and opinions of common gamers, etc.

That is, until 4th edition came out and failed.

By "failed," keep in mind, I'm talking about "by D&D standards." That Pathfinder is actually outselling D&D now speaks volumes to 4th edition's failure, and I think WotC is in their way copping to that with the announcement of what Zack over at D&D w/Porn Stars is likely going to call "Type V."

However, my point is this: the D&D community has never been as fractured, fragmented, or straight-up polarized as it is right now. This playtest is, without a doubt, going to turn into a dirty, hard-fought, all-out war between the "everything after second edition is CRAP; if they don't admit failure and just re-publish first edition, they're idiots who don't care," crowd, and the "4e is God's gift to gaming, and HOW DARE THEY change it to appease some old farts?" crowd. It's going to get bloody, mark my words.

That being said, here's my thoughts on an ideal approach.

Go back to a D&D/AD&D model. This will take a large step towards appeasing both of your crowds.

Hear me out, now. The way to approach this, however, is not to have two different games. Rather, it's a basic game with advanced "add on" rules. Thus, put out something like Troll Lord Games' Castles & Crusades as your basic game. All the core bits are there--the system is there, but it's wildly simple and open to interpretation. There's not a miniature or tactical movement rule to be seen. It's imaginative, pure and simple, but it's also very raw and made for house ruling. Include static saves a la 4e or Star Wars Saga edition. There's your basic game. Very few rules needed to play, perfect as a gateway drug for new players. For God's sake, get rid of at will, encounter, and daily powers and bring back Vancian magic. Also get rid of resource management requirements for non-magic-using classes. Let me play a fighter or rogue that doesn't require me to track power usage--that's the reason I enjoy playing combat-type characters; I don't have to maintain spell lists.

D&D goes to level 10 or 12. Think of it as B/X D&D in that sense.

Finally, keep it under 200 pages. Short and sweet.

Then you release AD&D. AD&D includes everything the current rules-heavy tactical crowd loves, in easy-to-digest bolt-on subsystems. You include feats. You include talent trees. You include two different skill systems--the 3.5 one and the 4.0 one. You include miniatures-based, tactical combat rules. Pop in variable saves. You include different magic systems--power-based, point-based, and skill-based. You include rules for taking the game beyond level 10 or 12, to level 20, 25, or even 30. You include mass combat and domain management rules. If you must, then here's where you include stuff like skill challenges, though I'd be ecstatic to never hear anything about those again. Worst. Idea. EVER.

Here's the catch, however; AD&D must remain at least 95% compatible with D&D. This saves you from competing against yourself. It needs to be easy to go from one to the other.

Anyway, just some thoughts from your friendly neighborhood Elf. Looking forward to seeing how this project shapes up.

Who wants a free short story?

2012-01-08T15:26:00.001-05:00

Head over to my other blog, The Whole Wide World, for a short story I'm giving away that will serve as a beginning to book 2 of a series I'm currently writing (the story stands on its own, however--no background needed).

While you're there, don't forget to follow the blog! I will be using that one to promote my fiction writing.

Why later Conan pastiche sucks

2011-11-29T17:31:00.001-05:00

So about a month or so ago, I decided to replace my copy of Conan the Buccaneer because the binding on my existing copy was bad. I managed to land a copy on ebay for cheap, and when it arrived I got a bonus: a book called Conan the Champion, by John Maddox Roberts. I figured I had little to lose, so I decided to give it a shot.

At first it didn't seem too bad--I wondered why everyone gets so down on the Tor pastiches (the Robert Jordan ones aside--I've read his indestructible, noble and heroic Conan who may as well have a big red "S" on his chest, and gagged along with the rest of you). I mean, Roberts seemed to "get" Conan as a character. His dialogue was in keeping with the Conan I knew, and the story was even passable, though the book's back cover claimed it took place in Brythunia but Roberts seemed to be writing about some odd hackneyed cross between Asgard and Vanaheim. Still, I was willing to roll with a generic Northern culture not exactly placed within the text. The characters were a bit cookie-cutter, but in keeping with Howard's characters.

Even the story seemed solid for a Conan tale--oh, and I should warn you: spoilers abound below. So if you actually plan on trying to read this...book...you should stop now. Suffice it to say I was shocked at how bad it got.

Conan gets shipwrecked after a piracy stunt gone wrong and, marooned in the North, sets off to sell his sword to get through the winter. He comes upon a three-way war between petty tribes, two of which have kings who want to wed (and bed) the queen of the third. Because the two kings piss Conan off (and really for little other reason) he sells his sword to the queen, Alucina.

Mischief abounds; one of the kings has a sorcerer in his employ, who concocts a diabolical plan to snatch Alucina away using demons. One night, after an assault by the living dead (largely used to draw out Alucina's people and keep them off kilter) a couple of demons swoop in, grab the queen, and fly away, with Conan and Alucina's own wizard in pursuit.

Good enough so far.

That's where things go into left field. The demons don't bear Alucina to the rival king or his necromancer; rather they bear her into the "spirit world," and Conan and Alucina's wizard follow them there.

Take a guess what they find in the spirit world?

...evil elves.

No, I'm not kidding. Elves. Evil, necromantic elves, who of course enslave Alucina and Conan until the latter rather easily breaks free and slaughters all of them.

As they flee back to the portal to get home, they have to contend with "the Hunter," who very clearly is supposed to be the Death Dealer, only Roberts and Tor didn't have the rights to the Death Dealer.

The Death Dealer turns out, after they lure him back to the real world and Conan sticks a spear through his eye slit, to be a clockwork automaton.

No, I'm not kidding. A. Clockwork. Automaton.

BUT WAIT! We're not through, yet!

There's this odd side story with the nephew of one of the kings who gets exiled and travels to join Alucina's people (guess what's eventually going to happen there?) Well, as he marches through the northern wilderness, he encounters a giant ice worm, which I'm okay with...but then he is rescued and escorted by...wait for it...

...a dwarf.

Nope, still not kidding. Elves, dwarves, and clockwork automatons in a Conan story.

John Maddox Roberts should've been strung up by the balls for this piece of garbage.

And that's not even a shot at the guy's writing. He's not a bad writer. But really, this reads like his D&D novel that got rejected by TSR, so he sold it to Tor as a Conan story, and changed a few names. It's really that bad of a Hyborian Age novel. Criminally bad. Worse than the satyrs in de Camp/Carter's Conan the Liberator.

Age of Conan - OD&D Hyborian Bestiary Forthcoming

2011-11-27T15:15:00.001-05:00

So as I mentioned in the blog post I put up yesterday, I've discovered that using standard OD&D summoning tables (per Greyhawk) loses some of the flavor of the Hyborian Age--a lot of the flavor, in fact, when sorcerers find themselves calling forth Elves, dwarves, harpies, and normal warriors or "evil clerics."

Sorcerers in a Conan game should call forth creatures of the Outer Dark--demons and degenerates. As such, I've revised the summoning tables (a work in progress, obviously). Unfortunately, posting the revision now would do little good as I've called upon the following sources in addition to OD&D:

Bestiary of the Hyborian Age (Mongoose Conan)
Secrets of Skelos (Mongoose Conan)
Call of Cthulhu d20 (WotC/Chaosium)
Deities and Demigods (AD&D first ed. w/Cthulhu Mythos)
Monster Manual II (AD&D first ed.)

Can't just assume that everyone has these books.

As such, I'm working on putting together quick Age of Conan stats for all the creatures in these summoning tables. It's going to take some time and likely result in a brand new Age of Conan pamphlet when complete.

As of now, it begins with general rules for summoning. Following these rules, each summoning table is listed, along with a paragraph that describes and gives statistics for each creature in the preceding table (thus, you'll get Summoning I, followed by eleven paragraphs of monster descriptions and stats).

Each table works on a 2d6 roll (yes, meaning it'll be skewed to specific median creatures, but that shouldn't make too much of a difference in the end) and includes 11 creatures. There are seven summoning tables, meaning I'll be effectively releasing a Hyborian bestiary of the Outer Dark that contains 70-odd "new" OD&D-usable monsters, ranging from 3 HD to 9 HD. "New" is in quotes because these are all adapted from other sources, but they should be relatively new to OD&D. It won't be a full 77 creatures, as some of them are simply treated as OD&D monsters with minor tweaks (People of the Dark, for example, are treated as 3-HD OD&D orcs).

Just wanted to give you all a heads' up as to what's coming down the Pike for my OD&D Age of Conan rules. As of this writing I am just over halfway done with Monster Summoning II (4 HD) monster descriptions.

God, I wish I had the cash to pursue the license and do a full licensed roleplaying game based on my Spellcraft & Swordplay rules....

Age of Conan - OD&D game Sessions Fifteen to Seventeen and general ponderings

2011-11-24T08:42:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!I haven't posted any session updates for Age of Conan for the past couple sessions--this is party out of laziness, partly due to the fact that I am now professionally ghost-writing blogs for Detroit-area law firms (which leaves precious little time for the writing I'd actually like to be doing), and partly because there's just not a lot to report. Sessions have been short lately, and honestly, the entire first section of Mongoose's Betrayer of Asgard is, well, rather slow.

Essentially, the game flashed back to the period when the group stole the drinking horn from the Vanir, which they impressively managed to do without drawing a sword, and then flashed forward again to them being buried under a mountain of snow. They were dug out by giant wolves, which they had to battle while also suffering from exhaustion and frostbite. They then continued on their journey, and decided to take a dangerous road through Snow Devil Pass, rumored to be haunted by, well, snow devils, rather than face the probability of a large group of Vanir warriors awaiting them at Shieldbreak Pass, the border between Vanaheim and Asgard and the site of dozens of battles between the two nations.

They figured they had a better chance of sneaking through Snow Devil Pass and decided to risk the legendary monsters therein. They avoided a frost giant and made it into the pass, where they did battle with several snow devils and came upon an ancient and half-plundered Acheronian tomb. They took rubbings from a blasted seal in hopes that Merhotep could later translate the inscription thereupon, and eventually escaped back into Asgard.

This brings me to one of my biggest problems with pre-published adventures for the Conan RPG. In three sessions, in a very small portion of Vanaheim, they encountered:

Dire wolves
Frost giants
Snow devils (giant carnivorous apes) - and a tribe of them, at that
Vanir warriors

Maybe it's just me, but that's a veritable zoo of creatures for the Hyborian Age. Conan himself rarely fought more than one or two supernatural creatures in a story--and then there would be perhaps a single creature, not dozens. Hell, the Second Edition of Mongoose's Conan core rulebook even says this in its advice on running a Hyborian Age game. Then they publish books that are so full of nonhuman monsters that they may as well be D&D books.

It's partially my fault as a DM. It would've been better had I cut out two of the three varieties of unnatural creature above. The Snow devils alone would've made fine adversaries to replace both the wolves and the frost giants. Something I'll have to ponder in the future.

Which leads me to two other things. Firstly, combat in OD&D using the Chainmail rules is wildly skewed towards whoever wins initiative. This comes from the factor of having multiple attacks--a 4th-level fighter gets to hit his enemy 4 times, dealing up to 4d6 damage. I am considering modifying the combat cycle so that it functions in "passes," as a result. This would mean that everyone attacks once, then those who have a second attack go again, followed by those who have a third, etc., instead of everyone making all of their attacks at one time. This would better represent a back-and-forth ebb and flow of combat. It could also present a new potential use for Fate Points--"all out attack"--which would see characters able to spend a Fate Point to make all of their attacks at once.

My group has in general elected to sideline the "Troop Type" system, feeling it's better to just have a single combat system, though a few of them have suggested we hang onto the Fantasy Combat system, as it's very similar functionally to the Man to Man system, and is rather evocative of the change in feel between normal and fantastic combat. So we'll see about that.

The second point I wanted to address is summoning spells. As it stands in the Age of Conan booklets I am using the standard D&D Summon Monster I through VII tables in Supplement I. As Merhotep's player pointed out a few weeks ago, this could see him summoning harpies or normal rogues with swords...neither of which really makes sense for any sorcerer worth his salt in the Hyborian Age. So I completely re-vamped the summoning tables, using as my resources the Mongoose Bestiary of the Hyborian Age, the AD&D Deities and Demigods with the Cthulhu Mythos, the AD&D Monster Manual II, Call of Cthulhu d20, and in one instance Geoff McKinney's Carcosa. I'll post the new 4-page tables and information, but alas you'd need all of those books to make use of them. I stuck largely to creatures that were explicitly Outsiders and Demons/Devils, or creatures that were so creepy and unnatural that they could be seen as such (People of the Dark and giant scorpions being two examples). There's a lot of Cthulhu mythos stuff in there like Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, but I think that's appropriate to Conan.

I wanted to post more, but need to get showered and ready for Thanksgiving day. Hopefully more later tonight.

L. Sprague de Camp: The Other Side of the Coin

2011-11-11T11:22:00.001-05:00

So a couple days ago I posted a blog in defense of L. Sprague de Camp's edits, posthumous collaborations, and pastiches where Conan is concerned. I also mentioned in that blog that the other things he did involving the property are by and large arrogant, abhorrent and unforgivable. Some people may not be familiar with the entire story behind de Camp's legacy with the Conan property.

Well, look no further. Several years ago, a blogger over at the Robert E. Howard United Press Association website posted a series of articles entitled "The de Camp Controversy." This series of articles presents (if from a somewhat biased standpoint) the entire history of de Camp's involvement with the Conan property. It is informed, enlightening, and it paints a very clear picture of exactly why many Robert E. Howard fans take a dim view of de Camp and his involvement with the property.

You can find all articles that deal with de Camp in any way, by going to the site clicking the link for the "L. Sprague de Camp" link at the left. However, there are a lot of articles that carry the "L. Sprague de Camp" tag, and not all are part of the de Camp Controversy series.

I thought it would be useful to archive links to each individual part of that specific series in one place. So here we are:

Enjoy. The entire series is well worth a read to anyone who is a fan of Howard and/or the Lancer/Ace paperback series that de Camp helped to kick off.

Conan: The Two Hyperboreas

2011-11-09T21:55:00.001-05:00

As promised, here's my blog on reconciling different presentations of Hyperborea in the world of Conan. Now, some may wonder what the Hell I'm talking about--what different presentations of Hyperborea?

Good question. For the most part, Hyperborea has been portrayed pretty consistently, though almost entirely by pastiche writers. The only writing we see about Hyperborea from Howard himself is in his seminal essay "The Hyborian Age," wherein he writes the following about the kingdom:

Hyperborea was the first Hyborian kingdom
Hyperboreans were the first to build walls, fortresses, and cities of stone.
It is a cold, bleak land and at least in its beginnings was a "rude, barbaric kingdom."

In his various pastiche works, L. Sprague de Camp stuck mostly to this characterization, which is rather impressive given that the vast majority of what was written about that kingdom was written by de Camp and Carter. Many later works, including Mongoose's The Road of Kings sourcebook for the Conan Roleplaying Game, also stick to this portrayal of a gray, dark, cold kingdom ruled by sorcerer-kings who treat anyone without the propensity for magic as a slave.

The difference comes in when one looks at Dark Horse Comics' excellent Conan comic series which still runs in some form to this day, after having begun in 2003 (if I am not mistaken).

I've never been a fan of Conan in comics--the Marvel comics version of Conan was bloody awful, in my opinion, though I know many fans bow at the altar of Roy Thomas. I will admit that his The Horn of Azoth, which is an adaptation of the original screenplay for Conan the Destroyer, before too many cooks and movie studios ruined it, is pretty outstanding.

But I digress. Dark Horse's series is pretty solidly and consistently fantastic. I have read it in collected format, and beginning with Volume 0, Born on the Battlefield, I was captivated. This volume shows an origin story for Conan of which Howard fans can be proud, which matches Howard's own notes about Conan's youth, and which (thank Crom) doesn't give us a boy obsessed with avenging his father's murder who never grows up. The same cannot be said of the films.

In any case, as I understand it, the original idea for the Dark Horse series was to follow all of the original Howard stories, in chronological order using the Dale Rippke chronology, writing original pastiches to fill the gaps between them. This was a noble goal, and one that it saddens me they didn't complete, in their rush to get to King Conan.

As another side-note, I have to say that I like the Rippke chronology, and despite the fact that some have criticized his placement of "The Frost Giant's Daughter" as first, I personally agree with it. The characterization of Conan in that tale, to my mind, as well as the fact that it takes place in the north, both seem to me to make sense only if it is the first tale. In other, prior chronologies, Conan spends far too much time getting home for a quick visit--it's a pretty huge world for him to have wandered so far south and east to just "pop home" for awhile every so often.

That being said, volume 1 of the collected editions is entitled The Frost Giant's Daughter and Other Stories. In this volume we see a very different Hyperborea than the one given to us by de Camp and Carter, and different than that written by Howard. As something of a purist, that should've bugged me, but it didn't, and I spent some time thinking about why.

The first answer that came to mind was the obvious--the writing and characterization was so strong and spot-on it made up for it. But upon further examination, it also occurred to me that the presentation of Hyperborea in the Dark Horse books does not have to contradict that previously given us, and indeed can complement it quite nicely.

The Hyperborea in the comics is the mythical "land beyond the North Wind." It is described as a temperate paradise where the weather is impossibly warm and the land green and fertile. Everyone in Hyperborea is said to be immortal. When Conan goes there to see for himself, he discovers that this is true--but only if you are one of the noble Witchmen. Everyone else is a slave. The land he discovers is the very picture of a dystopia masquerading as an utopia. Even the Witchmen eventually grow so old, bored, and careless that they take their own lives along with those of their entire retinue of servants, servitors, and slaves.

Conan and his Aesir companions, of course, become slaves forced to fight in drug-addled stupors in the gladiatorial arenas, until Conan wakes up one day and battles his way free from the mad land.

So what occurred to me as I thought this over was this: why can't both Hyperboreas exist in the Hyborian Age? The one we see in the pastiches of de Camp and Carter, based on the sketchy notes Howard gave us, is "Lower Hyperborea," or Hyperborea proper. This is the land most people know as Hyperborea--grim, gray, forbidding, full of rude stone towers and fortresses, ruled by evil Witchmen who act as cruel taskmasters over everyone in the land.

North of Lower Hyperborea, beyond the North Winds and only accessible by those who know its secrets (which, naturally, includes only the Witchmen), is Upper Hyperborea. This is the fertile, beautiful land that masquerades as a paradise but really is a land of nobles who have become degenerate in their easy complacency, bored with life and playing with slaves like puppets in desperation for some amusement. This is where the Witchmen go to retire when they've got more power than they can drink and have tired of the cold lands of Lower Hyperborea.

For most people, Upper Hyperborea is a myth, a legend and nothing more. Since only the Witchmen and slaves ever go there, and no slaves ever return, whispered stories (likely spread by that very rare escaped slave, or a Witchman who comes back for some reason) are all the knowledge anyone has about this northern wonderland, which leads to speculation that it is truly a paradise.

So there you have it. That's my reconciliation of the Dark Horse Comics Hyperborea with that presented in the de Camp/Carter pastiches and Howard's own notes. You can, of course, ignore it and blow it off (and I'm sure many will) but it works for me, and seems very Howardian to my mind. It also lends a neatly increased air of mystery to the land to the north.

Age of Conan: An Informal Defense of L. Sprague de Camp and Co.

2011-11-06T12:55:00.000-05:00

So I have a couple of Conan-related blogs I want to get off my chest, about which I've been thinking for awhile. This first one may cause a bit of a controversy; we'll see.

I'd like to defend L. Sprague de Camp for a moment. I'm sure others have done so before, and probably in a more eloquent and educated fashion than I am about to do, but this has been on my mind and I wanted to lay out at least the beginnings of a case to re-examine his association with Howard's writing, as well as--to a lesser degree and mostly by association--that of his associates Lin Carter and Bjorn Nyberg.

Many articles and postings have been put forth claiming that de Camp, Carter, and Nyberg should never have written their pastiches because they didn't "get" Conan. I would argue that this is a matter of debate. I've seen some very convincing arguments insofar as this is concerned, but most of them come down to the personal opinion of the author writing the article in question. There is an article I read recently--I can't remember who wrote it or for the life of me where I read it--wherein the author paints the tendency of pastiche authors to turn Conan into a black-and-white hero as one of the primary errors of pastichists. On this I agree, though some of his points fall flat in my mind. For example, he claims that Conan didn't have a code of honor; that this was invented by later authors. He then proceeds to present elements in the stories that supposedly prove this. Of particular interest was the idea that Conan didn't kill women. Unfortunately, the various incidents from Howard's stories that he presents are rife with Conan saying things like, "I generally don't kill women," and of Conan dumping women who have wronged him in the mud where if the perpetrator was a man, he likely would've felt Conan's sword in his gut. The instances where Conan does seem willing to kill a woman are those instances where the woman is somehow supernatural in nature, such as Akhivasha the vampire.

In any case, the point I'm making (and I do so wish I could remember the name, author and location of the article referenced above) is that many of these points against pastiche writers are entirely formed based on the personal opinion and interpretation of the article's author. I'm not saying such interpretations aren't valid--merely that the personal interpretations of those who would be apologists for certain pastichists are also equally valid. I personally think that de Camp, Nyberg, and Carter were the ones who did "get it."

In the 70's and 80's, Mirage Press and Ace books put out a series of scholarly works (mostly edited by de Camp) revolving around the works of Howard. These were largely extractions from fanzines previously published and written by "The Hyborian Legion," the first Howard fan club as well as a sort of informal scholarly Howard Studies society of the time. I have been fortunate enough to add two of these volumes to my collection: The Conan Grimoire and The Blade of Conan. In reading Blade, there is an article by de Camp entitled "Editing Conan." In this article, de Camp essentially defends the choices he made in editing the Howard stories for their Ace publications and in undertaking the rewrites he did of non-Conan stories.

I found the article intriguing and as I read, I found myself comparing some of the edits de Camp did in the Ace paperback series with those originals published in the recent 3-volume Ballantine series. In truth, I found de Camp's defenses to hold up overall. Certainly he did make a few changes that were unnecessary--the creation of an archenemy for Conan out of Thoth-Amon by inserting the sorcerer into stories where he did not appear comes foremost to mind. However, the vast majority of changes I noted in de Camp's edits of extant Howard prose are not, to my mind, egregious.

Consider that in the era when Howard was publishing, editors didn't undertake the same role that they later did. Farnsworth Wright was more likely to cut chunks of text for space than he was to correct grammatical errors, make text flow more smoothly, or other such duties editors fulfill nowadays.

I love Robert E. Howard's writing. He is in my top five favorite writers, alongside Mark Twain and Jack London. However, it's tough to argue the fact that in some places those original texts are a bit rough. The edits de Camp undertook, for the most part, are no worse than that any modern editor would take. They don't, to my mind, change the nature of the stories, or in any way lessen their quality. Even the certain omissions de Camp made, such as softening the supposed racist undertones (a subject for another blog) are forgivable, as they were done in effort to make the stories more accessible, and are also the sorts of alterations a modern editor would suggest. And in the end, does changing "ape-like speech" to "guttural speech" really make that massive a difference in the text? Not to my mind.

Now, let's get to his completions and rewrites. In the 60's, when the Ace paperback series was being published, there was a hunger for swords and sorcery. As a luminary figure in the genre, Conan naturally generated a great deal of this hunger. de Camp and Carter fulfilled this hunger by completing several unfinished works of Howard's, and by rewriting some of Howard's non-Conan tales to be Conan tales.

I do not consider these rewrites sinful.

Why? Look at the things Howard himself did--"The Phoenix on the Sword" is itself a rewritten Kull story--"By This Axe I Rule!" When the Kull adventure failed to publish, Howard revised it to be a Conan story: the first Conan story, in fact. Is it not possible--I'm not saying likely, mind you--just possible--that eventually "Hawks Over Egypt," which was not published during Howard's lifetime, could've eventually also been rewritten? I disagree with de Camp's choice to make it "Hawks over Shem," as "Hawks over Stygia" seems more accurate to the original text, but that's really a nitpick. Likewise could be said regarding "The Bloodstained God," rewritten from "The Crimson God," also not published during Howard's life. Likewise, "The Three-Bladed Doom," rewritten to "The Flame Knife," and "The Road of the Eagles," which wasn't published in its original form until 2005, according to Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures.

These tales translate well into Conan stories under de Camp's hand, and I think it quite possible that Howard himself may have rewritten them eventually, as he knew Conan was his bread and butter. There's no guarantee, of course, but it's a reasonable "what if" to present. Of course, he may not have as well: Kirby O'Donnel, the hero of "The Road of the Eagles," was created in '34, and it's possible that by that time Howard was looking to move away from Conan (indeed, I seem to recall having read a letter from him indicating that was exactly what he wanted to do). Still, a cash cow for a writer is not an easy thing to leave behind, and as I said, Conan was Howard's bread and butter.

As for the pure pastiches, there are some issues in them that are hard to swallow, no doubt--the SCUBA gear in Conan of the Isles was a bit tough to buy, and seems more out of Carter's Thongor series than Conan, and nobody can forget the out-of-the-blue inclusion of Satyrs in Conan the Liberator. But overall, the "earlier" pastiches included in the Ace series are, in my opinion, pretty fine inclusions into the Conan mythos. They are well-written and enjoyable to read, and Conan feels like Conan to me in the stories. I actually am a big fan of The Return of Conan, also known as Conan the Avenger, and think it's a work of which Howard himself may have been proud, had he survived to give his blessing to it.

de Camp's later efforts to take control and ownership of Conan and the Hyborian Age via Conan Properties, I think, are another issue entirely and are reflective of someone who has forgotten his place in the overall scheme of things. I won't deny these were shady acts at best that have damaged the property as time has gone on--see the fact that while many of the stories are in the public domain, the various elements of those stories have been trademarked by Paradox Entertainment; a clever loophole to retain ownership, which I think needs to be closed. But copyright law is another topic entirely.

de Camp's uneducated attitudes about Howard himself are also not an issue at debate--he was wrong in most of his understandings about Howard's life and psyche.

However, what he did do is resurrect Conan and keep him in print for many years, and I don't think he deserves the derision he gets for his efforts to pastiche, complete unfinished manuscripts, and edit extant ones for publication. His efforts were certainly no more egregious than any other editing job I've seen, nor of any other posthumous collaboration. As a member of the Lovecraft Circle, I'm not even 100% certain that Howard would've disapproved of new stories being written set in the Hyborian Age. Sharing story elements, after all, was part and parcel of that group. It may be going a bit to far to say he'd be so liberal with the character of Conan, but I certainly think that de Camp, Carter, and Nyberg did the things they did (at least, insofar as early pastiches, completions and revisions go) in the proper spirit of things, and I to this day enjoy reading the Conan stories as told in the old twelve-volume Ace paperback series, which sits on my shelf right next to the eleven Robert E. Howard Ballantine collections, from Kull to Conan to Crimson Shadows and Grim Lands to Sword Woman to Solomon Kane to El Borak and Horror Stories, and my collected letters of Robert E. Howard.

There have been those who dismiss the idea that de Camp resurrected Conan in publication, using the rationale that someone would've done so anyway, because the environment was right for it. This may be true, just as it may be true that had Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson not created D&D, someone else would've likely done so (or something similar) anyway, because the time was right.

The counter argument is this: it doesn't matter if someone else would have. de Camp is the one who did it. Certainly the actions the man took in the 70's and 80's with Conan and CPI were despicable in many ways--I'm not arguing that. What I am saying is that many of the assaults on de Camp for his Howard editing, pastiche work, and posthumous collaborations are, in my opinion, colored by the man's arrogance and his treatment of the property in other areas.

Stay tuned: Next up, I'm going to reconcile different presentations of Hyperboria in the various Conan pastiches and RPGs.