Kender

Four days?! Have I really gone four days without a post?

Welp, the holidays are well and truly upon us. I'm leaving town (heading to Mexico for what may be my last trip south for a LONG while) and I've been running around trying to get everything squared away for Christmas. Combined with fighting my annual bronchitis (and the morning grogginess that comes from chugging NyQuil) I just haven't had time to sit down and write.

[well, I did spend one morning writing several scathing paragraphs about Douglas Niles, but in the spirit of Christmas decided it would be best not to publish those remarks. Suffice is to say that Against the Cult of the Reptile God remains the only highlight of his TSR career...in my opinion]

All right, time to play out the string. This should PROBABLY be my last DL post for the foreseeable future.

At the beginning of most every DragonLance adventure (I don't recall one that doesn't...and I ended up reading through all of DL1-DL15 over the last couple weeks), the author takes pains to point out that the Krynn setting has several "important differences" from the standard AD&D play:

1. Gold has no value in the world (except that, in later modules, it has some value outside the starting region of the DL campaign).

2. Clerical spells have not existed for 300 years (though they become available to both characters and antagonists beginning with the second module in the series...still it colors NPCs attitudes toward clerics).

3. Dragons haven't been seen for a thousand years and are considered a myth (though this also changes following the first module as dragons run rampant over the setting).

4. Halflings are unknown in Krynn; instead they are replaced by the Kender race.

Thanks to the popularity of Tolkien, "Hobbit-equivalents" have been found in fantasy gaming since the very beginning. OD&D originally had them (available as a fighting class with a maximum level of four...probably the most accurate modeling of the species ever to see print). DragonQuest makes them a more balanced adventurer (though still with tongue-in-cheek references to LotR). Palladium uses "gnomes" to fill the same ecosystem (I've see other RPGs use "brownie" in the same way). Warhammer Fantasy has perhaps my favorite depiction of the handling species (with the snarky wit typical of all GW games, they are grubby, gluttonous thieves and low-lives). As a fantasy race, the halfling is as ubiquitous as elves and dwarves.

The kender is the first re-skinning that really steps far from the hobbit archetype.

Kender look like "wizened 14-year olds" and unlike halflings (hobbits) they wear shoes. They are described as having an insatiable curiosity, and no real sense of property ownership (they tend to "borrow" anything they find interesting that isn't nailed down). They have two system/rule-based abilities: they are immune to fear (magical or otherwise), and they have the ability to taunt others (save versus spells or incite folks to attack with reckless abandon...and substantial penalties) with "verbal abuse."

The model for the 3E "halfling."

It's basically a character class that models your annoying little sibling who you forced to play a halfling thief, because no one else wanted to play one in a campaign setting that features a war against dragons and a profound lack of treasure (because, hey, gold is worthless).

Kleptomaniac, annoying children...empowered to stick their noses into trouble, steal shit that doesn't belong to them, and irritate people with a special mind control power. In the books, kender make a nice bit of comic relief from the grim-dark melodrama and hopeless odds of the setting. In gaming? Well...

As I wrote earlier, we never actually played in the DL setting, or ran any of the modules. However, we have halfling thieves in our campaign whose personality and behavior was modeled fairly substantially off the kender. Well, one was...the other one was closer to a gully dwarf (being a bit slower of wit). Here's the thing, though: both were NPCs in the campaign, run by the same DM (not me). Both were played (mostly), for comic relief, though they never upstaged the other PCs. One (the dim-witted one) was, in fact, the henchman of another PC and was both fiercely loyal and affectionate to her (though being none-too-competent). The other was more-or-less Tasslehoff in all but name (his name was "Mouse," for the record), but far more helpful than a hindrance.

Neither of these displayed any of the "kender skills:" they didn't taunt (at least, as a system for taking control of someone), they weren't immune to fear ("Shorty" the henchman was quite the coward), they didn't use "hoopaks" for weapons. They were curious and they did acquire a lot of items with their light fingers (all of which were stored in their multiple, bulging belt pouches)...and they did speak (squeakily) in a childlike fashion with a kender's wide-eyed innocence.

[and...on rare occasion...act as a deus ex machina. Well, one time at least: when Mouse liberated MY character from an eternity of torment at the hands of Lolth. However, I was left to rot (literally and figuratively) for several months prior to rescue]

But that was just a choice of how our DM wanted to run halflings in her campaign. None of the players were running halflings (well, only my kid brother who...once...ran the guy as an annoying, klepto-style, as only a 10-year old brat can do. And, no, he never read the DragonLance books. That character was a thief-acrobat...) so she was re-skinning simply to make the race interesting as an NPC. After all, we were slavishly devoted to the Rules As Written in those days...to simply CUT halflings (or paladins or monks or whatever) from the game, even though no one ever used them, was unthinkable to us. Better for us to find some way to make use of their existence in D&D.

So, I guess I have a bit of a soft-spot for kender...not as a playable race, but as an NPC personality. I enjoyed Tas in the DragonLance books, and I enjoyed Mouse in his similar role as an occasional traveling companion (he did not accompany us on ALL our adventures...he was more of a campaign personality that would wander into our party from time-to-time). Unfortunately, I don't think there are many people who could pull off playing a kender-type...either as a PC or even as an NPC. I'm pretty certain I couldn't; I just don't have the whimsical humor necessary to portray such a character (maybe I'm too mean-spirited).

If I were to run a DragonLance campaign (and at this point, I've all but decided against the idea), I would include kender as a B/X-style class. Fear immunity would simply be a +2 bonus to saves and/or Morale (there are plenty of times in the novels that Tasslehoff acts in all the ways as someone who is nervous, scared, or paralyzed with fright, despite his statements to the contrary). They'd all receive some thief skills (notably picking pockets and locks...probably with a substantial bonus), but they'd receive a negative reaction with most intelligent species in Krynn (after all, not all humans are thieves, but all kender...well, they do have a reputation).

Taunting would work differently: a kender would be able to force a reaction roll, and could apply their Charisma adjustment as a NEGATIVE, even if normally positive (a low CHA kender would apply their reaction normally). Creatures incensed to fight would suffer a penalty to attack (probably not AC). Other PCs would be immune to this sort of thing, as would NPCs with more levels/HD than the kender (and I would limit kender to eight levels of experience, just like the halfling class they'd replace in B/X).

I'd probably remove the halfling bonus to missile combat (leave the AC bonus), and would use their stealth ability for any type of "sneaky thief skill" (move silent, etc.)...all kender would have the same chance to be unobtrusive, regardless of level. Wearing metal armor would negate these bonuses/abilities, of course...no lenders clinking around in plate armor should be able to sneak up on someone and rob 'em.

Personally, I think such a species works far better in a B/X-based campaign. Despite being written for AD&D, nearly all the protagonists are "single class," and all are pretty "basic;" even the elves in the DL adventure modules are all of the fighter/magic-user type (with the exception of Laurana). Only the Plainsman, Riverwind, uses a non-B/X class (he's a ranger), and he's easily converted to a straight fighter (he never uses any ranger abilities in the novels anyway).

Hmm...maybe I will write another DL post, just to do some conversion notes for folks who like the idea of B/X DragonLance.

But not today. I'm leaving my house around 6am tomorrow and I've got lot still to do (including packing). I'm not sure I'll be taking my laptop (which would be a first), but even if I do, I'm not sure I'll be blogging again before the New Year. If you don't hear from me...well, hopefully you'll all have a happy, happy one (I'm pulling for ya!). I'll be back for sure in 2019.

Later, Gators!
: )

Damn...I Hate It When I Do That

To anyone that downloaded my B/X conversion of N1:Against the Cult of the Reptile God, please be advised that the original module was authored by Douglas Niles (as I've blogged before), NOT by Lawrence Schick (who did write the excellent S1:White Plume Mountain). I was so anxious to upload it this morning that I didn't bother to review it very closely. My bad.

: (

High Level Adventures

Welp, I'm back at the Four Spoons trying to get "back to normal," but it's been three days and I'm still coughing. I don't THINK I have the "swine flu" and it doesn't feel as bad as my semi-annual bouts with bronchitis, but for a chest cold it sure is hanging on something fierce. Although the two weeks of steady, pouring rain certainly hasn't helped any.

I'm a bit frustrated with myself right now. No, not my physical health, but my almost complete and utter lack of writing. I've had tons of time time to use my computer (with three days totally for myself last weekend and having another two days off work this week with illness) and I haven't used that time for any work on my GQ1 module (the adventure module I intend to include with the B/X Companion). Yes, we have gone beyond the "sharpening the axe" stage...it is time to sit down and type it up.

Hell, I've made more progress on it during lunch breaks at work (about 2.5 pages written), than at home (0 pages written). That's ugly.

But I chalk it up to being an undisciplined writer. Waiting for bouts of inspiration to hit just means writing blog posts. As I learned while writing the B/X Companion, I need to just sit down and do it, every day, whether I "feel like it" or not. Oh...and outlines help, too.

ANYWAY...I have been feeling under the weather, and I'll try to pull it together a bit when I get home today. In the meantime, I've been reading (or re-reading) a couple old modules that I have never run as a DM, nor played as a player.

H2: The Mines of Blood and H4: The Throne of Bloodstone have been on my shelves for a few years now and have never been used...by me anyway. I believe I picked up H2 myself from a used game shop/bookstore. H4 I got from my old pal, Ben (twin brother of Mike/"Keldern" and best bud of Michael/"Aristobulus," both of whom I've mentioned before). I know that Ben ran this module for Mike and Michael (maybe a couple others) as part of a semi-long campaign in high school that started with T1-T4 and ended with the whole H series. I don't remember exactly why I acquired H4 from him (besides my obvious interest in TSR modules designed for characters level 18-100) nor why I didn't bother to get H1-H3, though its possible he only owned H2 and H4 and I borrowed both. As this was years ago, I honestly don't remember all the circumstances surrounding my acquisition.

The "H" in the H-series stands for "high level gaming" and actually delves into the same realms my B/X Companion does...ruling/managing a dominion, mass combat, planes-hopping. Of course, being AD&D it is limited to the cosmology of that game system, and also (being AD&D) requires the purchase of a number of additional game supplements to use at its full potential, namely Battlesystem, the Manual of the Planes, the Dungeoneer and Wilderness Survival Guides, the Unearthed Arcana, all three Monster Manuals...whew! That's a lot of paper sitting on the table!

On the other hand, in some ways the H series (written by my less-than-favorite designer Doug Niles in conjunction with Michael Dobson) is the culmination of any long-running AD&D campaign. By the time your players' characters have reached those lofty levels needed to embark on a grand quest against Orcus, Lord of the Undead, you're game (at least if you were playing in the 80s and buying TSR's books) would probably have dipped into a little of each of these extra tomes and systems. At least, one would probably own them (I stopped buying...and stopped playing...at the utterly forgettable Dungeoneer Survival Guide, which is probably why I missed the H series, the Forgotten Realms, Planescape, etc., etc.).

Allow me to quote for a moment from the introduction to H4:

Although the Dungeon Masters Guide provides that a character of sufficient level can build a castle, hire an army, and set himself (or herself) up as a proper medieval ruler, the rules given for accomplishing this are not sufficient to allow ruling and role-playing to go together. Instead, high-level characters who become rulers are normally considered "retired" from adventuring...more often, players avoid the burden of rulership altogether, preferring to maintain their high-level characters as freelance adventurers, ready to move onto the next dungeon, carrying their treasure in their backpacks or in the saddlebags of their their mounts, or in a convenient magical chest that neatly avoids the issue of encumbrance altogether.

It has been our feeling for a long time that there is a lot more that can be done with characters who become rulers. The Bloodstone Pass saga is our attempt to show that high-level AD&D game play can be qualitatively, as well as quantitatively, different from low- and medium-level play -- and just as exciting.

All of which I could have probably cribbed for my introduction to my B/X Companion book.

So the real question is...do the modules deliver on this promise? Well as usual, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

I only have two of the four modules for the series, and so I judge them as individual modules rather than as a whole series. I really wish I had H3 as from the introduction in H4 it appears there may have been more opportunity for making alliances and negotiating trade routes (real issues of dominion rulership) inherent to that particular adventure. Unfortunately, I only have the 2nd and 4th modules of the series to judge.

Of the two, I prefer H2 to H4. Although not perfect, I find H2 holds more to its "high level gaming" promise than H4 AND at the same time forgoes a lot of things H4 does that I really dislike.

While H2: The Mines of Bloodstone has little to do with the running of the barony (later kingdom of Bloodstone) at least it provides a real, high level adventure for for high level characters. The characters explore the mines, what have become a legendary, demon-haunted dungeon. They find an underground civilization (the duergar), ally with a 2nd civilization (the svirfneblin) and fight (or start) a tremendous underground war that has repercussions for both the civilizations beneath and above the surface. They invade an immense stronghold of evil (the duergar temple of Orcus) and shut down a magic gate that might otherwise allow Orcus himself into the prime plane. Assuming all goes well, one character gets to marry the baron's daughter and take over the barony.

That's a pretty good high level adventure.

My gripes with it are still there: the mines are bit of a rip-off of Tolkien's Moria (a lot of these modules are rips from Tolkien...the witch-king, the all-seeing eye, the mines, the white flower tree that grows from the gemstone at the end of the series, etc.) and the duergar/svirfneblin conflict seems a pastiche of the drow/svirfneblin (and the duergar cavern has many echoes of the Vault of the Drow). The final encounter is contrived, rather than timed or inherent on any actions of the player characters...and of course, I'd prefer my adventure to start with the characters already ruling their own dominions.

I also have a bit of disdain for the whimsical puns and silliness...St. Sollars of the Lone Star and Yellow Rose in his fortress of "Al-Amo" really grates on my nerves, as does the halfling community with the "road of yellow brick" winding through it.

But whatever...for an adventure for 18th level mercenary-types, H2 is a pretty decent adventure, fairly challenging adventure.

I especially like the open-endedness of the adventure. It does not assume the adventurers were successful in the first module, and it explains what happens if they fail to succeed at the (contrived) final encounter. It does operate under the assumption that all the characters are heroic goody-good types, but there's room for a more neutral or evil party to participate (though they may have a slightly harder time with some encounters). Hey, even the "princess" NPC is a druid (thus True Neutral in alignment) so who's to say she might not fall for a Chaotic or Evil player character with a high charisma?

H4: The Throne of Bloodstone is much less satisfactory. While the monsters faced are certainly "killers" (demon princes and hordes of high-powered demons, dragons, and undead) the whole 90+ pages (!!!) of the module seems like no more than a glorified step-and-fetch. The characters have to face the lich-king (and have to sneak into his castle themselves rather than march on him in open battle...basically a mini-dungeon crawl). The characters are tasked with destroying Orcus's wand (by none other than the Texan St. Sollars). They plane-hop a number of layers of the Abyss till they find the correct portal (from a C.S. Lewis type "well world"), fight (or sneak) their way to Orcus's throne room, get the wand, then go back to Sollars, who sends 'em to the platinum dragon, who teleports them into Tiamat's lair (!!!) to kill her and dissolve the wand, then teleports them back, then sends 'em back to the Prime Plane.

Fairly linear and boring, to my mind. Not to mention that the wand (and Orcus and Tiamat) will all "regenerate in 100 years or so" so there's no actual lasting effect to the campaign world should the PCs succeed. There's no cleverness or innovation that's required to win through the module, no riddles or mysteries to solve, just good tactics and dice rolls (I guess!). Hell, there isn't even a place for using the Battlesystem in this module (except for a particularly one-sided battle at the end with the witch-king's decimated, leaderless forces...and I'd simply default to the suggested "wrap-up narration" rather than running the battle).

I find nothing particularly "high level" about H4, aside from the average hit dice of monsters faced. But challenging demigods on their own planes should be pretty suicidal for PCs anyway...at least if the demigods are played properly. I've only run Q1 once, and the sole survivor of the brush with Lolth ended up imprisoned and tortured in a rather awful Prometheus-style punishment for many months afterwards. And THAT particular character was of a power level greater than any of the (non-100 level) pre-gens included with H4.

Anyway, there are bits and pieces of interest in these modules, but I doubt I'll ever run them in the future (certainly not H4), at least not in their present form. H2 might be adaptable as a B/X Companion-level adventure, though...maybe.

Player Versus DM Expectations

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

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

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

I kinda' wanna' tie all this stuff together.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gross!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

: )

Okay, Maybe Niles Ain't So Bad

Although many of my previous comments may seem unkind, I wasn't joking when I said much of Douglas Niles's work irritates me...especially my recently acquired X3:Curse of Xanathon. However, I admit that I did tie one on last night (karaoke debauchery) and some of my irritation may be due to a pounding head this morning.

Also, I found a little something-something to soften my critique of Mr. Niles.

Just finished reading N1:Against the Cult of the Reptile Gods...rather forced myself to read it, despite my boredom with the first few pages and my "irritation with Doug" in general. And guess what...I'm changing my tune. N1 is pretty darn good.

Now, I realize it was ranked 19th Greatest Dungeons & Dragons Adventure of All-Time Dungeon Magazine in 2004, but I personally dislike and/or take serious umbrage with many of the adventures ranked on the list. For example, I am arm-in-arm with the folks who feel each module should be judged by its individual merit, not with a "series-as-a-whole" approach. But just being on a Top 20 list is good enough reason to give the thing a fair shake (well maybe...The Gates of Firestorm Peak is ranked #11 and I've never even heard of this 1996, 2nd edition adventure).

So anyway, I bothered to finish reading N1, and it's pretty good. I still don't understand why there are no lizard men and how a spirit naga is connected to troglodytes (and why all the cultists are Lawful Evil when their "god" is Chaotic Evil).

Heck, at first I thought there were NO alignments in the module, as none are listed with any of the NPC stat boxes. However, a re-read of the blurb at the beginning quickly explained most folks were Neutral Good while most baddies were of the LE variety. However, before my re-read I was tempted to consider this a pretty cool innovation for a module from 1982...after all, it DOESN'T really matter what alignment anyone is...the bad guys are bad unless the PCs can break the evil spell, and the innocent victims are in need of the PCs' help regardless of their alignments.

Okay, so what did I like about the module.

Well, for one thing it doesn't suffer from the same "silliness" as X3. It is small scale (one town, a la Village of Hommelet) that is in trouble from a real menace that can operate on a town scale. And yet, the adventure has the potential to "scale up;" if the PCs fail in the mission, the bad guy has a plan to spread his evil influence over the next village (he even has his patsy set to start the black tide); the Cult of the Reptile God could transform into a mini-campaign in and of itself!

Likewise, should the PCs succeed in putting down the Cult, the module continues to act as a "mini-campaign setting" with notes on what happens afterwards, how the PCs can set-up base in the town, and other possible adventures around the area. That's a lot of "bang for your buck" from one module.

In addition, the subject matter is mature and dark. The PCs arrive in the middle of a hostile takeover, and the bad guys already have a good foothold. The villains are mean, mean, mean with realistic drives and sub-plots and plenty of potential ickiness (especially once the ensorcelled townsfolk are freed from their spell...lots of potential role-playing issues/drama to deal with in a campaign that doesn't simply treat the module as a single episodic adventure).

I like that. I like depth of play/design. I like nuance, I like possibility, I like "open-endedness."

And N1 IS original. It is different from T1's "re-kindled ancient evil" and any other "evil religious opponent" module you care to name. Hell, it's not every day low level characters get to bring down a god!

And the power of the "god" IS god-like for low level characters. Granted they get some much needed help from a crutch...er, "helpful NPC"...but it's still going to be a pretty grim battle, quite possibly involving a LOT of dead PCs.

Which to my mind is a good thing...encounters can be challenging without giving the Big Bad the farm in "special powers;" to a low level character, a perma-charm, a poison bite, and a handful of spells (not to mention 9 hit dice) is PLENTY to deal with. Throw in the rest of the setting (the mud and trogs and possessed cultists) and you make a VERY challenging adventure for low level characters...especially if they happen to be good-hearted ones interested in saving a few souls (rather than laying 'em out).

So Douglas Niles gets a pass from me after all, and has earned a bit of good will even. Along with his co-developer Allen Hammack, he's designed a very cool and thoughtful adventure module...one that I'd very much like to run sometime.

Earlier, I posted a B/X conversion for the AD&D module S2:White Plume Mountain, and I was asked if I planned to convert any other modules. Well, N1 is certainly in the running for conversion. It's pretty darn simple really (though I might remove the trogs in favor of lizard folk...I think of trogs more like those creatures in the film The Descent). The main challenge to this is the availability of maps and text for this out-o-print module (the D20 version of S2 is available as a free download from WotC web site, N1 is not). However, I think I'll at least do it for myself. If anyone else is interested in seeing my conversion notes, let me know and I'll upload a file at mediafire.

Prost!

Doug Niles Irritates Me

You know, most days I can think of something constructive to post, but for the last couple days, every time I've sat down at Ye Olde Laptop there's only one thing popping into my head: Douglas Niles irritates me.

Not the man, himself, of course...I've never met Mr. Niles and he's probably a swell guy. But for whatever reason, as an author he bugs me. I'm not even talking about his writing style (I wouldn't even know HOW to analyze that kind of thing...I'm neither an English teacher nor a pro critic). But his subject matter, the substance of which he writes.

I don't know what I'm trying to say here...well, besides the obvious title of the post; I guess I'm just venting a little bit. I picked up CM2:Sabre River in the game shop the other day, read through it, and tossed it back on the pile. It just seemed so damn boring and trite. I picked up N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God mainly because it represented a missing chunk of my past. I was even able to get the maps for it that had previously been missing. But I haven't finished reading it as I got bored just a few pages in.

And I think this is part of the reason I never finished reading it in my youth. Well, I'm sure that I was frustrated it was making reference to AD&D stuff that wasn't in my B/X rules, and it WAS pretty low level by the time I'd picked up the Players Handbook. But even still, I probably would have at least READ the module. And I didn't...I just wasn't wowed by the plot.

And now I have X3: The Curse of Xanathon and IT is missing all its pages from 15-18 (ugh!) including a couple map inserts. And in reading the thing, it just feels...I don't know, "mediocre," I guess. In some ways it feels similar to N1...an evil cult has moved into town and now everything's going to hell. You have to raid a bad temple.

But I don't like how it casts the Ethengarians (the Mongol-type people from Mystarra) as the bad guy...and worse that they're SNEAKY bad guys instead of ride-in-bows-blazing Scourge-of-God-type villains.

Then there's the un-killable Evil High Priest. I'm not sure why this is so irritating but I'll try to codify it. Let's see...okay, how about this:

- the guy is invulnerable to EVERYTHING, right? Period. It's not very subtle or clever.

- the only way for the players to find this out is by attacking the guy. There are no hints, no preparations that can be made, no nothing that occurs previously in the story.

- depending on how fast the players figure out their little problem, he could really do a number on them. Of course, he "delights in physical combat," so they only have to worry about him bashing them with his mace and not his high level spells

- during the encounter he does the comic book villain thing, giving the players hints on how to kill him...which, of course, is dumb

Basically the whole encounter is a bit of an F-You to the players, who then need to figure out (from the clues in the High Priest's chamber...you know, the chamber where he is invulnerably bashing them about?) where they're supposed to go to find his "life force" so he can be killed. And then there's another shrine/mini-dungeon to delve. And then it's back to the Evil High Priest. And yadda-yadda-yadda. Boring.

Then there's the whole "oh the Duke is crazy and he's expelled the dwarves and declared war on them" time limit thing. Basically, the players have three weeks to A) figure out the Evil High Priest has cursed the duke, B) figure out the EHP is invulnerable, C) go find his life force and return...or else the dwarves are going to march on the town and raze it.

This is DUMB. The whole adventure takes place in one small Ducal city-state in the kingdom of Vestland. Why would the entire army of Rockhome (the dwarf nation) launch an invasion just for a few insults? That would bring down the rest of Vestland on them, not to mention neighboring allies. And do the dwarves really give two shits about the crazy Duke? He hasn't launched an attack on them, he's just "declared a state of war exists" and threatened to shave the beards of any dwarf that doesn't leave town...and they leave town! So what's the big deal that would get the taciturn dwarves to mobilize in three weeks?

It's irritating. Unlike Mr. Cook, Mr. Niles does NOT unleash the potential of B/X game play with his module...he dumbs it down and makes me uninterested in the game.

When I put Sabre River back on the pile, I had half-jokingly told the proprietor that "I still had a bone to pick" with Doug Niles over the damn Dungeoneers Survival Guide...a hard back book for which I shelled out good money as a kid and never used, except for those irritating non-weapon proficiencies. I probably should have stuck with my instincts and skipped the other modules with his name on it.

I see from his wikipedia entry that Mr. Niles has published many fantasy novels of the Dragon Lance and Forgotten Realms variety. Somehow, this doesn't surprise me as both those series irritate me, too. Yes, I know that the man isn't responsible for either of these campaign worlds. I'm just not surprised that he's drawn to the subject matter...he and I seem to have very different tastes.

[okay, now that I've got all THAT out, maybe I can turn my mind to more constructive matters; sorry about that folks]

A True Expert: Dave Cook Kicks Ass

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

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

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

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

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

Dave Cook is a frigging' genius.

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

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

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

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

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

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

They are superb.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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