WotC's DUNGEON! is Flattest Non-Euclidean Game Ever

Revieweth thine Spawn:

I picked up the new revised DUNGEON! board game the other day. Back in early 80s me and my sister and a bunch of neighborhood kids played it for hours when the Fresno summers made sitting in air conditioned homes more fun than running around outside. I figured maybe this would be a cool Xmas present for my niece and nephew, but I wanted to make sure WotC hadn't altered it so much as to irk me so I checked it out first. This is the only WotC purchase I've made aside from a pack of Magic cards I bought back in 1994. Not that I hate them, I just didn't buy their stuff.  And I assumed whatever cosmetic changes they made, I'd be able to see past them and have a good time. After laying out the board with its sort-of-isometric perspective, the whole thing started to shift around like a big old Necker illusion and now I can't see it right anymore. I'm serious.

All of the passages look like narrow bridges of blocks above a blue-black pool, and the rooms all look like Jell-O shots whose contents are subject to oblique gravity. Some doors look like they're in the side of the block pathway I'm walking on top of, and others seem to go directly into a floating Jell-O shot.

This is admittedly worse towards the edges of the board than the center, but my brain doesn't really sort that out. The oddest chamber is The Hole, which looks like a cylindrical ring with a bottomless pit ... going down at a 45 degree angle ... that's not the most bottomless thing I can imagine, but of course I'm not feeling the oblique gravity vectors

 

The least awkward section is in Level 5. Here it mostly looks like a set of chambers and passages sunk into a blue-black surface.

 

The overall effect when you look at the whole board is that the elevated walkway surfaces appear to be curving up at the edges, as if the blocks are stuck to the inside of a large bowl. Weird. I'm ambivalent about this art design. It's technically executed well, with neat details, etc, but there's something wrong with all the drop-shadow effects and the visually conflicting textures.

To the game itself, for now I'll just point out that they changed around the characters -- Heros -- you can be. Now it's Rogue, Cleric, Fighter and Magic-user (Elf). Elf is in parentheses because that's how it is in the rules, and their little markers below look like elves. The Rogue and Fighter are more or less self-explanatory, but the Cleric? Described as "Holy Warriors", they can't use spells but can use magic swords. Not very Clericky. They are in the photo below in blue, take a look at them. 

 

Tell me those two aren't dwarves. Yeah, no beard on the female, but compare her to the other characters. They're dwarves. Why not have dwarves instead of clerics since there's no clericness to be had in the game?

Dumb. But whatever, I can just call them dwarves if I want. I'm a grown up. Not sure if I'll buy another copy for my niece and nephew yet, but I'll keep you posted.

John Carter of Mars

The City of Helium

I saw the new John Carter movie on Wednesday, and I really liked it.  While acknowledging that it ain't Shakespeare, I nevertheless enjoyed it thoroughly.  It was great fun to see Barsoom brought to vivid life, and I would single out the film's depiction of the Tharks, its portrayal Carter's faithful "hound" Woola, and its casting of Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris as particular high points.  The airships were killer too.  I wasn't totally sold on Taylor Kitsch as John Carter at first -- I agree with Al that he could have been characterized as more of a "chivalrous gentleman," as in the ERB books -- but he grew on me over the course of the movie.  

As you may know, there has been a ton of press circulating about how the film is a colossal box-office flop, sunk due to the studio's overindulgence of director Andrew Stanton and a seriously botched marketing campaign.  That all makes fascinating reading, and I am especially interested in (and, having seen the film, frustrated by) Disney's last-minute decision to change the film's title from the appropriately evocative John Carter of Mars to the blandly obtuse John Carter.  This was a big blunder that, if corrected, may not have widened the actual audience for the film by a great margin, but as it stood surely didn't help the film's chances to accrue the following it deserves.

Much of the press about John Carter zeroes in only upon the tumultuous production and distribution circumstances that brought the film to the screen.  Yet as a loyal Edgar Rice Burroughs fan who knew I wanted to see John Carter even if it was flawed in certain ways, I am more interested in the movie that actually made it to the screen.  I want to judge the film on its own merits.

A Red Martian airship

On that score, John Carter is a total success.  It is an engaging, thoughtfully crafted and very well made science-fantasy action epic.  I would even say that it is the superior, entertainment-value-wise, of many recent superhero films including Thor and Iron Man 2.  I personally had much more fun watching John Carter than I have practically any other big-budget movie since the first Iron Man.

For a really smart video review of the film itself, check out the Red Letter Media "Half in the Bag" Review, which begins at the 11:03 mark in the linked episode.

At around the 13:44 mark in that review, Jay (the light-haired guy on the right) calls John Carter a "1980's throwback," and that assessment may account for much of its appeal to me. I am forty years old, and my movie tastes are starting to become increasingly "old-fashioned" I think. I really enjoyed John Carter's fun spirit and straightforward, comprehensible action sequences. In fact, the editing of the action sequences in John Carter works for me in ways that the action-sequence cutting seen in Christopher Nolan's Batman films or Michael Bay's Transformers films does not. I find much of the action portions of those movies to be literally baffling; I cannot tell what the hell is going on from shot to shot. In addition to its general fidelity to source material I care about, John Carter moves more at my pace, editing-wise, and I like that.

To pick a couple of nits, I would say that John Carter's flashbacks to Carter's dead wife (??!) were totally unnecessary and did nothing for the story being told. The dialogue was a bit clunky and stilted at points, though no worse than what we get in most big-budget action films (this is where Nolan's work leaps ahead of the competition). I also wasn't totally keen on the role the shape-shifting Therns played in the narrative -- I agree with Oliver Lyttelton's point #6, which states that: "For all the many antagonists thrown at him in the first 90 minutes, John Carter finds out in the last third of the movie, it’s actually Matai Shang (played by Mark Strong) who's the villain. Pulling the strings behind Sab Than’s quest for power, he spends most of the movie keeping an eye on John Carter before they finally meet head to head late in the game, although he doesn't simply kill Carter, because he's a cliched movie bad guy." The Therns indeed seemed bad just for badness' sake, and I would have liked to see more actual development of the Sab Than character and a greater emphasis on the substance of the rivalry between John Carter and Sab Than.

In conclusion, I must admit that director Stanton's attention to the details of the original Burroughs concepts may alienate or confuse many viewers not already familiar with John Carter from ERB's books (Lyttelton makes this his point #4). Yet I also can't see how any moderately intelligent viewer wouldn't figure out what a"Jeddak" was once it is used three or four times in the course of the dialogue (which it is in rapid succession at the film's outset).  Come on, folks, how much spoon-feeding is necessary?  I admire Stanton for sticking to his guns and keeping Barsoomian language more or less intact -- it gives this movie flavor and uniqueness.

Jay of Red Letter Media captures this spirit when he remarks (starting around the 18:18 mark) that "I see this movie having the same fate as other big-budget movies that don't find an audience in the theater, like Tron or David Lynch's Dune, it finds its audience later, becomes more of a cult movie."  This sounds right to me. I think John Carter -- which thankfully retains its full original title, John Carter of Mars, in the title card right at the end of the movie -- will age well, and will be regarded more highly once the hubbub over its big budget and small theatrical returns have died down.  I plan to see this film again when it releases to DVD, and I know that I will be an avid member of the cult of John Carter of Mars.

Lynn Collins says: "Come see me as Dejah Thoris in John Carter -- I'm so good I practically steal the movie!"

Review: Oubliette Issues #6 and #7

This has been a long time coming, but here, at long last, is my review of Oubliette Magazine Issues #6 and #7.

I am a big supporter of Oubliette and have written largely positive reviews of the magazine and its content in the past -- see my review of Issues #1-4 and review of Issue #5.  In the latter review I stated that "Oubliette is a model for concise, user-friendly fanzine presentation" and I still feel that way.

Oubliette has the advantage of springing from the pen of a relatively small group of contributors, mainly Peter Regan (the magazine's Editor) and his wife and chief illustrator, The Marg. The small size of the Oubliette team -- everything in Issues #6 and #7 is generated by Peter R. and The Marg EXCEPT the "Petty Gods Preview" in Issue #6 -- leads the 'zine to possess a remarkable consistency of feel and quality. Every issue delivers good, gameable, Labyrinth Lord-compatible stuff, an a format I have come to feel familiar with. I like that. Not only am I in favor of the "look" of Oubliette in general -- unpretentious, well-organized, easy to use at the gaming table -- its consistency gives its content a kind of "brand recognition" that (IMO) breeds reader loyalty. I look forward to certain features -- the adventure scenarios, "Monster Club," Regan's short but inspirational editorials, The Marg's artwork -- every time. And Regan and Co. do a great job of continuing certain threads and themes across multiple issues, as in the MonsterMark-inspired Encounter Tables offered in these two issues under review.

So what's in these Issues?

Oubliette #6

Regular features in Oubliette #6 include two Monster Club entries, one of which details a Skeleton Lord, the second being a series of three Random Encounter Tables (for Dungeon Levels 1-3) based upon the MonsterMark system presented in Oubliette #5.  As a person who is marginally interested in balancing monster capabilities and party strength, yet who is unwilling to do even the minimal amount of math required to use MonsterMark properly, I am thrilled to have some preformed Encounter Tables placed at my disposal.  At the very least, I can cherry pick these tables for monsters of certain power levels.  MonsterMark-based encounter tables for Dungeon Levels 4-6 are included in Oubliette #7.

Another consistency producing feature included in issue #6 is the introduction to the Newland Campaign Setting, which is presented "to provide a backdrop to the next few adventures that will be published in Oubliette" (p. 8).  Now I do not myself strictly need a campaign setting; but as with so much of what comes out in Oubliette, Regan does a fine job here of keeping things brief and modular, so that bits and bobs from the setting could be easily borrowed or ported into other scenarios and campaigns.  What we get this time around is a short (less than one page) history of the Newland setting, a small map, two pages of bullet-pointed location notes, and one page of character generation guidelines for rolling up Newland Campaign PCs.  That's it!  But it is enough to get one started and to convey the basic flavor of the game-world.

Most importantly -- and this is one of the great strengths of Oubliette overall -- the Newland setting and its parameters have clearly emerged out of Regan's home group's game play: as he states at one point in the explanatory text, "Detail [. . .] is purposefully kept brief so that it can be developed through play" and "as a group, [my players and I] wanted the new campaign to use the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion so all the adventures in this series may include AEC content" (p. 8).  In other words, Regan writes this stuff because he is literally playing it in his home campaign.  As James Maliszewski has written, this is the absolute best way for gameable material to emerge, and I commend Regan for honoring this Old-School process and for sharing the fruits of his labor with the Oubliette-reading public.

Other features in this number include Shame of the Shaman, the first Newland-based Adventure; a feature on "Whips in Labyrinth Lord," which I like very much; a writeup of a Raven Familiar; and one of my perennial favorite columns, "What's In The Oubliette?" wherein a wide array of FRPG-related products and programs are reviewed.  

Oubliette #7

Monster Club #11 presents a fiendish trap that I like a great deal; I generally appreciate the wide berth Regan gives himself in creating stuff for this regular column.  Monsters, monster-related traps, new takes on old monsters, undead conversion rules, MonsterMark -- hell, a collected omnibus of Monster Club features alone would see heavy use at my gaming table.  Another equally practical and informative feature in this issue is the one-page commentary about the history and uses of the Ten Foot Pole, an insightful piece I hope might set a precedent -- maybe a "dungeoneering equipment series" is in order?

One of the most noteworthy components of Oubliette #7 is its interview with Richard Scott of Otherworld Miniatures.  As I have noted before, I do not collect, paint, or use miniatures, and never have; yet I LOVE reading interviews with industry insiders, even in areas of the hobby not directly pertinent to me.  I like hearing about what inspires creative people, and it is fun to hear about the inner workings of the business side of our hobby.  I only hope that Oubliette interviews more game creators and industry figures in the future.

The middle part of Oubliette #7 integrates three different features in order to present more background on the Newland Campaign Setting: there is Part II of the Newland writeup itself, Monster Club #13: Newland Bestiary Part I (the "Tree Demon" is a standout), and the next adventure in the Newland series, Tomb of the Snake King, which also includes three new monsters!  Particularly when we consider that all this is the work of one writer, the sheer amount of game-ready content one gets in each issue of Oubliette is most impressive.

I haven't mentioned the ongoing fiction work, The Song of Sithakk, nor the three regular comics featured in Oubliette, Mouse Watch, Tales from Hell, and Goblin Quest, largely because I do not typically read them. I am sorry to confess this, yet to be fair, I almost never read the comics or fiction in Dragon Magazine all those years either.  I am very glad they exist; I think gaming magazines should include fantasy fiction and comics, even if I am an undeserving ingrate who does not appreciate them.

That said, I do pay attention to the artwork, so let me single out a few favorite pieces from these two issues. First there is the dwarf on the cover of Issue #6, which is quite literally one of my all-time favorite illustrations by The Marg.  That eyepatch is a sweet touch, and there is just something about that guy . . . his beard is just great, the look on his face says it all about his intentions, and I like that he is just reaching to draw his sword.  Hell, the fact that he uses a sword (rather than the more "typical" dwarven axe or hammer) is a breath of fresh air.  Great pic!

Other standout illos in Issue #6 include both images on p. 4 (but especially the cleric and cityscape on the bottom of the page), the ruined temple on p. 15, the wonderfully captioned piece on p. 22, and the raven pecking out the skull's eye on p. 30.  And even though I haven't (yet) read the fiction, the picture of the arrow-ridden horseman accompanying Sithakk on p. 38 is another standout.

The harpy on the cover of Issue #7 freaks me out; I can't say that I "like" it in the usual sense of that word, but it is a very effective drawing because it scares me a little, especially those hind claws.  Creepy!  I also very much like the noir-ish illustrations accompanying the Tomb of the Snake King adventure (pp. 18-23) and the superb toad on p. 27.  Kudos to The Marg!

So what, if anything, is wrong with Oubliette?  What are its limitations?  Well, its biggest limitation is also its greatest strength, which is that it is primarily aimed at the "vanilla" player of Labyrinth Lord and similar old-school high fantasy role playing games.  That happens to be my demographic, which is why I love this fanzine so much; but players of darker, more swords-and-sorcery type campaigns or fans of whacked-out, "gonzo" type materials will not find as much to use here as I do.  So far anyway, Regan and Co. do not push very hard at the generic boundaries of Gygaxian D&D -- which is just fine with me.  But that could be considered a weakness to those who prefer stuff like Patrick Wetmore's (excellent but weird) Anomalous Subsurface Environment, for example.

But if you play more-or-less Gygaxian-style D&D, you really cannot go wrong with Oubliette.  The 'zine continues to deliver lots of usable game content in an appealing, usable format that is well worth the extremely reasonable cover price of $4.63 per print issue, or a mere $2.50 per pdf.

To paraphrase Regan himself from the opening editorial to Oubliette #6:

"I hope Oubliette fanzine leaves you entertained, informed -- inspired even -- and not too bogged down in number crunching."

Hear, hear!

Creativity and inspiration-value: 4 out of 5.  Not much boundary pushing going on here, but Oubliette is an ideal source of inspiration for those of us who stick to a fairly Gygaxian model of world-building and game play.  And The Marg's gritty illos should serve as inspiration to players across various fantasy RPG genres.

Use-value to Referees: Varies, depending upon the type of campaign you are running. High Fantasy = 5 out of 5.  Pulp fantasy = 3 out of 5. Weird fantasy, post-apocalyptic, or sci-fi = 2 out of 5 at best. Oubliette is ostensibly geared toward the Labyrinth Lord ruleset, though its content would be easily adaptable to other similar systems.

Review: LotFP WFRP Referee

This is Part 3 of a three-part review of James Raggi's Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role-Playing Grindhouse Edition. Part 1 reviewed the game's Tutorial book; Part 2 the Rules and Magic volume. This third and final installment will discuss Referee. [Note: This review will NOT take in "A Stranger Storm," the adventure included on pp. 77-95 of Referee.]

First, the cover. While I stated in my review of Tutorial that I liked its cover the most of the three Grindhouse tomes, Peter Mullen's superb cover of Referee may give that one a run for its money. Mullen has a lively, vaguely Erol Otus-esque style that really jumps off the page, and his Referee cover captures quite an interesting moment indeed. Well done!

The Referee book itself opens with prose I tend to associate with Raggi's writings on the Lamentations of the Flame Princess blog. He even admits right at the outset of the Referee volume that "this book is much more loosely written than the other material in this game. This is me, the author, James Edwrad Raggi IV, talking to you, the reader." Hooray for that! In some ways, this is the kind of prose that I have been waiting for (but have seen less of) in the other volumes of the game. If I am going to invest in James Raggi's Grindhouse game, I surely expect to get a healthy dose of James Raggi's unique gaming worldview and balls-out expository style. While the Grindhouse rules themselves (and of course the notorious illos) are obviously an expression of Raggi's POV, the first two rule books are written in a very straightforward way, for clarity, and while that is a plus when it comes to understanding the rules, it is a minus for those of us who enjoy and take inspiration from Raggi's usual no-holds-barred writerly voice.*

This Referee book is chock-full of that engaging voice plus a wealth of insightful perspectives on what it means to be an effective old-school referee.  In fact, should I wish to produce a non-system-specific "Primer on Old-School Refereeing," I could do a lot worse than to simply excerpt out pp. 2-6, 11-33, 45-46, and 62-68 from this volume.  It's that good.

After a page of introductory remarks, the Referee tome launches right into the basics of Refereeing, covering a wide array of relevant topics of which I will simply gloss over some favorite highlights:

- "When the dice go badly for the players, they should be thinking about how to not let a roll of the die be the sole determiner of their fates. And when the dice go a little too well for the players, the Referee should note what he needs to do to prevent a single die roll from determining the course of an entire adventure" (p.18). Raggi is nothing if not fair-minded, strongly advocating the roll of the dice over Referee fiat. No fudging the dice!

- "In-character favors and personal connections are a type of reward that isn't commonly used in this sort of game, but in a continuing campaign this could be extremely valuable" (p. 19). I use these kinds of "rewards" all the time, and appreciate Raggi mentioning them here.

- The whole section on "Variety" (pp. 19-20) is just golden, containing advice like: "Change elements of your adventures, and change them often. [. . .] Keeping a campaign fresh through constant variety is the key to maintaining interest, for the players and for yourself." Indeed! This is an important idea yet is not always given this much emphasis in other RPG'ing rulebooks I've seen.

- Here is Raggi's manifesto on "Railroading" (p. 20), reprinted verbatim:

Repeat after me:

"My adventures and campaigns will have no pre-set endings. Characters are not required to act as I wish them to act during the course of the game. It is natural player behavior to trash scenarios and take the game to places unforeseen."

He even prints this a second time, exhorting the reader to recite it aloud. Raggi means business here, and this is absolutely the right thing to emphasize. I only wish I had read (and recited aloud) these words back in 1992 or so; it would have saved me a few disastrous sessions during that heady period.

- In his section on "Using Published Adventures" (pp. 31-32), which I appreciated a lot, Raggi makes the following important observation: "Some referees are great creative thinkers and make excellent adventures, but not every Referee can manage these things. Running a great game requires different skills that creating a great adventure. Never feel like you're doing something wrong just because you didn't write everything that you use in your campaign."

- Then there's the "Don't Change Anything Else" section (p. 32), in which Raggi again reiterates his view on the value of using other people's modules: "The very advantage of using adventures written by others is defeated if you change every detail to more closely match your style. After you take away the elements that could harm your campaign and change the names and other such details to fit your campaign, leave the adventures alone. Run them in the spirit they were written." I struggle with this, liking to tinker with other folks' modules, but I absolutely agree with Raggi here in principle.

Next Referee tackles issues relating to "The Campaign," including:

- "As characters travel, more areas that began as mere concepts can be filled in and become true locations. Your world will grow organically" (p. 33). Hear, hear! This is exactly how world-creation should occur, IMO. For example, I didn't know jack shit about the Minochian town of Fortinbras prior to my current party's setting up home base there; we have co-created it through play. This is the essence of sandbox play and a superb strategy for older-school, lower-prep GM's.

- I am quite fond of the section on "NPCs" (pp. 45-46), and would particularly like to single out this sharp little tidbit for honorable mention: "Quick rule of thumb: Average NPCs that don't need a name unless a player asks just have average stats. The important NPCs get +3 in modifiers to spread around. [. . .] Next -step-down NPCs get +2 in modifiers, and more common 'lieutenant' personalities just get a +1."

- On page 46 I noted an in-text reference to the back cover NPC charts, which are GREAT:

A sample of LotFP Referee's awesome back-cover NPC table.

- A listing (with brief commentary) of some of the key OSR publishers (pp. 74-76), including Basic Fantasy RPG, Black Blade, Brave Halfling, Frog God, Goblinoid, OSRIC, and a few others. This is a smart thing to include, a nice resource for somebody (especially a Referee) just entering the OSR end of the hobby.

- BEST TABLE EVER (p. 76), which gives AC equivalents for LotFP, Labyrinth Lord, S&W (ascending and descending), OSRIC, and Basic Fantasy RPG. Well done!

In sum, this is the best of the three LotFP WFRP books, IMO.  It is certainly the most "Raggian" of the three volumes, and I think that it poignantly reminds us that Raggi is particularly insightful when it comes to effective techniques to use behind the screen.**  Not to diminish the Grindhouse game itself, but Referee is where its author really shines and I could easily see this book being sold as a stand-alone volume, perhaps in a slightly abridged version re-titled James Raggi's Essential Referee's Handbook.   I doubt Mr. Raggi has any interest in such a project, though, so for now I must simply recommend that you BUY GRINDHOUSE in order to acquire this book -- and the elegant, extremely well-produced game system to which it belongs.

--
*Raggi even says of himself on p. 2 of Referee that "I am a far better writer than I am a Referee, for sure" -- an interesting comment, to which I return when I talk about my experience of Raggi-as-Referee in the other footnote to this review.
** I can vouch for this firsthand, having played in one of the online playtest groups for "A Stranger Storm," the adventure included in Referee.  Raggi is an absolute delight as a DM, and is especially good at acting out the roles of the NPCs.

Review: Digital Orc's Dad's Pepper Dish Recipe

From the kitchen of thoust Spawn of Endra:

I'm not much of an innovator in the Old School blogosphere, but I think I may have finally come up with something original*. I'm not a DM and I've never felt qualified to give a review of anything Old School, until now. I AM a proven Old School cook, so here's a review of a recent recipe for Gaming Grub posted by Mr. Digital Orc a few weeks back -- his Dad's Pepper Dish. I've recently moved to central Pennsylvania and Saturday evening I was bored and hungry, waiting for the Irenic apocalypse:

The hellish view from my back porch Saturday evening (slightly altered)

While looking for a recipe for ajvar I saw that I had bookmarked DO's recipe. I have been greatly impressed by the pickled banana peppers I get on subs around here, and so I'm on board to start working with these vegetables. And maybe Irene was coming inland and this would have be my last home-cooked meal for a while. Who knows?

The recipe is simple: 1/2lb bacon; 3lb red potatoes; 15-20 banana peppers; S&P to taste. That's it. Cook in phases in a covered skillet. Well, I looked at my skillet and could not see all this fitting in there, nor did I have a lid for it. So I went to the next biggest heavy implement: my Dutch Oven. Seriously. It took me a few hours to realize how weirdly appropriate this was. I started in simmering the bacon and then adding in the red potato wedges:

I strirred/tossed this every 5min or so to spread the browning love. While this was going on, I was dealing with the peppers. I used Hungarian wax peppers ... presumably the same thing? But DO's instructions were confusing:

Remove caps and seeds of banana peppers, cut into 2 inch rings, add to skillet, allow to cook for 15-25 minutes until banana peppers cook down.

Being the type that will always play the system as written before house-ruling it, I cut the peppers into 2"-long, er ... tubes? In the end, I don't think this matters, but removing the seeds and membranes (my habit, not strictly in the recipe) from these is a real pain in the ass. But eventually I prevailed:

Very pretty. I let it cook away for about 15 minutes and then by that point there was a fair amount of browned bacon/potato residue on the bottom, so I pulled it off the stovetop and finished it in the oven at 350F for ~10 min to avoid a charred blackened mess. By the time I got to the peppers, all the stirring/tossing had pretty much gotten it to a chunky mash consistency. In the end, after adding some black pepper and 1-2 tsp of salt, I had a right mash if there ever was one:

I'll admit, as this thing moved along I had some doubts. The recipe looked like it had some serious gaps, and the fact that it was turning into a hash/mash ... well, maybe that's right but who knows? DO doesn't say how it should look. Then I'm thinking, "If this sucks, what kind of an asshole am I to write a negative review of somebody's sketch of a favorite recipe on a blog about gaming? That's the worst possible Old School blogosphere asshole imaginable!" Indeed, such a creature will appear on the cover of Raggi's new Random Blogospheric Asshole Generator, due out this Fall from Goodman Games.

But all of this worry was for naught. I have no idea if this is the correct outcome (i.e., the hash format), but this dish was DELICIOUS. The bacon of course is going to be nice, but because of the potatoes it doesn't make the dish overly salty (you still need to add salt at the end). The bacon fat makes the potatoes creamy but not heavy, and the juices from the peppers permeate the dish and add a really nice noticeable but mild, clean heat to the dish. The tanginess of the peppers adds a distinct flavor and if you've got good bacon these two things provide all the seasoning you need outside of S&P.

Okay, it's good, but how good? Well, at the end of the night here's what the dutch oven looked like:

That's right. I ate the whole damn thing all by myself over the course of 4-5 hours, right off the stove top. 3lbs of potatoes, 1/2 lb bacon and 15-20 peppers, down my gullet. Could not stop and didn't want to. Such a simple and sublime dish. Having this on your stove top is a sign of good living. I think if you were to cook this for game night, probably double the recipe.

In Conclusion: Digital Orc's Dad got this dish right and is presumably a genius. It embodies everything I love about rustic one-pot cooking. 4.5** of 5 stars
 

_____________________________________________


*   I've been looking at some older posts from Grognardia, The RPG Corner, Jeff's Gameblogs and DNDWPS lately and it's shocking to see how many ideas I think are new have been circulated in the OSR back in fucking 2006 or 2008. Prog rock RPG setting? Yes, it's been done.

** I need to leave open the possibility of something even more awesome than this dish; otherwise, 5 of 5.

Review: Swords and Wizardry White Box

This review refers to the Brave Halfling Swords and Wizardry White Box, which I have owned for over a year.* When I bought that (literal) white box, I didn't know for sure how I was going to feel about the rules inside, I just knew I was innately drawn to their rumored simplicity (being an emulation of the original LBBs).  I also knew I liked the "Imagine the hell out of it!" slogan I associate with Swords and Wizardry, and, like many of us, I consider Matt Finch's Old School Primer, included in the box, to be one of the most succinct and accurate descriptions of what makes old-school gaming what it is. 

But why White Box?  Why not Goblinoid's Original Edition Characters or the original 1974 LBBs themselves?

Well, I have read but never played any pre-Holmes edition of D&D, and much as I love the original LBBs' idiosyncrasies, I somewhat dread the idea of having to rely upon them during play.  I can imagine myself fumbling around looking for a key passage; these books' baroqueness makes fascinating reading but potentially cumbersome in-game reference material.  I admire James Maliszewski and other DM's who swear by the LBBs, but I am not ashamed to admit -- being more McCartney than Lennon as I am -- that I prefer my rulebooks to be well-organized and easily searchable in the heat of a session.  As I recently confessed, I am more pragmatic than visionary.

Part of my Dungeon Master's pragmatism extends to making sure that the game's rules are easily available to the players, and in this sense a retro-clone with a free rules pdf like White Box is vastly preferable to something truly out-of-print like the LBBs.

Regarding the Labyrinth Lord-compatible Original Edition Characters, I resist using those rules because I do not like the "take things away" approach to house-ruling or system-mashing.  If I want to run stripped-down, 1974-ish D&D, I want something that really is stripped down, not an aftermarket graft onto a more 1981-ish system that I am otherwise quite familiar with.  I want something new and wholly minimalistic.

Plus I am a bit of a product-hound and was drawn in by the pretty box and the dice!

Photo courtesy of Lord Kilgore.

In any case, I have Swords and Wizardry White Box, and I love it.  Here is a highlights reel of what I found between its covers:   

- Marv Breig's writing style is fast-paced and engaging.  No wasted words here.  I wonder how this would work for a neophyte roleplayer?  Is there enough information here to understand the game if you've never played it before?  I cannot judge, but as for me, I love it.

In fairness, the text issues a warning about this very thing, on p. 1 of "Book III: Monsters":

"If you’re not a good storyteller or if you’re not up to doing a lot of creative thinking on the fly, it might be better that you try a different game—one that provides more rules and guidance for every little situation that might arise. But if you’re a good storyteller, creative and fair, SWORDS & WIZARDRY: WHITEBOX’s small, Spartan rule-set frees up your creativity to create a fantasy role-playing
experience completely different from the type of game that depends on a multitude of rules."

Huzzah! That's for me!

- I also like the "Alternate Rule" sidebars and text boxes peppered throughout.  Some of them are purely practical, offering a straightforward rules variation, like the one on the Experience Point Bonus on p. 7 of "Book I: Characters."  But other ones suggest a rule and at the same time offer insight into the different historical versions of the game, as in the "Saving Throw Matrix" sidebar on p. 33 of "Characters" or the "Note" on Weapon Damage on p. 23 of the same (discussed below).

Next I want to highlight some ways in which White Box differs from Labyrinth Lord and the other post-Holmes D&D variants I have played to this point. These features stand out to me because they represent 1974-ish D&D rulings that I am curious to play and experience:

- Fewer classes: just Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling. No thief!

- No across-the-board non-XP-related attribute bonuses; DEX grants a missile fire bonus, CHA affects number and loyalty of retainers, and high CON gives a bonus to each hit die, but that's it (pp. 7-8). I knew the role of attributes in White Box would be further scaled down from that of Labyrinth Lord, and I am interested to find out what a game without STR bonuses for smashing down doors feels like. (Luckily, if I end up REALLY missing them, I can always houserule them back in -- "Imagine the hell out of it!")

- d6 Hit Dice for all character classes!

- Rather than array of saving throws divided by type (Spells, Wands, Poison, etc.), S&W White Box deploys a single saving throw per class. Saving throws are therefore listed on the xp table for each character class. However, each class gets specific bonuses to certain types of saves, e.g., Fighters get +2 vs. death and poison, Magic-Users get +2 vs. spells, wands, and staves, and so on. I like the sound of this -- we'll see if it is easier or screwier than the Saving Throw Tables given in Labyrinth Lord.

- No thief!

- Clerics get no spells at first level. A year ago, I would have said that this is harsh, but as a lover of the undead who DMs a party that includes a damn effective cleric, I can speak of the raw power a cleric wields. At least in LL, clerics are something of a triple threat: they have relatively decent melee combat ability, a fairly wide array of spells available, plus the ability to Turn the Undead. So I approve of this small limitation upon the cleric's power curve, and am eager to see how it plays out.

- I thought that White Box was going to use straight d6-only, non-variable weapon damage, and indeed there is an "Alternate Rule" sidebar about d6-only damage on p. 23. But the default system, which I like, is a slightly modified version of the LBBs' non-variable d6, i.e., some large weapons do 1d6+1, and some small ones do 1d6-1.

After reading and enjoying the four booklets included in my Swords and Wizardry White Box set, I became so inspired to play this ruleset that I ordered the single-volume hardback version of S&W White Box available on lulu.com.  I like the convenience of having all the rules in one easily-referenced volume.

Now that I've finally read the Swords and Wizardry White Box rules, I would urge you to do the same if you haven't already -- the free pdf is downloadable here. If you are interested in running 1974-ish D&D, but are daunted (as I am) by the presentation of the rules in the original LBBs, this could easily be the ruleset for you!

And anyone playing in my forthcoming ConstantCon game will be getting familiar with these rules for sure!

-
* Yes, it sat on my shelf for quite some time.  I looked through it cursorily a few times, and felt glad to have it, yet I also felt a bit badly for not using it and playing games with it.  In fact, I even momentarily considered responding to Michael Curtis' request to take it off my hands -- but in the end I'm SOOO glad I didn't.

Review: LotFP WFRP Rules and Magic

This post constitutes Part 2 of a three-part review of James Raggi's Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role-Playing Grindhouse Edition. Part 1 covered the game's Tutorial book; this portion will discuss the Rules and Magic volume. I will review the third and final volume, Referee, in the near future.*

If the Tutorial book was somewhat hit-and-miss in terms of addressing the veteran gamer well-versed in D&D's terminology and conventions, Rules and Magic gets right down to business. This is in fact one of the great strengths of Raggi's three-volume organizational scheme: all the introductory material is confined to the Tutorial, thereby allowing the Rules and Magic installment to run lean and mean. Immediately following the Table of Contents is a short chargen summary, instructions for rolling ability scores, a universal ability score modifier table, brief ability score descriptions, and character classes -- in other words, just what the veteran gamer would expect, very efficiently and clearly laid out. I am especially fond of Raggi's use of a single ability score modifier table -- it is indicative of the streamlined way Raggi presents all the rules herein.

In terms of character classes, most of Raggi's versions conform to "standard" D&D expectations, so I will only mention the two standouts: Fighters and Specialists. In LotFP WFRP, Fighters get a "to hit" bonus that exceeds that of all other classes, AND increases every time the Fighter levels up. This is such a simple and elegant "fix" to the common complaint that fighters gain less power at higher levels than, say, the spellcasting classes, that I wish the writers of 2nd Edition AD&D had thought of it instead of heading down the "weapon proficiencies" road instead. Maybe that would have kept later editions from degenerating into the whole "feats" mess. But I digress.

LotFP Grindhouse Edition provides further balm to the wounded soul of a skill-system hater by finally building one that feels simple enough (10 skills only!) and old-school enough (it uses d6s!) not to rankle a curmudgeonly old grognard like myself. The system is based on a "x in 6 chance" mechanic -- my favorite!** -- and exists in a kind of "default mode" for all PCs. That is, all PCs use the "x in 6 chance" rule for many common adventuring actions, such as climbing, searching, sleight of hand, and bushcraft (foraging for food etc.). But the Specialist, LotFP's substitute for the D&D Thief class, gets extra "points" with which to improve his or her chances to perform some of these skills; a specialist is simply "better at certain activities that all characters are able to do at a basic level" (p. 10). This "diffuse" skill mechanic (available to all PCs but enhanced for Specialists) avoids the stupidity of thief-only d% skill tables and is so elegantly common-sensical that this feature alone provides a huge lure for me to want to play this game. Well done Raggi!

In another example of Raggi's commitment to efficient information design, the table accompanying each class description provides not only level advancement and hit die data, but saving throws as well. What a revelation! This makes so much more sense, and would be far easier to track down during game play, than the "usual" practice of locating saving throw tables in some separate section of the rulebook. This is not meant as a slam against other game designers who have opted for that more traditional mode, but I admit I am really fond of Raggi's choice to list saving throws with the class descriptions, on the same table as the other level advancement numbers.

I have noted elsewhere how amenable I am to Raggi's "cosmic" take on the threefold alignment system, and won't repeat that assessment here.

Others have praised LotFP's encumbrance system, and it looks great to me as well. But I am a pretty damn laissez-faire tracker of encumbrance, and so may not be the ideal reviewer to comment on that subsystem in much depth. Instead, let me praise the "Adventuring: The Rules of the Game" (pp. 30-37) section of the rulebook more generally. As Jeff Rients has written:

LotFP shines as pretty much the tightest version of D&D I've ever seen. This virtue comes across most clearly in the section devoted to what I call "operations", i.e. how to open a door or check for traps or crap like that. Most reviews of most D&D descendants (and many whole games!) completely skip this stuff because it's usually boring to read, but in actual dungeoneering play these mechanics are crucial. LotFP delivers the best, most coherent set of operations rules I've ever seen.

Agreed! Highlights for me include the game's foraging and hunting rules (based upon the Bushcraft skill), its precise description of what constitutes "defeating an enemy" (and what doesn't), and its breakdown of mapping procedures. However, one rules choice described in this section puzzles me a little: a character is merely unconscious at 0 hp and does not die until reaching -4 hp. Why? I know Raggi is not the first game designer or DM to proffer such a system, but I guess this is an area where I simply prefer that hp 0 = death.

"Maritime Adventures" in Grindhouse follow similar rules to Labyrinth Lord, but with more boats listed on the table.

"Property and Finance" is an interesting section, very helpful for games with PCs approaching Name Level.  I may well borrow some of these concepts, like "Investments" and "Taxes," for my own Domain-Level Labyrinth Lord game.  We'll see.   

"Encounters" unfolds generally as one would expect it to, but with some nice enhancements not found in other games, such as rules for "Firing into Melee" (p. 59) and "Pursuit" (p. 61) which strike me as convenient, if not 100% necessary, at least not for me.  These are the kinds of things I enjoy ruling on in the moment of game play; but it is thoughtful of Raggi to include guidelines for them, especially for newer referees. 

As for "Spells," this review is getting too lengthy as it is, and I am not feeling inclined to go through the spell lists exhaustively at this point.  I know that Raise Dead and Resurrection don't exist in Grindhouse, and that Raggi has added many custom spells to the standard D&D roster.  Maybe I will post separately on this, maybe not.  

Similarly, I don't want to spend tons of time reviewing the Rules and Magic artwork, but I do want to reiterate my contention from the Tutorial book review that the layout and quality of the art throughout this game are absolutely top-notch. As usual, Raggi is setting a very high standard here, and there is really nothing I can say by way of complaint or critique. And since I am an amoral anarchist who does not believe in abstract "community standards" concerning such matters, I have nothing to contribute to the discussion of the artwork's content or subject matter, except possibly: it rocks! The art throughout vividly evokes the world Raggi wants us to see when playing this game, which is precisely what RPG rulebook art should do.

All that said, let me single out a few of my favorite pieces from Rules and Magic: its cover (by Jason Rainville, see top of post), the badass female specialist pic on pp. 12-13 (by Amos Orion Sterns), the remarkable Dean Clayton piece on p. 89 (check out the shading!), and the GREAT medusa illo on p. 70 (by Cynthia Sheppard, see cropped sample above) -- this last being a standout favorite of mine from the whole Grindhouse trilogy of volumes.

To conclude, I would echo James Maliszewski's recommendation that James Raggi "sell the Rules and Magic book separately from the [Grindhouse] boxed set" since "Rules and Magic [has] been combined into a single 168-page volume that contains everything a player would need to play the game." Agreed! I was fortunate enough to be one of the first 100 orderers of Grindhouse and as part of that deal, I got a spare copy of Rules and Magic thrown into my order. I am immensely thankful for this, since that is indeed the book GMs and players would want to refer to most during game play.  So let me say that again, just in case James Raggi is reading this review: PLEASE RELEASE THE GRINDHOUSE RULES AND MAGIC BOOK AS A STAND-ALONE PRINT PRODUCT.  There surely must be a market for that, yes?  For folks who want to play the game and own a print copy but don't wish to throw down the big bucks for the complete box?  Or would this violate Raggi's conception of the game as a three-volume entirety?

On that note, I shall conclude.  Just one more book to go. . .

[UPDATE: As JDJarvis notes below, the stand-alone Rules and Magic book is available as a free, no-art pdf downloadable here.]

--
* As I mentioned in the first part of my review, I am really taking my time reading these books. Raggi clearly put a great deal of effort into creating, laying out, and publishing this game, and as a bibliophile I cannot resist taking my sweet time looking through it and savoring what I find there. So don't be too surprised if a few weeks pass before you see the final installment of my review.
** Regular readers will know that I favor d6-based skill mechanics for Thieves and Bards in my current Lands of Ara campaign.

Review: LotFP WFRP Tutorial

Having been one of the lucky "first 100" to order James Raggi's Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing Grindhouse Edition, I have been slowly reading through the contents of the boxed set over the past couple of weeks, relishing the riches found within. What follows is part one of a three-part review of the game; my comments will be organized in the same manner as the game itself, i.e., Part 1 will cover the Tutorial book, Part 2 the Rules and Magic tome, and Part 3 the Referee manual. Let's begin!

First, a few general comments about the overall quality of this product. I am not the first to observe that James Raggi is arguably the most quality-driven publisher in the OSR gaming business. His products (since at least Death Frost Doom) are consistently of very high production value, with evocative original artwork, superb layout, and (for the most part) a clear, effective, and engaging writing style. LotFP Grindhouse is no exception -- in fact, it is more or less the highest-quality OSR product I have yet seen, its nearest equivalent being Zak S.' Vornheim, also recently published by Raggi.* I ask the reader to bear in mind this general assessment of Raggi's work in what follows, for when I critique aspects of Grindhouse, I am in some ways judging Raggi against his own incredibly high standards, and even my negative comments should be seen against a backdrop of general awe for what Raggi's LotFP (the company) has accomplished here. Also note that I do not own and have only cursorily glanced at the previous Deluxe Edition of LotFP WFRP, so my review takes the new Grindhouse Edition at face value, on its own terms.

The Tutorial book sports my favorite cover image of the trilogy, created by Aeron Alfrey and visible in its draft stages here.

Indeed, the art in general is very good in this book, and there is a surprisingly coherent feel to the artwork throughout. My concern all along has been that by involving himself with such a wide variety of contributing artists and by emphasizing the artwork so heavily (especially leading up to Grindhouse Edition's release), Raggi might over-extend himself or get so obsessed with the artwork that it would become too much a focal point. But I don't think that that has happened. The art balances nicely with the text and there isn't too much of it. Beyond the Tutorial's excellent cover, I am particularly fond of the images found on pp. 3, 15, 50, 54, 77, and 90 -- yet the artwork is terrific throughout.

The bulk of the Tutorial volume is taken up with two introductory "adventures" presented as choose-your-own-adventure type narratives which gradually introduce core gaming concepts to the reader, like the role of attributes and what happens during melee combat. As James Maliszewski has noted in his review of Grindhouse, this CYOA-style tutorial is not necessary for veteran gamers, and may even seem counter-intuitive (why use a narrative "story" to teach gaming concepts?) or too long and involved (the two tutorial "adventures" run 41 pages taken together) even for a novice. Some would ask, "why not just plunge the neophyte gamer into the core rules mechanics, i.e., rolling 3d6 for each attribute in order?" That seems to be Maliszewski's implication and it is, at least for us grognards, a valid stance to take.

Ultimately, however, I feel unsure on this point; like Maliszewski, I learned to play D&D from a combination of reading certain books (Holmes Basic, the AD&D Player's Handbook) and playing the game with more experienced players. So I have never had to learn D&D (or any subsequent RPG) strictly from a book, and therefore I don't know how best to create that kind of interface for the type of reader at whom this section is aimed. I think what Raggi is trying to accomplish on pp. 5-46 of the Tutorial book is to get the neophyte's mental feet wet without really crunching any numbers yet, but I honestly cannot judge how effective this part of the book is at accomplishing its intended goal.

That said, I really like the various tidbits of wisdom Raggi offers on pp. 47-55, under such headings as "More About The Game," "The Process of Play," "About the Rules," and "Winning and Losing." This whole cluster of short sections was my second-favorite portion of the book, after the "Recommended Reading" segment.

Ah, the "Recommended Reading" segment. This is far and away my favorite part of the Tutorial book, for it provides what I always hoped everybody else's "Appendix N" would: a prose essay contextualizing the work being recommended. More than just a list of books to read, Raggi (and his collaborators**) discuss certain key authors and (most importantly) tell us why we should read that author's works. This approach empowers the reader with information, a strategy which allows each reader to make informed choices about which authors (and works) to read first, last, or not at all. And the write-ups of each key author are very good -- overall, a highly recommended section.

Lastly, there is the "Glossary" on the back cover -- a nice touch, conveniently placed. A very smart use of that space given the book's function as a tutorial volume.

To sum up, while there is much here for the for the veteran gamer to skip over, and while I cannot say for sure how or if the choose-your-own-adventure style tutorials would work effectively to introduce a neophyte to the game, the LotFP WFRP Grindhouse Edition Tutorial is a well-produced tome that is highly appropriate for inclusion in a boxed set. Plus there are several gems herein -- the "Recommended Readings," some gaming wisdom in the last third of the book, the impressive artwork throughout -- that are sure to at least make enjoyable reading for the veteran RPG'er. I shall withhold "scoring" Raggi's game until I have read and reviewed the second two books, but for now, let me state that I am impressed with Tutorial's aesthetics and layout, and while its content hasn't fully satisfied me as an experienced gamer, it has surely whetted my appetite to get a look at the frikkin' rules!

Next volume, here I come.

--
* Review forthcoming.
** The "Recommended Reading" section is co-authored by Raggi, Michael McClung, Jukka Sarkijarvi, Scott S., David Larkins, James Murphy, Chris Hogan, and Juhani Seppala.

Review: Fight On! #11

As previously promised, I here offer a review of Fight On! Issue #11. 

To begin with, Wow!  What a cover!  This is one of the better Fight On! covers I've seen, a really compelling depiction (by Mark Allen) of an exciting spider encounter in progress.

As for what is inside, here are some of my highlights:

+ Two new PC classes are noteworthy: Sylvan Elves by Scott Moberly and Vampires as PCs by Calithena.  The former is a succinct but compelling take on Wood Elves for Labyrinth Lord, and I plan to compare-and-contrast Moberly's approach to the "Fey Class" by Gavin at the City of Iron.  In my own campaign, Elves are NEVER PCs anyway, but I still like to have a template upon which to hang my NPC elves, and I like Moberly's idea to grant Wood Elves some spell-like abilities but no spells per se. Meanwhile, something must be in the air around vampires-as-PCs, since Calithena's writeup is the second one I've seen this month.  Hers is not quite as detailed as Peter Regan's, and despite my usual aversion to fine granularity, I may slightly favor Oubliette #5's piece on this subject, but I like that each mag has something original to offer on this somewhat overlooked topic.

+ "Draala" by Jason Vasche: If I'm not mistaken, this is a classic Star Frontiers race, here adapted for OD&D use.  I may or may not ever use this, but it is the kind of genre-crossing stuff I always like to see in Fight On!

+ Jeff Rients delivers a couple of highly creative and inspiring tables, including one for "Underworld Computers" and one for "NPC Party Situations."  Both of these are now horked for use in my personal DM folder!

+ "On Fantasy Chronography":  A superb article by Del Beaudry about an oft-overlooked aspect of FRPG setting design: timekeeping.  Not in the round-by-round sense, but in terms of how one's RPG world reckons time on a day-by-day basis.  Thought-provoking and well considered, this article is a must-read for all world-builders.

+ Artwork-wise, besides the superb Mark Allen cover, I would like to call attention to some of Fat Cotton's illos, especially the wonderful tableau scene on p. 3.  There is something vaguely Erol Otus-esque about that picture and its style, and I like it.  I also want to single out one of the issue's comics, "Sir Tendeth" by Sniderman: the second strip (about the werewolf) is the first gaming mag comic that has made me laugh out loud in quite some time.  Well done!

As I have said before, Fight On! is the flagship print publication of the OSR, and its standards -- for the quality of its content and the "glossiness" of its material publication -- are still unmatched.  It is a positively fine magazine that deserves the support of we old-school gamers.  Get your copy of Issue #11 ASAP!

O for Oubliette Fanzine

[Note: Any non-gamers tuning in to this series of posts are invited to consult my New Reader Introduction for some RPG-specific definitions and a general introduction to the Lands of Ara blog.]

As regular readers know, I am a big fan of Peter Regan's Oubliette Old-School Fantasy Roleplaying Magazine -- see my previous review here. Oubliette Issue Number 5, released last month, does nothing to diminish my enthusiasm for this superb publication.

As usual, Oubliette #5 is chock full of inventive and usable gaming material. Let me give you a brief rundown of some (NOT all) of its key features:

Monster Club #8 - "The Monstermark System." This method for determining how challenging a given monster is to kill is a bit too number-crunchy for my tastes, but I can absolutely see its use-value for DMs who want a more accurate benchmark than Hit Dice. Adapted from an original concept found in White Dwarf #s 1-3, the Monstermark system accounts for monster toughness by estimating how long a monster can survive in direct combat with a 5th Level fighter, and how much damage that monster can deal per round. Regan explains the system very well and provides charts and many relevant examples to clarify how the system may be used.

The Vampire.  My favorite offering of Issue #5, this substantive article about how to create PC vampires is really a long-overdue concept IMO.  We all know that D&D vampires can create other vampires, but how exactly does one stat up a PC-turned-vampire?  Moreover, how does one make one's vampires, PC or no, unique?  This article provides answers, outlining a thoroughgoing system for generating unique vampires.  Attribute adjustments, special abilities, a sanity mechanic -- it's all here.  This article alone is worth the cover price of the mag. 

Good Shop /Bad Shop and Dungeon in a Box.  These two pieces are interrelated: the first (which is part of an ongoing series) presents another unique magic shop, "Mad Varto's," while the second expands upon one of the devious magical items found therein.  While I am not typically a big fan of "tournament-y" or "gimmicky" one-off adventure scenarios, I must tip my hat to Regan for the "Dungeon in a Box" concept.  I don't want to give too much away here, just suffice to say that the "Dungeon in a Box" would fit in to practically any campaign and, with slight adaptation / modification, could be used to test the PCs in a wide variety of ways.  It is s simple but highly expandable idea. 

Paladin Persecution by Lam McGra.  This article, which could (and probably should) be taken somewhat tongue-in-cheek, nevertheless delivers a very usable set of suggestions for how to DM paladins in your D&D game.  It offers many ideas for how to keep paladins "in line," adhering to their strict moral code and discussing how to penalize them if they stray too far from Lawful Goodness.  I do not even allow paladins in my own Labyrinth Lord game, but I am in agreement with the thrust of this article and can imagine it being delightfully deployable by DMs who allow paladin PCs.

The Art.  As usual, The Marg's artwork in Oubliette #5 is just terrific, my favorite pieces in this issue being the cover image (see above) and the awesome vampire pic on p. 9.  Her smaller illustrations throughout the "Alternative Vampires" article are also spot-on -- shades of Eddie Munster!

Anyway, if you haven't already, I strongly urge you to check out Issue #5 of Oubliette (available in pdf for $2.50 or print for $4.52).  Regan & Co. continue to publish a proportionately high volume of usable game content each issue, in a very appealing and well-designed format.  Long live Oubliette! 

Creativity and inspiration-value: 5 out of 5, Peter Regan is still delivering the goods, and Oubliette is a model for concise, user-friendly fanzine presentation.

Use-value to DM's: 3 out of 5 to 5 out of 5, depending upon the type of campaign you are running. High Fantasy or pulp fantasy = 5 out of 5. Weird fantasy, post-apocalyptic, or sci-fi = 3 out of 5 at best.  Oubliette is ostensibly geared toward the Labyrinth Lord ruleset, though its content would be easily adaptable to other similar systems.

Playability: Not yet tested, though given the "nuts and bolts" nature of most of the ideas here, and their having been playtested by Peter's own Labyrinth Lord group, I assume that most of Oubliette's content would run very well.

H for Hammers of the God

[Note: Any non-gamers tuning in to this series of posts are invited to consult my New Reader Introduction for some RPG-specific definitions and a general introduction to the Lands of Ara blog.]

Hammers of the God is at once James Edward Raggi IV's most conventional and most unusual module.  Its conventionality lies in the fact that it is more or less a standard dungeon crawl: along with Part Three of No Dignity in Death - The Three Brides, Hammers of the God is the least goal-oriented of Raggi's modules to date.  [Note that my comments exclude his recent LotFPWFRPG modules, Tower of the Stargazer and Weird New World, which I have not yet read.]  In Hammers, the PCs know very little about the dungeon location before they arrive, and even once they get there, their main goal is to "explore."  This conventionality of design and emphasis on exploration will make this module very appealing to a wide array of OSR gamers.

The unusualness of Hammers of the God comes mostly from its backstory, which, as I've suggested, only emerges in full once the PCs arrive on site (if at all).  The historical narrative that Raggi has created for the dwarves who built the Hammers dungeon is quite an achievement in itself, a haunting, pathos-laden tale that will substantially enrich how most fantasy campaigns conceive of dwarves as a race.  This "alternate history" for dwarves is exemplary of the kind of unique, outside-the-box thinking that we have come to expect from James Raggi, and may be worth buying the module for even if you never run the module itself. 

But this uniqueness may also serve as a kind of limitation upon how the module can be most effectively used.  Although there are more than a few really memorable and challenging locales in the dungeon -- without giving anything away, a certain bridge and the whole colored mist concept leap to mind -- the real "charge" of the module, the thing that makes it pay off in spades, is that haunting history of its builders that's waiting in there to be discovered.  What this means is that if you are not interested in exploring the nuances of dwarven history in your home campaign, or if -- like me -- you play in a campaign setting whose dwarves are flat-out incompatible with the history given in Hammers -- the impact of this module may be somewhat diminished.

Don't get me wrong: Hammers of the God is an excellent dungeon crawl, and (of course) clever DMs could reshape and revise that detailed back story to suit how dwarves "work" in their own campaigns.  Yet as a location-based adventure, Hammers taken separately from that mind-blowing alternative dwarven history is merely an excellent, not amazing, module.  This must sound like an incredibly petty quibble, and it is, but through his previous releases Raggi has set the bar very high for himself.  I (perhaps unfairly) tend expect great things from LotFP, and -- please note -- I am rarely disappointed.  To be clear, I am not disappointed in Hammers of the God either, but, perhaps because it will require such substantial tweaking on my part to bring it into line with the history of my own Lands of Ara campaign setting, I am saddened by the fact that I will not be able to use some of the greatest stuff in it strictly as written.  So my perception of Hammers' greatness is tinged with personal sadness.  Obviously that is a problem specific to my situation, but it could come up for other DMs whose home settings feature unique dwarvish histories as well.

More generally, I am ready to see Raggi tackle a module of Hammers' stripe -- a haunting but not horrific dungeon-crawl -- that features a "Circular Routes" layout, that is, an even more open-ended, site-based adventure than Hammers is. Pardon the possibly facile comparisons, but if The Grinding Gear is Raggi's Tomb of Horrors and Hammers of the God his White Plume Mountain, then where, I ask, is his Vault of the Drow?  Raggi has shown again and again that he is capable of creating modules with unique, memorable premises and inventive, well-designed individual rooms and challenges.  Hammers of the God is as close as Raggi has come to creating something that is fairly easily assimilable by all we heavily Gygaxian, high-fantasy influenced DMs, which is interesting given that Raggi himself emphasizes, in the Author's Introduction to Hammers, that

"when I run someone else's adventure, it's because I want the challenge of running something different [. . .] I think a referee can only benefit from taking another's adventure and adapting their style to the author's presentation, instead of doing the commonly-vaunted reverse method of always adapting published material to the referee's own campaign." 

I love the work Raggi has published so far, will continue to buy his products, and admire his stated goal to push many of us out of our DM'ing comfort zones.  Nevertheless I wonder: could Raggi take the Hammers-esque dungeon-crawl concept to the next level?  Pretty please?

Creativity and inspiration-value: 4 out of 5, the best part may well be the chilling dwarven back story, though the map is also quite good, if somewhat limited.
Use-value to DM's: 4 out of 5, would make a worthwhile (if less impactful) adventure even if the aforementioned history is of little interest.
Playability: Not yet tested.

G for The Grinding Gear

[Note: Any non-gamers tuning in to this series of posts are invited to consult my New Reader Introduction for some RPG-specific definitions and a general introduction to the Lands of Ara blog.]

As a self-proclaimed big fan of Gary Gygax's classic Tomb of Horrors module, it stands to reason that I would find a lot to rave about in James Edward Raggi's masterpiece The Grinding Gear.

Yes, you read that right: I call this module a "masterpiece," in large part because it illustrates a facet of Raggi's module-writing talents that goes somewhat under-deployed in all his other works: ingenious dungeon design.  And by "dungeon" I mean the actual physical layout of the dungeon, NOT the overall adventure concept, which Raggi always delivers with great inventiveness and panache.

Just as Gygax's Tomb did so much with so little -- i.e., became the single most notorious "deathtrap" dungeon of all time in a mere 33 keyed locations on a single level -- Raggi's Grinding Gear takes an extremely simple, almost overly contrived premise -- that a bitter inventor / innkeeper creates a tomb for himself that is also a devious "deathtrap"-style test of adventurers' abilities -- and makes it sing.  The Grinding Gear is a perfect vehicle for the trap-inventing, blackly humorous Raggi that, as I said before, often takes second chair to the uncanny, weird-mood-evoking, horrific-apocalypse-creating Raggi we see at work in, for example, his most famous and celebrated module, Death Frost Doom.

Without sidetracking too far here, let me state that I am by no means complaining about the horror-evoking Raggi.  In some ways, unnerving horror is what Raggi does best, and it is difficult to imagine anyone else coming up with the death cult shrine of Death Frost Doom, the melancholy locale outlined in Hammers of the God, or the queer town of Pembrooktonshire.  But my point is that of the works just mentioned, both DFD and the first two Parts of No Dignity In Death are geared much more toward evoking a feeling of dread and testing player's wits than they are about "traditional" dungeoneering activities.  And while the last section of No Dignity and all of Hammers of the God are arguably more "classic-dungeon-y" than DFD or Pembrooktonshire, they are nevertheless tinged with strong elements of haunted pasts, uncanny occurrences, and creeping horror, all of which characterize the "usual" Raggi style.

Not so The Grinding Gear.  The horror is gone, replaced with a capricious, black-comic wickedness.  And back to the dungeon layout: without giving too much away, suffice to say that GG's is the most complex map yet published in a Raggi module (possibly excepting the recent LotFPWFRPG modules, which I have not seen).  Admittedly, to use Melan's old-school dungeon layout terminology, GG is a Type B "Linear with Sidetracks" dungeon, as virtually all of Raggi's modules are.  But the "sidetracks" in a module like this are the whole point.  Whereas I loved the tone of DFD, and must point out that it is the one Raggi module to feature a Type D "Circular Routes" layout, it nevertheless feels somewhat linear or uni-directional in the sense that the "crux" of the module lies in one key location, and while there are two ways to get there, that one location is still the focus or fulcrum of the adventure -- not much "happens" anywhere else.  In The Grinding Gear, the map's linearity is a strength; it forms an escalating series of dungeoneering challenges that perfectly articulates the logic of the module, just as a similar linearity does in Tomb of Horrors.  The whole point of The Grinding Gear -- expressed in no uncertain terms to its visitors -- is to reach the final resting place of the dungeon's creator, and in such a goal-oriented place I would expect a certain uni-directionality of design.

All this mention of Gygax's Tomb of Horrors forces me to clarify: except in the most superficial way, The Grinding Gear is NOT some cheap copy or toned-down reiteration of the Tomb premise.  No, it is more than that.  It is nothing less than a high-stakes test of the party's dungeoneering / exploration skills.  One could make a similar argument for Acererak's tomb, yet that place has an added level of random (?) sadism: certain traps (like the green devil face) and situations (like fighting the demi-lich) make Module S1 all but impossible to defeat.  Of course, that extreme lethality became part of Tomb's appeal over time, but The Grinding Gear's great triumph (and thus its utility) is that it is not impossible, but merely intensely challenging, to "beat."  While a few of the traps will depend upon a very high degree of PC observation skill and exploration ability to successfully bypass, there is nothing in Gear that makes me say, "Wow!  If the PCs go in there, they are fucked no matter what."  It is my strong suspicion -- as yet untested in actual game play -- that The Grinding Gear is survivable by a reasonably well-equipped party who makes a strong commitment to proceeding carefully and thoughtfully, paying close attention to even mundane-seeming details.  In short, The Grinding Gear is NOT a deathtrap, although it can easily become one for the ill-prepared or the rash.

As James Maliszewski has commented, this module may be of some use to DM's who simply want to pilfer trap ideas from it.  Yet I am inclined to suggest that the real strength of The Grinding Gear is in its holistic construction, the way its parts interact to create a satisfying whole.  There is a nice balance here between premise and playability, a balance that even the great Death Frost Doom (which may possess a bit more strength of premise than thrill of playability) does not quite achieve in my view.  In line with this, while some traps could easily be cherry picked from The Grinding Gear for use elsewhere, certain others would require substantial reworking because their "solution" is intrinsically linked to features of the location as Raggi presents it.  In short, while I am sure certain elements of the module could be useful in a modular sense, I think The Grinding Gear's real value -- the reason I consider it to be at least the equal of Death Frost Doom in terms of overall brilliance -- is its organic unity, i.e., how I suspect it would run in play exactly as written.

If the module has a weakness, it is that it would be no fun for a "hack-and-slash" style party to play through.  But then again, what Raggi module would be?  Raggi always has the thinking player in mind, and The Grinding Gear may be his best and most fun challenge yet for that kind of player and party.  There is no sense of creeping terror here, no undead apocalypses or murder mysteries; yet puzzling conundrums, exploration-based tests of skill, and black humor abound, all of which combine to make this one of the most accessible and coherent Raggi modules to date.  I cannot wait to run it with the right group of players -- I wonder if my current group is up to taking on the devious mind of Garvin Richrom?

Creativity and inspiration-value: 5 out of 5, especially if you have been looking for a Tomb of Horrors style challenge geared (ha, ha) to lower-level players.
Use-value to DM's: 4 out of 5, if party is up to the challenge of running the module as is or possibly if you want to "borrow" some good trap ideas.
Playability:  Not yet tested, but hopes are high!