Musty Tomes

Let's just fire this one off.

I mentioned in a recent post that I find M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel setting to be an "infuriating" one; that is to say, "it makes me angry." Anger is perhaps, too strong of a word, but irritating certainly fits the bill. And why does it irritate? Because of its weird linguistic mumbo-jumbo? Because of its lack of elves? Because of its mix of science fiction and fantasy?

NO. It is irritating because it is too good; too excellent...so much so that most any cool campaign setting one wants to create is going to feel trite and/or derivative after reading Tekumel.

At least, any campaign setting that aspires to the depth of quality and cultural/historical weight that Barker creates. What he does in a dozen pages of descriptive text (and then backs up with setting-based systems) is simply remarkable, a true high-water mark for high fantasy. Which means, dear readers, that anyone interested in...say...writing something similar for publication is going to have a helluva' time doing anything close to as cool.

Which is a bit depressing. I don't particularly want to run a campaign set in Tekumel (though I sure wouldn't mind visiting as a player), but to develop something with the same depth as Barker? Well, he started working on his "world" in high school, putting me about 25 years behind the curve if I was to even start today. And he already ripped off many of the best parts of Mesoamerican and (ancient) Mid East cultures...what's left for me to do? China I suppose...but (even if I had an interest in their multi-millenial history, which I don't) anything I did with that still living culture would probably end up looking like a lot of appropriation.

Aside from which, I am incredibly shallow in comparison to the esteemed Mr. Barker: I'm no linguist to develop my own unique languages! Even when doing Five Ancient Kingdoms (which, as a setting, has some concepts reminiscent of Barker's EPT...though that was unintentional) about all I could manage was anagrams and pseudo-anagrams of real word terms and places. That's about as ambitious as I get with "developing linguistic concepts."

SO...very rough going to do anything like Empire of the Petal Throne now that Empire of the Petal Throne already exists. Sure, not everyone is familiar with it...but I am. I can't "un-see" what I've seen. I can only strive to make something that is, well, as neat (or close to) without being derivative. Which is tough. But I had an idea and I started working on it...

...and then I realized it wasn't really something I really wanted to put the effort into. Dammit...it's not something I would have ended up playing. Which is kind of the point, right? I mean, in addition to exercising our creativity and making a buck, actual play is the reason we're in this hobby, yeah?

Yeah. And I realized something yesterday, something that's been lacking for me for a while now (we're talking years) something that even B/X has been unable to give me, despite the ease and beauty and familiarity of its system. I miss the style, the implied setting and cosmology, of early D&D...specifically the setting depicted in the adventures and artwork of product pre-B/X...pre-1981, in other words.

Actually, "style" may not be the right word. How about "tone." There is a tone in old AD&D (and to be clear, I am talking about AD&D here) which I use in both the visual and musical sense...something that sets up a resonance in the fibers of my being. While Moldvay/Cook/Marsh were my first steps into the realm of Dungeons & Dragons, it was those musty old AD&D tomes...acquired from used bookstores or the older siblings/relatives of friends who had "grown out of the hobby"...that truly fired my imagination. Just paging through the old DMG, it is illustrations like the ones on page 24, 31, 48, and 68 that have stayed with me for years (not to mention Emirikol the Chaotic). But it really is the adventures...the old adventure modules, that is...and the potential adventures to be found using the monsters and treasures of the Monster Manual and DMG (and, yes, the Fiend Folio) that excites me in a way little else can.

I came to this realization when reading Tim's posting on the Bloodstone modules, and examining my (fairly negative) feelings towards these adventures that I've never run nor played. I've read them, I've heard about them (from players who ran and played in them), but I have no first hand knowledge of how they play...I only know that I find nothing in them that inspires me. And while Tekumel is incredibly awesome and inspiring as a piece of work (and, let's be honest, as a creative piece of art), it doesn't inspire me to run a campaign in its world.

You know what inspires me? This does:

You know what else? This passage:

"...and the two strong slaves lifted it [the Codex] from the back of the Beast. Thereupon I commanded the Brazen Portals to be brought low, and they were wrenched from their hinges and rang upon the stone. The Efreet howled in fear and fled when I caused the page to be read, and the Beast passed into the City of Brass. Now was I, Tzunk, Master of the Plane of Molten Skies. With sure hand I closed Yagrax's Tome [the Codex], dreading to -- "

- from the AD&D DMG, Codex of the Infinite Planes, page 156

This fragment that describes the final actions taken by the High Wizard-Priest of the Isle of Woe prior to his mysterious disappearance...well, do you really need to hear anything besides "High Wizard-Priest" and "Isle of Woe?" I don't.

Look, folks: I have no intention or desire to go back to playing AD&D...it's a rotten system in a lot of ways. And despite my recent love affair with "Holmes-ian theory," I have some serious issues with some of its mechanics (like individual initiative). But I guess I AM finally starting to get old and nostalgic...and I'm looking at "nostalgia" as an indicator of where my interest lies...at the direction I need to take that will inspire me to hang on for the long haul. That will allow me to enjoy a style or tone (or whatever) of play that appeals to my psyche. Who cares if it's "bankable?"

[that is, who cares if there's a way to make a buck off it?]

Remember this little system?

If the name of a particularly powerful demon is spoken there is a chance that he will hear and turn his attention to the speaker. A base 5% chance is recommended to the referee. Unless prepared to avoid such attention -- or to control the demon -- the demon will thereupon immediately kill, by whatever means are most expeditious, the one pronouncing his name.

- from the AD&D Monster Manual, page 16

Now there's a good way to get a demon prince into your boring little campaign...just chant his name a few times until he shows up. See, there was a time when Orcus wasn't just another Big Boss for high level characters to team-up against in some set-piece combat. There was a time when players wouldn't even dare speak his name...

My Orcus. Just feels right.

I miss stuff like that...the horror, not of an eldritch, Lovecraftian, tentacled-type (though of course that's in there, too) but of a Satanic, Saturday Night B-Movie, black-Mass-and-bloody-candle type. The kind of horror that needs to be hewn with axe and sword...

*sigh* I know, I know...I'm probably being silly and I'll probably snap out of this "nostalgia funk" and get back to work on trying to make something "new" and "innovative" in a few days rather than desperately attempting to conjure the shadows of the past (if only there was a way I could). But that's where my head's at, right this moment anyway.

More later.

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.