Lowlife

Back in the far-off days of the early Old School Renaissance, when Labyrinth Lord was everyone's go-to B/X Dungeons & Dragons retro-clone, Goblinoid Games published two supplements to it that I really liked: the Advanced Edition Companion and Realms of Crawling Chaos. Among the many admirable qualities they shared were illustrations by Sean Äaberg. As I say in my linked reviews, it took me a little while to warm up to Sean's punk, underground comix-inflected artwork – I am, after all, a stodgy traditionalist about many things – but its anarchic energy eventually won me over. His illustrations remind me a bit of Erol Otus's early work mixed with some of the stuff I saw in White Dwarf and other British fantasy from the '80s but with its own unique sensibility. I love it and think it's a great evocation of the DIY spirit of the early hobby.

That's why, when I found out a couple of weeks ago, that Sean has been working on a tabletop RPG called Lowlife based on his previously published co-op boardgame of "swords, sausages, and sorcery," Dungeon Degenerates, it caught my attention. Though I'd never played the boardgame, I knew of it and liked its garish colors and funky artwork. Likewise, the reviews of the game I found online were all very positive, praising both its mechanics and the world if presented, which piqued my interest. Plus, as I mentioned, Sean has a long history of involvement in the OSR, so I knew I wanted to give his new project a shout-out.

If you follow the link above, you can find out more about Lowlife and Sean's plans for it. There's even a preview primer of it that'll give you a bit more information, along with sample layouts of the rulebook. Elsewhere, Sean talks about the game and its inspirations – a blend of "classic fantasy tropes, the scenes you’d find airbrushed on the sides of vans, the scenes of metal record sleeves, black light posters, the grit of Oldhammer with the fun & unexpected twists of the classic Japanese Role-Playing Video Games." It's precisely the kind of gleeful goulash of elements and influences that have always characterized the best old school RPGs and I look forward to see what comes of it. 

The Enduring Appeal of Basic D&D

If I'd been asked, back in, say, 1981, the name of my favorite roleplaying game, I'd have answered, without hesitation, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. There are multiple reasons why I'd have replied this way, perhaps the greatest of which being that AD&D presents a very eclectic but nevertheless compelling fantasy vision informed by the literary tastes of Gary Gygax. Decades later, I still find that my imagination remains thoroughly colonized by ideas and concepts whose origins lie in AD&D. That's not a criticism by any means; if anything, it's evidence of just how powerful a thing Gygax wrought.

Despite this, purely as a game, I don't think I'm speaking uncharitably in calling AD&D a convoluted mess. I don't believe I've ever met a gamer who played AD&D strictly by the book – assuming such a thing is even possible. AD&D's combat rules, for example, are nigh unintelligible and I'd be amazed to learn that anyone who'd bothered to fathom their mysteries gained anything of lasting consequence by doing so. I say this as someone who's on record as liking "rough edges" in games. 

I don't think I'm alone in this doublethink regarding AD&D: simultaneously adoring its ideas and esthetics while feeling its rules are awful. In fact, I suspect this attitude is quite widespread, at least among gamers of a certain age. Equally widespread, I think, is effusive love for Tom Moldvay's Basic Rules. Indeed, if I had to hazard a guess, I imagine that, among gamers who call themselves "old school," Basic D&D (or one of its retro-clones, like Labyrinth Lord or Old School Essentials) is being played much more often than AD&D. Why would this be?

It's an interesting question and one for which there are probably as many answers. Speaking only for myself, I would say that Basic D&D's strengths are its flexibility and open-endedness, the very things that Gygax would later claim made it a "non-game," a topic to which he returned on other occasions. Basic D&D (and, by extension, Expert D&D) is intentionally written in a way that is easy to understand (compared to the little brown books of OD&D from which it derives) and encourages individual creativity.

While the material in this booklet is referred to as rules, that is not really correct. Anything in this booklet (and other D&D booklets) should be thought of as changeable – anything, that is, that the Dungeon Master or referee thinks should be changed. This is not to say that everything in this booklet should be discarded! All of this material has been carefully thought out and playtested. However, if, after playing the rules as written for a while, you and your referee (the Dungeon Master) think that something should be changed, first think about how the changes will affect the game, and then go ahead. The purpose of these "rules" is to provide guidelines that enable you to play and have fun, so don't feel absolutely bound to them.

It's precisely this attitude, stated boldly and upfront, that, when combined with its generally simpler and more straightforward rules, makes Tom Moldvay's version of Dungeons & Dragons my go-to version of the game these days. This is true, even when I wish to introduce ideas or elements from AD&D (which is often). 

Obviously, other players and referees will have their own reasons for choosing Basic D&D – and if you're one of them, I'd like to hear why – but the larger point remains: Basic/Expert D&D has become the preferred version of the game for those interested in its earliest editions. I find this fascinating, given how much more common it was, back in the day, to dismiss it as "kiddie D&D." I regret being so contemptuous of it when I was younger and am grateful that I've come around to recognize it for the masterpiece of clarity, concision, and creativity that it is.

REVIEW: The Crimson Pandect

Of all the many things there are to love about old school D&D and its clones, I think the one I personally enjoy the most is the ease with which one can modify its rules by cherrypicking good ideas from other games and supplements. Though I play Labyrinth Lord these days, it's a heavily modified Labyrinth Lord, one that borrows rules from a number of different sources. As I play, I continue to modify it, adding whatever I come across that seems to fit my vision of fantasy.

That's why I'm a big fan not only of new rules sets but also of supplements, like Kevin Crawford's The Crimson Pandect. Written as a supplement for the excellent Red Tide campaign setting, this 132-page product (available either as a PDF for $9.99, a softcover book for $19.99, or a hardcover for $24.99) is "a handbook of eldritch lore" that's easily adaptable to other settings. Consisting of five chapters plus a brief introduction, The Crimson Pandect provides a plethora of new options for magic and spellcasting in Labyrinth Lord or most any other class-and-level fantasy roleplaying game.

The first chapter, "Paths of Power," presents six new magic-using classes. These classes are astromancers, the Kuan Amelatu, Makerite theurgists, adepts of the Mountain Way, Nine Immortal alchemists, and the Shakunasar flesh-benders. These are in addition to the standard magic-user class, represented by the High Path sorcerers and Stitched Path vivisectionists. The new classes differ primarily in their spell selection, though most of the classes also get minor abilities, while the two variations of standard MUs differ solely in terms of flavor. Taken together, these eight classes offer a wide range of interesting options, each of which is mechanically similar while being distinct, mostly through unique spell lists and cultural/philosophical details. To my mind, this is an ideal approach to the introduction of new classes and is particularly well suited to old school games.

The second chapter, "Works of Sorcery," introduces a system of research points to aid in the creation of new spells and magic items. It's a simple and open-ended system, which nevertheless provides plenty of examples and guidance for the referee in adjudicating it. What I like is that it covers everything from potions to scrolls to weapons and armor and beyond. Likewise, mentors, apprentices, and even hirelings have roles to play in the process, which gives them good reason to be included in a campaign. The third chapter, "Sanctums," covers the building -- and staffing -- of magical strongholds. It's shorter and more straightforward but just as useful.

The fourth chapter, "Dark Cabals," presents a series of random tables for generating arcane academies, conclaves, and sorcerous cults. These can be used in conjunction with the "Quick Wizard Generation" tables provided in the fifth chapter, "Resources." These tables are excellent, with lots of depth and variety. A few D20 rolls and you can learn why a wizard took up spellcasting, his immediate desires, friends, enemies, clothing tastes, and more. Also provided in this chapter are quick wizard spellbooks, random arcane treasures, and random occult tomes. It's a very useful chapter, but that didn't surprise me, since Kevin Crawford's gaming products, both for Labyrinth Lord and Stars Without Number has always excelled in this area.

Like most Sine Nomine products, The Crimson Pandect won't win any awards for its layout or artwork. The book uses a simple, two-column format and is sparsely illustrated with a combination of clip art and some original pieces. However, it's well written and imaginative and, most important of all, useful. This is a product that can be easily used in almost any old school fantasy campaign, though its new classes probably work best in the context of the Red Tide campaign setting. If The Crimson Pandect has a "flaw," it's that it's a very focused product and is thus likely to only of immediate interest to those who want to expand the scope of magic and spellcasting in their campaigns. It's wholly supplemental, too, even to Red Tide, so there's is no necessity in purchasing it, though I think the new classes, research system, and resources alone make it worth a look, if only as a source of ideas.

Presentation: 7 out of 10
Creativity: 8 out of 10
Utility: 6 out of 10

Buy This If: You're looking for rules and ideas to expand the options of magic and spellcasting in Labyrinth Lord or other old school class-and-level games.
Don't Buy This If: You're not interested in new magic and spellcasting options.

Oubliette #8 Available -- for Free!

As he usually does, editor Peter Regan has made the PDF of the latest issue of the excellent Labyrinth Lord fanzine, Oubliette, available for free for a limited time. A print version, along with a print compilation of issues 5 through 8 will be available later this month.

For those interested in its contents, issue #8 includes:

• Tales from Hell Cartoon
• Editorial
• The Maslow Dungeon 
• Monster Club #14: The Death Gate
• The Lands of Ara - Special Feature
• Newland Campaign Setting Part III: Factions in the Forest
• Monster Club #15: Newland Bestiary Part II
• Forest Mini-Adventure: The Kobold & Goblin Resistance
• Forest Location: Moot Point
• Forest Mini-adventure: The Bloodbeard Bugbears
• Forest Mini-adventure: The Burnt Tree Clan
• Monster Club #16: Dungeon Random Encounter Tables: Levels 7-8 
• Goblin Quest Cartoon
• Fanzine Frenzy
• Found Familiar: The Cat 
• What's in the Oubliette? Reviews
• Mouse Watch Cartoon
• The Song of Sithakk Part 8 

I'm very fond of Oubliette, which reminds me of the best stuff White Dwarf did back in the day. The artwork by The Marg in every issue is especially delightful and gives Oubliette a style all its own. Check it out if you haven't already done so.

Well Done, Sir!

As a general rule, I don't like making posts that are just links to posts by others, but, every now and again, I'll make an exception.

This post, about a simple thing one man did to strike a blow for old school gaming, is such an exception.

Speaking of Doing It Yourself ...

For some time now, I've been meaning to introduce my readers to the excellent Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque blog, and not just because I don't think there can be too many allusions to Poe in the hobby. What's terrific about it is its laser-fine focus on "game-ready Weird Gothic fantasy bits for old-school D&D and OSR-style fantasy games." Even if you're not interested in running a full-bore Weird Gothic fantasy campaign, there's an abundance of lootable ideas on the blog, which is written by Jack Shear. You can see many of his ideas by downloading a free PDF compendium of them or by purchasing expanded versions of the same in either a softcover or hardcover format form Lulu.com. I've ordered a copy for myself, because it's really excellent stuff.

REVIEW: In the Shadow of Mount Rotten

Back in 1988, TSR published a product as part of its D&D Gazetteer line -- I still find it difficult to say the name "Mystara" with a straight face -- called The Orcs of Thar. In addition to providing historical and geographical details on the aforementioned region of the Known World, The Orcs of Thar doubled as a rules supplement for players hankering to roll up an orc or a hobgoblin or a gnoll character. For the referee, there was lots of information on the societies and cultures of these humanoid species, in addition to a boardgame called Orcwars! that was intended to simulate the tumultuous politics of Thar.

If that sounds interesting to you, I'm sorry to say that, as presented, The Orcs of Thar came across mostly as a joke, with the various humanoid races being portrayed as congenitally stupid and thuggish caricatures. The product isn't helped by the fact that its interior art is entirely the work of Jim Holloway in full-on Paranoia mode. I say that as a fan of both Holloway's art and of Paranoia. My feeling is that the artwork only adds to the sense that we're not to take the humanoid races of Thar seriously, either as traditional exemplars of Faceless Evil or as revisionist Misunderstood Primitives. Consequently, though I own a copy, I've never for a moment considered borrowing any ideas from The Orcs of Thar.

So, when I received my copy of In the Shadow of Mount Rotten from Faster Monkey Games, I was skeptical. Written by Joel Sparks, this 80-page book (available as either a PDF for $12.00 or a printed book for $19.99), it presents rules and information for using goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs in Labyrinth Lord (or any old school class-and-level RPG), whether merely as antagonists or as player characters. Part of my skepticism is due to memories of The Orcs of Thar, but a bigger part of it is that I'm not now nor have I ever been a fan of "playing the monster" in D&D. With few exceptions, I prefer my humanoid monsters to be, well, monsters -- alien and implacably hostile minions of Chaos. Nowadays, whenever someone tries to make orcs or goblins playable, they do so by revealing that they're not really so bad after all and it's just the prejudice of the Man that makes us think otherwise.

Well, I'm happy to say that In the Shadow of Mount Rotten (hereafter ItSoMR) does no such thing. Goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs -- collectively referred to as "Rotlanders," for reasons I'll explain shortly -- are, in general, nasty, brutish beings who think nothing of raiding, pillaging, slaving, and even, on occasion, cannibalism (or "anthropophagy," as the book charmingly calls it). Certainly there's room for putting one's own spin on the Rotlander races, if one is so inclined, but the default assumption is much closer to my own preferences, which greatly helped me overcome my initial skepticism.

ItSoMR consists of five sections of varying size. The first (and shortest) is the introduction, which presents the Rotlands setting, in addition to overviews of its history, mythology, and races. The Rotlands, of which there is a color map provided, connects to the sample campaign setting map provided in the Labyrinth Lord rulebook, as well as the map in the excellent Lesserton and Mor. It's essentially a region of mountainous badlands, where life is difficult for all who inhabit it. The second section covers Rotlander characters. Thus, we get rules not only for the various Rotlander races but also for three new classes: warriors, shamans, and mongers. Warriors are similar to fighters but more geared toward being lightly armored and commanding lesser examples of their species. Shamans are spirit-oriented clerics with their own spell lists. Mongers are the "smart guys," being especially useful because of the nature of the economy in the Rotlands, where scrounging and bartering are commonplace. Much more is packed into this section, such as rules for reputation, ransoming, and encumbrance, some of which has utility even in "standard" Labyrinth Lord campaigns.

The third section discusses the various tribes of the Rotlands and their territories. This section is very useful, whether as a basis for determining the homelands of humanoid PCs or simply as a gazetteer of the region. This gazetteer provides many random tables (and sample maps) to help the referee determine what is found in ruins or caves encountered in the wilderness, along with more peculiar "oddities." There's also a really clever system using 54 playing cards to determine what's going on in the life of the PCs' tribe. It's intended to spur the imagination in creating adventures, which are more fully discussed in the fourth section. That section likewise offers its own random tables for encounters, along with some simple but useful rules for wilderness survival. The fifth and final section is dedicated to "stuff," like trade goods, caravans, and bartering. Concluding the book is an excellent three-page index.

All in all, In the Shadow of Mount Rotten is a well-done supplement to Labyrinth Lord, though its focus makes it more of a niche product than a must-have. Like previous Faster Monkey products, it's clearly written and uses a simple two-column layout. Personally, I find the margins on the pages too narrow, which gives them a somewhat "cluttered" look, but that may just be my old man's eyes speaking. The majority of the book's artwork is by Mark Allen and is uniformly well done and evocative. My only complaint is that I'd have liked to have seen more artwork, but, having self-published a few books of my own, I fully understand why that's not always practical.

Presentation: 7 out of 10
Creativity: 8 out of 10
Utility: 7 out of 10

Buy This If: You're looking either to add some depth to humanoid monsters or fancy giving them a whirl as PC races.
Don't Buy This If: You either have no interest in additional details about humanoids or want a more non-traditional approach to these races' societies and cultures.

REVIEW: An Echo, Resounding

I've mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of PDFs. The vast majority of the products I'm sent to review, though, are in electronic format. Speaking as a publisher myself, that only makes sense, since sending a PDF to a reviewer costs little or nothing and is instantaneous, while sending out a physical copy takes both time and money. And when dealing with Luddites like me, sending an electronic copy might just induce them to buy a hardcopy, provided, of course, that I like it. In the case of An Echo, Resounding, I most certainly did like it, so much so that I snagged a print-on-demand copy from RPGNow, which I wanted to get into my hands before I wrote up a review for it.

An Echo, Resounding is both a generic Labyrinth Lord sourcebook providing rules and advice for "lordship and war in untamed lands" and a supplement to the Red Tide campaign setting released last year. Like all Sine Nomine products, this one is penned by Kevin Crawford, which means that it's written clearly and unpretentiously. The 110-page book uses the same two-column format as all Sine Nomine releases, with the text broken up by a variety of stock art images. This doesn't make for the prettiest of books, especially when compared to many recent releases from other publishers, but the content is compelling enough that I don't think it much matters. An Echo, Resounding could have been released with no interior artwork and I doubt I would have cared.

The book consists of six chapters, plus an introduction and an index. The first chapter, "Domain Play in a Campaign," introduces the concept of domain-level play and how it interacts with "regular" Labyrinth Lord adventures. This chapter is brief compared to those that follow and isn't rules-focused. Instead, it's mostly advice about the benefits and drawbacks of including the clash of empires into one's campaign. The second chapter, "Creating Campaign Regions," gets down to the nitty-gritty, providing the foundations on which later chapters depend. What becomes immediately clear is that the rules presented in An Echo, Resounding are somewhat abstract. That is, they're built on concepts like "regions" and "locations" and "obstacles," with the meanings of these concepts being variable rather than being precisely (and narrowly) defined. That's not to say that these concepts are "fuzzy" or meaningless, only that the rules weren't written with bean-counters in mind. Once the basic concepts are laid out, the chapter goes on to provide both advice and examples on how to apply them to one's campaign setting. If you're already familiar with any of the Stars Without Number books or Red Tide, much of this will look familiar.

Chapter three covers "Domain Management" and provides rules for creating and ruling domains. The rules depend on a "domain turn" that represents approximately one month, though the actual timeframe, like most other aspects of these rules, is flexible in either direction. During a domain turn, a player whose character rules a domain may make two actions (referee-controlled domains may make only one), with actions covering things as diverse as military attacks, establishing assets (such as markets, temples, etc.), and dealing with disruptions/obstacles. The chapter also includes brief descriptions of all the available assets, along with the associated game values, and an example of domain play. Like earlier chapters, this one is both comparatively short and abstract, leaving many details to individual referees and players to flesh out.

Chapter four presents a mass combat system that uses mechanics very similar to normal Labyrinth Lord combat. Thus, units have hit dice, armor class, movement rates, and saving throws, in addition to upkeep costs and special traits. It's designed to be playable without the need for miniatures, but I think it'd work just fine with them if one were so inclined. Chapter five introduces the idea of "Champions," which are powerful PCs and NPCs, whose abilities are such that they can benefit both domain and mass combats. Characters who become champions -- the process for doing so is somewhat vague -- gain a parallel "class" in which they advance. Every time they gain a new level as a Champion, they gain a new ability from a list of nearly 50 of them. These abilities might be something like "Administrator," which gives a bonus to the Wealth and Social values of a single town over which the Champion has control or "Overwhelming Sorcery," which lowers the saving throws of enemy units against his magic on the battlefield. I rather like the idea of Champions, though I wish the rules were a bit more clear regarding how and when PCs gain levels as Champions. Even so, it's a solid concept that, I think, nicely represents the power of PCs without making them demigods.

The final chapter of the book is also its longest, providing detailed examples of the domain system for use with the Red Tide setting. There's a map of a region called the Westmark, which includes 40 locations, each of which has a page-long write-up. These write-ups provide everything needed to use the locations as adventuring locales or focuses for the domain and mass combat systems. Though it's probably most useful for referees and players using the Red Tide setting, I think it'll serve as a practical primer for newcomers to the supplement's rules systems.

I liked An Echo, Resounding quite a lot, since it suits my preferred style as a referee. I'm not the kind who cares all that much about counting gold pieces or determining exact population figures for a given location. I like things to be easy to use and abstract, since I can always make up the details on the fly as needed. For that reason, I imagine its domain rules would work very well as a separate, parallel "game within a game" where the referee and players use it to generate macro events that affect the campaign setting. That's certainly how I plan to use it. At the same time, I suspect that the book's approach might be frustrating for those whose style gives greater weight to knowing the precise details of a domain's inhabitants and resources. Consequently, An Echo, Resounding isn't a panacea for every campaign where domain-level activities is important; it largely caters to one approach and should be viewed in that light.

Presentation: 7 out of 10
Creativity: 9 out of 10
Utility: 6 out of 10

Buy This If: You're looking for abstract and easy to use domain and mass combat rules for use with Labyrinth Lord or other old school fantasy RPGs.
Don't Buy This If: You prefer domain and mass combat rules that are concrete and "bottom up" in their presentation and approach.

Where are the Halflings?

When I started working on the Dwimmermount campaign back in 2008, one of the things I decided early on was that I wasn't, at the start, going to make many changes to the baseline D&D rules. Instead, I was going to accept them as written and any changes to them would occur through play, since I adhere to the principle of "D&D is always right," about which I've spoken before.

There was one big exception to this, though: halflings. I hope John Adams will forgive me, because I'm not a big fan of halflings in D&D. I like hobbits, which I think are an absolutely terrific creation of Professor Tolkien. However, in my opinion, they belong in Middle-earth, or at least I think they don't belong in many D&D campaign settings, Dwimmermount chief among them. I was explicitly trying to evoke a pulp fantasy feel and decided that halflings simply ran counter to that. (Why didn't I think the same thing about clerics? That's a post for another day)

But I didn't just eliminate halflings; I replaced them. Their replacements were goblins, which I presented in an earlier form in this post from 2008 (and where I again talk about my reasons for not including them -- I am repetitive, aren't I?). That post, though, was written prior to the start of the Dwimmermount campaign and, by the time the first session began in January 2009, I'd already changed my approach to goblins as PCs and I'd change it several more times over the course of the months that followed, in large part because there was an important goblin henchman, Brakk, whose ignominious death by slapstick  still has repercussions to this day.

The first volume of the upcoming Dwimmermount Codex series is a kind of 32-page "Player's Guide to the Dwimmermount Campaign Setting." It includes all the rules additions and modifications I've made to Labyrinth Lord over the course of the campaign. Among its contents are the current rules for goblin PCs, which I've reproduced below, along with an illustration by the always-terrific Steve Zieser.

The material in the quote box below is hereby designated Open Game Content via the Open Game License and subject to the Designation of Product Identity.

GOBLINS

Requirements: None

Prime Requisite: Strength and Dexterity

Maximum Level: Fighting Man 4, Thief (Unlimited)

Goblins are short humanoid beings standing between 3 and 3½ feet tall. They possess skin ranging in color from yellow to orange to red (and everything in between), while their eyes are usually reddish in hue and are visible even in the dark. Though many goblins live underground, not all do so, especially those most likely to interact with Men and join adventuring parties. Those that do live underground possess infravision to 90 feet but suffer a —1 penalty to attack rolls in full sunlight. Goblins who lives on the surface only have infravision to 60 feet but suffer no attack penalties in sunlight.

Most Men see goblins as inherently Chaotic beings, enemies of human civilization who delight in theft and destruction. While it's true that many goblins fit that description, not all of them do, particularly the surface-dwelling variety who often establish settlements near those of Men. For their part, goblins see Men as interlopers and invaders. Goblins believe — largely without evidence, it should be noted — that they are the only intelligent race native to Telluria, all others being either from "somewhere else" or artificial beings magically created from beasts or from themselves.

Consequently, goblins can be somewhat surly and resentful when interacting with Men, dwarves, elves, or even their own kin, like bugbears and hobgoblins. These attitudes are only heightened by the fact that the lot of goblins in the world are not aligned with Law (let alone Goodness). Except underground, where they often lead miserable existences, goblins rule no realms of their own, instead being the subjects of others. That being said, there are places where Men and goblins live amicably side by side, even if goblins are always the junior partner in any such relationship.

Like all other nonhumans, goblins, as a rule, have no belief in the gods. They do not, however, deny the supernatural, being animists who believe that all living things are possessed of imperishable spirits. They also believe in metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls after the death of the body. Perhaps for this reason they cannot be raised from the dead by means of any magic.

Similar to elves, goblins advance simultaneously in two classes, though in this case it is fighting men (4th level) and thieves (unlimited). They divide all their experience points between their two classes, each of which has a separate pool. Bonuses due to high prime requisites only apply to the appropriate class's experience pool. Experience points continue to be divided even after reaching maximum attainable level in a class.

Their saving throws and attack values are equal to the best values available for their classes and levels. New hit dice are gained only for levels attained in fighting man, meaning that no new hit points are gained after reaching 4th level in that class. However, the player of a goblin character may re-roll the hit point total every time his character attains a new level in thief and use the new total if it is higher.

Because of their small size, goblins may not use large or two-handed weapons, but they may use any other weapons. They may wear any armor, but cannot use their thief abilities while wearing anything heavier than leather. Their small size does have benefits, however. Normal and large-sized creatures suffer a –2 penalty to hit them. Goblins are also quick, granting them a +1 bonus to their effective Dexterity, when it comes to determining initiative.

REVIEW: Barrowmaze

Though there's no universally accepted definition of "megadungeon," I tend to use it to mean a dungeon large enough to be the primary (or sole) focus of a D&D campaign for years. By that definition, I'm not sure that Greg Gillespie's Barrowmaze qualifies as a "true" megadungeon, but I don't really care. The fact is that the titular Barrowmaze is huge -- nearly 200 rooms, many of which have sub-areas -- and, more importantly, engaging. While it probably couldn't serve as the focus of a campaign for years, it could certainly do so for months and it contains enough "spin-off" material that it wouldn't be difficult to keep the PCs busy for even longer, should the referee desire it.

Barrowmaze is an 84-page PDF describing a vast warren of underground tombs controlled by several Chaotic cults. Written for Labyrinth Lord but easily adaptable to any old school class-and-level fantasy RPG, Barrowmaze is simply laid out using a two-column format, punctuated by black and white artwork, much by the excellent Stefan Poag. Poag's illustrations are wonderfully evocative of the weird combination of elements that characterize old school play -- equal parts mystery, fear, and black humor, all viewed through a phantasmagoric haze. I can't deny that a large part of my positive feeling toward Barrowmaze was generated by Poag's contributions. That said, the artwork throughout the product is very good, with artists Toren Atkinson, Zhu Bajie, Trevor Hammond, John Larrey, and Jason Sholtis all turning in some terrific pieces.

Barrowmaze has a number of virtues that, I think, set it apart from other dungeons, including some other recently published ones. First, Gillespie's style is spare without being cramped. I know it's popular in old school circles nowadays to praise room entries that read "6 giant rats, 2 gems (25 gp each)," but, especially in a published product, I prefer a little more meat. Conversely, I have no interest in reading paragraphs upon paragraphs of room description, complete with detailed histories and personalities of the monsters and NPCs therein, so the middle road Gillespie took very much appeals to me. Second, the Barrowmaze has lots of empty rooms, unguarded treasures, and tricks and traps. It's, in my opinion, a perfect mix of the elements that make old school dungeon crawling not just possible but enjoyable. Third, Barrowmaze has a theme -- in this case, undead -- that helps to give the dungeon a feel. There are other monsters than just undead here, of course, but the undead, including many new varieties, are its primary antagonists and that goes a long way toward giving Barrowmaze the cohesion necessary to avoid being just a fantasy funhouse. Finally, the dungeon is sprawling. Rather than multiple levels stacked on top of each other, the Barrowmaze fans out in multiple directions on a single level, which not only further contributes to its unique feel but also sets it apart from most other large dungeons.

I'm hard pressed to find any real faults with Barrowmaze. Nearly everything about the product is well done, from the layout to the artwork to the content and cartography. Indeed, Barrowmaze is nearly a textbook example of how to make a compelling, well-presented dungeon module. More than that, it reaffirms my belief that, despite the standard complaints from veteran gamers, the dungeon remains not merely a viable but a powerful locale in which to set fantasy adventures. This hobby was born in the dungeon and, while it's probably good for its long-term health to seek fresh from time to time, there's still much to be gained by returning to its point of origin regularly. If I had to settle on a nit to pick, it'd be that there's currently no print option for the book, which is a shame, because I'd happily pay for a copy to put on my shelf beside Stonhell and the Anomalous Subsurface Environment, two other recent dungeons that made me sit up and take notice.

I suspect the primary knock against Barrowmaze will be that it's "just another dungeon," which is unfortunate, because I don't think that's true at all, for reasons I've stated above. Gillespie has done a wonderful job of synthesizing the wisdom of the Old Ways with more recent theorizing about the same to create something that distinguishes itself from other dungeon modules. And I say this as someone who's preparing to bring his own megadungeon to publication shortly.  Given that it's price is only $6.66, I nevertheless recommend that even the congenitally dungeon-averse pick it up, if only to see what a well-done dungeon crawl looks like. It's my hope, though, that Barrowmaze might change a few minds as well, reminding them why it was that so many of us spent untold hours in underground vaults when we first entered this hobby.

Presentation: 8 out of 10
Creativity: 7 out of 10
Utility: 7 out of 10

Buy This If: You're in the market for a new dungeon with which to kick off a campaign or just want a well-done dungeon to loot for ideas.
Don't Buy This If: You really, truly have no interest in dungeons and can't imagine ever using one in a campaign, whether in whole or in part.

A Point of Clarification

I received a number of emails and other correspondence asking about the system under which the Dwimmermount megadungeon product is being written. Though this is spelled out in the FAQ over on the Autarch blog, I thought it worth stating even more emphatically: Dwimmermount uses Labyrinth Lord as its ruleset. I am doing this for a couple of reasons, chief among them being that Labyrinth Lord is the system I use in my home campaign and have used for several years. Like all referees, I've made some modifications and additions to the basic Labyrinth Lord rules (which will be published separately in the forthcoming Dwimmermount Codex series), but, fundamentally, the rules remain those presented by Dan Proctor in Labyrinth Lord, Original Edition Characters, and the Advanced Edition Companion, all of which I've used to varying degrees in kit-bashing my own Holmes Blue Book-like house rules.

I'm also doing this because, in my opinion, Labyrinth Lord most closely emulates the old school fantasy rules I prefer. Labyrinth Lord has all the delightfully quirky elements -- descending armor elements, multiple saving throws, three alignments, etc. -- and includes them unapologetically, which is how I like it. It's also worth noting that Adventurer, Conqueror, King, itself a very fine game, makes good use of the Open Game Content from Labyrinth Lord, meaning that, while there will be some differences, Dwimmermount will be usable with ACKS without much difficulty. The same, of course, goes for Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, Basic Fantasy, Delving Deeper, and Lamentations of the Flame Princess. That's one of the many great things about old school D&D: differences aside, it's all quite compatible.

I'll have more details on Dwimmermount in the days and weeks to come, both here and elsewhere, but I wanted to make this particular point clear, since there seems to have been some confusion about it.

Dwimmermount on the Horizon

I'm sure it'll come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog to learn that I plan on publishing my home campaign's megadungeon, Dwimmermount, in a form usable by other referees. What may be a surprise is when I'll be publishing it and how I plan to go about doing so, though at least some of you have already puzzled this out -- not that it was exactly a secret. The gist of it is the good folks at Autarch, who produced the excellent Adventurer, Conqueror, King, have kindly offered to assist me in crowdfunding Dwimmermount through Kickstarter and, later, distributing the hardcover book that results, should the project be successfully funded.

The official launch of the Kickstarter will be at the end of the month. In the meantime, I can announce that the book's front cover will be illustrated by Mark Allen, with the back cover illustrated by Jeff Dee, and interior artwork by Mark and Jeff as well as other talented artists, such as Ryan Browning (who illustrated much of Adventurer, Conqueror, King) and Conor Nolan (conornolan.com). The book's layout will be by Adam Jury, who made the new edition of Thousand Suns such a thing of beauty. Backer rewards will include the PDF of the finished product; the PDF plus hardcover; both plus a separate map book in softcover; a vinyl play aid for tracking dungeon factions and the impact of the party's progress using wipe-erase marker; and handbound copies of the book signed by all creators. In addition, the first bonus goal of the project is the donation of original Dwimmermount materials -- maps, keys, character sheets, etc. -- to Tim Hutchings's Play Generated Map and Document Archive and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection at Texas A&M University.

I'm sure people will have lots of questions about this project. Some of them, I hope, will be answered over at the Autarch blog, which has a FAQ already online. Others I'll do my best to answer in the comments and in other posts over the course of the weeks to come. I'm very excited to finally get this project under way and I hope others share my enthusiasm.

A Quote from Yesterday's Game

Because of changes in our gaming group's makeup, I haven't been refereeing D&D in any form for a while, but I have been playing in a Labyrinth Lord campaign that uses the excellent Red Tide setting. In that campaign, I play a cleric of the Maker named Brother Egon. In the course of the adventure, our party rescued a wounded young boy, who, upon waking up, began to cry hysterically, making it impossible for my no-nonsense cleric to interrogate him about how he came to be in his current predicament. Unable to calm the boy, Brother Egon turned to one of our female companions, a Viking-esque warrior woman named Inga Skarsgard. I implored her, "Inga, you're a woman, calm the boy." Then, my wife, who's playing Inga, said, without missing a beat, in a loud voice, "Stop crying, stupid boy!"

It was priceless.

Adventurer. Conqueror, King Now Available in PDF

The Adventurer, Conqueror, King System is now available in PDF for $9.99. For those of you unfamiliar with this game, it's an old school fantasy roleplaying game designed by Alexander Macris, Tavis Allison, and Greg Tito. What makes ACKS unique is that it makes good on D&D's largely unfulfilled promise to take characters from lowly insignificance to the heights of power. There are rules for building castles, establishing and ruling domains (as well as wizard's sanctums and thieves guilds), and trading -- just about anything a high-level, power-hungry fantasy character might be interested in pursuing. Adventurer, Conqueror, King is a very cleverly designed game whose rules are quite compatible with most retro-clones, particularly Labyrinth Lord, making it extremely valuable to any player or referee looking to add any of its rules to their existing campaigns. This is good stuff and well worth a look.

Oubliette #7 Released

Issue #7 of the ever-awesome Oubliette has just been released and it's free for a limited time. Oubliette is written for Labyrinth Lord, but also ideal for use with any Basic/Expert/Advanced original or clone, with little or no adjustment required.

Here's the Full Contents:

• Editorial
• Tales from Hell Cartoon
• Monster Club #11: The Naughty Step
• Miniatures Special: An Interview with Richard Scott of Otherworld Miniatures
• Monster Club #12: Dungeon Random Encounter Tables: Levels 4-6
• Newland Campaign Setting Part II: Raiders
• Monster Club #13: Newland Bestiary Part I
• Tomb of the Snake King: A Labyrinth Lord Adventure for 3rd to 5th Level Characters
• The 10-Foot Pole
• Found Familiar: The Toad
• Goblin Quest Cartoon
• What's in the Oubliette? Reviews
• Mouse Watch Cartoon
• The Song of Sithakk Part 7: A Dream of Blossoms

The Clerics of Dwimmermount

Reading the comments to my earlier post about XP requirements, I was fascinated by the discussion of the proposed reasons why clerics might not be very attractive to many players. My fascination is in part based on the fact that I consider clerics to be one of the most potent of all character classes in any edition of Dungeons & Dragons with which I'm familiar. In OD&D, it occupies a kind of middle place between the fighting man and the magic-user, being a tough and skilled melee combatant who's also gifted with (albeit limited) spellcasting ability, not to mention unique power against the undead. Why that wouldn't be more appealing I'm not sure, but then I frequently play clerics.

Some commenters have suggested that the lack of appeal has to do with the perception that clerics are nothing more than "heal-bots," a term borrowed from video games, particularly MMOs. If that's the way clerics are viewed, then I suppose I understand their lack of appeal. In my Dwimmermount campaign, one of the things I tried to stress is that clerics are extraordinary agents of their faiths. They're not priests in the traditional sense and they operate largely outside the hierarchies of their temples. It's a distinction that D&D was very bad at making from the beginning, especially when you look at the level titles used in OD&D and AD&D.

For my campaign, priests (who are a separate, non-adventuring class -- an idea inspired by both Jeff Rients and Rob Conley) handle the day-to-day operation of temples and staff the bureaucracy that support it. Clerics, on the other hand, are special and, for reasons both both obvious and subtle, are sent off into the wider world to act quasi-independently on behalf of their faith. Their level titles (which were inspired in part by Fr Dave's post here) are listed in the Dwimmermount Codex as follows:

I'll grant that this is a small, largely cosmetic change, but it's done wonders in helping to establish the cleric as something other than the guy who stands in the back and heals.

Table of Contents

As a further preview of the nearly finished first volume of the Dwimmermount Codex, here's the table of contents.

REVIEW: Anomalous Subsurface Environment

Our hobby was born in the dungeon. More specifically, it was born in what has come to be called "the megadungeon" or "the campaign dungeon" -- a vast, unclearable locale that serves as a "tent pole" for the entire campaign. While some gamers sneer at the megadungeon, believing it limited, artificial, and supportive of only a narrow range of play, the old school renaissance has wholeheartedly embraced it, in the process demonstrating that there are still depths left to plumb in the mythic underworlds of yore.

Patrick Wetmore's terrifically named Anomalous Subsurface Environment is proof positive of this contention. This 88-page adventure module (available in both PDF and print versions, $13.49 and $17.57 respectively) presents the first level of a megadungeon that is quite unlike any other published to date. The closest comparison I can make is to Dave Arneson's "Temple of the Frog" from Supplement II, in that the Anoamlous Subsurface Environment (hereafter ASE) is a dungeon where gonzo super-science exists cheek by jowl with more traditional D&D elements. That's because this module takes place in a "dinosaur- and wizard-infested future of the Earth" rather than in a vanilla fantasyland. That's both an advantage and a drawback, as I'll discuss shortly.

Written for Labyrinth Lord, this product is really more than a mere dungeon module. Slightly less than half of its pages are devoted to the Denethix Campaign Setting, where the ASE is located. This setting is several thousand years in our future, after some type of catastrophe "ushered in an age of magic and barbarism." Think The Dying Earth crossed with Thundarr the Barbarian and you're probably not too far off the mark, though Denethix is more than a mere pastiche of its literary antecedents, with plenty of original ideas and surprises for even the most jaded players. I was particularly impressed with its presentation of the gods and religion, which simultaneously remains true to the assumptions of D&D and brings something genuinely new to the table. (That it mirrors certain as-yet unrevealed elements of my own Dwimmermount campaign might explain why I think so highly of it)

The setting material focuses on the Land of One Thousand Towers, so called because the landscape is dotted with the towers of wizards and the spires of ruined cities from the forgotten past. An important city within the Land is Denethix, formerly just another wizard-ruled despotate that is slowly -- and inexplicably -- becoming a more pleasant place. Naturally, Denethix is presented as a base for the PCs from which to launch their expeditions into the nearby wilderness and dungeons (including the ASE). What pleased me most about the setting material, aside from its creativity, was how remarkably useful it all is. Yes, there is some background, but it's brief and exists primarily to provide context to play. Likewise, the descriptions of locations are geared toward the kinds of things a referee would find helpful. Thus, we get lots of random tables and adventure hooks rather than pages of historical and cultural information that serve no immediate purpose.

The first level of the ASE itself consists of over 100 rooms, in addition to its 32-room gatehouse. That's a huge amount of real estate, especially when you consider the diversity of what those rooms contain. Wetmore nicely sums up the ASE by saying:

The Anomalous Subsurface Environment has no mastermind behind it, and no Big Bad Evil Guy waiting at its bottom for the players to confront to Save The Day. It does have a history, though; it has inhabitants with their own goals and desires, and it is full of mysteries for the players to discover and figure out.

That's a very solid encapsulation of the philosophy behind old school dungeon design, too, come to think of it and one's reaction to it might serve as a good litmus test for how one might feel about this module. Anomalous Subsurface Environment offers no plot or story, instead providing a sprawling locale in which the referee and players can create their own stories, as they explore its chambers, interact with its inhabitants, and grapple with its enigmas. Speaking for myself, this is exactly what I want out of an adventure module, but then I'm looking for something that I can adapt to my own campaign rather than play straight "out of the box."

If there's a flaw to Anomalous Subsurface Environment it's that, because of its gonzo science fantasy content, it might be of limited to interest to those who prefer their dungeons more traditional in tone. I can't really fault anyone with such a preference, but I hope no one will fault me for absolutely adoring what Patrick Wetmore has done here. The ASE is still recognizably a D&D-style dungeon; all the elements you expect to find are here. What's different, though, is both the justification for the dungeon and some of its contents. Thus, you'll find robots and laser pistols in addition to giant spiders and goblins. Of course, those goblins may still have 1-1 HD but their nature and goals have been warped by the Denethix Campaign Setting. In practical terms, what Anomalous Subsurface Environment provides is a "re-imagining" of D&D staples that does not fundamentally alter the play of the game except esthetically. Again, I think that's great, but others many not share my enthusiasm.

Before concluding, I should point out what an attractive volume Anomalous Subsurface Environment is. The text is clear and well-written without the usual editorial mistakes one associates with amateur products. The cartography is similarly clear; it's not "pretty" or exciting to look at it, but I suspect that, at the table, the maps would be easy to use. The interior artwork, on the other hand, is terrific, particularly the work by Brian "Glad" Thomas. I own a hardcopy and it's a sturdy perfect-bound book about whose physical qualities I have nothing but good to say.

In the end, Anomalous Subsurface Environment is a great adventure module for Labyrinth Lord and other old school fantasy RPGs. It's quirkier than most, making it a little harder to simply drop it into an existing campaign, but not so hard that it would prove a Herculean task. Moreover, the content is clever enough that any extra effort spent on retooling it would be well worth it. Even with only one level to its name so far, I'd say that the ASE deserves to be counted amongst Stonhell and the Castle of the Mad Archmage as one of the finest OSR-derived megadungeons, which is about the highest praise I can lavish upon it.

Presentation: 8 out of 10
Creativity: 9 out of 10
Utility: 7 out of 10

Buy This If: You're looking for a science fantasy spin on the classic megadungeon or don't mind reworking one for use in a more traditional fantasy setting.
Don't Buy This If: You can't stand science fantasy or don't want to have to rework an adventure module to remove references to such.

Wow

I'm a bit busy today with non-gamey responsibilities, but I did want to pop in quickly to say that today I received a copy of Patrick Wetmore's Anomalous Subsurface Environment, the first level of a gonzo megadungeon and it's amazing. I've been reading it in between my other activities and I'm finding it hard to put down.

Since I haven't read the whole thing in any depth, I'll save my hyperbolic comments till I can write a formal review later. I will say, though, based on what I've read so far, that it doesn't just present a very well-done megadungeon level but that, even more impressively, also a very well-done fantasy setting. There are a lot of superb ideas in this module, some of which eerily parallel things I've been doing in my Dwimmermount campaign and that I've never revealed, even to my players. Whether this is a case of great minds thinking alike or fools never differing, I'll leave to others to decide.

Regardless, this is a fun product and well worth your purchase. More on it later.

Cultists of Dwimmermount

This is my latest take on the idea of anti-clerics. I never got the chance to use it extensively in the Dwimmermount campaign, but, when I did, I didn't encounter any problems with it.

Cultists
Requirements: Chaotic alignment
Prime Requisite: Wisdom
Maximum Level: None

As noted above, all clerics must be Lawful in alignment. This is because all the gods, regardless of their spheres of influence, support and protect the civilization of Man. There are, however, some Men who regard neither the gods nor the civilization to which they give aid to be worthy of their own devotion. Such Men have instead thrown in their lot with Chaos, as embodied as the various demon lords and princes of the Great Void and are known as cultists.

Cultists might be called “anti-clerics,” as they possess all the cleric's abilities but with one significant difference: they can only cast the reverse of any cleric spell listed in Labyrinth Lord “reversible.” That means, for example, that a cultist cannot cast cure light wounds but only cause light wounds . Many cultists infiltrate Lawful religions, passing themselves off as clerics and working from within to sow dissent and distrust. Others form secret societies dedicated to demons and attract like-minded individuals to join their evil cause. All live to bring about the destruction of Man, his civilization, and even his gods.

Cultists have no ability to turn the undead, as clerics do. Instead they may attempt to command them, using the turning undead table. If successful, the cultist may command a total number of hit dice of undead equal the number of retainers he may possess based on his Charisma score. This ability has no effect on the cultist's being able to attract retainers, however. These undead remain under the cultist's command for a number of days equal to the cultist's level. Command can, at the cultist's discretion, be reestablished after these days have elapsed, but a new roll may required to do so. A “D” on the turning undead table means that, not only can the undead be commanded automatically, but they also serve indefinitely.

While under the cultist's command, intelligent undead use the Monster Reaction Table to determine their willingness to obey commands that are potentially self-destructive. If this results in a “Hostile” result, the undead breaks free of the cultist's power and attacks him. The same result occurs if an attempt to command an undead fails.

Cultists (but not clerics) have access to the 3rd-level spell animate dead.