pdfinfo against the preview reports:Creator: Adobe InDesign CS5.5 (7.5.3)I'm reasonably pleased with this. I hope, after they sell out the deluxe reprints, WotC releases full downloadable PDF's on dndclassics.com.
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On another level, the wealth and public life of cities prompted the beginning of what we would call 'fashion', and the excess of marginal art provides exactly the superfluity the nouveaux-riches were seeking in the early fourteenth century. An Italian lawyer Odofredus complained that his son went to Paris to study but had ended up squandering all his money having his books 'bemonkeyed' (fecit libros suos babuinare) and written in gold letters.
Amazon alerted me that the Original Dungeons & Dragon reprint has been delayed. The product page now lists the release date at December 17th, although the email from Amazon says they "do not have an estimated delivery date for the item."
I guess I'd rather see it done right than done on time.
James Smith's post alerted me to the existence of a foreword Gary Gygax wrote for H.G. Wells' Little Wars. Here's the portion that touches on D&D:
What a revelation it was when another friend loaned me his copy of Little Wars in the late 1960s. By that time, I was a board wargame devotee and I had played a few tabletop games with military miniatures. To read the rules the author had established for resolving combat made me want to slap my forehead because we had not thought of them.
[...] Nothing would do but playing the original wargame as set forth in the book. This was accomplished with fellow game hobbyist—and thereafter a two-time co-author with me of military miniatures rules books—Jeff Perren. Jeff and I fought several battles, and his accuracy with toothpick artillery rounds proved devastating. But even in defeat, I loved the game.
Consequently, Little Wars influenced my development of both the Chainmail miniatures rules and the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. For example, it established the concept of a burst radius for cannon rounds, an idea that was translated into both Chainmail catapult missile diameters and areas of effect for Fireballs in D&D. [...]
Beyond Little Wars, Wells' treatment of subterranean humans in the Time Machine certainly reinforced my concepts of underground adventure areas other than dungeons (as did Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth and a number of later works of imaginative fiction).
[...]
Gary Gygax
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
March 2004
Q: What are the two most important concepts in the D&D game?
A: The most important concept in the game is player choice. In order to give players the most fun in the game, they must be able to make choices that will make a definite difference in the fates of their characters.
The second most important concept is that actions have consequences. Player decisions will lead to further campaign developments.
--Jon Pickens et al., "Dispel Confusion" column, Polyhedron #13
"Yeah this whose place feels realish, there's an ancient culture behind this fun house, and the player and GM can get a feel for that. There are a lot of things to discover that show the why and how of the place without really impacting play (except as delays for the dumb 1D6 turn poison gas mechanic). The best party of old style games is that they encourage exploration instead of combat, and by looking at things, interacting with stuff and pawing about the players (ideally) get a novelistic or even cinematographic sense of place and scene from their being some visual and environmental cues to hang thier imaginations on."
Because the game is not written down in front of you. It takes place between you and other people. And generally the game doesn’t need to inspire everyone playing to the same extent. Mainly it needs to jam a sliver of desire into the head of the DM. They will then actively seek out people to make the game happen. Very often games are forced into being by one person with a weird idea stuck in their head. So that’s what art has to do. Jam that idea into the brain.In a comment on G+, Zak says "all illustrators are always also the game designer". I have long held a similar (though perhaps more trivial) idea: that it's a fun exercise to page through your favorite RPG products and interpret the illustrations as rules.
Strike a diabolical bargain in order to cast any spell you know (even exceeding allowed spells per day), but save versus Spell or permanently lose 1 point of Charisma.
Face these consequences if your Charisma falls too low:
| Charisma Score | Consequence |
| 3 | Everyone treats you with open disgust. |
| 2 | Strangers run from you. |
| 1 | Strangers try to kill you on sight. |
| 0 | Humanity lost. Turn your character sheet over to the Referee, you monster. |
I've been doing some reading tonight—browning wily-nilly through my RPG bookshelf—and I've determined that the LotFP edition of Carcosa is the best D&D product released since 1974. If you don't own a copy yet, you should buy one. This book deserves a permanent and prominent place on your shelves. It's a unique and inspiring setting, and a beautiful physical book.
I've been holding my tongue about this (and I feel bad posting it immediately following Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day), but a post on Semper Initiativus Unum set me off.
I backed the Frog God Kickstarter for the Monstrosities book. I haven't received my book yet.
I was pissed that Frog God promoted the project as books with Erol Otus covers, then didn't follow through. Frog God said (although they didn't make this clear in the Kickstarter pitch) they planned to used the same Otus cover art for both the Monstrosities and Complete books. They altered that decision (without notice to their backers) because they decided two books with the same cover would be confusing. I agree. They later reused the Otus cover for a module. Confused? I was. And annoyed.
The best solution to the cover dilemma would have been to commission another Erol Otus cover for the Monstrosities book. I imagine Otus's rates are high, but Frog God raised $78,000 in the Kickstarter. Their goal was $10,000. If you can buy one Erol Otus cover with a $10,000 budget, you can afford a second commission when your budget balloons eight-fold.
As for the Monstrosities book as it is rather than what it might have been....
With a few exceptions (notably the good work of Jason Sholtis), I'm not a huge fan of the deviantArt-like interior illustrations rife with abuse of the Photoshop smudge tool. Amateur art is completely acceptable from an independent author putting out a $20 book on Lulu, but not for a $60 book from a publisher that has in the past touted its superior professionalism.
The layout thing (which is what Semper Initiativus Unum posted about) is curious. I'm not sure what the rational was behind putting each monster on its own page. That decision creates a design problem that was not well solved by the layout they chose. It's not a total horror show, but the Monstrosities layout looks much worse than, for example, the layout of the old Swords & Wizardry Monster Book with the Mullen cover.
This isn't the first time I've gone off on Frog God. I want to make it clear that I like Swords & Wizardry, and deeply respect Matt Finch. Bill Webb, despite some of his unfortunate past comments, is probably a good guy who runs his business because of his love for gaming.
It's great that Frog God brings a higher profile to Swords & Wizardry, but, after a string of poor communications and questionable decisions, I'm beginning to think Matt Finch hitched his wagon to the wrong publisher.
With the surprise shipping charge on top of the cover fiasco, I haven't decided if it's worth it for me to pay the shipping invoice Frog God sent me. (In fact, I've received a second notice from Frog God that my shipping charges are "still outstanding".) That's why I don't have the book yet.
If you're a happy Frog God customer, I'm glad. My gripes are my own. But any S&W stuff I do in the future will focus on Whitebox or Core, unless I see some positive changes from Frog God.
For Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, I made this short booklet with a system to generate unique magcial swords:
So. I just finished the illustration for my Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day cover. I'm pretty pleased with it.
Brendan at Necropraxis writes some very reasonable things about hexes and wilderness exploration. His is a fine solution.
People get too hung up on size of hexes and miles per day of travel.
The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures provides a beautifully abstract system, particularly if you ignore the recommendation to "assume the greatest distance across a hex is about 5 miles," and leave the size of hexes abstract.
In OD&D, each means of travel affords a certain number "moves" per day. A man on foot gets 3 moves, a draft horse gets 5 moves, and a light horse gets 10 moves.
Each terrain type has a "cost". Following a road or track through most terrain costs one move. Bushwhacking through the woods costs two moves. Crossing mountains or swamps costs three moves.
So, a man on foot could "spend" his three moves to cross three hexes of good road in a day. He could instead spend his three moves to cross one hex of swamp.
The OD&D system isn't necessarily better than the system proposed by Brendan (and Brendan writes about more in that post than just travel rates). One hex per day regardless of terrain would work for me. But it would take a lot of convincing to get me back to converting dungeon movement rates to miles and dividing by the sizes of hexes and accounting for terrain types and fatigue so on.
Keep it abstract. If the model is good enough for players to make meaningful choices, it's realistic enough.
Again passing "old walls" on each side of the road, at the distance of two leagues we reached Xampon, where stand the remains of an edifice which, when entire, must have been grand and imposing, and now, but for the world of ruins around, might excite a stranger's wonder. [...] In a few moments I found myself ascending the side of a lofty stone structure, on the top of which were the remains of a large building, with its walls fallen, and the whole side of the mound strewed with sculptured stones, a scene of irrecoverable ruin. Descending on the other side of this structure, we reached a broad platform, in a good state of preservation, with trees growing upon it, without brush or underwood, but so teeming with insects and large black ants that it was necessary to step from stone to stone, and avoid touching the ground. Running off lengthwise from this terrace was a small building, which the Indian pointed out as containing the altar and copal.*
I wrote a pulp adventure name generator. Here's some sample output:
Any of you who have been reading Playing at the World, the excellent history of our hobby, know the important influence of Diplomacy. I was sorry to hear that Allan B. Calhamer, the creator of Diplomacy, passed away on the 25th. Please keep his family in your thoughts.
The OD&D reprints are now available for pre-order. The Amazon price is $104.
The always excellent Smithsonian history blog Past Imperfect posted about Chilean witches with headquarters in a secret cave:
The most important of the warlocks brought to court in 1880 was a Chilote farmer by the name of Mateo Coñuecar. He was then 70 years old, and by his own admission had been a member of the Righteous Province for more than two decades. According to Coñuecar’s testimony, the society was an important power on the island, with numerous members, an elaborate hierarchy of “kings” and “viceroys”—and a headquarters located in a vast cavern, 40 or more yards long, whose secret entrance had been cleverly concealed in the side of a ravine. This cave (which Chilote tradition asserts was lit by torches burning human fat) was hidden somewhere outside the little coastal village of Quicavi, and was—Coñuecar and other witnesses swore—home to a pair of monsters that guarded the society’s most treasured possessions: an ancient leather book of magic and a bowl that, filled with water, allowed secrets to be seen.
That's pretty ripe for write up as an adventure.
I just though this actual caterpillar from WTF, Evolution? was awesome. You'd have to show your players the picture.
Wow. Untimely broke the news that WotC is reprinting original D&D in a deluxe edition.
I'm trilled that Wizards is doing this, although hopefully the final product will be more refined than what we see in this picture.
ISBN 978-0-7869-6465-9 isn't listed on Amazon, so no pre-orders yet.
(And I just finished typesetting my own personal edition!)
I happened across this Viking-centric amateur experimental archaeology site, and thought I'd share these two pics of Vikings being clever with axes:
'
Maybe you could reasonably hold a torch and a shield in the same hand?
An article about a behind-the-scenes visit to the Denver Public Library had a couple interesting a potentially D&D-useful things:
Peeling, partially unstuck, and warped into curling waves like oceans, the pages play host to a century or more of built structures, renovations, and replacements, keeping close tabs on what can be insured, for how much, and under what circumstances.
"Botanical Profile representing the Forest Trees along the route explored by Lieut. A. W. Whipple, Corps. of Top. Eng., near the Parallel of 35º North Latitude, 1853-1854." Prepared by J. M. Bigelow, M.D., Botanist to the Expedition. U.S. Pacific Rail Road Exploration & Survey, War Department.
I can imagine this style of visualization being useful in adventure design, particularly for wilderness adventures.
Zeb Cook's Expert rulebook is now available from dndclassics. They've also added B10, the 1e Dungeoneer's and Wilderness survival guides, and MMII.
This is a modest release compared to the initial offering. Unfortunately, there's no sign yet of the OD&D booklets.
Wizards of the Coast has released a bunch of vintage D&D products as PDF's. I understand that that quality is better than the PDF's they released a few years ago. I'm off to buy some.
Check out this interview with H.P. Lovecraft conducted on a single postcard by a friend from small-town Vermont. The postcard is a wonderful artifact, and interview is quite good. I'd love to read a long interview with Lovecraft.
The Wikipedia entry on Court (royal) has a bulleted list of court officials. I reproduce it below as a numbered list suitable for dicing:
You know the thousands of terracotta warriors found in the tomb of China's first emperor? Archaeologists recently discovered a hidden 22-square-mile burial palace believed to be filled with deadly traps at the site.
What probably are intact are the countless treasures that—according to the ancient scrolls that describe the emperor's long lost burial site—fill the interior of the tomb. And perhaps the deadly traps guarding them too. [...] nobody wants to be the first to get inside because of the mausoleum's dangerous traps—they're detailed in the same texts that recount its abundant riches.
