Old School: Midkemian Splendor

Back before he became a best-selling author, Raymond E. Feist published some pretty good old school town/city supplements based in what was to become the famous world of Midkemia.  Of these, I still have the workable city of Carse, which actually found its way to Glorantha as the city of Karse in the Holy Country.  However, my first Midkemian purchase was Tulan of the Isles, which I thought was a splendidly developed town built on several islands in a river.  It even had its own dungeon, The Black Tower, which was available as a separate product.  Yet my local game store never had it in and I'd given up paying shipping by that stage.  Exploring around the old school blogosphere, what do I find tonight but Midkemia Press's residual website, which includes a free download of The Black Tower.  Now if only I could find Tulan of the Isles...

Runequest Campaign: Rabbit Hat Farm II

Duke Raus took the news of possible chaotic activity, more than just broos, in his lands at Rabbit Hat with little humor. He instructed the PCs to clean out the place, and to aid them sent with them Dranbar Chaosknower, a Lhankor Mhyte expert in chaos lore, Gorkin Rockbone, a Flintnail rock dwarf whose experiences as a pestle (don't ask) had scarred him for life, and the beautiful Marcilla, a High Healer of the White Lady. The party set off for Rabbit Hat with some trepidation and wondering whether Subodai's chaos-killing skills might have protected him. On the way, Grom noted that Marcilla would occasionally speak to a butterfly that flitted around her, and the dwarf would occasionally talk about not letting his secret out.

Old School: Mining White Dwarf 3

The cover to White Dwarf issue 3 is one I particularly like, because the adventurous couple, who have obviously bit off more than they can chew, aren't wearing any armor.  I like this because our first level characters never really wore any either, except for the odd fighter who claimed he was of knightly stock and had inherited some chainmail.  The reason for this was simple - you go into dungeons to liberate large amounts of cash and the more you are weighed down by armor, the less you can be weighed down by treasure.  In the first few levels of the dungeon, those amounts of cash are likely to be copper or silver rather than gold, so you really need the carrying capacity.  At least, that's how we reasoned it.  As a result, the lives of our PCs tended to be nasty, brutish and short (a bit like the players, really - we were 12-13 year old boys...)

Turning to the contents, the first article is extremely interesting and I suggest still useful.  It suggests a non-geomorphic approach to solo dungeon mapping which requires considerable investment in time to set up but once you've built your library of 200' by 200' dungeon elements, you can use it to create a massive variety of dungeon layouts.  I did this one summer vacation and it worked extremely well.  Worth looking at.

Runequest Campaign: Rabbit Hat Farm I

As part of the deal that took them from Pavis to Ronegarth, Duke Raus gave the PCs a land grant.  Rabbit Hat was the name of the walled settlement and farmlands that made up the grant, and the PCs expressed an interest in visiting their lands.  Daine, however, had some news for them.

Far from being a fully working holding, Rabbit Hat was currently, Daine presumed, unpopulated.  The settlement had been attacked out of nowhere by Bison Riders from the Wastes.  The few survivors fled to Sun County on hearing that broos had been seen in the area after the nomads had departed.  As a result, the settlement was presumed ruined.  Daine added that the Duke's title to Rabbit Hat was also a matter of legal dispute with the Count of Sun County, although the case had lain on Sor-Eel's desk in Pavis for years and was unlikely to be decided soon.  Because of the likely presence of unquiet spirits, the shaman Stars-Not-Night was prevailed upon to accompany the party, as was a Storm Bull follower, Subodai the Uncouth, in case the broos were still around.  Finally, a young Orlanthi mercenary, Oderic, also accompanied the group.

Review: Runequest II Core Rulebook (Mongoose)

First, apologies for the lack of updates. I've been afflicted with various health problems (I have something wrong with each of my heart, lungs and digestive system. Yay!) and haven't really felt like writing outside work.  However, the release of Mongoose's latest version of my favorite role-playing game is worth getting back in the saddle for.  Simply put, this is the best role-playing game ruleset I have ever seen.  Lawrence "Loz" Whitaker and Pete Nash have done an astounding job in fixing the problems with the system - many of them going back to the classic Runequest 2 (don't get me started on the numbering issues) of 1979. They have both simplified and enhanced the rules while remaining true to the central principles of RQ and, indeed, Glorantha. So let's take a look at the major features of the book.

Production Values. First of all, this book looks impressive.  It is leather-bound with gold lettering (runing?) although the rune is not the Magic rune as depicted above, but the Luck rune (looks like Pi). The typesetting is clear without the annoying borders Mongoose often uses.  Pull quotes are useful and tables make sense. There are a few typos and mistakes but an errata sheet is due soon.  The artwork is serviceable to good with only a few gratuitous scantily-clad women (not that there's anything wrong with that).  This is the sort of book you wouldn't mind leaving out in plain view, which sadly isn't often the case with RPG books.

Old School: Mining White Dwarf 2

Things are starting to get moving! Still not lots, but definitely a few items of interest to an old school fan in this issue.

First up is the second part of Fred Hemmings' Competitive D&D essay. In this he describes an excellent set-up for an old school competitive dungeon.  The PCs (pre-rolled characters, two per player) are all members of the same family, brought together for the reading of the will of a deceased patriarch, an adventurer of renown.  Each gets two basic magic treasures but are told that the real inheritance is hidden in a dungeon.  Nothing wrong with that!  Interestingly, the players were (it seems) given a list of tasks that would gain them points in the competition, but this was done in the form of cryptic clues.  Thus, visiting Mars (and living!) would gain them a measly 5 points.  This refers to standing on a painting of Mars in a room the floor of which was decorated with a depiction of the solar system.  The list of objectives is itself very evocative of old school tomfoolery.

Next up is a taste of things to come - a one page review of Asgard miniatures.  One of them, the Old Wizard, who looks more like an orthodox priest, still makes regular appearances in my campaigns as a Grey Sage.  To think he cost but 12p (around 20c) in 1977!  I'm also reminded of Asgard's giant dwarves, which were seemingly 3" shorter than humans on average...

Lengthy Lew Puslipher review of The Green Planet series or games (sigh), so let's move on, past the almost useless description of the famous Midgard play-by mail campaign, pausing only to observe Pulsipher's review of first edition Tunnels & Trolls, which he decries as silly (and therefore possibly appealing to the British!), and part 2 of the Monstermark system, until we get to Treasure Chest.  Now this is something.

There's a new magic item, the Needle of Incalculable Power, which essentially does whatever its user thinks it might do, but at a high cost - 5 prime requisite characteristic points, for a month. Heavy, but lovable. There's the Scientist character class, which contains some good jokes, but is notable mainly for being the creation of SF writer/reviewer Dave Langford.  Then comes the meat - five excellent new monsters, the Spinescale, the Dune Stalker, the Ning, the Giant Caterpillar and the Blood Hawk, all of which saw some use in my dungeons.  I love this, for instance, in the description of the least interesting monster, the Giant Caterpillar:

They are often hunted as their skins are highly sought-after, especially by Hill People, for manufacture of ceremonial dancing costumes.  Prices of up to 200GPs per skin are often paid.

Then we finish off with part 2 of the ridicualously complicated "what's wrong with D&D and what I'm doing about it," notable only for "grudge points," seemingly an early version of Hero Points.

Someone has archived White Dwarf 2 as a PDF here.

The World's First One-Page Dungeon?

I love the one-page dungeon concept.  Some of the entries in this year's competition were nothing less than inspired, and a few of them show up, suitably converted, in my Gloranthan sandbox, although none of them have yet been discovered, sadly.  Even the new megadungeon Stonehell was developed using them (note to self: buy Stonehell in book form!).

It was only after the contest, however, that I realized I'd seen it before, after a fashion.  Back when you used to send off a few pennies to Games Workshop for their latest price list or a sample copy of Owl & Weasel, you used also to get a two-page flyer that briefly described the new wonder that was Dungeons & Dragons, taken from the venerable Games & Puzzles magazine.  This flyer also contained a one-page dungeon, the Dungeon of the Ground Goblins, a remarkably simple yet evocative first dungeon level.  Elements of its architecture showed up in my own dungeons for years afterwards.

The page is probably unreadable in the jpeg on this post, so here it is in legible form for download.