Against the Starmaster: Playtest materials available

I thought that I would mention that there is a space opera version of Against the Darkmaster coming out. It’s called (somewhat unsurprisingly) Against the Starmaster.

A set of playtest rules, sample player characters, and an introductory scenario are available here.

Following a quick skim, I think that it looks rather cool! (But I'm not a huge fan of the font.) Annoyingly, I’m rather busy at the moment (I’m editing a couple of books, revising a paper, and getting ready to teach again after Labour Day). But once I have a chance to read over these materials, I’ll post some thoughts here.

May the Force … er, Aether be with you!

Against the Court of Urdor – Part 5

Misty Vale, Queen Blàithnaid’s Elfstone, and the Warden’s Pendant 

[Map of the Cursed Lands]

Our heroes – Einar Quicksilver, the Green Elf rogue of Koronande, and Kiren Hammerstone, the Dwarf animist from the Halls of Pale Steel – have endured many things over the past month. They have travelled from the fair tree city of Tauronde to the Cursed Lands that lie between the realms of Tantûrak, Koronande, and Taaliraan. And in the Cursed Lands they have escaped capture and have journeyed to a number of places, from isolated havens of civilization to terrible dwellings of redcaps, trolls, and bandits. These adventures are related in the earlier installments of this log (parts 1, 2, 3, and 4).

We rejoin the adventuring duo as they break their fast in the Blazing Hearth Inn in the town of Soggy Fields on the 22nd day of February, in the 1000th year of the Second Age of Humanity. They aim to fulfil their promise to the ghost of Prince Berethil by returning the crown of white branches to the prince’s sister Queen Blàithnaid. The queen once ruled northern Taaliraan but disappeared following the terrible battle at the end of the First Age of Humanity, after which most of the Green Elves of the land departed for either Koronande or southern Taaliraan, and the region became known as the “Cursed Lands.” Prince Berethil’s ghost assured the adventurers that his sister lingers still on this mortal plane somewhere within the Lake of Mists.

February 1000 2AH (Second Age of Humanity) 22nd:

Einar, Kiren, and Kiren’s loyal falcon Miranda, travel from Soggy Fields to the village of Misty Vale. While marching near the Lake of Mists, Kiren discerns a mystical “defensive will” emanating from the lake. Moreover, the water of the lake seems unnaturally cool. The clash between the lake’s cool water and the land’s warm air create the mists for which the region is named. There is something distinctly odd about the place. Perhaps it is a “fragment” from the plane of Faerie?

[Map of Misty Vale in the northeastern Cursed Lands]

While staying in the village, the adventurers:

• Notice that the crown of Queen Blàithnaid has sprouted white flowers upon nearing the lake.
• Inform Blarth’s father and sister – Balic and Belwyn – of Blarth’s tragic death. The bard’s magical silver harp – “Songbird” – is also returned to his family. 
• Learn that a number of villagers recently have gone missing, including: Nevynn “the Wise,” a friend of the Company of the Morning Star (missing for two weeks); Eamon the Warden of the Vale (missing for thirteen days); and Archibold the halfling farmer (missing for one day.) (The adventurers are informed of the last disappearance by Archibold’s weeping wife, Mirabella, while staying at the village’s only inn).
• Learn that the disappearances are widely blamed on the “Beast of the Lake,” as large monstrous footprints have been found near the lakeshore.
• Learn that the new thane of the village – a man of mixed Hathorian and Tantûraki heritage named Wulfric – is popular, even though his claim to the position seems tenuous. Wulfric is accompanied by a company of Tantûraki mercenaries and promises to make the valley safe.
• Are informed by the town crier that there is an award of 100 gold bars for anyone who kills the “Beast of the Lake” and brings peace to the village. 

Kiren and Einar avoid Wulfric and his minions. Instead, they visit with Eileen the herbwife, who turns out to have been romantically involved with Eamon (the missing warden) and is deeply suspicious of Wulfric. The adventurers tell Eileen that they eventually must travel to the island on the Lake of Mists. Since Kiren greatly fears drowning – like most dwarves, he is unable to swim – the herbwife offers to prepare a concoction that will enable him to hold his breath for long periods of time. However, it will take her a couple of days to create the complex mixtures. In return, the adventurers agree to investigate the footprints of the “Beast of the Lake” and try to discover what is happening in the Vale.  

February 1000 2AH 23rd: 

The adventurers leave the village and travel to the cottages near the eastern edges of the lake. There they discuss the recent disappearances with Padraig, who was Eamon’s best friend. Padraig fears that his dear friend is likely dead. And like Eileen, Padraig is deeply suspicious of Wulfric. 

The adventurers investigate the strange footprints near the lake. This involves a lot of tracking, marching about, and the like. Eventually they follow the tracks to an old dwarf hold in a hill to the north. The hold’s doors are unopenable, but the tracks end there. The elf’s keen eyes notice that they are replaced by human-sized footprints. The party follows these new prints into the jungle to the east. After many hours, they come upon an isolated hunting cabin. Within the cabin Einar and Kiren discover a trio of ne’er-do-wells: a Tantûraki warrior and two half-orc henchmen. At the side of the cabin are a pair of very large wooden “feet” with straps on them. It turns out that the Tantûraki had been using them to create the fake footprints of the “Beast of the Lake”!

The adventurers light the outhouse on fire, which draws one of the half-orcs out of the cabin to investigate. The half-orc is slain, and the others surrender. Kiren tries to interrogate the other half-orc, fails miserably, and, in his frustration, kills the prisoner in cold blood. The Tantûraki is horrified by the dwarf’s savagery, and offers to tell all that he can to the two adventures it they take an oath to let him go afterwards. Reluctantly the adventurers agree. 

From their Tantûraki prisoner, Einar and Kiren learn:  

• His name is Ivarr. 
• He works for Zepheus the necromancer!
• Wulfric also works for Zepheus, and is in the Vale to obtain the “Stone of Queen Blàithnaid,” also known simply as the “Elfstone,” which the foul necromancer seeks.
• Wulfric slew Eamon in order to obtain the Warden’s pendant, which Wulfric believes will enable him to travel to the island on the Lake of Mists and find the Elfstone. 
• Ivarr and his half-orc henchmen slew Archibold, as the halfling had discovered them creating the false footprints. The halfling’s remains were left at the Broken Monolith. 

Ivarr vows to leave Zepheus’s service and begin a new life in Dûshera. The party lets him leave, but Kiren instructs his falcon Miranda to follow the Tantûraki blackguard for a day to ensure that he does not turn around and attempt to warn either Wulfric or Zepheus. It would seem that Ivarr took his vow seriously, as he disappears into the northeast, towards Dûshera and away from Misty Vale.

February 1000 2AH 24th: 

This day the duo notices that they are being tracked by a cloud of bats while in the jungle and a murder of gorcrows as soon as they return to the valley. Worried that they are being spied upon, Kiren writes a note for Eileen, informing her of all that they have learned. He then uses his magic to speak with Miranda, and instructs the falcon to deliver the message to the herbwife. Hours later Miranda returns with a note from Eileen, informing them that she hasn’t completed the breath-holding concoction yet, and will meet the adventurers the next day at Padraig’s cabin. The adventurers then return to the jungle and manage to evade the dark birds and bats following them. They rest for the night.

February 1000 2AH 25th: 

The adventurers travel to Padraig’s cabin. There they wait anxiously for Eileen, who eventually arrives with flasks of her “breath-holding” potion. Padraig provides the duo with a rough map of the outer regions of the island within the Lake of Mists – like all the folk of the Vale, he has never been able to land upon it and so does now know what lies within the isle’s inner reaches. But he notes a steep black rocky hill upon it. 

Einar and Kiren row one of Padraig’s boats onto the lake. It is covered in cool mists – clearly, it has an eldritch nature and is out of place in the southlands of Urdor. The mists and waters resist the efforts of the adventurers to approach the isle. Einar makes a plea to the lake, explaining in the Green Elvish tongue that he and his companion desire to return the white branch crown to Queen Blàithnaid. Water spirits of the lake seem to seize the boat and beach it on the northern edge of the island.

The duo begins exploring the island. It is covered in strange trees. Kiren, drawing upon his considerable knowledge of flora, recognize them as “pine trees” not native to the southlands (save the higher regions of the Skyclaw Mountains). Once again, the lake and its isle seem profoundly out of place.

Einar and Kiren head south along a path through the woods. The mists and strange vegetation cause them to become lost. Einar hears the voice of their former pixie companion Neriss calling out to him for help. She tells him that her foot has been caught in the roots of a tree. The two adventures are confused but suspect that the pixie’s voice must be some kind of trick. Eventually Kiren becomes separated from his elvish friend and loses his way. He blows his falcon whistle – and while Einar hears it, he cannot tell where it is from. Nervously, the elf blows the faerie whistle that Neriss gave to him before their separation. The elf continues to hear the pixie pleading for help but is wary of leaving the trail, and so returns to the beach to rest for the night. Kiren and Miranda also rest for the night, lost in the unearthly woods. They are afflicted by an unnatural cold and so relocate. Eventually the cold air subsides.

February 1000 2AH 26th: 

After much difficulty, the adventurers find one another early in the day. Einar recalls his people’s lore, and is convinced that the lake and island are indeed from the plane of Faerie, a realm of wild chaos. 

The adventurers take the eastern path this day. Eventually they encounter a bizarre tree. A cloud of pollen engulfs the duo – Einar is rendered hopelessly inebriated, whereas Kiren finds himself sneezing constantly. A pair of eyes open on the tree and then abruptly close. After some fumbling about the two move away from the area and recover. 

They then decide to take the western path again. Eventually they come upon a burbling putrid bog. They decide to use one of the potions of breath-holding so that they don’t have to breath in the bog’s fetid air. Kiren becomes tangled up in some vines but manages to get out with some help from Einar. The duo then leaves the boggy area, continues south, and comes upon an ancient battlefield. They find a massive chunk of black ice with a silver spear embedded in it. Warily the adventurers avoid the ice and spear and continue on their way.

[The black hill of Dùn Tùr]

Eventually the adventurers come upon the spire of black rock that rises into the sky from the misty isle. Upon a side of the rock are a pair of silver doors. Where the doors meet is embedded a stylized symbol of a hound. Einar impatiently touches the door and yelps in pain as his hand is frostbitten. The silver doors exude an unearthly cold. Fortunately, Kiren successfully draws upon his healing skills to help Einar.

After some deliberation about how to proceed, Einar tries touching the hound symbol with the flowering crown of Queen Blàithnaid. To the relief of the adventurers, the silver doors magically swing open! The duo enters the black spire and ascends a twisting stairway.

Eventually the duo exits the stairway to find themselves at the top of the spire. There they come upon a pleasant flat field, about a hundred metres across, of verdant grass, lavender, and bright shrubbery. The air is cool but the sun is bright. Golden flowers bloom in patches. Beneath them the adventurers can see the mists that blanket the isle and much of the lake. In the centre of the field is a small white stone cabin, with a simple stone bench and well nearby. 

A daunting elfin warrioress approaches the two adventurers. Her beauty is unearthly and disturbing. This is none other than Queen Blàithnaid – discovered after centuries of hidden seclusion!

The queen demands to know why she has been disturbed. Einar and Kiren quickly explain their oath to Prince Berethil. They return to her the white crown that was stolen from her, on the eve of the great battle against the forces of the Autarch, over an eon ago. Moved by her brother’s tormented fate, the queen tells the adventurers to inform the prince’s ghost that she forgives him for his theft and betrayal. Perhaps his spirit now will be able to finally return to Faerie. She also gives to the duo her Elfstone, and makes them promise to deliver it to Prince Eldanar – the monarch with whom she co-ruled Taaliraan centuries ago. 

Queen Blàithnaid explains that, by means of the Elfstone, she is aware of a number of events that have transpired recently in the Vale. In response to the adventurers’ questioning, she informs them that Neriss is not on the island – the voices they heard were malevolent deceptions. She also reveals the Eamon is dead but the Warden’s pendant that he wore was a false one. Suspicious of Wulfric’s plans, Eamon had hidden the true pendant in the ancient Warden’s Mound to the south. The queen suggests that it be recovered and be given to a person pure of heart to become the new Warden. 

 

Queen Blàithnaid then prepares the Elfstone to take the adventurers to the edge of the isle, where their boat is located. She gives her magnificent sword, “the Queen’s Thorn,” to Einar. Then she sits down on the field, takes a final breath, and transforms into a beautiful flowering thicket. Her time on the Mortal Plane has ended and her spirit has returned to Faerie.

After a few moments of reverential silence, Kiren carefully examines the Elfstone. He then uses it to travel with Einar through the Ethereal Plane – a realm of glowing mists and swirling silver clouds – to the location of their boat. Since the artifact had been prepared by Queen Blàithnaid, the journey is successful. 

The adventurers deliberate about what to do next. Einar recalls that the ancient Standing Stones to the south is where the Green Elves granted the Vale to men and recognized Aelfwine as the first Warden a thousand years ago. Amazingly, he also recalls a little-known tale that Aelfwine was slain by his own brothers at the Standing Stones years later and was subsequently interred in the Warden’s Mound. They decide to go to the Warden’s Mound and see if they can recover the true Warden’s pendant.

The duo takes the boat to the western shore of the Lake of Mists. They start to travel south but notice that they are being observed by some gorcrows. Annoyed by these feathered spies, Kiren uses the Elfstone to travel via the Ethereal Plane to the Warden’s Mound. The dwarf succeeds but is greatly wearied by the task. He drinks some of the Green Wine from Prince Berethil’s barrow and is refreshed.  

The adventurers determine that they are actually on a hill to the north of the Warden’s Mound. They travel south to the correct mound and discover a pair of tarnished silver doors with the same Hound symbol that they had encountered earlier at the black spire. With some difficulty, the duo manages to open the doors. The two companions then explore the ancient barrow. 

In the course of their explorations, the adventurers are attacked by four terrible ghouls! Kiren is battered badly and knocked out while Einar severs the fingers of three different ghoul hands. (The elf considers renaming his sword “Finger Cleaver” because of this.) Einar and Miranda stand guard by the unconscious dwarf, waiting for him to recover. Eventually, after seven hours of rest, Kiren awakens. He uses some herbs and magic to recover further. 

After some additional exploration the heroes find the true Warden’s pendant. They also find some tapestries that portray the events immediately after the final Great Battle on Urdor at the end of the First Age of Humanity, a thousand years ago. These include the granting of Misty Vale to men, the Green Elves gifting the Warden’s pendant to Aelfwine, and the departure of the Green Elves from the Cursed Lands. 

Worried about encountering Wulfric’s forces in their weakened state, Kiren, Einar, and Miranda leave the Warden’s Mound and head west to the Tower of the Morning Star. They travel through the night and reach the tower early the next day. While tired, the adventurers are pleased with their success. They have: 

• Solved the mystery of the “Beast of the Lake.”
• Completed the quest given to them a month ago by the ghost of Prince Berethil.
• Recovered the Elfstone of Queen Blàithnaid.
• Recovered the true Warden’s pendant.
• Obtained the powerful magical sword “the Queen’s Thorn.”

Truly, Kiren and Einar have travelled far on the difficult path to greatness!

Notes:

• As always, all posts relevant to this campaign and setting are available at this master page.
• The map of the "Cursed Lands" is from the larger map of "Ardor" by Peter Fenlon (produced for the old ICE campaign module, The Court of Ardor). I've added some locations to the map.
• I drew the map of "Misty Vale" but most of the locations on it are taken from the adventure in the Against the Darkmaster core rulebook.
• The adventure described in this post is based on the "Shadows of the Northern Woods" mini-campaign in the core VsD rulebook. It was heavily modified to fit with my campaign and setting.
• All of the pictures in this post are taken from the core VsD rulebook.  

Mythic Armorica for Mythras

The Mythic Britain series for Mythras has a new instalment: Mythic Armorica. (I first mentioned this supplement – and included a preview of its maps – back in December.)

Here’s the description from the Design Mechanism site:

Across the Narrow Sea separating Britain from Europe, lie the three kingdoms of Armorica: Poher, Benoic, and Broërec. And across the heartland, the mighty, enchanted Forest of Broceliande.

Settled a 150 years ago by Britons from the mainland, they displaced the native Gauls and created their own lands. But now Armorica is a land under siege. The Franks and the Visigoths fight on the eastern border and threaten to make Armorica their battleground. Meanwhile, the bishops of Armorica fight a war against pagan practice, and under their urging, Broceliande is shrinking every year. Finally, a dark force is working from within, waging a covert war of conquest against the three kingdoms.

Mythic Britain: Armorica is a campaign expansion for the Mythic Britain setting. You will need both Mythras and Mythic Britain to make full use of this book.

With Mythic Britain, Logres, Waterlands, Gwynedd, and now Armorica, Mythras has the ultimate “historical fantasy” British setting for role-playing campaigns!

Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms Kickstarter: 3 days left

I don’t support many kickstarters these days but I’m making an exception for this one: Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, the Northern Marches. I almost missed it entirely – there are only three days left! The author is Robert Conley of Bat in the Attic Games (and the blog of the same name), who has written a number of excellent RPG products, including How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox. 

The Northern Marches setting is a “hex-based” “sandbox” setting in the style of the classic Judges Guild’s Wilderness material. I am great fan of Conley’s previous settings, including his free Blackmarsh, the “Wild North” (published in the third issue of Fight On!), and the settings he produced for Goodman Games’ Points of Light books many years ago. In fact, I reviewed Blackmarsh here – quite positively – back in 2011! It turns out that the Northern Marches integrates and updates material from all those products. So there is no way I could resist getting it.

My GM style is more of a “subway map” approach – there are various storylines and key “decision points” for the players – rather than a truly open “sandbox.” But one of these days I’m going to run a proper sandbox campaign – and the Northern Marches would be superb resource to do so!

Reflections on Middle-earth Roleplaying, Rolemaster, Against the Darkmaster, and Art

Back when I was a young lad and able to devote much of my time to role-playing games (late middle-school and high-school), I tried out a wide variety of different systems. Naturally, Dungeons and Dragons – and especially first edition AD&D – was a primary focus, given that it was the great colossus in the hobby during the 1980s, and everyone was familiar with it. But my friends and I also explored other games. We used our allowance money to try out alternatives like Dragonquest, Runequest, Thieves’ Guild, Traveller, Star Frontiers, and others. But our focus remained AD&D; it was the game with which we actually tried to play proper “campaigns” – usually failing for one reason or another, often with “total party kills” consciously or subconsciously engineered by tired or frustrated DMs. In contrast, we typically drifted away from the other systems after a couple of sessions. 

About halfway through high-school, though, my group – and especially me in my capacity as Game Master – shifted to Middle-earth Roleplaying (“MERP”). We still played other games – such as Call of Cthulhu and GURPS – but MERP became our main focus. My first “proper” campaign was one that I ran over a summer using MERP. The characters successfully completed a major quest and did some interesting things before my immaturity sadly led me to make some bad decisions that eventually caused the end of the campaign. Nonetheless, I remember it fondly, and parts of it vividly, even after all these years (almost four decades!).

Eventually we tried out Rolemaster as well. And although there were things about it that we liked, it proved less easy to use in play than the comparatively streamlined MERP. Sometimes we ‘mixed-and-matched’ things from the two systems, which was easy to do since MERP was a simplified “Tolkien-ized” version of Rolemaster (the relation between the two systems resembled that of Basic/Expert D&D and AD&D). In particular, the players used the individual weapon charts from Arms Law and spell charts from Spell Law, whereas I relied on the more general charts from MERP as GM. 

I continued to occasionally buy MERP and Rolemaster books even when I went to university and stopped playing RPGs regularly for a while. The Shadow World setting, by the highly creative Terry Amthor, especially intrigued me, although I never ran a campaign set in it. I bought the Rolemaster Companions as they were published and spent many hours daydreaming about the numerous options they provided (many of which, I recognized even at the time, were ill-conceived). However, the Middle-earth material remained my favourite. 

Given my longstanding interest in Rolemaster, I had known for many years that a new edition was in the works. This new version was ambitiously entitled “Rolemaster Unified” (“RMU”). It promised to “unite” elements of second edition Rolemaster (“RM2e”), the version that was dominant throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s (later fixed up slightly and republished as Rolemaster Classic [“RMC”] around 2007) and Rolemaster the Standard System (“RMSS”), the even-more-complicated version that was published in the 1990s (a truncated version of which was later published in a single hardcover book, Rolemaster Fantasy Role-playing, with expansion books to cover the rest of system). I won’t delve into the edition differences here, most of which I have forgotten over the years. My perception is the RM2e/RMC remained more popular overall, but that RMSS had (and perhaps still has) strong advocates. Personally, after trying to GM some RMSS sessions about 25 years ago, I concluded that I preferred RM2e/RMC, and preferred MERP to both. 

In any case, given my gaming history, I was curious to see what the new version of Rolemaster – RMU – looked like. So, I recently checked out the products at DrivethruRPG. Alas, my curiosity was quickly extinguished. One reason was the price. Four PDFs are needed for the complete game, each of which is quite expensive. Given that I currently am quite happy with Against the Darkmaster (“VsD”) for this kind of game, and was simply curious about the new edition, my reaction was “no thanks.” (The complete rulebook for VsD in PDF is only one quarter the price of the four PDFs needed to play RMU.)

But just as much of a turn off as the price for RMU was the cover art. I would much prefer blank covers than ones graced with those pictures. I sincerely hope that the artist never reads this post, since I may come across as a bit mean here, but those covers are not ones that I would want to have to look at on a regular basis while playing a game every week.  

This made me reflect on the high quality of the art that characterized the main ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises) fantasy role-playing games – MERP and Rolemaster – during the company’s heyday from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. That quality, for the most part, was due to the singular work of Angus McBride, whom I’ve praised many times at this blog in the past, including ranking him as one of the all-time greatest FRPG artists. 

That’s not to say that only McBride’s covers were excellent. The cover for the early UK edition of MERP was by Chris Achilleos and expressed a “metal” vision of Middle-earth better than anything else I’ve ever seen. (I remember seeing this cover in an advertisement in the UK gaming magazine White Dwarf back in the day and being bitter that I couldn’t purchase that version of the game in Canada.)

Also with respect to ICE’s Middle-earth line, the map artwork of Peter Fenlon was very important to me (and Fenlon is another artist whom I’ve praised here). Indeed, I spent hours just looking at Fenlon’s maps, thinking about how to detail the various locations on them (at least those that were not already described in the relevant Middle-earth setting books). I continue to cherish and use them to this day.

I actually started playing MERP before McBride started providing the covers for the line – although not before Fenlon started making the maps, as he was with the company from the start – so I don’t think my fondness for MERP was entirely due to the art. But I remember seeing McBride’s covers gracing the new MERP books and I can’t deny that they motivated me to buy a few more over the years than I would’ve otherwise. Certainly Middle-earth in my mind’s eye became infused with McBride’s vision of the world – and remains so even to this day.

I’ve mentioned before at this blog that I regard Against the Darkmaster (VsD) to be a worthy successor to MERP. It is not a “clone” – it changes too many things for it to be classified as such. But it is close enough to be readily compatible with MERP. I have had no difficulty in using elements of my MERP collection in both of my current VsD campaigns. 

In addition to its rules, VsD is also a worthy successor to MERP with respect to its art. The cover art for the core rulebook by Andrea Piparo is beautiful. 

The interior art for VsD is also of a very high quality. And I noticed an homage to one of my favourite McBride covers. (Unfortunately, I do not know which artist is responsible for the black and white picture below. The artists credited for the interior art are: Francesco Saverio Ferrara, Tommaso Galmacci, Rich Longmore, Heraldo Mussolini, Andrea Piparo, and Marcin Ściolny. The McBride picture was originally used for the Lost Realm of Cardolan module, and later used for the large Arnor book, which combined material from several earlier modules, including Cardolan.)

Well, this has been something of a rambling post. I guess that if I were to try to summarize my “key points” they would be:

1. I liked MERP and Rolemaster (2nd edition) back in the day.
2. Both MERP and Rolemaster, at least after the early days of ICE, benefitted from excellent cover art (primarily by Angus McBride). MERP also benefitted from amazing maps by Peter Fenlon. (The official RM setting, Shadow World, unfortunately did not enjoy as impressive cover or map art.)
3. The cover art for the new version of Rolemaster (RMU) is not that great, in my view. The core rules also are quite expensive (even as PDFs). So I’m passing on RMU, at least for the time being.
4. The rules for VsD are inspired heavily by MERP – and hence rock. The art for VsD is excellent as well. So I’m quite happy with the game overall – mechanically and aesthetically. 

Namárië!

OSRIC the Third

The wise sages at Mythmere Games are hard at work on the third version of OSRIC (“Old School Reference and Index Compilation”). You can support this project at Backerkit.

OSRIC is a restatement of the first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules as they existed prior to the publication of Unearthed Arcana (with some minor modifications to ensure its legal “safety” at the time). It was the first true “retro clone” – version 1.0 came out in 2006 – and helped turbocharge the “Old School Renaissance” in its early days. While other “old school” games preceded it (e.g., Castles & Crusades, Basic Fantasy RPG, Hackmaster), OSRIC was the first to aim simply to restate an earlier, no longer supported, set of rules, rather than capture its “ethos” or “feel” with a somewhat different (more “modern”) system.   

While continuously available for free (in PDF) for almost two decades now, OSRIC eventually was eclipsed by other retro clones (including Mythmere Games’ own Swords & Wizardry, which restates the pre-AD&D version of the game). 

Hopefully with new art and a more reader-friendly presentation, though, OSRIC will enjoy its own renaissance and find a new audience.

Certainly, when I contemplate running an old school TSR-era version of D&D again, I tend to think of “Gygaxian” AD&D (using Gygax’s version of the World of Greyhawk) more than anything else. And I prefer the pre-UA version of the game overall (in part because I don’t have much nostalgia for the post-UA version, as I had drifted away from AD&D shortly after it was published).

The new version promises to be great. Hopefully half-elves will be able to be druids in this version (as they were in AD&D – their true, unique niche). And while I’m disappointed that there will be no bard class, I’m looking forward to adding OSRIC 3.0 to my library. I’m “all in”!

Emirikol would approve! 

Bundle of Holding – Against the Darkmaster

Until May 26th you can get all the PDFs in the Against the Darkmaster “Bundle of Holding” starter set – the impressive core rulebook + the Heartbane adventure + the Game Master Screen – for only 7.95 (USD)!

The “Level Up” option provides the Secrets of the Golden Throne, two other adventures (The Silence of Dawnfell and Legacy of Blood), and six sets of spell cards. The Secrets of the Golden Throne includes an entire campaign plus some additional game options (kins, backgrounds, spell lores, monsters, and the like).

I'm running two Against the Darkmaster (VsD) campaigns right now – "Against the Court of Urdor" and "Against the Witch-King" – so obviously I'm a big fan of the game. If you liked Middle-earth Roleplaying (MERP) back in the day, VsD is a worthy successor in my view. So, check it out for the price of a few cups of coffee!

Praise for Songs of the Dying Earth

Among my favourite works of fantasy fiction are the Dying Earth stories and the Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance. I’ve read the Lyonesse trilogy three times and most of the Dying Earth stories twice since I first discovered them as a teenager. While I preferred the Lyonesse trilogy when I was younger, as it was (despite its many quirks and abundant dry Vancian humour) closer to the “high fantasy” style that I adored then, I now think that I prefer many of the Dying Earth tales overall, especially the two Cugel sagas, due to the remarkable uniqueness of the setting and characters. In any case, they’re all well worth reading if you’re a fan of fantasy fiction. 

I recently finished an excellent collection of short stories written in honour of Jack Vance called Songs of the Dying Earth. It actually took me a few years to get all the way through the twenty-two stories included in the volume. This isn’t a criticism – after reading a few stories I would put aside the volume in order to read something else for a while (a new novel or whatever). That’s the nice thing about short story collections: they’re easy to dip into if you want to read a few tales and then put aside without “forgetting” anything important to continue onwards later.

The collection includes a preface from Jack Vance and stories from an impressive set of authors. I especially enjoyed the stories by Robert Silverberg (“The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale”), Jeff Vandermeer (“The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod”), Glen Cook (“The Good Magician”), Byron Tetrick (“The Collegeum of Mauge”), and Tanith Lee (“Evillo the Uncunning”).

But in my judgement the best one of the bunch – and the one that is a proper novella because of its length – is “The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderõz” by Dan Simmons. It is a wonderfully bizarre tale that captures the flavour and “ethos” of the Dying Earth delightfully well, but without simply trying to imitate Vance’s style. It’s worth the price of the book alone. 

One thing I especially like about many of the stories in this collection, as well as Vance’s own classic Dying Earth tales, is that the protagonists often are magicians. I love mages (or wizards or sorcerers or whatever) and regret that they are only rarely the main characters in fantasy stories. 

My 2 Campaigns in 2 Paragraphs

Over at the RPG pub (the only RPG forum I regularly visit these days) there’s an interesting thread asking people to describe their campaigns in one paragraph each.

So here are the paragraphs for my two campaigns (lightly edited from my post in that thread).

Game system: Against the Darkmaster.

Campaign: Against the Court of Urdor.

Setting: The island-continent of Urdor (heavily inspired by the old ICE campaign module, The Court of Ardor) in my homebrew world of Ukrasia.

Premise: After some initial adventuring in the “Cursed Lands,” the adventures (a Dwarf animist and a Green Elf rogue) ally with the “Company of the Morning Star” (which is based in the Cursed Lands) and the “Guild of Elements” (which is based in the elvish realm of Taaliraan) in order to oppose the “Court of Urdor.” The Court is an ancient cabal of powerful “Night Elves” who wish to use the eldritch “Stones of Unlight” to bring about the return of Queen Everekka – the “Pale Queen of Mists”. Complicating matters is the involvement of Zepheus the necromancer, an ally of convenience to the Court but someone with his own dark agenda.

[The "Cursed Lands" in central Urdor.]

Game system: Against the Darkmaster.

Campaign: Against the Witch-King.

Setting: Eriador in Middle-earth, the year 1964 of the Third Age (the first year of the reign of King Arvedui of Arthedain).

Premise: Driven together in order to pursue a variety of personal quests, a fellowship of diverse heroes – a Dúnedan champion and lady of Fornost, a Dwarf sage from the Blue Mountains, two Lossoth brothers (one an animist who can change into a polar bear and the other a charming rogue) from the far north (the Forodwaith), and a Sinda Elf champion and noble from the Grey Havens – has become enmeshed in a plot involving a new ‘king’ of Rhudaur. It is clear that the royal pretender is a pawn of the Witch-King of Angmar (whether witting or unwitting is not known). These events unfold while the shadow of the north darkens over Arthedain, Breeland, and Rivendell.

[Rhudaur, 1964 of the Third Age.]

[Both of the above maps are by Peter Fenlon, created for ICE's Middle-earth line of campaign modules. I've inserted some additional locations and notes into both of them.]

Fight On! Issue 16 now available – dedicated to DA Trampier

One of the best things to happen in the “old school” gaming community in the past year is the return of the amazing fanzine Fight On! 

Issue 16 has just dropped and it’s dedicated to my favourite FRPG artist of all time: David A. Trampier.