Crypts and Things for Zothique

I’m somewhat embarrassed that, in my recent post about the current Zothique kickstarter, that I failed to mention the excellent “Old School” swords-and-sorcery roleplaying game, Crypts and Things. Not only is C&T a great game, but it’s also one to which I contributed (albeit indirectly), as the author, Newt Newport, drew upon a number of my swords-and-sorcery house rules for Swords and Wizardry. 

[The Sorcerer from the C&T book]

Crypts and Things aims to emulate the works of authors like Clark Ashton Smith – as well as, of course, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, and the like. Indeed, CAS’s stories were a significant inspiration for my original house rules. So, it should be easy to run adventures set in Zothique using C&T.

(I have to confess that I remain a little vexed that Newt misspelt my nom de plume “Araskia” in the revised version of C&T ... but I’m trying my best not to be too petty these days.)

Zothique kickstarter

I’ve long been a great fan of Clark Ashton Smith’s fiction, especially his fantasy stories set in Hyperborea, Averoigne, and Zothique. Indeed, on balance I would rank his work to be at least as innovative and compelling as that of his “pulp” peers, H. P. Lovecraft and R. E. Howard. Unfortunately, despite his influence on a few later authors – most notably, Jack Vance – CAS’s writings are not especially well-known.

So I naturally was intrigued when I learned about a kickstarter to produce an illustrated omnibus of CAS’s Zothique stories, as well as role-playing adaptations of the setting. The latter consist of: The Zothique RPG Campaign Guide (the gazetteer and rules for the setting), The Denizens of the Dying Sun (essentially a “monster manual” for Zothique), and Litanies of the Dead: A Trilogy of Doomed Adventures (three adventures).  

Unfortunately, the role-playing systems in question are 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Shadowdark. I’m not really interested in any of these systems. The possible exception is Shadowdark, which I think is fine but nothing special. (I’m a little puzzled by its current popularity, to be honest. I have nothing against it, but for this kind of “rules-lite-ish, deadly, low magic” game, I regard Dragonbane to be a superior alternative. Nonetheless, unlike 5e D&D, I would be happy to try out Shadowdark some time. But enough of this tangent…)

I plan to get the omnibus. CAS’s short stories are available for free online (at Eldritch Dark). But it would be nice to have them all collected into a sturdy, attractive physical tome. I’m going to skip the RPG adaptations, but perhaps others might find them of interest. 

[Map by G. R. Hager. From Eldritch Dark.]

To Do List: Middle-earth and Greyhawk campaign notes; a new Lyonesse character

I’ve sadly neglected this blog over the past two months. But I have not been (entirely) idle – indeed, I’ve been quite busy running my two campaigns. 

[The Witch-King by Liz Danforth]

One of them – Against the Witch-King – wrapped up two weeks ago. Or more precisely, it’s now on hiatus. A suitably epic conclusion – an audience with King Arvedui of Arthedain, following the completion of many important tasks – has brought things to an end for the time being. But the campaign will resume nine years later in “game time” – after a (hopefully not as long) break in “real time.” The final session of the current part of the campaign took place in the spring of 1965 of the Third Age; the campaign will resume (after the break) in early 1974. The characters all accomplished what they set out to do (a year earlier in game time; over two years ago in real time). But, as those of you familiar with the history of Middle-earth likely know, things become a bit “intense” in Eriador in 1974! So, while I need a rest from running this campaign, I’m determined to resume it at some point to see how Angmar’s final assault plays out.

Depressingly, I’ve fallen far behind in my campaign logs for both of the campaigns that I’ve been running over the past two-plus years, and especially for my Middle-earth one. Instead of writing entries as detailed as the first two for the Against the Witch-King campaign (1 and 2), I’ll try to write a brief overview of what happened, something like what I did when I encountered a similar problem (falling hopelessly behind) in my earlier Middle-earth campaign.

I really don’t like leaving my campaign logs unfinished! Even a truncated summary of what happened in the adventures is better than just leaving it incomplete – for my own future recollection, if nothing else, although I hope that at least a few other people might find the logs interesting. 

This thought reminds me that I never finished the log for the Greyhawk Classics campaign that I ran a few years ago. While running that campaign made me realize that I rather dislike the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons system, the role-playing aspects of the campaign were nonetheless a lot of fun, and I really should explain how everything wrapped up – including why ultimately the characters never actually went into the Temple of Elemental Evil.

[A modified portion of Darlene's famous World of Greyhawk map.]

The Against the Witch-King group will soon be starting a new campaign, using the Lyonesse system and setting (the system is an adaptation of Mythras). I’m quite excited about this – not only because it’ll be nice to have the opportunity to be a player again (while still running my other campaign), but also because Jack Vance’s Lyonesse trilogy is one of my all-time favourites. I’m presently putting the final touches on a rather fun and intriguing character – a former apprentice of the dreadful wizard Tamurello. If you’re curious about the game, here is a brief interview with one of the authors (and my GM) Lawrence Whitaker. 

[The wizard Tamurello from the Lyonesse RPG book]

Vancian times ahead!