Terry Amthor RIP

At this blog I recently praised Terry Amthor’s amazing campaign module, The Court of Ardor. That module is one of my all-time favourites. While set in Middle-earth, it has a distinctive (not-really-Tolkien-ish) character, and hence I think is better treated as an independent setting. In any case, it’s really quite an amazing work, one bursting with ideas and creativity. After reading it in the mid-1980s, it forever influenced how I designed fantasy campaign settings, including especially evil ‘secret’ organizations. It inspired me in countless ways over the years, and I borrowed heavily from it in many of my games, even though I never ran it myself (although that is something I hope to correct someday).

 

 

 

While Ardor is Amthor’s work that most affected me, I also was greatly impressed by his Shadow World fantasy setting, and especially his campaign module, Jaiman: Land of Twilight. In many ways, Jaiman captured much of the same spirit, ethos, and energy that had infused Ardor. Like its predecessor, Jaiman included a detailed history with elaborate and distinctive organizations. It also featured a grand campaign that would enable the characters potentially to shape the history of the continent. Over the subsequent years, I purchased the additional material that Amthor published for the continent of Jaiman, and drew inspiration from it (even though, like Ardor, I never used the setting in my own games).

 

I also greatly appreciated Amthor’s other Middle-earth books, such as Rivendell and Lórien & The Halls of the Elven Smiths (Amthor was quite a fan of elves!), and his contributions to Rolemaster. I played his solo “Middle-earth Quest” book A Spy in Isengard a couple of times and greatly enjoyed it.

 

[Angus McBride's amazing cover for ICE's Rivendell]

 

Overall, Terry Amthor was one of the role-playing authors who most inspired and influenced me over the past four decades. (I’ve only mentioned his contributions with which I am familiar here. He did a lot more, as summarized by his Wikipedia profile.)

 

So, I was quite saddened to learn recently that Amthor had passed away. I don’t know exactly when, but the announcement from Iron Crown Enterprises was published on October 1^st. I almost can’t believe it, given his age (only 62), and my complacent assumption that additional Shadow World material would appear every so often indefinitely into the future.

 

Rest in peace, Loremaster Amthor.

 

Not the Sons of Fëanor again!

I've been busy with the damnable 'real world' of late (hence the scarcer-than-usual blogging here in recent months). But I would be unforgivably negligent if I did not mention this recent New York Times story: "After Mudslides and Flooding in Iceland, Elves Are Suspects."

I have a few things I'd like to write about once I get over my current pile of work and forthcoming journeys. Among them: Some thoughts on The Children of Hurin (and a couple of other novels I've read recently), the new revised Crypts and Things, some Mythras updates, some notes on my recent Call of Cthulhu (7th edition) campaign, and some further thoughts on the new Middle-earth supplement for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition.

Also, I'm planning to revamp this blog sometime soonish (among other things, I'll be revising the links, blogroll, and so forth).

So, gentle readers, I promise to be back with further musings at the end of the month!

Non-Hippy Wood-Elves

I remember purchasing this excellent ICE campaign module ~30 years ago. (By Eru I'm old!)

It is one of my favourite RPG books of all time (although I have long since lost the original book, and now only own a much later, heavily revised version from ~1990). It provided a wonderful 'sandbox' campaign setting, with sketchy information on the Withered Heath, the Lonely Mountain, Dale, Laketown, the Wood-elf realm, and so forth. I loved its presentation of a region in which player characters could do whatever they liked (for good or ill!).

And one thing that I especially dig about this cover image (which is one of my favourites from ICE's early Middle-earth line) is that it shows wood-elves to be rather tough chaps. They're no hippy tree-huggers, but instead rugged fellows who know how to kill a giant spider or two, when necessary.

I always liked the portrayal of wood-elves in The Hobbit as somewhat dangerous, not exactly 'good', woodland hedonists. If I ever use elves again in a campaign setting, I think that this picture sums up how I would imagine them.