Jennell Jaquays RIP

It was announced over at the RPG Pub that the legendary adventure designer Jennell Jaquays has passed away.

Perhaps I'm somewhat unusual in this respect within the online ‘grognard’ community, but while I missed her early classic adventures (Caverns of Thracia, Griffin Mountain, Dark Tower, etc.), I was quite familiar with Jaquay’s illustrations for Iron Crown Enterprise’s old Shadow World (Rolemaster) products (as well as the ‘Nehwon Mythos’ pictures in the 1st edition AD&D Deities and Demigods). Indeed, I associate her artwork with my favourite book in the Shadow World series, Terry Amthor’s epic Jaiman: Land of Twilight. (Amthor is another recently deceased RPG legend.)

Here's the picture of the creepy "darklord" of Jaiman: “Lorgalis ‘the White’” (any resemblance to a certain Melnibonéan sorcerer-emperor is purely coincidental, I’m sure):

The Throne of the Dragon Lord:

And one of the ‘good guys’ – a rather unusual Loremaster:

Later (during 2000s) I picked up Thracia (the 3e version, and the PDF of the original) and some other classic things by Jaquays. I should be getting Goodman Games’ revamped version of Dark Tower (to which Jaquays contributed some new material, I believe) sometime later this year.

RIP.

Erol Otus cover of Dragon Magazine now on my wall

I'm thrilled that I now have a framed print of the cover illustration by Erol Otus of the very first Dragon magazine that I ever owned (issue # 55) hanging on my wall:

The print is number 99 (out of 200) and signed Otus.

The original magazine cover:

The corner of my study:

Russ Nicholson RIP

Some sad news: the amazing artist Russ Nicholson has passed away. 

Nicholson probably is best known for his art in the Fiend Folio (1e AD&D), as well as his work in many of the classic “Fighting Fantasy” gamebooks, including the first one, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. 

Fellow fans of Mythras may recognize his work from Monster Isle. 

One brilliantly disturbing example:

Back in 2011, I identified Nicholson as my 5th favourite FRPG artist of all time – and Nicholson was kind enough to post a “thank you” comment.

Many great works by Nicholson can found at his blog, The Gallery: Art of Russ Nicholson. (All of the illustrations in this post, except for the one of the Githyanki [which is from my PDF of the Fiend Folio], were taken from Nicholson's blog.)

RIP.

Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript

As a huge Middle-earth fan, I was delighted to have seen this excellent exhibit – “J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript” – today at Marquette University.

I thought that I had already seen it before in Oxford in 2018, but it turned out that this exhibit was somewhat different. The one at Oxford had a lot more of Tolkien’s artwork, as well as numerous biographical documents and photographs, whereas this one (unsurprisingly, given its title) focused more on Tolkien’s calligraphy, early drafts, and manuscripts. Nonetheless, there was some overlap in the two exhibits (the Bodleian Library had drawn on the Marquette collection and vice versa). And there were a few pieces of Tolkien’s beautiful art on display (including the troll hill above -- I quite like Tolkien's line work!).

 

The high point for me was the opportunity to see Tolkien’s original timeline “story board” for The Lord of the Rings – i.e., several pages which follow the days covered throughout the trilogy, broken down at points by character/group (e.g., “Gandalf”, “Sam and Frodo”, “Saruman”, etc.). It was cool to see the events and revisions written in the professor’s own hand. Also on display were Tolkien’s notes on the “stride” of hobbits, as he wanted to calculate how far they could travel in a given day in order to ensure that their journey times were plausible.

 

I also found it interesting to learn that Tolkien’s concern with carefully drawn maps – maps that clearly (if perhaps unrealistically) identify important landmarks – likely originated in his work as an army signals officer during the First World War. There was a copy of the manual he used during that time on display.

 

Now you might be wondering why this exhibit is at Marquette University of all places. It turns out that shortly after the publication of The Lord of the Rings the university’s new library director (William Ready) managed to purchase for the university the manuscripts of three of Tolkien’s published works of fiction: The Hobbit, Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Lord of the Rings. The manuscripts arrived in Milwaukee over the course of two years after the purchase, and were later supplemented with additional materials sent to Marquette from 1987-1997 by Christopher Tolkien.  They are now in the “J.R.R. Tolkien Collection” at the university.

 

[Tolkien created a number of images of the final page of The Book of Mazarbul.

However, the publisher declined them as they would be too difficult to print.]

 

Forthcoming Númenor book and some thoughts on the Second Age of Middle-earth

 

I’ve always found the Second Age of Middle-earth intriguing. One reason is that, unlike the First and Third Ages, it is not a period during which any of Tolkien’s primary stories occur, and hence remains somewhat mysterious. Unlike the First Age, human civilization matures during this time and becomes more than a mere imitation of that of the Elves. Also, unlike the Third Age, it’s not a kind of twilight era of slow decline: human civilization reaches its peak with Númenor, and even after its fall its successor kingdoms Gondor and Arnor successfully secure a future for the most virtuous survivors of the lost island realm. In addition, during the Second Age there remains vital, active, and important Elvish realms (Lindon and Eregion in particular).

 

The Age’s overarching themes of time and mortality greatly appeal to me as well. The latter theme can be seen most vividly in the rise and corruption of Númenor. The fall of the mighty kingdom, its turning away from the Valar and the Eldar, is primarily because of the Númenoreans’ bitterness with respect to the “curse” of mortality. This theme also appears in the temptation that the nine rings of power have for mortal men. Time afflicts the ageless First Born as well. It is during the Second Age that Elvish efforts are made to render the realms in which they dwell as timeless as themselves – indeed, such power was a primary motivation for the three rings of power forged by Celebrimbor.

 

Finally, Sauron is a rather intriguing antagonist during most of the Second Age. He’s a fair deceiver – “Annatar,” the Lord of Gifts – capable of fooling both men and (some) elves, rather than simply the hideous powerful creature he becomes following the fall of Númenor.

 

For these reasons (among others) I’ve long thought that the Second Age would make an excellent role-playing setting. It’s “open” enough to give game masters a lot of room to create new stories and adventures – especially on the main continent, outside of the western Elvish realms – but nonetheless firmly embedded in the amazingly rich history and mythology of Middle-earth.

 

So, when I first learned that the forthcoming television series (Amazon’s “Rings of Power”) would be set during the Second Age, I was cautiously excited. Alas, my excitement has cooled quite a bit. But it looks like we’ll be getting a new book – The Fall of Númenor – this fall, probably because of the series. (I suspect that the publishers were at least in part motivated to produce and release this book with the event of the Amazon series.)

 

Here's the blurb (taken from the Tolkien FB page):

We are proud to announce the publication in November 2022 of The Fall of Númenor by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by writer and Tolkien expert, Brian Sibley, and illustrated by acclaimed artist, Alan Lee. Now available to pre-order: https://smarturl.it/TheFallofNumenor

 

Presenting for the first time in one volume the events of the Second Age as written by J.R.R. Tolkien and originally and masterfully edited for publication by Christopher Tolkien, this new volume will include pencil drawings and colour paintings by Alan Lee, who also illustrated The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and went on to win an Academy Award for his work on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien famously described the Second Age of Middle-earth as a ‘dark age, and not very much of its history is (or need be) told’. And for many years readers would need to be content with the tantalizing glimpses of it found within the pages of The Lord of the Rings and its appendices.

 

It was not until Christopher Tolkien presented The Silmarillion for publication in 1977 that a fuller story could be told for, though much of its content concerned the First Age of Middle-earth, there were at its close two key works that revealed the tumultuous events concerning the rise and fall of the island-kingdom of Númenor, the Forging of the Rings of Power, the building of the Barad-dûr and the rise of Sauron, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.

 

Christopher Tolkien provided even greater insight into the Second Age in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth in 1980, and expanded upon this in his magisterial 12-volume History of Middle-earth, in which he presented and discussed a wealth of further tales written by his father, many in draft form.

 

Now, using ‘The Tale of Years’ in The Lord of the Rings as a starting point, Brian Sibley has assembled from the various published texts in a way that tells for the very first time in one volume the tale of the Second Age of Middle-earth, whose events would ultimately lead to the Third Age, and the War of the Ring, as told in The Lord of the Rings. 

Despite the possibly mercenary motivation for producing this book, it should be a solid scholarly work. It’ll be great to have the history of the Second Age presented in a coherent unified single work. And I’m always happy to see more of Alan Lee’s artwork!

MERP resurrected? Against the Darkmaster!

MERP (Middle-earth Role-playing) by ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises) is one of my favourite games of all time. It was the second game I played regularly (after D&D/AD&D). I must have spent 50% of my spare time during the mid- to late-1980s reading, thinking about, and playing MERP. I feel much the same nostalgia for the MERP core book and some early campaign books that I do for the first edition AD&D manuals and classic Gygax modules. 

[Chris Achilleos's rather "metal" cover for the 1985 UK edition of MERP.]

I fondly recall running an extensive campaign set during the early Fourth Age that involved the characters journeying to the far north—the Bay of Forochel—in order to recover the lost Palantíri of Arthedain. One of the characters was the son of Eowyn and Faramir, another the son of Samwise Gamgee. I made a lot of mistakes in running that campaign (in my defence, I was only a teenager). But I learned as it went on, and I think everyone had a great time. (This campaign was based upon a brief outline included in the Rangers of the North campaign book. Most of that book focused on Arthedain in the middle of the Third Age, around 1640, when it was the last kingdom of the north standing against the dark realm of Angmar and its Witch-King. However, the book did include some suggestions for adventurers during different eras, including a couple for the early Fourth Age. The adventure outline later would be developed by ICE into 1994’s epic Palantír Quest.) 

Over time I developed something like 600 years of history for the Fourth Age for my various MERP adventures. (I did not like the default 1640-1700 Third Age setting at the time, as I didn’t like the idea that my games would be bound by a particular “future history.” These days such a thing would not bother me at all, although I still think that that era is too unfamiliar to fans of The Lord of the Rings, as, for instance, Rohan does not exist yet and Moria has not fallen to the Balrog. The choice by the designers of The One Ring and Adventures in Middle-earth to set their adventures in the period between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings makes more sense in this respect. But I digress…)

I loved the ICE campaign and adventure modules—even the ones like The Court of Ardor and Greater Harad that strayed away from Tolkien’s Middle-earth, both geographically and thematically. In fact, I was fascinated by the ways in which ICE’s writers developed Middle-earth beyond the areas described by Tolkien. Even as a teenager, though, I could tell that some of these developments were not fully consistent—in either detail or spirit—with Tolkien’s writings. Nonetheless, I didn’t care that much, as the material (usually) was cool, exciting, and full of flavour. Ardor in particular remains a favourite. (If I were to use it today, though, I would sever it from Middle-earth and place it in its own setting.)

The Peter Fenlon maps and Angus McBride covers were pure magic as well. I love them to this day—indeed, I rank Fenlon and McBride among my favourite FRPG artists of all time.

The system, for the most part, was not crafted to emulate Tolkien’s world. It was a simplified version of Rolemaster (RM), a version that, I think, kept what was good about the RM system (namely, its critical hit and fumble charts, and its novel—for the time—combined character class, level, and skill system) while helpfully streamlining the system overall. Eventually the game’s designer, S. Coleman Charlton, added a couple of subsystems to try to rein in MERP’s magic system (namely, a system for determining whether Sauron or his minions detect the use of powerful magic by the characters, and a ‘corruption’ system for the misuse of magic). These subsystems were meant to encourage keeping the use of “flashy” magic (e.g., fire bolts and the like) rare, and thus more closely resemble the way in which magic is portrayed in Tolkien’s books. I doubt that many groups in fact used these rules (we didn’t). Overall, the MERP rules were, I think, a poor fit for Middle-earth in many respects, magic in particular. But casting spells was fun, and we didn’t care that we were playing a rather D&D-ish game in an ersatz Endor. 

In short, despite its various shortcomings, I was—and remain—quite fond of the MERP system. It was a faster, more playable—and I think more fun—version of Rolemaster. 

Over the past dozen years or so, with the rise of “retro-clones” and “quasi-clones” for various editions of D&D and AD&D (and other games), including the quasi-clone Crypts and Things, I had been wondering about the feasibility of a “quasi-clone” of MERP. Just over a decade ago ICE produced something kind of like this with Rolemaster Express (RMX). However, RMX disappeared for some reason when ICE changed ownership, and it wasn’t really MERP in any case (but rather a very stripped-down version of second edition or “Classic” Rolemaster).  

[Against the Darkmaster's awesome cover.]

Now there is Against the Darkmaster (VsD for short). This game is clearly inspired by, and draws heavily on, MERP. But it’s not a retro-clone (i.e., it’s not the MERP version of OSRIC). Rather it’s what I would call a quasi-clone (a game that draws heavily on an earlier one, and retains broad compatibility with its predecessor, but also deviates from it in some important ways). VsD looks like it’s compatible with MERP, in the sense that it should not be difficult to use MERP material with the system. But VsD introduces some new elements. For instance, VsD separates “races” from “cultures”: both humans and halflings, for instance, can have the “pastoral” or “urban” backgrounds. These elements of characters were not distinguished in MERP. 

It goes without saying that VsD is stripped of any specific references to Tolkien’s Middle-earth. It is easy to find equivalent races and cultures, though, if you want to use the game in that setting, say, if you want to use VsD with some of ICE’s old MERP campaign and adventure modules. Dúnedain Rangers of the North, for instance, would be High Men with the “Weald” culture (or perhaps the “Fey” culture for those raised in Rivendell).   

I’m very impressed that the Against the Darkmaster core book includes a small setting and set of connected adventures—an entire mini-campaign—called “Shadows of the Northern Woods” (almost 50 pages of material). Running these adventures could easily take a group 10+ sessions. I think it’s important for games to include starter adventures, as they provide an easy way for groups to test out new systems. But to include a small but rich setting with three adventures is exemplary. The plot of the campaign also strikes me as quite intriguing. I’d love to run “Shadows” sometime. 

The book is incredibly thick (565 pages!). The rules strike me as well considered and potentially a lot of fun (although I’ll need to go through them more carefully once I find the time). The MERP foundation is clearly there, but with many interesting refinements and improvements. VsD fixes some of the main problems with the MERP system, I think, while keeping all the good stuff (critical hits, the solid class-with-skills system, the core d100 'higher-is-always-better' mechanic, etc.), and making the system setting-neutral. It adds options while at the same time making the system overall more coherent and straightforward. It’s an impressive accomplishment!

The art is top notch as well (though not quite McBride caliber, of course).

[A couple of "Noldor" ... er, "Star Elves."]

In short, my impression of Against the Darkmaster is very positive. This may be my favourite new FRPG since Mythras!

[Angus McBride's original cover for MERP. Note the family resemblance?] 

The Court of Ardor

One of my favourite campaign modules of all time is The Court of Ardor by Terry K. Amthor.

 

Ardor is set in southern Middle-earth. But the region – and especially the malevolent Court itself – does not fit well in that world. The background to the Court does refer to the roles of Morgoth and Ungoliant in poisoning the Two Trees of Valinor, Laurelin and Telperion, and the subsequent creation of the sun and moon by the Valar. These connections, though, fail to overcome the stark differences in tone between the module’s setting and Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The Court is a secret society of powerful magic-users (astrologers, sorcerers, mentalists, and the like); even the non-spell-casting members of the Court have access to powerful magic items. The magic system of Rolemaster simply does not work well for Middle-earth. Moreover, Amthor’s treatment of elves in this book is quite “un-Tolkien” in nature. (The themes of the setting, I think, anticipate Amthor’s later creation, Shadow World, with its secretive organizations of extremely powerful immortals.)

 

Its “non-Middle-earth” character aside, though, The Court of Ardor is a great fantasy setting. Indeed, it has been a wish of mine to use this module for a campaign for over three decades now. I would relocate it to a different world if I were to do so – specifically, I would embed it in a ‘homebrew’ fantasy setting inspired more by Michael Moorcock and Jack Vance than Tolkien. I probably also would change certain elements of the setting, in particular, the overarching aim of the Court, as well as aspects of some of the cultures and peoples.

 

The module focuses on the activities of the shadowy Court of Ardor, an organization of extremely powerful elves who are plotting something … both terrible and awesome. (I won’t say what here. What I’m about to write is mildly spoiler-ish, so skip down past the rest of this paragraph if you don’t want that.) The members of the Court all possess a magical deck of cards that portray their compatriots, and which enable them to communicate with each other. (Amthor confirmed in an interview decades later that this was inspired by the cards in Roger Zelazny’s “Amber” novels.) The deck of magical communication cards is quite cool – but, as I mentioned above, not exactly “Tolkien-esque” in nature.

 

Charles Peale’s illustrations of some of the members of the Court are – appropriately – in the style of cards:

 

There is only one illustration in the module that does not depict a member of the Court. It is of the bard “Klaen” – one of the few “good guys” in the region described in the module. It also is the only illustration not by Peale, but rather by Amthor:

 

Finally, like most of ICE’s Middle-earth modules, there is an amazing map by Peter Fenlon:

 

Hmmm… Perhaps I should use (a heavily modified version of) The Court of Ardor for a future Against the Darkmaster campaign…

 

(I had planned to write up this post weeks ago, shortly after my initial post on Peale’s artwork for ICE, but alas the end of the spring term overwhelmed me. Hopefully my blogging will pick up somewhat over the next few months.)

Charles Peale – the fantasy artist

This is a post about the artist Charles Peale – no, not this guy! Rather, the artist who did a lot of the early interior black-and-white illustrations for Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE).

 

During its heyday of the 1980s and early 1990s, ICE boasted some excellent art. I’ve praised the amazing maps by Peter Fenlon here before, as well as the inspiring colour covers by Angus McBride.

 

Reading through the new fantasy role-playing game (a kind-of-but-not-exactly-MERP-clone) Against the Darkmaster (VsD), I felt compelled to look through some of my old MERP campaign and adventure modules. (Yes, despite having loads of work to do, I wasted some time daydreaming about someday running a VsD campaign employing these classic works.)  

 

Looking through these old books I was reminded of my fondness for Peale’s work. I really loved his line work, the ‘clean’ aesthetics of his pictures, and always wondered why ICE stopped using his material. ICE eventually switched to Liz Danforth for most of their interior art. While I like Danforth’s work well enough, I prefer Peale’s overall – there is, in my view, something ‘artificial’ or ‘stiff’ about the poses of Dansforth’s figures.

 

Anyhow, since I suspect that many people who occasionally visit this blog might be unfamiliar with Peale’s work, I thought that I would post some of his pictures here. It would be great if his work could be appreciated by a wider audience.

 

Here are some pictures from the Middle-earth modules Mirkwood, Isengard, Bree, and Cirith Ungol:

 

[Astrith -- a.k.a. the "Green Asp" -- of Calenhardon]

 

[Treachery in Cirith Ungol]

 

[Beorn in Southern Mirkwood]  

 

[Caline Halfelven of Cirith Ungol]

[Dwarves hiding from a giant spider in Northern Mirkwood]

[An orc follower of the Necromancer in Southern Mirkwood]

[Townsfolk of Bree]

[Saruman and Wormtongue in Isengard]

I will post some art that Peale did for the amazing campaign module The Court of Ardor later this week.

Past visions of the future: Germany 1930

I’ve always been fascinated by how people in the past envisioned the future. (Here’s a post from 2015 on how some 19th Century French artists thought life would be like in 2000.)

So I was delighted to stumble upon this article: “Wonderful Futuristic Visions of Germany By Artists In 1930.”

The pictures are all quite delightful, but this one struck me as especially prophetic:

Here is the caption:

Wireless Private Phone and Television.
Everyone now has their own transmitter and receiver and can communicate with friends and relatives. But the television technology has also improved so much that people can speak to each other in real time. Transmitters and receivers are no longer bound to their location, but are always placed in a box of the size of a camera.

These optimistic visions of the future are especially poignant given the hell into which Germany would descend in only a few years.

Conan wanders through Canada

By Crom! This is brilliant: artist Kris Friesen has inserted Conan (the Cimmerian with mighty thews) into a number of murals throughout western Canada (especially Edmonton).

Here’s the barbarian slurping noodles in ancient Khitai, er, I mean China:

And here is Conan—perhaps repenting for his previous praise for hearing the ‘lamentations of the women’—marching in a women’s rights march:

Finally, here he is being splashed in a pool:

I suspect that that mustachioed hipster will soon regret his action…

Tolkien exhibit at Oxford

If you're a fan of Middle-earth, and you can manage a trip to Oxford between the 1st of June and the 28th of October, you should check out this exhibit: 'Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth'. It looks amazing.

I lived in Oxford for two years over two decades ago (1992-94). Strangely, I have not be back since, even though my time there greatly influenced me and shaped the course of my subsequent life. Needless to say, this exhibit sorely tempts me to return. Happily, there is a chance I'll be in England in September. If that works out, I'll definitely try to go to this exhibit ... as well as check out some of my old haunts.

Music-Movie-Fantasy Crossover Images

Over the years I’ve acquired a few cool ‘nerd’ shirts and hoodies (or at least I think they’re cool; my wife seems to disagree). For the most part, the image on one of these shirts is drawn from a single source. Examples in my collection include the two-headed snake image of ‘Thulsa Doom’ from the original Conan film, and the ‘White Tree of Gondor’ symbol from The Lord of the Rings. Some mock the ubiquitous ‘university’ promotion shirts. For instance, I have a few ‘Miskatonic University’ ones (e.g., ‘Go Pods!’, ‘Miskatonic Metaphysics Faculty Member’, ‘Miskatonic University 1930 Antarctic Expedition’, etc.) and one ‘Mordor University’ shirt (I like to tell my students that the graduate program there has a terrible attrition rate).

But probably the most unusual shirt that I own is this mash-up of the movies Reservoir Dogs and The Lord of the Rings:

(From left-to right: Sauron [notice the ring!], the Balrog of Moria, the Witch-king of Angmar, the Mouth of Sauron, a Nazgûl [Khamûl?], and Saruman.) 

I also have a shirt with an image that tweaks the cover of Joy Division’s classic Unknown Pleasures album to include Barad-dûr:

But probably the most unusual mash-up I’ve ever encountered is this one:

Wow. So there is a market for Leonard Cohen - Game of Thrones crossover fan merchandise. (“First we take King’s Landing, then we take Berlin…”) That … is unexpected. 

Pity the shirt is so damn ugly (I couldn’t bring myself to get one).

Ancient black dragon uncovered

Last summer, while visiting my parents, I uncovered some old fantasy pictures that I had composed while a young lad (ages 11-15). These were inspired primarily by my Advanced Dungeons & Dragons activities during those halcyon years.

My favourite is the ‘Dragon Slayers’ picture (which I posted almost a year ago). And here are a couple of (far less cool) paladins.

Inspired by last night’s epic episode of Game of Thrones, I thought that I would post this picture of a black dragon today:

As you can see from the signature, this was composed in 1984. I'm not sure why I never finished colouring the wings...

Hydra versus Kali

It might not be beloved within the art world -- as this hilarious review at Art News makes clear -- but this statue by Damien Hirst, "Hydra and Kali," is pretty epic:

This one, "Andromeda and the Sea Monster," is rather 'metal' as well:

Check out the creepy spiders on the back of Andromeda's stone: