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!

Maps!

A noteworthy recent article from The Onion: “Grown Man Refers To Map At Beginning Of Novel To Find Out Where Ruined Castle Of Arnoth Is Located.” (Um… what’s so funny about that?)

On a more serious note, I very much doubt that I would have become as enthralled with fantasy fiction and role-playing games were it not for maps. I love them!

Professor Tolkien’s maps of Middle-earth inflamed my imagination as a young lad reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings almost as much as the stories themselves. When I listed my top five favourite fantasy artists of all time in this blog, number four was Pete Fenlon, simply because of his wonderful maps for ICE’s Middle-earth line during the 1980s. Here is one sample:

This map of the ‘Young Kingdoms’ made the world of Elric feel alive and exciting to me when I read Michael Moorcock’s novels as a teenager:

Here is the (somewhat superior) version of that map included in the Stormbringer RPG:

One of my favourite contemporary fantasy writers is Joe Abercrombie. His ‘First Law’ novels are superb. But something that vexed me greatly about the original trilogy was the lack of any maps. I vaguely recall that Abercrombie gave some half-baked rationalization for not including maps, but thankfully he subsequently has relented on this matter. The short story collection Sharp Ends provides readers—finally!—with an ‘official’ map of the ‘First Law’ world.

Maps: they exist for a reason people!

Middle-earth from SPACE

These pictures, taken by the Gondorian satellite "Elbereth" in the year 2014 (Fourth Age), are rather cool.

Where in the Young Kingdoms is Nassea-Tiki?

I’m reading the final ‘Elric’ story written by Michael Moorcock (well, the final one so far; hopefully we’ll get a few more!). It’s called ‘Black Petals’, and is included in the sixth volume of the recent Del Rey series of Elric tales, entitled Swords and Roses. (I’ve read the other five volumes over the past several months, and hope to summarize my impressions once I finish this one and have some time.)

The story, which was written in 2007, mentions a few places that have not been mentioned in any earlier Elric stories (to my knowledge), are not shown on any existing maps of the Young Kingdoms, and are not mentioned in the most recent RPG game based upon the series (MRQII’s ‘Elric of Melniboné, by Lawrence Whitaker).

These places include the bustling port-city of ‘Nassea-Tiki’ and the ruined city of ‘Soom’. Apparently ‘Soom’ lies upriver, deep in a jungle, from the coastal city of Nassea-Tiki. Moreover, Nassea-Tiki, while some distance from the Young Kingdoms detailed in Moorcock’s stories, clearly has extensive trade relations with those realms. Neither city, though, was ever ruled by the Bright Empire.

Since this story is so recent, I certainly cannot fault Lawrence for not including it in Elric of Melniboné (which is remarkably comprehensive). And it is obvious why Nassea-Tiki and Soom would do not appear on any maps yet produced.

I’m curious, though, as to where in the Young Kingdoms Nassea-Tiki could plausibly be located. Looking at the Young Kingdoms map, and taking into account that the city is adjacent to a jungle, and that Soom lies ‘upriver’ (inland), I have no idea!

The ‘Unknown East’ clearly is ruled out by the large number of merchants from the Young Kingdoms present in Nassea-Tiki. The northeast continent looks impossible (no jungles, etc.). The southeast continent looks implausible, although I suppose that the city might be located south of Yu or (less plausibly) south of Dorel. That leaves the northwest continent, west of The Silent Lands, or somewhere on the southwest continent.

The southwest continent looks most promising, as it’s covered with jungle. But the presence of a major port city there would seem to conflict with Moorcock’s earlier descriptions of that continent. But perhaps it should simply be ‘retconned’ there?

Finally, I should mention that I actually haven’t finished reading the story, so perhaps I’ll discover the answer soon enough…

UPDATE: I finished the story last night. A very good read, but I still have no idea where it could possibly be located...

My Top 5 FRPG Artists – Number 4 – Peter Fenlon

I started a countdown of my ‘top-5’ FRPG artists in May, with Russ Nicholson at #5. Unfortunately, I subsequently dropped the ball on this series. Time to change that!

So here is some work from my fourth all-time favourite FRPG artist, Peter Fenlon.

Yes, Fenlon’s works are maps – specifically, maps from ICE’s Middle-earth campaign modules. Yet they also are works of art. I believe that they do an excellent job in capturing the ‘spirit’ or ‘ethos’ of Tolkien’s creation (even if other aspects of ICE’s Middle-earth series failed to do so).

This is an ‘artist’s interpretation’ of the continent of Endor, of which only the north-western corner will be familiar to readers of Tolkien’s works. The entire map is beautiful, and the ‘unexplored’ areas to the east and south really helped to fire my imagination as a young lad.

Here is a close-up of North-western Middle-earth, the regions famously covered in Tolkien’s novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Here is a map that depicts the region around Bree, including Fornost Erain and part of the Shire. Like all of the ‘detailed’ Middle-earth maps, the scale is 1 inch = 20 miles. I loved that all of ICE’s detailed maps fitted together in order to create an amazing, massive, and beautiful map of Middle-earth!

And here is one of the earliest maps for ICE’s Middle-earth series (I believe that Umbar was either the first or second to be published). It depicts the bay around the city of Umbar, Haven of the Corsairs.

Well, that’s it for this instalment of this series. I hope to post the work of my #3 favourite FRPG artist sometime in August.

(Oh yes, if you are interested in maps of parts of Middle-earth, I should mention that Daniel Cruger has made some of his own superb work for ICE from the mid-1990s available at his blog ‘Tales from the Tower’!)

Evocative MERP City Maps

I’m thrilled that Daniel Cruger has started up a blog, Tales from the Tower, where one can find many of the excellent layouts (cities, fortresses, and similar things) that Dan did for ICE’s Middle-earth line of products during the 1990s.

Below is the layout for the city Osgiliath from the magnificent Kin-Strife campaign module (published in 1995).

Many other layouts from the Kin-Strife can be found here.

Not only are these layouts great for Middle-earth campaigns, but they could easily be used with other fantasy settings as well.

I’m looking forward to future posts of Dan’s work over at Tales from the Tower!

Maps of Elric's Young Kindgoms

As I’ve mentioned in at least one earlier post, I’m a huge fan of maps, and especially fantasy maps. I hope that some of you enjoy looking at them as well.

Here are some different maps of Michael Moorcock’s Young Kingdoms world, as described in his various Elric and Rakhir stories.

This map is by Phillipe Druillet

This map, by John Collier and Walter Romanski, was included in some of the Daw editions the Elric stories.

The classical William Church map that appeared in Chaosium's RPG Stormrbinger (editions 1-4).

A map by John Collier (an update of the version found in the DAW books).

Finally, this very pretty French colour map by an unknown artist.

All of the maps posted here were found in this part of the 'Moorcock's Miscellany' website.