Crypts and Things Final Cover

Here it is:

Great work, as always, by Jon Hodgson!

Apparently the scene was inspired in part by this cover of Dark Horse’s The Savage Sword of Kull collection (a reprint of the Marvel Comics’ ‘Kull’ tales from the late 1970s and early 80s):

As always, more information on Crypts and Things can be found at Newt Newport’s blog, Sorcerer Under Mountain.

(FYI: Newt used my ‘Akratic Wizardry’ house rules in writing C&T. So, needless to say, I’m a huge supporter of this project!)

A Real Hobbit-Hole

There now exists a real 'hobbit house' in Wales (as reported in this article):

It looks rather nice and livable. And, at £3,000, surprisingly affordable!

The article refers to it as a 'hobbit house', but Tolkien fans will know that the proper English term is 'hobbit-hole', and that hobbits themselves refer to them as 'Smials' (widely believed to be one of the few words that they retained from their pre-Westron tongue).

Conan, Lecturer at Trinity College

I taught at Trinity College Dublin for three years. And although I was a lecturer in a different department, I am amazed that I did not encounter this remarkable academic during my time at that venerable institution!

Dr Conan T. Barbarian, B.A.(Cimmeria) Ph.D. (UCD). F.T.C.D.

Long Room Hub Associate Professor in Hyborian Studies and Tyrant Slaying.

Dr Conan T. Barbarian was ripped from his mother's womb on the corpse-strewn battlefields of his war-torn homeland, Cimmeria, and has been preparing for academic life ever since. A firm believer in the dictum that "that which does not kill us makes us stronger," he took time out to avenge the death of his parents following a sojourn pursuing his strong interest in Post-Colonial theory at the Sorbonne. In between, he spent several years tethered to the fearsome "Wheel of Pain", time which he now feels helped provide him with the mental discipline and sado-masochistic proclivities necessary to successfully tackle contemporary critical theory.

He completed his PhD, entitled "To Hear The Lamentation of Their Women: Constructions of Masculinity in Contemporary Zamoran Literature" at UCD and was appointed to the School of English in 2006, after successfully decapitating his predecessor during a bloody battle which will long be remembered in legend and song.

In 2011/12, he will be teaching on the following courses: "The Relevance of Crom in the Modern World", "Theories of Literature", "Vengeance for Beginners", "Deciphering the Riddle of Steel" and "D.H. Lawrence". He strongly objects to the terms of the Croke Park agreement and the current trend for remaking 1980s films that he believes were perfectly good enough in the first place.

He is happy to hear from potential research students with an interest of any of these topics, but applicants should note that anyone found guilty of academic misconduct or weakness in the face of the enemy will be crucified as an example to the others.

(Found on this [seemingly legitimate] webpage. It looks as though a practical joke had been played on the TCD English Department?)

In Praise of Erol Otus

Ranking my top five favourite fantasy role-playing artists of all time is a difficult endeavour. On any given day, any one of the five artists I’ve selected could be my ‘number one’.

Perhaps I should not have bothered with an attempt to ‘rank’ them at all? It certainly would’ve been simpler to declare them all to be my ‘five favourites’.

Nonetheless, given that I’ve started this ‘countdown’, I may as well continue with it. And so I declare my third favourite FRPG artist of all time to be the truly unique Erol Otus.

Here is the cover to the first issue of Dragon that I ever purchased:

Even after thirty years, I still find Otus’s cover to Tom Moldvay’s version of the Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set strangely evocative:

Otus’s pictures for the Cthulhu Mythos in the AD&D book Deities and Demigods forever shaped how I view H. P. Lovecraft’s alien, eldritch creations.

Here is Cthulhu himself (looking slightly hung-over, I think):

And a Shoggoth!

Also from Deities and Demigods, from the section on the Michael Moorcock’s world of Melniboné and the Young Kingdoms, is this picture of Elric’s great nemesis, the Pan Tangian sorcerer Theleb K’aarna:

Here is the creepy Mad Hermit from the classic module, “The Keep on the Borderlands” (B2):

(I wonder how many player characters, over the decades, have been ambushed by this unsavoury fellow’s pet cougar?)

No survey of Otus’s work would be complete without a picture of the seductive Queen of the Demonweb Pits, the Drow Goddess Lolth:

Here is one of Otus’s own player characters from the Rogues Gallery:

And finally, here is a very recent tribute to Gary Gygax:

Anyone interested in seeing more of Otus’s work should definitely check out Jeff Rients’ ‘Erol Otus Shrine’!

(FYI: my post on number 5, Russ Nicholson, is here, and my post on number 4, Pete Fenlon, is here.)

Clockwork and Chivalry Second Edition Cover

Quite Pretty!

(From here.)

Drunk Swedish Elk in Apple Tree

This story has absolutely nothing to do with FRPGs, but I found it too entertaining not to post here, if only to get this blog up and running again.

End of Summer 2011

It’s with some sadness that I note the approaching end of summer. I’ve been living in Toronto since January, thanks to a research grant that gave me one term of ‘teaching relief’ from my regular job ‘professing’ in Wisconsin. This enabled me to focus on writing a few academic articles.

(Why did I choose to do this in Toronto instead of Milwaukee? The main reason is that my partner, Jo-Anne, has a full-time job in Toronto. Yes, like many academics, I presently am trying to solve my own version of the ‘two-body problem’. Additional reasons for spending 8 months in Toronto include my old friends here, and the fact that I love this city, despite its warts.)

During the past eight months I’ve enjoyed some great gaming. I ran a sporadic but fun Call of Cthulhu campaign, set in 1923 Toronto. We only managed to complete three adventures (in four sessions), but I look forward to restarting it again in the future.

Of greater note is the epic Elric of Melniboné campaign that was ‘game-mastered’ by MRQII co-author Lawrence Whitaker. We met about 2-3 times per month since late January (although somewhat less frequently, unfortunately, in June and July). It was probably the greatest campaign in which I’ve ever played. Much to my relief, despite some difficult schedules over the summer, we managed to get a couple of thrilling sessions in during the last half of August, which brought the campaign to a pretty astonishing ‘holding point’. We all hope to continue the campaign, even if in order to do so we may have to play online. (Not only am I moving back to Milwaukee this week, but another player is moving to Paris in September. The gang is dispersing!)

I’m horribly far behind in the logs for both the ‘Cthulhu Canada’ and the ‘No Reason for Waking’ (Elric) campaigns. But I have good notes for both, and look forward to bringing them up to date during my gaming hiatus in September.

Since I’m about to move back to Milwaukee, and have to get ready for the autumn term, I doubt that I’ll have time to post anything new here for at least a week (possibly longer).

On an unrelated note, here is a picture of yours truly with the Wizard of Hope:

(While travelling through British Columbia during my vacation in July, Jo and I stopped in the charming town of Hope. There are numerous chainsaw woodcarvings throughout the town, and this one in particular appealed to me, for obvious reasons.)

Free Swords and Wizardry Downloads

Frog God Games kindly has made available a number of free downloads for the Swords and Wizardry FRPG here (go to the August 26^th, 2011 post, if the blog has been updated).

(Hat tip: Mythmere’s Blog.)

Conan the Insipid

Contrary to my earlier declaration, I ended up seeing Conan the Barbarian 3D.

One of my best friends was desperate to see it, and he wanted me to see it with him, as I am one of the few fellow fans of Robert E. Howard’s stories, and even the 1982 ‘non-Howardian’ John Milius film, that he knows. He went so far as to purchase my ticket. (I protested once we got to the ticket booth, but he insisted, no doubt dreading my future grumblings should I have spent my own money on a film that I didn’t really want to see. Not that I’m cheap or anything. Really! But I do tend to grumble a lot.)

As expected, the film was rubbish. The opening scene especially was awful. Fortunately, the rest of the film was not quite as bad, and there were a few fight scenes that I rather enjoyed (such as an early one with young Conan and a Pictish raiding party, and a later one in which Conan fights a number of magically-created ‘sand demons’). But overall, the story, to the extent that there was one, was insipid, and the dialogue often groan-worthy. It was not exactly worse than I expected, but then I had very low expectations!

Also grating was the 3D. I’m not a fan of 3D in general, and very much hope that its days are numbered (or at least that it becomes standard that 2D versions become available for all films). But the 3D for this film was especially bad. I often felt like I was watching the film through a muddy lens. This is a pity, since I think that some of the vistas might have been quite impressive, had they simply been filmed normally.

In short, the 24 percent ‘freshness’ rating at Rotten Tomatoes seems pretty spot on.

Despite my low opinion of the film, though, I can’t help but feel a bit sorry for the film’s ‘script doctor’, Sean Hood, given the thoughts he expresses in this post.

The OpenQuest ‘Renaissance’

An OpenQuest ‘Renaissance’ is coming soon!

No, I do not mean a ‘rebirth’ of interest in the OpenQuest FRPG (the game was only recently ‘born’!).

Rather, I refer to the new system that Cakebread and Walton will be publishing in December. The system, entitled simply ‘Renaissance’, is based upon OpenQuest, but has been adapted for Renaissance-era games.

Cakebread and Walton plan on using this system in order to re-launch their brilliant Clockwork and Chivalry setting, as well as to complete the C&C ‘Kingdom and Commonwealth’ campaign. Fortunately, for those who already have purchased the MRQII C&C books and/or who plan to continue to use MRQII for their games, Cakebread and Walton promise to make available helpful conversion documents.

Here is the full announcement:

Mud, Blood, Alchemy and Clockwork in a 17th Century That Never Was

1645: England has descended into civil war. Prince Rupert and his Alchemist-Cavaliers fight on behalf of their exiled king against the clockwork war machines of Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army. Between them, a host of political and religious factions struggle for survival.

First launched to critical acclaim as a series of supplements for RuneQuest II (“The best British fantasy setting since WFRP 1st edition” said Newt Newport), Clockwork & Chivalry now returns in a standalone 2nd edition featuring the new Renaissance rules, a D100 open gaming system based on OpenQuest and compatible with 1st edition supplements. Fast, brutal, and geared up to a world of black-powder weapons and political machinations, the new rules will also be the bedrock of a series of RPGs forthcoming from Cakebread & Walton: Purveyors of Fine Imaginings.

Alchemists, diggers, dragons, engineers, mercenaries, puritans, ranters, royalists, satanists, thieves, witches, zombies... which side are you on?

***

As many of you probably know, Mongoose Publishing will cease to support the RuneQuest II license in the autumn, and this has left us with a big decision to make regarding the future of Clockwork & Chivalry. Giving up on the line was never an option – we were determined to finish the Kingdom & Commonwealth Campaign, and have other ideas we want to develop for the game world. At the same time, we value our autonomy as a small independent games company. The new Renaissance system will be based on OpenQuest and will aim to be as compatible as possible with existing C&C supplements. At the same time, this rule-set, stripped of the C&C background but incorporating some of the rules (such as Righteousness Points and Factions) will be released under an Open Gaming License as a free download. The rules will be aimed squarely at role-playing in the age of black powder weapons. The creation of Renaissance will give Cakebread & Walton a solid rules set for the development of further games in the future, as well as allowing others to use it in their own games under the terms of the OGL.

Once Clockwork & Chivalry 2nd Edition is released, we'll be re-issuing the first 4 parts of the Kingdom & Commonwealth campaign with minor tweaks to fit the new rules, and then the last two books in the campaign, Hobbes: Leviathan and London Calling. We'll also release a small conversion document so that those playing C&C with the existing RuneQuest II Core Rulebook need not change rules to finish the campaign.

C&C2, a 400 page core rulebook including all the rules you need to play as well as all the background in the original worldbook and then some, will be out in December. The other revised volumes and new C&C2 supplements are to follow in 2012. As usual, our games will be distributed by Cubicle 7 Entertainment and will be available from all good game stores!

It’s good to see that Clockwork & Chivalry will continue, that the Renaissance FRPG will enable Cakebread and Walton to be ‘masters of their own domain’, so to speak, and that OpenQuest will enjoy some excellent support!