Buxom Elven Wenches May Be Included |
Death Frog Doom |
Buxom Elven Wenches May Be Included |
Death Frog Doom |
Benighted Betrothal (2023)
by Sandor Gebei
Published by the Melsonian Arts Council
Level 3
Dubbed “a viking soap opera”, this is a small sandbox adventure describing the general area of a small northern village beset by inner conflicts, ancient curses, and mysterious locales in the wilderness. A wedding is being planned to unite to rival viking clans, others (potentially including the player characters) are planning to disrupt it, and things are set up to go astray in a dozen interesting ways. The module is mainly a toolkit to run these calamities: the soap opera aspect comes from the complicated web of personal enmities, obligations, and relationships which make the situation so unstable.
This is a slim, small 40-page hardcover with generous production values and just as generous empty space. References and summaries are provided, stretched to take up multiple pages with illustrations. For instance, there is a one-page location summary with a facing player map, then the same map is reproduced again for the GM on two more pages with just about the same content. That, in turn, means, the written content is rather slim; I would estimate this is around the size of a 20-page pamphlet using conventional layout techniques and the usual amount of interior art. It is effectively written; words are not wasted, and the module should be easy to use in play. But in the end, it is still lighter than it should properly be.
The focus of the module is on open-ended problem-solving, and you receive useful components for that. The tiny town of Gnupr is mainly presented not so much as a location (this section is a bullet-point list of items like “Longhouses – 20’×60’ longhouses; half wood, half turf”, or “Smithy – source of constant noise”) as a network of social relationships and hidden agendas. Common knowledge, rumours, key NPCs, and a table of hired swords are used as the moving parts of the sandbox. Written with brevity, they are rich with potential to instigate exploration and conflict. For instance, rumours may be things like “Even our mortal blood has magic. It opens portals, they say”, or “Have you noticed how Thorwald acts all weird ‘round Helvi?” An NPC, such as the bride’s mother, might be described as “Not young anymore but still beautiful. Does everything to stop the marriage between Ingrid and Varghöss due to the terrible truth that [they] are half-siblings. She will not share this information with anyone willingly”. This is good an effective, although the book’s empty space might have been used better for a default progression of events, the description of a few possible developments or plans that may come to pass, or other sorts of useful information (it might be a natural idea to steal the bride-price for a combination of personal gain and to prevent the marriage, but where it may be kept and what form it may take is not provided). You mainly get the raw building blocks and get to assemble them yourself, or use random rolls to do so.
The module’s
other section is focused on the surrounding wilderness. The emphasis here is on
ancient, mythical secrets which are the source of Gnupr’s present troubles: undead
infestation, witchery, a dragon, and more are involved. They draw on the
stranger aspects of Nordic legends (or might have been made up by the author,
but if so, the fit is excellent). However, the wilderness section is much more
sketchy and underdeveloped. There is a chart of 12 random encounters which are usually
more complex than a simple monster fight – more like open-ended situations to
build on and integrate into the action. A group of manhunters are seeking a
fugitive (related to multiple denizens in Gnupr), a group of kindly nomads are
herding their goats, which walk on two legs at night and are breastfed by their
women; a swarm of crows coalesce into an ominous seer. This is the stronger part.
The five wilderness locations (four monster lairs and an enigma) are honestly
not much. There are interesting NPC antagonists, including a young dragon and
the hag behind some of the village conflicts, but they are small in both scope
and number. The wilderness feels tiny. This is partly intentional, as part of
an inwards-focused situation-based setup. Most links lead back to the central
conflicts. But unrelated elements also serve a role; and they are not present.
It is also the case that even the largest of the locations, the hag lair, is
essentially a three-room dungeon with three paths each terminating in a cave. The
rest are even more aspatial. Not everything needs to be a dungeon crawl, or a
pointcrawl, or another sort of crawl, and yet…The Very Tiny Sandbox
Benighted Betrothal is a decent, functional scenario whose primary value lies in its intricate social conflicts, and presenting them in an open-ended way that makes it adaptable to different needs, accommodating different styles of player problem-solving. Where it is weaker is in two areas. The location-based components are underdeveloped, and the wilderness adventure sites are just minor lairs. Ultimately, it is nice, but you come away with the impression this is a case where more would have been more. The “tiny hardcover” format perhaps drives this home more than a more conservative presentation would have, but the issues are there.
This module credits its playtesters.
Rating: *** /
*****
Shrine of the Demon Goddess (2023)
by Jonathan Becker
Self-Published
Levels 7–9
Bored with weird ingredients and stamp-sized portions? Jaded with molecular gastronomy? The nightingale tongue pâté and the jellyfish confit no longer do anything? Is it all fated to be filled with ennui? If so, you might try wholesome home cooking. It may not be fancy, but it is based on the tried and true, and the wisdom of generations. Shrine of Demon Goddess is that sort of module. The final stage in the three-part Storming the Forbidden City series run on Cauldron Con (which would probably give it the C3 module code), it is now freely available on the author’s blog as a free download. Let’s be clear: this is the PDF conversion of a very simple Word file, the first two parts of which (the first two tournament rounds) do not even have a map. The text is a simple series of bullet point entries without art or any further layout. The text is not even justified. We did not come for the production values.
Without a map for the first two scenarios, To Rescue a Prince and The House of Horan (which are also more bare-bones), we will only focus on the third. Shrine of Demon Goddess is an add-on to TSR’s Dwellers of the Forbidden City. Much of the ruined city was never detailed in the module, so Jonathan Becker took one of the random city blocks, and turned it into a scenario. The scope of the adventure is about one or two sessions of play (if the players decide to explore the whole of it), featuring a three-level dungeon with a total of 27 keyed areas. Each level follows Dwellers’ Meso-American theme, but each is subtly different: the surface area has a weirdly shaped five-sided pyramid temple; the first underground level is catacomb exploration and tomb-robbing; and the third is a cave system with setpiece encounters in the titular shrine. The levels are interconnected, making for about an expedition each – we mostly focused on the second, while a different playtest group hit the third.
We now come back
to the home cooking analogy. There is nothing here that causes a complete
surprise, or tries to dazzle you with wild ideas (Ship
of Fate has you covered there), it is just solid, competent material,
the sort of thing a skilled DM creates in a few evenings for a weekend game
session. It all hangs together, and there is a pleasing smoothness to it all. The
encounters are built on D&D standards, employed and combined skilfully, and
adapted to the module theme. You infiltrate a compound that seems deserted, but
suspiciously so. You explore a gridlike catacomb system, trying to find the “special”
rooms. A subterranean chamber has four statues depicting three-headed eagles,
three in a sad state, one pristine (if you immediately go “I chuck a stone at
the mimic”, you are a better player than us). A hard-to-access room is “dominated
by an ancient well, intricately carved with eagles and serpents” (observe the emerging
theme, as well as the Mexican flag homage), inhabited by a pack of water
weirds, and blocking a passage with treasures. It is all familiar concepts, but
constructed well. The Forbidden City theme is heavily exploited; elements of
decaying and dangerous architecture, Meso-American weirdness, and the feel of National
Geographic-approved funerary complexes are gamified.
On Grid |
The skill of the design also crops up in the structure and smaller details. The treasure distribution is built on the “large, well-defended treasure caches” idea instead of a more even trickle with the occasional spike (which tends to be closer to my approach). You are moving through the environment to hit one of the scores, and there is not much small-scale stuff. When you win, it is a big one, like 10,000 platinum with extra gems/jewelry and a few high-quality magic items. Likewise, the monster encounters are not just random assignments plopped down in rooms, they are placed in situations where they represent a challenge. A yuan-ti jailer is weak on his own in single combat, but has the ability to sneak up on the party and cause mayhem. The water weirds are blocking treasure, and are vulnerable to the Cleric’s spell… unless he is the first to get dragged underwater (as it happened with us). A cavern filled with 92 snakes in all sizes and varieties and blocking your path presents a conundrum – do we go around silently and risk an attack? Nuke them and waste a fireball, or even alert the rest of the complex? Do something else? This is a module filled with interesting choices and strong opponents, even for a level 7–9 party.
Shrine of Demon Goddess looks unassuming on a first look, but then establishes a strong, functional baseline, which it sticks to. It is well made. One reason you aren’t paying good money for modules like this is that they are not for sale, and what you get instead is fare that invariably tends to be higher concept but lower quality (often considerably so). A bunch of releases you see in the wild have the production values and wahoo ideas, and all they lack is skill. This module is just skill. You will find it useful if you ever need something Meso-American – if only standard stuff was exactly as good. The rating is a high ***; the award-winning GMing added the extra * in play.
This module does not credit its playtesters, but I hereby witness having played and survived it. We took losses and carried away fabulous treasures, as is proper.
Rating: *** /
*****
[REVIEW]
Skalbak Sneer: The Stronghold of Snow (2023)Skalbak Sneer
by J. Blasso-Gieseke
Published by 21st Centaury Games.
Levels 5–7
Hello, and welcome to part EIGHT of **THE RECONQUISTA**, wherein entries of the scandalous No Artpunk Contest II (banned on Reddit but the top seller in the artpunk category on itch.io) are subjected to RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT. As previously, the contest focuses on excellence in old-school gaming: creativity, craft, and table utility. It also returns to the original old school movement in that it assumes good practices can be learned, practiced and mastered; and there are, in fact, good and bad ways of playing. Like last year, these reviews will assume the participants have achieved a basic level competence, and are striving to go forward from that point. One adventure, No Art Punks by Peter Mullen, shall be excluded since Peter is contributing cover and interior art for my various publications. With that said and solemnly declared, Deus Vult! Let Destiny prevail!
* * *
Tomb of Horrors is one of those modules which, before it was inevitably reduced to a safe geek in-joke, had its black legend, a reputation for pitiless cruelty and character destruction. Skalbak Sneer is Tomb of Horrors for combat-centric scenarios, billed “a tactical deathtrap dungeon”, and living up to every letter of that promise. This is an adventure that, if run correctly, will make a bitter almost-TPK feel like well-earned victory, and could be properly titled Death Frost Doom if that was not already taken by the LotFP classic.
Skalbak Sneer is what you get when a clan of snow dwarves, given centuries of time and work, has dedicated its efforts to building the perfect, unassailable fortress on a frosty mountain peak, with multiple lines of defences to draw in, then grind down and destroy potential invaders. They have been at it for a long time, they have developed battle plans and contingencies, and they expect visitors. If they can stick to their plans, the invaders will die, or be driven off with heavy losses. If the invaders can find ways to break the pattern, they might win (the dwarves’ limited reconnaissance abilities may be an edge, and leveraging pre-adventure information gathering another). The dwarves are limited in numbers with 24 defenders including some named NPCs, but they have resources, trained monsters, and an environment designed to their advantages. It uses psychological tricks to lead besiegers into a doom loop which allows them to be whittled down and dealt a killing blow without actually breaching the fortresses’ vulnerable interior. If the players follow this subtle railroad, it will lead them into an ignominious end. Similar designs have been attempted previously. The 2e supermodule Dragon Mountain did it with kobolds, although it relied on gimmicks and unfair rulings to make it work. Skalbak Sneer plays fair, it just plays to win, and does so effectively.
The module is
basically a very tough tactical assault scenario set in a hostile environment,
with dug-in opposition and formidable defences, Operation Overdwarf-style. Even
the approach, a great winding stairway spiralling around the snowstorm-buffeted
mountain peak, is a hostile place of natural hazards, and it gets worse from
there. It is a hard scenario on both sides of the table. It will be tough for
any party attempting it, but it also places heavy demands on the GM, who must
understand how the snow dwarves’ deathtrap operates on multiple layers, then
keep it in motion during play while adapting to the dynamics of play. You have
fortifications, defenders, trained monsters, traps and other moving parts on
top of each other, connected like a well-greased death machine. There is a lot
of depth here on a complex map, which requires careful study. The presentation
is very helpful – multiple colour-coded maps and alternate battle plans for
alerted/surprised defenders are provided along with effective prose – but it is
a lot. I don’t think it could be run practically on anything except a VTT.Welcome to My Death Machine!
In addition to the tactical play, the module has its strong, effective aesthetic. Much of the writing is very functional, with OSE-style barks like “Switchback: Designed to force the party past the barred doors and vicious claws of the tundra troll, yeti, and polar bear.” or “Spear-bolt holes: Allows Lieutenant Snull and the three Defenders in Attack Position 1 13 to attack through the walls.” Interspersed with this are bits of effective prose which give you an idea of a formidable, hostile place born of dwarven paranoia and madness, feeling more like a prepared grave for a death-obsessed clan than a place filled with life. It is cool, in multiple ways. “An arch of white icicles hang down like the fangs of some abominable hibernal beast. Beyond them, a yawning black gullet of Cimmerian darkness.” Or: “On each of the six sections of wall, a headless body, human, elf, orc, bugbear, hobgoblin and gnoll, hangs from chains in the shape of a Y. Between upraised arms, red stumps gape with frozen gore.” Or even: “A warm pipe running around the mountainside melts the surrounding snow. The musical sound of dripping water fills the air.” It is strong with expressive detail, Nibelungen-style tragic grandeur, and invocations of dwarven doom.
The rewards, if you gain them, are kingly. It is not sparse change, but enormous silver statues of stern dwarven warlords worth 10,000 gp each (and weighing 2,500 lbs too). The armoury of captured weapons, visible through arrow slits just beyond the entrance, is not just a few weapon racks: it is a room filled with a 3’ deep layer of war bounty from every conceivable destroyed invader, a grim warning to break the spirit of the attackers. The cooks and brewmasters, as much the masters of their craft as the garrison, shall die defending their precious trade secrets with their last breath. There is no quarter asked or given, only wintery death.
Skalbak Sneer is obviously not for everyone. It is not for players who aren’t heavily into tactical combat, formidable challenges, and being tested to the limits of their ability. The gulf between this module and the OSE fare you typically find on DrivethruRPG could not be wider. It is also focused on one particular thing, so if you don’t have an interest in it, it will feel fairly obsessive and one-note. That said, in its own genre, it is unmatched and perfect: a Masterpiece of Death.
This module does not credit its playtesters. This is a shame, because it would have been particularly interesting here to learn how they had fared during their assault.
Rating: ***** /
*****
The Black Parade |
“In
THE BLACK PARADE you play the character of Hume, a hardened
criminal
who was sent into exile as a punishment for his crimes.
The
year is 833. You are now back in The City, a sprawling metro-
polis
of soot-caked brick, greasy fumes and noisy machinery, with
many
a sinister conspiracy whispered behind closed doors. Lost and
without
a penny to your name, you are back to your life of thievery
and
must find your old associate Dahlquist. Shadows and silence are
your
allies. Light is your enemy. Stealth and cunning are your tools.
... And the riches of others are yours for the taking.”
Until now.
Dark Mysteries |
The Black Parade is a new, full, ten-mission campaign that has been released for the game’s 25th anniversary, built over seven years by some of the best level designers in the scene, and made freely available for download. Set slightly before the events of The Dark Project, TBP focuses on the adventures of Hume, a former convict, as he becomes entangled in a dark plot concocted by forces beyond his control, and must use stealth and guile to survive and come out alive from the ordeal. The dark depths of Thief’s nameless City, a corrupt industrial metropolis, serve as the story’s locations: dimly lit streets, crumbling mansions inhabited by the idle rich, haunted crypts and thieves’ dens populated by the dregs of society. I had the privilege of beta-testing the pack (there were several rounds of testing by both old hands and new players), and I can report it is very much worth the trip.
Skullduggery and Deceit
Corrupted Splendour |
But the excellence of The Black Parade goes beyond level design (although that is the most important element). The campaign comes with well-animated cutscenes between missions; numerous new voice lines, textures and objects; new AI types (including some once considered impossible) and game mechanics. Many previous fan missions have done one or a few of these; but very rarely all, and never at this level of quality. In all cases, the updates to The Dark Project extend the original game while remaining entirely faithful to its mood and style: at no point does something stick out like a sore thumb. Thief has always been heavy on the mood, and this campaign pack returns to that level of quality, while taking advantage of the technical advances which allow a 1999 game to transcend the limits of its antediluvian engine and quirky level editor (as the quote from one of the original devs, goes, “Once upon a time, not only would DromEd crash, but it would go out and kill your family afterwards”). In its consciously low-poly architecture and grainy textures – no ill-advised attempt has been to make this look like a mid-2000s experience – The Black Parade builds scenes of labyrinthine complexity and deep SOVL.
A Labyrinthine Plot |
This is also one of those rare mods that takes writing seriously: the main story was meticulously plotted before the levels entered the building phase, and the levels were then filled with fragments of readable texts, environmental storytelling, AI conversations and the evolving objectives Hume will face during the course of the missions. Although the writing quality tends to be high in the Thief level design community, this is a standout even by those standards. While the cutscenes convey the main plot, much in gameplay is information you need to piece together on your own – from clues that will help you reach your objectives, avoid deadly hazards or find carefully hidden loot; to pieces which reveal more about the surrounding world in an unobtrusive way.
There is much
more that could be written about The Black Parade, and I suspect it will
be widely discussed in the following weeks and months. For now, though, this
introduction should suffice. You can download the campaign here. A
trailer, and a handful of screenshots by yours truly, follow.
Lost in the Catacombs |
Back in a Smoke-Shrouded City |
Venturing to Locales Long Forgotten |
Pursued by Merciless Enemies |
The Cauldron Crew |
It was already 19:30, a mere thirty
minutes before I was supposed to GM my first session, and we were not yet in Hohenroda.
We had come far and we had come fast on Hungarian State Railways, the Austrian
Federal Railways, and finally Germany’s Autobahns, racking up a speeding ticket
in the process while rain was beginning to fall in earnest, but we were just
not there yet. The staff at the car rental agency were out for lunch at the
checkout time, and would not show up for a nerve-wracking forty minutes, nor be
accessible by phone. On our way North, we were caught in the congested traffic
of München’s ring roads, and later rural Bavaria’s labyrinth of third-class
roads. Stuck among barns and church steeples, we pressed on to the great
Autobahns, heavy with traffic, and mired in cars due to a massive automobile
accident. From a rest stop, we proceeded along an agricultural road, hoping the
BMW’s state-of-the-art nav software would not lead us into an ambush by
Bavaria’s backwoods cannibals (these, we would later learn, are organised and
numerous beyond the Autobahn system). In the end, though, in Stygian darkness
and incessant rain, the timber-framed houses of Hohenroda appeared in view,
and, on a side-road, the central bulk and side-wings of an ominous structure: Schloß
Hohenroda.
World's Least Surly Hungarians |
It is often easy to overlook the work behind good organisation when everything goes smoothly. But things were so tight that it became noticeable: all the background effort translated into an experience where everything went without a hitch, and we could focus on the actual gaming. For being a first-time event, people organising mini-conventions could do well to learn from Cauldron. A lot of the larger gaming events are flabby affairs with plenty of idling, questionable seminars, and filler content. This con was all killer, no filler, with sitting down and playing at its forefront. A concentrated dose of dice-rolling over two days with local signup and a focus on the action. In the end, not only was the time spent well, there was still enough slack in the system to sit down for discussion by dinner, a bottle beer, or the miniatures table.
I ended up running three sessions and playing in two more with old friends and recent acquaintances. Only brief descriptions are provided here:
The Mysterious Estate |
I GMed Urmalk the Boundless, an expedition to the Pentastadion Necropolis to recover the abundant treasures of a decadent magnate. A series of surface mausoleums were plundered, including one of the most dangerous ones (another was wisely avoided once the risks were calculated). While the adventurers did not make it down into the underground catacombs, nor find a way into Urmalk’s tomb, they made off with decent treasure, and avoided a costly confrontation with a bandit gang by bribing them with a valuable piece of loot coated with contact poison. Devin, 4th-level Cleric (Caelin), died in an assassination attempt after the session, failing to secure a valuable shield he was tasked to recover from one of the tombs to settle a debt. (I mix things up a little by letting players draw from a deck of random items, missions and curses before session if they so please.)
The Convention's Winner Claims |
Dr. Becker Racks Up the Kills |
The Slyth Never Saw It Coming |
An Expedition to Hohenwart |
It cannot be emphasised enough how well things can go if players are focused on getting things done, and having a common interest. There was a lot of creative play demonstrated over the sessions, from clever spell use to bold and smart decision-making, and sometimes just pure on-the-spot improvisation. It helped that Cauldron Con was deliberately targeted at a specific kind of experience, and set up to deliver on that promise. But there was also the energy brought by the players, who all gave their best over two days. It was good to see that the con spoke not only to the grognards among us, but also a younger cohort; some recently acquainted with old-school gaming, and some entirely new to it, who came to Hohenroda to check out what this all meant. It was all focused, with a good fighting spirit and high cheer, and that’s the best thing.
The Revievers' Conclave Meets... Again! |
Extra-Fabulous Collectibles |
Finally, Cauldron Con featured an auction of riches from the community: treasures from 1980s German comic books to uncommon old-school publications went to lucky buyers, some after an energetic bidding war. Settembrini proved a skilled auctioneer at introducing the titles and their context, and generous lucre was gained by the sellers, as well as various charity organisations. On the final day, an award ceremony was also held: hand-engraved copper cauldrons went to the convention’s best player, most effective looter, the player who died most (“the Cup of Demise”), and the best GM – the mighty Jonathan Becker, who will no doubt fill it with the skulls of his enemies back in the U.S. of A. And that was Cauldron Con 2023. With the pace and energy, it felt a day short, although that may be asking for too much from the hard-working hosts. There was just a lot crammed into it, and there were things you’d inevitably miss – an ongoing multi-day Chainmail battle to determine the fate of empires in the German old-school scene’s shared Greyhawk campaign, an OD&D hex-crawl, the classily named Don’t Fuck the Priest, The Smorgasbord of Adventure, and many more. As always, you can’t come away with everything, but it felt like coming away with a lot. We also saw a pizza vending machine, which proves, once and for all, that greatness is still within mankind’s reach. 2024 sounds like a nice number. Appetites were whetted. Spielen wir AD&D!
An Assortment of Excellence |
Vorsprung Durch Technik: The Pizza Vending Machine |
The Hall of Mirrors shifts... |
This blog started on 5 August 2016, making early August the time of the year to engage in stock-taking and irresponsible conjecture. Adjusted for inflation, this means early October. This will be a slightly laconic report: most of the things I have to say are fairly close to last year, and I don’t wish to repeat myself too much.
This year, Beyond Fomalhaut’s activity amounted to 28 posts, which seems to be the constant (the last two had 29). 18 of these were reviews, and that’s not including the stuff I read but didn’t review. Pattern recognition has helped a lot in weeding out much of the dreadful stuff, but from the clunkers that have snuck through, there would have been no joy in eviscerating most of them. I also failed to review some genuinely good material, including titles recommended by their authors. For that, I apologise: sometimes, the stars are just not right, or I didn’t have much that was worth saying.
On the average, the 19 reviews scored at 3.3, slightly above the seven-year total average of 3.11. Some of this year’s best have come from edited collections. The No Artpunk Contest has produced a high-quality lineup this year, and I haven’t even finished reviewing these adventures. One time can be luck, but two times is skill, and skill can be improved and honed through the spirit of competition and self-improvement. In the Hall of the Third Blue Wizard was more of a mixed bag, from really strong stuff to one of this year’s worst efforts, but I can see it becoming another collection worth watching. Among the other titles, we can see the continuing trend where the shovelware people have largely moved on from the core of old-school gaming towards more distant systems, so a lot of the crap has just disappeared.
Here are the year’s results and special highlights:
All in all, this was a good year for well-made adventures, and the variety of styles is good to see. It would be decent, though, to see the same quality in wilderness and city adventures, or even good situation-based scenarios. This is underexplored territory, on which more later.
Sword & Magic Covers by Peter Mullen and Cameron Hawkey |
This year, EMDT released eight titles, with two more to follow next weekend. Some of these are major Hungarian publications: the Hungarian Helvéczia boxed set with two regional supplements last December, plus the soon-to-be-published Sword & Magic are the key titles. This sort of took the wind out of my sails elsewhere, so the zines have been more modest. I published one issue of Echoes (although a fairly thick one), the second issue of Mr. Volja’s Weird Fates, and two modules: The Forest of Gornate and Istvan Boldog-Bernad’s excellent low-level death-fest, The Well of Frogs. Gornate has received a Czech edition, and Outremer Ediciones has recently concluded a successful Kickstarter for the Spanish release of Castillo Xyntillan.
The largest undertaking of 2023 has been the second edition of Sword & Magic, a slow-burn project finally reaching fruition. The original edition of the game was published on 15 October 2008 (a few days after the similarly imaginatively titled Swords & Wizardry), and the release of the new one is planned for 15 October 2023, exactly 15 years later. Writing and producing two thick hardcovers (168 and 268 pages, respectively) and a 80-page regional supplement is no laughing matter even if it is a revised edition, a lot of groundwork has already been laid, and I had the Riders of Doom on my side to give advice, do thorough proofreading, and help shape the rules from the broadest to the most obscure. It was exhausting, endless, and it feels really good to see it done. What remains now is to receive the bound books and start shipping.
This game shall not be translated – there
are enough old-school systems to pick from, and translating, producing and
supporting Sword & Magic in a second language would be beyond my
means. However, that does not mean there will be no dividends for the
English-speaking reader. The second volume is planned to see release as an
OSRIC supplement under the title Gamemaster’s Guidelines Beyond Fomalhaut.
This will be a comprehensive guidebook to creating and running old-school adventures
and campaigns, ranging from basic and advanced GMing techniques, optional
rules, to an in-depth coverage of adventure design, campaign management,
fantastic worlds, and even a simple mass combat / domain management system (it
is not ACKS, but it is mine). The guideline section is supplemented with
several monsters including extensive random encounter tables; treasures of all
sorts, and several random inspiration tables from adventure concepts to
fantastic civilisations, curses, islands and that sort of thing. The idea is
something offering practical help for novice GMs getting into old-school games,
and further advice and a smorgasbord of stuff for experienced people. The book’s
Hungarian version is written, illustrated and laid out, so there is a completed
manuscript there that “only” needs to be translated and slightly revised for
the international audience. Now that is 268 pages of “only”, which is an
obstacle. I cannot promise a fast-tracked release with my day job and other
projects, but as they say, “I’m on it”.Potion of Extra-Barbarism
In the “wanted to do but didn’t” category, we have Khosura: King of the Wastelands, the much-delayed city and wilderness sandbox module. This is another case of “only”, where a lot of the work has already been done, but the plans for Q1 2023 proved fabulously optimistic. Perhaps a year later would be workable?
Final Proofs With Small But Obvious Error |
This year seems to be continuing previous trends, which are not as exciting as grand upheavals and radically new stuff, but sometimes, this sort of quiet rebuilding is for the better. It does make for a shorter closing section, too, but them’s the breaks. For years, old-school gaming was drifting apart and losing focus, slowly diminishing its value. That process is probably complete. On one hand, this produces games which offer a lighter form of old-school gaming, tempered with the aesthetics and design concerns of games like 5e. The success of projects like Shadowdark and OSE / Dolmenwood demonstrates the demand for these middle-of-the-road solutions. These are probably ideal for disgruntled 5e players who are looking for something simpler and more free-flowing, but they will somehow have to find a way to preserve the virtues of old-school play from the influx of dysfunctional playing practices and the deluge of shovelware that success brings.
To an extent, you can also see some old hands returning to the scene: a new edition of Swords & Wizardry has been published (and don’t overlook the AELF License it comes with – this is the quiet background work you would only notice if it was not there); Labyrinth Lord and Dragonslayer seem to be focusing on B/X in their own way, and there are rumblings around OSRIC as well, with a new edition targeted as new players instead of publishers, and solid VTT support in Foundry. Adventurer, Conqueror, King is getting a second edition, and Sword & Magic also fits into the trend. It remains to be seen how much creative energy these projects can muster. The specific challenge they will have to navigate (and this is one I am acutely aware of) is that successful Kickstarters catering to a base of collectors is not quite the same as relaunching living games which produce healthy creative communities and good offshoots. Shiny new games have a starting advantage here, while second editions, reprints, and expanded editions have to play to slightly different strengths to succeed in the long run.
A Voyage to Thellas With Seven Voyages of Zylarthen |
As a third group, creative communities with a renewed focus on the core of the old-school experience are also thriving, in smaller size and a less commercial form. This is no longer the same as the OG old-school community found on Dragonsfoot, Knights and Knaves, or the OD&D Discussion forums – all of which have largely fallen quiet over the years – although it shares some people and objectives with these places, and it resembles them in their heyday. Their members were often people discovering old-school ideas as a fresh thing, and they have moved from this rediscovery to self-improvement and continuous refinement. Things like the No Artpunk Contest or the Classic Adventure Gaming podcast (which now has a promising discord) are two examples of creative efforts coming from these places, but there is more. These are not large endeavours, but many of the guys involved have a high batting average, and this makes their materials trustworthy – you can expect something good when you come across their adventures, even if the production values are homemade and there are occasional weird spots. Even some of the best adventures from In the Hall of the Third Blue Wizard come from these quarters.
There are still places which are not explored sufficiently well by this latter group. They have gotten great at dungeon design, but much fewer have tackled wilderness scenarios, and only the mighty Buddyscott Entertainment, Inc., has delved into cities (as far as I can tell). Nobody has really made a properly old-school situation-based adventure that does not suck. The NAP-II collection was overall very solid, but it was all dungeons. In this sense, Fight On! and Knockspell magazines had more to offer, and Dolmenwood promises yet more. I would love to see a wilderness pointcrawl, a complex sandbox area, a strong open-ended city adventure (in the vein of Istvan Boldog-Bernad’s Shadows of the City-God and Well of Frogs – OK, I published them, but I published them because Istvan is the absolute master of this sort of thing), or a setting gazetteer. The NAP-III collection’s focus on high-level adventuring should deliver good content in an underserved area (hopefully some extraplanar material as well), but perhaps there should be room for a “Not a Dungeon” contest, too.
So that’s where it stands now, I think. Work in progress, some of it looks like a pile of stones and timber, but it is getting better where it matters.
Get to work, dogs!
Motivation Will Be Provided |