Cosmology: Tolkien's Redeemable Evil vs. Manichean Dualism

So the classic question, "What about the hobgoblin women and whelps" came up in our 2E AD&D game last night.

We were going back into the dungeon to clear out the hobgoblins who had been raiding the local miners. We figured there were at best a handful of warriors and then the women and the whelps.

And so, my character -- a "Neutral Mercenary" elven mage/thief who'd as soon slit a throat as kiss it, asked the party cleric -- a Lawful Good dwarf cleric of the God of Justice -- "What do we do with the hobgoblin women and whelps -- you know, if they are non-combatant?"

After all, I did not want to lose the healing talents of said cleric if his god was going to be pissed at him!

And the cleric's player thought a moment, turned to the DM, and said, "What does my god think?"

And we stumped the DM, who had to delve into his cosmology and debate with himself and us a bit.

Most (European/Western-based) cosmologies basically come down to one of two major types -- either you are dealing with Evil being "Fallen but (usually) Redeemable" (Tolkien's Catholicism, essentially) or Manichean Dualism, in which Good and Evil have always been essentially equal(ish) and utterly opposed, winner-take-all.

Even Tolkien worried over this subject, as he essentially condemned all the warped and (originally) unwilling "followers" of Morgoth and Sauron -- orcs, trolls, etc. -- to Evil, even though they were originally born with Free Will and should have been able to be redeemed (the Valar sure thought they could redeem Morgoth and even Sauron).

If you are in a Tolkienesque setting, killing non-combatants, especially children, and even of an "Evil/Chaos-inclined" race/culture, would needs be EVIL, as you are taking away any chance of their expressing their Free Will and choosing Good. Doesn't matter what "necessity" or "politics" or "expediency" might require, it is still EVIL, and your soul would thusly be stained.

In a setting where the gods are real and "heaven" and "hell" are manifest and not essentially theoretical, this is not a question to be taken lightly.

But if you are in a Manichean Dualist campaign, where there can never be any quarter between Cosmic Law/Good and Cosmic Chaos/Evil, well, slay away.

The DM decided that essentially, their campaign was Manichean more-or-less, though certain factions of the Law/Good side hope to someday redeem a member of a Chaotic/Evil race such as hobgoblins (mostly as a victory for Law/Good than out of concern for the being's soul). Humans and most demi-human races are "in the middle," able to choose between Law/Good and Chaos/Evil. Humanoids are innately Chaotic/Evil. Drow, Duergar, and the like are... in a weird, indeterminate place, cosmologically.

So, very Old School in many ways.

Happy New Year! Here's to a New Year of Gaming!

Well, I'm back.

For now, at least.

I'm not one to make New Year's Resolutions, so I'm not going to, but I hope to be present on this blog at least once a week in 2026, maybe even more often.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to focus on game play more, and engagement in gaming as a hobby more, so for now, I'm setting aside James Mishler Games and concentrating on those other aspects of gaming -- though the writing bug strikes me from time to time, so who knows.

Right now, I am playing in two games. It has been a long time since I've just played rather than DM'ed!

Weekly (or thereabouts) I am playing in an online Shadowdark campaign with some old, old friends (some of them the guys I games with in Middle School). It is a weird, alien style fantasy campaign world, so that is totally new.

Twice monthly I am playing in a local, in-person 2E AD&D campaign. I have not played 2E in more than 25 years. The differences between it and 1E/ALL are really minimal, though one surprising difference that bit me in the ass was that multi-classed magic-user/thieves cannot wear normal thief armor, only elven chain! That was a surprise. But it has been a fun game so far, I am really enjoying it.

I plan on playing in more games, if I can finagle it. I would like to avoid DMing for now, as I "recharge" my gaming batteries by playing.

I also got the chance to play some Star Wars - Battle of Hoth by Days of Wonder. I love the Commands & Colors system, and hope to play more Hoth, and maybe Memoir '44 and others, in the new year.

I hope to post here regularly; about the games I am in (with DM permission) and other gaming stuff. I feel the need to engage in gaming qua gaming, so we will see how it goes.

Good gaming in 2026!

Now Posting on my Talismundia Blog

Most of my posts henceforth will be on my Talismundia blog, which covers my new campaign setting of Talismundia:

Talismundia

I plan to support Talismundia with Shadowdark and perhaps with an OSR Clone or Simulacrum (as Labyrinth Lord 2E seems to have faded away, I'm not sure which flavor to use going forward; I might just make my own).

I do not foresee many, if any, further general gaming blog posts on my part.

I've really nothing more to say on the general state of games, or even anything specific.

It has all really pretty much been gone over, sometimes again and again and again. 

But as I've said before, never say never...

General Blog Update

It has been quiet here recently.

After a series of fast releases – 13 products in four months, from April through July, followed by the release of Magical Beast Adventures in August, I decided to take some time off to collect my thoughts. Almost two months later I’m still trying; collecting thoughts is kind of like herding cats.

In that time, several things have happened that will impact my writing going forward.

First, Dan Proctor of Goblinoid Games has announced that he is going to release Labyrinth Lord 2nd Edition. That will be sometime in early 2023, so I am likely going to wait until then to start writing new LL products. The differences will be minor, I am sure, but most folks prefer new products to be for the most recent edition. In this, discretion is the better part of valor.

Second, I got a full-time job. This will cut significantly into my writing time going forward.

Third, shortly after I got the job, I tore my left meniscus, and have been hobbling around on crutches ever since. Fortunately, my job is such that I can work from home, so that’s good. Unfortunately, for various reasons, I cannot get the surgery to fix it for a couple of months. So that sucks. But things could be worse, and we are taking it day by day.

So, no Labyrinth Lord products for maybe six months, and limited production going forward.

What’s on the schedule, then, such as I’ve ever had a schedule?

Well, I had some ideas for further materials, including a full campaign setting, for Magical Beast Adventures. But the sales on that have been underwhelming, so that’s been shelved.

Work on the Castles & Crusades project has also been shelved. The response to that made the sales of Magical Beast Adventures seem spectacular by comparison.

I was working on a new module when I got the job, but between the job, my leg, and the new upcoming edition of Labyrinth Lord, that too went on the back burner.

Isle of Eldisor: The Northlands is still on the list, somewhere. While sales for Eldisor were better than anything else in years, it just has not yet made enough sales to carry a full-sized expansion. But that is a possibility in the future.

I have some vague ideas for a city product. I LOVE city adventures. But for various reasons, it is difficult to get started on those now.

That’s about it. 

I think for the next while I’ll be focusing on actual gaming, rather than writing for publishing. 

I am currently in two online games, my Old School Buddies Monday Night Game and my Merlin’s Keep Crew Friday Night Game. So far between the two groups we’ve played Blades in the Dark, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Advanced Labyrinth Lord, and Shadowdark. They are great groups.

I’ve had a lot more chances to actually play rather than run with these groups. I’m getting the hankering to run again.

I’m thinking of running the Monday Night Group through some Dungeons & Dragons, using the classic Cyclopedia Edition and setting the campaign in Mystara. We’re also talking about playing some Twilight 2000. 

I’m still debating what to run for the Friday Night Group. I’m thinking I might try to fill my desire for city adventures and develop a city for them to play in using Shadowdark. If you haven’t checked out Shadowdark, you really should. That link takes you to the Arcane Library page where you can download a free Quick Start PDF set.

I’m sure I’ll be posting about their adventures here.

Oh, and the release of the Skull and Bones: Savage Storm comic book has been moved back to March 2023, to track with the release of the game. Keep an eye out for that, too.

That’s about it for now.

Good gaming!

[Coming Soon] The Heart of Albion, a Hexcrawl Campaign for Castles & Crusades

The Heart of Albion Hexcrawl Campaign Setting

By James Mishler and Jodi Moran-Mishler

The year is 1400 AUC, as the world has fallen into the cold-hearted grasp of Fimbul Winter.

 

Summer is as autumn, spring is as winter, and winter? Winter is as some cold slice of the Hells. Glaciers are rolling out of the mountains; new lands rise as waters retreat; and the very earth cracks under the weight of the Wrath of Eldisor.

 

The Great Northern Isle of Skandza has shattered into a thousand isles under the weight of these glaciers, and the survivors struggle to survive amidst the ruins as the Old Gods fight for their survival. Elsewhere, the remnants of the old Tyrrhenian Empire are being swept away by waves of barbarians and savagery…

 

The peninsular realm of Albion, far in the northwest and forgotten by Tyrrhenia and Skandza alike, is undergoing similar convulsions.

 

The native Kymrae and Brigantian tribes, Tyrrhenized and free, are threatened by the invasion of the barbaric Reichlanders from the east and the Caledonians from the north.

 

The native demi-humans and fairies are caught in between, and also drawn into the internecine battles between the various families of the Old Gods of Albion and the Reichlands, and even those from further afield, in their struggles with one another and with the rise of the new faith, the Holy Temple of Law.

 

And here and there still stand a few settlements and strongholds of Jordvann and Tyrrhenia, where the Jordvanner seek to rebuild civilization and the Tyrrhenians seek to conquer its remnants amongst those dimming points of light.

 

Follow the development of this classic Hexcrawl Campaign, The Heart of Albion, and explore the history behind the Continental Realms of the current Isle of Eldisor setting.

 

The development of this new Castles & Crusades setting will be featured on my blog, Adventures in Gaming v2, to edify those who wish to learn how to develop their own campaign settings in the classic Hexcrawl Sandbox fashion.

 

For fans of Labyrinth Lord, never fear; Castles & Crusades is readily adaptable to Labyrinth Lord (just as Labyrinth Lord is readily adaptable to Castles & Crusades).

 

Further Labyrinth Lord development of the Isle of Eldisor in the current era will follow the completion of The Heart of Albion, notably the northern half of Eldisor, The Northlands.

Follow developments on these pages!

[Throwback Someday Post] Original Blackmoor Maps

NOTE: This post is from my old game blog, the original Adventures in Gaming, which is closed. I've had enough requests to re-open this post that I've decided to just do a throwback post. It is copied here, more or less, like it was then. Originally posted in October 2009.

*****

There's a thread on the Original D&D Discussion boards about the Blackmoor map, specifically, where it came from originally. There are different reports on this, apparently based on different things said by Dave Arneson at various times. Some believe the map coastlines and rivers are based on Lake Superior, others say it is based on old maps of the Netherlands, and some believe it may be a combination of both. 

Dave himself wrote in First Fantasy Campaign that the maps were "...originally drawn from some old Dutch maps. Much of the rationale and scale was based on data found with the Dutch maps. Later, the game moved south and we then used the Outdoor Survival tm map for this phase of the campaign..." 

One point I believe has been missed and has greatly complicated matters is that the well-known map, the map that was published in the Judges Guild First Fantasy Campaign booklet, was not, in fact, the map originally used by Dave Arneson! This map was created by Bob Bledsaw for the product; that the work is Bob's is indisputable, as he was the cartographer on all the large scale maps (the 18 region maps for the Wilderlands), and this is definitely his cartography style. 

So that map, and all the maps made for Blackmoor thereafter, were in fact based on Bob Bledsaw's interpretation of Blackmoor... not Dave Arneson's original map, which presumably is what is found on page 12 of the First Fantasy Campaign. There, Dave writes: "In redrawing the first campaign map, I decided that it would be advantageous to make some minor changes along the south and west borders to link it with Judges Guild's "Known World" area..."

However, from the great differences that exist between the original map and the Bledsaw version, much more was changed; whether this was changed by Bob with Dave's blessing or they were changes by Dave that Bob made to the map when he drew it may now never be known. A few points from the "original" map in comparison to the Bledsaw and subsequent maps: 

WATERWAYS

The "inner sea" that would be later named "The Black Sea" in the TSR version was much smaller, and not (apparently) directly connected to the "Great Ocean" (which was later named "The North Sea" in the TSR version). The "Sinking Lands" thus were not at all yet sunk. There is no sign of the peninsula that is home in the Bledsaw version to the Egg of Coot, and in fact, it seems the Egg of Coot is much further to the north, though the "Firefrost Channel" already exists. The waterways of the southeast are much changed, with many of the lakes being moved south and west (likely to make room for the mountains, which were greatly expanded in this region), while the waterways in and around the southwestern swamps are most changed in the area that would be known as "Loch Gloomen."

SETTLEMENTS Most of the settlements are recognizable; a few that fail to appear in the Bledsaw version actually appear later in the TSR version... 

1. Vestfold.
2. Blackmoor.
3. Bramwald.
4. Might be Maus, could be Archlis, most likely is Jackport, as it is most directly through the "Elf Forest" across from Blackmoor, though Maus is actually mentioned in the FFC booklet...???
5. Glendower.
6. Sage's Tower/The Wizard Watch.
7. Lake Gloomy.
8. Unmarked on the Bledsaw map, this is named Hanford on the TSR map.
9. ??? The northern point is unmarked on the Bledsaw map, though in the TSR map is named Kenville; in both maps the southern point is named Boggy Bottom.
10. This is in all likelihood the Temple of the Frog, as the trail from Boggy Bottom heads to the Temple, though the islands in Loch Gloomen are changed so significantly on the Bledsaw map it is hard to be sure. 
11. Not on the Bledsaw map, this is identified as Williamsfort on the TSR map 
12. Again, not identified on the Bledsaw map, this is in all likelihood the location on the TSR map named Erak.
13. With all the shifting around of the mountains in this region, I would guess that this location is the Regent of the Mines, though in the Bledsaw and subsequent maps it has been moved south and west.
14. This might be Southport, identified as such on the TSR map, or perhaps it is the meeting point for the "Nomads of Ten," later known in the TSR version as Whitehorse. Note that in the original Blackmoor, then, these would be desert nomads, not plains nomads... but neither are likely choices, frankly, as there are no major roads in this area! Similarly, the settlement to the south and east along the road is nowhere to be seen.

Of course, with the Bledsaw maps being designed to match up with the Wilderlands maps, and the region there near the Valley of the Ancients being utter wilderness, the lack of these settlements and roads makes some sense... As for the "old Dutch map"... well, here's some food for thought... 

ORIGINAL ORIENTATION

FLIPPED AND INVERTED...

As usual, click to embiggen... and then look closely at the lakes in the western peninsula jutting north (modern North Holland) that is, in the flipped and inverted version, the "southern peninsula" jutting to the east... and if you take the waters of the North Sea outside the Zuider Zee ("Holad") and make them land, say desert in the west and the Great Kingdom in the east... it looks a bit familiar, no? 

HOW DID HE DO IT?

Of course, back in the day they didn't have even simple computer programs that could manipulate maps... all he had, likely, at best was a photocopier or mimeograph machine; at worst, he had an original copy of an old Dutch map of his own, likely from some old history book, which lacked printing on the back of the page (you'll find a lot of old history books with maps had these as fold-out insert sheets with no printing on the back of the map). 

So Dave either took a copy of a map or an original map and did one of two things: 1) He had a light table (easy enough to make with a piece of strong plastic and a light) and set the map on the table, then drew on the back; or 2) He took a thick black marker that would bleed through the back of the paper, drew along the coast lines on the front of the map, and then flipped the map over and using the bleed-through lines as a guide, drew the coastlines and rivers. 

I used the second method, with the thick black marker, to make the map above... Blackmoor at the center, desert to the south and west, Great Kingdom to the south and east, ocean to the east, Frisia to the north and east (and yes, that's exactly where Frisiae, or the RW Frisia, really is), and Duchy of Ten to the west. Egg of Coot... note interestingly that the Zuiderzee, the extension of the North Sea that went into Holland, was slowly reclaimed for land through the Zuiderzee Works, a decades-long project that made whole new land. Once upon a time, historically, it had been land... and sank... through the Middle Ages. Sinking Lands? hmmm... and later, the land of the Egg of Coot rose from the seas (right were, on a modern map of the Netherlands, you would find one of the major pieces of land reclaimed from the sea)? More than mere coincidence, I think... 

I also think that perhaps when he and Bob put together the new map for the First Fantasy Campaign, Bob went back to the original "Old Dutch Map," or something close to it, for inspiration to expand out the north... which had been truncated by Dave in his original map (maybe he only had the southern portion of the map available originally?) Maybe, during their conversation while Bob was trying to make this new map, one or the other suggested putting the Egg of Coot on "reclaimed" land... 

Finally, I should note that Blackmoor proper, east to west from Jackport to Hanford, is about 300 miles using the original Bledsaw map at 10-mile per hex scale... the region of North Holland, which is essentially the area used to "create" Blackmoor using the Old Dutch Map, was about 30 miles north to south, from Amsterdam to where, in the Old Dutch Map, the coastline was on the north... so all Dave had to do was multiply the RW scale by 10... 

Finally finally... one must wonder. "Duchy of Ten"... is it possible that the map Dave used numbered the maps on the bottom of the page? Numbered them as "plates," as many maps and illustrations were so called in those days? Perhaps, just perhaps, the "Duchy of Ten" was inspired by the fact that in that area of the map page, near what would have been the bottom of the page, were the words "Plate No. 10"...

40 Years Ago Today…

40 Years Ago Today…

 

December 25, 1981. Christmas morning in the small northern Indiana town of Chesterton.

 

A Christmas morning like many others, however, there would never again be a Christmas morning like that for me.

 

For that Christmas is the year I received the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, the “Moldvay” magenta edition. 

And my life was never the same again. 

In fact, that one single gift directed my life pretty much every day since that day.

 

I still remember opening the gift and setting it aside on the pile of other games and toys, then later that afternoon, belly filled and everyone going off to rest and recover in their own way, I sat down in the big chair in our family’s formal living room to check out that new game.

 

I’d seen it before, at several stores; I realized it was a different boxed set than the one I was used to seeing (the “Holmes” set). I’d even expressed interest in it before, but that one little book with the sacrificial victim on the cover (Eldritch Wizardry) put my mom off the idea of my ever playing such a strange game.

Little did my parents realize that this was that self-same game, in a new edition, written and illustrated in a child-friendly manner, and available at that most innocent of stores, Toys ‘R Us. I had read The Hobbit, and most of the Lord of the Rings (that part in Two Towers with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum was just soooo boring to a 12-year old…). I had consumed other fantasy and science-fiction books and movies in large quantities...

And so not recognizing it as “that game,” my parents thought that some game with a dragon on the cover would be a natural fit, and as they had a few dollars left in the budget they set for games and toys for me, they picked it up… on a whim!

 

I tore open the box, opened the book -- and never looked back.

 

I was the first kid in my age group/social cadre to get D&D, and so I of course became the first Dungeon Master of the group. Oh, the spectacular mistakes I made! Worst example – I did not understand monster hit dice at first, and just assumed that their hit dice were their hit points. So orcs had 1 hit point, ogres had 4, and red dragons had 10… monster kills were in the 100s before I figured out THAT mistake.

 

But the game was glorious fun. In January I picked up the D&D Expert Set. In rapid order thereafter I picked up modules B1 and T1, which introduced me to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the books of which I picked up at the Hallmark Books shop in Marquette Mall in Michigan City. I rapidly discovered that there were hobby shops dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons, among other things. I picked up my first issue of Dragon Magazine, #57, at B&A Hobbies, also in Michigan City, around that same time.

 

By April 1982 Dungeons & Dragons had become my life. My first non-D&D game was Gamma World 1^st Edition, which I received for my birthday that month. I also decided I wanted to design and write for Dungeons & Dragons, as I sent off a letter complete with hand-written monsters, to TSR; some months later, I received a “thank you, but” reply, my first rejection letter at age 13.

 

Needless to say, it did not stop me.

 

I was known as “That D&D Guy” in school thereafter. If I was not King of the Nerds, I was certainly somewhere on that court. I played D&D in the high school D&D Club (run by the Anatomy & Physiology teacher, Mr. Jim Strange), right up until a priest came in and convinced our principal that D&D was satanic.

 

I continued playing even when I lived in Germany for a year between high school and college; I even introduced gaming to some German friends there. I like to think that I ran some good games there, but between my half-assed German and all the beer, I never quite knew…

 

I continued playing in college. I ditched my German for Teaching program for Anthropology and Humanities, thinking that somehow that might A) be more interesting and B) help my be a better game designer, so I might get a job writing for TSR (silly me, what they wanted was designers with English degrees, to save $ on the editorial process). In graduate school I had a dual epiphany – I hated academia and I really, REALLY wanted to work in the Game Industry. Sneaking into my first Game Manufacturer’s Association Trade Show with some faked-up business cards sealed the deal.

 

From 1995 to 2012, most of my adult life was spent (WELL SPENT, so very, very well spent) working in the Game Industry. I never got paid full time to be a game designer – sadly, game designers have never been well paid, so I worked in peripheral support areas. Over the years, I worked for Wizards of the Coast, West End Games, WizKids, Chessex Distribution, Alliance Distribution, ACD Distribution, SCRYE Magazine, Comics & Games Retailer Magazine, and Chimera Hobby Shop, among others. To stay in the business I did anything I could – I worked in publishing, purchasing, marketing, advertising, public relations, sales, and warehousing – in manufacturing, distribution, and retail. I even got to do some design work, initially as a freelancer.

 

That work of which I am most proud, and which also sadly was my Waterloo, was publishing the Wilderlands of High Adventure under license from Judges Guild and working directly with Bob Bledsaw; closely followed by working on Lejendary Earth with Gary Gygax (the fruits of which died on the vine, and would never see print). I got to work with two of my greatest childhood heroes – for Bob and Gary had a stature in my heart and mind much as, say, Joe Namath or Reggie Jackson might have in the hearts of football and baseball fans.

 

It was amazing.

 

How many can say they lived their dreams?

 

All that was born on that one simple Christmas day 40 years ago. A simple box, a simple game, from which sprang forth a lifetime of amazing adventures, in the world of fantasy and in real life.

 

Life is a game. Roll some dice.

 

Merry Christmas.

Player Typologies... Huh...

Check out Jon Peterson's post on Player Typologies.

Well, ain't that something...

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Nothing new under the sun... just certain points of view...

Addendum: Below is the post that went with it, from May 2009.

It is hardly complete and of course, completely debatable. I never really found the styles of Gygax and Arneson to be incompatible; they were merely along different points on different axes, and really both fall within the broad grouping under "High Adventure." That Gary advocated more along the lines of pure Adventure, while Dave emphasized the Role-Play aspect, does not mean their philosophies were at odds.

A few definitions are in order:

The Adventure element of gaming refers to the Character or party of Characters going forth and making their way through a setting, having adventures, killing monsters, looting and pillaging, and generally doing what adventurers do, regardless of whether the Players are emphasizing the Role-Play or Roll-Play aspect of the game. However, what is certain is that though there is a campaign setting, and the Game Master may even have some over-arching plot points and ideas for what is going on behind the scene, it is the PLAYERS that drive the game by their desire to have Adventure. In essence, Adventure gaming isn't about the destination, it's about the journey there... and there may very well be no "there" toward which one is striving.

The Narrative element of gaming is almost, but not quite, the reverse. While all the same things may occur in a Narrative game, the overarching interest of both Players and Game Master is the telling of a story within the pre-existing milieu created by the Game Master (and quite often, with the assistance of the Players). Often there is a Goal, and specific Antagonists, and all the other bits and pieces that come into play through the nuts-and-bolts concepts of the literary end of things. In essence, Narrative gaming is all about where you are going, and getting there in the most apropos and character-driven method possible.

Role-Playing gaming emphasizes the Player taking on the Role of the Character; at the furthest end of this axis, you are actually dealing with full-immersion into the character, with reams of background and names of allies and enemies, likes and dislikes, and a full list of all goals and dreams, etc. A Role-Playing game at that level might not even use scores or any sort of dice to determine results!

In Roll-Playing gaming, the Character is little more than a collection of scores and derived attributes to be used to chart the "score" a Player has at any one time. In some of these games, names are unimportant, histories are mere flavor text, and the goal is to advance the Characters scores and derived attributes ever onward and upward.

Gygaxian, Arnesonian, and Rein*Hagenian should all be understood; Jacksonian needs a little clarification. Jacksonian refers to both Steve Jackson (the British Jackson, not the American), who wrote the Fighting Fantasy series back in the day; it also refers to Gary Jackson, the fictional creator of the HackMaster game featured in the Knights of the Dinner Table. I should also note that for Dungeons & Dragons purists, you can substitute Hickmanian (Hickmanite?) in place of Rein*Hagenian if you don't want to get vampires mixed in with your dragons...

Year End and Stuff and Online Gaming

So with this post I will hit 40 posts for the year which is the third most annual posts in the ten years of this version of the blog. Not too bad, though you'd think I could have posted more with the Pandemic and all, but things just did not work out that way.

The big news today is that for the first time I will participate in online gaming, playing some 5E Dungeons & Dragons: Rime of the Frostmaiden using Zoom. Not sure how this is all going to work out, I am a bit of a Luddite, after all but I am going to give it a try. I will be playing rather than game-mastering, which in itself is a rare enough experience for me. But I definitely want to get some experience playing online before I try judging online.

I believe I have also hit upon a format that I will use with my published products going forward. I have never been satisfied by the simple PDFs I've been doing, they don't seem to have any character. Thanks to picking up a bunch of issues of Echoes from Fomalhaut, I have been tinkering with going back to the booklet style format I had used in my AGP days. We shall see what comes of it, but I am really liking how it is working out so far.

Between the works of Gabor Lux and Geoffrey McKinney, I am re-working my prose style, which recently has devolved into an exercise in explosive verbosity, which has been no fun for me to read, and I can't imagine it would be fun for others, either. So I am working on tightening up my various works -- gazetteer entries, geography entries, dungeon room entries, etc. -- to focus on a less explicative and more evocative language, as was used in the old days, and which Gabor and Geoffrey have mastered so well.

Oh, and if you have found my Marvel Cinematic Universe musings at all interesting, let me know... there seems to be far less traffic on those, and no comments, so I am not sure people find it at all as interesting an areas as I do...

Anyway, that's where things stand for now. Next year should see more products published, more reviews published, and I am going to concentrate on doing some interesting blog articles.

Happy New Year to you and yours, and certainly, hopefully, a BETTER year for all...

G+, Bloggery, Legendaria, Campaigns, Labyrinth Lord, and Stuff

So lately folks have been reminiscing about G+, and if they miss it, or don't. For me, the loss of G+ was mostly a negative; I liked being able to read other's posts that were more than a Twitter and not yet a full Blog post. G+ was just right for that kind of activity without being a chat room or Discordia or whatever passes for such these days. I will miss it; I already do, but its Golden Age was long since passed, anyway.

I intended, after the closure of G+, to blog more (to get back to blogging regularly, as I was with Legendaria). But Real Life has been busy lately. I hope to be able to get blogging regularly again soon, maybe next week, more likely the week after that.

Legendaria is on the back burner and will likely stay that way for a while. I definitely want to return to it and make something out of it, but right now I am running one Labyrinth Lord game (the Western Realm Campaign) and playing in another. Both were intended to be Dungeon Expedition style, a la Rythlondar, but in both cases the party has been stuck in the dungeon between sessions. 

I think the major issue here is that due to time constraints we are only able to play three to five hours per session, which is really not enough to get as much done as one might think. Each campaign alternates every week, so meeting only twice a month does not help, either. Hopefully once the groups get a bit more cohesion each session will run faster and smoother.

I am still working on the Character Race and Class Quick Sheets, but for the initial release I am going to make them By The Book, rather than include any significant house-rules or new races or classes. I hope to have that finished in the next week or two.

After that I've got a couple of things I want to work on. Sadly, my Alien Summoner Wizard Lair Dungeon grew way the hell too much, too fast, and I dunno what to do with it now. It, too, goes on the back burner.

I may publish the adventure I am running now. So far it is working out nicely for a low-level adventure. Simple, with some goblins and undead, but with a few twists here and there to make it fresh. We'll see how the game goes; I already got a nice reaction from the players when they unexpectedly encountered a zombie bear; I haven't had that many players scream from surprise with an encounter in a while. :)

Offline until 2016

 

I'm going to be essentially offline until the new year. Will be back with bells on come January 1st.

Keep an eye on my new blog, the Grymdark Lands. That's where I'll mostly be posting going forward until I have completed the 64-Page Campaign Setting Challenge. The blog will detail the development of the Grymdark Lands, and at the end of the process, I hope to have published my first print, full-color cover, fully-illustrated, 64-page book...

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

That RPG-a-Day Q&A Thingy... all at once, of course...

1. Forthcoming game you're most looking forward to

I’m kind of out of the loop these days on what’s coming up… Any good suggestions?

2. Kickstarted game most pleased you've backed

I have yet to back a Kickstarter, not from lack of those I would like to back, but mostly out of lack of funds. Were the funds available, I would pretty much back any Kickstarter from Goblinoid Games, Troll Lord Games, and/or Goodman Games.

3. Favorite New Game of the last 12 months

I haven’t bought any new game systems in the last 12 months. The last RPG system I bought was 5E D&D; while I was briefly enamored of it, the relationship turned sour pretty quickly when I realized the resemblance to B/X was only skin deep. But there were a few good bits there that I steal now and again for my B/X houserules.

4. Most Surprising Game

Not sure how to answer this one, so many ways a game can be surprising. I’d have to say recently, 5E D&D, as I was pleasantly surprised at first that I liked it, then disappointedly surprised that it wasn’t really as good as I’d thought it was. Two surprises for the price of one, I guess.

5. Most recent RPG purchase

The Petty Gods hardcover I bought during the July Lulu sale is the best thing since sliced bread (other than Betty White).

6. Most recent RPG played

Villains & Vigilantes, the original from FGU.

7. Favorite Free RPG

Labyrinth Lord from Goblinoid Games.

8. Favorite appearance of RPGs in the Media

The cameo appearances of D&D elements in Futurama. Always fun!

9. Favorite media you wish was an RPG

Thundarr the Barbarian. Tim Snider of Savage Afterworld hasdone an awesome Thundarr supplement for Labyrinth Lord/Mutant Future, and I expect that is as close as we will ever get… likely for the best, as any official game would probably end up being some godawful bloated system like the latest Star Wars RPG.

10. Favorite RPG Publisher

Existing: Goblinoid Games. They brought back B/X in the form of Labyrinth Lord, and then topped that with the Advanced Edition Companion, which brought all the cool stuff from Advanced D&D without all the extraneous material that added confusion.

Extinct: TSR (pre-Williams era, mostly). ’Natch.

11. Favorite RPG Writer

A tough question… I’d have to say Gary, still, thanks to his Gygaxian writing style in the vein of Vance.

RPG Designer, now that’s another question entirely… I’d probably have to this is shared by Tom Moldvay and Dave Cook (and their editorial crew), as I still feel that the Moldvay Basic/Cook Expert set, together, are the best representation of D&D anytime, anywhere. Frank Mentzer’s work on the 1983 edition of Basic added the best introductory version of an RPG I’ve ever seen.

12. Favorite RPG Illustration

The Bill Willingham illustration of a battle with a dragon from the Moldvay edition of the Basic Set has always struck me as highly representative of what D&D was all about.

13. Favorite RPG Podcast

I don’t listen to them. Just not my thing.

14. Favorite RPG Accessory

Ready Ref Sheets, from Judges Guild. I’ve used them in virtually every game I’ve ever run.

15. Longest campaign played

As a player, two years in middle school, the “Awesome Campaign” run by my friend Thad, at the end of which everyone had at least one artifact and we traveled around in Baba Yaga’s Hut. Yes, it was a glorious campaign indeed!

As a DM/Judge, three years, played every two weeks to three months, set in the Wilderlands using 3^rd Edition.

16. Longest game session played

Can’t recall, though if our marathon sessions of playing several different games back-to-back back in the day count, there was a massive three-day session where we played AD&D, Top Secret, and Twilight 2000 from end-of-school Friday until we were dragged home by our parents late Sunday night…

17. Favorite Fantasy RPG

B/X Dungeons & Dragons/Labyrinth Lord, if that wasn’t already obvious.

18. Favorite SF RPG

Gamma World, the wacky and wahoo version of 1^st and 2^nd edition.

19. Favorite Supers RPG

Marvel Super-Heroes (FASERIP)

20. Favorite Horror RPG

Cryptworld; I loved the old Chill system from Pacesetter, and this is the most worthy of the successors to date.

21. Favorite RPG Setting

This one is a toughie. For published settings, it is pretty firmly a tie between the Wilderlands and Mystara; Mystara is more on my mind these days, as I’ve had to back away from the Wilderlands, due to sad memories.

22. Perfect gaming environment

Years ago when I owned a house we had a mostly finished basement. One of the rooms was just the perfect size to set up bookshelves along the sides, complete with a computer hutch; a small fridge for drinks; and a large table in the center, big enough to seat 12 people, with me in a big captain’s chair at the head of the table, with side tables to hold all the miscellaneous stuff I needed during the game, including miniatures. That was a sweet setup!

23. Perfect game for you

B/X D&D.

24. Favorite House Rule

Three-way tie between “Carousing Rules” to squander treasure and cause chaos by Jeff Rients, “Shields Shall Be Splintered” to save your ass from Trollsmyth, and “Turn Over The Body to see if he’s Dead” and roll a save versus Death from Dungeon Crawl Classics.

25. Favorite Revolutionary Game Mechanic

Being pretty old school, I can’t say I have one…

26. Favorite inspiration for your game

So many things have inspired my gaming over the years, it is hard to say any one thing is my “favorite.” Fantasy literature as a whole, I guess, would be the thing most influential to my gaming, rather than say movies or TV. I keep going back to the literary well for new ideas and campaigns and races and classes…

27. Favorite idea for merging two games into one

Found in Mutant Future, the Mutants & Mazes mash-up of Mutant Future and Labyrinth Lord codifies my long desire to mix D&D and Gamma World in a more unified fashion than the small rules section in the old DMG.

28. Favorite game you no longer play

I really, really liked Dangerous Dimensions: Mythus and its little cousin, Lejendary Adventure. It’s just way too hard to get others to try Mythus these days; and LA is tough to play, as my fondest memories of it are playing with Gary.

29. Favorite RPG website / blog

Eeesh, so many good ones.

I’d have to say that for pure cool and crazy inspiration, it’s a tie between Zak and Greg.

For good old school, I’d have to say it is a three-way tie between Al, Tim, and Trey.

Lamentably lost or more-or-less on hiatus… James and Jeff

30. Favorite RPG playing celebrity

I’ll say Vin Diesel, because it is hard to choose between Charlotte, Mandy, and Stoya…

31. Favorite non-RPG thing to come out of RPGing.

Countless friendships and a career that enabled me to both make a living and live my dreams for most of two decades.

Zak’s Addendum

1. Worst game you ever played

RPG system wise, Powers & Perils. I know some people swear by it, but I’ve tried to wrap my mind around it for decades, and just don’t see the appeal. But for hard-cord dark Sword & Sorcery, you just can’t beat Perilous Lands, the P&P campaign setting.

2. Interesting rule embedded within otherwise baleful game

The Drama Deck from Torg. Always wanted to adapt that to D&D.

3. Game you never played but you knew it sucked just looking at it

The World of Synnibarr. Ye gods, Rifts on crack…

4. Game you most wish didn't suck

The d6 System game brought out by West End at the end of their existence. I love the d6 System; it is totally my favorite system for Star Wars and space-opera style play. But the changes they made to the d6 System for the generic version were just too extreme; they tried to make it into something it wasn’t. Mini-Six fixed a lot of that…

5. Game about which you have the most mixed feelings

5E D&D. I really want to like it; I think as a casual player, I might enjoy it. Trying to run a campaign as a DM? Not again, thanks…

6. Old game most in need of an upgrade

Rifts. Love most of the world, especially like the fact that the system is essentially D&D; but golly, does that game need a solid edit, a good streamlining, and a re-baselining.

7. Game you can run with the least prep

B/X D&D. Gimme some dice, pencils, and paper, and I can run off the cuff without even checking the books.

8. Game with awful art (and who you wish you could hire to fix that)

I’m not really an art kind of guy; if the art is *dreadful*, I generally avoid the game because if the art is that bad, well, how good can the game be? So I’ve never really owned a game with dreadful art, and otherwise, never noticed much or cared. Though someone really needs to go back and put in new halfling art in the 5E D&D books; scary, scary stuff.

9. Best houserule you've seen in action and now use in your own games.

Most of the houserules I’ve adopted that were from others were from online posts, not in actual play, so really, none…

10. Game you've most changed your thoughts/feelings about

Old World of Darkness. Always thought the whole Vampire LARP thing was kind of poncey, so I thought the tabletop game was, too; but like most RPG systems, it can be used for whatever style of play you want.

11.  Game you'd use to run just about any setting if you had to

BRP from Chaosium.

12. Game that haunts you and you're not sure why

GURPS. I want to like that game, but every time I play it I feel like I am studying for a math exam. I also never played Champions/Hero System for the same reason, only moreso.

13. Game that would probably be most fun to play a bee in

Mutant Future.

14. Best Star Wars game?

WEG D6, hands down, though I prefer the earlier editions to the final revised one, which lost some of the edginess the earlier versions had.

15. Game that's good in theory but you're kind of on the fence about it to be honest

Tom Moldvay’s Lords of Creation. Played once when it first came out; have stared at it long and hard since. Great idea, beautifully realized for the day, but something just doesn’t seem right…

James’ Appendix

1. Best non-RPG property to licensed RPG you’ve ever played

Tie: Marvel Super-Heroes and WEG Star Wars

2. Best RPG you’ve ever read but never played

Artesia: Adventures in the Known World by Mark Smylie. Beautiful book, reads very well, game seems solid, but dang… it would take a special group of players to make it work without breaking the setting ideals.

3. RPG core rulebook you would take with you on a desert island

If I can’t take a B/X Lulu mash-up I’d take the D&D Cyclopedia, which is the next best thing.

4. Favorite RPG vaporware

Still, after all these years, I’d love to see that TSR Proton Fire RPG about robots and cyborgs and humans fighting the battle between the tyrannical Corporation and the University…

5. Best houserule that ended up with the worst results

Using the d30 once per game to replace another die. I allowed the players to not only use it for d20 rolls, but also in place of damage rolls. This worked out very poorly when the party encountered some young dragons. They were getting ready to run, having stumbled upon a dragon hatchery, but then realized they all still had their d30 rolls left. I think out of the whole group, only one rolled less than 20 points of damage; result, three dead dragons, one jubilant party (with only one casualty), and one unhappy DM.

6. Worst kerfluffle that ever ended an otherwise good, ongoing campaign

The party found a +5 holy avenger, and they had no paladins among the group. Trying to figure out how to dispose of the weapon drove the players apart…

That’s if you don’t count the ending of the Party of Evil campaign, in which the wizard cast a sleep spell on the two anti-paladins and had the assassin slit their throats… after all, that betrayal was inevitable…

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig...

So that hiatus ended up being rather longer than expected.

My wife is doing very well. Her operation was a great success, and her recovery has been, so I understand, textbook quality. Things are definitely going well there (knock wood), and she can walk quite well without brace or cane, though it will be some months yet before she is able to rebuild  her stamina and be back to her old, spry self.

This freeing up of time means I'll be getting back to writing and gaming again; combined with my upcoming change to a regular schedule at work, freeing up my weekends, I expect to do a LOT more gaming.

Right now, I have three campaigns in the works. One is already underway, and we had our first session yesterday. The other two are in development, and as usual, it is much like herding cats, trying to coordinate schedules and make sure everyone is on the same page.

The first campaign, Adventures in Erathia, is a Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign, using the whole kit-n-kaboodle (PHB, MM, DMG) with experienced gamers. The world is Ekosia, unabashedly and simply a parallel Earth, in the early Colonial Age. Most of the world is off-screen, so to speak, merely broad strokes to give players ideas of where their characters might be from and what the might culturally resemble...

Lost Arkhosia was the original home to the Dragonborn and the Red Men of Greco-Roman culture. As the name suggests, it is Lost, much like Atlantis or Numenor, though the Dragonborn and the Red Men settled far and wide ere their empire and island-continent home were lost several ages ago.

Mendrel is the analogue for Europe, original home of the Halflings and the Green Men of Celtic/Slavic culture. Being centrally located, it was invaded by peoples of four other continents, and today is a mix of races, cultures, and kingdoms. The two most prominent are Razaine, a Moorish Spain analogue, and Karnusia, a sort of Scots-French Sun King realm, both of which are heavily involved in the new colonial race.

Whalm is an analogue for Scandinavia, the British Isles, Iceland, and Greenland, original home of the Elves and the Blue Men of Germanic cultures. While their viking-style age is long passed, much of the region is still quite barbaric. Amongst the many lands the Whalmish settled during their migration era was Erathia, the first easterners to find and settle that land since the fall of Lost Arkhosia. There they founded the Wizard-Kingdom of Skreln, whose savage descendants today, the Skrellinkar, are a mix of the native Erathians and the Whalmish (think Elmore-style barbarians with bluish skin). Brunh is the analogue of England, and hase a few colonies, most notably Hawkmoor in Erathia, though Hawkmoor has declared its independence since the rise of the Temple of Hecate to power with the advent of the current warlock-ridden dynasty.

Utlun is an analogue for Africa, original home of the Dwarves and the Black Men of African cultures. During the early ages the Empire if Khem spanned several continents, and has had its ups and downs over the millennia. Today it is strong again, and has some colonies, like Razaine, Karnusia, and Brunh, though the colonies it held in northern Erathia were conquered by Razaine several decades ago and subsumed into the local Crown Colonies. The Church of the Risen Sun, dedicated to Re-Horakhty, Osiris, and Isis (and to a lesser extent, the entire goodly portion of the pantheon) is still a major faction in the Razaish-held colonies.

Quorn is an analogue for Asia, original home of the Gnomes (and many other various races) and the Yellow Men of various Asian cultures. Not a big player in the colonial drive in eastern Erathia, if the players eventually make a cross-continental trip, they will run into the Quorn equivalent of Fusang on the western coast...

Erathia is an analogue for North America, original home of the Tieflings and the White Men of various Native Nations cultures. Here of old was the great empire of Bael Turath, whose wars precipitated the fall of Lost Arkhosia, the decline of Elder Khem, and the end of the First Age. Bael Turath still exists, at the heart of the continent, but is much reduced in power. Petty and often barbarous splinter states exist on the periphery, with the cracks in between filled by savage tribes of humans and other, unusual races... now including the colonial settlements of the Mendrels, Whalmish, Utlun, and Quorn.

The campaign is set in one of the regions currently dominated by the colonial powers, along the Sapphire Sea and the Rubine Gulf. The Rubine Gulf was once a vast, rich plain, the heartland of the Empire of Nothos, the Demon-Son of Dionysius. Here his people, the Tavrosh, were born of Arkhosian and Erathian humans and the bloodlines of minotaurs, satyrs, sileni, dryads, and nymphs. When his empire fell, the land quaked and shattered, and in came the waters of the Sapphire Sea to form the Rubine Gulf. The Tavrosh still live along the shores and in the hills and mountains. After the fall they were conquered by a then resurgent Bael Turath, which subsequently again fell into decadence and left them to their own devices. In the north, the Skrellinkar barbarians, descended from the peoples of the Wizard-Kingdom of Skreln, eke out their own savage existence. Then unto these shores came the colonial powers, first Khem, then Razaine, Brunh, Karnusia, and the various Whalmish states. Today the colonies struggle against and amongst each other for wealth and power even as they send explorers into the ancient ruins and virgin wilds.

Recently, the Crown Colony of Kar Haddan declared its independence from Razaine, mostly over religious differences, the locals favoring the Church of the Risen Son while the Imperial House currently sponsors the Red Temple of War dedicated to the Arkhosian deity Ares. The other Crown Colonies gird for war, even as the Tielfing successor state of Bael Norradh stirs in the west, the Skrellinkars howl at the borders in the north against the northern colonies, and Hawkmoor, too, is caught in between a rock and a hard place, being infiltrated by warlock-assassins from the old motherland of Brunh...

The other campaigns currently in the works are:

Adventures in the Elder Isles: A Basic 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign set in the Elder Isles of Jack Vance's Lyonesse (itself being set in the world of Aerth from Gary Gygax's Dangerous Journeys: Mythus setting). This one is for folks new to tabletop games.

Adventures in Kvin Mondöj: An AD&D 1E/Advanced Labyrinth Lord campaign set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world inspired by Heavy Metal album covers. Think the Heavy Metal movie (Taarna segments), combined with Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, and Thundarr the Barbarian, and you get a general idea of where I'm going with this one. Designed for a group of folks who haven't played since 1st Edition...

Stuff and Writing and Bloggery

Well... that didn't last long. As I noticed, in fact, a distinct drop in readership while doing the Blog Hop, perhaps it is a good thing I didn't continue...

I've reached an impasse on the Cimmeria Gazetteer. Lots of good stuff so far, but then ::BAM::, my writing hit a brick wall. I think what happened was I picked up a Conan pastiche and tried to read it. It (and its otherwise excellent author) shall remain nameless, but after only reading the original unaltered Howard Conan tales, it really was quite jarring. I think I need to pick up those original Conan stories again and read through them to get back on track...

After that, the Next Big Project will be the Deshret Gazetteer for the Olden Lands. But I'd like to work on some smaller stuff first, to cleanse the creative palate, so to speak. Something non-Olden Lands, something in the 24-pages realm, a bit splat-bookish and also sandbox-y gazetteer-ish. Here are some things I'd like to write; what of these would people be most interested in reading? Or perhaps more pertinently, interested in paying a nominal price to read?

1) Kingdom of the Morlocks (Labyrinth Lord)
2) The Book of Dwarfs (Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea if I can make that work)
3) Cacodemonomicon: A Grimoire of Beasts Demonic and Most Vile (LL/C&C, maybe also AS&SH if I can make it work)
4) A Sandbox for Mutants & Mazes (Labyrinth Lord/Mutant Future Mash-Up)
5) Hercynian Grimoire #2 (A melange of stuff for LL/C&C and maybe other systems)
6) A High Weird Science Western Fantasy Town... something appropriate to drop into an Encounter Critical campaign.

Post below to let me know what you are all interested in seeing me work on next... and if you can't decide, roll a d6 and let me know your result!