No Elves! Still Going Strong

Several old RPGs (defined as out when I was a kid some 30 years ago!) are still active and experiencing modest resurgences.  Almost all driven by fans and hobbyists (not industry) and often for the love of the game (rather than $$$).

It use to be, in the dark ages before large drives, fast networks, and free creation tools, if you wanted to get something out there to other gamers you had to charge a large amount just to cover production and shipping. Now there is the option, if you want to share and be shared, you can. The future of RPG hobby has never looked better.


Everyone has heard Hasbro's announcements about releasing old TSR titles.

Still no Elves, but there are new! Talislanta supplements. All of Talislanta and more has been released under Creative Commons License.  Talislanta is one of the reasons I need multiple clones that can pursue all this cool stuff I can't seem to find time for...

The Iron Crown

Rolemaster Remastered (and Spacemaster, HARP Fantasy, HARP SF, and campaign settings).  The long running http://www.guildcompanion.com/ I don't follow things too closely, but I believe guild companion folks have bought the rights or something like that. I keep getting email newsletters announcing various products being available on PDF



And there must be enough interest to warrant a new edition and playtest.  Just wish more of that "interest" lived in Austin, TX!

wicked cool

Tekumel.com overhaul.  I actually don't remember Empire of the Petal Throne from back in the day.  I probably saw ads or heard mentions, but never saw game or knew anyone who knew anything about it.  I discovered Tekumel from reading various bloggers, Grognardia, Hill Cantons, Jeff Rients.

There will always be a (hard) core of base of fans for EPT.  It might never "break out".  But, that doesn't really matter. My goal for next NTRPGCon is to get into one of the EPT games.

dude, I'm old!

Star Frontiers Remastered The first "fan remake" I found, Amazingly Excellent. Better production values that original!  Get's my Drasilite all bubbly!  Really, really gonna have to start a Sci-fi campaign in 2013.


Don't even want to get into Harn, or I'll never get this posted...



Those are mine, there are others.  What are yours?

OoE - Dragon Magzine #5 #6 #7

I've decided to take at least one element from every RPG product I own to use in my Gold & Glory campaign. Starting with my CD collection of the Dragon Magazines issues 1-250.

Hey! Just found Held Action Blog has similar idea and a cooler name :(, Read'em 'cause you got'em.

The Dragon Vol 1, No 5 Mar, 1977

Full Index.
Dave Sutherland created this nice "Conan about to be chomped on by a Snake" cover art. Was there a male warrior that wasn't Conan in the late 70's? Also, since we're talking snakes, that old Dragon logo is all sorts of Swords and Sorcery Awesome.

These early issues have more S&S feel than when I had subscription (early eighties). Also back in #001 Tim Kask said "That mission is to publish the best magazine devoted to Sword & Sorcery, Fantasy, Science Fiction and Role Playing gaming." Maybe it means nothing that S&S happened to be listed first. But, I'm really seeing Grognardia's points about S&S and origins of this hobby. I wonder when/why S&S fell out of favor (with the fiction/game buying public)?

Also this issue marks when Dragon went from 6 to 8 issues a year. At the expense "Little Wars" going quarterly, a magazine I never heard of and wikipeadia has no info for me. Anyone?

Witchcraft Supplement For Dungeons & Dragons
by unknown

Clerics are immune to witchcraft (along with Djinn and Efreet, don't get that?) Neat concept though, that men (and women) of god are flat out immune to some kinds of magical shenanigans.

Numerous interesting magic items such as

Mountain Seeds
Similar to Hill Seeds in function but much deadlier. When pitched into the air thee gloves will swell to the size of a castle almost immediately. With one such seed a wizard could crush armies or destroy a town. They are safest when dropped from above, but can be thrown up from the ground if you are able to use teleportation and escape before it comes down.

Creature Feature
Here's and Erol Otus I've not seen before, a water color, not his usual medium?
Number appearing: 1-6
Description: 10-20 feet long, brown chitin overall, pink underside
Armor class: 2 overall, underside class 4
Movement: 12/6 through ground
Hit die: 3-8 (8 sided die)
Treasure: B2
Squirt acid for 1-6 die of damage according to size
Bite for 3-18 points damage
Magic resistance: none
Alignment: neutral
% in lair: 25%

That image is almost full magazine page. Crammed into the bottom inch are the stats (reproduced above). That is the entirety of the Creature Feature. A far cry from the later ecology series, eh?


How Green Was My Mutant
THE APPEARANCE OF HUMANOIDS IN METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA
by Gary Gygax

Random skin color, skin texture, head, neck, body, face hands & feet, fingers & toes, arms, and legs. The uses are legion!


The Dragon Vol 1, No 6 Apr, 1977

Nice cover by Morno.
Full Index.

Almost nothing of use. A (complicated and not as good as B/X) morale system, psionics, Metamorphosis Alpha stuffs (which are cool but dated). How to paint Petal Throne miniatures could come in handy for descriptions.



Sea Trade in D&D Campaigns
by Ronald C. Spencer, Jr.

Nice, simple, somewhat abstract system for sea trade from the "Bardukian Campaign" aboard the USS Benjamin Franklin (SSBN 640). Nice to know the people ready to usher in our nuclear holocaust Mutant Future get to have fun in their spare time.

Buy a cargo(assumed to be available in port) for 10k or 50k gp depending on how big of a merchant ship you have/are hiring. Write captain orders (default assumption is players are investors / merchants and have better things to do then spend weeks at sea. Although, nothing precludes sea borne adventure), pay pilot fees and import taxes. The general mechanic is the more ports you "skip" the bigger risk and bigger payoff you gamble. There's a d100 chart that has profit/loss as percentage of cargo. Ship can also be flat out lost at sea. Instead of taking loss, captain's orders can be to push on to next port and hope for better price there. A few more wrinkles but that is basically it.

I'd add some random tables for cargo types (cause I just know my players will ask me exactly what it is they bought). Maybe a table for how ship was lost at sea, d6 -> 1. storm, 2. kraken, 3. dread pirate roberts, 4. sea nymphs, 5. mutiny, 6. UFO

A minor distraction for players, way to gamble away their coin or strike it rich. Could lead to some adventures and generally fills in some of the vacuum of a world thus making the campaign seem more rich and real.




The Dragon Vol 2, No 1 June, 1977

Cover by another one name chap, Elrohir.
Full Index.

In the editor page, Dragon Rumbles, Tim Kask is hating on poor issue one's cover. He also claims to be the sole staff member (with assistance from Gary Jaquet who is four hours distant). Which's pretty darn impressive and I guess that means Tim gets to hate on whatever he wants.

This issue's Featured Creature, "Prowler", features another full page Otus water color.

This Morno guy has got some nice style going on. Wrote a bit of fiction to go along with his sweet art. More of his illustrations too (saved to my flavor/inspiration folder). Can't find much on him/her, did some Character Sheet cover art. Hmmmm...

Ah ha, I got you now Mr. Morno, or should I say Bradley W. Schenck!

The Internet is so cool.

Unlike issue #7 of The Dragon in which I find not one directly usable thing. The Military Formations of the Nations of the Universe by M.A.R. Barker is full of cool flavor. e.g

"The Oncoming Wings of the Hereafter"
This battle plan consists of a strong centre (variously divided into phalanxes, squares, wedges, etc.) and two long, fast-moving columns of lighter troops on the flanks, sometimes with “warhammer” units in concealment in one or both of the Greave positions behind. As the centre meets the foe, one or both of these columns may attempt to cut off enemy flanking units for annihilation by the concealed “warhammer” units coming along behind, or they may swing out like great wings to try to outflank the enemy and attack him from the rear.

But, I'm gonna be hard pressed to squeeze that into Gold & Glory. Guess I'll use it if the players ever find / enter Portal to Tékumel. Hmmm, they will arrive during major war (civil?) and be thrust into choosing sides / playing them off each other Fist Full of Dollars style. So, now this Portal isn't just "Freak Ass EPT world" it's "Freak Ass EPT military campaign world". See, brainstorming through all my stuffs is working out!

[I'm not 100% certain how I'll work this... Thinking that once players discover and figure out a "major" portals like the EPT one described above I would metagame tell them "hey through this portal is this freaky military campaign kind of game". Want to play that for awhile? No, fine. Don't enter that portal. If yes, then maybe roll up new characters for it? Maybe just a few players want to. Their characters enter portal and players create new characters (or assume control of henchmen) for this this campaign which we continue now. We'll make a side game for the EPT characters, meeting these other days.]

OoE - Dragon Magzine #3 #4

I've decided to take at least one element from every RPG product I own to use in my Gold & Glory campaign. Starting with my CD collection of the Dragon Magazines issues 1-250.

The Dragon Vol 1, No 3 Oct, 1976

The Full Index. Reading Tim Kask's Dragon Rumbles editorial pages of these early Dragons I'm struck with how much the tone and topics remind me of Ignatius �mlaut's words from Fight On!

From Len Lakofka's Notes on Women & Magic the level name for clerics after Prioress and before Matriarch is Superioress. That's too funny.

GenCon IX D&D Elimination Tournament "Miss Teenage Wisconsin, Jennifer Johnson, was on hand to add a touch of class to the ceremonies and presented all of the plaques." Wonder how that went?


Birth Tables for D&D
by Brad Stoick & Brian Lane

Pretty neat. Interesting ideas on rolling father's title, Knight, Baron, etc. and also their position Land Holder, Sheriff, Advisor to the King, etc. If I used something like this I'd start with the over the top HackMaster system and add some ideas from here to that.


Samurai
by Mike Childers as modified by Keff Kay

The mechanics for Katana and Wakizashi are interesting. They come in +0 to +3 tohit/dam varieties. Each having increasing chance to score a critical. E.g. for the +3; automatic on 18,19,20 or when rolling 5 or more above required to hit number. A critical blow is resolved on this d100 table.

01-80 25% of Max Hit Points or 6 hit points (whichever is greater) and the loss of a limb (1 = right arm, 2 = left arm, 3 = right leg & 4 = left leg).
81-95 50% of Max Hit Points or 12 hit points (whichever is greater) and a major body hit (no additional damage other than hit points).
96-00 100% of Max Hit Points due to decapitation or other instant kill.

I wonder when the Vorpal Sword was first mentioned and same for critical hits?


A New View of Dwarves
by Larry Smith

From the Abilities of Dwarves;
7. They can "feel" when handling armor or weapons if they are magical in nature.
9. Dwarves with Int of 9+ and Str 9+ can do smiths work.
10. Dwarves with Int 12+ and Str 9+ can to armorers work.
13. Dwarves with a Dex of 17 or greater can swim naturally.
14. Only Dwarves with an Intelligence of 12 or better will even consider getting on a horse. [Think Larry got that reversed ;)]

There's more of the "if stat then foo" entries. Interesting idea on how to both provide benefit for high stats and produce some character background.


The Berserker
by John Pickens

"Each berserker must become a shieldbrother in one of the following
clans: Wererat, Werewolf, Wereboar, Weretiger, and Werebear. When
the berserker earns his wereshape he will take that form when berserk,"

Kind of a fighter druid shape changer, I'm diggin it. I always thought barbarian and rage were two tastes that did not go well together. Definitely will use this class concept if not the exact mechanics. I like how one of the followers they attract will be a bard (I imagine Skald type)

Under chance of berserking:
Add 20% if the berserker bites his shield (voluntary).

WTF? More on this shield biting thing.



The Dragon Vol 1, No 4 Dec, 1976

I'm six this month! Full Index. Cover by M. A. R. Barker. The art and that it was made by the game author both pretty much explain why EPT rocks. They added four pages to this issue for EPT.

"In terms of development of detail, I think EPT has it over Middle Earth in the matters that most concern gamers. This is attributable to the fact that EPT was developed by a wargamer, and M-E was not." -- Tim Kask

I hadn't realized EPT was ever so gamer mainstream. Even had miniatures made for it (reviews in this issue). I wonder why it did not take off. Actually I know, it's too freaky. And only some gamers are freak lovers. Some of that freakish awesomeness

"...dispatches from all over the Empire are gathered each month into another volume of the “Korunkoi hiGar-dasisayal Koluman hiTirikeludalidalisa” (The Book of Mighty Imperial Deeds of the Great and Glorious Petal Throne). Inscribed on leaves of gold, this record is maintained in the Hall of Blue Illumination ..."

From Reports Submitted to the Petal Throne. Also very awesome is The Battle of the Temple of Chanis: 2020 A.S.

One of the past / lost / destroyed empires that once ruled the lands that comprise the "G&G play area" and whose ruins are it's adventure sites will be EPTesque. I'll sprinkle those reports and the rest of the awesome flowery text in scrolls, texts, monument carvings. Perhaps the players can piece together the location of a great treasure. Or even what caused the Empire of the Petal Throne to fall and thus avoid its mistakes.


Creature Features The Mihalli
No author listed, I assume M.A.R Barker


Your basic malevolent ancient race, but with awesome pants.

The Mihalli are an ancient nonhuman race which came with humanity to Tekumel G&G — but not with humanity’s knowledge or blessings! Their motives and attitudes are totally incomprehensible to mankind. They behave in ways which can only appear random to humans, since the Mihalli seems to function simultaneously in this dimension and in others as well.

The Mihalli are humanoid in form, hermaphroditic, able to see in the dark. Their skins range from dull green to a rich coppery brown — lower class Mihalli being of the former color and higher level Mihalli of the latter. They are shape-changers and can adopt the form of any human they wish. The only drawback to this is that their opalescent red eyes can at times (20% each turn looked at) be seen even through their disguises. They are marvelous magic users.

Their favorite magical weapon is the Ball of Immediate Eventuation, which can fire an energy bolt, build up a defense shield against all nonmagical projectiles, or cause them to become invisible. This weapon comes in various strengths, represented by its color: the weakest one is light purple, then bright silver, then bright gold, then lambent, translucent blue.