19th Level

Cover from Goodreads.com I was recently flipping through Goodman Games' "The Chained Coffin" adventure. Author Michael Curtis refers to his primary inspiration being Manly Wade Wellman's "Silver John" stories. Manly Wade Wellman appears in the original Dungeon Master's Guide "Appendix N: Inspirational and Educational Reading". I decided to do a quick ebook search and much to my disappointment there wasn't an ebook to be found. I did order a few used books and discovered his first "Silver John" novel, The   Old Gods Waken,  available on audible.com . Most people seem to have a preference for Wellman's short stories but I figured "why not" and purchased the audiobook. It's a well done narration by Stefan Rudnicki. There's two things to discuss. First, what the book is about and second, what it feels like. In this case the feel is more important aspect but I'll discuss both. The "Silver John...

I've spent a bit of free time working out the details for my campaign setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics . It actually took a bit of debate going back and forth between that and Adventurer Conqueror King System. In the end I decided on DCC , largely due to its somewhat lighter workload for the Judge, though I definitely want to run or play a game of ACKS at some point. I've posted some previous musings on this setting and this may contradict some of them - as the game gets closer to its first session the setting is becoming more concrete as some ideas are modified or discarded. As I mentioned previously I'm inspired by what I consider to be TSR's old "mini-sandbox" adventures. I don't foresee running a "true" sandbox game with everything wide open but I do want to incorporate a large element of player control. This is what I observed TSR doing in several of their early adventures. While the Lendore Isle series of adventures remains a big inspir...

Previously I examined some of the early TSR D&D adventures which effectively doubled as settings. In this installment I'm going to begin constructing my own in broad strokes. The goal isn't to design everything about the world but rather to think about the world at a high level, enough to properly place the local setting. As I'd mentioned, I'm a big fan of nautical elements to campaign settings. I'd given some thought to a water world like Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea  or a Pacific setting inspired by the Aubrey/Maturin series and Polynesian history and legends. However, while a campaign setting should engage its creator, I do want to be careful not to overdo it with extreme detail - the Judge's hobbies should not interfere with the enjoyment of his players. ("Wait a minute, what time is it when it is seven bells?") There is something to be said for a certain amount of familiarity. I know there's some controversy on George R.R. Matrin...

I made my first attempt at reading H.P. Lovecraft in the summer of 1989, between high school and college. I was taking a pre-calculus class that summer to allow me to start my engineering studies at the University of Connecticut with that prerequisite met. It was an awfully boring class as I'd taken non-AP pre-calculus and calculus in high school (though regretfully didn't do well enough to test out of it). Summer classes were rather long and had an intermission. I usually brought along a book to read during break in case I wanted to be alone. One of the authors I brought along was H.P. Lovecraft. The first few stories I read didn't grab me too much. I wasn't much into Lovecraft's evocative descriptions at the time, wanting more to get to the point. Then one afternoon I came upon the novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth . That was the story that got me hooked. For those unfamiliar with the work (and as usual I will stay clear of  big spoilers as much as possible)...

Appendix N of the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide  lists among the sources for AD&D The Mathematics of Magic series by L. Sprauge de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. de Camp is probably one of my greatest gaps in the category of classic fantasy and science fiction writers, writing, for example, the classic time travel/alternate history novel Lest Darkness Fall. To be honest, I've stayed clear of The Mathematics of Magic  series, of which "The Roaring Trumpet" is the first novella. I'd heard them described as "comedic" fantasy. Having recently completed my first read of "The Roaring Trumpet" that was clearly a mistake. It was an amusing tale with some things to smile about, but much in the sense that your typical D&D session often develops its own sense of humor and jokes. With that in mind let us investigate "The Roaring Trumpet". I'll stay clear of spoilers but I will of course have to discuss the story in broad strokes. This...

I've mentioned the inspirational reading section of the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide  a few times in this blog. It seems worth it to show it in its entirety and discuss it a little bit. In the list following the authors in bold represent those of which I have done at least some of the relevant reading. APPENDIX N: INSPIRATIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL READING Inspiration for all of the fantasy work I have done stems directly from the love my father showed when I was a lad, for he spent many hours telling me stories he made up as he went along, tales of cloaked old men who could grant wishes, of magic rings and enchanted swords, or wicked sorcerors and dauntless swordsmen. Then too, countless hundreds of comic books went down, and the long-gone EC ones certainly had their effect. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror movies were a big influence. In fact, all of us tend to get ample helpings of fantasy when we are very young, from fairy tales ...

The intent of the Open Game License that Wizards of the Coast released with the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons was to encourage other publishers to support the D&D game with adventures, something they had viewed as less profitable than rule books. Goodman Games, the creators of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG made good use of the Open Game License in this manner, producing a successful line of adventures in a line called "Dungeon Crawl Classics". They were designed to hearken back to the adventure modules released by TSR in the late 70s to mid 80s with their gatefold maps in blue and white, about 32-48 pages in length, with killer dungeons, treasures galore, and dragons at the bottom of the dungeon. They released products in this line for the 3, 3.5, and 4th editions of the D&D game as well as the occasional special 1st edition AD&D adventure. What I imagine must have surprised Wizards of the Coast is the fact that publishers and independent authors de...

To start off this blog it seems reasonable to give a review of a book I've just finished reading, Andre Norton's Witch World , first published in 1963. And me being me, the mere use of the word "reading" needs a bit of explanation. A few years ago I began a subscription to audible.com and have greatly enjoyed reading unabridged audiobooks. I listen to them when I'm driving alone in my car and when I go for walks or do "mindless" chores. What brought me to this book? Amusingly, the famous "Appendix N" of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide (1st edition), a bibliography of literature that helped inspire the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game of the late 1970s. I recently received my pdf copy for my pre-order of Goodman Games'  Dungeon Crawl Classics  role-playing game which aspires to provide a D&D-like game for playing an "Appendix N"-like game (indeed, they reprinted Appendix N in its entirety). A...