19th Level

" These are not your teenage daughter's vampires. They do not sparkle, they do not look like underwear models. These are the real vampires. These are what the legend is based on. They are a biological reality. They're people infected with a terrible virus.  And infected with virus so terrible that in fact they - what's the percentage - eat nine of their victims and then leave another one infected to perpetuate the clan." - Justin Cronin, author of The Passage , during an NPR Interview , August 24, 2010 When I first heard about Justin Cronin's novel  The Passage , I was intrigued by its capsule summary - essentially a move away from the brooding vampire looking for the right lady to fall in love with. This was a return the vampire as a predator. When I heard this description I thought of Richard Matheson's 1954 vampire novel I Am Legend . This turned out to be a good comparison as it turns out as both works deal with scientific explanations for the va...

My gaming group has been dealing with a lot of "real world" issues - primarily of a joyous nature, with lots of babies arriving. This has, however, made it difficult to get a quorum consistently. Therefore we're looking to add 1-3 more people to the group and my blog seems an excellent way to reach out to people who might be interested. Right now we are running a Call of Cthulhu game via Fantasy Grounds and Skype but my inclination is to start something new. I'm getting an "old school" style game ready. The system I have in mind is Autarch's Adventurer Conqueror King , previously reviewed  on this site, or Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics also reviewed here. I'd be running the game via Google Hangouts.We meet on alternate Mondays from 7 to 9:30ish in the evening, US/Canada eastern timezone. As far as campaign pitch goes, I'm viewing a game set at what was once the farthest frontier of a once-great empire, now but a shadow of its...

I'm not certain if Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role Playing Grindhouse Edition is the longest title for an RPG but if it isn't, it's got to be awfully close. (Henceforth I'm going to abbreviate it as LotFP - originally I was going with WFRP but that lends to confusion with Warhammer Fantasy Role Play.) When I started my blog there were three RPGs that I knew I wanted to have for my first review - this, Adventure Conqueror King , and Dungeon Crawl Classics . When I've discussed the possibilities of doing an old-school game with my group one of the more common concerns is attempts to repeat what's been done before. That's clearly more of an issue for some than for others - for example, I know some people who'd gladly get their White Box edition of D&D out and start playing that. That said, there is something to be said for those games which put their own stamp on things. I believe this trio of games does just that. With DCC w...

The 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide contained rules for converting characters between AD&D and Boot Hill or Gamma World, the other two RPGs produced by TSR at the time AD&D was initially released. I found this all rather interesting, especially since I had no real idea about other RPGs at the time. Moreover, my access to other RPGs was limited as well, both by availability and cost. The cost is easier to explain. As a child in middle school I just didn't have a ton of disposable income. Actually, pretty much all of my income was disposable, I just didn't have all that much of it. And those game books were expensive - as I recall, the Players Handbook  ran for $12 and Dungeon Masters Guide for $20. As a DM I of course got the Dungeon Masters Guide first. A bit confusing when you tried to combine it with the D&D Basic and Expert rules but I was far from the only person who did that. As far as availability goes. My initial source of gaming books were from the...

Fantasy and maps tend to go hand and hand. One need only look at one of the most famous works of the genre, The Hobbit to see that. That work included two maps. The first was that of "The Wilderland", the location where the majority of the adventures in The Hobbit took place. The second was Thorin's "treasure map", his map of the Lonely Mountain. It is no surprise that fantasy role playing games have made extensive use of maps. Beyond being true to the genre this is also quite practical, as many games involve adventuring in an unfriendly wilderness, much like the Wilderland that Bilbo and his companions adventured in in The Hobbit. I've noted two common goals in RPG maps, those of utility and those of artistic merit. Commercial products tend to need both. Individual game masters have a bit more flexibility as they have just their own groups to satisfy. Personally I absolutely love maps and I suspect I'm not the only one in the hobby like that....

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 ...