The Marvel comic Planet of the Apes has gotten me on a bit of an ape kick. Which got me thinking, why not use it (modified) as a D&D setting. Use the old sci-fi classic of nuclear war restoring magic to the world. For people who complain of elfly/dwarfy fantasy this could be a new twist.
What's really great is how the original movie even helps us map the ape types to character classes. Based on the films, especially the first two, it is obvious that gorillas would be fighters. The scientist types are all chimpanzees so they would be our magic users. Finally, Dr. Zaius and the Lawgiver are cleric types which gives us the orangutans.
Grab the cave city inspired architecture (especially if you can find the old 70s comics) and use James M's Stranger for Taylor like visitor humans and you've got all you need for a great classic D&D version of the classic franchise.
Plus, no elves.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Mentzer Dungeon: Special Monsters
With a scenario and a setting for my Mentzer Dungeon the next step is to select special monsters. Mentzer provides even less details for special monsters than he does for setting. He gives a brief example that a ruined tower might be inhabited by a few hobgoblin lairs with their pets and friends. The rest would be filled randomly.
Given our scenario involves kidnapped individuals the kidnappers are the obvious choice for the special monster. In my scenario I called the kidnappers subhumans. At the time I figured I'd use orcs or goblins as generic fantasy subhumans. However, in creating the setting I decided that the location of the adventure, set in some anoymous wastes, was in a location not unlike the forbidden zone of the Planet of the Apes movies. With that in minds, why not make the subhumans gorillas. The idea of raiders lead by a General Ursus (or Urko if you prefer the TV series) is very appealing. Consulting the red dungeon master's book, however, results in disappointment.
There are no gorillas in it. In fact, there is only one primate, the White Ape and one monkey, the Rock Baboon. Neanderthals, however, do appear.Their entry, however, is not encouraging. While I did intend this to be a red box only project I did look in the Rules Cyclopedia and both creature books produced for the separate D&D line and didn't find many more options. I could go even further afield, but one of the goals of this project was to produce what I wanted just using the red box. I wanted to see how creative I could be using a limited pallet and formal structures.
So, I have decided to use neanderthals as my special monsters. A small tribe of neanderthals with some white ape pets will give the closest feel to what I want. Rolling 1d4x10 I get 10 neanderthals plus two 6 HD leaders. Rolling for the white ape lair I get 8. Clearly, I've rolled up not a lair with family units but a warband with their war apes. However, this goes against the monster entry saying neanderthals are normally peaceful. I'll leave that as a mystery that might not even be in this dungeon.
Before I finish selecting special monsters there is a brief sentence at the end of the paragraph describing them,
One thing I've always loved about superhero comics is re-occuring villians and if we're going to do several adventures here I'd like to include some. So, I think I'll add rival adventurers as well. They are discussed extensively in the monster section. I'll roll up a few characters and pick a party identical to my player's characters who are also looking to rescue the women. While I won't have the NPC party be inherently hostile they will be after the same goals.
So, with two groups of special monsters, a neanderthal raiding part that has kidnapped slave women and a rival rescue party, I'm ready to draw a map. The next post in this series will cover the first steps in mapping and ask the question, "Can I turn a local apartment building into a dungeon?"
Other articles in this series:
Introduction
Scenario
Setting
Given our scenario involves kidnapped individuals the kidnappers are the obvious choice for the special monster. In my scenario I called the kidnappers subhumans. At the time I figured I'd use orcs or goblins as generic fantasy subhumans. However, in creating the setting I decided that the location of the adventure, set in some anoymous wastes, was in a location not unlike the forbidden zone of the Planet of the Apes movies. With that in minds, why not make the subhumans gorillas. The idea of raiders lead by a General Ursus (or Urko if you prefer the TV series) is very appealing. Consulting the red dungeon master's book, however, results in disappointment.
There are no gorillas in it. In fact, there is only one primate, the White Ape and one monkey, the Rock Baboon. Neanderthals, however, do appear.Their entry, however, is not encouraging. While I did intend this to be a red box only project I did look in the Rules Cyclopedia and both creature books produced for the separate D&D line and didn't find many more options. I could go even further afield, but one of the goals of this project was to produce what I wanted just using the red box. I wanted to see how creative I could be using a limited pallet and formal structures.
So, I have decided to use neanderthals as my special monsters. A small tribe of neanderthals with some white ape pets will give the closest feel to what I want. Rolling 1d4x10 I get 10 neanderthals plus two 6 HD leaders. Rolling for the white ape lair I get 8. Clearly, I've rolled up not a lair with family units but a warband with their war apes. However, this goes against the monster entry saying neanderthals are normally peaceful. I'll leave that as a mystery that might not even be in this dungeon.
Before I finish selecting special monsters there is a brief sentence at the end of the paragraph describing them,
The entire 'dungeon' could be used for several adventures. This is good given I've just included ten level 2 monsters (neanderthals), eight level 4 monsters (white apes), and two level six monsters (the neanderthal leaders). It should take several forays to eliminate these threats and explore the area.
One thing I've always loved about superhero comics is re-occuring villians and if we're going to do several adventures here I'd like to include some. So, I think I'll add rival adventurers as well. They are discussed extensively in the monster section. I'll roll up a few characters and pick a party identical to my player's characters who are also looking to rescue the women. While I won't have the NPC party be inherently hostile they will be after the same goals.
So, with two groups of special monsters, a neanderthal raiding part that has kidnapped slave women and a rival rescue party, I'm ready to draw a map. The next post in this series will cover the first steps in mapping and ask the question, "Can I turn a local apartment building into a dungeon?"
Other articles in this series:
Introduction
Scenario
Setting
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Classic Traveller Free
I'm a bit behind the times, but RPG.net has Traveller Starter Set is available for free. This was a boxed set roughly contemporaneous to Moldvay Basic and serving a similar purpose.
What is different from Moldvay Basic is how complete it is. The rules book is essentially the three LBB reformatted. You need never buy another item with this set.
Randall at Retro-Roleplaying has a quality review of the contents.
Given what I've been reading* the idea of some Traveller sounds fairly interesting. The book would make an interesting starting point for sure.
*S. M. Stirling's The Sky People if you're reading this long after it is posted.
What is different from Moldvay Basic is how complete it is. The rules book is essentially the three LBB reformatted. You need never buy another item with this set.
Randall at Retro-Roleplaying has a quality review of the contents.
Given what I've been reading* the idea of some Traveller sounds fairly interesting. The book would make an interesting starting point for sure.
*S. M. Stirling's The Sky People if you're reading this long after it is posted.
Updated Blogroll
I've finally updated the blogroll to the right. Sadly, three items were removed not because I have ceased to read them regularly but because they are no longer available.
On a happier note I've close to doubled the total number of blogs because there is just so much good material out there. Several of the new additions have appeared in Monday Pointers. Some have appeared more than once.
So, go over and give someone on the right a try. I promise they'll be interesting. I'll bet they'll be more interesting than many of my posts.
On a happier note I've close to doubled the total number of blogs because there is just so much good material out there. Several of the new additions have appeared in Monday Pointers. Some have appeared more than once.
So, go over and give someone on the right a try. I promise they'll be interesting. I'll bet they'll be more interesting than many of my posts.
Mentzer Dungeon: Setting
Last time out I selected a scenario for my Mentzer Dungeon. The next step is to select a setting. We are again provided with a brief list of possible settings but they come with no notes. In fact, while the scenario listing is about half a page the setting section is barely a paragraph. I suspect this foreshadows the coming influence plot would play in TSR modules. The handful general settings listed (and even the book admits there are plenty more) are:
That isn't much to work with. Let's look at what we have in the scenario and see if we can't find some hints for a setting. The scenario is
If we lookup wastes on Wikipedia we get essentially an article on garbage. However, heading to the disambiguation page we find wastelands as an option. Following up on that word we wind up on its disambiguation page. The very first entry is a definition,
So, subhumans of some kind (we'll leave the kind to the next step) have kidnapped slave girls into a land that is devoid of nutrients, soil or moisture and whose barrenness is the result of a curse heroes can lift. While the stereotypical idea would be a desert I want something more. It is times like these that random reading can come to the forefront.
Sitting in a draft post for this blog is an article about visiting a forbidden Japanese island. The island is basically a huge abandoned coal mining complex called Battleship Island. I guess taking that as inspiration moves us to an abandoned mine, but I doubt this is what Moldvay or Mentzer had in mind.
However, the idea of "the wastes" seems bigger than one island and an island per se seems out of place. I'm going to draw upon a second recent reading, the old Marvel black and white Planet of the Apes. With this we have an idea for the wastes, the forbidden zone. It is a barren land puncuated by a variety of ruins. One ruin, in particular, will be an old mining company town with closely clustered apartment and mining buildings. In a Traveler game they might border on being an arcology. The presense of the mine allows for some underground levels, but I think I'll focus on one or two apartment buildings for now as the subhuman's lair. For the surrounding wastes I'll go with a grey, ashen land that has a faint bluish glow in areas at night, borrowing the Planet of the Apes forbidden zone more or less whole.
So, our adventure, before any maps are drawn can be summed up as:
Other articles in this series:
Introduction
Scenario
Setting
- Castle or Tower
- Caves or Cavern
- Abandoned mine
- Crypt or Tomb
- Ancient Temple
- Stronghold or Town
That isn't much to work with. Let's look at what we have in the scenario and see if we can't find some hints for a setting. The scenario is
the party learns of a large reward to rescue a group of five kidnapped women who were carried off by subhumans into the wastes to the south. The women are actually slave girls being brought from the pleasure cities of the east by a local merchant for a brothel he planned to open.So, we need some kind of setting appropriate to "the wastes" and being inhabited by "subhumans".
If we lookup wastes on Wikipedia we get essentially an article on garbage. However, heading to the disambiguation page we find wastelands as an option. Following up on that word we wind up on its disambiguation page. The very first entry is a definition,
A landscape devoid of nutrients, soil and/or moisture; see also, overgrazing, slash and burn, deforestation, erosion, scorched earth. The second entry is about a concept in Celtic mythology,
The Wasteland is a Celtic motif that ties the barrenness of a land with a curse that must be lifted by a hero.. Now we're cooking with gas.
So, subhumans of some kind (we'll leave the kind to the next step) have kidnapped slave girls into a land that is devoid of nutrients, soil or moisture and whose barrenness is the result of a curse heroes can lift. While the stereotypical idea would be a desert I want something more. It is times like these that random reading can come to the forefront.
Sitting in a draft post for this blog is an article about visiting a forbidden Japanese island. The island is basically a huge abandoned coal mining complex called Battleship Island. I guess taking that as inspiration moves us to an abandoned mine, but I doubt this is what Moldvay or Mentzer had in mind.
However, the idea of "the wastes" seems bigger than one island and an island per se seems out of place. I'm going to draw upon a second recent reading, the old Marvel black and white Planet of the Apes. With this we have an idea for the wastes, the forbidden zone. It is a barren land puncuated by a variety of ruins. One ruin, in particular, will be an old mining company town with closely clustered apartment and mining buildings. In a Traveler game they might border on being an arcology. The presense of the mine allows for some underground levels, but I think I'll focus on one or two apartment buildings for now as the subhuman's lair. For the surrounding wastes I'll go with a grey, ashen land that has a faint bluish glow in areas at night, borrowing the Planet of the Apes forbidden zone more or less whole.
So, our adventure, before any maps are drawn can be summed up as:
You hear that a raiding party of subhumans has kidnapped women from the last caravan from the east as well as exotic luxuries imported by the merchant Pali. He has offered a reward for retrieving the women. He can tell you the subhumans tend to camp in a ruined mining town barely into the Wastes to the south and provides a map to it.Tomorrow, we will discuss exactly who the subhumans are in Step 3: Select Special Monsters
Other articles in this series:
Introduction
Scenario
Setting
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Talislanta has gone free
One of the most original worlds in RPGs, often mentioned with Jorune, Glorantha, and Tekumel has gone free. Visit Talislanta on the web for full details. You can find the PDFs for many of the volumes already.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Mentzer Dungeon: Scenario
The first step in creating a dungeon in both Mentzer and Moldavy's versions of basic is selecting a scenario. Here we already see drift from OD&D and even Holmes. The idea of a scenario at all is absent from The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures which merely provides a sample dungeon. Holmes does not provide guidance directing a scenerio, but does discuss the background of its sample dungeon.
Mentzer provides several scenarios with a brief description:
My natural inclination is to go with the destroying an ancient evil. The description reads
Rescuing prisoners sounds like it could be interesting:
So, here's the setup. The scenario will see the party learning of a large reward to rescue a group of five kidnapped women who were carried off by subhumans into the wastes to the south. The women are actually slave girls being brought from the pleasure cities of the east by a local merchant for a brothel he planned to open.
Tomorrow: Setting
Other articles in this series:
Introduction
Scenario
Setting
Mentzer provides several scenarios with a brief description:
- Recovering Ruins
- Exploring the Unknown
- Investigating an Enemy Outpost
- Destroying an Ancient Evil
- Visiting a Lost Shrine
- Fulfilling a Quest
- Escaping from Enemies
- Rescuing Prisoners
- Using a Magic Portal
- Finding a Lost Race
My natural inclination is to go with the destroying an ancient evil. The description reads
The 'evil' is a monster or NPC, but the exact type is not known. It may have been deeply buried and reawakeed by recent digging, exploring, and so forth.But I'm wondering if natural inclination is just another phrase for laziness or lack of creativity. So let's brainstorm some other options.
Rescuing prisoners sounds like it could be interesting:
Valuable or important persons are being held prisoner by an evil group (bandits, orcs, a magic-user with allies, etc). The party may be hired, or may simply be seeking an announced reward. The party may be the guards for a person negotiating the ransom demandsYeah, I like that one. Still, 'rescue the princess' is a bit cliche so what variants can we do. I'm still down with beautiful women captives in a fine Burroughs tradition. Actually, why not twist it a little and use the most reviled sword and planet series for inspiration, Gor. I really like Trollsmyth's Slaves of Shkeen last month. So, the captives to be rescued could be slaves. Given my bent they'll have to be slave girls.
So, here's the setup. The scenario will see the party learning of a large reward to rescue a group of five kidnapped women who were carried off by subhumans into the wastes to the south. The women are actually slave girls being brought from the pleasure cities of the east by a local merchant for a brothel he planned to open.
Tomorrow: Setting
Other articles in this series:
Introduction
Scenario
Setting
Friday, April 2, 2010
Mentzer Dungeon: Introduction
This week I pulled the trigger on BCS Redbox and BCS Rebox Meetup. Our first meeting will be Sunday the 17th of April.
I don't have anyone signed up but me. As such, I need to be ready to run something. While I have a ton of modules and such I thought, "since we're playing Mentzer why not build a dungeon by the book."
So, over the next week I'm going to try and pretend I've never done this before and design a dungeon step by step with random stocking of most rooms and all the other hallmarks of Mentzer's procedure. For those wonder, the outline isn't much different from Moldavy's outline but the text is somewhat different.
For those who don't have Mentzer handy the steps are:
My goal in this is two fold. First, I'd like to get back to basics and see if I can rediscover things I've forgotten, both in process and in response. Second, I'm hoping these posts will inspire those, especially those who have never designed a dungeon, to take the leap.
Other articles in this series:
Introduction
Scenario
Setting
I don't have anyone signed up but me. As such, I need to be ready to run something. While I have a ton of modules and such I thought, "since we're playing Mentzer why not build a dungeon by the book."
So, over the next week I'm going to try and pretend I've never done this before and design a dungeon step by step with random stocking of most rooms and all the other hallmarks of Mentzer's procedure. For those wonder, the outline isn't much different from Moldavy's outline but the text is somewhat different.
For those who don't have Mentzer handy the steps are:
- Choose a Scenario
- Decide on a Setting
- Select Special Monsters
- Draw the Map
- Stock the Dungeon
- Fill in the Final Details
My goal in this is two fold. First, I'd like to get back to basics and see if I can rediscover things I've forgotten, both in process and in response. Second, I'm hoping these posts will inspire those, especially those who have never designed a dungeon, to take the leap.
Other articles in this series:
Introduction
Scenario
Setting
We Tried D&D and It Didn't Work
Over at Trollsmyth the comments on this post. It seems they are missing the point of "D&D is always right".
I think the rule derives from a lot of strawmen arguments that run "I like to play games concentrating on $THE_GREATEST_THING. D&D doesn't do $THE_GREATEST_THING. Therefore D&D is broken." The rule says "Respect what the game does, understand how and why it does it, understand how that affects other things, and then you are ready to change it or change something else to get the effect you want."
Note, this rule is just as valid for any RPG. If you are committed to playing Mage: the Ascension but something about the game is sticking in your craw remember "Mage is always right." Go through the process above before you just change things randomly.
This is the same difference between patch rules and rules from first principles that Ron Edwards discussing in Fantasy Heartbreakers.
For those having trouble what is wrong with just saying "D&D is broken" may I present We Tried Baseball and It Didn't Work
I think the rule derives from a lot of strawmen arguments that run "I like to play games concentrating on $THE_GREATEST_THING. D&D doesn't do $THE_GREATEST_THING. Therefore D&D is broken." The rule says "Respect what the game does, understand how and why it does it, understand how that affects other things, and then you are ready to change it or change something else to get the effect you want."
Note, this rule is just as valid for any RPG. If you are committed to playing Mage: the Ascension but something about the game is sticking in your craw remember "Mage is always right." Go through the process above before you just change things randomly.
This is the same difference between patch rules and rules from first principles that Ron Edwards discussing in Fantasy Heartbreakers.
For those having trouble what is wrong with just saying "D&D is broken" may I present We Tried Baseball and It Didn't Work
A TED talk that has the soul of the OSR
Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity | Video on TED.com
Most of this isn't particularly relevant but two things are:
1. A lot of people complain using the OGL to create the retro-clones is just laziness at best and parasitism or piracy at worst. I think Lessig has a better interpretation in that the OGL has created a remix culture. While the first few out of the gate hew close to the original newer games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Roleplaying and Emprise are certainly going new (and very different) directions. My Chest of Wonders, which I haven't discussed much, will hopefully be a new direction for another part of the family tree.
2. The core of roleplaying, to my mind, is expressed in Lessig's "Read Write Culture". Late last year I actually wrote a mission statement for this blog, the short version of which is now the subtitle. The long version, the elevator pitch is, "Places to Go, People to be champions tabletop role-playing games as the most accessible form of public creativity and self-expression. We provide reviews, ideas, rules, inspirational sources, and other guidance and encouragement for people to play tabletop role-playing games in a traditional manner. We prefer homebrew settings and mix-and-match rulesets. We want each game-master to build a unique game that tells the stories he and his players have in them instead of acting out stories already written. Are you ready for old fashioned adventure?"
Mix and match rule sets and telling the stories you and your players have in you are the essence of the OSR for me. While I do again with JER IV in that all it takes to be a member of the OSR is to play one of our games honestly and without irony I see that as lay membership. Initiate membership is when you start remixing the pieces of our games (and other games for that matter) to create your own (for those curious about Rune Lord membership see Grognardia for how it's done...for Rune Priests, get busy creating your own material that becomes part of the common vocabulary).
So as a closing note, let me make two recommendations, one of which I pledge to follow with any products I produce and the other as another suggestion on where to find not only new players but plain fellow travelers:
1. Embrace open gaming via the OGL or Creative Commons. You don't have to give up the farm but at least give back 10% of the total you have drawn from the open gaming world.
2. Meet and talk to the kinds of people doing the video and music remix culture. Listen to Paul's Boutique (20th Anniversary Edition) and Fear of a Black Planet, two of the greatest sample albums of all time. When you meet a local remixer or YouTube video maker, invite them to your game. The ReadWrite culture is our culture and they are our people.
Most of this isn't particularly relevant but two things are:
1. A lot of people complain using the OGL to create the retro-clones is just laziness at best and parasitism or piracy at worst. I think Lessig has a better interpretation in that the OGL has created a remix culture. While the first few out of the gate hew close to the original newer games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Roleplaying and Emprise are certainly going new (and very different) directions. My Chest of Wonders, which I haven't discussed much, will hopefully be a new direction for another part of the family tree.
2. The core of roleplaying, to my mind, is expressed in Lessig's "Read Write Culture". Late last year I actually wrote a mission statement for this blog, the short version of which is now the subtitle. The long version, the elevator pitch is, "Places to Go, People to be champions tabletop role-playing games as the most accessible form of public creativity and self-expression. We provide reviews, ideas, rules, inspirational sources, and other guidance and encouragement for people to play tabletop role-playing games in a traditional manner. We prefer homebrew settings and mix-and-match rulesets. We want each game-master to build a unique game that tells the stories he and his players have in them instead of acting out stories already written. Are you ready for old fashioned adventure?"
Mix and match rule sets and telling the stories you and your players have in you are the essence of the OSR for me. While I do again with JER IV in that all it takes to be a member of the OSR is to play one of our games honestly and without irony I see that as lay membership. Initiate membership is when you start remixing the pieces of our games (and other games for that matter) to create your own (for those curious about Rune Lord membership see Grognardia for how it's done...for Rune Priests, get busy creating your own material that becomes part of the common vocabulary).
So as a closing note, let me make two recommendations, one of which I pledge to follow with any products I produce and the other as another suggestion on where to find not only new players but plain fellow travelers:
1. Embrace open gaming via the OGL or Creative Commons. You don't have to give up the farm but at least give back 10% of the total you have drawn from the open gaming world.
2. Meet and talk to the kinds of people doing the video and music remix culture. Listen to Paul's Boutique (20th Anniversary Edition) and Fear of a Black Planet, two of the greatest sample albums of all time. When you meet a local remixer or YouTube video maker, invite them to your game. The ReadWrite culture is our culture and they are our people.
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