30 November 2009

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

ROGUE FEED institutions, most notably the Holy Church, an inexplicably Christian
church, complete with most of the trappings of medieval Catholicism,
Pulp Fantasy Library: Deryni including ecclesiastical Latin (though there does not seem to be a Pope).
Just how and why this fantasy world managed to produce so close a copy
Rising of medieval Catholicism is never explained and it’s something that never
NOV 30, 2009 12:01A.M. really sat well with me, as the world of the Eleven Kingdoms is clearly
not our world or even an alternate version of it. This is made particularly
clear by the inclusion of the Deryni, a race of human beings with natural
psychic/magical abilities and who are often treated with suspicion, if not
hatred, in many of the Eleven Kingdoms.

Deryni Rising is the first of many books set in this world, one that clearly
found lots of fans in the early days of gaming. I can’t say I’m among
them, unfortunately. I have always found them difficult to like, but then
I’ve never enjoyed books that borrow heavily from the real Middle Ages
while at the same time changing many elements of the period without
any concern for the ramifications. I’m probably in the minority on this
score, given the success of George R.R. Martin, whose books seem to be
spiritual descendants of Kurtz’s (albeit with a great deal more sex and
violence). There’s little question that the Deryni novels inspired lots of
gamers, who took their approach to world design as a model to emulate.
These worlds run in parallel to the swords-and-sorcery-inspired worlds
that I prefer, but they’re no less a part of the heritage of the hobby, even
As often happens, I’ll discuss a book in this series that can’t, by any they weren’t especially influential on Arneson or Gygax. Still, I can’t deny
reasonable definition, be called “pulp fantasy.” Nevertheless, I discuss their place at the gaming table and think it worth reading a book or two
the book because I think it played a role in the development of the in the series to get a taste of what they’re like and why people fell in love
hobby, despite its being very different in style and content from most of with them.
the other books that inspired early gamers and game designers. In some
case, it’s precisely because these books are so different that I include
them. They provide a counterweight to the vast majority of what I talk
about here, a reminder that the early hobby was in fact a welter of ROGUE FEED
conflicting ideas and approaches, not all of which agreed with one
another. CAS in the LA Times
NOV 29, 2009 08:53P.M.
A good case in point is Katherine Kurtz’s 1970 novel, Deryni Rising. Set
in the imaginary medieval realm of Gwynedd, the novel tells the story of Reader Matt pointed me toward a recent review of The Return of the
Prince Kelson Haldane as he attempts to claim his rightful throne as king Sorcerer, a collection of Clark Ashton Smith stories. It’s always nice to
of Gwynedd after the death of his father. Complicating matters is the fact see pulp fantasy writers discussed in the mainstream press. I’ve noticed a
that Kelson is opposed by a powerful sorceress who wishes to claim the trend lately to treat many of the giants of pulp fantasy much more
throne for herself and whose magical abilities all but guarantee her equitably and this review is a good example of that. Here’s to many
victory. Kelson’s father, the previous king, had held off this pretender more!
through his own magical abilities, which Kelson lacks. The prince must
then unravel the mystery of his father’s powers in order to succeed him
and take his place as Gwynedd’s ruler.

Gwynedd is one of the Eleven Kingdoms, a collection of medieval feudal

realms, some of which are clear analogs of places in the real world, while
others are less obviously so. There are many other analogs to real world

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 30 November 2009

ROGUE FEED ROGUE FEED

[Shadow, Sword & Spell] Dungeon Map Help (Again)

NOV 29, 2009 12:01A.M.
Announcing the opening of the
Once again, I need someone with cartography skills who’ll help me
playtest render a decent map of a single dungeon level. I’m doing another level
NOV 29, 2009 11:53A.M. for Fight On!‘s “The Darkness Beneath” and the toughest part for me is
the map of the level. I could draw it by hand, but I find my own scrawls
It is that time again! What time? Playtest time. bad enough for my own use, never mind for the use of others.

After what seems like an eternity, it is now the moment you have been Ideally, I need someone who can turn around a map quickly and enjoys a
waiting. The opening of the Shadow, Sword & Spell playtest! Like our bit of leeway in their instructions. This would be purely volunteer work,
other playtest there are a few rules: but the end result would appear in a future issue of Fight On! with full
credit and you’d be free to do whatever you want with the map afterward.
• All participants will need to submit an Idea Submission Form.
You can download it here. If anyone can help me, just drop me a line through the email address to
the right. Thanks!
• At least one member of the play test group must take part in a
play test discussion group.

• A willingness to put rules through their paces. ROGUE FEED

• You can publicly talk about being part of the play test, but Original City-State
you cannot post the rules or share them with anyone outside of the
play test. Reproduction for Sale
NOV 28, 2009 12:31P.M.
For taking part this is what you get:
Bill Owen, one of the founders of Judges Guild, is selling reproductions
• All play testers get credited in the book. of the original map of “No Name City,” which would go on to become the
City-State of the Invincible Overlord. The map sells for $25 and will be
• All play testers get a free copy of the published book. limited to 144 copies, signed by Mr Owen and Bob Bledsaw Jr.

This play test will run between now and March 2010. Here are a few details from the above page:

If you want to take part, and want your first chance to see the rules of our This is a full-size (exactly 36.05x43.9”) REPRINT of a one-
new game, this is your chance. So what are you waiting for? of-a-kind blueprint I made of Bob Bledsaw’s artwork for the
as-yet unnamed Overlord’s “no-name” city made the spring of
1976 before Judges Guild was officially started July 4, 1976.
Bob had drawn a spectacularly detailed and large (the
original single sheet is 36x44” with margin and the city state
maps were later in 4 pieces totalling 34x44” in size). It was
my job to find a printer locally that could photograph or
render somehow the map without having to redraw it. The
problem was that the colored markers Bob had used had
variable outcomes in “black & white”*.

We probably made several blueprint copies at different

intensities as evidenced by the ballpoint number written in
the corner “13” (shown on picture #6)**... but this was the
lucky one, the 12+ maps have been lost (probably because
this was the best balance of grayscale that we could get and
through out the others). The yellow and red markings tended
to turn nearly black (see the back alleys which are muddy to
black) while the blue and green markings pale or

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 30 November 2009

disappeared. I put numerous days into visiting printers, immortality, and others all intersected in the way the players chose to
blueprint shops etc. trying to find a process that would explore Death Frost Doom, but there was no necessity that that had to
happen. Even now, there are literally a dozen or more story seeds the
Another proof that the original was the oldest copy made of players have either chosen to ignore or haven’t yet interacted with in any
the original artwork is that there are not yet typeset names significant way and any one of them could lead to yet more “stories.”
anywhere. Those were added after Bob had redrawn all the Similarly, just what the consequences of the undead horde will be is
walls in black ink freehand in one night! The plastic-based unknown, even to me. I have several possibilities in my mind — that’s the
artwork which was, again, full-color ended up being cut into 4 job of a good referee, after all — but I don’t favor one over the others and,
pieces so that it could be photographed in a 23x29” camera... even if I did, the X factors of player choice and the randomness of dice
and then lost by the printers :( ...so this is the oldest rendition militate against my being able to ensure that any one possibilities
of the city map and largest. happen “as it should.”

I’ve grabbed a copy for myself already, but I figured this would make a All of this is a long-winded way of agreeing with Rich Marshall’s
great Christmas present for a lot of readers of the blog. Get ‘em while you comment that “The advocates of pre-scripted storylines believe that
can. without predetermined ends, overarching stories are impossible. They
believe that if you allow the players’ actions to create the story, chaos will
ensue instead and no story will be possible.” I am not in the slightest
opposed to the idea that even old school RPGs are devoid of “story.”
ROGUE FEED Rather, I believe old school gaming generates stories — many stories —
through play rather than through explicit referee planning beforehand. I
Dwimmermount and Plot can pretty much guarantee that, if I had a different group of players, the
NOV 28, 2009 11:11A.M. campaign would currently be quite different, if only because their dice
rolls would have led to different outcomes and thus different decisions in
A number of people have commented on how much things seem to have response to them. That imaginary alternate campaign would likely have
“changed” in the Dwimmermount campaign as a result of the events in different stories and, to my mind, that’s as it should be.
Death Frost Doom. Indeed, some have raised the specter of a “story”
being introduced into the campaign. How to explain this?

There are several things at work here. Firstly, my own personal disdain ROGUE FEED
for “story” is not a disdain for a coherent series of events that, in telling,
follow logically from one another. Rather, it’s for planning out that series Dwimmermount and
of events beforehand without regard for player decisions or the
vicissitudes of random dice rolls. The events of Death Frost Doom were Preparation
not inevitable. For one, the players could have — and indeed nearly did NOV 28, 2009 10:29A.M.
on a couple of occasions — simply abandoned the crypts and moved on
without precipitating the release of the undead horde upon the world. Based on the comments to my last Dwimmermount post, it’s clear there’s
Had they done so, the campaign would have continued as it had. The some interest in my discussion certain aspects of how and why I do
Thulian “doomsday device” is but one of a great many “story seeds” I’ve things in my campaign. So this post will address one of the questions I
placed throughout the campaign and it’s by no means a privileged one. often get asked: how do I prepare for my weekly games? My answer is
that I don’t really prepare at all, but let me explain.
“Story seeds?” I’m not sure what else to call them. Hooks perhaps?
Basically, I litter the campaign world with the places, items, and I am a very seat-of-the-pants kind of referee (aka “improvisational
characters, each of which has the potential for altering the campaign in referee,” aka “lazy referee”). I don’t spend hours each week preparing for
various ways. Some might do so in big ways and others might do so in my sessions, at least not in any formal way. I do think about upcoming
small ones, but all have the potential to lead to what, in retrospect, will sessions, but I don’t spend huge amounts of time poring over game
be called “stories.” But I cannot, until the players interact with those books and making extensive notes in advance. Mostly, I just think about
seeds and until dice are rolled give an accounting of “what’s going to what my players have already done and consider what they will likely do
happen.” There are no scenes planned out, no turning points designed, next so I can be ready to pull things together when they — or the dice —
no climactic battles prepared, and certainly no expectations that this or push a session this way or that.
that must happen in order for things to turn out “right.”
Now, to be fair, before the campaign began, I did do a fair bit of prep
The undead horde released from the crypts is the culmination of several work. I pulled together maps from various sources and supplemented
story seeds I placed earlier in the campaign. It most definitely is part of a them with my own so that I had a rough structure for the first 5 levels of
story now, but it didn’t have to be. The story seeds relating to the fall of Dwimmermount. In play, I often change the maps on the fly, as I get new
the Thulian empire, the cult of Turms Termax, azoth, the quest for ideas, so those maps are, like so much of my prep work, guidelines rather

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 30 November 2009

than the Gospel truth. I also partially filled those maps with monsters
and treasures, using the tables in the OD&D books. However, I also fill
some over the course of play, reacting to player actions, my own ideas,
and random rolls of the dice. Traps are a little different, as they’re harder
to invent off the cuff, so I typically prepare them in advance. The same
goes for what M.A.R. Barker calls “Saturday night specials” — those
unique and memorable sections of the dungeon filled with mysteries,
puzzles, enigmas, and unusual dangers.

I love random tables and use them often. Judges Guild’s Ready Ref
Sheets are a godsend and I keep mine close at hand. I also have a list of
“appropriate” names I use for new NPCs introduced through play,
although I sometimes let the players name them, since it alleviates some
of the “sameness” that can occur when only one person (i.e. me) is the
source of all names. I keep little scraps of paper with notes and ideas on
them. I refer to them when I’m at a loss for how to proceed and need
some inspiration. A number of things in the campaign that are now
important arose because I put a sentence or two down on a piece of
paper and I read them at just the right time to egg me on.

So, as you can see, I’m a pretty slapdash referee. My main gifts are a
fairly quick mind in being able to react to unexpected turns of events and
a complete lack of worry about “doing it wrong.” And, honestly, both
these talents can be learned and I would argue must be learned if you
want to play an old school game for any length of time. Most of what
happens at my table is spontaneous in the sense that it arises out of the
confluence of my players and I interacting with one another and the
random results of dice. I also have a lot of handy resources to draw upon
to aid and inspire me when I run into a creative “dry spell” during play.
That helps immeasurably. And of course it helps that OD&D is so simple
mechanically that you can easily “conjure up” an entire lair of orcs and
the combat that ensues from invading it without the need for any prep
work whatsoever.

I should add that I am blessed with very good players, who not only
share my sense of the game but whose ideas are inspiring to me. The
Dwimmermount campaign is very player driven and thank goodness for
that. The campaign might well have died if its success rested solely on
my shoulders and I think that’s true of most good RPG campaigns of any
sort. It’s particularly so in old school games, I feel, because they eschew
“story” as a framing device. Without extensive player input and decision
making, the twin terrors of referee railroads and aimless wandering rear
their ugly heads and both are, in their own ways, surefire campaign
killers. So, as Dwimmermount prepares to enter its second year of play, I
must thank my players for all the fun they’ve given me through their
great characterizations, creative decisions, and willingness to roll with
the punches when necessary. The campaign wouldn’t be the same
without you.