The House of the Wolfings

I might be one of the last people in the gaming blogosphere to learn about this book, but The House of the Wolfings is apparently one of the books that probably inspired J.R.R. Tolkien. You can download the book for free here at the awesome Project Gutenberg site. You can also get a print copy here.

So, has anyone heard of this book? Has anyone read it? I'd love to get some impressions of its merits/flaws.

End-of-Week Elmore (11/16/12)

The Chaos Gate

 

Mr. Curtis Goes to South Jersey

The requisite table of various and sundry gaming goodies!

So I've finally found the time to get pics off my new phone and write this post! On Sunday November 4th, I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Curtis, the man behind the Society of Torch, Pole and Rope blog and the creator of OSR staples such as Stonehell Dungeon and the Dungeon Alphabet. Despite the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, he drove many hours from New York to New Jersey, South Jersey to be exact (we Jerseyites consider North and South Jersey to be almost separate realms, but that's a discussion for another time).

When I arrived at the incredible All Things Fun in West Berlin, I had a chance to talk to Michael about gaming, the OSR, and the havoc of Sandy before a couple other gamers arrived: Rich of Circle of Dar Janix fame, and Mike from Swords of Legend. Once these fine fellows joined us, we got down to the business of gaming!

The calm before the proverbial gaming storm...

Michael gave us the following choice: he could run us through his Emirikol was Framed! DCC RPG module, or he could run us through one of two unpublished modules. My fellows and I leaped at the chance to playtest something for him! So Michael handed out some 1st-level DCC characters (we decided to take two each) and gave us a quick overview of the system before starting the session. 

I think he's trying to scare me with his GM screen (the "evil" dice bag is mine)...

I thought it was rather hilarious that one of my character's Lucky Rolls (part of the DCC RPG character creation process) was "Conceived on Horseback." I thought such a feat of agility on the part of the character's parents would confer some sort of bonus for the offspring, but alas that is not the case.

My two characters' sheets and associated spell page print-outs.

I don't want to give away anything about the module we playtested, but suffice to say it definitely had a strong old-school feel, with what I thought was a nod to at least one Basic D&D module from back in the day. I'll leave it at that.

I picked up a copy of the revised Dungeon Alphabet signed by the author himself, as well as some other swag that Michael brought along. Bottom line: it was cool to finally meet a prominent member of the old-school RPG community to talk about gaming and get down to some actual play!

This should have at least given me a Dex bonus, thanks to very agile parents...

'Nuff said.

End-of-Week Elmore (11/9/12)

So, I think I'll start a regular posting of inspirational artwork from one of my favorite fantasy artists: Larry Elmore. I know he has his critics, but his art graced the covers of my beloved Dragonlance novels back when I was a kid, and because of that his work has a lot of meaning for me.

I have to tell you that I was inspired by Al at Beyond the Black Gate, because he's been doing his Friday Frazetta series for some time now. Hey Al, I hope you don't mind if I've riffed on your idea! ;-)

So, feast your eyes, and each week I'll be posting more Elmore art that inspires me.

A (Character) Fate Worse Than Death?

This post is a loooong time coming for me. It's a testament to how behind I am with things I want to blog about. Anyway, Tim at Gothridge Manor wrote a post about character creation a while back. In particular, the following struck a cord with me:

 

"Unlike the current trend of character funneling in DCC [RPG], we put a lot of planning into the creation of characters. It's fun and makes you really invest a bit more. Nothing wrong with funneling and it can be a ton of fun, but so is sculpting a character you want to play for a while."

So, of course, this being the OSR blogosphere, the above statement begs the question: does this investment of time in "sculpting a character" mean there's an associated lessening in character mortality? I'm not asking to be a d-bag, I'm just asking in order to preempt the more hardcore OSR types from getting their grognard comments in ;-)

Seriously, I'm all about style of play, but campaigns that encourage character building/design/ whatever-you-want-to-call-it often get the stink-eye from hardline OSR folks. I'm not one of those folks.

 

I am asking because I'm just curious. As for me, I enjoy letting characters be a little more hardy if the campaign is one of those types that might be called "character" or "story-driven." However, in those types of games, the characters CAN STILL DIE, but it usually means they did something really rash.

 

However, I'm getting more and more interested these days in a "traditional" old school D&D game, with the assumption that it is deadlier due to lower hit points, lack of balance concerns, the "letting the dice fall where they may/no dice fudging" attitude/expectation, etc.

ALSO however, I think the OSR worships character death way too much. Come on, folks. There are other fates in the game that can be worse than death: level drain, maiming, imprisonment, becoming outlaws, making powerful enemies, etc. What makes these worse than death? Players characters need to LIVE with these results of their actions. The onus is on the DM to impose these consequences on PCs in order to give characters hazards other than death. I think having threats other than death makes a campaign more of a living, breathing place, not to mention a more fulfilling experience.

Indeed, I would go so far as to say that a DM who focuses heavily on character death as a consequence is an unimaginative DM. A character living with consequences seems, to me, much more interesting.

 

Please let me know your thoughts on the matter of fates worse than death in RPGs, especially with regard to D&D (of course).

Monday Inspiration: Ruins of Undermountain

I am not feeling it today, folks. Not. At. All. Not feeling the whole Monday morning, back-to-work thing. Shocker, right, coming from the RPG blogosphere's version of Garfield (if you don't know, I complain about Mondays fairly regularly here). Anyway, I went to game with Michael Curtis yesterday at All Things Fun in South Jersey yesterday, and had a great time indeed! I will write a post this week about the event, when I get a chance.

In the meantime, I'm staring at the image of the Ruins of Undermountain box set cover illo, to help me to slog through another Monday. That image never fails to inspire me. It just reeks of potential adventure waiting in the depths.

I really need to get a bumper sticker that says "I'd rather be roleplaying."

By the way, I've decided to start going by my real name here on the blog. Hi, my name's Anthony, and I'm addicted to roleplaying. Nice to meet you!

Where are Matt and Jeff?

Within the last few months, there have been those in the gaming blogosphere who have wondered if the OSR is losing steam...at least, the blogging end of the OSR. I've tended heavily toward disagreement with that assessment. Things seem alive and well to me. Yes, perhaps posting for many bloggers has slowed (Grognardia being one of those, which has caused no shortage of nervousness), but I don't think that heralds an impending doom. Popular opinion also states that the rise of Google+ has drawn folks away from the blog format. I'm sure there's some truth to that, but still, I don't see a Grim Reaper headed toward the RPG blogosphere.

 

However, of late something has grown more disturbing to me: the long silence at Jeff's Gameblog and Mythmere's Blog. Does anyone know how things are going for Jeff Rients and Matt Finch these days? I'm sure both of them are working on OSR projects, but still...when two pillars of the movement are so quiet, it's not hard for some to come to bad conclusions about the health of said movement. Anyway, any updates on how things are going for both of them would be appreciated. Thanks, all.