REVIEW: The Magnificent Joop van Ooms

Reviewing almost anything James Raggi writes poses unique challenges, but it's his adventures that are particularly troublesome to me. Partly, it's because Raggi's understanding of and approach to fantasy is often so different from my own. I don't think any of the adventures he's written to date are ones I can imagine myself as having written. Mind you, that's a good thing! To my way of thinking, what separates a good adventure module from a bad one is that a good one gives you ideas -- whether in rough or polished form -- that you could never have come up with yourself.

The flip side of this is that I frequently have no idea what to do with these modules, however intriguing their ideas. I recall reading somewhere (perhaps on Google+?) that Raggi says this is a common response to his writing and that he enjoys watching people wrestle with it. That's fair enough and, truth be told, one of my biggest cavils about adventure modules is that they can encourage passive consumption by referees rather than active, imaginative engagement.

Which brings me to The Magnificent Joop van Ooms, an 16-page product written by James Raggi, illustrated throughout by Jez Gordon, and with a cover by Jason Rainville. Though released under the rubric of Lamentations of the Flame Princess Adventures, it's not really an adventure at all, at least not in the traditional usage of that term. Rather, it's more of a collection of settings, mechanics, NPC descriptions, and related ideas that can be used to create adventures, thirteen examples of which are included in the book itself. Consequently, I can easily imagine some purchasers being disappointed by its contents if they were expecting a map-and-room-key sort of product, because The Magnificent Joop van Ooms (hereafter JvO) is nothing like that.

Before discussing exactly what JvO is like, a short digression regarding its physical qualities is in order. As I noted above, this product consists of 16 pages, which are staple-bound and enclosed in a cover with a wrap-around illustration depicting the eponymous Joop van Ooms demonstrating his unique magical abilities. The interior uses a clean, two-column layout and is amply illustrated with superb black and white artwork. The text is small, like all Lamentations of the Flame Princess products, meaning that it is in fact meatier content-wise than its page length would suggest. The book sells for 3.00€ (about $3.80 US) in PDF or 7.50€ (about $9.50 US) for the print + PDF combo.

Like Death Love Doom, JvO is set in the "real world," specifically early 17th century Amsterdam. While the amount of material unalterably grounded in early modern Europe is small (about two pages), I nevertheless find its inclusion needlessly off-putting. It's not that I mind the real world setting; it's that Lamentations of the Flame Princess, as currently written, doesn't really support that setting. There are, as yet, no rules for firearms, for example, and there are too many swordswomen and too much magic (never mind the implicit demihumans) for me to buy it as anything like the 17th century I know about. Now, that said, I think it's pretty clear that Raggi loves the early modern period and wants to make it the game's native setting, but, to do that, there's some work remaining. In the meantime, I think he confuses and frustrates some potential customers of his adventures.

JvO begins with overviews of both the United Provinces (of the Netherlands) and Amsterdam itself. Following that are 50 random encounters adventurers might have "down on the wharf." These encounters range from the mundane (a swarm of street urchins) to the exotic (a mermaid on the prowl) to the downright bizarre ("Everybody dies. Seriously. Roll up new characters, start them somewhere else. Amsterdam is wiped from the face of the Earth."). There are also simple rules for buying and selling on the black market.

This brings us to Joop van Ooms himself -- "an inventor, architect, engineer, painter, poet, and sculptor" who "has broken through to the Void Beyond the World and has seen both the glories and feculence of creation." He also works magic through his art. The book provides many examples of just what he is capable of when painting, writing plays, sculpting, etc. Also detailed are his constant companions and the studio where he lives and works in Amsterdam. The sections devoted to Joop van Ooms and his activities contain almost no game mechanics. Instead, they're simply descriptions and ideas, leaving it up to the referee to implement.

This is the point where I expect opinion of JvO will be divided -- between those who lack for ideas they can riff off of and those who want a complete, ready-to-run product. Bearing in mind my minor cavils, the former group ought to be quite happy with JvO, while the latter are bound to be disappointed. Even the former group may have some issues with this product, since it's ideas are of a very specific kind, rooted not just in the early modern era but also in an idiosyncratic take on a Lovecraftian cosmos. On the other hand, I find it hard to imagine almost anyone buys a James Raggi product not expecting these things, so my sympathy is somewhat limited.

In the end, I suspect whether one likes The Magnificent Joop van Ooms will depend greatly on whether one has enjoyed Raggi's previous works. It's very much of a piece with them, so, if they appeal, this one will too. If not, then this product will do nothing to change one's mind and may in fact only encourage further dislike.

Presentation: 8 out of 10
Creativity: 7 out of 10
Utility: 5 out of 10

Buy This If: You've enjoyed James Raggi's previous efforts or are looking for a collection of inspirational ideas from which to craft your own weird fantasy adventures.
Don't Buy This If: You're expecting an adventure module you can run "out of the box" or have no interest in weird fantasy set in early modern Europe.

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Luke Gygax Speaks

Over at the comments to my earlier post, Gary Gygax's son, Luke, one of the principals behind the new TSR Games and Gygax magazine, had this to say:

At this time Gail is not part of Gygax Magazine.  Personally, I hope that she decides to come onboard in the future.  All the posts from Gygax magazine staff I've seen were clear that this project is something Ernie and I are involved in as part of a larger team including Tim Kask, Jayson Elliot, James Carpio and Jim Wampler.

Gygax Magazine is supported by the Gygax family members who are actually gamers.  Ernie (aka Ernest Gary Gygax Jr.) was the first person to playtest D&D, played numerous iconic characters in Greyhawk and worked for TSR through the 1980's.  I cut my teeth on gaming and feel passionate about the positive aspects that gaming brings to people's lives.  Gygax Magazine is a way for us to share our love of gaming both Old School and current systems with the gaming community.  We are focused on producing a quality magazine and we hope that you will take the time to read the first issue in December.

Please realize that the information on Gygax Magazine was leaked ahead of our projected announce date.  This resulted in unwanted confusion.  I appreciate the excitement this has generated and I hope that the product meets expectations.

That's about as definitive as it gets right now. Thanks to Luke for providing this information and helping to clear up some of the confusion. 

Yet More Gygax Magazine News

In the wake of yesterday's news about a new company laying claim to the TSR name and a new gaming magazine called Gygax, Mr Gygax's widow, Gail, has weighed in via ENWorld:

Please respect my wished to change the caption of this thread to:

Gygax Magazine? {UPDATE -, does not have the support of the "Gygax Family Estate" }

I wish to clear up any confusion I am the proper owner of the use of the name of my late husband, E. Gary Gygax. And furthermore would ask respect from his public and children from his first marriage, who are fully aware I own all rights to the use of his name and likeness, and all intellectual properties.

We have previously informed Jason Elliot of my ownership rights.

I can understand the enthusiasm for this project and will remain neutral in regard to its merits however, not at the expense of the Gary Gygax Estate, which represents his wishes.

My most immediate thought is that it's sad that Mrs Gygax and the "children from his first marriage" seem to be at odds over Gary's legacy. That's something that would be sad in any family, but it's especially troubling in this case, because Gary's life's work means a great deal to millions of people beyond his family. I also fear this tussle might further divide opinion regard the merits of this new TSR, which would be a shame.

Once again, thanks to everyone who made me aware of this news.

Comments on this post can be made here.

Retrospective: Chivalry & Sorcery (1977)

Normally, when I speak of Chivalry & Sorcery, I'm talking about boxed second edition of the game, which was released in 1983. That's the version of the game I vividly recall from having seen its many advertisements in the pages of Dragon. That's also the version that secretly intrigued me, since it's the one I actually saw on hobby stores shelves. I say "secretly," because many of the older guys I knew, the ones who initiated me into this weird hobby, were really down on C&S, seeing it as unnecessarily complex and too concerned over "realism." So, it was generally best not to admit to having an interest in such a game in their presence -- and I didn't.

The thing is, even though no one admitted to playing C&S, at least no one with whom I had any regular contact, it still got talked about a great deal, much like the Arduin Grimoires. Despised or not (in my neck of the woods), it nevertheless had a big intellectual "footprint." What I didn't understand at the time was that the Chivalry & Sorcery the older guys were talking about wasn't the edition I instinctively associated with the name, but the original one, published in 1977 -- the so-called "Red Book" pictured above. Since I didn't play it and was discouraged from doing so, I never looked into the matter until recently and simply assumed that the version of the game advertised in Dragon was the only one.

The Red Book is a 128-page softcover book whose contents are presented in very small typeface in two columns. As FGU editor Scott Bizar says in his introduction:

The sheer mass of these new rules has made it necessary to print in small type rather than in our usual format, but this saving in pages will cause substantial savings in the purchase price of the book.

Bizar also goes on to call C&S "the most complete rule booklet ever published" and "the length of a novel" in terms of word count. He's certainly not kidding and I think Bizar reveals something very important about the game with his words. You see, lots of people criticize Chivalry & Sorcery for making a fetish of "realism," but I think, if one were to look at it with an unbiased eye, the game's real focus is on "completeness." C&S tries very hard to provide everything a referee might need in running

an all-encompassing campaign game in which dungeon and wilderness adventures were just a small part of the action.

That block quote above is from the first page of the game itself, under a heading titled "Chivalry & Sorcery: The Grand Campaign." There, the authors lay out the origins of C&S as well as their vision for it. My feeling is that it's here that one can really come to understand what this RPG was all about. That section also explains that

Chivalry & Sorcery began innocently enough with a discussion about the vacuum that our characters seemed to be living in between dungeon and wilderness campaigns. In the Fantasy Wargames Society of the University of Alberta a degree of dissatisfaction emerged over the limited goals that were available to our characters.

Thus, authors Ed Simbalist and Wilf Backhaus created a game that answered their own needs for an "all-encompassing campaign." C&S includes all the usual things you'd expect from a roleplaying game -- character generation, combat, etc. -- but it also has rules and discussions of social status and influence, costs of living, enfeoffment, castles, warfare, training, sieges, tournaments, and more. Whether it really qualifies as "the most complete rule booklet ever published" I leave to others to decide, but there's little question in my mind that Simbalist and Backhaus did create an extraordinarily broad and complete RPG, especially for the time period.

All that said, Chivalry & Sorcery is deserving of its reputation for complexity. Many of its rules, especially for combat, are quite complicated, moreso even, in my opinion, than Rolemaster, which is more "chart heavy" than complex. But I also think it's fair to say that the complexity of C&S reflects not only the mindset of its creators but the game's origins as well. Within a few years of the publication of OD&D, there were gamers who wanted more -- more realism, more complexity, more depth. And from those wants were born a wide variety of alternate approaches to fantasy roleplaying, some of which, I can't deny, I find very intriguing.  

C&S is one of those games.  God help me if the old guys I used to know ever find out.

Comments on this post can be made here.

More News on Gygax Magazine

Several people have pointed me towards the Gamers & Grognards blog, which includes the following bit of updated information from Tim Kask regarding Gygax Magazine:

Here's a snippet from our ad prospectus.....so now you all the official word there is at this time.

Gygax is a gaming magazine for new and old players alike.

We are looking forward to the games of tomorrow and today, while preserving the traditions and history that got us where we are now.

Our articles and features cover current independent and major publisher games such as Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, The One Ring, Shadowrun, Godlike, Labyrinth Lord, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Warhammer 40k Roleplay, Traveller, and others, as well as classic out-of-print games with a modern following, like AD&D, Top Secret, and Gamma World.

Our features include comics by Phil Foglio (What’s New With Phil and Dixie), Jim Wampler (Marvin the Mage), and Rich Burlew (Order of the Stick). Contributors include Jim Ward, Cory Doctorow, James Carpio, Ethan Gilsdorf, Dennis Sustare, and many more.

Publishing quarterly in print as well as PDF and iPad editions, we hope each issue of Gygax will be an anticipated and treasured addition to any gamer’s library.

I'm going to continue to take a cautious, wait-and-see attitude toward this, since, honestly, I'm not sure what to think of all this. No matter how it turns out in the end, I don't think anyone can claim that the new TSR Games lacks for ambition.

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TSR Returns?

Or something. If you follow this link, you'll find TSR Games. If you follow this one, you'll find Gygax Magazine. Details are still sketchy as to what this exactly means, but this post over at ENWorld reveals a few snippets of information:

Hi guys, this is Jayson. I'm the editor for Gygax Magazine.

Gygax Magazine is myself, Ernie Gygax, Luke Gygax, Tim Kask, James Carpio, and Jim Wampler. Our first issue is out in December; since it's not finished yet, we've been pretty quiet about things until it's ready.

Just to address some of the questions, I thought it was best that I leave a reply. We do own the trademark for TSR, and have since December of 2011. We are a new company, not the old TSR, as they were purchased by Wizards in the '90s. The trademark was abandoned about nine years ago, and we registered it in 2011. 

We decided the best thing to release first as TSR was a gaming magazine, because we wanted a way to bridge the traditions of the old guard with the awesome new games that are out today.

"Jayson" is apparently Jayson Elliot, a name unknown to me, but I'm sure someone out there must know who he is and what his connection to the old school community might be. Since we know so little, I have no real thoughts on this announcement, though it is interesting, especially since this is the second time in the last couple of years that Tim Kask has been attached to an attempt to "get the old band back together," so to speak. Time will tell what this means.

Thanks to everyone who emailed me about this announcement. I probably wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

UPDATE: According to this post, James M. Ward, Len Lakofka, and Phil Foglio are also involved in some fashion. The plot thickens.

Comments on this post can be made here.

Humorlessness

Last night, before bed, I was reading my recently-acquired copy of Character Law & Campaign Law. Now, Rolemaster, as has been noted many times, has a reputation for being dry and abstruse and I don't think that reputation is entirely unearned. But I will defy any man who thinks Rolemaster humorless (as will anyone who's used its critical hit charts will as well). Within the first few pages of the book, I came across multiple examples of play that brought a smile to my lips, such as this one from Section 7.12:

Snidepucker the Rogue dies after eating a poisoned bagel.

I'm not sure whether I was more amused by the character's name, his manner of death, or the fact that the whole thing is right smack in the middle of a rather detailed discussion of the deterioration of stats due to death. Then there's this one in Section 7.21:

Bandring is fleeing from the dreaded Malevolent Moose.

As with the previous example, this one appears as part of a larger discussion of game mechanics, in this case "movement maneuvers." I can't help but find this charming, as I always do when I find quirky little bits of text that suggest a real person rather than the Design-o-Tron 9000 has written the book. I think such bits are especially important in games like Rolemaster which might otherwise be mentally painful to read.

Mind you, when I was a younger man, I was, believe it or not, even more dour and humorless than I am today. Back in those dark days of yore, I didn't like this sort of thing in my game books. Roleplaying, after all, was a serious hobby and serious hobbies didn't include puns and anagrams and goofy examples. This attitude all looks terribly pathetic in retrospect, but you must remember that it was not an uncommon one (then or now) and many of my gaming mentors inculcated a number of prejudices into me, many of which had to do keeping things "serious."

I look forward to finding more examples like this as I make my way through Rolemaster. Heck, it wouldn't be a bad thing if I found more examples like this in every RPG product I read.

Comments to this post can be made here.

Imagine Magazine: Issue #4

Issue #4 of Imagine is dated July 1983 and features a gorgeous cover by (I think) Simon Senior, an artist with whose work I am not familiar. The issue begins with a fascinating editorial by Keith Thomson, a large excerpt from which I'd like to present here:

You will have seen from the letters columns in issues 2 and 3 that there is still some lack of understanding about the aims of this magazine. I have a strange mixture of feelings about this. Sadness that some of our friends still feel that they are not being catered for and joy that so many people not only like the magazine but are being introduced into the adventure gaming world and indeed into the ranks of the Players Association.

All you experienced players who are concerned about there being too many basic details in this magazine should be delighted that we allocate space to the newcomer, for he or she keeps the hobby alive and, with time, they too will develop into experienced players.

I find the editorial fascinating for several reasons, the first being that it really does reflect some of the hobby's growing pains that I experienced even on the other side of the Atlantic. By 1983, I'd been gaming for close to four years and, though only nearly-fourteen years-old at the time, I was nevertheless resentful of the "kiddies" who were entering the hobby, especially after the release of the hated (from my perspective) Mentzer-edited versions of D&D. It was absurd that I felt that way, but I did, so Thomson's editorial strikes a familiar chord. Secondly, it's a reminder that, in mid-1983, the hobby was still expanding. Ironically, I think the rot that would later set in had to do with catering ever more to the experienced players rather than continuing to look for new ways to bring in new blood.

Consequently, issue #4 features additional installments of Jim Bambra and Paul Ruiz's "The Beginner's Guide to Role Playing Game" and "The Adventures of Nic Novice" comic. Neither is particularly noteworthy to my mind, but, after reading Thomson's editorial, features like these make a great deal more sense. The same can be said of Roger Musson's "Stirge Corner," which, in this issue, offers advice to inexperienced referees. Here's a bit that I found worth sharing:

The temptation, when taking on the challenge [of refereeing --JDM] for the first time, is to let someone else do much of the hard work by buying a pre-designed module and running that, thus avoiding all the work of drawing up a dungeon. Personally, I don't think is really the best idea.

Musson goes to offer several reasons why he doesn't think it "really the best idea," not least of which is that "drawing up a dungeon" -- how I love that phrase -- gives a neophyte referee insights into how to run and use others' creations. I couldn't agree more, but it's the kind of advice one doesn't expect to see in an official TSR publication, since, moreso than any company, TSR was responsible for pushing the pre-packaged adventure module as a "necessity" for playing their games.

Paul Mason's "Alternative Game Styles" briefly discusses various approaches to roleplaying (educational, psychological, etc.) and the benefits of using them. There's a bit of fiction by Anne McCaffrey, entitled "Cinderella Switch." Brian Creese provides "An Introduction to the Postal Games Hobby." Though short, the article brought back a lot of memories, since play-by-mail gaming is one of those things that was thriving when I entered the hobby and is now virtually extinct, though I suppose one could make the argument that forum-based gaming occupies a similar place nowadays. It is not, however, an argument to which I give much credence, though.

"The Philosopher's Stone" by Anne Hamill is the first part of a four-part competition in which readers must find clues in an illustration and accompanying text to answer several questions posed by the magazine staff. The winner gets vouchers for the purchase of TSR or SPI products. "Aramax One" is a Star Frontiers adventure by John Tantoblin. "Dispel Confusion" this time offers answers to questions about both AD&D and DragonQuest. Don Turnbull's sopabox, "Turnbull Talking," tackles the question of "realism" in RPGs.  He concludes with an utterly commonsense position:

I find myself returning again and again to the same basic belief -- the gaming hobby is fun, and it's there for enjoyment. Hang the realism -- give me a game I can enjoy at any time.

There's another installment of the (to me) baffling comic "Rubic of Moggedon" and some film reviews (of The Dark Crystal and Q -- The Winged Serpent) by Colin Greenland. Peter Tamlyn's "Tavern Talk" continues to talk about the local gaming scenes, but also includes a brief aside about "the profusion of ®, ™, and © marks that are attached to every TSR product name." Again, this reminds me of similar discussions I heard back in the day and it's a reminder of another fact: by 1983, TSR was already well on its way to becoming the "T$R" so roundly despised by the late '80s and early '90s.

Doug Cowie provides some reviews of D&D modules (I2, I4, and M1) that are largely positive, while Robert Hulston talks about a British RPG called Starstone. The name rings a bell with me, but I don't believe I have ever seen it. Has anyone else? There are the usual assortment of letters, fanzine announcements, and club notes in this issue, all of which, I think, contribute to my sense that Imagine was a much more "grounded" gaming magazine than almost any of those I read regularly as a younger person. I like that. Finally, Ian Williamson's "The Sword of Alabron" appears once more.

I really enjoyed issue #4 of Imagine. I think it has a very unique voice, one that not only differentiated it from other gaming magazines at the time, but one that said a lot worth listening to. It's a pity that I never got to see it at the time and even more of a pity that, eventually, that unique voice was stifled.

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Adventures Dark & Deep Kickstarter Launches

Joe Bloch's longstanding "what if" project, Adventures Dark & Deep, now has a Kickstarter for its Players Manual. In case you're not familiar with Adventures Dark & Deep, it is, in Joe's words,"an attempt to explore what the world's most popular role-playing game might have looked like if its creator had been allowed to continue developing it, rather than leaving TSR in 1985" and is "based on extensive research into Gary Gygax's public statements about his vision for the next edition of the game, using the game's 1st edition rules as a jumping off point. It's not a retro-clone, but an entirely new game with a very familiar feel."

Even though I wouldn't call myself a player of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons these days, I still find this project very interesting. This Fall, Joe released A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore, which is a kind of "sampler" of some of the player-oriented aspects of Adventures Dark & Deep (character classes, spells, etc.) for use with existing retro-clones like OSRIC or Labyrinth Lord. I thought it quite well done and will probably swipe some stuff from it for use in my home campaign. I have little doubt that the full Players Manual won't be similarly good.

Reprint Musings

Back at the start of last month, it was discovered that Wizards of the Coast would follow up its apparently-successful reprints of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons core rulebooks with a couple of adventure compilations. The first is Dungeons of Dread in March of next year, which collects all of the S-series modules under one cover. The second, to be released in June 2013, is Against the Slave Lords, which puts all four A-series adventures into a single volume.

The mere fact that, more than 30 years after they were first published, WotC is once again making available classic AD&D material should be cause enough to warm an old schooler's cold heart. It's even more impressive when you consider what a turnabout it is from WotC's approach over the last several years with regards to D&D products published before 2008. I'd almost go so far as to say it's "miraculous."

But the miracles don't stop there. In the description to Against the Slave Lords linked to above, you'll see this paragraph:

Added to the collection is an all-new fifth adventure -- A0: Danger at Darkshelf Quarry -- that you can use to kick off an AD&D campaign that pits a group of adventurers against the evil Slave Lords! Module A0, designed for levels 1-3, sets the stage for events that unfold throughout the remainder of the "A" series.

An "all-new" AD&D adventure? That's the first time since 1999 that Wizards of the Coast has published something new for AD&D (someone can correct me if I'm mistaken in this). So far as I know, we don't have any details about module A0 at this stage beyond what's included in the quoted blurb. I'm sure there are some crotchety grognards (do I repeat myself?) out there who will find some way to find fault with this -- "Who at WotC even knows how to write an AD&D adventure?" "How dare they bundle their faux module into a collection of such hallowed classics?" etc. -- but, to my mind, this is something worth cheering and I sincerely hope I am not alone in applauding it. Kudos to WotC!

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