10 Minutes of John Carter

I suspect many of you have already seen this, but, with the film coming out tomorrow, I thought I'd share it in case some of you hadn't.



All things considered, it's not too bad. I very much appreciate that the film retains the book's framing device of John Carter being Edgar Rice Burroughs's "Uncle Jack," who left instructions to him regarding the publication of his recollections of his exploits on Mars. I also like that the film doesn't shy away from Carter's past as a Confederate soldier who went West seeking a prosperous new life for himself in the aftermath of the Civil War. I'm not as keen on the additions made to text, in particular the implication of a tragic backstory. Mind you, that's a longstanding pet peeve of mine. For some reason, Hollywood seems to feel the need to invent past tragedies in order to explain a protagonist's current life. It's notably unnecessary in the case of John Carter, who, in the novel, remembers little of his earlier life.

I'm still planning to see the film, of course, because, for all its likely deviations from the source material, it still looks to be more faithful to both the letter and the spirit of the Barsoom novels than any of the Conan films. Once I've had a chance to view it, I'll post my thoughts here.

Retrospective: Greyhawk Ruins

Normally, I restrict these retrospectives to products produced within the first decade of the hobby, but I occasionally make exceptions. Today, I'm going to talk about one such exception: 1990's Greyhawk Ruins by Blake Mobley and Timothy B. Brown. I don't want to discuss it because it's a particularly stellar product -- it's not -- but it is a rare example of a published megadungeon, which makes it worth discussing. With 26 levels and more than 1000 rooms, it's probably the largest dungeon the hobby had ever seen at the time of its publication. As I've noted many times before, this hobby was born in the megadungeon, which is why it's so surprising that, even now, we've seen so few published examples of the form.

Greyhawk Ruins, despite its name, doesn't have a lot to do with the real Castle Greyhawk of Gary Gygax. On the other hand, it's also not a bad joke in module form. I'm no scholar of Greyhawk and its minutiae, so I can't speak to whether there's anything in Greyhawk Ruins that owes its existence to the original Lake Geneva campaign except in a general way. Thus, there are lots of references to Greyhawk figures and places, particularly Zagig Yragerne, as one might expect. However, there's little discernible Greyhawk "feel" to the place Mobley and Brown describe. One could easily change all the names and identifiers and no one would be the wiser. The vast dungeon this 128-page product describes is actually pretty generic, branding aside.

Whether one views its generic nature a virtue or a vice is a matter of opinion, of course. If one wishes to drop the dungeon into one's own campaign, it's pretty easy to do so. On the other hand, I suspect most of the people who purchased this module were not looking for a generic dungeon. They were looking for Castle Greyhawk, whose publication had been promised at least as far back as 1980, if not longer. I know I was, which is why, until recently, I held Greyhawk Ruins in very low esteem. I've recently re-evaluated my opinion and have come to the conclusion that, while pretty dull in many ways, this module isn't worthy of the disdain I heaped upon it. Don't misunderstand me: it's still not a great module by any estimation. But it is, as I say, a rare example of a published megadungeon, which makes it worthy of some respect, even if it doesn't engender much affection.

There are some things that Greyhawk Ruins does right. Firstly, it's big. I mean, really big. This is not a dungeon one could ever hope to "clear," even if one spent many months playing through it continuously. That's an important aspect of any megadungeon. Secondly, while there's a backstory that provides some context for the dungeon, there's no overarching "story." Some rooms and levels have a certain connectedness, while others don't. Wandering from place to place, there's a great deal of variety, with factions and power groups local to some areas but not others. Thirdly, the dungeon's levels aren't neatly stacked on top of one another. Instead, there are multiple, parallel ways to enter the dungeon and the relationship between the levels isn't straightforward. Finally, there's a lot of weird -- and occasionally goofy -- stuff in the dungeon, as befits "a vast castle built by generations of mad wizards and insane geniuses." All of these things work together to produce something that has more in common with the earliest dungeons of the hobby than the tournament-style "lair" dungeons many gamers raised on a diet of prepackaged modules see as the norm.

In short, Greyhawk Ruins may not be a particularly inspired example of a megadungeon, but it is a megadungeon and I give it points for that alone.

Where are the Halflings?

When I started working on the Dwimmermount campaign back in 2008, one of the things I decided early on was that I wasn't, at the start, going to make many changes to the baseline D&D rules. Instead, I was going to accept them as written and any changes to them would occur through play, since I adhere to the principle of "D&D is always right," about which I've spoken before.

There was one big exception to this, though: halflings. I hope John Adams will forgive me, because I'm not a big fan of halflings in D&D. I like hobbits, which I think are an absolutely terrific creation of Professor Tolkien. However, in my opinion, they belong in Middle-earth, or at least I think they don't belong in many D&D campaign settings, Dwimmermount chief among them. I was explicitly trying to evoke a pulp fantasy feel and decided that halflings simply ran counter to that. (Why didn't I think the same thing about clerics? That's a post for another day)

But I didn't just eliminate halflings; I replaced them. Their replacements were goblins, which I presented in an earlier form in this post from 2008 (and where I again talk about my reasons for not including them -- I am repetitive, aren't I?). That post, though, was written prior to the start of the Dwimmermount campaign and, by the time the first session began in January 2009, I'd already changed my approach to goblins as PCs and I'd change it several more times over the course of the months that followed, in large part because there was an important goblin henchman, Brakk, whose ignominious death by slapstick  still has repercussions to this day.

The first volume of the upcoming Dwimmermount Codex series is a kind of 32-page "Player's Guide to the Dwimmermount Campaign Setting." It includes all the rules additions and modifications I've made to Labyrinth Lord over the course of the campaign. Among its contents are the current rules for goblin PCs, which I've reproduced below, along with an illustration by the always-terrific Steve Zieser.

The material in the quote box below is hereby designated Open Game Content via the Open Game License and subject to the Designation of Product Identity.

GOBLINS

Requirements: None

Prime Requisite: Strength and Dexterity

Maximum Level: Fighting Man 4, Thief (Unlimited)

Goblins are short humanoid beings standing between 3 and 3½ feet tall. They possess skin ranging in color from yellow to orange to red (and everything in between), while their eyes are usually reddish in hue and are visible even in the dark. Though many goblins live underground, not all do so, especially those most likely to interact with Men and join adventuring parties. Those that do live underground possess infravision to 90 feet but suffer a —1 penalty to attack rolls in full sunlight. Goblins who lives on the surface only have infravision to 60 feet but suffer no attack penalties in sunlight.

Most Men see goblins as inherently Chaotic beings, enemies of human civilization who delight in theft and destruction. While it's true that many goblins fit that description, not all of them do, particularly the surface-dwelling variety who often establish settlements near those of Men. For their part, goblins see Men as interlopers and invaders. Goblins believe — largely without evidence, it should be noted — that they are the only intelligent race native to Telluria, all others being either from "somewhere else" or artificial beings magically created from beasts or from themselves.

Consequently, goblins can be somewhat surly and resentful when interacting with Men, dwarves, elves, or even their own kin, like bugbears and hobgoblins. These attitudes are only heightened by the fact that the lot of goblins in the world are not aligned with Law (let alone Goodness). Except underground, where they often lead miserable existences, goblins rule no realms of their own, instead being the subjects of others. That being said, there are places where Men and goblins live amicably side by side, even if goblins are always the junior partner in any such relationship.

Like all other nonhumans, goblins, as a rule, have no belief in the gods. They do not, however, deny the supernatural, being animists who believe that all living things are possessed of imperishable spirits. They also believe in metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls after the death of the body. Perhaps for this reason they cannot be raised from the dead by means of any magic.

Similar to elves, goblins advance simultaneously in two classes, though in this case it is fighting men (4th level) and thieves (unlimited). They divide all their experience points between their two classes, each of which has a separate pool. Bonuses due to high prime requisites only apply to the appropriate class's experience pool. Experience points continue to be divided even after reaching maximum attainable level in a class.

Their saving throws and attack values are equal to the best values available for their classes and levels. New hit dice are gained only for levels attained in fighting man, meaning that no new hit points are gained after reaching 4th level in that class. However, the player of a goblin character may re-roll the hit point total every time his character attains a new level in thief and use the new total if it is higher.

Because of their small size, goblins may not use large or two-handed weapons, but they may use any other weapons. They may wear any armor, but cannot use their thief abilities while wearing anything heavier than leather. Their small size does have benefits, however. Normal and large-sized creatures suffer a –2 penalty to hit them. Goblins are also quick, granting them a +1 bonus to their effective Dexterity, when it comes to determining initiative.

Worth Quoting

Yesterday, I received a package containing back issues of Christian's delightful Loviatar 'zine (whose eighth issue is available now). I spent a better part of the afternoon -- when I should have been doing other things -- reading these slim volumes and wishing I had both the energy and the know-how to produce something similar. As I've said before, I was never a big reader of fanzines back in the day and I kind of regret that now. Unfortunately, the Digital Age doesn't seem to have been kind to this hallowed medium of our hobby, which is why I'm especially grateful that Christian is keeping it alive.

Which brings me to some paragraphs I wanted to quote from the Introduction to issue #3 (October 2011). Here's the first one:

On the subject of .pdf copies of Loviatar, I am firmly committed to print. I have published .pdf zines in the past, but felt that the process was too impersonal. I could see that hundreds of copies were being downloaded, but I had no idea who was doing so. There was seldom any feedback and it didn't offer the same experience as producing a print product.

I found myself cheering Christian's thoughts here, as I largely share them. In truth, I hate electronic products. I will purchase them only grudgingly, preferring a printed copy every time. But, as is so often the case, I'm in the minority on this score, which is why, though I'd rather not, I hypocritically offer PDF versions of Thousand Suns and my other creations.

Christian goes to say:

Finally, I have been asked if I will accept submissions. I feel that a zine's identity comes from the personality of its creator, and should reflect his or her ideas, vision and quirks. In that respect, a zine is an extension of the writer. Accepting submissions changes that, moving the zine author from the role of creator into the job of editor. There is a risk that the zine could lose its focus and identity.

Again, I found myself nodding my head in strong agreement. One of the many reasons I'd rather read an irregularly-updated blog over forums is that blogs feel much more "personal" to me. Even when the blogger is anonymous or using a pseudonym -- practices I don't much care for, but I digress -- they still reveal about themselves in their writing. And they can do so without interruption by pettifoggers and self-appointed gadflies. 'Zines are even more like this than blogs, because it takes a lot of effort to produce one and I doubt anyone's going to go to that effort unless it matters to him.

That's something worth celebrating.

The Articles of Dragon: "Clerics Live by Other Rules"

Over the years, I've given the thief a lot of flak, but it's actually the cleric who fits in least well with the literary origins of D&D. The cleric looks not to pulp fantasies for its inspiration but to medieval Catholicism by way of Hammer horror films and, while I have a great fondness for the class, there's no question that it isn't a perfect fit for the world D&D implicitly describes. I'm not alone in thinking this, which is why the cleric is probably the class that gets reinvented the most (though the thief might be a close second).

Every edition of D&D has put its own stamp on the cleric, in the process rendering the class more incoherent than it was to start. Gary Gygax contributed further to this mess in his article "Clerics Live by Other Rules," which appeared in issue #92 (December 1984) of Dragon. To be fair, Gary's article is actually pretty good, but it laid the seeds for much mischief later. His intention was to suggest that individual referees, for the purposes of fleshing out their campaign settings, could change the rules under which clerics (and, by extension, druids) operate, either restricting their opportunities or expanding them (or, preferably, both).

In the article, Gygax gives an example of a sect worshiping the woodland deity Ehlonna, from his Greyhawk campaign setting. Owing to tragic events in the past, this sect operates differently than others of its kind, having a unique selection of spells, armor, and weapons, in addition to having certain ritual taboos placed upon them. Thus, for example, they're not allowed to use fire-based spells of any kind, but clerics, after proving themselves -- gaining levels -- can wield broadswords and druids can wear elfin chain.

Normally, I loathe this kind of stuff, in large part because I think it contributes further to the dilution of what the cleric class is -- and it's already pretty diluted as it is. What makes Gygax's approach work, though, is that a) it's solidly grounded in the setting and b) he's limiting these changes to a particular sect, not establishing it as a baseline. That's how I think things like this ought to be done. Unfortunately, players (and later designers) didn't care for these nuances, instead using them as a template for "fixing" the cleric class. This led, in my opinion, to a variety of changes over the years that have rendered the cleric one of the least coherent classes, both mechanically and as an archetype. But I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority in feeling this way.

Interestingly, Gygax himself warns against taking what he wrote in this article as an official, universal change. In his concluding paragraph, he says some very sensible things:

Now when you hear someone, DM or player, mentioning something about "unknown" cleric spells or similar difficulties, don't panic. It could well be a cleverly planned campaign where difference and the unexpected are desirable -- and who can fault that?! Perhaps you might wish to try it in your own campaign, too. A cautionary word is necessary, however, for there is a problem with such variations. Unless the full and complete details of the differences are known to other DMs, they might well not wish to have clerics or druids of such nature participating in their games. This is their right, and skepticism on their part is justified. Players of these clerics and druids must be forewarned that such characters might be "one-campaign-only" adventurers who are not welcome elsewhere

It's good advice, but it's also, I think, advice rooted in an older style of play that was already on its way to dying out by the time this article was published. Campaign hopping of the sort Gary envisions was already rare in the early '80s when I was most deeply immersed in the hobby and I have a hard time imagining that it was any more widespread on the cusp of 1985. Ironically, the advent of the Net and online play make well lead to a resurgence of the Old Ways in this regard, in which case Gary's advice might well prove useful again.

Dwimmermount on Google+

Last Friday, I participated in my first-ever session of Google+ gaming. Tavis Allison convinced me to give it a whirl, which resulted in a three-hour session on the first level of Dwimmermount with him, Zak S, and Ryan Browning as players. Tavis resumed playing Locfir, the elf magic-user he played in my ill-fated play-by-post game from 2009, while Ryan played a human magic-user named Burgoth and Zak played a fighting man called Pigfoot. Locfir employed a hireling he picked up in Muntburg. Said hireling had a name but it was quickly forgotten and we referred to him throughout simply as "Locfir's man." For this session, we simply used straight Labyrinth Lord rules rather than using all the little house rules I normally use in my home campaign.

Over the course of the three hours, the players explored maybe a quarter of the first level of the dungeon, encountering mostly empty rooms with weird stuff in it, along with the occasional group of orcs and some giant centipedes. I felt a little bad about this, because, since I really wanted to wow the players with the mystery and majesty of my megadungeon and instead they spent a lot of time poking around dusty rooms filled with stuff that made no sense to them. Of course, that's by design. When I began the creation of Dwimmermount back in 2008, I explicitly did so according to the guidelines in Volume III of OD&D, which means lots of rooms devoid of monsters or obvious treasures. Now, I hope that even these "empty" rooms are nevertheless intriguing to players, but one never can tell. And, since this was my first time using Google+ (or playing with any of these people), I wasn't sure how well it'd be received.

By all reports, though, the session went well. Poor Burgoth died in the closing minutes of the session, when he stepped out from behind cover to cast sleep on some orc archers. He got skewered by their arrows, making him the first casualty of Dwimmermount's online existence. I intend to make Google+ sessions a weekly occurrence, though I still haven't worked out all the details of scheduling or deciding how many people can participate (let alone who they will be). If you're someone with a lot of experience with online play, feel free to offer advice and suggestions in the comments below. Neophyte at this that I am, I could certainly use any and all suggestions you have to offer.

Pulp Fantasy Library: The Gods of Mars

With the release of Disney's John Carter looming later this week, my thoughts have been turning to Barsoom lately. Rather than indulge my tendency toward laziness by simply re-posting last year's discussion of A Princess of Mars, I decided to turn to its sequel, The Gods of Mars, which was serialized over five issues of All-Story magazine, from January to May 1913. The illustration to the left is not from any of the All-Story covers, since I couldn't find any decent scans of them to use. Instead, it's from the first edition of the collected novel, which appeared in 1918. In case you're curious, the fellow in the ridiculous blond wig is a Holy Thern, a race of Martian who are in fact
completely hairless but who hide this fact from others. The Therns acts as one of main antagonists of The Gods of Mars, as they are part of a manipulative cult that preys on the superstitions and religious beliefs of other Martians.

In my experience, The Gods of Mars is ranked very highly among fans of Burroughs's Barsoom novels. I certainly consider it to be the best of them all. That's not to suggest that its immediate predecessor or successor novels are bad -- they're not -- but I think Burroughs really hits his stride with the second novel. In part, that's because he doesn't have to devote as much verbiage to introducing John Carter, Barsoom, or its wonders. Instead, he just dive in and give us a terrific pulp adventure of surprising sophistication. Furthermore, the themes of The Gods of Mars are a bit deeper than those of A Princess of Mars. Whereas the latter is (largely) a love story written in the form of a tale of derring-do, the former is a lot more philosophical, as John Carter and other characters must come to grips with the meaning and purpose of belief. Make no mistake, though: like all the Barsoom books, The Gods of Mars is first and foremost an adventure story and it should be approached with that in mind. However, it's a very good adventure story and one that contains a little more than just swordplay, beautiful damsels, and cruel villains.

Like A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars presents itself as a first-person account of John Carter's exploits on Mars, as presented by his nephew, the author Edgar Rice Burroughs. After a brief prolog in which Burroughs explains how the manuscript came into his possession, the action of the novel picks up almost immediately. Carter returns to Barsoom to find a boat of Green Martians, including his friend, Tars Tarkas, overwhelmed by a group of Plant Men. Tars is the only survivor of this attack and he explains that he had come to this remote area of Barsoom -- the Valley Dor -- where the Martian religion taught that all go after their deaths. As Tars explains it,

"This is the valley of love and peace and rest to which every Barsoomian since time immemorial has longed to pilgrimage at the end of a life of hate and strife and bloodshed," he replied. "This, John Carter, is Heaven."

When Carter unexpectedly disappeared after the events at the end of A Princess of Mars, many believed that he had sought out the Valley Dor to end his days. Of course, he'd actually been whisked back to Earth, but since none knew this, the Valley Dor seemed a logical alternative to many Martians. Of course, the Valley Dor was far from the Heaven Tars expected it to be and he and Carter escape the Plant Men and their white apes only by rushing into a cave, where they find a door that leads into the darkness.

Inside the caves, Carter and Tars face numerous perils, free a Martian woman named Thuvia (who will herself become the protagonist of a later book in the series), encounter Black Martian air pirates, the Holy Therns, and even a self-proclaimed goddess, among other things. In true pulp style, the action rarely ceases, as Carter moves from danger to danger, along the way acquiring new friends and allies, as well as new foes. In the process he also learns more about both the history and religion of Barsoom and it's here, I think where The Gods of Mars shines brightest. Whereas A Princess of Mars was a story of adventure in an exotic land, The Gods of Mars affords Burroughs the opportunity to explore that exotic land more fully and to show off his considerable world building skills. In the second novel, Barsoom becomes more than just a place where John Carter can have adventures; it becomes a world of its own.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been very inspired by The Gods of Mars in creating many aspects of my Dwimmermount campaign. In some cases, the inspiration isn't obvious, while in others it's readily apparent. I simply liked ERB's ideas so much that it was hard not to rip them off, even if I tried to disguise the fact. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If so, then I hope the shade of Burroughs recognizes the high compliments I've paid him.

Wow

The Dwimmermount Kickstarter has been live for just about 48 hours and it's already within spitting distance of achieving its initial funding goal. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it'd achieve this level of success so soon. I am deeply gratified and humbled by this turn of events and cannot thank you all enough for this.

Wow.

Dwimmermount Kickstarter is Live

Despite my earlier post, it appears that the Dwimmermount Kickstarter did in fact go live today. You can view its page here, though I'll probably put a little widget for the project somewhere on the blog over the next couple of days.

I'm very happy that this project is finally under way and I'd like to extend my thanks to Tavis and Alex at Autarch for lending their expertise in helping to organize this and to Dan Proctor for producing the Labyrinth Lord rules that are the basis for my campaign's rules (and thus the stats for Dwimmermount itself). I couldn't have launched this project without any of them. Thank you, all.

Open Friday: Highly Anticipated But Delayed Gaming Products

Owing to some technical issues, it looks like the Dwimmermount Kickstarter won't go live today, though you can view the preview of its page here, if you'd like to see it, including a piece Jeff Dee did for the book's back cover (the front cover, by Mark Allen, is almost finished as well). Rather than vent my frustration at this unexpected turn of events, I thought I'd turn it into an occasion for an Open Friday post.

So, here's my question: what are the gaming products you most wanted to see released over the years but were delayed again and again -- perhaps even to the point of never coming out? For me, I think the big ones are Gary's Castle Greyhawk and City of Greyhawk products, about which I've talked before. What are yours?