J for Jongleur

[Note: Any non-gamers tuning in to this series of posts are invited to consult my New Reader Introduction for some RPG-specific definitions and a general introduction to the Lands of Ara blog.]

When the current Arandish Campaign started in early 2010, one of the participants came to me during the character generation phase and asked if he could play a juggler in the game. Being the sort of DM who likes to let players run with their ideas -- my games have always benefited greatly from the creative contributions of the players -- I of course said "yes."

This player, who is a juggler in real life, showed me some ideas he'd found in the AD&D 2e Complete Bard's Handbook and explained how the abilities and skills therein jibed with his concept for the class. Based upon these discussions, he and I constructed a juggler class based upon the Delving Deeper Bard, with a couple skills borrowed from The Complete Bard's Handbook "Jongleur" and "Blade" classes. Uncle Junkal the Rodian Jongleur was born.

Note, however, that the 2d6 Jongleur presented below (and available as downloadable pdf here) does not exactly replicate how we have been running Uncle Junkal in our own campaign play. The Jongleur Bard variant I'm making available herein has been somewhat standardized, that is, power-balanced with the Arandish Bard (downloadable as pdf here). Being a prototype, Uncle Junkal is unique, a special case, a slight deviation from the typical Arandish Jongleur.

In time, once he finishes his PhD dissertation in a couple of months, I will persuade Uncle Junkal's player to write a guest post about how he came up with the juggler-as-PC concept. For now, you'll have to make do with my take on the Arandish 2d6 Jongleur for Labyrinth Lord.

The 2d6 Jongleur

for use with 2d6 Bardery by Carter Soles and Spawn of Endra

Jongleur for Labyrinth Lord concept by "Uncle Junkal"

Jongleurs are a non-magical Bard variant that specialize in juggling, sleight of hand, and other forms of small object manipulation. Jongleurs are loosely based upon the French entertainers of the same name. They are masters at manipulating small items with their hands. They can catch and juggle almost anything. They are experts at throwing small items (like knives) with great accuracy.

Requirements: CHA 15, DEX 14, STR 9, INT 12
Prime Requisite: CHA
Hit Dice: 1d6
Maximum Level: None

Jongleurs may wear leather and studded leather armor only, and may not use shields. Jongleurs can use all hurled weapons, i.e., any weapon that can be thrown (daggers, hand axes, spears), but not including bows, blowguns, or other missile weapons that are fired or shot. Otherwise, Jongleurs are restricted to the following weapons: polearm, quarterstaff, and sling. All of the weapons usable by Jongleurs can be used in their performances. For example, they can juggle daggers, pole vault with polearms, and balance with spears or quarterstaffs.

Jongleurs begin play with the standard 3d8x10 gold pieces (gp). They use the Cleric Attack Table (LL p. 60) and the Thief Saving Throw table (LL p. 55).

Jongleur Skills: In Ara, Jongleurs use the 2d6 Bardery skill system based upon Dyson Logos' 2d6 Thievery mechanic. In addition to the three standard Bard skills -- Charm Person / Monster, Legend Lore, and Read Languages / Arcane Scrolls -- Jongleurs get one additional skill, Weapons Display, plus a special ability (no skill roll required) called Multiple Object Throwing. Like standard Bards, Jongleurs only get ONE "Favored Skill" -- all other skills roll on the "Other Skills" column on the Table below.

Weapons Display
By whirling a melee or hurled weapon about his body, a Jongleur can affect the morale and courage of others. Such a display of skill, precision, and deadly grace lowers opponents' morale by 2 (but it does not require an immediate morale check) and inspires allies, giving a +1 bonus to allies' attack rolls. The display must occur for a full round without interruption. During this time, any successful attack upon the Jongleur, or failed saving throw by the Jongleur, disrupts the display.

The Weapons Display ability requires a lot of room; it cannot be done in a narrow corridor. The observer must be close enough to the Jongleur to see the display (e.g., a darkness spell negates the effect). The display has no effect upon those already engaged in close combat, as they are too busy to pay attention to the show. Also, Weapons Display works only on those who can either use weapons or have seen them used. Weapons Display may be used only once per encounter.

Multiple Object Throwing
The experienced Jongleur may throw multiple objects (including thrown weapons) per round. This ability improves with level advancement:
Level 4: throw twice per round
Level 8: throw three times per round
Level 12: throw four times per round
Level 16: throw five times per round

2d6 Jongleur Skill Chart - Roll 2d6:

Jongleur Level	Favored Skill	Other Skills
1	10+	11+
2	10+	10+
3	9+	10+
4	9+	9+
5	9+	9+
6	8+	9+
7	8+	8+
8	7+	8+
9	6+	7+
10	5+	6+
11	4+	5+
12	4+	4+
13	3+	4+
14+	3+	3+

Note that a roll of "2" always fails.

Optionally, you may grant a Jongleur his or her CHA modifier (i.e., the absolute value of the Reaction Adjustment modifier, +1 for CHA 13-17, +2 for CHA 18) to all Jongleur skill checks, including Weapons Display, Legend Lore, and Read Languages and Arcane Scrolls skill rolls.

I for Islet [Sea of O'SR: Wraithstone Island]

[Note: Any non-gamers tuning in to this series of posts are invited to consult my New Reader Introduction for some RPG-specific definitions and a general introduction to the Lands of Ara blog.]

Ball's Pyramid, an erosional remnant of a shield volcano and caldera that formed about 7 million years ago in the Pacific. Also the model for the Wraithstone Wall off the NE shore of Wraithstone Island.

Several weeks ago, Paul Gorman of Quickly, Quietly, Carefully officially proposed a collaborative OSR quasi-adventure path project (originated by Telecanter) called the "Sea of O'SR."  This would be a treasure-hunt-style adventure centering upon a series of small islands -- Paul's specific suggestion was that each contributor write up a 3-hour islet.  Here, at long last, is mine.

[Note: I am particularly indebted to Spawn of Endra, who added the numbered hexes to my hand-drawn map, and to ckutalik at Hill Cantons, whose How to "Awesome Up" Fantasy Maps post inspired me to add the jungle tree icons to the previously released, functional-but-bland "teaser version" of the Wraithstone Island map.]

 

Wraithstone Island

Wraithstone Island consists of two small proximate land masses: the main island to the west, which consists of the upper fourth of Mount Gorarr, a still-active oceanic volcano; and the Wraithstone Wall, an erosional remnant of a shield volcano caldera from a far older (and now extinct) volcano. The Wraithstone Wall lies just off the northeast shore of the main island, and is likely the feature most responsible for giving this spooky locale its fear-inducing name (see below). Both portions of the Island are tropical and humid, with persistent mists clinging to the lower areas at and just above sea level. The Wraithstone Wall is barren volcanic rock and has no denizens except the sea-rocs who nest in its upper caves. The larger Island to the west has two small black-sand beaches, and is otherwise heavily jungled. Only the ominously smoldering top of Mount Gorarr pierces the dense jungle canopy.

The Wraithstone Wall
A barren, jagged tooth of black volcanic rock sticking out of the Sea of O'SR, the Wraithstone Wall is so named for the many vertical lava trails and two gaping caverns that pock the wall's northeastern surface, creating the appearance of a ghost-like figure with two hollow eyes rising out of the tropical mists. Furthermore, near-constant winds in the area whistle through the Wall's caverns in such a way as to cause a constant, high-pitched, and terrifying howling noise that can be heard anywhere within a half-mile. It is this piercing, unearthly noise that drives most denizens of the neighboring Wraithstone Island somewhat mad over time; for new visitors to the region, the Wall's howling noises cause fear (as per the 4th Level MU spell, AEC p. 62) unless the hearer saves vs. petrify / paralyze. This save is required once per day spent within earshot of the Wraithstone Wall, and the sounds may also have some subtle cumulative effects upon hearers, at the DM's discretion.
Nesting inside the Wraithstone Wall's two large upper caves -- called "The Wraith's Eyes" by regional sailors -- are a pair of huge sea-rocs (see "Large Roc" LL p. 93). The two rocs will attack any ship or boat that approaches the Wall or the black sand beaches north of Area B. They will not attack any of the Sprite People. The rocs are impervious to the effects of the Wall's incessant howling noises.
There are no wandering monster encounters in or around the Wraithstone Wall. Most sea creatures and seagoing monsters avoid the place, due to the noise and the rocs.

Wraithstone Island and Mount Gorarr
Wraithstone Island proper consists of black sand beaches to the east, below the 100' contour line; dense jungle from the 100' to 900' contour lines; and black, volcanic rock above the 900' line, leading to the smoking caldera of Mount Gorarr at an altitude of 1300'. The island's shoreline consists of the two sand beaches and sheer cliff faces; nothing else. Thus the eastern beaches are the only two safe landing points for boats; however, note that the sand beach north of Area B lies within the two sea-rocs' territory (see The Wraithstone Wall above). There are no wandering monster encounters on the black sand beaches. In the jungle, there is a 2 in 6 chance every hour of a wandering monster. On the caldera's edge (above the 900' contour line) there is a 1 in 6 chance of a wandering monster every hour.

Wandering Monster Table - Jungle (100' to 900') - 1d12

1-2	Ant, Giant	7-8	Snake, Giant Python
3	Fly, Giant Carnivorous	9-10	Tropical Dryad (see Area B)
4	Scorpion, Giant	11	Lesser Wraith (NOT in Dryad jungle; re-roll)
5	Sprite Villager (see Area B)	12	Will-o-wisp (AEC p. 140)
6	Wraith Villager (see Area C)

Wandering Monster Table - Caldera (900' to 1300') - 1d12

1-2	Lesser Wraith (see Area C)	9-10	Magma Elemental (see Area F)
3-4	Salamander, Flame	11	Fire Elemental (see Area F)
5-6	Wraith	12	Sark's Undead Homunculus (see Area E)
7-8	Ghast (AEC p. 127)

Wraithstone Island Key
A. Village of St. Corky: Home of the shipwrecked crew of the Valiant, a merchant vessel commanded by Captain Roger Dorian. The captain and 3rd Mate Shawn Grog-Blossom are both possessed by Lesser Wraiths (see Area C below) and will do everything possible to entice the adventurers to climb Mount Gorarr and enter the Necromancer's Cave (Area E). They will insinuate that the treasure (or whatever the PCs seek) lies in that cave, but they will say nothing about the existence of Sark. Other wrecked shipmates suspect something strange is going on with their captain but volunteer nothing, fearing reprisals.

B. Village of the Sprite People: This beach village is inhabited by the Tribe of the Sprite, humanoids (statted as Neanderthals or 0-Level Humans) who worship tropical dryads (see "Dryad" LL p. 72) living in the jungle immediately northwest of here. Sprite people consider it a divine calling and a deep honor to be asked to join a "jungle spirit" (Dryad) in her tree. They may attempt to persuade PCs to feel the same way. Note: whatever major treasure (hunt) item brought the PCs here in the first place is currently stored in one of the Tropical Dryad's trees. The Sprite People know nothing about this specific item, but they wax rhapsodic over legends of "divine treasures" guarded by the "jungle spirits."

C. Village of the Wraith People: Dwelling place of the Tribe of the Wraith, humanoids (statted as Neanderthals or 0-Level Humans) who worship Sark's Lesser Wraiths (AL C, MV 120' (Fly 240'), AC 3, HD 3, #AT 1 (touch), DG 1d6 and energy drain, SV F3, ML 12, have the same characteristics as typical Wraiths except that they take full damage from magical and silver weapons, and only drain a life level on an attack roll of natural 20) and who conduct seasonal sacrifices to their "spirits" at the Wraithstone Wall. The Wraith People will attempt to convince PCs to stick around their village until nightfall when the "true spirits" (wraiths) will come visit.

D. Inland Great White Shark Pool: A huge (300' x 300') dark blue pool filled with Great White Sharks (see "Great White Shark" LL p. 95) that lurk at the bottom, waiting for someone to jump in. Sark feeds these sharks regularly.

E. Necromancer Sark's Cavern: The dwelling-place and lab of Sark, 9th level necromantic magic-user, (AL C, MV 120', AC 4 (-2 DEX bonus and +3 ring), HD 9, #AT 1 or spell, DG 1d4+2 or spell, SV MU9, ML 12) with a +2 dagger, a +3 ring of protection, and the following spells: Read Magic, Sleep, Darkness, Auditory Illusion, ESP, Invisibility, Feign Death, Hold Person, Fire Ball, Charm Monster, Arcane Eye, and Animate Dead. He is accompanied by Sark's Undead Homunculus (AL C, MV 30' (Fly 90'), AC 8, HD 3, #AT 1 (bite), DG 1d3, SV MU9, ML 11, see "Homunculus" AEC p. 129) as well as 2d4 zombies and 1d3 Lesser Wraiths (see Area C). Sark and his undead minions will do everything in their power to destroy impudent intruders; Sark turns many of those he kills into zombies, and feeds the rest to the sharks at Area D.

F. Caldera of Mount Gorarr: The topmost region of Mount Gorarr represents a steep, treacherous climb over loose lava rock, with no established trail. There is a 2 in 6 chance of PCs slipping (1 in 6 for mountaineering types including dwarves, rangers, etc.) and taking 2d6 falling damage. Anyone descending into the smoldering caldera will be attacked by the fire elemental (HD 16, see "Elemental" LL p. 73) and its two magma elemental minions (AL N, MV 60', AC 3, HD 12, #AT 1, DG 4d6, SV F12, ML 12, cause heat metal effect in 20' radius, adapted from "Para-Elemental" MM2 p. 95), who all fight to the death. Mount Gorarr has mini-eruptions every 1d4 weeks; these eruptions spit hot magma into the caldera but rarely (1 in 6 chance per eruption) ooze over the top. Even lava that comes over the edge usually solidifies before reaching the 900' contour line and the jungle.

+ Complete Wraithstone Island Map and Key downloadable pdf here.

+ Wraithstone Island Hexmap-only downloadable .png file here.

DMG Sample Level Stocking Project Part 5

Despite my initial intention to produce these installments every Monday, some general lagging followed by the intervention of the April A-Z Blogging Challenge have slowed me down. I will aim for the occasional Sunday in April, but likely won't hit the "weekly installments" mark while the Blogging Challenge is still running.

This post constitutes Part 5 of my stocking project for the sample dungeon level from the DMG p. 95. Interested parties should consult James C.'s original announcement of the project, his updated list of participants, and my own stocking installments Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

My project parameters:

(1) I am stocking this map as a Level 3 dungeon.

(2) I am using the Labyrinth Lord basic dungeon stocking tables on LL p. 124 to stock the map, with a few customized twists, i.e., I am deliberately placing a few monsters and treasures as I see fit.  I am also using Michael Curtis' Dungeon Alphabet and some of the random tables in the back of the Advanced Edition Companion to randomly generate "unique" encounters and miscellaneous and/or atmospheric room features.

Now to stock rooms 19 through 23:

Room 19:  Rolled and got empty, no treasure.  I also rolled on the "Random Original Purpose of Rooms and Chambers" table on p. 32 of Michael Curtis' The Dungeon Alphabet and got "Cistern."

Room 20: Got monster, with treasure. I rolled randomly for the monster on the Level 3 Wandering Monster Table (LL p. 104) and got "Medusa." Despite the Medusa's Hoard Class of XVII (see LL p. 106), I rolled it out and got no treasure result anyway.

Room 21: Rolled empty, no treasure. Didn't want to leave it at that, so rolled on the "Altars" Table on p. 6 of The Dungeon Alphabet; see result below.

Room 22: Got monster, no treasure. A random roll on the Level 3 Wandering Monster Table yields "Wight." Man, this place is turning out to be Wight Central! (I'm not complaining.) I further decided to add some atmosphere and "dungeon dressing" to this large chamber, so I rolled on the "Random Atmospheric Details" Table (AEC p. 147) and the "Miscellaneous Room Contents" Table (AEC p. 148) and got "leather odor with static charged air" for the former and "mushrooms" for the latter. I ruled that there must be some mushrooms growing in some offal in a corner, and that one of the wights here must have a wand of lightning bolt that has left a kind of lingering static electricity charge in the air. The "leather" odor is actually the faint smell of previously burned flesh.

Room 23: Got monster, no treasure. Rolling randomly on the Level 3 Wandering Monster Table produces the "Medusa" result again! A theme develops!

So my finished key to Rooms 19-23 looks like:

19. Dry Cistern 
A small, circular pool once occupied the middle 6' diameter area of this room. It is dry now; a damp, musty odor remains. The floor of this room tapers gently down toward a central metal drain. Delvers who pry up the drain (which takes two turns plus a "breaking down doors" roll; it is rusted in place) will find a vertical shaft leading down 150' to the next dungeon level; only halfling-sized or smaller beings will fit down the shaft.

20. Priestess' Prayer Chamber
This 20' x 20' room is home to a pair of robed and cowled "priestesses" who are in fact medusas. They will keep their hoods on for as long as possible, concealing their true natures and posing as "Sisters of the Goat God." They will attempt to persuade the PCs to join them for a meditation session in Room 21, at which time they will throw back their hoods and attack.

21. Worship Room and Small Altar
In the eastern 20' x 20' section of this two-part chamber, there lies a small altar draped in burgundy cloth. The cloth is studded with ornamental gems (20 gems worth 5gp each). The altar underneath the cloth is actually constructed from human bones, a fact that will not be immediately apparent. A spare priestess robe (like those the medusas in Rooms 20 and 23 wear) hangs on a peg on the east wall.

22. Wight Chamber.
This large, L-shaped chamber smells faintly of charred flesh, and the air is charged with static electricity. Some edible mushrooms grow in a small offal pile in the southwest corner. Three wights make their lair here. One of the wights possesses a wand of lightning bolt (4 charges left) -- the wight's use of this wand accounts for the room's lingering electrical charge.

These wights leave the Medusas in rooms 20 and 23 alone, believing that the "priestesses" will eventually lift the curse entrapping their wight fellows in Room 4. (The medusas encourage this belief but have no intention of fulfilling it.) Both the wights and the local medusas know of the secret door east of Room 1.

23. Priestess' Quarters
Two more Medusas, hooded and posing as "Sisters of the Goat God," dwell here. The portcullis to the north is magical: it shocks anyone touching it for 2d6 electrical damage, and it may ONLY be raised via a knock spell. The portcullis leads to Room 9. Both these medusas and the wights outside in Room 22 know of the secret door east of Room 1.

Next time (whenever that is): Rooms 24-27!

H for Hammers of the God

[Note: Any non-gamers tuning in to this series of posts are invited to consult my New Reader Introduction for some RPG-specific definitions and a general introduction to the Lands of Ara blog.]

Hammers of the God is at once James Edward Raggi IV's most conventional and most unusual module.  Its conventionality lies in the fact that it is more or less a standard dungeon crawl: along with Part Three of No Dignity in Death - The Three Brides, Hammers of the God is the least goal-oriented of Raggi's modules to date.  [Note that my comments exclude his recent LotFPWFRPG modules, Tower of the Stargazer and Weird New World, which I have not yet read.]  In Hammers, the PCs know very little about the dungeon location before they arrive, and even once they get there, their main goal is to "explore."  This conventionality of design and emphasis on exploration will make this module very appealing to a wide array of OSR gamers.

The unusualness of Hammers of the God comes mostly from its backstory, which, as I've suggested, only emerges in full once the PCs arrive on site (if at all).  The historical narrative that Raggi has created for the dwarves who built the Hammers dungeon is quite an achievement in itself, a haunting, pathos-laden tale that will substantially enrich how most fantasy campaigns conceive of dwarves as a race.  This "alternate history" for dwarves is exemplary of the kind of unique, outside-the-box thinking that we have come to expect from James Raggi, and may be worth buying the module for even if you never run the module itself. 

But this uniqueness may also serve as a kind of limitation upon how the module can be most effectively used.  Although there are more than a few really memorable and challenging locales in the dungeon -- without giving anything away, a certain bridge and the whole colored mist concept leap to mind -- the real "charge" of the module, the thing that makes it pay off in spades, is that haunting history of its builders that's waiting in there to be discovered.  What this means is that if you are not interested in exploring the nuances of dwarven history in your home campaign, or if -- like me -- you play in a campaign setting whose dwarves are flat-out incompatible with the history given in Hammers -- the impact of this module may be somewhat diminished.

Don't get me wrong: Hammers of the God is an excellent dungeon crawl, and (of course) clever DMs could reshape and revise that detailed back story to suit how dwarves "work" in their own campaigns.  Yet as a location-based adventure, Hammers taken separately from that mind-blowing alternative dwarven history is merely an excellent, not amazing, module.  This must sound like an incredibly petty quibble, and it is, but through his previous releases Raggi has set the bar very high for himself.  I (perhaps unfairly) tend expect great things from LotFP, and -- please note -- I am rarely disappointed.  To be clear, I am not disappointed in Hammers of the God either, but, perhaps because it will require such substantial tweaking on my part to bring it into line with the history of my own Lands of Ara campaign setting, I am saddened by the fact that I will not be able to use some of the greatest stuff in it strictly as written.  So my perception of Hammers' greatness is tinged with personal sadness.  Obviously that is a problem specific to my situation, but it could come up for other DMs whose home settings feature unique dwarvish histories as well.

More generally, I am ready to see Raggi tackle a module of Hammers' stripe -- a haunting but not horrific dungeon-crawl -- that features a "Circular Routes" layout, that is, an even more open-ended, site-based adventure than Hammers is. Pardon the possibly facile comparisons, but if The Grinding Gear is Raggi's Tomb of Horrors and Hammers of the God his White Plume Mountain, then where, I ask, is his Vault of the Drow?  Raggi has shown again and again that he is capable of creating modules with unique, memorable premises and inventive, well-designed individual rooms and challenges.  Hammers of the God is as close as Raggi has come to creating something that is fairly easily assimilable by all we heavily Gygaxian, high-fantasy influenced DMs, which is interesting given that Raggi himself emphasizes, in the Author's Introduction to Hammers, that

"when I run someone else's adventure, it's because I want the challenge of running something different [. . .] I think a referee can only benefit from taking another's adventure and adapting their style to the author's presentation, instead of doing the commonly-vaunted reverse method of always adapting published material to the referee's own campaign." 

I love the work Raggi has published so far, will continue to buy his products, and admire his stated goal to push many of us out of our DM'ing comfort zones.  Nevertheless I wonder: could Raggi take the Hammers-esque dungeon-crawl concept to the next level?  Pretty please?

Creativity and inspiration-value: 4 out of 5, the best part may well be the chilling dwarven back story, though the map is also quite good, if somewhat limited.
Use-value to DM's: 4 out of 5, would make a worthwhile (if less impactful) adventure even if the aforementioned history is of little interest.
Playability: Not yet tested.

G for The Grinding Gear

[Note: Any non-gamers tuning in to this series of posts are invited to consult my New Reader Introduction for some RPG-specific definitions and a general introduction to the Lands of Ara blog.]

As a self-proclaimed big fan of Gary Gygax's classic Tomb of Horrors module, it stands to reason that I would find a lot to rave about in James Edward Raggi's masterpiece The Grinding Gear.

Yes, you read that right: I call this module a "masterpiece," in large part because it illustrates a facet of Raggi's module-writing talents that goes somewhat under-deployed in all his other works: ingenious dungeon design.  And by "dungeon" I mean the actual physical layout of the dungeon, NOT the overall adventure concept, which Raggi always delivers with great inventiveness and panache.

Just as Gygax's Tomb did so much with so little -- i.e., became the single most notorious "deathtrap" dungeon of all time in a mere 33 keyed locations on a single level -- Raggi's Grinding Gear takes an extremely simple, almost overly contrived premise -- that a bitter inventor / innkeeper creates a tomb for himself that is also a devious "deathtrap"-style test of adventurers' abilities -- and makes it sing.  The Grinding Gear is a perfect vehicle for the trap-inventing, blackly humorous Raggi that, as I said before, often takes second chair to the uncanny, weird-mood-evoking, horrific-apocalypse-creating Raggi we see at work in, for example, his most famous and celebrated module, Death Frost Doom.

Without sidetracking too far here, let me state that I am by no means complaining about the horror-evoking Raggi.  In some ways, unnerving horror is what Raggi does best, and it is difficult to imagine anyone else coming up with the death cult shrine of Death Frost Doom, the melancholy locale outlined in Hammers of the God, or the queer town of Pembrooktonshire.  But my point is that of the works just mentioned, both DFD and the first two Parts of No Dignity In Death are geared much more toward evoking a feeling of dread and testing player's wits than they are about "traditional" dungeoneering activities.  And while the last section of No Dignity and all of Hammers of the God are arguably more "classic-dungeon-y" than DFD or Pembrooktonshire, they are nevertheless tinged with strong elements of haunted pasts, uncanny occurrences, and creeping horror, all of which characterize the "usual" Raggi style.

Not so The Grinding Gear.  The horror is gone, replaced with a capricious, black-comic wickedness.  And back to the dungeon layout: without giving too much away, suffice to say that GG's is the most complex map yet published in a Raggi module (possibly excepting the recent LotFPWFRPG modules, which I have not seen).  Admittedly, to use Melan's old-school dungeon layout terminology, GG is a Type B "Linear with Sidetracks" dungeon, as virtually all of Raggi's modules are.  But the "sidetracks" in a module like this are the whole point.  Whereas I loved the tone of DFD, and must point out that it is the one Raggi module to feature a Type D "Circular Routes" layout, it nevertheless feels somewhat linear or uni-directional in the sense that the "crux" of the module lies in one key location, and while there are two ways to get there, that one location is still the focus or fulcrum of the adventure -- not much "happens" anywhere else.  In The Grinding Gear, the map's linearity is a strength; it forms an escalating series of dungeoneering challenges that perfectly articulates the logic of the module, just as a similar linearity does in Tomb of Horrors.  The whole point of The Grinding Gear -- expressed in no uncertain terms to its visitors -- is to reach the final resting place of the dungeon's creator, and in such a goal-oriented place I would expect a certain uni-directionality of design.

All this mention of Gygax's Tomb of Horrors forces me to clarify: except in the most superficial way, The Grinding Gear is NOT some cheap copy or toned-down reiteration of the Tomb premise.  No, it is more than that.  It is nothing less than a high-stakes test of the party's dungeoneering / exploration skills.  One could make a similar argument for Acererak's tomb, yet that place has an added level of random (?) sadism: certain traps (like the green devil face) and situations (like fighting the demi-lich) make Module S1 all but impossible to defeat.  Of course, that extreme lethality became part of Tomb's appeal over time, but The Grinding Gear's great triumph (and thus its utility) is that it is not impossible, but merely intensely challenging, to "beat."  While a few of the traps will depend upon a very high degree of PC observation skill and exploration ability to successfully bypass, there is nothing in Gear that makes me say, "Wow!  If the PCs go in there, they are fucked no matter what."  It is my strong suspicion -- as yet untested in actual game play -- that The Grinding Gear is survivable by a reasonably well-equipped party who makes a strong commitment to proceeding carefully and thoughtfully, paying close attention to even mundane-seeming details.  In short, The Grinding Gear is NOT a deathtrap, although it can easily become one for the ill-prepared or the rash.

As James Maliszewski has commented, this module may be of some use to DM's who simply want to pilfer trap ideas from it.  Yet I am inclined to suggest that the real strength of The Grinding Gear is in its holistic construction, the way its parts interact to create a satisfying whole.  There is a nice balance here between premise and playability, a balance that even the great Death Frost Doom (which may possess a bit more strength of premise than thrill of playability) does not quite achieve in my view.  In line with this, while some traps could easily be cherry picked from The Grinding Gear for use elsewhere, certain others would require substantial reworking because their "solution" is intrinsically linked to features of the location as Raggi presents it.  In short, while I am sure certain elements of the module could be useful in a modular sense, I think The Grinding Gear's real value -- the reason I consider it to be at least the equal of Death Frost Doom in terms of overall brilliance -- is its organic unity, i.e., how I suspect it would run in play exactly as written.

If the module has a weakness, it is that it would be no fun for a "hack-and-slash" style party to play through.  But then again, what Raggi module would be?  Raggi always has the thinking player in mind, and The Grinding Gear may be his best and most fun challenge yet for that kind of player and party.  There is no sense of creeping terror here, no undead apocalypses or murder mysteries; yet puzzling conundrums, exploration-based tests of skill, and black humor abound, all of which combine to make this one of the most accessible and coherent Raggi modules to date.  I cannot wait to run it with the right group of players -- I wonder if my current group is up to taking on the devious mind of Garvin Richrom?

Creativity and inspiration-value: 5 out of 5, especially if you have been looking for a Tomb of Horrors style challenge geared (ha, ha) to lower-level players.
Use-value to DM's: 4 out of 5, if party is up to the challenge of running the module as is or possibly if you want to "borrow" some good trap ideas.
Playability:  Not yet tested, but hopes are high!

F for Fight On!

[Note 1: Any non-gamers tuning in to this series of posts are invited to consult my New Reader Introduction for some RPG-specific definitions and a general introduction to the Lands of Ara blog. I also provide a few explanatory footnotes herein, which RPG'ing veterans may feel free to ignore.]

[Note 2: This overview of the Fight On! Old-School Fanzine does NOT take into account Fight On! Issue #11, which I just received in the mail three days ago. I will review Issue #11 separately sometime in May.]

On the same page (p. 36) as the "Afterward" [sic] of The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures, the third volume of the Original D&D booklets published in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, appears a line drawing of a warrior with raised sword accompanied by the phrase "Fight On!" It is from this source that the OSR's premier fanzine takes its name.*

And I am here to tell you that the Fight On! OSR fanzine surely kicks major ass.

FO #10, my third-favorite FO cover, by Patrick Sean Farley.

In my previous review of Peter Regan's excellent OSR fanzine Oubliette, I used Fight On! as a point of frequent comparison.  At certain points in that review, I may have unintentionally conveyed that I find Fight On! lacking in some ways.  I most certainly do not.  I consider Fight On! to be the flagship periodical of the OSR, a remarkably ambitious, often impressively voluminous, and always high-quality product. Since its inception, Fight On! has topped the heap of OSR products, production value-wise; the mag maintains a very high standard of thoughtfully designed, inspiring, and useful gaming content.  Even the very first issue, while not as glossy and fancied-up as the ones that follow, still packs a lot of punch and certainly delivers a classic if minimalistic front cover image to inaugurate the periodical's run.

 FO #1, my fourth-favorite FO cover image, by Andrew Reyes.

At the ed of this post I will list my top five all-time favorite issues of Fight On!, but let me first single out a few tidbits and articles from across the magazine's run that showcase the high quality of what editor Ignatius Umlaut is making available here. 

First, the magazine's cover art from about Issue 4 onward is fantastic, and a few of the covers (those depicted in this post) really take my breath away -- especially the crazy Mark Allen cover of Issue #6!  Fight On! is a magazine I am proud to read in restaurants and airports.  Its production values and cover art are so professional as to even look quite "artsy" in certain instances.  To put it simply, Fight On! is a consistently fine looking print product. 

Next, let me mention a few of Fight On's best all-time articles. Calithena's two pieces about sandbox and campaign creation, "Setting Up Your Sandbox" (Issue #1) and "In My World..." (Issue #9) are standouts. These two essays -- I'm especially fond of the second one -- cover these much-discussed topics with great efficiency and user-friendliness, maintaining a pitch-perfect tone of enthusiasm and encouragement. On a similar topic, Michael Shorten's "Dispelling a Myth: Sandbox Preparation" (Issue #6) is another superb essay, knocking out six "bullet point" strategies for effective and efficient sandbox creation. Every world-creator and DM should have these six ideas posted in plain sight when working on his or her campaign setting. 

On the subject of dungeon mapping, my all-time favorite article by the always energetic Jeff Rients is "Holy Crap! I Need a Dungeon RIGHT NOW!" (Issue #6) which I discussed in my post about megadungeon mapping.

Most of the adventures and megadungeon levels printed in Fight On! are quite good, a few standouts being "Beware the Lord of Eyes" by Allan Grohe (Issue #7), "The Mysterious Crystal Hemisphere" by James Maliszewski (Issue #4) and almost any adventure or adventure locale by the prolific and inventive Gabor Lux, especially "Temple of the Sea Demon" in Issue #7, "I Thirst" in Issue #8, and the useful desert locale "Stone Gullet" in Issue #6.  

Last, I would be remiss if I did not mention the editorial skills of Ignatius Umlaut. Sure, some of the individual offerings in Fight On! look more "low tech" than others, and there is some small variance in the quality of the interior artwork from time to time. But these aspects are part of the charm of an "Old-School Fanzine," and any fanzine that smoothed off all its rough edges would be a boring publication indeed. The OSR is by its nature varied, D.I.Y., and (in many cases) low-rent and low-tech, and that is part of its uniqueness and strength. Thus those qualities SHOULD be reflected in the movement's primary fanzine. In general, the layout, editorial choices, and consistently high standards around the cover art and content of Fight On! set a very high bar indeed -- and will keep me buying every issue of this excellent publication.

The main challenge Fight On! faces is that, as the "go-to" periodical for (what I presume to be) a large number of old-school gamers, the fanzine is in the difficult position of trying to fill a variety of needs across a potentially very wide gaming (and genre) spectrum.  While it generally maintains system neutrality, FO! tends to focus on edition-zero D&D and its clones, with a little bit of Mutant Future and post-apocalyptic content thrown in as well.**  Due to its wide array of contributors and focus on at least two main genres (maybe more if we parse out high fantasy, swords and sorcery, swords and planets, and Carcosa-esque weird fantasy as separate genres), the exact appeal of each issue can vary a bit.  There are some offerings in Fight On! that are plainly brilliant but that I would not be likely to use, because their flavor is at odds with that of my home campaign setting. Yet I want to make clear that the breadth and inclusiveness of Fight On! is its strength, and even if that broadness of scope occasionally reduces the total use-value of the magazine's contents for me personally, I would not change this aspect of the fanzine.

As a counterexample, Oubliette can afford to be much more specific (i.e., it focuses on content for Gygaxian naturalist Labyrinth Lord campaigns), because its ambitions are more humble than Fight On!'s. In both cases, this breadth or narrowness of scope is by design. The variety between these two fanzines' approaches is why I read them both.

As Fight On! editor Ignatius Umlaut says in an introductory column in Issue #1,

If it is anything, Fight On! is a magazine devoted to preserving all these threads of old-school gaming, and to sustaining what's left of and perhaps even building up a little more of that old greater community we all started from before we began to wander down our separate paths. We welcome creative contributions from all games and all styles of play. Even those who work in more current systems might find useful material here, or even enjoy writing for us, freed of most of the burdens of game-mechanical characterization of your creations.

Umlaut must surely be aware by now that his magazine has succeeded at its aim of unifying a broad community of gamers, that it has become a focal point for the OSR writ large.  I would suggest, for example, that the breadth of its contributors and its numerous tie-in articles that provide stocked levels for the collaborative The Darkness Beneath project (see megadungeon.net) provide evidence of that success.  To maintain its ambitious scope, the magazine must keep its appeal somewhat broad and continue to offer a wide array of (more or less) system-free old-school content. For the time being, Fight On! seems to have found its niche and is turning out the best fanzine in the business. 

And now, my personal Top 5 Issues of Fight On!

 Issue #4, artwork by Steve Zieser.

6. Honorable Mention:  Not quite squeezing into the Top 5 but worthy of Honorable Mention is issue #4, dedicated to David A. Hargrave and including the noteworthy offerings "The Tower of Duvan'Ku" by James Raggi, "Random Rooms" by Michael Curtis, the classic "Carousing Mishaps" table by Jeff Rients, and "The Mysterious Crystal Hemisphere," a great adventure scenario starring the Thelidu, James Maliszewski's Mind Flayer variant.***  

 My fifth favorite FO cover, FO #7, by Peter Mullen.

5.  Issue #7, which is dedicatd to M.A.R. Barker and Tekumel, contains some of the best adventure scenarios in Fight On's history, including Allan "Grodog" Grohe's "Beware the Lord of Eyes" and Gabor Lux's "Temple of the Sea Demon."  It also has a very interesting article about "D&D Camp" (who knew?) and a great essay on finding new players by James Raggi.    

4.  Issue #2, dedicated to Dave Arneson, features a few absolutely essential and classic pieces: David "Sham" Bowman's "Entourage Approach" to retainers, J. Brian Murphy's "Shields Shall Be Splintered," and James Raggi's terrific "Random Inn Generator."  Also noteworthy are Gabor Lux's "The Tower of Birds" and an Arneson interview!

3.  Issue #1, dedicated to E. Gary Gygax, remains one of my favorites.  Thinner than subsequent issues yet chock full of goodness, this key issue includes Calithena's aforementioned "Setting Up Your Sandbox," Makofan's superb adventure locale "Nature's Nasty Node" (complete with random tables for generating more nodes!), Jeff Rients et. al.'s "Flexible Sorcery," and my favorite of Kesher's "The Devil's in the Details" columns, the one on Dwarves.  Also two great adventures: Gabor Lux's "The Tomb Complex of Ymmu M'Kursa" and James Maliszewski's "The Ruined Monastery."  Quite a bargain at only $6.99 (print).

My second-favorite FO cover, by the legendary Erol Otus.

2.  Issue #8, dedicated to Erol Otus.  EO is my favorite "classic" old-school D&D artist, and the interview with him in this issue revealed much about his career and non-D&D related art activities that I did not know before.  This issue also features Jeff Rients' thought-provoking "Experience for Exploration," Gabor Lux's evocative, minimalistic adventure "I Thirst,"  Zak Sabbath's "Hidden NPC Trait Table" (well worth a look!), and Tim Snider's "Insectaurs and Masterminds," presenting two very cool new races for Mutant Future.  In addition to all this is Tavis Allison's really insightful article "Random Events Make You Say Yes," which covers a classic old-school gaming precept -- that randomness is good -- with fresh eyes and an insightful perspective, drawing upon (amongst other things) improvisational acting theory!  An excellent read and a most valuable issue.

My all-time favorite FO cover, #6, by Mark Allen.

1.  My favorite Issue is #6 (dedicated to Lee Gold), and not just because it happens to sport my favorite cover to date.  No, it's the content: Rients' indispensable "Holy Crap! I Need A Dungeon RIGHT NOW!" mapping method, Lux's "Stone Gullet," Calithena's "Variant Races," Shorten's "Sandbox Preparation," and a really quirky but compelling adventure by Tony Rosten, "Blocks of Quox."  Michael Curtis' "A Few for the Road" deserves mention, as a mini-sourcebook for interesting road encounters.  Ron Edwards' rant "Naked Went the Gamer" provides a spirited punctuation mark late in the issue.  All in all, a total triumph, and highly recommended!

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* OSR: Variously "Old School Renaissance," "Old School Roleplaying," and/or "Old School Rules." This is a highly contested term; my favorite rundown of its various permutations and its history begins here, though please note that many old-school gaming bloggers take issue with austrodavicus' account, as will be apparent in the comments.

** Edition-Zero D&D: Refers to the Original D&D game rules released in 1974, plus other editions (especially Holmes Basic, B/X, and 1st Edition AD&D) and clones (like Swords and Wizardry and Labyrinth Lord) which are highly compatible with it.

*** Mind Flayer: An iconic humanoid D&D monster that sucks out its victims' brains; discussed here.