Tomes of Antiquity: Tomb of Horrors S1 (1E)

Tomb of Horrors is one of my top-10 classic modules. It is brutal. For most, it is nearly impossible to conquer when played under the original rule set. Certainly, it was not typical of the modules common during the late 1970-80’s. Instead of following the purely random path of slaying monsters, Gary chose to make it a thinking man’s game. In fact, he states so in his introduction.

THIS IS A THINKING PERSON’S MODULE, AND IF YOUR GROUP IS A HACK AND SLAY GATHERING, THEY WILL BE UNHAPPY. In the latter case, it is better to skip the whole thing than come out and tell them that there are few monsters. It is this writer’s belief that brainwork is good for all players and they will certainly benefit from playing this module — Gary Gygax, 1978

Gary essentially stated that there are many ways of playing the game and experiencing a variety of them is a good thing. No single approach is the correct one. Rather, a variety of differing approaches is beneficial. I cannot argue with his logic. Kevin has recently been arguing Gary’s case.

Tomb of Horrors is a very short module. Using only 12 pages, Gygax generated more TPK’s than any other book published to date. If you eliminate the cover page and the 2 pages devoted to character selection, he did it in 9. Amazing. Nearly everyone has seen, played, ran or read the module in one version or another. The original is the only one I recommend.

Tomb of Horrors also contains an often overlooked element. The module has an Illustration Booklet in the middle. The booklet has 32 illustrations covering 20 pages. That’s right. The module has twice the number of pages entirely devoted to illustrations than it does to the actual text description. In fact, the module only contains 33 noted locations so the illustration to location ratio is nearly 1:1. Add in inside depiction of the entrance skull and the ratio is truly 1:1. I think Gygax would have enjoyed mixing media and probably would have loved DeadGod’s Ravenloft setup.

If you are one of the few who hasn’t played it, get a group together for a retro 1st Edition campaign. You can then join the vast number of people who love to hate it. Follow his character recommendations at the end of the module. Also, take note of his disclaimer on the intro page:

As Dungeon Master, you may fill in whatever background is needed, and if this a section of a campaign, players cannot have obtained the Legend Information without consulting sages, casting legend lore spell, finding the information in some arcane work, or whatever; all prior to actually locating the the actual locale of the Tom and then getting to it, so that background will have been accomplished. (When this module was used at Origins I, referees were instructed that the the hill had been found in the Vast Swamp, and the party had arrived there in barges). – Gygax, 1978

I’m going to recommend that disclaimer for the most run-on sentence in any supplement I have ever read. Apparently TSR didn’t have editors at that point. Essentially, I think he meant: Toss it at them. No prior knowledge. Make them think.

I wish Wizards of the Coast had never chosen to reprint the module. Sadly, they did so in a sequel for 4E. Instead of a true reprint, they took the fame and glory of the name and reworked it. Badly, in my opinion. True to their philosophy, they added more monsters to make it “balanced”.

Play the original. Under the rule base of the day. You will be happy you did. If you want to read a funny take on the module, you cannot go wrong with Something Awful.

Now we can commence with the TPK stories.

Gaming Locations: Best, Worst, Familiar & Wishlist

With our Fall 2010 Convergence on the horizon and my general thoughts about gaming ambience, I’ve got a few questions.

• What is the best location/environment you have role-played in?
• The worst one?
• Which is the most familiar to you and your groups? What features make it a comfortable place to play?
• And finally, if you could pick a place to play, where and why? Would you take your group with you for a role-playing game event there if you had the means?

The best location I’ve played in to-date was the Mount Evans Field Station during our Spring 2010 Convergence. Getting into the location at the time as a pain but it was remote and beautiful. A large fireplace in the center room we could kick back around or toss up an actual table if needed. No distractions. None. Phones didn’t work. It was just our group gaming at will unless people needed to venture out to make contact.

Worst location is hard to pinpoint for me. I hate being cramped and crammed around a small table. I’d have to say Chris T.’s session at his tiny table during the college years with his 114 rules about behaviour in his domicile has to rate up there. Certainly it was not horrific but it didn’t inspire me to stay on top of the game.

Most familiar. Hands down, it is an object not a location. The Alley Table takes the cake. Randall and I found it in the alley. It was perfect when we saw it. Someone dinged it up before we got back to moving it into his living room. I believe the table lived through three different moves. It had ‘artwork’ on it around the dings and dents. We played around that table for hundreds of hours.

At the top of my wish list would be to actually play in a castle. Not a modern recreation but an actual historical site. It will likely never happen but I’d load up the entire crew for that trip.

What are your thoughts?

Electronics at the Table – Useful? Distraction?

Strangely enough, Kevin posted his rant about the changing face of D&D today. My thoughts of late have been about the modern, mixed media available for the modern gamer. Not the games themselves but the utilities available. Personally, I consider technology a tool to be used when appropriate. I have never truly used a computer as an aid but many people have in a variety of ways — PDFs, dice rollers, mapping devices, etc.

I do not find a computer a necessary tool but the climate of computation has changed. More computational power is available on my phone than was available on my desk when I began gaming. Even more important is that a generation of gamers are now playing with that power as the norm, not the exception. Rob Conley over at Bat in the Attic listed a number of open software utilities available. Most of them I have used or use daily but not for gaming. A number the comments by his readers confirmed that gamers in general use many applications for game preparation.

How many of you are using electronic devices at the table? And for what reasons? If you do, are you using network-centric resources or standalone applications? For example, if you not able to access the Internet, would that hinder you? Does the aid require internet access? If so, could you game without it present?

I think the majority of people like the physical feel of the dice in our hands. I’d also wager we are more paper oriented when at the table than many others. The physical book to me is far more useful than a PDF on screen. I could be wrong.

Someone speculated the end of the DM screen as an entity. I failed to read the post when I saw the it (if you know the link, please add it to the comments) but I think it as a utility is dead. While I have used one in the past, I did so mostly for quick reference not for hiding dice rolls. When I’m game mastering, if I feel the need to fudge a roll, I choose just not to roll the dice. I make a decision and move on. My belief is the DM screen’s functionality is encapsulated elsewhere along with much more functionality in an electronic format. Yet, I would not choose a phone or computer over the screen.

Armor for Kids: Sir Dylan’s Base Suit

Sir Dylan’s basic cuirass is complete. I have pictures coming from his Mom but failed to take my camera along for the final fitting. Considering it was a balmy 98° Fahrenheit, Dylan wasn’t very interested in donning hot leather. He was focused on getting back outside to the sprinkler.

Sir Dylan's Set

The fit is okay. To wide on his frame but it will fit over a winter coat when he ventures out on Halloween to do battle with the local ghosts and goblins. I was overzealous when it came to room for growth. I should have stuck closer to the pattern and done a few more test fits before finishing.

Sir Dylan the Skinny

I’m pleased with the setup. It came out pretty well given I hadn’t touched leather in 10 plus years. Some of my techniques are still raw and need practice.

Tomes of Antiquity: Dark Folk a Role Aids Product of Mayfair Games

Published in 1983, Dark Folk was one of many supplements produced under the Role Aids moniker by Mayfair Games. The supplement covered the lives and motivations of Trolls, Orc, Gnolls, Kobolds and Goblins in addition to providing module style adventures for each of the species. Of note, Robert Lynn Asprin was the author of the orc section. Yes, the Asprin of Thieves’ World fame.

This supplement prominently features the statement “Suitable for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” as part of the subtitle. Additionally, below the Role Aids trademark on the lower right side is the statement: “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is a trademark of TSR Hobbies, Inc. Use of the trademark NOT sanctioned by the holder.” Mayfair Games was founded by Darwin (David) Bromley, an attorney, in 1982.

Much like the current controversy surrounding the choices of Dice Cast Games’s decision to release a module, Insiduous (now with a different cover) espousing system compliance, Mayfair ran afoul of TSR’s legal department. The original suit in the 1980’s resulted in a licensing agreement between TSR and Mayfair. An agreement TSR claimed was violated in 1991. Another lawsuit ensued. In 1994 before the final judgement in the case, TSR reached a settlement with Mayfair and bought the rights of the Role Aids line. In short order, the materials disappeared. If you are interested in the suit, there are a number of sites covering it far better than I could. Try this one as a starting place.

I actually recall waffling over buying this book. I was in Denver in a mall bookstore flush with maybe $20.00 in my pocket. Now, at the ripe age of 13, that $20.00 was important and significant. I probably read the first half of the supplement in the store before I finally decided to buy it. I was sold on the depth of the content and the writing. The booklet actually had some depth. Not just a random series of encounters. Every modulet (is that a word? It is now), covers a reasonable set of encounters related to the monster at hand — contextually oriented and logical. Many of the early modules I had seen were exercises in random encounter tables. I had that down pat.

If you can find a copy, I recommend it.

Google Trends – How does Roleplaying Fare?

Just out of curiosity, I ran a number of terms through Google Trends relating to role playing and other terms. While I will not proclaim the death of the industry, the trends for the hobby as a whole are down and to the right. If it were a stock, analysts would agree it is not a good industry to be in. Google’s data only goes back to 2004. Less than 10 years. Not a good metric for a comprehensive study but the graphs are educational.

Roleplaying

Roleplaying Games

Roleplaying Online

Flowing downhill to the right. Not a very pretty picture but its a generic set of terms for an entire industry. How does the market leading term stand up? Let’s see.

Dungeons and Dragons

D&D

Not much better. Everyone says video games are taking over. Are they?

Video Games

Pretty flat of late but better than RPG’s. The next big thing promised but never really delivered is 3D online

3D Online Game

How about the standby board games every family owns and plays? Hasbro has a major market presence in those.

Board Games

Trivial Pursuit

Hasbro Monopoly

Very cyclical. Upticks occur every December as you would expect from a US driven holiday market. Still the trend mirrors the down to the right flow of roleplaying games. How do our slightly related brethren in the LARP and SCA markets hold up?

Society For Creative Anachronism

LARP

Okay, how about some search terms not related to the industry for comparison. There has been an explosion of online games of late. Farmville gets more coverage than any other game online I could think of.

Farmville

How about videos? It seems to be all the rage these days. Do cat videos stand up better?

Cat Videos

Donkey Videos

I’m shocked. I was trying to pick a random animal video term out of the hat. Who knew donkey’s were that much more interesting than cats? I guess times change. The one thing that doesn’t require stating but is an example of the trend you would like but can never achieve.

Porn

Hats off to our new naked donkey loving elvish overlords filming porn. Take it as you will. I just had fun looking at the trends.

Tomes of Antiquity: Choose Your Own Adventure — The Past & Present

I’m not an iPhone or iPad owner but if I were, I’d like to check out a new app, U-Ventures, available from Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. The app revives the Choose Your Own Adventure series in digital form. I love the idea of combining exploration, reading and some digital magic interesting to the new generation of tech-savvy children.

Cave of Time

From the NPR article: (Listen to the interview.)

The classic children’s book series, Choose Your Own Adventure, puts you, the reader, in charge of your own fate: Will you emerge king of the dominion? Or meet your end in a duel with a sea monster?

Now, a new iPhone application aims to revive the series for a digital generation of readers.

Edward Packard, one of the authors of the interactive Choose Your Own Adventure series, has helped create U-Ventures, an application for the iPhone and iPad. It incorporates sounds, lights and special effects into the traditional Choose Your Own Adventure format.

The first U-Venture is a sort of a sequel to a classic title, The Cave of Time. In “Return to the Cave of Time,” the U-Venture, “you go back in the cave — you don’t have a choice on that,” Packard tells NPR’s Neal Conan. But from that point on, the reader chooses her own course. — Neal Conan, NPR

I can recall passing the original Choose Your Own Adventure books around our gaming group in the early 1980’s. The series arrived on the scene about the same time we took up role playing. I suspect they also had a subconscious influence on my style of game play. Make a decision. Move the story forward no matter the results. Sure, I leafed back a few times in the books to choose a new path but that never entered my mind as a RPG player.

What are your memories of the Choose Your Own Adventure books? How about the app if you’ve used it? I’m going to see if the local used book stores have any of the older books just to relive my past.

Update: The current publisher of the book series is CHOOSECO including the title Zombie Penpal, which is now a must have on Kevin’s wish list.