Life & Death mini review

I said I'd post my general thoughts on this product and I know it's been a bit, but here they are.

TL;DR - Good Stuff!

The longer version:

Life & Death: Zarth Edition is very nicely done. The adventures and the mini-setting of the Shattered Lands can be run as is or just as individual adventures. You can place it in Zarth or some other setting (notes are included for running with Class & Level games other than C&T). The adventures could be run a la carte or as a comprehensive campaign.

I really like the level of detail in the product: evocative but not exhaustive. Newt's colorful writing style is evident here as the text gives a nice flavor and a few nuggets of hard information, but doesn't overwhelm the GM with loads of details that may or may not fit his game. GMs looking for a more thorough setting or campaign may find it sparse, but it suits my preferences well.

The overall look of the product jibes well with the Crypts & Things Remastered rule book. The artwork is flavorful and the maps are efficiently simple. At just 64 pages, the reader can prep this for his group fairly easily without getting bogged down in a ton of minutiae.

My take? 4/5 screaming skulls.

New Arrival from Across the Pond

My print copy of Life & Death: Zarth Edition arrived yesterday. I've been perusing the pdf, but there's something very satisfying about having the physical copy to lay one's mitts upon. I may, given the chance, even post a review of it once I've fully digested it.

The Upside Shroud

I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me before, but this trailer spurred my current train of thought.

For those of you who have not seen the Netflix show "Stranger Things" what is WRONG with you people?! 😉

Seriously though, despite being set in the (more or less) modern world, the show is a great inspiration for some of the weirdness and horror that can be brought to a game like C&T. I'll admit that some of the trappings are a bit more Call of Cthulhu, but that's mostly superficial.

What I want to specifically draw attention to in the show is the concept of  "the Upside Down."

SEMI SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN SEASON ONE

This is the weird, nightmare realm/parallel dimension that people get sucked into and/or things come out of. It's a dark an twisted reflection of our own world with occasional rifts or gates that appear or exist between the two realms.

If you are ever looking for an inspiration to depict or describe the Shroud in your C&T games, I highly suggest taking a look at this show.

PS- Sooo looking forward to season two later this month!

Warhammer FRP

While this isn't strictly Crypts & Things related, WFRP holds a special place in my heart for grim and gritty, swords & sorcery gaming. I especially loved the 2nd edition by Green Ronin and Chris Pramas.

So I thought I would mention that right now there is an awesome deal on the 2e pdfs over at Bundle of Holding.

USR: Horrors Material & Magic Malignant

Just a brief mention and mini-review for Jay Murphy's USR product Horrors Material & Magic Malignant. This is a neat little product that came out this summer. At less than $2 for the pdf, it's hard to go wrong.

The book is broken into 5 sections: Characters of Cunning, Creatures Noble and Foul, Artifacts and their Mastery, Mesmerism, and Black Arts of Sorcery.

Characters of Cunning gives the gamemaster several evocative NPCs to quickly drop into his game Need a vile necromancer or truculent nomad? They're in there! Along with resigned princesses, haughty wenches, and more. I really like how each entry packs so much flavor and plot hook material into such compact entries along with the brief stat block that you'd expect from USR.

Creatures Noble and Foul takes a similar tack on monsters. Rather than generic names, these also have colorful titles and descriptions.

Artifacts and their Mastery gives the GM several fun (and nasty) items to place in a game. These aren't +1 long swords. They are items with histories and often dangerous curses or risks in using them.

Mesmerism is a neat chapter. It covers not so much hypnotism, as multiple ways to control or warp the mind. There are hallucinogens, rituals, and magical languages to control a victim's thoughts or actions. I appreciated that this was made its own entry as opposed to being lumped under the larger "Magic" umbrella.

Black Arts of Sorcery has spells as well as rituals and items of power. There is a little overlap with the monsters and artifacts sections, as both things appear here. But in such cases the entity or object are usually tied to a spell or rite the caster performs to produce the result.

Even if you don't play USR you'll find a lot of good material for your swords and sorcery game here.

Getting the Ley of the Land

Magic in Crypts & Things is a far less tame beast than in most other classic fantasy game systems. Things like corruption and attracting the Others' attention makes using it an exercise in risk assessment. That's one of the things I really like about the system.

The term "Ley Line" was originally coined in reference to the placement of certain geographic features -both natural and man made- in relation to one another. Later, occultists coopted the phrase for the idea that "veins of power" ran through the earth. An interconnected web of arcane energies. One of the ideas was that rituals and spells performed along these lines or at their intersections would be able to better tap into that power.

Obviously, this idea has a lot of potential for fantasy stories and games. In terms of C&T, I am imagining a region or micro-setting which is rife with such lines, or perhaps more potent than "normal." Sorcerers come to this land and build their towers to be close to these energies and tap into it for their spells and research.

Such a land would be a strange place. Not just because of the "extra" magic, but because so many powerful sorcerers in one area would have interesting effects on the local power structure. The mages would probably be less interested in conquest or politics than their studies, but the local lords or townsfolk wouldn't want to annoy them needlessly.

"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger!"  -JRRT

There would be other by-products of such a place that might make good adventure fodder. Magical experiments gone awry, loosing horrid beasts into the wilds. Wizards paying handsomely for retrieving rare, quest-worthy ingredients, etc.

This is an idea I plan to play with a bit over the next few weeks. We'll see where it leads.

Further thoughts on the possible King Conan film

...and Conan in the media generally.

While I'm sure the movie (if it happens) will draw at least somewhat on the events of the previous two Arnold films (hopefully more the first than the second), I do hope the writers look to the original REH materials for more inspiration.

One of the things that disappointed me about the Jason Momoa remake was that it was basically the 1982 film again, instead of a new plot, using Howard's stories as a basis. The Milius version drew heavily on Howard for themes and imagery, but the story was original. That's a good thing. But for the 2011 film to rehash a story that was only "inspired by" the classic tales is like a copy of a copy: It's just not as crisp.

Just of the top of my head, here are a few stories that -IMO- would make great fodder for the screen:

• Red Nails*
• The Jewels of Gwahlur
• Queen of the Black Coast*
• Hour of the Dragon
• The Scarlet Citadel
• The Devil in Iron

*Unfortunately, the 1982 film already used Valeria (Red Nails), and Belit's line about coming back from death to save Conan. They were awesome callbacks to the stories, but it makes it harder to use the rest of those tales.

Hollywood is going to do what they're going to do. And if the film is ever released, they have my money. But I can dream, can't I?

Hither came (King) Conan?

Not much more than Hollywood gossip, but I so dearly want this movie to happen.

The Lost Isle

I know it's been a while, but distractions have been myriad. Rather than let the perfect be the enemy of the -well, let's just say less than perfect, here is a pdf  here is a NEW pdf * of the mini module/adventure I was working on. it's a bit rough around the edges, but feel free to take a peek!

*Room numbering was missing. Added now. Thanks, BC!

Incremental Progress Reported!

An editor friend of mine proofread the adventure draft for me and sent it back with comments. Once I've looked over the changes, all that really remains is drawing one map and doing a bit of layout. I'll post a free link to the pdf once that's all finished.

I don't mean to build up expectations for the adventure. It's not really any great shakes, but I've been in a serious creative dry spell for a while, so getting any project finished is a real milestone to me. Hopefully, someone will find it useful and/or amusing.

Teaser from C&T adventure

I originally posted this on the G+ community

Kaosaur

AC: 18
HD: 10
Attacks: 1 Bite (2d6), tentacles (ensnare)
Special: see below
Move: 18
CL: 12

Facing a terror lizard is bad enough, but this one has been touched by foul kaos-energy. In addition to be an unnaturally large and strong example of the breed, instead of short forelimbs, it possesses a pair of ropy tentacles. These pseudo-pods lash out at a distance of up to 20' and - upon a successful hit - ensnare the target, pinning his limbs and drawing him to the beast, which bites at a +4 to hit. The victim can break free by rolling under his Strength on a d20-2. The tentacles can be severed with a successful attack roll at -2 and 10 points of damage in a single blow.

Two C&T related projects

So I'm pretty close to finishing a simple adventure for C&T. When it's done I'll put up a PDF for anyone interested to look at. It's sort of a rules shakedown for me and intended to be a fun one-shot, not so much a kickoff to a whole campaign arc. That's project one.

The second project is a little more complex. I've been looking for a while at various setting and campaign ideas for games like C&T, Labyrinth Lord, Green Ronin's Fantasy AGE, etc. I think I've hit upon something that sounds like fun to me, but it's going to require mashing a few things together. Specifically, I'm going for a potential cross-genre thing.

Lords of Light!

Instead of a post-apocalyptic earth with the ancient ruins of a technologically superior civilization, this setting would be a dark fantasy world more like Zarth where alien/futuristic technology (and possibly aliens) appear. Imagine a D&D world where the ship from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks just crashed. 

I still need to iron out some of the specifics, but here's some of what I'm planning:

• C&T-style mechanics, including Sanity and similar damage/injury rules.
• Mutants, but Chaos-based instead of radiation,
• Androids and psychics. Possibly even as exotic PC classes.
• Technological artifacts (ray guns) that might be found as treasure.
• Aliens
• Evil Gods
• Barbarians, Sorcerers, and all that jazz.

USR in the OSR

Jason Hobbs has begun a new-OSR themed podcast. In his first episode, they discuss the USR Swords & Sorcery system that was mentioned previously on this blog. It's well worth a listen. Check it out!

The gloaming vs the night

gloaming (noun) twilight; dusk

I've mentioned before where I am unsure about running my own Crypts & Things setting vs. using Zarth itself. Both have an appeal for me. Zarth is chock full of fun little adventure hooks, cool flavorful weirdness, and a great "Dying of the Light" vibe that seems one part Gamma World, one part Stormbringer, and a dash of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Part of me just can't help tinkering though. One possibility that occurred to me was to use the Crypts & Things rule set to bring a fresh take on an existing setting.

For those of you not familiar with Karameikos, it was the initial offering of TSR's "Known World" (later "Mystara") Gazetteers. It outlined one of the nations within that setting: the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. 

For some, it is a classic example of a "vanilla" fantasy setting. You have a populations of elves, goblins, and dwarfs. You have villains and heroes and ancient ruins. It ticks all the regular D&D boxes. 

Yawn! Sounds terrible for C&T's brand of weirdness!

Now hear me out. Yes, running a "straight" Karameikos campaign under the C&T rules would be, well, odd. But imagine this: what if some of the events that led to the incursions of the others into Zarth –or events very much like them– happened to a "normal" fantasy world where the PCs lived? In other words, what if the campaign picked up right when stuff went sideways instead of after the weirdness had been going on for generations?

[Minor spoilers: There is even an ancient "slaver" race in Karameikos that mirrors some of the serpent men's role in the setting.]

The nature of the adventures would certainly have a different flavor if the PCs initially saw the incursion of these terrors as an aberration instead of the new norm. Perhaps they could help stem the tide. Or perhaps they'd be the founders of the new cults, given the promises of power that might be offered by the Others.

I think it might be an interesting twist to play out the introduction of the corruption to the world. It might be a bit bleak to some, if it starts to look like "victory" is not likely in the face of cosmic horror, but that could lend a fun "Call of Cthuhlu" tone to things as well.

Just a thought, anyway.

Minis/Terrain vs. ToM

I used to paint miniatures all the time. Lately I've fallen out of the habit. Which is a shame because I have so many still unpainted and I have really enjoyed doing it in the past. I got started painting when our group started playing D&D 3rd edition. The rules really emphasize that kind of tactical layout (Attacks of Opportunity, etc.). Over the years, I've drifted away from d20, but still liked slapping paint on pewter.

I'm a big fan of the OSR, but those rules are not generally focused on the tactical layout of combat. Rather, they lend themselves better to an abstract "Theater of the Mind" style of play.

Minis have their pros and cons. On the one hand, having minis for the party and the monsters can be fun eye candy. On the other hand, it can be a distraction when you don't have the perfect mini for everyone and everything on the board ("I know I said they're bugbears, but I only have orc minis, okay?"). Not to mention the time and expense of buying/painting the things!

Groups vary, so I don't know that there is one best way to handle it. Personally, I think Crypts & Things is a great example of a game that benefits from ToM play. So many of the creatures are so bizarre that having minis for them would be quite difficult. Not to mention that a concrete representation can limit a player's imagination when picturing some of these monsters' horrific natures.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh Yeah!

As I mentioned previously, The Crypts & Things monster section is quite evocative, but is not comprehensive when it comes to ordinary creatures and the like. A terrific resource for such things is the Swords & Wizardry Monster Book by Matthew Finch. It includes hundreds of monsters - both fantastic and mundane- some may not be a good fit for Zarth, but I could see using many of them in a C&T/S&S game. What it does have that I really appreciate are listings for things like wild animals (both giant and normal) as well as mounts (horses).The stats jibe nicely with C&T monsters (just remove the Save stat) and the book is available on Lulu in pdf or print on demand. 

I highly recommend taking a look.

Conan on YouTube

No, not him.

A while back, Dark Horse Comics did a series of "motion comic" videos starring our favorite Cimmerian in the REH story "Queen of the Black Coast." It's pretty true to the original text. The animation is quite stylized, but if you're looking for some Hyborean fun, you might want to check it out.

You can see part 1 here (a bit PG-13):

USR Swords & Sorcery (A review)

Jay Murphy, of Vanishing Tower Press, recently sent me a copy of his "USR Swords & Sorcery: Rules Lite Role Playing for Fantastic Pulp Fantasy Adventures." (USR:S&S for this review) This comes in a 19 page PDF with artwork, so it's a pretty easy read-through for those who like games that one can get up and running quickly. This was my first exposure to the USR mechanic, but it seemed relatively straightforward. He also sent my a copy of "Shrine of the Keepers"; a short S&S adventure written for the system. I will break this review into two parts: one for the rules and one for the module.

The Rules

USR:S&S takes a fairly "bare bones" approach to the rules. Games that take this approach suffer the handicap of seeming thin on detail, but gain ground in efforts to "get out of the way" of role-play and story. Don't think this is a diceless "story engine" game. The sacred polyhedrals are very much present.

Abilities are distribute to four scores: Action, Ego, Wits, and Hits. Each player chooses a die type from a pool of three (d6, d8, d10) to represent each of the first three scores. Like other die type games (e.g. Savage Worlds), the higher the die type, the better the score. So a warrior would be more likely to have a high Action die, whereas a sorcerer might emphasize Wits. Hits are rolled using Action and Wits. They represent how much punishment one can take before death.

The scores are obviously broad, but that's where "Specialisms" come in. These serve sort of like skill focuses to boost rolls in specific areas. For instance, a character might have a d8 Wits with a specialism in Lore, granting a bonus to rolls on certain knowledge rolls. Task resolution is simply rolling the relevant ability die, adding any bonuses or modifiers, and trying to meet/beat a target difficulty number.

The character section includes a standard equipment list, priced to a silver based economy. Oddly, there is no mention of default starting wealth. One of several areas where I believe the intention was to leave things open-ended for personalization of campaigns.

There are also tables for rolling character backgrounds and details. These represent what the PC was before striking out as an adventurer. These are largely for flavor, and –for the most part– have no mechanical effect on the PCs. They do provide fodder for back stories and RP hooks, though (those are good things). I don't know that I would force a random roll on a player that already has a concept in mind, but if someone wasn't sure they might find inspiration there.

Combat is fairly simple. Each PC gets a combat action, a combat reaction, and movement action per round. Players can mix things up a bit by trading some action types under certain circumstances. An action is self-explanatory: An attack is the most straightforward example. Reactions are generally defensive: dodging or parrying, etc. Movement, again is self-explanatory.

Attacks are resolved via contested rolls. I found this section a little confusing as the language left it unclear whether the contested rolls occurred every time someone attacked, or only if the target had a reaction roll left that round. 

Rules for other, more detailed combat are also included, including hit locations, criticals, and fumbles. I like that these are available but are separate enough that they could be left out if a GM preferred to not use them.

The magic section was quite brief, as the rules leave it up to the GM to determine what types of magic, and what spells (if any) exist in his world. The types of magic presented are quite evocative of a S&S feel, I felt this area could have done with a bit more guidance; perhaps a few sample spells or magical artifacts?

The last part of USR:S&S contains several handy tables for encounters, carousing, and other fun things that might happen to the PCs. While the encounters mention several creatures one might meet, there is no monsters section included. Again, like the spells, the system is light and flexible enough that it would not be difficult to come up with the necessary numbers for most creatures, still some examples would be useful.

Overall, I found USR:S&S an intriguing system and take on this genre of games, but in some ways it is more of a toolkit than a complete game.

Shrine of the Keepers:

This is a fairly straightforward city adventure with a "brave the evil temple" hook. While structurally the plot is not very unusual, where this short module shines for me is in its tone. Nearly every room or encounter fits the Swords & Sorcery genre adroitly. From the nature of the cult, to the attitude of the guards, and the horrors that the PCs may encounter; they all give of a vibe that would be at home in nearly any Leiber or Howard story. The main hook of the adventure fits the "personal" nature of the genre that we discussed before. This is not "save the cosmos." It's "give me what's mine!" Like the rules discussed above, there is a bit of work for the GM to do on his own to fill in some blanks, but it's minor enough it could almost by done on the fly.

Even if one didn't run "Shrine" as is, or with USR:S&S, I would recommend it as a good example of evoking the swords & sorcery pulp genre for an interesting twist on a night's carouse in the city.

C&T Review: Part 4/4

Home stretch, here!

Ill Gotten Gains of Dark Desire:

This is the treasure section of the book. In addition to some straightforward advice about placement and appropriate reward levels, C&T also includes “trade-out” guidelines (similar to Swords & Wizardry). The idea here is that there is a chance for a given amount of the treasure’s “cash” actually being a special item like gems, jewels, or even magic.

C&T also shies from random magic item placement. Magic should be chosen by the CK deliberately. Also, enchanted objects are almost never unilaterally beneficial (or harmful). Magic is a double-edged sword. Even useful items carry a cost.

The listed items are an excellent sampling of weird magics in a swords & sorcery world. Unlike other games, instead of being classified by type (scrolls, potions, rings, swords, etc.), the items are just listed as individual objects. This further underscores the idea that they should be considered individually instead of “just another magic __.”

A Compendium of Fiends:

Monsters, monsters. Where would we be without a bestiary? C&T delivers with a nice assortment of the weird, bestial, sinister, and deadly. Using a very “stat-lite” S&W style of listing, the monsters listed include only the numbers you need, and rely more on colorful flavor text to help the CK evoke the feel  of a creature. Many of the critters are “Zarthian” as opposed to your standard fantasy fare, and normal creatures (lions, tigers, and bears oh my) are a bit thin on the ground, but these are imported pretty easily from other rule books like Swords & Wizardry.

The end of the section includes tables and advice for creating or modifying monsters to create unique creatures in your game, along with a listing of monsters by challenge level. While I personally don’t use challenge levels in general, it’s a handy reference when looking for an easier or harder foe to include in your adventures.

The next section contains three adventures: The Halls of Nizar-Thun, The Haunted Lands, and Port Black Mire. While they all look eminently playable, they also serve as blueprints for C&T style adventures.  Found it very useful to look at how they differ from typical fantasy adventures as well as how they’re similar. “Halls” is a dungeon crawl, “Lands” provides some outdoor/wilderness adventuring, and “Port” is a city adventure complete with a random city events table. The adventures also provide some more detail to the setting (especially Port Black Mire).

Notes from the Abyss:

The final chapter self-described as “a miscellany of topics.” It includes CK (GM) advice do’s & don’ts, etc.), some fun tables for semi-random crypt (dungeon) creation, and a nice writeup on horror in gaming. It finishes up with a bibliography and suggested soundtracks (inspirational/thematic music).

What I liked: The treasure and monster sections were engagingly different than typical fantasy games. I particularly appreciated the nature of the magic items (magic with a cost).

What I didn’t like: As I’ve mentioned before, a lot of the material is tied pretty tightly to the default setting. That’s not a flaw, but it does feel limiting sometimes.

OVERALL: This is not a vanilla fantasy game. Crypts & Things is not a generic D&D substitute. It is designed to deliver a very particular theme and tone; one of weird magic, eldritch horror, gritty pulp action, and characters that you might find in the pages of Howard, Burroughs, or Smith.

The world of Zarth is a nearly ideal backdrop for such a game. With its ancient races, lurking terrors, and encroaching doom. For those who wish to play elsewhere, it shouldn’t be too difficult to use the game in your own setting, but it would be tough to leave all things zarthian behind.

I am immensely pleased with the return on my Kickstarter investment and am looking forward to actually playing some Crypts & Things very soon!

C&T Review: Part 3

THE BOOK OF DOOM

A rather dramatic title for what amounts to the GM section of the book. I mentioned before I liked having the player information kept in its own section, so this part is the other side of that gold piece.

I’m going to do my best to avoid specifics and spoilers here, but these pages are meant for Crypt Keepers (CKs), not players.

Secrets of the Continent of Terror:

Essentially GM info on the various regions in the setting. Two parts of each entry that I really appreciated were a short table for random encounters, and suggested adventure hooks specific to that area. Even if CKs don’t use them directly, they provide nice idea fodder and give a better sense of what might happen to the PCs while they’re there.

Moving on, we come to a handy little section about “the Others.” This gives a brief description of what exactly the Others are, as well as some information on things like summoning rituals. In a nutshell, the Others are quasi-lovecraftian entities from beyond and objects of worship for various evil cults. Such things are standard fare for a nice, pulpy swords & sorcery feel. The next part details some specific Others, their worshippers, and their minions. This gives a CK some material to work with, as well as a blueprint for designing their own cults and Others.

I appreciated the attention given to this subject on its own, instead of lumping it into the monsters’ section. These things are not gods, nor are they just a big critters to hit with an axe.

Snake Dance:

(cue “Men without Hats” music)

Ssss -Nnnn - Aaaa - Kkkk - Eeee

These pages detail the Serpent Men. The race is integral to the history and current climate of Zarth. There is a lot of good information here, but this chapter is one that left a bit ambiguous. Not for the quality of the material or writing, but because -as I’ve previously stated- I’m not sure that I want to run C&T on Zarth as written or take a homebrew approach. That said, if a CK plans to use the default setting, this chapter is a must-read.

Scourges of the Dying World:

An interesting chapter that offers some high-powered villains to use in one’s campaign. These aren’t “boss monsters” that lurk in the last room of the dungeon, these are master minds and major players. These are the bad guys that a whole campaign is centered around dealing with. Some are Others, some are not. Like the section on the Others, CKs might use these as written or draw inspiration for their campaign’s own nemeses.

What I liked: A lot of thought and effort went into fleshing out the setting and its various populations. As a self-confessed setting junkie, I love getting a sense that a game world is a living, breathing place. The section on the Others really helps underscore the weirdness of the place and of magic's role.

What I didn't like: Again, just from my own perspective, some of the Zarth-centric information may not end up being used that much by me, at least directly. That is not to say it can't be inspirational material, but it might require digging certain things out of the game's innards -or at least filing some serial numbers off.

Next time I’ll cover the last parts of the book: Monsters, Treasure, Sample Adventures, and “Notes from the Abyss.”