Greyhawk Adventures & The Fate of Istus review
The World of Greyhawk, the world created by the originators
through play. The world of the true pioneers of our hobby! You know it already.
It is the world designed for very advanced users of the game. The nay-sayers
like to say that TSR kept Greyhawk from Gygax when he left the company, just to
bury it. The world of Oerth never got the amount of support shown to the other
settings, but that is why it is so favorable! You buy the box set, read the
little pamphlets and look at the map, and you start writing! Much of the support
that was given to Greyhawk was ignored. It is a world that supports the
imagination, each table running the box completely different from one another.
Today this setting is a huge cult hit: You want to go back to the roots of
D&D; you roll up some Greyhawk characters and see what happens!
By 1989, the thought of discontinuing the setting was nixed.
While the company was slowly and carefully establishing Forgotten Realms to be
as marketable as possible, they needed to keep some income flowing, thus the Greyhawk Adventures product line was
kept as a grindhouse-like money maker. Modules for the setting paid the bills,
and they suffered from a lack of quality.
I thought that it was Dragonlance that first entered the 2e
era, but I had totally forgotten about Product 2023: Greyhawk Adventures,
written by James Ward and published in August of 1988. It isn’t a true 2e book:
it is a hardcover with the compatibility starburst, that attempted to introduce
the world to 2nd Edition, but they didn’t have much information to
work with! The quality of the material inside is extremely high, and not found
in any other book out there. Ward credits it as a fan created project: he solicited the D&D community to give him
feedback, and feedback he got! What this book reads like is a huge, hardcover
issue of Dragon Magazine, focused completely on the world of Greyhawk, and it
is awesome!
There are very few 2e mechanics in the book, namely THAC0
and the spheres & schools of magic system was hinted to. While this hardcover wasn’t as functional as Forgotten
Realms Adventures was, it is still a really really great book! As far as
Greyhawk goes, it was marketed to advanced users of the game; users that could
competently make their own conversions, so the designers could get away with
just addressing the barest minimum to the setting.
While Greyhawk Adventures addressed what was added,
it was up to a mega-module called WG8 Fate of Istus to address what was
to be taken away. Again, this module does not run as a 2e product, it is
intended for established 1st Edition player characters, but by the
end of it, it says that all of the characters will be 2e compatible.
The module itself has four different authors, and it is
written in a very grindhouse style so there really is no way to actually run
this product smoothly, not logically anyway. It is a collection of ten mini
adventures in which each 1st edition PC class is tested and their
fates are decided. I personally don’t think that this product is all that
necessary, however it does have a few positive points worthy of noting, namely
the fact that there is a lot of stuff that a DM can lift from this booklet!
NPCs, maps, descriptions, items; as a whole, the product isn’t very strong,
however, cut up, it’s basic parts are desirable to a DM who is strapped for
time filling in sections of his world that don’t really require his attention;
but the best reason is actually one of the books greatest failures, it is a
chance to compare the writings of 4 very talented men; specifically, this book
features one of the few times that you can actually read the work of the
legendary Robert J. Kuntz. That alone is worth the price of admission!
Module WG8 seems to be more of a product to be read, than
one that should actually be ran. DM’s who had ran parts of it were happy with
the results, however many agree that as a whole, it is deeply interesting but
something to be ran only if you want to make your players miserable. Is it
worth owning? YES! But I would recommend Fate of Istus as a PDF. In
regards to Greyhawk Adventures, I rate that product as a B, just because
it is so damned fun! I’m not sure how usable the thing really is, but you will
still love reading it. It offers unique spell lists from major NPCs that are
cool (many names you’ll recognize from the PHB), and written in the style of Ed
Greenwood’s Dragon Magazine articles. It also features unique monsters (a few
making appearances in the Greyhawk Monster Appendix), and a system for running
0th level PCs.
OVERVIEW
Greyhawk users are a different breed of player that put
self-expression and invention over established canon; as far as I am concerned,
Greyhawk as a setting has been completed for a very, very long time! There is
still some gold to be mined from published works, but they are far and in
between. The lessons of Greyhawk can spill over to the other settings! Even
Forgotten Realms works best when most of the supplemental material is
completely ignored! A designer’s vision is best established through play, not
through memorizing a bookshelf of stuff created by others. Where one user sees
an overly generic and incomplete world, what one is really looking at is
freedom! 2e didn’t force itself on the setting, if it did then it would had
been ruined. Advanced users know that you can still use the 2e system as well
as keeping what they really love from the first edition rules and be fine! While
Greyhawk was a huge financial failure, as art, I feel that it is far superior
to any other product out on the market.
Monday, June 27, 2016 | Labels: Reviews | 3 Comments
Insperations: A Child of the 70's
A couple of my blogger buddies had been inspired to reveal
their beginnings, which I always find to be interesting. I am not a grognard, I
played once in the 70’s and hated it. I didn’t play officially until 1993. When
I was a teen, I had enough social problems to deal with without tacking on
Dungeons & Dragons.
I’m a country kid, I mean to say that I grew up in the city
of Council Bluffs Iowa, but in the early 80’s my folks were able to save up
enough money to move out onto a rural route, I spent most of my formative years
out there, but until that time I lived across the street from my cousin, who
was like a big brother to me. I have been lucky to always live next to woods,
and I spent a lot of time out there. Our parents typically kicked us out
of the house, and we’d run around the woods until we got hungry.
We had toys, but if you take toys out into the woods, you
usually won’t get them back, so we’d play pretend! Star Wars, Robin Hood, super
heroes, this became our favorite game. We especially loved finding branches
which we’d clean off and have sword fights, or staff battles. We fancied
ourselves to be quite good at our sword fighting!
We did other stuff too, this was before central air
conditioning was all that available, so the theatre downtown would host a
children’s matinee, offering free pop and popcorn while they played those
classic sci-fi, adventure, and monster movies from the 50’s and 60’s to get us
out of the heat for a little bit, and we loved them! Those pulpy things were
expertly written to attract susceptible young minds in the perfect way! Once
the movie was over, we’d go back out in the woods and talk about what we’d
seen, and sometimes we’d even pretend to be those characters! Especially with
the monster movies, what kid didn’t love them? We’d all be the heroes and invisible
monsters would chase us all around! There would be casualties here and there,
but after a dramatic and heart-wrenching death scene, you’d be right back into
the game. Rules? Who needs rules? Sometimes the game required you to stay dead,
but the best one’s never did.
There weren’t hundreds of channels to choose from, if a
buddy had cable television then he was popular! But, for the most part,
everybody watched the same stuff. V, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and
lets not forget the reruns of Batman & Robin, Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and Lost in Space!
Cartoons only ran on Saturday mornings; most of them were terrible, but there
were some shows that were popular, Superfriends, Scooby Doo, Land of the Lost,
and such, but our favorite was Dungeons & Dragons! Everybody in my
neighborhood watched these programs, and we talked about them! We tried to play
D&D, but we weren’t ready for the strict rules, and my cousin was bossy
enough without me having to call him Dungeon Master!
That period of time also had MUST SEE movies. Again, this
was a shared experience. Everybody went to the theatre, mom and dad needed to
get out of the heat too, and there was no VCRs in our part of town, so you
either watched it at the movies, or you had some friend tell you every last
detail of it. Well, there was MAD Magazine that helped out too, but the big
movies, everybody saw. Besides Star Wars, which is a given, there was Flash
Gordon, Clash of the Titans, Dragonslayer, and Excalibur. HBO even did a
special deal for kids at the time with Excalibur, were they edited out all of
the naughty bits. I remember our whole family getting together for this, all of
my mom’s brothers and her sister, and all of us kids. We filled up our tiny
little living room and watched it, it was a big deal!
Reading was a kin to some mysterious art, once our teacher
started to let us into that secret world, I took right too it. I eagerly wanted
to learn! My mother was a big fan of true ghost stories, monsters, and ancient
secrets, but she wouldn’t read these to me. I was stuck with Sesame Street
books and all of that kids crap because she said that those books were too
scary, so I had to learn to read! And she was right. Those books were really
scary!
I always loved reading after that; my favorite books were
those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books! Again, this was a shared experience,
once the library got a new one, there was a LONG waiting list to get your hands
on a copy. The neighborhood I lived in was really poor, but we had the RIF
Program which I was always thankful for and still support. Once a year they
would come to our school and fill up the gym with tables and tables of books
and you could choose one to have, and we always went after the “Choose Your Own
Adventure” titles! I loved my mom’s
scary books too, but I had to sneak a lot of them, much like I had to sneak up
late at night to watch Creature Feature with Dr. Sanguinary, so horror stuff
was kind of like being naughty! I became a story teller from them; my friend’s
parents didn’t like them watching that kind of stuff either, so I would tell
them all about this secret world and they’d just eat it up!
Once we moved out into the country, my social influences
stopped. I love the country! That is where I spent the majority of my youth,
and it was a tradeoff. Yes, I was extremely isolated, all social influences
outside of my relatives stopped, but I would spend most of my time not spent
doing chores out in the woods which were even bigger than my old stomping
ground in Council Bluffs, out there I found discovery. I love the outdoors; I
had a creek and miles of wilderness to play in. My yard was huge! I played
alone most of the time, which really builds up the imagination. I had a couple
of friends out there, but none of them were all that interested in fantasy
stuff. I suppose that the other kids thought that I was into what they saw as “kids’
stuff” but I really enjoyed it, and I still do!
It was out in the country where I started playing video
games, and I loved games like Haunted House, and Adventure! My cousins and I
would create a makeshift space ship and play Star Raiders. ATARI games were
great, they still required that element of imagination, but you could also
actually role play while you were playing them! ATARI games still fascinate me,
they could do so much with so little it just boggles the mind! This post uses
up more disk space then what they had. Many of the games were really well
designed, and better thought out that the stuff that one plays today. The
Nintendo was another love affair with me, particularly Legend of Zelda. I
really sucked at video games, but I could play me some Zelda, now! What
Nintendo lacked in the imagination and role playing department, it made up for
in size. Legend of Zelda was a HUGE game, and it rewarded you for exploring.
Exploration games: that is what I loved more than anything, but Zelda also
offered a challenge, and you couldn’t play it by yourself. While others thought
that I enjoyed kids’ stuff, Nintendo wasn’t kids’ stuff. I found lots of
secrets but Zelda brought kids together because everybody would find different
things. It took a long time to first beat the game. Years later, when I cracked
the game I found stuff in there that I had never seen before! It was really a
magnificent program and one that I still enjoy playing.
Living in the country, I would read a lot. I didn’t fit in
anymore, at school I was a poor country kid who the other country kids couldn’t
stand because I talked nonsense to them, so I stayed by myself and I’d read. I
discovered the occult and ate it up! Archeology and history was a love of mine,
but it was scattered. I had no sense of direction; I just absorbed what I
could. I learned way more outside of school than I ever learned in it. I didn’t
find like-minded friends until after I graduated, and it was them that got me
into D&D.
It wasn’t really all of these things that inspired me, it
was my cousin who was my first best friend and brother, it was my uncles who
ate that stuff up! It was my mother whose love of things that go bump in the
night possessed me. And it was my father, whose love of Westerns and rural
history is firmly embedded into my very being as well. It was the woods,
infested with monsters and filled with discovery! These things made me what I
am. Imagination is such an important part of my growing up, and I kind of feel
that the kids of today may have been given the short end of the stick. My
favorite toy was a stick! In my hands it was always more than just a simple
stick, it was a thing of almost endless possibilities.
Saturday, June 18, 2016 | Labels: rants | 7 Comments
Dragonlance & In Search of Dragons
The first 2e product of the year, wasn’t the PHB, but a
module . . . this module, Product 9243, or DLE1 In Search of Dragons
written by Rick Swan for the Dragonlance Champaign Setting.
The first modules for 2e are pretty easy to spot; they have
a starburst on the cover that says that they are compatible with both first and
second edition, however, this is the only module that was published with no 2e
rules to support it, but that doesn’t matter because DLE1 provided everything
that you needed to play it, all you needed was the original DMG and a 1e PHB.
Once the new PHB came out, you could use it too, but it was completely independent
from the Dragonlance boxset as all of the background history was in the module
itself.
Why Dragonlance? Forgotten Realms was chosen to be THE world
to host 2nd Edition; that was supposed to be the intention anyway.
No other company had ever changed the rules on its users before, and the folks
at TSR knew that there would be deaths as some classes were being cut to
appease Mom. It also wasn’t known how far Dave Cook would push the new rules,
but it was decided by management that all of the campaign settings would all,
in theory, have to be rebooted. They didn’t know if 1e users would buy into the
new system, they made it as attractive as they could by cutting down on the
books needed to play, but if the 1ers did buy in, would they update their
characters or simply start new ones? That really wasn’t up to TSR to decide,
but they did try to help with some products which would ease tables into the 2e
era.
I’ve talked about the
2e module style, which is story heavy. Today we’ve gone back to the original
Gygax methods, but the Gygax method doesn’t make money. TSR’s new head,
Lorraine Williams knew that table top gamers were also readers, so she expanded
the TSR line beyond just modules and gaming guides, and began to publish
novels, and the Modules either supported or tied into the novels.
Today you see people putting down the story style of play, a
cooperative story telling game isn’t role-playing, they say. Well, they are
wrong. You can play any way that you want to, and at the time players enjoyed
this style of play. 2e supported it, and from a marketing standpoint, TSR made
a lot more money! People who didn’t play Dungeons & Dragons saw the
Dragonlance novels, and they bought them. The modules allowed the players to
play as the characters in the books, which was a concept that is rather unique
to Dragonlance.
The story style first appeared in 1983 with a little module
written by Laura and Tracy Hickman called Ravenloft, maybe you’ve heard
of it? It was this husband and wife team who transformed the abstract and
incomplete module form into a real working interactive story. Ravenloft’s
success was a huge deal! So it was no wonder that Laura and Tracy were
contracted to create a story driven setting, this setting being Dragonlance.
This formula was the basis of what 2e was meant to be. For
better or for worse! It wasn’t Forgotten Realms that was the true spearhead,
but Dragonlance! And, it was Dragonlance
that was already prepped and ready for 2e, the “War of the Lance” was over! A
new age had dawned.
In Search of Dragons was the first of a three module
series. The only thing that made this 2e was a brief explanation about
movement, as the system had slightly changed and labels had been added to tell
the DM if a different form of movement was used. Today we know that 2e added
more than it took away, and one can always pull from 1st edition if
they really want to, but TSR had to first prove itself. In a way, this module
was kind of a gift. Imagine! A module that didn’t try to enforce the use of
additional source material! It didn’t
care if you used 1st or 2nd edition, it was functional
all by itself, which is cool.
I, myself, had never been formally introduced to
Dragonlance. I’ve never played a game, nor have I read any of the books.
Dragonlance was not my cup of tea, but it still important to the hobby. I do
have a few modules that I had inherited from here or there, and while I love a
good story, I to have adopted a more old-school style of play. I still have
story elements in there! But instead of the players trying to survive the
story, I like them to seek it out, and I definitely try to keep them the main
characters!
DLE1 is intriguing, and I love how it is self-contained.
Maybe if I’m ever strapped for ideas and someone wants to play a game, I’d run
it, but I’m not really a module guy. I love it for its historic value. The
first use of that beautiful blue and white 2nd Edition logo! I have
no idea how to grade it, but some things don’t need to be judged, do they.
Monday, June 13, 2016 | Labels: rants | 6 Comments
2106 Forgotten Realms Adventures reviewed
The original purpose of The Forgotten Realms was to provide
a fresh world for 2nd Edition play. TSR had a lot of cleaning up to do;
the game had entered a national spotlight and achieved a pop culture status! Dungeons
& Dragons itself was closely scrutinized and people asked if a game like
this was really appropriate for children, and the suits controling TSR said,
no. It wasn’t appropriate for children, so they knew they had to change.
A total revamp had never been done before, and nobody knew
exactly what changes would be taking place, nor how long the project would take
to get into the hands of customers, not to mention the fact that the user that
may reject it after it is completed! Existing character classes which promoted
evil acts would be dropped; thus, the players playing them would have their PCs
die from the system itself. Magic-user and Cleric spells were changing and the
spell list was huge. A new campaign setting made sense! Of course, this didn’t
happen.
Forgotten Realms was published, and it was unique from
Greyhawk, but it was released 2 years before the 2nd Edition, there
was a lot of stuff that needed to be developed, many new users weren’t all that
into creativity, they wanted a fully finished product now, and TSR knew that
they could make money by heavily expanding the original box set with supplemental
content, and the folks who were more about DM control and creativity could fall
back on Greyhawk, which wasn’t cancelled. What this meant was that players did
lose characters, if they followed the rules; of course the user style had also
changed. It was a rare player who actually played from 1st to 20th
level, now the DM was more of a story teller than before, deciding what level
would best suit the story that he wanted to tell, and the players rolled up new
characters for that adventure.
This turned out to be a very wise decision; it was lucrative
for the company and allowed users who wanted it, a more complete world to play
in. To correct the 2e rules changes, an incredible story called The Times of
Trouble was developed, it addressed all of the changes to the core rules in
a way that made sense and was fun! Not everybody read the novels, and D&D
is about specific rules, so product 2106 Adventures was released which
addressed all of that and greatly expanded the playability of the Box Set. This
hardcover book, which made a great companion to the Box Set, was written by
Jeff Grubb and Forgotten Realms creator, Ed Greenwood.
There are those out there that hate this book, which I never
understood. I didn’t start playing in the Realms themselves until recently, but
I bought this book a very long time ago! And have used it right along with my
other core books; not for the content, but for the format. Creating content is
easy, but keeping content in a format that is actually functional is not easy
at all. This book, beyond creating excellent content, supplied me with a method
of writing down my ideas in a very productive way! But, let’s look at the book
itself.
Chapter 1: The
Forgotten Realms, Post-Avatar
This chapter deals with all of the changes unique to the
Realms, which were many. The gods had been punished and the nature of magic is
unstable. It addresses changes to the world due to new core mechanics, but even
in this chapter, it went the extra mile. It goes through many of the 1e PC
classes and addresses them each individually; it even goes beyond the Core
Handbooks by expanding the classes beyond 20th level, up to 30th.
It also added a new weapon class to the core system, Firearms, and methods of limiting their use so that they aren’t
abused by player characters.
Chapter 2: Gods &
Their Specialty Priests
This chapter provides even DM’s who don’t play the Realms an
excellent example of what an Avatar system should look like. It provided a good
templet for creating your own fantasy religion. It does a wonderful job of
adding specialty priests into the world; and for realms users, you get full
color art of many of the Avatars themselves, as well of every sigil for each
god and goddess. It also covers the dead gods which had perished, just in case
a DM would want them.
Correction: Google Plus User Markus Wagner pointed out that the pictures are not of the Avatars, but of the specialty priests themselves, which to me is even cooler
Chapter 3: Magic
& Mages in the Realms
The schools of magic are better explained, and it is worth
noting that this book was published before the Complete Handbooks for Wizards
& for Priests. Besides explaining things, this handbook gives you new
spells which are unique to the Realms, and I’m not talking just a couple of
pages of throw away spells, this list greatly expands those that the Players
Handbook offers.
Chapter 4: Cities of
the Heartlands
The Forgotten Realms boxset had mapped and keyed a few towns
and cities, this book has them, and a lot more locations fully mapped and
better keyed. The format of this chapter has been lifted by myself since day
one, and it is still my favorite templet for designing your own cities. I will
also admit that I’ve used the maps and keys in other settings for towns that
didn’t warrant a full write-up, or just because I was lazy.
Chapter 5: Secret
Societies of the Heartlands
This brief chapter identifies a few of the main groups which
appose each other for power and control of the realms. Great for users of the
Realms! I’m not sure when they added groups and secret societies which hide
within a political system and have their own agendas and motivations into the
game, but it did inspire me to always do this. Compared with the rest of the
book, this is its weakest section, however the hierarchy of leadership within
any large order can be lifted.
Chapter 6: Treasure
Beyond the formatting found in this book, another great
thing about it is that it expands the Gem and Art Object treasures into
something very cool and fitting for all campaign settings. Some players want to know this stuff, and it
adds color to any session for DM’s who want to hide mechanics as much as
possible.
Overview
Like much of the “GOOD” Forgotten Realms material, it has
its uses regardless of campaign settings. The book itself is well organized,
and fun to read! My copy is very well used, the binding doesn’t appear to be as
sturdy as the three Core books, but it is nice to have a supplement that is
actually hard-bound, especially since it is so usable.
This book did set a new standard for the game, it provided a
patch to the system until further products could expand upon ideas to be
focused on later products, but it also had its own direction and personality.
It provided material and inspiration, which is exactly what you want to have in
any product! At the time, and now, I give the product a A. It is still
available on the used market and you can find copies cheap!
Adventures Negative
Feedback
I have never understood the public hatred for this book, but
I think that it has more to do with people not realizing that they can ignore
content, and lift what they want. While the content of this book may not be everybody’s
cup of tea, and it may had stepped on the DM’s toes by publishing material that
the DM had already created; what it does offer greatly out-weighs what some DM’s
feel that it takes away, which it can; if you let it! But that is the nature of
any product, isn’t it?
Monday, June 06, 2016 | Labels: Reviews | 2 Comments
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Ind of the Year - The Colors of Magic - On December 1st, there will be a nice bundle of small, indie itch RPGs from around the world called the *Ind of the Year Bundle 2020* that includes *The Co...3 years ago
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Be The DM, 1 - OK, I've run plenty of games and I've talked with and read the thoughts of many other DM's. One thing is certain; No two DM's are the same. I have seen ...3 years ago
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The Crowning of King Harold - Here is a spooky story that comes from my latest novel, Lions Red and Gold, available now in digital and dead tree only on Amazon. I post it here in ho...3 years ago
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MIDLANDS CHARACTER GENERATION - Character development (of Player via imagined formative experiences) in my dog in DMing. Placyer character development is a huge part of my sandbox. I use ...3 years ago
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Lake Geneva Original RPG Campaign: Merlynd the Magician: A Remembrance of Don Kaye, ... - Lake Geneva Original RPG Campaign: Merlynd the Magician: A Remembrance of Don Kaye, ...: LINK to Description and Ordering: https://www.tlbgames.com/colle...4 years ago
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Character Concepts: Planescape pt 3 - Part 1 Part 2 Continuing my series on oddball Planescape Faction Personalities... Harmonium Sidby the Stick (LG/halfling/fighter) - Sidby's a good enough b...4 years ago
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D&D Sling Damage vs. Large Targets - In many early editions of D&D, weapons were assigned two damage values: one for small/medium targets (i.e. man-sized) and one for large targets (giants and...4 years ago
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Announcing the Contest Winner! (Plus Some Interesting US Coin Facts) - The third semi-annual Save Versus All Wands contest - What is the Value of this Coin Hoard - is over. $1,000 was the winning guess, only a bit below the ...5 years ago
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