Thoughts on Supplement V: Carcosa (and AD&D Carcosa)

I've been reading Geoff McKinney's original OD&D version of Carcosa. I had read it before but that was really just a skim and I hadn't read the LBB back then so I decided to really read it. I decided to gather my thoughts about it nine years after the party was already over.

This fits right into the setting

Many colored-men: Probably one of the better features of Carcosa. It's weird and different but at the same time mechanically simple. It differentiates the setting in a good way. Also, it seems like no one mentions that Bone Men are Newhon Ghouls.

Alignment: Simple and straightforward, fits the setting, not open to debate.

Sorcerers and rituals: Ah, the eternal stumbling block for Carcosa. I can help but think that if Carcosa had been released six years later the criticisms about the magic would be coming from a different side of the political spectrum. I'm thoroughly desensitized (thanks, Skortched 'Urf) so I have different complaints. The sorcerer is a fighter 90% of the time and the other 10% of the time he's on endless fetch quests and wilderness treks to try to bind horrible space gods that will eat him as soon as they can. If the player eschews all the evil stuff to be a good guy banisher hero then he's a fighter 99.9999% of the time until the referee decided to toss out one of the six monsters that your rituals can affect (one of whom also requires a fetch quest). I would just toss all of this out, it's far too clunky.

Psionics: Just too ephemeral for my tastes. Needs more meat.

Dice Conventions: Yeah, that's gonna be a Yikes! from me.

Monsters, part 1 (Lovecraft commentary): Carcosa uses a lot of Lovecraft material but Geoff changes a lot for unclear reasons. Azathoth is a cthonic deity like in Rats in the Walls rather than the nuclear chaos at the heart of the universe. Cthugua and Ithaqua get obscured names even though Geoff was already toeing the IP infringement line. Yog-sothoth is some sort of fleshy pile and a rapist even though I recall the Dunwich Horror showing the mating was consensual (at least as far as an inbred teen girl can consent to the key and the gate). Shub-Niggurath is literally Abhoth (with some Ubbo-Sathla influences). Deep Ones, Elder Things, Yithians, and others are all spawned by Shub-Niggurath despite very different origins in Lovecraft's stories. Cthulhu is Cthulhu, but the constant overhyping of him in RPGs rubs me the wrong way.

Monsters, part 2 (other stuff): Carcosa has Lovecraft-inspired monsters. Most border on self-parody, with way too many colorless, protoplasmic, or slime creatures. I liked the one made of obsidian shards though. I also dig the Man-Thing/Swamp-Thing homage. The Spawn of See-my-complaints-above are interesting but a pain unless you generate a bunch beforehand.

Magic Items and Technology: This is another one of the great differentiators of Carcosa; no +1 swords or potions, instead plutonium rifles and robots.

The woman and small, non-horrifying animals would be out of place on Carcosa

Geoff McKinney has also released an AD&D line of Carcosa modules on his lulu page. They're mostly by-the-book AD&D (minus demi-humans) featuring the standard classes, alignments, and magic (no objectionable sorcerous rituals). They manage to stand out due to the writing style but are lacking in the hydrogen beam rifle department.

Pre-Christmas Gifts

[This post contains RPGnow affiliate links]

I recently purchased (for $0) Hack! Firearms. I found nothing interesting about it so I decided to write up my own rules. Guns is a (barely) one-page ruleset for guns that foregoes boring historical accuracy. Inspired by AD&D 2e gun rules.

Next is something that was inspired by posts at Necropraxis and Maziran's Garden about segueing into strangeness from a traditional OSR setting. So here's Sanctuary, a demi-plane made by an insane wizard to preserve cultures and train adventuer-explorers. If you need help filling in villages Raging Swan's GM's Monthly Miscellany has some free village sketches. Training dungeons can just be plopped down; for example, dungeon 1 could be Golden Eye of the Kobold King (spawns 2d4 kobolds), dungeon 2 could be B4 The Lost City (or just the top four levels; spawns 1d4+1 hobgoblins), dungeon 3 could be The Hyqueous Vaults (spawns 1d6 eel-men), etc. For portals you have to decide if all three lead to the same world/plane or different ones. For example, all three could lead to Athas (the world of Dark Sun) then north/blue could lead to Tyr, yellow/west could lead to Nibenay, and red/south could lead to The Last Sea. Or one could lead to Athas, another could lead to another setting, and the third could lead to a 3rd setting.

Merry Christmas!

Review: Apes Victorious

I hope y'all had a nice Christmas.

Note: This posts contains affiliate links. A portion of your purchases go to the author.  

Apes Victorious is a new release by Daniel Proctor of Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future fame. It’s an unlicensed Planet of The Apes RPG with OSR rules and altered fluff. It apparently uses the same rules as Starships & Spacemen 2e. I’ll just lay it out right upfront; there’s nothing in this book that impresses me.

Classes and races use a combination of requirements and ability score adjustments. The classes are Astronaut, Bonobo Agent (spies), Chimpanzee Scholar, Gorilla Soldier, Humanoid (devolved humans), Orangutan Politician, and Underdweller (psychic mutant humans). Aside from Bonobos and Underdwellers these are all too on-the-nose for me. Race-as-class seems to be here just for the sake of race-as-class. Compare this to Terra Primate, which presents the possibilities of chimpanzee soldiers and orangutan merchants in its pastiche of Planet of The Apes.  It also generally suggests that gibbons could be an underclass above humans but below the great apes.

Mechanics-wise this is pretty close to Labyrinth Lord. Each class has a static to-hit number based on class; enemy armor imposes a penalty to the roll. For example, any 1-HD character hits if he rolls 12 or more on a 1d20 but gets -2 on the roll if his enemy is wearing kevlar. Wisdom becomes PSI which measure Psionic potential. Psionics are a simple (disappointingly so) point-based system. There aren’t wild talents or psionic combat here.

Lore-wise it does offer some decent new ideas. Bonobos as spies/thieves. Cryogenically preserved humans that escaped the nuclear holocaust of the 1970s. The biggest divergence from the source material is with the Underdwellers. They’re like a bit like Richard Sharpe Shaver’s dero; twisted but brilliant, with incredible technology such as lasers, cloth as damage-resistant as metal, and infiltrator robots with organic ape components (yes, that’s a Terminator reference).

I’ll admit that I might be a little harsh. I’m judging it against Terra Primate, a non-OSR book that tackles the same genre for only 3 cents more.  The only thing Apes Victorious has going for it is the OSR/OGL compatibility with Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future. Terra Primate by itself can do everything that Apes Victorious + Labyrinth Lord + Mutant Future can do with the exception of the high-tech Underdweller stuff, which it would need to use the compatible All Tomorrow’s Zombies for.

I’d rate Apes Victorious a 3/5 at best.

Creature Catalog Review - Dragon #89

 For some reason I'm getting dozens of blog views from shady redirecting advert sites, should I be worried?

Anyway, today I’m going to do something short and sweet (or long and laborious), a review of Dragon #89’s Creature Catalog feature. My next post will probably be about Dungeon Crawl Classics, then I’ll do something for Heroes & Other Worlds. If your eye glaze over at walls of text, skip to the end where I’ll talk about the monsters that I think are worth salvaging from this.

Amitok by Roger Moore

7-foot tall Yeti-esque offshoots of Hobgoblins who live in arctic climes. They dig tunnels in snow. They hate Humans and dislike everything. Except for Quaggoths, who they dislike but work with? And local Humans will call these assholes “demons” so that the DM has an opportunity to screw over the players. I really don’t see the point of these guys. Almost anything they could add to a story could also be done by Quaggoths or Yeti instead, and probably better too. I mean, I guess they would be good minions/speedbumps in campaign building up toward a showdown with Cryonax (explicitly identified as their deity) or Frost Giants. 

Killer Beetle by Ed Greenwood

Why did the 12-foot long psychic beetle with four tentacles around its mouth cross the mountain pass? To eat the party’s Halfling. This is basically the type of monster I expect to see in something like Dungeon Crawl Classics. Their entry doesn’t mention any ability to speak languages but I would give it to them anyway (magic, ain’t gotta explain shit). Imagine the classic “Troll toll bridge” scenario but instead of a Troll it’s a giant psychic beetle, instead of a bridge there’s a mountain pass, and instead of gold he wants fresh meat.

Bichir by Ed Greenwood

This is apparently a real type of real-world fish just enlarged to about four times normal size for bullshit D&D reasons? It can also use Entangle for extra screw-over-the-party moments. I mean, it does have a certain amount of charm and it would add flavor to a “weird swamp” area but it’s nothing to write home about.

Bohun Tree by Ed Greenwood

Deep in the heart of The Bullshit Woods lurks the sinister Bohun Tree. Its luscious red fruit has an 80% chance to paralyse anyone who cuts it open and a 10% chance to just kill them. And if the unfortunate manages to actually eat it then he dies within 2d4 turns unless he makes a save vs. poison with a -4 penalty. 90% of Elves are immune to this. It’s also intelligent and can shoot thorns. This thing is garbage.

Calygraunt by Ed Greenwood

This is another “just fuck your players’ shit up” monster in the vein of the Disenchanter or Rust Monster. This thing can activate any magic item it can identify (which it has 70-90% chance of doing), activating it in such way as to “cause it to harm the bearer or those nearby”. How horrifying.

Cantobele by Ed Greenwood

This is a Leucrotta with worse AC and HD but more (and shittier) attacks. For what purpose?

Corkie by Roger Moore

It’s a two-foot long gopher with horns. The only thing moderate interesting about this creature is that it’s noted that small humanoids like Kobolds, Goblins, and Halflings sometimes use their abandoned tunnels. That’s somewhat interesting, I guess?

Duleep by Ed Greenwood

It’s a swarm of things that look like cobwebs and they can Shocking Grasp people. Yeah. These monsters aren’t improving my views on Mr. Greenwood.

Explodestool by Alan Zumwalt

These are tiny mushrooms that explode for 1d2 damage and can cause chain reactions. It’s short, it’s simple, it goes well in the Underdark, and it generally only deals enough damage to annoy but not to kill. It can also be an interesting alarm or early warning system for cave-/dungeon-dwellers. Fun little idea.

Fachan by Roger Moore

Mutant Ogres with only one eye, hand, and leg. They hop around and eat people. Pretty boring stuff but the magic item you can make from them is pretty flavorful: A Gauntlet of Fachan Power gives one (and only one) arm Str 18/00 and if a character wears two the magic won’t work. Too bad the monster is so damn boring.

Flailtail by Ed Greenwood

It’s a fish thing with a big tail and a mouth. Sometimes it allies with other creatures to get more food. There could be a seed for faction play or something here but it doesn’t spark my creativity.

Ghunna by Tomas Willis

Gnoll Were-hyenadons created by Yeenoghu. They’re elitists among Gnolls. Might be of use in a Gnoll-heavy/oriented campaign.

Glasspane Horror by Rosemary and Don Webb

A moderately interesting treasure guard that would be more interesting if the authors hadn’t inserted a “can’t be bribed” clause.

Giant Horseshoe Crab by Ed Greenwood

It’s a Horseshoe Crab. It’s Giant. It can cast Shocking Grasp and Lightning Bolt for some reason. Bravo, Greenwood.

Ihagnim by Roger Moore

A giant amoeba with the consistency of plastic that makes Bags of Devouring (they’re portals to its “stomach”). Much like the Corkie, this thing apparently only exists to explain where those cursed bags come from.

Millikan by Mark Nuvier

This is one of those examples of the dark side of Gygaxian Naturalism. It’s a fire-breathing tree stump that eats precious metals and its “body is much like a giant organic electric circuit.” The author treats us to boring details that explain (i.e. remove all wonder and mystery from) the monster’s metabolism and fire-breathing apparatus. And there’s a note at the end that Millikan was a guy who did an oil drop experiment in 1909. Who cares? I certainly do not.

Dark Naga by Ed Greenwood

“. . . a naga must experiment with and modify spells involving somatic and material components to an entirely verbal form (player characters cannot do this, however).”

Peltast by Ed Greenwood

Wow, a mimic thing that doesn’t try to kill you! And by Greenwood no less! This thing looks like leather and morphs into a glove. Once put on it drains 1 HP per day from the host (which gets recovered by resting). On the plus side it basically makes the host immune to poison and capable of healing him if he gets too close to dying. A pretty solid concept.

Giant Pitcher Plant by Roger Moore

I’m really not sure what to say about these “like real life but bigger and more dangerous” monsters. At least it could fit into a weird aquatic area with the Bichir.

Seastar by Ed Greenwood

A Small starfish/octopus abomination with a 4d4 bite. Not terribly interesting but a useful filler encounter for a weird aquatic environment. I guess the bit about telepathic training is supposed to be some adventure seed? Psionicist with no sense of right and wrong makes Seastars attack merchant ships? I don’t know.

Scallion by Ed Greenwood

I don’t know why the Scallion is in between the Seastar and the Giant Shrike but it is. They’re really big fish that attack en masse and hate octopi. Adult females bite for a whopping 6d8 damage. Unfortunately this doesn’t make them interesting. 

Giant Shrike by Ed Greenwood

A 4-foot tall bird with a 9-foot wingspan. It’s Neutral Evil and kills for fun. It also can’t speak by RAW.

Sind by Ed Greenwood

Some vaguely frog-like humanoids who live near water and are friends with Lizardmen. They can all breath water and walk on it plus 30% of them can use an Imprisonment spell-like ability on targets just by touching them. Their god lives on the Prime Material and occasionally shows up to help them. They generally avoid drinking alcohol because they get drunk easily. Moderately interesting.

Star Leviathan by Roger Moore

Psychic astral whales. They don’t really do anything except chit-chat with people and play the role of comic relief.

Utukku by Roger Moore

Straight outta Sumeria comes yet another fiend. The description of how its PMP lairs are “. . . hastily made, and the defenses will not be tough” seems like another attempt to justify D&D tropes as seen with the Corkie and Ihagnim. The only good example I have ever seen of such a monster is the Zorkul from In The Wake of The Zorkul.

Giant Venus Fly-Trap by Roger Moore

Between this and the Giant Pitcher Plant I’m convinced that Moore statted these things up after watching a performance of Little Shop of Horrors. The magazine is from 1984 so it would have to be a stage performance since the movie wasn’t out til ‘85.

Vurgen by Ed Greenwood

A really big eel that swallows people whole if it hits.

Killer Whale by Roger Moore

Sapient killer whales with a 5% chance of psionics. I don’t understand the thought process behind giving crabs lightning powers and killer whales sapience.

Wind Steed by Ed Greenwood

It’s a horse. It flies. It hates hippogriffs and griffons for no apparent reason. It doesn’t do anything that a Pegasus couldn’t do.

The tl;dr:

Weird set-piece monster: Killer Beetle.

Fun Underdark gimmick: Explodestool.

A trip to Weird River Marsh: Bichir, Explodestool, Giant Pitcher Plant, Seastar, Sind, Giant Venus Fly-Trap

Basically everything else is garbage. The Dark Naga got slightly better in future publications but the same cannot be said of other creatures.

Readings: Chrysalis of Death

The semester's started and it look like I've got four fully writing-intensive courses ahead of me so I'll be posting even more infrequently than usual. I hope to read a few of the novels I have backlogged over the course of this semester although I have to juggle them and a whole shitton of Viking sagas for a course. Anyway, if you see a post with "Readings:" in the title it means it's about a book I just finished reading. And expect spoilers.

This cover doesn't lie, it just tells a half-truth.

I read through Eleanor Robinson's Chrysalis of Death this week. It's apparently Robinson's first solo book according to this post on her granddaughter's blog which I found while doing an image search for the cover. The internet can be really weird sometimes.

Dating from 1975, Chrysalis of Death is a bit of a strange book. Despite what the cover shows there are no cavemen (although there are some kind of ape-man-things) and they aren't helicopters that drop bombs (although they do basically drop napalm).

The story goes like this: In Lazy Creek (aka the middle of nowhere), Arizona, Jeff Bedloe, a hotshot paleontologist, devoted husband, and expectant father, goes to an abandoned mine in to blow up some rocks so he can give some quartz to the owner of the bed & breakfast he stayed at. This explosion frees an eggsack from the Pliocene era that bursts and releases huge spiny green-black caterpillars. People end up getting stung by these caterpillars.

So Jeff takes the quartz to Henry Andersen, owner of the Casa Verde bed & breakfast. Henry is an absolutely financial state, having been duped into buying this large estate in the ass-end of nowhere. To give you some idea of how bad a state Lazy Creek is in, about 60% of the population that we see lives or works in Casa Verde. Henry's wife, Martha, is also there at the Casa; the early chapters seem to indicate that she's wheelchair-bound while the later ones indicate she's perfectly fine. Rounding the Andersens are their two grandchildren: Karen Scott, who's college age and grieving about the death of her secret lover due to a drug overdose; and Johnny Scott, an infant who seems to be 3-4 years old.

The staff at the Casa is composed of Rene the Haitian chef,  Pedro the Mexican do-everythinger, and Juanita the Mexican maid/cook (and Pedro's girlfriend/fiance/wife).

Outside the b&b there's basically no one. Irv Parks runs the gas station, Mr. and Mrs. Dove run the diner and constantly argue, Otto runs the market, and Benjamin is a religious weirdo. We also have Mexican family that goes unnamed for most of the story and gets killed off rather quickly. One character among the townspeople that does become quite important is the Sheriff Rivera, who strong-arms some dumb tourists into paying him $10 a gallon for gasoline to get the big city. Keep in mind that those are 1975 dollars so according to one calculator that come out to about $45.24 a gallon in modern dollars.

The guests at the Casa are the aforementioned Jeff, an author named Robert Freeman, a mysterious man from "the Orient" who calls himself Wenner, the socialite Amelia Rhodes (who made her fortune by blackmail) and her maid Midge Muncy, football superstar Buck Marlino (who is a closeted homosexual) and his high-class wife Gail Marlino, and lastly business heir Morgan Crown and his gold-digger wife Vicky Crown.

Wenner gets stung by a caterpillar. After a load of projectile vomiting, he decides to stash his attache case full of drug money in the rafters, steal Jeff's jeep, and hide out in an abandoned mine to avoid undue scrutiny that a medical stay would bring. At this time the Sheriff hears that the feds are looking for a man that matches Wenner's discription to the letter, a man with lots of drug money. Amelia also gets stung by a caterpillar and becomes ill. With no doctor in town, Henry and Jeff phone the Public Health Service in Phoenix. A helicopter brings three new characters: The grim Dr. Lorrimer, the forgettable Dr. Gilbert, and Vietnam vet and pilot Riggs. Amelia dies. Lorrimer thinks there's a pandemic in the making and gets Lazy Creek quarantined. Wenner sleeps for 15 hours straight.

Remember that Mexican family I mention earlier? Well, the dad was out of town but the mother and son weren't. Wenner sneaks toward their house intent on stealing food but gets overcome by animalistic instincts and kills the two (and is also heavily implied to have raped the mother). Unsure exactly why he snapped, Wenner clears out the pantry, throws the bodies down a well then heads to the mine.

More people get stung but don't exhibit symptoms beyond swelling. Sheriff Rivera follows the Mexican family's dog to the well, then kills the dog, and throws it in there too; he doesn't want the feds involved, he wants to take the money and run. Giant black-gold butterfly begin to emerge from cocoons. The Public Health Service determines that whatever is causing the sickness is a synthetic biological weapon. Wenner attacks the market, killing Benjamin and mortally wounding Otto. Lorrimer and Karen fall in love. Wenner sneaks into the Casa to recover the money but it's gone. Freeman, Buck Marlino, and Vicky Crown all catch the disease. The dad/husband of the Mexican family sneaks past the barricade, finds his wife and son, and vows to kill whoever did the deed. Wenner's cognitive functions deteriorate.

Things go from bad to worse when Henry gets sick. Then Vicky, Buck, and Freeman go psycho just like Wenner did and blow up all the cars in the Casa, steal the horses, kill Rene, and kidnap Karen and Johnny. Wenner keels over and dies. Karen manages to hide with Johnny in one of the nooks of the mine while the "Hydes" try to make a bonfire. Jeff and Lorrimer launch a rescue mission to recover Karen and Johnny. Rivera (who is also sick by now) retrieves the attache case, then locks Martha up in Henry's room while he and everyone else march toward the helicopter evac site the Public Health Service designated.

Lorrimer and Jeff rescue Karen and Johnny, but Jeff is spotted by Buck and detonates his dynamite, presumably killing himself and the three mutants. Now experiencing symptoms of the disease herself, Martha apparently commits suicide and possibly murders Henry, who is also transforming. Johnny, who had previously contracted the disease, dies. Lorrimer notices that Karen is developing symptoms of the disease and apparently gives her a fatal dose of pills. Lorrimer sees the evac site in the distance. The helicopters unleash a cloud of greenish smoke which is then ignited, killing everyone who wasn't already dead. The helicopters turn around and head back to base, admiring a throng of giant black-gold butterflies flying toward Phoenix. That's how it ends.



I was really struck by how this book could be easily adapted into one of those low-budget TV mini-series; it wouldn't feel out of place next to The Langoliers adaptation. From an RPG perspective, the caterpillars and the "mutants"/"Hydes" they create could be interesting twist to a campaign: I could easily imagine an All Flesh Must Be Eaten game that borrows heavily from this novel. The novel is really a character drama/crime thriller with fantastical elements thrown in. The writing is a bit uneven. I think the most memorable things about it are the ubiquitous caterpillars and the "everyone fucking dies" ending.

Judgement: Definitely not a great novel but not a bad one either. I give it 7/10.

The Machine Wars are here

I'm a bit of a Transformers collector. My love the franchise started with Generation 2, a gloriously colorful and innovative line that sadly bombed. From there I followed Beast Wars and its sequel Beast Machines.  After Robots in Disguise, the Armada cartoon didn't appeal to me at all and I didn't get anything from that era. From Armada's debut (2002) until sometime after Revenge of The Fallen (2009), I only got a single Transformer: Energon Rodimus (who I'll probably sell off). Since 2009 I've been collecting again, starting with a 2-pack that featured Bludgeon vs Whirl. My latest addition is a Machine Wars Skywarp which came in the mail today.

Free to fly after nineteen years.

 

Why this particular version of Skywarp? Well, this one has a really striking color scheme: White with red as plane, white and black with a yellow head as a robot. It's more interesting than the Generation 1 and also stands out from the many black and purple Decepticons in collection.

I already own a version of this mold  in the form of Beast Wars II Dirge so I was eager to see how Skywarp, a limited KB toys release, compared to Dirge, a mass-market retail release. While I really do like Skywarp, there's a notable downgrade in quality from Dirge. Skywarp's limps aren't floppy but they aren't nearly as tight as Dirge's. The mold's two-part gun can actually be mounted into slots in the forearms to replicate the "null ray" layout of earlier jet robots: While it works perfectly for Dirge, one of Skywarp's gun pieces doesn't fit tightly enough and falls off while the other one seems to fit too tightly. The last thing that strikes me is what I can only describe as striation in Skywarps black plastic. If I look closely I can see little thread-like lines on the pieces; this is something I had previously only experienced with Constructicon bootlegs.

Despite all my complaints, I'm happy with my purchase and I'm preparing a nice spot for him on my Generation 2 Decepticon shelf.

Tome of Terrors and Treasures Review Part 2: Monsters

I previously discussed the races in The Tome of Terrors and Treasures, so now it's time to move on to the more general topic of the monsters.

In addition to the monster rules in the main Heroes & Other World rulebook, this supplement introduces two systems to determine how monsters act: Fight-or-Flight, which is a simple 3D6 test to see if a creature flees or stays in the fight; and the more detailed Reaction chart with responses ranging from continued fighting to a blubbering total surrender. There are also new rules for Spell-like abilities, which consume ST just like casting a spell does.

Although most creatures found in The Tome of Terrors and Treasures are from the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 System Reference Document, there are a few new creatures scattered about. For example, in addition to the SRD's dinosaurs (deinonychus, elasmosasaurus, megaraptor, triceratops, tyrannosaurus) the Tome includes the allosaurus, ankylosaurus, brachiosaurus, compsognathus, pterodactyl, stegosaurus, and tylosaurus.

Flipping through the pages, one notices a distinct lack of Celestials: There are no stats for Angels, Devas, Eladrin, or Guardinals. I think the reasoning behind this is that "Good" or "Lawful" outsiders shouldn't come up as "monsters", a mindset that apparently comes from the OSR movement. But Brandon also excises more mundane Good/Lawful creatures like Blink Dogs, Coautls, Lammasu, and Metallic Dragons. While I understand the reasoning behind these decisions, I feel that it skews the implied setting in the book; it's almost like some fantasy version of a Warhammer 40,000 Death World where Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, and Humans stand against a never-ending tide of savage humanoids, demons, devils, and undead. Granted, some people may like such a bleak picture but I doubt Brandon intended to paint HOW's setting in such a way.

There are also a few excisions of the more bland entities of the SRD like the Athach, the Krenshar, and the Tojanida. A few creatures seem to be have eliminated to reduce redundancy: Tritons were cut while Merfolk made it; there are Succubi but no Erinyes. I wish Brandon had also tossed one of the "small evil fiends used by wizards" but both Quasits and Imps make it in.

The organization is a bit muddled. There's a clear distinction between the first three sections of monster rules (Animals, Dire Animals, Dinosaurs) and what comes after it ("unnatural" dangers) but I'm not following the train of thought behind this organization. For example, the ten sections following Dinosaurs are: Fauna and Fungi, Oozes & Slimes, Vermin, Swarms, Aquatic Terrors, Beasts, Demons, Devils, Dragons & Wyrms, and then Elementals. If you'd think that a section Fairies & Fey would be between Elementals and Giants, you'd be mistaken. Fairies & Fey are placed after Humans & Demi-Humans and before Golems. In addition, some monster are in unexpected sections, like Azers in Humanoids (with Goblins and Orcs) or Gnomes in Fairies & Fey. Fortunately there is an appendix that lists all creatures in alphabetical order with page numbers, although a few typoes make looking for Imps and Human Mercenaries take a little longer.

There are 365 pages of monsters fit for all sorts of environments and ranging from decent challenge (most animals) to guaranteed TPKs (Balors). While the fact that ToTaT is based on the D&D 3.5 SRD should make other conversion from D&D easy, I've find it's a bit hard to do direct conversions in any case besides playable races.

Speaking of Balors, weighing in with a mighty 265-300 ST and the ability to automatically summon 4d6 Dretches (9-15 ST each) or 1d6 Hezrous (120-140 ST each) for a cost of 5 ST. Even assuming that summoned creatures can't summon others (a rule in D&D 3.5 but that doesn't seem to be in ToTaT), a Balor can very quickly create a small army that can steamroll most parties. 

As you can see, the Tome certainly delivers on the Terrors. Soon, I'll look at the Treasures in part 3 of my review (coming SOON). I hope I'm not coming across as too harsh in these reviews.

Tome of Terrors and Treasures Review Part 1: Races

I recently got C.R. Brandon's Tome of Terrors and Treasures, a supplement for Heroes & Other Worlds. Having lightly read through the first half (or 70-80% to be accurate) of the book, it's time for a small(?) review. As the title says, for right now I'm only covering the playable races section of the book. The other Terrors and Treasures will be covered in future posts. Sorry ~('-'~)

An illustration of a Kobold captured by my crappy cell camera

The bulk of the PC races are organized in two sections, Humans and Demi-humans and Humanoids. You may note that this is older D&D terminology. There are three hiccups though. First, not all of the creatures in the Humanoids section can be played. Second, there are other playable races such as Satyrs, Centaurs, and Gargoyles that appear in other sections. Third, there is no index of playable races (although I did make an index on the HOW forums). This isn't a huge problem but if you don't know where everything is it can be a hassle.

I was actually surprised by how many OGL monster races appear in the book but aren't playable and that some "iconic" OGL races are omitted. There are no rules for playing Merfolk, Locathah, or Tritons, which understandable since they can't walk but feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity. Sahuagin aren't playable either, and Malenti aren't even in the book. The Planetouched (Aasimar and Tieflings) are completely absent, although they've always held an unstable position in OGL's pantheon of options. On the plus side, ToTaT doesn't have seven flavors of Elf.

The format for each race's statistics is now in an OGL-style format as opposed to the Minimum Scores chart in the HOW core rulebook. The stats are converted from the OGL/D&D 3.5 but Brandon takes some liberties with the stats, such as Duergar who have lost their Enlarge Person ability. Each set of stats ends with a Favored Class line which is never explained in the rules and always seems to be Adventurer. Given the large differences in the Experience systems between D&D 3.5 and HOW I don't have a clue what Brandon was trying to do there.

For most of the monster races, the trade-off for increased power is the loss of the EN. The problem is that it seems applied to ALL monster races, even weak ones. I'm going to quote some rules text. 

Tengu
- +2 DX, no EN, no other modifiers
- AR-1 (DR 1/- in OGL terms)
-Low light vision

Compare that to this:

Troglodyte
- +4 ST, -2 DX and IQ, no EN
- Darkvision out to 90 feet
- AR-2
- 3 natural weapons that each deal 1d3 damage
- Stench, a passive offensive ability that can debuff any and all non-Trogs with 30 ft./6 spaces

Now compare those two to this:

Hill Dwarf
- +2 bonus to notice unusual stone featues
- +4 bonus to resist tripping and knockdown
- +2 bonus to resist poison
- +2 bonus to resist spells
- +1 bonus to attack/cast spells against goblinoids
- +4 bonus to dodge Giants
- +2 bonus to appraise tests on metal/stone
- +2 bonus to crafting tests (metal/stone)

While the Trog edges the Dwarf in terms of combat, the Dwarf is a much all-rounder and utility character. Meanwhile, the Tengu has nothing to offer besides the novelty of playing as a bird-person. Fortunately, Tengu and Dwarves (and maybe Halflings) are all outliers and the relative power level for all races is pretty balanced across the board.

In closing, ToTaT delivers well on the playable races front, offering some neat new ones and some OGL-derived alternatives for the core HOW races. GMs hoping for Undead and Aquatic races unfortunately won't find them here (although conversion should be easyish). The main flaws are that some races are kinda lost in other sections that can be overlooked and that a handful of races (Dwarves, Tengu, Halflings) might be either underpowered or overpowered. If your burning desire is for more playable races or iconic races based on the OGL for Heroes & Other Worlds then I highly recommend Tome of Terrors and Treasures to you.

Coming soon-ish: Part 2 (Monsters) and Part 3 (Magic Items/Treasure) of this review.

Heroes & Other Worlds: A Second Look

In a previous post I gave my first impressions of C. R. Brandon's Heroes & Other Worlds and Magi Carta. After having more time to go over it (and after Brandon linked to my review on his blog), I felt that it was fitting to talk about everything that I missed on the first go.

Heroes & Other Worlds

After more time reading, I've come to appreciate that the two classes have a lot of depth in terms of options. You can create uber-powerful one-trick ponies (who will quickly burn through EN in the case of wizards) or weaker/average characters with more versatile repertoires. Fortunately, both versions seem equally viable.

The Adventuring section is dungeoneering 101 with some rules on poison, fire, secret doors, light, and wandering monsters. Some noteworthy advice is that an addition to a Mapper (who makes maps) the party should have a "Caller," a sort of spokesperson for the group to the GM.

When it comes to combat, HOW is crunchier than homemade fried chicken coated with cornflakes. Unlike in D&D (mainly speaking from a 3.x perspective here) were movement can be done willy-nilly unless you're capable of multiple attacks, HOW's combat is much more cerebral. To cast a spell or shoot a ranged weapon, the farthest you can move is 1 space (5 feet). To be able to defend/react to an attack you have to move half your Movement (MV) value or less and you can't move the next turn. The questions of when to move, how far to move, whether to defend, and how to defend (dodge, parry, block) make combat very engaging. It should be noted that although Brandon mentions both hex and square grids in the introduction, HOW is very clearly designed to operate on hex maps. Facing is mentioned, especially in relation to shields and sneak attacks, but not elaborated upon. I'm assuming that your facing will be whatever direction you last moved in or toward the location of your most recent attack targets.

The default Experience Point system is pretty simple: Characters receive 3 XP for each test successfully passed, with bonus XP if it was an extremely difficult (i.e. a test where you have to roll under a target number using 4D6 or 5D6). The only concern I can think of is munchkins trying to make a bajillion Detect Hidden (equivalent to D&D 3.5's Spot) and/or Detect Lies (equivalent to Sense Motive) in order to rack up XP faster. A strong GM hand will probably curtail that crap should it come up in-game.

The Referee Resources section is very short, giving pointers on how to improvise for player's crazy stunts and advancing a Gygaxian philosophy of creating atmosphere using non-visual phenomena such as smell and taste. It also features a handy selection of NPCs and hirelings.

The treasure section covers all the typical doodads you've come to expect from traditional fantasy, with some appropriately designated "Oddities" thrown in for flavor. One thing to note from the treasure tables is that magic items are comparatively rare.

Following the magic items section is a small "Find your Fate"-style solo adventure that I'll play through at some future junction. Past this is a guide on constructing your own dungeons and adventures, including various random generators, NPC reaction tables, and a sample dungeon. One thing I don't like about this section is the very oldschool "Gotcha!" trapfinding method. Not only does a player have to say where his character is looking for traps, he has to say how that character is looking for traps. This has always felt to me like something easily abused by asshole GMs or that would drag on a game to the point of boredom as the party takes 30 minutes in real time to clear a average dungeon hallway. I'm not in favor of the D&D 3.5 "I roll to find traps" method either, but I've yet to find a good intermediary between what I consider two extremes.

The equipment sections features the ever-essential weapons and armor, miscellaneous tools, and "flavor" items like silk gloves and fancy gloves. The entire section is five pages of rules composed almost entirely of charts. An availability check rule helps determine what items can be found in certain regions. This section is lacking in some fundamental information for tools, like what caltrops actually do rules-wise or how many approximate pages you can write/draw using a single container of ink. These are pretty minor complaints though.

I stand by my earlier statement that Heroes & Other Worlds is a great little system.

Magi Carta

Magi Carta can be divided into three distinct pieces: New rules; revised spells from the core rulebook; and spells converted from the D&D 3.5 SRD/OGL.

For the new rules, I've already opined on the Wizard Staffs and Familiar sections, so I'll focus on the other sections. The first thing here is optional limits to learning spells. For example, a country bumpkin wizard can't start the game knowing Chain Lightning (an IQ 14 spell); he's limited to IQ 8 or lower spells at the start of his career no matter how much of a supra-genius he may be. Another option is a sort of "spell tax" where you must learn low-level spells to learn high level spells. Under this system, in order to learn an IQ 11 spell, you need to have an IQ 10, IQ 9, and IQ 8 spell as well. If you want to learn two IQ 11 spells, you need two spells of each lesser IQ level. It feels too constraining for my tastes.

There's also Cartomancy, spells inscribed on cards that are thrown Gambit-style and can be activated by anyone for the low price of 2 EN. Unfortunately they're pretty difficult to make and for most wizards they'll end up being extra IQ 8 spells. Still, a neat concept.

Dermal Magic is magical scarification that doubles the potential spells a wizard can know. There's also magic tattoos for wizardly wusses which also expands a wizards spell capacity but makes casting the inscribed spells more difficult. By RAW it appears that only wizards can use dermal magic.

Next are Spell Gems, which are similar in concept to D&Desque wands (Magi Carta's staffs are more like GURPS' magic staves). They can either be used to cast a stored spell or thrown as magical grenades.

I already covered Wizard Staffs (and Familiars) but I want to say that despite the awkward composition of the Staff text, the rules seem very sound.

Wrapping up the new rules are Spellbooks. I am so very, very glad that Brandon didn't make Spellbooks Vancian-style items. A spellbook is like a magic scroll but permanent; you can use it to cast spells but the spells won't fade away. Spellbooks are also the only way to learn a spell that is above your IQ (wizards only. Sorry adventurers :< )

As for the old spells, most are relatively unchanged (Enfeeble, Magic Strike). The rest are either expanded/clarified (Drop, Iron Flesh) or nerfed (the Freeze spells, Summon [Spectral] Bear) compared to their core versions.

With regards to the OGL spells, Brandon very sensibly altered many of the effects so that Color Spray is very powerful but not quite as effective as it is in D&D 3.5 (unless you're fighting Goblins).
(Tasha's) Hideous Laughter has also been nerfed so that exploits such as hitting Demogorgon with Hideous Laughter and the unleashing a salvo of murder on him are unlikely. Problematic spells like Sleep are also split up into multiple spells with the weakest like Lesser Sleep only affecting one target.

Overall, I'd say Magi Carta is a really good add-on for players and GMs wanting more thematic magic in their games.

Heroes & Other Worlds: First Impressions

I got my copy of Heroes & Other Worlds and its spell splatbook, Magi Carta. I bought this mainly because I saw Brandon 's (the author) enthusiasm on his blog and as an amateur game designer I thought it was neat. I haven't read all through these two books but I wanted to give a reactionary review.

***Edit: I read through all of the core rules and quite a bit of Magi Carta. After you read this post, you can get a more detailed look at them over here.***

Heroes & Other Worlds Core Rules

Described as "[Steve Jackson's] The Fantasy Trip with a dash of Moldvay Basic D&D," HOW is at its core a class-based, stat- and skill-dependent, D6 roll-under system: You roll 3D6 or 4D6 and compare it to a target number with a roll equal to or lower than the target succeeding.
Character creation is point-based: you spend Hero Points to boost your stats (Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Endurance) and to buy Skills and/or Spells. It's very reminiscent of GURPS, which is fitting considering its inspirations.

Health is measured by two stats: Strength (ST) and Endurance (EN). You can spend either EN or ST to cast spells. When your ST reaches 0 your character gets KO'd. It reminds me of the Vitality/Wounds system Wizards of the Coast used in the d20-based Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Revised Edition which also incorporates HP-equivalent expenditure to activate Force Powers. It makes me wonder if Brandon was inspired by it and also how viable a Star Wars HOW hack would be.

Intelligence (IQ) is basically only there to give limits on the highest spells you can learn and how good you are at casting spells.

Dexterity (DX) determines how fast you move, how quickly you react in combat, AND your ability to hit things. It's a lot like Unisystem Classic in that regard.
As I mentioned earlier, there are two classes: Adventurer and Wizard. Adventurers are skill-focused (although you can still buy spells) while Wizards are spell-focused. There are also three non-Human races included for player use that are just stat adjustments + a minor ability. The three playable races are Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings.

I skimmed the spell section and skipped the combat section and went straight to the bestiary. It's relatively small but focused with plenty of little fluff to base a setting on. Two bits of fluff I particularly like is Hill Dwarves are the "default" Dwarves and Mountain Dwarves are their unfriendly cousins (a reversal of the typical D&D cliche) and that the Drow equivalent are are refugees who refused to go home after a war ended, much to the Mountain Dwarves' chagrin.

The art is good but many images are pixelated for some reason, which is a shame because it seems like the pixelated art pieces are also really good. There's also some pixelation on charts and tables but they remain legible. At some points it feels like page number references would be helpful, such as adding a note on the Skill section (pg. 16) to flip back to page 10 for explanation of the mechanics behind skill/attribute tests.

Overall and with the caveat that I haven't had time for an in-depth study of the book, I feel that Heroes & Other Worlds is a very good system.

 

Magi Carta

Magi Carta is essentially a spellbook that features spells converted from the Dungeons & Dragons System Reference Document to HOW rules. Although there aren't as many problems with art in this one, there a lot more problems with the text. For example, the section on Wizard Staffs (pg. 11): "For every 2 ST spent by caster, adds 1 EN permanently." This is the first mention of spending ST in this item's creation and comes in the third paragraph. It feels awkward.

Another weird thing happens on page 13, where Book Worm are described as "a brownish green in color with shimmering skin," but the sentence immediately afterwards that they "resemble longish purple worms" .

There also the rules for Familiars adapted from the OGL which don't make mention of how to actually get a familiar. I know that it's easy to convert that info from OGL to HOW all by myself but missing an essential part of the ruleset is a big mistake.

That said, Magi Carta delivers on the lots and lots of spells front, allowing classic archetypes like Paladins, Elementalists, and Illusionists into the HOW ruleset. It's a good supplement to the core rules despite the mistakes present and it can also be used to convert D&D 3.x's vast collection of spells into HOW spells.