D&D Next White Box

One of my favourite games is Swords & Wizardry and while I've only played it once in a group situation, the session was one of my most memorable. There's something about the pure simplicity of the rules that make it so freeing and conductive to creativity. 


I never played OD&D so S&W is the closest approximation that I'm familiar with. The thing I really love about S&W is the White Box, which emulates the original D&D booklet set before anything was added. It's the pure, distilled essence of fantasy gaming that was eventually built on. Rules were added along the way in supplements and adventures, allowing players to take or ditch what they wanted.

From the sounds of D&D Next, we're getting a modular system that could be more akin to the OD&D way of thinking. Classes can be your standard sword and board fighter or an evasive assassin, depending on how complex you like it. However, I hope they make classes more defined. In the latest edition there has been insane class bloat that has blurred boundaries between classes making some seem a bit 'bleh'.

If you look at the S&W White Box, you get very distinctive differences between classes. Dwarves are better at finding traps underground, the fighter gets multiple attacks, halflings are almost invisible, and so on. Sure, there were much fewer classes back when the game was young, but each was distinct and I think they need to try and bring back distinction in D&D Next.

Oh, and a sweet white box with a pencil and dice would be bloody great.

Retrospective: Sea of Mystery

Sea of Mystery was, I think, G. Arthur Rahman's first and only solitaire contribution to the Tunnels & Trolls game. Published by Flying Buffalo in 1981, Sea of Mystery was number 14 of the original solo line and one that's perhaps overlooked. 

For one thing, the cover, while nice, is boring. There's some blonde guy staring off into the sunset as he stands on his boat. It doesn't really evoke the mystery that the title alludes to, but as a piece of art Ken Macklin did a nice job.

Editorial duties fell to the legendary Michael Stackpole, someone who I wish would contribute more to T&T. I notice that Liz Danforth was down as a playtester, which I imagine she did for more of the older books.

Interestingly, Rahman encourages the player to go in without any weapons, promising that they will find some along the way. Whether any nervous first level delver would follow this advice remains to be seen. 45 combat adds is the maximum you're able to take into the solo, so this is one for new players.

Sea of Mystery was very different to its predecessors in its execution. The adventure is closer to a sandbox than anything else and therefore doesn't have much of a plot. Something that really stands out about its structure is the lack of branching decisions. There are more instances where the loss or success of a saving roll determines your next course of action, but there are more narrative choices to make, such as whether to help a baroness escape or leave her.

I quite like the introductory blub about the treacherous Sea of Mystery and find it quite evocative. If only Mesgegra was used for the cover:

Sea of Mystery . . . The name echoes through your memory. You recall your elderswarning you that if you were bad the Sea witches would come and take you away. Whenyou grew older you heard the pirates and slavers of the Sea cursed by a thousand differentvoices. In late nights under full moons your fellows told tales of carnivorous plants, thedreaded Mesgegra vampire-demon and islands of beautiful amazons waiting for lost males

The basic premise is that you're a sailor, either ending up with merchants or pirates. Random rolls determine what happens to you and one decision can have multiple outcomes as a result. In this way, you can play the book over multiple times and end up having many different adventures, which is really Sea of Mystery's biggest strength. Replayability was never something that previous solos attempted, so Rahman was an innovator in this respect.

Sea of Mystery is available to download as a PDF from DriveThruRPG or as a physical book from Flying Buffalo.

In which I fell in love with Top Cow

Another Free Comic Book Day has been and gone and I hope everyone got what they wanted from the comic book fairy. I'm still working my way through my gratis stack but I had to stop and take a detour at one point to BUY LOTS OF COMICS - I blame Top Cow for this.


The publisher squirted a nice free comic from its benevolent udder on Saturday in the form of Witchblade, which treated us to a bit of an update on the world-mangling happenings in the Top Cow-verse along with a damn tasty story about flesh grannies and biker sorcerer chicks with assless chaps. Holy amazing. In fact, I was so impressed with what I read, I decided to obey the comic's beckoning call at the end where it said "continue the story in #155" and boy was I glad I did that. If I was a collar-popping douche I'd probably refer to Witchblade as "boss" but I won't, so I'll call it 'neat-o' because I'm white 'n' nerdy.

But I wanted - nay - needed more! "Aha!" I exclaimed as I browsed Comixology with fevered determination. They were selling Artifacts Vol 1, 2 and 3 for around £7, which is re-donk-ulous and I couldn't miss it. I gorged on this awesome event that gave me a bit more context about the Top Cow-verse as a whole and got me up to speed with where all the characters are at. It also, oh god, introduced me even more bad-ass characters that have mini-series and whatnot. Cyber Force, for example. The name's cheesier than Timmy Mallet's lovechild with Bette Midler, but that doesn't stop it from being awesome to the max, man. Sure, on the surface it seems like a facsimile of X-Men, but, well it totally is but it's still ace.

I was too far down the rabbit hole at this point. In fact, I was so far down it that I was coming across the fossilised remains of rabbit ancestors and soon I knew I'd strike bedrock. I found that the almighty Cow was giving away first issues of a bunch of titles, including Angelus, First Born, Velocity and a couple of Cyber Force thingies. I absorbed them all in one sitting and didn't dislike any of them. In fact, I liked all of them.

I'm in love.

YSDC fundraising for novel based on Horror on the Orient Express sessions

It's often said that you should never try to novelise your RPG game, no matter how much you think it rocked face, but in this particular instance I think you can disregard that advice. The Cthulhu gaming site YSDC are raising money to have their Horror on the Orient Express game published as a novel.

The novel, called The Express Diaries and written by Nick Marsh, is complete, but the group are looking to crowd-funding site Indiegogo for money to get it published. 

So far, they've raised an impressive $2,045 out of a target $5,000 and with 45 days left to go they stand a good chance in hitting the bar. 

You can download the first chapter on the fundraising site and decide if this is something you want to throw down some cash for. Check out their original campaign recording if you want to know more about the game or if you're just curious about how a Call of Cthulhu game is played. The Bradford players have a bunch of campaigns they've recorded in the past and they're all really entertaining to listen to.  

Elder Tunnels Spring 2012 out now

Peryton Publishing has released its latest Tunnels & Trolls magazine, Elder Tunnels onto the interwebs for you to download with your fingers and read with your eyes.

My contribution this time around is a lowdown on Peakvale, including some exclusive information about the setting. I also touch on a couple of my upcoming projects for T&T and USR.

Tom K Loney writes a great article Bronze Age Bros and Babes, Brian Penn has a solo Dangers of Bakemono Forest, and loads more. As a history geek I particularly appreciated Trevor Hudgins' article on the Inca Empire and how to utilise it in T&T.

Big thanks to Christine Crabb for putting together another sterling issue yet again. Also, how awesome is that Jeff Cortez cover? Damn, that's sweet! If you're a T&T fan then you're doing yourself a disservice by not making Elder Tunnels part of your life.

Peakvale Wednesday: Crimes

There is a seedy side to any city and Thornguard is no exception. Glint smugglers, Kremm-thieves, organ wizzers and necrothugs make their homes in the underbelly of the slum district, hiding away in abandoned warehouses and boarded up shops. If you're going to venture into this filthy part of town then you need to have your wits about you and a good lock on your purse.


Thornguard is strict against crime, with even small offences such as littering carrying hefty fines. This is all part of King Hobbletoe's vision of a perfect kingdom, but even he can't keep everyone in check. Here are some of the more serious crimes that are outlawed in Peakvale:

Glint Smuggling: Imported from the hills of Shamundia, glint is a shimmering dust that people sprinkle on themselves to achieve a magical high. On the street it's also known as 'Fairy Dust' and it's outlawed across Trollworld but goes for a pretty penny in the larger cities. Dens of glint smugglers hide out in Copper Street in the slum district and can be caught selling their wares in the early hours of the morning.

Organ Wizzing: This is the act of enchanting ones organs in order to make them superhuman. This is strictly illegal because the king deems it "unnatural". Some people have their eyes enhanced to see further or through walls, their skin turned impenetrable, and their adrenaline glands more active as to slow the world around them down. The Raven Squad is a gang of organ-enhanced criminals who are always causing chaos in Thornguard, robbing banks and holding up merchants.

Necrothugs: Some of the more wealthy criminals know that the undead are much more powerful than regular folk, so they hire a necromancer to kill them and bring them back from the dead. Of course, to guarantee the necromancer will fulfil her side of the bargain, she signs a binding magical contract so if she doesn't bring the thug back from the dead in 10 minutes she will explode. Necromancers are paid handsomely for this.

Kremm-thievery: Some wizard criminals have managed to get their hands on Abatraxi, artefacts that syphon kremm from other magic-users and feed it into themselves.