The Horny Bard doesn't represent us!

Just watched The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. I know it been out for a while but it popped up on Netflix. I was laughing pretty much all the way through. Not exactly high art but a lot of fun to watch.

See you behind the barricade of dead bards.

And apparently you don't have to watch the movie but can play it as well. As Dungeon Crawl Classic #20.5 the Mask of Death.

Avatar a partial homage to John Carter?

I kid you know. Don't let the hamfisted "message" or the Aliens style tech fool you. The spirit of the plot behind Avatar was inspired in part by Burroughs's John Carter of Mars.

From this 2007 article

How did you come up with this story?
Well, my inspiration is every single science fiction book I read as a kid. And a few that weren't science fiction. The Edgar Rice Burroughs books, H. Rider Haggard — the manly, jungle adventure writers. I wanted to do an old fashioned jungle adventure, just set it on another planet, and play by those rules.

Your premise reminded me a lot of the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter, Warlord of Mars series.
It's definitely got that feeling, and I wanted to capture that feeling, but updated. To be certain, I wanted a film that could encompass all my interests, from biology, technology, the environment — a whole host of passions. But I've always had a fondness for those kind of science fiction/adventure stories, the male warrior in an exotic, alien land, overcoming physical challenges and confronting the fears of difference. Do we conquer? Exploit? Integrate? Avatar explores those issues.

If I squint my eyes I guess I see the homage. Lone earth hero on a strange alien jungle world. I think the 60's idealism of Cameron runs much more rampant in the movie.

Like Abram's Star Trek the plot of Avatar is not it's strong point. You will be swept the away by the stunning images that are displayed on the screen. Like Cameron's Titanic the plot's weakness and predictability only bumps the film to an A from A+. And as a bonus there is no Leonardo DiCarpo so my friend Tim of Gothridge Manor may actually may see this. Plus seeing Signourney Weaver back in Sci-fi was great and I am beginning to like actor Sam Worthington.

Finally the 3D version was the best damn use of 3D I ever seen. There is are no cheap 3D "moments" in the film. It's use definitely enhances the film. I will go as far as say that its use made a scene work far better than it's 2D counterpart. It was a scene where you see something burning with ashes falling down in the foreground. The 3D version made it far more hard hitting.

You definitely should see this in the theater preferably in 3D.

Trends in the Old School Renaissance

Now that we are reaching the end of 2009 some definite trends have begun to emerge in the OSR.

Sandbox Campaigns
Sandbox campaigns becomes a part of the general toolbox for old school referees to use to put together a campaign. This will come with a level of product support that is lower than traditional adventures but higher than the near zero stuff we had in the past two decades.

As one of the leaders in exploring this aspect I am probably not the best person to spot a trend in this area other than to say it THE most popular topic on my blog. I definitely plan to support this with products that are not related to any specific campaign.

MegaDungeons
A niche within a niche because of the volume of writing needed to flesh one out even when tersely written. However unlike the "World's largest" craze that hit 3e a few years back I see this as a enduring part of the OSR not only because of the tradition of having dungeons with older editions but because of the fact the OSR has developed a more compact format than having to describe each room as an encounter.

Making a Megadungeon today can be considered a hard project rather than an insanely hard project like was under the "world largest" craze. I consider the evolution of Megadungeon a good positive example of the impact of the OSR at it developed from many people writing from the viewpoint "Here how I do things". From that a good set of shortcuts and tips developed.

Science Fantasy
I think this area is just developing and one in which the OSR will have a very large impact. While I am personally not interested in Science Fantasy I can appreciate the quality of the work that being done and welcome more of it. There are several products being worked on and all of them have real passion behind them. This is good foundation for a breakout hit (at least by OSR standards) and wish everybody working on this the best of luck.

Weird Fantasy
Not sure if this the best label for this but I see a lot of stuff written with a touch of Lovecraft, weirdness, and other strangeness. Like Science Fantasy this area offer a lot of room for OSR authors to make products that are distinct from what was done in the past and today. I consider much of James Raggi's material to be an excellent example of this type of material as well as Geoffery Mckinney's Carcosa (in the expurgated version)

Concluding Thoughts
I feel that 2009 marks a definite transition of the OSR from it's retro-clone phase. The focus of the retro-clones is now on getting physical books into the game stores.

Regardless of how 2010 shakes out we see more adventures, more support products, more genres being explored by the OSR in 2010. There will be plenty for new gamers looking for something different and for older gamers looking for more support of their favorite edition.

Now for a bit of advocacy

Return of the Supplements
The main reason I included Supplement VI as part of the title of the Majestic Wilderlands is because I viewed the originals as a missed opportunity. I think the evolution of D&D would have gone better if Supplement I - Greyhawk and Supplement - Blackmoor were really about how Gygax and Arneson ran their respective campaigns. Presented as "OK the we have these D&D rules there how I (i.e. the author) applied them."

I feel that the OSR is at it's best when it does this. A bunch of folks publishing how THEY run older editions. Then the rest of us cherry pick what we like to make a more interesting campaign. I think that anybody who publishes a book like this should feel free to put Supplement xx as part of the title. This type of product presents the best of we like about the resurgence of older editions.

Making it your own:Sword & Wizardry Quick Start

The Swords & Wizardry Quick Start by Michael Shorten is an excellent introduction to Swords & Wizardry and serves well for any older editions of D&D. It also includes a small dungeon that can be used for a short adventure in any campaign. The Quick Start can be downloaded for free here. Plus you can purchase a hard copy here.

The key element of adapting the Quick Start Dungeon is that is the lair of a evil cleric worshiping a evil frog deity. She has skeleton minions making her a bit of a necromancer. In addition she obviously allied with a goblin tribe and to round out the dungeon denizens is Marcus the were-rat and his rat friends.

Finally there are some prisoners waiting to be rescued. You could plant NPCs here to fuel further plot. Perhaps one of the rescued fighters provide a way for the players to get into an important organization like a noble family, guild, or a law aligned temple. Certainly you could put an important local that was kidnapped. The player hired to rescue this person.

All of this can be tied to together to make the Quick-Start dungeon a nasty little lair of an evil cult. Another consideration is the magical mushrooms and the strange fountains. The evil clerics and her minions don't seem powerful or savvy enough to have actually created the place. So perhaps, like many dungeons, it was built in an earlier time. You expand on this idea to act as an initial seed for a larger plot in your campaign.

While simplistic I find these type of dungeons often the easiest to adapt. Utterly devoid of background this can be easily transformed into the type of locale you need for your campaign.

Making it your own: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is considered one of the classic modules from the TSR AD&D 1e line. It is for first level character and has a straight forward setup.

There a house that is "haunted" but in reality is the lair of smugglers using it as a depot for the town of Saltmarsh. The climax of the adventures comes as the adventurers are hired to turn the tables on the smugglers and hit their ship the Sea Ghost.

In my campaign I adapted this module in several ways. First is the house itself; while "haunted" by the smugglers, it was once the home of a sinister alchemist/magician. If some plot in your campaign involves magical lore or a old magic-users this may serve as the perfect place to plant the initial seeds of this portion of your plot.

This module leads into U2 Danger at Dunwater and U3 the Final Enemy which climax with a fight against the Sahaugins. If you decide not to go with that plot the smugglers can serve as the initial plot seed for a larger criminal organization that becomes the nemesis (or allies as the case may be) of the PCs. In my own Majestic Wilderlands it has served as an initial lead into the Slaver's network and as a lead into a plot involving the Skandian Vikings.

Finally the Sea Ghost portion of the module serves as a useful template for a sea-faring ship. I used this as template in a number of campaigns where the player owned their own ship. It it is one of the few sources for a complete deckplan of a sailing ship.

Merry Christmas

To all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Storing your old school stuff

OD&D and it's supplements were produced in digest format. In addition many of the products created for the Old School Renaissance are also produced in digest form. Chgowiz in this post (thanks Philip) mentioned that this paper mache book shaped box made for excellent storage of these digest sized books. Unfortunately the on-line site had it not available for months. I finally scored a pair when I went Christmas Eve shopping and came across them in a large Jo-ann store in Peoria Arizona.

Determined to some find some that the rest of you can buy I put my google fu to work and came across this website at CreateForLess.com. The only problem is that you have to order 3 sizes at once.

If you search for yourself the key term is Paper Mache Book Box. Also if you happen to find a rectangular box of the right size (6" by 9") then probably a lot of folks would be interested in that as well.

The Original D&D Discussion Forum has a lot of useful advice here.

And the post by Coffee which the true origin of this particular quest of mine.