Sword of State by Nigel Tranter

Sword of State
Written by Nigel Tranter
336 Pages

I'd never heard of Nigel Tranter before picking up Sword of State. It was one of my finds on the good old $1 rack in Half Price Books in Skokie.

I'm a sucker for historical fiction.

But it's really not historical fiction. It's like a history book that wants to be a fiction book.

Dialog? Minimal.

Story elements or descriptions of the times? Minimal.

Recording the events of the time as they happened? Dead on.

Not everyone has the ability of say Bernard Cornwell to put historical fiction into a rousing tale.

If you want a play by play of events as they happened, though, Sword of State is $3.99 on the kindle format right now, and even more affordable in hardcover format as it's well out of print and not rare.

Having said that, it's time to think how this could be useful for running a campaign.

Character Build. One problem I see in a lot of players is that they make their characters to be these weird self-sufficient bits that have no hooks into the campaign setting. This doesn't matter if it's a super hero setting or a fantasy setting. So many dark wolf loners that don't care about anything but vengeance.

That can be boring in that it doesn't lend itself to a campaign contribution.

What do I mean? Let's look at Patrick here.

Patrick has a father, Cospatrick. There can be only one Cospatrick at a time as a matter of tradition and culture. When Cospatrick dies, Patrick will take that mantle. This little bit of tradition is something that adds to the campaign.

There are things that happen in the setting that revolves around family.

For example, marriage.

And here's the thing, the marriage itself doesn't have to be between player characters, it can be NPC's in the background. The important thing is that it's creating a social event. This creates a gathering of characters around the event.

If it follows the ways of comics, this could be one of those times when the bad guys come around and aren't vile miscreants, but it could just as easily be a time when the villains think it's the perfect time to strike.

In a fantasy setting, the same is true. Perhaps the players need an introduction to some figure but don't have the social status to just up and approach them. Going to a wedding and doing so there could be a great time to make an impression.

Outside of marriage, we have children.

Again, in super hero comics, there are often quests to save the poor mother to be such as when Reed Richards has to delve into the Negative Zone to find a cure for his wife's ailment.

But it's also a great time to throw another social event. It's a time when rulers may provide gifts of land. It's a time when people who may be estranged come together for the sake of the children. Perhaps the characters have parents who never visit, but now with the birth of a granddaughter, they do!

And lastly, when it comes to family, there is death.

This is another social event. Depending on the nature of who died, it may be made a social holiday. It may be a time of celebration. It may be a time of celebration for some and mourning for others. Few men die perfect world round.

Even those who history tends to treat kindly such as Winston Churchill may not be fondly remembered by say, families of the French Navy.

But what else can be brought out into gaming from Sword of State?

Hunting!

In the manga Berserk, it uses the social event of hunting to great effect to allow the Band of the Hawk the seeming appearnace of saving the Princess Charlotte from assassination.

In George R. R. Martin's modern fantasy classic, A Game of Thrones, it is an off stage hunting accident that brings war to the kingdoms.

Hunting can have a social part and a combat encounter part.

Are the characters there to meet new individuals or to prove themselves?

Are the characters there as body guards?

Another element that can be brought into the campaign is that of trade.

There is a market crash of Scotland Wool that Patrick has to investigate. If this were told as it's own story, the levels of intrigue and corruption could be a book in and of itself.

Nigel Tranter treats it as "X happened, Y happened, Z happened."

But even in that, Patrick goes to find out why the price has dropped. He offers new ways of sorting out the costs, noting that not every country wool prices have fallen, he goes on to explore new markets for the wool and finds that other products, such as salted meat and stone, may be highly desirable in those other markets as well.

In a traditional campaign, the mere act of questioning why the wool was cheaper might have brought individuals out of the shadows who were seeking to create a monopoly on the product.

It might have brought out bribes and attempts at blackmail.

And that sounds crazy over wool, but man, in the real world we've seen some strange stuff involving what people want to control and regulate so no, it's not that off the wall.

I give Nigel Tranter kudos for his research into this era and the inspiration it brings forth when thinking of how these things can be taken for anyone's campaign. For those who've read other Tranter novels, are particular recommendations? I see he has a huge catalog and while I'm not impressed with his style, his substance is strong.

The Ten Thousand by Michael Curtis Ford

The Ten Thousand

A Novel of Ancient Greece

Written by Michael Curtis Ford

The cover boldly proclaims “In the ancient world, one army was feared above all others…” With such a proud figure on the cover and such loud proclamations, I gladly picked up The Ten Thousand. I was fortunate in that the cover notes that this is a worthy successor to Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire, which I also managed to snag. Each book bought for a mere $1 apace.

The Ten Thousand is not filled with battle upon battle. Rather it is a well written novel of how Xenophon became a leader of the Ten Thousand, Greek Mercenaries who in this case, lost their patron half way across the world, and how Xenophon had to lead them back to safety.

The writing is highly descriptive without being overly boring. Michael Curtis Ford brings even small characters to mind with a few well placed bits, such as telling an old story that even modern readers should be familiar with. There were several sequences I initially though he was babbling, wasting pages, but they come back to fruition later on in the novel, one of the earliest sequences I thought fascinating but wasteful, nearly at the very end of the novel itself.

In short, if you want to read a historical novel of Ancient Greece, a well written, well researched novel, one based on the book Anabasis, then The Ten Thousand is a fantastic way to spend a few evenings.

For role players though, what can be gleaned?

1.       The environment must play a part in your campaigns. The initial trek to met with destiny takes the Ten Thousand away from their familiar coastal areas and through harsh desert terrain. Have you ever wanted to actually use your desert sourced theme books? Do so. On the way back from crushing defeat, the army moves through blinding, killing, snow. Want to use those winter themed books? Do so. The world is small enough that ever environment should play it’s role in your campaign.

2.       Start After a Loss: The book really picks up pace after the army that the Ten Thousand are but a small part of, meets disaster. That’s when the heroes of the book must come together and fight as one. This can be done at any level but you have to be willing to start with loss. The caravan is overrun. Waterdeep is destroyed. The Prime Material Plane is vaporized. The city of Sigil falls into the Abyss. After opening with such a crushing defeat, the players should be motivated to do what they do best!

3.       Historical Context Builds Culture: “Some three hundred years earlier, Sardis, even than a great city, had been overwhelmed by hordes of pale-skinned barbarians who had swept down from the north in endless numbers like packs of ravenous wolves, devouring all its riches and mingling their wild barbarian blood with that of the refined and delicate natives. It was said that so many men and women were killed during the barbarians brutal sweep through the city that when the carnage was over, thousands of children were left wandering the streets, homeless and wailing. The offspring of royalty mingled with those of the lowest cowherds, and the children’s identities were obliterated through the effacement of their outward customs and manners as they scrounged for scraps in the gutters. It was finally decided that no one could determine their origins with certainty, for every child claimed to have been sired by the king, and so they were simply lined up in the market like so much chattel and auctioned to the highest bidder, as slaves of the barbarians or for adoption by surviving Sardesian adults. Since that time, each baby has been imprinted with a tiny, discreet tattoo shortly after birth, usually along the hairline on the nape of the neck, depicting an identifiable family symbol such as an animal or a letter.” A few sentences of background and you’ve got a cultural bit that almost instantly identifies people from Sardis. Great stuff.

4.       Unique Characters: Description can be a boring and tedious thing but making sure that the players remember the main attractions of the event is important! “Clearchus was as terrifying an individual as Proxenus had led us to believe, and worse. His face was so homely and pockmarked as to be almost comical, but he had an evil, jagged scar running halfway down the side of his temple, which he was constantly picking at, keeping it inflamed, perhaps intentionally, for effect. His beard was so ragged and lice-infested as to raise eyebrows even for a Spartan, and he never smiled – in fact, he hardly talked except to cuss out his men, and could barely chew for the rotten blackness of his teeth.”

If you’re looking for inspiration, The Ten Thousand deals it out chapter after chapter.

Scanners (1981)

I found out that the Criterion Collection. is leaving +Hulu.

It's also almost Halloween.

That means time to watch some appropriate holiday movies.

One of my favorites, one I saw in the theaters as a preteen at 10, was Scanners.

Scanners offer a lot to both Game Masters and Players.

For Game Masters

1. Plot Twists: Some of these are cliche, but they are cliche for a reason. That reason? Sometimes they work. For example, imagine having a mentor for your character that turns out is his father? Imagine an arch enemy that is your brother! What a shocker!

2. Organizations: The bit in the movie that quickly gets overlooked, is that the "Scanner" program was designed as a weapon program and during it's initial viewing many high-end buyers, six individuals killed, one quite spectacularly.

In almost any modern day setting, that would cause quite a stir. In the modern Marvel Universe setting, or any role playing super hero game using the modern setting, there would be a quick search into the matter.

How did this happen? What's the origin point? Are there more of them?

For Players

1. Character Outlook: When first found, the protagonist is living in the street. Unable to fend for himself. His powers are too strong and they cannot be shut off. Typical telepathic problem. But there are other "Scanners" and one of them, after trying to kill his family, has been "rehabilitated by art".

The art this scanner creates is dark and disturbing, often dealing with multiple entities around the skull or with thoughts exploding out of the brain.

What is the mind status of a non-normal character? If you're in a Dungeons and Dragons setting and are a psion, how do you perceive the world about you? Even if you're a lowly fighter, is it more of a Jason Bourne thing where as soon as you enter the room you've objectified everything into ways on escape or ways to kill?

2. Limitations: When first introduced, the protagonist HAS to have a drug to suppress his powers. This leaves him vulnerable. In some game systems like Champions and GURPS, you would buy advantages and disadvantages to represent this about your character. In other games, it becomes a GM ruling. What about limitations makes characters more interesting? It makes them vulnerable.

Even Superman has weaknesses after all.

Scanners isn't high art but as one of David Cronenberg's early films, 1981, it is worth watching.

3. Unlikley Powers: There's a scene in the movie where the hero of the movie connects his brain to the
"nervous system" of a computer. Well before hacking was a thing. But how would ESP or
telepathy in the normal sense of the word allow that to work? The Game Master or Player could
easily rationalize it that the powers Scanners have isn't based on telepathy. It's based on control
of reality and that their true limitations are that they only do what they do, because that is the
traditional use of their powers. Only when pushed or when something out of the range becomes
needed, do those powers actually come to a head. The old marvel character, Phoenix, after all,
could control reality with her powers.

For others looking at the Criterion Collection leaving, what movies do you recommend? I've
got the Samurai films on lockdown but am fortunate enough to own most in DVD/Blu-Ray format.

Sharpe's Eagles by Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Eagles by Bernard Cornwell is listed as the second book in the series. As I've been buying the books from various sources, I've never read them in the correct order.

I can say that those looking for a quick book review, that Bernard Cornwell knows his era. He's able to pull language and scenery that the reader could easily imagine being accurate. His voice for Richard Sharpe and the rest of the cast ring sincere and the pages quickly turn in order to find out what the end result of Sharpe's latest adventure will be.

Sharpe is very much in a 'Conan' or other adventurer in that he is called on for a wide variety of missions, called on to be better than his station should permit, but not quite so good that he easily rises in their ranks. He often finds himself at odds with his 'civilized' superiors and in many aspects, would be much better off in an older world that only rewarded cunning and physical prowess.

Sharpe is in fine shape in this novel. His unusual weapon in play, a saber, among his regular riflemen. It helps him stand out form the regular soldiers. His friend and ally, Harper is also unusual in that he's an Irishman fighting in a English army.  Not to mention Harper's massive size and skill with archaic weapons...

Sharpe also knows how to read. Something that many soldiers in the time do not know how to do.

There are others that have little things about them. Sharpe notes an American... a young lad notable for his very youth, a few others who are notorious pickpockets or other little characteristics that allow the author to quickly ping the character.

These little unusual details help the characters stand out and it's always a good thing to nick for characters in your own game. Imagine if you're playing a group of Chaos Warriors in a Warhammer Fantasy setting and you go against type with a White Blade that never bears any stains? There are others who fall into the 'beautiful' campaign, but they are often on the side of a specific chaos god as opposed to Chaos Undivided.

Sharpe's numerous tales are also filled with a variety of characters who both help and hinder him.

In terms of both, as Sharpe is a soldier, these often include his superior officers.

There is contrast drawn in how promotions are handled. In the British military, payment is often the single greatest indicator of advancement.

Sharpe being an ordinary soldier, often doesn't have that type of money.

On the other hand, looting is a real thing and Sharpe does okay for himself.

But looking again at those promotions, when they are handed out for wealth, this is not an indicator for skill. It is this lack of skill, that puts Sharpe against his superior, a superior officer who does so poorly that to cover his own mistakes, he writes a letter condemning Sharpe for Sharpe's failure in an attack against the French.

So Sharpe has to do something spectacular to overcome this damnation.

This gets to another potential plot point.

Symbols.

The British lose their one of their flags.

Flags are powerful symbols.

Look at war games.

Look at America and the rules and regulations on how flags must be handled.

Think about what losing such a symbol might mean to an army, a nation, or even the characters themselves.

Sharpe resolves that if he can't get his country's flag back, the better thing to do, is to steal an 'Eagle', which is what the French often use as Flags.

If anyone's seen the old show Rome, you might remember there was an episode with an Eagle involved. Again, symbols, and their place, perhaps even if they are not financially valuable, are things of great significance.

In a fantasy setting, such flags may actually have power. They may embolden men against fear (allow people to reroll a failed saving throw) or even make them immune to magical fear. They may protect against mind control or mind reading. The options are limitless.

In a more standard setting, one that might take itself too seriously, characters could be tasked with recovering a flag or making sure it doesn't fall into enemy hands. The value of their pay depending on which option they succeed at.

Of course there's always the opposite. Taking away a flag from an enemy. If the enemy is known to have great reverence for a specific flag, perhaps one flown in the capital city, it may fall to the players as renowned murder hobos, to take this flag from the enemy and teach them their place!

Fifth Edition: This Time As A Player

The group I'm playing with does round robin style Dungeon Mastering.

Due to my back issues, I completely missed the Story Teller doing the World of Darkness with pretty much everything goes.

Thankfully, after thousands of dollars, two shots in the back, lots of physical therapy, and perhaps another shot to come, my back pain is under control enough that I can sit and stand and go out long enough to play.

The new GM is running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I wasn't impressed when I initially read the module but that's okay. I'm not running it so the Dungeon Master can do whatever he likes!

I made a Warlock.

Initially I was going to make a Blade Warlock. The idea seems very cool. Who doesn't want a character that you can form a lightsaber right?

But the mechanics didn't seem to back it. It seems more of a "cool" thing as highly effective.

Part of that goes into the whole dreaded crunch versus fluff. For example, to start off with the warlock, it makes it seem almost like a wizard in their quest for knowledge. But your primary stat is charisma. Probably to represent the bond between caster and pact master. 

But even in the quick build, it's secondary stat is recommended to be constitution.

And if you want to have some effectivity as a warlock with a blade? You'll need strength.

Not going to happen with point buy without some heavy sacrifices in other places.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not such a twink that I can't play such a character.

But I'm also not that interested in min-maxing a character where I need to worry about how best to make a character so I just went with a Warlock that's going to do the whole eldrich blast thing.

I went with the Old Ones pact and the GM is letting me use the default aberrant style baddies in Eberron for it.

He's using a few of the optional subsystems in his game. For example, the passive initiative rule. He's also got the action points going on and is allowing people to use information from the WoTC articles so we have a Warforged in the group.

But he's also using Blood and Steel for critical hits. The old Blood and Steel is a Mayfair supplement for their Role Aids line that was meant to supplement Advanced Dungeons and Dragons back in the day.

It's fantastic if you like horrific combat. It's terrible if you're a player in such a game. It came down to a vote and the people who are against it on the grounds that "monsters are always going to be rolling more dice than characters" lost again "But it's so cool!" and probably a bit of nostalgia since they were in heavy use with the groups I played with back then.

Mind you I was one who voted against them. But that didn't quite matter. Over the course of the game, three critical hits rolled; two against the party, one against some generic monster. Yeah, the prophecy is already coming true.

The GM wants us to have miniatures too. I'm probably going to use this guy:

That's a Bones Miniature, available from Reaper Miniatures unpainted. This particular paint job is from Rich Burge. It's a solid paint job. Mine will not look anywhere near as nice.

On a side note, one of my friends was flipping through his book and a section of multiple pages just feel out. We laughed, he raged and claimed it was the shoddy workmanship of Chinese but a quick read through shows that the book was printed in America. Good job my fellow Americans! He's going to contact WoTC and see if they'll comp him.

So what is everyone else playing or running these days? 

S is For Supergirl

+Amazon.com and +Google Play both recently had numerous comics featuring leading ladies on sale. I managed to pick up quote a few deals at $2.99 per volume. Supergirl was another character that received a reboot in the new 52 with the first volume being Supergirl Volume 1: Last Daughter of Krypton.

Weighing in at 160 full color pages, this reintroduction to Supergirl is a win for me on several levels. About the only place it's not a win? The costume.

I'm not talking necessarily about design or anything but there's a lot of skin on the legs exposed yes?

So when reading the actual comic and it puts some information in perspective, you have to wonder, WTF?

For those who can't read it, "It's not clothing, it's armor!"

So you send your daughter through space and time with no armor on her legs or head? Now mind you, when I think about it, I have to wonder why the big S doesn't have a mask of the same material. Were the super advanced people of Krypton that vain? "Let us shield our soldiers and people but not the face!" 

One of the bonus features of this volume was a sketchbook showing numerous designs. One of my favorites is probably the all white version. Mind you I could go for it in the traditional colors but the coverage, especially for armor, seems more appropriate.

I'm not going to get into the history of Supergirl. I'm not necessarily the best scholar of such. She's gone through a lot of changes and in most of her incarnations, has had some good writers and some bad runs. The DC staff mandate has changed from Superman is the only Kryptonian to "Hey, we put Zod back in the movies so let's not waste this opportunity!" although to be fair they've been using Zod in various ways in various incarnations for a while now.

The good news is that this is a strong introduction to the character. One of the problems I've often though female leads have is that they lack strong enemies. This Supergirl does not have that problem. Not only does she have a scientist trying to determine who and what she is (as if the Big Red S isn't a huge clue eh?) but she has foes directly tied into her Kryptonian heritage. Enemies that are as strong, if not stronger than her.

The variety in enemies, from characters that are soldiers in power armor, to generically engineered creatures on Earth, to those created from Kryptpton, as well as the solid designs on them, allow Supergirl to finally stand away from Superman in that she has a bit of her own mythos, her own reason, he own motivation. She's not just Clark but with legs.

If you're a fan of superhero comics and the opportunity to pick up at least the first volume in the New 52 happens your way, you won't be disappointed with this volume.

F is For Full Metal Alchemist

Full Metal Alchemist is a story about two brothers trying to reclaim their lost humanity. Along the way they make numerous friends and enemies and wind up in a much larger scale of events than they had ever anticipated.

The series has proven very popular. There are two separate animes on it. While this is not unusual (see Gundam), the fact that they came out so close together is a little unusual. There is also a lengthy manga. I stopped reading a while ago as I had caught up to the series and after watching the new anime, will have to go back and catch up on it all over again.

One of the things that's great about Fullmetal Alchemist, is the world building. By making the characters Edward and Alphone, into specialist in a field of specialist, the viewers are able to have numerous favorites. There are different named characters like the 'Crimson Alchemist' or the 'Flame Alchemist'. Some very impressive sounding names.

These named characters also have named maneuvers and abilities. This puts them into a category that is above the standard soldier. In many ways, this makes them perfect classes with each type of class having a different specialization.

Because they work for the government, they also automatically have a patron. This prevents the Game Master from having to work too hard in order to get the characters involved with the adventure.

When a setting gives you an "in" like this, it can make running the campaign easier. In the classic game, Legend of the Five Rings, one of the suggestions is to make the characters Emerald Magistrates. This allows the game to get moving without the dreaded "You all meet in a bar" standard. In newer games, Spears of the Dawn has a similar option in that the title, Spears of the Dawn, is an actual title of those who fought against monsters and are well respected.

Ed and Al have their own motivations though. In this case, it is to get their bodies back. To do this, they need to do research. This involves them going to different research faculties and studying. While that could be boring, the writer showcases several small bits that are anything but ranging from a burned down library, to a random encounter with a former state alchemist who knows more than he's telling.

By having both options, player driven quests, and the ability to introduce patron level quests, the Game Master has the best of both worlds. Indeed, if the characters are having too easy a time of getting their own deeds, the Game Master can add complications through the patron. They may have to do some standard guard duty instead of hunting down that serial killer.

Of course players will seek to work around such restrictions but that's the point. The conflict of trying to do what they want against what others want them to do, is how the game creates a sense of tension.

The setting that Fullmetal takes place in, is one that has a variety of creatures that themselves can be different than one another. For example, Alphonse does not have a body, but rather, his soul is bonded to a suit of armor. During the series, we discover that there are others like this.

There are also combinations of men and animal known as chimeria. Each one potentially different than the others.

Then there are the Seven Sins. Some of these are 'standard' like Lust and Gluttony while others are a bit more friendly than you'd think.

The setting is large enough to weave numerous threats that the characters can't overcome just with punching or kicking.

Despite the grim overtones the series carries, the writer is able to weave quite a bit of humor into it. This should be something that a Game Master keeps in mind when prepping his own work. Even as plagues and zombies take over the land, there needs to be some genuinely funny things. Perhaps someone has a favorite cup that he dropped and is always talking about it. "My favorite cup!"

The humor helps break down the gruesome elements and gives the viewer a break and allows the reader to recharge her batteries.

Another element to note, is that there are changing alliances. One of the most popular characters here is Scar, named (originally!) after his scarred face. He's a tough loner who hates the heroes! This type of anti-hero is fairly common and the anime/manga Dragon Ball Z is littered with characters who once fought against Goku but now work alongside him.

When designing your NPCs, are there 'hooks' that the characters can use to turn them from enemies to friends? Are there deeds that the characters can perform to show these foes that the players are not the true enemies?

Have any other gamers used Fullmetal Alchemist as inspiration for their games? If so, how did it go? I have friends who are enamored of the art style in the series and love the animated suits of armor as well as some of the villains the characters face.

Spartacus: Top Five Reasons To Play Gladiators

Watching Spartacus, there are a lot of gladiators. There are a lot of tales told about specific gladiators before one even sets foot in the arena.

There are gladiators who are visually designed to appeal to both the crowd and in a meta sense, the viewers. 

For gaming, gladiators can be broken down into a few different venues.

1. Colorful Names: The Undefeated Gaul! The Shadow of Death! Gladiators are colorful champions and they have names that reflect that need. These names can be a combination of homeland and status or a fearsome name designed to strike fear into enemies. Spartacus own name isn't his name mind you but it is the name of an ancient Thracian king.

2. Variety of Characters: The show includes a wide range of characters from different ethnic backgrounds. These include almost anyone of the ancient world ranging from Gaul, Roman, Thracian, Assyrian, and others. This melting pot of different characters allows players to select from a wide variety of racial origins without having to over think "Why on earth is this dragon born here?"

3. Variety of Weapons and Fighting Styles: Spartacus and the former "God of the Arena" are both masters of the two sword fighting style. Others are masters of spear and shield or trident and net. An arena is the perfect place to have characters wield those odd weapons that might not make sense in a more conventional setting.

4. Variety of Enemies: The types of foes that gladiators encounter ranges from other gladiators to captured beasts. In a fantasy setting, this can be changed up dramatically with constructs built specifically to battle the gladiators or to train them. It can include summoned creatures brought forth to test the gladiator's mettle. It may also include the odd wanderer who fancies himself an unstoppable swordsman who needs a little money and so signs up for an encounter.

5. Patrons: By having characters fight in an arena, chances are they may have patrons that sponsor their fights are award them when they win. This provides the Game Master with a quick "In" as to why the players are fighting. Patrons with ambitions that go beyond gladiator arenas may have other odd jobs for their skilled men at arms and may have them act as bodyguards, fight in underground arenas or even act as thug and assassin when needed.

Hondo starting John Wayne

Chicago enjoyed some odd 19 inches of snow yesterday. It was the fifth largest amount of snowfall in Chicago since snowfalls have been recorded.

An excellent time to watch a movie. Hondo for some reason stuck out to me and many of the reviews were compelling.

Fine movie.

I look at someone like Hondo. What goes through my mind?

Archetype outcast.

Hondo isn't like others in that he's a half breed. This gives him a more empathy for those who his government, the United States, seeks to destroy. He's also a bit of an outcast because he speaks what he feels is the truth regardless of how unpleasant that it. He's also not afraid to get his knuckles bruised or to fight over things that others might consider trivial.

Hondo stands with rifle at the ready while another man is getting ready to shot Hondo's dog. The meaning is clear. Pull on my dog and I'll kill you. But Hondo is a strange beast and doesn't say that. Rather the threat is more implied. "A man outa do what he thinks is best."

Hondo also enjoys 'benefits' from his half-breed heritage. For instance, an enhanced sense of smell. When the young wife Angie doubts him, Hondo goes on to explain a wide number of things that his sense of smell tells him ranging from her baking and bathing to the smell of her being a woman.

Hondo goes with the flow of life. While he admires the Apache that he fights against, he doesn't fight with them. He doesn't' join their side. There is no sudden conversion and seeing of the light. He rather stays with the new family he's somehow acquired.

"End of a way of life. Too bad. It was a good way."

With Hondo's proven skill with ranged weapons, especially his rifle, his keen senses, his loyal dog animal companion, Hondo would make a perfect Ranger in a game of Dungeons and Dragons.

Problem for me? While I like the idea of the ranger, especially the Ranger of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, the one who hunts in the wilderness, the one who brings others out of the wild, the one who fights against those in the vastness surrounding civilization, I hate almost every edition's take on the ranger except for 4th editions.

1st through 3rd used magic and animal companions while 4th went for a 'martial' variant who was part rogue, part warrior, part barbarian survivor. 5th edition went back to the whole magic user bit and well, I'm glad it has its fans, I'm just not one of them.

Part of the problem with an archetype that no one really agrees on. Even in most of the fantasy books that feature a ranger, Drizzt the dark elf, the dark elf rarely uses magic spells. Not only that, but Drizzt's 'animal companion' is a magical creature, a magic item itself! Not quite something that's should be an archetype core class in the player's handbook.

The world Hondo inhabits here is strangely nuanced. For such an old film, it doesn't portray the Apache as barbaric savages but if anything, a wronged people who seek revenge against a nation that's wronged them, even as they must deal with the fact that some of those people belonging to the nation that's wronged them, aren't bad people.

Despite the age of the film, there are some beautiful scenes in terms of background. A dry parched background with blue skies and dusts everywhere.

The leader of the Apache, Vittorio, a chief who sense Hondo's kindred spirit, a man who hates lairs, a man who, despite being at war with the 'white man', doesn't kill a lone woman and her child, but rather tries to protect them by adopting the boy into the tribe and trying to convince Angie to marry into the tribe for her and the boy's protection.

Despite the nobility of the people that is most inherent in their leader, not all of the Apache are of this noble spirit.

The guy in the center here? Silva? He's a bit of a bastard but can you really blame him?

When he first appears on Angie's farm, he approaches her son, Johnny who, despite being a child, humiliates Silva by blowing his staff apart with a pistol and making Silva fall to the ground and wonder if he's been shot.

Silva's brother, a member in a scouting party, is killed when Hondo turns the tables on the ambushers and is prevented from instantly killing Hondo because Silva's chief, Vittorio, has a blood bond with Hondo under the mistaken assumption that Hondo is the father to Vittorio's blood bound in-law son, Johhny.

So Silva declares blood right and fights Hondo and promptly, despite the injuries Hondo already suffers, loss. Another massive loss of face.

This materializes when after the Apache drop off an even more badly injured Hondo to Angie and Silva kills Hondo's dog.

When the opportunity arises, when Vittorio is killed against the US military, Silva is now able to lead a full attack against the retreating military whose picked up settlers, including Hondo and Angie. This allows the viewers to have a 'villain' Apache without all of the Apache people getting targeted with the same paint brush as when Hondo finally engages Silva in hand to hand combat, it's a man on man combat and not the embodiment of two people's will engaged.

On his own side? Those military forces that Hondo works for? He knows that they're not always right. When we're first introduced to Hondo speaking with Angie,, he warns her that she's got to leave the settlement. She declines because she's always been friends with the Apache. Hondo notes that it was the United States that broke the treaty and that the Apache might not be so friendly any more.

Later on, when the military comes sweeping into the wilds to safely escort settlers out of the Apache regions, Hondo notes to his friend, Buffalo Baker, that the commander is too new and is going to get everyone killed. Buffalo remarks that it's up to people like him and Hondo to make sure he stays alive long enough to get that experience.

In another instance, another scout, Lennie, remarks that he wants Hondo's rifle and if he doesn't get it, he'll tell Angie that Hondo murdered her husband. Hondo's reply is something along the lines of "I never liked you."

Despite that and the brief beating Hondo delivers to Lennie, Lennie saves Hondo's life later on with Hondo's rifle, which Hondo awards to the man. The threat of being killed by the Apache, even a half-breed like Hondo, is too much for a fellow scout to take.

There are numerous other bits that stand out. For example, Buffalo Baker. Here's one of Hondo's old friends who bets against Hondo not making it out of the Apache infested lands and is disappointed that he's lost the wager!

He's also a man who protects Hondo from getting shot in a bar brawl.

Hondo's known Buffalo for years, but it's not until Angie invites Buffalo in for some food and drink does Hondo learn's Buffalo's last name.

In older editions of Dungeons and Dragons, the idea of a 'henchman' wasn't that unusual. In Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion works, there is the idea of the Eternal Companion. This isn't the usual hireling but someone with their own set of skills. Buffalo would fall into that category quite easily as the two men have a steady back and forth and share a similar set of skills and outlook on the world.

Anyway, Hondo is a solid movie that does a good job of showing forces in opposition where the people involved aren't monstrous and vile and individuals on all sides must be watched.

Has anyone read the book? Any recommendations or warnings on it? It'd be a while before I got to the novel as I have many a book to get to before that, but I'm always open to hearing about it.

The Thousand Thrones: Against the Plague Cult!

Due to an ongoing gout flare up, I missed last week. At this point, I haven't had any alcohol for a month straight. God, how do people live like this on a regular basis? Ugh.

So this week, I find out one of my role playing friends, Mark Topic, native of the South Side of Chicago, passed on Sunday and services will be held on Wednesday. Mark was a min-maxer to the extreme and I was looking forward to seeing what he was going to do with 5th edition. Alas it was not meant to be. I and several of my friends will be there to pay our respects to the family.

A few of our other players knew Mark better and thought that the services were yesterday so were even later and were not pleased to have been so misinformed. They also missed last week, although their absence wasn't illness related.

Due to three of us missing, there was a ton of idle chatter and it took a while to get into the game. One of the amigos tried to steer us into the gaming because he's a sleep deprived bastich and worries that if the game isn't moving forward he's going to pass out.

It didn't help that I brought some chicharones, huge slabs of them freshly made in our local Mexican grocery store, as well as some of the dreaded Nutty Buddies, some real habanero hot sauce, and a host of other junk food. Normally I skip on the junk food and bring booze but gout.

Warhammer continues to be an interesting game. With the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons out, one of the things I hate about it, is random rolling for stats and hit points. The standard array and point buy systems don't seem up to the potential of a point buy and don't have any variety in them, it's one flat level.

I mention this because in Warhammer, I don't mind the random rolling for stats. Mind you though, you also randomly roll what you career WAS when you start playing. This can force you into more situations than just randomly rolling stats and hit points. For me, the difference is that if you want to play a fighter in Dungeons and Dragons and your stats are crap and you roll poorly on your hit points, it's not fun. If you want to play a fighter in Warhammer, even if you don't start as one, you'll get there and the stats are much lower to begin with so it's not as great a difference.

Mind you I haven't played yet, and I've seen people argue that due to the Dungeons and Dragons hard limit of 20 on stats that high stats aren't as important but at the same time, there's going to be a sweet spot in the game, and if one guy starts with a 20 in his prime stat and you start with a 14...

I have the starter set and well, looks like the guys I game with want me to give running Champions aka Hero 6th edition a shot. And of course Hero itself is out of print but the Champions book isn't outrageous. I think everyone's going PDF on this one though so we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, another thing that's funny in Warhammer is how the scenarios can sometimes be written. For example, in the basement of an abandonded building, we saw a seen of such bloodshed, that we had to make a save versus fear. I failed and due to seeing a bloody mess, fled the scene into an ambush. A giant slayer flees from blood? But it's one of the reasons you have rules for those things right?

In disgust, my character cut his orange mohawk off until he's shown that he's recovered his courage!

Another problem is that the ambush? Mutants who infected me with some weird disease so my stats keep dropping by 5% when I miss my Toughness roll. Down to -10% so far!

Also suffering a few more Insanity Points due to wounds and some horrific scenes that we've witnessed. As I think I'm now past six IP, I have to make a roll on the crazy table!

I'm also finding myself interested in how much information the group doesn't find. One of the things we found was a human with some weird plague beetle attached to his back. We killed him in like one round and the GM was showing us walls of text that could have been revealed to us. Mind you, during our exploration of a manor, we managed to find numerous books, journals, and other player hand out bits that revealed a lot of information, but it makes me wonder what ELSE we could learn by being more careful. Good thing my character is a 'humble' Giant Slayer though so I don't worry about those things.

Hopefully next week goes better in both real world and game time usage.

For those who don't game as often as they like, do you have any particular methods of madness to keep your fellow players focused on the game? I find that I'm pretty bad, as a player, at keeping things focused and on track. When I'm a GM though... man, the ruler comes down! I'm too busy playing catch up on everything and keep trying to focus on the game and what's been happening with people I only see at the game.

I suppose the solution is to hang out with the amigos more or get to the game before the game starts but that can be difficult too. Curse you real world!

Ah well...

The Warded Man by Peter V Brett

I'm one of those people that's got the sale syndrome. You know, if its a good sale and something I might be interested in later, I'll pick it up.

So it was with The Warded Man and the Desert Spear, both by Peter V. Brett, whose website can be visited here. I'd never heard of the author or either book before and was in no hurry to read them, but see, this was during the time period that Borders Bookstores were closing and were essentially throwing stuff at the customers begging them to take it off their hands. Sadly enough, these are only two of the books I bought that in the interval I still haven't read.

At least that's no longer true for the Warded Man! Apparently Peter did this overseas as the Painted Man, with the cover image I've put up top. It's a solid cover and in my opinion far better than the one used in America even though I do prefer the name The Warded Man. Hell, if you have the chance, look at the one in Japan. Hell with it, I'll snag it here.

That's a damn great cover in my opinion and the red cape makes it pop for me.

Anyway...Peter V. Brett does a great job of bringing a 'small' fantasy world to life. It's a heavy character focused setting with enough unique bits and pieces in terms of magic and monsters to keep me interested. The world is plagued by demons that rise up every night from the core to kill, well, everything.

This has a few effects on the people. In the north, a generic 'dark ages' if you will, the people hide behind 'wards' or runes that are inscribed on walls and posts and other surfaces. These wards prevent the demons from attacking. But they don't always work. Time erodes them, the posts break, a demon the ward isn't meant for shows up, natural fires happen, and other things of that nature.

The people in the north believe the best way to deal with the horror is to live their life the best they can and stay behind the wards and hope for a better tomorrow.

The people of the south? They fight. They use the wards to entrap the demons who cannot stand the light of day and die in it. The downside of this is that their population is shrinking.

Peter V Brett's novel The warded Man, brings us three main characters. The first of these I'll mention is Arlen. He admires the Messengers, specially trained individuals who move from city to city and hamlet to village in order to bring news and information. He admires them because they dare to travel, they dare to go into the night even when the demons are out and about.

Arlen's skill set and mentality make him an ideal agent of change. It is his ability to trust his fellow man, even when sometimes they have not earned it, that makes him more than just another Messenger, and eventually turns him into the Warded Man.

The second character is Rojer, an entertainer who finds himself on the road often. His own childhood one of great suffering but one that put him on a path that others have never enjoyed. He finds that his ability with music gives him power over the demons.

The last is Leesha, a healer whose mentor hints at secrets of the old world. This includes the ability to craft a 'demonfire' of sorts that is similar to alchemist fire and capable of killing wood demons. Turns out the 'wise women' were given their own set of secrets and things to carry forward until the time was right to use them in saving mankind.

Peter does a great job of bringing these characters together through the years of each of their individual lives until their lives intersect in a great battle that sets the course of future conflict with the demons.

The writing was a bit more 'on' that I'd consider most books that I'd call 'popcorn'. It was enthralling and made me want to read further. There were some bits that are a bit old hat. After all, three young people each having their coming of age isn't anything new but it's always been about how well told the tale is for me.

I'll be discussing some specifics below so if you don't want any spoilers, read no further.

1. World Building: As I mentioned up thread, the world seems small. There are essentially two cultures and one magic system that has a lot of room to expand as more is discovered about it. This narrow focus though, allows the author to focus on the characters as opposed to dragging analogs of dozens of real world historical archetypes into the setting.  When designing your own setting, put the focus where you want it at the start and build from there. If it's a Viking focused world, throwing too many other elements into the stew may ruin the flavor.

2. Character Abilities: The three main characters of this book all have special knowledge or abilities that set them outside of others. Not only that, but they have different ways of approaching things. For example, Arlen wants to kill demons. He wants to kill them so much, that when he discovers that some of the wards that were common among his town folk aren't known in the city, he decides that in order to increase everyone's knowledge, instead of selling them, they'll only be available for trade. Sounds like a wizard in a D&D campaign to me. Players are notorious for finding the 'weak' points in a game wither that's the knowledge base that they can draw from or stupid assumptions of the setting. Their own goals and ambitions may be so different that they could potentially break the setting. Run with it and see where it goes.

3. Unique words: Demon is a pretty standard word, but because they come from 'the core', the word 'core' gets used for all manner of meanings ranging from hell, to being killed by demons or cored. Having a few unique words to set the stage can be a useful thing. The old TSR/WoTC setting Planescape was notorious for it's 'chant and Thieves Tongue and pirate speak are all 'languages' that have flavor to them that can increase the mood or theme of a campaign.

The Warded Man is a solid book and I've already started The Desert Spear and am enjoying it. There's no doubt I'll be looking for the third book in the series.

The Warded Man is available from Amazon in paperback for $7.19 in mass market paperback, prime eligible, or in kindle format for $5.99.

47 Ronin (Movie 2014 version)

So 2014 has started off pretty good for me. I finished a good book, knocked out a couple of miniatures, and even took my mom to see 47 Ronin with Keanu Reeves among others.

It was not what I thought it was. This may be because the advertising did the movie wrong. For example, if you look at the poster I've got up here, we've got some freaky looking dude with awesome tattoos. Yeah, he's in the movie for like five minutes at most. The ads that I saw for the movie, were heavy on the supernatural action. There is that, but it is well spaced, almost secondary to the whole gist of the movie, which is the based on the tale of the 47 Ronin. Which by the way is an amazon kindle book for like $2.99 in a few varieties.

For me, the movie has more than enough to make it enjoyable. The costumes are fantastic, the landscape is lush and inspiring, the soundtrack is great, the visuals are stunning. The fight scenes are well done with numerous pieces of action that could fit into several genres. The story or at least the themes and elements that make the story so well loved, are close enough to the original that Keanu's role for me at least, wasn't a major distraction.

I'll be discussing specific spoilers below so if you'd rather have none, read no further.

1. The Outcast. Keanu Reeves is the outcast character Kai, a 'half' breed who was left to die and taken in by Tengu and escaped them and served the Lord Asano.  Now that in and of itself may make some people groan that 'Kai' has too much spotlight but interestingly enough, the key things that COULD have made Keanu too overbearing, at least for me, are absent. For example, he is a loner, but that's because he is a social piranha. He has a specialized set of skills and knowledge, but for much of the film, those things are useless. He's a great fighter, but he gets stomped on by the champion of the enemy, who appears to be a giant suit of animated armor as we never see the actual person under it.

But outcasts are fun. Games are filled with them. It's been a while since I've played Legend of the Five Rings, but that was one of the few games I remember, at the time at least, that being a Ronin sucked. There wer mechanics built into the game that made it hard to keep up with the clan samurai if you weren't one of them.

And Kai is outcast in that way too. He is not samurai. HIs social status is low and while a retainer for the lord, and having the love of the lord's daughter, and even some friendship among the samurai, he is treated poorly by most of them and yet knows his social standing and what role his future will take if he stays there.

2. Good planning is rewarded. One of the things that surprised me a bit was that the plan of the Samurai, for the most part, goes fantastic until it comes time for the very end game itself at which point something goes wrong, but it goes right for so long I was like, "Man, are they going to just pull the whole thing off without a hitch?" The planning works well and if your players have great plans and ideas, those should be rewarded.

3. Mini-Quests: When the 47 Ronin lose their master, they disband save for Kai who for some reason, instead of being killed, is just sold into slavery. One of the first things the Ronin do when getting back together, is seek Kai for his help in dealing with the witch of the enemy. Kai is a slave on a dutch island filled with all sorts of crazy characters and is fighting for his life in a gladiator arena when first spotted against what might as well be an ogre. The escape from slavery is short but well acted with lots of swordplay and a dash of fire to give the pursuers something else to think about. But men with no masters have no right to say, bear arms, especially katanas, the soul of a samurai.

Kai however, raised by Tengu, has the solution in something he calls, if I'm not remembering wrong, the Forest of Swords where the Tengu will give the samurai a gift of katanas if they can pass a test. It's a quick jaunt and showcases some very interesting visuals on the Tengu here who do not appear to be the traditional versions I've seen, and it has something for both the 'mundanes' and for Keanu himself to do.

Heck, part of the problem some may have had is there is too much in the time frame and that there needed to be more bits and elements given here. If this had done well, perhaps we'd have seen a movie showcasing what Kai was doing in the dutch island as a slave, perhaps we'd get to see some more of the giant warrior or the pirate with all the tattoos. A lot of potential in all those great sets and costumes.

4. Rivals: Spider Man, Bat Man, and other super heroes, have their very own rogue's gallery. Many super heroes do. Many characters in Manga, like Goku do. They have that one enemy that keeps coming back and who keeps increasing their own power in order to either beat the other character or simply to be the best at what they do. I thought for sure that after Kai was curb stompped by the big armored samurai that there would be a rematch but nope, that sucker gets blown up by explosives. It's a great scene and reminds me at least, that not everything has to come to one on one combat.

47 Ronin may not fit everyone's bill. It veers a bit from the historical version. It's heavily advertised with fantasy elements but doesn't have a LOT of them in there but at the end, I enjoyed it.

The Four (Movie)

Based on the recommendation of +Gareth Skarka , I fired up the old Netflix to watch The Four. In short, if you enjoy Wuxia style films and always wondered what it would be like if the X-Men were in Ancient China, this movie is right up your alley. Indeed, there are elements of the plot that could easily be filed off and run as a whole adventure.

I'll be discussing some specifics below so if you'd rather avoid spoilers, read no further.

1. Source Material: When I did a quick search for the Four after watching the movie, I found manga but didn't see the novels. In addition, there is a television show. One piece of source material may lead to many different interpretations. Unless you're doing something strictly by one portion or interpretation steal as much as you can.

2. Mixing Genres: While I'm only half way kidding when I speak of X-Men in Ancient China, the main characters are essentially super heroes in terms of their powers. What if they were in the Wild West though or Victorian England? In such cases, how do you adjust the setting to account not only for the existence of such individuals, but their role in society? One of the things I enjoyed about The Four is that there isn't a lot of time spent on why and how of each person's special abilities. It's almost a "gimmie" in that "This person is trained and has mastery of X and is therefore quite powerful."

3. Main Foes Becoming Minions: I've mentioned this before, and some games like Mutants and Masterminds allow you to do so but having a foe that is almost unstoppable and then shows up in large numbers? Well, looking at the X-Men, we see that happen with things like the Sentinels all the time. Here it's a special type of zombie that can really only be stopped by a powerful blow to the skull. If your game system has rules to simulate the different stats for monsters you can make a creature into a minion just by changing it's type. Otherwise provide it a huge damage penalty to it's 'soft spot'.

4. Legal Immunity: There are two organizations here that seek to discover the villain in the show. While the rivalry does have it's potential problems, the political levels involved showcase how difficult it can be to take down someone whose in a favored position. This is probably more true in today's modern society with catch phrases such as "Too big to Jail" and "Too big to fail" tossed around. Think about it. Billions of dollars gone from the economy in a heartbeat and no one goes to jail for it? Think about how slow things move in terms of corruption cases as corporations go back and forth and laws themselves are changed around it. Depending on the nature of the game, you can tweak the players a bit by having their opponent so high up the food chain that unless all of their is are dotted and their ts crossed, or their can force their opponent into doing something  clearly illegal, that their efforts will require a lot of preplanning.

5. Rivals. There are several rivalries that move throughout the story. One is of the love interest and another on the group level. The interesting thing here, is the writer's didn't go for making one group bad and this makes it more difficult to have any permanent resolution in terms of just pulling the swords out and finishing off the other group. When two people are trying to do the same job, it can create extra levels of stress, especially if the rewards for success or failure, are high.

6. Subterfuge. While rivals are seeking to outdo each other and high placed merchants have their way, there are also double agents involved. While one of these double agents is essentially known from the start, there are others who are not. Having motivations that are below the surface for characters below your games can provide another layer of game play as the players seek to understand who is with them and who is against them. Depending on the ruthlessness of the opposition, their enemies may be willing to sacrifice those spies they have in order to show the surviving spies are 'really' on the character's side.

7. Multiple Motivations. In the original Star Wars trilogy, Darth Vader's ultimate motivations or drives aren't fully known until push comes to shove and instead of ruling the galaxy by the Emperor's side, he decides to essentially kill himself and save his son. His motivation to rule the galaxy, to serve, and to have his son at his side were all in conflict. Using a flow chart, you can map out several motivations for the non-player characters and draw their personal conflict into the game in such a fashion. In Dragonball Z, Piccolo is out to destroy Goku but when they discover there are bigger fish to fry, put aside their hostilities towards one another. During that time, while Piccolo and Goku don't necessarily become best friends, Piccolo's loyalty to Goku's son, Gohan does, which provides Piccolo a different set of motivations then he had previously. Character growth occurs when multiple desires come into conflict with one another.

Prince of Ravens by Richard Baker

I mentioned, some time ago, Amazon having a few Forgotten Realms novels for sale for $2.99. Prince of Ravens by Richard Baker was one of them. The same book in the same format is now $6.15. I wonder where Amazon comes up with these prices eh?

I finally managed to get around to reading it. It's not a bad yarn but I have some 'issues' with it if you will. Let me say that there will be spoilers.

In designing your campaign, there are many options. In resuming a campaign, there are many options. Prince of Ravens takes one of the heroes of the Forgotten Realms and puts him in the 'new' setting of the Forgotten Realms some one hundred years after his own timeline. The immense problems in terms of suspension of disbelief hit hard and fast for me.

For one thing, if I read a book by say Mark Twain or Harold Lamb, or something from an even older time, the language is different. Oh sure, it's still English but the way words are used, indeed, the very words used, are massively different in style and tone.

If I go to an old neighborhood, the buildings are different. The very designs are different. In some areas, the buildings may be so worn down and dilapidated that its a safety hazard even to be near them.

Food changes. The types of food popular now are not in any way, shape or form the foods that people even fifty years ago were eating.

Jack, the main hero who is time lost, basically comes into Ravensbluff going, "Man, it sucks that everything and everyone I ever loved is dead, but hey, some style changes to clothing and I'm good to go again man. Awesome."

The problem with a generic setting like the Forgotten Realms is fully showcased here in that it remains a generic setting for this tale as Jack is able to easily fit into the modern world with such little difficulty that its evident the more things change, the more they stay the same.

So what's my point? In a fantasy setting, all of this can be explained with a wave of the hand. Yeah, pretty much. But I guess my point is, in designing your campaign, you still wind up using all the static elements that were used so predominatnly before without bringing in the things that were supposed to make the setting what it is now, like Swordmages, like Dragonborn, like Spellplague, and other bits, that Richard has used in other novels, don't change the setting.  It may be strange to think it, but companies can still write stories about their characters in those 'olden' times. How many Batman, Spiderman, and even Conan origins have we been subject to? Learn from the properties some of your more fantastic elements seek to emulate.

One thing that Richard does well here, which is a tremendous paint in many role playing games that are detail intensive, is multiple parties of adventurers with the unexpected popping up. For example, Jack is looking for a book. They encounter some villains and battle. As they move forward, they encounter another group of adventurers. Plus some more villains and their leader! While not breaking out into a three way brawl, the battle in a role playing game, like Rolemaster or 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons, could be a huge time sink as you now have multiple groups of characters to run as the GM and interact with the players.

There are also cases of characters 'breaking' the rules. One of the characters is the 'warlord' who is immune to all magic, both good and bad. At the end of the novel, Jack loses his own spellcasting ability and the 'warlord' gains access to magic. In a point based game like Hero or GURPS, that might be considered a 'radiation' accident via the old Marvel Super Heroes where there were in game reasons for why your character changed.

If players want to change their characters, see if you can build it into the game itself as opposed to bringing in a whole new character but only do so if it fits the feel and mood of the campaign proper. You don't want Spellplagues and Wildmagic and other nonsense popping up every other session because someone wants to play the latest and greatest class race combo.

Prince of Ravens is a very character driven story and provides a quick look as to how an out of time character might interact with the new setting and finds it same as it ever was.

Thief in the Night by David Chandler

Thief in the Night is the second book in the Ancient Blade Trilogy by David Chandler. I see over on David's website that when I found the first book for $2.99, that was a temporary sale. Man, dude needs to update that blog some more or have some links to his more modern work or more complete work. Last updated on 2011? And I thought I was bad.

Anyway, Thief in the Night continues the tale of Malden and Croy and the woman who they both love as well as dwarfs, dungeon ruin exploration, barbarian introductions and all manner of other interesting bits that would feel right at home in most role playing games. I'll be talking about specific spoilers below so if you would rather avoid that, read no further.

1. Racial Changes: I've mentioned before that in various settings, one way to make things stand out a bit is to change the 'core' fantasy races around.  In the Riyria series by Michael J. Sullivan, the elves were vastly powerful and held at bay only through honorable agreements with their ancient pacts. Here, the elves were wiped out. Well, apparently not all wiped out as Malden and his friends discover in this novel as the elves have changed to more suit an underground civilization. This includes breeding large beetles for meat, fungus farms, and using the 'ancient's, which appears to be a thing that resembles an old Shoggoth by a Erol Otus from the old Deities and Demigods book.

Yeah, all eyes, and teeth, and hands, and strange bits to it.

When the elves die, they 'feed' themselves to it and their knowledge is then absorbed by it. This allows the elves to draw forth on knowledge that is ancient and rare and powerful. And in the case here, to survive their imprisonment in these ancient dwarven halls.

The dwarfs continue to be fleshed out a piece at a time. Slag showcases his vulgarity with vast amounts of swearing. It's entertaining to a point mind you. He also illustrates how dwarfs have changed. They have taken to some human vices such as gambling and this has lead some, like Slag himself, to do things that lead to exile. Their numbers are also on the decline. So some of the same old same old and some new.

2. Historical Nonsense. Again, the Riyria series covered similar ground. The humans have told themselves some pretty lies about how the war against the elves went but as Malden and his comrades explore the ancient ruins, which no dwarf in modern times could ever recreate, they learn that the elves weren't beaten by the humans, but betrayed by their allies, the dwarfs at a time when they didn't necessarily want to even fight anymore in the first place. This taking huge chunks of history and reworking them can also work in a RPG but care needs to be taken so that it actually works. Here, Croy and Malden are young enough that they wouldn't know the truth. In RPGs some long lived races, like elves, or even some immortal races, would know would actually happened. Not necessarily a problem for all games, but as Dungeons and Dragons tries to throw more and more material against the wall to see what sticks, its not entirely unusual to see such a player character pop up.

3. Expanding Setting. The first volume dealt mainly with the free city of Ness. This volume, by its nature of exploration of a ruined dwarf city outside Ness, expands upon that some. We see for example, Morget, a barbarian from the opposite side of the mountains, is seeking out Croy because his destiny is to kill a demon that looks like a strange slithering thing of arms, eyes and teeth. Morget is also a wielder of one of the ancient blades, one that explodes with light. This light is painful to undead and would make a good substitute for a Mace of Disruption with an area effect were the GM wanting to incorporate something like it into their own game.

In many ways, this is a natural in role playing games. You first dungeon leads to your second dungeon. Your first exploration in the sandbox leads to the second exploration in the sandbox. Your first departure from Sigil or the Rock of Bral leads to further exploration. Don't try to cram the whole campaign into one setting. Let it develop from the actions of the players.

4. Big Changes. One of the things I've been guilty of myself, is trying to keep things, to a certain point, at a status quo. To not have any huge effects happen to the setting. David doesn't have that problem. By the end of the novel, the characters have collapsed the mountain on the elves. This leaves a pass open from Morget's people, barbarians who have a lot in common with say, vikings and crossbreed with Mongolians. So that opens up a whole new vista for them to say attack the kingdom.

5. Character Optimization: One of the things that role playing games tend to suffer from, especially when they get pregnant with rules, is that there are 'builds' and abilities that almost become mandatory to take. Malden, while perhaps one of the best 'thieves' in the setting, one of the most agile, one of the most able, is still a terrible fighter. In 3rd edition and 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, its almost impossible to play such a character as so much of the setting focuses on their tremendous back stab damage and 4th ed kicking that up even more of a notch with special abilities that put them right into the fighter's arena. 

The Game Master and player should have an understanding of what type of campaign is happening and the players should try to work with the Game Master to build characters that will thrive within it. In Malden, we have a character that is charismatic, works well with a party, and is a master thief. If the campaign requires only martial powered characters that can dish out damage, Malden would be useless. Check with the GM and hope you have one that's willing to work your abilities into the campaign.