Liebster Awards

Recently the guys at Chicago Skrimish Wargames honored me with a nod to the Liebster Awards. Not something I'm even hip enough to know about but it's cool to have someone go, "check out this guy" bit.

I mention other blogs frequently. I have a massive blog roll to the old right side of the screen. They range from miniature and writing and anime and board games to mostly RPG material. So a few call outs.

http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/ one good turn deserves another right?

http://pokeminiatures.blogspot.com/ Felix was one of the guys I would see often at my old friend's gaming store. A miniature painter who does hundreds of the little bastards a year and is involved with the Privateer Press Games and the Chicago land community. I enjoy reading his battle reports.

http://www.creativemountaingames.com/ : Mark is one of the guys whose been doing gaming goods forever and a day. He actually has a company but I mainly know him from his online persona and of course his love of all things Games Plus and the various RPGs and miniatures they have there.

http://themarienburggazette.blogspot.com/ : I'm a sucker for old school Warahmmer and some of the things associated with it.

But seriously, check out the blog roll to the right. Some very popular ones there that I'm sure most people know but probably more than a few that people are going to thank me for.

Lamentation of the Flame Princes 50% off sale

Thanks to Tenkar's Tavern, I was reminded that James, who runs Lamentations of the Flame Princes, is running a 50% off sale for the PDFs and other venues. I picked up The Magnificent Joop van Ooms, The God that Crawls, and The Monolith from beyond Space and Time. I'm thinking about Carcosa as well but for now those will do.

Anyone pick up any of those adventures? Anyone running them? Pros and Cons? I'm a player right now in a Shackled City Campaign that's been diverted into Planescape and really haven't had the time or mental fortitude to run anything but I'm always hopeful that I'll be able to drag my dead ass back into the GM seat.

The Art of Jason Engle

So I'm painting a miniature that comes from the old company, Magnificent Egos. They didn't necessarily make a big splash but they had some great figures. Some excellent assassins.

 

 They were even doing miniatures for the d20 game Oathbound as well as Monte Cook's Iron Heroes. I'm a bit unsure about what happened to the company, but they became Valiant Miniatures and even went to a resin or plastic casting way before it became the in thing to do.

One of the artist they had on hand for the visuals included Jason Engle. While looking for an upclose of one of those assassin miniatures, I stumbled across his deviantART galley. I know art is highly subjective and if you don't like Jason's style, then his art gallery probably isn't going to move you much, but there are some great named scenes in there and some potential names for different things in the campaign.

Sadly, I did not find what as I was looking for, as Koyote, the second miniature here, the painted one, really only has that one painted example and while I could have searched a bit more or hunted down some other painted examples, I didn't want to spend a ton of time on something I was just doing to knock out a few more rogues in my collection.

Heck who doesn't love a place called the City of Twilight with such colorful characters eh?

Heir of Novron by Michael J. Sullivan

The Riyria Revelations conclude in this final omnibus edition, Heir of Novron. This volume includes the two novels, Wintertide and Percepliquis.  Again, Micahel J. Sullivan's writing does not fail to impress as he weaves together numerous plot points from previous novels and ties them up.

I'll be discussing specifics from the book including spoilers so for those who want to avoid such things, read no further.

1. Elves. I mentioned previously that the elves of the setting were different. Well, the real trick is that the elves are such supreme entities that the only reason mankind wasn't wiped out was that one elf lord challenged another for control of the empire. It was a 'civilized' way of handling conflict so that many elves didn't have to fight and die. See, elf life is precious and there was no reason to do things the uncivilized way. On the other hand, the elves are so unstoppable that when it comes time to renew the challenge, they are able to take out civilization almost without trying. The music that accompanies their army for example, is so binding to humans that unless they stop their eats up, they cannot fight back. They control monsters that can only be killed with specific blades designed for that deed.

2. Deception. Sometimes those who befriend you don't really have you best interest at heart. Royce had a long time mentor who betrays him in the worst way possible because he doesn't believe Royce is worthy of a specific that was going his way. Suffice it to say that this betrayal leads to some 'bad behavior' on Royce's part as well but the whole point of someone being willing to do whatever it takes to thwart a player's designs, even if that might mean their own death, should be something that GM has in place for at least a Non-Player Character or two. Imagine a player who is about to rescue a princess when his old friend grabs her and provides a quick soliloquy that while he loves the player like a brother, this is one time he can't stand back and dives with the princess of the cliff into a volcano or something dramatic in that vein.

Sometimes the action may come as a complete surprise. Sometimes the player will have to find out from third party sources why this happened. It should always tie into the campaign. For better or worse it should be built out of the characters background stories, or better yet, out of events that happened in the campaign.

3. False History. While I appreciate how Michael J. Sullivan handles the twist here, that the savior of the empire that has enslaved elves is actually an elf himself and that the history of the whole land has been twisted to fit one madman's desires and wishes, it can be a tricky bit to handle in an established campaign setting. Pulling the veil back and telling the players, in essence, "Got You." with the background can be great fun, especially in a home brewed setting or one that the players are not intimately familiar with, but doing something like that on their own background on in an established setting with playing with setting purists can be a little more difficult. Know your audience if you're going to pull a big reveal where much of what the players know is false.

4. The Future! When the mage with no hands is killed, his cloak passes on. The wearer of the cloak starts to experience all sorts of visions and past life scenarios. Others have the ability to read the future through an individuals life line. Often times the answers aren't bold and in front but are a good method to add more information, especially if the players are stuck on something. In terms of life line reading, its also dangerous to do with elves as they tend to have very long lives and this is something that can actually lead to death if done on an elf with a very long life ahead of him.

5. The Gods! One of the father of the gods committed an unspeakable crime for which he strives to attain atonement through good deeds. Every time he does one and the act is deemed acceptable, he gains a white feather. This is something that's been mentioned several times in the series. At the end, we find out that Royce was given his special dagger and essentially his freedom from an inescapable prison because Royce would one day be very important and would have to redeem himself from his own actions. The whole theme of redemption and the very gentle hands of the god are good themes here as it doesn't put the deity as the forefront of the action and rather, act as a stepping stone to setting the characters on their own path. Good stuff.

Heir of Novron is a quick paced novel that will bring characters up and cast others down and provides a lot of inspiration for a fantasy campaign.

Rise of Empire by Michael J. Sullivan

Volume Two of the Riyria Revelations, Rise of Empire by Micahel J. Sullivan, continues to build on the work of Theft of Swords. The duo Royce and Hadrian, continue to work their magic. Now no longer mere rogues, they find themselves working with Alric, the king of Melengar against a newly risen empire even as Royce seeks out more information on his friend's background.

Michael's writing continues to be a breeze to read. The world continues to develop one piece at a time through the use of characters and their stories and the way the world reacts to the characters and their influence on it.

I'll be discussing some spoilers from the book below so if you'd rather avoid them, know this; if you enjoyed the first book, you'll enjoy this one which is an omnibus edition of Nyphron Rising and The Emerald Storm.

1. Make Your Own God! This is something that will crop up again later but when the 'Empire' is rising to its prominence, in part that's thanks to the rise of the Emperess. She is the ordained one, the heir of Novron who slew the mythic monster that no one else could. Thing is though, its all bunk. The Empresses is a sickly youth whose victory over the monster in the previous volume was due to the efforts of the Riyria (aka the duo) who managed to secure the weapon that she used. In addition, the church is flexing all of its power in this effort and has been doing so for quite some time. These lies on top of lies allow the whole to almost seem like one true story. Which brings us to...

2. The Role of Religion. In so many stories, in so much history, religion is such a massive force that it can change the course of history. It is even now changing the course of history. Do not underplay its importance to the setting. Unlike some things in a campaign, even in fantasy campaigns that rely on massive pantheons and not a single deity, religions often cross countries, often cross continents. The methods and specifics of each may be different and at the end of the day, if there are no other enemies they may turn on each other for heresy and harboring heretics, but prior to that, they will band together against outside forces and threats. The church can have members in various militaries. They can have members in different guilds. They can have the heart and soul of the common people. Its often why some nations completely outlaw religion in an effort to remove that influence from their own rule. Think on how church and state vie for power. Think of where the heart of the church is. Ponder at what the roles within the church are. There's so much meat in religion that its a shame to just use it as a place where clerics come from.

3. Players Role: Good players are more than just a single set of stats. Even if they weren't though, as they rise in level, even the most mundane and martial of them, are often more than a match for a soldier or a patrol of soldiers or even an army of soldiers. When engaging the players in a setting where war is around the corner, try to have a shopping list of things that the players can do that can change the tide of war. Fighting in the front lines is one thing, and if you're not playing Rolemaster or Warhammer (at least the 1st and 2nd edition), where a good roll can kill even a high level character, then players butchering their way through low level soldiers can be quite boring after a while. Have dispatches that they need to intercept. Have secret labs that they need to raid. Have vehicles with coded languages that they need to break. Have power sources that need to be destroyed. Keep the players from being more than soldiers but do it with a good reason.

4. Character Growth: Depending on where in their lives players meet NPCs, such characters should change. Younger characters can take on traits of those PCs that they favor. On the other hand, they may take on the opposite traits of those they dislike. Characters may also grow in abilities as well. For example, in the series, Arista, a princess who initially sets the duo on their way in the first book, has grown in her own abilities not only in terms of her commanding and taking more royal responsibility, but also in terms of sheer power as she's essentially, the last human mage alive. Allowing the cast of characters around them to grow is one way of keeping the setting a bit 'stagnant' if you will but does allow the players to continue travelling with those they know. Think about it in Dragon Ball Z terms. Almost all of the characters gain powers at one point or another but Goku is still pretty much the man to beat.

5. The Good Bad Guy: I'm not talking about characters like Royce who are often painted with a black brush despite their numerous good deeds. Rather, I'm talking about characters like Regent Saldur. He's a player in many ways. He's able to talk about the woes of men and about the wonders of the old empire. He's able to claim sympathy for any worthy cause and friendship to one and all. But if you get in his way you better make sure you're ready to fight to the death and look over your back every second of the day. He comes across as a character devoted to the common man, but much like, say Marvel Comics Doctor Doom, he does so because he feels that he knows better than the common man what needs to be done in order to assure a better tomorrow. Yes, kings may need to die today, and friends may need to be betrayed, but in that 'big picture', it's all worth it. You see, tomorrow will be a better world under his guidance.

6. Destroy the Boat! The Emerald Storm is a boat that the duo wind up traveling along in the second volume here. Like most fantasy RPGs I've been in, it gets destroyed. All too often, that's the fate of the boat. Destroy it and move on with the action. There's nothing wrong with long term campaigns that revolve around boats. Master and Commander and the series by Patrick shows that. But most RPGs aren't going that route as there are often long stretches of boredom so that the only TIME you need to wake the players is when something, often something horrible, is happening.

7. New Lands. While the starting point of the book is somewhat familiar to readers of the previous books, the duo move to new areas here and find themselves fighting against new foes. Most campaign settings are huge in nature and scope. Don't hesitate to throw the players into new arenas when they've gotten too comfortable or familiar with their current landscapes.

Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

Sometimes the good old Science Fiction Book Club catches my eye with a sale. I had never heard of Michael J. Sullivan before and SFBC had two books already out with an option to preorder the third. It was some impressive sale where it would be like $5 per title with no shipping. Hell, might even have been last Thanksgiving when I bought them. I checked out the ebook versions first. While I don't mind ordering from SFBC, I also don't like having all of these physical books around.

Well, through Amazon and other vendors, the price was then, as it is now, something like $9.99 per volume. Uh... no. So off the order went to the SFBC, as well as some others, where mind you, one of the books I did order was less expensive through Amazon, and when I did receive my order, they sat for many, many, many moons. Most of that time still in the box it was shipped in mind you.

I had a few days off thanks to Turkey day so I went in and read Theft of Swords and quickly devoured it and the sequels, Rise of Empire and Heir of Novron. Each book is actually an omnibus edition with two novels within it.

Theft of Swords for example, is actually The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha. While both do involve the acquisition of swords the two aren't necessarily that related. I found the reading to be fairly light but engaging at the same time. While there is a lot of background we are feed through various characters, none of it seemed as heavy or detailed as say, A Game of Thrones or Wheel of Time. These tales are far more like Conan or Fafrd and the Grey Mouser in that they tend to be more character stories, even though there is an over arching story.

The two main characters, Royce, a rogue with a dark disposition and his comrade, Hadrian, a warrior who carries around a wide variety of swords and is Royce opposite in attitude, are enjoyable to read about. 

If your looking for some quick reading material, Theft of Swords, and the whole series of the Riyria Revelations, has you covered.

Below, I'll be discussing some of the material which will include spoilers

1. Reputation. Some of the characters here are known for their skill set. Some are known for their outlooks and attitudes. Neither Royce nor Hadrian are fresh characters that are on their first mission and are presented as skilled, at the peak of their ability, rogues. Others are known for their sword mastery. These reputations provide the characters with quick hooks to hang plot lines about and on. For example, one character lost a sword fight earlier, supposedly because he did not have his personal sword. Later on, when he does have that sword? We do see indeed it is a special weapon.

2. Named Styles. Hadrian is a master of several fighting styles of ancient origin that make him essentially unbeatable in individual combat when he wields his prefered weapons. Others know parts of those styles. In the old Complete Fighter's Handbook, there was a small effort at making things like One Handed Style, Two Handed Style, and others. Later editions added onto this with feats, prestige classes, level substitution abilities and more. Depending on the complexity of the game, this may be something that needs to be done. On the other hand, if your playing a tenth level fighter in a first edition game and want to say you're a master of the M'alfa'z style, what's to stop you? Game mechanics are important and do have their place but when adding details and background to the game do no harm, the should be encouraged.

3. The Not Quite All Powerful Wizard. In many genres of fantasy, wizards are ancient and powerful beings. This novel brings us Esrahaddon, a wizard who is an ancient prisoner with vast pools of knowledge but those who captured him were not going to take any chances on him having full access to his power so they removed his hands. This allows him to act as a knowledge source and still provide valuable information ,especially to lost eras of the setting, but doesn't make him some defacto genie that can do all the work but still somehow relies on others to do the tasks for him. Its a nice change of pace.

4. The Knowledge Continues! In addition to the wizard who has vast stores of knowledge, there is still a whole wide world out there. This is where Myron comes in. This monk, and that's not the kind that traditionally Dungeons and Dragons has used, but rather, the historical, scholarly type, has a photographic and perfect memory where he can read something and remember it for future use. Tie this into his lack of exposure to the 'real' world due to his time spent in the monastary and you have a character that is constantly surprised by the outside world but who has a wealth of knowledge that may be more commonly known but is not often known by say, two rogues who are caught up in events that may be past them.

5. Race Reversal: Well, this one is a bit more popular these days. The dwarves for example, have no empires and are often in the slums despite their ability to work metals and engineer marvels unlike any others. The elves, at least those we see early on, are not the masters of the forest. They are not the masters of the arcane. They are not lofty. They are essentially a slave race. While I've heard of this being done in several other fantasy media, such as Dragon Age and The Witcher I believe, it's my own first encounter with it and it's an interesting twist for me. Even Royce who can see in the dark, tends to keep his heritage, of being a mir, human with at least some elf blood, secret.

6. The Talos! Well, not quite Talos. In the old myths, Talos is a monster that only has one weakness. In this book, we come across a monster that like the Talos, only has one weakness and the players must discover what the weakness is in order to kill it. In some ways, in say, 4e, this would almost be better suited as a Skill Challenge rather than an actual fight as the combat effects and abilities of the players, unless they are following the specific manner in which to kill the creature, are useless.

7. The Play's The Thing: After their first job, there is a play based on the events of the activity. This becomes incorporated into the setting and is referenced in severla later books. It's a nice tough and shows how the characters actiosn effect the setting in direct and non-direct ways. When the players do something, how does it effect the setting? What are the repercussions? Who benefits? Who suffers? Who is inspired? Are plays written? Are histories updated?

Theft of Swords has solid characters and a quick pace and provides some food for thought to those running RPGs.

Conan: Black Colossus Volume 8

Recently I was at Half Price Books when they were having one of their sales. In this instance, it was 50% off on a Sunday so I picked up this volume of Conan for like a fiver. From what I know, there are already several volumes past this one but I'll have to wait for the store to have it in stock and for another sale. Thankfully one of those criteria will be met tomorrow and I'll have to see if the other is when I go there.

And sorry if I'm pitching out so many of those mini-notes on the Conan books but while I've got some time off, I figured I'd better take advantage of it.

In the collected Conan comics that make up volume 8, Timothy Truman is joined by Tomas Giorello and Jose Villarrubia. This collection features a new telling of Black Colossus which has had a few interpretations over the years.

One of the biggest problems this volume faces is found in the early version with art by John Buscema. His line work is fantastic. It's not that the artists here are bad mind you. The artist who does the chapter breaks, Joseph Michael Linser, is top notch and I'd love to see him fully illustrate some Conan.

John's artwork though, is gigantic in scope. From the first page of the original, where Shevatas a thief stands on an outcropping of rock locking over the ruins of Kutchemes, the tone is set. In the new version... it's almost a little too carton like in scope in terms of the line work. It's too bright, too vivid. John's artwork relies on the almost impossible to appreciate details he puts into it. His pages are often packed with illustrations while the new volume uses pages like they were going out of style.

Now mind you, that may be part of the whole publishing bit. When stories like this are told for today's audience, the intent is usually to collect them which requires a certain number of pages and issues to do so. John didn't necessarily have to worry about that and may have had to ram the page with art.

The good news though, is the new version is actually more... useful for mining for role playing ideas. It has a few things that I've mentioned are useful to gaming before. For example, Conan has work as a mercenary. His patron keeps him around because he's the best swordsman he has. Sounds like something players would fall into with their unusual skill sets.

In addition, dreams are a part of the scenario here. The princess who hires the mercenaries Conan is allied with is haunted by visions of a sorcerer who desires her for his queen. She on the other hand seeks out wisdom in the temple of Mirtra and is provided instruction. Dreams and the messages of the gods working their ways on the campaign may seem a bit high fantasy for a Conan tale but they're in both versions. Visions and omens from the gods and supernatural elements shouldn't be overlooked as ways to hint at things.

Conan also discovers that working for mercenaries means that there are those who might not like a potential threat to the status quo. In this case, he makes an enemy of a fellow officer who causes a bit of trouble for him. Having rivals that the party members can't simply kill right away due to time or circumstance can add a level of pressure to the players as they have more things to take into account when they make their plans.

Speaking of that circumstance, having something ready and on hand to throw into the campaign to keep it moving is always a good idea. When the mercenaries here are at rest, Conan's patron finds out that they're not getting paid and so that leads to the mercenaries sacking the town and then moving on. Be prepared to move the adventure forward and push the players so that they're not always just sitting around waiting for the next mission.

In terms of my biggest fault with the new version here, is something that probably wouldn't hurt to throw in the campaign every now and again just to add that dreaded 'realism' to the setting. In this collection, the sorcerer who survived three thousand years and the sacking of his own city, loses his powers because he was so focused on getting his queen that he failed to abide by the terms of his pact with his demon god Set. Love makes people do crazy things. Throwing some weakness like this into your master villain can make them more interesting and rounded.