Mini Review - The Rising Dark: An Introduction to Agraphar (Swords & Wizardry)

I'm always a sucker for a new campaign setting.  Even if I never use it as written, there are always ideas for me to steal.  As far as resources go, they are more valuable and flexible then an adventure.

The Rising Dark: An Introduction to Agraphar is a campaign setting for Swords & Wizardry (but usable with you OSR ruleset of choice with little issue).  It is sandboxie in nature, which is always a plus in my book.

So, what do we get for our investment?  5 new races, 27 gods (some of which give their clerics special abilities - which is nice to keep things unique), magic use that can be detrimental depending on the roll (referred to in the rules as Corruption), maps, a breakdown of localities, an adventure, lots of adventure hooks.  All in all, theres a lot packed into 48 pages.  Not bad at all for $2.99.

From the blurb:

The world of Agraphar...a young land, center of an eternal conflict between chaos and order. Will you join with the forces of Ymaltar, the Sun Fury who stood strong against the darkness and created the world, or side with the darkness, trumpeting Dymachas and the lords of chaos in their quest to extinguish the creation of the Lord of Order?

A complete adventure setting compatible with the Swords & Wizardry rule system and sufficiently mechanics-lite to be easily adapted to other fantasy RPGs
Designed for the GM who is interested in a new setting that provides a sandbox setting for adventures, but doesn't overwhelm with detail.

Features:27 new gods
Corrupting magic
Aasimar, satyr, tiefling, gnome and faerie character races
A Gazetteer of northwestern Tariach
Hand-rendered maps
A detailed adventure location in "The Doom of Zeramath"
New monsters
Plot ideas and advice

The Trollish Taproom - A Closer Look at Spite Damage

Spite Damage as a concept is great.  Each 6 rolled on a d6 is damage that makes it thru, even against the side that wins.  In a Tunnels & Trolls game with a GM and a full party, it adds to the drama and the tactics of the party.  It also makes the Poor Baby spell even more valuable then it was before.

In Solo Play, spite sucks.  Big time.  Unless you are willing to declare it is a player ability only, and deny it to the monster side of things, it makes the solo adventures unplayable.

Look at it this way.  Each encounter a player survives, he carries over his spite damage to the next encounter.  The next adversary will be fresh.  Spite was added to prevent the endless combats of evenly matched and armor opponents, but instead it whittles the player down to nothing as the adventure goes on.

This problem goes is worse with the 7e rules of T&T - monsters no longer lose attack dice as their MR goes down, just Combat Adds.  So yes, even more potential spite damage.

Pretty much every T&T solo published by FBI is pre-T&T 5.5e - pre-spite in other words.  They are not balanced for spite, and they are not balanced for monster's not losing combat dice as their MR gets whittled down.

This was all pretty obvious as I sat down to game last nite.

So, if you are going to run any of your 7.5e characters thru an earlier solo, these are my recommendations:

- Only your PC's attacks generate spite.  It won't make much of a difference, but every little bit helps.

- Damage to a monster's MR results in a loss of CA and Combat Dice (if appropriate)

- As long as you CA are appropriate for the adventure, you wont need to worry about adjusting monster MRs - 7.5e characters tend to be more powerful then earlier editions, but solos are balance against CA, so it all works.

Taking a Look at Chivalry & Sorcery

I never had a copy of Chivalry & Sorcery.  I had heard about it when I picked up roleplaying back in the early 80's, but no one in my group owned a copy.  Heck, no one in my group had seen a copy outside of a game store.  I do remember the ads in Dragon Magazine.  The ads seemed to me to infer the game was damn complicated.  The ads were probably right.

So, here we are, nearly 30 years later, and I am the proud owner of a previously owned copy of Chivalry & Sorcery.  It's a beat up copy, that appears to be well used, but I question how well read it actually was.  It seems that a previous owner underlined and otherwise marked up the first 10 1/2 pages and then just stopped.  Which I can understand, as this looks like a textbook, and the font is damn tiny.

Unlike Tunnels & Trolls,  this is not a line I'll be looking to complete, but I did need to actually see what all the fuss was about.

I'm not sure if I'll ever read thru this whole thing myself, but if I do, it will be in very small chunks ;)

The Trollish Taproom - More Thoughts on the Frankentroll

I figure I'm on vacation for a week, a Staycation if you will, so besides cleaning and gaming, I need to think about how I want to run my upcoming Tunnels & Trolls campaign.

Definitely gonna run with the stable of 10 characters fro each player to choose from, using the keep 3 of 4d6 method, with TARO.  I want my players to be above average... they are heroes.  Death will still come easy... it is Tunnels & Trolls after all.

Thinking of using the total AP earned for level determination from 5.5e, but stat gain as per 7.5e - assuming it doesnt get too confusing.

Stats as per 7.5e

SR as per 7.5e

Missile combat as per... I don't friggn know.  It get's changed more often then my 8 week old niece's diapers.  There has to be a workable method.  This requires some thinking.

Classes and talents as per 7.5e

Actually, if in doubt, using 7.5e I think.

Warriors will gain CA as per my chart from an earlier post.  Paragons do not get the bonus, so it should be a decent boost to warriors.

See?  I'm thinking...

Heh ;)

The Trollish Taproom - I Survived The Dark Temple and All I Got Was This Pair of Ogre Gloves!

Well, not exactly.  I did get some other loot too, and some of it may be useful at a later point, but none of is was that overpowering type of loot the earlier solos were known for, like excessive combat dice weapons.

So, what did the Man With No Name (I forgot to name my new PC, so he will now be "Joe" from A Fist Full of Dollars) get for surviving these adventure?

A 4d6 Katar that can hit magical creatures as if it were magic

A pair of Ogre gloves that add +1d6 to unarmed combat

A potion of Curare

About 1700 gp, 487 sp and 11 gems of unknown (unrolled) quality

Oh, and about 2013 AP

This is how I ran the game:

PC creation was 4d6 (drop 1 die) with TARO (only the TARO get rolled over, not all 4), rolling up a stable of 10 PCs - Human Only - 7.5e Stats - I put the highest stat in CON - Figured longevity at its best.

With my 6th character I had 2 TAROs and all stats were 12 or over, so I went Paragon.  Woot!  Still, most adventures don't allow much, if any magic, but still fun to roll.

I used spite for the Player only - T&T solo combat is deadly enough without spite for the adversaries.

My single fudge was with the mental combat encounter - I don't think any non-pure caster could win as written, and no one would put a pure caster thru an adventure lacking a Spell Matrix.  So I made myself make a level 2 Saving Roll vs luck as per the T&T 5e rules to peel of 1 of the 3 mobs first.  Yeah, not quite within the rules of the solo, but something that may have worked with a GM.

The Dark Temple was a very entertaining solo to go thru.  Well written and fun.  Took me nearly 2 hrs from start to finish.

I did run it as a hodge-podge of 5e and 7.5e, but that worked okay.

I think I will treat level as total expo earned, but use the 7.5e method of spending AP to raise stats.  Need to pick an adventure for tomorrow now ;)

Mini Review - Kingmaker (An OSR Adventure)

Dungeon crawls are nice and all, but an adventure that is driven by roleplay and character interaction (along with some combat - can't forget that) is comparatively rare in fantasy roleplaying.

An adventure that can kick off a campaign for first level characters, that doesn't include a single map (although it does include generic tokens for combat if desired) is a wonder to behold.

Kingmaker is all this and more.  It has a plot full of intrigue and plot twists, but it is easy from the GM to follow.  As always, I look at these adventures in terms of both D&D and converting to Tunnels & Trolls - and this could probably be converted on the fly.

Nicely done with simple but evocative artwork.

From the blurb:

"Tragedy has fallen on the Kingdom of Ambarge-the King is dead; long live the King!  But the kingdom's woes have only just begun, for the crown prince, the King's sole heir, is nowhere to be found.  The fate of their kingdom rests on the deeds of a handful of wayward pilgrims that walk a solitary road in a remote land."

Kingmaker is a single session, first-level adventure, designed to drop into any campaign. But this is not your average kobold lair. Kingmaker is an intense standoff with high stakes and tremendous repercussions as it falls to a band of first level characters to decide the fate of thousands.

Mini Review - Battlemap - Dark Crypts (Chambers

I don't use battlemaps, but I do use maps for battles.  See, my gaming is over Virtual Table Tops.  So I need to either struggle to draw one on my own, using one of the many programs I own but don't fully understand - or I need to find one on the 'Net and make it work for me.

Today, I really envy those that can play on a regular table top.

Dark Crypts - Chambers is a collection of 4 battlemaps for use in your table top RPG settings.  They look damn good.  I'm sure there is a way to covert these to a format I an use with a VTT, but if I was running a face to face game I'd be building an adventure around these.  They are meant to be used.

Lord Zsezse Works also offers a free T-builder Lite, so you can work on building and printing out tiles of your own design.

PDFs and the Art of Art

Some folks love the art in their PDF game books, others just don't care.  For some publishers its a high priority, other's are happy to use clipart.

Here's where I fall in the scheme of things as a customer:

1 - The Cover is Where it's At - Since you can't flip thru a PDF like you might a book at the bookstore, your cover is the first impression.  Sometimes, its the only impression.  Make it count.

2 - Don't go Crazy on the Pages - Some publisher's like to make the page around, behind, below their text all supped up with background art and such- DON'T!  It can cause issues with certain e-readers (the Amazon Kindle / Kindle DX comes to mind, but it messes with others too).  It wastes my ink if I want to print out the pages.  Last, it can make some products a real pain to read.  This last part applies to print books too.

3 - Less is More - Remember, if I decide to print your product out, the art is going to kill my ink.  Black and white art is fine.  Less shading and filling is better.  Heck, if you can give me two versions (one for printing, one for on screen reading) so much the better.

4 - No Art is Better Then Crap - If you aren't an artist, don't know one, can't afford one, use some of the great clipart that is available.  Or avoid the art altogether.  Trust me, no one wants to see bad art in an otherwise good product.

5 - Don't Forget the Tablets - As iPads and other tablets take off, more and more RPG PDFs (and other e-reader formats) are going to be read on electronic devices.  White Haired Man and Greg (He of Boundless Creativity) are already taking that into account, and I expect others to soon follow suit.

Just some of my thoughts.

The Trollish Taproom - From Yassa Massa! to Spirit Mastery

Troth asked earlier this week if 2nd level Spirit Mastery spell in the 7e Tunnels & Trolls rules had it's roots in the 2nd level Yassa-Massa! spell from earlier editions. So I opened up my copies of earlier editions to take a peek.

These are copied word for word, tense for tense, punctuation for punctuation, capital letter for capital letter, etc. So yes, earlier editions were a bit unclear...

T&T 1e: Yassa-Massa! To be used only on previously subdued monsters / foes. Total strengths I.Q. & Charisma. Will permanently enslave monsters with with ratings lower then the above total.

T&T 2e: Yassa-Massa! To be used only on previously subdued monsters / foes. Total strength, I.Q. & Charisma. Will permanently enslave monsters with with ratings lower then the above total.

T&T 3e (1st UK ed): Yassa-Massa! Previously subdued Monsters or foes are permanently enslaved if their Monster Ratings are lower then the combined Strength, I.Q. and Charisma of the caster. Monster must have surrendered or lost half his Constitution or M.R. for Spell to work.

T&T 4e: Yassa-Massa! To be used only on previously subdued monsters / foes. Total strength, I.Q. & Charisma. Will permanently enslave monsters with with ratings lower then the above total.

T&T 5e: Yassa-Massa To be cast on previously-subdued monsters / foes. Will permanently enslave if victim's ST, IQ and CHR are less then that of the wizard, or if the MR is less (and remains so).

T&T 7.5e: Spirit Mastery This spell enslaves its target to the caster"s will for as long as the total of the caster's INT, WIZ and CHR are greater than the combined total of those three attributes for the target. If the victim has a Monster Rating, it's MR must be less than the caster's total for INT, WIZ and CHR.


So, basically, in 1e the foe had to be subdued first. I'm no expert on the earlier T&T rules, so if there are subdual rules in in T&T 1e I can't find them. It's also poorly written and typo'ed, but it was a work in progress back then.


As for 2e, again with the subdued condition I can't find, but at least the spells power can be figured out now.


UK 1e makes sense, explains the condition the monster / foe must be in for the spell to work. I could use this spell


4e is the same as 2e - same problems.


5e is the same - how the heck do you do subdual damage in Tunnels and Trolls editions 1-5? Hey, found an answer dating back to 2001 from Tori Bergquist- I suspect this houserule was well in use, just never made it to the rules. 5.5e has info on "Pulling your punches", but it isn't what the Yassa-Massa spell needs to fulfill it's requirements.


7.5e changes the name and no longer needs the foe to be subdued, which is good, as I don't think 7e has the rules for it either (I'm too tired to check). Oh, and it replaces STR with WIZ in the spell power. Oh, and it may not be permanent - watch out if your WIZ drops during use.


So there you have it, the evolution of a Tunnels & Trolls spell from 1e to 7.5e.

QuickStart - Shadowrun

Shadowrun is one of those games that I picked up when it was first released, back in the Silver Age of RPGs.  I loved the ideas and setting, but was never able to ween my players off of AD&D at the time.  It's gone thru some changes and editions.  Now, Catalyst Games gives us the Shadowrun Quickstart rules for the 4th edition.

You get an adventure, pre-gens and a striped down version of the rules.  I haven't picked up Shadowrun since the first release, so I can't tell you how much they pare off from the latest edition, but they give you what you need to run a quick session.

Westerns Have a Good RPG Feel - An Afternoon of Watching Gunslingers

I started out by watching The Quick and the Dead, followed that with the original True Grit and wrapped it all with A Fist Full of Dollars. Very different movies but all had a similar theme of redemption.

Then again, westerns are American mythology, so I can understand the similarity in themes between westerns and RPG adventures: revenge, justice, gaining some gold, etc.

This could make for an interesting series of posts, if I ever get to all the other posts I want to get to ;)

Pricing the PDF Product Properly and Profitably - Answering My Own Questions

So, on Wednesday I asked a lot of questions about PDF pricing, but I never answered any of them myself. I figure I probably should give that a try - so here it goes:

Is there a ratio between PDF and Paper pricing of the same item?  I'd guesstimate a proper PDF price to be about 60-75% for items under $10 in print, and 35%-60% for items about $10 in print.  This is not written in stone.

What price point is too high, no matter the number of the pages (size)?  $31.99 is damn high.  Not sure if it is too high, but it certainly isnt customer friendly.

Is there a page to price ratio that you, as a consumer, use to evaluate PDF value?  10 cents a page for items under 50 pages, with the cents per page dropping as the product gets longer... there is no exact science

Do certain publishers deserve a premium price for their PDFs? If so, why?  I don't really have an answer for this, but some publishers certainly think their PDFs  deserve a premium price.

Is FREE a selling point for you, or something the consumer should avoid? Does a $1 price point imply more value then FREE? Why?  I enjoy free stuff, and the OSR has lot's of amazing stuff priced for free, so I think free works well.

Does top shelf art add value to a PDF the same way it adds value to a paper product?  Art adds to the impulse buy when flipping thru a printed product in a store... PDFs lack that ability, so I'd have to say art is less important for PDFs.

Are lower production values accepted for a PDF product then the same in paper?  Probably.  

Does finding a PDF product is also available as a Print on Demand product add value to the PDF? How about a PDF / POD Bundle?  If something is available in POD, and you get the PDF for free, I'll probably grab the bundle over just getting the PDF alone.

Those are my answers.  I have a blog, therefore, I am an expert.  NOT!

Stay at Home Vacation = Work + Play

I'm on vacation next week, and with the possible exception of the holiday weekend starting tomorrow, it will be an "at home" vacation - which means i have a lot to do around the house.

The non-fun part will include lots of cleaning, disposing, removing and reorganizing (assuming such things were actually organized in the first place).

Fun parts will hopefully include - a Solo a day, whether T&T, Bean!, MS&PE or whatever - an hour or so of gaming a day should rock. Besides, I still need to do the solo system comparison.

Working on my VTT powered Tunnels & Troll campaign - I really need to get this up an running.

Get thru my reviewer's pile of products to review. We will see how this goes.

All that and spend time with my son. He's off too. Which is, of course, the reason I chose this week to be off ;)

Mini Review - B1 Journey to Hell (for OSRIC)

So, as to keep a balance in PDF cost in the items I post about, I present B1 - Journey to Hell from Sacrosanct Games.  For a mere 4 quarters, 20 nickels (none wooden), 1 measly dollar, you get about a dozen and a half pages of adventure for your party that has reached legendary status in OSRIC (or any of the OSR family of RPGs).

As an aside, about 25 years ago I put my party on an adventure thru Hell - fudged stats, levels 16-22, DM PC, vorpal blades (the beheaded Asmodeus)- the best of Monty Hall from back in the day.  I've yet to run a PC of my own, or DM for a party in which any character made it past level 11 in the years since then.  So I'm not someone that can tell you if this new Journey to Hell is balanced or not for levels 18-20.  I certainly can't say how well it works for the Altus Adventum version that is also included in the package.

I can say that I've already found a section that I can steal and modify for use in another game, so I figure most should get their buck's worth, even if not used as written.

From the blurb:


In a desperate bid to bring his queen back to life, King Heltrhop made a foolish pact with the demon, Astaroth. Astaroth has possessed the king, trapping him in hell. Now the party must make a journey into hell itself to rescue the king and save the world from a demon invasion.

B1, Journey to Hell is an adventure for both the OSRIC (or other favorite old school version) and the Altus Adventum 2nd edition role-playing games.  Versions for both systems are included.  It is based off of Dante's Inferno, and takes the heroes into Hell itself in a bid to save the king.  This adventure is designed for characters level 18-20 (OSRIC version) or Legends (Altus version).

While not being directly linked to the A1-A4 series of  $1 adventures from Sacrosanct Games, there are a few references to those modules.  While none of those are required to play the game, having them would put a lot of things into better context if you had.

Pricing the PDF Product Properly and Profit - A Look at the Castle Keeper's Guide

I've seen some "loud" reactions to the pricing of the CKG in PDF on my blog, other blogs, forums... it isn't pretty. Amazingly enough, the feelings toward Troll Lord Games are still highly positive, but there is a bit of a disconnect in the PDF pricing of the Castle Keeper's Guide.

Lets look at how TLG has priced the 4 different releases of the CKG:

Hardcover - $39.99

Softcover - $29.99

Digest Size - $24.99

PDF - $31.99

In my opinion, the PDF version should never be priced more then a print version. TLG is selling the PDF at a 20% discount from the hardcover price, which still makes it roughly a 28% mark up from the digest size. Why buy it in PDF?

A better price would be a 20% discount from the digest size, putting it at $19.99. Of course, I'm just talking outa my ass, but that's what we bloggers do ;)

Castle Keeper's Guide for Castles & Crusades Released on RPGNow

Holy Crap, this thing is huge.  The PDF is 292 pages long.  It will take me a long time to get thru this to even attempt a review.  Most likely I'll have to review it in sections.

It's almost mythical in nature, as the Castle Keeper's Guide has been talked about pretty much since the release of the C&C Player's Handbook back in 2004.

At first glance (and only the first 40 pages or so) it reminds me a bit of Unearthed Arcana for AD&D, but that isn't accurate really.  It's more a feel then reality.  This seems like so much more.  Options.  Options.  Options.

Damn, sensory overload ;)

From the blurb:


The long awaited arrival of the CKG is finally here!
Rule Book, 280+ pages
Alea Iacta Est - The die is cast!

Upon Foundations of Stone
Beneath the walls and towers of adventure, beneath the ground upon which the adventurer treads, lies the foundation. It is that which holds the construct, which drives the challenges, which brings the flavor of a world’s imaginings to light. It is the maelstrom of creation through whose eye the game of heroic chance plays out.

What Lies Within
The Castle Keeper’s Guide includes a host of new material for the role playing enthusiast. From world creation, to dungeon designs, managing non-player characters, character attributes at high levels, spell use and cost, equipment its use and wastage, the tumult of storms, from warfare to combat, monsters, treasure, death and more. The Castle Keeper’s Guide provides the CK and the Player with a host of new tools for their use; tools designed to enhance play, not hinder it; designed to be malleable from gaming table to gaming table.

A sample of what you will find in the CKG:

• Alternative methods of attribute generation
• The featured classes expanded to the 24th level
• Equipment: outfitting for a setting, saving throws, usage, costs
• Expansion on the Magic with components, spell costs, holy symbols, water, and more
• The NPC: how to run them, hire them, loyalty and more
• Monsters and Magic as NPCs
• The Crusade in the future: guns, canon and more
• The World Above: over view of outdoor campaigns
• The World Below: over view of underground campaigns
• The Characters, gaining levels, land and more treasure
• The Siege Engine, breaking it down for your table
• Character death. The end should not be the end

And so very much more . . . .

The CKG is the perfect expansion to everyone’s table.

The Trollish Taproom - The Many Sizes of Tunnels & Trolls 5e

Tunnels & Trolls really hit it's stride with the release of the 5th edition rules.

On the left is a second printing (Jan '80) of the T&T rules.  Later printings (including 5.5e) blow up the cover art to encompass the whole cover.

The smaller book with the orange cover is a second printing (also Jan '80) of the Tunnels & Trolls 5th edition for the UK.  This edition is secured by two staples, the art is a line drawing on orange cardboardy paper (that dog ears nicely.  Other then that, it's pretty much a carbon copy of it's larger sibling the best I can tell.

The yet smaller book on the far right (with the nice flash glare - go me!) is the Corgi printing (1986) of the Tunnels & Trolls rules.  It's printed on mass paperback quality paper (which means poor).  It is however, probably the easiest size for normal reading habits.  Corgi publishing is the company that decided to excise many of the sillier T&T spell names, so if that is keeping you from jumping on the T&T train, you might want to track this down.  You could also pick up the T&T Double Solo's that Corgi put out - most are still available from Flying Buffalo Inc at very reasonable prices.  Each includes a shortened version of the T&T rules, but as the character advancement and spell lists allow for advancement to level 11, you have an additional added value.

I have UK versions of some of the earlier T&T Solos, which I may post to compare to their American siblings at a later time.

Pricing the PDF Product Properly and Profitably (Say it 5 Times Fast)

Anyhow, the topic comes up on the blogosphere fairly frequently... what is the proper pricing of a PDF?

To my mind, there are many questions that need to be answered before the first question can be addressed...

Is there a ratio between PDF and Paper pricing of the same item?

What price point is too high, no matter the number of the pages (size)?

Is there a page to price ratio that you, as a consumer, use to evaluate PDF value?

Do certain publishers deserve a premium price for their PDFs? If so, why?

Is FREE a selling point for you, or something the consumer should avoid? Does a $1 price point imply more value then FREE? Why?

Does top shelf art add value to a PDF the same way it adds value to a paper product?

Are lower production values accepted for a PDF product then the same in paper?

Does finding a PDF product is also available as a Print on Demand product add value to the PDF? How about a PDF / POD Bundle?

Valentine's Twofer

When your 17 year old son wants to double date, there can be only two possible reasons: your wallet or your car. Tonight was both ;)

A romantic dinner for 2 became a diner trip for 4. Still had a good time.

Back to game related posting tomorrow. Tonight it is time to sleep...

How Official is "Official"?

Back in my AD&D days, pretty much anything published by TSR was considered "official", with Dragon Magazine articles often being referred to as "semi-official". Third party supplements, what little there were, were "not official" - they could be used by the DM, but pretty much never by the PCs.

The D20 / OGL explosion blurred many of the lines of what was / was not official for 3e, for good or bad.

With the OSR and the birth of clones / retroclones / simulacrums - there really isn't a definition of official anymore. Each ruleset is by definition a set of house rules, no matter how close they cling to their original brethren.

Actually, the strength of the OSR in my opinion is how fully the community embraces house ruling of the various rulesets. Make it your own.

Which is another reason I think I turned my nose at Tunnels & Trolls the first time I was exposed to it back in High School... it was being house ruled even back then. I wanted structure, and T&T wasn't structured like AD&D. I bought into the EGG line of "official play", but even the father of RPGs didn't follow that rule.

I'm happy to be playing games that embrace house ruling these days.