Parkinson's Cavalier Art

 The pen and ink drawings of the Cavalier in Dragon #72 by Keith Parkinson have drawn criticism by some. They said he should stick to painting. However, since I got this issue, I have always enjoyed these drawings. A warhorse-riding cavalier elf maiden? That's really awesome stuff. I appreciate the vibe and how bold the inking is.

In his Art of books, Keith acknowledges that he's sometimes struggled with drawing. I'm inclined to like these because I'm a big fan of Parkinson's work, and I have a special fondness for ink drawings. Other than these, there aren't many instances of him working with ink. DL3 Dragons of Hope are the only other examples I can think of off the top of my head.

It's obvious that the Cavalier class is overpowered. At times "game balance" didn't really seem to matter much to Gary, but it wasn't as out of hand as Paladins are! He had a talent for focusing on the cool aspects of things while ignoring or waving away the power levels. Nevertheless, you can't help but think that the cavalier is a fantastic idea for a class.

Side note: I got tired of only finding low-rez jpegs online of these illustrations, so I went to the source issue and scanned in hi-rez versions to post here.

Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon: Requiem, the Final Episode.

If you were a certain age in the 1980's the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon was something you looked forward to every Saturday morning. While most cartoons were composed of one-off episodes, the D&D cartoon had a continuing narrative and character development, in many ways ahead of its time. The cartoon was cut short before the story could be completed. Now fans have cut together using full animation and some original voice acting to create the final episode. From a script written by series writer Michael Reeves. It was fully animated using footage from the series.  The voice acting dialogue came from the DVD radio show released in 2006 by BCI eclipse. 

Original cast member Katie Leigh reprised her role of Sheila. The music was reconstructed from the original series. Some of the voice and music are uneven, but for a fan made production is very well done. 

https://youtu.be/QsNHTnY6HQg

Special thanks to Timothy S. Brannan of http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/ for the heads up.

A Princess of Mars adventure

For some time I've had this idea of turning A Princess of Mars into an action packed adventure for the Warriors of the Red Planet RPG. There are a lot of challenges to doing that, primarily that the book is a 1st person account of a single warrior's experience and how to translate that into a party adventure. I look towards Gary Gygax's Dungeonland and Beyond the Magic Mirror modules for inspiration. I think it can be done.
So I had a little fun and concepted a cover for the module. If there is any traction to the idea I'll consider developing it further.

Weta Workshop Sculptor's Labyrinth Model

For those of us with a love for fantasy who grew up in the 80's the movie Labyrinth was pretty special. The designs that Jim Henson's workshop made for that movie still hold up. The stunningly gorgeous Jennifer Connelly was any boy's dream. And of course the great David Bowie was simultaneously entrancing and terrifying as the Goblin King. Just brilliant.

Sculptor Johnny Fraser-Allen has recreated the Labyrinth and its characters in miniature as part of a board game that is being developed. Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame) visited his workshop and conducted this great interview.

You could write a pretty great RPG adventure based on Labyrinth. And the world that movie evokes is a compelling setting. I could see a series of adventures much like Gygax's Dungeonland and Beyond the Magic Mirror adventure modules!

The Upside Down Basic Roleplaying Game

I'd play this!

All the elements for a great game: a parallel dimension filled with monsters, psychic powers, shady government organizations, a secret military facility, and more!

It's like Gygax and King co-wrote a book.

Gen Con 2016 or Bust

I've made arrangements to attend Gen Con 2016!

I will be spending time at the Goodman Games booth, and will have some of my recent Original Edition game books for sale. Even if you've got them, or aren't interested in purchasing any you can swing by say hi and get a free postcard with a monster on it...the dreaded Yarglith.

It has been several years since I've made the trek to gaming mecca, so I'm really looking forward to it. Hope to see you there.

http://www.gencon.com/

Gary Gygax's TSR collection on eBay

Some really amazing products from TSR's early days here.

Races systemetized

Some time ago I had considered what basic classes might have looked like if they had received the same Gygaxian systematization that much of the other elements of OD&D had gotten. I was a little surprised at the positive response to that post and thought I'd try my hand at doing the same thing to races.

Well, I don't think the races map nearly as well, or maybe I'm just not doing it right. Here is a diagram to illustrate a first pass at the idea. Maybe you have suggestions to improve this or think it is too ridiculous an idea to even attempt.

There is definitely some wonkiness with mapping the six attributes to the basic races.

Concentric Alignment

In my youth I thought the alignment system in AD&D, with its vaguely traditional views, was a succinct summary of morals and ethics in a systematic way. Of course adulthood has a way of wiping away the simplistic views of youth as you learn how complicated morals and ethics (philosophy) really is. Also, in college my philosophy professor was a Zen Buddhist. That made for some interesting discussions.

One of the things held against basic D&D was that it's alignment system was too simple (and of course that race-as-class wasn't as cool as race + class).

But now I appreciate the elegance of original D&D and the general line of "basic" D&D. I think one of the best things it had going for it was that the management at TSR didn't seem to scrutinize it as much as some of the other lines, so Frank Mentzer and co. had more freedom to go their own creative way. And I really like how it pays homage to the original set. Still I like to ponder how to improve the alignment system, as unrealistic as it may be.

One approach I am mildly fond of is Palladium where different alignments are given specific names. It adds flavor: Principled, Anarchist, Diabolic, etc. With that in mind, and in the spirit of Gygaxian systematization here is another way to look at alignment.

What if we added another layer to the axis of Law/Chaos, Good/Evil and added Zealotry/Indifference. So someone could be mildly Lawful Good, or ZEALOUSLY Lawful Good! This chart would look something like this with concentric circles radiating out from Neutrality, the innermost circle representing Indifference and the outer circle representing Zealotry.

Now, I don't know if this is a really good idea to add to your game. It is only a thought, but an interesting one I think.

Unlimited Potential

One of my favorite paragraphs in the original edition is this little gem in Vol 3 about Other Worlds:

There should be no "natural laws" which are certain. Space could be passable because it is filled with breathable air. On the other hand the stars could be tiny lights only a few hundred miles away. Some areas of land could be gates into other worlds, dimensions, times, or whatever. Mars is given in these rules, but some other fantastic world or setting could be equally as possible. This function is up to the referee, and what he wishes to do with it is necessarily limited by his other campaign work. However, this factor can be gradually added, so that no sudden burden will be placed upon the referee.

One of the things I lament about AD&D is the way it codified what the Dimensions were. I mean I love the concept for a specific campaign world, but rather than every campaign world being unique, the infinite Prime Material planes in AD&D suggested that every world must fit within the Gygaxian concordance. You can see in the original edition there was a much more free wheeling spirit to the whole concept of worlds, cosmos, and other dimensions. This single paragraph inspires me perhaps more than any other in the original booklets.

I enjoy collecting images that inspire ideas for other cosmos ideal for a fantasy campaign:

 

Gygaxian Systematization

One of my favorite things about Gary Gygax, other than his florid language, was the way he tried to systematize everything. An impossible task, but still interesting. The way he tried to boil down the moral law into an axis of good/evil and law/chaos, or the way he tried to organize all the possible adventurer types into fighters, clerics, wizards, and thieves. I always enjoyed these attempts he made, perhaps my favorite was the inner planes. Particularly the detailed breakdown as he presented them in Dragon 73 the Sorceror's Scroll: The Inner Planes. Here is a snippet:

(the 5-cd Dragon compendium is so handy!)

This tendency towards systematizing everything probably led to the success of the original Dungeons & Dragons. How else could the mad (genius) ravings of Dave Arneson be transformed into the masterpiece that was the original white box? But this tendency also lead to absurdities, some of which have since been purged from the game. I won't dwell on what those are. Instead I want to propose an idea I've had brewing for a while. What if Gygax had developed his method of systematization to a finer degree at the time he wrote the original booklets, and what if he'd kept the focus on six character classes, one for each ability?

Here is a systematization of 6 basic character classes, one to conform to each ability. To avoid all the thief or not nonsense so often talked about, I've replaced the thief with a class called the "scout". Not only is it less morally ambiguous, it allows for a bit more freedom in describing what the class can, and cannot, do.

So the basic classes are: barbarian, bard, fighter, paladin, scout, and wizard.

The "prime" classes: fighter (a pure warrior), wizard (a pure spell caster), and scout (pure skill based).

The "sub" classes: barbarian (a warrior with other skills), bard (a spell caster with other skills), and paladin (a warrior with some spells)

The beauty of this is the way it synchronizes with each of the abilities, fills each of the roles in an adventuring group, and creates a seamless circle.

Astute reader you've noticed the cleric is missing! I've always been bothered by the definition and role of the cleric. Also it's the class that any group when creating characters inevitably says "someone has to be a cleric" so they can have their traveling hospital. So, I've chosen to replace him (or her) with a more appropriate class: the paladin, clearly a warrior but with a divine mission and some spellcasting and healing powers. A much more reasonable candidate for adventurer than some priest best left to his studies in some dusty monastery.

This is just a fun variant, or speculation on how a different type of systematization could be applied to the original d&d.