Closing Today

The Underdark Gazette will go Down, sometime after 11:00 PM, Central Time, this evening. Please, if you would be so kind, update your links to my new blog at:

http://dreamsofmythicfantasy.blogspot.com/

Anything I think of particular interest will be archived at the new blog. I'm not deleting this one yet, but it will be closed to the general public.

A big thanks to everyone who has visited, commented, linked, shouted out and encouraged me, during the run  of the Underdark Gazette.

The OSR News at Dreams of Mythic Fantasy

The OSR News at Dreams of Mythic Fantasy.

The OSR News at Dreams of Mythic Fantasy

Please update any links, etc., to my new blog Dreams of Mythic Fantasy. The Underdark Gazette will be closing on Jan. 2, 2012.


The OSR News - Monday, December 5, 2011

Quick Question for Encounter Critical Gurus

I recently became aware of and found a link to the Opponent Opuscule.


I don't know much about the provenance of this document and wanted to make sure it was kosher to link it in the News.

Because it's one of the most awesome Monster Manuals I've ever seen! :)



The Underdark Gazette is Moving!

The Underdark Gazette is Moving!

http://dreamsofmythicfantasy.blogspot.com/

Actually, the Underdark Gazette is closing. The OSR News and everything else I post, is moving.

When I first started this blog, I didn't think that WotC might have trademarked the word Underdark. In fact, I've seen other game companies use the word, even in titles. Not long afterwards, I did discover that this was, indeed, the case, but wasn't too concerned, mainly because I never envisioned the blog lasting so long, or that it would become so successful.

So. What with the direction intellectual property law is moving in this country, as well as other sorts of overall restraints the current situation creates, I will be closing The Underdark Gazette on January 2, 2012.

Until then, posts will appear on both blogs, save for the News, which will have a pointer link from the Gazette.

The Underdark Gazette will be locked, but will escape nuking, for a while. Any posts I think, or am told are particularly useful will migrate over. The News posts, will be archived in PDF form and made available for download, as I occasionally find them useful for research purposes and others may likewise benefit.

The new blog is Dreams of Mythic Fantasy.

On the bright side, moving everything over occasioned a long overdue link house-cleaning.

Everyone's blog is on the new roll, save for a few that haven't been updated in forever. If your OSR blog is missing, was never there in the first place, or is one of the abandoned blogs, but you're about to start posting again, let me know and I'll add you.

And here is where I need a favor from all of you guys. If you would update your links and blogrolls with the new Blog, Dreams of Mythic Fantasy, that would be fantastic.

If you would also follow the new blog, that would be awesome. And really brighten my day. :)

Thanks to everyone who's read, followed, linked, talked about, commented and spread the word about The Underdark Gazette. I'm aiming to make the new blog even better, in every way I can!

Bryce is doing a Module Auction and ERP has a Sorcery & Super Science Sale!

Bryce Lynch of tenfootpole.org has been doing a ton of reviews! Now, he's auctioning off a bunch of print copies, to raise funds for his next round. Highlights include the complete run of Expeditious Retreat Press' Advanced Adventures Line. Bidding on that one starts at $50. Buncha other stuff, most with starting bids of $2.

And speaking of ERP, Joseph Browning has put the entire Sorcery & Super Science PDF line on sale for $1 each! This is a one day sale, in honor of his birthday. Happy Birthday, Joseph!

"If I Roll a 1, I think it should hit the kid!"

Many years ago, not too far from the end of the Kastmaria Campaign.

Sascha the Archmage, Queen of Korocia was in her private study, attempting to unlock the mysteries of The Orb of Ithquaris. The Orb, an Artifact created by the god of magic himself, was a highly dangerous little toy. Intelligent, holding a potentially limitless power to Alter Reality and designed to eventually, permanently merge its own consciousness, with that of its wielder, the Orb could possibly, totally subsume Sascha's personality.

Sascha was holding her infant in her arms as she went about her studies.

Suddenly, Balston the Usurper, Dwarven King of Korocia, burst into his human queen's study, the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords in hand. He then proceeds to demand that his wife give up the highly unstable Orb.

Which, considering what the Axe was doing to him, was more than a little hypocritical. And considering that his wife was the most powerful Archmage in the world, it was also more than a little futile.

But, since his Int was all of a 7...

When married couples argue it can get messy. When both husband and wife are powerful personages, in a fantasy world, it can get dangerous. When this power couple is actually a pair of AD&D PC's, it can also get hilarious!

Sascha told her husband to go to hell!

Player/Balston to DM: "I throw the Axe at her!"

Player/Sascha: "I'm holding the baby!"

Player/Balston, smiling to DM: "If I Roll a 1, I think it should hit the kid!"

Me/DM: "Ok. Sounds good!"

The DM and all five players at the table, think this idea is funny as hell.

Me/DM: "Roll initiative!"

Balston wins, hurls the Axe and...

Rolls a bloody 1!

How perfect was that!

The Axe bites into the skull of the infant, killing it instantly. Sascha teleports out, as the Axe returns to the King.

Everyone laughs their asses off!

Sascha gets her son resurrected. There being a 20+ level PC Cleric in the party, whose god was the same as Balston's and had specific schemes in mind, regarding the young prince, made this a virtual fait accompli. 

It is, perhaps, worthy of note that there was never any question of the party bouncing back from this incident, even if Balston had killed Sascha, or vice versa. No one was trying to permanently remove anyone else's PC, from the game.

Hurling the Axe at his wife, was certainly something the Deranged King might do.

But Joey, who ran Balston, was far too excellent a player, to want to permanently remove a PC, which Rachel had invested some 4,000+ hours into running.

He would never have let "what my character would do," interfere with what we actual people were doing. He ran his PC, not the other way around. 

Help Bail Out the Warden and Jeremy will Hook You Up with OSRIC

http://peoplethemwithmonsters.blogspot.com/2011/11/help-bail-out-warden.html

Jeremy Deram of People them with Monsters is giving away a brand new Black Blade OSRIC HC, to the first person who matches his donation of $100, to help out Jim Ward. Click the link above for details. It's a great cause. And the BB OSRIC HC is very, very Nice!

Chaosium's Thieves World Box Set!

"Oh, OK. I'll be polite here. TSR in those days was largely run by the Blums, a rather ruthless and careless administration."

"They published the first edition of the book (wasn't it called Gods, Demigods and Heroes?) with both Moorcock's Elric and Lovecraft's Cthulhu materials in it. Well, Chaosium owned the licence to both of those works at the time, and so I wrote to TSR and brought it to their attention.

"At that time I was doing the first multi-game supplement, Thieves' World. I wanted to capure all the existing games at that time, figuring it would be of curiosity interest in the future for people to compare the original systems. Of course, I wanted to have all the games in it, but TSR was famously reluctant to let anyone use their TM.

"Well, since they had violated my TM, I offered to let them keep using it if I, in turn, could use D&D and AD&D in TW. They agreed, we had contracts drawn up, etc. 

"Then their next edition cut it all out! I was curious about it, and called their PR department (without giving my name.) They said they didn't want those in their books because they wanted to avoid any hint of satanic stuff (which was hot at the time.)

"That's what I was told at the time. You can ask me in private if I beleive it."

"I had met Robert at a game of SF convention. He told me how his TW project had come about because he had played roleplaying games. One day he and a bunch of writers were complaining how difficult it is to make up a new fantasy setting every time they wanted to write a story, and he suggested the series, with him as the co-ordinator (GM) and everyone could contribute, as long as they followed the rule (i.e.- no killing each others main characters, etc.)

"Well, I thought, “Hey, let’s turn it back into an RPG then!” I worked with Bob and Lynn and got the license. I wanted to keep the whole spirit of cooperation, and I knew it could be a fantastic example of the “early days” of RPG if I did it right. I wanted it to have all the major systems extant at the time, so later folks could compare them and write a master’s thesis or something, after RPG gaming took over the world entertainment. 

"The industry was small in those days. I knew everyone involved, and set to to get licenses from everyone. I got ahold of almost all the original authors of the products to contribute. But I nearly had a breakdown with all the hassles, though. Seven companies, nine games, nine game authors, five fiction writers, a bunch of artists, and just about 300 egos. I’ve related above how I managed to get the then-impossible TSR to let me use their license.

"Thieves World is one of my proudest achievements from the early days. It was the first multi-game product, and encompassed just about everyone, and a pretty nice product."

---- Greg Stafford from a thread at The Acaeum

Thieves World

I was blessed with a father who voraciously collected fantasy, horror and science fiction novels. Also, Heavy Metal, Epic Illustrated and The Savage Sword of Conan magazines, as well as comic books and other interesting media. He was never reticent to share this bounty with his son and well before I discovered D&D, my imagination was being fired by a rather respectable collection of swords & sorcery, high adventure, weirdness and titillating fantasy illustrations, published during the 60's, 70's and early 80's.

So, while most of my contemporaries in the south, were learning how to rebuild automobile engines and hunt wild animals, I was in my father's room, listening to his KISS, CCR, and Black Sabbath records and reading Vampirella, Ace Conan's, etc., and on one occasion, noticing a book with a rather evocative title: Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn ed. by Robert Lynn Asprin.

A title bound to catch the attention of a 14 year old, for sure.

I quickly ascertained that this was the 2nd book in the series and found Thieves World right beside it on the shelf. "Who's the dude with the Pentagram? He looks tough as all Hell!"

Thieves World was created in 1978 by Robert Lynn. Asprin, who enlisted several popular author's of the time, including such notables as Poul Anderson, Andrew J. Offut, David Drake, Steven Brust, Janet Morris, Philip Jose Farmer, John Brunner, A. E. van Vogt, Lynn Abbey, Diana Paxson and C. J. Cherryh, to write stories in the newly created shared universe.

The original series ran to 12 anthologies, with several spin-off novels, as well. In 2002 a new Thieves World novel was published, followed by two more anthologies. Graphic Novels of the original stories, have also been published and even a board game.

The action takes place in Sanctuary, a once important and prosperous city, now, thanks to the vagaries of history and the fortunes of war, the kind of gritty shit-hole which provides ample opportunities for adventure, strife and intrigue.

Authors created, then shared characters with their fellows. Like Shadowspawn, Master Thief. And Enos Yorl, a Hazard Class Mage under a curse, which causes his physical form to change and shift at irregular intervals, never experiencing the same manifestation twice. And Tempus, an immortal warrior and commander of the Sacred Band, in service to Vashanka, the Ranken god of war.

Way back when, I only read the first three or four of the series. In recent years, I've begun collecting Thieves World books and have the four SFBC omnibus editions, collecting the original 12 anthologies and picked up several of the TW related novels, as well. I'm planning a grand reading marathon and while I've heard that the latter installments in the series weren't too hot, I'm hoping for a few gems, at the very least.

Hobby Lobby

When I was growing up, the bookstores in Mobile's two malls, had the best collection of gaming material. But, there was a little store named Hobby Lobby, which, unlike everyone else, carried Chaosium titles.

Included in their Chaosium offerings, was the Thieves World: Complete Sanctuary Adventure Pack boxed set.  I was utterly enthralled and speculated upon what wonders that box might hold. In later years, I determined to obtain a copy and it became one of my grail items.

Ebay, baby!

I've taken to checking the New RPG Listings on ebay, in the mornings. A few months ago, someone posted a Buy It Now for the TW box set. $15.50 and $10 Priority Shipping. I Bought It Now! :)

Fortunately, it was as advertised. The contents look utterly unused. Even the staples are still shiny! One split corner on the box, but I think I can live with that. The printing history on this item seems to be a little convoluted and for those interested in such things, the folks at the Acaeum, have done some work on sorting it out. My copy looks to be somewhere in the middle of the printing history. It's comprised of three books with slick card covers, three maps, a single What's in the Box sheet of paper and a Chaosium reply card.

What's in the Box?

Good shit, that's what!

The box cover proclaims the supplement as the winner of several awards and lists the names of several gaming luminaries, involved with the project. Steve Perrin, Dave Arneson, and Ken St. Andre, among many others.

The contributors list reads like a Who's Who of early 80's game designers!

Several Thieves World authors, like Lynn Abbey and Poul Anderson were also involved in the production.

The set itself, is based upon material from the first two Thieves World anthologies.

The Player's Guide to Sanctuary is 16 pages, plus the covers, which aside from the very front is as packed with info as the rest of the book. The inside cover features an introduction by Robert Asprin, which is followed by the title page and forward. An essay by Poul Anderson, Thud and Blunder, about avoiding common pitfalls in writing fantasy fiction and reprinted from Swords Against Darkness, follows.

Then, The City and Its People by Greg Stafford, Mary Beth Miller and Steve Perrin. A double page map of Sanctuary is this booklet's centerpiece. A bit by Robert Asprin on Hakiem and the Hell Hounds follows, along with Mary Beth Miller's chronology. Mary then supplies us with a glossary and the inside back cover is dedicated to Shalpa Saves: The Gods of Thieves World by Andrew J. Offutt. The back cover is a map of the known world.

The Player's Guide is meant to be read by those running PC's, though it gives away a bit more information, than I would want players to start out knowing.

The Game Master's Guide for Sanctuary is 64 pages, plus the covers and was designed with a GM's actual needs, in mind!

After the title and contents pages, an essay by Greg Stafford, How to Use this Book is followed by Palm-Greasing at the Palace and Getting Busted in Sanctuary by Lynn Abbey. Then, we get A Letter from Petrule by Steve Perrin and The Gods of Sanctuary by Steve Marsh.

A page introducing Midkemia Press, the folks responsible for much of the next 50 pages (maybe all, it's unclear,) comes next, then we get the Encounters chapter, 16 pages of which is comprised of random tables!

The Encounter Tables are very well done! Gritty, Swords & Sorcery stuff, with mad prophets, drug dealers, prostitutes, dueling magicians, slaves, urchins, as well as more mundane citizenry, of course. General tables, tables for specific areas, special tables, columns for day, evening and night, lots and lots of sub-tables (is that drug-dealer really selling krrf, or is it counterfeit?), etc. The tables and the maps would be worth the price of admission, alone, doing an admirable job of depicting the milieu of Sanctuary, with Hell-Hounds, Priests of Vashanka, etc., doing the sorts of things you would expect of Hell-Hounds and Priests of Vashanka.

Damn good tables. Not Matt Finch, or Zak Sabbath good, but damn good, nonetheless!

The centerpiece is a two-page Sanctuary Cut-Away by Yurik Chodak, showing the architecture of typical buildings.

The Populating Sanctuary chapter provides more random tables, consisting of a page for generating locations by neighborhood and then another for the businesses sub-table.

From there, we get the Places & Plans chapter, which gives a short overview of the different neighborhoods of the city and provides a sample snapshot of streets and city-blocks for the same, along with a few details from the books.

This whole section contains some immediately useful information, but is representative, not comprehensive by any means. The locations and NPC's in this chapter are taken from the books and focuses on the more "mundane" citizenry of the city. But, if you've read the anthologies, you know that some of the stories are about the "common" citizens of Sanctuary, pointing out, as James Joyce so masterfully did before, that there are no "average people."

Well known places like the Vulgar Unicorn and the more famous brothels on The Street of Red Lanterns, have NPC info and floorplans, provided.

Basically, this section sets out to give the GM a handy starting point.  The vast majority of the city is left to the GM to flesh out, with aid from the Populating Sanctuary tables, mentioned above.

The back cover has a short piece and map by Steve Perrin, on The Sewers of Sanctuary.

Personalities of Sanctuary is the last book in the set, which also runs 64 pages. An opening essay by Greg Stafford is followed by a table of contents, then a general thumbnail sketch of all the NPC's to come, by Steve Perrin, Mary Beth Miller and Midkemia Press.

Adaptation info and stats for major NPC's, are then given for 9 different game systems, though the lists are not uniform. Monsters, gods, magic items and other system tidbits are given, though again, the authors don't slavishly copy one another. It's a mini-adaptation by the authors to their respective systems, handled a little differently in each case, focusing mostly on NPC's. It was left to the individual authors, to decide which NPC's and what other material, to include in their sections. All of which, adds to both the value and the enjoyment of this third book of the set! A uniform approach would have quickly become tedious. Instead, we get to see the point of view of the individual authors/game designers, making for a richer, varied reading experience. I doubt I'll ever play Traveller and if I did, I probably wouldn't use this supplement, but the Traveller adaption was not only a fun read, it gave me a few cool ideas.

General info on using Sanctuary with the systems under discussion are given by the authors, with items like random tables popping up, as the designers saw fit, in writing the sections for their games.

AD&D is handled by Lawrence Schick. Dave Arneson and Richard Snider then give us the details for Adventures in Fantasy. Wes Ives handles Chivalry & Sorcery. Eric Goldberg tackles DragonQuest. Steve Marsh writes the D&D section, followed by The Fantasy Trip by Rudy Kraft. Steve Perrin tackles the Runequest chapter, Marc and Mary Beth Miller take on Traveller and Ken St. Andre does T&T.

The book wraps up with a Personality Record Sheet, Scenario Ideas, a list of characters by story, Time & Strategy by Eric Goldberg, a section on the contributors and finally, the back cover provides an index for all three books.

Three Maps, accompany the set: A map of Sanctuary, a map of The Maze neighborhood, which is a highly dangerous, "stay out unless you're a bad-ass" area and a map of The Maze Underground, the tunnels and sewers in the Maze area.

The maps are rather understated affairs, but, the city map in particular, manages to come off as charming and the aesthetic fits the set and the City of Sanctuary. They're somewhat reminiscent of the sort of fronts-piece maps, often found in older fantasy novels, though better executed and more detailed. I suspect this was more or less what the designers were going for here and it works.

The illustrations for the Set are done by Victoria Poyser and I found them to be quite enjoyable. I'm unsure as to who worked on the cartography.

Amongst Other Things

Chaosium put out a Thieves World Companion, which updated the info and Random Tables, to match the later events in the fiction series. This book only offered material on a few different systems and while I don't own a copy, I did have the opportunity to examine it, once, cursorily. It didn't seem to have the magic of the original set and I'm not too concerned with hunting down a copy. FASA published some Thieves World modules way back when. Again, I wasn't impressed with the one FASA module I've seen. I don't recall how many there are, but they all have the same cover and the one I saw, was very, very short.

Green Ronin published several d20 Thieves World rpg books. I picked up the Player's Manual, which was the first release in the line, when it was published. I like Green Ronin's stuff in general and there's things in this book I can use, but it isn't nearly as cool as the Chaosium Boxed set.

Green Ronin's first book in their series only has two random tables. One of which is interesting.

If Prestige Classes, etc., is your thing, though...

If you're looking for a copy of Chaosium's Thieves World

This used to be a fairly hot item, but the price has dropped recently and you should be able to snag a copy off of ebay for around $30 or less. Like I said, I got mine for about $26, shipping and all. Occasionally, someone will post a set and ask an arm and a leg for it, but, in the current market, I would suggest flat out ignoring anything over $35, unless you're really impatient.

In Closing

Setting books and sets, all too often turn out to be bad fiction, disguised as an rpg supplement. A setting based on a published franchise, is particularly open to being turned into something of little practical use. Chaosium's Thieves World avoided this trap, by remembering that the Game's the Thing, focusing, for the most part, on designing material that's useful for actually running Sanctuary.

And when they utilized fiction to help present the setting, they wisely chose to let actual fiction writers, who've been published by someone other than a game company, take care of that end of things!

I'd easily put the Chaosium Thieves World: Complete Sanctuary Adventure Pack, on my shortlist of best city supplements! If you're a fan of the books, you'll definitely love it, but even if you've never read Thieves World, there's plenty of groovy stuff, you can use and adapt to your campaign world.

Thanks...

Thanks to the Acaeum, for help in researching this article and for the Q&A thread with Greg Stafford.

And Now, We Join a D&D Session, In Progress...