The Village of Hommlet

  

Ok. I love this picture. I know it's been said that it isn't Tramp's best work and I agree. But there's something just "right" about it. I think the redscale really helps bring it all together. And  everything in the picture kinda conspires to make Lareth look Badass!

All of these were Found during a Google Image Search. I like the one above. The maps all expand, when clicked. 

I love Hommlet. First Module I ever DMed. Hell, I'm pretty sure it's the first thing I ever DM'ed period. I can count on two hands, the total number of modules I've ran. The Village of Hommlet, The Assassin's Knot, TSR's first Conan module, Rappan Athuk 1-3, The Vault of Larin Karr, Larm, a little bit of Stonehell and The Swords & Wizardry Quick-Start. I think that's it. I need to run more modules. Expand my repertoire, playing around with other people's imaginings. Castle of the Mad Archmage, maybe?

I'm not so thrilled with The Temple of Elemental Evil, though.

I have no idea how closely these maps adhere to canon.

So, since I'm rebooting my campaign and decided to start over, with OSRIC, no less, the usual thought assails me. 

"Why not run Greyhawk?"

Because I've never ran a published setting, save for mini-stuff like Karr and Larm. Both of those are very good, The Vault of Larin Karr in particular. Which is probably why it costs $50+ on the second hand market. I think you can get it in PDF, though. I foolishly sold my copy, a few years ago (dammit!) I Still have my original three part set of Rappan Athuk, though. I'll never get rid of those! Besides, my wife would have my head! Heh, killed my wife's character in Rappan Athuk! But, if you're running 3.x or Pathfinder and want a ready to go sandbox/mini-campaign, then The Vault of Larin Karr is worth it's weight in Mithril. 

So, if I did run GH and Hommlet, where would I go from there?

I'm gonna print out this colorized Hommlet! 

Ooh! A Hexmap version. 

This one is kinda dull.

So, I'll end with Zuggtmoy. 

Zuggtmoy On My Mind

The first Sunday in June, is the tentative date for my Campaign Kick-off and I’ve been spending a lot of time doing everything, but working on my game. I decided to dial my other idea back and go with my original conception of the events forming the recent history of The Demesne of the Iron Lich and surrounding lands. I will need to make a few tweaks, though.

The milieu survived an attack by demonic forces, sometime in the not too distant past. A Demon Lord tried to ensnare several Prime worlds and draw them into the Abyss. I’m thinking a certain Demon Queen of Fungi was involved, somehow. Civilization is getting back on its feet, but things are still rather chaotic and there are areas of Abyssal Radiation, which are quite hostile to the native life. As Abyssal Radiation (post forthcoming) is mutagenic, there’ll by some oddities, as well. Like Spider-Goats! I expect Myconid’s and Fungi to also factor into the equation.

I’ll be doing most of my own design work, but I’m using some of the OSR stuff I’ve been buying, as well. Time constraints are an issue. Also, I want to use some of the stuff I’ve been buying and reading. :) You guys are producing some fantastic material!!!

Then, there’s bringing in some outside ideas and influences, something I turned my nose up at, in the past. One of many, youthful follies. The upside is, there are several classic modules, which I never ran. As a matter of fact, back in the day, I ran Hommlet, The G series and Queen of the Demonweb Pits. And these were in the form of one-shots, when I first started gaming. I also remember running The Assassin’s Knot and that one may have actually been in Campaign play. I’m not entirely sure, but I think so. But that’s it!  Save for those few instances, I always designed my own stuff and half the time, I was DMing on the fly anyway. So, there’s a lot of TSR material which I would enjoy getting to use.

I just remembered a one-shot evening of running the first TSR Conan module. It took a while, but we finished it in one sitting. That one was fun!

My goal this week is to write up the key for the Iron Lich hexmap.

But, I’m also still thinking of putting the whole thing on the back burner and running Greyhawk. I’ve never really ran a published world before. I started a Forgotten Realms campaign, a couple of times. The first one went one session and didn’t get off the ground. The second was a temporary game, that ran about three sessions, before we went back to our regular campaign. So, I kinda want to do it, just because I haven’t. Running Greyhawk seems like the sort of thing I should have on my Old School DM’s Resume. If I do it, I’ll use the Boxed Set, the classic modules, some stuff from early issues of Dragon and that’s it, as far as “Official” sources go. I’ll also utilize some of the wonderful Greyhawk Scholarship, out there. Joseph Bloch’s work. Then, there’s this series. 

In case you haven’t noticed, if there’s two paths I really want to take, I’ll screw around with making a decision, until the last moment. Or, until I get really, really tired of screwing around.

Either way, Zuggtmoy is up to something. Not sure entirely what, yet.