New eBay Items from my collection

I have made the tough decision to sell off my award-winning Warhammer 40k Death Guard army. Candidly, the reason for selling is to make room for other, newer armies that I am playing more (i.e. 30k legions). I have now not played with this Death Guard army in over 2 years, and therefore the time has now come to part with it, sadly.

I am selling the army in smaller lots, the core of which I have put on to eBay this afternoon. These consist of three "core" plague marine squads, each of which has 8 miniatures and 1 rhino. I used to use these in squads of 5 or 7 and they have proven very effective during their history.

Here are the links:
Death Guard Squad 1 (pictured)
Death Guard Squad 2 (plasma gunner based)
Death Guard Squad 3 (maw rhino)

Most of the miniatures have undergone my characteristic conversion work, many extensively (such as the maw-mouthed rhino!). Many feature metal parts, Forge World parts, as well as zombie parts from Age of Sigmar / Warhammer Fantasy and other esoteria. They are all well painted, as attested by my winning the best painted army prize at a grand tournament. Plus, they did come in the top 10 in a grand tournament a decade or so ago in Australia when I lived there.

In addition, I'm also selling my Death Guard dreadnought (Helbrute) which is a Forge World original.

Whilst I am sad to part with them, I hope they will bring a new owner a lot of joy.

Finally for 40k, and mostly for fun, I am also parting with Pvt. Smith taking a plasma bolt to the head! I hope to get at least one bid on this one! It is, afterall, a piece of Warpstone Flux history!

In other categories, I have just added the Al-Qadim ADnD campaign Land of Fate and City of Delights as a single bundle. These have hardly been used, but there is some wear and tear on them.

Dark Sun Reviews: Thri-Kreen of Athas

In a similar way to Elves of Athas, Thri-Kreen of Athas expands on the player character insectoid race to provide a rich smorgasbord of background materials and roleplaying opportunities for both players and dungeon masters alike to feast upon. 

The background materials commence with an in-depth analysis of the psychology, physiology and biological nature of these insect creatures coupled with their basic mentality -- clutch, pack, and nation. This, combined with their daily "hunt" mentality set this race apart from all others on the planet. 

Much of the middle of the book is taken up with rules. Clearly these are not present day Dungeons and Dragons rules, but they can certainly be adapted if a Dungeon Master has the time and patience to do so. For instance, there are some easy ones to consider such as the innate ability of Thri-Kreen to perform large leaps thanks to their powerful legs. This would be easy to translate. Their antennae however, is open to some amount of discussion and interpretation as to how they should be handled (blind fighting analogues being more obvious). 

The final few chapters of the background deal with the nations of Thri-Kreen, ranging from those that have settled in to the human cities (e.g., Raam and Urik), to those who belong to the scholar group of Kreen. This gives a good set of divergent ideas to any player to run with in order to better characterise their character. Along with some NPCs, a fold out poster, and a genuinely interesting and intriguing (plus open ended) mini-adventure called the Taste of Fear, this book has a lot of materials inside its pages, including possibly expanding beyond the known regions of Athas that have already been documented elsewhere. 

All this said, none of the materials in this book are necessary for playing Thri-Kreen or for Dungeon Mastering them. The core game materials are enough, and enigmatic enough, that players should feel very content with them. However, for the dedicated Dungeon Master or player, this is a rich gold mine to be used widely and freely. As such, I'm giving this tome a mighty 4 out of 5 stars. Very enjoyable. But by the same token, very highly specialist with no real need to purchase it. 

Dark Sun Reviews: Black Spine

Today is the restart of a short series of role-play reviews of the old Dark Sun materials. This series was commenced a very long time ago but I never finished it out. Hence the next few posts scheduled by me will consist of a series of reviews of the remaining materials. The Dark Sun tag can be used to follow and access the previous materials in this line up. 

The first thing that I want to mention about Black Spine is that it is supposed to be a follow on from the previous adventures in this "series": Black Flames, Merchant House of Amketch, and Marauders of Nibenay. The only problem is that this series is anything but. It is a series of adventures that lack a connection or joined-up thinking between them. There is very little to no motivation for a player character group to follow the plot lines as specified in these adventures. 

Secondly, this is an epic scale adventure, along the same lines as Dragon's Crown. It is technically a series of adventures and subplots that commences with an operation to protect a Slave Tribe and eventually winds up with the player group facing an other-dimensional invasion of Githyanki forces. However, the set up for the first adventure (protecting the Slave Tribe from marauding Gith) is rather weak overall. There's no point in the adventurers participating. Hence there has to be some set up here to help the group think that this is what they want to do, or some railroading in this direction. Apart from this, the adventure proceeds very nicely from a skirmish, in to a large battle that one is recommended to use the second edition Battle System for, through to an exploration of the Gith's base camp. 

Enacting vengeance upon the Gith, the players then discover a metal mine, and eventually a lost city of the Gith - Yathazor (As well as a powerful psionicist Gith leader). Eventually this leads to the Nightmare Gate - a magical portal for the Githyanki to move their troops to Athas. Naturally by this point, the player characters might see that it is in their best interests for this invasion to not happen. But really - would it be any worse than living under the yoke of the Sorcerer-Kings? I do wonder why no one ever questions this. 

Personally, I like the fact that there is an extra dimensional threat, and the build up to discovering it. However, why hasn't a Sorcerer-King or a Dragon already thought this through or detected it? Would it not be better that this is some machination of a wheel within a wheel for the Dragon to make one of his rivals weaker somehow? That's just my take on it. The adventures themselves are largely linear in format. Although there is not as much rail-roading as in other adventures (or as much "you are now slaves!"), the linear nature of the plot means that it feels a little bit constrained in parts. What rescues it is the sheer scope, epic scale, and audacity of the plot line itself. It cannot be underscored enough what this book provides: three lots of 96 page books (288 pages in total), coupled with fold out maps and everything else. With work from a dedicated Games Master / Dungeon Master, this adventure can be turned in to something special along the lines of Dragon's Crown. 

Overall, I would give it just under 4 out of 5 stars ... hence I'm rounding it up to 4 out of 5. Good overall, but not as strong as others in the series, and features far too many Gith in the absence of anything else. The lack of a lead up is also a big problem here.

About the New Warp Rift

So, for those of you following along with the near constant drip of information pouring out of Games Workshop about 8th Edition, it won't have escaped your notice that the Galaxy Map has significantly changed since the last time we saw it.

Not only are there domains of the Necrons included in glorious detail for the first time alongside the (long-standing) Tau domains, but there is a giant Warp Rift that has split the Imperium in two as it streaks from the Eye of Terror to the Maelstrom and beyond. Moreover, there are new warp tears in most segmenta of the Galaxy. 

So what is the cause of these new Warp intrusions?

Of course, its a plot maguffin at some level. But what does it mean? Has the Emperor's will finally terminated somewhere and the light of the Astronomican failed? Has the ancient Eldar web way finally given up and daemons overran it? Or is it just that Chaos is generally rising everywhere?

To me, it is a little bit reminiscent of something out of Dungeons and Dragons. Go with me here.

In the Ravenloft setting, there were strong and significant changes to the map as the editions evolved. One of the most significant was the introduction of the "Shadow Rift" in the new arrangement of the domains of dread (it appeared in the book of the same name; the image shows its introduction). Basically: all the locations shifted around and a new dark realm erupted in the middle of the main map. It turned out to be a new "race" being introduced to the Ravenloft campaign (the shadow Fey). So do these new warp rifts in 8th represent the introduction of something even more malign in to the 40k universe? I don't think we're going to see the introduction of a new chaos power myself (unless there's a kind of Malal re-boot, or Slaanesh gets bested by the Ynnari or something), but hey, I've seen stranger and analogous things happen in other settings. And now I'm all curious about what it might all mean!

Rules of Yesteryear: AD&D THAC0

If you already know what "THAC0" stands for, then you probably already know what I'm going to say in this post as you've probably got analogous experiences to me!

In Dungeons and Dragons, the chance to hit (and indeed: to wound) an enemy was determined by the THAC0. In short, it stands for "To Hit Armour Class 0". Every player character (and opponents!) had a numerical (integer) THAC0 value that started out at a modestly high level for lower level characters, and got lower as the player character increased in level.

In turn, everyone also had an Armour Class. The better the armour that someone was wearing, the lower that armour value would be. It even extended to negative values. 

Let's take an example to make this concept a bit more obvious. A level 5 warrior has a THAC0 of 16. That means that if he (or she) is facing an opponent with an armour class of 0, they need to roll 16 or more on a d20 to hit and wound that enemy. If the opponent was wearing slightly worse armour, they might have an armour class of 10 instead. Therefore, the warrior receives a modifier of 10 to this. Hence they'd need a 6 or more to damage them. And if their armour was superb, they might have an armour class of -2. That would need a roll of 18 or more on a d20 to do damage. And so forth.

THAC0 was eliminated from Dungeons and Dragons with the advent of 3rd edition (in the year 2000). Armour classes were reversed such that higher values of armour were better (rather than lower). Yet, the concept of THAC0 and its abbreviation will (I'm assuming!) sit strongly in people's minds if they've played Dungeons and Dragons in yesterdecades. 

Dark Sun Reviews: Marauders of Nibenay

This Dark Sun adventure follows on from Black Flames and Merchant House of Amketch only in the sense that the required level for the PCs has increased. To make these three (or four if one includes Black Spine) a proper series, there really needed to be more plot arcs. This was achieved (albeit not at a high quality level) with the original Freedom - Road to Urik - Arcane Shadows series. 

As per the title, the adventure is set in and around Nibenay. The set up starts with the assumption that the PCs are there somehow. This could fit in naturally with any number of plot hooks or trading adventures. Regardless, they will be approached by either the Veiled Alliance, or the Templars of Nibenay to aid them in a raid / ambush for them. Although there is a refreshing appearance of choice, the path through the adventure is the same either way, whichever faction the PCs wind up working for (and even more refreshingly: they can choose neither and still be on track for the adventure). 

Suddenly: something happens! The raid gets derailed by the Sorcerer-King attempting to wipe out the Zwuun - an entity described in Veiled Alliance who is opposed to the King. Lightning arcs across the palace and the surrounds. Then there are earthquakes, acid rain and in general: end of the world style apocalypse on the city-state of Nibenay as a result. Runaway magic turns the dead (stored in underground crypts in Nibenay) in to zombies and creates nasty flora that also want to kill the citizens and PCs. The Veiled Alliance and the Templars put aside their differences and try to figure out what is happening. And the faction associated with the PCs takes them to the King's palace to try to locate the Shadow King himself and figure out what is happening. 

Although there are plenty of details about the palace, the PCs can largely bypass this and head straight for the inner citadel. Therein, they find the King engaged in a silent psionic battle with the Zwuun, whilst Siemhouk (an NPC noted in several books) looks on. The PCs basically have to protect Seimhook whilst she attempts to calm the Zwuun and various nasties including elementals attack all around. Should they win, Nibenay might re-think his approach to the city and become more engaged. Or it might go back to factional warfare. But the former is probably more interesting given that something similar happens after the Prism Pentad has taken place.

The strong points of this adventure for me are the open ended nature of the introduction, coupled with the apocalyptic state that the city-state winds up in and how the PCs attempt to solve the crisis -- very epic. The negatives are that it should be more grand and sweeping. An introduction to the Zwuun, some familiarity with Seimhouk, etc., should come before all of this adventure ideally so that it can build up more slowly. Its not brilliant, no where near the epic coverage of Merchant House of Amketch for instance, but it is good. So 3 out of 5 stars from me. Possibly 4 on a good day with a bit more preparation and build up. Worth running, unlike some of the other adventures.

Dark Sun Reviews: Merchant House of Amketch

This is technically the follow-on adventure to Black Flames, but there is little overall meta-plot or character arcs to support this. The only real nature in which it is a follow on is that the PCs are going to have to be higher levels. But that is about my only complaint. Merchant House of Amketch is a shining light of an adventure for Dark Sun in my opinion - possibly better than Road to Urik or Dragon's Crown even.

The overall plot concerns the shaqat beetle: an insect that is able to inhibit psionic power. Naturally, orders like the Veiled Alliance want to know more about this. But the real power in the plot is the story telling. It involves the PCs without railroading them severely as other Dark Sun adventures are want to do. Instead, it starts out steadily with the Veiled Alliance (or others should you wish) asking the PCs to investigate the beetles. They know that Amketch is transporting heaps of them. This naturally leads to them being hired by the Amketch merchants for a little job: caravan guard duty. And then a little undercover work!

Aspects of the adventure can tie in really well with the Dune Trader supplement as the PCs figure out the life of a trader and the Merchant House. But investigating the beetles turns in to a much more interesting plot line when the caravan master is revealed to be a House Shom (a rival house) agent!  He also drugs the wine of loyal Amketch agents. Shocking! And so very Dark Sun.  Undoubtably the PCs won't do what the GM wants after that. But the adventure caters to that -- and in some respects encourages it as it likes the idea of the PCs trying to stage a rescue mission for anyone of their number who gets captured by this agent (etc.). This is so very refreshing compared to the BANG! you're all slaves meme problem in adventures like Arcane Shadows. 

Eventually, the PCs will head to Balic (assuming they're still interested in the beetles -- which they should be because if they got in to the wild it'd be a serious issue!). Infiltrating House Shom (or by other means), they track the origin of the beetles to Kalidnay. There, a nefarious defiler is bonding regular beetles using ancient bio-tech to create the psionic damping variety. Will the PCs be able to stop the defiler driving the beetle trade? Will they release the beetles in to the wild (a threat that is actually made at one point)? Will they follow the adventure linearly or go their own way? 

This adventure has everything for me: intrigue and adventure coupled with the potential to save the world from a great threat that has just been exposed. So its 5 out of 5 stars from me. Run this adventure as is unless you have a good reason to swap out a named NPC. Go with the PCs wherever they want to take it (most of which is anticipated by the adventure notes). Use random raids as desired to push the PCs back in the right direction. Even throw the desert at them. This adventure has it all, and the potential to be spun out in to an epic.

Dark Sun Reviews: Black Flames

This adventure module for the Dark Sun campaign setting seems to be cast from the same mould as Freedom in many ways. This ranges from the constant railroading, through to a general lack of rewards beyond gaining the hatred of some powerful NPC(s). So, right from the outset, I was underwhelmed by it.

The plot is simplistic to be fair: its a quest for a maguffin. In this case, a powerful scroll located in the ruins of Yaramuke and the Black Oasis. And the NPC wanting this item just happens to be a neo-dragon that the PCs have never heard of. Firstly: Dragons are supposed to be rare. Secondly, they're powerful. So why can't this guy just do it himself? Well, it (retroactively) turns out that there is a (never mentioned anywhere else in the canon) magic barrier preventing evil people from taking it without losing all but two senses (hearing and touch). 

My strong advice is to totally replace this random dragon with a favourite NPC villain from your own campaign. I'd suggest Malignor (see Arcane Shadows suggestions too) or someone similar.

At the outset, the PCs are assumed to be travelling the desert. Which is a nice alternative to BANG! you're all slaves meme that infected previous publications. The big bad NPC then conjures a sandstorm to isolate the PCs, deprive them of water (because there's no Water Clerics in the PC group with a bit of luck?) and then have his undead (but seemingly normal) minions offer the PCs water from the Black Oasis. Which will kill them unless they do his bidding. Seriously: he's that bothered to not do this mission himself despite his own power.  That's why a good GM will replace this big bad NPC with someone a bit more interesting. 

The second part of the adventure is actually nice. It is non-linear to a certain degree: the PCs are able to explore the ruins of Yaramuke in any which way they please. Its therefore almost a bit of a dungeon crawl, but Dark Sun style! But this is railroaded when the Sorcerer-Queen of Raam shows up -- she also wants the scroll at a coincidental time to the big bad NPC -- and all fire works erupt between the two. Naturally, in such a high level fight, the PCs should be little more than pawns and should get out of the way to avoid a splattering. Either way, these two powerful NPCs will end up not liking the PCs.

In the third part, the ruins collapse, and fleeing, the PCs must try to free themselves of the curse of Black Water by negotiating with the local druid. Whilst getting through all the zombies that have previously died of the curse. A revenge attack by the Big Bad NPC then finishes off the adventure. But I would strongly recommend that encounter for a much later time!

Beyond that, the format of the adventure is still in the spiral bound books that make a ruination of the card container they come in. Hence overall, I'm not overly impressed with the adventure. It has some good points, and with work (especially the replacement of the big bad NPC and hopefully their latter escape) could work reasonably. Better than Arcane Shadows and certainly way better than the worst of the lot: Asticlian Gambit. But not much better than Freedom without significant work (which I've recommended above). Overall, 2 out of 5 for me -- don't run it "as is": plan ahead and change the script and overall plot, but retain the non-linear middle parts. 

Dark Sun Reviews: The Ivory Triangle

The Ivory Triangle is to Gulg and Nibenay as the City-State of Tyr expansion is to Tyr. Except that the latter publication was more original. The Ivory Triangle certainly contains a lot of duplication from other sources, all crammed in to the locale of Gulg and Nibenay.

Physically, this is a boxed set that contains three sources books (see image below), several maps (notably of the city-states of Gulg and Nibenay) and some expansions to the Monstrous Compendium. The main book is the one entitled the Ivory Triangle, whilst the other two, detailing the city-states, are comparatively lots smaller.

The main book kicks off by describing several forts (e.g. Fort Inix). This is nice for fleshing out locations and figuring out the kind of trade that occurs (cf. Dune Trader), plus some local NPCs, but is otherwise okay but but phenomenal (a repeating theme through the accessory). The next chapter concerns itself with raiding tribes, and to be honest: is not truly ground that wasn't broken with Slave Tribes: simply more details on tribes that you might like to run in the local area. The third chapter concerns itself with the lands of the Ivory Triangle - and this is where the information is good and new ground is actually broken. The sites of the ancient battlefields in particular is a highlight, but perhaps more "on-going" war might have been preferable to cover. The Crescent Forest is also entertaining as it contains surprises like a tribe of Halflings.

The other two books on Gulg and Nibenay are solid and provide a good deal of background to these cities (with some duplication from the adventure Asticlian Gambit, and the expansion Veiled Alliance). The highlight are the maps depicting the two cities, which are fold-out style in the same vein as the other campaign maps.

Overall, its 3 out of 5 from me for the Ivory Triangle. Lots of duplication from other sources really detracts from what could have been a good expansion set. If you need details on Gulg and Nibenay (and its surroundings), then this is a great expansion. But if you have many of the other expansions, and aren't particularly bothered about this region of the planet, then skip it. It could have been much more than it is.

Dark Sun Reviews: Terrors of the Desert

For completeness, I thought I would include the Monstrous Compendiums in my reviews of Dark Sun. There are two of them: the first is "Terrors of the Desert", the second is "Terrors beyond Tyr". 

As pictured, Terrors of the Desert comes in a ring-binder format which might either entice you or put you off. Personally, I didn't care much for this format to be honest. I'd much sooner have a paperback book (or hardback, even). 

Overall, the pages of the book are exactly what you might expect: a list of monsters to be used within the Dark Sun Campaign Setting. Statistics for these creatures are given in the standard 2nd Edition Rules set for AD&D (i.e. Climate/Terrain, Frequency, Organization, Activity cycles, Diet, Intelligence, Alignment, numbers, AC, mv, Hit Die, THAC0, attacks, damage, special attacks/defences, MR, size, morale, XP, Psionics, combat, habitat/society, Ecology). 

The random encounters tables are provided at the front of the pages and are arranged by terrain (Verdant Belts, Stony Barrens, Sandy Wastes, and so forth) as might be expected.

The actual contents of the book consists of a large number of creatures. These range from the infamous Gaj which was potentially encountered in Freedom, through to drakes (earth, water, etc.), agony beetles, B'roghs, antloids, wild Kank, banshees and Athasian Giants. Of course, there are more than these, but that should be enough to give a flavour. 

I found some of the domesticated animals interesting (Critic, Renk, Ock'n, etc.) as well as the the natural predators and unique Athasian undead (banshees are from Dwarves who have failed in their focus). 

Overall, its not a necessary expansion, but one that could certainly add flavour and unique alternative opponents for the PCs to face. So its 3 out of 5 for this expansion from me. Nothing fundamentally wrong with it, and nothing terribly exciting either. It does what it says it will to be fair. 

Dark Sun Reviews: Dragon Kings

This is a hardback book unlike many of the expansions to the Campaign Setting of its ilk. Why this is the case is obvious enough from the front: it provides the playing group with the rules to expand all characters and classes to level 30. Why is this in any way exceptional? I think there are two core reasons.

The first reason is that the authors of Dark Sun wanted something fundamentally different from other campaign world. As they put it, a mage might ascend from level 20 to 30 in the Forgotten Realms with relatively little fanfare or notice. But on Athas, PCs cannot escape the fame (or infamy) that comes with great experience and background associated with achieving such lofty heights. As they cross the threshold from level 20 upward, they become the prime movers and shakers of the world they inhabit. Not for them the anonymous trips to some desolate ruins to delve for archeological treasure. Nope: that kind of stuff is for lesser levels. 

The second reason is somewhat tied to the first and was made explicit in the Prism Pentad series of books. Namely that many classes can undergo radical transformations as the go up in levels beyond 20th. For example, defilers can combine their dark arcane arts with psionics to metamorphose in to Dragons (see image, below). In the books, this is demonstrated by the Sorcerer-King Kalak attempting to jump directly from level 20 or level 21 directly to level 30 (full dragon) in one epic leap by consuming the life force of the entire city of Tyr. And of course, the Dragon himself, Borys, went mad during this self-same process.

There is, of course a Preserver mage equivalent to this. That is the transformation in to an avangion. The Avangion is nowhere near as cool as the dragon, as it kind of looks like a far too delicate butterfly ultimately (see image, below) - rather than an ultimate fusion of psychic might and good magic -- why not just a good dragon instead, I'll never understand! Again, this type of transformation has been there since the beginning, as evidenced in Arcane Shadows.

So that covers the mage classes, but what about the others?

Dragon Kings details that Warrior classes ultimately achieve a different type of fame. They start to gather followers around them. And then whole armies. As their success in combat (and indeed: staying alive against the brutal world) becomes legend, more people seek them out to enter their service in hopes of bettering themselves. This ties in very nicely with some of the ideas present in Road to Urik. But one of my big gripes in this part of the book is with the war machines that are introduced -- the book makes explicit reference to the BATTLESYSTEM rules -- what the? Who owns these? Seriously, this crept up out of nowhere! I mean, I know such a thing existed, but the chances of Dark Sun players and GMs owning these rules is slim. Hence for big epic battles, one probably wants to think seriously about how and importantly: IF they should take place!

Clerics undergo a transformation as well. They eventually become their element. At first, this may only be a small portion of their body - perhaps a hand or a big toe suddenly turns to water at will. But once they hit level 30, boom, they can become a full elemental associated with their chosen element.

Druids are handled differently to this, and instead, become one with the land that they are sword to protect, eventually (perhaps) dissolving in to the land itself.

Rogues get a raw deal to be fair. They gain the ability to cast illusion spells (not very impressive), but also to improve their dexterity score to exceptionally high levels (could be useful!) as well as some other inherent talents (detect magic - yawn).

Psionicists progress pretty normally from 20th to 30th level. But, instead of having some mind-boggling transformation, or getting boring advancement, instead, they become "noticed" by The Order. The Order has cropped up in adventures before, such as Dragon's Crown, wherein they play the antagonists. It eventually becomes a case of join The Order or perish. Although this fits in with the motif of not going unnoticed when going up to level 30, it is also annoying!

Speaking of annoying, roleplaying a higher level dragon is impossible. The book recommends that once level 25 or so is reached, the dragon becomes pretty insane and needs to be treated as an NPC due to the pain of the transformation. This is curious as I question how they're able to go up to level 30 if they're already pretty insane by half way through -- especially given the demands of the higher level spells.

Finally, the appendices give new psionic abilities as well as spells. One of the main selling points of the book is to cast "10th level spells" as mages (and equivalent priest spells). Given that "Wish" is already a ninth level spell, it kind of makes you wonder what can be achieved with 10th level psionic enchantments! Some of the spells are nice: erecting a mountain fortress (yep: its a 10th level actual psionic enchantment) means you are changing the shape of the world and building your very own fortified structure to camp out in. Sure, "Wish" could also do this (technically).  What about creating a huge amount of vegetation, say: an entirely new jungle. Yep: a tenth level spell can also do that. On Athas, the desert planet. So what role does "Wish" and "Limited Wish" have in such a game? In my opinion they could have just been removed from the game. But then, there's also the argument that Wish spells are unreliable. Tenth level psionic enchantments do what you want them do with no obvious drawbacks!

Overall, this book is about 4 out of 5 stars from me. There are significant oddities contained within that almost made it 3 out of 5, but its a book that is nice to have (but not necessary). Perhaps its one for the GMs/DMs only, or the mildly curious players. Either way, the chances of making it to level 30 on Athas are rather small.

Dark Sun Reviews: The Will and The Way

The Will: A person's innate potential for psionic ability and mastery.

The Way: The explicit and rigorous study and advance of psionic abilities.

This tome is one that should be regarded as reasonably essential for the Dark Sun Campaign as it probes the background of, and expands, the entire Psionic background that permeates all of Athas. But why should one have both The Complete Psionics Handbook -and- this one to provide the background? Well, the handbook is a generalist tome that provides a reasonable overview of the psionicist class, whilst the Will and the Way gives the essential Athasian twist to everything. 

The introduction to the book provides an overview and how the Way emerged from Tarandas of Raam's school for the under-privelidged to have access to psionic training - thus ensuring that psionics would forever be the "great leveller" of Athasian society. Every playable race on Athas has psionics. Hence every PC also has them. But only a few are followers of the Way and therefore can consider themselves full psionicists - everyone else gains only wild (random) talents. 

The first two chapters of the book delve in to some detail about how psionics interact with society, including how the various races regard psionics, and psionics around the Tyr region. The latter of these focuses on the various psionic schools around the major cities (sometimes with maps!) which provide a number of nice plot hooks for use by inventive GMs. 

Various character kits feature in the third chapter. Of note, I particularly like the Sensei (of which one of my group had as a character kit back in the day). A blend of psionics with martial arts, the sensei is adept at close combat melee and dangerous, but provides the group with a notable combat spearhead coupled with strong psionic aptitude.

The third chapter on proficiencies is moderately passable, but the chapter after that on mental combat is where it starts to get much more interesting. It really expands what is presented in the complete psionics handbook with a very large chart on which psionic attack gets what die roll bonus against what psionic defence. The book introduces new concepts (harbingers and constructs) which better tie in with the background fluff presented in the Prism Pentad series. So, for example, if your attack is in the form of a bird of prey, and you put up a defence of a brick wall, the bird simply flies over the wall. Hence the bird would get a large bonus to the mental attack. This is what is essentially encapsulated in the large chart of attacks and defences. 

The next two chapters delve in to the psionic disciplines (providing a very exhaustive listing of powers and their classifications and identifies what powers should be gained versus PC level) and research & meditation. These two techniques can open up new powers for the the psionicist and High Psionic powers (which are intended as the ultimate powers … which is somewhat curious given psionic enchantments that are possible when blended with preserving or defiling magic as used by avangions and dragons, but still very cool and very welcome additions). 

The final proper chapter concerns itself with something that I think needs to be in every game of Dark Sun: psionic items. Whether these items have a personality of their own, or are the remnant intellect of a person now trapped and encased within an item, they should be more common on Athas than anywhere else in the Dungeons and Dragons universe -- particularly given how much time has supposedly elapsed since the appearance of psionics in the Dark Sun timeline.  Indeed, the later book "Psionic Artifacts of Athas" takes this though process to its natural conclusion. As well, rules for PCs creating such items are presented. 

In the appendix a slew of new psionic powers are presented. These include those that are more Athasian in implementation than the psionic handbook, coupled with more complete charts than found elsewhere (e.g. for wild talents). 

Overall, this is a 4.9 out of 5 book for me. Sure you can run a Dark Sun campaign without it (which is the only reason it doesn't get 5 out of 5). But it'd be much richer with it! Twist my arm a bit, and its 5 out of 5. Which along with Earth, Air, Fire and Water, makes this book one of the two best products of the Dark Sun line beyond the campaign setting! Enjoy.

Warhammer Dungeon Floor Plans

A bit of a blast from the past today. The images below are of the old Dungeon Floor Plans that sold along side Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer Roleplay for use in games.

As can be seen from the back cover (below), the main idea is to use these printed tiles to figure out where your miniatures are and what distance they are to critical (or otherwise) points of interest.

Essentially, they are printed card stock of dungeon corridors and rooms (e.g., a Wizard's Lair, a Spiral Staircase, A room with Beds, etc.). Indeed, this set is a combination of earlier sets that were sold separately (Dungeon Floor Plans 1, Dungeon Lairs, Caverns & Dungeon Rooms). Is is printed to a (at the time) high quality standard and an array of possible layouts is easily achieved in next to no time.

Many of the corridor sections contain squares that are the same size as the regular Warhammer miniatures, enabling distance to be accurately measured quickly and ranges to be computed easily. Moreover, in games of Fantasy Roleplay, the squares can be used as "steps" to move the miniatures along with (e.g., the Elves get to move 6 spaces per turn, but Humans only go 4 …. or at least that's how we played these kind of things when using them in conjunction with rules such as Dungeons and Dragons).

When the corridor sections are appropriately cut out (with scissors!) they can readily connect up the disparate rooms and bring a dungeon to life. That said, the contents of the pack is more aligned with Fantasy Roleplay than it is with battles. Not that battles cannot be had in the dungeons. Dwarves against Goblinoids can occur very nicely. But the narrow width of the corridors can make for intense games, perhaps akin to 40k's newer Zone Mortalis sets, or the older Space Hulk rooms. Hence I mostly have fond memories of using these card sets for games of Dungeons and Dragons rather than skirmish battles using Warhammer rules. But even today, the set remains viable and usable. I'd certainly be happy to return to using them in Roleplaying games!

Dark Sun Reviews: Elves of Athas

At just under 100 pages, this Dark Sun campaign expansion adds to the sand box world that is Athas. 

To the un-initiated, it is important to realise that Dark Sun "twists" the standard paradigm about much of dungeons and dragons classical notions. Metal is scarce, elements are worshipped as opposed to deities, the world has been ravaged by sorcery, and so forth. Elves are no exception to this. Unlike their fantasy cousins, this tome outlines how they live barely more then 140 years. They have no yearning to go to a far off land once they reach a certain age. And they're physically different: tall and lean. Although they get bonuses for using bows and longswords, they don't get some of the other advantages inherent in (e.g.) Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance. Instead, one of the key differences is the Elf Run. Elves of Athas are particularly known for undertaking long runs -- literally sprinting day after day as a tribe to move with celerity from one location to another. This might be for nomadic reasons, or trade. Either way, there's no other race on Athas that can match their endurance for undertaking such activities. But the drawback is that it is based on their constitution (which gets a negative modifier upon creation), so they do need to prepare and be inspired by their tribal leaders before undertaking multiple days of marathon running.

As well as these physical difference, the book details the significant psychological differences. Language, insults, trades and world views are all covered, along with stories of ancient elves (whom are not too dissimilar to classic fantasy elves). Stand outs for me are the concept of "the now" -- which the elves live for, their distrust of outsiders and most other people around them, their positive attitude (or general acceptance) of all things psionic and magical (albeit that they find the elemental clerics somewhat odd), and how they cope (or not!) with issues like enslavement. To be clear: this is a race that loves their freedom and will do anything to run away and escape from such confinement. And their loyalty to their tribe is all important and comes to define them in many ways.

Following the psychology, a number of tribes are detailed in the book, which are fairly interesting, but nothing fantastical. For example, the Wind Dancers are described as a former trading tribe with a special affinity for the element of Air, but have had to now turn to raiding to make ends meet. The book is rounded out by some kits for Athasian Elves (e.g. Brown Elves - whom are psionicists who have left their tribe in order to learn and sharped their talent). A fold out poster also comes with the book which shows the locations of some of the settled tribes in and around the Tablelands, plus some colour art of Athasian Elves and their tribal descriptions.

To be honest, this book is not required to play Dark Sun … as are some of the other expansions. But this one doesn't have anywhere near the sheer level of ideas and interest that Earth, Air, Fire, and Water does (which I regard as essential to a Dark Sun campaign). Hence this book is only one to get if one is running an Elf based campaign, or is highly orientated toward the Elves of Athas. Most of the material needed to run Elves is in the Dark Sun boxed set. And on that basis, I can only really award 2 out of 5 stars for this one. It doesn't mean its necessarily bad, but to me its just not required.

Dark Sun Reviews: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water

The original Dark Sun setting paints the roleplaying world of Athas as one without any divine beings (or if there were, they've abandoned Athas long ago). Instead, the cleric class attempt to advance the cause of one of the elemental planes: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. To be fair, the campaign setting really made playing the cleric class a tougher challenge than most classes (perhaps even tougher than preservers) due to the combination of permitted equipment and spell restrictions. This publication radically alters all of this and transforms what might have been one of the weakest and hardest to play classes in to an absolute pleasure with an expansive background and many new thoughts and abilities. 

The second and third chapters of the book is where things start to get interesting. The elemental powers simply want more of their element all around - but they also want quality as well as quantity. The principle problem is that Athas is a spent world. Hence although there is plenty of Earth element around, it is not of high quality: dusty sand where there should be fertile earth. Air is stagnant had super heated, rather than freely flowing and cooling. Fire hardly has anything left to consume. And water: well, the story is even worse there for the desert world of Athas. So the elemental clerics are seeking to improve this. Fire clerics actively want to build more cities and grow more forests -- so they can consume something of worth later on in a conflagration. Earth clerics teach crop rotations and attempt to improve the fertility of the earth. And similar for air and water. But, there are also paraelemental clerics: those whose planes overlap with two of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Hence Magma clerics overlap Fire and Earth. Magma is joined by Sun, Silt, and Rain. Apart from the Rain clerics, these guys have it much easier. Their elements are in ascendency in both quantity and quality. Indeed, Sun clerics would like nothing more than to burn off the Air of Athas so that the rays from the Sun can hit the ground unimpeded. Silt would like to have everything on the surface of Athas turn to Silt. As would Magma. As such, Silt, Magma, and Sun are actively contributing to the further degeneration and desolation of Athas. Whereas the prime elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water … and to a lesser extent, but perhaps unintended: Rain) are working toward a greener, cleaner more pristine Athas. The chapters here cover initiation in to the elements and their general powers. At a base level they're able to conjure forth small amounts of their element from the beginning. But to regain their powers, they also need to cast out some of their element. Hence Water clerics need to spread a skin of water on the ground to regain their spells. Therefore they actually need *more* water than the average Dark Sun PC … but are great in a group since they can conjure forth extra water when needed. No wonder they're a bit pressed and mentally unstable. Perhaps the most interesting mechanic is that once they reach epic levels (i.e. level 20), they can actually start becoming an elemental themselves.

There are a bunch of specialist classes (e.g., wanderer, city cleric) which are neat, but highly specialised in some cases. And almost as an after-thought, druids and templars get their own chapter, albeit very superficially. Another publication could have been made for each of these to be perfectly honest. Other ideas contained in the book include power conjunctions - which is when the cleric is surrounded by a a large quantity and quality of her/his element and has their powers enhanced. A bunch of new elemental cleric spells. And elemental shrines scattered throughout Athas.

Overall, this is almost a 5 out of 5 book for me to be honest! There are some negatives (such as inconsistencies versus canon) but they don't detract from what is a highly original presentation that is jam-packed with fresh ideas. I regard this book as one of the best of the Dark Sun series. And as can be seen from the image, my own copy has been heavily used over time. That said, if one is playing latter editions of Dungeons and Dragons, then this book is almost wholly superseded. But it remains as one of the shining lights of the Dark Sun series to me. 

Dark Sun Reviews: City-State of Tyr

Given that the default starting location for many Dark Sun campaigns will be the City-State of Tyr, this particular accessory is excellent (but not quite *required*) reading for the initial phases of adventuring on Athas. 

Temporally, this campaign expansion book is firmly planted in the post-King Kalak era when Urik mobilises for the iron mines, the council takes over the running of the city, and the Veiled Alliance think about going public. That said, its not all about politics. The books itself is a very thorough description of the city.

The first chapter starts out by looking at the history of the city and detailing what life is like in Tyr. Even down to the fact that they're pretty nice when it comes to the distribution of water (you can have a ration of it for free!). The details and politics about the governing body and King Tithian follows and how the various factions are at play on the council. Here it gets quite detailed about the politics and delves in to detail about traders (who now use the arena), justice and crime, and what the Templars are up to now they no longer have their spells -- and would you believe some of them are helping to direct civic projects. Surely they have their own reasons, right? (hint: They're probably not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and are just as brutal as they always were…).

The physical description of the city and the local environment are covered in the next two chapters. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, details about farming, architectural details, where various classes of citizen live, and of course: a full colour fold out map for help with the campaign. The districts are described in plenty of detail (and certainly sand-boxy enough to still do things with) should the PCs wind up in the trading district and so forth. 

The next two chapters cover the Golden City and UnderTyr. Of the former, there are few surprises and precious little is advanced over previous material, but of the latter, a great deal is revealed. The labyrinth of catacombs and pre-history Tyr buildings is (to me as a GM and PC) exciting to see there. I would have loved for there to have been more detail on the various locations to be honest, but there's enough there to generate some unique encounter sites for the PCs to play around in.

The final few chapters concern themselves with NPCs, campaigning within Tyr and how different classes are represented and interact within the city-state. The psionic school is a stand out here for me, but it also talks a bit about religion (or lack thereof, given that there are no deities on Athas, hence some druids a talked about). The adventure suggestions are reasonable, if not outstanding, within these chapters and provides some good ideas should the GM decide that the regular progression of adventures is not to be used.

Overall, it scrapes a 4 out of 5 stars from me (it was almost 3). I think the sheer level of detail and expansive range of coverage makes this campaign expansion book high quality. But equally, if one is not gaming in the Tyr region much (or only to begin with due to, e.g., undertaking the Dragon's Crown adventure), then its usability might be less.

The Complete Psionics Handbook: Review

Although not technically part of the Dark Sun releases, the psionics handbook in one form or another turns out to be essential to all of the campaign. The reason for this is that every (yes: every) character in Dark Sun has access to psionic abilities to a greater or lesser extent. Some are full blown psionicists - a new class that is dealt with in detail in the handbook, whilst others are simply "wild talents". The wild talents are those born with some ability that they've learnt to master or use over the years. Levitating a chair, telepathically communicating with their Fathers, and so forth.

Almost every iteration of Dungeons and Dragons includes some kind of psionics. The second edition is probably the first most expansive description of psionics and its usage. But I don't think its the best to be honest.

Let's start with the positives. There is the psionicist class in and of itself. The powers that psionicists can use are detailed in several disciplines (psychokinesis, divination, telepathy, etc). And the class itself has a certain flexibility that makes it stand out against magic users (plus there's rules on what happens if psionics meets magical abilities that try to do opposite things). This is great. The sheer amount of new abilities is awesome.

On the negative side is the clunky implementation of psionics. This ranges from the rolls needed to activate particular powers (INT-some number that you can't recall, for instance) as well as expenditure of PSPs (power points used to power each ability that gets depleted until the user rests). I strongly prefer later systems that introduced MTHAC0 (mental THAC0's) and MAC (mental AC's) to activate abilities -- they were a good deal better iteration of the system. Moreover, every power has a negative side effect if a natural 20 (on a d20) is rolled. These tend to be rather extreme such as disintegrating oneself when trying to disintegrate something else. These are not fun! And why use them if you're not going to play to have fun? Further, the telepathic combat system is poor. It'd be much better if something like mental HP existed (or tangents as they are in later editions) before ID insinuation (and other negative effects such as telepathic domination) takes a foothold in the victims mind.

Overall, 2 stars out of 5. A necessary evil, but I strongly commend latter iterations of the psionic system to you to use in a Dark Sun campaign.

Snow Ghoul (WFB Vintage)

A miniature (and paint job) from yesteryear from me today. This is a very (very) old metal ghoul from Citadel Miniatures in the Realms of Chaos / Rogue Trader era. I discovered it whilst tidying up an equally old dungeons and dragons miniature related box (which contained oddities ranging from Ral Partha models through to blue plastic Space Hulk genestealers).

I painted this blue in my youth to depict a snow- or ice ghoul. Why blue? Well, the blood in its body runs cold (obviously! lol!). 

It was also an early exercise in azimuthal lighting to some extent. 

The base coat is nothing more than ultramarine blue, with several dark blue wash layers added on top to give a bit of depth. The upper surfaces on the face and chest were then picked out in ultramarine blue, and then layered up with a mixture of electric blue. I was particularly pleased with the face on the ghoul - in spite of the pure white eyeballs. The tongue is suitably snow-covered dirt flavour, but the weapon clearly needs a bit more work to bring to a good standard.

The overall tone of the blue is pleasing to my eye even today and I remember fondly some snow based Dungeons and Dragons adventures where a group of these ghouls persistently tailed and tried to eat the PCs (repeatedly) only to be chased away and scared off by large bonfire-related hijinks and fire-based magic.

Dark Sun Reviews: The Complete Gladiator's Handbook

Unlike some of the other "Complete" series from ADnD 2nd edition, this one is positively Dark Sun orientated - going as far as having the familiar burnt orange colour interior and familiar artwork associated with it. In a nut shell, it contains plentiful details about how to create gladiator class PCs, variations on this class, new rules related to gladiators and their combat, plus details of the arenas in each of the major city states of the Athasian Tablelands.

The first chapter of the book dedicates itself to character creation. If you're playing 4th edition DnD, then you need to note that the character kits are roughly character themes and will need none-zero work to translate in to modern DnD. These kits are generally reasonably well executed and range from the highly notable Jazst (travelling harlequins who get the crowd excited prior to the main events and have a stupidly large damage potential at low levels), the blind fighters (or more accurately: sense deprived fighters, but otherwise end up spending all their slots on this particular skill at low level); through to the Beast Trainer (which is precisely what you think it would be … and somewhat ranger-esque in operation if you ask me). The other kits tend toward a more "meh" reaction from me: professional gladiators, slave gladiators, arena champions and the like all kind of blend in to one for me. Might as well use the original gladiator class from Dark Sun for these instead to some extent.

Gladiator abilities and combat mechanics make up the next two chapters (respectively). There are a few nice ideas contained in these chapters that could be mined for further use. Some of the weapons are very unusual and highly Athas-orientated. The combat section does shine for a number of reasons though. Ranging from unarmed combat manoeuvres through to shield bashing, and grappling, through to limb-targeting, this section has everything! Even martial arts. This is great, as it provides gladiators with the opportunity to do things like knocking opponents unconscious deliberately. 

The fourth chapter features and in-depth look at the arenas of the Tablelands. The one that did surprise me was Urik's. It is irregularly shaped and has deadly staves scattered around it. I thought Hamanu would have preferred something much more regular and open field. But oh well, perhaps his armies are what that is for. The chapter delves in to fan culture in more detail and allows the PCs to gain bonuses if the mobs like them in the arena. This is cute, but ultimately not that necessary unless one if running an entire gladiator campaign…. which just happens to be the topic of the fifth chapter. I wasn't particularly taken with this, as it contains all the obvious stuff (slave gladiators, the life and times of arena trials, fame / infamy, trading gladiators, and so on). This could readily be implemented by an imaginative GM / DM, but I suppose could be a good source of knowledge for relatively new GM's.

The book is rounded off by a smaller chapter on running tournaments. If playing in a particular city-state for an extended period, then this section will provide the detail for tournament days being held there and their own peculiarities. 

Overall, the big positive thing about this book is the expanded combat / melee options presented. This really opens up an entirely new field for the PCs and is worth while from this point of view. Some of the other material is between meh to okay, to good, depending entirely if you're interested in the micro-culture of specific city-state arenas or are looking for something a bit more specialist than a regular gladiator character kit. Three stars out of five from me.

Dark Sun Reviews: Valley of Dust and Fire

What lies beyond Athas' Tablelands? What is in the centre of the Sea of Silt? And what exactly does the Dragon get up to in his considerable spare time?  The Valley of Dust and Fire answers many of these questions and then some.

In a nutshell, this expansion book is partly a campaign expansion, and partly an adventure. It describes in great detail the regions beyond the East of the Tablelands and delves in to the Dragon's (secret) home city of Ur Draxa.

The book commences by providing some good descriptions of the very harsh physical conditions present in and around the silt sea, including the Grey Death. Some tables on weather and wind provide a good distraction for folks wanting to randomise these things on for adventuring beyond the city state of Balic (for example). And the descriptions of the various types of terrain are excellent.

But the utility of the book slows down thereafter. This is simply due to the fact that there isn't sufficient motivation for a party of adventurers to go much further in to the sea of silt. It is a truly harsh wasteland lacking in vital resources (like water and food) and filled with deadly creatures (that may or may not be so edible) and physical conditions that make the slave pens of Tyr or Urik seem appealing. The creatures that inhabit these lands are described in the volume (some are duplicated in the Monstrous Manual for Dark Sun). And moreover, the book also describes the silt skimmers (and other methods of transport over the silt's expanse) in detail which is good for any campaign that wanders near this area (but see also Guistenal later on…).

The book then delves in to specific locations in and around the sea of silt: an island beset with tornados, the Vanishing Lake and others. These are neat and could readily be transplanted to other settings since the memes themselves are solid, if a little specific.

After that though, we start to get deeper in to the domain of the Dragon: the Valley of Dust and Fire itself. Why the PCs would venture in to a lava ring around Ur Draxa is questionable at best. Hence from herein, the book is basically a campaign expansion with little reason for the PCs to ever visit. With the Dragon being the (un-killable?) predator of the whole campaign, heading to the Valley and Ur Draxa should be a one way ticket. Perhaps use it as a grand finale in a dubious attempt to slay the beast? Good transportable portions include descriptions of the burning plains of lava, dead forest and the smoking lands. Excellent fantasy stuff (in a post-apocalyptic sense!).

The detail of the Valley and Ur Draxa (a.k.a. the City of Doom!) itself is fantastic though. Ranging from the deathly politics of the nobel houses through to the patrols that guard it against any incursions, the city itself is interesting, isolationistic and xenophobic. Maps of the centre of the city are provided along with some points of interest that might plausibly be of limited interest to other campaigns. The domain/sanctum of the Dragon himself is also given, should the PCs consider slaying him. Which they won't because he's a super-intelligent beast who's been living for thousands of years and is a psionic / magical monster who plans a lot of contingencies in-spite of his prowess.

Three scenarios for campaigning in the Valley are also given: a Visitation, an Entrapment (oh please no: not the you're all slaves meme again!), and the Native Draxan campaign (which would have to be highly divergent from the regular campaign).

My overall impression is that of a good book that is well executed, but ultimately terribly limited by its own extent. A regular Dark Sun campaign will find good use of the opening chapters for near the Sea of Silt, but the rest of the book -- particularly Ur Draxa -- is mostly of little utility since nobody will go there, unless they're insane, psionically dominated to do so, made slaves, or suicidally want to alpha strike the Dragon. Only 2.5 stars out of 5 from me. It would be much higher if the utility was higher. Don't bother buying it unless you're really really intending to use this area of Athas.