Sidequest: The Curse of Xanathon Part 1

As I previously mentioned, I was finally able to become a player in a Swords & Wizardry campaign adventure.  These sessions were run by Brian, one of the players in our gaming group that has been going strong since 2009!

Brian ran classic TSR adventure: X-3 Curse of Xanathon!

Like I said, I had a great time playing my thief, McDagger and we all had a lot of laughs with this adventure, as any good group of sessions should have, but the Curse of Xanathon, as an adventure module, has it's 'issues'.

This adventure was written in 1982, around the time adventure modules evolved from a sandbox environment into more of a story-based adventure. Being X-3, you can see the evolution of that through the X series of modules.

X-1, The Isle of Dread (by David Cook and Tom Moldvay) is a crazy open sandbox in a pulp fantasy lost island in the middle of the sea.  It's open ended and the players can determine their own fate by their choices.  There is no real 'plot' or linear story. Just an anything goes fantasy.  It's a classic in it's own right.

X-2, Castle Amber (by Tom Moldvay) was another open ended "fun-house" adventure with a loose plot of the D'Amberville family. It's essentially a classic mega-dungeon crawl.  This one is slightly more rail-roady in that the PCs would be 'trapped' in the castle until they figure out the way to escape.

The Curse of Xanathon (by Douglas Niles) breaks with that free-form openness and railroads the party into 5 plot-points (scenarios) that need to be hit to move the story along. It involves a curse upon the duke of the town of Rhoona and a cult worshiping a chaotic god and an 'invincible' priest and an powerful pirate working in tandem with the priest to control the Duke.  Oh, and a time limit of an invading dwarven army that the Mad Duke pissed off, all this to support the underlying concept of a civil war in the town to weaken it and allow for an invasion from the steeps.  This all sounds like the making of a great fantasy story - and it is, but as an open adventure, it doesn't work very well.

The general problem with 'story' based adventures such as this is always having the critical need for players
to hit the plot-points to move the adventure along. You can't kill the wrong NPC, or stray from the path, or  just blow-up the Duke's castle and be done with it, or what if you don't find the exact key to defeat the evil priest? or just saying, this town is fucked, lets rob the castle and get out of here.  To reveal the 'story' as the author intended, you need to do everything in the way the author needs to you to do it. And for a group that is use to open ended adventures where the stories evolve themselves this was quite rail-roady.  I mean, why should a group of traveling rogues care about this town or this Mad Duke? I guess outlawing ale would do the trick, right?

All that said, we had a good laugh at some of the forced plot points.  Many of the encounters were quite enjoyable and I really loved the dungeon/shrine. This would be a challenging module to run for even veteran DMs but Brian rolled with this adventure with his usual dry humor and twisted charm which leveled this module up from an attempted mysterious drama to a romp that involved fire-balling the barracks.

I guess you can't keep a good party down.

A brief word about the author, Douglas Niles. He was part of the early second group of TSR employees after the initial explosion of the game. He came on board in '82 as a game designer. He ended up writing Top Secret (one of my favorite non-D&D games) and the first three Forgotten Realms novels.  He also wrote the B-5 Horror on the Hill adventure, a less rail-roady adventure which I worked into our campaign way back and was pretty fun. He has some chops but Curse of Xanathon just didn't cut it.  It's obvious he had a story concept in mind that he translated into an adventure module which doesn't quite work as a stand-alone.  I suppose that if you used the town of Rhooma as a starting point for an entire campaign with level 1 characters and then you could slowly build up the story and plot points so that when the characters were powerful enough they could tackle the 'story adventure' organically with the stakes being higher, that probably could work.

More on the actual session recaps coming next.

Another, more thorough, dive into this module over at RetroReview

Day Of The Dead: A Brief History Of Death In Our Campaign

Arvin Ardmore -  Acolyte of Mithra
First appeared in session 1
Died bravely in session 5 during a melee with Sgt. Morak of the watch and traitor of Caladan.  First campaign death was quite shocking.  Arvin wouldn't be avenged until session 42.

Gedleessmote Hammersend - Dwarven Axe-bearer
First appeared in session 1
Died not so smartly when he forgot to heal his lost hit points from one session to the next.  This legendary character fell in session 20 covered in lava from a living statue.

Adara - Stygian Strider
First appeared in session 10
Succumbed to the icy touch of a wight in session 27. Laid to rest in the graveyard above Caladan.

Tibag Backstabber - Half-elf Robber
First appeared in session 1
After hacking to pieces a helpless Owlbear, Tibag slipped on the ice ledge above some blue lava and died upon falling in.  Session 33 was a very sad day.

Radius Longshadow - Human Fighter
First appeared in session 35
Died the very same session paralyzed and engulfed by a nasty gelatinous cube!

Maudlin - Female Dwarven Warrior
First appeared in session 21
Also died in session 35 by a different gelatinous cube (yes, the DM killed his wife's character)

Slick Vinny - Human TheurgistFirst appeared in session 1
Went missing in session 42, believed to now be Xenopus' vampire sex slave.

But adventuring if for the living and for that we have the longest surviving character Wolfheir the viking who has lived through all 46 sessions.  Next we have Skwanky Furrytoe and despite his many near death experiences has managed to survive from session 3 to the present.

Other characters have joined the party including: Gnarly Blunderbrush - Initiate 4th Circle, Televon - Curate of Morpheus, Adessa - Priestess of the Goddess, Flora Fawn - Fairy Wildflower, Arg - Half-orc Grunt and finally Throkmorton - Curate of Khalk'Ru.

The best thing about an ongoing campaign is the collective history that is created by game-play.  Character death adds to that history and makes it memorable.  

Getting Older Is Okay Where D&D Is Concerned

I'm sure that many of you that take the time out to checkout what I'm saying over here at the Warlock's Home Brew probably started gaming back in the late 70's early 80's which makes us all around the same age and most likely the of the same generation (remember the whole 'Generation X thingy way back?).

Many of you started playing this fantasy game at a very young age, for me I was 10 years old. I was also the oldest in our group and thus the default Dungeon Master. Sure we had a great time exploring dungeons and killing things and taking their stuff and rolling up characters and all that goodness but, as a 10 year old, what did I know about the ins and outs of bringing a sense of realism to the game? Not much. My reality was pretty much colored by Science Fiction movies and comic books. We played on nonetheless.

So here we are, 30 years later and I find myself back behind the screen. Yeah, I took about 25 years off of playing RPGs as I stepped into the rivers of life but, like many of you, I too have returned.

Yes I have returned and returned much wiser (without a doubt this can be argued) in the ways of gaming.

With this older age comes a new perspective, for me anyway, on running my games.

Life experience has given me a better background to run my campaigns. I can flesh out my NPCs to give them a more realistic color than I could when I was 10. Same goes for my cities, towns and plot-hook and situations. Don't get me wrong, the game is just as insanely hilarious and at times disturbingly twisted as ever but I think that there's just more of a sense of groundedness that experience can bring.

Also with age comes the concept of just letting go. We're all in this campaign together so lets drink some beers, laugh a lot with some friends and have a good time! Playing off the cuff has become a much easier endeavor as flexibility has become the philosophy.

And with these years of experience comes patience which really lets me paint one hell of a mini! I've come a long way from the green paint glob with the bright red mouth. Though minis play a small part of our game, when I do get a chance to sit down and paint it is quite a satisfying experience!

When I was younger and playing these games, I always wanted to run games like the adults that I saw running games, I always wanted to paint those miniatures like those skillful hobbyists of the time.

Well, now with some life experience under my belt (and still colored by science fiction and comic books, mind you) I do and it's fantastic! It's one hell of a game and it's more fun than ever.

So here's to all of us (Grognards?) that have made it to this point to run and talk about our games and in living life have become better games!

Dark Dungeons

Rules Cyclopedia retro-clone?



Or Gateway to Hell!

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

(thanks Mike!)

John Eric Holmes 1930-2010

Word has been spreading throughout the fantasy role-playing blogosphere about the passing of John Eric Holmes. For those of you that don't know, he was the writer of the infamous 'blue book' rule set of 'Basic' Dungeons & Dragons. It was his rule book that captured my imagination as well as thousands of other youth int he late 1970's and first pulled me into this hobby of Role-playing games over 30 years ago.

I have always returned to his Blue Book over these thirty plus years. It was my opinion that his rules, though eventually amended with the term 'Basic', was a very gritty, adult version of the game before the it was filtered down to a more acceptable version marketed towards a larger mainstream audience of families and children. And it was all packed into just 48 pages. This was even before Advanced Dungeons & Dragons came out set the bar for hundreds of pages of detailed hard-bound rules.

And let's not forget his infamous Zenopus' Tower complete sample dungeon adventure which were part of his rules. It is truly a classic and still stands up after all these years as my players can attest to!

Though Gygax and Arneson will forever always be the pillars of the hobby, it was John Eric Holmes that was the gateway for many.

Dr. John Eric Holmes passed away on March 20, 2010.

The Warlock's 100th Post

And with that here we are. One Hundred Posts at the Warlock's Home Brew!



It's been a lot of words and I've really enjoyed throwing things out there into the inter-webs but have I really actually said anything? Have I contributed to this resurgence of classic fantasy role-playing game interest?

Well, I think so, I hope so. I think we all have.

All the comments, all the blogs, all the resources out there, which I would have slain a hundred dragons to have access to over 30 years ago when I was just a newbie gamer, have made this hobby an even better place.

Sure, some of these great blogs have come and gone and new ones have taken their place but isn't that just like the game we all love; ever changing, evolving, morphing and coming full circle like many of us have. All to meet back where we have started those many years ago, to tread on familiar paths and to blaze new trails.

And it's a wonderful place to be.

Yeah, I've slacked a bit here and there. My Fantasy Friday feature sort of fell by the wayside and I really enjoyed that too. But to present the type of artists and samples that I would have liked to would have taken too much time that I barely have now. And I've promised to come back to certain themes or topics that I brought up but never quite made it back to. Oh well, we'll have to see what the future holds. Like many of you I'm just letting this be what it is with hopes of contributing something back to this community.

So with one hundred posts under my belt I'll recap some of the highlights and the more popular posts.

Eleven campaign gaming sessions, seven regular dedicated players, one PC death, rules-lite fast-paced play and characters just having reached 2nd level. Really, that's what we're talking about here. Read the Campaign Tales.

We all have our own method and here is mine: Map making tutorials.

In Search Of The Unknown: The Illustrated Story of…

Why Play A Retro Clone

Can D&D Ever Be Played Wrong? - Answered!

The Cultural Stew That Birthed Dungeons & Dragons

My Dungeon Illustrations

Oh and I can't forget my players...

There's more but you'll have to explore on your own, it's in your nature after all, looking around that next corner, wondering whats around the next bend. Don't forget your lantern and your 10 foot pole.

So I hope you've all enjoyed something of what I've posted here at The Warlock's Home Brew. I appreciate everyone visiting and commenting if you felt moved to. Hope to see you all in my future posts!

Oh and a special thanks to Garry Gygax, David Arneson and John Eric Holmes, my wizards of Role-Playing Games!

And don't forget to visit The Warlock's Curiosities on your way out….

The Cultural Stew That Birthed Dungeons & Dragons

There has been much talk over the recent years about the early evolution from war-games to that fantasy game we all love with all those funny looking dice. But one must also keep in mind the mindset and culture of the times when the game was birthed. We're talking the late 60's and very early 70's. A time when fantasy and science fiction were being "rediscovered" so to speak.

Tolkien's high fantasy Lord of the Rings books achieved a popularity with it's peaceful hobbits and getting back to the land concepts very much in tune with the counter-culture philosophies and fantasy-trips of the day. There was a band called Gandalf, a London club called Middle Earth, and don't forget the infamous "Frodo Lives" T-shirts too. There was even talk of a Lord of the Rings movie to be directed by Stanley Kubrik and staring The Beatles.

The mid and late 60's also saw the publishing of the Robert E. Howard Conan stories in paperback by Lancer and ACE, albeit heavily edited. That, of course, lead to the Marvel Conan comics by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith. Other paperback companies jumped on board as well featuring Moorecock, Lovecraft and others, sporting fantastic cover art from the likes of Frank Frazetta and Jeff Jones.

Science Fiction, too, was leaving it's impressions on the experienced minds of young people. This was Science Fiction driven by concept and story and not laser-blasts and action. Films like 2001: A Space Odyssey with it's cosmic rebirth of earth's star-child, and grim post-apocalyptic dramas such as (Beneath the) Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and The Omega-Man (okay, maybe Chuck Heston had a monopoly on the apocalypse). Bakshi's Wizards and even Jack Kirby's DC comic Kamandi can be added to this fertile stew.



Fantasy and Science Fiction were seeping deep into the pores of our culture. It was all around and still in a pure-form. It had not been commercialized or sanitized or even sharply defined or divided. It was Science Fiction and Fantasy and it encompassed many things with the two very much blurring into each other.

It is no surprise then that some creative war-gamers took those games to another level; to attempt to bring one into these realms of fantasy and to experience for one's self the excitement and freedom and in some cases grim horror of these worlds, if only for a few hours. Thus were born Greyhawk, Blackmoore, Dragons, Dungeons, Metamorphosis Alpha, Tekumel, Traveller and many other 'Fantasy Role-Playing Games', the affects of which are still being felt to this day.

More to come....