Looking forward

For reasons apparent to anyone that follows this blog, or checks my posting schedule, I'm very wary of making any future commitments, statements, or pretty much anything. However, I've come to two decisions recently.

1) I'll do up the random Arthurian characters tables (as taken from Culhwch & Olwen in the Mabinogion) as an issue of Secrets and put it as PWYW on RPGNow. I'm really taken with it, but I think it'd actually sell like poo and the audience of people that would actually be amused by it is probably limited to me.

2) I'm going to play around with Swords & Wizardry Light (visit Tenkar's Tavern for info on this). There's not a lot I like more than creating variants, alternatives, and additions for a game, and the skeleton of SWL is so slight it just seems like a (to be honest) low-investment way to scratch my itch. I like the idea of doing themed supplements (Forest Light, with barbarians, bards, druids, and scouts plus "forest" races"; Shadow Light with Shadowend specific material) or just setting out variant stuff like sets of races for different settings (ie forest, as above; Norse; Greco-Roman; Mars; Underdark; etc).  Plus, y'know, more monsters.

Not (3) A month or two ago I was playing around with creating different monsters that matched up to existing ones statwise. Ie, what might fill the role of a skeleton without being a skeleton? I've come up with at least two answers to that particular question that I'm kinda pleased with, and might explore it more via SW and more developed game systems.  :)

In which I wallow in nostalgia

I'd give my right leg to have not sold the 2e material I sold. And frankly, I wouldn't mind having the 3e material either. PDF is just not the same. I had shelves and shelves and shelves.  I understand why I sold it, and it still makes sense, but doggone it....

I'm (re)reading the Dragonlance Nexus's Adlatum gazetteer, a 300-page work detailing Krynn's 3rd continent. It's probably the most impressive fan-work I've ever seen, matching up to TSR & WotC in quality and readability, and ADDING new material to the setting, not simply rehashing old things.

I strongly and sincerely miss the setting-development TSR did back in the '80s and '90s. Nowadays it seems like it's all mechanics and systems, with page after page on the various internet sites filled with optimal builds and other crunchy tastelessness. OR, it's sniping at "modern" game systems and extolling the virtues of minimalism. Don't get me wrong; I love me some classic Greyhawk gold box, but sometimes it's nice to have meat on the bones. I'm a heretic - Carl Sargent's work was the high point of GH for me.

I guess I'm a grognard. :/

Names

I moved out of my house about 8 months ago, first into a sublet and then into an actual apartment with a roommate. Ironically, my roommate and I now seem to have -less- time to do things than we did when we lived separately. I consider her an on-the-go sort of person, but during one conversation she said she was amazed at how busy I was, bouncing between two households and my job and helping out other friends.

One of the things I'm working on is getting books out of boxes and onto shelves. It's a long process, because I don't want to fill every wall with books (at least not yet), but it's nice. I'm rereading a lot of material, including the First Law trilogy.

In the world of the First Law books, the Northmen have a concept of Named Men. Named Men are, literally, well-known fighters with established reputations. They don't have titles, but people follow them, and they in turn strike up alliances with other Named Men, or serve under them as de facto warchiefs.

Black Dow, Dogman, Caul Shivers, Glam Golden, Rattleneck, Crummock-i-Phail, and Harding Grim are all prominent Named Men. The Bloody-Nine is prominent enough to have a band of Named Men - those he's defeated in combat, but spared - as his followers.

It's essentially a literal, and more evocative, reading of reaching Name Level in D&D. Characters become famous, or infamous, enough to become a Name and attract followers. Most Named Men are fighters, but Dogman and Harding Grim are probably rangers, and Forley the Weakest could be a thief. (Forley was sent against the Bloody Nine by a village that wanted to send a champion, but knew it was hopeless - so they sent their weakest.)

I enjoy the First Law books a lot, but the appeal is really in the characters, not the world. Fading magic, burgeoning science, and weird-Earth history mashup cultures don't do much for me unless they're really well played. Top-notch writing, though.