This hope will never be fulfilled.

Chivalry & Sorcery 7th edition: Gorgon

FGU - C&S - chivalry & sorcery 7th Ed (ocr) - gorgon v1.0.pdf

Song I

Three quick news

1- I decided to open a new section of my blog, devoted to atmospheric music that may be played during game and which could enhance play experience. It will be simply called "Songs". I'll start right now.

2- As you may already have noticed, i put a logo about my "Spawn of Fashan" project permanently on my blog (you will find it on the right side of the blog, under the followers). So that you may officially know that i was not joking but that i seriously intend to accomplish this goal.

3- I decided to participate in the "Swords & wizardry" appreciation day.
Why? you may ask- don't you hate all this stuff?
The answer is that i have an interesting idea in my mind, which links S&W with other obscure fantasy games of the past, so wait for the 17th of April to see with your own eyes.

That's all for now.

Arrows of Indra

At last, i learnt that a supplement named "Arrows of Indra" exists.



While i don't personally agree in playing in such a "mythological" setting, and i have more than a few doubts about the content of this supplement, (treatment of the Yogis and their siddhis for instance, it irritates me in much the same way as if someone put in a game the possibility of Christian resurrection treated just as a mere magical spell (D&D)- in much the same way i dislike when i see that Siddhis are treated as a joke as well, see here.)-

Anyway, i decided to share some vid links which may or may not be of some use (to induce some ideas) in those fellow gamers who are not as hesitant as me in adventuring in that very setting (watch this video especially from minute 2.00 on).

Check also this book, that i read today at my local library.

Perilous path: a new non-D&D simulacrum game is in development

My cyber friend over at UNDERWORLD KINGDOM is committed to developing a non D&D simulacrum and in pursuing this project he created a new blog which can be reached here.

What can i say? First of all, i hold his endeavour in great esteem, because he is devoting effort to such a task and i know not everyone would be willing to embark on such a difficult journey, but mostly because he is not working on another useless D&D retro-clone.

This is a step further into the future of OSR, in my opinion.
I already wrote something about what i think OSR 2.0 is, and this project perfectly matches these parameters.

As far as i know, the only other project which vaguely resembles his is "Ringbearer" rpg.

The author of "Project P" informs us that " the first part of the game (covering character creation and combat rules) is complete"

I'm sure you are able to complete this project; if i am allowed to give a piece of advice: please take your time. We are not in a hurry, and great accomplishments demands time.

So, whoever read this, go and update your bookmarks now.

Which fantasy rpg can carry me to the dreamworld?

Or, why each fantasy role-playing game is a different state of consciousness.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the biggest shortcomings of my hobby is the underestimation of the difference that exist among the multitude of fantasy role-playing game of the past.

We (I and my group of four players) have been playing the same adventure now for several months using "Powers & Perils" as our system of choice.
The more i play with them, the more i become cognizant of how much this system enables me to play with a specific flavour which i could not attain otherwise, should i use a different game.

But Arduin evokes feelings quite different fom those that may be felt playing Rolemaster, and so on.

I become more and more aware of the subtle differences that permeate each fantasy rpg of the past, and i become aware of the "spirit", of the "soul" hidden behind the rules.

We are currently playing an adventure module titled "The Nine Doctrines of Darkness". It was written and published in the eighties with AD&D 1st edition in mind, in fact all the stats contained therein are AD&D stats.
I had to change and adapt it in order to use it with P&P system.
But the story and the plot of that adventure stays unchanged, obviously.

I could make six copies of this adventure and give them away to different dungeon masters throughout the world. Each of these guys plays a different fantasy rpg.
Let us assume the six games in question are: AD&D, Runequest, Arduin, Rolemaster, Chivalry & Sorcery and Powers & Perils.
I know for certain that they would end up having six different experiences of play.

Obviously, they will have a different experience because the game mechanics are different indeed, so topics are treated differently, hit points are treated differently, combat especially, and so forth.

But what i'm saying is that the overall outcome would be different.

We would have six peculiar and unique outcomes, and this unavoidable result is due to the utterly different nature of the six fantasy rpg's we have used.

 We cannot "get rid" of the rule-system we are using, it is always there, it cannot vanish, it constantly casts its shadow on all i (as the Dungeon master) am telling to my players, everything has to pass through the filter of the rules, and it does, even if we are not always aware of it.

Today i would like to talk about the boundaries and limits of the fantasy experience we can have as players, and (partly) as game masters.

The simulation of reality through rules on rolling dice is NOT just one game company's opinion, and it is not easily defined by one limited view point.
Although Beasts, men & gods is a complete system designed to be played in itself, i strongly encourage players to NOT remain 100% faithful. Once again, reality is NOT just one game company's opinion, not even The Game Masters' opinion. I urge you to go forth and draw concepts and ideas from any other game that you see, and build your own creative concept of "reality" in a fantasy world.

Bill Underwood, preface to Beasts, men & gods, 1982 (link)

In a nutshell, the idea is that the cerebral (felt) experience of a game session is - to a some degree and extent- modified (shaped) by the intrinsic "spirit" of the game, which lies dormant inside the rules.


What is the "Spirit" of the game? Gygax himself told us in the past:

"...the understanding extends not only to the written rules but to what lies between the lines as well. This is the spirit of the game. Spirit is evident in every RPG. To identify the spirit of the RPG, you must know what the game rules say, be able to absorb this information, and then interpret what the rules imply or state about the spirit that underlies them." (Gygax, RPM pg 26)

 "The spirit of the game cannot be expressly defined in a sentence or a paragraph, and any game designer who attempts to do so is defeating his own purpose. The spirit of an RPG pervades all the statistics, mechanics, and descriptions that make up the actual rules; it is everywhere and nowhere in particular at the same time. A game master or player who simply absorbs all the rules and uses them to play out a game adventure may be able to achieve expertise in the play of the game, but in the final analysis, he is doing no more than going through the motions--unless he also perceives, understands, and appreciates the spirit that underlies all those rules." (ibid emphasis mine)

"Spirit" is codified through the rules, which are the objectification  of their authors'ideas and philosophies.
The player perceives the world and this perception is a perception of the "grammar" in which the that reality is written.

The grammar blocks are the rules. But since this grammar at its very basics is simply the manifestation (coded in mathematical language) of worldviews held by different authors (Gygax, Ed Simbalist, Dave Hargrave, to cite a few), rules exert their influence and impact in a way that transcends mere mehanics.

In fact, it is possible to feel the Spirit of the game that "pervades all the statistics and mechanics" (see Gygax quote above). Perceiving all of these "grammar blocks" all at once enables us to have both a cerebral and felt gaming experience unlike any other conveyed by a different fantasy rpg ("Spirit is evident in every rpg", Gygax RPM pg.26)

This is why we are brains in a vat whilst playing.

BRAINS IN A VAT (click here)

Much as the kind of sensory experience we may have rely on and depends on the scientist who put our brains in the vat, so the kind of imaginative experience we may have depend (partly) upon which kind of fantasy rule-system we chose to use and adopt.

At this point, what would be interesting to know is the amount of influence exerted by the rule-system , but that is difficult to quantify.

I will assume this influence is not so predominant as other factors may be (such as the storytelling ability of the game master), in making an adventure memorable, but as said, we have to take it into account as a factor which modifies our feeling and something that acts on our brains nonetheless, even if we are not always aware of that.

END OF PART I (to be continued with PART II, coming soon)

Spawn of Fashan, corrected version is here.

 

People might wonder if i am still working on my "Perils Eternal" project or if i stopped entirely.

The fact is that i kept hidden another project that was going on: a revision of "Spawn of Fashan" rules and i can finally declare that i finished in this tremendous task.

I own an original copy of this legendary fantasy rpg but as you probably know it is a convoluted game so i have been trying to decipher all this stuff for months and now i edited a pdf version of the text, corrected and much more readable.

I think this game can now reach a wider audience but first i need some proofreading by bold gamers out there.

If anyone is interested, drop me a message below and i'll immediately send you the link to depositfiles where you can download my pdf version.

At the end of the day these are just games?

I received a comment on this post of mine some days ago.

I am grateful to receive critical comments together with positive ones. They make me grow.

I didn't intend to reply to that post, i had nothing to say but today i was half asleep on the couch and in this state words came to my mind (it happens often to me), so i awake, stood up and began to write down what i saw in my mind.



It's true, i don't take rpg "hobby" as a frivolous pastime, in fact i do not regard them as a mere game, much as i do not consider a fantastic novel just an entertaining account of facts (a mere chronicle or story).

The purpose of a fantasy novel is the immersion of the mind in the fictional setting described therein.
In fact, if the external world doesn't get erased (doesn't fade away) under the spell exerted by a fantasy novel, where is the puissance of the story which is told?

The aim of playing a fantasy rpg is even more ambitious and profound: not only the suspension of disbelief but the pursuit of voluntary illusion through the application of mathematical formulaes which are needed to make the illusion appear in front of us more vividly.

Originally, it seems to me that the fantasy rulebook has as its scope a titanic endeavour: to turn dreams into flesh.

If you are reading a Clark Ashton Smith story with the sole intent to experience half an hour in a dream-like state of mind, you are doing the right thing but at the same time you are missing the point.

We should at least read such a story with the same amount and degree of faith he had in his heart whilst he was writing it.

Also, there must have been at least fifteen minutes in the lifetime of J.R.R. Tolkien whereas he felt and perceived the characters he was describing were REAL; a supreme moment where he realized he was a mere instrument in the hands of those characters (and not vice-versa) and that they were commandingly persuade him to tell their chronicles.

To me, the only goal of a rulebook is this.
It must be a gate to another world. If the Grand Illusion does not obtain, i may well use that fantasy rpg but to no avail.

Time to begin with Powers & Perils lessons.

 

Many out there probably believe my favourite fantasy rpg of all time is "Powers & Perils". It is not, though i basically concur with the phrase you can read at P&P official website:

"Powers and Perils has been described the most elegant roleplaying game, as well as the most complex game ever developed"

Anyway, today i read this on Acaeum forum (here):

Badmike wrote:

Back to Worst Game System, did anyone here ever try to play Powers and Perils?  I don't have a copy anymore but I distinctly remember saying "WTF?" several times while reading through the boxed set.

Mike B.

I want to like this game, I really do.  I have a couple of copies on the shelf.  I attempted to make a character, got about 75% through the process and could not find one of the charts the next step required.  My head 'asploded!  There is a blog (mesmerized by sirens blogspot) and the author is a rabid pro P&P / anti-AD&D supporter.  Loves the game and supposedly played the heck out of it but I just can't wrap my head around the rules...and that's just character creation! 

It is a pity that you (the writer of this) and possibly others couldn't manage to create a character. That it is so difficult a task is a myth, and i want to dispell it.

A new player that recently came to our group said to me that this system is one of the "Three Secrets of Fátima" [...]

Considering all these facts, i want to add today another project to my (already full) list of things to do: Powers & Perils lessons on this blog. First thing could be creating a character. Stay tuned.

Chivalry & Sorcery Sourcebook + Swords and Sorcerers as free downloads

LINK







LINK

Original C&S Character Generation Manual

So, you want to be a Magic User?

(if you read this chapter, you will understand why AD&D magic system is a childish thing).

Rare and obscure fantasy rpgs galore - PART II

 "What Price glory?!", again. See here.

 High Fantasy. I know many are interested in this.

 Kabal, this is a unique fantasy rpg published in 1980 and that was much vituperated, undeservedly.
It sells for this amount on Noble knight, see this link.

 Lands of adventure, by FGU. So Great a game.

 People should talk every day on blogs of this. Written by Dave Arneson and my beloved Richard Snider (the latter the creator of Powers & Perils).

 Perhaps my most cherished boxed set, that of Chivalry & Sorcery 2nd edition.

 Get rid of all AD&D rules on magic and use this instead. You won't be disappointed.By the same creator of "Arcanum" fantasy rpg (see previous gallery to get a glimpse of it).

 OMG. Mage by Wilf Backhaus. If you want to feel what real magick is.

 Again, C&S 2nd edition boxed set.

High Fantasy in all its glory. Now i'm looking for the 1st edition of this game, which i'm still missing.

 

The back of KABAL boxed set. This game was advertised on Dragon magazine in the past, but i think the ad went somewhat unnoticed.

 The Compleat Arduin. Not the same as Arduin trilogy.

 Rolemaster 2nd edition boxed set. Together with Chivalry & sorcery one of the few games written by demi-gods. Just when you believe AD&D is all life can give, you should turn the gaze on this boxed set.

Wow, Dragonquest 1st edition boxed set. Love this game.

 I just wanted to show how thick is WPG. One of the most inspiring old fantasy rpg ever created, i'll talk on this someday. It was self-published and it is likely only one hundred copies exist.

KABAL, again.

The rare adventure, originally written for AD&D-that we have been playing.

"Nine Doctrines of Darkness" review

I finally found a review of the adventure we have been playing for months.

If anyone is aware of other review, i would be glad to read them, thanks.

"Nine Doctrines of Darkness" is an amazing adventure and it has a capacity to set one's head spinning that few other adventures have. I would love to write down my player's deeds while they are trying to prevent the Evil to put its hands on the tome, i already put them on paper (but in my own language).

Rare and obscure fantasy rpgs galore

 The most misunderstood fantasy rpg game of the past, without a doubt. Love it.

 Behold the HOLY TRINITY. Perhaps the three most complex fantasy rpg in history.

 Try to find a copy of this on ebay...one of the rarest old-school fantasy rpg. Known only by a few.

 My pristine boxed set copy of Arduin trilogy...cherished much by me.

 The ineffable WPG. One of the most obscure and hard-to-find old-school fantasy rpg of all time, impossibly beautiful. I'm astonished people played OD&D in the past instead of this.

 The gigantic BM&G, by Bill Underwood. Like a commentator on Grognardia once wrote: "It has the best combat system of any fantasy RPG I've ever played"

 The only adventure ever published for "Beasts, men & gods".

 The incredible Bifrost, one of the deepest mystery in the OSR. One of my biggest treasures.

 Melanda, i wrote a couple of posts about this old game. Wish i had in my hands the first edition of this.

 I can't believe this old fantasy rpg published in 1987 is never mentioned anywhere. So old-schoolish. But i can understand that it is very rare, hence its absence from blogs.

 The greatest fantasy role-playing game ever created, period. And maybe the most complex as well.

 This was a very interesting alternative to AD&D back in the time. We should definitely devote more time perusing its rules and so forth.

 Warlock...the greatest rival and antagonist of Original Dungeons & dragons...and far better than the latter.

 Warlock tower, the supplement to Warlock: new rules.

 The original Dragon wariors rpg in paperback...quite a good game, lots of ideas therein.

Another obscurity from Norway, a fantasy rpg published in 1987. I should definitely talk about this in the future.

Avalon Hill's Heroes magazine- complete run

here:

LINK

A brief glimpse of magick in Chivalry & Sorcery

From from the 1st edition Sourcebook:

"The search for a 'new & improved' simulation of magick (sic) began
primarily as a result of an increasing dissatisfaction experienced
with the pioneering efforts of *D&D* and *Warlock*.  The problem with
these and similar "first generation" simulations was twofold:  magic
was too easy to do and too "unrealistic" (if such a term can be used
in the context of fantasy).  Magic is too easy when, for example,
magical research can be done merely through the expendature (sic) of a
few weeks and a few 1000 Gp.

"In playing *C&S*, one character found that he had to spend over six
months of game-time enchanting a two foot piece of elm which was only
one out of 22 other ingredients he had to enchant.

 Magical simulations which are too easy and predictable have tended to become
more "weapon technology" to better burn, blast, or otherwise crush an
ever increasing horde of unknown and unaccountable monsters.
"An easy magick simulation has benefits on the side of playability and
far more serious dissatisfaction was felt with the lack of realism.

The lack of realism is due primarily to the first generation
simulations being culled from fantasy literature:  Tolkien, Howard,
etc.  (I recall that in '76 Gygax wrote an article tracing the theory
in *D&D* to DeCamp and Pratt's *Incomplete Enchanter*) rather than
occult sources such as Paracelsus' *Hermetic Chemistry* or the *Lesser
Key of Solomon*.  It is true, of course, that the magical theory found
in the *Incomplete Enchanter* was derived from that classic study of
Magic and Religion, Frazer's *Golden Bough*.


In neither work is anything said about the world view of magic which underlies the famous
so-called Laws of Magic.  Pratt, as is well known, in his own work
took a serious attitude toward magic as an Art which was neither easy
to practics (*Well of the Unicorn*) nor easy to acquire (*The Blue
Star*).

"Fantasy literature rarely draws out more than one or two kinds of
magical practice with the result that simulations based solely on such
a source end up with only one kind of magic user who is able to learn
and practice all magic there is by merely increasing in experience.  A
glance, however, through the twenty or so volumes of *Man, Myth, and
Magic* will easily persuade one that magic is an extremely complex
subject, there being as many different modes of magical practice as
there are human personality types and cultural levels.

 This extreme
diversity has always been a feature of the real history of magic as
ones finds in Robert Burton's *Anatomy of Melancholy* (c. 1621):
    "Many subdivisions there are in the practice of magick, and many
    several species of sorcerers, witches, enchanters, conjurors,
    etc.  They have been tolerated heretofore, some of them, and
    magick hath been publicly professed in former times,. . . While
    it is now generally censured and contraindicted by several univer-
    sities, though practices by some still.

Vikings & Valkyrs author in a magazine from 1988

have a look HERE.

Two old fantasy games available again

While i'm waiting one more week before announcing which obscure game won the poll, here are two pieces of interesting info someone may not be aware of:

KNIGHTS AND MAGICK (this one) is available again here.

But even more importantly, another piece of news.
Begin reading this: LINK

Then, point your browser HERE.

A Gygax interview you may have missed

From "Australian Realms" issue 10, here:

AR

All the Melanda stuff in one picture

While i wait more time before deciding which old fantasy rpg to review (see last post below, i think i will wait for at least one or two weeks), let's have a look at this wonderful picture.

Name your obscure fantasy RPG from 70s or 80s you want to know more about

Ok this is sort of a challenge which is useful even to myself in order to understand how far i can push my boundaries.

At the same time it might be useful to someone out there as well.

So, i started blogging in September 2011 so this is still a somewhat young blog, nonetheless i already had the opportunity to write about such diverse little known fantasy rpgs such as Bifrost, Melanda, Sword's path glory, Castle Perilous, and others.

But this is just the beginning! In fact, at times i have the feeling that i didn't even started to really blog the way i would like to . There are so many obscure fantasy rpgs i must talk and write about (not taking into account the ones mentioned above, which deserve a more profound treatment in words and they will certainly have it), i have literally tons of other obscure fantasy rpgs in my collection that i never mentioned.

You know, too much to do, too little time, as usual. But several times i gaze at my collection and i see some jewels staring back at me, as if they asked to be put out there under direct light in order to be known and to be spoken about loudly to the masses.

Really, as i always said, Dungeons & Dragons is just the tip of the iceberg.
Deep below there lie treasures dormant and unknown.
My aim (sometimes i feel it to be a duty but maybe i'm a visionary) is to unveil them here, one at a time, because no one did it or because it was done somewhere on other blogs but in a cursory way which does not suffice.

So i took it as a duty to open this blog, even if -as is known- i'm not an english mothertongue so at times it is "painful" to me to properly convey my ideas and thoughts in this language.But i want to do it.

I am a solitary kind of person, i have always been, i don't really feel the need of company most of the time, and this may be felt reading my blog where i almost never ask for things to others. No wonder that i called this a personal diary, instead of calling it a blog.

But i found many new friends since i started blogging and several of them often send private mails to me to share ideas and stuff, so i think today it is time to make an exception and i would like to make a poll.

Name your obscure FANTASY rpg from 70s or 80s that you want to know more about and i'll see if i can help.

The only rule is: it must be a FANTASY game, its rules must be written in english language, and it must have been published between 1975 and 1989. (see here for help).

So i won't take into account the fact that you might name a game published in 1990 or even in 1974 :)

happy poll to everyone.

Could Powers & Perils reach a new audience IF?

..If every single boxed set that originally appeared in the eighties, was scanned and distributed (shared) online?

I mean, not only the "Powers & Perils main boxed set" (first image below), but "Book of tables" and "Tower of the dead" as well:

Why am i saying this?

Basically, because on the "official" Powers & Perils" website, you can freely download the main boxed set and (if i recall correctly) part of the "Perilous lands" boxed set, and that's it.

Hence my question.

There are still two boxed sets missing.
If all at once ever published for this game was made available online, could this have an impact? The last two boxed sets mentioned have never been available on the net before.

What i will be writing about this month and next one

I have been writing a long post about something that i had in my mind and which i felt the urge to speak about. It is a somewhat convoluted train of thoughts, which resulted in a bizarre theory of mine.

As said, it took me days and weeks, it is still in draft form but i actually was not in a hurry to write it, because my ideas became clearer and clearer as days passed.

I think this will pop up next week or so.

Another post i'm going to write about in March is a long "dissertation" (divided in two or three parts) on Dungeons & Dragons original combat system and how i "fixed" it (because of dissatisfaction with it).

Yes, there was a time when i myself played this game (and it is likely i will play it again soon for some reasons).

There existed some "alternative" combat procedures and combat systems for Dungeons & Dragons, conceived decades ago by minds other than mine, which not everyone may be aware of ( i assume this, since i can't seem to find references to these on blogs and forums), so it's time to talk about this topic.

And i think these combat systems put the last word on how D&D combat should be.

Halls of the Dwarven Kings (1984)

Catacomb librarian delivers a great gift today for all you out there, fans of forgotten lore for AD&D 1st edition.

From RPG.NET:

"great set-up; lots of atmospheric small corridors; claustrophobic. Halls of the Dwarven Kings is an adventure I owned back in the 80s and repurchased from Noble Knight recently. I was quite pleased that the work lived up to my recollection. This is a well rounded adventure with a scenario booklet, an NPC booklet, an illustration booklet, tiles that can be used to construct the entire layout, including many unique tiles for special rooms, and various "artifacts," special notes, handwritten maps and other graphics players may come across".

You can buy it at NK website (here) for 125 $

LINK REMOVED

ANKH - Adventurers of the North - Kalevala Heroes (1988)

If you can read finnish, an old-school rpg (1988) hard to find.

LINK

Vikings & Valkyrs rpg original scanning

V&V original scanning