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Lands of Adventure has always been something of a Holy Grail item for me.  I knew very little about the game and much less about the author and designer Lee Gold.  However, the cover art was striking and different from anything else I had seen before that my curiosity only grew and grew.  Later on, I began to learn who Lee Gold was and her contributions to the RPGs and geek/nerd culture in general, namely via Alarums and Excursions, that game went from a passing curiosity to an "it's on the list" item.

I am happy to report that not only is Alarums and Excursions still active, so is Lee Gold, having spoken with her briefly over the summer.  After that my "it's on the list" item moved to the top of my list.

Circumstances seem to hit me just right. I had seen a huge increase in my sales and a shrink-wrapped copy had been offered for sale.   I had the opportunity and I had the cash.  The price might have been higher than I would have normally spent, but any buyer's remorse I might have had was quickly evaporated once I got this boxed in the mail and opened it up.  I am not sure what my expectations were, it had been "on the list" for so long, but now I have it and I am really thrilled with it.

Lands of Adventure (1983)

Lands of Adventure by Lee Gold was published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1983.  The boxed set came with the Lands of Adventure Rule Book (32 pages) and a Culture Pack (28 pages) that cover Mythic Greece and Medieval England. The back cover of the rule book has a character sheet. example and the box came with one character sheet on heavy paper/light card stock that can be copied.  Which I did.

The box also included some "micro dice" two d20s (white and green) and two d6s (green, with pips). The d20s are numbered 0-9, 0-9, so good for d20s or d%s.  I say good for them, but in truth, they are too tiny for me to read anymore! So I am going to dig up some others to use.

The books show their wargaming roots with sections numbered as 1.0, 1.1 all the way to 28.1.  The Culture Pack follows suit, but the numbers here are tied to core rules.  So section 1.1 of the culture section refers also to section 1.1 of the core rules. The Culture Pack section are prefaced with a code letter, which I discuss below.

Note on the art.  The cover art for the box and the books is all done by Bill Willingham and it is some of the best art I have seen of his. I do believe it is one of the best covers for a game I have seen. Certainly, it was the best cover of the time. The book covers are no less impressive for their old-school black and white.

Seriously, that medusa is 10x better than any medusa art I have seen in D&D.  The interior art is by Michael Kucharski. His art is good, though not at the level of the covers. Note. Both artists have websites and both artists have, since this book, gotten to be fantastic artists.  Both also did their own versions of Doctor Stange[BW, MK], so maybe I need to roll up a Doctor Strange-like character for this.

In all cases, the art fits well with the books and the content.

Core Rules

The rulebook begins with a word from the author.  Of note Gold mentions using The Palladium Book of Weapons & Armour, Through Dungeons Deep: A Fantasy Gamers' Handbook, and encyclopedias of animals. 

Character creation is the big piece of the first book with 11 (yes Eleven!) character attribute traits, though only about half of those are random. The others are derived.  The pure random characteristics are Craft, Talent, Appearance, and Strength. Derived characteristics are Dexterity, Voice, Intelligence, Prudence, Agility, Constitution, and Charisma.  So more than D&D, but far less than DragonRaid. You can also determine Gender and Height.  

Typically the traits are 1-20 which makes it good for converting on a d20 roll or a d% roll. Alternately there is a point-buy system where you can distribute 110+2d10 points across all 11.  I'd likely stick to the derived ones and use the points to build the completely random ones.  In this way, it is not all that different to say WitchCraft. Instead of 110+2d10, maybe 45+1d10 or something for the purely random ones (range: 4-80) and derive the others as normal.

Other details include the Culture Technology Level and modification due to races other than the default human are given. 

Up next (1.1) is Piety.  Various actions are given that adjust this score either through pious or blasphemous actions. This aids in forms of magic.   

2.0 covers measuring Vitality. For the people that really enjoy complexity in their combat there three types of "hit points" in use in this game. They are Energy Points (EP), Body Points (BP), and Life Points (LP).  EPs are lost due to magic or extra actions, BPs cover injury, and LPs cover grievous injuries.  Body Points are increased by armor as described later in the armor section.

3.0 Introduces the Skill systems. The characteristics above determine skills, which are the meat of the game really. There are 10 skill categories with some specialist skills.   These include Communication, Knowledge, Magic, Manipulation, Miracle, Movement, Observation, Persuasion, Weapons (Melee), and Weapons (Missile).  Each has its own method of calculation. Skill checks are % and roll under.  A roll of 1 to 10 is considered a Maximum success and considered flawless.  A roll of 96 to 100 is a Fumble. 

Specialized skills are well, pretty much that.  But for every 10% increase in a Specialized skill, there is a +1% increase to the category. I have not seen that before.   Categories though are Hard, Normal, Easy, and by Weapon.  So improvement in say use of a sword by 10% your ability to shoot arrows increases by 1%.  There is a rough logic here. Categories determine how long it takes to learn a skill and how they can improve. 

The next sections cover all the skills and their specialties.   For example, in section 6.0 we learn there are four categories of Magic; Compulsions, Illusions, Enhancements, and Energy.  Section 8.0 Miracles is set up in a similar manner. 

Section 12 covers our weapons and how to use them.  Section 13 covers defense.  Relating combat as skill is of course a feature of many games outside of the D&D world.  Section 14 covers equipment.

Section 15 covers time.  1 Phase = 2 seconds, 1 round = 12 seconds (6 phases), and 1 minute = 5 rounds (30 phases).   Skill time is measured in phases and rounds.

Section 17 covers magic in more detail, where Section 6 just details magic as a skill.  There are no "spells" as in D&D per se (see below), but how much power it takes to perform certain example feats of magic.  It reminds me a bit of what we would much later get in White Wolf's Mage or Eden's WitchCraft.  In 17.9 some examples of "spells" built with the rules above are given.  Section 18 covers spellcasting.  Doing a Doctor Strange character is making more and more sense. Much like we will see later on in games like Mage, the four categories of magic can be combined in different permutations to make different spell effects. 

Section 19 covers all sorts of Daemons, Demons, and Gods. This is followed quickly Section 20 on Miracles which is given similar coverage that Spells received.  Section 21 gives us Thaumaturgists or mages with quasi-priestly powers. Section 22 likewise gives us Diabolists.   Miracles rely on the beings from Section 19 to work.   

Section 23 covers the basic stats for animals. Section 24 does the same for humanoids, 25 for Dragons, and 26 for types of undead.   None of these sections have the detail as one would see in a monster manual, the assumption being that you would create your own monsters or rely on the Culture Packs. 

We end with a very complete index.

The rules feel incomplete to be sure, but I am certain there is a playable game here.  I might be mentally filling in the blanks of what is missing with knowledge of other games and what they would do.

Culture Pack

The intent of the Culture Packs was to provide a "Game" world for the characters to play in.  While not specifically addressed, the assumption was I felt that these would be separate.  Separated by time as they are in the real world.  This is different than the take of Man, Myth & Magic which has all of the Mytho-Historical worlds existing together.  There is a bit higher level of scholarship in our two worlds than what is typically seen in say Man, Myth & Magic.

It is explicitly stated that there would be more Culture Packs, but sadly no others were made.  I could easily see Viking Age Northmen, Knights of Charlemagne, the Roman Empire, and Edo Period Japan.  In fact, given Ms. Gold's previous game, Land of the Rising Sun, Edo Japan seems like an easy choice. I might have to have a look as Land of the Rising Sun and see if I can divorce it enough from Chivalry & Sorcery roots to make a "Culture Pack" for it.  Gold would go on to write the GURPS Japan supplement.  Likewise, the Viking era also seems like a given the Vikings game she did for I.C.E. later on.

This Culture Pack covers Mythic Greece and Medieval England. With each getting half the book.

Layout-wise the two sections follow the same pattern and the pattern set up in the Core Rules. As mentioned the Section numbers match those of the Core book.  "C" is used for Mythic Greece (see below) and "M" for Medieval England.  So in the Core rules, 1.0 covers humans with 1.0b nonhumans (like Elves, Dwarves, Giants).  Section C1.0b covers centaurs, giants, and various nymphs. Section M1.0b cover faeries and picts.  

Mythic Greece is given the title "Children of the Gods," thus the "C" in the section numbering.  I approve, I used the same title (though without knowledge of this book) for my own coverage of Greek myths and Classical witches in Children of the Gods. This Culture Pack covers Ancient Greece before the Trojan War.  The rules here make subtle changes to the Core rules as well as some additions. The big feature here naturally is the inclusion of more gods, festivals, and other creatures. 

Medieval England moves the action North and about 2,000 years or so in the future, about the time of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in England or 1070 CE.  Coverage is given for England of the time.  So one of my favorite topics, the confrontations of Christianity and the "Old Religion" of Celtic Paganism.  So tips are given for role-playing as well as various rule changes. The formula used here to build the Culture Packs is very effective.  Had this game been more successful I would have loved to have seen more. 

Interestingly enough, much like my own Children of the Gods did with her Mythic Greece, there are connections here between her Medieval England and my other Basic Witch book, The Craft of the Wise.  The connections are pretty obvious.  We were reading the same research at the time/from the time.  We both went into the coverage of Greek Myths by Robert Graves. For Medieval England, there are certainly a lot of material she could have used, but she also picked a few that were also on my list like the works of Margaret Murry ("The Witch-Cult in Western Europe") and poets like Kipling.  It makes me wonder how my own books might have been different if I had seen Lee Gold's interpretations first.  As suspected the Magic sections cover witches, familiars, and coven casting.  All of it is very much right out of Murray's books.  I have to admit I was a touch surprised not to see Frazer's "The Golden Bough" in her list of research.

Afterword

Lee Gold is still very active in producing Alarums and Excursions and she still plays Lands of Adventure with her group. I spoke to her over the summer and she is fantastic.

The game does have a "collected notes" feel to it as other reviewers have mentioned. That doesn't detract from a very fascinating, if involved game.  I am certain that with Gold as a Game Master it is all quite fluid and dynamic, first time GMs will be spending a lot of time looking up formulas and a lot of pre-game prep building monsters, NPCs and the like.

I paid quite a lot for this game in it's original shrink wrap and I have to say I am not disappointed.  It is such a fascinating snapshot of one designer's passion.  While this could be construed as a "vanity project" it is not overly so.  Lee Gold is obviously a great game designer.  The diamonds of this game though are still hidden under a lot of coal. 

I hope to spend some more time with it soon.

Unboxing Pictures

It's rare I get something from the 1980s still in shrink.  Let's take it in.

Links

• Wayne's Books Unboxing.  Glad I watched this AFTER my review.  We agreed on a lot of points.  His box is pretty much exactly like mine.
• Coverage on Wayne's Books site. 
• Review by faoladh at the Ongoing Campaign.  We agree on a lot points, but I think I liked it better.
• Grognardia's interview with Lee Gold
• Meet the Woman Who by 1976 Was the Most Important Gamer in Roleplaying After Gary, DMDavid
• Voyages in Eternity: RPG Archive: Lands of Adventure

Okay, so having to make a business trip to New Jersey, by way of the Philadelphia airport, was reasonably easy. Getting to Philadelphia was reasonably uneventful, and time in New Jersey was, for the most part, delightful. Getting out of … Continue reading →

In the mythologies of the Ancient World, there are two that really stand out. The Greek and the Egyptian.  Both cultures grew to great prominence and fundamentally shaped our world.  Both had fascinating tales of gods, monsters, and heroes. 

Thanks to the trade and eventual rule of the Ptolemaic Pharos, we have a set of syncretized Greco-Egyptian gods.

While I would happily sit here and talk about these gods in an academic sense, my goal with OMG is really to present these from the lens of D&D, and from the Deities & Demigods in particular.  I am going to stick with gods that were actually worshiped, or at least recognized.  For this, I am going to rely on the scholarship of others, in particular, that of Dr. Kathrin Kleibl at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven.  I am drawing heavily from her chapter (Chapter 41) in The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion.  She has written more, ok lots more, and her work could form the cornerstone of a new pantheon for a new Deities & Demigods II if such a thing were feasible. 

Ptolemaic Egyptian Mythos

In 323 BCE Alexander the Great controlled Egypt, his reign, however, was short-lived and his general Ptolemy took control and his family ruled until 31 CE when they were taken over by Rome. The famous Cleopatra (Cleopatra VII) was the last of their line. The Ptolemaic Pharos or Ptolemaic Kings were not Egyptian but were Greek.  They ruled and lived a Greek lifestyle.  Only Cleopatra is recorded to have actually learned some of the Egyptian languages.  The gods they created or were created around them had a unique blending of both Greek and Egyptian features.  Not just physical features, though that is true as well, but religious features and aspects.

Zeus-Serapis

By the time Ptolemy took the throne, there was already syncretism happing in the Egyptian worldview.  Serapis was a new popular god figure that combined Osiris with the Apis Bull.  In some places, Serapis had already supplanted Osiris as the main God.  Zeus-Serapis was an "artificial" conflating of Zeus with Serapis.  I say artificial because it was believed he was created by the ministers of Ptolemy I to have a God that could be worshipped by Greeks and Egyptians alike.  Newer research has shed some doubt on this interpretation, but for our uses here it does not matter his actual source, only what he became after that. 

Zeus was the god of the sky, Osiris was the god of the dead and the god of the Pharos.  Zeus-Serapis became the God of the Sun and of Healing. In this, he effectively takes over the "portfolios" of Apollo, Helios, and Ra. As protector of the dead, this also includes the benevolent nature of Hades.

Isis

Isis went from the wife of Osiris and potentially one of the most powerful goddesses in the myths to the Mother of the Gods and thus the pharos.  The Ptolemaic Pharos would often take on the epithet of "Sons of Isis."  Isis remained a popular goddess well into the Roman age.

Isis was also combined with Aphrodite, a goddess of unknown origin herself.  Given the connections between Isis and other goddess like Astarte, Innana, and Ishtar, this sets Isis up as the primary female divinity of the Ancient world. 

The "Mysteries of Isis" became a mystery religion that had some outward similarities to the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries associated with Demeter.  Her cult with tied to that of Zeus-Serapis, effectively becoming a Father and Mother figure to the Ptolemaic dynasty.  In this respect, she takes on the kinder natures of Hera and the dedication of Isis.  she would be the one called upon by women in childbirth. Especially when we consider what is going on with Horus.

Horus/Harpokrates

To complete the "holy trinity" of Father-Mother-Child the Greeks renamed Horus, or 'Har-pa-chered' literally "Horus the Child." as Harpokrates.  Where he was envisioned as a child-like divinity.  Gone was the Avenger Horus and now we get a proto-Christ Child in his place. 

Images of Isis nursing the infant Horus would later go on to influence the depictions of the Virgin Mary with infant Jesus.

Anubis/Hermanubis

While not equated with any Greek God in particular Anubis appears as a guide to Isis and advisor of Zeus-Serapis.  Some of Osiris' duties as lord of the dead get transferred to Annubis.

In some cases, we have a syncretized Hermes-Anubis, or Hermanubis, as a psychopomp and protector of the dead. 

Seth

Going a touch outside of Dr. Kleibl's work we get the god Seth. Also known as Set and Suketh and Setekh.  He originally was the good protector god of Upper Egypt. But this was 3,000 years before the Ptolemies.  More time between us and the Ptolemies to be honest.  Over the centuries Set changed from this benevolent god to the murderer of Osiris and the force of all evil and chaos in the world.   

Seth was the name the Greeks called him, and they associated him most with the monster Typhon.  Interestingly enough, I find no conflation with Seth and Hades inDr. Kleibl's text.  While both were seen as dark, chthonic figures, the Greeks in Egypt did not equate them.  But there are still some.

Set/Nephthys and Hades/Persephone

While the associations are not perfect there is a similarity between the relationship of Set and Nephthys with that of Hades and Persephone.   Both Nephthys and Persephone are considered goddesses of the underworld and mourning. Both are attached to husbands they would rather leave.  Both Hades and Set are complicated gods that are often viewed as evil. Both have been accused of raping or at least coercing their future wives.  

I have not found any direct relationship to suggest that they were synchronized, the option certainly feels valid.  The conflation of Set with Hades is one of the suspected origins of the Christian Devil; in particular the association of the devil in the desert or "the wilderness" (in Matthew) when he tempts Jesus. Set is the god of the desert and wild places.  Though I am not aware of any scholarship that has uncovered a synchronized Set-Hades (see Serapis above).

Nephthys was also commonly conflated with the Greek Nys, Goddess of the Night.  As it turns out "Nephthys" is already the Greek name for the Goddess the Egyptians knew as Nebt-het or Nebhet.

Hermes Trismegistus

Not part of Dr. Kleibl's work, but one that really put me on the road to this. Hermes Trismegistus is the synchronized version of Hermes and Thoth.  Hermes Trismegistus may have been less of a worshipped figure and more of a translation error when the Greeks were translating the Egyptian writing (hieroglyphic and Demotic).  Hermes Trismegistus became more important in later medieval times as the author of the Hermetic Texts.  

Heka

This one is also not part of Dr. Kleibl's research but one of my own creations based on her, and other, research.   I talked about the Hecate / Heka connections back when I did OMG: Greek Myths and OMG: Egyptian Myths. With the loss of Isis as the Goddess of Magic we have Heka as the new Goddess of Magic and the Underworld.  Her relationship with Isis is the same as that of Ishtar with Ereshkigal.  This also makes her the perfect goddess of witches.  

Hecate was also conflated with the Egyptian Heqet, the Goddess that was the midwife to Isis when Horus was born. Indeed the Greeks also conflated her with Ereshkigal.  In this respect she could be considered the sister to the Mother Goddess Isis. 

Others

There were plenty more, but it is difficult to know whether these were worship syncretic gods or part of the Interpretatio graeca where the Greeks often substituted names of other gods for their own gods. 

For example, the Greek Asclepius is often equated with the Egyptian Imhotep to become the patron of Healing.   

The Greek Adonis is equated with the Egyptian Osiris, the Sumerian Dumuzid, and the Phoenician Tammuz to all be equivalent Gods of Agriculture and Grain.  This is the same "God figure" of James Frazer's "The Golden Bough."  Another god that fits this is the Greek God Dionysus, who is also conflated with Adonis and Osiris.

Looking over this "pantheon" I quickly note there is no god of war.  There was Montu for the Egyptians, but the "god of war" was also served by Anhur, Ra, Sekmet, and Set at various times.  The Greeks and Romans had Ares and Mars respectively in addition to Athena-Minerva.  You see more syncretism with Ares/Mars in later periods, especially with the gods of the Celts and European peoples. 

The Greeks did know of Anhur and they called him "Onuris."  This is the god of war and battle. His primary goal is to drive out the enemies of Egypt (and Greece).  If we were so inclined we could add all the "avenger" aspects lost by Horus when he became Harpokrates. In this, he takes on the role of Protector of Isis, which of course means the protector of Egypt and the line of the Pharohs. 

Game Play Uses

It was not AD&D that sent me down the road of this Ptolemaic Egyptian Mythos, but rather Gary Gygax's other game, Dangerous Journeys.  Gary's Ægypt fascinated me when I first read about it in the 90s.   So much so that when I wanted an Egyptian-like land I used large chunks of this along with Arypt from Mystara and Erypt from the World of Greyhawk.  All of this together gave me my Ærypt. 

While it would be best to use the Egyptian gods, RAW, from the Deities & Demigods, using these has appeal, even if I have no idea how the "Greeks" got into my world.  Maybe something else altogether is in order for that.  A future post maybe.

For this "new" Pantheon I would want to relate these Gods in AD&D terms.  This is after all the primary focus of One Man's God, not as a treatise on comparative religions. I also don't want or even need, D&DG-style stat blocks.  These are not "monsters" to be fought. 

I am taking the important bits from the AD&D D&DG, namely"power" levels of the various gods, their alignment, and their worshipper's alignments.   While not stated as "Domains" (that's a 3rd Edition term) I am using them here. These are roughly the same as 2nd Ed's "Spheres."

Serapis
Greater God
Alignment: Lawful Good
Worshipper Alignment: Any Good
Domains: Law, Sun, Sky (including storms and rains), the Dead, Rulers
Symbol: Sun

Isis
Greater Goddess
Alignment: Neutral Good
Worshipper Alignment: Any Good, Women (Mysteries of Isis)
Domains: Motherhood, the Home, Childbirth, Love, Fertility
Symbol: Moon or the Roman symbol for Venus

Harpokrates
Greater God
Alignment: Lawful Good
Worshipper Alignment: Any Good
Domains: Life
Symbol: Ankh

Seth
Greater God (or Intermediate God)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Worshipper Alignment: Any Evil
Domains: Darkness, Chaos, Desolation
Symbol: Coiled Snake

Nephthys
Greater Goddess (or Intermediate God)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Worshipper Alignment: Any
Domains: Night, Darkness, the Underworld
Symbol: Dark moon

Hermes Trismegistus
Greater God (or Intermediate God)
Alignment: Neutral
Worshipper Alignment: Any
Domains: Knowledge, Wisdom, Secrets
Symbol: A circle within a square within a triangle within a circle.

Heka
Lesser Goddess
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Worshipper Alignment: Any, Witches
Domains: Magic, Witchcraft, Childbirth, Darkness
Symbol: Crescent moon

Adonis (Dionysus-Osiris)
Lesser God
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Worshipper Alignment: Any
Domains: Agriculture, Grain, Wine, Life-Death-Rebirth
Symbol: Sheath of grain

Onuris
Lesser God
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Worshipper Alignment: soldiers, warriors
Domains: War
Symbol: Spear 

Asclepius-Imhotep
Demigod
Alignment: Neutral Good
Worshipper Alignment: Any, Healers
Domains: Healing
Symbol: Scalpel 

What About the Demons?

This is all fun and everything, but what about the demons of this mythology?  We have a "devil" in the form of Seth.  I would say that given Egypt's history with demons that some would still be around, but maybe in an altered form.  I think given the Greek connection that Demogorgon would be a good choice too.  Especially if I move Seth over to Lawful Evil (more devil-like).

With the influences of the Greeks and Romans, Late Period Egypt had an increase in creatures that were more related to the Greek daimon.  Demons went from creatures that guarding firey gates to creatures that plagued the Earth with troubles. Egypt at this time was also part of the larger trade routes of first Greece then the Roman Empire, so many gods, goddesses, and demons were filtered through the lens of both ancient and "modern" Egyptian religion.

Guardian Demons

Gate, or Guardian Demons, or  were the most common sort and were usually created by the Gods.  Their job was to keep mortals out of their realms.  They are demons in the sense that they are supernatural creatures that are neither mortals nor are they gods. These creatures were also described in funerary texts, their names or epithets placed on coffins to protect the dead. They were fierce creatures.  Apep and Ammit from the OMG Egyptian Myths could fit this role, but there are others with names like In-tep, Chery-benut, and Ikenty.  Ikenty was a large bird-like monster with the head of a cat.

Wanderer Demons

The other class of demons were the Earthly or wanderer demons, . These are the demons who cause problems on Earth, gave people nightmares, caused disease, and possessed humans.

I have a Part 4 of this series to do later.  I plan on incorporating some of the work of Prof. Panagiotis Kousoulis of the University of the Aegean, Greece.  Most of his work is in Greek, so I am digging around for English translations.  Part 4 takes this concept of syncretism and demons and dials it up.

But I need to do my Part 3 first.

Illustration for "In the sky she saw a vast shadowy figure." from “Under the Sunset” by Bram Stoker, 1882

Illustration for "Prince Zaphir slays the Giant" from “Under the Sunset” by Bram Stoker, 1882 

Artworks found thanks to Leo Boudreau.

At some point earlier this morning I hit a new milestone; 6 Million hits.

I was not expecting this until sometime tomorrow.   I had some ideas planned for posts, but they were fairly vain navel-gazing, and self-aggrandizing. So instead let me just thank everyone for coming back all these years and reading my strange little corner of the internet.

Still, it is a nice milestone to hit. 

Things have been a little quiet at the gallery over the past month or so, and not just because of the fall show season. Although the gallery is having its best year yet, it’s not quite to the point of … Continue reading →

Over the weekend WotC/Hasbro and D&D team had their D&D Celebration.  Lots of things were discussed including the new gift box I talked about yesterday.  

Of course, the big announcement was D&D 5.5 or D&D 5 Revised coming out in 2024.

Personally, I think this is a good idea.

Right now D&D 5 is 7 years old. The "Basic Rules" PDF and the Starter Set were released in July 2014. In 2024, the proposed release date, D&D 5 will be close to 10 years old.  That is about the same amount of time AD&D 1st and 2nd Ed were around each.  That is counting the unofficial ".5" versions of post Unearthed Arcana (AD&D 1) and the Revised AD&D 2nd ed books.  This puts D&D 5e and 5.5 combined to be the longest-lasting version of D&D.

There are a ton of reasons why 2024 is a good date for this.

The Hype

I have been saying EVERYWHERE that WotC will not do anything until the 50th anniversary of D&D in 2024.  They can spend the first two-quarters of 2024 hyping D&D from its roots and evolution.  Expect a huge deep dive into nostalgia.  Then third quarter (or even fourth to get that Christmas dollar) D&D 5.5 will hit the shelves.  The message from WotC will be clear, you have enjoyed D&D for 50 years now and THIS is the ultimate edition.  It's not just good marketing, they would be negligent if they didn't do it.

The Rules

When I heard about this I mentioned it to my son last night when he got home from work.  His response was, "oh cool!"  I have seen similar responses from others in the D&D 5 community.  With the publication of Tasha's and other books, there have been enough rule additions and alternates to make a Revised Core Rule Set a welcome publication. 

Right now we are being told these are just going to be rule clarifications and reorganizations.  Everything will be 100% backward compatible.  This is smart given the number of people that play D&D 5 now.  It also makes sense given how poorly Pathfinder 2 was received by the fans of Pathfinder 1.  

Plus D&D 5 was designed to be more modular, so adding in rules should be easy.  Maybe not as modular as D&D 4e was nor as modular as D&D 5 was originally advertised as, but still better than D&D 3 and anything that came before it.

Of there are critics.  I note that most of the complaining is coming from people that have self-admitted that they actually don't play D&D 5.  So I guess their opinions really don't matter.

Expectations

What am I expecting with these new rules?

Well, "race" will be gone and we will get something closer to the Ancestry and Culture mods other games have been doing.  Mechanically speaking it will largely be the same at the end.  Instead of choosing a race and getting a baked-in mod and language; you will choose ancestry, culture and there will be guidelines for mods, languages, and other features.   So what if you were a human raised by elves? Or an orc raised by dwarves?  These things can now happen.  Well, in truth you could always do these you just needed a DM that would work out the details with you and not be dogmatic. 

There will still be a Basic Rules style game with the four basic classes (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard) and the four basic "races" (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling) they will just be worked up in terms of the new ancestry rules.  But mechanically a 5.0 elf will work as a 5.5 elf. 

Rangers will get tweaked. Again. Cause no one is ever happy with them.  This goes all the way back to the beginning really.

Warlock might get some changes, as will the monks.  We MIGHT get a Core Rule psionic class, but the chances are very low.

I am expecting some new Session 0 verbiage.

Monsters will have a "typical" alignment with sentient races not having one required.  The new Wild Beyond the Witchlight monsters all have alignments listed.  The idea will be that Ancestry plays a role in alignment, but individuals have a choice. I DO expect to see a group of good or at least neutrally aligned Drow.

There are spellcasting changes coming to monsters that we will get a preview of in 2023 with the Multiverse of Monsters book.

I am also expecting more on non-combat play like we have in the Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

I am sure there will be more and many of the changes will be minor, less than the changes between 3.0 and 3.5 for example. OR even the differences between 2nd Ed and Revised 2nd Ed.

Looking forward to seeing what happens.

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—
What is it?
GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a five page, full colour, 1.92 MB PDF.
The layout is clean and clean. It is art free, but the cartography is excellent.
Where is it set?
GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar is set in Sartar, but need not necessarily be set in the lands of the Colymar tribe. 

Who do you play?
Player Characters of all types could play this scenario, but is best suited for Orlanth worshippers. A Lhankor Mhy priest or scholar may find some of the background to one of the scenarios to be of interest. In addition, Player Characters with the Passion ‘Hate (Aldryami)’ will be challenged by one or more of the encounters.

What do you need?
GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the Glorantha Bestiary. The Glorantha Sourcebook will be useful for its background to the scenario.
What do you get?GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar is a hunt for a lost artefact, the throne of Colymar, the founder of the Colymar tribe. Whoever finds it will greatly add to his reputation, as well as bring great prestige to his king or chief, especially if they are of the Colymar tribe. The identity of that king or chief will very much depend upon the year in which the Game Master sets the scenario. Leila Black Spear and Prince Argrath are suitable candidates depending upon the year, but there are many others.
To find the Throne of Colymar the Player Characters have to make an overland journey, perhaps suffer an encounter or two, and come to Chief Colymar’s home. The building is only described in brief detail and whilst there is some lore to be discovered if the Player Characters can get past its protection—the scenario does not suggest any specific solutions—the emphasis in the scenario is more on the encounters with monsters and creatures, random and otherwise.
GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar is not badly written, but it is underwritten. As presented it is not a whole scenario, but rather the end of a scenario. Despite the fact that true Player Characters are on a quest to find an ancient artefact, there is no investigation and no research involved in the scenario, no sense of mystery or magic, there is no sense of peril or urgency, there are no rivals also searching for Colymar’s throne. Simply as presented, the scenario starts at the home of Chief Colymar.
Similarly, for the home of an ancient tribal chief, the descriptions of his home are underwhelming. As to the description of Colymar’s throne—there is none. It could be that it is nothing more than a chair, but it could also have been something more… As equally, could GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar.

Is it worth your time?Yes—GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar contains the germ of an interesting scenario if the Game Master is willing to write the first half and inject it with a sense of urgency and mystery that its author did not.No—GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar is half a scenario and half a scenario is no scenario at all. Cheap, but avoidable.Maybe—GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar contains the germ of an interesting scenario if the Game Master is willing to write the first half and inject it with a sense of urgency and mystery that its author did not.

This week the social media networks were all a-buzz with a mysterious new product for D&D.  Some were saying new boxed set or even D&D 6th ed (which was highly unlikely in any event) we learned today what we will be getting.

So this,

Has now been replaced by this, 

and this,

The set includes Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and the new Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse.

It was supposed to be for Christmas, but the global supply chain is still screwed up.  

In any case, it looks really cool. Typically I get one for me and the special edition one for my son.  But I think I might get the special ed version for myself as well.  They look so great. 

Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game is designed as the world’s easiest roleplaying game—and it is. Mostly. Published by Great GM following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is a Science Fiction roleplaying game in which the Player Characters are galactic bounty hunters. The need for law enforcement has grown to the point where it has not only been commercialised, but institutionalised, and whatever their species, their background and their former occupations, today’s bounty hunters are graduates of Bounty Hunter School. Now they ‘Seek Capture Return Get Paid’. Their clients are governments, law enforcement, corporations, and even individuals. It is a lucrative business, but expenses, in particular, operating their own starship, are high.

Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game comes not as one book, but three. They include ‘Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game’ along with ‘Bounty Hunter Resource: Huntari Region’ and ‘Bounty Hunter Bounty: Halcord Midmo’. However, they are not separate books, but have been compiled into one book and compiled into one book without each being renumbered. It gives the book an odd feel, but not necessarily a feel that impedes play. That oddity aside, Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game comes with everything necessary to play, including rules and character generation, setting, and a scenario.

A character—a Bounty Hunter—in Bounty Hunter is defined by his Species, Skills, Action Points, and Equipment. The creation process is a matter of making eight choices. These are for Species, Birthright (or origins), Education, Career prior to becoming a Bounty Hunter, Reason to Become a Bounty Hunter, Six Interests, Abilities, and Name. In the default setting of ‘Bounty Hunter Resource: Huntari Region’, eight Species are given and at each choice up until Reason to Become a Bounty Hunter, a player has nine options to choose from and each choice provides a Bounty Hunter with two Skills. At the Six Interests step, a player is free to select extra Skills his Bounty Hunter does not have—the number depending on the number of players, whilst for Abilities, he selects a single one. An Ability is an extraordinary or dramatic talent, such as Fast Draw, which allows a Bounty Hunter to automatically act in the First Phase of a Dramatic Scene with a Ranged Attack or Doctor, which increases the amount the Bounty Hunter heals from five Action Points to six. Also up until the Six Interests step, all of the options are accompanied by a piece of flavour text, which a player is encouraged to copy and modify to help develop his Bounty Hunter’s background. With more than one player, the creation process is intended to be collaborative, with players discussing the Skills they have chosen so that a broad range of Skills is available to the party.

Thorby Baslim
Species: Human
Reputation: 1
Birthright: Slave Pits
Education: Streetside
Career: Spy
Reason: Death
Skills: Culture, Deception, Engineering, Logic, Melee Combat, Mounted Weapons, Ranged Combat, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Strength
Ability: Polyglot
Languages: Slavesk, Galactic
Action Points: 20

Mechanically, Bounty Hunter is simple. It uses an Action Point economy. Every Bounty Hunter starts each day with a total of twenty and they represent not just his capacity to act, but also his health. To act, the Bounty Hunter must have the particular Skill and simply expends one Action Point. If he does not possess the Skill, then he cannot undertake that task, though he can defend himself in combat. If the Bounty Hunter has the Skill and the Action Point is spent, he automatically succeeds at the task. It is as simple as that.

However, Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game gets a little more complex when it comes to opposed actions, with participants in a situation—for example, a Bounty Hunter using Intimidation against a small time crook NPC with more information about a bounty, the Game Master using Psychology to mentally defend himself—expending Action Points to counter each other. Typically, this countering of Action Points continues until one participant decides to give way, switches to a different Skill which cannot be countered or defended against, or one participant exhausts his Action Points. Tasks can also be Repeated, requiring the Bounty Hunter to expend Action Points over multiple rounds for it to succeed, and they can also be Chained. This is again, more complex in that a player will need to expend multiple Action Points to succeed at a task. For example, to fire a weapon at another spaceship, Thorby Baslim uses the Mounted Weapons Skill, but to target a specific location on another spaceship, his player needs to link or Chain three Skills, in this case, Engineering, Logic, and Mounted Weapons. His player pays an Action Point for each use of the three Skills, for a total of three. In general though, Chained actions are used for starship combat.

Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game is played in Freeform or Dramatic scenes. Freeform scenes are when general or supportive actions and roleplaying takes place, Dramatic scenes are when the action and excitement take place, and could be a shootout, an interrogation, a computer hacking attempt, and so on. Each Dramatic scene is divided into two phases, a First Phase and a Last Phase. Each participant can take one significant action in a Dramatic scene, but must choose whether to act in the First Phase or the Last Phase, and if a participant wants to act in the First Phase, he must expend an Action Point. This is in addition to the expenditure of an Action Point to use a Skill. Within each Phase, all actions are simultaneous and each player needs to declare his action lest his Bounty Hunters be unable to act for that Scene…! In combat, if an attack is successful, damage is inflicted in terms of Action Point loss—two for a punch, three for a martial arts strike, five for a sword, five for a RAN ‘Rail-Assist Nil Point Variance Projectile’ Pistol, seven for a PHASE ‘Phased Hayer-Accelerated Single Electron’ Pistol, and so on.

Starship combat in Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game adds another degree of complexity, but not overly so. Players and their Bounty Hunters are still using their Skills and expending Action Points to act, but a starship has various components, from communications and countermeasures to scanners and transponder unit, each of which has a Power Pool of points. A Power Pool is slightly different to Action Points, in that although it represents how much damage a particular component can suffer before being knocked out, it also represents how effective it is. A player can spend Action Points to have his Bounty Hunter shift points from one Power Pool to another to increase a component’s effectiveness, for example, increasing the damage done by a RAN turret, or to repair damage done to a starship.

Beyond a handful of NPCs and sample spaceships, the latter running from single-pilot craft to warships, Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game includes a sample setting with ‘Bounty Hunter Resource: Huntari Region’. This details a region of space occupied by several different factions, not just Humans, including the Rakesh microbe colonies, the tentacular Lonlaneek, the militaristic and dispassionate Goraan, the warlike and feline Baharresk, and more. There are eight different Species in the region, plus AIs, all of them playable as Bounty Hunters. They are all different and they are all interesting, although the Baharresk do feel like the Aslan of Traveller’s Third Imperium setting and the Kzin of Larry Niven’s Known Space tales. A nice touch is that their descriptions do include their preferred pronouns. The various polities and sectors are described in a fair amount of detail in just a few pages each, covering governance, unique features, military and police, individual worlds, and a list of bounties. So the Greypan Alliance consists of human-dominated worlds in a mutual defence and trade pact, which heavily patrols against intruders from the region of space known as the Rift which dominates the Huntari Region, contains a completely neutral sector space within its borders, and is home to the Mefausa Henad, a ruthless criminal syndicate that the authorities have failed to stamp out. Conversely, the Noso Protectorate is completely surrounded by the Rift and is home to the amphibious humanoids, the Trafye, who are more interested in science and the mysteries of the Rift and its black holes, neutron stars, and so on, than in expanding. There is a wealth of detail here for the Game Master to include in her campaign, although the Huntari Region as a whole is missing an overview that would help the reader before it dived into its detail.

Rounding out Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game is ‘Bounty Hunter Bounty: Halcord Midmo’. This is a beginning scenario designed to take place after the Bounty Hunters have graduated from Bounty Hunter School. It is specifically designed for a party of four players, so may need some adjustment if this number is different. This is a good introductory adventure for both the Game Master and her players and it nicely escalates in scale. It should provide a good session or two’s worth of play.

Physically, Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game is very nicely presented. It is full colour throughout, the artwork is excellent, and throughout there are not only well written examples of the rules and play, but boxes marked ‘Critical Concepts’. Most are for the Game Master, though there are some for the players, but they all explain particular aspects of the game and how it is played. These are very helpful and to the point. Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game does need an edit here and there, but the problem with it is the lack of cover. Printed on good quality paper stock throughout, it does feel as if it should have a cardstock cover for better protection.

Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game is designed as the world’s easiest roleplaying game—and it is. Mostly. Play comes down to whether or not a Bounty Hunter has the right Skill and not just sufficient Action Points to act, but whether or not a Bounty Hunter has enough Action Points to act now or needs them for the next Dramatic scene. So it is a resource management game as much as anything, and the switch to diceless mechanics, as easy as it is, also requires a shift in how the game is played. The player more used to the dramatic, sometimes last minute, even unskilled, desperate roll of the dice to save the day will need to adjust to considering just how much effort or resources his Bounty Hunter has every day. Which will limit what his Bounty Hunter can do each day. In a traditional roleplaying game, this limit might be due to timing or damage suffered and the need to heal, essentially down to the randomness of the mechanics, but in Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game, it is built in. In the long term, as a Bounty Hunter increases his Reputation by bringing in more bounties, the number of his Action Points will increase, but that limitation in resources will still be there.

In terms of storytelling, the removal of dice—or other random mechanic—from Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game also shifts the storytelling. Both players and the Game Master need to be proactive in their narration of outcomes and of making scenes dramatic and exciting, because there is no ‘Woah!’ moment of that stunning dice roll. This is not necessarily a criticism, but both need to be aware of it before playing this roleplaying game, and for some players, that shift might just be too radical a step. That said, the lack of dice and the simple resource economy of the Action Points in Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game make it perfect for playing online.

Ultimately, not every playing group is going to adjust to the mechanics of Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game, but its simplicity makes it easy to learn and teach, and the lack of dice does give player and Game Master alike greater control of the narrative—as long as they have sufficient Action Points, that is. For example, for a group wanting to do space opera in the vein of The Mandalorian, Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game would be a good choice. Exactly thirty years on from the first diceless roleplaying game—Phage Press’s Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game—Bounty Hunter – A Diceless Tabletop Roleplaying Game provides an impressively simple, narrative driven roleplaying game with an equally simple premise and set-up.

It is the Modern Age. Three hundred years ago, at the beginning of the Age of the Havoc, Joskales, the last Incarnate of the Astarite died and the few remaining of that race fled their dead cities. Two-hundred-and-three years ago, a colony ship arrived from Earth lost en route to Alpha Centauri, and founded four colonies. The colonists discovered a world already settled by several species, each of them also colonists who had come to the world in the centuries long past. They include the almost plant-like hermaphrodite Ælfyn; the four-armed, reptilian and mercantile Agamids, who command a fleet of sky-junks; the short, stocky, almost egg-shaped Dakti, know for their technological acumen and their Karkan, specialised exo-skeletons they use for exploration; and Orcs, nomadic hunters and warriors who distrust technology. They also discovered the world was infused with ethereal energy which the Astarites had harnessed both psychically and technologically, constructing a network of stelae known as the Chain which enhanced their abilities and created a planetary communications system. However, their attempts to restart would lead to an Æthero-magnetic storm which would disrupt all technology and lead to increased friction between numerous nations that would escalate into a series of violent wars in the Age of Conflicts.

Thirty years ago, H.E.R.O. (Heuristical Exploration and Reconnaissance Operations), now known as the Free-Lancers’ Guild, was founded during the First Crater Council. It was established to undertake independent operations free of politic influence, to conduct expeditions to the ancient Astarite cities, and once there recover the surviving items and blueprints of Arcanotechnology that have survived, and also to research the Alteration, a strange, gangrenous fungus which was found to be spreading from the ruins. In the years since, the Free-Lancers’ Guild, operating out of Patera, the Crater City, has continued to undertake the same missions, but also provides guards, exterminate monsters, mediates conflicts between communities, and also acts against dragons. These creatures fall as seeds from the stars and when they hatch and grow, they can devastate whole communities. In return, members, known as Freelancers, receive lodging, support, training, and more.

This is the set-up for Lore & Legacy: Fantastic Adventures in a World of Science and Magic, a French science-fantasy role-playing game published by Empyreal Media Productions. It takes place on the fantastical world of Empyrea, a vast planet home to numerous species who have come from the stars and settled. In the long years since, they have forgotten their homeworlds, how they got to Empyrea, and how to operate much of the technology. Indeed that technology has come to be regarded as akin to magic and only a few have the skill to use what has become known as Arcanotechnology. Empyrea is also a world of many ruins, especially of the grandiose and sinister necropolis left behind by the mysterious Astarite civilization that came before anyone settled on the planet. They are said to contain lost treasures and forgotten technological wonders, but also many dangers—antediluvian biomechanical guardians and creatures corrupted by the poison of the Alteration, a mysterious fungal gangrene that spreads over the regions that once formed the heart of the Astarite kingdoms. In recent years, the Alteration has begun to spread again and Dragon Seeds have fallen from the sky, giving birth to Dragons, creatures of unrivalled destructive power. Where such threats occur, the Free-Lancers’ Guild steps forward to protect and investigate. Found throughout many nations, its members coming from many different species, the Free-Lancers’ Guild sends out those determined to unravel the mysteries of the past and to venture beyond the borders imposed by incomplete maps, to protect the population, lift the veil on ancient lore, and reclaim their lost legacies.

A character in Lore & Legacy is defined by his People (or species), seven Attributes representing his physical and mental prowess, various Abilities in which has either been trained or is gifted, and a number of Traits representing his personality quirks, special talents, obsessions, phobias, and the like. The Peoples of Empyrea—at least on the northern half of the continent of Enelysion, especially in and around the Great Crater and its neutral city of Patera, are the Ælfyns, Agamids, Dakti, Humans, and Orcs. In more recent times, they have been joined by the Disincarnated, sentient androids who once served the Astarite who have awoken devoid of personality and knowledge, but quickly grow to acquire both, as well as the traits of the other Peoples of Empyrea. The Attributes are Acumen, Fortune, Mastery, Presence, Robustness, Temper, and Vigour, and all bar Fortune are represented by a single six-sided die plus a modifier. Fortune is a straight value representing the number of Fortune dice which a player can roll each day. Now not all of the remaining six Attributes are not exactly clear as to what they are from their names. So, Acumen is the character’s ability to observe, reflect, and analyse; Mastery is agility, dexterity, and precision, and ability to think and react quickly; Temper is his willpower; and Vigour his raw physical strength. This runs counter to most naming conventions for attributes and may well be confusing for some players.

Abilities include Arcanotech, Charge, Investigation, Melee Combat, Passion (Painting), Wizardry, and more. They are always represented by a single ten-sided die plus a modifier. Traits tend to apply situational modifiers. For example, ‘Beast of Burden’ increases a Player Character’s Luggage Points by three; Healer which grants a Fortune die any non-magical healing action; Agoraphobic, which levies an Adversity die on all actions when the Player Character is in an open space; Ancestral Weapon, which grants the Player Character a weapon with the Ætheric, which reduces the Magic Resistance of a successfully struck opponent; and Remarkable, which marks the Player Character out in social interactions with members of other races, levying an Adversity die and adding a Fortune die. A Player Character also has a number of derived secondary characteristics, including Health Points, Magic Points, Physical, Magic and Mental Resistances, and so on.

To create a character, a player selects a race, which provides the base attributes and traits. He has six points to assign to his character’s attributes, eight to spend on traits and ten to spend on abilities. One of the latter points must be spent on a passion or a hobby. Lastly, a character receives some money and equipment, and if he has studied magic some spells. In general, characters tend to be fairly focused and specialised, backed up with more general skills.

Our sample character is Zuwena whose fascination with Arcanotech has never extended beyond the library. She has joined the Freelancers’ Guild in the hopes of joining an expedition, if not actually leading one. In the meantime, she has to undertake other tasks for the guild, perhaps to prove herself worthy, perhaps to gain a bit more experience of the world outside of her books.

Zuwena
Human
Temper 2 Acumen 4 Mastery 4 Presence 2
Robustness 1 Vigour 1 Fortune 2

Racial Traits: Noticeable, Technophile
Traits: Bookworm, Little Genius

Abilities: Archaeology 2, Investigation 2, Observation 1, Dodge 1, Melee Combat 1, Mysticism 1, Wilderness Survival 1, Wizardry 2

Passion Ability: Arcanotech 1

Wizardry Spells: Ætheric Echolocation (6), Ætheric Arrow (3), Healing (3)
Luggage: 9
Weight: 30
Health Points: 4
Magic Points: 8
Physical Resistance: 3
Mental Resistance: 16
Last Chance Pool: 3
Injury Threshold: 2
Speed: 5

Mechanically, Lore & Legacy uses the ‘3d’ engine, which uses three sizes of the dice and three types of dice. The three sizes are ten-sided or Ability dice, eight-sided or Damage dice, and six-sided or Attribute dice, and they are always used in specific situations. In general, when an Ability or Attribute is tested, or Damage is rolled, only one die, the Basic die is rolled, any modifier being added to the result to get a total. However, it can be as many as three. It cannot, though, be more than three. The extra dice can either be a Fortune die, an Adversity die, or even both! The result of the Fortune die is added to the result of the Basic die, whilst the result of the Adversity die is subtracted from the result of the Basic die. Adding both a Fortune die and an Adversity die to the dice to be rolled does not mean that they cancel each other out. Instead, their results are added and subtracted respectively.

When a Player Character undertakes an action, his player makes an Action Roll, consisting of the appropriate Basic die—whether a ten-sided die because the Player Character has an appropriate Ability or a six-sided die because he does not and must rely upon an Attribute instead—and applies any modifier. The Difficulty Rating for the Action Roll ranges from six for ‘simple’ to eighteen for ‘superhuman’. The success result can vary. A result equal to, or greater than the Difficulty Rating is a Standard Success and indicates that the Player Character has achieved his intended aim. A result one-and-a-half times or greater than the Difficulty Rating is a Major Success, and indicates that the Player Character has achieved his intended aim with positive benefits. A result less than the Difficulty Rating and less than half of the Difficulty Rating is a Partial Success, and indicates that the Player Character has achieved his intended aim, but with unforeseen complications. A result less than the Difficulty Rating and more than half of the Difficulty Rating is a Failure, and indicates that the Player Character has not achieved his intended aim.

In addition, a Player Character can also roll a Spectacular Success or Disastrous Failure. A Spectacular Success is achieved when a Fortune die is included in the Action Roll and a maximum result is rolled on the Fortune die, when the result of the Action Roll is a Standard or Major Success. Similarly, a Disastrous Failure is achieved when an Adversity die is included in the Action Roll and a maximum result is rolled on the Adversity die, when the result of the Action Roll is a Partial Success or Failure. Although a Disastrous Failure cannot result in the death of a Player Character, the Game Master is free to be as creative as she wants, whether the result is a Spectacular Success or a Disastrous Failure.
For example, Zuwenna has been assigned an escort mission, and whilst she is not interested in the job itself, the route does take it near some ruins that are rumoured to be Astartite. Before she attempts to persuade her colleagues that they might be interesting, she decides to spend some time in the archives conducting research. She has the Investigation skill, so her player will be rolling a ten-sided die and adding Zuwenna’s Investigation of 2. In addition, the Little Genius Trait grants her a Fortune die with any Ability which uses the Acumen Attribute. However, she does not have long, so there is a time penalty to find any useful information. The Game Master sets the Difficulty Rating at twelve. Zuwenna’s player rolls the two ten-sided dice and rolls a six on the basic die and a maximum of ten on the Fortune die! Not only is the result a total of eighteen, but the ten on the Fortune die means it is a spectacular success! This means that she definitely has some information related to the ruins and it could contain arcanotech. That should be enough to persuade her companions on the road.Both combat and magic use the same mechanics. A combatant has a single gesture, move, and action each round, and if he attacks, his player’s Action Roll is against his opponent’s Physical Resistance as the Difficulty Rating or Magic Resistance if the weapon used involves arcanotech. A Fortune die can be added to an Action roll if the opponent is immobilised, paralysed, knocked down, unconscious, and so on, likewise an Adversity die can be added if the attacker is suffering from similar conditions. Damage is rolled on a single eight-sided die, plus the weapon’s damage bonus, and is halved if the outcome of the Action Roll is a Partial Success, but increased by a half if a Major Success. Damage inflicted equal or superior to an opponent’s Injury Threshold and an injury is inflicted.

Lore & Legacy includes several types of magic. Illusory magic deals with changing the perceptions of others about their environment, whilst Material magic being the scientific study of making real what was not, or transforming what is. Ritual magic consists of magic which takes several magicians to cast, whilst Spiritism deals with ‘nature spirits’, including possession and exorcism. Bar Spiritism, the other types of magic include lengthy lists of spells, which are all in their own way interesting and ones that a magic using character in the game would want to cast. As in combat, the outcome of a Partial or Superior Success on an Action Roll halves the effect of the spell, or increases it by half, respectively.
For example, Zuwenna has persuaded her colleagues to investigate the ruins in the hope of finding some Arcanotech or at least something interesting. She has already cast Ætheric Echolocation to determine the extent of the underground passages and rooms when the guards left behind to protect the caravan come looking for them. Not to check on their welfare though, but to steal what Zuwenna and her colleagues have found. However, their disappointment at the lack of discoveries leads them to threaten Zuwenna and her colleagues, and a fight breaks out. Zuweena is attacked by one of the guards, Hagor. Both Zuwenna and Hagor have a Speed of five, but he is wearing chainmail, which reduces it by one to four. However, surprised by the attack, Zuwenna decides to fully defend herself. This doubles her Physical Resistance from three to six, to which is added her Dodge skill of one and the bonus from her padded armour, for a total Physical Resistance of eight. The Game Master rolls a Basic die and adds Hagor’s Melee Combat skill of 3 to the total. She rolls a two and adds the three for a total of five. This is a Partial Success, which means that any damage inflicted by Hagor is halved. The Game Master rolls 1d6+1 for his shortsword, rolling a one, then adding one before halving the damage inflicted—one! Clearly Hagor was expecting to be more of a pushover, as he growls, “C’mere you little witch!”, but Zuwenna’s Health Points are reduced from four to three.

Now Zuweena can act. She has a dagger, but attempts a desperate blast of magic by unleashing an Ætheric Arrow at Hagor. Having already cast Ætheric Echolocation, Zuwenna has two Magic Points left, but Ætheric Arrow costs three to cast. This means that the power must come from somewhere and that is from her Health Points, which will be reduced by a further single point, leaving her with two. To cast the spell, Zuwenna’s player will be rolling a ten-sided die and adding Zuwenna’s Wizardry of 2. As before, the Little Genius Trait grants her a Fortune die with any Ability which uses the Acumen Attribute, which includes the Wizardry Ability. The Difficulty Rating is determined by Hagor’s Mental Resistance, which is fourteen. Zuwenna’s player rolls eight on both dice for a total of sixteen and adding her Wizardry gives a final result of eighteen. This is a Standard Success and inflicts 1d8+1 damage. Zuwenna’s player rolls a total of eight, enough to beat Hagor’s Injury Threshold of eight. This can trigger a Condition, which will vary depending upon where the Ætheric Arrow. Zuwenna’s player rolls ten on a ten-sided die, indicating the head. Hagor screams as his head is burned by Ætheric energy. Until healed, the Game Master must roll all of his actions with an Adversity die.The advancement mechanics in Lore & Legacy are nicely woven into the setting itself. Being a member of the the Free-Lancers’ Guild provides a Player Character with motivation and missions to undertake, but having completed a mission, the Freelancers are paid in Asters which can be used to gain training, access Arcanotech archives and magical libraries, and even undergo experimental therapy to effectively buy off the negative effectives of Traits. For example, Bookworm provides extra points to spend on Abilities during character creation, but at the cost of an Adversity die being rolled every time a character undertakes an action related to his Vigour. So a player could spend the Asters to pay off this negative effect, all of which provides a nice range of options when it comes to Player Character advancement.

Although Lore & Legacy employs magic and wizardry, it is very much a Science Fiction game and this shows in the range of equipment available. So not just swords and shields, but firearms, technologically enhanced weapons such as gravitic bolas or phase kukri, and Arcanotech. The latter are lost devices from all of the peoples on Empyrea whose manufacture is no longer possible, and they need to be found and deciphered. They can be weapons such as Adamantine Claws and Disphasers which paralyses targets, and artefacts such as Anti-Grav Boots, Assessor collars which estimate the value of items, Khading Wings carried in a backpack and allow wearer’s to fly. Vehicles exist also, such as the Agamid aerial junks, gunboats that have survived wars, but are fielded during emergencies, such as dragon attacks. Full stats for dragons are provided in the bestiary along with a host of other threats and dangers.

Lore & Legacy includes a decent amount of background about the Free-Lancers’ Guild, what it does and what the Player Characters do. Patera, the Crater City, is also detailed as is the Greater Crater Region, along with various NPCs which can be found throughout the region. There is plenty here to support an ongoing campaign, and both the Game Master and her players are provided with a starting point. For the latter, it is set of six pre-generated characters, but for the former, it is not one, but three adventures. They begin with an investigative adventure in Patera itself following an attack on the Free-Lancers’ Guild headquarters, whilst the second is more traditional, being an expedition to investigate a meteor strike which at worst could be the arrival of another Dragon Seed. Lastly, the third scenario follows on from the second, to further investigate what was found at the site of the meteor strike. Together the three scenarios nicely showcase aspects of the setting—the Player Characters’ base of operations, what expeditions are like, and a little bit of some of the mysteries of the Empyrea. In addition, suggestions are given as to how to include the ‘Froglins in the Mist’ adventure from Lore & Legacy – Quick-Start Guide in between the three adventures in the core book. Each of the three should provide at least two sessions’ worth of play, if not more.

Physically, Lore & Legacy is well presented. Much of the artwork is excellent and much of it reminiscent of FASA’s Earthdawn roleplaying game—which should be no surprise given that artist Jeff Laubenstein worked on both. The writing is also good, and the translation is more than reasonable. It feels a little overwritten in places, the rules, though simple, often feel as if they have more terms than they really need. If the book lacks anything, it is an index. The table of contents is good, but an index would have helped.

Lore & Legacy: Fantastic Adventures in a World of Science and Magic could be described as Earthdawn meets SkyRealms of Jorune, but the former is primarily due to Jeff Laubenstein’s artwork. Nevertheless, it firmly falls into the ‘Sword & Planet’ genre, combined with post-apocalyptic elements, whilst adhering to Clarke’s Third Law which states that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Its inspirations—the French science fantasy comics series, Valérian, the works of Moebius, Philippe Caza, and Philippe Druillet in Heavy Metal, C.L. Moore’s Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry, the computer game, Might & Magic, and even She-Ra and the Princess of Power—all combine to give Lore & Legacy a different feel, a stronger sense of the other and the alien than might be found in similar roleplaying games.

Lore & Legacy is an adroit combination of a simple rules system, intriguing setting, a set-up that provides the Player Characters with motivations and missions, and a sense of mystery and wonder in the secrets of the Astarites. Although it leaves both wanting to know more about the world of Empyrea and its mysteries, Lore & Legacy: Fantastic Adventures in a World of Science and Magic provides Game Master and players alike with an impressive introduction and start.

Piero di Cosimo - Perseus Rescuing Andromeda, 1510-13 

Master of Serumido (from piero di cosimo), Perseus Rescuing Andromeda, 1500-15 

 

The Piero di Cosimo artwork was originally shared here in 2007. 

The Piero di Cosimo artwork was found thanks to Peter's flickr account. I highly recommend browsing his vast collection of mostly ancient art on up through 18th - 19th century works.

 

The Master of Serumido artwork was found on Wikipedia Commons.

 

"Wilhelm Trübner (1851 – 1917) was a German realist painter, greatly influenced by fellow artists Gustave Courbet and Wilhelm Leibl.

Trübner returns to Ancient Greece in a modern, realistic way with his 1891 work, A Gorgon’s Head. The gorgons were Ancient Greek winged female creatures with living snakes as hair and protruding tongues. They would transform to stone anyone who looked at their dreadful faces and place the stone statues in front of their cave as a warning.

Among them, the most known today is the only mortal gorgon, Medusa, killed by the demigod Perseus. Her immortal sisters were Stheno and Euryale. According to Greek mythology, the goddess Athena transformed them into terrible monsters after Medusa was raped by Poseidon in Athena’s Temple. Finding no fault in Poseidon, Athena took her rage on Medusa and on her two sisters who were siding with her. 

In spite of Trübner’s take on mythology, he doesn’t idealize or use a large-scale scene as the context for his painting. We don’t even see the gorgon’s body nor have any real indication as to which one of the three sisters he depicts. The head is hovering in space with a drowsy, satiated face expression, the snakes on her head hissing ominously. If we stare long enough at her face, we might be turned to stone." - image and quote source 

 

 Image found thanks to Peter's flickr account. I highly recommend browsing his vast collection of mostly ancient art on up through 18th - 19th century works.

Lots to do this weekend: yeah, it’s the first day of the State Fair of Texas, but Panoptikon also reopens as a popup club at House of Blues. In between those is the last Triffid Ranch open house in September, … Continue reading →

Ok. So I did find a Kickstarter that interested me.

ANKUR - Kingdom of the gods TTRPG 2E

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mad-scribe-games/ankur-kingdom-of-the-gods-ttrpg-2e?ref=theotherside

Honestly, it looks like my sort of jam.  In particular, it would be great for some other things I have planned.

Only 6 days left!

I gotta admit I love the shirt!Kinda burned out on Kickstarter right now.  So it's another #FollowFriday!

I will admit, I adore Ginny Di.  She has unbound enthusiasm about D&D and all things related.  I know she is young enough to be my daughter and I have characters older than her, but I still think she is great.

It is so refreshing to come to her Twitter or YouTube pages and see how excited she is over something D&D-related.  I'll read the posts or blogs of some of my contemporaries and wonder when the fun died in their lives leaving them as bitter old husks.

Plus she seems to irritate the right people, so that is a bonus all on its own. 

The fact that she also loves her witches has almost nothing to do with it. Well...maybe a little. 

I have already posted about her or her projects in the past.

• Tasha Cosplay (Start of Tasha's Week of Everything)
• Character Advice from Ginny Di (and Aisling!)
  
• Morelia the Wood Witch for Basic Era D&D (BX/OSE) (updated this week!)
• Ginny Di: Backstories don't have to be tragic to be interesting

This week Ginny is back with Morelia the Wood Witch in a POV roleplay. It is a fun little bit video, but it really helped me cement the idea that Morelia would be a great NPC in my War of the Witch Queens. 

Content Warning to Bitter Old Grogs Who Are Dead Inside: The video features a shop where an NPC Witch SELLS POTIONS! Gasp, the Horror! The audacity! The cheek of it all! 

Anyway. She is fun. She is funny. She has a ton of enthusiasm and I think she is great. In fact, I even sought out items she has been sponsored by at Gen Con because she made them look really fun.

So check her out. If you don't like her ask yourself, when did I die inside?

Ginny Di online

• YouTube (her main home)
• Website
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Patreon
• Her WorldAnvil site with characters

Give her a follow or a like or something.

There have been just a pawful of cat-themed roleplaying games, such as John Wick Presents’ Cat: A Little Game about Little Heroes and several Cthulhu-themed titles such as Sixtystone Press’ Cathulhu and Catthulhu’s Cats Of Catthulhu. The latest to join this klowder is Mew-Tants!. Published by Anima Press as part of ZineQuest #3, this is rules light roleplaying game in which the players not just take the role of cats, but as the title suggests, cats with sup-purr powers!

Mew-Tants! takes the seemingly supernatural abilities and attitudes of cats and turns them up a knotch or two in the scratching post to turn them into superpowers. So ‘Laser Eyes’—not so much blasters as pointers with which to distract other cats; ‘If I fits I sits’—the cat can expand or shrink to fit exactly into any container; ‘Spidercat’—being able to climb down(!) and up trees, and even upside down; and ‘Keyboard Cat’—being able to use computers and keyboards because everyone believes you can! There are just twelve superpowers, along with twelve breeds of cats, which are enough for a one-shot or a mini-campaign, whilst still leaving plenty of room for the Game Master or even the players to create their own.

A cat-racter in Mew-Tants! is defined by his Breed, from Moggy, Scottish Fold, and Bengal to Tortoiseshell, American Ringtail, and Norwegian Forest Cat, and his superpower. A cat has four stats, defined by his Breed. These are Claws, for fighting and all physical activities, Whiskers for mental abilities and awareness, and Fucks, for how many it gives and its ability to interact with other cats and animals (including dogs). It also has nine Lives, just as you would expect. To create a Mew-Tant, a player rolls or selects a Breed and Superpower, modifies one stat for something his cat is good at and one stat for something his cat is bad at, selects his cat’s fur colour, and decides on a relationship with another cat and the reason why he joined the team of super cats.

Sasha
Siamese
Superpower – Keyboard cat
Claws 4
Whiskers 8
Fucks 1
Lives 9

Mechanically, Mew-Tants! is simple enough. It uses dice pools of six-sided dice, equal to one of a cat’s stats. If a player rolls a six, then his cat succeeds at a task. If opposed, the winner is the cat—or even a dog or a rat—who rolls more successes than the other. In combat, successes indicate damage inflicted on an opponent. Further dice can be added to a pool if a cat can find a box or a bed—for a nap, Kibbles so the cat can care more, or a Scratching Post to sharpen a cat’s claws. These add to a cat’s Whiskers, Fucks, and Claws respectively. Lastly, Lives represent a cat’s Hit Points, but can also be expended to reroll any dice. Catnip—or ‘nip’ if obtained from a dealer on the streets—grants bonus Lives dice.

Play in Mew-Tants! is supported with advice on scenario or mini-campaign, design, a detailed scenario, and a dozen ready-to-play super cats. The advice is to keep it fairly short and focused on small neighbourhood, perhaps even a neighbourhood known to the players. A table of antagonists and goals provide some ideas, and whilst the advice is limited, it is sufficient for a roleplaying with the scope of Mew-Tants! In comparison, the scenario, ‘The Catnapping’, is relatively lengthy and detailed. It is a missing moogie mystery litter box played out over nine locations, with plenty of NPCs that the Game Master can develop and roleplay. It should provide a good session or two’s worth of play.

Physically, Mew-Tants! is decently done and written. The artwork ranges from the realistic to the cartoonish, but works either way. Published as an A5-size booklet, it is short and easy to read, such that a Game Master could pick this up and read it through and have it ready to play in ten minutes.

Cats will be familiar to almost every player, so the combination of the subject matter and the simple mechanics make Mew-Tants! both easy and engaging to play. The combination also means that Mew-Tants! is suitable for younger players or play by a family—or it would be. Its use of adult language to describe a cat’s charisma and the fact that is reproduced on the character sheet on the back cover simply means that it is anything but—when it really should have been. Now the Game Master can change both, renaming the stat and redesigning the character sheet—perhaps Catrisma?—but should that have been really necessary? Maybe the publisher could provide a family-friendly character sheet?

Overall, Mew-Tants! is both easy and engaging, with scope aplenty for the input and invention of the players as they imagine the adventures of their cats and how they see the world around them.

And we thought August was interesting, eh? (He wrote, currently staring down a dire wolf skeleton mount at the Cincinnati airport, where he was transferred from a trip to New Jersey because Philadelphia experiences Dallas-level thunderstorms, too.) While nothing is … Continue reading →

This is the start of a multi-part sub-feature of One Man's God. I am going to pull in material from older Dragon Magazines when needed, though not enough to count as a "This Old Dragon."  This series will also allow me to pull in more up-to-date material for the various gods and creatures beyond what was in the  Deities and Demigods. The D&DG will be my starting point, but I am not limited to it now.

Since I have completed all the myths in the Deities and Demigods the initial goal of One Man's God is now complete.  I might, after this, look to other editions of (A)D&D, in particular, 2nd and 3rd but for now, I want to explore some other topics that came up in my OMG posts.

One of those topics is syncretism.

Syncretism is the combining of gods or beliefs into a new set of gods and/or belief systems.  This is something that happens in the real world all the time, though maybe less so now as the prevalence of monotheism is worldwide.  We do see it more modern times in the cases of religions like Vodun and Santería.

While you typically don't see syncretism in AD&D there is at least one excellent example of it. Going all the way back to Dragon #54 from October 1981, we have Ed Greenwood's Down-to-Earth Divinity.  

I am not sure if this article lead to the later developments of what the Cleric can do with their gods or not, but it was most certainly ahead of it's time.  A quick reminder, while Greenwood has been telling us about his campaign for a bit now, the Forgotten Realms, as a product, was not due till 1987.  

I covered this in an early This Old Dragon, here is what I said about it then:

Up first in real articles we have something from Ed Greenwood. So this year (2017) I have been spending some time expanding my knowledge of the Forgotten Realms. This article is one of the earliest articles on the Realms I know of. Down-to-earth Divinity discusses how Ed has put together his Pantheon of Gods. You can easily see how this evolved into the gods of the Realms. I found it interesting that he includes the elemental gods from the Melnibonéan mythos. There are a lot of "reskinned" Deities and Demigods gods here too (which is the point of the article). I liked that Ed specifically mentions that witches worship Selûne. The article is long and seriously good.

I feel I undersold how good this article is for my purposes. So not only can use this as a One Man's God entry in the pure sense it is also the perfect place to discuss syncretism.  The insight to how the Realms gods took shape is fascinating, the implications of what is going here are much more interesting.

For the sake of today's discussion, let us just focus on the Faerûnian Pantheon as a whole.  While they have evolved much since this article (and a further point in my case here). For modern examples, I will refer to the Faerûnian pantheon at the Forgotten Realms wiki.  

Faerûnian Gods

In this article, Greenwood details how he created the Gods of Faerûn.  Many of these gods are "reskinned" versions of Earth gods.  While there is a very practical game-design reason for this there is also an implied in-universe explanation; clerics of those gods came to Toril and brought their gods with them.  We see this in books, like Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" and we see it later in the Realms itself with the Mulhorandi pantheon, which are the Egyptian Gods, not even changed all that much. 

For his Gods, Greenwood choose to stick pretty close to the first printing of the Deities and Demigods.  Again there are very practical reasons for this.  Here is a breakdown of the "immigrant" gods to Faerûn.

Faerûn D&DG Pantheon Notes  Azuth  Aarth  Nehwon  Direct port, concept-wise  Bane  Druaga  Babylonian  Human form  Chauntea  Demeter  Greek  Direct port  Gond  Hephaestus  Greek  Direct port  Ilmater  Issek of the Jug  Nehwon  Some aspects  Loviatar  Loviatar  Finnish  Direct port  Mask  Hermes  Greek  No Justice domain  Mielikki  Mielikki  Finnish  Direct port  Milil  Bragi  Norse  Changed  Oghma  Oghma  Celtic  Direct port  Silvanus  Silvanus  Celtic  Direct port  Sune  Aphrodite  Greek  Direct port  Talona  Kipuytto  Finnish  Direct port  Talos  Storm Gods  Many  Combined aspects of other gods  Torm  St. Cuthbert  Greyhawk  Concept only  Tyche / Tymora  Tyche  Greek  Direct port  Tyr  Try  Norse  Direct port  Elemental Lords  Elemental Lords   Melnibonéan  Direct port  Cults of the Beast   Beast Lords  Melnibonéan+   many sources

This is not to imply that all Gods in Faerûn are imports.  Far from it! Many of the gods discussed in the article are different enough from their sources to be considered new gods.  Which is exactly what syncretism does.  There are also plenty of brand new gods.  For example, Mystra is nothing at all like Hecate.

What About Demons and Other Gods?

One Man's God is supposed to be about gods and demons right?  Certainly, the demons of the Monster Manual ARE the demons of Faerûn.  We know that Orcus has had a lot plots and schemes in the Realms since the very start.  And in the opposite direction, One Man's Demon is another's God, Asmodeus went from the Arch Duke of the devils to a God of Evil.  The details of his rise and fall have been dealt with in many books, but the best ones for my money come from the Brimstone Angels series by Erin Evans.

Evans also shows how imported gods can work.  The Pantheon of the Untheric Gods, which were the Babylonian Gods, were re-adopted by the Abeir Dragonborn living in Tymanther. In her book "The Devil You Know" Evans shows Untheric/Babylonian gods first as human-like then as Dragonborn-like as more of the Dragonborn living in Djerad Thymar came to believe in them, in particular the God Enlil.  Is it possible then that Bane IS Druaga, just evolved through the ages that his form has changed?  Isn't that also syncretism?

Nothing Like the Sun...

I have been going over this article for a very long time. There is quite a lot here to tease out and use if you are willing to take the time.  A good example of this comes from a tiny tidbit of information found in the paragraph for Selûne, then just Selune.  We are told that Selune is "revered by witches (and a few may worship her)."  Later on, in the Deity/Character Relationships table, we are told that the witches used are the ones from Dragon Magazine #43.

Reading through the various works on the Moon Goddesses, Selûne and Shar, and the Elven Sehanine Moonbow, there is a lot of back and forth on who is an aspect of who and what not.   This all lead me to a bit of syncretism of my own to combine all three goddesses into one Goddess of the Moon with three aspects.  I detailed this years ago in my "Chanel Divinity" article Nothing Like the Sun.  Each goddess represents the aspects of the triple Goddess; Maiden, Mother, and Crone or Sehanine, Selûne and Shar respectively.  Here they are more than just the Goddesses of the Moon but the Goddess of Witchcraft as well.   The waxing crescent is Sehanine and her "moonbow."  The full moon is the Mother Selûne in her full glory.  The waning crescent is Shar and her sickles to reap the souls of the dead.  But like their Goddess they are reborn as the Maiden once more.

Realms diehards might ask how can these Goddess exist?  Well, I also ask why does Zeus-Serapis exist when, supposedly, Zeus, Serapis, and  Osiris also still exist?  I like my Gods and Goddesses to be mysterious and strange and maybe a little contradictory.

For a little under 9 pages of text, Ed Greenwood really delivered here.  So much so that in truth this blog post was started months back.  I wanted to go back and reread posts I had made about this, posts I had made influenced by this, and more Forgotten Realms information.    In truth, I could go on much longer about this topic just in the Realms themselves, the world is much more dynamic that I had given it credit for, but I am going to stay on topic here and move on to other worlds and other gods.

So. Thank You, Ed Greenwood. This is quite a quality bit of work.