Lolth's Web Grows

Lilith by Israel Llona, 2007

Thanks for the interesting comments on Respinning the Demon Queen.  I knew Lolth is (and has been since 1980) super popular, but I was gratified to hear that folks are also as interested in Lilith as I am.  There's a lot of great creative ideas out there, and cross-fertilization and discussion of the original sources is both helpful and enjoyable.  I hope folks will scroll down to the comments in my linked post above to see the jewels hidden down there and join in!  (I'm going to disable the comments here to encourage folks to keep the comments all together over there.)

 Drider by Ben Wooten

Lolth on the cover of 4e's MM3.  Courtesy of WotC's Fankit. 

EDIT: Comments opened for art talk.

Updates of Good Stuff

Paizo Minis
The Paizo blog did not preview all the uncommon minis, but they did reveal three pics and a list of another half-dozen.  Check it out.

A PF Podcast
I finally listened to the latest (but no longer new) episode of Know Direction.  It has an interview with Erik Mona.  All interviews with Mona must be listened to.  It's the law.

The Undead as Denizens of the Underworld
Two recent blog posts have my attention, and I encourage folks who haven't read them to do so.

1. One at Beedo's Dreams in the Lich House
2. Two at Roger the GS's Roles, Rules, and Rolls

These go together like bread and butter, and reflect the kind of thinking that I really like. I hope we hear more on this subject from the two of them.

The Dope Fiends by Dave Mallon, 2010

Respinning the Demon Queen

N. Wright has rattled my cage with his post on Lolth.*  I had been thinking about this post for a while, and noted it in my blog schedule document, but I hadn't moved it up the queue, much less written it.  I shall wait no longer!

Lolth (or Lloth)

Every gamer of my generation remembers Lolth, Demon Queen of an underworld filled with drow and giant spiders, this way:

Erol Otus' Illustration from the Fiend Folio, 1981

Erol Otus' Illustration from Queen of the Demon Web Pits, 1980

 And "she also enjoys appearing as an exquisitely beautiful female Dark Elf," in D&D, called drow (Q1:31).  So perhaps she was even more memorable to pubescent and adolescent boys as looking something like this:

Another Erol Otus Illustration from Queen of the Demon Web Pits, 1980

Thus Lolth has two forms of appearing, even as she has two aspects: Goddess of the drow and Demon Queen of spiders.  These forms are both favorites of artists: reward yourself with a Google image search and you will be inundated with forms both of a horrendous arachnid with varying female humanoid attributes, and of the exquisitely beautiful female dark elf.  (All drow chicks are hot, ergo, Lolth must be the hottest of the hot.)

J. M. Collier's Lilith, 1887

Lilith
Another powerful demoness is the similarly named Lilith, from Jewish mythology.  Lilith is another sexy demon: according to the tales of some rabbis, she was Adam's first wife, divorced and turned into a demon because she wanted to be on top during coitus.  Thus she was punished as a threat to the belief in a divinely ordained male dominance.  Denied children of her own, she became an envious demon who kidnapped children.  In some people's mythopoesis, she became the first vampire.  Remember vampires?  How often they have pointed ears and are beautifully irresistible?  Like, well, elves.  Also note, female vampires from earliest days were portrayed as kidnapping children, just as the elves did with changelings.


Mash-Up Time: The Demon Queen Gets a Makeover
These two demon-goddesses offer a strong case for identifying the two figures as the same individual.  They share so much thematically that it is easy to do.  As I noted, even their names are very similar.  If you keep the two names, they can just be differences due to language.  Or you could call her Liloth.  Combining them has happy consequences.

If you are tired of the same old folklore controlling vampire game mechanics, you can now offer vampires a makeover based on their demon mistress: driders could be the spider form available for vampires.  Now we know why the drow moved underground: those who had received Liloth's gift (many of the nobles) had to flee the destructive rays of the sun.  Why should you especially identify bats with vampires?  There is one species of vampire bat, but don't all spiders suck their victims dry of their vital juices? We also have tehe answer for why evil elves and vampires kidnap children: Because they are easy-to-catch-and-carry little bags of blood, that's why.  Changelings would be ones selected to be allowed to survive and grow up to be turned into vampires and sent back to plague their old communities.  And remember the fear about female dominance represented by Lilith?  Of course drow are a matriarchal society under the demon goddess.

Vampires and drow tend to be among lots of gamers favorite monstrous races.  They also are the object of complaint as overly used and overly familiar.  I offer this new spin on the Queen of the Demonweb Pits as a way to creatively revamp both the Lolth and her elven devotees.


* His post led me back to Tim Brannan's earlier post.

Paizo, You're Killing Me!

The box did not arrive today.  
But you did put up a resource page with free downloads to taunt me.

WHERE IS MY BOX!?!?!?!?

Edit: I see that there also Beginner Box bashes at a store near you.

A Cold Wind Blows from the East this October

A Michael Tumey map from the module Frozen Wind

I have blogged before about Michael Tumey's Kaidan setting for the PFRPG.  As a special Halloween treat, Rite Publishing is giving away an adventure for fifth-level characters to face the frozen fury of a vengeful spirit: Frozen Wind.  Grab the free pdf at the Paizo store for a look at what Kaidan has to offer.  One way this adventure will facilitate that is it provides pregenerated characters so you can play it as a one-shot.  If you are not familiar with the Japanese tradition of ghost stories and you have Netflix, you might want to watch this.  There is also likely a copy of a small hardback titled Kaidan on the clearance shelves at your local Barnes & Noble, but I can't find a link on their online store.

Since I bought the original The Gift, Michael has been kind enough to send me a copy of the new version by Rite Publishing, and I will be offering a review of it in the future.  (But not before I pay my dues to you, Mike Welham!)  Thanks, Michael!

Shiny, Shiny Art for Your Commissioning

The Hound by Dave Mallon, 2011

Shiny, yes, but much of it in a spooky vein: perfect for the season!  I've sampled a couple of my favorites here, but please go take a look at Dave Mallon's work on his DA accountant.  This young artist comes with the Obscure seal of approval.  He's taking commissions for your fiction, games, and other needs.

Paths of the Dead by Dave Mallon, 2011

The Iron Chef Contest is ON!

It is ON!  Veritably
Like the Kong called Donkey!


Mike Monaco dealt the cards, now the contestants will deal the adventures.

Look upon the AD&D Trading Cards from Series 2 that I got in the exclusive video footage below, and weep!

Alright, folks, I'm off to party like it's 1992!  I'm going to email Mike about the use of trade-marked names in these adventures, but otherwise, I am confident I can use not just most of the cards, but all of them in my adventure.  And I do mean ALL.

Summary Statement of RPM CH. 7

Chapter 7
TACTICAL MASTERY
Part III:  Chapter in a Nutshell

You identify your mission, set your goal, determine your objectives, get to know the enemy, and plan with your team.  You use every sense and resource to move swiftly from objective to objective in order to attain your goal.  [You adventure as lightly equipped as possible for the mission...]  You are not sidetracked, but you go out of your way to bypass obstacles and enemy strongpoints whenever possible.  You conserve your resources.  When you strike, you do so hard and fast, but with only the amount of force necessary to accomplish your aim... If need be, your team will retire in order to reequip, but you'll be back again... (126)

 Links: Parts I and II.  An example scenario from the chapter is here.

Gygax on Informing Players

Chapter 7
TACTICAL MASTERY (127-137)
Part II

At the beginning of the campaign, the GM supplies the players with information needed to come to the point of active play, from which point on, the players directly engage the GM rather than passively receive information.  Before embarking on the campaign, all the player needs to know is a title, genre, and a brief statement about what the campaign is about.  More information, but only just enough, is given once they set down at the table, but before play proper has become.  Gary reads the players this information so that they can begin acting and planning their execution of the mission.  He breaks such information down into three categories: Background, Current situation, and General information.

Background: The general framework of the scenario.  Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Current situation: Who the players are, why they have become involved, how they arrived, what they have at their disposal, and so forth.
General information: Here is where the clues lie, and this seems to actually be a mix of material that Gary would assume is common knowledge and would simply be given to the characters, and information that they would have to obtain through role-play.  This seems an unfortunate mix to me, and it would be clearer to identity general information with common knowledge and Clues as a separate category that has to be investigated in active play.


Moving Outside the Scenario and Endgame Ignorance
A couple of characteristics of Gygaxian play emerge through is discussion of the categories in terms of his three genre examples.  (See my earlier post detailing one of these, here.)  One is that Gary is always ready to let the players move outside of the scenario (131-133).  One the one hand, this gives them the freedom to arrive at a conclusion to the mission outside of the avenues that have been preconceived.  On the other, it gives players the freedom to get off track and fail at the mission through their own foolishness.

Another characteristic is keeping players in the dark about having arrived at the "goal point" or "goal area."  Building on the example of the fantasy scenario, the party could:

• have found the mastermind behind the disappearance of the dwarf king and not know they had him/her.
• be in the chamber where the dwarf king is hidden, but not seen him due to magical measures.
• have found the dwarf king, but not recognized him for he has been stripped, shaved, and feeble-minded.

This latter point especially intrigues me.  It seems that oftentimes, it is obvious to the players that they have found The Dragon's Lair or The Villain's Secret Chamber or what have you.  The idea that they could be standing there with everything set for the final scene, and then the final scene not happening (then) because they did not realize everything that it was capable of realizing is appealing.  I would be wary of it descending into games of Guess what the GerkMaster is Thinking, but handled with some wisdom, this could be done well.  (I read with a bit of shock that Gary thought "well-designed scenarios... often conceal the fact" and "a master GM always [!] does so," but I will pay more attention to this in the future to see when I, or the writers of adventures, use this element.)

Gygax and The Disappearing Dwarf

This Tomeful Tuesday, I am finishing up Chapter 7 in a series of short posts.  To illustrate his points regarding tactical mastery in Role-Playing Mastery, Gygax introduces a scenario title, The Disappearing Dwarf  (127).  He then gives a thumbnail sketch of three very different scenarios that could share that same title, one fantasy, one science fiction, and one espionage.  It is instructive to note that this is information that Gygax would give to players before play is commenced.  I also thought it might fuel someone's creative juices to see what Gygax wrote for such a hypothetical fantasy scenario (unrelated to the James Blaylock novel of the same name published a few years before).

Background: Fordor Goldenbeard, king of the Dwarfs of Grimberg, was one of the wisest and best rulers ever known to his folk.  A month ago, in the midst of a festival in his very court, Fordor the king was seated upon his throne before the assemblage one minute, then gone the next!  An immediate search of the palace was fruitless.  No trace of the king could be found.  Now civil war threatens the community of dwarfs as various factions contend for rulership of the kingdom (128).

General Information: Three factions in the dwarven court vie for power.  One group uniequivocally supports the vanished king, so the members of that group might be expected to assist the team.  The second and third are suspects.  The second has as its candidate for interim ruler the wife of Fordor Goldenbeard.  The third faction supports a cousin of the king.  All three factions proclaim a deep desire to find Fordor and return him to the throne if at all possible, but it seems likely that at least one faction is lying.  The following physical evidence is known: First, a thin circle of black dust appeared and fell to the ground, surrounding the throne.  Then the flames of all lights within the cavern chamber flared and instantly burned out just as Fordor vanished.  The king's gold cup, which he had been holding when he disappeared, was later found in the king's own bedchamber (129).

Current Situation: This is not given, but it would tell how the players got to the dwarven court and how they are situated.

More Ancient Persian Inspiriation for Aryanistan

Faravahar-Gold by Shaahin

I picked up some books on ancient Persia and Zoroastrianism in the library further research into one of the important lands of Ygg.  (So far, I have been working with Mary Boyce's Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices.)  Though Norse mythology was my initial inspiration, and the Northern realm is where I planned on starting out with PCs, Aryanistan, drawing inspiration from central Asia and Iran, is the largest empire in Ygg.  Below is a C/C table on the two great religions of Aryanistan, the first which has the broadest popularity and the second which is the royal patronage and popular with ambitious nobles.  Some of the ideas are firmer than others, but I liked the direction that it taking as weave game elements and historical elements into this proud, though conflict, imperial behemoth. 

May the winds of inspiration blow upon you, this Mythopoeic Monday!

Marco Polo & the Sleeping Beauty Put to Bed

I have finished the second novel in my October Reading List, Avram Davidson and Grania Davis' Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty, thus ending the Asian half of the month.  I quite enjoyed it, although it didn't make a very good choice for a Halloween reading list.  Still, it allowed me to put the two Mongol novels I had together.  It has a good deal of elements both from fairy tales and from Oriental mythology that I enjoyed. The basic set-up nothing is tried and true, and nothing you haven't heard before: Your lord has acquired an ancient map with mysterious clues, and it is your job to lead a company to find the X it leads to.  But this is one of those novels where it is not so much that the heroes accomplish anything, but more so that things happen.  The unlikely heroes are driven along by even more unlikely events.

The real question: how did Baen's Neal McPheeters get Charles Bronson to pose for Kublai Khan!?

The Thing (2011)

Tonight, I took my wife on a movie date (yay!).  She agreed to go see the new The Thing, a prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 classic of the same name.  It was interesting to see it with someone who had seen the original film, but who was not a big fan and only dimly remembered it: about half way through the film, she remembered the original and thought she was watching a simple remake.  Afterwards, I had to jog her memory for her to see how it was a prequel.

I think that there is something telling about this, and it fits with my take on the film.  The Thing succeeds as both a meticulous prequel, providing explanations for everything in John Carpenter's film and, at the same time, it is The Thing for our time: for today's movie goers who are too young to have seen its forebear.  The effects are better, as we would expect them to be with superior technology, but at the same time I think this led to giving in to the temptation to show more of the Thing, which is not necessarily better story-telling for this genre of film.  In spite of this relative weakness, the look of the film is amazingly true to the original and the crafting of a detailed set-up to John Carpenter's narrative is thorough -- two aspects that go together to make the film as much a love letter to the original as a film in its own right.  But the acting is also very good, and attention to subtle clues such as facial expressions and eye directions will enhance your enjoyment of the film.  Amongst the run of good acting, Mary Elizabeth Winstead's and Ulrich Thomsen's stands out. Also, the film managed to misdirect me a couple of times, and as my sense for what a horror movie is going to do to try and surprise you is pretty good, so that was satisfying.

While most remakes send me into a murderous rant about the spiritual bankruptcy of Hollywood and how I wish cannibals would get hold of the jerks doing them and do to them what they do to the work of their forerunners and betters, I was happy overall with this remake-that-is-strictly-not-a-remake.  (I can't help but guess that some of the harsher reviews out there come from big fans of the original who are already filled with rage by the constant plague of Hollywood remakes and took it out on a film that didn't really deserve it.)  It works as a horror film in its own right, a prequel, and, as sad as it makes me to admit it, a competent substitute for those who will never see the original, or, if they do, get hung up on the difference in effects.  But I believe that the makers hoped it would send people back to the original, and I dare to hope they will have some success there, too.  And yes, they did open up a new avenue that could lead to a future sequel.  Hopefully, that will be left to tease viewers imaginations and they will move on to new stories.

Recommended for getting into that Halloween mood, for open-minded fans of the original, and for getting folks who haven't seen the original primed to fill that lame lacuna. 

Cantrips: Wand Spells for Magic-Users

Some folks, like myself, are not completely satisfied with the magic-user as it is written in classic versions of D&D -- especially as it is at lower levels.  Of course, if I want to play a radically different arcane class in a more complex version of the game, I can play, say, a Pathfinder wizard, sorcerer, summoner, witch, and so on, just to take one readily available route.  But I've been thinking about a more minor adjustment to the classical magic-user that would increase the class' reliance on magic at lower levels, and introduce a little more classic arcane flavor alongside the Vancian magic-user that would fit better in something like B/X or Swords & Wizardry.  I repeat, it's not out of a desire to do away with Vancian fire-and-forget, but a desire to add another layer to the way the magic-user works. 

My idea is to add cantrips, which is relatively minor magic in the scheme of things since they are less powerful than first level spells.  Certainly this idea has a lineage in the game since Gary Gygax introduced them to AD&D in 1982 (Dragon Magazine #59).  Adding them would keep the low level magic-user magical, instead of an ineffective weapon wielder avoiding action beyond his single spell.  Further, they can be incorporated in a way that makes both the mechanics and the flavor of the magic-user more interesting.  I propose adding cantrips as spontaneous spells that are basically dependent on the magic-user having a personal wand.  Below is the table that I am currently playing with. 

Link to download above as document.

Of course, this does not address the issue of what cantrips are available.  Djeryv offers cantrips based on those from Dragon and Unearthed Arcana.  The more I look back, the more I think I might be happier with something closer to those available through the OGL.  I'll keep playing around with what cantrips I'd include as standardly available, and I'll probably report on that eventually.  One final note: the chance that a magic-user snatching up a random wand can use it successfully is the same as the chance that they have to learn a new spell (Holmes, 13).  It is represented above inversely as the chance for spell failure.

In a nutshell, this addition gives the magic-user additional magic that:

• is lower powered than leveled, memorized spells
• relies on the iconic magic tool -- the wand
• adds flexibility with spontaneous casting
• adds to the total magical actions available to the archetypal magic class

Uncommon Character Minis

The above minis were previewed today on the Paizo blog: a human druid (from Mwangi), a human rogue, and an elf wizard that would work for PCs or NPCs.  I love the hood on the rogue.  Wizkids continues to live up to their initial promise.  The only thing that I can find to criticize are those little black raised circles underneath the shoes of some of the figures.  Those bug me.