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One Muhaha, Two Muhaha

The title of this post should be spoken using the voice of the Count from Sesame Street.

There was no publication round up last week as I was en route from Norway to home and faffing about trying to embed links and what-not using just my phone was just too painful. As a result we have two adventure hooks to tell you about. The first is…

The Empty Village

In The Empty Village, characters come across a prosperous farming village, but one without any inhabitants, life or livestock. The village is utterly deserted and it seems the inhabitants disappeared without notice or expectation. Who could be responsible? That is up to the GM, but suggestions are provided.

Next up we have….

One Muhaha, Two Muhaha

In One Muhaha, Two Muhaha a new death cult has sprung up in town, attracting the offspring of the wealthy and taking them away from the established churches. Despite disapproval with the goings-on, little harm was being done by the cult. Until a body turned up, dressed like a cult member and drained of blood. The characters will need to discover what is really going on.

You can tell by the stupid title that One Muhaha, Two Muhaha is one of mine, while The Empty Village is a far more sensible offering from BriH.

What is even more awesome is the release of out second bundle. The Rolemasterblog 11-20 bundle is out and includes the second block of 10 adventures. If you have already purchased some of the previous adventures you get an automatic discount. Check out the bundle here.

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I.C.E. Deep Dive. Loremaster Series Review pt.3: The Cloudlords of Tanara.

 

Welcome to my third review of the Loremaster Series; today we are going to explore what is possibly the most well known or popular of ICE modules: The Cloudlords of Tanara. Over the years there have been other reviews (see some links at the end) and Cloudlords has been treated to the Terry Amthor rewrite, but I’m going to focus on the original version and review it in the context of the Loremaster series and how it might have impacted the later Shadow World series.

Like the Iron Wind, the Cloudlords is undeniably “base DNA” of Shadow World where Vog Mur and Shade of the Sinking Plain felt like stand-a-alones. So despite some timeline issues and slight ret-conning, it’s easy to use Cloudlords as a canon SW book. In reality, most of the timeline and history issues are going to be lost on the players anyway!

First, let’s start with the cover art done by Gail Mcintosh. The Cloudlords is iconic cover art from the early golden era of RPG’s and is part of what I consider the “trifecta” of Gail’s early cover art that creates movement (everyone is wielding/swinging weapons) and depth (a contrast of foreground featuring the backside of a protaganist and a foe facing forward in the background). The trifecta:

Some would argue that these covers were less refined than her subsequent work for MERP covers or Dragon magazin but I think they are fantastic and captured the unique nature of early Rolemaster compared to the other d20 settings.

Once you turn the cover page you are immediately drawn into a whole new RPG module environment: a color map of “The Forge of the  Lords of Essence”!!!  That map label alone raises all sorts of questions and promises that are delivered further into the book. This is definitely not the “Caves of Chaos“!

Since Terry Amthor was the author of this book, you’ll note that the Table of Contents follows a familiar structure that is adhered to in later SW books: World Info, Geography, Flora & Fauna Politics & Power, Key Places, Master Charts and then Adventures. For regular SW users, this is a well understood template that has mostly continued throughout the product line.

The Introduction covers the fundamentals of the Loremaster world, but it’s not currently named Kulthea yet. The Flows of Essence are discussed, but primarily as the source of “magic” and the basis for RM’s three realms. In 1.17 Peoples, the test describes the isolationism of various peoples and creatures due to mountain ranges and broad seas. In the next section, History, it describes: “…a strong north-south flow of that invisible yet dangerous force of Essence. These elements combine to make passage..virtually impossible”. The kernels of SW are there but haven’t been fully fleshed out with the Flows acting as physical barriers.

The History section is a simplified version of the SW timeline: the 1st Era, Kadena, The Second Age, Loremasters, the Wars of Dominion and finally the Third Age. What’s different? There is no mention of Andraax, the Althans haven’t been tied to an advanced technological culture and there is no mention of the Lords of Orhan. In fact, it was the Loremasters who broke their creed of non-involvement to tip the scales of the Wars of Dominion.

The next few pages are some map symbols and B&W geography maps–Fenlon of course. As a GM these Fenlon maps are priceless–in fact, it’s all I really need to run a game. The maps depict trails, roads, ruins, towns, waters, cave cities, burials etc.  Amazingly, Fenlon also incorporates elevations, foliage types, and settlement patterns of people and animals. It’s really an incredible resource in these books, and frustrating that this type of quality can’t be produced at a reasonable cost. ?

Section 2.1 The Environment.

A page and half, covers basic terrain types, weather patterns, the calendar, hints at some moons and a sampling of creatures. Interestingly and in line with SW, there are very few monsters: Steardan, Garks, Demons & Undead are referenced. Under Demons, there is a reversal from the Iron Wind, ad the Pales are described as having 6 levels with the weakest being the First Pale. Here again, we can see world design shifting into place for the 1st Edition Master Atlas that came out in ’88-’89.

Section 2.2 Peoples.

Terry creates 4 distinct peoples, but are there perhaps any more iconic peoples of Shadow World than the Duranaki? Spiked and colored hair, leather armor, odd black weapons, live underground–very punk rock. It’s in the Worship sections that Terry starts developing the eventual SW pantheon. The Sulini have “Numa” the Ocean God, the Myri have Ilila, Earth Goodess, Allanda (Storms), Keo (Moons), Davix (Festivals) and Phaon (Sun) and the Yinka have Yugal.

3.1 Politics and Power

In a previous blog post, I discussed the Xiosians and part of my solution was based on this book.  The Cloudlords of Tanara are Zori  who crossed the mountains and discovered an ancient abandoned city with artifacts (the Cloudlord Gear) and the Steardan. They, like many historical cultures, co-opted the ancients legacy and became the Cloudlords. This section also covers the political powers of the Myri, Duranaki and Yinka and finally includes the Cult of Ezran.

The Cult of Ezran. Basically an outcast group of the Cloudlords was corrupted by a wandering Elf, a servant of the Unlife. Cloudlords makes no mention of the Priests Arnak, but it’s natural to ret-con Teleus as a Priest. Now an Undead, Teleus rides a “Demon-Horse” and wields the Implementor–an idea that probably morphed into the Heralds of the Night. To combat the Implementor, there are 3 very cool “swords”, the Narselkin. Give it to Terry, he comes up with the coolest magic items and these are no exception. Each has particular powers and meant for an Essence user, Fighter and Channeler.

Cool Places. The layouts and fortresses found in the Cloudlords are a step forward in the development of the “Lords of Essence” aesthetic. These buildings are clearly a fusion of classic marble style with industrial high tech features, radiant heat, locking doors and laen and shaalk panels. There are lots of odd rooms that are interesting but feel more like a standard dungeon “puzzle room” than a logical room in a fortress or structure. Other layouts include a Lords of Essence forge, a Duranaki hold, vaults for the Narselkin and the temple of the Yinka.

Finally, the module has detailed master charts for NPCs, military, a huge herb chart, and a great section featuring unique and notable magic items!!

The last sections cover details on the Navigators–a more involved section than the paragraphs in the Iron Wind 3rd ed. Plus there is a glossary that makes for an interesting read and touches upon a lot of later SW content. Special metals and materials, languages etc.

Over all, the Cloudlords of Tanara is a fantastic supplement and takes the base DNA found in the Iron Wind and really morphs into the Shadow World style.  When compared to the canon established in the original Master Atlas, there just isn’t much change. Perhaps the most significant is the additional of the pantheons of the Lords of Orhan and the Dark Gods of Charon.

So why is it relevant? Clearly in design and layout it establishes all the later SW products and while it was re-written by Terry decades later the original Cloudlords of Tanara makes a great stand-alone setting or as part of your SW campaign.

Here  and HERE are some other reviews that I like coming from people more outside the Rolemaster bubble.

 

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New Skill Acquisition

I have just been away in Norway learning to ski. I have returned, unbroken but in need of a rest which is a sign of a good holiday.

I had never skied before and the only other ice related thing I had ever done before was ice skating, which I do not enjoy and I am pretty terrible at. Those two factors are not unrelated in my opinion.

So as a complete newbie I enrolled in Ski School. After 1.5hrs I could start, stop, steer left and right, moderating my speed using the plough and use a ‘button lift’.

After day two I was using a T bar lift, using turns to moderate my speed and skiing with parallel skis. That was a total of 3hrs tuition in a group of 8 beginner adults and one instructor.

Over the week I was skiing an average of 45km a day. Less at the beginning of the week and more towards the end. The limiting factor was my physical fitness. I am pretty fit but here I was using different muscle groups to my regular sports.

That is enough about skiing…

Last summer I discovered a suitcase where one of the kids had put the little pad locks on the zip before putting it away. Obviously there was no sign of the key. It took me an afternoon but I taught myself how to pick the padlock. Not just that one padlock, I was so pleased with myself that I found about every padlock in the house and I managed to open those as well.

So if it takes about 3 hours to gain that first rank in a skill, possibly the most important rank as that negates that -25 and gives you your first +5, so a 30 point shift in your favour how fast do we allow characters to learn new skill?

I worked in adult education for just over a decade and it was commonly accepted that 20hrs of tuition was required to teach a specific skill. That is the burden I put on my players if they want to learn something through training. They need to dedicate 20 hours with a skilled teacher or instructor.

I found that when I was using RM2’s experience schedule as written that the x5 experience for the first time the characters did something really accelerated them though the first few levels. Later on when they were routinely killing Orcs they were getting far less experience. This lead to a slow down in level gains.

Slowing down the level gains is good in some ways as I find it harder to challenge characters that go over 20th level. They have too many spells and too many power points if they are spell casters and for the arms users the difference in OB between a 20th and 30th level fighter is not that great. It somewhat defies credibility that a villain would have a body guard of six 30th level warriors when those six could probably carve out their own kingdom they were so powerful.

This power problem shaped my game. Powerpoint multipliers are as rare as hens’ teeth and I made spell list acquisition as difficult as the RAW allowed.

Another consequence was that once players stopped advancing in levels so quickly it became almost impossible to learn a new skill and for something like a weapon, learning a new weapon would take years and would probably never get on a par with a weapon learned from first level. You pretty much had to make a binding choice as to which weapons you were going to use at character creation and stick to it.

How I treat learning skills and improving skills is well documented but this week has made me consider should skills be even easier to learn? I got 7.5hrs tuition over 5 days plus lots of practice time. If I include the practice then I am probably not far off the 20hrs I charge players anyway.

How do you deal with established characters wanting to learn completely new skills?

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ABSOLUTE SUCCESS: 101+ vs. 111+

There has been some discussion in the forum and in the blog of the RMU 101+ success rate vs. the RM(#) 111+ success rate. I always liked the idea of having absolute success being more difficult to attain, i.e.: 111+ and here are some reasons why.

Adventurers in the gaming world, any world not just RM, are of heartier stock. They have attributes, qualities, skills, items, what not, that set them above the rest of the average society. There is something that makes them better suited to the adventuring profession than the average Joe and that is why they are adventurers. If not, then ANYONE could be an adventurer and no one would be in town to make society work. There wouldn’t be a society. If the average individual succeeds on 101+ in their real-world, average lives, then the rigors and dangers of adventuring should be more difficult for that same person to achieve that same success. In the adventuring world, when compared to the average world, 101+ simply won’t cut it. An average person not suited for adventuring should have to try harder to gain the success an adventurer gains because they wouldn’t have the better than average stats or items or blessings the adventurer has.

RM is D100, percentile. With that, 55% is roughly average. I say roughly because the fumble range varies with different weapons, maneuvers, difficulties, and take up the lower end of the range and open ended rolls take up the upper range of the dice rolls, so for the sake of argument and for keeping the numbers easier to manage, I’ll say 55-ish. If a player can roll a 46+ and break the 101+ threshold for Absolute Success, it’s easier than flipping a coin. To me, that isn’t an accurate representation of the type of game RM (any edition) was developed to be. The skills and the development of those skills, the stats and modifiers, lend to the “need” to develop skills with DP’s, unlike other game systems which simply require the “choosing” of a skill category (Parry, Power Strike, Back Stab, etc.) but that is a completely different game mechanic and not one based on percentile. In all fairness, it’s comparing apples and oranges, or maybe lemons and limes… very similar, but definitely not the same thing. This comparison will come up again at the end and may be clearer by then.  Hopefully.

By having Absolute Success at 111+, the DP’s become more valuable as the player has to determine how many 5%-ranks are “enough” and if the value of purchasing skill ranks 11-20 at a 2% value at the same DP cost is worth the investment. Is it more important to invest in a new skill or to continue with just one or two more ranks in the existing skill?

The players who have invested 10 ranks at 5% have a 50% chance of success right off the bat (assuming the DP was available to invest that heavily into a skill), then add stat bonuses and other possible bonuses for a value respectably above 50%, say 60%-65%. Remember, the “average adventurer” is already a cut above the “average citizen.” Even with above average stats 65-74 range, the stat bonus is still +0. *- I don’t have the chart in front of me to be more precise.

Stat bonuses, level bonuses, and “other” bonuses (Saddle of Riding, Boots of Traceless Passing, Cloak of Camouflage, +10 Lock Picks, etc.) have a wide and varying range so conservatively I’ll suggest 10%-15%? Any player willing to spend more DP in skill ranks 11-20 should have a better chance of succeeding than someone who has only invested lightly and that PC would hopefully (ideally) have the items to augment that skill. It should be more difficult for the 5-ranks PC to achieve Absolute Success than it is for the 15-ranks trained PC regardless of the numerical value Absolute Success has been assigned, 101+ or 111+. By having only 101+ as the threshold, it just became considerably easier for the lesser trained PC to achieve what the better-trained PC can achieve and for the better trained PC, anything over 101+ is irrelevant.

RM2 has plenty of ways to get additional bonuses added onto a skill to help the adventurer break the 111+ threshold. Special Items Category (+5 to +20 magic or non-magic item). Skill at Arms or Skill at Magic background option table for example: +10 to +25 to a stat bonus, +25 to all Adrenals, etc. At level 5, when a PC could have 10-12 skill ranks (50%-54%), then add in Stat Bonus (+10 to +15), and then add in Profession Level Bonus (possibly +5 to +15), cracking that 111+ threshold shouldn’t be difficult for an adventurer, save for an unfortunate dice roll of course.

When I first saw that 111+ was the Absolute Success threshold, many moons ago, I thought it was ingenious. Players had to invest more into becoming very good, not simply lucky with a dice roll. With open-ended rolls, there is still a chance for the lesser trained PC to reach Absolute Success. Sometimes someone just gets plain lucky and succeeds. It happens in real life all the time – Dumb Luck. Compare this to the Olympics. Any number of athletes (or PCs) can train (buy skill ranks), be good enough to make the Olympics (or to go Adventuring), and complete the race (or slay the bad guy). But the athletes who put more time training (bought more skill ranks) will have a better chance of getting a medal (ranks 11-20, that extra 2% chance). Yes, physiology (RM stats) will have an impact, but completing the race is not the same as getting a bronze medal (partial success), getting a silver (near success), and getting the gold (absolute success). Fumbled dice rolls? Certainly. The Korean speed skater favored to win but fell twice. Lucky open-ended rolls? The USA cross country ski team that edged out for the gold. Women’s Hockey, USA vs. Canada. I would argue two fantastic teams each with 20+ ranks in skills, superior stats, great equipment, coaching (Tactics)… and it came down to a shootout! A real knock ‘em down, drag ‘em out donnybrook! In the end, one could say the game winner came from the player who invested just a couple more ranks into the 21-30 range of skill ranks in Shooutout skill and that extra 1% helped her edge out the opposing goalie.

I’ve had players over the many years I’ve been playing, actually say “I’m not going to buy any more ranks. 50% chance is good enough,” and that is roughly 50% total after all the stats and bonuses have been added in, not 10 ranks at 5%. By lowering the threshold to 101+ it reinforces that 50% breakpoint and while it will certainly free up DP for other skills, I think it cheapens the value for the players who want to invest more DP into skills so be a specialist of sorts and it actually discourages investing deeper into skills. By having the lower threshold, there is no longer a need to invest. This tends towards the DPs being spent on more skills rather than specializing in a skill. Everyone is a jack-of-all-trades and master of none.

Consider the lemons/limes analogy once more. Any PC can get the Parry Skill, the Power Stoke skill, the Tumbling skill simply by selecting it at level-up. Then every single player who opted for the skill can do it with the exact same chance of success (D20 vs. 15). That isn’t skill development in the same sense that RM develops skills. There is no chance to get better at parrying. There are no points to invest in it to help you become better at parrying after you’ve chosen it. Lemons to limes, RM offers the opportunity for anyone to learn a skill but they have to invest in that skill for it to be of reliable use to them. Rolled a 37? Luckily, you invested deeply in Locate Secret Opening and had 75 points total to add to your roll.

Lowering the Absolute Success value, to me, feels like RM is moving away from skill development and more towards jack-of-all-trades. It’s a stretch of the imagination, I’ll admit, and I’m adding poetic license to illustrate my point, but if all the players only aim for 50% because they only need to roll 51+ to succeed, then they spread out those skills and aim for 50% across the board. With the stat, level, and professional bonuses tacked on, that equates to purchasing fewer ranks in any skill to reach the 50% threshold.

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For discussion. The ubiquity of “armored up, all the time” in your game setting.

Recently during a game session, we had a bit of a dispute over what weapons and armor a player might have had on them while in a city. Even in a lengthy campaign, many of my RPG experiences have defaulted to the idea that players have just 1 “kit”–basically the clothes, armor, weapons and gear that are listed on their equipment sheet. As “murder hobos” they don’t have a home, wardrobe or a lot of possessions beyond gear and wealth. Therefore, the players are always in their adventure gear; fully kitted out, armed and armored.

But that’s just silly in many situations. Certainly major cities have laws and rules about armed citizenry. Some may only allow nobles to carry blades; others may require “peace knots” on weapons, or others may require registration or membership in a guild or militia to permit being armed in public.

Those are regulatory issues, but there should also be cultural norms as well. Clanking around in plate or chain armor and wearing a full helm should seem rude or unacceptable in major urban areas. Visitations to courts, merchants houses or administrative facilities will probably require dis-arming. Certainly higher end taverns, inns and restaurants are not going to allow customers that are fully armed or armored.

Finally, it’s just not hygienic to wear the same clothes, underclothes, padding, armor, helms and adventuring clothes all the time! The players will stink, boots will be worn out from travel, clothes torn, armor will dent or bend and a host of wear & tear that’s normal in everyday life. If you’ve ever done any lengthy hiking or outdoor adventuring you know how fast gear can wear out.

In my game, players default to “civilian kit”. They have a appropriate wardrobe for normal, everyday life, often based on their cultural and racial background. We also rate it in a variety of ways (poor, functional, merchant, noble, luxurious or just rank it from 1-10). The quality of the garb will dictate how they interact with various societal classes. As the players have grown in power and reputation, they find themselves interacting with high levels of society. So while they might be murder hobos, they can’t dress like one! Typically they will be armed–but only a staff, or short blade so the heavy fighters feel at a real disadvantage.

Since their civvies are the defaults, that means they have to tell me when they are getting into their combat/adventure kit. Even when travelling, I don’t assume players will continually wear heavy armor, have a shield strapped onto their armor and have a weapon drawn. Of course players want to have all of that when they are ambushed or a sudden encounter unfolds!

This is more of a concern in campaigns–if you are running one-off adventures, dungeon crawls, or just independent adventures most of this won’t matter. The players “gear up” and run the gauntlet. However, if you are running a session or game that doesn’t focus on wilderness/tomb/ruins, and are more urban, what do you do? Do you have an “open carry” “armored up” style game?

Thoughts?

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You encounter 2d8 Zombies

I absolutely detest D&D style wandering monster encounters. Take the title example, the problems with 2d8 zombies are almost too many to list, where did the zombies come from, who made them, why are they there? Even the 2d8 bit irks me. Against a party of PCs 2 zombies is quite possibly a bit of a non-event. 16 zombies could quite possibly be a potential TPK.

What is the point of the encounter?

If it is resource attrition, to grind the party down before they reach the end of level boss then shouldn’t it be part of the primary adventure notes? Wandering monsters or random encounters are normally in addition to the set locations and encounters.

If the random encounter tables are well constructed then I accept that as the party move from locale to locale then the sorts of encounters they have will change with the territory.

If my memory serves I seem to remember that the GM would roll 1d6 every hour or so to see if there was a random encounter. The last time I made random encounter tables I created one for each floor of a castle keep. The random encounters on the upper floor were things like servants carry laundry, children of the residents with their governess playing with marionette puppets and a nurse with a baby. In the lower floors their were more kitchen servants, off duty guards, handymen carrying out minor building repairs. The random encounters reflected the day to day life of the castle. It meant that the players could not sneak around the castle corridors with impunity. Killing these people would have consequences even if the body was not discovered, they would be missed and mostly quite quickly. Incidentally I discovered that a random encounter with six kids playing hide and seek can cause absolute havoc with a parties attempt to infiltrate a castle!

This is not intended as a rant against D&D, I am going somewhere with this…

Last week I talked about Fate points and about using a toned down version for minor skill rolls.  There is a bit of that in what comes next.

I have also talked about relative encounters, there is a bit of that in this.

So imagine you scrap random encounters completely. We keep the encounters but we get rid of the random bit. What would be nice would be a non random way of getting unexpected encounters.

This is going to sound like a digression but bear with me…

Looking at skill checks RMC has two levels of nearly but not quite made it. 76-90 was Partial Success and 91-110 was Near Success. RM2 and thankfully RMU has ditched the Near Success band and you have 76-100 as Partial Success and 101+ for success. I have always hated the Eleventy-one+ for success, but that is not relevant here.

The only problem with this graduated levels of success is that starting characters have very little chance of ever succeeding at anything that isn’t an absolute core skill. In RMC you pretty much need an open ended roll do anything.

As a GM you cannot use any difficulty ratings beyond ‘normal’ or the party will probably hit a brick wall of an unopenable door or unfindable clue.

So imagine that as a GM we count Partial Successes as Success but you also keep a tally of each ‘bump up’. You then fix a break point for each location. If your tally of bumps equals the break point you trigger an encounter.

So for example you put a break point of 3 against the scene set in a bandit camp. The players are trying to sneak in to the camp, trying to spot any guards one player gets a partial success, you elevate this to success but keep a score of 1. The players make their plan and then try and sneak in, rolling their stalking skill. The mage gets a partial success making the tally now 2. The players approach a corral of horses and the ranger tries to use animal handling to calm the horses and gets another partial. The tally is now 3 and the break point is reached. As GM you can toss in an extra encounter (A groom checking on the horses?) and reset the tally back to zero.

What we are doing is making the characters more competent as we count partial successes as successes but balancing the books by throwing more complications at the party.

More heavily patrolled or traffic areas would have a lower break point value as people are more likely to maybe sense the slight feeling of something being not quite right or maybe the characters have left a clue or evidence of their activities.

This can work in any situation, if the party are moving around a souk trying to haggle over prices then a handful of partial successes may be enough to have marked them out as non-locals by a street gang.

If you want encounters to lead to combat, we do a lot of hack and slash so ours frequently will, then we can use relative encounters so they are always balanced to the power of the party, this gets rid of the 2d8 bit in the title.

So this idea makes characters more capable in a similar way to inspiration, removes the random element of wandering monsters and pitches the wandering monster to the power of the party. It can also give you that lovely warm glow feeling of being a really evil GM as you benevolently allow a character to succeed while at the same time knowing that there is one more tick on the ‘shit happens’ register.

 

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Shadow World Breaking News! Is Rolemasterblog Resurrecting the Nomikos Library?

 

Many years ago, Matt Hanson (Vroomfogle on the RM Forums) hosted the “Nomikos Library” which had the full and complete timeline from Shadow World. It was a great resource, but after some years of hosting the site, he ended up shutting it down due to server issues, power usage, spam, hackers and all the other hassles of hosting a site.

There has been some discussion on the RMForums about restarting the site, but it’s doubtful Matt has the time or energy to tackle it again. Therefore, we here at Rolemasterblog are in discussions about whether we can resurrect the timeline here on the blog site and how it would work. Terry has been supportive and waiting on other principals to weigh in with their opinions.

As I touched upon in an earlier blog, IF there ever was a new Master Atlas it probably should leave out the detailed timeline due to size and ongoing changes. It makes sense to host it somewhere where it can be updated and edited as canon products come out. That’s just my opinion of course.

We’d like to add some filters so the timeline could be reduced by subject matter, geography or key words. I’m not the “coder” so much of that will be left to the experts. Obviously one concern is whether it’s important to keep the “secrets” of Shadow World fire-walled off from players and accessible to GM’s only. On the other hand, SW pdf’s are easily found online and Terry’s Loremaster Legacy spills a lot of the settings meta secrets so it’s not like the info isn’t out there if a player really wanted to find it.

We welcome your comments and thoughts.

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World War Tree

This week’s 50 in 50 adventure is on of mine. Going under the title of World War Tree.

‘In World War Tree the characters are in a town which has greatly expanded over the past two years, due to a moss found on local trees. As a result of this, the nearby forest has suffered extensively, with large numbers of trees torn down. The forest has now decided that enough is enough and a force of living trees, of the appropriate type, is descending on the town to rip it to pieces.’

This adventure has real Rolemaster DNA at the heart. Herbs, which we all use as GMs and players, play a significant part. The destruction of the town is reminiscent of the end of Isengard, a MERP reference, and Arms Law combat makes the enemy much more dangerous than D&D hit point erosion.
Creature Law has several variations of active tree and in this adventure you get to use them all.

Incidentally, if anyone else is interested in releasing adventures or adventure hooks I have noticed that the name plays a big part in the amount of sales. I have been using slightly witty names, like World War Tree, and Star Mangled Manor. Brian in contrast uses much more traditional names like Cave of Spiders. These traditional named adventure hooks sell much better than the less serious adventures. The covers are pretty much identical as are the prices and prospective buyers do not get to see the actual content. About the only distinctive feature is the name.

If you want to emulate what we are doing
I suggest using very traditional adventure names.

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Game Campaigns. Do they End with a bang or do they end with a whimper?

So I needed to take a small break from my 2000 word blog posts, so I thought I would write some quick thoughts on campaign endings.

As a GM it’s important that a campaign, or extended adventure series end satisfactorily. From a design standpoint, some of that can be charted through a multiple act structure, but the open ended nature of gaming (and RM dice!) means that things can go astray. It can be frustrating to have the final act end with the players feeling dissatisfied, the conclusion anti-climactic or the challenge easily met.

On the other hand, it would also be too easy to manipulate dice, events and other factors to force a cinematic ending to a long game session or campaign. Acting completely neutral means that hours of hard work managing a well designed narrative could “end with a whimper”. Uhh…”So that’s it?” the players ask. That can feel very deflating for the GM.

I’ve had both in my years of gaming–some incredible finales and some now real duds. Now, spending much of time writing game hooks, modules and adventures I’m exploring the mechanics behind these conclusions. This has become critical in my “Legends of Shadow World” tourney module. At 50th lvl things better be pretty epic!!!!

  • If at 50th, death has no real meaning due to lifegiving, is their any tension in combat?
  • If a great crit roll can kill the most powerful of entities, then a lengthy combat could last mere seconds, robbing it of impact.
  • What reward provides the payoff to players? There are no new spells, probably not any artifacts they haven’t obtained and not much upside to another level up is there a real payoff?

But looking at those above, I can’t help but think they are not unlike the same questions for lower level characters.

  • “The end” provides a out of game break that can hand wave away any severe injuries. There are no “next room” or “next level” to survive with wounds. So many lower level final acts lose some of that tension as well.
  • Crits are always the wild ace in the RM game.
  • What is a commensurate reward for any level?

The mere fact that it’s the “end” creates new problems the GM has to anticipate. What has been your experience? Is just finishing reward enough?

Here are a few blog articles (of varying usefulness) on the subject. HERE and HERE

 

 

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I.C.E. Deep Dive. Loremaster Series Review pt.2: The World of Vog Mur.

For a long time, The World of Vog Mur was never my favorite Loremaster book (although still better than Shade of the Sinking Plain)! I recall talking with John Ruemmler on the phone back in 1988 or so and mentioned my “lack of enthusiasm” for Vog Mur. There was a long, awkward pause, and John said “I was the author for that….”. Oops, foot in mouth! Over time, though, I’ve grown to appreciate it–sort of the “Empire Strikes Back” effect. It’s a bit awkward but charming in it’s mixture of Rolemaster, Middle Earth elements and basic D&D. And there are great ideas and layouts that makes using the module as a drop-in side adventure easy. Shipwreck the players?

Vog Mur is a short supplement, only 34 pages, and was originally included with Gamemaster Law. The book conveys a sense of a tutorial: it has wide right margins with developer notes and space for a GM to add their own. There are many explanatory sections on how to use the material, handle NPC’s and encounters. As a section of Gamemaster Law that approach makes sense, but it feels a bit clunky as the stand-alone module.

Cover Art. First off, the cover art: it didn’t have the punch that Brian White’s Iron Wind cover had, and certainly it was no Gail McIntosh cover on Cloudlords of Tanara. But I like it now, for it’s color and realism. There is a ruined castle, an imposing black figure astride a horse and in the forefront, the gentle Vorig Kye releasing a small bird. Ha! He was cool when I first read Vog Mur but now that he has been promoted to a full Dragon Lord in Shadow World it’s much more interesting to look back and see his humble beginnings.

The Setting.  The world of “Vog Mur” (which means Death Watch) is comprised of 3 small islands: Dalov Perll, Ordye Throg and Dalla Veurd, all basically volcanic atolls situated to the north of Emer. Dalov is 14×11 miles, Ordye is 7×6 miles and Dalla 2.5×2 miles so these are small sand boxes to control player travel and maintain the adventure narrative. Again, as a introductory setting for a new GM this is a very manageable theater. Interestingly, there is no mention of Essence Flows, Navigators or Loremasters. So while this came out after Iron Wind and supposedly part of the cohesive framework, the “Loremaster Series” it seems to lie outside that framework. I’d be interested in more background on the genesis of Vog Mur. (Terry, are you reading this)?

Content and Organization. One of the frustrating aspects to Vog Mur is how information is delivered and organized.  Adding to the confusion are the naming styles: Ordye Throg, Dalla Veurd, Puirl Buirn, Oevaag Baas, Geleb Daart and Usiva Krem (and a ton of other 2 word names) don’t roll off the tongue!!!!

Inhabitants. Again, there is more confusion on how information is organized and transmitted. For example, Section 4.21 Plants has more material on geography, drops a hint about the haunted Mausoleum of Gart, then covers wolf packs, Ghouls and the Throk-Vurd. Those all should be in the other section on animals and monsters. Then, the next section 4.22 Wild Beasts and Monsters covers some other creatures that weren’t described in the Plants section. While these islands are very small, they have a very D&D like ecology. “Monsters” include intelligent baboons, a Hydra guarded and tended to by a Giant, a large squid, Firehounds, Ghouls, Trolls and even Sea Krals. (weren’t Sea Krals in Quellbourne as well?) Then you have a fisherfolk village, pirates, Half- Elven lords, and cliff dweller tribes.

Elor Once Dark. Like the Iron Wind, Vog Mur uses the writings of Elor Once Dark to transmit information and history. Here it feels very “Middle Earth”, for example:

The new King, Lembalas, married a woman of mortal blood, one Janella, who bore him two children — a boy named Tereborn and a girl called Eledrial.

Places. Vog Mur has some great maps/layouts that make for great adventuring on the islands or as drop-ins to your campaign or adventure:

Purll Cibur. This is a small town of 60 stone dwellings overlooking the cove. A few merchants and similar are described and then there are some “activities” which include brawling in the Inn & Combat contests of hand-to-hand, archery and jousting!

Encla Turic. Next we have the fortress of Encla Turic. This is a great small castle keep with mechanical functions, water tunnels, and a great library. This is the great tradition of these books and probably done by Peter and Terry. A great drop-in layout for your adventure.

The Mausoleum Gart. A old school tomb with 3 entrances that are a great dungoen crawl. Beware the undead inhabitants! Like Encla Turic, this is classic Amthor/Fenlon design and layout key with cool features, traps and treasures.

Gudd Tyl. A simple Elven manor but a nice little drop-in.

Vorig’s Manor. A simple building where the Dragonlord lives.

Last bits of stuff. At the back there is a Muri-Elven dictionary and a couple of colored maps. A simple, crudely drawn elevation style map and then on the back cover what is clearly a better version done by Fenlon with clearly marked locations of key spots.

Final thoughts. While I had to read through several sections to make sense of everything, it’s a fun little module. The islands have varied topography, there are ample places to explore and it’s small enough to control the action and give the party some “wins” without being overwhelmed with a larger world. Clearly, the module could use with a redesign and re-organization to present the material better, and maybe, just maybe, tone down or simplify some of the place names. The creatures feel very OSR and Sea Krals were never canonized by Terry, but it would easy to replace them with another race.

There has been some retro-modding to Vog Mur in later Shadow World material:

  1. Vorig Kye’s name was changed to Voriig (and he grew in power quite a bit!)
  2. Lon Lemira is now an Earthwarden construction and there were several built. btw, here is my list of the Earthwarden Golems and locations.

Yanie Steraiad, the Eog Golem.  Earthwarden temple in Vog Mur.

Arestiis Lanedri Laen Golem.  Isle of the Turning in Mythenis.

Renia Athos, Titanium Golem.  Under Nontataku in a cave

Zarin Deyroain, Kregora Golem.  Dawnswaters Edge, Mur Fostisyr.

Elezyii Ankyra, Diamond Golem  Earthwarden Ruins in NE Kelestia.

3. Dulcaborn and his 101 knights are integrated into the master timeline.

The World of Vog Mur is clearly an entry level module with it’s smaller size and scope might be a good candidate for a RMU makeover as the first introductory module.