Hi Iq,
December is a fittingly 'grey' month, with lots of clouds that, this year, have brought one rainstorm after another. Frighteningly, it is possible to get used to a cold damp. I’m dreaming of a wet Christmas? Not like the kind I used to know. We never had snow but it was dry at least. I guess the UK was ahead of the global warming curve and everybody else is just now starting to catch up. But you can get used to it and eventually the rain will turn to snow.
For my purposes, the poor weather is perfect for good gaming. Everyone is glad to be warm, dry and the weather outside contrasts with the game inside. I think bad weather may tend to spur people to be more imaginative.
As DM, I had already done considerable imagining. The party was going to be adventuring in the Rabirian Mountains. They have been trying to impress the Count of Poitain. Since retiring from playing the Sims, I have been playing the Conan RPG, IMO, the best rpg to come along since Greyhawk and the one that finally got me to purchase anything connected with the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
So the players start to arrive and Terry, shrugging out of a damp overcoat, says, “Sam, you’ve got to see this!” As it turns out, 'this' is a copy of Dungeon Magazine No. 118 and, more specifically, there is a map of northwest Greyhawk.
Now, I have not played in the World of Greyhawk since the late 90's, but my friends know that I was and am a huge fan of the setting.
I was burned out on Greyhawk and found the Sims, which is as addictive a video game as can be imagined. Best of all, you get to design your Sims clothes, houses and furnishings! For a detail oriented gamer, the Sims is crack. That there is a huge online Sims community is frosting on the cake.
I was also not enamored of the then forthcoming 3rd Edition of D&D. It looked like a different game from AD&D and one that did not appear at all Grey. From what I’ve seen of the basic 3D&D game since taking up the Conan rpg, I was right. Thankfully, the Conan rpg does justice to Howard’s stories and makes the rules work for the setting, along with some just really top notch designs like Across the Thunder River. Greyhawker’s looking for a Flan sourcebook would do well to take a look at Across the Thunder River. The Picts have a similar Native American/Celtic vibe going.
So, I am presented with a copy of Dungeon 118 and a new map of part of the World of Greyhawk with three more installments to come. One thing leads to another and we never did end up playing the adventure I had prepared. We wound up talking about gaming instead, which can be just as fun. I asked to borrow the issue and I thought I would share my thoughts.
First off, congratulations on being named the Dungeon editor and now Dragon editor. It could not have happened to a more deserving person. Second thing, thank you for finding a way to include Greyhawk material in the Dungeon and particularly the new map of the Flanaess. On to the map.
As you may recall, I was always very strong in favor of good looking maps, for the exact reason you mention in your editorial. Maps help you visualize the setting and spur the imagination. (BTW, your folio must be a different one than mine as mine makes no mention of the Iron League on the map itself as you indicate in the editorial. ;-))
The new map of the Flanaess is beautiful. I would rank it third on my list of best maps. Darlene’s would come first, followed by the Al-Qadim map and now the new Flanaess map. It is really fantastic. It is also extremely useful in defining much that has been vague. In terms of an essential map of the Flanaess, you have produced it.
Everyone will have their own view of what is best and not so best about the map segments.
For me, the thing that makes this first map segment, besides the art, is the depiction of the Tusking Sound. The Flanaess has the capacity to feel developed, even over developed, as if the wilderness where monsters hold sway is being hemmed in or pushed back by an ever increasing number of towns, villages or other sites. I thought FtA-era products really started this trend. The Tusking Sound runs the other way. It is undeveloped wilderness and I think the Flanaess, or any setting, benefits from having areas like this, areas wide open for DM and player development. Here there be monsters. The Tusking Sound is also reminiscent Norwold from CM1, Test of the Warlords. I love that module and I think the Flanaess is enriched by having its own Norwold.
If I had to find something wrong with the first map segment, it would be the failure to include two, IMO, very neat sites. Radruundar from Axe of the Dwarvish Lords is said to be “in the Yatil Mountains northwest of Exag.” Mathghamhna from College of Wizardry is said to be in “the northwesternmost spur of the Yatmil (sic) Mountains.” I think both of these sites are very cool but they can also shed potential light on the Exag mystery. I’ll guess that these places may have been classed with Places of Mystery and thus omitted.
With respect to the magazine itself, some notes.
Box of Flumph harks back to Roger Moore’s irreverent take on AD&D, but not quite to his extreme. The Flumph as even a semi-serious monster? That’s a matter of taste. IMC, like calamari. I really liked the map of Stillsquall. That is very useful.
Shadow of the Abyss gets high marks from me for the use of the kaorti from the new Fiend Folio, a cool monster. It would be interesting to see if this goes anywhere or if the kaorti is just a throwaway. I tend to think throwaway, which is unfortunate. The adventure strikes me as sort of all over, but I am coming in midway through. The maps are, again, great. It is really nice that you can take away useful maps, on top of the adventure.
The Statement of Ownership caught me off guard. Not even 50,000? Ack! Back in the day, I seem to remember a high of 112,000 and several years between 50,000 and 100,000, but I could be hallucinating.
The Throne of Iuz is fantastic! This is a really well conceptualized and developed adventure that reeks with cool possibilities. King Bog reminds me of Jabba the Hutt. He passes the villain test with flying colors. He is too cool to kill. The maps are, again, superior with continued utility, especially if you do not kill King Bog.
I must confess, however, that I am no 3rd Edition expert. Can someone tell me the references for “awakened,” “titanic,” and “horizon walker” as King Bog is described?
Dungeoncraft is pointless. Alert the Watch is okay. Instant City Shopping is filler. Art and Other Fancy Loot is great! Now, this is a good article. I absolutely loved this! Very useful and, to my knowledge, unique. Leave it to Wolfgang Baur, one of the best! Pilgrims on the Road is okay. Larsa Essinel is interesting.
Oh, god. Wesley Crusher on D&D? Except, it is not about D&D. What is this about? Why is this here? The article does not even offer the hope of an answer. This seems like a stream of consciousness snipet from this dufus’ so-called life. Did someone start to think D&D was cool because Vin Diesel once played AD&D and so it was determined to bring on Wil Wheaton to dweeb things back up? I cannot tell you how poor a taste this leaves in one’s mouth. There is something maudlin, sweetly cloying and flighty about how Wheaton writes. He brings together the worst stereotypes of lame Star Trek fans, who think they are Vulcans, and nerdly, adenoidal D&D geeks, who will drone on in a breathlessly excited twitter about their 55th level ninja/paladin and the time they shattered the multiverse by accident through the too clever use of a passwall spell. Yuck! This article is an exercise is bad judgment.
The Paizo Catalog. Speaking of poor judgment. I have no problem with a catalog but make it meaningful by being selective about what you choose to advertise. This looks like a grab bag or an upending of the hopper. And don’t just polly-parrot the ad copy, put some spin on the entries that will be informative beyond what’s on the back of the box. Crack the shrinkwrap, so to speak. Otherwise, this catalog has little place in the magazine as self-promotion that comes across needlessly crass.
Overall then, I really thought this was an excellent magazine. One really ripping adventure (Throne of Iuz). One really ripping article (Art and Other Fancy Loot). A brilliant map. You can be sure I will buy my own copy and one of each of the other issues with map segments. I start to get that old Greyhawk feeling. :-D Very, very nice job.
You’ve done well, Erik. Congratulations and many thanks!
Samantha
