Swords & Stitchery

Meanwhile last night I dug out my copy of C.L.Moore's Northwest Smith stories, Clark Ashton Smith, a bit Robert Howard, and some of the usual H.P.Lovecraft tales. This puts me right back square into the territory of Leigh Brackett. The post colonial world of Old Earth is three ticks from when the 'stars come right'. And this age is  a repeat of Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborean cycle  The Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

As I covered in my first part of this series of articles, the Eighties were the second golden age of Sword & Sorcery adventure fiction. Coming in hot to usher in this age of decadence and magick was the  Conan The Barbarian film released 1982 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. I can't tell you the impact this movie had on people across the world. For small town Eric it was a huge deal & it Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Back at Tegel Village the PC's have been dealing with the priests & sorcerous healers of the temple of Thor. They also had a run in with a pair of alchemists who were working for Sir Triston. The players found out has been using a dimensional map to navigate through the dimensional doors that surround the grounds of Tegel to go to the lands of Lomar.Meanwhile back at the Alchemist's shop aNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Mark Taormino's latest adventure Kickstarter broke earlier this afternoon. He wants to add new artwork & pieces to his existing modules. No this isn't a few coats of paint, some new artwork here & there this is a solid revamp. So tonight I've been thinking does one use modern OSR game adventures with old school campaigns or campaign designed settings. All of this centers around Mark Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 I've been gone most of today  on sewing machine repair calls but I wanted to really do a bit more OSR commentary on T1 The Village of Hommlet. This is following hot on the heals of yesterday's T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil commentary. So the year is '86 & I'm going through a box of rpg books as gamers are apt to do. But I came across an odd little module titled the Village of Hommlet.Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

So I've been gone for a good part of the day on a sewing machine repair call. But I found some time to get in an old favorite flick of mine with my folks. Tonight my mom & dad wanted an Eighties fantasy film with some romance and heart. So we settled on Legend from Eighty Five, which has attained the status of a cultclassic film with a plot that draws heavily from the fairy tale and Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

A prince wanders the wastelands of another world facing down monsters, menaces, and evils beyond the pale of man? Sounds like a familiar barbarian poster boy of Sword & Sorcery? Well how about instead of the usual movie barbarian warrior we have heroes, who had to use their courage and brains instead of muscles in the face of a danger. Well your about to hear the story of another barbarian Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"Giants have been raiding the lands of men in large bands, with giants of different sorts in these marauding groups. Death and destruction have been laid heavily upon every place these monsters have visited. A party of the bravest and most powerful adventurers has been assembled and given the charge to punish the miscreant giants." This is the final installment of Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Excuse me if I seem like I'm a bit late with this blog entry, my Saturday evening game went fine last night. The PC's have rescued the villagers of one of the PC's & former slaves from the clutches of the White Skull Formorians which gave them lots of trouble two weeks ago. The PC's hustled them out of the Roman style manor to get them healed up and sorted back in Tegel villageNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

" In our veins was the chill of the ancient night of Time, with a premonition of the lentor of Lethe: over us, like invisible vampires, brooded the innumerous hours on their sable and unremoving pinions: the very skies were fraught with oppression, and we breathed beneath them as in a sepulcher, forever sealed with all its stagnancies of corruption and of darkness." Clark Ashton Smith Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The last time I ran G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl the PC's had been hired by hired by nobles to destroy the frost giants & I was already running 'The Old Solar System' setting  I want to do some brief flying commentary on the giants of the Old Solar system setting. Fire & Ice giants are respectively some of the only technology & magic item producing races in the solar system. Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

" Giants have been raiding the lands of men in large bands, with giants of different sorts in these marauding groups. Death and destruction have been laid heavily upon every place these monsters have visited. A party of the bravest and most powerful adventurers has been assembled and given the charge to punish the miscreant giants."  Alright its Thursday September fifth & to my amazementNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"A sinister force, long thought destroyed, stirs from the black hole that spawned it. Like an ebony darkness it prowls the land and safety is but an illusion, for it watches from every shadow and ponders possibilities. What began years ago, with the introduction of the players to the quiet village of Hommlet and the amazing lands of Greyhawk, at last is complete. Here is the Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

There have always been the renegades, those that seek the miraculous, & those who have mastered far more then magick. In the Old Solar systems there are master wizards and they are not beings to be trifled with. Someplace below the gods, slightly ahead of the curve, &  inheritors of legacies far to terrible to contemplate. Mankind is the late comer to the stars for there have been many others Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

So yesterday around the table I heard some grumbles about the B/X Essentials review I did. Namely that there were no really free expansions for B/X Dungeons & Dragons. Oh but there are my friends! Way back in '09 there was a really well put together product for B/X Dungeons & Dragons from Barrataria Games called the Companion Expansion. There's a free no artwork version of this book which Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

So I received an email last night from Gavin Norman with my sparkling copy of B/X Essentials. Straight up I asked to for a copy for review and boy I surprised at the fact straight out of the gate that its only thirty seven pages long. This really is a boiled down version of B/X Dungeons & Dragons in retroclone form. Right out of the gate The author states exactly what his intent is;"My love Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Picking up right where last week's game left off the PC's went down the hidden stair case after almost running into a black pudding sent by one of the vampiric lords of Tegel Manor after last week's game.  That's when they ran into a party of  skull faced Formorian  slavers who were  wrapping up a deal with the servants of the Moon beasts. The Skull Faces are a tribe of intelligent evil Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Dusk on the sea; the fading twilight shifts' The night wind bears the ocean's whisper dim— Wind, on your bosom many a phantom drifts— A silver star climbs up the blue world rim. Wind, make the green leaves dance above me here And idly swing my silken hammock—so; Now, on that glimmering molten silver mere Send the long ripples wavering to and fro. And let your moon-white tresses touch my face Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Out on the outer edges of the 'Old Solar System' are the more forbidding worlds of the system. These worlds are ones where mankind is the trespasser or the late comer. This is something that seems to echo through the original  Star Trek series & the cult classic sci fi film Forbidden Planet. Again this is something that we see in the Clark Ashton Smith "Captain Volmar" sequence with his icy Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

So last night I was watching some 'Jonny Quest' episodes with my father on a Wednesday night, hey that's just how we roll in my family folks. But it got me thinking about Crown of Ancient Glory which came out in '87. Crown of Ancient Glory is a weird little module, it gives a taste of ruler ship to PC's as a future taster for ruling your own kingdom in other words domain level play. Let me Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0