TEXT: Silven Trumpeter 15 - October 2004 Issue
  http://www.silven.com
  The Silven
  Trumpeter
  The Official Magazine of       Silven Crossroads
  FEATURE
  We bring you complete Gen Con 
  coverage throughout this issue!
  Mini-Feature: Indie RPG Spotlight
  We have articles on a host of Indie RPG 
  topics in our mini-featurette this month.
  Lights, Camera, Action: Independant RPG Design
  Dregg Carpio delves into the necessary elements of 
  RPG design!
  Page 45
  
  2
  From
  the Editor                                                        
  Sound off!
  Got an urge to send a note to our editor? Would you 
  like to volunteer as a writer? Have comments about an 
  article?
  Write to Dana at : adriayna@yahoo.com
  I was hanging out with a non-gamer friend a few 
  weeks back, and the subject of gaming was brought 
  up in the conversation.  While I’m not embarrassed 
  about the subject or my status as a gamer (as I 
  know some are), I don’t necessarily tout about that 
  ”I’m a gamer!” to all of my friends and coworkers.   
  So when the subject of RPG games came up, I was 
  more interested in explaining it rather than looking 
  for a hiding place to shelter me from the fallout.  
  We discussed me going to Gen Con and other 
  conventions, the Silven Trumpeter, my weekly 
  gaming sessions, and some other gaming-related 
  tidbits.  All the while, I was thinking that my 
  explanation was getting through to her and that at 
  any minute she’d jump and say, ”Woohoo!  Give me 
  a d20 and lets get started!”
  Instead, she took me by storm with a series of 
  questions fired in rapid succession: ”What exactly 
  is role-playing? Why do people game? Why devote 
  hours of your time?  Why do you need to devote 
  entire evenings or full days to it?”    Now what 
  role-playing is seems easy enough—you compare 
  it to acting, getting lost in your favorite book, or 
  even seeing a good movie that immerses you in 
  another place for a while.   And ”why do people 
  game” seemed simple as well—because they enjoy 
  doing it, because it is a means of relaxation and 
  to some, escape, and because it has an inherent 
  reward system where the harder you try, the more 
  you succeed (unlike what often happens in the ”real 
  world”).  So far, all good answers, I thought.
  But then the last and final question came, ”Yes, 
  Dana, I understand you like it but my question is 
  why?” Why?....Why?  Perhaps the question isn’t 
  quite so easy to quantify or answer on any level.   
  And even if I were to give an answer here (or to 
  my friend) I think that many readers would find it 
  unsatisfactory.  I ended up telling her that I think the 
  why differs for each individual who is playing it.   A 
  cop out, yes, but a reasonable one.  
  One thing is certain, however.  From my recent time 
  at Gen Con and activities on the ‘net, for whatever 
  the reason, and whatever the ”why,” many people 
  from all over the world are taking part in our great 
  hobby.  
  This month’s issue features a host of Gen Con 
  related articles and information.  We have a Gen Con 
  diary from Etyan Bernstein, several demo reviews, 
  interviews from industry professionals that attended 
  the con, and a very special spotlight on indie 
  gaming.   So sit back, relax, and enjoy this new jam-
  packed issue!
  I’d also like to take this chance to welcome our two 
  new editors—Elizabeth Liddell and Paul Tevis—to the 
  Silven Trumpeter. 
  Best Regards,
  Dana Driscoll
          Dn Drsc
  Editor In Chief
  Silven Trumpeter
  Editor-in-Chief: Dana Driscoll
  Assistant Editors: Laura Heilman, Elizabeth Liddell and 
  Paul Tevis.
  Additional Editing (D&D/d20): David Paul
  Layout and Design: Kosala Ubayasekara
  
  3
  Contents
  Articles and Reviews
  Gaming Tips: World Building 102 - 
  Presenting the Environment 
  4 
  Indie Game Spotlight: Demo 
  Reviews 
   
   
  8 
  Gen Con Journal  
   
  11 
  The Adventures of Starlanko 
  the Magnificent: Starlanko the 
  Magnificent vs Guble the Gregarious 
  14 
  Interview: Henry Lopez of Paradigm 
  Concepts 
   
   
  18 
  Cruxuzule Mamnibia, Demon of 
  Zauurcrag, Part II: Minions 
  21 
  Product Spotlight: No Press RPG 
  Anthology 
   
   
  27 
  The Many Faces of Gaming: Gay-
  mers 
   
   
   
  31 
  Travinara Part 2  
   
  34 
  Review: White Wolf: World of 
  Darkness – Core Rule Book 
  37 
  Silven Exclusive Interview: Dregg 
  Carpio of Chapter 13 Press 
   
  39 
  Antipodean Adventures: Captain 
  Cook 
   
   
   
  41 
  Lights, Camera, Action! Sharing 
  your Vision: The Ins and Outs of 
  Indie Publishing, Part I 
   
  45 
  Indie Spotlight: The Forge 
  49 
  Interviews: Ian Richards of the 
  RPGA 
   
   
   
  52 
  Shotgun 
   
   
  55 
  Modern Gaming: Resurrecting a 
  Dead Campaign  
   
  61 
  Player Characterization : Phobias 
   
  64 
  Review: Planar Handbook  
  70 
  Review: Nature´s Wrath 
   
  74 
  Review: Bloodlines 
   
  76 
  Comics and Humour
  The Lumpers  
   
   
  7
  Marian: Drow Cop  
   
  44
  The Prompelmedia Post 
   
  84
  The Fodder Canon  
   
  82
  
  4
  Following the steps presented before, you have 
  created an environment. However, if you can’t explain 
  the environment to your players, it is as if you never 
  created anything. Presenting the world to the players 
  is a crucial part of the game, as you are building it in 
  the minds of your players. 
  The single most powerful comment on this subject I 
  can make, is also one of the simplest: Be confident 
  in your presentation. It is all appearances. If you 
  come across as knowledgeable and competent, 
  people will take what you say as true.  Never EVER, 
  stammer, go “umm, ahhh, or rrrrr”, or look distracted 
  or nervous when presenting parts of your setting (or 
  GMing in general). It lessens the impact of what you 
  have to say. Again, let me repeat, the most important 
  thing to remember when presenting the environment 
  is: 
  Be confident in your presentation! 
  Campaign Packet/ Bible/ Encyclopedia 
  If the environment you are creating is a world, 
  major country, space station, or the primary place 
  where your game’s action will occur (so it could be 
  a village even), your primary tool for presenting the 
  environment is a game packet. The Game packet, 
  also called the game bible or game encyclopedia, is 
  a formal write up for the campaign that players (and 
  the GM) can refer to for information on the game and 
  is environment. This packet should range from three 
  pages to a twenty-five pages of environment material 
  depending on the environment and your needs (the 
  more unique the world, the more information is 
  needed). If you have been using the checklist for the 
  main environment and/or any smaller areas (cities, 
  villages, moons), you already have short answers that 
  can be easily expanded and made more accessible 
  by some punctuation and spacing. This process 
  places your setting into a more concrete and defined 
  format, useful to set things in the mind of the GM 
  and the players. Note: The rest of the game packet 
  will include rules and requirements for characters, 
  any house rules in work, and campaigning guidelines/ 
  ideals. Give each player a copy of the packet, and 
  make a few extras for reference and new players.
  Keep the Big and little text rules in mind when 
  creating said write up. Players will care less about 
  your carefully crafted history, than the concrete things 
  that effect their character’s day to day existence 
  (people’s names, food, clothing, sleeping, and social 
  structures) and general life (Birth, Death, Family/ 
  marriage, Work/ leisure, and Religion as it impacts 
  daily life.) 
  Note: As the GM, your game packet might have 
  material that is different than the player’s world pack. 
  That is because your packet contains what is true, 
  while their packet has all their available character 
  knowledge. Your packet may or may not be as neat 
  and as organized as the player’s, but it will be crucial 
  to your game. 
  Character Weave 
  In good stories, every aspect of the characters and 
  the world are woven together creating the tapestry 
  of the story. Good games are the same. Characters 
  need to be woven into the setting of the campaign. 
  Players and the GM should talk about elements in 
  the game environment that the character can have 
  a connection to: recent history, NPCs, organizations, 
  other characters, or some random aspect of the 
  world. Adding this connection to the setting ties the 
  character to the setting, it helps define characters 
  better in the minds of the players, gives the players 
  some options in play, and the GM ways to motivate 
  character in adventures. 
  It is always best to make a character part of the game 
  world. 
  Character Lines 
  One process that helps players learn the world is a 
  character line session. The GM determines all the 
  important elements in the world and the organization 
  associated with it. One session when the players are 
  creating their characters, the GM presents each of the 
  important elements of the world. The players must 
  then decide on their character’s opinion and reaction 
  to this important element of the world, and the 
  rational behind it. If the player wants to hate the local 
  religion, they should give a reason why. This series 
  of character lines help build up the character and 
  educates the players in various parts of the world. 
  Educate your players 
  The players will need to learn more and more about 
  the world as the campaign advances. Often times they 
  will need to know information before they need it in 
  the game. The GM should foresee what they might 
  need to understand what is going on and give them 
  that information before hand. 
  Game Packet: Did you skip the above 
  section? Shame on you, go back and read it. 
  Introductory moments: Before play really 
  Gaming Tips: World Building 102 - Presenting 
  the Environment Part 3
  by Scott Fitz
  About the Author
  A gamer since 1976, Scott has worked in and around the 
  game industry for many years.  He has spent most of his life 
  in the grail quest of gaming: the perfect game. To that end 
  his has honed his game craft to razor sharpness. Now he 
  gives out game advice on a number of Internet sites. 
  Contact the Author
  moonhunter_88@yahoo.com
  Gaming Advice
  
  5
  begins, as people are settling in, give them a 
  quick blurb about some aspect of the setting. 
  This would be a slightly expanded version 
  of what is in the game pack. Once you are 
  done and have finished with any questions, 
  ring the bell (or what ever signifies play has 
  begun) and start your game. 
  Introduce it in the story: If you want more 
  of the “show, don’t tell” approach, trying 
  introducing characters that are involved 
  with the information you want to convey. 
  Want the players to know there are Elves in 
  your world, have them meet one or meet 
  someone who knows them well. Want your 
  players to know of another country, let them 
  meet someone from that country. Historical 
  markers, local festivals, ceremonies, religious 
  observances, can occur in the game and will 
  illuminate small aspects of the world. 
  Bards: In short, have an NPC in the game 
  tell them what you want them to know. 
  Bard’s telling stories, people they overhear at 
  the bar, the local paper, or a weeping widow, 
  will convey information quite nicely, if the 
  players are in the mood to hear.
  Pyramid of Support 
  This is a tool borrowed from our writer friends. If you 
  want someone to believe something, you have to 
  slowly build up that something. The more powerful 
  something is, the more a GM needs to explain and 
  foreshadow its coming. The thing could be a monster, 
  or an organization, or an army. The players will need 
  to encounter the results of the thing’s existence, 
  maybe brush against a minion or lesser part of the 
  thing, or could run into a survivor. The more evidence 
  and support you make for a claim, the more willing 
  people are to believe it. The more evidence a player 
  sees of something’s power or influence, the more they 
  will believe it. If you want your characters to respect 
  and fear a “powerful force” show them how powerful 
  it is. Otherwise, they will yawn, attempt to fight it, 
  and then bitch about their characters being dead or 
  enslaved. 
  Related to this, don’t expand your campaign faster 
  than the players can absorb the complete picture 
  of what you are presenting. The story tellers say 
  that players/ audience must hear something three 
  separate times before they really know it. Taking that 
  advice to heart, judge your player’s understanding of 
  what is going on. On average, you will find it takes 
  three sessions to imprint something, then move on to 
  a new level of material. 
  Maintaining the Environment 
  If you are running a campaign, environment building 
  never ends. In short DiP happens. You will be adding 
  smaller environments as your storylines and campaign 
  continues. You will be expanding the world, major 
  country, starship, or what ever the primary place 
  where your game’s action occurs, as new ideas come 
  to you and old ones are refined. In short, as long as 
  your game is successful, you will be expanding the 
  game environments and the people in them. 
  The March 
  When people build game environments, they know all 
  the details (hows, whys, when). This allows them to 
  build up a detailed history. Then the campaign starts 
  and this detailed history tends to stop cold. Unless 
  it revolves around the characters, in most games, 
  nothing else happens. Just a reminder, Change is the 
  only constant. The rest of the world is “in play” as 
  well as the characters. History and changes continue. 
  Note: The player character may or may not have an 
  impact on the march of history. If they want to, GM’s 
  should let them. 
  Smaller environments inside the 
  environment 
  As the campaign continues, you will need to expand 
  and detail smaller areas of the main campaign 
  environment. The key bits for these places must be 
  consistent with the larger environment they are in. 
  If one country is a post-medieval England, it would 
  not have a city that appears to be Pacific Islander in 
  lifestyle. Once you have the place’s key bits in place, 
  simply go through the process as before, keeping in 
  mind the scale of the place you are creating. Also 
  make sure there are connections between the larger 
  environment and the one you are making. 
  Note: Johnny Appleseed/ Clairmont approach: 
  Plan ahead for future story arcs, even if the plans 
  are only half formed. That way you can insert 
  the elements you need for the story arc into the 
  appropriate environment ahead of time and even 
  foreshadow the story arc. 
  In the vein of Johnny Appleseed or Chris Clairmont (of 
  X-men fame), litter the campaign as it goes on, with 
  plot points that are unresolved or things which might 
  become dramatic events later. If the players show 
  any interest at all about that part of the environment 
  (or NPCs), you can work on the additional bits and 
  details needed, inserting them into the setting. The 
  players are then amazed at your ability to foreshadow 
  important events, not knowing that you only put out 
  the hook and filled things in as they took said bait. 
  Remember the Pyramid of support. 
  Maintaining Process 
  Talk to the troupe: Every now and again, 
  get more “bits” from the players. Once they 
  have gotten into the game, they will have a 
  better idea of what it needs in their opinions. 
  It is best to collect bits towards the end of 
  any story arc. 
  Collate info: Collect all your notes and 
  add any new details them into your original 
  checklist categories. This expands your 
  initial listing. Do not forget to include all the 
  smaller environments and organizations you 
  have made during the campaign.  
  Comb and Refine: Take your expanded 
  listing and go through the environment 
  building process. The environment will get 
  deeper and richer, with more verisimilitude. 
  Expand your game pack to a game 
  encyclopedia: Add more entries to your 
  world pack. Eventually, your pack will give a 
  complete explanation of the world. 
  
  6
  No GM is an island 
  Some people would say that this is just too much 
  work for one person to do. Who says one person 
  has to do it. If your troupe has players with some 
  expertise, have them write certain sections of the 
  setting environment. Not only does someone who 
  knows something about it write up the section, you 
  don’t have to AND you will not be surprised by the 
  player’s knowledge at the gaming table. 
  If a person wants a character from “far away” or some 
  area you have not detailed out, have them write up 
  that location. The GM will of course have to approve 
  the submission, but someone else will have done all 
  that work. This will also allow the player to really 
  know their home. 
  Conclusion 
  Game environments are not built with a ruler and 
  some tape, they are built with imagination and an 
  understanding of what is needed to make the game 
  environment. That is the purpose of this article, 
  to give you what you need to build a solid game 
  environment. While there is more that I could cover 
  (this article could be 60 pages long), this sums up the 
  key elements you need to consider when making an 
  environment. 
  Remember, your job as an environment designer is 
  to create a sense of verisimilitude and to meet your 
  troupe’s needs for the game. As long as you, the 
  environment builder, focus on the Big Type needs and 
  understand your time to create is actually limited, you 
  can stay focused on doing just as much as you need 
  to do. That way a world can be properly fleshed out 
  without taking too much time and effort, no matter 
  how much creativity you need to invest in the world. 
  Every idea you have for the world does not have to 
  be “unique”, “original”, “never before seen”. In fact, 
  it is probably better if it is merely a fresh take on 
  an accepted idea. This creates a more accessible 
  setting for your players. As a designer, do not be 
  afraid to lift an idea from history or other sources. 
  As the Wiseman Bob once said, “Good Gamemasters 
  borrow, Great Gamemasters steal shamelessly.” Take 
  it. Use it. Make it your own. As long as you are not 
  reselling it, everything should be fine. Remember the 
  plot of Romeo and Juliet had been floating around for 
  centuries, but Shakespeare took it and made it his 
  own. He did an okay job, don’t you think? So will you. 
  Every part of the environment should be appropriately 
  thought out, be consistent and connected, fit the 
  other Cs, and be presented well so your players 
  believe in the environment. This creates the magic 
  of verisimilitude, the illusion of completeness. 
  Remembering that the environment is there for you to 
  tell stories (and play out action) with your friends, will 
  make your work be that much more useful. 
  So now that you have the understanding, apply some 
  imagination and time and create a game environment 
  of your own.
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=132
  
  7
  by Smokestack Jones
  
  8
  General RPG 
  by Joseph Villari and Dana Driscoll
  Indie Game Spotlight: Demo Reviews
  At GenCon 2004 we had time to sit down and demo 
  some outstanding and unique indie games.  Each 
  game listed below has been independently written, 
  published, and distributed by the authors and, 
  unlike some more mainstream products, have a 
  refreshing and varied nature that the mainstream RPG 
  industry is so currently lacking.  These games pull 
  no punches—the designers have a specified theme 
  and goal in mind when creating the game and are 
  passionate about their work.  We highly encourage 
  you to pick up a copy of an indie game that interests 
  you or, at the least, stop in for a demo when you see 
  a publisher at a con.  
  Sorcerer
  Adept Press
  Written By: Ron Edwards
  Price: $20
  http://www.adept-press.com/
  Sorcerer is an award-winning game in which the basic 
  premise is that your characters have gained access 
  to significant powers through the taming and control 
  of a demon.  The game, which is ultimately about 
  the quest for power, has several unique qualities that 
  make it outstanding.  
  The game is traditional in the sense that a GM runs 
  the action and dictates what happens in the game—
  however, this is where most ”tradition” ends. The 
  game is a constant struggle between the character 
  gaining the upper hand and the demon exerting its 
  will. To have any form of power/magic in the game, 
  you must be bonded to a demon.  The demon soils 
  your character considerably and can alienate him from 
  ”normal” society.  The demon has two forms—the 
  form of some small object (an earring, a ring) that is 
  worn by the character and a larger, fully manifested 
  form. 
  What we found most appealing about the game 
  was the distinctive take on the magic system as a 
  whole—in this game, magic is grimy and dirty—to 
  be powerful, you must compromise and ”feed your 
  demon.”   Not only can you control your own demon—
  you also have the ability to exert control over other’s 
  demons and influence others through your granted 
  powers. Its ultimately a game about power and greed, 
  and one not worth missing!
  Fastlane 
  Twisted Confessions Games
  Written by: Alexander Cherry
  Price: $12
  http://www.twistedconfessions.com
  Written by Alexander Cherry of Twisted Confessions, 
  Fastlane is a unique and challenging game has the 
  theme of ”life in the Fastlane.”  The game is able to 
  handle multiple genre gaming but is not too generic; 
  Fastlane generally suits any type of fast-paced, 
  high-rolling, high-living, high-risk kind of game.   
  Everything from the mechanics presented in game 
  (who you owe favors to and who owes favors to you, 
  facets such as people, assets, nerve, guile, sobriety, 
  life rating, styles) to diceless conflict resolution fits 
  the theme perfectly. 
  
  9
  This highly creative game uses a roulette wheel to 
  resolve situations and conflict where dice would 
  normally be used.  And while you may be a bit 
  uncertain as to how a game like this could work or 
  be fun, the roulette wheel and the concept of risk 
  taking vs. playing it safe adds a new element to RPGs.  
  The game includes a chart and simple d6 method of 
  simulating a roulette wheel if you do not own one. 
  In Fastlane, the players and GM create the setting 
  together.  If the player is successful in his winnings, 
  he gets to dictate the results of the situation.  On a 
  loss or a tie, the GM narrates what happens.
  Poker chips represent difficult situations or encounters 
  that need to be overcome.  Players have to bet and 
  earn winnings that amount or more than the stack 
  of chips of their opponent has (the size of the stack 
  to beat determined by the DM).  For example, if a 
  player wanted to gain information from an unwilling 
  or hesitant informant, she gains betting chips based 
  on his stats and circumstantial modifiers.  Next, she 
  places the chips on the roulette board, deciding at 
  that time to go for a high-risk, high-payout approach 
  or a more ”safe” method that won’t result in the same 
  extreme success.  Seeing this method in play during 
  the demo really shows how cool and unique the 
  concept of Fastlane is!
  You can expect a full review of Fastlane and interview 
  with the author in the Other RPGs section soon!
  Universalis: The Game of Unlimited 
  Stories
  Ramshead Publishing
  By Mike Holms and Ralph Mazza
  Price: $15
  http://universalis.actionroll.com/
  Universalis is one of the most unique games that we 
  have seen in a long time.  The game is a token-based 
  game with no GM.  It reminds one of an endless 
  ”choose your own adventure” type game where the 
  players sit down and build a story.  
  Play begins by each of the players throwing in a chip 
  and ”buying in” to the story.   The play progresses 
  as each player adds a specific ”element” to the 
  story that he would like to include—everything from 
  the setting of the story to specific characters and 
  events.  If players do not agree at any point, they can 
  challenge each other by paying more chips to have 
  their outcome be the one that happens.   This gives 
  players in-game power to monitor other players and 
  their actions within the story. With a limited number 
  of chips, however, strategy needs to be employed to 
  ensure you still have enough chips to do things you 
  want to do later in the game or scene.  
  You begin a game of Universalis by creating the 
  guidelines for the story in a round-robin fashion with 
  each player taking a turn adding in a new element. 
  This includes anything from the type of story, setting, 
  story elements, or specific rules for the story.  During 
  the demo we determined we wanted a tragic, sci-
  fi story with a backdrop of a crumbling galactic 
  empire that included a betrayal, the loose mafia ship 
  federation, and an android.  Once the players are 
  satisfied about the backdrop for the story, the main 
  game play beings.
  The game progresses in scenes, which each player 
  getting a chance to add to the scene on his or her 
  turn.  Players each make a secret ”bid” for the 
  scene with a number of chips—she who has the 
  highest number of chips gets to frame the scene.  
  Each element that is added to the scene (character, 
  character’s traits, character’s belongings, etc.) costs 
  one chip.  Characters can be controlled by a single 
  While we ran out of time at Gen Con to demo 
  everything, we were able to catch up with a few more 
  designers and chat about their games.  Here are some 
  more indie games you can check out:
  Primetime Adventures
  Dog-Eared Designs
  By Matt Wilson
  http://www.dog-eared-designs.com
  Primetime Adventures is a game themed on primetime 
  TV focused on characters in an ongoing series.  It has 
  round-robin scene creation, a traditional setup with a 
  GM/Players, and a series of scenes that focus on both 
  plot and character.  Characters are fluid and ever-
  changing in Primetime Adventures creating a more 
  meaningful experience.  This great game is new to the 
  indie world, making is debut appearance at Gen Con 
  Indy 2004.  
  Nine Worlds
  Chimera Creative
  By Matt Snyder
  Price: $20
  http://www.chimera.info/
  Nine Worlds is a game heavily based on Greek 
  mythology with a magical flare.  It is a cosmic drama 
  where characters can travel through the cosmos on 
  etherships.  The central theme of the game is about 
  authority—are you going to submit to the god’s will and 
  follow their instructions or are you going to attempt 
  to subvert it?   The game uses a playing card system 
  called the ”trick taking” system where characters can 
  collect cards and use them for various purposes in the 
  game.  We had a chance to take a look at a copy of 
  Nine Worlds and it is visually appealing as well. 
  Other Indie Games
  
  10
  player in the story (if you pay enough chips) but 
  generally multiple players can take control of each of 
  the characters in the story by purchasing control with 
  a chip.
  A confrontation happens when a player has an idea 
  she wants to happen in the story and one of the other 
  players objects to it, or when confrontations of will 
  or physical might arise. A d10 dice pool determined 
  by the traits of characters you currently control 
  and facets of the scene that are for or against your 
  interest is rolled.  The highest number of successes 
  allow that player to determine what happens in the 
  scene. These characteristics of the game, as well as 
  others, allow for every player involved to be both a 
  GM and player. 
  Overall, we were both highly impressed with 
  Universalis.  This is truly an amazing game that is 
  simple to learn and play, yet carefully constructed as 
  to allow for the creation of elaborate tales and epic 
  campaigns. Coupled with the benefit of being able 
  to incorporate any genre the players can think of as 
  well as deep, multi-faceted characters makes for an 
  excellent game every time you sit down to play it.  If 
  you are looking for an entirely new way to role-play, 
  Universalis is for you.  
  You can expect a full review of Universalis to be 
  posted in the Other RPGs section at Silven Crossroads 
  soon!
  Kill Puppies for Satan
  Lumpley Games
  By Vincent Baker
  Price: $15
  http://www.septemberquestion.org/lumpley/
  lumpley.html
  Some people can handle this game, some simply 
  can’t.  This game focuses on playing evil, pathetic, 
  puppy-killing Satanists and is certainly not for the 
  weak of stomach, those with an affinity for small furry 
  animals, or those with strong religious convictions.  
  The mechanics of the game are very simple.  Your 
  four main stats are ”cold,” ”fucked up,” ”mean,” 
  and ”relentless.”  You kill puppies, cats, and other 
  assorted small furry animals and gain ”evil.”   How 
  much evil you gain is dependent on how you kill the 
  creature and what you kill.  For example, if you kill 
  a Seeing Eye dog with your bare hands, you gain 
  +3 evil.  If you only kill a kitten with your car, you 
  gain +1 evil.  Evil can be spent to create a host of 
  beneficial features in game—for example, allowing 
  you to throw your voice, reroll a die, heal yourself, 
  compel somebody to do something, or call Satan on 
  the phone.   
  The demo of Kill Puppies for Satan consisted of three 
  evil characters raiding a puppy show at a local church.   
  The party entered, killed a bunch of puppies, created 
  havoc in the church, and then laughed maniacally.  It 
  was actually quite fun, although most of us left the 
  table feeling more than a little disturbed. 
  According to Vincent Baker, the designer of the game, 
  the game was originally created  as his ”fuck you to 
  gaming.”  He saw the game as a joke and wrote it to 
  poke fun at the RPG industry as a whole.  However, 
  the game took on new meaning when he actually 
  began to play it with friends—in the game everyone is 
  a looser, but the question arises as to if the friendship 
  of other losers is enough?  Players slowly gain 
  compassion for their loser characters and by the end 
  of the game, they are attached to them 
  and don’t want them to lose.   And so, 
  both the writer and the game are back 
  Dust Devils
  Chimera Creative
  By: Matt Snyder
  Print Price: $12
  PDF Price: $6.95
  http://www.chimera.info/
  Dust Devils is a gritty western game that uses a 
  playing card system with themed poker mechanics 
  to resolve conflict.  The main theme of the game is 
  reckoning with your devil—the devils of your past 
  transgressions and choices gone wrong.  The ”high-
  card” mechanic allows the player with the highest card 
  in the poker round to narrate the scene.  Voted best 
  indie game of 2002 and Jonathan Tweet’s 2002 ”Pick of 
  the Con” at Gen Con 2002, Dust Devils is a sure thing 
  for anyone looking for unique western-style gaming.  
  Other Indie Games cont.
  in the RPG industry with this twisted look at being a 
  psycho.
  You can look for a full review of Kill Puppies for Satan 
  in the Other RPGs section at Silven Crossroads soon!
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/otherrpgs.asp?case=show&id=417
  
  11
  About the Authour
  Eytan Bernstein is a High School social studies teacher 
  on Long Island. He enjoys RPGs, writing fantasy fiction, 
  movies, and making up unique words. He has previously 
  been published as a poet and is also an accomplished 
  pianist/songwriter. He hopes to someday make it as a game 
  designer/fantasy writer.
  Contact the Authour
  manablast@aol.com
  General RPG
  Gen Con is an experience unlike anything else in 
  gaming.  It is a four-day convention devoted to all 
  forms of gaming –role-playing games, war games, 
  card games (collectible and otherwise), and the various 
  paraphernalia that accompany these pursuits.  The Con 
  has an overwhelming variety of activities: seminars, 
  workshops, games, exhibits, and dealers.  There are 
  even opportunities to catch up on the latest anime or 
  kung fu flick.  For those interested in the business end 
  of the gaming world, you can meet many designers, 
  developers and novelists to meet.  Attendees have the 
  option of getting books signed or even participating 
  in interactive seminars with top names in the field. 
  Something is always occurring, and it is up to each 
  gamer to keep up her vigilance and attend those 
  events that truly interest her.  
  The most important thing to consider is how much you 
  want to do and how much time you have.  Gamers 
  come to Gen Con to pursue longstanding interests, but 
  this does not prevent them from learning new things 
  and experiencing new games.  One has to go with a 
  mind open to new experiences—however difficult this 
  can be—in order to reap the rewards of such a rich 
  opportunity.  In the end, the convention feels much 
  more fulfilling if an effort is made to experience as 
  much variety as possible.  
  Loads of free loot to can be garnered if you know where 
  to go.  The only problem is time and a place to store it 
  all.  Most gamers happily tackle this problem, coming 
  home with free magazines, books, art, pins, minis, 
  dice, anime and even more unusual treasures.  
  Gen Con Journal
  by Eytan Bernstein
  known as the Omni Gate.  While I am certain that these 
  events were interesting as they are being attended by 
  prominent novelists such as Jean Rabe and Richard 
  Lee Byers, for the life of me, I could not locate these 
  events.  It almost feels like a cosmic joke played by the 
  gaming gods on unsuspecting Gen Con neophytes. 
   
  Some of us still have not figured out how the seminars 
  work.  For any seminar or workshop with a cost, you 
  have to pick up tickets in advance (often on very long 
  lines).  Unfortunately we realized this far too late to 
  attend any of the paid workshops in the Embassy 
  Suites. It is at this point that I decided to only attend 
  free seminars.  The paid workshops look interesting, 
  but they are all long and costly, frequently $6.00-7.50 
  a piece.  With tons of these to try, few attendees can 
  afford to go to too many. I decided to stick to the 
  free ones—often just as interesting and easier on my 
  wallet. 
  We spent some time in the dealer hall, a mammoth 
  venue with the largest variety of gaming experiences 
  –shopping, demo or otherwise—that I have ever 
  witnessed.  Dominating the hall is the WotC center 
  that includes a sales area as well as numerous 
  demonstration tables.  We spent this day buying 
  various products, several of which have yet to appear 
  on the market.  There were also a number of celebrities 
  present including the ever-leathery Marc Singer (best 
  known as the Beastmaster), the steely-eyed David 
  Carradine - currently best known as Bill in Quentin 
  Tarantino’s Kill Bill,  Herbert Jefferson jr., Richard 
  Hatch from Battlestar Galactica, Virginia Hey from 
  Farscape and Ken Foree from George Romero’s Dawn 
  of the Living Dead. Also present were Walter Koenig 
  The following is a journal of my experiences throughout 
  the convention. I hope this will provide a good 
  introduction for those considering the possibility of 
  attending Gen Con in the future.  
  Day 0: Wednesday August 19th: We 
  arrive in Indianapolis
  Part of the Silven delegation arrived in Indianapolis 
  after a long trip spanning six states and approximately 
  thirteen hours of driving.  The drive was long, but 
  pleasant, with agrarian scenes right out of a country 
  landscape.  
  We got to the hotel in mid to late afternoon and settle 
  in.  The Radisson is nice though incredibly overpriced.  
  We decide basic hotel arrangements and then get 
  ready for the evening’s activities.  
  Wednesday evening, Dana Driscoll (Editor-in-Chief, 
  Silven Trumpeter) and Lance Kepner (D&D/d20 
  section head) ran a game they prepared for the Silven 
  delegation.  It was an interesting experience in which 
  two game masters ran simultaneous good and evil 
  parties at different tables.  The actions and choices 
  of the two parties affected each other and made for 
  an out-of-the-ordinary experience.  Good won out this 
  time, but evil had fun in the process.  Kudos to Lance 
  and Dana.
    
  Day 1: Thursday August 19th: We Scope 
  out Gen Con
  A number of seminars—all in the early morning—
  throughout the convention took place in a location 
  
  12
  who played Chekov in Star Trek the original series; 
  Linda Blair—still a head turner—from the Exorcist 
  and numerous made for T.V. movies; Gil Gerard—still 
  looking quite dapper, Erin Gray from Buck Rogers, and 
  Tanya Roberts from Charlie’s Angels, Beastmaster and 
  That 70’s Show.  
  Also among the many guests of honor were big names 
  and insiders in the gaming industry.  Among the 
  novelists there was RA Salvatore of  Drizzt, Cadderly, 
  Echoes of the Fourth Magic and Demon Wars fame.  
  Also present was Ed Greenwood, uber-creator of the 
  Forgotten Realms and author of over 13 novels set in 
  that world (as well as others).  Elaine Cunningham, 
  known for her work on Elves in Forgotten Realms and 
  lyrical writing, signed many autographs.  Also present at 
  seminars and some signings were Jean Rabe (Dragon 
  and Forgotten Realms novelist), Richard Lee Byers 
  (novelist with new series ”The Rage” for Forgotten 
  Realms), Matt Forbeck (fresh author in WotC‘s new 
  children‘s line), Mike Stackpole (long time fantasy 
  novelist in many different worlds), Stephen Kenson 
  (Green Ronin designer and author of novels, especially 
  Shadowrun), and Dragonlance gurus Tracy & Laura 
  Hickman and Margaret Weis.   
  Many other ”top names” present were involved in game 
  design.  Some of the above novelists also make forays 
  into game design, but the following are some of the 
  big insiders present:  Peter Archer (of WotC), Bill 
  Slaviscek (WotC higher-up), Skip Williams (one of 
  the biggest designers today), Keith Baker (newcomer 
  creator of Eberron), Jonathan Tweet (d20 designer), 
  David Williams (card designer), Michelle Nephew 
  (of Atlas Games), Christian Moore (former designer 
  now in consulting and film producing), Mike McVey 
  (Games Workshop minis guru), Rick Loomis (GAMA 
  Ambassador), Kim Mohan (one of WotC‘s head editors) 
  , Robin Laws (designer best known for Feng Shui) , 
  Steve Long (Decipher), Kenneth Hite (designer), 
  Sandra Garrity (industry sculptor extraordinaire), 
  Mike Gray (from TSR and Avalon Hill), Monte Cook 
  (big name designer best known for Arcana Unearthed 
  and D&D 3.0), Chris Fitzpatrick (miniatures guru), 
  James Earnest (President of Cheapass Games), Ron 
  Edwards (from Adept Press), Andy Collins (WotC 
  designer/editor), Andy Chambers (best known for his 
  work in Games Workshop), Phil Brucato (best known 
  for his contributions to White Wolf), Jolly Blackburn 
  (hilarious man behind Knights of the Dinner Table), 
  Dave Arneson (one of the original founders of D&D) 
  and Justin Achilli (behind White Wolf Development). 
  Day 2: Friday: So Many Seminars, So 
  Little Time! 
  WotC gave a seminar on its latest developments 
  and plans for the future.  Bill Slaviscek among 
  other Wizards designers answered questions 
  asked by the audience.  Interesting information 
  includes the following:
  1. 
  The Complete Arcane book will include three 
  classes like the previous two entries in 
  the series (Complete Divine and Complete 
  Warrior).  Two will be reprints – the Warmage 
  and the Wujen – but one will be new.  The 
  Warlock will make use of a brand new 
  mechanic for spellcasting that has no limit 
  to the number of spells per day they can 
  cast.  Apparently they have very restricted 
  spellcasting abilities, but no limit like that of 
  wizards, clerics, or sorcerers.  
  2. 
  There are no plans to give 
  sorcerers 
  significant 
  new 
  options.  The Complete Arcane 
  will have some new options, 
  but 
  WotC 
  still 
  feels 
  that 
  sorcerers are sufficient in their 
  design. 
  3. 
  We 
  should 
  expect 
  several 
  more in the terrain/climate-
  based 
  series 
  that 
  starts 
  with Frostburn.  The panel 
  mentioned Sandstorm as a 
  desert-based supplement.  
  4. 
  An entire book devoted to 
  death, necromancy and undead 
  will be released entitled Librus 
  Mortem.  
  5. 
  We 
  should 
  expect 
  four 
  campaign 
  setting 
  specific 
  books (per setting) each year (other than 
  Eberron which is slightly frontloaded) and 
  eight general supplements.  
  6. 
  WotC’s biggest challenges right now are 
  maintaining balance – especially with the 
  myriad of feats and prestige classes – and not 
  reiterating/reprinting material. 
  Next I attended a really good seminar with Mike 
  Stackpole, Matt Forbeck and Tracy Hickman 
  entitled ”How to become a Fantasy/SF Novelist.” 
  RA Salvatore was supposed to be there, but was 
  unfortunately tied up elsewhere.  
  Good advice from the panel includes:
  1) 
  There is no one path to success in this 
  industry.  Everyone who gets there has a 
  different story.  
  2) 
  The most important thing is to keep writing.  
  The first novel written by any writer is rarely 
  good.  The important thing is to keep writing 
  and then revise later.  
  3) 
  Viewpoint is one of the most important things 
  with which starting writers struggle.  
  4) 
  Short chapters are the key to making books 
  read quickly.  
  5) 
  Never write a novel in a shared world to start.  
  Write in your own worlds and if lucky enough, 
  wotc 30th anniversary party
  
  13
  you may get an opportunity in another 
  franchise.  
  I also attended an unremarkable session in which 
  some of the WotC staff worked with the audience to 
  create the framework for a 3.5 adventure, later to be 
  compiled.  
  The Dungeons and Dragons 30th anniversary celebrity 
  panel was a lot of fun.  It was attended by a number 
  of prominent people in the gaming/fantasy world as 
  well as some in the entertainment industry.  Included 
  among the industry insiders were Jonathan Tweet, 
  Kim Mohan, Keith Baker and Bill Slaviscek. 
  Also included were the popular fantasy novelist RA 
  Salvatore, a Futurama writer (who I admit, I’ve never 
  heard of) and a Hollywood producer.  I didn’t get to ask 
  too many questions, but RA Salvatore did comment 
  that he’d love to see Edward Norton play Artemis 
  Entreri in any Drizzt film adaptation.  There was much 
  talk of a possible Drizzt/Dark Elf Movie or series that 
  seems like it might be a strong possibility.  They all 
  commented on fond D&D experiences and how gaming 
  has influenced their lives/work.  RA Salvatore shared 
  the story of a 2E Halfling Psion, a deadly fall, and a 
  wand of wonder.  
  I caught the end of a world building seminar given 
  by Ed Greenwood, Kenneth Hite,  Matt Forbeck 
  and Justin Achili.   It was interesting to hear the 
  thought process behind the creation of such worlds 
  as the Forgotten Realms and the World of Darkness. 
  The creators emphasized the importance of timelines, 
  open-endedness and variety.  
  After I stopped by the dealer’s room to browse for 
  a while, I went to the giant anime room for a huge 
  raffle drawing.  The audience picks up free tickets at 
  the side of the room and then waits as a huge number 
  of prize bags (anime collections, art, posters, stickers, 
  decorative weapons, RPG & anime books and other 
  things) drawn by number (or by trivia during a short 
  trivia session).  I didn’t win anything this time, but it 
  was fun.  
  Day 3: Saturday: More Free Stuff! More 
  Seminars!
  I started off the day by going to the WotC demo 
  series.  Participants were given a card with an image 
  of the iconic D&D character Regdar (popularized in 
  the Player’s Handbook and Scourge of Worlds) and a 
  series of demos listed as various objects on his body. 
  Each demo was stamped on the card.  At the end, 
  participants went to a booth in wizards where they 
  rolled a giant bouncy d20 (I’ve got to get one of these!)  
  You added the number of demos played to your roll and 
  have to get three 15s in order to win a prize.  Thus, if 
  you have all ten demos, you only have to roll three 5s.  
  Both me and a friend succeeded and got our prizes – 
  for me a copy of the new Eberron campaign setting, for 
  him a Giants of Legend Minatures Box (which contained 
  the very rare huge gold dragon piece worth $40.)  It 
  didn’t hurt that there were starter decks, boosters, pins 
  and other free stuff along the way.
  I next attended to two hour Q& A with RA Salvatore. 
  A huge series of questions were posed to the 
  popular fantasy author.  He described his process 
  for the creation of character names, his childhood 
  experiences, and his regret that today’s children are 
  overexposed. He also talked about what we can expect 
  from future books.  He assured fans that Drizzt will 
  continue – simultaneously silencing detractors with the 
  suggestion that he writes books for fans and only cares 
  what they – not his critics – think.  
  Ed Greenwood and Mary Elizabeth Allen had 
  a fun and engaging session in which they lead the 
  attendees in the creation of a fantasy story set in the 
  Forgotten Realms.  The story elements ranged from 
  silly to extremely bawdy.  Ed Greenwood is certainly 
  an uninhibited fellow.  The story will be compiled and 
  later debuted on the wizards website.  It should include 
  a gnome brothel, a woman whose hair never ceases 
  to grow, a jeweled chastity belt, a holy codpiece, an 
  illithid tea party and much more.  
  I finally made my way over to the anime 
  raffle.  I had a headache building all day 
  so the noise was somewhat difficult, 
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=138
  but amazingly enough, I won a prize in the first few 
  drawings.  My prize was a gift bag with a weird Cthulu 
  statue, a manga book, a coca-cola hot wheels type 
  car (with the polar bear theme) and some stickers.  I 
  decided to leave at this point even though they were 
  debuting Hero (which I’ll just have to watch another 
  time) because of my headache.  
  Day 4: Sunday: We leave.
  Gen Con was a lot of fun: free stuff, seminars, anime, 
  and demos, but eventually you have to go home.  We 
  left around noon and had a short game session for our 
  ongoing game.  It was somewhat abbreviated by the 
  drive stops, but it was fun nonetheless.  I did manage 
  to steal a whole bunch of bath gels, shampoos and 
  soaps from the hotel so I am happy about that.  
  
  14
   
  Many years before Starlanko the Magnificent 
  defeated Blander the Terrible, before Starlanko was 
  voted handsomest wizard on the northern continent, 
  even before he was known as “the Magnificent,” 
  Starlanko attended a school dance.
   
  “Hey, Starlanko. Party’s inside,” said 
  Sharshim, a compatriot of Starlanko at the Mage 
  Academy of Dalphithius. To say Starlanko was 
  attending the party was perhaps a bit misleading. He 
  was not attending it, as much as he was standing in 
  one corner of the massive balcony outside the party, 
  occasionally casting glances to the other corner of the 
  balcony.
   
  “Oh.” Sharshim noticed who was at the other 
  end of the balcony. “So you going to talk to her?”
   
  “I don’t know,” said Starlanko. “She came 
  here with Guble.”
   
  “Yeah, and you came here with Mari Kebbil, 
  but I don’t see either of them. I just see the two of 
  you, both standing alone.”
   
  “I’m not actually alone right now.”
   
  Sharshim smiled. “I guess I’ll be shoving 
  off then. Sweep her off her feet.” Sharshim saluted 
  Starlanko, and returned to the party inside. 
   
  Starlanko surveyed the balcony. Then, in a 
  decidedly nonchalant fashion, he sauntered to the 
  other side.
   
  “Hi, Candessa.”
   
  “Hi.”
   
  “I just saw you at the other end of the 
  Balcony, and I thought I’d come over and say hi.”
   
  “Yeah.”
   
  “So some party huh?”
   
  “It’s okay I guess.”
   
  “Still, it’s nice to get some fresh air,” 
  Starlanko said.
   
  “Yeah.”
   
  “Hey, Dung Beetle!” came a voice from the 
  nearest doorway. “Enjoying the party? I saw Mari 
  Kebbil in there and she looked kind of lonely.” Guble, 
  another student at the academy waltzed onto the 
  scene. He wrapped one arm around Candessa. In the 
  other hand he held two goblets. “I got us some punch, 
  hon.” Guble winked on the word punch.
   
  Candessa laughed. “You sure know the way 
  to woman’s heart.”
   
  “So, Dung Beetle,” Guble said to Starlanko. 
  “Shouldn’t you be getting back inside?”
   
  “Yeah, I guess I should.” Starlanko shuffled 
  into the party with the sounds of Candessa’s laughter 
  at his back. 
   
  Several years later, after Starlanko started 
  being called, “the Magnificent,” before he defeated 
  Blander the Terrible, and both after and before he was 
  voted handsomest wizard on the northern continent 
  (for he would receive that honor several times), 
  Starlanko the Magnificent sat in the office of Major 
  Veebs Mikjar.
   
  “Of course I can’t say anything official yet,” 
  said Major Mikjar.
   
  “Yes, I―” Starlanko began.
   
  “We already said we would make the official 
  announcement four days from now you see.” Major 
  Mikjar’s speech was muffled buy the half chewed 
  sausage in his mouth. To the sausage Mikjar added 
  a slab of butter supported by a substance that might 
  have been bread.
   
  “Naturally, nobody knows more than I―”
   
  “And if we were to make some sort of 
  statement before the preset date it might upset some 
  people, and nobody wants that.”
   
  Starlanko could tell that Major Mikjar was 
  determined to tell Starlanko things the wizard already 
  knew, so he chose to remain silent rather than get 
  interrupted again.
   
  “If we could just buy everybody’s spells we’d 
  buy yours in a snap of course, but the higher ups 
  decided it would be more cost efficient if we found 
  one vender to supply all our new spells. I guess that’s 
  About the Author
  Matthew J. Hanson is an aspiring writer, as well as a long 
  time gamer. He normally lives in Minnesota, but is currently 
  finishing his senor year of college in Beloit Wisconsin. 
  Recently, his 10-minute play Who is Ruth was selected 
  as the winner for the American College Theatre Region III 
  winner, for their 10-minute play competition, and it will be 
  advancing to the national competition in April. If you would 
  like to learn more about Matthew J. Hanson, please feel free 
  to visit his website at www.matthewjhanson.com. 
  Contact the Author
  matthew@matthewjhanson.com
  by Matthew J. Hanson
  The Adventures of Starlanko the Magnificent:    
  Starlanko the Magnificent vs Guble the Gregarious
  Fiction
  
  15
  what happens when you let bureaucrats run the 
  military.”
   
  Starlanko continued to smile and nod.
   
  Major Mikjar swigged from a mug containing 
  a potent unidentifiable alcohol. “As I was saying. We 
  can’t say anything official, but I’ve got a pretty good 
  feeling about the Camiranian Military awarding you 
  the contract.” Major Mikjar laughed, “Unless some 
  other wizard shows up at the last moment and steals 
  it out from under you.”
   
  The door to Major Veebs Mikjar’s office burst 
  open. “Veebers!” said the intruder, “Long time, no 
  see.” 
    
  Major Mikjar rose from his desk, and gave 
  the newcomer a hardy handshake. “Hey, stranger! I 
  haven’t seen you since Albi was born,” the major said.
   
  “How is the little tiger?”
   
  “She’s good, starting to talk. She still loves 
  that blanket you gave her.”
   
  “Speaking of gifts, I brought a little 
  something for you,” the intruder said. He produced a 
  bottle of whisky from beneath his red wizard robes.
   
  Major Mikjar accepted. “You sure know the 
  way to an old man’s heart.”
    
  The intruder seemed to notice Starlanko for 
  the first time, “Is that you, Dung Beetle?”
   
   “I go by Starlanko the Magnificent now.”  
   
  “A nice trade title. I go with Guble the 
  Gregarious.”
   
  “You two know each other?” Major Mikjar 
  asked.
   
  “We went to school together.”
   
  “Not that I mind, Gubly,” said Major Mikjar, 
  “but what brings you to these parts?”
   
  “I’m here on business, actually. I heard you 
  might be looking for a contract to provide you with 
  some new spells.”
   
  “Sure we are! You want to hear about it?”
   
  “Sometime sure, but I don’t want to interrupt 
  anything.”
   
  “No, that’s fine,” Major Mikjar said. “We were 
  pretty much finished here.”
   
  The first voice Starlanko the Magnificent 
  heard upon returning to the Blind Bat tavern was that 
  of his sword Funbane. “But it was the forth King of 
  Androthia, Pergrim the First who solidified the ruling 
  family’s image as being connected to the divine.” 
  Starlanko never actually fought with the sword, and 
  only carried it around out of pity. Starlanko had tried 
  to throw Funbane away once, only to discover that 
  the sword returned to its master every midnight. The 
  only thing that Funbane seemed to be good at was 
  spouting useless information about history or royalty, 
  or the history of royalty. Starlanko usually tried to get 
  Funbane to keep its information to itself, but Redreck 
  the Fierce, who was babysitting Funbane for the 
  afternoon, let the sword indulge itself.
   
  Redreck slid Funbane across the table, and 
  finished his tankard of mead. Redreck was a strong 
  fighter, who rarely spoke. He and Starlanko had 
  worked together for several years.
   
  Next to Redreck sat Candessa Voliar. 
  Candessa and Starlanko had both attended the same 
  wizarding academy at Dalphithius, but they never 
  got to know each other then as much as Starlanko 
  would have wanted. The two classmates reunited a 
  couple months ago at a mind-numbing Midsummer’s 
  Day party. After Starlanko rescued Candessa from 
  the party, she decided to travel with him for the time 
  being.
   
  “How did it go?” Candessa asked.
   
  “I’m not entirely sure,” Starlanko admitted. 
  “It seems like the two bids we knew about shouldn’t 
  be a problem.”
   
  “But...?”
   
  “But it seems that there is a last minute 
  entry.” Starlanko filled her in on the details.
   
  “Guble!”
   
  “Guble the Gregarious it would seem.”
   
  “I haven’t seen him since the Academy. That 
  was an interesting relationship. I wonder what he is 
  up to.”
   
  “Competing against us for a spell contract 
  with the Camiranian military it would seem.”
   
  “I should stop by and catch up with him.”
   
  “That would be lovely.”
   
  “You worried? Do you think he’s got 
  better spells than the Astounding, Spectacular, and 
  Incredible Starlanko the Magnificent?”
   
  “I doubt it, but that’s not what worries me. 
  It’s not what you know, it’s who you know, and Guble 
  is a close personal friend of the man that will be 
  awarding the contract. This does not bode well.”
   
  “If I may, sir,” said Funbane. “I believe 
  that a man of Major Veebs Mikjar’s rank and lineage 
  shalt conduct himself in a fair and impartial manner. 
  Anything less would be unbefitting a man of his 
  station.”
   
  For one who knew a lot about nobility, 
  Starlanko thought Funbane knew very little about 
  nobility.
   
  Candessa said, “I think you should wait to 
  worry until Guble demonstrates his spell.” 
  
  16
   
  “And this next one is a spell I like to call 
  purple doom.” Guble cast his spell, and it caused an 
  explosion of purple flame.
   
  Starlanko and his companions were on the 
  Camiranian testing field, a wide-open space littered 
  with several obstacles. Starlanko had demonstrated 
  his spell at the same location several days earlier. 
  A small bleacher was set up for the onlookers, 
  including the other wizards who were going for the 
  spell contract, members of the Camiranian military, 
  and several random spectators. Major Veebs Mikjar 
  was sitting directly behind Starlanko the Magnificent. 
  Starlanko could feel the bleacher sway whenever 
  Major Mikjar shifted to get the best view around 
  Starlanko’s pointed hat.
   
  “Wow!” Major Mikjar exclaimed upon seeing 
  purple doom. “That was purple.”
   
  “Yes,” said Starlanko, “but other than that, it 
  was just a fireball.”
   
  “But it was a purple fireball. Do you know 
  how much purple dye costs?”
   
  Starlanko the Magnificent cast prestidigitation 
  and turned his hat purple.
   
  “And now,” said Guble. “A little incantation 
  called caustic destroyer.” He let loose another spell 
  and it caused a spherical blast of acid.
   
  “Was that acid?” Major Mikjar asked.
   
  “It was just a fireball except with acid instead 
  of fire!”
   
  “Isn’t it great!”
   
  Starlanko was tempted to scream at Major 
  Mikjar and beat him with Starlanko’s now purple hat. 
  He realized that the instant gratification provided by 
  this course of action would not justify the longtime 
  repercussions.
    
  Starlanko the Magnificent sat in silence for 
  the rest of Guble’s demonstration.
   
  Despite Starlanko’s best efforts of reason 
  and bribery, several days later Major Mikjar still 
  seemed to favor awarding the Contract to Guble the 
  Gregarious. The evening before Major Mikjar would 
  make the official announcement, he threw a party at 
  his personal villa. 
   
  Starlanko tried to schmooze as best he could, 
  but the knowledge of his impending loss made it hard 
  to put his soul into it.
   
  “Oh, Guble, you still know the way to a 
  woman’s heart,” came Candessa’s voice from across 
  the room.
   
  Starlanko decided to get some fresh air.
   
  It was the beginning of autumn and the air 
  was crisp, but the sky was clear, and Starlanko could 
  see a mural of stars from Major Mikjar’s balcony. A 
  gust of wind blew off Starlanko’s purple hat, but he 
  did not seem to notice. After about a few minutes of 
  leaning on the banister, staring at the stars, Starlanko 
  noticed a large figure lean against the railing next to 
  him.
   
  “Hey,” came the man’s bass voice.
   
  “Hello, Redreck,” Starlanko replied.
   
  “I thought I was supposed to be the quiet 
  one.”
   
  “I know.”
   
  The two men sat in silence looking at the 
  stars, making their slow journey across the sky. 
  Finally Redreck looked to Starlanko. The warrior 
  squeezed the wizard’s shoulder, and then went back 
  inside.
   
  It was not long before a very different sort of 
  figure was leaning on the balcony next to Starlanko. 
   
  “Hey, Starlanko, party’s inside,” said 
  Candessa Voliar.
   
  “I know.”
   
  “Something bothering you?”
   
  “I’m just trying to figure out some means of 
  getting this contract after all.”
   
  “Is it really that important?” Candessa asked.
   
  “It’s quite a nice sum of money.”
   
  “You act like it’s something more than that.”
   
  “...I also really don’t want to loose to Guble,” 
  Starlanko admitted.
   
  “Is this one of those macho schoolboy 
  rivalries?”
   
  “You could say that.”
   
  “So?” Candessa pried, “What did he do?”
   
  “He... there was a girl, who I had a crush on 
  at the Academy, and Guble ended up with her instead 
  of me.”
   
  “Really?” Candessa smiled at him, “Who was 
  it?”
   
  Starlanko opened his mouth to answer.
   
  “Wait, let me guess,” Candessa said. “It was 
  Mari Kebbil wasn’t it?”
   
  “...yes. It was Mari Kebbil.”
   
  Candessa smiled at Starlanko. “She has no 
  idea what she is missing.”
   
  “Thanks.”
   
  “You should come inside. The party is nice.”
   
  “In a few minutes,” Starlanko said.
  
  17
   
  Candessa returned to the party. No sooner 
  had she closed the door, than there was the clang of a 
  sword hitting the stone balcony floor. It was midnight 
  already.
   
  “Greetings, master, what doth be occurring?”
   
  “We’re at a party, Funbane. Outside a party 
  really.” Starlanko had left Funbane back at the tavern, 
  but true to form, it could not be separated from its 
  master long.
   
  “And beith this the Cloudview House?”
   
  Starlanko sighed. “I have no idea.”
   
  “I doth believe it is. The Cloudview House 
  was constructed by Leppi Mikjar, the third son of Kap 
  Mikjar, and the great-granduncle of Veebs Mikjar. Now 
  unfortunately Leppi Mikjar―”
   
  “Wait a minute,” the corners of Starlanko’s 
  mouth twitched in anticipation of a smile. “Major 
  Mikjar is a noble isn’t he?”
   
  “Yes sir, though a fairly minor one, and as he 
  is not the eldest child―”
   
  “And you know a lot about nobility?”
   
  “Yes, sir.”
   
  “Do you know anything about Major Mikjar I 
  can use?”
   
  “Well,” began Funbane, “Veebs Mikjar was 
  born in the year―”
   
  “No. What I really need is to know something 
  about him that he wouldn’t want anybody else to 
  know.”
   
  “I beg your pardon sir, but it would not be 
  proper for me to divulge information about Major 
  Mikjar that he would not want to be public.” 
   
  “Don’t worry,” said Starlanko, “I will only use 
  the information for good, never evil.”
   
  “Well... there might be one thing sir, but it is 
  of such a nature that I daren’t speak it out loud.”
   
  “Why don’t you whisper it to me then?”
   
  Starlanko held the sword up to his ear.
   
  “A goat!” Starlanko exclaimed.
   
  “Indeed, sir, her name is Sylvia. But I must 
  ask again that you be careful how you use this 
  knowledge, if it were to be let out to the public at 
  large, I fear it would ruin the reputation of such a fine 
  upstanding citizen as Veebs Mikjar.”
   
  A smile had taken over Starlanko’s face. 
  “Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure Mikjar knows what’s 
  good for him.”
   
  Starlanko at last returned to the party. Major 
  Mikjar was among a crowd of people laughing heartily 
  at a story being told by Guble the Gregarious.
   
  “Excuse me, Major,” Starlanko said. “May I 
  have a word with you in private?”
   
  “Hold on a second, Dung Beetle,” said Guble. 
  “I’m almost at the best part.”
   
  “I think it might be rather urgent, Major,” 
  said Starlanko. “I was asked to deliver a message 
  from somebody named Sylvia.”
   
  Major Veebs Mikjar went white as the ghost 
  of a sheet. He politely excused himself.
   
  The next morning, the contract for supplying 
  the Camiranian military with new spells was awarded 
  to Starlanko the Magnificent, based on his spell’s 
  superior creativity and utility.
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=129
  
  18
  Well known in the Miami gaming community even 
  before starting his own company, Henry Lopez is 
  a guiding force in the gaming community in the 
  southeastern United States. During the d20 boom he 
  started a gaming company with his good friends Eric 
  Wiener, Nelson Rodriguez and Pedro Barrenechea. 
  Paradigm Concepts has managed to succeed in a 
  very competitive market by telling a good story. Their 
  flagship book, the Codex Arcanis, is 98% story and 
  2% crunch. They’ve developed a strong fan base 
  among the RPGA by continuing to tell that good story. 
  I was able to get Henry to set aside a little of his time 
  during Gen Con and talk with me.
  Since most of our readers probably 
  haven’t heard of Paradigm or you 
  setting, why don’t you tell us a little 
  bit about Arcanis and the World of 
  Shattered Empires.
  Well, Arcanis was created for the more mature player.  
  It was created for those who had gone beyond the 
  knocking down the door, killing the monster, and 
  grabbing the treasure.  We wanted a world setting 
  that had depth. We wanted a world setting that gives 
  you political intrigue.  We wanted a world setting that 
  was role-playing intensive while still challenging your 
  tactical ability and thought process.  And we wanted 
  a world with some of the deadliest combat that we 
  could possibly come up with – without being over the 
  top.  So we sat down and created Arcanis.  
  We made Arcanis different in a couple of very 
  important ways.  The first way was the fact that 
  instead of going after the model everyone else was 
  doing (which is a medieval western European mirror 
  image) we decided to go with our main nation to 
  be a mirror image of ancient Rome.  So the Coryani 
  Empire was born.  And it’s basically, you can play 
  ex-legionnaires, ex-gladiators, and your patrons are 
  senators vying against each other for power plays.  
  We have the Emperor who is going off kilter little 
  by little.  We’re starting a whole civil war with the 
  generals coming in and what not.  So that was critical 
  and makes us different.
  The second thing was we made sure the gods don’t 
  have an alignment.  But churches do.  Therefore we 
  don’t have a good god vs. an evil god.  We have a 
  Pantheon of gods similar to the ancient Greek gods, 
  where they all got along although they had their 
  own points of view and their own agendas.  We have 
  a situation where we have a schism of the bigger 
  churches or what not.  We have the Mother Church 
  and we have splinters where they are actually 
  heretical or they believe each other is heretical.  It 
  leads to a very interesting role-playing situation where 
  you can have a lawful good paladin worshipping the 
  god of Death, but he’s worshipping an aspect of that 
  god that is good.  Let’s say he’s playing the domain 
  of Disease.  So he can worship the aspect of Taker of 
  Disease, protector against disease, The Healer.  Where 
  as you have the same god being worshiped by an evil 
  character who worships the aspect of the Bringer-of-
  Disease.  So you have that conflict and that’s what it’s 
  all about.  Conflict.  And we’ve given twists to all the 
  major archetypes as far as races.
  Humans stay human because that’s what we are 
  and we want to have a central focal point where 
  everybody can have a grounding. A place they can 
  stand and know where they are.  But we twisted 
  everything else.  Our dwarves were first Celestial 
  Giants who were cursed by the gods for transgressing 
  against mankind and were forced to become dwarves.  
  And they’re all vying against each other to lift the 
  curse. It was prophesied only one will be redeemed 
  and they want to be that one.  Our elves are called 
  Elori, are an elemental subtype, and they were 
  actually a servant race to a reptilian empire that 
  spanned the continent earlier before mankind came.  
  They eventually overthrew it.  We’ve taken twists on 
  everything.  
  You have three titles released this 
  year at Gen Con.  Can you give me a 
  brief synopsis of each one?
  Sure.  We’re very excited about our titles at Gen Con.  
  We released our core book, which is our first hardback 
  book - a 320 page, over 300,000 word hardback.  We 
  call it the Player’s Guide to Arcanis.  It’s a companion 
  book for our Codex Arcanis.  The Codex Arcanis is our 
  192 page softback world setting book. The Players 
  Guide is primarily crunch.  It’s new feats, new prestige 
  classes, 14 new core classes our base classes. We’ve 
  created 16 base classes.   We have 14 variations of 
  paladins called Holy Champions.  They are a 20 level 
  paladin class, but they’re all tailored for each of the 
  different gods.  So that’s very different.  Like I said, 
  new spells, new prestige classes, new feats, lots of 
  new equipment.  We have a whole section on religion 
  and how does religion work and what not.  So we 
  have that.  So that’s our premier book.
  Interview
  by Edward J. Kopp
  Interview: Henry Lopez of Paradigm Concepts
  
  19
  We also have Ssethregore: In the Coils of the Serpent 
  Empire, which is the first of our empire series.  And 
  it goes back and actually delves into the first empire 
  from the beginnings, over 7000 years into the history 
  of Arcanis, all the way to the present.  It delves into 
  the creation of the Elori in detail.  It deals with lots of 
  stuff for one of our player races called the Ss’ressen 
  which are good lizardmen that have teamed up with 
  the humans.  They fled this evil empire.  So, the 
  revenants of this ancient reptilian empire has basically 
  gone to a little corner of the continent called the 
  Kraldjur Morass, which is a huge swamp area.  They 
  fester and are ready to eventually teem out and 
  swarm the continent.  So this book deals with the 
  past, the present and the potential future of the book.  
  And lastly we have City of Secrets: An Adventurer’s 
  Guide to Nishanpur.  Now Nishanpur is one of our 
  favorite cities and is apparently a favorite of a 
  lot of our players.  It’s a city where duplicity runs 
  rampant.  A city built on intrigue, blood and fire, as 
  Kimberly Wager-Scott wrote.  It’s an 80-page book, 
  half of which is source material detailing the city, the 
  different quarters.  It has beautiful maps inside the 
  other half is an actual adventure called the City of 
  Secrets, which you can play either for home game or 
  for Living Arcanis.  
   
  Why don’t you, since you brought 
  it up, tell us a little bit about Living 
  Arcanis and exactly what’s going on 
  with that.  
  I’d love to.  Living Arcanis is the largest member-
  run campaign for the RPGA.  For those of you who 
  don’t know what the RPGA is, the RPGA is an arm of 
  Wizards of the Coast, sponsored by Wizards of the 
  Coast.  It’s call the Role Playing Games Association 
  (RPGA), and they are famous for their original game 
  called Living City.  Another one they have is Living 
  Greyhawk.  They have Living Force for Star Wars, 
  but we’re the largest member-run campaign which 
  means we’re not run by Wizards of the Coast.  We 
  are also, I believe, either the second or third, or like 
  neck and neck over-all campaign right behind Living 
  Greyhawk.  I think Living Force and us are neck and 
  neck.  But I’m pretty sure we doing about number 
  two.  And basically, Living Arcanis is a game with lots 
  of adventures.  So far, we’ve put out 75 adventures 
  over 1.7 million words, plus special events like the 
  Battle Interactive and normal LARPing type interactive 
  like we had at Orgins this year.  
  And these are free adventures.  You can go to 
  the RPGA.com web site.  It you don’t play Living 
  Campaigns at conventions you can list yourself home 
  play or home campaign and download the adventures 
  for free.  So there’s lots of support for Arcanis through 
  Living Arcanis.  Living Arcanis is very important for us 
  because it is through the adventures and actions of 
  the players of Living Arcanis that the world is molded.
  We made a decision very early on, when we decided 
  to create Arcanis, that we would not have uber 
  characters.  We have iconic characters, but we don’t 
  have characters that drive the story.  There are other 
  fantasy campaigns that have a basis or set of heroes 
  that basically drives the entire plot along and the 
  heroes, players, are left in almost a backseat position.  
  And that bothers me.  I think the players are the 
  heroes.  Players should dictate the way it goes.  
  Now obviously we have a certain plot idea, the meta-
  plot; it pushes it along.  An example of world molding 
  happened at Origins in June of this year. At the 
  convocation of the Divine, things occurred that I didn’t 
  plan for and that completely derailed three or four 
  sub-plots that I had.  But that’s fine because the story 
  is yours.  I’m only a facilitator.  The story is actually 
  the community’s of Living Arcanis.  So that’s what we 
  have.  
  Put in here a shameless little plug: we do have 
  a Yahoo group for those of you who are Internet 
  savvy.  It’s free. It’s LA for Living Arcanis, LA_Talk.  
  It’s a vibrant community.  We have over a thousand 
  members.  I think it was 1017 before we left for 
  Gen Con.  It’s a no flame list, very friendly.  We 
  welcome new players; every body is very friendly. 
  We help everybody out.  Questions are answered and 
  whether they are rules questions, meta-plot question, 
  obviously no spoilers, or setting questions.  We’re a 
  very friendly community and we definitely want to see 
  it grow.
  You kind of touched on my next 
  question.  I noticed in the Player’s 
  Guide to Arcanis that it starts with the 
  events that ended at last year’s Gen 
  Con.  Why did you decide to let the 
  Living Campaign influence the meta-
  plot?
  Well, the living campaign is the meta-plot.  We work 
  very hard to make sure our print product and our 
  RPGA or living campaign dovetail into each other 
  and are very tightly woven.  And I thought the most 
  poignant way to put that point across is to take 
  our premier book, our Players Guide and actually 
  showcase an event that occurred at last year’s 
  conclusion.  I won’t spoil it here.  Pick up the Players 
  Guide and read it [laughs] where something pivotal 
  happened and it actually changed the course of the 
  campaign.  I wanted to focus on that to show the 
  players are the focus. 
  As a matter of fact, in one of our books, Ssethragore: 
  In the Coils of the Serpent Empire, we have a 
  character called Ven val’Sosi, a Ss’ressen who went 
  through a trial and went to the final table, the table 
  of Heroes, that we had at the first year’s conclusion.  
  And he’s actually prominent now.  He still plays but he 
  is a prominent figure in the campaign.  His actions are 
  cannon. And they materialize within the actual plot.
  You brought up something you had 
  mentioned earlier, you did do a twist 
  on humans.  You have the Vals.  Why 
  don’t you explain them?
  True, we do have the normal humans.   A Val is 
  a subrace, I guess, of a human.  What happened 
  was the gods came with their Valinor during the 
  cataclysmic thing called the God War which happened 
  back in the mythic age.  The Valinor are like angels, 
  celestials if you will.  And they mated these Valinor 
  
  20
  with certain families to create the Val line.  Which, 
  for example, the val’Holryn, val’Assante, val’Virdan 
  and what not.  So there are 13 major families.  And a 
  bunch of smaller minor Val families.  
  In Arcanis, Vals have two things that separate them 
  from humans.  One is the fact they are the only race, 
  humanoid race or human race, that is psionically 
  active.  Arcanis does support psionics.  And we 
  support the latest psionic rules.  And they have 
  something called Bloodline Powers which are tailored 
  to each of the Val families.  No two Val families 
  overlap in Bloodline powers, with the exception of 
  the val’Holryn, which are known as the bastards of 
  the Gods.  And nobody knows exactly what Valinor 
  spawned them, per se.  So their powers actually are 
  a mix and match of everybody elses.  Which is a very 
  bizarre thing.  But it is part of the meta-plot game. 
  Well, let me finish up here.  What can 
  we look forward to Paradigm putting 
  out in the next few months as far as 
  what is going to be in Arcanis in the 
  next year? 
  We have lots of stuff coming out.  We have Legacy of 
  Damnation which is our Dark-kin sourcebook. Another 
  piece of history that happened approximately 1000 
  years prior to the start of the campaign was that a 
  rift between the Infernal plane and the mortal plane, 
  which is what Arcanis is on, was ripped open and 
  demons, devils and what not swarmed across the 
  land raping and pillaging and what not.  Dark-kin are 
  basically a recessive gene that pops up.  You can have 
  8 generations of humans breeding pure humans and 
  all of a sudden [snaps] a Dark-kin will pop up.  And 
  Dark-kin have infernal traits.  So that’s one of the 
  races.  This book basically looks at them in depth, 
  gives you prestige classes, feats, powers, that you 
  can take for your Dark-kin and it details what is on 
  the other side of the God Wall where the demons 
  have been trapped for 1000 years.  And it details the 
  Sealed Lands.  As of now, they’re the un-sealed lands.  
  So that’s Legacy.
  We also have Magic of Arcanis, which is another core 
  book dealing with our magic users, whether they be 
  wizards, clerics, sorcerers, bards and what not.  We 
  have a monster book coming out called The Monsters 
  of Arcanis: Born of Nightmares, which is our monster 
  book.  
  We also have our first mature only book.  It’s called 
  the Theocracy of Canceri.  It’s the second of our 
  Empire books.  We felt that the nation of Caneri, 
  which is a theocracy, is steeped in evil and we 
  shouldn’t be shy to show what truly evil is.  Now it’s 
  not going to have anything gratuitous.  It’s not going 
  to have sex or violence, but there are adult themes 
  as dictated by the topic.  It will be shrink wrapped so 
  that kiddies won’t be flipping through it.  It will have a 
  huge label stating such so that retailers won’t be ”Oh 
  my gosh, what am I selling.”
  And beyond that we have lots of products.  We have 
  the Coryani Empire book coming out.  We have a book 
  in development called Invisible Kings.  Backrooms and 
  Back Alleys, which is a secret society, thieves rouges 
  book and that sort of thing.  That’s in development
  After GenCon I contacted Henry and got a little 
  information about how successful their Gen Con was. 
  Living Arcanis premiered two adventures ”Lusting 
  Leeward” and ”Pebble Upon Still Water” and between 
  the two of them they sat as many as 120 tables. 
  There was a Ss’ressen special mission for 3rd level 
  and up which sat a total of 37 players or five tables. 
  The Battle Interactive ”How the Mighty Have Fallen” 
  sat 25 tables with 175 rabid gamers chomping at the 
  bit to save the city of Sicaris. If you’ve never heard 
  of a Battle Intereactive it’s a must do part of Living 
  Arcanis at the major cons.. And they’re the most fun 
  175 people can have at one time. Paradigm was also 
  successful in going home with out a single copy of 
  the Player’s Guide to Arcanis out of the 300 they had 
  brought to the show. Most excellent for 
  them!
   
  For more information about Living Arcanis and 
  Paradigm concepts, you can visit their website at: 
  http://www.paradigmconcepts.com/
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/adnd.asp?case=show&id=420
  
  21
  Cruxuzule Mamnibia, Demon of 
  Zauurcrag, Part II: Minions
  by Khaz Axzen
  About the Author
  Khaz Axzen and wife Donna currently live in the Pocono 
  mountains in north east Pennsylvania with their two children, 
  Devan and Lauryn. When not working or chasing the kids 
  around, Khaz enjoys reading, writing, watching Yankee 
  games and shopping for additions to his fantasy knife
  collection.
  Contact the Author
  nazgul1031@yahoo.com
  Fiction
  In the last installment of “Cruxuzule Mamnibia, 
  Demon of Zauurcrag”, our heroes, Sarel Duthar, 
  renegade frost elf from the frozen north, and Khaz 
  Axzen, dwarven mercenary and former slave, 
  fought and slew a Hellborn gargoyle after it killed a 
  prominent citizen’s son in the town of Voth. Instead 
  of being grateful, the paranoid townspeople accused 
  Sarel of summoning the demonspawn, and in their 
  grief and fear, hastily organized a lynch mob. 
  Forced to flee the town, the pair was aided by a 
  Captain in the Baron’s guard, Garelgar Janlyn, and 
  his companion Amir Sotho, a mercenary bowman, 
  tracker, and former priest of Nuune from the Far 
  East.                             
            “All living things have the power to heal 
  themselves,” explained Amir as he rubbed his hands 
  together rapidly before placing them on Sarel’s injured 
  left side. “You just have to believe it and know how to 
  harness the power.”
            Sarel felt warmth slowly spreading from the 
  easterner’s hands and flowing through his broken 
  ribs, followed by a tingling sensation. The frost elf 
  closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on healing, as 
  instructed by Amir.
            “Mumbo jumbo,” mumbled Khaz, who was 
  sitting on a large, flat piece of rock in front of the fire, 
  chewing on a piece of black bread he had extracted 
  from the bag Lyle had given to them.
            After fleeing from Voth, the quartet traveled 
  into the forested foothills dominating Reban’s 
  southwestern frontier. They had moved in relative 
  silence until well after midnight before stopping in 
  a rocky clearing at the top of a hill. Huge redwood 
  trees surrounded the clearing, their mighty boughs 
  providing a roof that obscured the stars. 
            Massive blocks of granite, rounded by the 
  elements and crumbling with age, littered the 
  clearing, remnants of some ancient civilization. 
  Garelgar sat opposite Khaz on the other side of the 
  fire, smoking a pipe.
            “There. Now you need a little bit of rest,” said 
  Amir, rising from Sarel’s side. He reached into a pouch 
  hanging at his belt, withdrew a small vial, and gave it 
  to the frost elf.
            “Salve, for your burns. Dab it lightly.” The 
  easterner then turned to Garelgar. “I’ll take first 
  watch, Cap,” glancing at Khaz before adding, “I’ll 
  range pretty far out, so I can hear over the dwarf’s 
  chewing.”
            Before Khaz could reply with more than a 
  growl, Amir ran lightly from the clearing, topknot 
  bobbing up and down as he went.
            “Are you feeling any better, Mr. Duthar?” asked 
  Garelgar as Sarel stood up and flexed.
            “Surprisingly, yes. Thank you,” the frost elf 
  replied, slipping his shirt back over his bandaged 
  torso.
            “Good! Now is as good a time as any for 
  some questions and answers.” Garelgar slapped his 
  knees before rising, offering his seat atop a relatively 
  smooth stone to the injured elf. Sarel declined and sat 
  on the ground to Khaz’s left.
            “How’da ya know us? Why was ya lookin’ fer 
  us? And what the Hell was that thing back at the 
  tavern? Da those things run wild out here or what?” 
  Khaz asked before pausing briefly to take a breath 
  and draught from the wine skin. “And,” he added, 
  wiping his mouth and beard with the back of his hand, 
  “if you’s two are officers of the barony, why are ya’s 
  runnin’ around the woods like a couple a tramps?”
            “Tramps?” Garelgar had his hands up, 
  gesturing for Khaz to slow down. After a brief pause 
  and a deep breath he added, “Tramps. Fair enough, 
  Mr. Axzen. Amir and I, along with three others from 
  my company, were ambushed by those creatures, as 
  you put it-”
            “Gargoyles.” Sarel interceded.
            “Gargoyles, thank you, Mr. Duthar-”
            “Call me Sarel, please.” 
            “Very well, Sarel, thank you. As I was saying,” 
  continued Garelgar. “We were ambushed by those 
  gargoyles. Six of them. They killed our mounts and 
  three men, two of whom were priests of Beordin.”
            “Witch hunters and fanatics!” spat Khaz, lying 
  back on the rock with his hands behind his head.
            “Well-respected, expensive witch hunters,” 
  added Sarel, also relaxing a bit. “Their order goes all 
  the way back to the Demon wars and the legendary 
  demon hunter Beordin Thunderhand. A large donation 
  to the temple of Beordin in Brynhalla is usually 
  expected for their help.
            “The same,” confirmed Garelgar. “They fought 
  bravely and killed four of the gargoyles. Amir and I 
  were tracking the one you encountered at Lyle’s and 
  were going to requisition new mounts in Voth, but 
  time didn’t permit, as you already know.”
            Garelgar reached into his tunic and produced 
  paperwork bearing the Baronial seal. He presented 
  them to Sarel. “My travel warrants. This is the only 
  proof of my identity I can provide before we reach the 
  garrison tomorrow, other than the name of the person 
  who recommended you two.”
            Sarel re-folded the documents and handed 
  them back to Garelgar. “They seem authentic, and 
  if they are to be believed, you are a captain in the 
  
  22
  Baron’s guard. But documents can be stolen. Who was 
  it that brought us to your attention, captain?”
            “A druid passing through the province, by the 
  name of Kimba Truehart -”
            Khaz groaned audibly at the mention of the 
  druid’s name.
            “- from the druidic order of the…” Garelgar 
  left the sentence unfinished, indicating Sarel or Khaz 
  should finish it.
            “Cheetah. She is from the druidic order of the 
  cheetah, Captain Janlyn,” Sarel finished. Khaz 
  continued to groan as he sat up, rubbing his bald, 
  tattooed head as if it hurt.
            An acquaintance of Sarel’s, Kimba Truehart had 
  enlisted the frost elf and Khaz to aid her in ridding the 
  Khorian city of Isegoth from the clutches of a demonic 
  cult. It had almost cost them their lives.
            Khaz broke the silence. “Le’me guess, ya’s got 
  some blood suckin’ cult runnin’ around, and ya need 
  me an the elf ta help ya’s out, eh?” He took another 
  swig from the wine skin. “Ain’t nuthin’ ever simple?”
            “How was she?” asked Sarel over the dwarf’s 
  ranting.
            “Good, I think. I don’t have very much 
  experience with elves. They were returning north, 
  hastily. Apparently Reban isn’t the only kingdom 
  having…” He paused, as if searching for the right 
  word. “Troubles is the best word to describe it.”  
  Garelgar sat down on the other side of the fire before 
  answering Khaz.
            “We have an actual demon, runnin’ around, as 
  you put it Mr. Axzen. And it’s destroying entire 
  villages, slaughtering their residents like wild fire 
  through dry grass.” Garelgar’s eyes narrowed as he 
  stared across the fire. “And with every soul it takes, it 
  grows in power, enlarging the portal it came through 
  and summoning more Hell-spawned predators, like 
  those gargoyles. It wasn’t summoned by the Black 
  Order. The wards put in place by the elven arch-
  wizards of Thantwilanoria after the Demon Wars are 
  breaking down, and the citizens of Reban are the 
  prey.”
            Both Sarel and Khaz saw in Garelgar’s eyes 
  and heard in his voice that this man was not just 
  some baronial dignitary. He could be dangerous if 
  need be. Mercenary officer or not, this man cared 
  about the people he was sworn to protect, and he 
  would protect them just as he protected Sarel and 
  Khaz from the lynch mob in Voth.
            Ashamed, Khaz rose to his feet, and 
  bowed low. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean ta…ta…
  ”
            “Trivialize,” intoned Sarel.
            “What the elf said!” continued 
  Khaz. “I didn’t mean ta drivelize 
  yer situation, an I hope ya 
  took no offense.” The 
  dwarf finished with 
  another bow, his beard 
  coming dangerously close 
  to the fire.
            “My apologies as 
  well, Captain Janlyn,” 
  Sarel added, nodding his 
  head. “We will aid you any 
  way we can.”
            “No offense taken, 
  and while your aid would 
  be greatly appreciated, I 
  would prefer if you both 
  would give me an answer in 
  the morn, after sleeping on it.” 
  Garelgar motioned for Khaz to 
  sit before adding, “I don’t want 
  any rash decisions. If you 
  choose to leave, I will provide 
  you both with travel 
  warrants that will enable 
  you to travel anywhere 
  within the borders of 
  Reban, unmolested.”
            “That’s fine 
  Captain,” answered Sarel. 
  “But if you don’t mind my 
  asking, could you tell us 
  what you know about to this 
  demon, and what you expect 
  of us, so we can make an 
  informed decision?”
            Garelgar nodded his agreement. “I 
  don’t know much, but before I begin, do you 
  mind if I see your axe? The one you used to slay the 
  gargoyle?” He directed his question at Khaz, who 
  looked up in surprise. Dwarves didn’t part with 
  their weapons willingly.
            After a moment’s hesitation, Khaz 
  drew the weapon in question from its fur 
  sheath, laying on the ground to his right. It 
  had been a gift from the druid, Kimba 
  Truehart. Although smaller than his two-
  handed axe, it was still as long as an 
  average human battleaxe. The 
  handle was carved from living 
  oak, like a druidic staff, while 
  the head was made from the 
  claw of a giant ground sloth, 
  embossed in high-quality, 
  tempered steel.
            Flipping the weapon 
  over, Khaz leaned around the 
  fire to hand it handle first to 
  Garelgar. Upon touching it, 
  Garelgar felt the magical 
  energies tingling through his 
  arm. 
            “This is a fine weapon, 
  Mr. Axzen, and I am no mage, 
  but it is obviously imbued with 
  enchantments of the powers of 
  light. Thank you,” said Garelgar, 
  reverently handing the axe back 
  to the befuddled dwarf. 
            “Yer welcome, an stop 
  callin’ me Mr. Axzen. Call me 
  Khaz.”
            “As you wish, Khaz. Now, as 
  I told you before, I don’t know all 
  that much. A lot is speculation and 
  what I learned from Kimba Truehart 
  and the priests of Beordin 
  pertaining to the character and 
  motives of this demon. The first 
  village to fall victim to the demon 
  was Rihl, a small farming community 
  on the southern outskirts of the 
  province.”
            “What do you mean by ‘fall victim?’ What 
  exactly happened in Rihl?” asked Sarel, leaning 
  
  23
  forward to offer Garelgar some jerked beef from the 
  bag of food they received from Lyle at the tavern.
            Garelgar accepted the meat, nodding his 
  thanks. “Rihl was completely destroyed; its 
  inhabitants were not only hacked and ripped to 
  pieces, but their remains seemed to have been 
  gnawed and eaten.” Garelgar paused, shuddering 
  visibly from the haunting memory. “At first, we 
  thought the dwarves out of Ghan could have been 
  responsible, or a tribe of orcs from the Twisted Forest-
  ”
            “I ain’t never heard a no dwarves that eat 
  people!” Interrupted Khaz, a hurt look on his face.
              “No offense Khaz, but the dwarves out of 
  Ghan are feral Graume dwarves. They emigrated here 
  four or five hundred years ago, settling in the old 
  volcanic tunnels of the Jarastraka Mountain range. 
  They are savages, filing their teeth and wearing the 
  bones of their foes as armor. Bora Grude, the king of 
  Ghan pays them to watch his border. They call 
  themselves the Iron Scorpion clan, cousins of the 
  Bloody Skull clan up north.”
            “Hmpf.” Khaz waved his hand in understanding. 
  Mountain dwarves didn’t consider Graume dwarves, 
  real dwarves; they considered their feral cousins 
  primitive and barbaric. Whereas mountain dwarves 
  lived in subterranean cities and disdained magic, the 
  dwarves of Graume Island lived out in the open and 
  embraced sorcery. Several centuries ago, the ruling 
  clans of the island, in an attempt to modernize and 
  join the mainstream nations of the world, had 
  forsaken their older customs of teeth filing, face 
  painting and cannibalizing their enemy’s. Some of the 
  clans refused to change and warred with the ruling 
  clans, though they were defeated and exiled. 
            “As I was saying,” continued Garelgar, “We 
  ruled out dwarves and orcs because there were no 
  tracks leading to the village. The only tracks we found 
  were those of the gargoyles leaving. We did find two 
  sets of taloned tracks within the village. One set of 
  footprints was seared into the ground, and the other 
  set looked like a huge bird or a dragon.”
            “Dragon!” Exclaimed Khaz
            “Yes, but upon further inspection and 
  eyewitness account from the second village, Menda, 
  we’ve determined it to be some demon-spawned 
  bird.” Garelgar exhaled, as if disturbed by what he 
  was about to say. “Even more alarming than the 
  fleeing human tracks leading to mangled corpses were 
  the human tracks accompanied by gargoyle spoor and 
  footprints, leading back to the Twisted Forest and 
  Zauurcrag. It was as if the survivors were being 
  herded.”
            “What of the survivor from Menda? What did 
  he have to say?” asked Sarel, leaning forward and 
  resting his chin on his right fist.
            “She, actually, and her child. Both were half 
  dead and quite mad. All we gleaned from her rants 
  was that before the attack, the residents of Menda 
  heard ghostly drums, carried on the wind from the 
  south. And that the demon was mounted on a 
  skeletal, un-dead bird. There was also a name she 
  kept crying over and over before she passed.” 
  Garelgar paused before whispering, “Cruxuzule 
  Mamnibia.”
            Sarel noticeably frowned at the demon’s name. 
  The crackling of the fire and the cricket’s night song 
  was suddenly loud in the silence. “You are right to 
  whisper the fiend’s name. If the demon is indeed here 
  on earth’s material plane, invoking its name could 
  unwittingly summon it in our midst.” 
            “You know this demon?” Garelgar asked the 
  frost elf, leaning forward.
            “Know? No, Captain, I don’t know this demon, 
  but I have heard of it, yes. Crux is a blood demon. 
  Blood demons, unlike plague and fire demons, are not 
  very intelligent, nor are they cunning. They are filled 
  with malice, like a berserker or a champion of Hell. 
  Blood demons are used by the demon princes and 
  lords as weapons, killing machines.”
            “Can it be defeated, and if so, at what cost?” 
  Asked Garelgar.
            “Yes,” answered Sarel. “It can be defeated.” 
  After a moment’s hesitation, the frost elf continued. “I 
  am more concerned with this portal of which you 
  spoke. It is more likely a tear or rift in the earth’s 
  fabric than a portal or conduit. Even if the demon is 
  defeated, the tear needs to be repaired.”
            Khaz was leaning forward, once again rubbing 
  his face and head as if in pain. “I don’t understand all 
  this portal and Hell stuff.”
            “Does it really make a difference how the 
  demon got here?” asked Garelgar, agreeing with Khaz.
            “Yes, it does,” answered Sarel flatly. “If a 
  demon is summoned, the summoner has created a 
  temporary conduit, enabling the demon’s spirit to 
  travel between the planes of existence. Even if the 
  fiend escapes, the damage it can cause in its astral 
  form is limited. Like a ghost, it does not entirely exist 
  on our plane. It needs a willing host, like the one we 
  encountered in Isegoth. Even then it is bound by the 
  physical properties and powers of the host. But if the 
  powers of Hell discovered a weak point in the wards 
  put in place after the Demon Wars, like a hole in a 
  dam, water will seep through, weakening the already 
  compromised area. In this case, the dark energies of 
  the nether planes are the water, and they are 
  weakening the dam between Hell and earth.”
            Sarel let this information sink in for a while 
  before continuing. “I suspect Crux was sent through 
  the rift, and as you said, each soul it takes increases 
  its power. That is partially correct. The more blood the 
  demon takes, the more minions it will be able to 
  conjure. But it is likely channeling most of the power 
  it gathers to whatever lord of Hell is holding the rift 
  open, which in turn is being used to enlarge the rift. 
  Eventually it will be large enough to permit more 
  powerful denizens of the fire plane to enter our 
  world.”
            “So what you are saying is even if we kill this 
  Crux, its masters will just send another demon in its 
  stead?” Garelgar shook his head in disbelief. “It keeps 
  getting worse!”
            “Well, killing the demon’s physical form and 
  sending its spirit back to Hell will be a temporary 
  victory. Some of its own energies are being channeled 
  into the rift, but you’re right. Eventually another will 
  be sent,” answered the frost elf. “The demon must 
  posses an artifact of some sort, a weapon or an 
  amulet that acts as a magical bridge or conduit. This 
  artifact must be identified and either destroyed or 
  sent back through the rift. That will likely create a 
  vacuum that will destroy the tear and seal it, but 
  either the priests of Beordin or the druids can better 
  judge that than me. How do you propose we find this 
  demon, Garelgar?”
            Picking up a stick, Garelgar drew a map in the 
  dirt. He glanced at Khaz, who was now snoring. “If 
  
  24
  the demon continues on its present course, ranging 
  further north out of Zauurcrag, the next village in line 
  is Allura, around the time of the Gourd Festival and All 
  Hallows Eve.”  Garelgar drew a line through the circles 
  indicating the villages. “Allura is a town, not as big as 
  Voth, but it still has hundreds of residents. The 
  carnage could be devastating.”
            Sarel took a deep breath before asking, “What 
  do you intend to do, Captain Janlyn?
  Have you considered the possibility of evacuating 
  Allura?”
            “Allura’s town elders have been made aware 
  of the potential danger, and some residents have left, 
  but I fear the demon will just proceed past Allura and 
  attack Voth.” Garelgar drew another line in the dirt, 
  indicating Voth’s proximity to Allura. 
            “I intend to take a small force,” Garelgar 
  continued, “perhaps twenty men, so as not to be too 
  conspicuous, composed mostly of my company and 
  Amir’s scouts. It will be bolstered by the priests of 
  Beordin and yourselves.” Garelgar indicated Sarel and 
  the sleeping dwarf. “We will wait for the demon to 
  attack. Unless you can think of anything else?”
            “No, Captain, I can’t think of anything else. Not 
  without the help of powerful sorcery. I will help in any 
  way I can; I don’t have to sleep on it. However,” Sarel 
  continued, pointing to Khaz with his thumb, “I can’t 
  speak for the dwarf.”
            “If I hit these Hellborn bastards with my axe, 
  will they bleed?” Khaz spoke groggily, startling both 
  Sarel and Garelgar, who assumed the snoring dwarf 
  was asleep.
            “Yes,” answered the frost elf.
            “Then I’m in! Bring em on,” answered Khaz 
  before rolling over on the broad piece of granite, 
  hugging his beloved axe to his chest. Within seconds, 
  he was snoring again.
            “Well, you two should rest,” said Garelgar as he 
  stood and stretched. “I will go and see if Amir needs 
  relief. At daybreak, we will leave for the garrison, and 
  then on to Allura.” The Captain turned and strode 
  away from the fire, before turning back to the frost elf 
  and Khaz. “Thank you,” he said before disappearing 
  within the deep shadows of the massive redwoods.
            “You trust this human, Sar?” Asked Khaz 
  without rolling over.
            Sarel leaned back against the same stone the 
  dwarf was reclining on before answering. “I see no 
  reason not to Khaz. Not yet.”
            The frost elf closed his eyes, letting the night 
  sounds and the crackling fire lull him into a state of 
  relaxation, a state that passed for sleep as far as 
  elves were concerned. 
  ***
              Drool Knashmemnon, the high plague 
  demon, moved ponderously down the narrow bridge, 
  chittering to herself in the throat-tearing language of 
  Hell.
            Lesser demons hastened from the grotesque 
  creature’s path, while some circled above in the thin, 
  oxygen-deprived air, not wishing to incur some hellish 
  disease. 
            Eight spidery legs supported its bulbous 
  arachnid-like body, and each leg ended in a cruelly 
  curved claw. An oozing stinger at the back of her body 
  twitched in the intense heat from the molten lava 
  rivers on either side of the bridge.
            Between the two foremost legs was a 
  misshapen torso, human in shape but covered in open 
  sores and cancerous lumps. The foul smelling, yellow 
  puss oozing from these wounds marked the creature’s 
  black hide.          
            Bloated flies buzzed about its beaked, vulture-
  like head while beady red eyes focused on a swirling 
  wall of black nothingness rising in front of her. Gripped 
  tightly in her taloned right hand was a spiked, elf-hide 
  whip, its handle fashioned from a human thighbone.
            Clearing the cloud of flies from her vision with 
  a wave of her scorpion-clawed left hand, the demon of 
  decay called softly into the black void before her. 
            “Cruxuzule Mamnibia.” Her voice trailed off 
  to a moist rattle, which turned into a body racking 
  cough. Vile Phlegm and diseased flies shot from her 
  open beak as an image began to form in the swirling 
  blackness.
            Looking back at her from the void were two 
  fiery red eyes, set deep within a baboon like head. 
  They were the eyes of Cruxuzule Mamnibia, blood 
  demon and champion of Hell.
            Cruxuzule lowered its head respectfully, 
  answering in a rumbling voice, “Yes, my lady?”
            “You have done well, my rampaging sweet,” 
  said Drool as if speaking to a child. “You have 
  enlarged and strengthened the rift considerably, and 
  Zaranoth is pleased.” Once again her grotesque body 
  shook with hacking spasms.
            “Thank you, my Queen,” Crux responded 
  subserviently.
            “Even now, champions and priests gather at 
  your next conquest, the human settlement known 
  as Allura.” She spat the last word, as if it tasted bad. 
  “Zaranoth has bid me send you what minions I can, 
  to ensure your conquest. I present to you, my dear 
  berserker, a score of daemokdelance!”
            Drool Knashmemnon’s great bulk shambled 
  aside, revealing twenty demonic soldiers standing on 
  the bridge behind her. 
            The great wolf-like demons waited patiently. 
  They stood ten feet tall on their hind legs, their red 
  Hell-metal armor emblazoned with the horned and 
  fanged skull insignia of the ancient demon lords of 
  Zauurcrag. Resting on their backs, between their 
  leathery wings, were black metal cleavers inscribed 
  with evil looking red glyphs.
            The Queen of disease motioned for the 
  daemokdelance to file into the violently swirling 
  rift. As the last beast was about to pass through, 
  Drool reached out with her right hand, causing the 
  Eight spidery legs supported its bulbous arachnid-like body, and each leg ended in a cruelly 
  curved claw. An oozing stinger at the back of her body twitched in the intense heat from the 
  molten lava rivers on either side of the bridge.
  [                                      ]
  
  25
  daemokdelance to cringe. The course hair of the 
  demon’s shoulder fell out, and the flesh beneath 
  instantly began to decay. She handed the cringing 
  demon her whip, and then pushed the creature into 
  the void, which puckered and wavered violently.
  ***
            Deep beneath the ruins of Zauurcrag, 
  Cruxuzule stood back as the daemokdelance filed out 
  of the rift, using their wings to soften the fall to the 
  hard rock floor of the large cavern. The floor of the 
  ancient torture chamber was now broken and uneven, 
  as large cracks zigzagged their way from wall to wall, 
  and steam poured out of the natural thermal vents. A 
  hellish red glow from the pockets of magma running 
  below the fissures lit the chamber.
            Crux heard Drool’s voice distantly and weakly 
  as the last bestial soldier came hurtling out of the 
  black nothingness to land unceremoniously on the 
  floor with an audible crunch of bone and clatter of 
  armor. “Use these gifts well, my bloodletting lovely!” 
  she said before the link between earth and Hell was 
  severed.
            Vomiting, the last daemokdelance forced itself 
  to all fours and crawled to Cruxuzule’s feet, leaving 
  clumps of bloody hair and flesh behind it as the 
  decay and disease from its shoulder spread rapidly. 
  The dying creature presented the blood demon with 
  Drool’s whip before falling sideways into one of the 
  thermal fissures.
            Behind the blood demon, huddled in a small 
  recess in the stone wall, were several naked, bloody, 
  half-dead human prisoners from Rihl and Menda. All 
  of them were bordering on insanity from their ordeal. 
  They were guarded by Cruxuzule’s blood gargoyles, 
  and they had already witnessed some of their number 
  being eaten alive.
            Turning from the assembled daemokdelance, 
  Crux motioned for the gargoyles to herd a single 
  human away from the rest. Using its tail, one of the 
  gargoyles slapped at the closest human, a teenage 
  girl, who fell forward onto her knees. She looked up 
  at the whip-wielding demon before scrambling to her 
  feet and running toward one of the steaming fissures.
            Cruxuzule lashed out with supernatural speed, 
  and the whip wrapped around the screaming girl’s 
  waist. As she screamed in terror, the flesh of her 
  midsection turned black and began to decay. The 
  blood demon slowly pulled back on the whip, tearing 
  her flesh with the bone spikes, which filled the hot 
  chamber with the scent of fresh blood and rot.
            Clamping a huge clawed hand atop the 
  human’s head, Crux silenced the annoying screaming 
  with a sickening crunch. Tearing the girl’s head from 
  her body, the demon held the ruined skull above its 
  upturned open maw, allowing the blood and pulp to 
  drip down on its red tongue, nectar squeezed from an 
  overripe fruit.
            Casting the head aside, Cruxuzule Mamnibia 
  motioned for the wolf-like demons to sate their 
  hunger with the rest of the human captives.
  ***TO BE CONTINUED***
            
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=131
  
  26
  About the Author
  Alicia (Lynxara) writes the webcomic Fantasy Wars and the RPG Wars comic strips for the Silven Trumpeter. She graduated from Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia in 
  2002 with a major in Religion &  Philosophy and is currently a graduate student at Radford University in Radford, Virginia. When not changed to her word processor, her 
  hobbies include anime, video games, and of course, role-playing.
  About the Artist
  Elizabeth Ellis (KouAidou) draws the webcomic Fantasy Wars and the RPG Wars comic strips for the Silven Trumpeter. She graduated from the University of Maryland 
  with a major in Japanese in 2003 and is currently at large. When not shackled to her art supplies, her hobbies include anime, translating, and of course, role-playing.
  
  27
  About the Author
  Dana has a variety of different interests, some of the most 
  important being reading, writing, learning, and playing D&D. 
  She is currently a graduate student working on her PhD in 
  linguistics at State University of New York: Stony Brook, with 
  her undergraduate work in Literature, Writing, and Women’s 
  Studies.
  Contact the Author
  adriayna@yahoo.com
  Review
  variant ruleset for The Pool by James V. West.  Even 
  so, the game is self-contained and playable without 
  having a copy of The Pool lying around.
  The Snowball engine is collaboration-based—both 
  the GM and players have a say in how the game 
  processes.   Other mechanics in the game are based 
  on a dice pool system, so have your d6’s handy. 
  Gameplay progresses through a set of scenes, much 
  like you may find when reading a play.   Several 
  scenes can take place at once—and with the reverse 
  rules, most of these scenes progress in a backwards-
  linear fashion.  
  Characters are determined by a loose set of traits—no 
  hard numbers are involved during character creation.   
  Traits are distinctive features of a character—these 
  traits can be improved or lost over time through 
  normal gameplay.   
  Included in the chapter is an example of play.  This is 
  a great way for new players and GMs to see not only 
  how the game is played, but also what the game is 
  capable of doing.  
  Overall, I’m impressed with the creativity expressed 
  through Snowball.  The mechanics seem simple, yet 
  Look and Feel
  The soft-cover book is 146 pages and has a black and 
  white interior.  Unlike most other indie products, it is 
  your more standard RPG book size—8.5” by 11”.  Not 
  that this matters in any way except for the fact that it 
  will fit neatly on your shelf with your other ”standard-
  size” books.   The binding appears to be pretty solid—
  I toted the book across five states after Gen Con and 
  it arrived without much wear and tear.  
  The artwork contained within is quite interesting—
  each of the different RPGs within the book has its 
  own artistic flair.   Each RPG has an opening logo 
  introducing the game and unique side border on each 
  page that sets it apart from the rest.  These borders 
  not only help brighten up the white space but also 
  help you to discern one game from another when 
  quickly flipping through.   Other than the logo and the 
  borders, there is little artwork, however.  Unique fonts 
  and headings help keep it interesting.  
  And with that quick look at the physical properties of 
  the book, lets delve into the goods!
  Snowball
  By Alexander Cherry
  If you have ever seen the movie Memento, the 
  premise behind Snowball should be familiar.  The 
  essence of Snowball is an attempt to create 
  backward-storytelling—a concept where you start 
  at the end of a story and work your way back to the 
  beginning.  A second ”normal” mode allows the game 
  to be played in a more linear fashion. Snowball is a 
  Edited by: Luke Crane
  More info/Purchase: www.nopress.net
  Reviewed by: Dana Driscoll
  Reviewer Bias: I received a review copy of this 
  product.  
  Introduction
  The No Press RPG Anthology  contains eight original, 
  complete, short-form role-playing games by some 
  of the top indie RPG designers.  Contributors to this 
  unique anthology include Universalis co-author Mike 
  Holmes, Fvlminata co-author Michael S. Miller, and 
  Fastlane creator Alexander Cherry.  Games included 
  within the anthology include Snowball, Discernment, 
  Pretender, WTF?, The Agency, Pagoda, Cell Gama, 
  and Over the Bar.   To my knowledge, this book is 
  the first of its kind—a totally new look at what RPG 
  games have to offer in the form of short RPGs buy a 
  number of different authors.   This review will give an 
  overview of each of the contained RPGs in detail and 
  conclude with overall impressions.  
  If I could describe the No Press RPG Anthology in one 
  word, it would be inspiration.  Some form of media 
  has inspired all the developers of these games—and 
  this inspiration eventually developed into something 
  they could share with others.   And indeed the NPA 
  has inspired to me as a gamer; it has inspired me 
  to try new genres and push the limits of what role-
  playing is about.
  Product Spotlight: No Press RPG Anthology
  by Dana Lynn Driscoll
  
  28
  solid.  I certainly loved Memento and am looking 
  forward to escaping linearity and trying this game out!
  Discernment
  By Michael S. Miller
  Taking a radical departure from Snowball, 
  Discernment is ”a role-playing game of grasping 
  after the truth.”  In a sense, Discernment is like the 
  ultimate lab experiment; it is a game where a single 
  player is the subject of an experiment by a group of 
  scholars.  The scholars (all the rest of the players at 
  the table) are to determine the quality of the soul of 
  the individual in question (soul quality is chosen at the 
  start of the game by the subject and kept in secret 
  from the other players).  The scholars each formulate 
  a hypothesis of two soul-qualities they wish to test 
  the subject for (in secret) and take turns creating and 
  executing the a scenario to prove or disprove their 
  hypothesis. Essentially, the game is played with three 
  ”layers” of reality—the gamers themselves, the role 
  of subject and scholar, and finally the scenario-level 
  where the subject must interact with the scenario the 
  scholars have created.
  Actions and scenes are resolved through a token 
  bidding system.  The scholars pool their bids against 
  the subject—if the scholars have more tokens, the 
  lead scholar determines an outcome of a scene.  If the 
  subject wins, she instead gets to resolve the conflict.   
  The game ends if one of two things happen—the 
  subject becomes fully ”aware” of the tests and ends 
  the game, or the scholars are able to correctly guess 
  the hypothesis.  Additionally, there is a point system 
  kept by the subject.  At the end of the game (either 
  way) the subject tallies the total score and announces 
  the ”Scholar Emeritus” who gets to decide the final 
  fate of the subject.
  One thing I don’t necessarily like about the game is 
  the way that the ”lead scholar” is determined at the 
  start of the game.  It is determined by who is the 
  most published author in the group, and so if you 
  are always playing with the same group, the most 
  published author among you will always have the lead 
  scholar advantage.    Other than that, however, it is a 
  game that I’m itching to try out.  
  Pretender
  By Kirt Dankmyer
  Pretender is a game set in an alternative 1980’s 
  universe in which you are a supernatural being who 
  is ”pretending” to be a human.  Pretenders do not 
  change or alter the world around them, rather they 
  are on a path of both coolness and self-discovery.  
  The game is rather freeform and focuses on extreme 
  personalities, role-play, and looking as cool as 
  possible.   
  Characters are created in a free-form discussion 
  at the start of the game via consensus.  Topics 
  include—What type of game is this going to be?  
  What is everyone playing? Next, you create more 
  details of the world and the connections between 
  the characters.  Each character also has a set of 
  elemental statistics, which, like the other aspects of 
  the game, are decided on rather than predetermined 
  by the rules.  In conjunction, characters choose 
  specialties—specific positive abilities that they can do.  
  Once everyone is happy, the game begins.  
  The game is a dice pool game that has a classic GM 
  position.  You assign dice to different categories—
  successes mean you get to determine that particular 
  element of the roll.  For example there are narration, 
  motion, safety, and style dice.  The game does 
  not utilize different mechanics for combat, and 
  advancement, if used at all, is determined by 
  consensus. 
  Pretender is an interesting concept, but I get the 
  feeling that almost too much is attempting to go on 
  within the system.  I particularly like the consensus 
  elements of the game, as these encourage players to 
  work together and allow the group collectively to set 
  the power level, type of game, and ideas for plot.   
  Interview with Luke Crane, Editor of the 
  No Press RPG Anthology
  Conducted by Dana Driscoll
  We got a chance to ask Luke Crane, Editor of the No Press 
  RPG Anthology <www.nopress.net> and mastermind 
  behind the Burning Wheel <www.burningwheel.org> a 
  few questions about the No Press RPG Anthology.  This 
  interview was conducted through email on September 
  14th.  We thank Luke for taking time out of his busy 
  schedule to talk with us about this great new book!
  Silven:  Was the No Press RPG Anthology your idea?  
  If so, how did you come up with the idea?
  I was reading the game design forums over at indie-
  rpgs.com about a year ago. There are so many good ideas 
  in that forum. Jon Walton had just posted another version 
  of his Facedancer RPG. It was two pages, half-finished, 
  earnest, artful, and damn interesting. Right then and 
  there I got bitten by the bug: let’s publish these things.
  So I started a ”Let’s Do It!” thread in the publishing forum 
  there and started to hash out the details. The idea wasn’t 
  original. Many attempts had been made before me, and I 
  did meet a fair bit of foot dragging and resistance. But we 
  eventually came to a consensus and managed to agree on 
  a format, the financial aspects, and a rough deadline.
  The cool thing is that you can still go back and read all 
  those threads and see how it developed. Some of them 
  are pretty embarrassing.
  Silven: Where did the name ”No Press” come from?  
  The No Press name came after Ron and Clinton [from 
  indie-rpgs.com] told us we couldn’t use their forums/
  icon/IP to brand the game. They have a really strong 
  following so many of us thought it would be best to brand 
  the anthology as ”From the Forge” or something like that. 
  But they outright refused (I think they were right to now). 
  So we were stuck without a working title or a brand. The 
  No Press moniker came out of a burst of ”fuck it!” energy 
  right there. If we couldn’t use their brand, we’d make 
  our own. And our brand was a phantom brand, born from 
  magnificent half-formed ideas and bad html code and 
  forged into playable and rockin’ games. There certainly 
  was no press in its future. Or so we thought.
  
  29
  WTF?
  By Daniel Solis.
  WTF is termed a ”game of competitive schizo-
  storytelling” that can be layered upon another RPG 
  or played as a stand-alone system.  In this inverse-
  style role-playing game, there is only one player 
  character—the star—and a bunch of GMs/directors 
  all fighting for control over both the story and the 
  star.    Note that each director has her own storyline 
  the star is participating in—creating a very hectic 
  and convoluted game!   Each director takes ”turns” 
  (usually 5-10 minutes real-time) directing her part of 
  the story.
  While I understand the nature of WTF, a good 
  example of play (as included in the first three 
  games) would have helped solidify the mechanics 
  and workings of the game.   Even  so, this is another 
  unique game I’m interested in trying out.  
  The Agency
  By Matt Matchell
  The Agency is a 1960’s style game described in 
  the introduction as ”Austin Powers meets Buffy the 
  Vampire Slayer.”  The basic premise of the game is 
  that characters are secret agents who are attempting 
  to thwart the supernatural menace and save 
  humanity!   
  The game has a director (GM) and players in the 
  traditional sense and uses a dice pool system.  
  Characters are created through concepts—each 
  player comes up with a character concept that will 
  determine what skills the character has, the purpose 
  of the character, the character’s relationship with the 
  Agency, and more.  Each character must also take 
  a bonus and a flaw—both something that makes 
  the character stand out and something that causes 
  the character trouble.  A decent list of both bonuses 
  and flaws are included to choose from.  Examples 
  of characters are included to clarify and expand 
  character creation guidelines.   
  The game also gives a wealth of information for the 
  director.  This includes information on the setting 
  (stylized 1960’s England) and what is happening 
  in the rest of the world.  Not only does this gives a 
  director ideas for where to take the game, it also 
  helps flesh out the setting and ”feel” the game has to 
  offer.    Even more impressive, the game gives hints 
  about types of scenarios you can use in your Agency 
  game and a list of elements that good scenarios have.   
  It includes some scenario ideas to get you started.    
  Prominent villains, supernatural villains, the Agency’s 
  most wanted, and important members of the Agency 
  are also detailed in the game.  
  Of all of the games presented in this book, The 
  Agency is one of the most solid and fleshed-out.    It 
  covers everything g from damage and wounds to car 
  chases and scenarios!
  One of the things I like about this game is the ”feel” 
  presented both graphically and through the memos 
  located throughout the game.   
  Pagoda
  By Jeffrey Schecter
  Pagoda is a fast-paced martial arts game that focuses 
  both on flashy combat and the reason behind why 
  the characters fight—their motivations, goals, pasts, 
  and futures.   It is a game with a very strong eastern 
  flare, fitting for the wuxia genre and the game itself.
  Characters are determined in three ”degrees”—
  elements, aspects, and paths.  Elements are just 
  that—opposing forces of elemental power.  Each 
  character has mastery of one element, harmony with 
  two more, and sense the final two.    Aspects are 
  similar to traditional character stats—power,  grace, 
  cunning, awareness, and presence.  Finally, paths 
  are specific training paths (both combative and non-
  combative).  Each character must also choose a flaw 
  and a zodiac sign to be complete.  
  The game is a modified dice pool system—rolling 
  doubles, triples, or beyond is the path to success.   
  Silven: How did you gather the submissions for the 
  project?
  The submission process was completely open. I posted a 
  thread in the publishing forum on indie-rpgs.com. There 
  wasn’t even really an approval process, the game simply 
  had to be short, complete, playable and playtested. If it 
  met those simple criteria, it went in.
  It was risky, but who the hell was I to say if someone’s 
  game was crap or not? Tastes vary widely in our hobby 
  and that’s cool.
  So people who had shortform games on the backburner 
  came out and offered their precious gems.  Once 
  submitted, the games were all professionally edited. 
  I think it was an enlightening process for many of the 
  authors.
  Silven:  What is your favorite short RPG in the book?
  Well, I personally solicited two games for the anthology, 
  Pagoda and ’My
  Hat of d02 Know No Limit’. D02 didn’t make it because the 
  author was busy with other stuff, and it needed editing (to 
  make it MORE weird and unreadable, not less).
  So Pagoda was my pick. Jeff Schecter is 15. He had to ask 
  his parents’ permission if he could get published. I think 
  that’s awesome. I’m so jealous!
  But as I got more involved in the production of the 
  anthology, I really fell in love with Discernment and Cell 
  Gamma. They are two cutting edge games.
  Silven:   Are there any plans in the future for a 
  second volume?
  Absolutely. But the damn thing took a lot of freaking work. 
  It was a highly unpleasant experience to be publishing 
  two books at once -- the NPA and the Monster Burner. 
  So I need to better structure my time and publishing 
  schedule. Next time around I’m squeezing that evil genius 
  Jared Sorensen for a game, and I’m twisting Ron Edwards’ 
  pinkie toe until he gives me a short one.
  
  30
  The more repetition in numbers on the dice, the more 
  successful the action.    A second important mechanic 
  in the game is Chi, allowing the character to modify 
  his rolls in order to push himself to greater heights.   
  A final element that makes the game more interesting 
  is spirit magic, utilized by shamans and sorcerers.  
  For a combat game, the rules could be a bit clearer—
  but once you read through them once or twice and 
  try them out, they make sense.   Overall I find this 
  wuxia-based game both highly creative and appealing.  
  Cell Gama
  By Mike Holmes
  Cell Gama is a game in which the main characters 
  know nothing—not even the game they are playing!  
  Characters wake up imprisoned—and slowly discover 
  more about the world and themselves  as the game 
  progresses.   The game is truly built around the 
  characters as, without even knowing it, they create 
  the reality of the game.  
  The actual write-up of Cell Gama presents only the 
  basic mechanics and facts—the who, what, why, 
  when, and how is up to the game master.    It is 
  a game essentially without rules—characters are 
  created as the play progresses, dice are used to 
  determine successes, and actions can be resolved.   
  Cell Gama does include a list of important NPCs that 
  inhabit the prison, the major areas that the prison 
  contains, specific prison events (regular events, 
  special exercises, experiments).  
  The GM has a very important role within the game of 
  Cell Gama—a role to both facilitate the game but also 
  to lead the characters to victory.  Information can be 
  presented to the characters in many ways: memories, 
  breakdowns, cultural and environmental clues.
  Cell Gama is a game I’m axious to try out some 
  night when my group is least expecting it.  Its a well-
  But the priority right now is to promote what we have. It’s 
  only a month old and it has a long life ahead of it. I may 
  be wrong, but I think it’s the first of its kind—n anthology 
  of short-form RPGs by different authors. There are years 
  worth of good play material in there.
  To purchase the No Press Anthology or to learn more 
  information about the game, you can visit the NPA site at 
  http://www.nopress.net. 
  executed  and extremely interesting concept.  Perhaps 
  the only downfall I can see to this game is the fact 
  that it may not work as well the second time around if 
  you attempt to play it with the same group again.  
  Over the Bar
  By Ben Lehman
  The final game presented in the No Press RPG 
  Anthology is a short RPG to play anywhere alcoholic 
  drinks are available.  Essentially, each player picks 
  a major and minor ability, hobby, and deficiency for 
  the character.  The game progresses through the 
  consumption of alcohol—usually the fastest drinker 
  wins!  The final game is a lighthearted way to end this 
  fabulous book!
  Closing Thoughts
  I wasn’t sure what to expect when Luke Crane 
  excitedly handed me this book at Gen Con to review.  
  In fact, I didn’t get a chance to even pursue it until 
  after the con was over.  I must say, this book has 
  really blown me away!  I am amazed at the variety, 
  quality, and sheer amount of RPG goodness that has 
  been packed into the No Press RPG Anthology.  In 
  fact, I’ll go as far to say that this is a book that should 
  belong on any RPG fan’s shelves.  It will open your 
  eyes up to what RPGs can really become and pushes 
  the envelope of how we define RPGs today.  
  The forward of the book, written by Sorcerer designer 
  Ron Edwards, describes this book as full of ”sparks.”  
  These games are each sparks in a sense—they will 
  appeal to a diverse bunch of gamers, they were 
  written purely for fun and enjoyment, and they 
  cover many different genres.   Some of these games 
  appealed to me more than others—but I’m sure that 
  for every gamer, there are several games that he 
  or she will enjoy.  So what are you still reading for?  
  Order the book today and give your group something 
  to get excited about! 
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/otherrpgs.asp?case=show&id=416
  
  31
  The Many Faces of Gaming: Gay-mers
  This is the inaugural piece in a new column devoted 
  to the many subgroups and communities in the 
  gaming world.  Each month, the column will explore 
  a different group in the hopes of increasing diversity 
  and exposing readers to people they never knew 
  existed.  The subject of this month’s column is gay 
  gamers.
  In the last ten years, attitudes towards gay, lesbian, 
  bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) individuals have 
  shifted considerably.  Positions concerning these 
  lifestyles vary widely from complete acceptance to 
  rejection and condemnation.  Some insist that these 
  lifestyles are immoral, corruptive and violate the 
  laws of nature.  Others hold that they are natural, 
  have existed since the dawn of humanity and are a 
  part of everyday life.  The position of this article will 
  tend toward the latter viewpoint.  While this is not 
  an attempt to legitimize GLBT lifestyles, readers will 
  derive little from it if they remain intolerant.  
  With changing attitudes towards GLBT individuals, 
  a new issue has arisen in the gaming community 
  – gay gamers.  This raises any number of questions. 
  Why is the presence of gay gamers significant? 
  What is the current gaming landscape like for GLBT 
  individuals? Should gamers make more of an effort 
  to include GLBT characters in their games?  How can 
  gamers – regardless of sexual identity – portray more 
  convincing and more realistic GLBT characters in their 
  games? 
  The first question that needs to be addressed is 
  “Why is the presence of gay gamers significant?” 
  There are a number of answers to this question, but 
  one of the biggest is homophobia.  A short jaunt to 
  Counter-Strike will prove that homophobia is alive and 
  well.  The common use of the word “gay” to denote 
  something that is stupid, uncool, or redundant is 
  rampant.  Many, when confronted with their use of 
  this term, suggest that no offense to homosexuals 
  is intended and that the word’s negative connotation 
  has nothing to do with its more standard meaning.  
  This unfortunate state of affairs sheds light on the 
  all-pervasive nature of homophobia in society: even 
  rather tolerant people, who consider themselves 
  above expressions of racism and bigotry, are 
  comfortable with expressions of homophobia simply 
  because it is legitimized by those around them.  
  The negative use of the term gay is the least 
  expression of homophobia in the gaming world.  Bald-
  faced homophobia is expressed on even the most 
  mainstream gaming sites, including our very own 
  Silven Crossroads.  While great strides have been 
  made to increase awareness and tolerance, true 
  hatred and fear still exist.  This is the real reason 
  that gamers must be aware of this issue.  It’s easy 
  to sit back and ignore ignorance and prejudice when 
  it doesn’t target you, but it takes a great deal more 
  guts to stand up for someone else.  Gamers must 
  remain aware of this issue because they are likely to 
  be confronted with it.  
  The other major reason that this issue matters is that 
  most gamers, at some point in their lives, will game 
  with someone who is GLBT.  Unfortunately, this simple 
  fact about a person is likely to have an effect on the 
  game.  If everyone in the group was comfortable with 
  the GLBT individual, this effect would be minimal, 
  however, this is frequently not the case.  Even if this 
  discomfort is not openly expressed, some member 
  of a gaming group may act differently around a gay 
  member.  This is to everyone’s detriment, as the 
  game will suffer.  Many gay gamers’ biggest complaint 
  is that they don’t feel comfortable being themselves 
  in a hetero-dominated role-playing environment.  This 
  results in awkward, unpleasant games.  If a member 
  of a gaming group is not comfortable with another 
  member – for any reason – they should talk about 
  it.  Some people will always have a hard time relating 
  to those that are different from them.  Unfortunately, 
  the onus is not on gay gamers to ignore this 
  – most people are different from them.  Honesty 
  and discussion may be awkward and painful in the 
  beginning, but it will lead to much better gaming 
  down the line.  Besides, one never knows who else in 
  the gaming circle might share your concerns.  
  The second question that needs to be considered is 
  “What is the current gaming landscape like for GLBT 
  individuals?”  At the present, white heterosexual 
  males dominate the gaming industry, and GLBT-
  friendly material is scarce in gaming.  This is 
  beginning to change however, but slowly. The 
  gaming world seems to lag behind other forms of 
  entertainment when it comes to change.  There have 
  been few gay characters in mainstream novels and 
  movies – though this is increasing – yet they remain 
  extremely rare in fantasy novels and RPG products.   
  Perhaps because of the very nature of pen and 
  paper role-playing – the idea of resisting the use of 
  technology in place of more archaic utensils – lends 
  itself to anachronistic tendencies.  This does not 
  appear to be the case, however, with video games.  
  While gay characters and scenarios are rather rare in 
  by Eytan Bernstein
  About the Authour
  Eytan Bernstein is a High School social studies teacher 
  on Long Island. He enjoys RPGs, writing fantasy fiction, 
  movies, and making up unique words. He has previously 
  been published as a poet and is also an accomplished 
  pianist/songwriter. He hopes to someday make it as a game 
  designer/fantasy writer.
  Contact the Authour
  manablast@aol.com
  General RPG
  
  32
  video games, they are becoming more common, even 
  in those based on role-playing games.   The recent 
  Temple of Elemental Evil game offered a quest in 
  which success allowed one of the male characters to 
  marry a male NPC. In Star Wars: Knights of the Old 
  Republic, female Jedi may find themselves being hit 
  on by other female Jedi.  The Sims have always had 
  a variety of options for same-sex gaming, and such 
  options are becoming more detailed.  
  There have been a number of characters in video 
  games that were either out or suspected to be gay.  
  Eagle in the Street Fighter games – a handsome, 
  buff bobby in full getup – was revealed to be gay, 
  something long suspected by some players.  Some 
  have suggested that the relationship between Guile 
  and Charlie was hardly platonic.  There are a variety 
  of other examples, but the important thing about 
  these examples is the source.  Many of the gay or 
  gay-friendly characters in video games are coming 
  out of Japan, where gender is a much fuzzier subject.  
  Male characters in many amine or Japanese video 
  games have slightly effeminate qualities.  This 
  blurring of gender boundaries leads to a greater 
  occurrence of GLBT characters or experiences 
  – Cloud’s cross-dressing to complete a mission in Final 
  Fantasy VII for example.
  While video games have experimented to at least a 
  small degree with the possibility of GLBT characters 
  and experiences, fantasy novels and RPGs have been 
  rather timid.  There are a few, such the character 
  Imoen from the Baldur’s Gate novels, who has 
  a romance with a drow matron.  The forty or so 
  Shadowrun novels have a much better track record 
  with regards to GLBT characters.  Steven Kenson and 
  Mel Odom have significant gay characters in their 
  novels; Kenson’s books actually have a gay main 
  character: Talon.  One of the strengths of these novels 
  is that the sexuality of the characters is incidental to 
  their success and professionalism.  Outside of these 
  few examples, however, GBLT characters are hard to 
  find. 
  For the most part, gaming products rarely even 
  acknowledge the existence of GLBT characters.  The 
  one example of a book that does is The Book of Erotic 
  Fantasy, and we all know how Wizards of the Coast 
  reacted to that product. While the book only devotes 
  a small section to gay characters, it takes the right 
  approach.  It suggests that the sexual identity of 
  a character can have nothing to do with the daily 
  activities of that character.  Romances may exist, 
  but given most players’ tendencies to avoid in-game 
  intimacy, it is generally not an issue.  Some intrepid 
  players and open-minded GMs may wish to explore 
  nontraditional relationships, but it’s not a necessity.   
  It would be nice, however, if options for such 
  exploration existed.  The Dungeons & Dragons Player’s 
  Handbook doesn’t even mention sexual identity. It is 
  as if this is not a significant aspect of a character – as 
  opposed to attributes, skills, appearance, outlook, 
  or religion.  While D&D is marketed to a large range 
  of age groups, there’s no reason to reject The Book 
  of Erotic Fantasy – a book that is clearly targeting a 
  more adult audience.  
  The lack of GLBT-friendly gaming material should not 
  indicate that the GLBT is absent on the radar.  There 
  are numerous online websites and groups devoted to 
  gay gamers or “gay-mers.”  Such sites include http://
  gamers.experimentations.org/, www.alloutgames.com 
  (the Gay Gamer/Straight Gamer Alliance), 
  www.gaymer.com and others.  These sites typically 
  offer a message board for gay gamers and encourage 
  the promotion of tolerance in gaming as part of 
  their mission.  Yahoo!, Orkut, and other sites have 
  significant gaymer groups.  Gaymers were also well 
  represented at this year’s GenCon.  The Chicago 
  Gay-mers were there – with very cool t-shirts – and 
  participated in the same miniatures demos, card 
  games, and video games as the rest of the attendees.  
  Online GLBT groups do their best to link up gamers, 
  but there is still a great deal of difficulty in the 
  gaming world with this issue.  This brings us to our 
  final question: Should gamers make an effort to 
  include GLBT characters in their games?  The answer 
  relies completely on levels of comfort and intensity 
  of roleplaying.  For your average hack-and-slash 
  game, the sexual identity of a character is probably 
  irrelevant.  For a role-playing intensive game with 
  romance and conflict, this issue might become more 
  important.   It is not surprising that most gamers 
  avoid playing characters of different genders and 
  sexual identities.  For many, gaming is a relaxing 
  activity, and playing something totally alien to them 
  is difficult.  For others, it is a thrill to play a character 
  that is completely different, and playing a character 
  of the opposite sex or with a different sexual identity 
  as no different than playing a barbarian or sorceress.  
  The inclusion of GLBT characters in games depends 
  on the type of game being played and who is playing.  
  In a tolerant atmosphere, players should not feel 
  hesitant to play a GLBT character. If you do decide to 
  play a GLBT character however, there are a number of 
  things to keep in mind. 
  Playing GLBT characters requires a subtle balance 
  between following and breaking from stereotypes.  
  It’s true that many gay men seem to talk with a lisp 
  and that there does seem to be a section of lesbian 
  culture that favors a more butch look. This does not 
  mean that everyone in these groups exhibits these 
  behaviors. There are many nuances and ranges of 
  sexual identity.  The difficulty is drawing the line 
  between stereotype and necessity.  To establish 
  culture, players frequently use overdone accents 
  and speech patterns.  The same is true for moral 
  alignment – the good are often very good and the 
  evil are frequently truly diabolical.  Players do this 
  to establish a better feel for the character, and it is 
  usually better than making no effort to change vocal 
  patterns or mannerisms.  It can be tricky, however, to 
  do this well when it comes to sexual identity.  While 
  it is not unreasonable to have a gay male character 
  with effeminate characteristics or a lesbian character 
  with very masculine qualities, not every GLBT 
  character should follow these lines.  It is easy to use 
  stereotypes to make characters easier to identify, 
  but if they are used too frequently, the characters 
  become caricatures and cease feeling real.  It may be 
  difficult to play a character with subtle characteristics, 
  but at the same time, most players don’t want their 
  characters to seem like role-playing stunts.  Many 
  attempts by male players to play female characters 
  come across this way, and this should be avoided.  
  
  33
  It is helpful, when playing a GLBT character, to 
  think about aspects of that character’s life that 
  pertain to the current situation.  This includes the 
  character’s views on religion, upbringing, childhood 
  and relationships – especially as these relate to sexual 
  identity.  It is also useful to determine when the 
  character knew that he or she was GLBT and how this 
  affected his or her life.  Answering these questions 
  can help steer the character away from stereotypes.  
  It may also broaden your horizons when creating 
  characters. 
  The notion of gay-mers may be new, but at some 
  point, most gamers will play with or encounter in 
  some capacity an openly gay (or lesbian, bisexual, or 
  transgender) player.  The attitude of a gaming group 
  can have a great deal of influence over whether or not 
  a person comes out.  If the attitude is homophobic, 
  with constant use of derogatory terms and expletives 
  concerning GLBT individuals, coming out is unlikely.  If 
  the attitude is tolerant and open-minded, coming out 
  and being open with group is much more likely.   Most 
  gay gamers just want to have fun playing their games 
  and characters, but they feel limited by a culture that 
  forces them to suppress a major aspect of their lives.  
  They lack role models in literature, and most have 
  to struggle to find a balance between comfort and 
  honesty. 
  Role-playing games are a niche market, and while the 
  majority of players and designers seem unwilling to 
  or uninterested in acknowledging other perspectives, 
  a good first step could be significant.  If sexual 
  identity was mentioned, even in passing, it would be 
  an improvement over the current sterile, repressed 
  state of affairs.  It’s hard to understand a company 
  that believes that it has a moral responsibility to keep 
  all sex out of the game but at the same time includes 
  demons, devils, and succubi in its core books.  It 
  is odd that one is acceptable and the other is not.  
  Hopefully, the RPG industry will take note of other 
  industries and expand its content – even if only subtly 
  and gradually.  If this occurs at the same time that 
  society’s acceptance of GLBT individuals expands, 
  perhaps gamers can move forward – albeit ten years 
  or so behind.  If the gaming industry was to make 
  greater efforts to show legitimate GLBT characters, 
  these characters might seem like more of an option to 
  the average gamer.  Is this likely to change the way 
  most groups play? Probably not.  But if it encourages 
  a broader spectrum of characters, it is a success.
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=130
  
  34
  Travinara Part 2
  After breakfast, the twin brothers began their journey 
  south.  Their year-long journey into Travinara had 
  officially begun this morning, once they left the Wizen 
  tree and headed towards Dupaal.  The deer, Chukra, 
  had been very clear in the direction they were to take, 
  and since they had no other plans, it seemed a logical 
  enough course to follow.  They’d never gone so far out 
  of Wellmoore as they would by the end of the day, but 
  this was to be a journey of many new things for them. 
  Their travel capes draped about their necks like shields 
  at their backs. In a manner befitting their being twins, 
  the capes were cut as two portions of the same bolt of 
  cloth.  The tan color came from a dye made from the 
  mud on the shores of Lake Stable.  Parto and Droito 
  wore them with pride at all times as symbols of the 
  home that treated them as though the town itself had 
  born them. 
   
  For two days they walked, just as the deer had told 
  them, when they came upon a road.  No different than 
  any other road they had seen, the path was just a bit 
  wider and the ruts were a bit deeper.  No doubt that 
  this was from the carts and carriages that came in and 
  out of the marketplace of Dupaal.   The free-rolling 
  hillsides that had marked their travel so far made way 
  for the flat, easily traversable land that surrounded 
  the roadway.  The fruit-bearing, traveler-friendly 
  Wandering Willows sporadically marked the sides of 
  the road to let strangers know that all were welcome 
  in Dupaal. 
   
  Just a few hours after finding the road, it led them to 
  the outer edge of Dupaal.  Two days of walking had 
  left them a bit tired, hot, and ready for some food.  
  There was nothing to welcome them, no indication that 
  anyone would notice their arrival.  The only thing that 
  greeted them was a post-mounted, hand-painted sign 
  that read ‘Dupaal’. Their journey had only just begun 
  and already they felt as if they were too far from home 
  to turn back.
   
  At first glance, the town didn’t seem like much they had 
  heard of, but as they got closer to the center of town, 
  it became a more active, commercial place.  The road 
  that they followed sliced straight through the heart of 
  the bustling market where it seemed like everything 
  they could ever need was for sale. 
  The marketplace of Dupaal sold goods of every sort 
  imaginable. There were stands with cakes and pies, 
  others with breads, some sold animal hides, pottery, 
  jewelry, clothing, or even small bits of furniture.  The 
  twins had been to a couple other markets before, 
  but they were nothing compared to what they were 
  witnessing here.
   
  The stories they had heard about the people in Dupaal 
  did not disappoint the pair of travelers.  The people 
  that milled about the marketplace represented a 
  myriad of the continental cultures.  Some wore the 
  darker colors of the northern clans, there were those 
  in regal purple, and even some wore the bright colors 
  of the southern lands.  There were other halflings here, 
  although none that they had ever seen before. Men and 
  women of varying skin colors and even the normally 
  reclusive elves wandered about the town both selling 
  and purchasing goods. 
   
  It was very near the end of the market day and many of 
  the businesses were shutting down.  The boys needed 
  to find a place to eat and to bed down before it got too 
  dark and they couldn’t find their way around.
   
  “I think there’s a place we could stay the night. And 
  perhaps get some food, too.” Parto pointed to an 
  establishment that had a sign over the front door that 
  read ‘Dupaal Inn.’
   
  “Not exactly a creative name, but it will probably do,” 
  Droito replied.  “Let’s see what they have.”
   
  Once they entered the establishment, the crowd 
  inside was much less diverse than it had been in the 
  marketplace.  There were no other halflings or elves 
  and most of the men were of the same light-colored 
  skin.  The man behind the bar appeared to be a not-
  so-jolly fat man who looked like he had just bitten into 
  something so sour that he needed a drink.  But the 
  man didn’t take a drink, he just kept the expression 
  with indifference. 
   
  As they approached the bar to inquire about food and a 
  room, Droito noticed – and pointed out to his brother – 
  a woman leaning against a one of the only lonely spots 
  on a wall on the far side of the room. Long black hair 
  flowed smoothly over her bare shoulders and nearly 
  down to her waist.  She reminded Parto of a cat that 
  had just caught a mouse and finished it off, cleanly.  It 
  would have seemed almost appropriate for a small tail 
  to be hanging from the edge of her mouth.  No one was 
  by Aaron Todd
  About the Author
  Aaron Todd is a devoted husband and Computer Operations 
  Manager in a Philadelphia suburb.  A classically trained 
  literature buff and an award-winning poet, he has turned his 
  attentions over the last year to his long-sought-after career 
  as a novel writer.  With his first work nearly finished, Aaron 
  is actively seeking a publisher and agent.  In his free time 
  Aaron likes to jog, bike ride, read Star Wars novels, and 
  enjoys a challenge at any level.  With Football, Hockey, and 
  Lacrosse as his favorite things to watch, activity is never in 
  short supply.
  Contact the Author
  toddkilgore@netscape.net
  Fiction
  
  35
  speaking to her, but she looked as though she could get 
  the attention of anyone in the room if she chose.  She 
  didn’t appear to notice the halflings. 
   
  “Hey, Parto, she’s got a blue scarf.” Droito pointed out 
  to his brother.  Her body most mostly covered by an 
  aged red peasant blouse and a long skirt that covered 
  more of her than they could see from their vantage 
  point. A light blue scarf wrapped once around her neck, 
  one end trailed down over her ample cleavage, the 
  other end over her back. 
   
  “Yes, she does.  I wonder why Chukra said to avoid 
  her?  She seems quite lovely by the look of her,” 
  Parto replied as he observed her.
   
  “She certainly does.” The tone of Droito’s 
  voice changed as he continued to look at 
  the woman.  He was clearly intrigued. 
   
  “I wonder why no one is talking to her? 
  A pretty girl in a bar with a bunch of guys 
  drinking. You’d think they’d be all over her.” 
  Parto continued to look at her as well.
   
  The woman casually glanced around the room and her 
  eyes caught them looking at her. Feeling like they’d 
  been caught doing something they shouldn’t have, they 
  immediately turned, in sync, back to the bar, where the 
  barkeeper appeared to be waiting for them.
   
  “What’che need, little fellows?”  the large man asked 
  them. 
   
  “We’re looking for some dinner and a room,” Parto 
  began. “And we’re looking for maybe a couple of days 
  work.  We’re just passing through, but we’d like to earn 
  our keep.”
   
  “I can’t help wit the work, but I can help wit the rest.  
  Soup, bread, and ale’ll cost ye each a copper, the 
  room’ll be a grommel for the night.  But you git a night 
  free if ye be stayin a week,” the barkeeper offered.
   
  “Okay, the dinner sounds fine.” Parto took just a 
  moment longer before he remembered Chukra’s words. 
  The deer told them not to stay longer than a week.  
  Strange that he should offer just one day over a week, 
  he thought to himself. 
   
  “But I think we’ll just be a couple of days, so we’ll 
  just pay each night at a time, thanks,” Parto replied 
  politely.
   
  “Fine wit me. Your dinner’ll take a few minutes, ye can 
  have a seat over there, and the waitress’ll bring it over 
  to ye.” The bartender motioned towards a table by the 
  wall.  He then filled two carved wooden mugs from the 
  barrel behind him and set them on the counter. 
   
  Parto pulled out the coppers from 
  his purse and put them on the 
  counter as he reached for the 
  ales.  His brother was still 
  watching the voluptuous 
  woman, and she was 
  watching him, too.
   
  “Come on brother, it’s just 
  about time to eat.” Parto bumped his brother’s right 
  arm with his own left elbow. “I’ve had nothing but flat 
  bread for the last two days. I want some real food.”
   
  “Oh, right, dinner.” Droito woke out of his hypnotic 
  exchange.
   
  The two brothers took their places – Parto on the left 
  side of the table, his brother, the opposite. The table 
  was rather high for them, but it was manageable. 
   
  “So, were you listening to the bartender?  He tried to 
  get us to stay over a week.  Said he’d give us a night 
  free.  That’s kind of strange, isn’t it?”  Parto wasn’t sure 
  if his brother had paid any attention while they were 
  at the bar.
   
  “He did?  Hey, didn’t Chukra tell us not to stay longer 
  than a week?” Droito was mildly paying attention, but 
  was clearly distracted.
   
  “Yes.  Weren’t you paying attention to anything at all 
  just now?” Parto nearly lectured his twin.
  Droito looked around the room, ignoring his sibling’s 
  statement.  Parto could tell what his brother was 
  looking for.  Or rather, ‘who’ he was looking for. 
   
  “Brother, what are you doing?”  Parto tried to get his 
  attention.
   
  “Where’d she go?” Droito said softly.
   
  “Who cares where she went?” Parto replied, even 
  though he could tell his brother wasn’t listening. 
   
  The sound of a voice caught them both off-guard.  They 
  hadn’t even noticed that the woman was now at the 
  edge of their table.  Neither could tell where she had 
  come from, but she was standing there holding two 
  plates with bread and a bowl of soup on each.  She was 
  the waitress. 
   
  “Here’s your dinner.  You boys need anything else?” 
  Her voice was inexplicably serene.  The words came 
  out of her mouth without a hard sound in them.
   
  “Uh, no, thanks, not right now, but we may need a 
  refill on the ales in a bit.”  Droito answered before his 
  brother could.
   
  “Well, if you boys need anything, I’ll be right over 
  there.” She pointed back to the wall where she was 
  standing when they came in. “If you need anything, 
  just wave, and I’ll be right over.” Her voice was 
  comforting; almost maternal, yet sultry.  She turned 
  slowly and walked back towards her post.
   
  Both boys watched every step she took as she found 
  her way back to her previous solitary position.  Every 
  step she took seemed labored, as though she carried 
  a burdening load.  She paused at the bar while the 
  keeper said something to her, then she went back to 
  her seemingly designated spot.  She turned to look 
  at them, and they knew that they had been caught 
  watching again, so they turned their attention to their 
  food. 
   
  About the point where they were each halfway through 
  their meal, a man pulled a chair up to the end of the 
  
  36
  twins’ table and settled into a comfortable position as 
  he easily opened the conversation. “Evenin’, gents.” 
   
  “Hello.” Droito paused chewing for a moment.
   
  “I saw you two looking at that waitress.  She’s 
  something, ain’t she?”  The man spoke forwardly. “She 
  is beautiful, but don’t go any nearer to her than you 
  are now, I tell ya.”
   
  “Why not?”  Droito was very curious now.  This was the 
  second person who told them to avoid the woman.
   
  “Why don’tcha know, boys?  She’s a Siren.  Sure, she’s 
  lovely to look at.  Voice of an angel.  But she’ll sing ya 
  to your own death, she will.  She’ll eat your soul, then 
  wipe her mouth clean with your dignity.  Trust me boys, 
  you want no part of that.” 
   
  “But what’s she doing here?” Parto inquired. “I thought 
  Sirens were water-born?  I thought they tricked sailors, 
  not land folk.”
   
  “Well, mostly, yes, but sometimes, even the most 
  sultry of Sirens get a desire for something more and 
  find themselves on land.  This one’s just stuck now. 
  She stayed around too long on the land and forgot how 
  to swim.  Now, she just works here, picking up souls, 
  whatever she can.  Keeper don’t allow it much, though.  
  Bad for business.” 
   
  “I guess it would be,” Parto agreed.
   
  “So did I hear right that you young men are looking for 
  some work?”  the stranger asked.
   
  “Yes, but how did you know that?  We only just got 
  here, not half an hour ago.”  Parto liked the idea that 
  work was coming to them, but he was curious about 
  where the man’s information came from.  Must have 
  been the bartender, he decided.
   
  “Name’s Marco, by the way,” the man quickly dodged 
  the question.  “I do have some work, if yer interested.  
  It’s not much, but I’ll pay a fair wage, and I’ll only need 
  ye for a few days.”
   
  “What sort of work is it?” Droito finally spoke up.  He 
  had continued to eat while the man spoke to them.
   
  “Well, ye see, I’m building a new barn for my farm on 
  the edge of town, and I’m almost done, but I need some 
  help finishing up and getting stuff moved from the old 
  one.  I had a hired hand helping me out for awhile, but 
  he moved on.  So, you think ye’d be interested?  If not, 
  tell me now and I’ll leave ye to yer food.”
   
  Parto and Droito looked silently at each other for a few 
  moments.  When it came to simple matters and they 
  each wanted to know what the other was thinking, 
  they often only needed to look at each other.  Their 
  eyes could tell each other as much as words would tell 
  anyone else.  
   
  Parto turned back towards Marco, “We’ll take it.  Now 
  exactly how much does it pay, when do you need us 
  there, and where is it?  We’re not from around here, so 
  we need to know exactly how to get there.” Parto liked 
  to be precise.
   
  “I can pay ya each two grommels per day, but I expect 
  to see ye bright and early in the morning.  Around here, 
  after first light comes breakfast, and after breakfast, 
  the work starts, so I want ye both there by the time I’m 
  finishing me breakfast,” he trailed the sentence down, 
  allowing the twins to respond.
   
  “Sounds fine, sure, now how do we get there?” Parto 
  finished the thought for both of them.
   
  “Well, the road that comes into town from the North, 
  yer going to follow that until it comes back out of the 
  town again.  About a half mile outside of town, ye’ll 
  find a road that splits off to the left.  Take that about 
  another half mile til ye see a farmhouse on the right 
  side.  There’s a fenced in portion where ye’ll see me 
  stallions and the old barn.  New barn is 
  right behind it.”
   
  Both young men nodded in acknowledgement.
   
  “Well, gents, then I guess I’ll be seeing ye in the 
  morning,” Marco stood back up and returned his chair 
  to the table he had taken it from.
   
  “See you in the morning, then.” Droito smiled as he 
  acknowledged him.  It was their first job outside of 
  Wellmore.
   
  The boys finished their dinner uninterrupted.  Droito 
  continued to glance at the waitress, and rather 
  perceptibly.  Parto chose to ignore it for the time, 
  although he wondered why his brother seemed so 
  engrossed with the woman. 
   
  “That was some good stew, eh, brother?” Parto asked 
  rhetorically.
   
  “Yes, it was.  Guess we ought to check out our room,” 
  Droito finished the thought for his brother.
   
  “Yeah. It has been a rather long couple of days.  It’ll be 
  nice to sleep in a bed again.”  The two young men got 
  up from their table, paid the bartender for the room 
  and headed up for the night.  Droito watched their 
  waitress as they went.
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=134
  
  37
  Review snapshot
  Archetype: Core Rule Book
  Body: 10 (Game Mechanics): Clean. Better than ever.
  Mind: 11 (Organization): It does not get much better.
  Spirit: 10 (Look & Feel): This is a very pretty title.
  Attack: 11 (Value of Content): A book of the size from most 
  publishers would cost $35 or $40, not $25. This is a very 
  sweet deal.
  Defense: 8 (Originality of Content): This is, more or less, 
  version 2.0
  Health: 10 (Physical Quality): The only damage I would 
  expect to ever see are banged corners.
  Magic: 10 (Options & Adaptability): Almost any type of game 
  is possible with this core book. The expansion it allows is 
  quite nice, too.
  Scoring Definitions:
  12 = Superior. Best of the best.
  11 = Excellent. Just a hair from perfect.
  10 = Very Good. Part of a Baker’s Dozen.
  9 = Good. Most gamers would like this.
  8 = Fair. Some gamers would like this.
  7 = Average. Most gamers would be indifferent.
  6 = Sub-par. Flawed, but not without promise.
  5 = Poor. Some gamers would dislike this.
  4 = Bad. Most gamers would dislike this.
  3 = Very Bad. Among the dirty dozen.
  2 = Inferior. Worst of the worst.
  Other RPGs Review
  up of traits that are rated in dots and are generally 
  figured by adding Attribute & Skill ratings.
  The differences between the old and new Storyteller 
  Systems are obvious and greatly welcome. Now, 
  the storyteller no longer determines the number 
  on the dice that constitute success. Instead, like 
  Exalted, all rolls of seven (7) through ten (10) are 
  successes. Ones no longer subtract from successes. 
  Only modifiers subtract from dice rolled. Now, if a 
  character’s dice pool would be reduced to zero (0) 
  dice, the player still rolls one die. If a one (1) comes 
  up on that die there is a dramatic failure.
  The rules are still straight forward. Thankfully, plenty 
  of examples are provided for players who are new to 
  the system.
  returning artists as sell as some new names and 
  styles here. The full page art is all from Jason Manley. 
  The cover photographer was Anna Harper with cover 
  design from Katie McCaskill & Matt Milberger.
  Presentation
  The cover is strikingly simple. Thanks to this fact, 
  it is very attractive. The cover features a blurred 
  photograph of an individual shambling (?) down a 
  lighted city street in the dead of night. The only pieces 
  of text that appear on the cover are the title at the 
  very top and in very small print, “Storytelling System 
  Rulebook” in the lower right hand corner. 
  All of the interior art work is black and white. Some 
  of the illustrations are full page, some half- page, 
  and others smaller still. The image placement is not 
  always relevant to the context but it is still well placed 
  and very attractive. I really like the variety of styles 
  used within.
  Each page also contains a border image on the outer 
  edge. This image varies from chapter to chapter. Each 
  of these images is a collage of individuals. Thankfully, 
  this is subtle enough to not be distracting while 
  reading.
  Content
  The Rules Basics
  For those gamers familiar with the old ‘Storyteller 
  System’ and the variant used in Exalted, these rules 
  will, for a good portion look familiar. Still used are dice 
  pools rolled with d10. These dice pools are still made 
  Authors: Bill Bridges, Rick Chillot, Ken Cliffe, & Mike 
  Lee
  Publisher: White Wolf Publishing
  Reviewed by: Nash J. DeVita
  Review Date: September 29th, 2004>
  Reviewer Bias: I have been playing in the World of 
  Darkness for about 12 of the 13 years it has existed 
  and have been a rabid fan of the series ever since 
  my first exposure to the Vampire: the Masquerade. 
  Of course, that series is now over.  This title was 
  received at Gen Con Indy 2004 for review purposes 
  and eventual play.
  This is the first book and primary core / rules book 
  for the new World of Darkness in the (semi) new 
  Storytelling System. World of Darkness is 222 page 
  hard cover with interior black & white illustrations 
  from Thom Ang, Sam Araya, Tim Bradstreet, Jeremy 
  Jarvis, Becky Jollensten, Michael Kaluta, David Leri, 
  Mark Nelson, Jean- Sebastien Rossbach, Greg Ruth, 
  Christopher Shy, Durwin Talon, Josh Timbrook, 
  and Jamie Tolugson. It is good to see some of the 
  Review: White Wolf: World of Darkness – Core 
  Rule Book
  by Nash J. Devita
  
  38
  Characters 
  Characters are still made up of attributes and skills 
  (referred to previously as abilities) as some of their 
  primary stats.
  There have been some nice changes to the 
  attributes. There are still nine (9) attributes that are 
  broken into three (3) sub-groups - mental, physical, 
  and social. There are two (2) new attributes - 
  resolve and composure. These replaced perception 
  and appearance. Thanks to the elimination of 
  appearance, no traits should ever be at zero.
  Another nice change to attributes is the inclusion of 
  secondary groupings. Attributes, in addition to being 
  categorized as mental, physical, and social are also 
  categorized as power, finesse, and resistance. This 
  general break down helps show the connection 
  between attributes in different physical groups (e.g. 
  Resolve is mental but also a resistance attribute. 
  Composure is social and resistance. Though they are 
  used in two different situations, the use is still that of 
  resistance.).
  Skills now offer broader uses than they did in the 
  past. No longer are skills such as enigmas necessary 
  since that is encompassed by investigation. These 
  new broad use skills really help streamline the 
  system. There are now far fewer ‘useless’ skills since 
  each one has so many uses.
  When compared to their WoD 1.0 namesake, merits 
  have gone through the most significant changes. 
  Some merits are actually the same - eidetic memory 
  and common sense are still there. Many of the 
  ‘new merits’ are what were previously backgrounds 
  - resources, fame, and status are all examples 
  of those items that were backgrounds that are now 
  merits.
  Health and Willpower have only minor mechanical 
  changes, so I won’t go into detail about them. Others 
  have a set cost in dots. For example, common sense 
  costs four (4) dots while contacts can range from one 
  (1) to five (5) dots.
  The other side of merits, flaws, are actually now 
  optional. They only give a bonus of the storyteller 
  sees fit within a given game session. This is a great 
  help since the old merit / flaw system was so easily 
  broken since flaws were able to be ignored on so 
  many occasions. 
  Health and Willpower are pretty much the same 
  so I won’t both going into detail on them. If one has 
  played or plans on playing, this is something that 
  needs to be known quite well, though, so don’t skip 
  this section. There are some changes but they are 
  minor.
  Morality is roughly the equivalent of humanity 
  from the old games. If a sin is committed, there is a 
  possibility this rating will have to be rolled against. 
  A direct correlation exists between morality and 
  derangements. When one slips in morality, there is a 
  change of gaining a derangement.
  The last major ‘stat’ and change is the removal of 
  nature and demeanor, replaced by virtue and vice. 
  These stats are general and universal. These are 
  general and (mostly) universal. Vices are the seven 
  (7) deadly sins. Virtues are their counterparts. As 
  they did before, these have a direct tie to willpower 
  and is re-gain as well as a little bit more.
  Setting 
  The setting here is that which most gamers are at 
  least vaguely familiar with. This world is a mirror of 
  our own but only so far. The jobs people hold are the 
  same, the television programming is the same, the 
  stores and streets are the same. One major difference 
  between the game world and the real world is that 
  almost everything is more corrupt. Gangs are more 
  prevalent on the streets; there is more corruption in 
  the government (this is possible?), etc. This biggest 
  difference between the World of Darkness and our 
  own is the existence of the supernatural. 
  Ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and 
  whatnot all exist. They do not exist in the 
  open, however. They are not even seen for what they 
  are by most individuals. If they did act in the open 
  there would surely be an inquisition thanks to public 
  fear and loathing of that they fear or that which is 
  different. 
  The characters in this game are a little different than 
  the general populace, however. They can see the 
  supernatural for what it is. What they do about it is up 
  to the players, though. Do they fight them, help them, 
  or stand idly by?
  Conclusion
  So, that is much of what World of Darkness has to 
  offer. Is it worth it? Sure. Is it necessary? Absolutely 
  not. There have been a number of nice changes 
  however which, in my opinion, make this system far 
  superior to the last one.
  This title makes possible that one thing that was 
  missing from the last line – normal people (or at 
  least semi-normal ones). I am glad to see that non-
  supernatural beings can actually exist in the World of 
  Darkness.
  This book is necessary for use of the future products 
  in the WoD, including the already released Vampire: 
  the Requiem as well as the upcoming Mage and 
  Werewolf hardbacks.
  Where to buy
  Through our partnership with FRP Games, our readers 
  can get this product at a discount here:
  http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_
  detail&p=11818&ref=sil
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/otherrpgs.asp?case=show&id=423
  
  39
  by Dana Driscoll
  Silven Exclusive Interview: Dregg Carpio of 
  Chapter 13 Press
  Dregg Carpio is the lead writer of Pulp Era and co-
  founder of Chapter 13 Press.  
  Can you give us an overview about 
  ”Pulp Era?”
  Pulp Era is a role playing game based on the ”Hero 
  Pulps” and movie serials of the 1930’s and 1940’s. 
  The players take on the personas of the classic pulp 
  stereotypes, saving the world, fighting evil in two-
  fisted battles, and exploring forgotten worlds. We 
  have designed Pulp Era as a pulp genre handbook 
  more than an actual setting, so in its pages you won’t 
  find any ”metaplot” or setting to follow, just a very 
  detailed character generation system and a lot of 
  great information on the genre and period. The last 
  twist we have added can be summed up in the games 
  subtitle ”Cinematic Adventure in the Yesteryear!” The 
  feeling of the games has also been influenced by a lot 
  of great modern action films out there by directors 
  such as John Woo, The Wachowski brothers, and Ang 
  Lee. Envision it as ”Doc Savage” meets ”The Matrix”, 
  or ”The Shadow” meets ”The Replacement Killers”. 
  We still want the players to feel immersed in the early 
  serials, but also get the idea that the sky is the limit 
  when it comes to the action in play.
  What type of gamers and games will 
  this game appeal to?
  I once had the pleasure to discuss my game with the 
  great Robin D. Laws, and I think he put it best. ”Pulp 
  games are for Niche audiences, and can only appeal 
  to a small percentage of the role playing population.” 
  Which is sadly true to some degree. The Pulp genre 
  although a major influence in all gaming genres (don’t 
  get me started on that argument) is one of the less 
  visited. The market is still flooded with 15 different 
  elf handbooks and how to build a better dwarf splats, 
  even though we have new interests thanks to movies 
  like ”Spy Captain” and the re release of the Indiana 
  Jones movies on DVD the numbers of actual Pulp 
  gamers is small. With this in mind the proof has to 
  be in the pudding. Gamers are a superstitious lot 
  (to quote Batman… sorta) and it takes a lot of show 
  and tell with a system or genre to get interest. The 
  Gamers that would be most likely to buy and or play 
  a game such as ”Pulp Era” are going to fans of such 
  films like ”Hellboy”, ”Sky Captain”, or ”The Shadow”, 
  as well as Pulp magazine and serial enthusiasts. There 
  are only a few quality Pulp RPG’s on the market these 
  days, we hope to add one more.
  When can we expect a release of Pulp 
  Era?  Where can people purchase it? 
  Pulp Era is looking at a November release with a full 
  push in January starting with ”Dreamation” a local 
  convention in New Jersey. With the printing service 
  we are using our book should be obtainable from 
  Amazon.com, the chapter 13 website, and of course 
  at most conventions in NJ and NY.
  Many designers have a single word 
  that they use to sum up their game.  
  What word describes your game and 
  why? 
  That’s easy… ”Cinematic!” We want our players to 
  think in the terms of Hollywood special effects and 
  action. The Cinema has always been an escape from 
  reality and even more so in the time period we are 
  trying to emulate. The Players of Pulp Era should 
  be in the mindset of the serials, throwing real world 
  thinking and physics out the windows. We want our 
  game to be an escape to a more innocent time, and 
  a period when imagination took you farther than any 
  train or plane ever could.
  What gave you the idea to write Pulp 
  Era?
  The one thing about Pulp Era is that it is the child 
  of many parents. I can take the credit for it original 
  concept and creation and for about 35% of the actual 
  writing, but if it was not for the other members of 
  Chapter 13 press (Mike & Kristina Smith, and Jon 
  Richardson) the book would still be sitting in Chaos. 
  The Idea has been around since about 1992 when I 
  ran a one shot Pulp game that turned into a year long 
  Campaign. Its funny how something you only plan as 
  a one-night jaunt, turns into something so committed. 
  At the time I was going to a local Bay Area convention 
  called ”Dundracon” and there I met a fellow by the 
  name of Jeff Hatch who had been running a game 
  called ”Pulp Adventure” for some years. Seeing what 
  Jeff had done, I pulled together my trusty gaming 
  group and started the game design. The only constant 
  is the games name; it has been ”Pulp Era” since day 
  one… the mechanics on the other hand. To answer 
  the question, when I was growing up there was a 
  show in the bay area called Captain Cosmic, it was on 
  at 5:00 on a local station out of Oakland and every 
  week it would show a episode or two of old Flash 
  Gordon, Buck Rogers, Green Hornet, and Captain 
  Interview
  
  40
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 dsfsdf
  Marvel serials. Those old shows drove me to find other 
  serials, buy old copies of Weird Tales and to just be 
  obsessive with the genre. Finally I just got tired of 
  running my pulp adventures in other game systems, 
  so I wanted my own and went to it. My vision behind 
  the game has changed a bit in the past 4 years, in 
  that time I have become a big fan of a lot of modern 
  action films and their directing styles, I feel the newer 
  version of this game reflects that change in the way I 
  see the genre.
  How long has this project taken you 
  from start to finish?  Any problems 
  along the way?
  The start of the project was around 1992 or 1993. I 
  tried running the campaign in the old Top Secret/SI 
  system by TSR and then tried it in GURPS, no system 
  fit my style and I had tried many. A friend of mine 
  turned me on to the old TSR Marvel Supers system, 
  after playing that once I fell in love. If I truly think 
  about it Pulp Era was nothing but a chart titled ”Thrills 
  and Spills” that was sort of borrowed from the Marvel 
  Idea. Nonetheless a system started to form around 
  the chart and in about a year I was hitting every Bay 
  Area convention with my work. Later I started working 
  with the now Co-Author and Line director Mike Smith 
  and between him, I and our friend Jon we pumped 
  out about 4 versions of the game, each time changed 
  because of my odd tastes in role-playing. This of 
  course led to nothing but production issues. The 
  game stay asleep for some years until at Dundra con 
  96 I had the pleasure to meet Jared A. Sorenson of 
  Memento Mori Theatrix, Jon, Jared, Mike and myself 
  re did Pulp Era and put it free on the net. I was happy 
  as a clam with the new system and it was getting a 
  cult status, you could say Pulp Era was one of the 1st 
  free RPGs to be put on the Internet. Sadly enough 
  there was friction amongst the ranks and I trashed 
  the projects to save my friendship with both parties. 
  Lets move ahead 4 years now, and I had written a 
  free RPG called basic pulp based on the Basic system 
  by Dilly Green Bean games. I was pretty proud of 
  the work and wished to do a 2nd revision. During the 
  revision I thought to use the name ”Pulp Era” for the 
  new edition and well the rest is being edited as I do 
  this interview. 10 years to answer the 1st question, 
  and to answer the second… I guess due to my haste 
  I had to put the editing team for this on hi gear, 
  although not happy about it we are getting to put a 
  10 year demon to bed. We are looking at a Release 
  date of December 1st, 2004.
  Do you plan on creating any additional 
  supplements or products that will be 
  associated with Pulp Era?
  Yes Indeed! Mike Smith and His wife are taking in the 
  jobs of Line Directors and Editors of the Pulp Era line. 
  I can tell you that we already have a settings book 
  in the planning stags and hope to see it released by 
  summer of 2005, also we plan to do a line of PDF 
  supplements for it as well, including new Gimmicks, 
  Martial Arts, Stereotypes, and all kinds of Pulp Era 
  related goodies. The best thing to do is keep your 
  eyes posted to the www.chapter13press.com website 
  for further updates regarding any of out products like 
  Pulp Era and the new ”Tales from the Funk!” series 
  that will be following fast behind.
  
  41
  About the Author
  Shane Cubis is a young, fit, Australian plagiarist with an 
  affinity for Spider-Man. He has recently succumbed to 
  internet peer pressure and now secretly refers to himself 
  as a ´gamer.´  He wrote and starred in an award-winning 
  short film, “Dream Date” (also starring Aussie cricketer Brett 
  Lee), has had an article published in ´Knights of the Dinner 
  Table,’ as well as regular articles in such publications as 
  ´Tertangala,´ ´The Northern Leader,´ and ´Beanz Baxter.’
  He has an Honors degree in History/Politics, and is currently 
  studying to be a primary (grade) school teacher. On 
  Saturdays he calls bingo - a job his nana got him five years 
  ago.  His favorite book is ´Catch 22,´ his favorite band is 
  TISM, and his favorite movie is ´Back to the Future.´
  Contact the Author
  rubikcubis@bigpond.com
  Antipodean Adventures: Captain Cook
  Gaming Inspiration
  by Shane Cubis
  G’Day all. This month we’re looking at one of the finest 
  explorers of the eighteenth century—Captain James 
  Cook. A man who declared that he intended to go 
  “farther than any other man has been before me...as 
  far as I think it possible for a man to go.” James Cook 
  located hundreds of new Pacific landfalls, charted 
  the entire length of New Zealand’s coastline and a 
  large amount of Australia’s eastern coast, and proved 
  that Torres Strait separated Papua New Guinea and 
  Australia. I’ll present a bit about his background and 
  information on the journeys he took into the Pacific. 
  The intention, beyond providing some background 
  information to the eventual settling of Australia, is 
  to provide a vehicle for your party to go exploring for 
  Terra Australis.
  Cook the Man
  “I found it necessary to put every one on board to an 
  allowance; for such are the Tempers and disposition of 
  Seamen in general that whatever you give them out of 
  the common way – altho’ it be ever so much for their 
  good – it will not go down, and you will hear nothing 
  but murmurings against the Man that firs invented it; 
  but the moment they see their superiors set a value 
  upon it, it becomes the finest stuff in the world and the 
  inventor an honest fellow.”
                                             - James Cook
  Captain James Cook stood 183cm tall and carried 
  about him an air of authority. He possessed piercing 
  eyes and strove to maintain a composed demeanor at 
  all times. He was fair, professional, and consistent in 
  his discipline, inspiring respect and admiration in his 
  crew. It has been said that only an extraordinary man 
  like Cook could have kept such a motley crew in check 
  for the three-year voyage that the endeavor undertook 
  in 1769. One of Cook’s revolutionary innovations 
  was insisting that fruit and vegetables be carried on 
  board at all times. He forced his crew to eat oranges 
  and disgusting pickled cabbage as often as possible, 
  thereby warding off the curse of scurvy. Those who 
  refused were liable to be flogged.  
  The man who would eventually become his century’s 
  greatest navigator was born the son of a Scottish 
  laborer and a Yorkshire farm girl in 1728, in the small 
  village of Marton, England. His father’s boss was 
  sufficiently impressed by the young boy’s intellect, so 
  much so that he paid for James’ schooling. Once his 
  initial education was finished, James was apprenticed 
  to a grocer in Whitby. Here he got a taste for life on the 
  sea and starting at the age of eighteen Cook spent a 
  few years working on a variety of ships as a collier. 
  In 1755, he joined the Royal Navy and within two years 
  was qualified to master a ship. He picked up a great 
  deal of wisdom and experience during the war between 
  France and England over North America - especially in 
  the fields of cartography and navigation. Somewhere 
  along the way, this extraordinary man found the time, 
  books, and energy to learn the intricacies of astronomy 
  and mathematics.
  Cook’s first major exploration mission came under 
  the ostensible purpose of viewing the transit of Venus 
  (which, it was believed, would help to measure the 
  distance from Earth to the sun) from the optimum 
  position – the Pacific island of Tahiti. Europe regarded 
  the natives of Tahiti as the living embodiment of 
  Rousseau’s ‘Noble Savage’ theory. The Tahitians were 
  strong, healthy, and relaxed: food and possessions 
  were shared equally, and beyond the occasional violent 
  ritual required to settle down the deities, they had no 
  major religious guilt issues. The weather was beautiful 
  all year round, meaning an outdoor existence could 
  always be enjoyed, and the Tahitians lived day to day, 
  responding to immediate needs as they arose – eating, 
  sleeping, dancing, and copulating as the mood took 
  them. Of course, during their short stays on the island, 
  European sailors gave Tahitians a delightful gift in the 
  form of sexually transmitted diseases. The British and 
  the French blamed each other for introducing syphilis 
  to Tahiti for years to come.
  At the helm of the ship Endeavour, Cook set out. 
  The Endeavour was a three-masted, flat-bottomed 
  collier that had been redesigned to cope with Pacific 
  conditions. On the three-year voyage Cook was about to 
  undertake, it accommodated 71 officers and crewmen, 
  twelve marines and eleven civilians—one of whom was 
  the notable, wealthy botanist Joseph Banks. 
  After recording the transit of Venus, Cook was to sail 
  around the area with the purpose of either proving or 
  putting to bed rumors of a great southern continent. 
  
  42
  There were still great tensions between France 
  and England, who were racing to pick up colonial 
  possessions, and Cook’s orders were delivered to him 
  secretly. He was to make a study of as many native 
  flora, fauna, minerals etc. as possible, as well as 
  charting Terra Australis Incognita. Australia (or ‘New 
  Holland’, as it was then known) had been partially 
  mapped, but a great number of questions remained. 
  Cook sailed all around New Zealand, carefully charting 
  the two islands (and in doing so, proving that there 
  were two islands, rather than one). The native Maoris 
  were not as welcoming as the Tahitians had been, 
  and the Europeans fired upon them, allegedly in 
  self-defense. Once the New Zealand cartography was 
  complete, Cook set out west, to chart the eastern 
  coast of Australia. The Endeavour first landed in 
  Sydney, in a beautiful, wide bay named Stingray Bay 
  for the multitudes of marine life present. This was later 
  renamed Botany Bay, when the number of new plants 
  rapidly outstripped the new species of animals. Here 
  the crew of the Endeavour first made contact with 
  Australian aborigines, whom they offered beads and 
  nails. Cook noted, however, that “all they seem’d to 
  want was for us to be gone”.
  Having mapped around 3000 kilometers of the eastern 
  coast, the Endeavour hit a snag - the Great Barrier Reef, 
  miles of vibrantly colored coral that is beautiful to the 
  eye but not so good for a ship. Cook was forced to pull 
  ashore for significant repairs. This break in the voyage 
  gave the crew the opportunity to do a spot of inland 
  exploration, which resulted in some more meaningful 
  contact with Aborigines than firing weapons into the 
  air to drive them off. Other points of interest on this 
  voyage include the first sightings and sketches of the 
  iconic Australian marsupial - the kangaroo. 
  Once the Endeavour was seaworthy, the expedition 
  continued north. When he reached the northernmost 
  point of Australia, Cook raised the British flag and 
  claimed possession of the entire eastern coast in the 
  name of the king. He renamed the region ‘New South 
  Wales,’ and set off home through Torres Strait, proving 
  that Papua New Guinea was a separate landmass to 
  Australia. 
  In 1774, Cook sailed the Resolution into the Antarctic 
  seas until they reached an impenetrable ice field. 
  Having traveled further south than any crew had 
  gone before, Cook gave the command to turn the ship 
  around. At this moment a young midshipman, sixteen 
  year old George Vancouver, leaped onto the front of 
  the bow and cried out “Ne plus ultra!” (meaning ‘none 
  farther’). For the rest of his life he would boast that 
  he had been further south than any other man. With 
  this journey, Cook finally disproved the existence of an 
  idyllic Southern paradise of lush forests and strange 
  inhabitants. 
  On his third major Pacific voyage, Cook met his death 
  at the hands of Hawaiian Islanders. Believing Cook 
  to be the reincarnation of Lono, god of plenty, he 
  was welcomed with gifts and adulation, hundreds of 
  swimmers swarming around the ship. Cook simply 
  thought the Hawaiians were a generous and hospitable 
  people. In time, the chiefs there began to have doubts 
  about Cook’s divine status and began to pointedly ask 
  when he intended to set sail. He did so as soon as 
  possible, but was forced to return a week later when 
  the Resolution’s foremast was broken in a gale. This 
  time there were no welcoming swimmers or gifts. A 
  number of altercations broke out over the constant 
  thieving of the natives, culminating in the theft of a 
  cutter. Cook went ashore with some armed compatriots 
  with the intention of holding the local chief hostage 
  until the boat was returned. That’s when things turned 
  ugly.
  A man with a dagger threatened to stab Cook. In 
  response, Cook fired his musket, missing the assailant 
  and killing a bystander. In the chaos that followed, 
  Cook turned to order his men offshore. In this moment 
  he was stabbed in the back of the neck, falling into the 
  coastal water. He was clubbed and stabbed repeatedly, 
  before being torn to pieces and burned. 
  Adventure and Campaign Ideas
  1. Obviously, a Captain Cook-themed campaign would 
  involve the PCs playing the roles of crew members on 
  his ship. Aside from general crewmen, the players 
  could be members of Banks’ retinue (botanists, artists, 
  or even general servant/laborers), other wealthy, 
  interested parties traveling aboard the ship for their 
  own reasons or even as natives picked up along the 
  way.
  2. The PCs are natives of the Pacific Islands who must 
  deal with the change in life that the coming of the 
  Europeans represents. Will they welcome them like 
  the Tahitians or attempt to drive them off like the 
  Maoris? This campaign would have a lot of interesting 
  elements, and could be used as a vehicle to explore the 
  nuances of colonization, racism and ‘The Great Chain 
  of Being.’ 
  2. The Tahitians have appeared to be an innocent and 
  welcoming people, but now they require something 
  from the crew. A dark, angry god must be placated 
  and apparently demands the flesh of a European. A 
  crew member has been kidnapped by the natives, 
  and the party must negotiate his release before the 
  entire situation devolves into bloodshed. Captain Cook 
  demands a peaceful resolution of the PCs.
  3. The history books leave out a significant encounter 
  that occurred on the east coast of Australia. When 
  the Endeavour sails into Botany Bay, they find that a 
  French crew has recently landed, attempting to claim 
  New Holland for their nation. Cook takes the PCs aside 
  and shows them some further secret orders from 
  England, commanding them to remove the French 
  explorers from Australia at all cost. 
  “The head, neck, and shoulders, are very small in proportion to the other parts of the body; the tail is 
  nearly as long as the body … the fore-legs are kept bent close to the breast, and seemed to be of use only 
  for digging: the skin is covered with a short fur, of a dark mouse or grey colour excepting the head and 
  ears, which bear a sight resemblance to those of a hare. This animal is called by the natives Kanguroo.”
                                                                                                             - James Cook
  
  43
  Other Genres
  Science Fiction: A human vessel, with the apparent 
  mission of viewing black hole activity from the Cubisia 
  system, is also tasked with scouting out potential 
  invasion points and annexing possibilities on Cubisia-
  6. They will interact with the six-limbed slave miners, 
  as well as their reptilian overlords, all the time 
  masquerading as simple scientists and crew.
  Fantasy: The PCs join the dwarven Captain Cookbeard 
  in his quest to ‘sail farther than any dwarf has sailed 
  before’ in search of a far-off continent of valuable 
  metals. The continent is mentioned in a number of 
  ancient dwarven texts, and may be sunk, inhabited 
  by dangerous foes, or the land of milk and platinum 
  depicted in the ancient works. Even if it does not exist, 
  the journey is still plagued by all the standard perils of 
  the sea. 
  Horror: The crew of the Endeavour get halfway through 
  mapping the eastern coastline of Terra Australis, when 
  two of Banks’ group are found dead, apparently of 
  shock. The culprit is one of the plants harvested by the 
  botanists, which is sentient and not happy about being 
  taken from its home. It slithers back to its jar after 
  killing men one by one.
  Modern: Captain James Cook of the Australian Royal 
  Navy is helming an expedition to the ocean floor, where 
  certain military tests will be run and scientific samples 
  taken. The PCs are asked to join the expedition for a 
  variety of reasons. Once down there, they will face 
  the mysteries of the deep, potential inability to return 
  to the surface, cabin fever and betrayal from some 
  of the crew members - who are spies from a private 
  corporation.
  By the Silven Member Community
  Compiled by Dana Driscoll
  With the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of 
  Dungeons & Dragons at Gen Con 2004, we asked 
  Silven Crossroads members to share some of their 
  fondest gaming memories.  We thank each of the 
  contributors and wish them many more years of 
  gaming to come!
  Tim Riley
  Aka: Marketingman
  My fondest memory about gaming is the day I 
  unwittingly ran a game for my future wife at a 
  convention. She was one of four females who played 
  in a twelve-player adventure called the ”The Withered 
  Wizard Inn.”  She was one of about twenty total 
  females at the convention of 500 people (this was 
  back in 1985, the stone age for female gamers.) 
  All during the weekend we kept bumping into each 
  other at the food court, at dealers tables, etc. So 
  the con organizer introduced us officially. He later 
  became the best man at the wedding and godfather 
  to our two children.
  Lance Kepner
  Aka: Astros
  Maybe this should be an article on who has the most 
  abusive DM? 
  Maybe it was the time my dwarven paladin ended a 
  plague cloud by sucking it up. 
  Or maybe the time my monk purposefully let himself 
  get swallowed by a giant purple worm just to kill it 
  from the inside. 
  Or possible the time my arcane trickster single-
  handedly evaded a party of nine drow of the 
  equivalent level. 
  Or it could have been the entire campaign with said 
  trickster. 
  Or the time my bard was nearly killed with a butter 
  knife... no I hate that one. 
  Or maybe the look on my PCs faces as they run into a 
  villain with a mirror of oppositions that they willingly 
  looked into. 
  Or perhaps one of the jillion times Orph Maloney 
  grew unimaginably strong through wild magic. 
  Sigh, too many to decide.  Is that a good thing?  And 
  what’s this about these memories not happening?  
  You mean they weren’t real? 
  Eytan Bernstein
  Aka: Manablast
  In one game, characters were traveling through the 
  realm of the dead.  They were approaching a garden 
  that housed the deceased parishioners of one of the 
  gods.  The gardens were beautiful and surrounded by 
  olive trees.  They were rejected from visiting due to 
  lack or moral character.  When they left, an invisible 
  stalker attacked them.  Lacking a weapon, one of 
  the characters snapped off one of the olive branches 
  and attempted to beat the creature with it—an olive 
  branch, the symbol of peace! Needless to say, they 
  dealt with the battle in other ways, but this stuck 
  with me. 
  continued on page 48...
  Fond Memories of Gaming from the 
  Silven Community
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=128
  
  44
  by Melissa Piper
  
  45
  Lights, Camera, Action! Sharing your Vision: 
  The Ins and Outs of Indie Publishing, Part I
  by “Dregg“ Carpio
  Not that I am saying that we should not buy games 
  because of price, or saying that we should create our 
  own material to spite the big boys.  What I am saying 
  is you should not have to fork out hard earned coin on 
  a system that does nothing for you, or one you have 
  to modify to the point you have already written more 
  pages for it than contained in the core book itself.
  Getting Started
  So you are sitting there with a notebook or two 
  filled with great ideas. Your weekly gaming group 
  raves about your system or supplement and you feel 
  confident that you will be the next Gygax.  It would 
  take along time to travel the con circuits showing this 
  magical notebook to everyone, so you are going to 
  need to mass-produce. 
  A question was brought up to me by a good friend 
  about the actual process of putting ideas on paper. 
  This can be a difficult task if you are not used to 
  transposing thought. The key is to not worry about 
  how your notes look, they are for all intent just a 
  rough sketch or outline of what you plan to write. For 
  example, when I started working on the ideas for my 
  project ”Nitrous,” all of my notes were written in my 
  sketchbook and about 70% of them were just little 
  doodles of what I was thinking. It was this sort of 
  mental coding that gave me the key to the mood or 
  emotion I was in when I started conceptualizing the 
  game. If drawing is not your cup of tea, try writing 
  down descriptor words in a little pocket notebook 
  (a tool no gamer should be without), or if you are 
  lucky to have a portable recording device, start 
  talking. What you are looking for is a way to give 
  you reminders of what you have come up with, and 
  Welcome to the October installment of “Lights, 
  Camera, Action!”  I would like to take another break 
  from my genre rants this month and talk about 
  something that has been taking up a good portion of 
  my time as of late—independent publishing of role-
  playing games. In this two-part article series, I give a 
  look into what it takes to self-publish your ideas, get 
  a good marketing plan, and finally try and make a few 
  dollars off of your intellectual property. 
  With over 1,000 titles in print and even more out 
  of circulation, the market for role-playing games 
  industry is dog eat dog. In order to make anything 
  out of a publishing venture, you have to stay ahead 
  of the game (no pun intended). Within each of us 
  resides a game critic who will open a newly bought 
  book, look over the mechanics and say, ”Wow, I could 
  have done that so much better.” In fact you can! 
  However, with the market flooded from everyone and 
  his grandmother producing RPG supplements and core 
  rules, you want to make your game stand apart from 
  the others. Why would someone want to play your 
  Quest for the Golden Flame RPG when your average 
  gamer already owns a d20 game, Fuzion, and/or 
  GURPS? Success is determined by the way you market 
  your game and make it appealing. Gamers are known 
  to impulse buy a game because of cool art, a kick butt 
  setting, or a nifty mechanic that they are interested in 
  trying out. 
  It’s no illusion that the cost of gaming materials has 
  skyrocketed in the past 10 years or so.  I remember 
  when I first bought my AD&D books back in the late 
  80’s; the 3 core books cost me 35.00. Try and get 
  a complete game system for that much these days. 
  About the Author
  “Dregg” aka James Carpio is a native of San Francisco, 
  California who now lives in the wilds of Suffolk County, NY. 
  James has written for the likes of Eden Studios, Fuzion 
  Labs, random gaming E-Zines and is currently designing 
  games for his own gaming company Chapter 13 Press 
  (www.chapter13press.com). James can be found at most 
  Northeast conventions and game days with his family doing 
  demonstrations for other gaming companies he supports 
  and running promotional support for I-CON, Gotham Gamers 
  Guild and Wild Gazebo Productions for whom he is affiliated 
  with.
  it might make life a bit easier when putting it all 
  together. 
  Using plain English in your writing is a good thing. 
  Unless you have a genre piece where period slang is 
  going to make or break your project don’t do it. Not 
  everyone speaks your style of slang, and if it means 
  that only 30% of the gamers will understand your 
  references, then you have already failed.
  It is a good idea to put all your ideas in the file—every 
  little note and side bar—before you move on to the 
  next step. The worst thing for any game designer to 
  do is to start to dissect his or her work before it has 
  all been written down. 
  If you are like me with horrid spelling, grammar, and 
  handwriting you are going to need to have a word 
  processor handy. All computers come with some sort 
  of word processor so it’s not too hard to get your 
  hands on a program to do your text editing. More 
  common programs Microsoft Word®, Claris Works, 
  and Word Perfect.  All are pretty simple to use and 
  allows for spelling and grammar checks, formatting, 
  borders and headings, art insertion, and some have 
  the ability to port over into PDF which will be a 
  godsend once you are finished with your masterpiece. 
  The important thing to remember is that you have 
  to use a program that is going to fit your needs and 
  budget.  I have used anything I could get my hands 
  on to finish the job, and if you are like me and budget 
  conscious you might want to take a gander over at 
  www.download.com and check out some of the great 
  shareware that might save a you a nice chunk of 
  change. 
  General RPG
  
  46
  It is also a good practice to use the ”Save as feature” 
  in your word processor. Make multiple copies of your 
  files… ”Joe’s Game Core,” ”Joe’s Game Core (2),”etc. 
  this will assure that if you alter the text of the first 
  and mess up or delete parts and want them back, you 
  have the raw text at your fingertips. 
  So now you have a good amount of time invested and 
  everything could possibly written down is on paper 
  (in theory). Your dream has been given life, every 
  time you read it tears stream down your face, and 
  now is the time to get ready for layout so you can 
  make the world a better place with your vision, right? 
  WRONG! I don’t care if you are an English professor 
  with 100 titles under your belt.  ”Get yourself an 
  editor!” Our egos are our worst enemies, and as 
  much as well think our work is next to only the great 
  works of literature, we are not going to be the ones 
  spending time, money, and effort trying to figure 
  out what the product is you are trying to put across. 
  Your editor is going to be your second brain, she will 
  proofread, spell and grammar check, and in some 
  cases reconstruct your work in order to create a flow 
  of your ideas. This is a very important point—in most 
  cases we know what we are talking about when we 
  design mechanics and campaign settings/worlds, but 
  does the person who may potentially spend upwards 
  of $40 on your product have a clue? It is important 
  that you also meet with your editor every step of the 
  way, because if she misinterprets a ruling or does not 
  understand something in the mechanics it can cause 
  a nasty monkey wrench in the machine later on. 
  Remember your editor is there to make you look good 
  and if she is not told how to, she has to guess. 
  Open Game Licenses
  Besides creating your own set of game mechanics 
  there are a lot of ”OGL” (open gaming licenses) on 
  the market these days. The OGL theory is that the 
  manufacturer of a gaming company has striped down 
  their core rules system (Fuzion, d20, Active Exploits) 
  and has offered the base mechanics to 3rd party 
  game designers for either free or for a royalty once 
  the game is being sold. For more info on OGL game 
  engines take a look on some of the manufacturers 
  game sites (http://www.wizards.com; http://
  www.talsorian.com; http://www.pigames.com; http:
  //www.action-system.com).
  Playtesters and the Art of Criticism
  You know your game is good, and your gaming group 
  raves about it whenever you are out at an outing, so 
  now its time to see how the other 99% of the gaming 
  world likes your ideas. This is called playtesting 
  and although you may be saying, ”Well if my group 
  understands the mechanics, why can’t everyone 
  else?” The fact of the matter is that in most case your 
  group are your friends, and to get an honest opinion 
  you needs to have non involved 3rd party players take 
  a gander at your game. 
  How is this done? Many resources are available to get 
  a group of eager gamers to try out your game for you. 
  The first is your local gaming store. Try putting up a 
  flyer or three at your store’s bulletin board or ask the 
  owner to put the word out. If your local store is like 
  mine you will have gamers just waiting to have their 
  name listed as playtesters and the possibility of some 
  chips and cookies as a reward for an afternoon of 
  testing. You can also go to web sites such as RPG.net 
  or Silven.com and visit the forums and put up ads.  
  The only thing you really want to concern yourself 
  with is material theft, so you should have everyone 
  sign a ”non disclosure” form. This way you have some 
  sort of legal rights if your materials suddenly appear 
  on RPGNow.com in PDF with someone else’s name.  
  With the Forums idea all you would need to do is 
  select one or two groups of people and send them a 
  RTF or PDF of your game (sans art or layout) and give 
  them a playtest deadline. You might want ask them to 
  give you a weekly or biweekly report so you can take 
  notes and do more tweaking of the mechanics
  Plan an afternoon for your first test run, as you 
  will want to playtest the very important parts of 
  the game. Most commonly the big three of game 
  mechanics are:
   
  1. 
  Character generation: Believe it or not, 
  character generation systems can make 
  or break a game. Using pre-generated 
  characters is ok for playtesting other 
  elements, but for you will want to make sure 
  Do use gaming forums, store bulletin boards, and 
  conventions to spread the word of your game. Free 
  advertising is priceless.
  Don’t spam people private email address, abuse forum 
  rules or net etiquette to advertise. This can hurt your 
  reputation before the first page hits the ink.
  Do look around for affordable talent such as graphic 
  designers, artists, and editors from your local colleges. 
  You can get the best stretch of a dollar here and some 
  honest hard work.
  Don’t hire professionals you know you cannot pay 
  for. You don’t want to start off you publishing venture 
  having a black mark in the community you very much 
  need.
  Do take advantage of freeware and shareware 
  programs to further you projects.
  Don’t invest money you don’t have in programs you do 
  not know how to use. People might rave about them, 
  but those same people also know how to use them as 
  well.
  Do hire a good editor to go over you work and make 
  sure you have a well-written product.
  Don’t Depend on spell and grammar checks built into 
  your software to do it all for you.
  Do research you material and make sure you are 
  not infringing on copyright (the world does not need 
  another D&D, Deadlands, etc).
  Don’t try to file off serial numbers. This includes 
  taking flagship characters and changing names, 
  stealing mechanics and changing the words, or taking 
  well-known cities, vehicles, food products from other 
  settings to use in yours.
  Indie Publishing Dos and Don’ts
  
  47
  people who eventually buy your book are 
  willing to create characters.  I have many an 
  RPG in my closet I don’t play because I hate 
  making characters. Ask your Playtesters what 
  they did and did not like about the character 
  generation (it is important to take notes 
  during each phase) and tweak character 
  generation for them right then and there. 
  Now that they all have ample characters for 
  the playtest decathlon, its time to try out 
  some skill use and problem solving.
  2. 
  Skill use: What you are looking for here is 
  to see how contests between player and NPC 
  work out. You want to make sure the system 
  of resistance is balanced and not going to 
  bog things down. Have the players simulate 
  arm wrestling, tug of wars, and contests of 
  mental prowess. These are the things most 
  players will come across during a nightly 
  session some time in the future.
  3. 
  Combat: The final step is the combat; 
  truthfully this is what the players were 
  all waiting for. Since these are disposable 
  characters, throw everything at them. Give 
  them flying robots, berserk Vikings, and 
  angry bears to duel to the death. See how 
  modifiers work, set up cover situations, and 
  don’t pull any punches. Combat is where the 
  rules are really going to be scrutinized and 
  mulled over, so you really need to take notes 
  and make changes on the spot, even if you 
  have to redo whole combat scenes to get the 
  flow right.
  At the end of it all thank the players, give them a 
  business card or email address and get names for the 
  all-famous ”playtesters” section of your credits. 
  Remember the playtesting is primarily for seeing if the 
  mechanics work. Settings are a great thing and may 
  be the driving reason why someone buys your game, 
  but the setting does not need the stress testing like 
  mechanics does. I will pass on a bit of advice given 
  to me by Luke Crane (creator of the Burning Wheel).  
  Find a simple gaming system like ”Risus” or ”The 
  Window” (both indie RPGs known for their rules-lite 
  systems) and run a few sessions using your campaign 
  setting. This will allow your to plot out the world 
  setting a lot and give you a feel of what rules might 
  be needed to give your setting the right boost. Don’t 
  dwell too long on the playtesting, get what you need 
  from it and move on.
  The Concept of Design
  Finally your ideas have been all spell checked 
  (remember to give your editor the new updates from 
  playtest), playtested, and reformatted. X amount of 
  time has finally paid off and now you are ready to 
  unleash the best game in the world on the public at 
  large. It is time to take your vision and make it take 
  physical form. 
  For some of us, creating a visual product is easy as 
  some have some hidden talent as an artist, graphic 
  designer, or web monkey. Let us assume though that 
  you have no such talent—do really think ”Joe Gamer” 
  is going to fork out 40.00 for non-formatted text and 
  stick figures? 
  In today’s market of high glossy covers, magnificent 
  artwork, and brilliant layout, you need to have your 
  visual act together to fly with the eagles. This does 
  not come cheap, unless you have friends who will 
  give you a decent rate on artwork and layout this will 
  cost you upwards of $500 to get it all together.  If 
  you know no one with these talents, your best bet is 
  to hire services at the local college. Students these 
  days are hungry and most would be willing to do an 
  excellent job for you for very little. It helps them add 
  a portfolio piece and gives them some pocket money 
  to set off the high costs of education.  Most college art 
  departments will have a bulletin board that you can 
  advertise on. Put down what you need on an index 
  card, put it up and within days you will have a nice 
  selection of talent ready to do artwork.  You might be 
  the lucky publisher to discover the new Larry Elmoore.
  When thinking about design and layout, the first thing 
  you want to consider is the look of your book.  Covers 
  and art should be a second thought; you first want 
  to look over a selection of fonts, style sheets, and 
  borders. The ability to read your book and make it 
  visually appealing is going to be a good selling point. 
  A book that is pleasing to the eye and easy to read 
  is going to make a good impression on those who 
  pick up your work on the bookstore shelf. Try and 
  stay away form fancy watermarks or background art 
  as it make the text difficult read. Choose borders 
  that direct the eyes to the text and that are not 
  distracting. Simple line work is sufficient in some 
  cases or a simple logo in the corner makes for an 
  interesting look. Things like boobs, large font words, 
  exploding cats and the like will just distract the reader 
  and make it hard to get through the chapter. 
  What also needs to be considered for the text is where 
  your art is going to go. Don’t just assume that the art 
  is going to just magically work with the text; it is also 
  bad form to just plop down a picture dead center and 
  put the text on top and bottom of it. Not only does 
  this look sloppy, but also be assured that snobs like 
  me will find hours of pleasure making fun of the bad 
  layout. I have bought books just to mock and show to 
  Do get a DBA (doing business as) license to protect 
  your company name legally and to have the option to 
  sell your game at conventions and stores in your state. 
  DBAs can be applied for at your counties town hall and 
  prices do vary. 
  Don’t make excuses to not protect yourself. Did 
  you know if you don’t get a DBA, some one else 
  could register your company’s name and sue you for 
  copyright infringement?
  Do look into getting your material copyrighted. 
  Don’t think that because you have ”unique” material, 
  that some one else could ever have such brilliance.
  Do use royalty free clip art/borders/fonts.
  Don’t google search and use copyrighted materials. 
  Some people are not forgiving and lawyers are very 
  expensive.
  Indie Publishing Dos and Don’ts 
  cont.
  
  48
  my friends so they can mock as well. Again this is why 
  the graphic designer will become your second best 
  friend next to your editor. 
  Now it is time to figure out what sort of artwork you 
  want to grace the pages of your personal bible. There 
  are a couple of things you will want to think about 
  before even spending a dime on some sketches or 
  digital art work. First, find an artist who suits your 
  style and vision for the product. The art you choose 
  should reflect the feeling and mood you are trying to 
  set; do not try and cheap out and use clip art or badly 
  done poser art.  If you cannot get art that fits the 
  game and theme don’t use any period. It is better to 
  just to enthrall your audience with words than distract 
  them with out-of-place pictures or drawings. 
  Last of all, the cover needs to be though about. This 
  is the seller; this is the thing that people are going 
  to see when they pass by the bookshelf. What is on 
  your cover will highly affect the way your game is 
  marketed. Again I stress do not settle for second-
  rate art, even more so where the cover is concerned. 
  If you cannot commission a decent art piece or find 
  something in the royalty free category just leave it a 
  solid color with some nice headline to give the games 
  name. 
  Conclusion
  And on that note I will close on this month’s 
  installment of ”Lights, Camera, Action! Next month 
  I will touch more on the marketing, promotion, and 
  self-publishing your gaming masterwork and the 
  avenues to get it noticed. Until then may all your 
  adventures be cinematic!
   
  Mike Thompson
  AKA: Leaderdesslock
  Before I was a gamer I was a comic book reader 
  and collector, and my first exposure to D&D was 
  the one-page comic ads you would find in various 
  Marvel comics. I remember that it looked really cool 
  to me that you could actually play the part of one 
  the heroes you read about, and soon after (saving 
  lunch money and other forms of preteen income) I 
  managed to get the blue box basic set. 
  Ah, those were heady days, when elf, dwarf and 
  halfling were classes and not just races.  I especially 
  remember that the box came with a set of the coolest 
  dice you’d ever seen.  They had more than six sides!  
  You got a white crayon to color in the numbers too.  I 
  still have one of the d12s from those days, although 
  it is more of a d1 at this point. 
  I started playing with my brothers and a couple of 
  friends, but my brothers quickly tired of it and went 
  back to outdoor sports.  My friends and I kept at it, 
  and an 8-10 hour marathon game on Saturdays was 
  common.  Encumbrance was a bizarre concept, and 
  we would walk round with 50 spears, 10,000 gold 
  pieces, tons equipment, and think nothing of it. The 
  innocence (and I guess ignorance) of the early days 
  was the best. 
  One of my personal favorite memories was during 
  the early stages of playing Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, 
  my all-time favorite module.  I was DMing a group 
  of four, and they were traveling through some of the 
  twisting tunnels on the first level.  They didn’t realize 
  that they had looped back on themselves, since 
  nobody was bothering to map.  I told them they came 
  upon the boot prints of four humanoids heading in 
  the same direction as them.  Intrigued, they decided 
  to follow. 
  When they came to a fork in the tunnel, they followed 
  the boot prints to the right.  Eventually, they came to 
  a tunnel merger where the original four appeared 
  to have been joined by four more humanoids.  They 
  heard nothing ahead, but drew weapons and kept 
  following.  This kept going literally five or six more 
  times, and nobody ever noticed that the prints always 
  followed the right-hand path and always were joined 
  by four more sets of prints at the same time interval.  
  One of the guys finally got wise and mapped out their 
  path and realized they had been following themselves 
  for four hours game-time.  You have no idea how 
  hard it was to keep a straight face through all of that! 
  Marc Lipshitz
  Aka: GhostKnight
  Back in the dawn of time (around 1985), my group 
  was setting up to play a Call of Cthullu game.  Our 
  setup included supporting props of skulls (plastic) 
  covered and holding candles, black sheets over the 
  walls and windows, a pentagram drawn on the ground 
  around the GM´s chair, and red cellophane around 
  the light bulbs to give off the correct illumination.  
  Oh, and of course the gothic chants playing in the 
  background to set the mood.  Unbeknownst to us 
  one of the player’s mothers had recently seen one of 
  the  ”D&D is satanic and leads to occultism” articles 
  that were hitting the press at the time and decided to 
  see what we actually did.  The look on her face when 
  she entered the room was priceless!  Of course, it 
  took the player around three months to return to the 
  game; he had a hard time convincing his mother that 
  what she saw was just props and not the prelude to 
  some satanic ritual!
  continued on page 54 ...
  Fond Memories of Gaming from the 
  Silven Community cont.
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=137
  
  49
  Vision 12: “Bear Baiting, Cockfighting 
  and Ratting, Oh My!”
  Animal Blood Sports
   
  “Cock-fighting and bear-baiting, may raise 
  the spirit of a company, just as drinking does, but 
  they will never improve the conversation of those who 
  take part in them.” 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  -Dr. Johnson
   
  Entertainment has consisted of different 
  things in different ages. For all of the modern 
  complaints about violent movies and video games, 
  entertainments were often much nastier and bloodier 
  in earlier eras.  Blood sports that pitted animals 
  against each other, often to the death, have been 
  around for almost as long as we have recorded history 
  and continue to this day.
   
  Part I - The History
   
  Animals have been used as entertainment 
  in various way thoughout the ages, including pitting 
  them in combat against each other.  People from all 
  social classes would gather to watch and gamble at 
  these events.
   
  One of the most enduring of these sports is 
  cockfighting, which dates back to ancient India and 
  China.  It is believed that cockfighting was introduced 
  to Ancient Greece around the time of Themistocles (c. 
  523-460 BCE).   Themistocles, it is said, while moving 
  with his army against the Persians, observed two 
  roosters fighting desperately, and, stopping his troops, 
  calling their attention to the valor and obstinacy 
  of the feathered warriors to inspire them.  From 
  Greece cockfighting spread to Rome and from Rome 
  throughout the Western and Mediterranean world.
   
  Cockfighting uses the natural belligerence of 
  the rooster when confronted by a rival to induce it to 
  engage in combat.  Most roosters used in cockfighting 
  are bred and raised specifically to this end.  In some 
  regional variations, the roosters are fitted with metal 
  spurs originally called “tela” but now known as “gaffs”, 
  which make the fights quicker and bloodier.  In other 
  styles the bird’s feet are wrapped to blunt the claws 
  and lengthen the bouts.  Fighting done without gaffs 
  or taping is sometimes called “naked heel.”
   
  In the Elizabethan and Restoration periods in 
  England, the pits used for cockfighting were circular 
  in shape, with a matted stage about 6 meters (20 ft) 
  in diameter, and surrounded by a barrier to keep the 
  birds from falling off.  Upon this barrier the first row of 
  the audience leaned to get the best view.  In England, 
  it was a popular sport on Shove Tuesday.
   
  Cockfighting in England declined in popularity 
  after it was declared illegal. Gamblers moved to 
  the race track instead.  Today, cockfighting remains 
  popular in Vietnam where it is one of the traditional 
  entertainments during the Tet (Lunar New Year) 
  festival.
   
  Ratting was another popular sport in 
  England. It involved setting a small dog, usually a 
  terrier, loose in a pit with a pack of rats and betting 
  on how many rats the dog could kill in a certain time.  
  Most of the modern terrier breeds were bred for or 
  from dogs to be used in this sport or for rat hunting 
  About the Author
  Sean Holland is gamer with 26 years of experience. He 
  currently DMs one D&D campaign and plays in two others. 
  He has a BA in History (minor in Philosophy) from the 
  University of Portland, Oregon, and is working on a MA in 
  History at the University of Georgia. He does writing and 
  play-testing for the game industry. If you look at any of AEG’s 
  recent One Word series of books for the d20 system you 
  will find his name in there somewhere and he has had other 
  writings published over the years as well.
  Contact the Author
  knightoflillies@netscape.net
  Gaming Inspiration
  by Sean Holland
  Through the Lens of History: Using History 
  for Better Gaming
  Supplemental d20 Material:
  New Templates
  BATTLE BRED
   
  Battle Bred animals are raised and trained to 
  fight; well fed and well trained they are much more 
  dangerous than normal animals of their type.
  CREATING A BATTLE BRED
   
  “Battle Bred” is an acquired template that can 
  be added to any animal or magical beast.
  Size and Type: The creature’s type remains 
  unchanged. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and 
  special abilities except as noted here.
  Armor Class: The battle bred has a minimum of a +1 
  natural armor bonus.
  Special Qualities: Hardened (Ex): A battle bred gains 
  a +4 save against fear.
  Abilities: A battle bred’s Strength and Constitution is 
  increased by +2, and its Wisdom is decreased by -2 
  (minimum 6).
  Skills: A battle bred gains a +2 racial bonus on 
  Intimidation checks.
  Feats: A battle bred retains all feats of the base 
  creature and gains Dodge and Weapon Focus (primary 
  
  50
  in general.  Dogs used in the ratting ring usually 
  had their ears cropped (trimmed down) to prevent 
  rats from latching onto them.  A 2.2 kg (5 lb) Toy 
  Manchester Terrier named “Tiny” was reported to have 
  killed 300 rats in 54 minutes and 50 seconds.  Ratting 
  in the pit sense has fallen out of favor and the term is 
  now used for setting a trained pack of terriers loose 
  in an area suffering from an infestation of rats and 
  letting them hunt and kill the rodents.
   
  Bear baiting was common entertainment 
  in which the bear was chained to a stake either by 
  one hind leg, or by the neck, and worried by dogs.  
  Bear baiting took place in arenas built in the form of 
  theaters called “bear-gardens” which were visited by 
  all classes of people. Sunday was the favorite day for 
  this sport. The chained bear was set upon by packs 
  of trained dogs that tried to take down the bear.  
  Spectators would bet on whether it would be the dogs 
  or the bear that would survive the vicious fight that 
  ensued.
   
  Of bear baiting Robert Laneham wrote in 
  1575:
   
  “It was a sport very pleasant to see, to see 
  the bear, with his pink eyes, tearing after his enemies 
  approach; the nimbleness and wait of the dog to take 
  his advantage and the force and experience of the 
  bear again to avoid his assaults: if he were bitten in 
  one place how he would pinch in another to get free; 
  that if he were taken once, then by what shift with 
  biting, with clawing, with roaring, with tossing and 
  tumbling he would work and wind himself from them; 
  and when he was loose to shake his ears twice or 
  thrice with the blood and the slaver hanging about his 
  physiognomy.”
   
  Some of the bears survived long enough to 
  become stars in their own right. “Sackerson” was one 
  such animal that was immortalized in Shakespeare’s 
  play the Merry Wives of Windsor; others had such 
  names as George Stone or Harry Hunks.  The large 
  mastiff was the dog of choice to fight against a bear.
   
  Bull baiting pitted dogs against a larger animal.  A 
  bull was placed in the center of the ring and the 
  dogs were sometimes released one at a time against 
  the bull.  One eyewitness reports, “One of the bulls 
  tossed a dog full into a lady’s lap, as she sat in 
  one of the boxes at a considerable height from the 
  arena.”  Sometime the bull’s nose would be filled 
  with pepper to enrage it before the fight.  Bull dogs, 
  unsurprisingly, were the usual opponents for the bull.
   
  Sometime other animals would be baited 
  as well. When such was available, an ape would be 
  strapped to a pony’s back and chased by hounds. The 
  frantic antics of the ape and pony as they tried to 
  escape the dogs were considered quite humorous and 
  exciting by the spectators.
   
  Both bear- and bull-baiting were prohibited 
  in Britain by Act of Parliament in 1835. This almost 
  led to the end of the bulldog, but they were saved by 
  breeders who loved the breed.  The modern bulldog is 
  shorter of leg and smaller than the type used to face 
  bulls.
   
  Dog-fights are another blood sport. A 
  dog-fight pits two dogs against each other, often in 
  extremely close quarters.  Dog-fights have existed for 
  centuries but their popularity increased dramatically 
  after the banning of bear- and bull-baiting.  The term 
  ‘pit bull’ comes from the breeds of dog developed to 
  fight other dogs.  The dogs are very tenacious and 
  fights usually last an hour or more before one of the 
  dogs gives up or is killed.
   
  Dog fighting was made illegal in England and 
  the United States by the early 20th century but, sadly, 
  it continues to exist in the modern world despite 
  efforts to eliminate it.  In the modern American dog 
  fighting circuit pit bulls are one of the favored breeds 
  and dogs raised for dog fighting are said to be “game 
  bred.”  Dog fighting continues to this day and in an 
  even more vicious form.  The sort of ‘training’ used to 
  create modern fighting dogs, which usually includes 
  both beating and starvation, leads to the creation of 
  brutalized animals who are often extremely vicious 
  both in and out of the fight.  However, dog fighting 
  natural attack) as bonus feats.
  Environment: Any, usually raised in an urban or rural 
  area.
  Organization: Any.
  Challenge Rating: +0, +1 if the base creature has 5 
  or more HD
  Treasure: None.
  Alignment: As base creature.
  Advancement: As base creature.
  Level Adjustment: —
  GAME BRED
   
  Game Bred animals are brutalized and 
  mistreated to make them vicious and dangerous.
  CREATING A GAME BRED
   
  “Game Bred” is an acquired template that can 
  be added to any animal.
  Size and Type: The creature’s type remains 
  unchanged. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and 
  special abilities except as noted here.
  Special Qualities: Brutalized (Ex): A battle bred gains 
  a +3 save against fear or effects that cause pain.
  Mean (Ex): Any attempt to make the game bred 
  animal friendly or non-hostile suffers a -2 penalty or 
  the game bred receives a +2 racial bonus to resist, as 
  appropriate.
  Abilities: A game bred’s Wisdom and Charisma are 
  decreased by -2 (minimum 5).
  Skills: A game bred animal gains a +2 racial bonus on 
  Intimidation checks.
  Feats: A game bred retains all feats of the base 
  creature and gains Toughness and Die Hard as bonus 
  feats.
  
  51
  remains extremely popular as it is easy to conceal and 
  hard to prosecute.
   
  Part II- Breaking it apart and 
  putting it back together
   
  As horrible as such things may appear to 
  us, the use of animal combats for bloody popular 
  entertainment has a long and successful history.  The 
  use of such in a game may add both color and serve 
  as a reminder that the world the characters are in is 
  very different from the modern day world.
   
  As all of the animal blood sports are magnets 
  for gambling and socializing, they can easily be used 
  in adventures.  It may be that the characters meet 
  their new patron at a bear-baiting ring or a ratting 
  parlor.  Characters could be hired to spy on rivals and 
  their animals, paid to kidnap valuable animals, or to 
  rig fights by use of magic or other dirty tricks.  Or the 
  characters might want to get involved themselves and 
  manage their own team of fighting animals, which 
  would make them targets for established groups of 
  animal trainers.
   
  A druid or ranger might be following the trail 
  of hunters who had been capturing wild bears to bring 
  into the city for use in bear baiting.  Some characters 
  might seek to free the animals used in these sports.  
  Of course, that could cause more problems as fight-
  trained animals roamed the streets causing trouble 
  (and might bring the authorities after the people who 
  freed the animals).  Or, on the other side of the coin, 
  adventurers might be hired to capture new and exotic 
  creatures for the fights, perhaps someone wants to 
  start an owlbear-baiting ring.  
  Environment: Any, usually raised in an urban or rural 
  area.
  Organization: Any.
  Challenge Rating: +0
  Treasure: None.
  Alignment: As base creature.
  Advancement: As base creature.
  Level Adjustment: —.
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=133
  
  52
  About the Author
  Nash J. Devita is our Other RPGs section head at Silven 
  Crossroads.
  Contact the Author
  devita@comcast.net
  Industry Insight
  6. Hosting and sales: Need a website? The Forge 
  isn’t a major hosting-enterprise, but some space 
  is available at reasonable prices if you want to 
  start out without annoying pop-ups and so forth. 
  More importantly, the site also features the Forge 
  Bookshelf, which offers a small but practical venue for 
  selling downloadable stuff.”
  Thankfully, an independent publisher does not even 
  need to have started with the Forge to become a 
  member. Keith Taylor of 93 Games Studio joined just 
  before Gen Con Indy 2004 and was there with the 
  Forge crew at the booth.
  There are a number of reasons that individuals have 
  come to the Forge with their games and do what they 
  do with the Forge.  Ron Edwards of Adept Press, the 
  current Forge moderator, is a gentleman who holds 
  sole rights to his three games. He started very small 
  and quickly realized, thanks to his first Gen Con, that 
  people are most interested in a strong community 
  of play. This is the primary reason that there are 
  so many demos for the various games going all 
  convention long. Ron realized quickly that the CCG 
  people had the right idea – give the players enough to 
  get hooked and wanting more; don’t bore them with 
  all of the complexities. This can be done in a 10 to 30 
  minute demo instead of a multi-hour ‘standard’ RPG 
  demo. Being as that there is so much to do a Gen Con 
  (or any other con for that matter), learning about a 
  product in a short amount of time and having a lot of 
  fun is key. There was a huge crowd at each of the five 
  Forge demo tables during Gen Con 2004. I hate this 
  saying, but it does hold true here – the proof is in the 
  pudding. 
  even just for fun. You’ll also find features like artists, 
  website links, and essays on desktop publishing.
  3. Feedback: How about that game itself, anyway? 
  Play-testing, comments, mathematics, goals, and 
  far more are available through the community at the 
  Forge. Most of us are very committed to ‘fully-baked’ 
  games, which is to say, games which really provide 
  the vision and experience that you, the designer, 
  wanted to convey. It’s not enough just to look nice 
  – the game has to work. The Forge offers a unique 
  opportunity to bake games more fully than any other 
  venue.
  4. Discussion: This is what gets all the attention, 
  because the Forge includes bangarama-thon forum 
  discussions which yield some amazing things. We’ve 
  got some serious rules for how to act toward one 
  another there, which are distinctly not internet-like, 
  so it takes so getting used to. Besides, some of the 
  discussions are very practical and concrete and some 
  are pretty damn out there, so most people figure out 
  ‘where’ they like to participate.
  5. Theory: At the Forge, ‘theory’ doesn’t mean 
  artsy-fartsy rambling, but rather, making the best 
  possible sense. Which also means it’s a never-ending 
  task, as older ideas evolve, new ideas appear, and 
  new members join the mix of constant analysis and 
  comparison. Does it work? Who knows? But hey, we 
  try. A lot of the discussions prompt members to write 
  essays, which get archived at the site.
  This month, kicks off a new column that I will 
  be writing every other month, “Indie Spotlight.” 
  This column does just what it sounds like it 
  should – present an independent (or indie) 
  RPG publisher or collection of independent RPG 
  publishers and briefly discuss their game(s), 
  theories on gaming and game design, and 
  give an overview of the individuals within the 
  publishing company (or collection thereof).
  I cannot think of any better way to start this article 
  series off than with http://www.indie-rpgs.com, 
  The Forge. The Forge is a collective of indie RPG 
  publishers who have joined forces to help promote 
  their own and each other’s products such as Sorcerer, 
  Universalis,  and The Burning Wheel—just to name 
  a few. There are a ton of great titles from these kind 
  folks – yes, they are kind, even despite game names 
  such as Kill Puppies for Satan!
  So, what is The Forge all about? In their own words, 
  The Forge is there for:
  “1. Information: Is it actually possible to publish 
  your own game? Yes, but you’ll benefit greatly from 
  the experience of those who’ve done it, ranging 
  from necessary abstractions like figuring out just 
  what ‘success’ means for you, to equally-necessary 
  practicalities like how to choose the best bids from 
  printers.
  2. Resources: Need some layout? Looking for art? Or 
  just figuring out how to organize your presentation? 
  Mutual effort is a big deal at the Forge – you’ll find 
  people who are willing to help at minimal cost or 
  Indie Spotlight: The Forge
  by Nash J. Devita
  
  53
  He then got the idea to join with other publishers due 
  to the costs.  At cons and elsewhere they work to 
  promote each other’s products, to help teach players, 
  in that 10 to 30 minute span, (most of) their game. 
  The Forge has seen this work for three years now at 
  Gen Con – 2002 through 2004.
  They are not there only for the sales, however. As 
  Ron told me, in a booth by himself, he probably could 
  have walked away with more sales than he did at the 
  Forge booth. That is not the primary goal, though. 
  The primary goal is to foster mutualism within the 
  Forge. Each member publishers his / her own game 
  but at the same time learns the other member’s 
  games well enough to sell them to fans that would 
  most appreciate them. Word of the products has 
  significantly spread thanks to this goal. This can be 
  seen in a serious sales spike after cons.
  Of course, the various members are not learning the 
  other games just for sales. They are all having a good 
  time together, as well. That pleasant attitude was 
  clearly visible from day one at the con to the time that 
  I spoke with them, the beginning of day four. When 
  they can, they sit in on demos.
  Beyond the cons, the primary goal at the Forge is 
  self-ownership and creator control of their games. 
  Each member is the developer, writer and owner of 
  his or her own games. Ron told me that he had been 
  approached at one time by the folks at Wizards of 
  the Coast back in 2001. They had an offer to take his 
  game under their name but he felt that he would have 
  been loosing too much control of this product.  In 
  addition, it would be working against his own beliefs 
  so he had to politely decline their fairly generous offer. 
  Ron might have a lot more money today had he taken 
  that offer, but would he be as happy with himself and 
  his product. From what I got in my time with him, 
  the answer is clearly ‘no.’ Thankfully, he is happy with 
  where he is today thanks to this decision. 
  Beyond Ron, I spoke with some of the other members 
  of the Forge crew. I had a little more time with Keith 
  Taylor as well as some time with Keith Senkowski 
  and Matt Wilson. Keith Senkowski stumbled across 
  the Forge while working with his product and in an 
  epiphany, as he put it, had to join. Keith Taylor was 
  ‘recruited’ by an active member of the forums at the 
  Forge. As stated above, he had been publishing on his 
  own previously and felt that he and 93 Games Studio 
  belonged with this cabal. Matt Wilson’s work was 
  actually inspired by a few other titles from publishers 
  at the Forge so he felt that it was the perfect place 
  for him and his work. Gen Con 2004 was his first con 
  as a salesman and he was very ecstatic (rightfully) to 
  make his first sale while there!
  Vincent Baker of Lumpley Games and George 
  Thompson of Driftwood Publishing were both treated 
  swimmingly at Gen Con 2004. George Thompson 
  actually acquired Driftwood just a few weeks before 
  the con since the original proprietor had to leave his 
  own company to pursue his life’s dream. George, 
  before acquiring Driftwood, carried a great number 
  of Forge titles in his store. Vincent originally became 
  involved via discussion of RPGs and RPG theories. He 
  was amazed at the ‘quality of discourse’ there. He was 
  approached by the folks at the Forge to sell the game 
  that he had been distributing for free via the internet, 
  Kill Puppies for Satan. The knowledge and wisdom of 
  the Forge has helped him sell out of his on hand stock 
  two years running.
  Even as I look at what I have written, I can see that 
  these few examples don’t really cover the attitude 
  Adept Press
  http://www.adept-press.com
  Games: Sorcerer, Trollbabe, Elfs
  Ramshead Publishing
  http://universalis.actionroll.com
  Games: Robots and Rapiers, Universalis
  No Press
  http://www.nopress.net
  Games: No Press Anthology
  Half Meme Press
  http://www.halfmeme.com
  Games: My Life with Master, Nicotine Girls
  Chimera Creative
  http://www.chimera.info
  Games: Dust Devils, Nine Worlds
  Lumpley Games
  http://www.septemberquestion.org/lumpley/
  lumpley.html/
  Games: Kill Puppies for Satan, Dogs in the Vineyard
  Dog-Eared Designs
  http://www.dog-eared-designs.com
  Games: Primetime Adventures
  BTRC
  http://www.btrc.net
  Games: EABA
  Twisted Confessions
  http://www.twistedconfessions.com
  Games: Fastlane
  Custom Built Games
  Games: SNAP
  Incarnadine Press
  http://incarnadine.indie-rpgs.com
  Games: With Great Power…, War Stories
  Behemoth 3
  http://www.behemoth3.com
  Games: Masters & Minions
  Bob Goat Press
  http://www.bobgoat.com
  Games: Conspiracy of Shadows
  Digital Alchemy
  http://www.digital-alchemy.net
  Games: Cartoforge, Adventure Writer
  93 Games Studio
  http://www.93gamesstudio.com
  Games: The Swing
  Forge Booth Participants
  
  54
  that exudes from the whole crew at the Forge. It is 
  almost a familial relationship, not a business one. 
  They are not there only to sell their own books. Of 
  course, that is a major goal, but that is not the only 
  reason. They are they to have fun and to help the rest 
  of the crew have fun. Ron sacrificed some of his sales 
  to help those of the other publishers at the Forge. He, 
  like the rest of the Forge, is not only looking out for 
  number one but the entire team.  
  It felt good watching them in action as a team, too. 
  Just before the opening of Gen Con Indie 2004, the 
  final day, Ron invited me to listen in on the ‘pre-con 
  prep.’  They decided on a game plan with everyone’s 
  input, even if it did not involve their own product. We 
  were all good to go and very happy to see the day get 
  going (despite a hangover or two). I did not sense an 
  ounce of competition among this crew. They were all 
  there to help one another and have a good time doing 
  it.
  At the Forge booth at Gen Con Indy 2004 were:
  You can get to the Forge directly by going to http:
  //www.indie-rpgs.com. 
  Jason Libby
  Aka: Darkforce Prime
  My favorite was the all-weekend-long Marvel Super 
  Heroes games where we started Friday at 5pm and 
  ended Sunday 9am.  We had no sleep and spent the 
  time eating Dilly Green Beans and drinking ice tea. I 
  remember it was Ogre (a friend of mine who stunk), 
  my step-brother, and myself. Sometimes, Jason, the 
  co-owner of Dilly Green Bean Games, would also 
  be part of these games. We would get so tired the 
  D10s would sprout legs by the end of the weekend 
  and walk off the table. We managed to destroy earth 
  a couple times, but it´s the Marvel Universe so the 
  Beyonder just kept fixing it. Crazy stuff. We got so 
  powerfully mad we were creating worlds, cosmic 
  super Gods, and robot armies. It all came to an end 
  when I used my Solar-energy absorption guy (Class 
  1000) and destroyed the Dino world (granted my 
  flight wasn’t high enough to remove me from the 
  star I landed in). I also dropped my typical stated 
  characters with Class 5000 energy absorption on my 
  friend’s robot world. I killed it, no power. 
   
  Steven Skains
  Firestorm
  Once while we were in a small cave, my monk got 
  sprayed with the blood of a dire badger.  Just a bit 
  later, my character picked up an enchanted drow 
  longsword. My character started to take damage 
  every morning, and I was like,  It has to be the 
  badger blood!  Must...get...water! But I couldn’t find 
  any amount of water that would wash the blood off, 
  so I went throughout the module thinking that this 
  damage was coming from the badger blood.  The 
  drow longsword never passed my mind as the culprit 
  (damn curses!)
   
  The Evil Overlord
  One of the humorous times that sticks with me was 
  when we played a 2nd Edition game. Since it was 
  kind of spur of the moment, I rolled on the random 
  encounter chart and got animals—skunks. 
  My initial thought was ”that is lame.”  Then I thought, 
  ”Well, I have never used skunks before. Maybe one 
  of the players will get too close and get sprayed.”  
  The characters were walking down the road, and I 
  had them make a perception roll.  One of them rolled 
  well, and I handed him a note that said that there 
  was a slight movement in one of the bushes very 
  close to the right.  I thought they might be wary and 
  maybe someone would check it out. Instead he said, 
  ”Ambush! Form a shield wall! Charge!”  So six players 
  charged the skunk and they all got sprayed.  When 
  they arrived at the town gate the watch would not 
  let them in because of the stench.  I thought it was 
  hilarious.  
  Fond Memories of Gaming from the 
  Silven Community cont.
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/otherrpgs.asp?case=show&id=419
  
  55
  This year at GenCon I had the opportunity to talk with 
  Ian Richards, the head of the RPGA. He graciously 
  took time out of his busy schedule Wednesday 
  evening to sit down and talk with me.
  Why don’t you start by giving us an 
  idea what a managing director of the 
  RPGA does?
  Well, first of all I’m Program Manager of the RPGA 
  which means I develop, with my staff, programs to 
  continue to provide community and content for the 
  community of role-players.  These are primarily D&D 
  players and Star Wars players that get together as 
  friends.  I work for Wizards of the Coast so therefore 
  it’s all to do with Wizards of the Coast products.
  So, you are an employee?
  I am an employee of Wizards of the Coast.  I’m 
  part of the Organized Play department at Wizards 
  of the Coast so I organize games, card games, and 
  miniatures.  I’m also responsible for the D&D brand 
  and obviously D&D and the role-playing game itself.  
  We also develop different programs to try and 
  stimulate and continue to support players playing 
  their hobby.  This can be in their own home.  We have 
  no problem with that, we do support them directly 
  in their own home.  And then if they want to venture 
  forth and have some experiences with other players 
  we’re there to support them every step of the way.  
  So this means we provide them adventures anywhere 
  in the world with our delivery system.  It’s as simple 
  as that.  They download the adventures, they play 
  adventures, they report they play adventures, and 
  they have a reward scheme.  They will actually get 
  rewards that will help them continue to play.  So, it’s 
  a bit like playing campaigns at home.  I’ll be able to 
  explain more about that shortly.  
  Then there’s also a store-based program which 
  supports players that want to play locally.  They go 
  into the local stores, the local club. It’s sort of a mini 
  extension of being at home and playing.  Now instead 
  of six people, you’re playing with maybe 30 or 40 
  people.  And that’s great.  We have no problem.  We’ll 
  support you and have a special program for that in 
  place as well.  
  Then obviously we come to conventions like this.  This 
  is where you can sit down and interact with several 
  hundred players.  We have 150 tables here at Gen 
  Con right here on the floor.   Each can take up to 
  seven people, so three times a day we run roughly 
  700 people.  
  And we support you anywhere in between.  As a 
  GM we also reward you.  You tally up your players 
  playing things and we send you rewards based on that 
  as well.  Because it gives us good hard data as we 
  develop Dungeons & Dragons and move forward as a 
  company.  It gives us hard data about what players 
  want to play.  Conversely, we support players that just 
  want to play their games.  So, for that hard data we 
  try and reward them for that.  
  So would you say that with all 
  the effort you put into supporting 
  the game and Game Days, is the 
  membership of the RPGA growing?  
  Has it stayed the same?  Is it 
  shrinking?  What’s going on?
  The RPGA in the last three years has exponentially 
  grown about 30 % per year each year.  That’s 
  primarily because of technology.  As more people 
  are getting more proficient and more access to the 
  Internet, we move more to a ‘net delivered system.   
  Therefore, we’re able to get more actual adventures 
  and support into grass roots play.  Grass roots play 
  being in their own home.  
  This is something the RPGA didn’t spend a lot of time 
  doing to begin with.  It grew up in the convention 
  environment.  It started by supporting convention 
  play.  We’ve sort of moved from that level backwards.  
  Well, obviously most players start at home and they 
  move forwards into convention play eventually.  
  We’ve moved in the other direction.  So, it takes us, 
  I suppose, an evolutionary time to get to this point.  
  Those people playing at home are just as important as 
  anyone who comes to a convention like Gen Con.  
  So I think most of our growth has come from that and 
  supporting the retailers.  We’re now taking the games 
  to them, the place they play when they’re able to 
  play.  And it’s very easy for them.  The point of being 
  able to interact with us has become so much simpler, 
  so much easier for them.  That way it becomes more 
  for them.  And we have a lot of growth in places like 
  Brazil, Colombia and Greece.  I remember going to 
  by Edward J. Kopp
  Interviews: Ian Richards of the RPGA
  Interview
  
  56
  Gen Con UK last year, and there was a whole bunch 
  in from Greece out of Athens.  They speak Greek all 
  the time they were talking at the table to each other 
  outside of the game.  When they actually played the 
  game they all spoke was English because they don’t 
  have a local translation of the game, they learned to 
  play Dungeons & Dragons in English.  So they play in 
  English, it’s wonderful to see.  As soon as they step 
  up from the table, they instantly go back into Greek.  
  So, ya know, it’s a wonderful sort of feeling from that.  
  Maybe the biggest satisfaction I can get is people 
  have this event and people say hey that was such 
  a great time.  We had such a wonderful time.  We 
  want to come back next year.  And so for us we win if 
  people have a good time.
  Excellent.  So do you have what’s 
  coming out in the future?  What is the 
  RPGA looking forward to in the next 
  year?
  Lets see.  Well, I need to say something about the 
  campaigns.  We have different styles of games.  We’re 
  trying to revitalize our tournament-based programs.  
  We have an open tournament based game here.  
  Team focused.  We all know that role-playing can 
  be very subjective.  So scoring individuals, how well 
  they role-played in comparison to the other players 
  is a very subjective thing for the individual.  So [our 
  tournament] is very much objective driven.  So that 
  takes away the subjectivity of an event like that.  
  So we have that for those that want to play a little 
  competitively.  And we’re going to grow that over the 
  next twelve months to eighteen months.  
  Another thing the RPGA grew up doing was providing 
  tournament based scenarios.  The game is going 
  back to its roots.  That’s what the RPGA specializes 
  in.  We still have the campaign play at multiple levels 
  as well.  Which is just like a home campaign.  It’s 
  multiple campaigns and your playing with thousands 
  of players across the world.  So, like Living Grayhawk, 
  set in the Greyhawk setting every month they have 
  twenty thousand plus people interact.  Then you go 
  to Living Force, the Living bit denotes an on going 
  campaign, Living Force being Star Wars.  Again 
  you’ve got multiple thousands of people interacting 
  so it’s growing in all those levels.  That gives you a 
  campaign of people getting together, just like a home 
  campaign.  
  What we did is last year was introduce a new style 
  of campaign which is halfway between the two. 
  It’s a finite-ending campaign.  We take a two-year 
  campaign—we’re going to take first level and there 
  will be changes in level. It’s a bit like a throwback 
  to the early D&D modules like G1, G2 and G3, D1, 
  D2 and D3.  It’s an epic-level campaign happening.  
  Which progresses you through, rapidly through, 
  these scenarios to a certain level.  It has a finite cut 
  off point.  This is fantastic for supporting play at the 
  retail stores where people do meet up. You have to 
  recognize that clubs do meet up in retail stores that 
  have provisions. And that’s taking the campaign to a 
  different level. That’s a short-term campaign in which 
  people can slot in slot out of and allow for people to 
  join at any level. Where as obviously if you became 
  10th level and your friend decided to join and has to 
  start at 1st then you can’t play together. With this new 
  style of campaign they can start at a much higher 
  level, which is equivalent to you, and they can play 
  with you. That’s going to advance this year because 
  next year we’re going to launch a new Eberron 
  campaign.
  And will that be Living?
  That will be in the new campaign cycling style.
  So you will start at 1st level and after a 
  certain amount of time there will be a 
  bump up to 7th or whatever?
  Yeah. At this convention we’re going to bump to 7th 
  level if you’re not there already. There will be a short 
  section of story missing that assumes you’ve done 
  X, Y and Z in that time and you’ve achieved that 
  minimum level.  If you were to play all the scenarios 
  up to that point you’d be at least two levels above 
  that. So that gives you an idea of when you play and 
  the investment puts you slightly ahead but not so far 
  you and your friends still can’t play.  The only one 
  we have going on at present is set in the Forgotten 
  Realms which is the Legacy of the Green Regent 
  campaign and after that will be Eberron. Legacy 
  doesn’t end till next Gen Con so there’s another year 
  to go. And the Eberron campaign will start in January 
  or February, depending on when Winter Fantasy will 
  actually be. We have a sneak peek happening at Gen 
  Con Southern California. And the first scenario will be 
  played there as well.
  Now there’s also member run 
  campaign. How do those work?
  What we term member enabled campaigns, which 
  means we as staff don’t actually have any direct 
  involvement. We have like Living Arcanis by Paradigm 
  Concepts. Paradigm Concepts has an agreement with 
  us to support it and we actually provide the space. 
  It’s an association, just like the RPGA says the Role 
  Playing Games Association; it’s an association with 
  those companies. 
  We try not to diversify to many places. It’s not good 
  for them and it’s not good for us. In other words we 
  will only have so many of a particular game system. 
  So we have a lot based in fantasy, we have some 
  based in science fiction like Star Wars. And then we 
  have the modern campaigns like d20 Modern and we 
  also have Living Spycraft as well. So we try to offer 
  a mix, but we try not to offer too many otherwise 
  what we do is subdivide the player base down and 
  everyone has low numbers. And that way we try and 
  keep everyone playing in a healthy campaign, and it 
  becomes viable for those companies to continue being 
  supportive.
  
  57
  All right. You answered a lot of my 
  questions and you’ve given us a lot of 
  food for thought. I really appreciate it. 
  May I ask a few more questions? What 
  are your GenCon numbers like from 
  last year to this year?
  This is the biggest presence we’ve ever had at 
  GenCon. That’s the reason we had to move everything 
  into one hall. Normally we’ve had break out rooms 
  with just a few tables in each one. We just don’t have 
  the space now. Last year we were in break out rooms 
  and one small hall. This year we’re in this large hall 
  because we want to increase our table space. We 
  went from 136 tables a slot to 150 tables a slot to 
  give you an idea. Of course we had in some slots last 
  year, a slot being a four hour game period or a five 
  hour time period, because we added some last-last 
  year. We had to get tables from other areas because 
  we just had too many people wanting to play at the 
  time so we burst out of there.  And that’s the reason 
  we asked for more space. Convention play continues 
  to go up which is great news for us and great news 
  for the convention. Obviously the numbers of people 
  coming doesn’t directly affect us. Obviously it affects 
  Gen Con, which is a completely separate company. So 
  it’s great support for the convention.
  What kind of expectations do you have 
  for Eberron?
  Right now there’s a lot of people interested in 
  Eberron. Eberron’s a great seller. We have a lot of 
  people lining up to write for us as well. Even though 
  we’ve got the best story going we have a lot of people 
  who want to write other things for us. It seems like 
  it’s going to be a highly popular setting. I’m sure it 
  doesn’t appeal to everybody but that’s just the way 
  it’s going to be because it’s not just a setting it’s 
  about the style of the campaign.
  Are Dragon and Dungeon still going 
  to promote the RPGA with Polyhedron 
  going away?
  Polyherdron’s gone.
  Are you looking for a replacement?
  There’s a two-pronged answer to that. Polyhedron is 
  gone, this is true. We’re debating in-house about what 
  we will do with Polyhedron. We want to keep it going 
  but it’s a case of how we do it. Will just be online? Will 
  there be a print copy? It’s something Paizo gave back 
  to us and said we can no longer support this. We have 
  to think about it first. We want to do it but obviously 
  it comes up at a time halfway through the year where 
  we suddenly have a problem with budgets and such. 
  So we’re re evaluating where we want to be next 
  year and what we want to do. So that answers where 
  Polyhedron is at. 
  As far as Dragon and Dungeon, I have a monthly 
  column in Dragon magazine; a 750 word column 
  which is one way. The second thing is that with 
  Dungeon we now sanction each of their scenarios. 
  So every time Dungeon magazine comes out if it 
  has an RPGA code next to it you can report playing 
  it at home.  For multiple campaigns. obviously they 
  write generic, a lot of generic material. If it’s Living 
  Greyhawk, if they publish Living Greyhawk material, 
  then it’s subject to Living Greyhawk. If it’s generic 
  then it’s just generic. But the point is we don’t 
  penalize them for that. All Dungeon scenarios have a 
  given amount of points. 
  So you just tell us you’re playing. You tell us you’re 
  playing D&D, when you’re playing D&D, who you play 
  D&D with, and we’ll credit your account with so many 
  points. When you get so many points you get free 
  stuff. And free stuff is never bad. You’re playing great 
  games, your having fun anyway, and what the heck; 
  you get free stuff as well. It’s free to join and it’s free 
  stuff. Now some people don’t want free 
  stuff, I don’t get it myself but there you 
  are.
   And the adventures are free as well?
  They used to charge for it--$10 a time. Now we don’t 
  charge at all. You have to be a member of the RPGA. 
  You then get a special PIN number for yourself. You 
  then have to pass a very simple online test that shows 
  you know the game system that you want to play, and 
  then it gives you access to the database so you can 
  run your own events. We don’t distinguish between 
  one table, you and your game group at home, to a 
  hundred tables at a show. As far as we’re concerned 
  it’s the same. You say it’s a home game and you 
  can only have three scenarios. Let’s face facts; we 
  don’t want people playing more than fifteen hours in 
  one day. And I’m sure it can get abusive after that 
  point and will get labeled for it. But if it’s a home 
  game tell us you want to play the next day and have 
  another three scenarios. Don’t try to download more 
  than three scenarios in one day. And for much larger 
  events if you tell us it’s a convention we allow more 
  to be downloaded. So we’ll support you in any way 
  possible. It’s all free.
  We thank Ian Richards for taking the time to talk with 
  us.  For more information on the RPGA you can visit: 
  http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=rpga
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/adnd.asp?case=show&id=421
  
  58
  “They call him Shotgun Scotty.  He was contracted 
  to take out one of my other crews.  He did his job 
  almost perfectly.  I need you to go after him, because 
  you always do your job perfectly.  Besides, this is 
  personal.  I know I can trust you to do this right."
  She accented her words with a sultry look--her head 
  tipped to one side, her dark eyes flashing with hidden 
  meaning.  She didn't need to do any of that; her voice 
  was erotic as it was.  Resonant, yet feminine.  
  "What's the stats on him?" Stendhal said. 
  Jodi picked up a cigarette and lit it.  Normally 
  Stendhal hated cigarettes, but he tolerated hers for 
  two reasons.  The first was that they weren't straight-
  up tobacco, rather some kind of derivative that 
  smelled like ashen cherries.  The second was that she 
  paid him good money--among other things--and she 
  paid him often.
  "He's five-foot-eight, well built on top, quick reflexes 
  but not particularly agile.  How much do you know 
  about the Garullian race?" 
  That was nothing. Stendhal had six inches on the guy, 
  was evenly distributed as far as muscle went, and 
  just agile enough.  He wasn't sure of his own racial 
  heritage, but knew enough to say that a Garullian 
  wasn't much in comparison.
  Stendhal took note of glance by Smyther Reens, his 
  tech-and-chem guy and all-around right-hand man.  
  Smyther's race--whatever it was, he never said--
  couldn't make facial expressions, which sometimes 
  made it hard to read such glances.  In this case, 
  though, Stendhal knew. 
  "The famous Wimbletons from Lavender are 
  Garullians, right?" Stendhal asked. "Is he another of 
  their prodigal offspring?" 
  Jodi blew a few long puffs like post coital sighs.  He 
  hated when she did this shit in front of Smyther.  
  "Shadrick Scottsford Wimbleton, the youngest and 
  shortest of the kids, but also the most insane." 
  "Dude, anyone who names their kids like Senator 
  and Professor Wimbleton did is insane in my book," 
  Smyther laughed.  Not that he was one to talk, but 
  then again, for all Stendhal knew, Smyther Reens 
  could have been a moniker. 
  "Those aren't the stats I'm talking about, anyway," 
  Stendhal said.  "I mean what kind of damage did he 
  do, how many people did he take out versus how 
  many people he brought with him, where the hell 
  the name Shotgun Scotty comes from and just why 
  exactly this is personal?"
  She sat upright in her chair, put her feet on the floor 
  and quenched the cigarette.  Her face became solid, 
  seeing as how he was resisting her temptations.  "It 
  was just him, and he took out Carmichael and two of 
  his top boys."
  An electric shock ran threw Stendhal from his back 
  to his chest.  There he swallowed it down.  "Chris 
  Carmichael?  I thought you said that human and his 
  team were sometimes more trouble than they're 
  worth.  That's personal?"
  "Carmichael is incidental.  Don't worry about why 
  it's personal."  If she didn't want him to know she 
  wouldn't have told him.  This was a game, one 
  Stendhal wasn't interested in playing right now.  
  "They call him Shotgun Scotty because not only is he 
  impulsive but also he has an affinity for pump-action 
  weapons, sawed-off or otherwise.  Typically he's seen 
  with two halves at his hip and two full-sized crossed 
  over his back like swords.  I also have his address and 
  phone number if you want."
  Now she was getting snippy.  Stendhal said, "I'll take 
  his address and whatever else you have on him in 
  your file along with the contract."
  -----
  by Christian R. Bonawandt
  Shotgun
  Fiction
  
  59
  After the meeting, while Smyther picked up some 
  necessary equipment, Stendhal sat alone, trying to 
  put some thought into this strange situation.  Half a 
  million credits was a lot of money to pay for one guy, 
  but if he could take out three experienced mercs on 
  his own than he was something to contend with.  With 
  the half payment up front, Smyther bought a TK-1010 
  Force Field.  Stendhal didn't trust armor that only 
  kicked in when he was being shot at, so he picked up 
  some quality form-fitting plate armor that he could 
  wear under clothes.  The plan was to go up to Scotty's 
  place somewhat in disguise and ambush him.
  Security at the apartment building was lax, but 
  present.  Smyther, with his tear-shaped blue head 
  and gangly form wasn't exactly inconspicuous, but his 
  personality blended well with a handful of gaggling 
  Elffan, Neoman and Human teenagers.  He slipped in 
  behind them and split from them on the third floor.  
  Scotty was on the fourth. 
  Since Jodi was in good with (read: frequently had 
  sex with) the owner of the Pizza Gallery eatery 
  chain, getting hold of a uniform and box wasn't hard.  
  Stendhal duct-taped two TSU-3200 Special Uzis with 
  100-shot banana clips to the inside of the pizza box 
  and told the guard through the call box that he was 
  going to room 425--Shadrick Wimbleton's room--so 
  he would be buzzed in.
  He and Smyther met in the stairwell.  Smyther slipped 
  on the force field straps hidden in the high-school-
  style backpack with two silenced 9mms loaded with 
  plasma bullets.  
  Stendhal knocked on the door.  Through his 
  cybernetically-enhanced hearing he detected someone 
  shuffling off a heavy, unbalanced item.  He imagined 
  a small but stout Garullian rolling off a futon still in his 
  underwear.  Perhaps he had a shotgun at his bedside.
  Footsteps treaded awkwardly toward the door, then 
  stopped.  "I didn't order a fucking pizza," he muttered 
  in a groggy voice after presumably looking through 
  the peephole.  Smyther was tucked against the wall 
  by the door, out of the peephole's peripheral range.  
  A pro would have kept up appearances, stuck with 
  the gimmick until the guy at least undid a latch or 
  three.  But Stendhal had no idea what name this guy 
  would have ordered a pizza with (he was born with 
  three, and probably had a good handful of nicknames 
  besides the one Stendhal knew).  Even if he did know, 
  Stendhal was a multi-racial guy in his forties with a 
  boxer's build--he was no master of illusions.
  A quote from Lamb-dada, a merc turned author who 
  Stendhal admired, popped into his head: "A disguise 
  will only get you so far."  
  Two hard, martial-arts kicks made the wooden door 
  cleave past the deadbolts.  
  Instead of finding a sleepy, unsuspecting man 
  in his underwear, standing in front of the broken 
  door Stendhal saw a pissed off, fully-armed man in 
  segmented body armor with a spot of cocaine still 
  hanging on his upper lip.  
  "Fuck me," Stendhal said.  
  On cue, Smyther jumped in front of Stendhal so he 
  could get out the Uzis.  Smyther fired two shots from 
  each gun before Scotty reacted.  
  Just like Jodi had said, he had two full-sized, single-
  barrel shotties crossed over his back and two sawed-
  off doubles at his hip.  He also sported a bandoleer 
  of cylindrical ammo reloads.  After letting his plate 
  armor absorb the plasma rounds, Scotty pulled his 
  sawed-offs from his hips, showdown-style.  He jerked 
  them sharply to trigger the slide action, then fired.  
  Both slugs stopped a half-inch from Smyther's chest, 
  flicked away like crumbs by the force field.  The 
  wallet-sized generator crackled with excitement.  It 
  would only take a dozen or so shots like that before it 
  wavered.  
  Stendhal pushed past Smyther.  He simultaneously 
  flicked on the laser targeting and the safety of both 
  SMGs.  The heavy banana clips and silencers made 
  the guns unbalanced and hard to aim.  Nobody buys 
  100-round clips if they think they're going to be 
  accurate, though.  
  The bullets spat past Scotty like killer mosquitoes as 
  he dove behind the couch for cover.  Before landing 
  out of sight he fired the last two slugs from his sawed-
  offs.  The double bangs echoed in his cybernetic 
  ears with a sound reminiscent of two hollow metal 
  rods being clanked together.  The rounds smashed 
  Stendhal's chest dead-on over his heart.  Although 
  the plate armor ate the bullets, he still felt like he 
  had been punched twice in the chest by an ape.  He 
  suppressed a cough.
  With discretion long lost and security likely on its way, 
  Stendhal and Smyther charged inside like cavalry.  
  Scotty shot up from his cover, both single-barrels in 
  hand.  Stendhal dropped on his hip and slid beneath 
  the Garullian's legs like a baseball player, bouncing 
  back up when he reached the other side.  
  Scotty turned sideways and fired blindly at both 
  mercenaries.  Again Smyther's force field crackled.  
  The shot at Stendhal went past his ear.  His cyber-
  hearing screeched like a banshee.  The sound wracked 
  his brain so viciously that he found himself holding his 
  ear instinctively, uncontrollably.
  As he writhed, he felt Scotty brush his shoulder--he 
  was heading toward the window.  Smyther's rounds 
  whistled frighteningly close to his shoulder.  Although 
  he couldn't hear it too well, he knew Scotty had 
  jumped out the window.  Son of bitch probably had 
  bionic limbs or something.
  After the whining in his ears stopped, the first sound 
  he heard was two security guards telling him to 
  freeze.  One wielded an open-band radio.  Smyther 
  had a stun gun in his shorts pocket, but Stendhal 
  filled them with fifteen rounds a piece.  His frustration 
  made him eager to kill something.  Even though the 
  silencers hadn't helped discretion, he was glad he 
  brought them.  For the next two hours he didn't want 
  to hear anything loud.
  -----
  The next loud thing he heard came four hours later.  
  As they went at it, he kept Jodi's face mouth by his 
  
  60
  right ear, the one that hadn't gone berserk.  Her 
  resonant voice was more than enhanced through his 
  cyber-ears--it became enchanting.  The things she 
  said to him in bed only made it better.  For the entire 
  hour and a half of their "session" Stendhal's body was 
  electric, his senses alive with fire.  Even the smell of 
  the food from the Seventh Finger Restaurant beneath 
  them became erotic, sensual and gave him pleasure.
  It all began to fade the second the climax ended.  
  That's how it always worked.  It only took twenty 
  minutes before he felt tense, angry, and thoughts 
  of how he let Scotty get away, and how the hell 
  Smyther was going to find him squashed his brain.  
  The stench of human-style food made him sick.  Too 
  many preservatives--how the hell did humans live on 
  preservatives?  
  As he got dressed, he said, "You didn't tell me Scotty 
  snorted dust, or that he was the kind of freak who 
  slept with guns on his person."
  "It didn't seem like something you couldn't handle," 
  she said between sighing and stretching.  "Besides, I 
  didn't like how you were behaving at our meeting."
  "What'd you want me to do, jerk off in front of 
  Smyther?" he barked, slipping into an undershirt as 
  white as his bleach-colored skin.
  "Would it have made him jealous?" she said.
  He stomped over to her and grabbed her thick, 
  stiff hair.  Normally a mercenary didn't threaten 
  his contractor without invoking the wrath of half a 
  dozen other employees.  His and Jodi's relationship, 
  however, was not typical.  She didn't treat him like 
  her others guns-for-hire, like her other employees, 
  like her other business associates.
  "Listen, you bitch," he seethed, pulling her hair back 
  like an abusive father toward his little girl.  "I'm a 
  professional killer.  If you want to bring me up here 
  and screw around with me, I consider that part of the 
  payment.  That's all."
  "You're so cold sometimes," she said.  Her voice 
  wasn't soft.  It never was, but now it was softer than 
  when she was around business partners, other mercs.
  "Then don't fuck me."  Stendhal let go of her hair, 
  finished getting dressed.  "You have plenty of other 
  associates you do that with, anyway."
  "None like you," she said.  "You're a rare breed."
  He threw on a dark green turtleneck.  The denim 
  slacks and ribbed-wool sweater enhanced his thick 
  build.  He caught her admiring his form with child-like 
  eyes.  He hated that high school, bad-boys-are-so-hot 
  routine.  His empty stomach clenched, worsened by 
  the scent of the kitchen below.  Damned woman just 
  had to live above her own restaurant.  "I don't even 
  know what breed I am," he remarked.
  "Why?" she asked.  "That's so unusual nowadays.  So 
  many people are so proud of their heritage."
  "My parents didn't give a shit about that.  Neither did 
  I.  What I am just isn't as important as who I am."
  "How philosophical," she said, somewhat in awe at his 
  devil-may-care attitude.  That pissed him off, too.
  "Aren't you half Garullian?" he asked her, hoping he'd 
  knock her off her cloud.
  She wiggled the sixth and seventh fingers on her 
  hands.  "Half," she confirmed.  All fourteen of her 
  fingers were thinner than most races.  They came 
  to nail-less points, and the tips were covered with 
  fine hairs that made her hands resemble spiders at a 
  quick glance.  Despite their eeriness, they had their 
  advantages.  "My mother was Garullian, my father 
  was--"
  "I don't care," he said.  
  Her face darkened.  He darted for the door hoping to 
  leave on that note.
  "I'll tell you why getting Shotgun is personal," she 
  said.
  He paused long enough to say, "I don't care."
  "My sister hired him to take out Carmichael and 
  his boys," she added quickly.  "I think she got bad 
  information, thought maybe he was my top guy.  
  We always had this rivalry between us, but I never 
  thought it'd come to this.  That's why I paid you 
  so much.  It means a lot that you show her I mean 
  business."
  Stendhal knew if he stopped long enough to make 
  the comment, he'd get sucked back into conversation 
  and wouldn't be able to leave her on that sour note.  
  "That's it?  Family shit?" he said anyway.
  "I never would have done something like this to 
  show up Mindy.  We swore once, when we got into 
  the underground, that we'd never make business 
  personal.  I should have known she'd break her word.  
  It was naive of me to think otherwise."
  "You're parents would be so proud," he said.
  "Must you be a sarcastic asshole?" she said.
  "I have work to do."  This time he slipped out before 
  she could say another word.
  Smyther met him at the studio apartment exactly on 
  time.  The place smelled like volatile chemicals and 
  microwave-able burgers, the latter being remnants 
  of the previous renters.  The dirty, hundred-year-old 
  carpet crunched beneath Stendhal's feet as he paced 
  the room.  Smyther was slumped on the couch with 
  dozens of tiny screws, tools and gears smattered 
  across his kaki shorts like crumbs.  He wore a T-shirt 
  that read "Don't be afraid to make a door where you 
  need one" in a crayon-esque font.  It was another 
  quote from Lamb-dada.  T-shirts like those sold 
  because the general populace believed Lamb's works 
  were fiction.  Some knew better.  
  It was around 8 p.m.  If they were to get this hit 
  done, they had to do it tonight.  The more time that 
  passed the more time this guy had to equip himself, 
  hire extra boys and make a move on them.
  
  61
  "What'd you get on this guy?" he asked Smyther.  
  Smyther said, "If had muscles to make facial 
  expressions, I'd be grinning from ear to ear.  
  Assuming I had those, too.  And a mouth."
  Stendhal suppressed a groan.
  "There's an opium den he hangs at, the Jitterbugging 
  Energy Nut, on the other side of the city," Smyther 
  continued.  "He's a regular, has his own table, his 
  own dealer.  The Nut is underneath another bar, the 
  Quaking Oat Bar and Grill.  I staked it out during 
  your meeting with Jodi.  There's an easy back way 
  in.  We can use that one and not have to worry about 
  concealing weapons."
  That was the thing about Smyther.  He always came 
  through with a ton more information than seemed 
  mortally possible as long as you didn't ask him how 
  he came about it.  
  "Don't expect to take him by surprise," Stendhal said.
  "Why's that?"
  "Something Jodi said rubbed me the wrong way," 
  he said.  Smyther laughed at the word rubbed, but 
  Stendhal let it go.  "She said that her sister was 
  behind Scotty taking out Carmichael."
  "Mindy LaRemme, the multi-national fashion magnate 
  and model?" Smyther asked.
  "Jodi said that Mindy ordered the hit on Carmichael 
  because she heard he was her best guy." 
  Smyther made a sound like a kid giving raspberries.  
  "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
  "Me too," Stendhal said.  "I'm thinking it's a load of 
  crap, that killing Carmichael was a way to bring you 
  and I out of the woodworks so the hit would look like 
  counter-revenge, and not just a good ol', stick-in-your 
  eye hit."
  "It would explain why he was dressed and ready 
  for us the first time," Smyther said with a shrug.  "I 
  always heard that Mindy was the smarter sister." 
  "More clever maybe, but not smart," Stendhal said.  
  "If she was smart she wouldn't have invoked my 
  wrath."  He turned his attention to the gray duffle bag 
  Smyther had brought with him.  "What goodies did 
  you bring?"
  "I was going to go for fusion blocks, but decided to 
  just juice up some plasma grenades.  Since he doesn't 
  wear full-body armor I went for adding poly-lithium 
  to the mixture, which would increase the blast radius 
  from five feet of flames and twelve of force to like 
  eight or nine feet of both, that way we could just melt 
  his head and not worry about his armor.  I've got five 
  of those in these opaque Water-Aid bottles since the 
  poly-lithium made the bombs too big for the original 
  canisters.  Between that and your TSUs he doesn't 
  stand a chance."
  Through his cyber-hearing, now almost back to 
  normal, Stendhal picked up heavy, unsteady footsteps 
  close to their door.  He gave Smyther the hand 
  gesture to be alert.  Across the room, by the bed, 
  Stendhal's arsenal sat ready in unfolded suitcases and 
  unzipped duffle bags.  Stendhal was near the door, 
  the best cover being the half wall between the kitchen 
  and the common area.
  A two-foot-diameter explosion blasted the door and 
  its locks, letting it swing free.  Stendhal snatched 
  his 9mm and made for the kitchen.  Scotty had 
  two new shotguns in his hands.  These were totally 
  unlike the ones had strapped to his back the first 
  time--12-gauge, eight-round, double-barrel, slide-
  action, barrel-over-barrel, and obviously loaded with 
  explosive rounds.  But that wasn't the best part.  
  Welded to the top barrel of both guns were hy-free 
  blades that traveled the entire length of the gun, 
  overshooting it by about four inches to make a perfect 
  bayonet.  The butt of the guns had been removed and 
  replaced with two-handed sword hilts, complete with 
  buttons to activate the hyper-frequency.  How the hell 
  he could have wielded those with any sort of accuracy 
  or balance threw Stendhal for a loop.
  There wasn't enough room in the apartment to set 
  off one of Smyther's super-grenades.  Stendhal heard 
  a click, click, boom, then the sound of Smyther's 
  sandals on the carpet--he was going for the guns.
  Using the half-wall as cover, Stendhal fired two shots 
  blindly around the corner at Scotty.  Scotty fired 
  two simultaneous shots at the wall.  Stendhal heard 
  about half a second of the explosion before his cyber-
  ears popped.  Then he felt the wall burst.  He felt 
  as though he had been hit in the back with a giant, 
  flaming baseball bat.  Shards of the wood-and-plaster 
  wall scratched his back, neck and shoulders like 
  barbed wire.  
  Stendhal suddenly found himself leaning against the 
  aluminum oven door.  Pain overrode all of his senses, 
  and he was clearly deaf at this point.  The absolute 
  silence was as painful to his mind as his broken body.  
  He had no idea where, if at all, he was bleeding.  For 
  several seconds, he wondered if he was dead, and 
  if not, looked dead to Scotty.  Where the hell was 
  Smyther?
  A thick hand grabbed his near shoulder-length green 
  hair.  The distinct ethereal touch of a hy-free blade 
  bit his neck.  Like a snake, Stendhal thrust his pistol 
  arm out.  Without sound, he felt the recoil of the 9mm 
  ripple vividly through his arm.  Blood sprayed his body 
  like juice from a spooned grapefruit.  Although he 
  couldn't hear it, he felt Scotty's body crash into the 
  remains of the kitchen wall.  
  He rolled to his feet, channeled the pain.  To 
  Stendhal's dismay, Scotty had taken the round in the 
  hip, in a spot just barely exposed by the fragmented 
  armor.  He sat in the U-shaped break in the half-wall.  
  The Garullian snarled, revealing his race's signature 
  hacksaw teeth.
  They stared each other down for half a second.  Then 
  Scotty launched to his feet and fired two shots from 
  each gun.  Stendhal could still feel the pop of each 
  round.  He dropped and rolled on his shoulder, came 
  up standing near the fridge.  He was cornered.
  
  62
  Scotty flipped the guns vertical, grabbed them by the 
  sword hilts.  Was he serious?  He said something.  
  Stendhal didn't wait for him to finish.  He planted 
  the red laser-targeting dot on Scotty's head.  The kid 
  charged before the shot went off.
  Between the vibrating hy-frees and fact that the 
  swords were welded to shotguns, any sort of accuracy 
  was dependent on Scotty's brute strength.  He swung 
  them with the deliberation of a martial artist, but from 
  the way his muscles clenched, he was relying almost 
  entirely on his cocaine-fueled arms to steady them.  
  The blades sliced through the fridge like a cucumber 
  as Stendhal darted around the Garullian.  Again he 
  placed the laser dot on Scotty's head.  He was sadly 
  dependent on such a device, having lost a good deal 
  of his peripheral vision and ability to focus while in the 
  army.
  Scotty continued with the momentum of his first 
  swing and spun full-circle to face Stendhal.  Stendhal 
  fired, but ducking the swing made him miss.  While 
  crouched he planted another shot in the same hole he 
  had before.  Scotty dropped to that knee and his face 
  made an expression of rare agony for a coke addict.
  Anxious to get away from the hy-frees, which would 
  have sliced him in two even if clad in armor, Stendhal 
  bolted out of the kitchen, toward the bed.
  Smyther already had one of the duffle bags lumped 
  over the remaining shoulder.  His left leg and arm 
  lay cleanly severed in an abnormally small puddle 
  of semi-fluorescent red blood by the bathroom door.  
  That answered Stendhal's earlier question.  Smyther's 
  wounds had stopped bleeding and an inch or so of 
  each limb had begun to grow back.  If Smyther said 
  anything, Stendhal had no way of knowing--in place 
  of most races' mouths, Smyther had only three small 
  holes from which sound emanated.
  Stendhal thrust the 9mm in his pants again, slumped 
  Smyther with the bag over his shoulder and headed 
  for the window.  The little blue guy curled up like a kid 
  in anticipation of Stendhal's move.
  Using the duffle bag as a cushion, he threw Smyther 
  out the first-floor window.  On his way back to the 
  couch he slammed the suitcase of smaller guns 
  closed.  He dove down, knowing Scotty'd be up and 
  about again.  Stendhal grabbed one of the Water-Aid 
  bottles and spun the cap off as though going to chug 
  it.  Instead he threw the activated grenade at the 
  Garullian and darted for the window.  He had three 
  seconds.  
  The shaking floor gave away Scotty's otherwise silent 
  charge.  Stendhal lifted the couch as he stood.  A 
  bullet blasted past his left shoulder.  Two seconds.  He 
  flipped flimsy item at the attacker.  The move gave 
  him just enough cover and time to bolt.  
  Stendhal's fingers brushed the suitcase handle.  He 
  stopped, thinking he could grab hold more firmly.  
  One second.  He glanced back at Scotty, who had 
  the super-grenade in hand.  Stendhal lunged at the 
  window.
  A second pop went off in his head.  His cyber-hearing 
  kicked back on with a hiss and shriek.  After which, 
  he heard the growl and snap of intense plasma.  The 
  contrast of the cool night air and tidal wave of quasi-
  nuclear inferno made his senses flare.  His nose met 
  with the combined scent of burning wood, heated 
  metal and the melted rubber soles of his boots.  
  He landed with his face in concrete and his gut 
  on Smyther.  He felt the moist layer of blood on 
  Smyther's T-shirt seep into the fabric of his sweater.  
  That really pissed him off, since this was now officially 
  the only shirt he had.
  "Did you get him, Sten?" Smyther asked with a calm 
  in his voice like he had been watching cartoons all 
  day.
  "Yeah, but there's someone else," he said.
  -----
  "Why bother with cybernetic hearing when you could 
  just buy new eyes," Jodi asked, after their rendezvous 
  at her place above the Seventh Finger two days 
  later.  "By now you should have been able to save up 
  enough to buy quality cyber-eyes that don't look like 
  glass."
  Stendhal rolled onto his side.  He hated these post-
  coital conversations.  "The ear thing is just an 
  implant, no surgery.  Even to get the good kind, which 
  I'm going to do soon, I can stay awake during the 
  installation."
  "I could refer you to Dr. Ysz.  There's no better cyber-
  surgeon in all of Arbok."
  His discomfort growing with her prodding, he sat up 
  and let the blood flow back to his brain before getting 
  dressed.  "I don't want anyone putting a knife to my 
  brain.  I hate the idea of being unconscious enough as 
  it is.  I just don't trust anyone that much."
  "How's Smyther healing?" she said like a counter-
  argument.
  "I don't know," Stendhal said.  "Every time something 
  like this happens he disappears in the middle of the 
  night and comes back fine days later.  I don't ask 
  questions."
  "He's a hard person to kill," she said.  "What race is 
  he?"
  "I don't know," Stendhal said stiffly.  
  She chortled in triumph.  "There's a lot you don't 
  know about him.  That's not good in this line of work."
  "If I'm ever double-crossed one of these days I'd 
  rather it was by Smyther than anyone else."  He 
  stood, picked up the gray slacks he had bought the 
  day before.  "I'd have no excuse for not figuring 
  out some Katala, Elffan, Human or Garullian.  But 
  Smyther, there's no figuring him.  He has a way about 
  him that you can't read.  Where most people are 
  windows, he's a brick wall.  Besides that, he's more 
  productive and capable than anyone I've ever met.  
  He's exactly half the reason I'm your best merc."
  
  63
  For some time she was silent.  As he finished 
  dressing, she said, "I read the papers today."
  "So."
  "One headline said, 'Le Femme LaRemme Murdered'."
  "So."
  "You didn't even try to cover it up.  The government's 
  policy is to keep all mercenary actions covert."
  "I wore a ski mask and made it look like a mugging, 
  even kept her purse.  I used some of the money in 
  her wallet to replace the items I lost in the explosion."
  "She wasn't part of the contract," she said, sitting up 
  on her knees.  "The contract was for Shotgun Scotty."
  After lacing his boots and holstering his 9mm, 
  he turned to her.  "Mindy was after me.  Killing 
  Carmichael was a rouse to get me to come to her 
  hitman."
  "That's not why you killed her," she said.  She was 
  still undressed.  Her arms rested akimbo, holding her 
  breasts aloft, half hiding them, half emphasizing their 
  presence.
  He suppressed an annoyed grumble.  "Enlighten me."
  "You did it for me," she said.
  Stendhal couldn't decide between letting his jaw fall 
  agape and throwing his arms into the air.  "I shot your 
  sister in the head."
  "You did it for me," she said like he might be missing 
  something.
  He got down in her face like a lecturing father.  "If 
  someone murdered my sister I'd be pretty pissed off 
  at them, so I don't know what the hell your problem 
  is."
  "I love you, Stendhal Macross," she said.
  Stendhal threw his arms in the air.  "You're insane."  
  Knowing nothing else would work, he stomped toward 
  the door.
  "And you love me," she said.
  "I'll get over it," he said, slamming the door behind 
  him.
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=135
  
  64
  About the Author
  Melissa Piper is an artist, writer, and computer program-
  mer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  She enjoys creating 
  webcomics and websites in her spare time, in addition to 
  role-playing. Melissa got her first taste of role-playing from 
  Baldur’s Gate, and she has been hooked ever since. In 
  fact, she praises Baldur’s Gate as her main influence in her 
  choice to major in computer science in college.  She would 
  someday like to persue a career in game programming and 
  development so that she can produce and manufacture her 
  own RPGs.
  Contact the Author
  pipermelissa@hotmail.com
  Modern RPGs
  was, because you already know that skyscrapers are 
  typically found in the heart of a busy city.  You are 
  filling in the details of the scenario with what you 
  already know or can guess about it, and these details 
  have connotations of their own.  Therefore, one 
  reason that the skyscraper scene is not as appealing 
  is because of a negative image based on the details 
  you have added to the description.
  The second and less obvious reason that the modern 
  scene was less interesting is because of the words 
  I used to describe it.  Sure, I only made a few 
  substitutions so the content fit the setting, but these 
  simple changes detracted from its appeal.  The words 
  I substituted (such as ”skyscraper” for ”castle” and 
  ”advertising billboards” for ”banners”) are still only 
  nouns, but they hold a negative connotation.  After 
  all, most of us would much rather see a castle than 
  a skyscraper.  Hence, the second reason why the 
  modern scene seems less appealing is because of the 
  connotations attached to modern words.
  As a game master (GM), these two factors will affect 
  your campaign and your players in the same way 
  they have just affected you.  Your players, too, may 
  see your modern campaign as an uninteresting 
  chore if you simply rely on quick descriptions of the 
  characters’ surroundings to support your campaign.  
  Keeping players motivated, however, is not an 
  impossible task.
  You can fill or replace those blanks, and there are 
  words that you can substitute to leave a compelling 
  Both of these scenarios depict a typical element 
  common to fantasy and modern worlds, namely a 
  castle and a skyscraper.  Both scenes use practically 
  the same wording, with basic substitutions to fit the 
  setting.  Even with these minor substitutions, I am 
  willing to bet that you found the fantasy scenario 
  much more appealing than the modern scenario.  In 
  fact, you may not have even finished reading the 
  modern description because it bored you.  So, why 
  is it that even with only minor word differences, the 
  modern scenario did not keep your interest?  There 
  are two likely explanations, one of which is obvious 
  and another that is subtler.
  First of all, when you read the fantasy scenario, you 
  probably visualized a setting far away from where 
  you are currently located.  You might have imagined 
  an old English castle, set atop a hill against a mid-
  afternoon skyline.  When the wind began to blow, 
  you may have seen the grass swaying with the wind, 
  or even some hawks gliding overhead.  You probably 
  did not see an overabundance of people in the scene, 
  perhaps only some peasants hailing your arrival.  
  Now, go back to the modern scenario.  More than 
  likely, you imagined a crowded city during a mid-
  afternoon weekday.  You probably did not see much 
  happen when the wind blew, but you probably felt the 
  people passing around you, heard the horns blowing 
  in the background, and maybe even coughed at the 
  exhaust from a departing bus.  In both scenarios, 
  you have filled in the blanks just by using what you 
  know.  I did not need to mention the grass around the 
  castle, because it often surrounds the castles that you 
  have seen in pictures.  Likewise, I did not even have 
  to mention how busy the skyscraper’s environment 
  Below are two scenes from a role-playing session: one 
  fantasy, and one modern.  Which one captures your 
  interest?
  Fantasy: You stand before a towering castle 
  constructed solely of granite block and 
  mortar.  Your eyes trail up to the heights of 
  the castle, but your view is cut short when 
  your eyes meet the bright sunlight.  After 
  rubbing your eyes in an attempt to fight off 
  the remaining afterimages, you look back 
  to the castle.  You spot banners, almost as 
  long as the castle is tall, hanging under the 
  windows.  A light breeze blows, causing your 
  hair and cloak to move in a gentle wave.  
  The breeze cools your skin after your long 
  journey, and you are just happy to know that 
  you are about to receive a hero’s welcome 
  within the stone walls.
  Modern: You stand before a towering 
  skyscraper constructed of steel and glass.  
  Your eyes trail up to the heights of the 
  skyscraper, but your view is cut short 
  when your eyes meet the reflection of the 
  sunlight on the glass.  After rubbing your 
  eyes in an attempt to fight off the remaining 
  afterimages, you look back to the skyscraper.  
  You spot advertising billboards, consuming 
  half your view, hanging beside the windows.  
  A light breeze blows, causing your hair and 
  tie to move in a gentle wave.  The breeze 
  cools your skin after a long day at work, and 
  you are just happy to know that you are 
  about to make your way back to the comfort 
  of your own home.
  Modern Gaming: Resurrecting a Dead 
  Campaign
  by Melissa Piper
  
  65
  impression in your players’ minds.  In addition, you 
  have an arsenal of visual aids at your disposal that 
  you can pull out during any session to supplement 
  your descriptions and bring life back to into your 
  campaign.  All of these are simple methods that 
  cost little or no money.  The ability to create better 
  descriptions already rests within your own mind, and 
  visual aids may already be sitting under your nose.  
  But, just in case you want me to fill in the gaps for 
  you, here are some suggestions for bringing your 
  modern campaign back to life.
  Filling in the Blanks
  The ability to set the scene and set it well is an 
  essential tool in any GM’s toolbox.  You need to be 
  able to describe your setting in such a way that you 
  cover important details without losing your players’ 
  interest in the process.  This means that you must 
  force your players to visualize what you are seeing 
  in your mind without boring them with details that 
  have no relevance to the scene.  Many GMs lose 
  their players’ interests because they are skipping 
  the details that are important to creating a first 
  impression of the setting.  Without creating that first 
  impression, you leave blanks in the description that 
  players will fill with information they know about 
  similar situations that they have experienced, just 
  as you did with the modern scenario above.  I like to 
  refer to these blanks as ”personality tags,” since the 
  missing pieces are what make your setting unique.  
  This means that every scene should have its own 
  ”personality” that sets it apart.
  Just because you want to add personality tags to 
  your scene in order to make it more appealing does 
  not necessarily mean that it has to convey a 100% 
  positive image.  Your goal is to make your campaign 
  interesting, and doing so may require that you create 
  a negative impression of your scene.  Let’s go back 
  to the opening description of the skyscraper for a 
  moment.  When I described the wind beginning to 
  blow, I did not mention anything in the environment 
  that moved along with the wind.  I only pointed out 
  how the wind was affecting the character.  Unlike 
  the castle scene, not many people imagine grass or 
  trees swaying in the heart of the city.  In this case, 
  as the GM, you must consider what kind of city you 
  want to portray.  For example, if you want to create 
  the impression in players’ minds that this is a dirty, 
  polluted city, then you might add a sentence or two 
  discussing how litter from the afternoon lunch hour 
  is blowing across the street.  Or, to take an opposite 
  approach, you might mention that flowers planted in 
  cement flower boxes near the streets have started 
  to sway as a result of the breeze.  This implies that 
  the city has undergone a beautification effort, which 
  leads players to believe that this is a city that cares 
  about the environment.  The litter and flowers are 
  both personality tags for this city, and both convey a 
  message about the atmosphere of the city.
  Some proper nouns that appear to be personality tags 
  at first glance may just be blanks waiting to happen.  
  For example, a GM may tell her players that they have 
  landed in Paris, and are about to take a trip to the 
  Eiffel Tower.  She may intend for her players to think 
  of Paris and the Eiffel Tower as the personality tags.  I 
  have never been to Paris, however, so if a GM stated 
  this fact to me, I would simply guess about what the 
  city looks and feels like based on what I have seen in 
  pictures and what impression I have about France.  In 
  this case, Paris is not a personality tag to me, because 
  I have never experienced the city for myself.  On 
  the other hand, if the GM told me that I am entering 
  Paris, a city where artists paint on the sidewalks and 
  many streets are constructed of brick, then I have 
  a clearer impression in my mind about Paris.  The 
  personality tags in this case are the artists and the 
  brick streets, and Paris simply becomes the name of a 
  location.
  Of course, you will never be able to fill in the blanks 
  entirely unless you are willing to recite a novel, and 
  that would just bore players further!  The key to 
  creating the impression you want in your players’ 
  minds is to focus on what makes your setting unique, 
  then describing those elements so that the details are 
  obvious to your players.
  Substituting Words
  Even when you supply enough details to establish 
  your setting properly, some players may still not 
  be excited with your campaign.  Regretfully, this is 
  an effect of the modern genre in which you have 
  chosen to run your game.  The majority of gamers 
  are interested in fantasy, and most modern games 
  are not as high in fantasy as many players would like 
  them to be.  However, there are some minor word 
  substitutions that you can make in order to appeal 
  those with a craving for medieval fantasy.
  Believe it or not, you can add a fantasy flavor to 
  elements in a modern setting by using words that 
  have a fantasy ring to them.  For example, consider 
  a subway.  Some of the most obvious features of a 
  subway setting are the underground tunnel, the dark 
  atmosphere, and the crowds that make it difficult 
  to reach your train on time.  When I consider these 
  aspects, I tend to think of the subway as an ”urban 
  dungeon.”  While a subway may not hold the riches 
  and suspense that a stereotypical dungeon holds, 
  it certainly has similarities.  The substitution of the 
  phrase ”urban dungeon” for ”subway” would work 
  particularly well with an abandoned subway tunnel 
  that the characters are about to explore.
  Non-player characters (NPCs) are a great way 
  of providing word substitutions.  For example, a 
  disgruntled journalist might write about a CEO that 
  he has come into contact with.  If a character picks 
  up the newspaper that the journalist writes for, the 
  character might read that the CEO under discussion 
  is the  ”king of the corporate castle” on 6th street.  In 
  this case, ”king” refers to the CEO, and ”corporate 
  castle” refers to the large establishment where the 
  CEO works.  By referring to the CEO and business in 
  this manner, the players may think of the business 
  as a monarchy or tyranny, where the CEO’s word 
  is law and the employees are his subjects.  It may 
  also imply that the CEO’s place of work is in a rather 
  large building that towers over the other buildings.  
  Although the players know that the CEO works in 
  the city for a large business, the words ”king” and 
  ”corporate castle” convey an image to the players that 
  
  66
  modern words cannot describe fully.  Adding flavor to 
  your campaign in this manner keeps fans of medieval 
  RPGs interested.
  Admittedly, it does take thought and creativity to 
  find words that can be substituted effectively without 
  going over the top.  For example, a GM could state 
  that a biker is riding his ”two-legged steed” instead 
  of ”motorcycle,” but this borders on ridiculous.  
  Word substitution must be specifically tuned to your 
  campaign.  Therefore, a phrase like ”two-legged 
  steed” may work if the biker is part of a motorcycle 
  gang known as the Knights.  As an alternative, you 
  may consider creating new names for manufacturers 
  of modern products.  For instance, the biker may not 
  refer to his motorcycle as a ”two-legged steed,” but 
  he can ride a bike manufactured by Unicorn, Inc. or 
  the Pegasus Corp.  The key to word substitution is 
  to find something that works within your campaign, 
  because it is often difficult and not as effective to 
  generalize these types of words.
  Adding Visual Aids
  Perhaps the best way to make your players stand up 
  and take notice of your setting is to supplement it 
  with visual aids.  Sure, you can buy pretty maps and 
  models to give your setting a three-dimensional look, 
  but there are much more affordable supplements 
  you can use to create a more unique effect.  The 
  best part of living in the modern world and running a 
  campaign with a modern setting is having access to 
  free supplemental materials.
  A great way to increase player interaction and 
  replace words with pictures comes in the form of 
  junk mail.  Yes, I said junk mail.  Every week, you 
  probably receive advertisements and flyers for sales 
  and restaurants in your mailbox.  Before throwing 
  your junk mail in the garbage, consider what use 
  that flyer may have in your campaign.  Do you think 
  your players may stop at a restaurant for a place to 
  eat?  Then save those food flyers so your players 
  have something to look at when they make their 
  decision.  Save junk mail that you think has potential 
  in any campaign you plan to run down the road, and 
  keep it in a special folder or envelope.  Then, when 
  a situation arises where your players need to find a 
  place to eat or spot a flyer by coincidence, you’ll have 
  a visual aid immediately at your disposal.
  If you have an Internet connection, then the web 
  is also a great visual aid that you can add to your 
  campaign.  There may be instances where a character 
  wants to research a certain topic.  In this case, you 
  can allow the player to perform some quick research 
  on the Internet.  Not only does this give the player the 
  ability to learn about something, but it also adds to 
  the level of interactivity that your players experience.  
  If you are proficient in website development and 
  HTML, you can even go as far as to create your own 
  web page that players can look at during game play.  
  This is extremely useful when players want to learn 
  more about a certain organization you have created.  
  After all, the first place that many people begin their 
  research nowadays is the Internet.
  Finally, sound also makes a great addition to most 
  modern campaigns.  Although it might not become 
  an essential element during a session, you may want 
  to consider having a radio nearby during game play.  
  Music is a large part of everyone’s life, whether you 
  are just a fan of a certain band or you play in your 
  own group.  Chances are, your players’ characters 
  have their favorite music as well, and they will 
  want to listen to some music from time to time.  In 
  addition, turning on the radio at random during a 
  session gives the game an ”on the fly” feel, as you 
  never know what will be playing at the time.  A good 
  time to incorporate music is when the characters are 
  traveling in a vehicle and just want to listen to some 
  music during their trip.  The music that is playing at 
  the time may even create an entertaining conflict 
  between characters, since it is likely that everyone will 
  have their own tastes in music and will not want to be 
  forced to listen to something they cannot tolerate.
  A picture is worth a thousand words, 
  and this is just as true in the gaming 
  environment.  Instead of searching for the right words 
  to describe what your characters are looking at, try 
  to find the actual thing (or a close representation of 
  it).  Work on your campaign supplement portfolio over 
  time, and chances are that your players will attend 
  session after session just to see what visual aids you 
  will come up with next.
  Conclusion
  Even though you may face tough challenges as you 
  try to develop a great modern campaign, you also 
  have these three resources available to you that 
  fantasy GMs do not.  First of all, consider the scenes 
  that you are planning to use in your campaign.  What 
  impression are you trying to create?  What image 
  are you hoping that your players will develop in their 
  minds after you describe the area?  Use nouns and 
  adjectives that reflect what you see so that players 
  will share your vision.  Second, you may want to 
  adjust your words so that they appeal to fans of 
  fantasy.  What types of buildings and areas are you 
  placing into your campaign?  Are there any structures 
  or areas from the past that are similar?  If so, 
  substituting medieval descriptors for modern ones is 
  a great step at making fantasy fans happy.  Finally, 
  remember to use visual aids as reinforcement.  If 
  you want your players to spot a flyer by chance, 
  then consider having a concrete version of that flyer 
  available.  Anything that you find lying around the 
  house could become the next great visual aid in your 
  campaign.  If you are running a modern campaign 
  that looks to be on its deathbed, these techniques 
  are sure to breathe some life back into that suffering 
  campaign. 
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=136
  
  67
  It’s a warm summer day, and you’re out playing tag 
  with your friends. One of them dares you to chase 
  them as they take to a tall oak tree. He darts up the 
  branches like a squirrel, quickly disappearing into 
  the dense leaves. You halt, lick your lips, and call to 
  him to come down and play fair, but he refuses and 
  calls you a coward. You look up, your eyes trailing the 
  mountainous tree as it stretches higher and higher 
  until it brushes the clouds. A lump builds in your 
  throat, and you realize you can’t swallow. Again, your 
  friend calls to you. You can’t ignore the dare, so you 
  step up to the tree. With clammy palms you reach for 
  the first branch, a thick one, low to the ground and 
  easy enough to climb up on. Above it rests another, 
  just within reach. Slowly, you move from branch to 
  branch, sticking close to the ancient tree’s trunk. After 
  a few more, you stop and absently note where your 
  foot rests, and you see the ground, so far down, miles 
  below. The wind picks up and you begin to sway. The 
  branches shiver, as do your arms and legs, a steady 
  quake that rattles your teeth. You grab the closest, 
  heaviest branch in a desperate hug and begin to 
  whimper. “Please don’t let me die,” you say through 
  clenched teeth. 
  “Don’t worry son,” replies a comforting voice, as a 
  strong pair of hands wraps around your waist and 
  hauls you back down to the ground, a few feet below.
  We’ve all experienced fear in some form, a sensation 
  that raises our awareness, quickens our pulse, and 
  compels us to perform irrational actions that we might 
  not otherwise consider. Fear is a normal emotional 
  response, a built-in survival mechanism that protects 
  us from our own curiosities. Fear is a reaction to a 
  real, dangerous situation. For example, you are trying 
  to cross a busy street when a fast moving vehicle 
  suddenly changes lanes and races toward you. Fear 
  triggers a physical response, and you run for safety. 
  Once the car has passed, so has the fear. 
  Anxiety is similar to fear except for one notable 
  difference: there isn’t an actual threat present. 
  Anxiety is the anticipation of future danger. Anxiety 
  is natural, for example, when you’re waiting to talk 
  to your boss about a raise, or when you are about to 
  meet your current steady’s family for the first time. A 
  little anxiety helps us prepare for stressful situations, 
  but sometimes it can grow out of proportion and 
  become too intense. It can hang on your thoughts 
  for long moments or even hours. It can interfere with 
  your ability to perform daily routines and tasks, and 
  it can make life almost unbearable. At this point your 
  anxiety has become a phobia.
  A phobia is an intense, unreasonable fear of an 
  object, place, or situation. It causes the individual to 
  avoid the object of fear, often times at great cost to 
  self, property, friends, and family. The phobia occupies 
  the individual’s thoughts and becomes an important 
  part of the person’s day-to-day routines. Common 
  symptoms associated with phobias include panic, 
  shortness of breath, trembling or shaking, sweating, 
  chills, nausea, and feelings of detachment. 
  Phobias present myriad role-playing opportunities 
  for both players and game masters. A phobia offers 
  a different dimension to the character, opening the 
  doorway towards challenging gaming sessions and 
  broadening the scope of the character’s personality. 
  Adding a phobia to a character can also have a 
  dramatic effect on the rest of the gaming group. If 
  played tightly yet sparingly, it could encourage them 
  to reach more intense levels of role-playing. 
  The list of potential phobias is mind-boggling.  Some 
  are quite common, such as the fear of spiders 
  or enclosed spaces. The following is selection of 
  uncommon yet playable phobias. The playability issue 
  is important as an unusual or even bizarre phobia, 
  such as agyrophobia (the fear of streets or crossing 
  streets) or mnemophobia (the fear of memories), 
  could detract from a game and become nothing more 
  than comic relief. While lighter moments are not 
  necessarily bad, it is important that that they do not 
  harm long term play. 
  Keep in mind that that these are suggestions to help 
  add or increase dramatic tension in a role-playing 
  setting and are not intended to make light of serious 
  psychological ailments that afflict millions of people.
  Algophobia: Fear of Pain
  Nobody enjoys being hurt. Pain is a physical 
  sensation that any normal person would avoid, but 
  with the algophobe avoidance takes on an entirely 
  new meaning. Like first time parents, algophobic 
  individuals baby-proof their living environment, 
  removing all risk of personal injury. No sharp-cornered 
  coffee tables or exposed electrical outlets grace their 
  homes. Bookshelves and similar furniture are securely 
  mounted to the walls, and knickknacks are sparse to 
  non-existent. Moving beyond the confines of home is 
  an adventure not taken lightly. Without control over 
  by Pike Stephenson
  Player Characterization : Phobias
  Contact the Author
  pikeandangie@juno.com
  Gaming Inspiration
  
  68
  the environment, the algophobe is presented with 
  countless hazards that others would simply ignore or 
  would never have considered. The mere thought of 
  hospitalization, doctor visits, or trips to the dentist 
  sends shivers down an algophobe’s spine. There isn’t 
  any real threat, and yet these individuals “know” 
  something out there can and will cause them pain. 
  Common behaviors:
  - 
  Maintaining vigilant (if not paranoid) 
  surveillance of one’s surroundings to 
  minimize physical risks
  - 
  Wearing thick or heavy clothing to 
  prevent minor injuries and abrasions
  - 
  Avoiding crowds, parties, large social 
  engagements, or anything that may 
  involve unprovoked physical contact
  - 
  Abstaining from personal hygiene habits 
  that require the use of a sharp object 
  close to the skin, such as haircuts, 
  shaving, or trimming nails
  Examples of algophobia:
  1) 
  Tammeron is a wizard of high reputation, 
  well known for standing behind his 
  comrades cloaked in magical invisibility 
  and blasting the enemies. What isn’t 
  known is that years before, Tammeron 
  was an apprentice scribe to a sage. One 
  evening as he was eagerly transcribing 
  a scroll, a group of bloodthirsty 
  mercenaries raided his employer’s home, 
  taking with them many documents and 
  Tammeron. They were trying to locate 
  a particular scroll, and they tortured 
  Tammeron relentlessly with the very tool 
  of his trade, a quill, until the scribe fell 
  into a catatonic state. After a lengthy 
  recovery, he turned his attention towards 
  magic, vowing to never fall victim to 
  another. Yet, he still finds it unbearable 
  to hold a quill and relies on his well-paid 
  apprentice to handle most of his writing 
  duties. 
  2) 
  Michael spent a lifetime hunting for the 
  Jewel of Niberial, trekking through the 
  jungles of the Congo. One particularly 
  hot and humid day, Michael stumbled 
  upon a rare breed of ant that swarmed 
  about him, crawled throughout his 
  clothes, and bit every inch of his flesh. 
  The poisons they excreted coursed 
  through his veins like a wild fire. 
  Michael has never recovered. He left 
  his profession, disbanded the team of 
  treasure hunters he worked with, and 
  moved to a safer region. Michael’s new 
  home is locked tight and absolutely bug 
  free. To this day, he can still feel the 
  phantom tingle of their feet marching 
  across his skin.  
  Atychiphobia: Fear of Failure
  Imagine a cue ball slamming into a set of fifteen 
  tightly racked solids and stripes, scattering them in all 
  directions along the pool table. They bounce off each 
  other and rebound against the bumpers, as some 
  disappear into random pockets. Life can appear that 
  way to an atychiphobic person, how one action can 
  set forth a cascading effect of reactions. For those 
  who suffer from this phobia, every decision must be 
  carefully deduced, planned, and controlled so that 
  failure is not an option.
  We all wish to succeed at our endeavors, but for 
  atychiphobes the prospect of failure is disastrous. 
  Most people can deal with failure, but those suffering 
  from this phobia crumble, fold upon themselves, 
  and hide away. To prevent this, they analyze every 
  predicament to death. Then, and only then, can 
  they feel confident that success is the only possible 
  outcome.
  Common behaviors:
  - 
  Worrying about every decision, no 
  matter how big or small
  - 
  Avoiding decisions, especially those 
  involving “no win scenarios”
  - 
  Leading a very passive, unspontaneous 
  lifestyle
  - 
  Repeating past mistakes until the 
  “correct” outcome is achieved
  Examples of atychiphobia:
  1) 
  William lives with the shame of a 
  choice he made that cost the lives 
  of 123 soldiers and innocents. As a 
  Remote Combative Tactician, he was 
  assigned to monitor the movements 
  of the Omega Squad as they invaded 
  the stronghold of a powerful terrorist 
  cell. Satellite surveillance scans told 
  him that the northern entrance hall 
  was empty, but there was also a large 
  amount of electromagnetic interference 
  that could have garbled any human 
  signatures. He expressed his concerns 
  to the field commander, who “took them 
  under advisement” and proceeded with 
  the mission. William knew it wasn’t 
  his fault, but he watched the time-
  delayed satellite images as the squad 
  was mowed down and the building set 
  ablaze. Now, William replays the details, 
  working through what he could have 
  done to prevent their deaths, what he 
  could have said to make the commander 
  take notice and heed his words. William 
  has requested a transfer to the local 
  think tank where he can spend more 
  time analyzing combat scenarios. He 
  cannot allow such a tragedy to occur 
  again. 
  2)   Carla believes she is an utter failure. 
  No matter how hard she worked, no 
  matter how great her effort, she always 
  failed in one respect or another. These 
  failures weren’t often disasters; they 
  were little things, like missing the 
  new office fashion trend or buying the 
  wrong coffee for the boss. Life was 
  
  69
  one miserable mistake after another, 
  and she vowed never to stick out her 
  neck and make a fool of herself again. 
  One day the unthinkable happened: 
  she developed super powers! Think of 
  all the good she could do! There was 
  no need to be failure anymore! Soon 
  Carla’s newfound abilities were put to 
  the test as a bus careened down a busy 
  street towards an unsuspecting crowd. 
  She flew to the rescue and clamped her 
  newly strengthened hands tight on the 
  bus’s bumper and with a powerful pull… 
  ripped off the bumper! The bus slammed 
  into the people who were unable to flee. 
  Even with her newfound superpowers 
  she failed. How can Carla ever hope to 
  succeed?
  Automatonophobia: Fear of False 
  Representations of Life
  What if hordes of flesh-eating undead minions, 
  animal-like anthropomorphic races, sentient androids, 
  scores of robotic guardians and assistants, or 
  artificially intelligent computers that facilitated our 
  various needs actually existed? Nearly every gaming 
  genre has creatures like these, and while imagining 
  these creations isn’t difficult, what would it be like to 
  live in a world full of things that looked human enough 
  but operated on their own wavelength? Soulless 
  computers and robots would have no compulsions 
  about harming or killing a person. Mindless zombies 
  might seek and destroy anyone who got in their 
  way. Sophisticated androids might see humanity 
  as a stain compared to their own perfection. These 
  prospects scratch the surface of this phobia. There 
  are individuals who view items as common as a 
  department store mannequin or a ventriloquist’s 
  dummy with the fear and revulsion. Wouldn’t you find 
  it unnerving if an aluminum-alloyed biped gently slid 
  its cold arm under yours, and with a preprogrammed 
  smile and synthesized voice asked you, “Would you 
  allow me to assist across this busy street?” 
  Common behaviors:
  - 
  Regarding with fear anything non-human 
  that represents itself as “human”
  - 
  Distrusting humans that put their faith in 
  these creatures or constructs
  - 
  Acting violently toward said creatures
  Examples of automatonophobia:
  1) 
  Jarl lived with his family in the country, 
  outside the smells and commotion of the 
  city-state of Tutopia. Life was good until a 
  band of adventurers raised the ire of an evil 
  priest. The priest called upon an army of 
  undead, pulling their lifeless, rotten forms 
  from the ground. To Jarl’s horror, some of the 
  corpses belong to his family. The adventurers 
  took refuge in Jarl’s home, and for three 
  long days and nights, the creatures’ howls 
  haunted Jarl. On the third day, the undead 
  breached the rear wall of the house, with 
  Jarl’s grandfather in the lead. In the ensuing 
  chaos, Jarl found himself face to face with 
  the hollow, lifeless eyes of his grandfather’s 
  corpse. As he blacked out all he could see 
  was the decaying face of the man he once 
  loved. He woke the next morning with a 
  headache and sore ribs. The smell of death 
  was thick in the air, and the image of his 
  grandfather haunted him from that moment 
  on.
  2) 
  In the movie I, Robot, Will Smith plays a 
  detective who is disturbed by others’ ability 
  to put their lives in the hands of cold, 
  unfeeling machines that operate without a 
  human’s conscience. They may have been 
  programmed to follow certain protocols, but 
  that doesn’t prevent any system failures, 
  does it?
  Autophobia: Fear of Being Alone
  We live in a world full of crowded cities, with people 
  scurrying about from home to work to play and 
  back home again. There’s always someone present, 
  whether its friends, family or co-workers, and that’s 
  just how the autophobic person likes it. Without the 
  constant din of another’s conversation, or even just 
  their presence, the autophobe panics. The television 
  or stereo can’t help drown out the frantic thoughts 
  of what could happen when they are alone. They 
  could trip and break their leg or smash their head 
  wide open. If a stranger came to the door, who would 
  defend them? When you are alone, anything can 
  happen.
  Common behaviors:
  - 
  Never letting the party die down 
  - 
  Always managing to be the center of 
  attention
  - 
  Surrounding oneself with a constant 
  flood of friends, associates and 
  employees
  - 
  Dating compulsively, gliding from one 
  lover to another
  
  70
  - 
  Firmly attaching oneself to a person 
  or group of people by becoming easily 
  accessible and completely indispensable
  Examples of autophobia:
  1) 
  Sarah has a gift and a curse. She has been 
  able to read the thoughts of others for as 
  long as she could remember. Whenever 
  she is near people, their mental “chatter” 
  bounces along with her thoughts. She has 
  made counseling her career, as she can see 
  the truths that people often avoid speaking. 
  Sarah has also found great comfort in the 
  company of the chatter, so much so that 
  when ever she is alone the empty static in 
  her mind makes her feel as lonely as if she 
  were abandoned at sea. Sarah makes a habit 
  of staying busy, booking longer sessions, 
  and attending multiple conferences (as well 
  as sharing more than a couple of beds), 
  anything to avoid being alone.
  2) 
  Mican is the sole survivor of a meteor shower 
  that crippled his ship, the Astronomous, and 
  killed the entire crew. Thousands of space 
  rocks bounced harmlessly off the ship’s hull, 
  but a few tiny fragments damaged the ship’s 
  star drive, communications array, and the 
  cryopods that held him and the rest of the 
  crew. It was a miracle that he ejected while 
  others slipped into the abyss of an eternal 
  sleep, but Mican doesn’t see it that way. The 
  ship was scheduled to cruise in hyperdrive 
  for six months to save on supplies and time, 
  but now it will take at least six years for the 
  ship to reach Protos 5. If the ship’s oxygen 
  recyclers and nutrient dispensers can keep 
  up for the remainder of the trip, Mican may 
  survive. Every night he paces the cold, 
  empty ship, alone in his thoughts. The ghosts 
  of his crew offer no comfort. If he survives, 
  Mican has vowed never to be alone again.
  Gerascophobia: Fear of Old Age
  Life is a cycle: birth, youth, adulthood, old age, and 
  death. We all know it, and yet try our best to avoid 
  it. We dye our hair, dress up in the latest fashions, 
  and speak the slang of present, but still age catches 
  up with us. Gerascophobia is often seen in middle-
  aged people that fear the debilitating effects of age, 
  such as Alzheimer’s disease, heart attacks, and other 
  ailments. Those suffering from gerascophobia often 
  fear the solitude that comes with time, as friends and 
  loved ones pass on. As they become more reliant 
  on the protection of others, unable to dress or feed 
  themselves, they become increasingly restless and 
  scared. 
  Common behaviors:
  - 
  Never dressing one’s own age
  - 
  Acting and speaking as the youth of the 
  day
  - 
  Following a strict regimen of exercise 
  and diet to keep fit
  - 
  Maintain a youthful appearance, perhaps 
  through surgical procedures
  Examples of gerascophobia:
  1) 
  Kadmus spent his entire life striving to 
  become the Archmage of Megalithapotania. 
  With his powerful spellcraft, he fought and 
  survived several wars and multiple invasions, 
  and the country grew to rely on his talents. 
  As the years passed, however, he came to 
  realize that time was his greatest foe. How 
  could he maintain his mastery of the craft as 
  the cruel hand of time wore away the grace 
  and intellect that he held so dear? With each 
  passing season Kadmus could feel the vitality 
  leached from his bones. Though trickery 
  and illusions hid his age, he could not deny 
  that his talents were waning. As his sixtieth 
  winter arrived, Kadmus was no longer able 
  to hide the truth. He went into seclusion and 
  buried himself in his work. He had to find the 
  spell, the right mix of magic to prolong his 
  life and to keep his title of Archmage.
      
  2) 
  Daring and reckless were how the media 
  described Dillon’s treasure hunting 
  adventures. Exploring the heart of the 
  Amazon, braving wild animals and savages, 
  and penetrating the great temples of ancient 
  races were like a day at the office for Dillon. 
  How could he risk his life, day after day, 
  hunting fables and myths? No one knew 
  that his quest for the unknown was driven 
  by the memory of his father. The man that 
  once proudly held Dillon on his shoulders 
  as they sailed through calm and storm was 
  hospitalized at the age of thirty five with a 
  rare degenerative disease. Dillon watched in 
  horror as his father melted into a vegetable, 
  kept alive by feeding tubes and respirators. 
  Dillon had visited his father nearly every day, 
  but his adventures kept him away from home 
  longer and longer still. People called him 
  daring and reckless, but no one knew he was 
  hoping to make each of his exploits his last.
  Hedonophobia: Fear of Pleasure
  How can we enjoy ourselves when others are suffering 
  in misery? It is this guilt and doubt that prevents 
  the hedonophobic individual from enjoying any form 
  of pleasure. Whether due to an accident that hurt 
  someone or just an overwhelming guilty conscience, 
  hedonophobes refuse to enjoy even the simplest of 
  pleasures. They may envision themselves as evil or 
  dirty for participating in such hedonistic acts. Until 
  everyone can live happily, free from the ills of a harsh 
  reality, they will never truly be happy.
  Common behaviors:
  - 
  Maintaining a dark, somber mood
  - 
  Staying detached from others by 
  avoiding any close friendship or 
  companionship
  - 
  Putting others needs before one’s own, 
  often in a self-sacrificing manner 
  
  71
  Examples of hedonophobia:
  1) 
  A plague swept across the land, turning 
  millions of innocent victims into flesh-eating 
  freaks of nature or, if they were lucky, killing 
  them. Phillip was spared from the horror that 
  destroyed his beautiful wife and daughter. 
  He doesn’t understand why, because he 
  deserved to die. When the plague was 
  unleashed, he was on a “business trip” with 
  his mistress. He knew that this relationship 
  would destroy his family, and it literally did. 
  He should have been home, holding them 
  close as they all slipped away. Now, he is a 
  survivor, alone with his shame. He can never 
  allow himself to feel the joys he once knew.   
  2) 
  In the television series Angel, the title 
  character is a vampire who has been cursed 
  and has regained his soul. He now feels 
  pain and anguish for the countless atrocities 
  he committed. He feels compelled to make 
  amends for his crimes, and he does not allow 
  himself to feel any form of happiness, as he 
  believes he does not deserve it.
   
  Heliophobia: Fear of Sunlight
  The sun chases away the shadows of the night, 
  pierces the clouds of passing storms, and warms 
  the lands after harsh, brutal winters. But to some 
  its presence brings a fear that is utterly foreign to 
  sunbathers. Early man feared and revered the sun 
  as a deity that granted its radiance and light to those 
  who were loyal and obedient. It rested at night, and 
  if angered, disappeared (or so solar eclipses were 
  perceived). Since then have learn a great deal about 
  the sun, but its dangers are no less real. We know 
  that skin cancer is prevalent and that age spots or 
  wrinkles come early to those who spend too much 
  time in the sun. During the peak of summer, its rays 
  can sear flesh from bone. The sun’s ultraviolet rays 
  bring trouble, disfigurement, or even death. One 
  cannot be too careful.
  Common behaviors:
  - 
  Dressing from head to toe to protect 
  every inch of skin from the sun
  - 
  Refusing to go out in the daytime, 
  preferring to handle work or play time at 
  night
  - 
  Experiencing odd mood swings during 
  brighter weather. (Heliophobes are bitter 
  or despondent during brighter weather, 
  as most people act when the sun is 
  hidden behind heavy, dark clouds.)
  Examples of heliophobia:
  1) 
  Medical science has come a long way in the 
  treatment of diseases, viruses, and the like, 
  and yet one thing is still elusive: cancer, that 
  evil cellular decay that rots away at people 
  from the inside out. After her latest DNA 
  scan from the downtown Med-kiosk, Julie felt 
  confident that she will live to see her 100 
  birthday in perfect health. Still, as the sun’s 
  ultra-violet rays beat down on her, she can’t 
  help but feel her life sizzling away. 
  The summer sun looms overhead with no 
  relief in sight. Julie has stocked up on all the 
  latest sunscreens, has dressed in the longest, 
  heaviest of clothing, and has come close to 
  heat exhaustion. Life is too precious to take 
  any chances, and Julie prays that the sun will 
  soon go away again. 
  2) 
  Do’rok had led his tribe with great pride and 
  strength. They had traveled across many 
  lands in search of a new home, one easy to 
  defend and in which they could raise their 
  cattle. They had escaped the floods and black 
  skies that nearly destroyed their tribe to find 
  a land bright and warm. High above, the 
  Yellow God had greeted his people and life 
  was good. Many days passed and the Yellow 
  God looked down on Do’rok’s, his unyielding 
  gaze watching the people. Do’rok suspected 
  that they might have upset their god, for 
  the streams ran dry and the cattle began 
  to perish. They sacrificed what remaining 
  cattle they could spare but to no avail. Do’rok 
  cursed the Yellow God, defiant at its evil 
  glare. Then it closed it great eye and covered 
  the lands in the blanket of night and Do’rok 
  shuddered for he knew that he had truly 
  angered the great Yellow God.
  Pharmacophobia: Fear of Medicine
  We rely on doctors to help us stay healthy. We shop 
  for vitamins, diet pills, and pain relievers to help 
  us cope with stress and lead active lives. But what 
  you are putting into your body? Do you really know, 
  or do you simply trust the companies that produce 
  these products or the government agencies that 
  vouch for their claims? Some of those suffering 
  from pharmacophobia fear what that little pill 
  might contain. People have died due to improperly 
  prescribed medications or product tampering. When 
  you trust the unknown, you give up a great deal of 
  control. And that’s just what those medications are: 
  unknown.
  Others who suffer from this phobia believe they 
  could become addicted to medicine. They might be 
  prescribed a drug for an illness or pain relief after 
  a serious accident and then find themselves in 
  desperate need of the medicine. Which is worse, the 
  sickness or the cure?
  Common behaviors:
  - 
  Distrusting all prepackaged medicines or 
  prescription drugs
  - 
  Believing strongly in natural or herbal 
  remedies
  - 
  Studying various types of body 
  therapies, such as meditation or yoga 
  Examples of pharmacophobia:
  1) 
  Teagan prides himself on his good health. 
  He is trim, fit, and free of anything artificial. 
  Most of his friends, however, are trend-
  clones, little sheep following the latest 
  
  72
  synthetics for better living. He has watched 
  in disbelief as Tokyo Blue robbed the life from 
  their eyes and has seen the intensity and 
  ferocity they displayed after a hit of La Tigra. 
  It seems like everyone enjoys life in the fast 
  lane, but not Teagan. He spent several years 
  on an experimental drug for asthma that left 
  his memory spotty at best. He is off the drug 
  now, but he still falls into lapses where he 
  loses seconds or minutes. Teagan pursues a 
  life free of any synthetics or pharmaceuticals. 
  Nothing artificial will ever enter his temple 
  again, even if his life depends on it.
  2) 
  Psyche’s pain is as intense as her psychic 
  gifts are powerful. It feels as if a white-hot 
  knife is being driven into her brain every time 
  she takes over the body of another. Psyche 
  has tried to dampen the pain with various 
  drugs, but they nullify her abilities as well. 
  Worse yet, she can feel the drugs invading 
  her body. She can trace the tiny particles as 
  they travel through her blood stream. The 
  thought of it turns her stomach into knots. 
  She can’t let the pain control her, and she 
  won’t allow the microscopic soldiers inside 
  her. The people of the city need Psyche, 
  and no true hero would let her own selfish 
  problems get in the way. 
  Nyctophobia: Fear of the Night or Dark
  Darkness hides the unknown by obscuring or 
  inhibiting our ability to see. We rely on our vision to 
  get us from point A to point B, to tell friend from foe, 
  and to enjoy color and depth. Remove our vision for 
  a moment and our mind begins to play tricks upon 
  us. Our other senses appear to be more acute. We 
  can hear the scrape of a boot heel nearby or feel the 
  humid breath of someone, or something, standing 
  behind us. Take away our sight and we are as 
  helpless as babes in a crib. It is understandable to be 
  apprehensive in the darkness, but the nyctophobe’s 
  fears go beyond the norm. Nighttime can bring 
  dreams of things we can hardly understand or 
  control. Night terrors, waking up from a dead sleep 
  to full-blown shrieking for no apparent reason, aren’t 
  uncommon. Concerns about sleepwalking, or even the 
  fear of never waking up again can consume a person’s 
  waking hours. For those suffering from nyctophobia, 
  their greatest fear is the unknown that remains out 
  of sight. Who knows what hides in the shadows of the 
  night?
  Common behaviors:
  - 
  Planning all trips so that they occur 
  during daylight hours
  - 
  Having ample illumination within the 
  home
  - 
  Never venturing out at night for any 
  reason
  - 
  Imagining what dangers exist in the 
  darkness, from attackers to wild animals 
  to something unspeakable
  Examples of nyctophobia:
  1) 
  It was supposed to be a simple game of hide-
  and-seek. Joey’s brother told him to stay in 
  the closet so no one would find him. Joey 
  didn’t think about why his brother locked 
  the door with all his friends nearby, laughing 
  when they should have been hiding. Mom 
  and Dad were at a dinner party and wouldn’t 
  be home until really late. Nobody came 
  to find him, and he sat there alone in the 
  cramped, unlit closet. He called out to the 
  others to give up and start a new game, but 
  still nobody came. Joey scooted to one side 
  of the closet when something sharp scraped 
  his arm. He screamed as another creature, 
  flat and heavy, dropped over his head and 
  wrapped itself around him tight. Little feet 
  scurried over Joey’s toes and the creatures 
  of the closet poked him and laughed as Joey 
  cried for his brother and his 
  parents. He cried so hard and so 
  long that his eyes hurt and his 
  mouth ran dry. Then something clubbed the 
  door, hard, a deafening boom that shook the 
  closet and rattled Joey’s teeth. It hit the door 
  again and again, and Joey screamed. 
  Joe wakes up in his apartment. His sheets 
  are twisted around his legs and all the lights are 
  still on. Another thud booms from above, and Joe 
  can hear his neighbors arguing. He looks across 
  the room to his closet, at its doorless threshold 
  and the series of lights beaming from inside, and 
  he can still feel the darkness envelope him as it 
  did thirty years ago.
  2) 
  Carmeilliken stands at the entrance to the 
  Caves of Chaos, peering into the umbral 
  curtain that cloaks its interior. The local 
  baron has chartered him to rid the cave 
  of its vicious denizens so the people of 
  Willowwood could live in peace. Carmeilliken 
  is an adventuring spellslinger, and he has 
  faced many threats in his short career, 
  never flinching from the odds. He has only 
  one reservation: the dark. He isn’t precisely 
  afraid of the dark, but he has to face the 
  reality that his abilities are useless if no one 
  can see them. Carmeilliken’s forte is illusions, 
  the bigger and brighter the better. He never 
  realized that this was his way of dealing with 
  a hidden apprehension about the blackness 
  of night. Yet, as he stands at the entrance 
  of the cave he finds himself face to face to 
  the truth he has ignored. Yes, Carmeilliken is 
  terrified of the dark.
  These are only a few of the phobias you could 
  incorporate into a new or existing character. The key 
  is to find one that is playable and not disruptive to 
  the other players. Role-playing can be a challenging, 
  satisfying experience, especially when shared with 
  people full of enthusiasm and a flair for the dramatic. 
  Use this article as a tool to that end and watch the fun 
  begin.  
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=127
  
  73
  3.5 in products such as this, you are mistaken and 
  you should not buy this product. In fact, if you liked 
  Planescape at all boycott this product. It’s a travesty 
  to all that was pure and good in the setting. If you 
  don’t care about Planescape, or never even heard of 
  it, then this material might be somewhat new to you 
  and you can live in blissful ignorance. If you are still 
  reading this, by this point, you must be interested in 
  either the crunchy bits, or are new to the multiverse 
  that is the D&D cosmology. I invite you to continue 
  on and find out if this product is worth it (it’s not but 
  humor me while I try to find a reason).
  Chapter One: Races
  The planes are full of interesting and varied races. 
  That’s a fact. We know this from Planescape, we know 
  this from the core books, and we know this because it 
  makes sense. So in a product such as this, it would 
  From the back cover
  Explore Never-Ending Realms of Adventure
  Only the most exceptional characters dare tread the 
  infinite paths of the planes. From Sigil, the City of 
  Doors, to the Blinding Tower at the heart of the Plane 
  of Shadow, to the Elemental Plane of Fire’s storied 
  City of Brass, countless perilous locations in the 
  multiverse await bold heroes armed with remarkable 
  talents and abilities, more than a little courage, and 
  above all, knowledge.
  This supplement for the D&D game provides 
  everything you need to create and play characters 
  prepared for the odyssey of planar travel, including 
  new planar races, feats, equipment, spells, and magic 
  items. The Planar Handbook also introduces the power 
  of planar touchstones, along with details and advice 
  for visiting dozens of planar sites.
  Introduction
  The Planar Handbook is supposed to be used primarily 
  by players, while the Manual of the Planes was a DM’s 
  bible to the planar reaches of the D&D cosmology. 
  So one would expect a plethora of player-oriented 
  material such as feats, spells, weapons, classes, 
  prestige classes and the like. But we are presented 
  with few new ideas and mostly re-hashed material 
  from the MotP (Manual of the Planes). If this was 
  Wizards of the Coasts’ attempt to bring the material 
  that made Planescape the best campaign setting in 
  history (from my point of view) it is a terrible attempt. 
  If you were hoping that the flavor and mystique of 
  the Planescape setting could find its way into D&D 
  Authors:Bruce R. Cordell & Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel
  Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
  Review date: 8/26/2004
  Reviewer’s Bias: I received a review copy of this 
  product and have played in many games that have 
  reached into the planes.
  Review: Planar Handbook
  by Lance Kepner
  Review snapshot
  CLASS: Sourcebook
  STR: 14 (Physical). Standard WotC hard cover.
  DEX: 14 (Organization). Standard WotC layout, should be 
  familiar.
  CON: 10 (Quantity of the Content). A buffet of crap is still 
  crap.
  INT: 12 (Quality of Content). Look at it from the poor sot in 
  your group who actually bought it and then laugh at them.
  WIS: 8 (Options & Adaptability). You might use it, if you’re a 
  DM who uses Player’s Guides. If you’re a player think about 
  becoming a DM to use this book.
  CHA: 14 (Look & Feel). At least its pretty to look at, it takes 
  the pain away from my brain.
  How we rate our reviews
  Scoring definitions.
  18 = Superior. Best of the best.
  16 = Very Good. Part of a Baker’s Dozen.
  14 = Good. Most gamers would like this.
  12 = Fair. Some gamers would like this.
  10 = Average. Most gamers would be indifferent.
  8 = Subpar. Flawed, but not without promise.
  6 = Bad. Most gamers would dislike this.
  4 = Very Bad. Among the Dirty Dozen.
  2 = Inferior. Worst of the worst.
  D&D/d20
  Art is © 2004 Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
  
  74
  seem appropriate to list some of the more common 
  races. Sure Aasimars and Tieflings are listed (as they 
  are in almost every other WotC product that even 
  mentions “planes”), but the other races are just 
  “bleh”. OK… so the Bariaurs are here, a long staple of 
  the planar multiverse. I wouldn’t have even minded a 
  reprint of the planetouched, but where are the 
  modrons? Half-elementals? Surely we could have seen 
  them updated from their 3.0 counterparts. 
  And then we have the new races. The Buommans, a 
  race that has taken vows against vocal 
  communication, and yet who sing every chance they 
  get. If a player came to me and said he wanted to 
  play a Buomman I would probably just stare at him 
  and blink, maybe even blink twice before I cringed at 
  the thought of any of my players singing. Not only is it 
  next to impossible to roleplay, its utterly unplayable. 
  Maybe at higher levels with telepathy at will, but you 
  might as well cross it off the list of playable races. And 
  then we move on to the mephlings; cute little buggers 
  and possibly useful, but for the +1 LA you might a 
  well go with a half-elemental template to get some 
  much better abilities. The Neraphim are a race that 
  has evolved from slaadi in Limbo. They do have a cool 
  ability that allows them to camouflage themselves and 
  charge thus denying their opponent his dexterity to 
  armor class; neat ability but perhaps a bit on the 
  “stretching it” side. Shadowswyfts are natives to the 
  Plane of Shadow (I guess the Shadar’Kai allow them) 
  and have no real reason to be a +1 LA with penalties 
  in light. Spikers (from the Miniatures Handbook) make 
  an appearance, as a fully spec’d out race. While their 
  spikes are interesting they pose many potential 
  problems but thankfully they are a LA +0. The best 
  race (and I’m being facetious) is the Wildren. The 
  Wildren are “beings decended from the union of 
  partially transformed dwarf petitioners and celestial 
  badgers.” Blink. Blink. Blink. Yes… dwarf petitioners 
  and celestial badgers. Go ahead, take a moment to 
  digest that or laugh hysterically and come back. It’s 
  OK I’ll wait.
  The rest of the chapter details out some of the 
  monster progression as race-class levels as pioneered 
  by Sean K. Reynolds and appearing in Savage Species 
  (although he goes unaccredited). The 
  listed monster classes are the avoral 
  guardinal, chain devil (kyton), hound 
  archon, janni, and lillend. It’s kind of 
  nice they reprinted these in this book, 
  but I would have liked to see some 
  others.
  If races that can’t talk and celestial 
  dwarf-badgers are your thing, this book 
  is for you. In fact stop reading and go 
  buy it right now. For the rest of you, 
  see if Chapter One is just a fluke, or 
  foreshadowing.
  Chapter Two: Classes and 
  Feats
  The first idea presented in Chapter Two 
  is the notion of planar substitution 
  levels. These are basically levels that 
  are taken instead of your base class 
  level, granting you different abilities. 
  For example, you could take a planar substitution 
  level as a fighter at 4th level, give up your 4th level 
  base fighter abilities (those in the special column) and 
  gain the benefits of the fighter planar substitution 
  level. It’s actually a nice idea to incorporate planes 
  into a campaign while still maintaining some degree of 
  integrity with the core classes. The abilities granted 
  are extremely useful (clerics can learn to spend turn 
  attempts to turn summoned creatures) and a welcome 
  sight to melee classes that are often behind the mark 
  when it comes to planar adventuring. No new core 
  classes are presented.
  The feats section has two types of feats listed, 
  heritage feats and general feats. The general feats are 
  pretty bland, with only a few of them actually seeming 
  useful. The summoning feats are good for 
  thaumaturgists and the Neraph Charge duplicates the 
  ability of the Neraphim. The nonverbal spell feat 
  seems broken, but I’ll let you figure out how. The 
  planar touchstone feats allow access to the benefits of 
  visiting planar touchstones as presented later in the 
  book. The heritage feats bump up your ability that is 
  related to a specific origin. For example the air 
  heritage feat allows you to increase your fly speed by 
  30 feet. These feats do nothing if you are not 
  descended from the specific element or origin.
  With so many interesting options in the multiverse I 
  expected many more feat choices than were 
  presented. The heritage feats are filler through and 
  through, they could have been accomplished by one 
  feat with a chart instead of individual listings.
  Chapter Three: Prestige Classes 
  Opening the book, the Prestige Class section brought 
  me hope since the first entry is The Athar. I was 
  immediately filled with hope that all of the factions of 
  Sigil would be presented, and possibly stat blocked 
  out in an example. I was disappointed. Not all of the 
  factions make an appearance, I am not sure why (I 
  found out later). The Guvners, Harmonium, and Mercy 
  Killers are strangely missing and they were some of 
  the most popular factions. The Sigil factions are 
  detailed out a bit in this section before the specific 
  Art is © 2004 Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
  
  75
  prestige class entry is listed. The 
  faction PrC’s are decent and have some 
  interesting abilities while trying to 
  maintain the flavor of the orders. There 
  are only two PrC’s listed that are not 
  part of the factions, the Astral Dancer 
  and the Elemental Warrior. 
  What could have been a very good 
  section of the product left a sour taste 
  in my mouth. Why weren’t all of the 
  Sigil factions present, especially the 
  ones so focused on melee? Could it be 
  left for another product? Or is it 
  something more sinister?
  Chapter Four: Equipment 
  and Magic Items 
  The equipment section begins with a 
  small note on the availability of these 
  new items, which actually provides a 
  helpful insight to DMs running planar 
  campaigns. There are nine total 
  weapons listed, three of which are 
  exotic weapons. Of note are the 
  annulat, an exotic ranged weapon that 
  looks like a chakram, and the Jovar, a 
  greatsword with 18-20 crit range and 
  multiplier of x2. Of course, the Jovar is 
  only (or should only be) available to 
  archons from which the weapon 
  originates.
  There are three new types of armor 
  listed. The first is hooked armor that 
  looks like a spikeling’s skin. Then there 
  is a neat armor type called sectioned 
  armor. This suit of armor can be 
  removed in sections to provide the 
  three different levels of armor 
  protection, light, medium and heavy. 
  The final armor type is mechanus gear, 
  providing the highest armor bonus of the listed 
  armors (and possibly the highest of any wizards 
  product) but lowers the wearer’s speed dramatically.
  The rest of the chapter details equipment both 
  mundane and magical as well as lists planar traveling 
  vessels. Actually this section provided tons of useful 
  information and items. The magical weapon and 
  armor abilities are not a complete waste, but do we 
  really need four magical bonuses that affect elemental 
  types? Maybe, but it makes me go “eh”. The vehicle 
  listing is interesting and usefull if you want to detail 
  some astral vessels, although I am glad to see that 
  they didn’t just copy and paste the material from the 
  Spelljammr source released in an old issue of 
  Polyhedron.
  Chapter Five: Spells
  The spells chapter starts off with a new domain for 
  some of the planes and then begins to list the new 
  spells. While the majority of the spells are new, some 
  are carry-overs from the Manual of the Planes. Some 
  of the higher level spells are pretty impressive, but 
  overall many of the spells focus on just summoning a 
  planar being (or beings) to fight for you. If 
  summoning an archon or a horde of demons sounds 
  interesting then these spells might be for you. But the 
  general flavor of the spells sticks to the planar setting 
  and the book should be commended for sticking to its 
  roots.
  Chapter Six: Monsters
  Most of the monsters listed are templates. I am 
  always a fan of templates, but find that they tend to 
  be more work than not, and make a solo appearance 
  in a game and then are never heard of again. Same 
  can be said for some monsters, but it seems like the 
  designers at WotC are stretching for ideas. Axiomatic 
  and Anarchic creatures, a positive and negative 
  energy template, and the list goes on. There are some 
  interesting monsters, like the void ooze and the 
  energons, and some of the monsters listed are 
  animals for the planar mounts detailed earlier. Overall, 
  chapter six is less than impressive but at least its 
  here.
  Art is © 2004 Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
  
  76
  Chapter Seven: Planar Sites 
  This chapter details out several of the planes major 
  locations as well as details planar breaches and 
  planar touchstones. The first section gives a brief 
  cosmological overview of the Great Wheel multiverse. 
  It’s here because this is supposed to be a player book 
  and not a DM book. This information is already in the 
  3.5 DMG as well as the Manual of the Planes so if you 
  have those books the first few pages of this chapter 
  can be skipped. 
  The detailed locations I spoke of are the City of Brass, 
  Sigil, and Tu’narath. The City of Brass has a city map 
  and an overview of the laws, layout, themes, rulers, 
  and history of the fiery metropolis. Sigil is listed in 
  more detail than anywhere previous (barring the 
  Planescape Campaign Setting) and Tu’narath (the 
  githyanki city on a dead god floating in the Astral 
  Plane) also has a workup with a map. Remember 
  back when I mentioned the factions of Sigil? Well, in 
  this section we find out that all that great history and 
  feel of Planescape is taken away and replaced with a 
  WoTC-Mart brand sticker. For some reason the Lady 
  of Pain (who thankfully goes un-stat’d) decreed the 
  factions void. So there are no more factions allowed to 
  operate in Sigil. If you’ve never played Planescape or 
  don’t care, you should (because you are missing the 
  best setting ever). If you are fine with this change, 
  good for you. If you are like me, first pick up your 
  jaw from the floor, reach around feebly for your eyes 
  that have popped out, and try to reconstitute your 
  brain. I just want to say to Bruce and Gwendolyn, 
  ever hear the phrase, ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it?’. 
  Am I being overly dramatic? Probably, but it still gets 
  my goat (you know, the $100+ goat that I paid for 
  the Planescape boxed settings). Sure, I know that 
  Monte Cook, who also designed said campaign setting 
  wrote a book called Faction War but I try to keep that 
  memory locked away in a box under my bed. Maybe 
  one day I’ll throw it off a cliff… hey it worked in that 
  one movie, and that was a man-eating prehistoric 
  monster monkey.
  Art is © 2004 Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. Used with permission. 
  All rights reserved.
  Enough of my insane ranting, back to the review. The 
  next section details planar breaches, a phenomenon 
  that occurs when, for some reason *cough* Orph 
  *cough*, one plane breaks through the multiverse 
  into another plane causing some weird stuff to happen 
  and making anyone in the area utter the infamous 
  last words, ‘Oh snap!’ A random chart is provided for 
  all your annihilation needs. Thank you. Please drive 
  through.
  The largest section of this chapter, and the majority 
  of the book, is planar touchstones. This is actually an 
  interesting idea that has absolutely no reason to be 
  in a book for players. Basically the idea is that there 
  are pocket planes around the multiverse that can be 
  attuned, or sync’d by special people (those with the 
  feat). By visiting these places they can gain or unlock 
  some benefits, such as darkvision, spell-like abilities, 
  or various other bonuses. Of course encounters 
  are common on these touchstones, so bring some 
  friends. These are actually useful for DMs and there 
  are numerous planar touchstones listed, one for 
  encounters from level 4 to 14.
  Art
  Cover art by Matt Covatta is great and really captures 
  the feel of the planes. If you are looking for big time 
  WotC favorite artists like Wayne Reynolds or Todd 
  Lockwood, don’t pick up this book, they simply aren’t 
  in here. But the artists’ works that are included do not 
  disappoint and are full color and live up to the WotC 
  standard. There are no full-page artworks included 
  like those in the Complete Divine or Complete 
  Warrior. You may also find that the captions are quite 
  interesting for the art. The maps are not superior 
  quality but are still Todd Gamble’s work.
  Conclusion
  First and foremost I feel that this book partly lied to 
  me. It’s subtitle is “A Player’s Guide to the Planes”. 
  I feel that this book caters almost 
  completely to the DM. The monsters 
  are no use to players, neither are the 
  planar touchstones for the most part. 
  There is no information on how a player can create 
  a planar breach, and the PrC’s listed are for factions 
  that for the most part don’t fully exist anymore. The 
  only really useful player information is the races, 
  feats, equipment, and spells chapters, which are 
  not that impressive. Hands down, this is the worst 
  WotC product to be released for the new line. Yes, 
  even Deities and Demigods was better. At least 
  you weren’t misled when you bought that product. 
  I’ve played in many planar games, and this book 
  doesn’t have anything that excites me as a player in 
  a planar setting. There is really nothing in the 192 
  pages that I could take to my DM and say with huge 
  puppy dog eyes, ‘Pweeese!’ Bottom lines, 1) Bruce 
  should stick to psionics, and 2) save your money for 
  something better like Beyond Countless Doorways 
  from Malhavoc.
  Where to buy
  Through our partnership with FRP Games, our readers 
  can get this product at a discount here:
  http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_
  detail&p=8775&ref=sil
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/adnd.asp?case=show&id=405
  
  77
  Directly before the descriptions of poisons is a table 
  listing all of the poisons, with their onset, initial 
  damage, secondary damage, and fort save DC soon 
  after. These poisons are arranged by origin (toadstool, 
  shellfish, and plants), and then alphabetically from 
  there. Descriptions of each poison are presented 
  afterwards, but the table pretty much takes care of 
  the information you need to know as a GM. 
  My favorite part of this chapter is the final table, 
  which lists the poisons again and the other types 
  of fungi and plants that they are easily confused 
  with. In order to properly identify a poisonous plant 
  or toadstool, a player must succeed a Knowledge 
  (nature) check. Therefore, this table also includes 
  corresponding DCs, the highest of which is 22. You 
  can also learn what terrain the poisonous substance 
  commonly grows on by reading this table. Not only 
  do these tables make the product easier to read, but 
  they also provide enough information so that you 
  do not have to rely on external sources to find any 
  additional information you may need. 
  Presentation
  Nature’s Wrath is a 34-page PDF product by 
  Bloodstone Press. It is divided into three chapters that 
  discuss poisons, diseases, and ailments, respectively. 
  The first page of the PDF (the “cover”) depicts a 
  pencil illustration of a healer attempting to heal 
  and ailing man recovering in bed. The illustration 
  resides on an emerald-green field, which is spruced 
  up with a decorative sponge effect. The contents of 
  the product are written in a two-column format in a 
  font similar to Times New Roman. Page numbers only 
  appear on odd-numbered pages and are written in 
  a bolder version of the Times New Roman lettering. 
  Although there are only two illustrations throughout 
  Nature’s Wrath (one of which is the same illustration 
  that appeared on the cover), both are nicely-done 
  illustrations by William McAusland. 
  Poisons
  The opening chapter of Nature’s Wrath discusses 
  poisons. Before the descriptions of the actual poisons 
  are presented, however, the author takes the time 
  to define the terminology used in the accompanying 
  tables, such as “Onset,” “Initial Damage,” and “DC.” 
  Although these terms are familiar to much of the d20 
  fan base, this is an excellent step for those who are 
  just trying to learn the rules. It is not often that you 
  will find an author that does not assume you know 
  all the rules, and I give this author brownie points for 
  taking the extra step.
  The main types of poisons discussed here are 
  contracted from toadstools, shellfish, and plants. 
  About: 32 pages, electronic PDF, black-and-white 
  interior, $5
  Author: John Alger
  Publisher: Bloodstone Press (2004)
  Review date: 09/01/04
  Reviewer’s Bias: I received a review copy of this 
  product.
  From the Back Cover
  “This d20 supplement features rules for dozens of 
  naturally occurring poisons and diseases. Detailed 
  descriptions of toadstools, malaria, hemlock and 
  much more fill these pages. Nature’s Wrath is an ideal 
  supplement for enhancing environmental dangers of 
  your game.”
  Introduction
  Need a poison to slow down your players? How 
  about using a disease that can erupt to epidemic 
  proportions? If your campaign is in need of some 
  illnesses to keep things interesting, then Nature’s 
  Wrath may be the PDF for you. Within the pages 
  of Nature’s Wrath, you will find descriptions and 
  tables covering microbial, plant, and animal poisons, 
  diseases, and symptoms. There are even variant 
  rules that you can use to keep your campaign from 
  getting too predictable. This guide to poisons and 
  other ailments is a game-master (GM) supplement 
  that fits into any d20 System game. The newest 
  version of Nature’s Wrath has been revised so that it 
  is compatible with the v.3.5 rules.
  Review: Nature´s Wrath
  by Melissa Piper
  Review snapshot
  CLASS: Campaign Supplement
  STR: NA (Physical). This score does not apply to PDFs.
  DEX: 14 (Organization). Product has a table for almost 
  everything and is easy to read.
  CON: 10 (Quantity of the Content). Only 34 pages.
  INT: 15 (Quality of Content). Information presented was 
  detailed and complete.
  WIS: 17 (Options & Adaptability). Can be adapted to any d20 
  campaign of any setting.
  CHA: 8 (Look & Feel). Black-and-white interior with 
  inconsistencies in organization. Plain appearance.
  How we rate our reviews
  Scoring definitions.
  18 = Superior. Best of the best.
  16 = Very Good. Part of a Baker’s Dozen.
  14 = Good. Most gamers would like this.
  12 = Fair. Some gamers would like this.
  10 = Average. Most gamers would be indifferent.
  8 = Subpar. Flawed, but not without promise.
  6 = Bad. Most gamers would dislike this.
  4 = Very Bad. Among the Dirty Dozen.
  2 = Inferior. Worst of the worst.
  D&D/d20
  
  78
  One gripe that I have with this chapter is that 
  it makes a reference to “Chapter 12” on several 
  occasions. For example, one sentence discussing 
  the table of poisons reads, “The symptoms (in 
  parentheses) are abbreviations for optional additional 
  penalties from Chapter 12.” However, since there are 
  only three chapters in this PDF, I am not sure which 
  book is being referred to here! Since the opening page 
  of Nature’s Wrath states that the “core books” (plural) 
  of D&D are required in order to use this product, my 
  guess is that the product is referring to the Dungeon 
  Master’s Guide (DMG). It would have been helpful if 
  this was explicitly stated, however.
  Diseases
  If poisonous toadstools and plants are not your 
  flavor, then Chapter 2 may prove to be more 
  interesting. The second chapter discusses diseases 
  that will ail characters with a variety of effects. This 
  chapter opens with two variant rules for healing and 
  curing diseases, both of which are meant to make 
  characters more susceptible to disease with lessened 
  chances of healing immediately. Basically, this task 
  is accomplished through a simple rewording of the 
  “Remove Disease” spell. For quick comparison, the 
  core rule for curing diseases is presented on the left, 
  with the two variant rules appearing on the right. 
  Once again, this chapter includes definitions of the 
  terminology that will be used in the accompanying 
  tables. From there, each disease is listed in a table 
  alphabetically, along with the disease’s symptoms 
  (which appear as abbreviations), incubation period, 
  damage, and fort save DCs. The tables in Nature’s 
  Wrath are great, since practically each chapter is 
  summarized into one easy-to-reference table that 
  reduces the need to read through every description. 
  There is even a table at the end of the chapter that 
  lists the frequency of each disease and the method 
  through which each is transmitted.
  Some of the diseases that you will find listed here 
  include well-known diseases such as Anthrax, 
  Hepatitis A, B, and C, Diptheria, and Malaria. There 
  are also diseases listed here, such as Polio, that have 
  practically been eradicated but were much more 
  common during the earlier centuries.
  Conditions and Ailments
  The final chapter of Nature’s Wrath summarizes the 
  symptoms of the diseases that were presented in the 
  previous chapter. Much to my dismay, when I first 
  scanned the table of diseases in Chapter 2, I could not 
  find any interpretations of the abbreviated symptoms. 
  I was ready to report about this fact until I flipped 
  to Chapter 3, which is where all of the symptom 
  abbreviations were hiding. Each symptom is described 
  here, so you do not have to look up anything in your 
  medical book of symptoms and diseases. In addition 
  to descriptions, you will find the penalties that 
  players receive as a part of the symptom he or she is 
  suffering from. And, as always, a table summarizing 
  each symptom and its accompanying abbreviation 
  appears at the end of this chapter.
  Conclusion
  After finishing Nature’s Wrath, I was both pleased 
  and a bit disappointed. Although the tables are a 
  nice touch and add to the readability of the product, 
  the organization of the chapter headings and text 
  are inconsistent. On one page, the headings could 
  be bold, while they could be plain on the next. The 
  product looked as if it was simply typed in Word, 
  which gives the entire product a plain appearance.
  The material found within the pages of Nature’s Wrath 
  was well written and complete. I found few problems 
  with the writing and editing, which I was pleased with. 
  I recommend this product to GMs who are looking to 
  add natural poisons and diseases to their campaigns. 
  Players will not find much use for it, though, since all 
  material found throughout the product is left to the 
  discretion of the GM. If you are looking for a quick 
  reference to ailments in d20 format, then 
  I suggest that you give Nature’s Wrath a 
  try.
  Where to buy
  Through our partnership with FRP Games, our readers 
  can get this product at a discount here:
  http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_i
  d=2330&src=silventrumpeter
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/adnd.asp?case=show&id=410
  
  79
  are placed in helpful locations, near the text they 
  expound upon. In short, I found the look of Bloodlines 
  to be slick and professional.
  Frequent typos such as missing words (“The price for 
  such tampering was [that] Blackwell’s own memories 
  [were] magnified for every memory stolen”), swapped 
  pronouns (Norma Wallis’s gender changes in the 
  read-aloud text before the ritual), and awkward word 
  choices (a “blatant alcoholic”?) affect the product 
  negatively. The author has the tendency to overwrite 
  a little bit, when the complexity of the adventure 
  would demand a simpler, more expository style. 
  In the end, this is a minor quibble, but, given the 
  outstanding art and layout, it’s a little disappointing.
  Introduction
  The player characters (PCs) are summoned to 
  Pinebox, Texas, for a geocaching contest (essentially 
  a treasure hunt using GPS). As it turns out, a cult 
  masquerading as the Pinebox Historical Society 
  organized the contest as a way for the cult to secure 
  a book and lens required for a dark ritual. Over the 
  course of Bloodlines, the PCs will come into conflict 
  with the cult’s members and ghosts from Pinebox’s 
  past.
  Presentation
  Bloodlines is a 121-page PDF file with extensive 
  bookmarks and a hyperlinked table of contents -- this 
  page count includes nineteen player handouts and 
  eight maps. 
  Anneth Lagamo’s cover depicts the ghost of a young 
  woman, Nicole Blackwell, in a graveyard, her finger 
  to her lips. Overall, Lagamo’s cover is tasteful and 
  appropriate, fitting the adventure well. The interior 
  art, by Sergio “Obsidian” Villa Isaza, isn’t as good as 
  the cover (the depictions of people are slightly more 
  cartoony), but works. Particularly effective, in my 
  opinion, was Villa Isaza’s use of color in combination 
  with black and white, such as the purple shading in 
  the picture on page 41 of the ghost of Nicole Blackwell 
  assaulting James Rodriguez or the antiseptic green-
  brown of the blanket in the picture of Imogene Glass 
  on page 54.
  The product’s layout is impeccable -- clean, crisp, and 
  easily readable. The margins are wide, and sidebars 
  About: 120 pages, PDF, color interior (printer-friendly 
  version included), $10.
  Publisher: 12 to Midnight (2004)
  Reviewed by: Nick Mulherin
  Review date: 09/10/2004
  Reviewer’s Bias: I received a review copy of this 
  product. This is not a playtest review. Warning: This 
  review contains spoilers.
  From the Back Cover
  Welcome to Pinebox, Texas. There’s gold buried in 
  these hills...or at least, that’s the local folklore. Join 
  the Apollo Geocaching Challenge to race against other 
  teams in search of a time capsule buried 100 years 
  ago. Do you think you can succeed in 24 hours where 
  two generations of treasure hunters failed? The race is 
  on and the competition fierce. But be warned: there’s 
  much more to Pinebox (and the competition) than 
  meets the eye. Some secrets are best left buried and 
  some family trees best left unshaken.
  Review: Bloodlines
  by Melissa Piper
  Review snapshot
  CLASS: Adventure
  STR: NA (Physical). It’s two PDF files, one regular, one 
  printer-friendly.
  DEX: 10 (Organization). Standard organization, but good 
  use of the electronic format.
  CON: 14 (Quantity of the Content). Outstanding, copious 
  support material in the appendices. A lot of extras.
  INT: 12 (Quality of Content). Good ideas, rough execution 
  in the early going. Extremely linear plot. Excellent handouts 
  and maps.
  WIS: 10 (Options & Adaptability). An enterprising GM could 
  do good work with Pinebox as a setting for d20 Modern or 
  even Call of Cthulhu. 
  CHA: 16 (Look & Feel). Clean and crisp, with excellent 
  layout and good art. Occasional minor typos and stylistic 
  flaws.
  How we rate our reviews
  Scoring definitions.
  18 = Superior. Best of the best.
  16 = Very Good. Part of a Baker’s Dozen.
  14 = Good. Most gamers would like this.
  12 = Fair. Some gamers would like this.
  10 = Average. Most gamers would be indifferent.
  8 = Subpar. Flawed, but not without promise.
  6 = Bad. Most gamers would dislike this.
  4 = Very Bad. Among the Dirty Dozen.
  2 = Inferior. Worst of the worst.
  d20 Modern
  
  80
  GM’s Preparation
  This section includes some very nice material for the 
  GM as he gets ready to run Bloodlines, particularly the 
  sections on setting the mood and potential plot hooks 
  to get the PCs involved. My one main concern here 
  was the extensive summary of the plot as the author 
  saw it happening -- it reinforces DuBose’s assertion 
  (in the Author’s Introduction) that this is a highly 
  linear adventure. His description of how things are 
  supposed to go suggested to me, in its detail, that the 
  plotline as he imagines it supercedes the actual play 
  of the story. 
  In other words, I felt that the adventure’s 
  story, or what it wanted to tell, was more 
  important than how the players wanted it to 
  play. I’m sure this results from the 
  complexity of the scenario that’s been 
  written. I needed to read this section 
  twice to make sure that I had a pretty 
  good handle on what was going on. 
  The danger of having such a 
  complex plot is that, in order to 
  make sure that all the plot 
  lines fit, there’s almost no 
  choice but to make it a railroad 
  -- there are too many hints 
  and clues that demand a 
  certain timeline for the PCs not 
  to feel like they’ve been lead by 
  the nose. After reading this, I 
  initially felt that, in the hands of 
  an inexperienced GM, this 
  adventure would probably be a 
  disaster. There is just too much 
  back-story and plot to juggle.
  The Adventure
  Bloodlines is divided into three 
  sections: The Cache, The Cult, and 
  The Haunting. The first section, the 
  search for the cache (the book and 
  the lens, which, according to local 
  folklore is the Blackwell gold) 
  consists of a series of encounters that introduce the 
  PCs to various folks in and around Pinebox, TX, 
  culminating in the retrieval of the book and lens. Part 
  II, the Cult, deals with the players discovering that a 
  cult has used them as its pawns and climaxes at the 
  scene of the bloody ritual. The last section reveals the 
  historical grudge underlying the conflicts of the 
  previous two sections, resulting in a confrontation 
  between the ghosts of Robert and Nicole Blackwell.
  I had a lot of misgivings about the main part of this 
  adventure, including, but not limited to its 
  linear plot. One thing I did like, however, 
  was the small checklists presented at the 
  end of each scene, which told the GM 
  what the most important things to 
  have happen during that scene 
  were, such as Spot checks, 
  information that should be 
  given out, and so on. I liked 
  this because of the complexity 
  of the adventure -- it’ll help to 
  keep the GM running the 
  campaign grounded. 
  Unfortunately, my main concern 
  with Bloodlines reared its head again 
  here: the directions often indicate that 
  the GM should “reveal” a clue or 
  otherwise take an active role in making 
  sure that the PCs know the things the 
  adventure needs them to know. As a 
  matter of fact, non-player characters (NPCs) 
  often are the only source of clues and have 
  to, more or less, tell the players where to go 
  next. For instance, Vera Bock tells the PCs in 
  the first section of the adventure that the fake 
  Bible verses on the Blackwell tombstone are 
  actually coordinates, pushing the PCs to the 
  next part of the adventure. The players have 
  no opportunity to find this information out for 
  themselves, but have to rely on an NPC to tell 
  them the answer to the puzzle.
  Players are frequently discouraged from trying 
  out different things. For instance, if they decide, 
  after they finally find the Blackwell homestead, to go 
  to it without speaking to the current landowners, 
  there’s only a 5% chance they’d be able to find it. This 
  seems more like an excuse to keep the players on plot 
  than anything else, punishing them for wandering 
  away from the module’s story. Again, the problem is a 
  linear plot -- all roads lead to the same place. The 
  players have to go to the current landowners to get to 
  the land--there’s almost no way around it. 
  Sometimes, the railroading of the adventure is even 
  more blatant. The scorpion attack at the end of Part 1 
  comes to mind immediately. The PCs receive no 
  saves, no chances to avoid getting knocked out and 
  poisoned -- even if they aren’t close enough to the 
  well to be attacked by the scorpions, a magical effect 
  still knocks them out long enough for the bad guys to 
  do their thing. This is part of a consistent pattern of 
  the players losing their agency as a result of the plot’s 
  needs rather than their own actions. The arrest at the 
  beginning of Part 2 functions in a similar way -- it’s 
  almost like a cut-scene in a video game where the 
  players will get to watch the story being advanced. I 
  can only speak from my experience, but the players I 
  have played with would balk at either of these events.
  The only other major gripe I have with this section of 
  the adventure is the lack of stats in the adventure -- 
  they’re all contained in Appendix 1 and can be 
  downloaded as part of a set of initiative cards 
  available on the 12 to Midnight website. I really feel 
  the presentation of some basic stats in the adventure, 
  hit points and a page reference for the character at 
  the very least, would have been helpful.
  Although I was discouraged with the adventure as a 
  whole, I should mention that Part 3 was, by far, the 
  best section of the main adventure. It’s far less linear, 
  events can take place out of order (for instance, the 
  shuffling of Nicole’s exposition and the seance, the 
  latter of which may not even happen if the players 
  don’t want to do it), and the final confrontation 
  between Nicole and Robert, through their proxy, Molly, 
  and the PCs, is completely open-ended and could 
  result in any number of conclusions to the adventure. 
  It’s not enough to save the two parts before it, but it 
  (Image used with permission from 12 to Midnight, Inc. Art by Sergio “Obsidian” Villa Isaza )
  
  81
  does show what Bloodlines could have 
  been and the quality of material the folks 
  at 12 to Midnight are capable of creating.
  Appendices
  A number of appendices follow the main 
  adventure:
  • Appendix 1: Cast of Characters. Full 
  stats and histories for all the characters 
  presented in the adventure. It’s a nice 
  appendix, but some stats do belong in the 
  text itself. A particularly nice touch here is 
  the “Character Speak” section included for 
  each person, which gives a couple of 
  sayings or a bit of dialogue to help the GM 
  play the character.
  • Appendix 2: Cast of Creatures and Cults. This 
  section includes the lost soul template and four 
  different manifestations for it (lesser, 
  poltergeist, ABE, and phantom) as well as 
  some barebones information on Zatha and 
  Zatha’s Chosen. The information on the cult 
  is oddly placed here and would probably 
  have served better as a side bar earlier in 
  the adventure.
  • Appendix 3: Magic & Artifacts. This 
  section details the magic system used in 
  Bloodlines, which has been taken from 
  Mongoose Publishing’s OGL Horror, a choice 
  made because of the “benign” view of magic that 
  the system used in the default d20 Modern game 
  takes. 
  I like 12 to Midnight’s use of the OGL to reprint 
  enough of the OGL Horror magic system to make sure 
  that Bloodlines is as useful as possible to people 
  playing through it (many of which may not have 
  Mongoose’s book). It’s a nice touch, and a creative 
  GM could extrapolate an entire magic system based 
  on the snippets included here.
  • Appendix 4: Experience and Mechanics. Includes an 
  experience chart that gives totals for each encounter, 
  based on the party level and information on locks and 
  breaking and entering.
  • Appendix 5: Vehicle Movement and Combat. A 
  reprint of the basic rules for this topic from the d20 
  Modern SRD. Again, this is a nice use of the OGL 
  by 12 to Midnight. It allows the GM to have 
  less books at the table and focus on the 
  adventure.
  • Appendix 6: Player Handouts and GM 
  Maps. The handouts are well-designed 
  and appropriate. Newspaper clippings look 
  like newspaper clippings, fliers look like 
  fliers. The sheer number of handouts 
  impressed me, and I think they’d go a long 
  way to drawing the players into the 
  adventure. Like the handouts, the maps are 
  extremely well-done.
  If the adventure’s first two sections 
  matched the quality of the last section and 
  these appendices, 12 to Midnight would 
  have an outstanding product here. The 
  care taken to put together the useful, 
  detailed handouts, maps, and rules 
  supplements found in this last section is 
  the best part of this product. 
  Conclusion
  Ultimately, any review of a module 
  ultimately needs to consider what the 
  function of a module is: does it provide a 
  story for the PCs to take part in or is it a 
  scenario or environment the PCs can react to? For 
  me, the most successful modules are the latter, not 
  the former. Bloodlines, through the first two sections 
  of the adventure, felt more like a story that the PCs 
  got to take part in -- the plot’s more or less 
  predetermined and the module goes to lengths to give 
  the GM ways to keep the players “on the 
  map.” Despite the weaknesses of the 
  adventure provided, the work does, 
  (Image used with permission from 12 to Midnight, Inc. Art by Sergio “Obsidian” Villa 
  Isaza )
  however, present a thoroughly-detailed, potentially 
  interesting world for a GM to use and the climax of 
  the adventure is neat and almost worth the trouble to 
  get to it. The production values are top-notch, and the 
  care taken to provide well-made player handouts and 
  good maps is appreciated. Still, Bloodlines suffers 
  because of the weakness of the early sections of the 
  adventure and its determination to follow a 
  predetermined course. It might play best as a one-
  shot adventure used in between campaigns or for a 
  change of pace.
  Where to buy
  Through our partnership with FRP Games, our readers 
  can get this product at a discount here:
  http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_i
  d=2671&src=SilvenTrumpeter
  Comment on this article online at this URL:
    4 http://www.silven.com/modern.asp?case=show&id=413
  
  Serving the City of Silven for over 1,000 Scribes!
  The Fodder Cannon is a monthly humor section 
  by Lance Kepner and Dana Driscoll. Readers 
  are encouraged to contribute their own amusing 
  shorts. Send to adriayna@yahoo.com.
  Racial Reunion
  An editorial by Dak Tamble
  While visiting my dearest aunt on the other side of 
  the city last week, I happened to cross paths with 
  a rather strange looking gnome.  Considering the 
  event a chance meeting, I continued on to my 
  destination blissfully unaware as to the events that 
  were going to unfold that very night.
  My aunt Fimble is, indeed, an eccentric woman.  
  Having lived in the planes for many a year will do 
  that to a gnome.  In any case, her face was full of 
  excitement as she told me the news that the Tri-
  Annual Semi-Contiguous Quarterly Meeting of the 
  Planar Tribunal of United Gnomes was going to be 
  held in the City of Silven tonight! 
  Why, I nearly lost my breath (and not from saying 
  the name).  A chance to meet my brethren from 
  all across the multiverse was a chance not to be 
  missed.
  I promptly returned home and dressed in my finest 
  gnomish garb.  I thought that a pleasant green 
  robe with gold bands across the length would go 
  well with my orange and purple custom jumpsuit.
  When I arrived at the gala I was astounded to 
  see so many of my fellow kinsfolk.  As I wandered 
  around I quickly became aware of a problem—I 
  was confronted numerous times by a gnomish 
  race I had never seen before.  At first I thought it 
  a fluke, a transgression of my backwards plane.  
  But more and more races and variants started 
  teleporting, plane shifting, and even gating in.  
  (What a view of Miss Yuppl’s underside as a gate 
  wind caught her dress!)  
  All of a sudden I found myself staring at over a 
  hundred gnomes, each and every one a different 
  variation.  Why there were desert gnomes and 
  rock gnomes and deep gnomes and whisper 
  gnomes and dark gnomes and half gnomes 
  and elf gnomes and dragon gnomes and goblin 
  gnomes.  Why, I even saw a formian gnome!
  I’ve lost all faith in my race.  We’ve stooped to the 
  level of elves in our breeding habits.
  Man Disappears In Center Rhombus
  Yesterday in the Center Rhombus a man 
  disappeared into thin air.  No magical residue was 
  detected, and the man has not been seen since.
  ”It was the strangest thing,” says Lilly the Flower 
  Seller.  ”One moment he was talking to me, 
  or trying to at least, as his friend kept butting 
  in.  The friend was annoying, but the guy who 
  disappeared was very nice and charming.  I 
  would have given him my entire basket of flowers.  
  But his friend was crude and repulsive.  He just 
  kept butting in and taking over the conversation.”
  ”Sometimes the friend would even leave quickly, 
  only to return at the most precious of moments in 
  our conversation,” she says.
  ”Then, while talking to the nice man, the friend 
  butted in just as he was paying me a compliment 
  and poof, he disappeared,” she relates.
  No word on the man’s location.  Silven authorities 
  are still investigating.  If you have any information 
  please contact the Sheriff’s Office.
  ”He was such a nice man; I hope he comes 
  back,” Lilly said.
  Book Burning Mayhem
  In a recent rash of attacks on local libraries, 
  Silven Crossroads has outlawed all forms of book 
  burning.
  ”This fad must stop,” the Mayor said in a smoky 
  press conference Saturday.  ”This is a violation of 
  rights.  It is a travesty to all that is good and pure 
  with our civilization.  If this continues, what will be 
  next?  Women’s bras?”
  The Mayor continued, ”I hereby outlaw all forms 
  of book burning.  And in addition, to stave off this 
  from ever happening again, I hereby also declare 
  book writing as heresy against the state.”
  Reaction to these decrees has met with some 
  skepticism and anger from the community.
  ”I just don’t get this town,” says Orph Maloney.  ”It’s 
  so chaotic.  Maybe that’s why I like it.”
  In the local schools teachers are confused as to 
  what to do with the books they currently have.
  
  Local dwarves are unsure of whether stone tablets 
  qualify as books.
  And gnomes around the city are banging pots 
  and pans in an effort to scare out the demons 
  from the city.
  The demons are so far not cooperating.
  World Disappoints Local Druid
  Amber Nyght, a local druid with Lodge #478, 
  recently underwent a world-tour trial to see if the 
  world really was made of sunshine, rainbows, and 
  lollipops.  She traveled far and wide and returned 
  just a short while ago.  
  ”My journey uncovered many mysteries of the 
  natural world,” says Nyght.
  ”Like how faeries are actually murderous beings 
  intent on world domination.  And how trees should 
  not be awakened.  And how squirrels should 
  definitely not be awakened.  And how there are 
  no lollipops in the clouds, only giants that don’t like 
  lollipops.  And so many other great things.”
  Nyght says she valued her time on the road, but 
  is glad to be back home in and around Silven. ”I 
  did manage to see a lot of sunshine, and even 
  a rainbow or two.  But the elusive lollipop earth 
  theory baffled me right up until the end.  But I am 
  going to continue my pursuit as I hear this place 
  called Sigil really looks like a lollipop,” finished 
  Nyght.
  Public Poll:
  What is your favorite thing about autumn?
  Orph Maloney, Wizard Extraordinaire 
  ”The Plane of Leaves is simply fantastic this time of 
  year.”
  Dak Tamble, Bard Wonder
  ”Her nice, curvy…. Oh, that autumn.”
  Michael Moore, Secular Humanist
  ”If there’s something wrong with it, I’ll find it.”
  Polly, the pirate parrot
  ”Squawwwk.”
  Xave, Bookburner
  ”Autumn always reminds me of the way burning 
  ash floats freely in the still air.”
  Serving the City of Silven for over 1,000 Scribes!
  
  The Prompeldia Post is a newspaper from 
  the world of Kenzer & Co’s Kingdoms of 
  Kalamar setting. It is written entirely 
  in character, from the point of view of 
  an editor and publisher in the town of 
  Prompeldia. The reporters from the paper 
  are entrenched in various locales around 
  the continent, from where they report back 
  to the mysterious Editor X (who grates 
  under the thumb of a crimelord mayor) 
  through an undisclosed system involving 
  divination and teleportation magic.
  The stories may not always be accurate 
  (due to the vast distances and general 
  unreliability of magic, sources and 
  reporter bias), but  hopefully they will 
  sell the editor enough papers to keep in 
  business.
  If there is anything you’d like to see 
  reported in the Prompeldia Post,  or if 
  you have a story to break to the readers 
  of that city, please send  in on to Shane 
  Cubis at rubikcubis@bigpond.com He’ll 
  forward it on to Editor  X at his earliest 
  convenience.
  (Kingdoms of Kalamar ™ is a registered trademark of 
  Kenzer & Company. © 2003 Kenzer & Company. Used 
  with permission.  For more information see
  www.kenzerco.com)
  (The Prompelida Post is unofficial and has no bearing 
  on the official KoK setting or the Living KoK setting.  The 
  Prompelida Post is for entertainment purposes.)
  THE PROMPELDIA POST
  Season Harvest 563 IR
  Greetings Fellow Freedom Lovers!
  Eldor responds...
  A letter to runt mayor Gremply Slivers has been 
  intercepted by one of our agents, and I am sad to report 
  that it does not bear joyous news. Rather, it appears that 
  the King in Eldor is no more a friend of Prompeldia 
  than the bucktooth halfwit himself is. The Prompeldia 
  Post reprints the letter in full, for your edification:
  Mayor Slivers,
  It has come to our attention that a rogue scribe is 
  making vicious slander against the throne in your city. 
  If you cannot deal with such an issue, perhaps it is time 
  Eldor did.
  Recall our agreement, Slivers. If Prompeldia becomes 
  unstable, we shall be forced to take measures to return 
  it to the fold.
  His Eternal Majesty the King in Eldor.
  This seems to suggest that Eldor’s failure to reclaim 
  the city was not entirely accidental. One is forced to 
  wonder why the throne would be so eager to be publicly 
  humiliated. Our crack team of reporters will have to 
  look into this further. The Prompeldia Herald sure as 
  hell won’t, being far too busy ‘reporting’ on what the 
  leading ladies of the city are wearing on their fat, oily 
  bellies.
  Here are the headlines from around the world.
  -Editor X
  Kalamar: Blackfoot Society Strikes Ineffective 
  Blow
  The secretive Blackfoot Society, dedicated to “removing 
  the shackles of monarchy from this land,” are claiming 
  responsibility for the death of minor noble Stephen 
  Harutor, cousin to Duke Falamar Harutor of Rosaleta. 
  The official story from the Harutor family is that Stephen 
  tragically choked on a peach stone last week whilst lying 
  in his chambers. 
  A high-ranking Blackfoot member, who refused to be 
  identified, had this to say:  “Peach stone? No way. We were 
  the ones who killed that parasite. The people of Kalamar 
  deserve freedom from tyranny! Kabori puts his shoes on 
  the same way I do!”
  When informed that Emperor Kabori I has a slave put on 
  his shoes each morning, the Blackfoot member terminated 
  the interview in a fit of what can only be described as 
  ‘pique.’ It is believed he intended to purchase a large bag 
  of peaches and a shoehorn.
  Brandobia: Gnomes Demand Representation
  A revolutionary gnome group has risen up in Inolen, 
  responding to what they call “the tyranny of the tall.” The 
  gnomes are demanding representation in the Brandobian 
  government and are threatening to remove all gemwares 
  and jewelry from the land unless their claims are met with 
  action. The Brandobian response has been lukewarm, with 
  insiders claiming that “those gnomes are in for a world of 
  hurt if they try to take us on.”
  A march has been planned for the coming month, with the 
  number of attendees predicted to be “upwards of 500 wee 
  folk.” Eldoran militia have been put on full alert in case 
  the protest escalates into racial violence. “Gnomes claim 
  to be peaceable folk”, reported area farmer Thom Thistle, 
  by Shane Cubis
  
  85
  sharpening up his pitchfork. “They say they just want 
  to talk to badgers and shine up some gems. I seen ‘em 
  dancing in the woods, killing a man’s dog and drinking 
  it blood. Gnomes is no good, and the sooner they’re 
  gone, the better off we’ll all be.”
  There are as yet unconfirmed reports that the gnomes 
  may have allies in their cause. Stirrings in a nearby 
  dwarven settlement seem to indicate that they take 
  umbrage at Brandobian racism and that conflict may 
  not be too far away. So far we have seen no response 
  from the elves, kobolds or the halflings. 
  Svimohzia: Druidic Knights Threaten 
  Prince Atavius
  An order of knights, devoted to nature and bonded to 
  local druid Miznamvho the Elder, has commanded 
  Prince Atavius and his retinue to leave the Vohven 
  Jungle on pain of death. A representative of the 
  knighthood, who referred to himself as the ‘Lord 
  Snake-Knight,’ proclaimed Atavius and his retinue 
  intruders and told them that their expedition was 
  doomed to failure.
  “Yooou, winged prince” intoned the knight, dressed 
  head to toe in the skins of reptiles. “You will die in the 
  Vohven. The idol is not for you.” Atavius responded 
  with a boast that he would destroy the knighthood if 
  they stood in his path. At this point Versus fainted, and 
  our embedded reporter Ibus Canesh decided that, as he 
  put it, “discretion was the better part of the valour.”
  Atavius returned to the encampment minutes later, 
  claiming that he had “sent that snake hissing back to 
  his master.” Canesh informs us that double watches 
  were posted that evening, but there have thus far been 
  no more encounters with the druidic knighthood. He 
  further advises that he is reconsidering his role in the 
  expedition, in view of the prince’s apparent disregard 
  for his own life.
  Reanaaria: Dead Raksasha Found
  Early morning risers in Zoa were shocked to find the 
  corpse of a raksasha lying in the middle of a main 
  road, reported local constable Ziggifred Stillwauer. 
  The raksasha was found lying face down, still clad in 
  blue robes, with an ornate dagger protruding from its 
  back. The dagger, which is crafted of obsidian and has 
  an intricately carved ivory handle, is currently being 
  studied by a court appointed diviner.
  “It is not so much that we wish to punish the murderer 
  of this raksasha”, claimed Stillwauer. “We are more 
  interested in having some questions answered, such as 
  the relationship between raksasha and attacker, and the 
  reason why a raksasha would be skulking around our 
  fair town”.
  A member of group Disciples of Avrynner is helping 
  the town guard with their enquiries. No charges have 
  been filed. 
  The Wild Lands: Clerics Unite in City of 
  Loons
  RYNOSHOK: King Joto’s longstanding ban on open 
  religious worship was challenged this month by a 
  bizarre coalition of clerics. Followers of the Rotlord and 
  the Church of the Silver Mists issued a joint declaration 
  demanding to be allowed free worship in the dominions 
  of Shynabyth. The alliance, believed to be the first ever 
  between the opposing faiths, came about in response to 
  “the draconian tactics of the king in attempting to deny 
  the power of the gods.” 
  On the day of the declaration, weather around the 
  Rynoshok region was unseasonably changeable, 
  alternating between blue-sky heatwaves and black, 
  thunderous rainstorms. Many citizens have quietly 
  voiced their support for the churches, although none 
  have been as outspoken as the heretofore hidden leaders 
  of each faith in Rynoshok. “We may not see eye to eye 
  on certain issues”, stated Dream Weaver Gendrick. “We 
  differ on the appropriateness of murdering children 
  and spreading disease, for example. One thing we are 
  united in is the belief that the gods are all-powerful and 
  deserving of our veneration.”
  Pestilent One Hagrief added, in a speech punctuated 
  by a hacking cough and the spitting of phlegm, “We 
  demand that Joto rescind his ban on open worship, lest 
  he suffer the fate of hubristic leaders come before him. 
  The Rotlord remembers all.” It seems that the cause 
  of the churches may have an ally in King Joto’s son 
  Sobryn, who has agreed to speak to his father on behalf 
  of the clerics. Sources indicate that he has asked them 
  to ramp down the rhetoric and maintain a low profile 
  during the planned discussion. 
  FINAL WORD
  Just before we went to print, we received word that 
  Slivers knows we intercepted his mail. He is apparently 
  planning a raid on our presses, if he can find them.
  Good luck, runt! 
  We’ll bring you all the coverage on ‘Gremply’s Hunt’ 
  next issue!!
  -Editor X
  
  86
  What is the OGL?
  The Open Gaming Licence is a licence developed 
  by Wizards of the Coast to extend their D&D game 
  content to other publishers. See
  http://www.opengamingfoundation.org for more 
  details.
  When does this licence apply?
  This licence applies only to articles that clearly 
  designate that this licence is to be used. This licence 
  does not apply in any other case. This licence never 
  supercedes the Silven Crossroads Legal Notice 
  found on the next page. If conflicts arise the Silven 
  Crossroads Legal Notice takes prescedence.
  What is to be considered open game content?
  Unless specifically noted, all articles clearly 
  designated as d20/D&D content are to be considered 
  open game content.
  Open Gaming LIcence
  12 Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply 
  with any of the terms of this License with respect to some or 
  all of the Open Game Content due to statute, judicial order, 
  or governmental regulation then You may not Use any Open 
  Game Material so affected.
  13 Termination: This License will terminate automatically if 
  You fail to comply with all terms herein and fail to cure such 
  breach within 30 days of becoming aware of the breach. All 
  sublicenses shall survive the termination of this License.
  14 Reformation: If any provision of this License is held to be 
  unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the 
  extent necessary to make it enforceable.
  15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE
  Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the 
  Coast, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
  THIS LICENSE IS APPROVED FOR GENERAL USE. PERMISSION 
  TO DISTRIBUTE THIS LICENSE IS MADE BY WIZARDS OF THE 
  COAST!
  OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a
  The following text is the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. 
  and is Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc (“Wizards”). All 
  Rights Reserved.
  1. Definitions: (a)”Contributors” means the copyright and/or 
  trademark owners who have contributed Open Game Content; 
  (b)”Derivative Material” means copyrighted material including 
  derivative works and translations (including into other computer 
  languages), potation, modification, correction, addition, 
  extension, upgrade, improvement, compilation, abridgment or 
  other form in which an existing work may be recast, transformed 
  or adapted; (c) “Distribute” means to reproduce, license, rent, 
  lease, sell, broadcast, publicly display, transmit or otherwise 
  distribute; (d)”Open Game Content” means the game mechanic 
  and includes the methods, procedures, processes and routines 
  to the extent such content does not embody the Product 
  Identity and is an enhancement over the prior art and any 
  additional content clearly identified as Open Game Content by 
  the Contributor, and means any work covered by this License, 
  including translations and derivative works under copyright law, 
  but specifically excludes Product Identity. (e) “Product Identity” 
  means product and product line names, logos and identifying 
  marks including trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; 
  stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, 
  language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, 
  formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and 
  other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of 
  characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, 
  likenesses and special abilities; places, locations, environments, 
  creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, 
  logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or 
  registered trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the 
  owner of the Product Identity, and which specifically excludes the 
  Open Game Content; (f) “Trademark” means the logos, names, 
  mark, sign, motto, designs that are used by a Contributor 
  to identify itself or its products or the associated products 
  contributed to the Open Game License by the Contributor (g) 
  “Use”, “Used” or “Using” means to use, Distribute, copy, edit, 
  format, modify, translate and otherwise create Derivative Material 
  of Open Game Content. (h) “You” or “Your” means the licensee in 
  terms of this agreement.
  2. The License: This License applies to any Open Game Content 
  that contains a notice indicating that the Open Game Content 
  may only be Used under and in terms of this License. You must 
  affix such a notice to any Open Game Content that you Use. No 
  terms may be added to or subtracted from this License except 
  as described by the License itself. No other terms or conditions 
  may be applied to any Open Game Content distributed using this 
  License.
  3.Offer and Acceptance: By Using the Open Game Content 
  You indicate Your acceptance of the terms of this License.
  4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing 
  to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, 
  worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license with the exact 
  terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.
  5.Representation of Authority to Contribute: If You are 
  contributing original material as Open Game Content, You 
  represent that Your Contributions are Your original creation 
  and/or You have sufficient rights to grant the rights conveyed 
  by this License.
  6.Notice of License Copyright: You must update the 
  COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact 
  text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content You 
  are copying, modifying or distributing, and You must add the 
  title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder’s name to the 
  COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you 
  Distribute.
  7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product 
  Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility, except as 
  expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the 
  owner of each element of that Product Identity. You agree not 
  to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark 
  or Registered Trademark in conjunction with a work containing 
  Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another, 
  independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or 
  Registered Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open 
  Game Content does not constitute a challenge to the ownership 
  of that Product Identity. The owner of any Product Identity used 
  in Open Game Content shall retain all rights, title and interest 
  in and to that Product Identity.
  8. Identification: If you distribute Open Game Content You 
  must clearly indicate which portions of the work that you are 
  distributing are Open Game Content.
  9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents 
  may publish updated versions of this License. You may use any 
  authorized version of this License to copy, modify and distribute 
  any Open Game Content originally distributed under any 
  version of this License.
  10 Copy of this License: You MUST include a copy of this 
  License with every copy of the Open Game Content You 
  Distribute.
  11. Use of Contributor Credits: You may not market or 
  advertise the Open Game Content using the name of any 
  Contributor unless You have written permission from the 
  Contributor to do so.
  
  87
              Printing Tips
  Printing out the entire e-zine can be very 
  demanding on your printer and use a lot of 
  ink. If you are careful about the amount of 
  ink you use in printing then we advise you 
  not to print the entire e-zine.
  The Silven Crossroads ezine page has a link 
  to a zip file with a printer friendly version 
  of this magazine. If you found this file in a 
  zip file then look in that file for the printer 
  friendly version. If you downloaded this 
  PDF by itself go to http://www.silven.com/
  articles.asp?case=ezine for the zip file 
  containing the printer friendly version.
  Its recommended that you print the maps 
  on glossy paper if you can. Glossy paper 
  is available from most stationery or office 
  supply stores and is more expensive than 
  regular printing paper, but the quality 
  difference in the print is worth it.
  {!
  Publishers Notes and Legal
  Silven Crossroads Legal Notice
  Trademarks and Copyright
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are 
  trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara. All Rights 
  Reserved.
  All text and artwork are copyright their respective 
  authors and creators as noted in the text, images, or 
  to the right of this page.
  Distribution
  This document may be distributed in its entirety on 
  any website for non-commercial purposes.
  In the event of this occuring, the owner of the website 
  must refer to our free syndication guidelines at:
  http://www.silven.com/syndication.asp
  Usage of this document
  No changes of any kind are to be made in this docu-
  ment including, but not limited to, editing or changing 
  the text or images, saving and distributing parts of 
  this document without the whole, and copying and 
  pasting portions or excerpts of any content found 
  herein on any site or document.
  Printing
  You may print out pages and content in this document 
  for your own personal, non-commercial use only.
  Silven Trumpeter Magazine
  The Silven Trumpeter is a monthly publication pro-
  duced by the Silven Crossroads community (http:
  //www.silven.com). Articles and fiction appearing in 
  the Silven Trumpeter  are drawn from the various 
  content areas of the Silven Crossroads site.  Because 
  of this, if you are interested in having a piece of writ-
  ing published in the Silven Trumpeter, it must first be 
  submitted for inclusion in a specific content area on the 
  site. For more information, please contact the editor at 
  adriayna@yahoo.com
  Publisher
  Silven Crossroads. attn: Kosala Ubayasekara
  kosala@silven.com
  Ekensbergsvägen 17, 1tr. 11769 Stockholm. Sweden.
  Editor in Chief
  Dana Driscoll
  Assistant Editors
  Laura Heilman, Elizabeth Lidell, Paul Tevis
  Contributing Authors
  Matthew J. Hanson, Eytan Bernstein, Dregg Carpio, 
  Melissa Piper, Joseph Villari, Christian R. Bonawandt, 
  Pike Stevenson, Ed Kopp, Eytan Bernstein, Khaz 
  Axzen, Scott Fitz,  Sean Holland, Nash Devita, Aaron 
  Todd, Lance Kepner, Shane Cubis, and Dana Driscoll
  Interior Artists
  Kou and Ali
  http://www.fantasywars.org/
  Smokestack Jones
  Melissa Piper
  Layout and Design
  Kosala Ubayasekara
  Next issue
  November 01, 
  2004
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/Books/3p/Silven/Silven - Trumpeter - 15 - Oct 2004.pdf