Friday Faction: Dungeons & Dragons Museum

2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, something that has been recognised and celebrated with any number of books and products. In addition to the Player’s Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons 2024, there was The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970 – 1977 and even LEGO Dungeons & Dragons, the former controversial, the latter fun. However, in all of the brouhaha following the release of The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970 – 1977, Wizards of the Coast—rather Hasbro International Inc.—published another book dedicated to the history of the world’s preeminent roleplaying game. Dungeons & Dragons Museum: Celebrate 50 years of the epic fantasy role-playing game promises to take us on a guided tour of Dungeons & Dragons’ history complete with rarely seen images, an examination of its evolution over multiple editions of the roleplaying game, and a wider look at its influence, such as on television series like Stranger Things and its expansion beyond the gaming table into computer games and big budget films.

From the outset, Dungeons & Dragons Museum feels like museum. It opens with a section called the ‘Entrance’ and from there, takes us into individual exhibits for each of the roleplaying game’s five editions. These are further broken down into various sections, almost like individual displays. In the ‘Entrance’, the reader is told about the beginnings of Dungeons & Dragons with ‘Roll for Initiative: The Origins of D&D’ which introduces both E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and the importance of the Braunstein wargame. This nicely illustrated with portraits of both men and of Chainmail, the forerunner to Dungeons & Dragons, each keyed with a decent description. It is followed by timeline which covers the broad history of Dungeons & Dragons and its publishers. There are some oddities here, such as describing the development of Basic Dungeons & Dragons as a splinter branch, but the timeline does acknowledge changes in the hobby as they affect the roleplaying game. For example, E. Gary Gygax leaving in 1985 when Lorraine Williams gains a controlling share of TSR, Inc. and the publication of the Pathfinder roleplaying game in 2008.

Each of the five editions of Dungeons & Dragons gets its own section, from Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Every edition gets its own ‘Knowledge Check’, an overview of the edition before Dungeons & Dragons Museum examines the developments which occurred during the period when the edition was in print and the developments which in turn affected Dungeons & Dragons during that period. For example, ‘Animated Dreams’ looks at the Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon of the eighties, followed by ‘Ware Identification’ which details some of the merchandise released in conjunction the cartoon series—both in the eighties and since, for the ‘First Edition’, whilst for ‘Second Edition, Dungeons & Dragons begins to find itself portrayed on screen in films like Mazes & Monsters and E.T. The Extraterrestrial, whilst Mazes & Monsters would contribute towards to the Satanic Panic backlash against Dungeons & Dragons that would see it undergo significant design changes that would not be undone for decades. This would continue for ‘Fifth Edition’ with the celebrity games portrayed on The Big Bang Theory and the games both played and underlying the various seasons of Stranger Things, and of course, not forgetting the influence of Critical Role.

This is where Dungeons & Dragons Museum is at its strongest. Whether it is discussing the first Dungeons & Dragons novels—Quag Keep by Andre Norton and Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the first part of the Dragonlance Chronicles by Maragret Weis and Tract Hickman—in ‘Read Magic’ and R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt Do’Urden novels in ‘Legend Lore’, Bioware’s original Baldur’s Gate computer game in ‘City Secrets’, and even acknowledging the disasters of the original Dungeons & Dragons film from the year 2000 in ‘Aetherial Archive’, Dungeons & Dragons Museum is far batter at exploring the corollaries of the roleplaying game rather than the game itself. Indeed, none of the five editions receive more than a page each in terms of description and impact, and Basic Dungeons & Dragons barely warrants a paragraph beyond its description of being a splinter to the main game. Given how influential Basic Dungeons & Dragons has been in the hobby, especially in the last decade with the rise of the Old School Renaissance, it reads as being particularly dismissive. There are interesting points made, such as ‘Comprehend Language’ for ‘Second Edition’ which explores how the language of Dungeons & Dragons with terms such as ‘NPC’ and ‘XP’—Non-Player Character and Experience Points—and others have proliferated through computer games and out into the wider lexicon, but these are far and few between.

Physically, Dungeons & Dragons Museum is well written and presented. The artwork is all well handled and serves to make for an attractive looking book. That said, the book is not illustrated with rarely-seen images as its description suggests. Many of them will be familiar to even casual adherents of the roleplaying game and even those that are not, will have previously appeared in books like Art & Arcana: A Visual History.

Dungeons & Dragons Museum is not a book for the hardcore fan of Dungeons & Dragons—and certainly not the hardcore player of Dungeons & Dragons. The book focuses too much upon the peripherals over the core rules, so its discussion of the game play and how it changes from one edition to the next is all too casual. Yet it does showcase how Dungeons & Dragonss has spread across different media and influenced wider culture that has then influenced Dungeons & Dragons in return. Overall, Dungeons & Dragons Museum: Celebrate 50 years of the epic fantasy role-playing game provides a decent overview of Dungeons & Dragons in a broader sense as an intellectual property rather than as the roleplaying game, which gets pushed to the side.

1982: Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One is back! Originally designed by Sir Ian Livingstone and published by Games Workshop in 1982, it was the very first board game to be inspired by the Judge Dredd comic strip from the pages of 2000 AD. In the original game, the players control Judges patrolling the streets of Mega-City One, the vast twenty-second century metropolis on the Atlantic coast of North America, home to eight hundred million citizens and all of them potential lawbreakers. Every Judge is trained from the age of five to arrest criminals, pass sentence, and carry out the sentence—even if that means a death sentence!—all in the name of keeping the city and its inhabitants safe. Every turn a player sends his Judge to the scene of a reported crime, perhaps the Palais De Boing—the only place in the city where it is legal to go Boinging, Otto Sump’s Ugly Clinic for the very best in uglification surgery, or the Alien Zoo where wonders and weird creatures from across the universe can be seen— and attempts to arrest the perpetrator. Perhaps Joseph ‘Mad Tooth’ McKill for Tobacco Smoking, Ma Jong for Stookie Glanding, or Dobey Queeg for Robot Smashing. Notoriously, this is the board game where you could be arresting Judge Death for Littering, or Ma ‘Green Fingers’ Mahaffy for Murder. Unfortunately, only one Judge gets be top dog in Mega-City One, and that is Judge Dredd. Which means the player with greatest total strength of Crime and Perp cards in his score pile at the end of the game is the winner and thus next top dog.

Much like the later Block Mania, the good news is that Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One has returned to the fold of 2000 AD and is now published by Rebellion Unplugged. Like Block Mania, it has undergone a redesign and makeover, but not by very much, and the game play remains very much the same. What has been added are clearer rules for ending the game and a simple expansion to make play a little more interesting and worth revisiting. Everything else remains the same. Same game rules, same art style, same set of perps and crimes, and same take that style of play. So, although a classic, Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One is still a game from 1982. What that means is that the game is easy to learn and easy to play, has bags and bags of theme—even if that theme dates back between 1977 and 1982, a degree of players acting against each other, and a high degree of luck. Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One is by any definition, an ‘Ameritrash’ board game. That by no means is necessarily a bad thing as the game can also be funny and silly, and it is playable by anyone—not just those who played it first time around in 1982 and are noshing down on the nostalgia.

Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One is designed to be played by two to six players aged fourteen plus and has a playing time of between an hour and an hour-and-a-half. The board depicts twenty-eight locations in Mega-City One. Over the course of the game, each sector will be seeded with a reported Crime and Perp. The Judges will proceed to the Sectors where these Crimes and Perps have been reported, reveal them, and attempt to arrest the Perp. Failing that, they may be able to stop the Crime in progress. At the end of the game, the player who has scored the most points from Perps arrested and Crimes stopped, wins the game.

Set-up first requires the group to choose a game length—‘Hotdog Run’, ‘Day Shift’, or ‘Night Shift’—and decide whether or not to use the Specialist Judges expansion. Each player receives six Action cards, and the Crime, Perp, and Sector cards are shuffled. Sector cards are drawn and these indicate where reports of crimes have been made, Perp cards and Crime cards being drawn and placed face down in the indicated Sectors. Each round consists of three phases. In the Movement Phase, the Judges move two Sectors in a direction, taking accounting of bridges to cross the river, but primarily to the nearest Sector containing Perp and Crime cards. When a Judge moves into a Sector Perp and Crime cards, both are turned over and revealed. In the Arrest Phase, a Judge attempts to bring a Perp and his Crime to justice. To do this, his player rolls the game’s black Judge die and adds his Judge’s Strength. Another player roll’s the game red Perp die and adds the result to Perp’s Strength, a total of the value on the Perp card plus the value on the Crime card. Highest total wins. If the Judge’s result is higher, he arrests the Perp and his player takes both Perp and Crime cards and adds it to his score pile. If the Judge’s result is lower, the Judge has failed, is knocked out, and has to discard and refresh his hand of Action cards. If the result is a draw, the crime is stopped and the Crime is added to the player’s score pile, but the Perp runs away, ready to be arrested by another Judge! In the third Refill Phase, new Sector cards and Crime and Perp cards are drawn to bring the number in play back up to six, any Judges knocked out go to the Justice Department Hospital, and each player receives a new Action card, more if their Judge is in certain sectors.

Of course, it is not always possible for a Judge to beat a Perp and a Crime on a singe roll. For example, if Fink Angel And Ratty with a Strength of eight was Body Sharking, which has a value of five, the total Strength the player has to roll higher than is thirteen. Which is not possible with the addition of a Judge’s Strength of six plus a die roll. Fortunately, a Judge has access to Action cards. Most are Support cards, which add a bonus to the arresting Judge’s Strength. For example, ‘Judge Hershey is with you today’ adds three and ‘The Perp is Kill Crazy. You send in the Sonic Cannon.’ adds five. Others though, are Sabotage cards, and can be used by a player to make an arrest attempt by another player’s Judge even harder. For example, ‘Your breakfast of plasti-flakes and synthi-lix is giving you chronic indigestion. You are not in tip-top fighting condition’ levies a -2 penalty or ‘The Perp you are fighting is secretly an East-Meg spy. Add an Extra Die to their Strength’. The worst of these cards, of course, the Escape card, which reveals the Perp to be the notorious Edwin Parsey, notorious confessor of other people’s crimes, which forces all Support cards used in the arrest attempt to be discarded and the attempt be treated as a tie. Other Action cards allow extra movement, send the Judge to a particular Sector, grants on the spot healing, and so on.

Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One adds one expansion—Specialist Judges. There are six of these—or seven if the Judge Fish from ‘The Day the Law Died’ storyline promo is included—and each Judge has a different ability. They include Chief Judge, SJS Judge, Psi-Judge, Wally Squad, Cadet, and Mechanismo. For example, the Cadet Judge only has a Strength of four, but begins play with and can hold seven Action cards, and draws an extra card; the SJS Judge can look at another player’s Actions each turn and wins ties in combat; and the Wally Squad Judge can move through Sectors containing revealed Perps, but does not have to arrest them. All six are nicely thematic and give a player a good little edge in play. The mix means that the players can come back to the game, try another Specialist Judge and a slightly style of play.

Physically, Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One is well presented. The artwork on the board is in colour, whilst the cards is black and white, but also is sharply and crisply handled. The rulebook is clearly written, easy to read, and supported with examples of the rules. In addition, the rulebook includes all of the UMPTY CANDY CARDs from the Jack Caldwell’s Old-fashioned Umpty Candy packs. All three series—‘SECTORS of Mega-City One’, ‘CRIMES of Mega-City One’, and ‘PERPS of Mega-City One’ explain the three sets of cards in the game, giving background for each of them.

Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One is not a perfect game by modern standards. It is too luck driven, the game allows one player to directly hamper another with the Sabotage cards, and towards the end of play, players can congregate around the remaining Sectors that have not yet been drawn if they have been keeping an eye on the cards that have been drawn to date. That said, they were part of the game’s design in 1982 and they should be there also in 2022 because the new edition is intended as a nostalgia piece and to change the game’s design too radically would break from that. Another issue is that the game only draws from the first five or so years of the Judge Dredd strips in 2000 AD—1977 to 1982—so that means forty-year-old stories which may not be as familiar to younger players. Perhaps yet, there is room for further expansions involving the more recent stories and thus more Crimes and Perp cards?

Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One is a fun game, easy to play and all the more enjoyable if the players know the lore, know the crimes, and know the Perps. Rebellion Unplugged have done a fantastic job of updating the quality of the game whilst both retaining the same game play and adding an expansion for more varied play. Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One marks the welcome return of a beloved classic, British in both design and inspiration, in turns funny, frustrating, and evocative of our gaming youth and another age.

‘B2’ Series: BEX-1 Descent Into The Caves of the Unknown

The reputation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands and its influence on fantasy roleplaying is such that publishers keep returning to it. TSR, Inc. of course published the original as well as including it in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, which is where many gamers encountered it. The publisher would also revisit it with Return to the Keep on the Borderlands for its twenty-fifth anniversary, and the module would serve as the basis for Keep on the Borderlands, part of Wizards of the Coast’s ‘Encounters Program’ for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Yet since then, Wizards of the Coast has all but ignored B2 Keep on the Borderlands and the module that preceded it, B1 In Search of the Unknown, barring the publisher’s 2012 Dungeon Module B2 The Caves of Chaos: An Adventure for Character Levels 1-3. This was the playtest scenario for D&D Next, first seen in Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, which was essentially previewing what would go on to become Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

Instead, it would be other publishers who would revisit both scenarios in the twenty-first century. So Kenzer & Company first published B1 Quest for the Unknown, a version of B1 In Search of the Unknown for use with HackMaster, Fourth Edition, and would follow it up with not one, but two versions of B2 Keep on the Borderlands. First with B2 Little Keep on the Borderlands: An Introductory Module for Characters Level 1–4 in 2002, and then again in 2009 with Frandor’s Keep: An immersive setting for adventure. Another publisher to revisit B2 Keep on the Borderlands was Chris Gonnerman, with JN1 The Chaotic Caves, a scenario written for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. In addition, Faster Monkey Games published its own homage to B1 In Search for the Unknown with The Hidden Serpent, whilst Pacesetter Games & Simulations has published a number of extra encounters and sequels for both scenarios, most notably B1 Legacy of the Unknown and B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland.

Yet Wizards of the Coast did not ignore its extensive back catalogue. It would release numerous titles in PDF, and even allow Print on Demand reprints, including both B1 In Search of the Unknown and ;B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Further, in 2017, it published Tales from the Yawning Portal, a collection of scenarios that had originally been published for previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, and even D&D Next. These scenarios though, did not include either B1 In Search of the Unknown or B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Which upon first glance seemed a strange omission, but then came the announcement from Goodman Games about Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands.

Arguably, Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands would prove to be the ultimate version of the classic module, but authors have continued to revisit the original even since such as with the fanzine version from Swordfish Islands LLC, which so far consists of Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 and Beyond the Borderlands Issue #2. Yet there remain oft forgotten visits to the famous ‘Keep on the Borderlands’ and the equally infamous, ‘Caves of Chaos’, which are worth examining and shining light upon. For example, ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ is a prequel to Return to the Keep of the Borderlands by Jeff Grub, but there have also been expansions to B2 Keep on the Borderlands. It is often forgotten that the infamous Caves of Chaos are not the only cavern system to be found in the region. Located in the unforested area between the Caves of Chaos and the eponymous keep are the Caves of the Unknown, mislabelled on the wilderness map as the ‘Cave of the Unknown’. This is mentioned twice in the module. Once on page 12 where it says, “The Caves of the Unknown area is left for you to use as a place to devise your own cavern complex or dungeon maze.” and then again, in location #51, in the ‘Shrine of Evil Chaos’, where a “Boulder Filled Passage” can lead to the Cave of the Unknown. Left up to the Dungeon Master to design and detail, one option has been to simply insert the Caverns of Quasqueton from B1 In Search of the Unknown and this was the option chosen for Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands. However, other designers have embraced Gygax’s advice in B2 Keep on the Borderlands and created their own dungeons to fill this spot. Perhaps the earliest was Keep on the Borderlands: The Expansion, published by Usherwood Publishing in 2013, but RC Pinnell, who has a history of writing sequels to classic Dungeons & Dragons modules, would release his own version at about the same time as Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands was published.

BEX-1 Descent Into The Caves of the Unknown is designed for a party of between four and nine Third to Sixth Level Player Characters, and consequently intended to be played after the Player Characters have explored the Caves of Chaos. Published in 2018, it is written for use with editions of prior to Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, and details a cave network of some twenty caves and connecting tunnels which is home to a tribe of Troglodytes. The tribe are refugees from a civil war taking place deeper into the earth and having found a new home in the caves led several raids on the Caves of Chaos above, feeding on the Humanoids they killed and captured until the leaders in the Caves of Chaos determined the source of attacks, invaded the Troglodyte caves, killed many of the tribes’ members, and then sealed the tunnel leading from the ‘Shrine of Evil Chaos’. In other words, the evil clergy practicing their vile faith in the ‘Shrine of Evil Chaos’ and pulling the Humanoids of the Caves of the Chaos into a rough alliance are also responsible for filling in the “Boulder Filled Passage”.

The Cave of the Unknown is much like the other Caves of Chaos home to the various Humanoid tribes. Although a natural cave system with no worked areas, there are guard posts, caves and chambers for the chief of the Troglodytes, his queen, his elite warriors, both teenage males and females, and so on. A supply cavern contains boxes and crates of items gained through and trade which are perfect for adding objects and items that could be stolen or missing and perhaps serve as a possible hook to explore the caverns. Some of the cave descriptions are far from interesting, but there are exceptions. The queen’s chamber is connected to a bubbling mud pool which is difficult to traverse and fight in and she also has a pack of Cave-Dogs, specially bred by the queen so that they have immunity to the infamous stench that Troglodytes excrete. However, this does mean that these Cave-Dogs lack the sense of smell they are typically known for.

Overall, locations and encounters such as with the queen are far and few between and in this, the description of the Caves of the Unknown feels very much in keeping with the Caves of Chaos of B2 Keep on the Borderlands. They are static, all but waiting for an incursion by the Player Characters. There are potential roleplaying hooks present, although they are not explicitly stated. The Player Characters could ally with Gothmog, the Troglodyte chief, in taking his revenge on the clergy in the Shrine of Evil Chaos and their allies and the queen could be turned against Gothmog. There is also the fact that the Troglodytes are trading with someone deeper into the earth. It is not stated who, but that could easily be linked to another scenario—perhaps in the mode of G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and its sequels. In any of these cases, the Player Characters will need to be more circumspect in their approach to investigating the Cave of the Unknown rather than simply slaughtering everything before them. If they do take that approach, they do face some tough opponents and a good number of them, but if they are successful, then there is plenty of treasure to be found. 

Physically, BEX-1 Descent Into The Caves of the Unknown is plain. The map nicely apes the style of B2 Keep on the Borderlands right down to the blue background.

BEX-1 Descent Into The Caves of the Unknown feels as if it could be something more and as if it could be more interesting. The Dungeon Master will need to work hard to bring the back story to the Troglodyte presence in the Caves of the Unknown into play and involve the Player Characters, thus turning the adventure into more of a sidequest than the side note  it reads as written.

‘B2’ Series: Keep on the Borderlands: The Expansion

The reputation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands and its influence on fantasy roleplaying is such that publishers keep returning to it. TSR, Inc. of course published the original as well as including it in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, which is where many gamers encountered it. The publisher would also revisit it with Return to the Keep on the Borderlands for its twenty-fifth anniversary, and the module would serve as the basis for Keep on the Borderlands, part of Wizards of the Coast’s ‘Encounters Program’ for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Yet since then, Wizards of the Coast has all but ignored B2 Keep on the Borderlands and the module that preceded it, B1 In Search of the Unknown, barring the publisher’s 2012 Dungeon Module B2 The Caves of Chaos: An Adventure for Character Levels 1-3. This was the playtest scenario for D&D Next, first seen in Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, which was essentially previewing what would go on to become Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

Instead, it would be other publishers who would revisit both scenarios in the twenty-first century. So Kenzer & Company first published B1 Quest for the Unknown, a version of B1 In Search of the Unknown for use with HackMaster, Fourth Edition, and would follow it up with not one, but two versions of B2 Keep on the Borderlands. First with B2 Little Keep on the Borderlands: An Introductory Module for Characters Level 1–4 in 2002, and then again in 2009 with Frandor’s Keep: An immersive setting for adventure. Another publisher to revisit B2 Keep on the Borderlands was Chris Gonnerman, with JN1 The Chaotic Caves, a scenario written for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. In addition, Faster Monkey Games published its own homage to B1 In Search for the Unknown with The Hidden Serpent, whilst Pacesetter Games & Simulations has published a number of extra encounters and sequels for both scenarios, most notably B1 Legacy of the Unknown and B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland.

Yet Wizards of the Coast did not ignore its extensive back catalogue. It would release numerous titles in PDF, and even allow Print on Demand reprints, including both B1 In Search of the Unknown and ;B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Further, in 2017, it published Tales from the Yawning Portal, a collection of scenarios that had originally been published for previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, and even D&D Next. These scenarios though, did not include either B1 In Search of the Unknown or B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Which upon first glance seemed a strange omission, but then came the announcement from Goodman Games about Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands.

Arguably, Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands would prove to be the ultimate version of the classic module, but authors have continued to revisit the original even since such as with the fanzine version from Swordfish Islands LLC, which so far consists of Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 and Beyond the Borderlands Issue #2. Yet there remain oft forgotten visits to the famous ‘Keep on the Borderlands’ and the equally infamous, ‘Caves of Chaos’, which are worth examining and shining light upon. For example, ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ is a prequel to Return to the Keep of the Borderlands by Jeff Grub, but there have also been expansions to B2 Keep on the Borderlands. It is often forgotten that the infamous Caves of Chaos are not the only cavern system to be found in the region. Located in the large unforested area between the Caves of Chaos and the eponymous keep are the Caves of the Unknown, mislabelled on the wilderness map as the ‘Cave of the Unknown’. This is mentioned twice in the module. Once on page 12 where it says, “The Caves of the Unknown area is left for you to use as a place to devise your own cavern complex or dungeon maze.” and then again, in location #51, in the ‘Shrine of Evil Chaos’, where a “Boulder Filled Passage” can lead to the Cave of the Unknown. Left up to the Dungeon Master to design and detail, one option has been to simply insert the Caverns of Quasqueton from B1 In Search of the Unknown and this was the option chosen for Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands. However, other designers have embraced Gygax’s advice in B2 Keep on the Borderlands and created their own dungeons to fill this spot. Perhaps the earliest was Keep on the Borderlands: The Expansion, published by Usherwood Publishing in 2013, but it would be followed by others, including RC Pinnell, who has a history of writing sequels to classic Dungeons & Dragons modules, would release his own version at about the same time as Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands was published.

Keep on the Borderlands: The Expansion is written for use with both Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and OSRIC, or ‘Old School Reference and Index Compilation’, the retroclone based upon Advanced Dungeons & Dragons originally published in 2006. It is part of the publisher’s ‘High-Adventure from Middle-School’ line of adventures designed to ape the style and look of the adventures that we wrote for Dungeons & Dragons in our school days when we were first beginning to roleplay. Consequently, Keep on the Borderlands: The Expansion has a certain look. It is presented in a font designed to look like handwriting and done on the type of paper which has holes along one edge for it to be clipped into a file and both of the scenario’s maps are drawn on squared paper, with the ‘Supplemental map 1 to: Keep on the Borderlands (The Environs of the Keep)’ coloured with pencils. It gives the whole look of the scenario a certain charm, perhaps best from a sense of nostalgia, but also a certain tackiness. It does not help that the choice of font makes the scenario awkward to read and use. However, get past that and surprisingly, Keep on the Borderlands: The Expansion does exactly what the title says as well adding a new threat and a new storyline.

Keep on the Borderlands: The Expansion focuses first on the Cave of the Unknown. Although there is a cave entrance, here it is more of a dungeon complex with some twelve rooms. Together with the addition of a tower above the complex, they are the forward base for a group of bandits. In fact, a large number of bandits. Altogether, there are some eighty-five bandits in the complex together with their stores and equipment. Most of the bandits are Level One, although sergeants are Level Two, a Lieutenant Level Three, and a Captain, Level Four. They are led by Malthus the Grey wizard and Gwethlos the Red Cleric, both evil NPCs and both Fifth Level. The complex of rooms feels too small for this number of men and the descriptions of the rooms themselves are simplistic and plain. To some extent this can be explained by the ethos of the scenario, the ‘High-Adventure from Middle-School’ look and feel, but it leaves the Dungeon Master to do all of the hard work in adding flavour and detail to the scenario.

If the description of the Cave of the Unknown fails to intrigue or entice, the plot, whilst still simple, more than makes up for that. Malthus the Grey wizard and Gwethlos the Red Cleric are gathering men to make an assault upon the keep, and not only that, but they are also negotiating with the goblins and hobgoblins in the Caves of Chaos to recruit them to their cause. In addition, Palthos, the son of the Castellan of the keep, disappeared near the caves. The Castellan, greatly worried at his son’s disappearance, has put out a huge reward for the return of his son. In addition, there is a second force of bandits just outside of the area detailed in B2 Keep in the Borderlands. They have begun raiding caravans travelling back and forth from the keep and are holding several prisoners. The prisoners include merchants who will pay the Player Characters a monetary reward if rescued and several mercenaries who will serve the Player Characters for a limited amount of time if also rescued. The camp itself is not described, but is clearly marked on the ‘Supplemental map 1 to: Keep on the Borderlands (The Environs of the Keep)’ map.

Keep on the Borderlands: The Expansion is basic, perhaps too basic. It has three major problems. The first is is the lack of description and flavour and detail. The second is the fact that Palthos, the son of the Castellan of the keep, is mentioned at the beginning of the scenario and never mentioned again, and arguably, his disappearance and the potential reward for his return are the major hook for the Player Characters. This is a major omission. However, neither problem is insurmountable and with some effort upon the part of the Dungeon Master, better descriptions can be added to the scenario’s dungeon and the location where Palthos is being held prisoner can be decided upon. The third is the lack of description of the region beyond that described in B2 Keep in the Borderlands bar the mention and location of the bandit camp. Again, it is left up to the Dungeon Master to not only describe, but actually develop.

Keep on the Borderlands: The Expansion is a really more of a framework to expand to B2 Keep on the Borderlands than a ready-to-play addition. It has a pair of decent story hooks and these are worth developing to expand and enhance the play of a classic module. Keep on the Borderlands: The Expansion is worth looking at for these very reasons and the fact that it is free is bonus.

‘B2’ Series: Warriors of the Gray Lady

The reputation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands and its influence on fantasy roleplaying is such that publishers keep returning to it. TSR, Inc. of course published the original as well as including it in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, which is where many gamers encountered it. The publisher would also revisit it with Return to the Keep on the Borderlands for its twenty-fifth anniversary, and the module would serve as the basis for Keep on the Borderlands, part of Wizards of the Coast’s ‘Encounters Program’ for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Yet since then, Wizards of the Coast has all but ignored B2 Keep on the Borderlands and the module that preceded it, B1 In Search of the Unknown, barring the publisher’s 2012 Dungeon Module B2 The Caves of Chaos: An Adventure for Character Levels 1-3. This was the playtest scenario for D&D Next, first seen in Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, which was essentially previewing what would go on to become Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

Instead, it would be other publishers who would revisit both scenarios in the twenty-first century. So Kenzer & Company first published B1 Quest for the Unknown, a version of B1 In Search of the Unknown for use with HackMaster, Fourth Edition, and would follow it up with not one, but two versions of B2 Keep on the Borderlands. First with B2 Little Keep on the Borderlands: An Introductory Module for Characters Level 1–4 in 2002, and then again in 2009 with Frandor’s Keep: An immersive setting for adventure. Another publisher to revisit B2 Keep on the Borderlands was Chris Gonnerman, with JN1 The Chaotic Caves, a scenario written for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. In addition, Faster Monkey Games published its own homage to B1 In Search for the Unknown with The Hidden Serpent, whilst Pacesetter Games & Simulations has published a number of extra encounters and sequels for both scenarios, most notably B1 Legacy of the Unknown and B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland.

Yet Wizards of the Coast did not ignore its extensive back catalogue. It would release numerous titles in PDF, and even allow Print on Demand reprints, including both B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Further, in 2017, it published Tales from the Yawning Portal, a collection of scenarios that had originally been published for previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, and even D&D Next. These scenarios though, did not include either B1 In Search of the Unknown or B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Which upon first glance seemed a strange omission, but then came the announcement from Goodman Games about Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands. 

Arguably, Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands would prove to be the ultimate version of the classic module, but authors have continued to revisit the original even since such as with the fanzine version from Swordfish Islands LLC, which so far consists of Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 and Beyond the Borderlands Issue #2. Yet there remain oft forgotten visits to the famous ‘Keep on the Borderlands’ and the equally infamous, ‘Caves of Chaos’, which are worth examining and shining light upon. So it is with ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’. Written by Jeff Grubb, ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ was published in 1999 as an insert in InQuest Gamer #50 (June, 1999), the monthly magazine for game reviews and news from Wizard Entertainment, which ran between 1995 and 2007 and had a particular focus on collectable card games. Nominally known as ‘IQ3’ and just sixteen pages in length, it was written for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition and designed as a prequel to the soon to be released Return to the Keep of the Borderlands. It is for Player Characters of between First and Third Level and takes place before they arrive at the eponymous keep on the borderlands.

‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ opens with the Player Characters on the road to the frontier and the border castle there, aiming to use it as a base of operations as they explore and potentially clean out the Caves of Chaos that their parents told them about. Their path is blocked by a caravan where a cleric is vociferously complaining that the caravan’s guards failed to stop the theft of an important magical item, the Helm of Perception, he was taking to the keep. The cleric hires the Player Characters to go after the thief. When they accept, the thief’s tracks lead into the forest to the north and then to a clearing when his body, not far from a cave mouth in a low hill. Inside the cave is a classic kingdom of the mushroom men or Myconids, but it is a kingdom in disarray. Some time prior to the Player Characters’ arrival, another party of adventurers entered the cave in search of treasure. They were all killed in the attempt, but as both the last of the adventurers and the king of the Myconids lay dying, the king released the spores to create a new king, but the spores mingled with the dying human warrior and kept her alive—sort of. Now she is the ‘Gray Queen’, twisted by the fungus as much as her thoughts twist the shared thoughts of the Myconid collective mind and drive them all mad!

Although the final confrontation will involve combat, the Player Characters do not have to resort to combat in the earlier encounters in the caves. If they refrain, they will be able to learn what has happened in the caves since the invasion of the previous adventuring party. This is done in a pleasingly entertaining and alien fashion, which involves the Myconids still free of the Gray Queen’s disturbing influence blasting messages spores into the faces of the Player Characters! Although quite lengthy, the description of this is nicely done and the experience should be a weird one for player and characters alike—and actually one the Player Characters are likely to be wary off of if the Myconids have used spores on them earlier in the scenario. ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ should last no more than a single session.

Since the events of ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ do not take place at the Keep on the Borderlands, what does the scenario add to Return to the Keep on the Borderlands? Well, it sets things up for the Player Characters’ arrival. If they are able to recover the Helm of Perception, they will have made possible allies and contacts at the keep, ones who can supply ready healing. Very likely something they are going to need after a visit or two to the Caves of Chaos! One of the NPCs—the complaining cleric encountered at the caravan—is fully written and could become a recurring figure at the keep for the Player Characters, even though he is likely to be very annoying. The scenario includes some advice for the Dungeon Master which discusses most possible eventualities and outcomes of the scenario, including the Player Characters stealing the Helm of Perception or the annoying cleric getting killed.

Physically, ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ is done in full rich colour—something that not even featured in the official releases for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition at the time. Notably, it is illustrated with a range of fully painted pieces, all of them drawn from the covers of previous books for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, including pieces from the Dragonlance line. One issue perhaps with this is that nearly all of the illustrations showcase Dungeons & Dragons in general rather than the scenario itself. This is confirmed by the pieces of descriptive text accompanying the artwork which are generic in nature and verging on the trite. At least for Dungeons & Dragons, that is!

‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ is a serviceable scenario which could be run as a prequel to Return to the Keep on the Borderlands. However, it is not vital to that scenario, even though it does help set up the Player Characters and their reputation for when they do arrive at the keep. Similarly, the scenario would be a reasonable side quest or side trek adventure for most campaigns for low Level Player Characters. Overall, ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ is an interesting, if minor side note to the history of B2 Keep on the Borderlands.

1981: Stormbringer

 1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

With the publication of the novella, ‘The Dreaming City’ and the first appearance of Elric of Melniboné in 1961, Michael Moorcock upended the Swords & Sorcery genre. The appearance of the frail and anaemic last emperor of the Dreaming Isle freed the genre of its muscled, mighty thewed barbarians cutting swathes through their enemies and sent it in a different direction. Elric’s fate was to destroy his home, become a pawn in the conflict between Law and Chaos, and wield the horrid demon sword Stormbringer throughout his exile in the Young Kingdoms until he would be the one to blow the Horn of Fate and so bring about the end of reality. As more and more of Elric’s stories were written, Moorcock joined J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Howard in being an author whose works would influence the fantasy of the first roleplaying games, and subsequently, even roleplaying games directly adapted from their fiction. Of course, Elric would make his first appearance in gaming, if only partially authorised, in Deities & Demigods, the 1980 supplement for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, before receiving his own roleplaying game in 1981.

Designed by Steve Perrin and Ken St. Andre, and published by Chaosium, Inc., Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing in the Young Kingdoms introduces the players to roleplaying in the eponymous Young Kingdoms. The island and peoples of Melniboné have dominated and ruled these surrounding lands for millennia, but have been in decline for four centuries and in their stead haved arisen the Young Kingdoms. They include the Island of Pan Tang and its scheming sorcerer-priests who worship the Lords of Chaos, Tarkesh and its hardy sailors, the Lords of Law-worshipping, but poor Vilmir, Tanelorn which stands truly neutral between the forces of Law and Chaos, and the Island of Purple Towns made rich by its merchants and its worship of Goldar, Lord of Profit. The city of Imrryr and Melniboné have long been sacked as part of the revenge that took Elric VIII, 428th Emperor of Melniboné, upon his cousin, Yyrkoon, for his perfidy, and now he is doomed to wander the Young Kingdoms, wielding the dread demon-bound sword, Stormbringer until the end of time…

Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game enables players to take the roles of denizens of the Young Kingdoms. They may be some of the few surviving exiles from Melniboné, they may be from the many other lands of the Young Kingdoms. The Young Kingdoms are theirs to explore, and they can do this using Player Characters of their own, who may or may not encounter Elric of Melniboné and his companions. Alternatively, the players can take the role of Elric of Melniboné and his companions and play out their further adventures beyond those described in Moorcock’s novels. All this can take place in the decade between the sack of Melniboné and the End of Time, but alternatively the Game Master could set a campaign before the fall of the Dragon Isle or take off in a wholly new direction in lands beyond the Young Kingdoms. All of these options are suggested options given for the Game Master in Stormbringer.

The roleplaying game begins with introductions to roleplaying and roleplaying in the Young Kingdoms and Michael Moorcock and a synopsis of Elric’s saga, all before presenting an overview of the Young Kingdoms. This covers its size, customs, economics, and so on, done in fairly broad detail, whilst the background on each of the Young Kingdoms is much more detailed. Including some advice regarding dice and game characters, as well as miniatures, it sets the Game Master and players up for playing in the Young Kingdoms.

A character—whether Player Character or NPC—will look familiar to anyone who has played a Basic RolePlay roleplaying game, whether that is RuneQuest or RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha or Call of Cthulhu up until Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. A character has seven attributes—Strength, Constitution, Size, Intelligence, Power, Dexterity, and Charisma, and from these are derived bonuses to skills, Hit Points, and so on. They range, as in other Basic RolePlay roleplaying games, between three and eighteen, but can go much higher depending upon the origins of the character and then through play.

Character generation is random. A player rolls three six-sided dice for each of his character’s attributes, then percentile dice for both his character’s Nationality and Class. Nationality can involve various species, including of course, Melnibonéans, but also the winged men of Myrrhyn and the degenerate dwarfs that are the Org. Most however, will be Human, whether from Pan Pang or Vilmir or the Weeping Waste. Some Nationalities dictate what Class a character is. Thus for a Melnibonéan, he or she will be a Warrior and a Noble, those from Pan Tang are either Sorcerer-Priests or Warriors, whilst any from Nadsokor, the City of Beggars, always follow that ‘noble’ tradition. Otherwise, a character might be a merchant, sailor, hunter, farmer, thief, or craftsman. In addition to skills gained from a Class, a character also receives between three and eight other skills. Oddly, these extra skills are supposedly the character’s best skills rather than those of his Class and their values are determined randomly, such that sometimes, they can be better than the starting skills of the Class. Now it should be made clear that none of this is balanced. Attributes can vary wildly; a character can have more than one Class if his player rolls well enough. It is all down to the vicissitudes of fortune, if not Chaos.

Our sample character is Fenschon the Juggler, a Hunter of Filkhar with all of the famed dexterity, but little else. He is barely competent as a hunter and despite his unpleasant looks and personality, at times he makes a little money as a street entertainer, juggling everyday items.

Fenschon the Juggler, a Hunter of Filkhar

STR 11 CON 11 SIZ 09 INT 08 POW 07 DEX 20 CHA 07

Frame: Light, 5’2”, 85 lbs.

Age: 19

Hit Points: 11

Major Wound Level: 6

Armour: Leather (1d6-1)

Combat Bonuses: Attack +05%, Parry +06%, Damage –

Weapon

Dagger 30% Attack, 30% Parry, 1d4+2

Self Bow 35% Attack, Parry 11%, Damage 1d8+1

AGILITY SKILL (+06% bonus): Balance 16%, Dodge 52%, Climb 16%, Jump 29%, Swim 38%

MANIPULATION SKILL (+05% bonus): Juggle 50%, Set Trap 55%

PERCEPTION SKILL (-03% bonus): Scent 18%, Track 47%

STEALTH SKILL (+07% bonus): Ambush 57%, Hide 32%, Move Quietly 29% 

KNOWLEDGE SKILL (+00% bonus): Craft: Blacksmith 20%

COMMUNICATION SKILL (-05% bonus): 

Mechanically, Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game uses a variation upon the Basic RolePlay system, as designed by Steve Perrin, and used elsewhere in RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, and others. In design and execution it is not a complex game, certainly not as complex as the then contemporary version of RuneQuest. The base roll is a percentile one against a skill, with the tenth of the value of the skill counting as a critical success. Thus, for Fenschon the Juggler, a roll of 5% or less would be a critical success. Critical fumbles are usually rolls of 100% exactly.

Combat is only slightly more complex. Order is based on Dexterity, damage is deducted directly from a character’s Hit Points rather than having hit locations as per RuneQuest, a character has both an Attack skill and a Parry skill in each weapon, and armour provides protection, but rather than a set number as per other roleplaying games, the amount of protection granted is rolled. So, Leather provides 1d6-1 points of protection, whilst plate provides 1d10-1. Lastly, if a character suffers damage equal to, or greater than his Major Wound level, in one blow, he is severely injured, and might suffer a scar, lose an eye, break a jaw, and worse.

For example, Fenschon the Juggler is out hunting boar when the Game Master asks his player to make a Scent check. He only rolls 19% and fails to note a sudden shift in the smell here deep in the woods that would indicate he is not only one hunting the boar. It means that he is surprised when a pair of the beaked and clawed Hunting Dogs of the Dharzi burst out of the bushes. It must mean that someone nearby has engaged the services of the Dharzi lords in temporarily obtaining the use of one of their packs of hunting dogs, and that perhaps this pair has got away from the pack. So he manages to only fire the one arrow before they attack rather than two. The creatures are fast, but not quite as fast as Fenschon, who manages to lose the one arrow he had nocked. His player rolls 10% and the arrow strikes the flank of the lead creature. This inflicts seven points of damage. Then the beasts attack, each having two claw attacks at 20% and a beak attack at 25%. The Game Master rolls 67%, 56%, and 98% for the two claw and beak attacks for the first Hunting Dog of the Dharzi, and then 77%, 73%, and 81% for the second.

In the next round, Fenschon realises that he has the wrong weapon for what is now a close engagement and so has to change his weapon. This costs him the equivalent of five points of Dexterity, so for this round it is reduced to the equivalent of 15. Since the Hunting Dogs have a Dexterity of 19, they attack first. Only the first Hunting Dog successfully attacks Fenschon, snapping at him with its beak with a roll of 21%. Fenschon cannot parry as he does not have his dagger out, but he can dodge, but with a roll of 57% fails. The Hunting Dog’s beak attack inflicts 1d6+1 damage, the Game Master rolling a five. Fenschon’s leather armour might protect him and his player rolls 1d6-1 for the effect. Unfortunately the result is a one, which is reduced to a zero, and the hunter suffers the whole five points! This is not enough to inflict a Major Wound, but that is half of his Hit Points. Finally, with his dagger in hand, Fenschon stabs at the first beast and rolls 02%—not just a successful strike, but a critical hit. The Game Master rolls 19% for the Hunting Dog and fails its parry roll, so Fenschon inflicts double damage for the critical hit. Fenschon rolls a five, which is doubled to ten. This reduces its Hit Points from fifteen to five. The situation looks dire for Fenschon. Perhaps a career as a hunter is not for him?

In comparison with other fantasy roleplaying games, Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game does not have wizards wandering around lobbing off spells at will. Magic is available, but is the opposite of Law, and in Elric’s time as the Balance between Law and Chaos tips in favour of Chaos, magic is available to study to anyone should they possess sufficient intelligence and force of will. What this means is that a character needs to have a combined Intelligence and Power of thirty-two or more to even summon and control Elementals. Typically, Melnibonéan, Pan Tangan, and Priests with such stats are trained in sorcery, whilst Nobles and Merchants may also have been trained. Instead of casting spells, Sorcerers and Sorcerer-Priests summon and bind Elementals and Demons. Once successfully summoned and bound, an Elemental or Demon can be directed to use its abilities and powers to benefit the summoner. Thus Demons can be summoned to fight for the summoner, be bound into weapons and armour, provide protection or wards, teach knowledge, and even provide the means to travel to other Planes of Existence. 

Successful summoning can increase a Sorcerer’s Power, whilst unsuccessful summoning may result in a loss. In general, summoning and binding involves lengthy rituals, but it can also be done on the fly with the Sorcerer’s skill being halved. A summoned Demon will typically have a total in attribute values equal to that of its summoner, minus a randomly determined Power stat. 

Our second sample character is Princess Kragulan, a Fourth Rank Sorcerer-Priestess of Arioch of Pan Tang. She is fourth in line to the throne of Pan Tang, but eschews the conniving and scheming of her brothers and sisters. Instead, her interest is in serving her cult and investigating the older ruins of Melniboné.

Princess Kragulan, a Sorcerer-Priestess of Arioch of Pan Tang

Cult: Arioch

Elan: 9

STR 10 CON 10 SIZ 12 INT 24 POW 22 DEX 10 CHA 13

Frame: Heavy, 5’5”, 232 lbs.

Age: 23

Hit Points: 10

Major Wound Level: 5

Armour: Leather (1d6-1)

Combat Bonuses: Attack +22%, Parry +10%, Damage –

Weapon

Dagger 52% Attack, 41% Parry, 1d4+2

Broadsword 62% Attack, 51% Parry, 1d8+1

Self Bow 42% Attack, Parry 16%, Damage 1d8+1

AGILITY SKILL (+10% bonus): Balance 20%, Climb 20%, Dodge 56%, Jump 20%, Swim 65%

MANIPULATION SKILL (+22% bonus): 

PERCEPTION SKILL (+22% bonus): Listen 32%

STEALTH SKILL (+12% bonus): Hide 22%

KNOWLEDGE SKILL (+24% bonus): Evaluate Treasure 29%, First Aid 24%, Make Map 47%, Memorise 56%, Navigate 25%, Plant Lore 54%, Read/Write Common Tongue 104%, Read/Write Low Melnibonéan 84%, Read/Write High Melnibonéan 64%

COMMUNICATION SKILL (+23% bonus): Credit 64%, Persuade 48%

SORCERY SKILL: Summon Air Elemental 80%, Summon Earth Elemental 91%, Summon Fire Elemental 59%, Summon Water Elemental 92%; Summon Combat Demon 73%, Summon Desire Demon 60%, Summon Knowledge Demon 95%, Summon Possession Demon 55%, Summon Protection Demon 76%, Summon Travel Demon 95%

For example, Princess Kragulan is researching ancient Melnibonéan history and wants to summon a Lesser Demon of Knowledge who might know more. She selects the demon, having researched its name, purchases both a finely wrought ring into which she plans to bind the demon, the necessary sacrifice, and prepares the necessary ritual circles. After the necessary purification processes, Princess Kragulan spends several hours chanting and so formulating the summoning, and upon excising the heart of the sacrifice, attempts the summoning. Princess Kragulan’s player rolls her Summon Knowledge Demon 95% and with a result of 23% brings forth the Lesser Demon, who appears in the circle and crises out, “Who disturbs the deep studies of Brerin the Knower?” Princess Kragulan states, “I am Princess Kragulan and in the name of the Lord of Chaos, Arioch, you will make your knowledge mine!” Having summoned the Demon, she attempts to Bind him. This is a Power versus Power using the Resistance Table. Princess Kragulan has a Power of 22 and it was previously determined that the Lesser Demon’s Power is 12. This gives her a 95% chance of successfully Binding Brerin. The Lesser Demon reluctantly agrees and is drawn into the ring that Princess Kragulan had prepared. Had her player failed, Brerin may have fled or even agreed to stay and lie about what he knows when asked a question…

The summoning and binding rules are actually the most complex part of Stormbringer. In comparison to the core mechanics, they are actually not that much more complex, but they do add a level or two of extra detail and record keeping to the game, especially if one or more players has a character capable of sorcery. Further, once a Player Character—or two—has access to sorcery, it adds to the power creep in Stormbringer and it adds to the imbalance between Player Characters. Again, this is in keeping with the source material. Nevertheless, the rules for summoning and binding both Elementals and Demons are nice and clear, and relatively easy to use. They are also supported with some entreatingly detailed examples which greatly aid their learning.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that at the time of Stormbringer’s publication—and its subsequent editions—that Dungeons & Dragons was subject to negative attention for alleged or perceived promotion for Satanism, witchcraft, and other practices. Subject to the then moral panic, Dungeons & Dragons was accused of encouraging sorcery and the veneration of demons. This was not the case, of course, and nor was it the case with Stormbringer, but then in Stormbringer it does have the players roleplaying sorcerers, summoning and venerating demons. Obviously, Stormbringer was never going to receive the attention that the world’s most popular roleplaying game was and of course, it was not drawing upon the Christian mythology that Dungeons & Dragons was. However, it should be noted that Stormbringer does not shy away from the subject, the examples given actually involving the sacrifice of human slaves!

In addition to learning sorcery, another avenue for progress in Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game and the Young Kingdoms is membership of a cult. There are three primary churches during the time of Elric—the Church of Law, the Church of Chaos, and the Church of the Elementals, but each consists of multiple different and even competing cults. Most members of a cult are lay members, but priests always belong to a cult and each cult has its Agents. An Agent has promised his soul to his chosen deity and acts to further the aims of that deity in the Young Kingdoms—and sometimes beyond. To become an Agent, a Player Character must sacrifice points of Power and that gives him a percentage chance of being accepted by a particular deity. All Agents-as can Priests—can call upon their deity for divine intervention, the chance equal to their Elan rating, which reflects their standing in the cult. Agents are also granted other advantages, such as a lesser elemental as a servant for an Agent of an Elemental, whilst Champions of Law and Champions of Chaos are granted great abilities and virtues, which places them above mere mortals. 

Mechanically, becoming an Agent is quite simple and actually, with a good roll, a Player Character could very quickly find himself an Agent. The bonuses gained do represent another step up in power for a Player Character, whether he is a sorcerer or not. Since an Agent is expected to serve his cult, this and other cults also become roleplaying tools for the Game Master to help drive stories and adventures and bring into the play the ongoing struggle between Law and Chaos. The discussion of Law and Chaos, their nature and the balance between them, is discussed throughout and in some ways is the most important section in the book since it underpins the nature and the future of the Young Kingdoms.

There is advice for the Game Master too, whether that is on running a campaign before the time of Elric or after, preparing a game, and more. This includes taking a campaign beyond the confines of the Young Kingdoms and onto other Planes of Existence—and other times, suggesting a crossover with the Norman Invasion or even with the Cthulhu Mythos! The appendices include full stats for the cast from the novels, which of course includes Elric and Stormbringer, as well as Arioch, Lord of the Seven Darks, Lord of Chaos, Jagreen Lern of Pan Tang, Moonglum, and more. Stormbringer is almost a character of its own! Sample summonings taken from the novels should provide the budding sorcerer with inspiration, and numerous tables reprinted from rules.

The sample scenario in Stormbringer  is ‘Tower of Yrkath Florn’ which the designers used as part of the roleplaying game. It details the ruins of an eight-sided tower standing on a remote stretch of the Argimilar coast said to date back to the Melnibonéan occupation of the region. The Player Characters are hired to explore the building by a merchant prince and so brave its dangers on his behalf. Running to just two floors and the roof, described over some seven pages, the scenario is short, focused, and nicely detailed. It serves as a reasonable, if limited introduction to Stormbringer, if not necessarily the Young Kingdoms, and should provide a session or two’s worth of play.

Physically, Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game has the look and feel of a Chaosium period piece. It is clean and tidy, and organised section by section, much like a slimmed down set of wargames rules. The organisation is perhaps a little odd, with price lists coming before the rules for character generation, skills explained after combat, and so on. Throughout, the rules are liberally supported with fully worked examples, and solidly illustrated by the fantastic artwork of Frank Brunner. There is an index, but it refers to the sections of the rules rather than to page numbers which makes it rather awkward to use.

—oO0—

Murray Writtle reviewed Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game in White Dwarf No. 29 (Feb/Mar 1982), and whilst he gave it seven out of ten, wrote “Stormbringer seems to have sacrificed some campaign playability in order to achieve the true atmosphere of Moorcock’s books. The trouble is that you are an Elric, inglorious death is remarkably easy to come by, and this is reflected in the rules too! Nobody wants to play a character that does not have at least the potential to be a Hero. So, if you want to have single death or glory adventures in the Young Kingdoms, Stormbringer will give you them, but to get a continuing campaign underway will take a certain amount of rewriting and careful thought.”

In Different Worlds Issue 38 (January/February 1985), Keith Herber gave Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game four stars out of five, and said, “I don’t think that the authors of Stormbringer intended the game as a first-time experience for gamers and the brief treatment of role-playing in general would support this theory. Instead, the effort has been directed toward describing and quantifying a specific world unique to fantasy literature. The authors have taken the time to dig out all sorts of small facts that lend color to the Young Kingdoms and detail many aspects of a campaign-world glossed over in other games. I thought Stormbringer not only an excellent adaptation of the Elric series but also found it an extremely enjoyable game. If you have ever read an Elric book (or one of Moorcock’s related novels) and wished it could be a game, this is it. If you haven’t read one yet do so and then consider the game. You may not find the “doomed” atmosphere to your liking, but around this neighborhood there is a growing movement for a permanent Stormbringer campaign.”

Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game was placed at position number twenty-five in ‘Arcane Presents the Top 50 Roleplaying Games 1996’ in Arcane Issue Fourteen (Christmas 1996). Paul Pettengale described it as, “Stormbringer is, as all Moorcock fans should know, the name of Elric’s sword, a weapon that draws the very lifeforce from anyone it even scratches. It doesn’t take a genius, therefore, to work out that Stormbringer is the Elric/Young Kingdoms roleplaying game (which was in fact renamed as Elric! for its 1993 re-release, for clarity’s sake).” before that saying that it was actually like, “A simplified RuneQuest, only set in Elric’s world. It captures the spirit of the books, but to play it properly you really need to be familiar with the novels, and they are of the type of fantasy that you either love or loathe.”

—oO0—

By modern standards, Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game is far from a balanced roleplaying game, players often ending up with widely divergent characters in terms of capabilities and thus power levels, placing them on more varying paths towards becoming Agents of Law or Chaos, and on progression within one of the cults. (This can be seen in the differences between the two sample characters.) Yet that is in keeping with the source material, and similarly, exploring the final years of the Young Kingdoms is also in keeping with the source material. Some may see this as a limitation in terms of the scope of the roleplaying game, playing in a pre-apocalypse, yet arguably, the more recent Mörk Borg, did exactly the same—and is more explicit about it. In the short term, beyond the included scenario, Stormbringer will need development in terms of plot and scope by the Game Master, but there is the whole of the Young Kingdoms—and beyond—to explore and the novels to draw from.

Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game is old fashioned in its design and presentation, and of course, it is unbalanced. That lack of balance and that style means that Stormbringer may not really be suitable for anyone new to roleplaying, but yet… The setting of the Young Kingdoms is immensely playable and rich with roleplaying potential, the mechanics simple and elegant, and the imbalance of Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game should almost be embraced because it reflects the source material and the power levels can grow. After all, this is Swords & Sorcery at its most doom laden, pulp infused grandeur, and there is something glorious in being able to participate in the great conflict between Law and Chaos until the End of Time. 

2001: Munchkin

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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Sometimes the choice of game to review is not yours to make. So, it is, once again, with this review. This review came as a surprise and was completely unplanned. But with the sad news of the death of Andrew Hackard at Steve Jackson Games, it seemed timely to review the card game which he was in charge of and would take out into the gaming hobby with versions like Munchkin Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Munchkin Pathfinder, and Munchkin Gloom. Then into the mainstream with editions which date have included Munchkin SpongeBob SquarePants, Munchkin: Disney, Munchkin: Disney Duck Tales, Munchkin Harry Potter, Munchkin Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Munchkin Shakespeare. Then when Reviews from R’lyeh checked when Munchkin was first published, the year 2001, it was obvious that a twentieth anniversary review was warranted, and when upon finding that the nearest copy to hand had never been opened, an Unboxing in the Nook, was also required. So this review is both a retrospective and an acknowledgement that the hobby has lost another who by all accounts was a good friend and will be much missed.

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Munchkin is many things. It is a fantasy roleplaying game without any roleplaying. It is a fantasy card game which parodies fantasy roleplaying. It is a silly fantasy card game with a clever design. It is a fantasy card game which parodies Dungeons & Dragons. It is a dungeon exploration game without a dungeon. It is a fantasy card game which parodies a particular play style of fantasy roleplaying. It is a fantasy card game which understands its genre. It is a fantasy card game with simple rules, but sophisticated interaction of its cards. It is a fantasy card game whose format has become a template for numerous variations, iterations, licences, and accessories. It is a fantasy card game which won the 2001 Origins Awards for Best Traditional Card Game. Above all, it is a fantasy card game which is not just fun to play, it can be laugh out loud fun to play.

So the first question is, what is a ‘Munchkin’? The most obvious answer is the race of little people from Frank L. Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, enslaved by the Wicked Witch of the East. In roleplaying parlance, a ‘Munchkin’ is the type of roleplayer—typically a roleplayer of Dungeons & Dragons (but it applies to any roleplaying game)—who will always try and maximise his character’s stats, kill anything in his path for the maximum Experience Points possible, find and optimise the best gear and/or magical items possible, and acquire as many Levels as he can, all the while ignoring the roleplaying aspects of the game, his character’s personality, and that of any other Player Character around the table to the detriment of everyone else’s fun. Unless of course, everyone else is also a Munchkin, in which case, all bets are off! Munchkins are not always fun to game with and to an extent this can be true of the Munchkin card game. It can outstay its welcome. However, Munchkin is both fun to play and funny.

So in Munchkin the card game you are attempting to be the most munch-kiny. To out-munchkin your fellow munchkins. To be the munchkin’s munchkin. To win, to be top Munchkin, you need to be the first to acquire Level Ten—and you start at Level One. To go up a Level, you need to kill monsters. Kill a monster, gain a Level. Monsters can be hard though, and you need better treasure and better gear which will improve your ability to kill Monsters. Better treasure and better gear comes from killing monsters. Sometimes you are never going to kill a monster on your own—you are just not enough of a munchkin. So you negotiate with your fellow munchkins for a share of the treasure, and together you might defeat that tough monster—but you gain the Level. Ultimately, when Level Ten is in sight and you have chance of being the uber-munchkin, negotiating and working together is not going to work. It is just you and the monster (and whatever monsters and perils your rival munchkins can throw into your path) and your bestest gear. Never fear though, YOU will get to Level Ten!

First published in 2001, Munchkin from Steve Jackson Games is designed for three to six players, aged twelve and up. It has a playing time of an hour, but games typically last half that time. It consists of two decks of cards—Dungeon cards and Treasure cards. Dungeon cards have a dungeon door on the back whilst Treasure cards have a pile of loot. Chief amongst the Dungeon cards are the monster cards, from the lowly Level 1 Potted Plant and Drooling Slime to the dread Level 20 Squidzilla and the Level 20 Plutonium Dragon. Defeat them and not only are your rewarded with Treasure cards, but also a Level or two, depending on the toughness of the monster. Fail to defeat them and a monster might kill you (it’s okay, you can start again back at Level One), make you lose a Level, or lose an item. Others includes Curses like ‘Curse! Income Tax’ or ‘Curse! Duck of Doom’ which force you to discard items; and Classes, Races, and Genders—Cleric, Thief, Warrior, and Wizard, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling (Human is the default), and Male and Female. The Classes, Races, and Genders will often determine what gear you can and what magical items and weapons you can wield, and lose the wrong one or have it changed to another, perhaps because of a Curse! and you lose the associated items.

The Treasure cards include single use items like potions, like the ‘Polymorph Potion’, which turns a monster into a parrot which flies away, leaving behind its treasure, and spells, like ‘Magic Missile’ which adds a one-use bonus in combat. Then there are magic items—lots and lots of magic items. These include the ‘Kneepads of Allure’ which force another player to help you, and ‘Boots of Butt-Kicking’ and ‘Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment’, both of which add bonuses when you fight monsters. There is a limit to how many items you can carry—one item of footwear, one item of head gear, suit of armour, an item in each hand, or an item in both hands, just as you would in a fantasy roleplaying game. 

Munchkin is quite simple to play. At the start of the game, you and the other players receive four cards, receive two Dungeon cards and two Treasure cards, and equip yourself from them as best you can. On your turn, you ‘Open a Door’ and draw a card from the Dungeon deck. If a monster, you fight it or you run away. If not, the card goes into your hand or is equipped immediately, or if a Curse!, played immediately. If you did not encounter a monster, you can ‘Look for Trouble’ and play one from your hand. Either way, if you defeat the monster, go up a Level, and you can ‘Loot the Room’ and draw cards from the Treasure deck.

To defeat a monster, the total of your Level, plus bonuses from any items equipped and any one-shot items must be greater than that of the monster’s Level. However a rival can play cards which will hinder you and so prevent you from defeating the monster. Then you have two options. One is to run away, but doing so may have consequences depending on the monster faced, as well as losing any opportunity of gaining any treasure. Alternatively, you can ‘Ask for Help’. Essentially, bribe another player into helping you defeat a monster that you cannot defeat on your own, typically with the treasure, or the best of the treasure that you will find when you ‘Loot the Room’. This can become a negotiation and even if another player agrees to help you, it does not stop a rival from throwing in cards to further hinder you.

Play continues like this until a player reaches Level Nine and looks ready to get to Level Ten and win the game. Then all bets are off. Up until this point, players have been hindering each other because they can, because it is funny, because they do not want to see another player gain a hoard of treasure cards, but now… But now, they have to stop the player in the lead from winning. If there is another player in the lead, then give his opponent a potion which will increase its Level, send a Wandering Monster in his way and increase the number he has to fight, Backstab him (if you are a lowdown, sneaky Thief), or curse them with a Curse! card—it is all legal. Expect the same response though, if you are the one in the lead…

However, there are many criticisms levelled at Munchkin. That it is too luck-based, that it is too random, that it is unbalanced, that much of the game play is exception based, that it involves too much ‘take that’ style of play between the players, and that this is exacerbated as a game gets closer and closer to one player attaining Level Ten, and everyone else gangs up on the player about to win. All of those criticisms are true. Yet that does not mean that Munchkin is a terrible game—far from it. Yes, it is luck based in that you are drawing from two large decks—larger once any of the expansions are added—and you might draw a monster you cannot defeat or start off with a hand of cards you cannot use, but then so might the other players or if they have better hands of cards than you, they might have worse hands in another game. So game play can swing this way and that, but part of the play is getting the best out of the cards in your hands and going on to get better cards—or worse, and perhaps winning the game. And even if Munchkin ditches the roleplaying aspect that it draws so much inspiration, there is still a story to be told in those ups and downs, the good fortune and the bad.

Munchkin is also exception based in its game play and many of the cards will run counter to the core rules, but again, that is the point. Those exceptions are where much of the game’s flavour and humour come into play and enforce the many aspects of the genre it is parodying. As to Munchkin being too much a case of too much ‘take that’ in its game play, that is also true, just as it is true that the game play gets more and more back-stabby towards the end of the game and there is a chance that someone will win. And again, this is in the genre and the style of play that the game draws from and parodies. The clue is in the game’s subtitle—“Kill the Monsters • Steal the Treasure • Stab Your Buddy”.

Ultimately, the answer to the accusation that Munchkin is that too luck-based and too random is that it is not a Eurogame. It is not designed to be balanced or necessarily fair in its game play, and the fact that it is luck based, that it is simple to play, and that it is heavily, heavily thematic, actually makes it a fine example that the antithesis to the classic Eurogame. In other words, Munchkin is classic Ameritrash. Lots of luck, lots of theme, and lots of fun.

However, there are legitimate criticisms that can be levelled at Munchkin. It is designed for players aged ten and up and this leads to a several issues. One is that the artwork on the cards can be suggestive in one or two places, and the second is that jokes may well be lost on younger players because they are unlikely to be as familiar as the type of fantasy and play that Munchkin is parodying. The latter may be ignored at least if younger players are prepared to embrace the silliness and humour of the game, and the former can be addressed by older players or adults pruning the cards in play to ensure that some the more suggestive ones—and they are no worse than that—are removed. Another is that the ‘take that’ backing-stabbing element is not friendly and so not necessarily suited to younger players. Altogether, that may mean that Munchkin is not necessarily family-friendly, but of course, that may depend upon the family and the type of games that its likes to play. Lastly, as simple as the game play is, learning what card works with which other cards, can be a little daunting, especially if the players are not familiar with the genre. This is one of the problems with the exceptionalism built onto the game’s cards, but a play through or two and this should be less of an issue.

Issues aside—and to be fair, they are far from being either major or insurmountable issues—Munchkin is plain, simple silly fun. In fact, it can be laugh out loud round the table fun. This starts with the titles of the cards and the artwork on the cards. For example, on the ‘Magic Missile’ card, instead of whatever dweomer-driven dart the spell normally suggests, the caster is actually holding a rocket-powered missile; that on the ‘Curse! Change Race’ card, the victim’s pointy ears have popped off, as if he was losing his Elfiness; instead the Level 1 monster being a mall rat, it is a ‘Maul Rat’, an actual rat with a maul!; and the Level 16 ‘Wight Brothers’ are not a pair of undead brothers, but a pair of undead mechanic brothers! Game play, the back and forth of the cards can be as equally as funny. After all, it is undeniably funny when you are about to defeat the easily beatable Level 1 ‘Drooling Slime’ and a rival whammies you with the ‘Ancient’ card (illustrated with a bespectacled old dragon) which adds ten levels to the monster and makes it unbeatable.

Then, there are the in-jokes and the references. Munchkin is rife with them, each time taking the joke or the reference and poking fun at them, making us laugh at a memory or a story, and reminding us how silly they are. Whether that is the title of the game itself, Munchkin, or the ‘Gelatinous Octahedron’ or ‘Gazebo’ monsters, or ‘Bribe GM with Food’, ‘Whine at the GM’, and ‘Invoke Obscure Rules’ cards which grant you an extra Level, and which all invoke a certain style of play or occurred in a session of Dungeons & Dragons long ago that you were definitely not playing. Munchkin then is poking fun at us and it is funny.

Physically, Munchkin is well presented. Both rules and cards are easy to read, and the cards are fantastically illustrated by John Kovalic in sepia tones, with many of the characters from his long running Dork Tower comic strip making appearances. It is clear that a great deal of thought has gone into the look of the game and into getting the jokes, in-jokes, and the humour right. Even now, not have played it in a few years, just looking at the cards and their jokes are still funny. However, there is a lot of space in the box, so the owner will need to add dividers or means to stop the cards from sliding around, but that does mean that there is room for expansions! And what expansions there were! In the past twenty years Steve Jackson Games has taken the format of Munchkin and not parodied other genres, from pirates in Munchkin Booty!, vampires in Munchkin Bites!, and Science Fiction in Star Munchkin to facing cosmic horror in Munchkin Cthulhu, superheroes in Super Munchkin, and martial arts in Munchkin Fu—and a whole lot more. There can be no denying the success of the format and its adaptability, and it has remained Steve Jackson Games’ best seller for years.

Munchkin is not a great game and it is not a classic, and yes, ultimately, its humour can outstay its welcome, and if you prefer more balanced play, then it is probably too much of an Ameritrash game for you. It is instead a joke-filled, funny filler of a classic beer and pretzels game, that really can make you and your players laugh out loud round the table when playing it, and how many games can do that? Munchkin makes us laugh at ourselves and our hobby and that is what makes it fun to play.