1974: Original Dungeons & Dragons

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-

The truth is that this is one review that I never expected to write. After all, in the fifteen years of my being a published reviewer I have never had the reason to write this review. Yet surely its existence and that 2014 marks the fortieth anniversary of its publication—the very reason why the Reviews from R’lyeh anniversary series is being written—means that it should be written. The other reason I never expected to write this review was I did not own a copy of the game in question, but that became a possibility in 2013 with the publication by Wizards of the Coast of the Original Dungeons & Dragons Premium Reprint. So this then is a review of both—not just the aforementioned Original Dungeons & Dragons Premium Reprint, but also Original Dungeons & Dragons.

In publishing the Original Dungeons & Dragons Premium Reprint, Wizards of the Coast has taken the contents of the 1974 Dungeons & Dragons White Box—‘ Volume 1: Men & Magic’, ‘Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure’, and ‘Volume 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures’ and added to it the supplements that came after it—‘Supplement I: Greyhawk’, ‘Supplement II: Blackmoor’, ‘Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry’, and ‘Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes’, plus a complete set of very lovely polyhedral dice. All placed in a deep wooden presentation box etched with the famous fire-breathing dragon ampersand. The individual books themselves are beautifully presented, with just a little tidying up internally, and the use of the marbled texture for their covers, exactly as the original books in 1974.

As a complete package, the Original Dungeons & Dragons Premium Reprint is beautifully presented, but make no mistake, this is a piece of gaming history, a piece of gaming ephemera. There can be no doubt that the contents of this lovely wooden box can be played—after all, the original roleplayers did so for many years with the copies of the Original Dungeons & Dragons they bought in the 1970s—but why would you? Putting aside the fact that there are better versions of Dungeons & Dragons and the like available to play, the Original Dungeons & Dragons Premium Reprint is a collector’s item—and very nice it is too.

In reviewing the Original Dungeons & Dragons, we are concerned only with the three books that appeared in the White Box, for only they appeared in 1974. Thus this review is limited to—‘Volume 1: Men & Magic’, ‘Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure’, and ‘Volume 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures’. The starting point of course, is Chainmail, the miniatures campaign rules published by TSR out of which grew Dungeons & Dragons. Its influence upon Dungeons & Dragons is profound and cannot be underestimated—indeed this influence would arguably hinder the development of the game for over a quarter of a century, until the advent of Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition in 2000. Despite owning a copy of Original Dungeons & Dragons, it was not complete as Chainmail was required to handle combat, though an alternative combat system better allowed for man-to-man or man-to-monster fights, using a set of tables that will look familiar to anyone who played Basic Dungeons & Dragons or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. What this means is that Original Dungeons & Dragons lived up its subtitle, ‘Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures’.

Characters options are limited to three Classes—Fighting-Man, Magic-User, and Cleric—and four races—Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Halflings (note, the 1974 version of Original Dungeons & Dragons had the Hobbit instead of Halfling, but that was before the Tolkien estate got litigious). The possibility of playing other character types is suggested, but left for the referee to develop. Much like the later Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Basic Dungeons & Dragons, Halflings and Dwarfs are essentially Fighting-Men (Fighters) with Level caps on how far they can progress, whereas the Elf was allowed to switch between the Fighting-Man and the Magic-User whilst still under the limits of a Level cap. Other differences include there just being the three simple Alignments—Law, Neutral, and Chaos; and attributes primarily providing an Experience Point bonus depending upon a character’s class—Strength for Fighting-Men, Wisdom for Clerics, and so on, though Constitution provides a Hit Point bonus and Dexterity a missile fire to hit bonus. Nevertheless, a character still looks very similar to those that would come in later versions of the game—the same six attributes—Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity, and Charisma; and Armour Class runs from ‘none’ (AC 9) down to ‘plate & shield’ (AC 2).

Another oddity is the under use of Alignment. It is only important for the Cleric Class, limiting the type of structure that the Cleric can build when he gets to high enough level and access to some spells. At this nascent stage of the hobby, Clerics do not worship a specific deity—such information would not be available until the release of ‘Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes’ and then later, Deities & Demi-Gods for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Of course, the one way in which Alignment affected every character, regardless of their Class, was what magic items they could use. The inclusion of Alignment seems superfluous here, but much like the rest of Original Dungeons & Dragons, it lays the foundation for one of the elements that have underpinned Dungeons & Dragons ever since.

The spells listed in ‘Volume 1: Men & Magic’ are all generic in nature. So what is included is Charm Person, Wizard Lock, Locate Object, Turn Sticks to Snakes, and so on, but not named spells like Bigby's Grasping Hand or Leomund's Tiny Hut. These of course would make an appearance in later versions of Dungeons & Dragons. Still, the spells are limited in Original Dungeons & Dragons so that Magic-User needs to be able to cast Third Level spells before he can cast any that do physical damage and the Cleric’s spells are very much focused on healing and support.

Perhaps the strangest thing in ‘Volume 1: Men & Magic’ is its given ‘Scope’. It is suggested that a campaign can handle between four and fifty players, but that the recommended referee to player ratio is one to twenty! Now I have played in a campaign—D1-2 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth, D3 Vault of the Drow, and Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits—with eleven or twelve players, but not twenty! By modern standards, no Dungeon Master could be expected to give attention to fifty players, let alone twenty and give them the time to tell their stories.

Nicely though, the Foreword to ‘Volume 1: Men & Magic’ prefigures the famous ‘Appendix N’ in the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It suggests Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian stories, Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser adventures as inspiration. These suggestions point to a more pulpy inspiration, but what is curious is an absence from the list—J.R.R. Tolkien. So no The Hobbit and no The Lord of the Rings. Their later inclusion as inspiration would arguably make Dungeons & Dragons a much drier game, but their influence is very, very much in evidence here in terms of the Classes and Races available to play, and then equally, if not more so, in later editions of Dungeons & Dragons.

Physically, ‘Volume 1: Men & Magic’ is ill-organised. Concepts such as Levels are detailed after equipment and encumbrance has been discussed, so by modern standards, there is no progression of subjects in a step-by-step process. Fortunately, this book is short enough to make flipping back and forth anything other than a challenge. 

‘Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure’ lists some sixty or so entries in terms of foes, from Kobold and Goblins to signature creatures such as Green Slime and Purple Worm. Their main stats are listed in one large table with descriptions given later. These rarely amount to more than a paragraph or two, and only Dragons receiving as much comparative attention as they would in later editions of the game. This varying degree of attention feels unwieldy and unfair, so that Goblins and Kobolds are just there to butcher, but Dragons can be treated with, even subdued, which to be honest, feels very Tolkienesque. Sadly what is missing from this reprint is the citing of sources that appeared in the original version of Original Dungeons & Dragons. So no listing Tolkien as the source for Orcs, Wights, Spectres, or Rocs, and so on. This is for copyright reasons of course, but it is disappointing. The list of magical items and treasures reads like a ‘what’s what’ to come in future editions.

Where ‘Volume 1: Men & Magic’ gives you what you played, ‘Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure’ gives you things to fight and things to find, ‘Volume 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures’ tells you how to play. It starts out with what might well be the first example of a dungeon before the publication of ‘Temple of the Frog’ in ‘Supplement II: Blackmoor’, and to be blunt, it is a terrible example. The problem is that its focus is upon mapping tricks designed to confuse and exasperate the player characters as they explore it, rather than on monsters and other threats, which feel lumped together. There is advice on stocking these underworlds with monsters and with a different treasure system, but more interesting is what is the very first example of play. It again betrays the origins of Original Dungeons & Dragons as a wargame, for its focus is entirely upon the Referee and Caller—the latter a role that would persist well into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons—with no room for roleplaying or the input for the other players. The result is a rather drab experience, with not even the prospect of combat to enliven things up or give a sense of threat. It is just a little too mechanical.

Where Original Dungeons & Dragons suggested Chainmail as the means to handle combat, for wilderness travel it also suggests something else. This is Outdoor Survival, the 1972 Avalon Hill game. Here also is the first mention of both classic locations for Dungeons & Dragons, Greyhawk and Blackmoor, hinting at their contents, but not detailing them. They feel oddly rife with possibilities, but are here left undeveloped with only the map of the Outdoor Survival game for the Referee to go on. There is little advice as to how to create maps beyond the use of the game, and it feels oddly underdeveloped. Beyond this, ‘Volume 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures’ covers naval and aerial combat, hiring specialists, and so on. One notable rule is the ‘Angry Villager Rule’, one that suggests that should the player characters get out of line then the Referee should set the angry villagers/city watchmen/thieves’ guild members upon them. Not only will this happen, then the player characters cannot resist it. How I bet that some Dungeon Masters wish that this rule was still in effect!

Rounding out ‘Volume 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures’ is a short section on healing. Vitally important in play, but lost at the very end of the rules. More importantly overall, the Afterword states that much has been glossed over, that Original Dungeons & Dragons contains only the essentials and that where any further trimmings are needed, then they will have to be added by the Referee and his players. There are of course undoubted omissions from Original Dungeons & Dragons—too many to list—evidence of that obviously showing in subsequent editions of Dungeons & Dragons.

Physically, these three booklets are pleasingly presented. The organisation is terrible and the pen and ink illustrations are, to be frank, terrible too.

Ultimately, this is not a review that can really be written without the hindsight of forty years of roleplaying development and the race for the development of Dungeons & Dragons to catch up. Understandably, there is a rawness to Original Dungeons & Dragons. It is after all, the blueprint from which all other RPGs would spring. This means that it is not perfect and there are elements, bad habits even, that it would take a quarter of a century for Dungeons & Dragons to overcome as a roleplaying game. Arguably, this is not even the first roleplaying game, since the term would not appear at the time of its publication, but would be coined a year later in a review in White Dwarf. It is still too much of a wargame and an unforgiving one at that. A fascinating piece of history that was perhaps a step towards the first real roleplaying game, but however innovative it was in 1974, it was not quite there yet. As radical as Original Dungeons & Dragons was in 1974, perhaps it is too raw a game to be playable by modern standards.

2004: Castles & Crusades

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, will releasing 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 to be reviewed. 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-

Picking titles from one anniversary to the next has proved to be easier for some years than others. 1984 was a particularly fruitful year, offering plenty of choices, but the subsequent anniversaries—1994 and 2004—in terms of RPGs and board games have been more challenging. 1994 is difficult because it was at the height of the Magic the Gathering boom, it was before Settlers of Catan would initiate the popularity in board games that we see today, and it was at a time when RPGs were tending towards generic rules. By 2004, board games were truly on their rise to popularity that we know today, whilst RPGs tended to be dominated by their use of the d20 System, the mechanics derived from Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. 

Yet at a time when the hobby thought that the d20 System could do everything, Troll Lord Games went and showed you what it did well, not with something new, but with something old. Something old in a slightly new way. What the designers at Troll Lord Games did was strip back the d20 System so that it did not emulate Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, the then current version of the game, but instead emulated older editions of the game. In particular, Dungeons & Dragons and Basic Dungeons & Dragons, the versions of the RPG that essentially predated Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and then paralleled it (if only for a while).

It began with something small, just as the original Dungeons & Dragons had done—a white box. This was the Castles & Crusades Collector’s Edition or Castles & Crusades: A Guide & Rules System for Fantasy Role Playing. Inside, as was traditional, could be found the three digest-sized booklets, the full set of polyhedral dice, and a white crayon. The three booklets, the 'Players Handbook', 'Monsters & Treasures', and 'The Rising Knight'—the latter the boxed set’s adventure, each no more than thirty-six pages long, aped ‘Volume 1: Men & Magic’, ‘Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure’, and ‘Volume 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures’, the three books of the original boxed set for Dungeons & Dragons, in being plain, simple affairs. Similarly they presented just four character Classes—Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard—who can rise only up to tenth Level; the classic four races—Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human; a goodly selection of monsters, spells, and treasures; and a decent enough adventure in the form of 'The Rising Knight'. Overall the package was pleasingly complete, and at the time in 2004, very well received.

Of course, Castles & Crusades could just been another ‘Retroclone’, a simple emulation of Dungeons & Dragons past. It is not that for one very good reason—which will be explained shortly. What marked it out though as a version of Dungeons & Dragons different to those past—at least until the advent of Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition in 2000. What Troll Lord Games introduced to its version of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons with Castles & Crusades was the SIEGE Engine. This was its core mechanic for every situation bar combat, which worked just like the d20 System. The SIEGE Engine was an attribute check system which divided each character’s and each monster’s attributes into primary and secondary attributes. Primary attributes gave a base target to succeed of 12 and secondary attributes gave a base target to succeed of 18, with primary and secondary attributes determined according to a Class and race. Every situation had a Challenge Level that could be added to the base target, which gave a Challenge Class against which a player would roll and add bonuses for character's Level, attributes, and Class. In play it proved to be a simple means of handling almost any situation in the game.

What this meant was that Castles & Crusades essentially brought coherence to the play of a game like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons without the perceived complexities that had come with Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition. It also did one other thing because as has already been mentioned, Castles & Crusades was not just another ‘Retroclone’, a simple emulation of Dungeons & Dragons past. This was because at time, in 2004, there were no other Retroclones—‘Old School Reference and Index Compilation’ or OSRIC would not appear until 2006. Which means that arguably, Castles & Crusades was the very first Retroclone, the one that other small publishers would be inspired by, if not actually emulate.

In the decade since, Castles & Crusades has continued to be popular. Its publisher, Troll Lord Games would release numerous books and supplements, plus thirty or so scenarios, for the game, the most obvious and useful one being the Players Handbook which contained the core thirteen player character Classes and seven Races as well as the core rules necessary to play the game. In the process, together with Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, it would support a style of play that would not be supported by mainstream Dungeons & Dragons  between 2007 and 2014. To celebrate the game’s tenth anniversary, Troll Lord Games has published the Castles & Crusades Black Box Set, a limited edition supplement that supports both the Castles & Crusades Collector’s Edition and Castles & Crusades itself.

It should be made clear that the Castles & Crusades Black Box Set is not simply a new presentation of the Castles & Crusades Collector’s Edition. It is instead a supplement, much in the same way that Greyhawk – Supplement I, Blackmoor – Supplement II, Eldritch Wizardry – Supplement III, Gods Demi-gods & Heroes – Supplement IV, and Swords & Spells – Supplement V were all supplements for the original Dungeons & Dragons. Indeed, it could be said that the Castles & Crusades Black Box Set contains similarities to all five of these supplements, so the question is, just what is in the Castles & Crusades Black Box Set? Its content consists of three booklets the ‘Adventurers Backpack’, ‘Of Gods & Monsters of Aihrde’, and ‘The Golden Familiar’, a complete set of Castles & Crusades polyhedral dice—black of course, and for the first three hundred printed, a plate signed by the designers.

The first of these, ‘Adventurers Backpack – Volume 1 of Three Booklets’, is arguably the most interesting of the three. It starts by giving us four new Classes—the Archer, the Avatar, the Thief, and the Magic-User. The first two of these are wholly new Classes, whilst the latter two are interesting interpretations of old Classes. The Archer is a Fighter that specialises in the use of the bow and crossbow, able to grab the initiative if they have an arrow or bow nocked, shoot two arrows per Round, incapacitate with a single shot, dodge incoming arrows, and even fire curved shots. Where the Cleric in Dungeons & Dragons attempts to espouse and live up to the ideals of his deity, in return receiving spells and various god-given abilities, the Avatar is this god given physical, corporeal form. Created to fulfill a particular purpose, an Avatar uses Mana Points to cast both Arcane and Divine spells and can even draw on its Hit Points if tries to cast spells beyond its Level. The Avatar's main power is its deific voice to grant a morale boost, fortitude, enthrall listeners, and even stun them!

The first of the familiar sounding Classes is the Thief. This is not the recreation of the burglar-style Thief that has been with since 1974, but a more social malcontent. The two Classes share abilities, but can now Case a person or location, Distract others, Spin a tale and detect lies, Blend into a crowd, Lay the Path for escape routes, and carry out forgery. It makes the Class much more flexible and yes, perhaps pushes it towards the Rogue of Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. Still it is very much its own Class, but likes its fellow similar Classes, the Thief here makes full use of the SIEGE Engine for its abilities. The second of the familiar sounding Classes is the Magic-User and just like the new Thief here, it is a new twist on an old name. Where the Magic-User of Dungeons & Dragons has become the Wizard and the Sorcerer, here the Magic-User is a literal interpretation of the name. That is, he uses magic, and by that, we mean magic items. He can easily detect, read, and locate magic, use all magic items, and even create magical items and transfer effects. What this means is that the new Magic-User becomes the ‘magi-tech’ of the party and like the new Thief Class, there is a flexibility to this Class that players can have a lot of fun with. 

The rest of the ‘Adventurers Backpack’ is devoted to a series of ‘backpacks’ for all situations and an array of new spells. The inclusions of these ‘Backpacks’ point towards a fantasy setting in which there are lots of parties of adventurers going out on missions, quests, and so on, enough that some kind of industry has arisen to cater for their needs with off-the-shelf pre-stocked backpacks. All right, on one level they are convenient to purchase rather than fiddling around with the bits and pieces, but on another, there is an artificiality to them. The new spells present lots of new options and include spells for Clerics, Druids, Illusionists, and Wizards. For example, Behold the Blasphemer enables Clerics and Druids to strike down unbelievers, Breath of Light lets them capture sunlight in a vessel to be unleashed later as a simple light or a sudden blaze that can burn the undead, whilst a Wizard or Illusionist can determine what someone is going to do next with the spell Read Others.

‘Of Gods & Monsters of Aihrde – Volume 2 of Three Booklets’ presents an examination of the bigger forces in Aihrde, Troll Lord Games’ house setting for Castles & Crusades. These are descriptions only—this is no Deities & Demigods—of not just the gods, but also the immortal Giants, of Fiends and Devils, and of Goblins. Whilst this is worthy information for the Castle Keeper, it is a pity that there is no application given for this information. Though the province , alignment, and preferred weapons are all given for each entry, but perhaps something more could have been given. Possibly each entries’ preferred spells, drawing upon both the spells given here in the ‘Adventurers Backpack’ and the Castles & Crusades Players Handbook, and possibly other benefits. Of course, this might push Castles & Crusades away from its Old School ethos and letting the Castle Keeper decide.

The third book is ‘The Golden Familiar – Volume 3 of Three Booklets’, an adventure for characters of First and Second Levels. In this adventure the heroes must assault the Castle Aucherwitch in search an ancient artefact that will kill the similarly ancient creature that holds the fortress. Perched high atop a promontory, Castle Aucherwitch can only be accessed via a narrow track that winds around the hill, the path interspersed by gates and fortifications. This makes it both linear and repetitive in play, although it gets a little more interesting in the climax when the adventurers come to face the current owner of the castle.

What the inclusion of ‘The Golden Familiar – Volume 3 of Three Booklets’ highlights is the fact the three booklets in the Castles & Crusades Black Box Set only have one thing in common with each other—Castles & Crusades. Each of the three books in the Castles & Crusades Black Box Set is a supplement for the game, a separate supplement rather a coherent whole. Perhaps if the scenario had been designed to make use of the new character Classes given in the ‘Adventurers Backpack’, then the Castles & Crusades Black Box Set might not feel as disparate as it does.

So ultimately, Troll Lord Games has decided to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Castles & Crusades by releasing a set of different three supplements and putting them in a box. All right, that is being slightly flippant, but while the Castles & Crusades Black Box Set lacks focus as a whole, each of the individual booklets is generally interesting in and of themselves. Of the three, the ‘Adventurers Backpack’ is definitely the most interesting and will find the most use in a game, though it would be good to see a scenario released that supported their use. As an anniversary celebration, the Castles & Crusades Black Box Set is definitely for devotees of Castles & Crusades. Anyone new to the game should look at the Castles & Crusades Players Handbook.

2004: Dogs in the Vineyard

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, will releasing 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 to be reviewed. 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-

Picking titles from one anniversary to the next has proved to be easier for some years than others. 1984 was a particularly fruitful year, offering plenty of choices, but the subsequent anniversaries—1994 and 2004—in terms of RPGs and board games have been more challenging. 1994 is difficult because it was at the height of the Magic the Gathering boom, it was before Settlers of Catan would initiate the popularity in board games that we see today, and it was at a time when RPGs were tending towards generic rules. By 2004,  board games were truly on their rise to popularity that we know today, whilst RPGs tended to be dominated by their use of the d20 System, the mechanics derived from Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. That though was in mainstream roleplaying…

By 2004, a publishing movement had arisen that if not in opposition to mainstream RPGs, were certainly outside it and definitely broke the model of how RPGs were played and what they focused on. Firstly, the games were self-published, self-promoted, and often, self-distributed; secondly, they focused not on broad settings with the GM serving as the ‘sole’ gatekeeper for the game, but instead concentrated on single genres, set-ups, and stories. They focused on character and story, often telling morally and emotionally wrought tales in which during the telling, the players had greater narrative input than in the traditional RPG. Their play was collaborative, not just between the players, but also between the players and the GM—and sometimes they dispensed with the GM all together.

By 2014—a decade later—it should be noted that whilst the ‘Indie Roleplaying Game’ movement is not dead, much of its design ethos and intent has been absorbed by the mainstream, most notably in the form of Evil Hat Design’s FATE RPG and the more recent Firefly Role-Playing Game from Margaret Weis Productions. No ‘Indie Roleplaying Game’ would win an Origins Award—the industry’s premier award, though Bully Pulpit Games’ Fiasco would be nominated in 2010.  A number of Indie style RPGs have won the Diana Jones Award, arguably a critically more prestigious award. They include Paul Czege’s My Life with Master, Ron Edward’s Sorcerer, and both Jason Morningstar’s Grey Ranks and the aforementioned Fiasco, the latter remaining to this day, the best known title to have come out of the Indie movement. The first games though, to offer this style of play are arguably Hogshead Publishing’s New Style series—The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Münchhausen, Puppetland/Powerkill (Puppetland has just been relaunched on Kickstarter), and Pantheon and other Roleplaying Games being notable entries—but they predate the movement and they were not self-published.

In 2004, the most well-known were My life with Master and Dogs in the Vineyard. It is the latter, published in 2004, which is that year’s entry for the anniversary series of reviews. At first glance, Dogs in the Vineyard: A Role-Playing Game looks to be a Western RPG. It is set in Western United States, the indigenous population is not necessarily to be trusted, and the characters ride the land dispensing justice. This to an extent is true, but Dogs in the Vineyard is not as simplistic as that. The setting is the Western United States, specifically the Deseret Territory of pre-statehood Utah in the middle of the 19th century, isolated and wary of the Territorial Authority; the Mountain People may not be trusted, but they are to be brought into the Faithful; and the player characters are members of the ‘Order Set Apart to the Preservation of the Faith and the Faithful’, who ride from town to town, preaching and performing ceremonies—baptisms, weddings, funerals, and so on, keeping the peace, protecting the Faithful, ferreting out and punishing sinners, and bringing not only the word of The Faith of All Things in the King of Life, Reborn to the people, but also messages and the mail. They are the King’s Watchdogs, or ‘Dogs’, and are known for their finely embroidered coats that is their badge of office.

There is a certain historicity to this set-up. Parallels may be drawn with antebellum Utah—the Utah of the 1840s and 1850s, the mistrusted authority of the USA and Washington, DC, and of course, with the Mormon faith. On its first page, the author states that Dogs in the Vineyard is a fantasy inspired by the history, and although other options suggest elsewhere and elsewhen the game/mechanics can be set should anyone object to its depiction of Mormonism, Dogs in the Vineyard treats the religion with respect. Indeed, although it gives certain specific details, and that mainly for flavour and feel, it mainly presents the Faith as a moral code, which makes the mechanics and tone of Dogs in the Vineyard not only more easy to translate to other times and settings, it makes it much less offensive.

Each session involves the player characters, or ‘Dogs’, riding into town and interacting with the townsfolk as they carry out their duties. In doing so, they discover that someone in the town has fallen prey to the sin of Pride at a perceived injustice, which left unchecked has escalated to false doctrine and false priesthood. With the growth of sin in a town, the King of Life is likely to withdraw his protection and thus allow demons into the town. Their presence, left unchecked, will eventually result in sorcery and murder… The duty of the Dogs is thus to root out the cause, judge the sinners, and dispense mercy and punishment according to the tenets of the Faith. Then they ride out, leaving in their wake, a townspeople that may be shattered by their experience—several of them may be dead, and the town may be in flames. The Dogs may have suffered also, depending on the choices made and the relationships ruined. Between towns, they ride the beautiful Deseret Territory, reflecting upon their actions, readying themselves for the next town, or to retire as a Dog, their duty done.

A Dog is defined by several dice pools, the size of which are determined by the type of character, whether that is Well-Rounded, Complicated History, Strong Community, and so on. This sets the number of dice to assign to a character’s Stats—Acuity, Body, Heart, and Will; Traits—freeform aspects of the character such as ‘My Grandfather’s Hunting Knife 1d6’ or ‘I have a honey’d tongue 2d4’; and Relationships—ties to places and people, like ‘My brother Ned, who always seemed to pull me from the fire 2d6’ or ‘Under the green shade of the woods 1d8’. Lastly a player decides on his Dog’s equipment, generally a horse, guns (it should be noted that guns of this period are black powder, percussion cap, single-action weapons), perhaps a knife, and the coat that is his Dog’s badge of office. Lastly, each Dog undertakes an initiation rite whilst training to be a Dog. It is different for each character and serves as a means to introduce the mechanics of Dogs in the Vineyard. There is plenty of flexibility in character design and capacity for player input, but such freedoms back in 2004 were just a little daunting...

Our sample character is Sister Temperance Deakins, the adopted elder daughter of a family of undertakers. A foundling of the Mountain People, she was exactly what her mother wanted until her sister Prudence was born, all blonde curls and skin like milk. Temperance still had a place in the home and was put to the household chores or went with her mother to bring succour to the folk who had recently been bereaved. Only her Grandfather accepted her fully and never favoured Prudence over her. Prudence remains jealous that Temperance became a Watchdog and not her.

Name: Sister Temperance Deakins
Background: Complicated History

—Stats— {15d6 dice}
Acuity: 4d6 Body: 3d6 Heart: 4d6 Will: 4d6

—Traits— {4d4, 2d6, 2d10 dice}
Measured shot 1d4
I am God’s Watchdog 1d6
I am an uneasy rider 1d6
There is always women’s work to be done, 3d4
I know the ways of Grief 2d10
I overcame my fear of guns 1d6

—Relationships— 5d6, 2d8 dice {Available: 2d6, 1d8 }
Blood 1d6
My pretty sister Prudence, jealous that I am a Dog, 1d8
My adopted Grandfather, who accepted me, 2d6

—Belongings—
Colt Paterson revolver, 1d6+1d4
Big old nag, 1d8+1d4
Watchdog’s Coat 2d6 (Green with red piping and the Tree of Life embroidered in gold on the back).

Mechanically, Dogs in the Vineyard also departed from traditional RPGs in that its focus is entirely upon conflicts, including conflicts between the Dogs and between the Dogs and the townsfolk that they are passing judgement upon. Essentially with mundane tasks and mundane knowledge, it is accepted that a Dog either knows the information or not, or can undertake the action or not. In fact the GM has one simple rule to any situation; either say “Yes”, or roll the dice and begin a conflict—indeed this was its very first appearance in any RPG. Conflicts come into play when there is something at stake, for example, “I will impose my will as a Dog and convince the congregation that I bring the true word of the King in Life” or “I will chase down the sinner, Brother Nathaniel, and bring him to judgement”. Resolving the conflict involves Poker-style mechanics opposed rolls of dice pools. The base for each pool is a pair of stats—Acuity and Heart when talking, Body and Heart for physical actions that do not involve combat (for example, in a chase), Body and Will for fighting with fists, knives, and so on,  and Acuity and Will for gunfights. To this can be dice from appropriate Traits, Relationships, and Belongings. For example, in a situation where Sister Temperance has to use a gun, she rolls her Acuity and Will, Measured shot, I overcame my fear of guns, and her gun, for a total of 8d6, 1d4, 1d6, and 1d6+1d4.

The results are not added, but kept as single dice. Then those in the conflict make Raises using up the value of pairs of their dice, narrating what they say or do as part of the Raise. In response, a target can See this Raise by countering it with dice equal to the Raise. Two dice will block the Raise; using one die will not only stop it, but Reverse it and let the target keep and use the die in his next Raise; and lastly three or more dice means that the Raise has been partly blocked, the target Takes the Blow and suffers consequences after the conflict is over. Should one side of the conflict concede or run out of dice, he suffers Fallout and will gain possible consequences.

For example, as part of her duties as a Dog, Sister Temperance has returned home to discover that her sister Prudence dressed in black and mourning for her late husband, a man whom she did not love and did not want to marry. Now she has a child and is jealous of the perceived freedoms that Temperance has. She has been complaining to her father-in-law, the local Steward, seducing him with her words and persuading him that Temperance’s place is with her mother, not with the Dogs. He now preaches that no one born of the Mountain People can be called to be Dog… This is false doctrine.

Temperance confronts her sister. The stakes for the conflict are to force ‘Prudence to admit her jealousy drives her pride and her sin’. For this, Temperance will roll her Acuity and Heart Stats, I am God’s Watchdog and I know the ways of Grief Traits, and Blood and My pretty sister Prudence, jealous that I am a Dog Relationships. This gives her 4d6, 3d6, 1d6, 2d10, 1d6, and 1d8 to roll, the result being 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, and 8.
Prudence likewise rolls her Acuity (2d6) and Heart (4d6) Stats, Butter wouldn't melt (2d4) and Grieving Widow (1d10) Traits, and Blood (1d8) and I am jealous of my sister, the Dog (2d6) Relationships. She rolls 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, and 7.

Temperance confronts her sister and says, “You have my sympathies sister, I know how grief must sit upon you.” and Raises with a 5 and 5 for 10. Prudence responds with, “What do you know of grief? You have lost nothing and gained everything!” and Sees Temperance’s Raise with a 3 and 7 for 10. Prudence then makes her own Raise with a 4 and 4 before saying, “You abandoned us, your family, just like your real family abandoned you!”

Temperance Sees this with her single 8—sufficient to Reverse the Blow and retain the 8 for her next Raise—responds with, “I was doing my duty unto the Faith and answering when I was called.” She then Raises with the 8 and a 7, saying, “And just as I was doing my duty by the King of Life, so were you!” 15 is far more than Prudence can See with two dice and is forced to use four dice—5, 4, 4, and 3—instead. The consequences are that Prudence suffers 1d4 in Fallout for each of the four dice used to See. Stung by her Sister’s words she flies at Temperance in a rage. What this means is that she Escalates and the Conflict now becomes physical!

Escalating is the only way in which a Dog can gain more dice. That is, switching up to more dangerous forms from conflict—from social conflict to physical combat to gunfights. Each time the combatants would reroll. Similarly, as the conflict escalates, the Fallout dice also escalate, from the d4 of Social conflicts to the d6 of hand-to-hand conflicts to the d8 of conflicts involving melee weapons to the d10 of conflicts involving guns.

Each town is a scenario in itself and there is plenty of advice for the GM on creating towns and the hierarchies of sin that beset them. Essentially sketching them out in broad detail along with the various NPCs and their desires—NPCs always want something of the Dogs as they are the final arbiters in any situation—so that the GM can add further details as play progresses. Especially helpful here are the details on everyday life in the Vineyard and the constrictive expectations of everyone’s role in society, as they add flavour and they are reason enough for one of the Faithful to doubt his place or suffer from jealousy. From this of course, it is relatively easy to step onto the hierarchy of sin. What the GM is not doing is setting up a plot or a story to tell, but rather leaving it up to the players’ Dogs to decide what they do, where they go, and who they speak to, and ultimately how they resolve the situation that a town is hiding.

The core of the advice on running Dogs in the Vineyard is twofold—“Escalate, escalate, escalate” and “Drive Play Towards Conflict”, supported by the simplicity of “Roll the dice, or say yes”. What this means is the Dogs and thus the players are constantly being pushed to confront the evidence of the sins that lurk in every town and the sinners themselves to force them to admit their guilt. Then of course, to make and pass moral judgements upon the sinners. Whilst the towns themselves are unlikely to be memorable—though the GM is free to add as little or as much detail as he wants—it is the sins of the townsfolk that that mark one town from another and make them memorable. Certainly it is what the Dogs will reflect upon as well as the judgements passed after they leave the town.

One aspect of Dogs in the Vineyard that the GM can set ahead of time, or indeed can be agreed upon by the GM and his players is to what degree the supernatural actually plays in the Deseret Territory and in undermining the people of the The Faith of All Things in the King of Life. It may not exist at all, except in the minds of believers, but the threat may truly be real, with an unbeliever willingly accepting possession by a demon or a sorcerer, a false prophet, having a demon at his beck and call.

Physically, Dogs in the Vineyard is an imposingly simple book with a beautiful cover. Inside, the book at first looks surprisingly plain and the artwork is disappointing. The later is still true a decade on, but my opinion of the book’s look has changed in that time. With the layout and the choice of font, handled by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, Dogs in the Vineyard has a period feel and a plain, unadorned feel that lends it a certain charm.

In comparison to the mainstream in 2004, Dogs in the Vineyard was a truly focused and moral game, one that was truly radical for its time. Although Poker-style play underlies the game’s mechanics, their  application as a means to escalate and drive conflicts forward was radical, not to say daunting. The game’s mechanical focus on conflict was equally radical, but its advice to “say yes, or roll dice” has very much become part of mainstream roleplay design and theory. Radical also was the game’s focus on making moral judgements. There had been RPGs in which the players and their characters passed judgements before, most obviously the Judge Dredd RPG, but that was really a satire in which the law was enforced unflinchingly and unfeelingly. In Dogs in the Vineyard the judgements are made on a moral basis and that ultimately is the game’s great strength.

To be truthful, there were few great RPGs being released in 2004, or in any of the opening years of the 21st century and arguably not from mainstream publishing. Dogs in the Vineyard: A Role-Playing Game is one such great RPG. Its mechanics were and remain elegant, its design as an RPG as morality tale delightfully radical, and it is still one of the best RPGs to have come out of  the ‘Indie Roleplaying Game’ movement.

2004: Ticket to Ride

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, will releasing 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 to be reviewed. 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.

For the fourth entry in Reviews from R’lyeh’s series of anniversary reviews, we look back to the year 2004 and the publication of a successful board game that has sold over three million copies in the ten years since. Ticket to Ride from Days of Wonder would win the 2004 Spiel des Jahres award, the Origins Award for Best Board Game of 2004, and the 2005 Diana Jones award, amongst others, and it has also joined Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan—Spiel des Jahres winners both—in forming a triumvirate of gateway games. That is, games that can serve as an introduction to the hobby of playing board games, games that can be played by both board game enthusiasts and the family alike. This factor, along with its popularity, explains why Ticket to Ride has appeared on Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop series twice. First with Ticket to Ride and then with Ticket to Ride: Europe.

Designed for two to five players, aged eight and up, in Ticket to Ride the players undertake a race across the USA in the spirit of Phileas Fogg’s race around the world in eighty days. At stake is a prize of $1,000,000 for the competitor who reaches the most destinations and scores the most points. It is played out over a map of the USA and southern Canada marked with various cities connected by routes in different colours and of varying lengths.

At game’s start each player will receive a set of train pieces and some Destination Tickets. Each of these give two cities on the board that need to be connected, such as ‘New York to Seattle’ or ‘Duluth to Houston’. Completing these Destination Tickets will score a player points, but will lose him points if not completed. A player must keep one of the Destination Tickets he is given and can draw more throughout the game. He also receives four Train Cards. The Train Cards match the colour of the routes on the board and are used to claim routes on the board. For example, two four-space routes run between Denver and Kansas City, one in black, the other in orange. It would take four orange Train Cards to claim the orange route or four black ones to claim the black route. A Locomotive Card, which can be any colour, can be substituted in place of any of the cards. A player will score points for each route claimed and each route can only be claimed once.

On his turn, a player can do one of three things. He can draw two Train Cards, either face up or straight from the deck, or a single Locomotive Card; he can use Train Cards to claim a route; or he can draw new Destination Tickets. This sets up a dilemma for the player—does he take Train Tickets that he needs before a rival takes them? Does he claim a route before someone else does? If he takes new Destination Tickets can he complete them before the end of game?

The winner is the player who scores the most victory points, invariably because he has completed the most Destination Tickets and claimed the most routes. There is also an award for the Longest Route. Game play in Ticket to Ride is thus fairly simple, but challenging enough for the casual or family gamer. For the enthusiast, Ticket to Ride offers a number of strategies, such as attempting to claim as many long routes as possible or grabbing the short routes in order to block other players. Either way, Ticket to Ride is a gently competitive game that is easy to learn and easy to play.

It should be remember that what Ticket to Ride is not, is a train game. It has trains as a theme, but the game is about managing a player’s hand of Train Cards and collecting the right set of routes. That said, it can be seen as a stepping onto more complex train-themed games, for example, Ragnar Brothers’ Canalmania or Alderac Entertainment Group’s Trains. 

In the decade since its publication, Ticket to Ride has been supported with a family of core games and expansions. These enable gamers to play using dice rather than Train Cards or with new Destination Tickets, to play core games in Europe, Germany, and Scandinavia, and to take their trains onto maps set in Asia, India and Switzerland, Africa, and the Nederlands. The game has also been adapted to be played on PCs and tablets—both iOS and Android devices. This allows a player to enjoy the game by himself, against the computer or opponents around the world.

In 2014 Days of Wonder released Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition to celebrate the success of the game over the previous decade. Graphically, Ticket to Ride has been given a beautiful redesign and increased in size half again. This includes the size of the box, the map board, the cards, the train pieces, and the scoring markers. What will grab the gamer right out of the box is the board, because it is now in full colour with a colour background to the routes. The original map for Ticket to Ride was decidedly grey, but the map here is full of detail and geography, and the length of the spaces on each route is now a whole inch long!

Below the map, what will grab the gamer next are five colour tins—black, blue, brown, green, red. Each of these deep tins—labelled Black Powder Rail (black), Metropolitan Rapid Transit (blue), Dutch Flat Barrel Co. (brown), Hobo Caboose Central (green), Savannah, Florida & Circus Railway (red)—contains forty-eight sculpted, detailed plastic train pieces. These are not only visually appealing as they look fantastic when on the board, but they also bring a tactile physicality to the game. Similarly, the Train Cards have been given a major redesign. They are also increased in size to make them easier to handle and read, much in line with the Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 Expansion.

Notably, Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition includes not only the Destination Tickets from the original Ticket to Ride, but also those from Ticket to Ride: USA 1910. Together, the Destination Tickets from Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 implement three different variants in which to play Ticket to Ride. These are ‘1910’, ‘Big Cities’, and the ‘Mega Game’. The ‘1910’ variant simply replaces the Destination Tickets from Ticket to Ride with the ‘1910’ Destination Tickets and gives a thoroughly new mix of cities to connect. Instead of the Longest Route Bonus in Ticket to Ride, in the ‘1910’ variant, the Globetrotter Bonus is given for the most Destination Tickets completed. Each of the Destination Tickets in the ‘Big Cities’ variant is connected to one of eight cities—Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Seattle—which makes for a much more cutthroat game as the players compete to access the same connections. Lastly, in the ‘Mega Game’, all of the Destination Tickets are used, including those from both Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride: USA 1910, and both the Longest Route and the Globetrotter Bonuses are given out. 

Essentially, Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition negates the need to purchase Ticket to Ride: USA 1910—or at least it should have done. For unfortunately, there is a flaw at the heart of an otherwise beautifully done, pretty reprint. What the full colour rulebook, which includes the rules in several languages as well as in English, does not include are the rules for any of the ‘1910’, ‘Big Cities’, and the ‘Mega Game’ variants. This is a major omission, one that undermines the inclusion of the Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 in the Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition.

Another issue is with the train pieces. All except one set is easy to spot and that one is the Dutch Flat Barrel Co. pieces. The problem is that the tin for them is brown and the main colour for the pieces is also brown, but they are not brown in the game. They are meant to be yellow as in the original Ticket to Ride. Admittedly, each of the ‘brown’ train pieces has a yellow stripe down each side, but surely they could have just been yellow and another type of wagon created instead of the Dutch Flat Barrel Co. wagons?

Lastly, in the ‘Mega Game’ when the Longest Route and the Globetrotter Bonuses are given out, there is not a separate card for each. Instead, they are printed on the obverse sides of one card. The question is, what happens when one player is awarded the Longest Route Bonus and another the Globetrotter Bonus?

Make no mistake, Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition is fundamentally flawed and incomplete. Which flies in the face of Days of Wonder’s reputation for attention to detail. Nevertheless, Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition is still playable and the rules for each of the ‘1910’, ‘Big Cities’, and the ‘Mega Game’ variants are available online, but again this is not a satisfactory solution given that this is a highly expensive version of an existing game and a prestigious redesign of Days of Wonder’s flagship title. Ultimately, Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition is beautiful and impressive, both on the shelf with its black box and in play when the trains start being placed. Despite its flaws, Ticket to Ride is still a great game and the Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition is a pretty addition to any gaming collection.