Where Are We?

by on August 10, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: RPGs

The second Avatar trilogy module came out about a month after FRE1 Shadowdale, and naturally picks up right from the end of that. The party is imprisoned in Shadowdale and accused of murdering Elminster (don’t worry, he’s back as an excessively annoying deus ex machina by the end of the module).

It of course starts with a needed repeat the general information and plot of the first module, including the magical chaos tables, as magic users are still as much a danger to themselves as anyone else. Also, as before it’s a heavy-handed railroad, though there’s a bit more lore this time. The big change that the entire cast from the novels are now important to the module. FRE1 only used Midnight, with the others as backup for small parties. Now they’re all used to move the plot forward. Without the players getting to interfere. Notably, each chapter has “offstage events” to tell the DM what’s going on away from the tracks he’s in charge of; this is nice as it lets DM have these events in mind when these other threads catch up to the players later.

Back to our plot, things start very poorly, with all of Shadowdale baying for the PC’s blood, leading to a kangaroo trial of the PC’s being guilty for being on the scene and a lack of other available suspects. It would be better if the text pointed up that emotions are running high, and everyone is being carried away on a wave of hysteria, including Mourngrym, who should frankly know better. Something about how any explanations the characters try to give get shouted down and “refuted” by emotion. (Also, just how is a party in the 5-8 level region supposed to have killed 26th level Elminster and cleanly disposed of the body….) But no.

So the second real event of the module is two of the novel NPCs helping spring the characters before they can be executed in the morning, and they (hopefully) flee the area on boat going down the Ashaba River; and this trip then consumes too much of the module. Railroading is in full force here, all attempts at alternate plans the PCs may have are smashed away. Now, fleeing by boat is about as logical an idea as there is going to be, since the speed of travel won’t be bad, and the river won’t get tired. I’d think with a bit more work (and page count, admittedly) you could schedule out just how the Shadowdale militia tries to cover the various places the PCs could head for, how long it’d take for the militia to get there ect, and set up a game of cat-and-mouse for this part. Past the immediate ‘get out’ motivation, it is assumed the party (prodded by Midnight, if nothing else) will be hunting the Tablets of Fate, one of which is thought to be in the city of Tantras.

Wait, where?

Tantras is a town on the east shore of the Dragon Reach, just shown on the detailed maps of the original grey box. But there is no write up of the place in the Cyclopedia of the Realms at all. Compared to the instantly-recognizable locales of Shadowdale and Waterdeep for the other parts, why here? Well, a partial answer is that this part was originally meant to go to the city of Ravensgate, just down the coast, but that had just been handed over to the RPGA for development, and wrecking it would be a no-no. That said, while Ravensgate is larger… it also has no entry in the Cyclopedia so it still doesn’t fit with the other two locales. Admittedly, no other cities (as opposed to regions/countries) had any ‘name recognition’ at this point.

To get there, the general idea is the party should go down the river to the port of Scardale, and then cross the Dragon Reach. And despite all the railroading, don’t worry about if they go there, because some high-power assassins show up on pegasi, and there is a forced capture of the party. The assassins then take the party to… Scardale. So the party is imprisoned again, and aided in a jailbreak again, and sneak around an occupied town looking for a way out. (Looking for a way in—to get at a ship—would have also been a good direction. Just sayin’.)

At the end of Shadowdale Bane was “killed”, and now he’s taken over Fzoul Chembryl of the Zhentarim, and is back to plan A: recover the Tablet of Fate he hid in the Temple of Torm in Tantras. To do this, he (as the God of Assassins) kills every assassin in the Realms to power himself up into a kaiju and go stomping off to Tantras. (This is part of the point of the series, as there were to be no assassins in 2e, and instead of just waiting for PHBR2 The Complete Thief’s Handbook next January—with an assassin kit—TSR killed them; in the Forgotten Realms at least. No mention of what to do in the case of one of the PCs being an assassin is made….)

Torm’s avatar is in Tantras, and has his followers power him up for big kaiju fight in the bay (according to the wiki, this kills Torm’s followers, but I didn’t note this being mentioned in the module). Leaving the party to sneak into his temple and find the Tablet of Fate, and then go ring an ancient bell to put up a barrier around the town just as the two kaiju destroy each other in a massive explosion (was TSR getting summer blockbuster envy?).

There’s about two thirds of a page of suggestions on what to do next. The end of it suggests a number of threats to Tantras and how the party could work to keep Tantras an island of stability during the Time of Troubles. Frankly, that sounds more interesting; there’s a lot of work a team of intermediate-level adventurers could do without being bludgeoned onto the tracks every step of the way.

Lore-wise, there’s more here than in Shadowdale. A few locations along the Ashaba river are described, including the Pool of Yeven (marked on the original maps, but given no entry in Cyclopedia of the Realms) which gets some background that I would take notes on for possible use in a regular campaign. We get a map of the Temple of Torm in Tantras, which isn’t a great design, but it will work for the module, and gives an idea of more normal times in it. Two new spells (one unique to Elminster, but it is neat), three new magic items, and one new monster. The poster sheet has a full 3D map of the Tower of Ashaba, and maps of Scardale, Ashabanford, and Tantras (the former two got a column the Cyclopedia, but no maps). They should probably have indicated the limit of the barrier that protects Tantras from being blown away.

Finally, a major problem with this series is alluded to in my previous review, but I only realized while writing this that what was happening is that TSR was in “NO SPOILERS!” mode with DMs here. If elements of the overall plot were not introduced in the equivalent novel, they weren’t revealed in the modules either. This means that a DM running these as they came out had to run them blind (I think the novels were generally simultaneous releases); no knowledge of the overall plot, who’s important, and the actual scheme of the bad guys is given. In Shadowdale, we get told the effects of the Time of Troubles, that the Tablets of Fate were stolen (which list what the jobs of all the gods are; still no idea if you could sneak in some “corrections”, or if it mystically does it automatically, or why there isn’t a backup). Bane is the bad guy, but we don’t find out until Tantras that yes, he did steal them, instead of just taking advantage of the chaos. And we still don’t know the plan. Did he expect Ao to toss everyone to the mortal realms? Is he trying to “edit” the tablets? What’s his goal beyond being an evil bad guy?

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The Circus of Dr. Lao

by on August 6, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This is a bit complicated.

First, at a hundred pages (plus an appendix that really is part of the novel) this is pretty much in novella territory. Really though, it’s a jumble of short stories with the same inciting event.

This is contemporary fantasy (keep in mind, “contemporary” when it was written was 1935), while the Hollywood adaptation The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao was shifted to western/fantasy. (Given everything, it was probably a lot easier to do it as a western than set in 1935 for ’60s Hollywood….) The movie adds an overall plot to tie things together, and sadly, you see all the stitches of the graft clearly, as it feels foreign to a lot of the other incidents that come from the book. But, I’m a very plot-centric person, so I actually do appreciate that attempt.

That makes this a really hard book to talk about. Dr. Lao’s circus arrives, seemingly out of nowhere, in a small Arizona town, various people decide to visit this small show, and react to what they encounter there. That’s nearly the entire book. The secret is what all those interactions are, and frankly, few of them have any kind of closure, making much of the book to feel like jumbled incidents.

It does seem like Finney had a few things to say, but I’m not entirely sure what, though much revolves around the inability to recognize the fantastic when it comes knocking on your door. A screed against a lack of sense of wonder in this materialistic world.

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Dungeons & Sorcery Spells 15

by on August 2, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: GURPS

Here’s the fifteenth set of spells for Dungeons & Sorcery. The main classic spell this time is Dimension Door, but there’s a number of good ones here.

Confusion (SC)
Enchantment, Somatic, Verbal, Area (Fixed)
53 points + 17.5 per level
Casting Time: 4 seconds
Casting Roll: Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim
Range: 100 yards
Duration: Special

This spell causes everyone in the target area to potentially become confused. This only works on sentient beings, which have to take a Fright Check with effects from a failure going to the confusion results (P85).

Magic resistance grants a bonus to the check, and every time a victim is subject to this spell within a day grants a +1 to the roll. Anyone who passes a Check is immune to this spell for the next hour. Extra levels of the spell penalize the roll by –1.

Terror (Confusion; Accessibility, Only On Sentient Beings, –10%; Area Effect, 4 yards, +100%; Ranged, +40%; Requires Gestures, –10%; Requires Magic Words, –⁠10%; Sorcery, –15%; Takes Extra Time, x4, –20%) [1.75×30]. Additional levels add –1 to the Fright Check [1.75×10].
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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The Hunters of Vermin

by on July 29, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The second prequel novella is sadly the last so far. It’s obvious there should be a third story, but after nine years, all we have is an independent side story, so I am worried that we will never get the final(?) story here, much less the sequel to the original set of stories.

I can imagine a number of problems that may have led to this situation. But, I’ll stick with what’s in front of me.

Hunter of Vermin is a direct sequel to Deadly Nightshade, and starts with the usual action-oriented death-defying antics.

This is also the start of things going a bit wrong from my point of view. Max isn’t really in charge of his destiny here, and it’s fairly obvious this is a test by the Vaach (the latest in a series). Max is doing everything he can for himself, but is also just getting pushed around by aliens with extremely high levels of technology.

The worst part is that while Honsinger is generally on the wordy side, and it’s turned up to twelve here. Max’s internal thoughts are the bulk of the content, because for much of the novella there’s no one else around, and they get interminable in many places. The Vaach themselves, while saying that humans talk too much spend way too many words to say so. There’s another alien who is extremely loquacious, and the word count goes up even further, but this part is much more entertaining, and more enjoyable.

Finally, for me, I signed up for military SF featuring ship-to-ship battles, and this moves to ground pounding, which I found I didn’t appreciate nearly as much. If you’ve been reading Honsinger’s military SF space operas and enjoying them, keep going, but this is the weakest of the stories so far, and I really hope we get to see more of Max as an adult, in charge of a full destroyer again, and I recommend the original three far more than these prequels.

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Off-Panel Dragon

by on July 23, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Computer games

This is the eleventh in a series of reviews looking at the evolution of Crusader Kings II. See the previous reviews here:
Crusader Kings II: The Second Crusade
The Old Gods: That Old-Time Religion
Sons of Abraham: A Little of Everything
Rajas of India: My Elephant for a Kingdom
Charlemagne: Back in Time
Way of Life: The Short Way
Horse Lords: For the Horde
Conclave: Lords of the Realm
The Reaper’s Due: Crusader Kings: Pandemic
Monks and Mystics: Secret Mystic

Over half a year after the previous expansion, CK II returned with yet more scope extension. This time the game would look at the subject of China (which had recently gotten a look from the EU IV team in Mandate of Heaven). Jade Dragon was announced on August 24, 2017, and released on November 16, alongside patch 2.8.

Tibet

While China stayed off-map, Tibet was already in the area of the current map, but was largely unusuable wasteland. This was now developed into a playable region.

The area is generally under monastic feudal government, with four related cultures. Two of the smaller cultures can have Absolute Cognatic inheritance, allowing female rulers. Most of the area is Buddhist, But Bön is a defensive pagan religion, and there’s a couple of reasonably powerful rulers in the 867 start for that religion (the rest of the time, there is a dominant Buddhist empire).

The rulers of the area are generally playable with the Jade Dragon expansion, or with either The Old Gods or Rajas of India (depending on religion). It’s a fairly stable region, with tough terrain… and direct access to one branch of the Silk Road.

China

The main goal was for the eastern edge of the map to feel like China is close and involved with affairs on the map. Considering that China was generally unified in ways the rest of Eurasia wasn’t during this period, I think not directly representing China was the best option. It would distort the game way too much to accurately represent what was going on there while not losing the feel for Europe, and the existing Holy Roman Emperor already causes problems by being too capable.

At the personal/realm level, the main interaction is grace. Imperial grace is akin to the Pope’s opinion of Catholic characters, as it can be used to ask for favors. However, it is tracked by dynasty, instead of personal opinion, so the death of the Emperor won’t remove accumulated grace, but civil wars can cause a change of dynasty, which will.

Of course, the easiest way to gain grace is to become a tributary of China. But that requires giving up much of your income and levy reinforcement, as well as being called into wars. On the other hand, you can request military support from China if you are attacked.

Past that, you can send various gifts to the emperor, who will have things he likes and dislikes. In addition to the obvious money, you can send eunuchs and concubines, and in special circumstances, physicians, commanders, or famine relief.

Getting favors tends to be expensive, so getting anything out of deals with China will take a while. At the high end, you can get the Emperor to dismantle a rival state (after a war, of course), or get an imperial marriage, but the more modest requests are guarantees of peace with China, and medical help.

All of this depends on China being stable (which is most of the time). Random events can send China into civil war, unrest, famine, and other problems, or start a golden age. Usually, when times are tough, China will be “open” with the silk routes operating normally. When times are good, China can go expansionist, trying to increase the on-map holdings of the Western Protectorate. And at times, China will close the borders, going isolationist, and closing down the Silk Road completely.

On the other hand, someone on the extreme east side of the map can go off map to trouble China itself. This can be merely to try to force the Silk Road open, but you can pillage or try to invade. I can’t say I’m anywhere near ambitious or skilled enough to give it a try, as China will spawn bigger and better armies than any other event in the game (actually, the Aztecs from Sunset Invasion can have bigger armies, but they have low quality, while China will have a high quality army).

Overall, it all makes sense, but I do find there are still odd problems. In my experience, even an open China is too likely to go after odd targets, like southern India. Chinese concerns were generally ruled by the dangers of neighboring tribes, and I don’t know of any serious desires to extend control along sea lanes, and certainly not past the (off-map) SE Asia area, so the AI needs reigning in here.

Religion

Bön starts as an organized defensive pagan religion, but borrows mechanics from the Indian Dharmic religions, and a couple of other places. Like most pagans, their power wanes throughout the timeline, though some provinces stay Bön during the entire period.

As well, a new heresy was added to Zoroastrianism, Khurmazta. It is also more eastern in flavor, with a patron deity mechanic akin to Hindus.

And Taoism was added to the game, with such characters being playable with either Jade Dragon or Rajas of India. Taoist realms tend to be stable, with no ‘short reign’ penalties, and an automatic +2 to stewardship to encourage larger demesnes. On the other hand, they are more restricted on declaring war. Also, China is usually Han and Taoist, and a ruler who is also both gets a bonus to imperial grace.

Trade

The Silk Road was enhanced in the patch. First the number of different routes was enhanced, more looking at what is known of overall major trade patterns, rather than just the famous route through the steppes.

Many of the provinces trade flows through can now have trade posts built. This is the same secondary holding as introduced in The Republic, but anyone who holds the proper provinces can build them.

All Silk Road provinces still get a status that regulates the value of trade, and it is more responsive now. Between the revamped mechanics and new trade posts, life on the Silk Road can be very profitable, but there is more to do than before.

To War

There were a number of changes to warfare in the patch. First, sieges were tweaked to go faster overall, but fort levels became more important (which means late game sieges drag out to the same time scale as before). Also, the ‘ticking warscore’ for a successful attacker was increased.

It was also decided to let just about anyone always go to war over a neighboring county-level title with the expansion. The new “border dispute” causus belli doesn’t completely replace the old method of fabricating claims, as there is a high up front cost to do it. It also causes a relationship penalty with all the members of the religion on both sides of the war, so declaring war on (say) a fellow Catholic will cause quite the relations hit with all other Catholic rulers.

Conclusion

Various properties have found, often after the fact, that it can be more effective to keep certain things permanently off-screen. And China is an excellent choice for that effect.

At the same time, China should have a massive effect on regions that are on the map, and the expansion does just that. The expansion comes with four new rules, allowing the new causus belli and setting the requirements for Chinese interactions.

Not mentioned in the review is the fact that Paradox also reworked the map of Persia and Arabia for this patch. I don’t know those areas well, but they were much better developed, and helped play in that area as well.

Overall, its a much-needed addition to CK II, though not worth a lot to people who stick with the game’s Western European roots. Its kind of a cross between an expansion in scope, and event package, and recommended to anyone playing in the eastern half of the map just to make thing feel more “real”.

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