The Ultimate RPG Game Master’s Guide

Title: The Ultimate RPG Game Master’s Guide

ISBN: 9781507221853

Price: $15.99

Publisher/Year: Adams Media, 2024

Author(s): James D’Amato

Rating: 3.5/5

The RPG hobby is in a radically different place in 2024 than it was when I first started playing. There are a lot more people that have been introduced to roleplaying games via actual plays that they watch for entertainment. That means there is much more of a market for a product that presents what it’s like to run an RPG before someone may have even settled on a game system or purchased their first rulebook.

The book touches on the following topics:

• Goals for GMs
• Dispelling Myths
• Safety and Conflict Resolution
• Game Formats
• Make Choices Important
• Session Zero
• Game Openings
• Plot
• Role-Play
• Player Characters
• NPCs
• Locations
• Encounters
• Bosses

Even though I’ve been doing this a while, the narrative is entertaining and engaging. The beginning of the book made me think that I was going to enjoy an entertainingly written refresher course, something that wasn’t presenting me with anything drastically different than I already knew, but good to revisit from time to time.

That was before I came to the sections marked “GM Tool Kit.” There are ten of these throughout the book, and include the following topics:

• That Guy–player archetypes that may be difficult for a new GM to deal with
• Zero Check-In–questions on various topics to revisit session zero topics
• Suggested Openings–a list of campaign opening scenes with pros and cons to their use
• Creating a Divination Deck–customized cards with symbols and meanings to reinforce themes you want in your game
• Counting to Twenty–an improv exercise designed to help people make room for others in conversation
• Flashback Cards–cards to act as prompts for players to fill in details about their past over time
• Death and Damage Chart–a system for tracking NPCs that measures how long they remain important in a campaign and what they can accomplish off screen
• Advanced Narration, Sense Beyond Sight–questions to help introduce additional senses to your descriptions
• Narrative Rewards Table–rewards that act as a payoff to the desires and actions of the players
• Big Bad Evil Moves–a system for tracking what the main campaign villain is accomplishing when not directly engaged with the PCs

My favorite GM advice books are ones that have actionable content. It’s always good to read well-reasoned advice, and to gain a new perspective, but I like having tools and procedures to work through. It helps me internalize what I’m reading, and the best tools make it easier to perform best practices in your game.

Not all these tools resonate with me, but I love the concept of all of them. The idea of the Death and Damage chart, for example, because it’s really cool to have a means of randomizing what’s going on with your NPCs. It’s a great way to make a campaign feel like a living thing. I’m just not sure all of the steps for resolving NPC actions feel intuitive. That said, I may need to play around with it to see if I get a feel for it over time.

On the other hand, I love the Big Bad Evil Moves system. It’s a great way to prod your imagination when it comes to having your campaign villains actively doing, instead of lying in wait. I wish I had had a tool like this for my 7th Sea game, for example, to work in tandem with the thinner rules that game provided on villain gambits.

The advice in this book is consistently good, but there are a few places where it really shines. One thing it does very well is avoiding absolutes. The text may tell you that it’s better to avoid X, but it will then explain why some people may like to do X, and what the major pitfalls with X are. For example, explaining while sometimes you want to engage in familiar tropes.

There is a great discussion of the pros and cons of larger or smaller groups, and what kind of campaigns work better with different group sizes. The book explains the benefits of breaking adventures into distinct scenes that have goals, as well as introducing action scenes that expand on multiple axes. The text is great at explaining the need for stakes and communicating with them and tying them to why the PCs are doing what they are doing.

The safety advice doesn’t sound perfunctory. Not only does it deal with why you want to have a safe table to keep the game going, but because it’s just good for human beings to feel comfortable and to push themselves when they want, and not when they need to react to the unexpected.

What was unexpected to me was the advice on actual play. This shouldn’t have surprised me, given that James D’Amato created the One-Shot Podcast. A lot of advice regarding new players and actual play revolves around telling people they don’t need to try do what Critical Role or Dimension20 does. Instead of dissuading new GMs from attempting an AP, the advices is actually simple and effective advice about understanding the scope of what you want to do, and the objective, making it clear that if you just want to have an AP to share with a handful of people, that’s perfectly valid.

Once this is established, there are some solid guidelines. This includes avoiding crosstalk, how much more information you need to provide in narration for people that aren’t actively playing the game with a character sheet in front of them, and being willing to engage with stories that go big.

The book is a fun read, which does a great job of introducing concepts to new GMs and breaking those concepts down into digestible bites. A lot of the negative spaces that someone might have from watching their favorite AP gets filled with solid definitions and advice. The GM Tool Kit sections make it much easier to put some of the advice into practice and provide a lot of value for long term GMs to help manage the background elements that a lot of GMs really want from their campaigns, to help make them feel more alive.

A few of the tools don’t feel as intuitive as I would like, but they may work better in actual practice than in reading about them. As a general critique of formats, the eBook is great for reference, and the audiobook is great for an initial read through, but it feels like the ideal format would natively incorporate both–but that’s a much bigger topic than just this one book. The advice moves from general and introductory towards more advanced techniques, and while the text is careful to say that much of this is optional, it’s possible that a new GM might get a little overwhelmed if they jump into using all of the tools they read about.

If you are an established GM that likes to touch base on your GMing skills by reading other perspectives and widening your toolkit, this will be a good purchase for you–as long as you pick the format that works best for how you read and reference things. If you are looking for a GM advice book for someone just entering the role of GM, that’s new to playing RPGs, this is a great introduction to the hobby.

Scalped Vol 6: The Gnawing

Title: Scalped Vol 6: The Gnawing

ISBN: 97810401227173

Price: $14.99

Publisher/Year: Vertigo, 2010

Artist: R.M Guera

Writer: Jason Aaron

Rating: 3.5/5

Granny Poor Bear: “The Cheyenne have a story. They say there’s a great big pole somewhere, and this pole is what holds up the Earth. And the great white Grandfather Beaver of the North is always gnawing at that pole. He’s been gnawing at it for a long, long time, and it’s already half chewed up. When the people do something to make him angry, the old Grandfather Beaver sets to gnawin’ faster. Pretty soon, he’ll have gnawed all the way through. And then that pole will topple and the whole world will crash into bottomless nothing. And that will be the end of of everything, the end of all ends… All I know is, sometimes when I first wake up, I feel like I can hear it.”

Falls Down: “Hear what?”

Granny: “The gnawing.”

If you’re applying the tone for your crime noir series set on the fictional Prairie Rose Reservation, this is how you do it. Ominous, foreboding and very, very dark. In High Lonesome, Asian American crime family the Hmongs sent the sadistic Mr Brass to ensure gangster/Sioux Chief Lincoln Red Crow respected their investment in his casino. Things got bad, really bad. Now a frustrated and conflicted Red Crow is about to make things a whole lot worse. Officer Falls Down is near to finding a killer, but does he realize how dangerous his quarry is? Special Agent Nitz is so desperate to nail Lincoln he’ll throw everyone to the wolves to do it, even Dashiell Bad Horse. The pressure of being undercover in Red Crow’s organization is piling up on Dash. Lincoln’s enforcer Shunka is getting suspicious and Dash’s toxic relationship with Carol Red Crow has imploded. Meanwhile his homicidal FBI agent Diesel Fillenworth is getting out of jail. Dash’s life is spinning dangerously out of control. When life and death is par for the course on the Rez, the only question is: Who dies first?

If you’re this far into Scalped then, like Matt Fraction in his intro, you’re hooked. It’s a brutal, beautiful and captivating series. Jason Aaron writes it that way. R.M. Guéra illustrates it that way. The result is an epic that gives you a sustained and vicious emotional beating. It unfolds slowly, The Gnawing is set only a few months into the saga. From that perspective, don’t jump in at this point. If you’re already working through the series, rest assured this is worth it. As co-creator Guéra always brings a sense of vibrancy and focus to his art. The subtle change of perspectives to target, a smoking pipe or an eye movement is captivating. Features growl with anger, gasp in desperation and shimmer with cold fear. The violence is visceral, although its effect lessened due to regular exposure to it. But when the final confrontation takes place, the intensity ramps up with startling and disturbing effect. It’s brutal stuff but never threatens to replace the plot, staying relevant to its themes. Coupled with Aaron’s brilliant dialogue, it hammers home.

When Aaron and Guera take the helm then Scalped is brilliant. The Gnawing is no different. It’s noir all the way down to its dark, puss-festered core. A desperate and tasty cliff-hanger leads us into Rez Blues.

EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (1e)

Title: EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (1e)

Code: EX2

TSR product code: 9073

Rules required: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition

Character levels: 9-12

Campaign setting: Generic / Greyhawk

Author(s): Gary Gygax

Artist(s): Timothy Truman

First published: 1983

DriveThruRPG

Rating: 4/5

The second part in the highly unusual EX series, penned by the master of D&D, Gary Gygax himself, it either took me a while to grok this style of absurd D&D or he seems to have established a rhythm that for whatever reason, works better than the first attempt. EX1 was very experimental, with lots of bizarre set pieces, strange occurrences and wacky NPCs, but at the same time there was something about it that made it not quite cohere. The Rabbit Archmage encounter is a good example. He pretends to be a statue and will use spells to escape…and then not much. There’s a rough polish to the Archmage’s house, some of his companions just attack etc. etc. Its good but it lacks a certain…polish?

By contrast EX2 is much more conventional, taking place in a mazed hex map in the forested lands beyond the Magic Mirror, but seems much more refined, as though it picked up where Dungeonland left off. Every encounter is new and refreshing and functions almost as a sort of mini-quest. The atmosphere of whimsical peril is sustained here also; Things are not what they seem! And danger lurks in every corner. Ever one to teach by example, Gygax illustrates how to use the myriad ridiculous NPCs to their fullest extent. Indeed if you are one of the unfortunates to have been saddled with a copy of Red & Pleasant Land and you have not yet cast it into the cleansing fires to burn away your secular sins, EX2 is a perfect illustration of how to handle a menagerie of quirky characters in a surrealist landscape so that they are wondrous, do not overstay their welcome and generate oh so important gameplay. But why would you, if Dungeonland and the Land Beyond the Magic Mirror can entertain in a fashion that is, frankly, superior?

Land Beyond the Magic Mirror is the logical follow up to Dungeonland, and is based on Carrol’s follow-up novel to Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass. As I am familiar with the contents of both novels only through osmosis, I am sure to miss the odd literary allusion, but most of it is recognizable; Tweedledee & Tweedledum, The Jabberwock, the Bandersnatch, ye Vorpal sworde, the Jub-jub bird and Humpty-dumpty. I could not, even after repeated inspection, locate the Tum-tum tree. The boxed text is back, but more restrained, flowing well and even, and carrying the GM through the encounters like a faithful hound.

As you enter this field of nearly one-half mile diameter, you see clouds of dust and flying vegetation coming from a spot near the center of the place. There two indeterminate creatures are engaged in a battle royal. Nearby stands an armored figure wearing a silvery crown. He is watching the battle, but as you come into the park he sees you and gestures to you to join him as spectators to the fray. However, just as he does so, the two monsters cease their struggle and walk calmly toward the crowned man. He, in turn, then waves them to him, as he reclines at ease beneath a tree.

The adventure opens in a low-key fashion, in the anachronistic house of the Archmage Murlynd, filled with all manner of wondrous bug collections, chemistry-lab equipment, stamps and books. There is something understated about the whole, the very careful concealment of treasure, the inclusion of little details that can be found for context’s sake alone as well as the friendly commandment by the Archmage to help yourself to what food you may, with the request that you don’t eat him out of the house, that makes this section work. There’s a talking clock, serious texts on horticulture and economy disguised by illusion (actually sports illustrated magazines and game rules). And then Gary puts a Groaning Spirit and a small magical armory in the attic. Ah, Gygax!

All of these encounters, more so in EX1, exemplify what dynamic encounters should look like. A path leads through a giant flowerbed with talking flowers that begin hurling insults at you. You notice their petals are made of gold and their eyes are gemstones. What do you do? A gigantic knight on an iron horse comes from the bushes, asking you “Do you serve Whitfield or Rosewood? Speak quickly or prepare to withstand my onslaught!” A walrus with legs and a carpenter ask you to dive for pearls because they can’t enter the Sea because of a Geas. And it resolves in a way that is surprising and awesome, and DEADLY to the uninitiated.

The lack of weird set-pieces and a reliance on more straightforward encounters comes across as a breath of fresh air. The single set-piece, a chessboard puzzle, suffers the fate of all Chessboard puzzles, that of interrupting the game’s natural flow without fully utilizing the complexity and potential of chess. The conceit is good, a checkboard field, with the dark squares ringed by hedges, and the inhabitants of each square have to be defeated in order to pass, but compared to some of the other encounters in EX2 it is too straightforward.

Characters frequently get whisked around the map via boats, giant rocs, secret passages and so on, which is a smart decision HERE. This is not a section where you are running a complicated expedition involving resource management, adverse weather effects, and careful timekeeping. GET TO THE ACTION. Even if its just straightforward combat the creatures are surprising and have unique abilities. Its easy to stat up a Jub Jub bird, yes, but who would think of giving it a feign death ability, so it leaps back up when the characters approach it, thinking it slain? Humpty dumpty sits atop a 100 foot wall, wide as the eye can see, insulting you, what the fuck do you do?

A trick that is underutilized in most of DnD (and the OSR!), that of putting some nonhostile but dangerous NPC in a place, and then loading him with clearly visible treasure, is used to spectacular effect here. What do you do? It is really no fun if the game consistently rewards you for being good boys and doing what the GM tells you without giving them the occasional risk/reward situation like this. This section, and probably the one preceding it, are an illustration of the proper use of these types of dynamic, interactive encounters. They are unpredictable but also written in a manner that will not condition the party in any particular direction, which requires subtlety. Being too trusting will result in doom as assuredly as always responding with violence will. Instead each situation must be weighed on its own merits, each move carefully deliberated.

The last encounter is a fitting piece de la resistance to the Land Beyond the Magic Mirror as a whole. A splendid palace, with two beautiful queens, and all manner of footmen and servants, having selected the characters to receive royal treatment anywhere in Whitfield and Roseveld therever after. If your players do not immediately get alarm bells at this dinner, you have been coddling them. The reveal is certain to be as chaotic and deadly as it is excellent.

Land Beyond the Magic Mirror tops it off with a voluminous appendix, introducing new spells not necessarily themed around Alice in Wonderland, but still very awesome (Murlynd’s Ogre & Murlynd’s Void, the highly awesome Phantom Steed and the Whispering Wind spell), some new creatures (The disturbing Eblis or pelican-men are my personal favorite) and some interesting new magic items that fit right in with the next of the DMG.

Part of the charm of Land Beyond the Magic Mirror is that it works equally well as a companion to EX1 as it does as a standalone adventure, in fact nothing in EX2 requires characters to have played, or even be aware of, EX1. Taken as a whole, the series is an interesting illustration of what a short expedition to an enchanted realm should look like; Wonderous, perilous, full of surprises, and filled to the brink with new creatures and treasure, where the rules are not quite the same, but not entirely abandoned either. A realm where Tweedlee and Tweedious are L 15 monks that can beat you to death or ask you to help them recover their possessions, or where you can trapped and drowned by giant clams. A realm of resentful vorpal swords, idiotic giant iron golem knights and all manner of strangeness.

The entire series merits a **** and deserves to be recognized as being exceptional in the annals of DnD, even if EX1 comes off to something of a rough start, but EX2 is simply delightful. Like any sweet, it tastes terrific when first indulged but will cause nausea if overindulged in. The level of 9-12 seems to have been the maturing point for D&D in Gygax’s conception; these are the levels at which you subject the players to truly formidable challenges, or else throw them some curveballs since they have now been fully immersed in the myriad possibilities of DnD. Beneath the silly trappings is an excellent, light-hearted and wonderfully lethal scenario.

Scalped Vol 5: High Lonesome

Title: Scalped Vol 5: High Lonesome

ISBN: 97810401224875

Price: $14.99

Publisher/Year: Vertigo, 2009

Artist: R.M Guera, Davide Furnò, Francesco Francavilla

Writer: Jason Aaron

Rating: 3.5/5

High Lonesome is a little different from previous books in the Scalped series. Comprising five interconnected short stories, Jason Aaron looks at characters new or little explored against the background of a planned heist. Dashiel “Dash” Bad Horse is in bad shape, barely holding it together. When he walks into the Crazy Horse Casino a mysterious hustler recognizes him. They’ve met before and he knows who and what Dash is. To stop him from blowing his cover, Dash has to help him pull off a robbery. The target is the Crazy Horse Casino. The owner is the Dash’s boss, the brutal and unforgiving Red Crow.

Three artists work on High Lonesome. Series regular R.M. Guéra has yet to falter, his gritty and graphic illustrations being a perfect match for the tone of the scripts, and it proves no different here. ‘This Then is the Rez’ opens with a brilliant history of the Lakota Sioux, short but very powerful. Guéra’s rendering of Custer’s Last Stand is bold, violent and memorable. Back in the present day the cons performed by our mysterious hustler are awe inspiring, a real darkness lurking underneath. Likewise Guéra excels on ‘I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive’, Officer Falls Down investigating a murder amidst a swirl of anger and growing hopelessness. In ‘Rock Bottom, Pop.1’ Dash’s physical state is visible, the violence that ensues visceral and well drawn.

Aaron takes another look at Britt “Diesel Engine” Fillenworth, a rogue element last seen in Dead Mothers. Regular stand-in artist Davide Furnò returns on ‘Been Down So Long That It Looks Like Up To Me’. Disappointingly it isn’t anywhere near his best work on Scalped, looking like filler pages. Aaron’s writing is pretty darn good, but  the art fails to capture the mood. Furnò redeems himself with childhood scenes, capturing innocence lost so beautifully and it almost makes up for the inconsistency. Aaron finally lets us in to why FBI Agent Nitz is obsessed with taking down crime boss Red Crow as Francesco Francavilla brings an old school pulp feeling to ‘The Ballad of Baylor Earl Nitz’. It really helps breed a deeper dislike for Nitz, up to now only seen briefly. For the settings the style works well but lacks the emotional heft Guéra brings to the series.

Jason Aaron’s writing is the real winner here, weaving clever twists, his characters varyingly despicable or appealing. The scenario is clever, a strong Western Noir sense to it, especially in the clever gunfights. It’s a pity that High Lonesome is let down by artwork that isn’t poor per se, just below the usual standard. It’s still good, with some great character explorations, teasing us with revelations we have been pondering on since it all started in Indian Country. Miss this and you’ll still miss out.

EX1 Dungeonland (1e)

Title: EX1 Dungeonland (1e)

Code: EX1

TSR product code: 9072

Rules required: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition

Character levels: 9 - 12

Campaign setting: Generic / Greyhawk

Author(s): Gary Gygax

Artist(s): Timothy Truman

First published 1983

DriveThruRPG

Rating: 4/5

Dungeonland is subtitled "An Adventure In A Wondrous Place For Character Levels 9-12." The introduction explains that this was original conceived of and executed as a Greyhawk Castle dungeon sub-level. In a nutshell, it's "D&D characters meet and kill characters from Alice in Wonderland."

When it comes to expectations, you can play off them with a twist, or you can serve them straight up. Dungeonland is mostly the latter. It is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, only with (almost) everything being a hostile monster encounter. No Alice, but all of the beings she encounters in the Lewis Carroll story show up and attempt to inflict violence on those they encounter. Mock turtle? Mock dragon-turtle. Cheshire Cat? Magical smilodon. Mad Hatter? Throws random lethal headgear like a warped Oddjob. Baby that becomes a pig? Wereboar. To quote the Afterword, "This module is not, by any stretch of the imagination, aimed at the player or DM who takes himself (and the game) too seriously."

Most of it is pretty obvious, and the only real cleverness is the original concept and how appropriately lethal the encounters are. But like I said, it's expectations served up with the twist being lethality. The adventure is straight-up hack-and-slash, much like G1-3 Against The Giants. Or a lot of early D&D and AD&D adventures, really - a place with monsters to kill, puzzles to solve, and treasure to find.

It features some interesting elements, including a miniaturized adventuring area, complete with a chance to get some tiny magic items to use in it (if you recognize the chance, that is.) You get to explore the gardens, woods, and houses of Wonderland, and deal with their now-lethal inhabitants. There are magical pools and fountains, beneficial and hostile plants, a senile arch-mage, odd distortions of space, and other things that make Dungeonland a really interesting environment. It's nonsensical but not illogical - more spurious logic than random nonsense. That makes it possible for the players to deal with the environment with some caution (they know it's all weird) yet for it to contain all sorts of oddness.

The module screams out for, and seems to expect, meta-gaming. Not the "I have 3 HP left!" kind but the "I read this book so I know the flamingos are for croquet!" kind. Like I said above, it's about playing on the expectations. It's Wonderland gone lethal and violence is an acceptable solution, and that's the core of it. You want the players to recognize things and use what they know, or it loses its charm, like a parody of something you'd never seen in the original.

The NPCs are detailed well enough that they are easy to play and the GM gets enough understanding of what they're for and what they'll do. There is even an in-context amusing Gygaxian admonition - "Play the King with an 18 intelligence, please!") Some of the Wonderland oddness is here, too - some foes can be fought, disengaged from, and then encountered in a friendly setting later - the past is the past in Dungeonland. Playing up that oddness is encouraged and (in my experience) a good idea.

There is one especially scripted bit - a encounter in the Palace with royalty and a trial that's going on. It's not a terrible railroad, in that it just makes the whole thing seem odd. The PCs have a chance to get caught up in something odd that isn't of their own making. Violence or roleplaying can solve this puzzle, too - the violence angle is just a little dangerous even for the levels of PCs involved.

I forgot to add that this was the first appearance of the executioner's hood and the hangman tree, both of which later appeared in Monster Manual II. It also marked the appearance of the hat of disguise and deck of illusions, both which made it into Unearthed Arcana.

As modules go, this is pretty much straightforward hack-and-slash. Not a lot of depth.

But I found running it, the recognition the players bring to the table makes it a lot of fun. Rampaging through Wonderland, er, Dungeonland, killing off major characters they know at least a little bit since childhood, has a lot of good points. The baggage that Alice in Wonderland brings along with it, and the expectations the players bring to it, make for a fun adventure.

In other words, it reads like flat hack-and-slash but plays with a lot of enjoyment and some depth because of the source material. You don't necessarily need to add depth to a setting if the players bring their own depth.

At the time, the idea of going Gumby-like into a book but then fighting all of the characters must have seemed especially new and shiny. It was when I encountered EX1 as a teen, too.

Overall: It's a hack-and-slash traipse through Wonderland turned into a lethal dungeon. It's neither more nor less than that, but fun for all of that. Recommended if you like Alice in Wonderland and killing major literary characters with swords.

Scalped Vol 4: The Gravel in your Guts

Title: Scalped Vol 4: The Gravel in your Guts

ISBN: 97810401221799

Price: $14.99

Publisher/Year: Vertigo, 2009

Artist: R.M Guera, Davide Furnò

Writer: Jason Aaron

Rating: 3.5/5

Scalped is noir through and through. The demise of Jason Aaron’s characters is inevitable. Noir master Ed Brubaker says this in his intro: “To me that is the heart of what noir is, inevitability. Noir is the entropy to society’s order, the inevitable decay of us all.” Reading Scalped is watching the slow decay of a man, of a woman, of a nation right in front of you. You’re captivated by their tragic decline but powerless to do anything about it. Dashiell Bad Horse, Lincoln Red Crow, Carol and others have the power to affect change but they don’t use it. You cheer them on to succeed, yet perversely watch as they descend into rot.

The Prairie Rose Indian Reservation is the designated homeland of the Oglala Sioux. Its people struggle to rediscover their identity, embracing the new yet holding to the old ways. Lincoln Red Crow runs the crime and the Crazy Horse Casino, and his history with FBI Agent Nitz has provoked a bitter enmity lasting years. To take Red Crow down, Nitz has recruited Prairie Rose’s prodigal son Dashiell “Dash” Bad Horse (see Indian Country). Dash hates the Rez and the pressure of being undercover, and personal events are taking their toll on him. He has found sexual refuge with Carol, Red Crow’s estranged daughter, yet her path is as dark as his, her bad habits rubbing off on Dash in the worst way. ‘Boudoir Stomp’ studies this relationship, flashbacks explaining Carol’s enmity with her father. It’s illustrated by Davide Furnò with a slightly more polished appearance that hampers the story a little, not being quite gritty enough. Where it is superb is capturing tender moments. Hope and love could blossom, but things are left unsaid. It’s well scripted by Aaron, Furnò’s art nailing the slow decay by agony and grief.

Title story ‘The Gravel in Your Guts’ focuses more on Dino Poor Bear. Introduced over the last three volumes, he’s a young man trying to make a better life for himself and his daughter. He takes a job at the Crazy Horse Casino, a project that Red Crow has built with the help of Asian crime family the Hmong. They’ve sent the psychopathic Mr Brass to ensure things run smoothly, but instead things are escalating beyond control. Brass is getting carried away and Red Crow has to deal with it. Complicating matters, shaman Granny Poor Bear sets him a challenge: perform an ancient funeral rite. Do it well and find redemption. Fail and he dooms not only his soul but Gina Bad Horse’s too.

R.M. Guéra’s art is ideal for the hard and brutal action. Shadows dominate as life falls apart and violence escalates. It’s graphic, and desperation permeates Red Crow and Dino, and there isn’t a more sadistic little bastard than the terrifying Mr Brass. Aaron fires on all cylinders, his use of flashback proving a powerful mood enhancer. Angst, desperation, pain, anger and wrath infuse the pages, Aaron making you feel and taste it. It’s powerful storytelling that hasn’t lost any of its oomph a decade on.

T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil (1e)

Title: T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil (1e)

Code:T1–4

TSR product code: 9147

Rules required: 1st Ed AD&D

Character levels: 1–8

Campaign setting: Greyhawk

Author(s): Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer

Artist(s): Jeff Butler, Clyde Caldwell, Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, Dave A. Trampier

First published: 1985

DriveThruRPG

Rating: 4/5

Grab your sword, your brothers in arms, and come with me now to a time of legends as we go down to the temple, the Temple of Elemental Evil!

A sinister force, long thought destroyed, stirs from the black hole that spawned it. Like an ebony darkness it prowls the land and safety is but an illusion, for it watches from every shadow and ponders possibilities.

This module holds deep and dangerous memories for me, six year after the release of The Village of Hommlet we were led to this hell hole on Greyhawk. Total characters lost to this place another six 1st and 2nd level PC's. So personally I have strong feelings about this module. I loved this adventure in the 80's and constantly used the Village of Homlet, Nulb and the Wild Coast Surrounds of Greyhawk all through the 90's.

Finally I've read through this one hundred & twenty eight page monster in two days and its been a pretty interesting ride to say the least. The Temple of Elemental Evil is a monster of a campaign written by by Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer Its also one of the most polarizing modules I've ever run across, folks argue over it constantly.

This module of pulpy sword and sorcery goodness was created under the gaze of the Blume brothers watch at TSR in 1985. This was one of the modules released in the super format "The 128-page book was 2 to 4 times the size of any of TSR's adventures to date, and it also included a 16-page map book that a GM could use to easily cross-reference locations with details. The format would continue to be used in the years afterward for TSR's most prestigious adventure releases." according to the blurb from D&D Classic's website. Shrugs, basically Temple of Elemental Evil dove tails into Greyhawk adventure path, which continues in two more super modules, A1-4: Scourge of the Slave Lords (1986) and GDQ1-7: Queen of the Spiders (1986). This can be both a bane or boon to the dungeon master because it affectingly hamstrings the dungeon master into those paths unless you ignore them in mid campaign mode.

The module is considered by many to be one of the greatest Greyhawk adventures ever released and possibly one of the most fun.  Alright enough of the introduction stuff, so you know I've got experience with this bad boy and a bit of post player syndrome with this mega dungeon location in Greyhawk's history. In fact its got such a huge chunk of history that Wiki has one of the better break downs for it; "

The temple referenced in the module's title is an unholy structure located in the central Flanaess not far from the city-state of Verbobonc. In 566 CY, forces of evil from Dyvers or the Wild Coast constructed a small chapel outside the nearby village of Nulb. The chapel was quickly built into a stone temple from which bandits and evil humanoids began to operate with increasing frequency.

In 569 CY, a combined force was sent to destroy the Temple and put an end to the marauding. The army included regular forces from the human kingdoms of Furyondy and Veluna, dwarves from the Lortmil Mountains, gnomes from the Kron Hills, and elven archers and spearmen.

This allied army clashed with a horde of evil men and humanoids, including orcs, ogres and gnolls, at the Battle of Emridy Meadows. Men-at-arms from Furyondy and Veluna united with dwarves from the Lortmils, gnomes from the Kron Hills, and an army of elven archers to face the threat of the Horde of Elemental Evil, consisting largely of savage humanoids such as orcs, ogres, and gnolls. The arrival of the elves from the shadows of the Gnarley Forest turned the tide of battle, trapping the savage humanoids against a bend in the Velverdyva where they were routed and slaughtered.

After dispersing the Horde of Elemental Evil, the allied forces laid siege to the Temple of Elemental Evil itself, defeating it within a fortnight. Spellcasters loyal to the goodly army cooperated on a spell of sealing that bound the demoness Zuggtmoy (a major instigator in the Horde of Elemental Evil) to some of the deepest chambers in the castle's dungeons.

At some point in this battle, Serten, cleric of Saint Cuthbert and member of the Citadel of Eight, was slain. The Citadel was notable for its absence at this pivotal moment in the history of the Flanaess, and their failure to take part in the Battle of Emridy Meadows contributed to the group's decline and eventual disbandment.

The forces of good were victorious and the Horde of Elemental Evil was scattered. The Temple was then besieged and fell within two weeks, although a few of its leaders managed to escape.

The site itself remained, however, and over the following decade rumors of evil presence there persisted. The Viscount of Verbobonc and the Archcleric of Veluna became increasingly concerned, and cooperated to build a small castle outside the Village of Hommlet to guard against the possibility of the Temple rising again.

For the next five years, Hommlet gained in wealth thanks to adventurers who came to the area seeking out remnants of evil to slay. Things quieted down for another four years as the area returned to peace and normalcy, but in 578 CY evil began to stir again, with groups of bandits riding the roads. In 579 CY, the events in the T1-4 module occur." That's ton of history to throw into a campaign of your own design or Hyperborea or is it? Well over the years I've talked with friends about doing exactly this and the thought is to throw the temple inland in Hyperborea. The temple itself is a multi dimensional location. There are different versions of the village of Hommlet and because of the nature of the village's stats, this is easily accomplished.

There are three reasons to customize the Temple of Elemental Evil :

• There are factions that have lots of uses outside of the temple's setting and they're perfect foils for a sword and sorcery campaign. 
• This is too good of a setting to leave moldering in the mists of time on a shelf and it begs to be played and modified for your own games. 
• The Temple is a pivotal game adventure and can be used to enhance your own sword and sorcery games! Right now!  

Right off the bat there are several small side issues running this module, many of the high level 'good guy' NPC's aren't interested in helping the PC's. This kinda led to a bit of the Marvel Conan feel to running T1-4. The PC's are on their own and the powers of good are being dicks about the affair after all they can take care of the temple's evil and don't need the PC's help at all. Thieves take note about this. This adventure's dungeons can and will grind PC's into paste if they're not very, very careful.

Dungeon Master for Dummies listed The Temple of Elemental Evil as one of the ten best classic adventures, calling it "the grandfather of all huge dungeon crawls" and essentially it is. Lawrence Schick, in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds, says of The Temple of Elemental Evil, "If you like huge classic dungeon crawls, this is probably the best of the lot."  He and I rarely agree with one another but on this module I do agree with him.  As for the placement of the temple in a Dark Albion or dark mythic Europe for something like Lamentations of the Flame Princess, I would place the temple near the borders of France or Spain. The temple's evil in the past might have sparked the entire witchcraft panic of the thirteen and fourteen hundreds. The temple's dungeons are deep, abiding and very, very, dangerous for parties. Another thing is to make sure you use T1 the Village of Hommlet for a base for the PC's separate from T1-4. I'm sorry AD&D purists but that's my personal opinion.  T1-4 takes players PC's from levels one through eight but man that's a struggle and its meant to be.

Any campaign relies on the strengths of its NPC's and the archetypes that they represent, the Temple of Elemental Evil presents some very weird and twisted portraits of evil that should be brought to the forefront of running this mega adventure with a retroclone system such as AS&SH. The temple's cult should be encountered far and wide within the bounds of Hyperborea and should never be underestimated by PC's which is one of the problems should they actually make it through T1-4. Pull the cults out of Temple of Elemental Evil and flesh them out for your own version of said cults, make sure at least three different NPC's survive the events of the Temple to spread the evil and let it rise again.

Focusing on the dungeons themselves, I'm not going to go into too much details on the setting material and inner traps nor the methodology of the design of the dungeons of Elemental Evil. There are three simple reasons for this; one I have players who read this blog, two I don't really want to spoil any of the surprises in this mega module and three there's potential for lots of side adventures when it comes to Temple of Elemental Evil. That being said I'd like to take the time and whip around back to the moat house of Hommlet. This module's cults are not focused on the elements as you know them but the elements of Chaos and horror in equal measure. It illustrates how factions who hate each other came come together with a common goal in mind. Even coming from different directions of the same eight arrows of Chaos itself.

A big problem as I see with using this module with Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea is the way that the monsters in AD&D first edition are portrayed as almost walk on monsters and they're dovetailed into the setting itself or is this really a problem? Well, if we look below the surface of the astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers game  then we see that the orcs and non humanoid races are tied into the forces of Chaos as well. To bring it back around a place like the Temple of Elemental Evil might actually be part of the source of such evil. Think about it for a second, in sword & sorcery books of the Thirties thru  Sixties and into the Eighties adventure settings were always the source of tainted evil. So is it true with the Temple of Elemental Evil itself. A place with that much history is like one big toxic waste dump of foulness in a campaign setting.

The Temple of Elemental Evil is as vital a mini campaign setting today as it was when it first hit the stands back in Eighty Five if you as a DM want it too be. There are going to be many, many detractors and naysayers but once again you are your own OSR. If you and your players are excited by the adventures that you are running at your table then your doing it right in my opinion. There are issues with T1-4 but its a fun adventure setting even if it marks a time of strife and a different direction for TSR back in the far forgotten days of yore. Ultimately this was and is one of the classics and one that you should give a whirl perhaps over the holidays.