OSR Commentary on Frazetta & Bakshi's 'Fire & Ice' film from 1983 As Inspiration For Your Old School Campaigns

" At the end of the ice age, an evil queen and her son are set on conquering the world using magic and warriors. The lone survivor of a crushed village fights back as does the king of Fire Keep."

Few movies are as Sword & Sorcery especially Astonishing Swordmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea inspiration as Ralph Bakshi's 1983 animation  'Fire & Ice'.We litterally wore the VHS tape of 'Fire & Ice' out as a kid. The plot is straight out of every drug store Sword & Sorcery paperback during the Eighties especially straight from the wiki entry;"From their citadel Icepeak, the evil queen, Juliana and her son, Nekron send forth a wave of glaciers; this forces humanity to retreat south towards the equator. Nekron sends a delegation to Firekeep, the volcano citadel of king Jarol, ostensibly to request the king's surrender. In truth, the ice queen has orchestrated it as a ruse so that her subhuman troops can abduct Jarol's beautiful daughter, princess Teegra. Juliana feels that Nekron should take her as a bride to produce an heir.

Teegra escapes her captors and comes upon a young warrior named Larn, the only survivor of a village destroyed by Nekron's glaciers. The two grow close, but they become separated when Larn is attacked by a monstrous giant squid, and Nekron's subhumans recapture Teegra. She briefly escapes again, but runs into the witch Roleil and her son Otwa, who intend to use her as a bargaining chip for incurring Nekron's favor. However, the subhumans simply kill them and take Teegra to Icepeak. Nekron refuses to marry Teegra, in spite of his mother's plan, but keeps the princess as a hostage.

While looking for Teegra, Larn encounters Darkwolf, a mysterious masked warrior who pursues a personal vendetta against Nekron and Juliana"

'Fire & Ice' works on several layers as both a pursue film, a Sword & Sorcery film, & as perfectly fuctional Sword & Sorcery inspiration. The film represents the clash of two ordersor ages  in the form the steady conquest of citadel Icepeak forces led by  the evil queen, Juliana and her son, Nekron against the more advanced kingdom of Firekeep. Dark Wolf is definitely a demigod belonging to an earlier 'age of heroes'. Fire and Ice has so much of Frank Frazetta's essence about it because of his involvement with the production according to Wiki;'Because Fire and Ice was the most action-oriented story Bakshi had directed up until that point, rotoscoping was again used, and the realism of the animation and design replicated Frazetta's artwork.^[2] Bakshi and Frazetta were heavily involved in the production of the live-action sequences, from casting sessions to the final shoot.^[2] The film's crew included background artists James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade, layout artist Peter Chung, and established Bakshi Productions artists Sparey, Steven E. Gordon, Bell and Banks.^[2] Chung strongly admired Bakshi and Frazetta's work, and animated his sequences on the film while simultaneously working for The Walt Disney Company."

There are five reasons why this film is excellent for Sword & Sorcery inspiration:

1. Fire & Ice main plot is over but the forces of darkness are not vanquished this is where the PC's come in. Firekeep needs to secure the land and there are still tribes of subhumans out in the wilderness. 
2. Dark Wolf is not done with prince Lam & he's gonna need help to secure the borders of Firekeep. 
3. What happened to the other kingdoms that Neckon's forces have overrun someone is going to have to help them recover. 
4. There are tons of monsters just waiting for adventurers to stumble upon them in abandon cities & ruins across the land. This also means treasure as well and evil artifacts. 
5. The witch Roleil and her son Otwa, are not the only witches in the kingdom of Firekeep and these evil practiciers of dark magick may be the next evil facing the scatttered nations left in the wake of Neckon's evil. 

While 'Fire & Ice ' is a perfect film as an inspiration for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. There are also several 2d6 Sword & Sorcery rpg's that also could draw perfectly from the world of Arn, Teegra, & Dark Wolf.  Barbaric! by Omer Golan-Joel from Stellagamma Publishing springs to mind coupled with Warpland is perfectly suited to simulate the rotoscoped world of 'Fire & Ice'. 

Warpland especially captures the rotoscoped weirdness of the clash of elements, ages, and even hints of older inhuman prehistoric weirdness found in 'Fire & Ice'.  The elements that clash in the film also could very well represent the hard realities of the world setting of Warpland. 

Dragonhawks For Your Old School Sword & Sorcery Campaigns

 

The dragonhawk is a distant off shoot of the Pteranodon family and are large predatory dinosaur like creatures many times the size of their evolutionary cousins. The dragon hawk is a master of the sky and there are very few animals or monsters that can match them in flight. They are very robust, & capable monsters able to take down and feed on prey many times their size with impunity. They have vicious quasi serrated beaks that can slice and tear into prey. Along with vicious claws able to hook into flesh & bone. Couple this with eye sight that can identify prey from many miles and you have a predator that can dive out of the sun's light and carry off a fully grown prehistoric deer or man with easy.

These deadly predators fly,make nests, and are tied in with the volcanic mountains that they call home. They will often fly many miles to find prey animals to feed their young and have been known to store food in smaller semi nests for later recovery. They have wide variety of hunting routes often covering up to a 1000 miles.

The dragon hawks work as both flock animals similar to the behavior of wolves but with a complex pecking order of leadership and as lone predators always on the hunt.These dangerous animals are feared and respected by those who share the ground and the skies with them. Local clans of fighters, barbarians, and warriors often have a dangerous mystic rite to bond with these creatures. Those who survive such ordeals are forever bonded with the creatures. Only the most fool hardy of warriors do this though. There is an element of the soul in such bonds, and those whom the dragonhawks reject do not survive the experience. These monstrous creatures are mystically bonded with their riders and often shamans, knights, paladins, fighters, and warriors of certain blessed clans use dragonhawks as mounts.

Volcanoes play a key role in the very existence and lives of dragonhawk flock's lives. These mountains provide the Dragonhawk's flock with key ecological elements to their very existence from vital nutrients and vitamins that are incorporated into the bulk of the predatory animals to rich soil where they make their nests. Dragonhawk behavior and hunting habits are as explosive and seemingly fool hardy as the behavior of the volcanoes around which they make their homes. 

Powerful dives, raking claws, and terrifying bites of the beaks of these creatures are often the last things that their prey will experience. Dragonhawks are flight class A for old school games and have much in common with modern fighter planes. Able to pull of maneuvers and dives of incredible complexity at a moment's notice.

Dragonhawks

Frequency: Rare 

No Appearing: 3-18

Armor Class:7 

Movement: 5''/17"

Hit Dice: 6+6

Dex:10 

% In Lair: 20% 

Treasure Type:- 

Number of Attacks: 2/1 

Damage/Attack:2-8 Claws or Bite 3-18

Special Attacks: Nil 

Special Defenses:Nil 

Intelligence: Semi to average 

 Alignment: Neutral but very aggressive & cunning 

 Size: L(70 foot wing span)

Psionic ability:Nil 

Attack/Defense: mode

Those who bond with dragonhawks gain a very aggressive streak as the animals and are often prone to fights for dominance within clans. These fighters also gain a +2 to all wisdom checks but -2 on charisma as the creature's instincts color everyday life for the rider. Dragon hawk riders also gain a hunting and danger sense that borders on paranoia in some respects but gain a +2 in initiative in combat. The rider gains no extra long longevity  to their lives in the bond with their mounts, in fact dragon hawk riders are regarded  as fools and risk takers by their very clans. Those dragonhawks who lose their riders to flying accidents and the like often become clan animals. And these animals seem almost pragmatic about such losses allowing others to ride them into battle. Dragon hawks will share their kills with their riders but expect first dibs on kills made by the rider during the hunt. Such is the behavior of these proud and some what vain hunters of the skies. Lone dragon hawks or wild flocks can be encountered on their own and are some of the most dangerous flying hazards that adventurers in lost world can face. 

This is a homage to one of my all time favorite guilt pleasure films Fire And Ice  not a trademark or copy right violation or challenge to the film  or the role playing systems mentioned in this blog post. All images found using google image search & belong to their respective owners no copyright or trade mark infringement is implied. This blog post is for educational & entertainment purposes only.

Using Dragon Magazine Issue #68 - For Solo Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Adventuring

To amuse myself after work today I began to think about old school solo Swords & Sorcery role playing. Yes I know all about Tunnels & Trolls solo dungeons . Instead I wanted to go in a completely different direction. So while swilling down a beer, I began the task of looking through my bountiful collection of Dragon magazines. Finally I spied it. Dragon issue #68 which according to Wayne's books site;  "Two weapon fighting; Dawn Patrol; Ice Age adventuring; Aquatic encounter tables; High-level magic user spells; Weather in the World of Greyhawk; more.

December 1982 ... 96 pages". In case your wondering get a hold of this issue its a classic for a reason. 

I was looking around for a solid resource for running some Ice Age adventures in Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. While the game contains some really solid leads on creating & maintaining adventuring upon Hyperborea I've been looking into creating some actual on the ground content for adventurers. Fortunately I don't have to spend a whole lot of money in order to get the maximum outta of the game. Dragon issue #68 contains an article by Arthur Collins called 'Thrills & Chills'. It describes setting up a clan and how much time must be spent on survival alone. Suddenly,  you've got a great resource for playing at & going at it alone between adventures. Be sure to use the rule of AS&SH when creating your character!

 To me Hyperborea has always seemed like Ralph Bakshi Fire and Ice film . In fact this is my go to film to put me in the proper mind set to run the game.  In fact Arthur Collins article 'Thrills & Chills' plugs right into the sort of background that I see for AS&SH.  

The film 'Fire & Ice' has this Age of Giant Mammals & Prehistoric dinosaur survivals that mashes so well with the background elements of AS&SH. The film gets the blood pumping to run some AS&SH! Throw in a bit of Clark Ashton Smith & your ready to go! This is a classic issue that has some real gems of articles in it for both OSR & old school play. The card stock centerfold of the "Weather In The World Of Greyhawk" article  is the true gem  of this issue! It makes Greyhawk just that more dangerous! 

But back to AS&SH solo adventuring. I'm thinking of using the guidelines from  Arthur Collins article 'Thrills & Chills' to set up my clan, create some tribal support NPC's, & then expand into blackadder23's Hyperborean Encounter Tables II Bookmarked pdf that you can find on the OD&D proboard forums here. If you haven't grabbed these & your an AS&SH fan then I would! These are excellent & black adder 23 deserves an exalt! And your pretty much ready to go!

Keep track of experience points, check with your DM on using this method, & keep on moving & exploring for your clan until your party comes to get you! This method could have you go up a level or two in no time plus it familiarizes you with the AS&SH system.