OSR Commentary On G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief By Gary Gygax For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition

 "Giants have been raiding the lands of men in large bands, with giants of different sorts in these marauding groups. Death and destruction have been laid heavily upon every place these monsters have visited. A party of the bravest and most powerful adventurers has been assembled and given the charge to punish the miscreant giants." 

When it comes to iconic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief By Gary Gygax  comes to my mind. And there's a reason for this, the module is perfect for bringing the PC's into a Sword & Sorcery campaign. G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief By Gary Gygax  has the feel of a first part of a mythological campaign with Sword & Sorcery shade to it. 

The inspiration for this blog post is actually this blog entry from 2010 from Delta's D&D Hotspot blog here. And one of his observations brings home why I pull out G1 from time to time; "In the past I assumed that everyone who's played D&D for any amount time will be intimately familiar with every detail of the classic modules, but I was thrilled to realize a few years back that that wasn't the case. To players just a few years younger than myself, the adventures are novel, so I get an opportunity to DM them all over again." This is one of the reasons why the classic AD&D modules still have impact today. And we can even bring this into Mystara quite easily using the Vaults of Pandius article "Setting module G1-2-3/Against the Giants in the Northern Reaches" By  Demos Sachlas using the following; I'm back with another look at a classic AD&D 1e module - this time, the iconic G1-2-3. I'm actually in the middle of running this right now (my players have made it all the way to G3 - you can check out our campaign journal over on Dragonsfoot here) so I've been contemplating where these adventures might work best on Mystara.

The G series, by Gygax himself, kicked off the practice of publishing tournament scenarios as modules. In this case, the adventures debuted at the Origins tournament in 1978, recounted in Dragon #19 (October 1978). The original setting seemed generic (these were the first modules ever published by TSR), but later established to be Greyhawk when the Folio came out (1980). The series in general and G1 in particular was inspired by "The Roaring Trumpet" by Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague deCamp (and is recommended reading for anyone running these).

With its strong nordic connection, the Northern Reaches are a natural setting for these modules in Mystara ." And this makes it perfect for Gazetteer Northern Reaches! 

This brings into sharp contrast the fact that the PC's may be Vikings dealing with the machinations of the giant races. These could even be left over from the affairs of Ragnorok easily! Ward & Kuntz's classic AD&D first edition  Dieties & Demigods has the entire cast of gods that can easily influence your game campaigns. 

G1 has the advantage of being not only a tourament module but the first of a series to bring in the PC's into the fold of a world changing module by introducing the Drow into the mix of your campaign. These rare manipulators may have far more influence then at first it seems. And this can translate into running G1 with really old school OD&D rules once again we turn to Delta's blog here; "Although published for AD&D, I ran this using OD&D rules (with my usual house rules; see OED sidebar to the right). The past few years I ran sessions of S1 using AD&D itself (much of it being dependent on AD&D clerical spells like find traps and true seeing and commune that I felt obliged in that way). Due to the nature of this adventure, I felt totally comfortable running G1 with OD&D rules and deleting clerics (albeit giving the party a few jugs of healing potion), as usual. I'm more-or-less done with AD&D, and my tuned OD&D feels so "right" in play (finally!) that I really don't have the appetite to run anything else. I translated hit points by just subtracting a monster's Hit Dice (i.e., translating d8's to d6's on average), or else just rolling everything on the fly (more comments on that further down)."

Not only have we got the reduction going on but the re balancing of encounters and such. What this means is that G1 could theoritcially be run with your favorite OSR rpg  system if you as the DM are willing to put in the time. If we go back in time to Feb. 12 2019 then we've got Jason Vey's Grey Elf Age of Conan here on the blog. This makes G1 easily to convert over into  OD&D Sword & Sorcery style games. 

G1 closes in on the Robert E.Howard's The Frost Giant's Daughter turf with the giants growing far more restless because of the machinations of the Drow. 

OSR Commentary On The Free OSR book - Doc's Original Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars Resource Book

 "Beginning in 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first (and arguably the greatest) of what would be considered the pulp authors began his tales of adventure and romance set on Mars, AKA Barsoom. John Carter, a man with a mysterious past that even he cannot fully recall, finds himself transported from the fields of Virginia to a bloody warrior world. Is Barsoom real, or is it merely a fleeting dream from the mind of a man succumbing to death? Barsoom, for all its technological wonders, is more a feudal world than a cosmopolitan society. Warriors travel great miles in lighter than air sky craft, only to do battle with sword and dagger. It is a dying world, far past its prime, where the noble red men strive mightily to live up to their world's legacy"

Doc's Original Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars is a set of original Dungeons & Dragons supplemental rules that have been created for Barsoom role playing. These rules by Doc have Barsoomian alterations to the usual character classes including Fighting Men, the Beserker, Scout, Asssassin, & Psion. One of the really solid areas that Doc's Original Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars shines is in the realm of psionics; "There are four types of psychic powers on Barsoom, the Telepath, Mesmerist, Necromancer, and Beastmaster. All four classes are written to be played very simply with the DM adjudicating their use as applies to his own campaign. Let's start out with some basics. ALL Barsoomians posses a low-level psychic awareness that allows them to tell how many people are in their general area. In game terms, they have a 75% chance to detect all humans (which includes Red, White, Black, and Yellow Martians, but not Green Martians or beasts) within a 50' area around them. This applies even if the other people are in another room, building, or in hiding. This does not give the character any idea of the identity or the intent of these people, merely that they are there. Also, the character MUST be concentrating to use this detection. Assassins (Gorthans) have learned how to nullify their psychic trace for short periods of time to render them invisible to this form of detection. Regarding psychic characters, all four classes attack, save, and rise in level as clerics."

And while Doc's Original Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars isn't superior to Nightowl Workshop's Warriors of the Red Planet. Warriors has been made to emulate a specific set of rules namely the ultra rare TSR 1974 Warriors of Mars wargaming rules. Doc's Original Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars takes it's 'p''s and 'q's from the Original Dungeons & Dragons rpg set of rules. 

And we get a good cross set of the Barsoomian monsters & these are as lethal as they are deadly. Then we dive down into the Martian underworld & a bit of an overview of the Martian combat or melee. How honor & combat overlaps. This is followed by the religions of Mars including how the Tharns play into this. Doc's Original Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars also touches on the sham aspects of the Thern religion. 
There's an overview of the various Martian cities & locations featured in the Burroughs writings. And finally an overview of the main NPC personalities featured within Barsoom. And finally Barsoomian adventure hooks all within the free supplement. 

Doc's Original Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars is an interesting fan work & homage certainly worth the download. For OSR games such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess it represents an interesting variant that could be added into the DM's tool kit. But is Doc's Original Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars weird enough?! In the normal Lamentations direction?! Not really or maybe it is. Consider that there's a whole bunch of Earth history that dates back thousands of years & Barsoom has been the red planetary witness to all of it. What if the Therns have had a foot hold on Earth as sham cults?! Using a combination of telepathy, technological trickery, and even inhuman guile to use the human race as puppets & experimental fodder. There's far more going on with the Therns then the Burroughs books talks about but there are hints. 

Doc's book could also be used as a resource for Carcosa where you've got Martian monsters being imported by aliens for sacrifice, gladiatorial games, and more. 

The Free OSR book -  Doc's Original Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars Is Available Here Right Under The Age of Conan, Planetary Romance, and Science Fantasy of Jason Vey's Grey Elf site. 

More Commentary On Law & 'The Priests of The Golden Peacock' in Kuntz & Ward's 'Gods,Demi-gods, & Heroes

 This post is going to pick right up from what we spoke of yesterday on the blog. 
Let's dig deeper into the role of Law on Carcosa for a moment & its legacy with the Golden Peacock. 

So over the last forty eight hours we've been going over our notes for original Dungeons & Dragons & Gods, Demi-gods, & Heroes by Kuntz & Ward. And one of the things that has occurred to me is the amount of artifacts of Law in the Hyboria mythos that has been included! Take for example; 'HEART OF AHRIMAN Device of great power able to work over any distance, which acts as an anti magic shell for six people'. Seems like a simple & straight forward artifact that would be but consider it within the contents of the Hyboria mythology of original Dungeons & Dragons. There's a great little Carcosa thread on the original Dungeons & Dragons Facebook group here.  If we take them together with other artifacts of Law & Neutrality on Carcosa including personages. Then the struggle for Law & Chaos on the bleak Pulpy planet becomes clear. 

Take for for example; "HEART OF TAMMUZ A lawful artifact used to counter the effects of the Claw of Nergal. With this, the user can undo the action of the claw without knowing who the claw affected, merely by bringing the Heart within 500 yards of a victim."  On Carcosa these artifacts would be invaluable pieces of example of Law. Tribal coloured nations would go to war over such artifacts hence why within Gods, Demi-gods, & Heroes these would be in multi tiered dungeons of incredible complexity. Law stands for civilazition & order, on a planet such as Carcosa this means the difference between survival & death. The problem here is one of complexity & scale, because original Dungeons & Dragons is modular its easy to add or subtract supplements as needed. 
Now what is the role of neutrality & law on Carcosa?! That in my humble opinion is one of survival and eventually civilization. And this brings  Milk Tous & his ilk to Carcosa easily. Given the almost twisted Lovecraftian 'Garden of Eden' setting that is primitive Carcosa. It's easy to see why Earth bound demonic Lovecraftian enities would be right in to corrupt Carcosa & its inhabitants. 

Demoness of the Wasteland Published: May 4, 2014 by MrZarono artwork used without permission. Available here. 

Commentary On 'The Priests of The Golden Peacock' in Kuntz & Ward's 'Gods,Demi-gods, & Heroes'

 So while going through Kuntz & Ward's 'Gods,Demi-gods, & Heroes' last night came acrossthis  reference to; "PRIESTS OF THE GOLDEN PEACOCK As a cleric These evil priests never rise higher than Bishop as per D&D. They have the power from the third level on to hide in shadows as a master thief." within the Robert E. Howard Hyboria section. Priests of the Golden Peacock are from Robert E. Howard's 'Dig Me No Grave'. If we read through the story the Fausten bargain of John Grymlann is a pretty straight forward affair. You get two hundred & fifty years of life, wealth, & eternal damnation with Milk Tous feeding on your soul for eternity. 

And there is zero doubt that the priests of the order of the golden peacock are pure evil. Reading through, 'Dig Me No Grave' the city of Koth is mentioned at least three times. Now Koth was a thriving kingdom in the Hyborian age but something horrid happened to it allowing Great Old One Malik Tous. According to the H.P. Lovecraft Wiki; " In Conan the barbarian's world, Koth is an ancient Hyborian kingdom. (CIRCLE: "The Hyborian Age" Robert E. Howard) The city of Koth could reside in this kingdom or be a remnant of it." In my own head canon the city of Koth was coming to its end & made a fausten bargain with Malik Tous. The Great Old claimed the place as his literal cold Hell on Earth. And his priests roam far & wide across the multiverse spreading his message of rebellion & corruption using their abilities to claim souls & spread chaos. 
If we're using Jason Vey's Age of Conan supplement Secrets of the Archeon then those dalleying with Malik Tous are going to be on the rough end of the corruption rules. And this is reflected in the fate of John Kirowan. "Dig Me No Grave" mentions many mythos elements including Yog-Sothoth, Koth and Yuggoth.
The Golden Peacock it's is no friend of mankind & personally even though I fit's the bill isn't an avitar of  Nyarlathotep. Personally I believe this entity is it's own entity another among numerous Lovecraftian horrors out in the world. 

Some OSR Monster Tactics With Kuntz & Ward's Gods, Demi - Gods, & Heroes for original Dungeons & Dragons

"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars - Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyberborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west.
Hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."

"The Phoenix on the Sword" (1932) By Robert E.Howard 

Over the years I've thumbed through Kuntz & Ward's Gods, Demi - Gods, & Heroes for original Dungeons & Dragons. Its ironic that a supplement that was referred to as an excuse to slay gods, heroes, & other mythological creatures had the opposite effect for me. Back in the Seventies we started with this book because of "Robert E. Howard's Hyborea". No we didn't go around slaying Conan but in fact were barely able to handle some of the Hyborean age's horrors & dungeons. Fact is that nine times outta ten we'd run away. Tonight I'm not so much nostalgia tear   as I'm thinking back to how my uncle put his adventures together. I was musing today about Jason Vey's Grey Elf Age of Conan material. This can help fit together a complete package for the Hyboria Age for original Dungeons & Dragons. Did I mention that its free. 


So where does one actually take into account the fact that the "Robert E. Howard's Hyborea" has tons of opportunities to screw around with the player's PC's. This is a post apocalytic fantasy in the sense that the older world's ruins are existing side by side with the newer age's structures like a giant layer cake. But there's another almost but not quite forgotten aspect in Gods, Demigods, & Heroes that almost everyone forgets . "Numerous cultural monsters appear in this book, including the phoenix, fire snakes, Norse giants, the queen of the earth elementals, and more" there are lots of unique monsters that never appeared anywhere else & these are perfect to take slightly outta context & use with other OSR games or in a Hyborea setting. In fact these monsters are ideally suited to include in other D&D based products.  Several of these monsters besides the obvious Michael Moorcock Elric & Robert E. Howard Conan material there are numerous unique creations waiting to be sprung on some foolish unsuspecting D&D or OSR players. What are the cultures that are in this book? Surprisingly: Egyptian
Indian
Greek
Celtic
Norse
Finnish
Robert E, Howard's Hyborea
Elric and Melnibone
Meso-American
Eastern Mythos

Any of these can easily be reskinned for a Sword & Sorcery campaign & since we are playing in a post apocalyptic fantasy age these can appear anywhere from the 'old age'. None of the players will be the wiser. But generally speaking they will be reaching for those Monster Manuals. Now by the same token I've flipped several of the monsters in Kuntz & Ward's Gods, Demi - Gods, & Heroes for original Dungeons & Dragons for use with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea as mid range boss monsters from 'Old Earth'. The tactic worked & the players were in a full panic as we did a full on old school Jack Kirby press into the den of a Finnish monster dwelling in Underborea. The far future world of Hyperborea might be rife with Apocalyptic high level mythological monsters left over from the Apocalypse. They might be really pissed off. 



Not only can  Kuntz & Ward's Gods, Demi - Gods, & Heroes for original Dungeons & Dragons be used for OSR adventure tom foolery but its monsters can also serve the gap for Gamma World first & second edition where a powerful & unexpected horror or two is waiting around the corner for the PC's. 

These are just some of my thoughts tonight on using some of the mythological weirdness of Gods, Demi - Gods, & Heroes for original Dungeons & Dragons. The book remains a bit of unsung classic in my estimation. There have been numerous comments about the book's overpowered & stodgy for 2019. I think that these folks are full of it & not getting enough sunlight. Over all I think that Gods, Demi - Gods, & Heroes for original Dungeons & Dragons  is a must for any serious DM in my opinion. For now keep em rolling! 

A Tale of Two Hells Geoffry O'Dale's Judge's Guild Inferno & Spell Books Games Journey through Malebolge Book One With An OSR & Old School Spin

Today I've been quietly doubling down on the OSR, since about '08 I've been mostly a silent observer of the OSR. I didn't start venturing into the movement until I started this blog. But over the last twenty four hours I've gotten two older gamers have paid a visit & left a very nice prezzie for me. Oh yeah the classic Judge's Guild Inferno By Geoffry O Dale. This my copy that hasn't been home in years. I let a friend of mine 'barrow' this classic for a couple of years & finally today it came back home.
Recently Josesph Mophr's Old School Blog posted a nice review of the classic. 


Even though this is an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module how could I approach it to DM it? I began to have a good think about it & came up with possibly using Grey Elf's Age of Conan free OD&D Conan hack for running this classic module. Why?! Well think about. The fact that you've got a ready made forbidden & corruption Sword & Sorcery set of rules fits the aesthetic perfectly.



But if I really want to get into some really interesting territory I'd port over Lamentations of The Flame Princess rules for the Weird Tales doubling down on the Hellish adventure aesthetic of Geoffrey O'Dale's Inferno. The Judge's Guild module only covers six circles of his vision of Hell. But  the Journey through Malebolge Book One From  Spellbook Games completes & expands upon the Judge's Guild module. The Busybody blog has a very nice review of this book from 2014 & goes into some detail about the book. 

I don't want to get hung up on all of the details of Dante's Inferno & a cross comparison of these two modules by the same author. I did that back in 2016 with very detailed break downs of the Journey through Malebolge Book One . No here I'm starting to go into the actual running of this module with a more OSR or old school rules set to run the Judge's Guild adventure & then perhaps expand into the Spell book game's Journey Through Malebolge as a fully fledged campaign. Right now these are only thoughts & Hellish dreams. But things are starting to gell & I'm very glad to have this Judge's Guild classic back home.

 Another option might even be to take

 the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia & use that
classic collection of Mentzer
Dungeons & Dragons to bring
home the old school campaign vibration to Hell.
It should not be forgotten this is a high level campaign &
only the most fool hardy players should attempt this.

This is an aggressive Dante's Hell & one which awaits your PC's.
There is plane jumping but this is nine circles of
alternative cosmology that waits for & punishes PC's in spades.
This dire high level  & very dangerous adventure romp that is
going to test the PC's & players to their limits. The cosmology
does fit in a round about way into the classic Dungeons & Dragons mode
but only just. This isn't the nice Ed Greenwood's nine planes of Hell.
Instead this is waiting just beyond the campfire Hell that will take
& damn PC's when & if it wants. 

Old Mars 'On A Budget' - Free Classic Edition OD&D Warriors Of Mars Download Mixed With The Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg System For A Hybrid Setting

I got an email asking me about doing 'Old Mars' on a budget and was it possible? The answer is absolutely with some modifications & here's how. I've run numerous variation D&D  Mars/Barsoom games over the years going all the way back to when I first got into the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
"Warriors of Mars is a 1974 miniatures wargame rule book, written by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume and published by Tactical Studies Rules. It simulates combat in the fantasy world of Barsoom, originally imagined by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his series of novels about John Carter of Mars. It is a 56-page booklet in the same style as the original Dungeons & Dragons books, even sharing the same artist Greg Bell.Gygax and TSR published the rules without permission from Burroughs estate and soon after its release they issued a cease and desist order and the game was pulled from distribution. Because only a few copies were sold the book is now rare and sells for a high price"  This of course goes back to Gary Gygax who said, "Those wargamers who lack imagination, those who don't care for Burroughs' Martian adventures where John Carter is groping through black pits.. will not be likely to find DUNGEONS and DRAGONS to their taste."
Right so this is all ancient history to those of us who have been play Original Dungeons & Dragons & to some folks more of a footnote in the cobbled path of Dungeons & Dragons history. To those of us who yearn to play on Barsoom, this game was beacon in the Martian darkness.



Barsoomian war gaming goes right back to the foundation of original Dungeons & Dragons which the following set of rules were inspired by. "Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars, a Barsoom OD&D supplement by "Doc" from the OD&D forums--based off of the original Warriors of Mars Miniatures Battles game put out by TSR in 1974" Surely this set of rules couldn't be adapted to Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea?! Because of the modular nature of OSR materials & supplements it can! But there are going to be exceptions, adapting and a bit of twisting so bear with me. First thing to bare in mind is that this a supplement for OD&D meaning that its facilitated toward & geared to adapt the existing Original Dungeons & Dragons rules to Barsoom not Old Mars. There is a vast difference in both tone & application are going to be centered around the warriors & adventurers of Barsoom as well as it monster, vile villains, & more

The first thing you've got to realize is that we're dealing with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea as the back bone system for PC generation. Because AS&SH goes up to thirteen we can pretty much ignore the level adjustments for Fighters right off the bat but I would include Berserker as an option. There are at least two instances in both Michael Moorcock's Mars novels & Burroughs where these sorts of fighting men appear. Scout from AS&SH has no substantial changes except in tone. Our old friend the assassin is in there & we get a whole bunch more background on them but again AS&SH is our back system so no real changes.
There's even a small psionic system included in the download;"There are four types of psychic powers on Barsoom, the Telepath, Mesmerist, Necromancer, and Beastmaster. All four classes are written to be played very simply with the DM adjudicating their use as applies to his own campaign." "Let's start out with some basics.
ALL Barsoomians posses a low-level psychic awareness that allows them to tell how many people are in their general area. In game terms, they have a 75% chance to detect all humans (which includes Red, White, Black, and Yellow Martians, but not Green Martians or beasts) within a 50' area around them. This applies even if the other people are in another room, building, or in hiding. This does not give the character any idea of the identity or the intent of these people, merely that they are there. Also, the character MUST be concentrating to use this detection. Assassins (Gorthans) have learned how to nullify their psychic trace for short periods of time to render them invisible to this form of detection."

Could this system be used? Yes with level adjustments & a bit of mathematics on you the Dungeon master's part.
There could be clans of Martians who sit along the banks of the river of the death goddess who speak psionically with the dead practicing the dread necrotic arts as they have for centuries. 'Good' & honorable necromancers whose art is perverted by those black hearts. This was something I've used in the past as a plot device. There's also an honor system but doing a down & dirty campaign out in the wastelands its utility is ummm interesting.
Then we get into the most common Basroomian races a good quick overview of the Barsoomian text book races. This is a good selection to refer too when making PC's & its not badly put together. But when it comes to the money,equipment, etc. I stuck to the gold standard, its just easier.
Monsters are standard Barsoomian horrors, mounts, etc. its easy to see the AS&SH equivalents such as horses, mounts extra.
Then we get into the underworld & Wilderness adventures - Which basically goes into the Barsoomian honor bound combat scheme, a good overview of Martian martial arts, etc., this is followed by Barsoom religion, the vast cities and city states, etc. Then the various personalities of Barsoom which PC's are never likely to meet.
I do love this free download but let's go into my problem with it, the focus here is on the royals & royal houses of Barsoom. A post Colonial Old Mars has had its Barsoomian royalty apex and is now in another era.
This is a world of back alley brothels, dirty deals, sword & sorcery mixing in with forbidden alien sciences. These are not the kinds of events or  places that one is likely to find John Carter. This isn't the fault of the Warriors of Mars OD&D download but rather an adventure & campaign conceit on the part of the Dungeon Master. This is really borne out Leigh Brackett's Mars novels which have a far grittier sword & sorcery feel then Burroughs but could easily be placed upon Barsoom. As Wiki says,"Burroughs' heroes set out to remake entire worlds according to their own codes; Brackett's heroes (often antiheroes) are at the mercy of trends and movements far bigger than them." But again this one of a dungeon master's view point & not one that falls on the back of the supplement.  The Barsoom article from Heavy Metal magazine by Richard Lupoff from issue September 1982 issue illustrated by Clyde Caldwell.Gives an excellent overview of the Barsoomian world setting & ideals. Its available as a free download here!

The OD&D Warriors of Mars is downloadable under the companion booklets & OD&D resources you'll find the Warriors of Mars download along with some great OD&D Conan material. Thanks to Grey Elf for providing these valuable additions to the Barsoomian DM's out there. And Doc for writing this all out.

OD&D WARRIORS OF MARS RIGHT HERE