"When I was a fighting-man, the kettle-drums they beat,
Under the caverned pyramids great Set coils asleep;
When the world was young and men were weak, and the fiends of the
ight walked free;
I strove with Set by fire and steel and the juice of the upas-tree;
What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?
-Robert E. Howard, “The Phoenix on the Sword” "
So I've been down in the workshop trying to get caught up on repair work & some thoughts about what the OSR means to me personally. One of the first things I ran across was Jason Vey's original Dungeons & Dragons hacks he did of Conan under his nom de plume of Grey Elf.
Now Mr.Vey went out of his way to really create a very usable & versatile booklet in under fifty seven pages. There are a number of free resources on his page which I think you should check out.
But let's talk The Age of Conan which delivers exactly what it promises on the tin an actual & usable original Dungeons & Dragons Conan campaign. Everything here is spared down to the wire & it captures the whole of Conan's world quite well.. It does this by using & recommending certain books that while they seem interesting are wholly useful for running a Conan style Sword & Sorcery campaign;
1. The Age of Conan (You have it in your hands!) 2. Dungeons & Dragons, Tactical Studies Rules, 1975-79 3. Chainmail, Guidon Games/Tactical Studies Rules, 1971-79 4. Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes, Tactical Studies Rules, 1976-79
The following books and booklets are highly recommended for play 1. Supplement I: Greyhawk, Tactical Studies Rules, 1975-79 2. Supplement II: Blackmoor, Tactical Studies Rules, 1975-79 3. Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry, Tactical Studies Rules, 1976-79 4. Swords & Spells, Tactical Studies Rules, 1976-79 5. The Strategic Review, Issues 1 through 6 6. Return to the Road of Kings, Mongoose Publishing, 2007* 7. Conan Role Playing Game, TSR, inc., 1985*
I wrote all about using clerics but its really the material that's covered in the Age of Conan that set's off some of the most dangerous material that was lightly brushed over in the Gods, Demi Gods, & Heroes. But that Vey has brought to light with his great rules on magical corruption;
" Corruption
The easiest way to track how many failed saves a sorcerer has, is to
measure it in terms of levels of corruption. Whenever a sorcerer fails a
corruption save, his level of corruption increases by one, and every five points
of corruption applies a penalty to all
future saves and ostensibly a slide in
alignment.
However, it is important to note
that no matter what alignment with
which a character begins play, the same
number of failed saves are required to
fall to the next level as would be
required if she began play as good.
Going from good to evil requires 15
failed saves—Five to go from good to
unaligned, Five more from unaligned to
balance, and Five more to go to evil. If
a character begins play as unaligned, he
still requires ten failed saves to go from
unaligned to balance.
Why? Just because a character
starts off with lower or different morals
from a human standpoint does not mean
he is corrupted by sorcery. Characters
who start off as unaligned still have corruption zero. They are just less likely
to note the effects sorcery is having upon them until they rack up more
corruption than a good character would.
As in the first Age of Conan booklet, sorcerers begin to show physical
(and metaphysical) effects of Corruption as they become more overwhelmed
by the sorcery. For an excellent list of examples of Corruption effects, see
Mongoose Publishing’s Conan Role playing Game."
This right here brings to light the very fact that wizards in a Sword & Sorcery game are at a strong disadvantage. They are playing & dancing with the forces of Chaos in a struggle of life & death for the very power of their own souls.
Savage Sword of Conan 141 cover artist Bob Larkin
Age of Conan introduces a bard class which is the perfect PC foil for some of the horror bubbling under the surface of a Hyborian age game campaign. Jason Vey does a good solid job of getting across that while there may not be a world spanning war between Chaos & Law in Conan. There is certainly a whole other original Dungeons & Dragons black magick that can bring the pain to PC's. Age of Conan introduces who all kinds of dangerous & dire elements to throw at PC's in an age undreamed of !
(1967)
Illustration for 'Conan the Usurper' paperback by Robert E. Howard artwork by Frank Frazetta available here.
Jason's Vey's material from Age of Conan could be used in a wide array of original Dungeons & Dragons campaign & adventure applications. The corruption rules,the magic items, the NPC stats, & more could all be used to enhance an existing original Dungeons & Dragons campaign. This means that the dark & dire evil of the Hyboria age could appear in a wide variety of classic or OSR campaign settings. The rules of evil are exactly the sort of horror & weirdness that players long for. The fantastic literature's settings of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith are all done & PC's easily transported into worlds designed by you the DM & your players using Jason Vey's free OD&D booklet Age of Conan
When we start looking at original Dungeons & Dragons clerics then we're getting right into the heart of the bed rock of the game in many ways. Clerics are so much more then their given credit for. Back in the Seventies & Eighties clerics & their churches as well as the temples were the center pieces of adventures. Clerical orders were the movers & shakers among kings, queens, & royals. They were often the lynch pins holding campaigns together.
According to the Original Dungeons & Dragons consolidated rules site ;
"Clerics can use magic armor and all non-edged magic weapons (no arrows) plus they have a number of their own spells. They are able to use some magical items that are denied to fighters. Remember that only men can be clerics.
The prime requisite for clerics is wisdom.
Clerics are either Law or Chaos (see Alignments). There's no such thing as a Neutral cleric. If a Patriarch receives the benefits described and he changes alignments, all benefits will be removed immediately."
Alright right off the bat I'm going to ignore the whole only men can be clerics nonsense business. Clerics are the holy warriors of their temples & churches given the handle of chaos making its way into the campaign world. We see this again & again in Arthurian literature & even in Clark Ashton Smith's Averoigne stories.
Given the cycle of stories there isn't any doubt in my mind that the clerics of these stories have their work cut out for them;
- Beast of Averoigne, The (1933)
- Colossus of Ylourgne, The (1933)
- Disinterment of Venus, The (1934)
- Enchantress of Sylaire, The (1941)
- End of the Story, The (1930)
- Holiness of Azédarc, The (1933)
- Maker of Gargoyles, The (1932)
- Mandrakes, The (1933)
- Mother of Toads (1934)
- Rendezvous in Averoigne, A (1931)
- Satyr, The (1931) [Variant Conclusion to "The Satyr"]
I wish I were joking but these poor bastards must have called in every favor in the book at times to deal with specter of dark forces that they had to deal with. Churches & temples are going to have to rely on the holy forces that protect any given area from the forces of chaos. The single most important book for the cleric in my humble opinion comes in the form of Robert Kuntz & James Wards Gods, Demigods, & Heroes. This book takes the cleric in the solid position of holy warrior & expands it by twenty.
I've seen various OSR Illuminati describe how their campaigns aren't about 'religion' end quote. Well the good campaigns I've played in & run are all about religion with it being at the core & foundation. Religion is the prime motivator for adventure & yet the least used that I've seen lately.
One reviewer said according to wiki ; "Glen Taylor reviewed Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes in The Space Gamer No. 9.[3] He states that as "the fourth and purportedly last supplement to Dungeons and Dragons" it "might be expected from such a 'last bow,' as it were, this newest supplement is different from all three of the previous ones, in a major way. [...] This is by no means 'standard' D&Dmaterial."[3] He commented that "I'm no scholar of ancient (and modern!) legends, but it seems to me the authors have given a view of the various mythological concepts which is both panoramic and scrutinously details, and as complete as possible within the space limitations imposed [...] Kuntz and Ward have taken material which has come down to us in a sometimes distorted and almost always nebulous form, and clarified it into a solid material which would fit in well with any fantasy game."[3] Taylor concludes his review by saying that Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes is worth the price "for the mere pleasure of reading it. For students of ancient legends it's a Type I treasure. It should much lived up any D&D campaign in which it is used""
This I completely agree with & absolutely disagree with, Lawrence Schick who calls this book "the least important supplement to Original D&D" in his book 1991 book Heroic Worlds. Why?! Because churches & temples pay adventurers to rid the land of chaos & evil. Given the scope & breath of many campaigns it stands to simple reason that clerics would be assigned to & given over to adventuring parties.
In point of fact clerics & priests should be used as the central rallying point for the call to adventure! Yeah I said it. The fact is that priests & their ilk are going to seek out wizards & fighters for help ridding some god or goddess forsaken land of some monstrous evil. I was just speaking to a friend this morning about how a single troll seen in a kingdom was a rallying point for every adventurer in the region to wipe out the horror that had invaded the land.
Each piece of that walking abomination has the potential to create an infection that must be cleansed from the landscape. This also comes straight across in the AD&D first edition Fiend Folio with the troll variants when their first seen. A giant troll is a cross between a troll and a hill giant, resulting in a troll over 10 feet tall full on Chaos unbound. The cleric & its network of temples can & should be the rallying points for adventure in old school campaigns! Why?!
Clerics are the holy warriors & agents of their gods these are the boots on the ground agents against the forces of light & darkness or chaos & law. I can't stress enough how dangerous the role of the cleric is in original Dungeons & Dragons along with its latter incarnations of this class. Treasure is the fuel that keeps this holy machine running & the peoples who in habit campaign safe & free from harm that adventurers face on a daily basis.
For looking at a number of Dungeons & Dragons style clerics who do exactly this sort of work in their own world. I have to reach over to grab my copy of the Record of the Lodoss War comic books. These comic books have several excellent examples of the type of clerics that we're speaking of in this blog entry.
A most misguided character that is a perfect set up for a reverse villain turned hero is Marvel's Crusader who while he uses a sword could be used to pattern a heroic cleric quite easily. This is a solid character who is operating in the modern world.
But the Crusader's zeal & conviction is easily the sort of holy fire that needs to burn away the infection of chaos right across the landscape. Clerics are the sort of character class whose mere presence is a balm of holy religion to the plight of the lands where evil dwell.But clerics can only hold or destroy evil there are other forces to blow it apart. Tomorrow the seed of destruction in original Dungeons & Dragons
