Commentary & Review of Mayfair Games Role Aids Module 'Shadows of Evil' by Stephen R. Bourne For Your Old School Campaigns.

"It was one of those missions that you instinctively knew would be trouble; one that will lead to a lot of blood spilled- yours. And it didn't help to have the villagers spreading rumors and making up stories. Sometimes being in the service of a Druid is not healthy, for even wile the sune shines bright, you're led into the SHADOWS OF EVIL"

717 Shadows of Evil is a ROLE AIDS Adventure For 3-6 Characters at Skill Levels 4 to 7. Suitable for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons*. Celtic Culture, Druidic Background, New Magic, Two Major Adventures from the back of cover of Shadows of Evil by  Stephen R. Bourne. Shadows of Evil by  Stephen R. Bourne came out in  Eighty Four. This is a fantasy Greco Roman Celtic adventure with some very dark undertones for various Druid covens in the adventure.

Shadows of Evil by  Stephen R. Bourne is a Greco Roman Celtic themed adventure with a core of  Roman Empire goodness; "Between 500 and 400 years B.C., the Celtic World was at its peak. Celtic culture covered most of Western Europe, including France, Britain, Germany, and the northern lowlands, and it extended eastward almost to the Black Sea. There seems to have been, however, a sharp line dividing it from the southern societies about the Mediterranean. The Celtic presence was more of a culture than an empire. The Celts lived in a very decentralized societyone might say that they had a stateless society. The first Celtic traces in Britain appear as early as 750 B.C., roughly corresponding to the late Bronze Age. The first tribes came from continental Europe, and by400 B.C. they were dominant throughout Britain. The Celts were an early Iron Age people, and with superior metallurgy for weapon-making, they swept through the country in a relatively short time. Although much of their culture and technology suggests otherwise, the Celts have been called "barbarians." Unfortunately, the word barbarian conveys images of uncivilized savages, naive primitives, and moral inferiors. Such was the view of the Romans and the Greeks who wrote about the Celts in their own time. When studying an ancient people who did not speak for themselves (through written records) it is important to understand the bias of others who wrote about them. Julius Caesar, for instance, left fascinating accounts of Celtic society. However, his account is suspect because he did not enter Britain in 56 B.C. to study the Celts, but to conquer them! In the main there are three sources of information on the Celts of Britain: Archaeological Evidence: ruins, unearthed tools, weapons and other diggings such as burial grounds or huts. Legends and Folklore: as found in various books such as the Irish vernacular texts written in medieval times (after 500 A.D.). These old Irish books represent the first attempt to record the Oral Celtic Tradition. Testimonials: from Greek and Roman scribes."

The basic adventure draws the characters into a world of dark irony &  Celtic magick. The cartography & layout is typical Mayfair Role Aids. Shadows of Evil by  Stephen R. Bourne  is the perfect adventure module to run with Castles & Crusades The Codex Celtarum. Seriously the dungeon master is gonna have to do a bit of a mix of systems but this is really where Castles & Crusades shines as a table top OSR semi clone Siege.



This module is Advanced Dungeons & Dragons evil druid heaven.  'Shadows of Evil by Stephen R. Bourne takes the PC's into the world of a very uneasy occupied Roman Britain. This makes  Shadows of Evil because its a module geared for first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons lines up perfectly with Castles & Crusades Codex Classicum making this a perfect campaign line up with Stephen T. Bourne, & Martin F. King's module 'Evil Ruins'. I covered that review yesterday. 


There's more then enough room in Castles & Crusades to run the PC's through the full gauntlet of
of encounters & horrors to get a true feel for the awesomeness of  'Shadows of Evil' by Stephen R. Bourne.


Because this is a Roman occupied fantasy Britain in 'Shadows of Evil' by Stephen R. Bourne  this module could easily be ported over to Adventurer,Conqueror, King rpg's Auran Empire campaign setting. Roman occupied fantasy Britain becomes a vassal colony country of the Auran empire. The module moves along as planned & events play out with dire repercussions if the PC's are not careful. 


In Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcererers of Hyperborea rpg  'Shadows of Evil' by Stephen R. Bourne   takes on new connotations as the PC's have to navigate a former Hyperborean empire colony now manned & ruled by the human counterparts of the Hyperboreans. The Keltic elements & Druidic adventure bits take the PC's deep into the heart of a sore spot with the humans occupying the former lands of the Keltics.

 'Shadows of Evil' could be linked up with the basic events of the Swampgate community to draw attention to the plight of Keltic peoples within the former Hyperborean empire now human dominated. This makes the druids very nasty indeed with a very dark history. 
 'Shadows of Evil' by Stephen R. Bourne   isn't perfect but it fits the niche of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Celtic weirdness nicely. The second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons book HR 3 Celtics while not necessary could be used as a far reaching addition to the Mayfair Role Aids module. HR 3 Celtics could give additional background, setting material, & even possible campaign expansion. 




All in all I found  'Shadows of Evil' by Stephen R. Bourne  to be a fun and enjoyable adventure romp with all of the Druidic danger & Celtic weirdness that I've come to expect from this underrated adventure writer & designer.

 'Shadows of Evil' by Stephen R. Bourne is available through Amazon right here! 

Commentary & Review of Mayfair Games Role Aids Module 'Evil Ruins' '83 For Your Old School Campaigns.

"Evil Ruins: An ancient terror among timeless ruins is an adventure set in an ancient Saxon/Celtic castle. Intended for 3 to 6 characters of 1st to 4th level, and is part of the Role Aids line of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons-compatible products."


Time & again over the years I've heard from various gamers that Mayfair Games Role Aids series never created any low level adventures. This is pure manure with Stephen T. Bourne, & Martin F. King's module 'Evil Ruins'. The striking cover art by Boris Vallejo has absolutely nothing to do with the module's adventure plot. The PC's are hired to clear out an ancient Saxon/Celtic castle.

This is a very cut & dry module clocking in at thirty two pages or is it? Evil Ruins has several interesting mistakes in the mapping like a missing set of stairs. A clever dungeon master can take advantage of this to add in to the module a few dungeon adventure elements to adapt Evil Ruins to their own home campaign game. Now Evil Ruins is intended for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition game. The encounters are quick & to the point & the writing is crisp & I especially like the Arthurian angle; "The ruined castle at Tintagel (by-the-sea) actually exists in Cornwall, England. It is said to be the original site of King Arthur's castle. For the purposes of role-playing, the origins of this adventure predate the player characters' era by 400 years. By now Tintagel is in ruins, and yet it exerts a terrible and malevolent influence on the land. For miles and miles about the castle all settlements were destroyed and the land reverted back to a thick and dense forest. Now the castle stands practically buried in weeds and brambles 30 miles from the nearest inhabited place. The local secular authority (the Duke) is troubled and frustrated that so much of his land is adversely affected by this menace. Lately, a helpful retainer of the Duke has put him in touch with a religious retreat. The Duke is only too pleased to give the property to the religious order if they can first deal with the malevolence that abides there. It falls upon a cleric (from that religious order) to organize an expedition to confront and disperse the Evil in the castle"
Evil Ruins is an adventure from another era & it shows it in everything the module embodies. For me this is part of its charm & wit with many Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual favorites taking center stage whist an evil wizard lurks in the shadows.



Even though Evil Ruins is a basic module there's an advanced plot lurking in the background & several solid Arthurian leads that can be used to weave the module into your home campaign. For my money with the way that 'Evil Ruins' plays out I would reskin it over to the classic AD&D Greyhawk setting. 

Because 'Evil Ruins' clocks in at thirty four pages it has the potential to be used to kick off an easily established low level Arthurian campaign. Even though it comes off as nothing special with a bit of work Evil Ruins could be reworked into a completely weird late post Greco Roman/English post occupation Saxon  campaign. 'Evil Ruins' even includes a small grouping of towns,villages, and even an inn with a black smith. The history of the castle lends itself to all manner of campaign expansion; "Four hundred years before this adventure, the castle of Tintagel was the main northern outpost of the ancient Saxon Kings. It was built on the north shore of Cornwall, in the West Country of England. The castle belonged to Godwin, First Lord of the Realm and personal retainer of the King of the Gold Swords, Leefrick. Godwin played a crucial role in assisting Leefrick retain control of the realm after years of anarchy."

'Evil Ruins' isn't spectacular but with a bit of elbow grease this can go from being a four star module into a full on five star campaign starter. I would ruin Evil Ruins with either OSRIC or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition.  Evil Ruins could even be run with the Lion & Dragon rpg. The module's castle is an Elven haunted ruin & the local authorities call in the PC's to clear it out.

For Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 'Evil Ruins' becomes something else entirely. The module can be run from the ground up as a time lost portal in the Keltic countryside that leads to a Saxon England of Arthurian times. The PC's become embroiled in the power struggles of a time lost castle but in actuality. The castle is very real in the back bay of Keltic lands. This approach reflects the writings of Clark Ashton Smith approach. 'Evil Ruins' outcome affects the ruins of the castle in the present. Clever DM's will see what I mean with the module having further use as double location in present day Hyperborea.
'Evil Ruins' isn't perfect but with a little work 'Evil Ruins' could be used to jump start an OSR or old school campaign & keep it going for years. 

A Deeper Slice Into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Editions Role Aids Fantastic Treasures I & II by Alan Hammack From Mayfair Games

"Fantastic Treasures I &  II was written by Alan Hammack, with a cover by Boris Vallejo, and was published by Mayfair Games in 1984 & 1985 as a 96-page book."


Yesterday I wrote about using Mayfair Games Role Aids Demons I & II box sets, Fantastic Treasures, & Monsters of Myth & Legend. The response has been overwhelming but not so much in a good direction. I received a bunch of B.S. OSR product review requests that I quickly declined  to sort of earse the taste of one of the big secrets of the edition wars. You can find a comprehensive overview of the edition wars right here in this great blog post. 
 Guess what I'm gonna take a deeper look into Fantastic Treasures I & II which came out in 1984 & '85 respectively with a lovely cover  by Boris Vallejo.
The real treat here is how Fantastic Treasures I & II by Allan Hemback can be used. When your talking about the mythology of Earth's pagan gods these are the books to use. The entries are short brief, to the point, & specifically geared for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. There are a lot of folks who'd love you to forget the fact that;

"In 1993, Mayfair was sued by TSR, Inc., who argued that Role Aids violated their 1984 trademark agreement, being advertised as compatible with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The court found that some of the line violated the trademark, but the line as a whole did not violate the agreement,^[5] and Mayfair continued publishing the line until the rights were bought by TSR." 

This came up in the Mayfair games wiki entry but its really ancient history at this point. What can be done for a old school or OSR mythology style game campaign that I'm in the middle of writing. Is the entries in Fantastic Treasures I & II can be turned into photo copied, printed out, & turned into  treasure cards!



What this means is the fact that you as the DM can now create your own mega dungeons workshops of the gods guarded by many of the high level AD&D  Kuntz & Ward Dieties & Demigods monsters.


This gets into something that I've said for years, the OSR materials by various authors can be mixed & matched with the original old school material to create your own campaign worlds. In fact Castles & Crusades was designed to provide a bridge gap into the old school material. It provides a solid base system, easy to use books with a modern game engine, plenty of old school push, and its readily available. 
 

I'm getting burnt off of the constant merry go round of endless OSR Kickstarters & non troversies that seem to be permeating the OSR community lately. The table top level of the hobby however in my home town & among friends has never been better! Lately I've been reaching for C&C plus my copy of the Arduin Grimoires.


Dave Hargrave's alternative three little brown books align with a design ideal that I noticed in Fantastic Treasures I & II by Allan Hemback namely that power attracts power. This lure attracts adventurers like moths to the flame of treasure. The right treasure for the right campaign makes all of the difference in the world. As well as being the guiding light & lure of the PC's to their ascend it can also be the lure of death. It really depends upon the tone & adventure setting that the DM wants to create.
Man I'm glad that picked up Fantastic Treasures I & II by Alan Hammack all of those years ago in West Hartford,Connecticut at War & Pieces. They were recommended by DM Steven all of those years ago! 

Fire & Lightning - Using May Fair Games Role Aids - Wizards by Bill Fawcett (Editor) For Campaign Construction

"For sheer power, originality, & cunning, no other group approaches Wizards. Collected here are original articles written by the creators of some of the most famous magicians in history."
Quite the tagline from the back of the Mayfair Games Role Aids Wizard's book. And yet I went into this book back in '83 thinking that this was going to be a PC class book. Boy was I wrong!? Well, yes & no. The book isn't an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons character class book but it doesn't make it any less useful nor exciting. 

I don't particularly agree with the Amazon four star review from Jay Epps who said; "Due to the copyright limitations of the time, Mayfair Games was intentionally vague on the stats to skirt around TSR's lawyers. Though it's easy enough to figure everything out if you are familiar with First or Second Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Translating for those more familiar with Fifth Edition D&D or Pathfinder might be a bit more effort than you might want to spend. It's really an artifact of interest and use to old school gamers more than anything else."

Well what is in fact is an adventure anthology featuring write ups for ; Gilgamish in an adventure for eighth through tenth level, a version of Merlin, another adventure for Morgan Le Fay for third level through sixth level , Lythande of the Thieves world Trilogy by Marion Bradley for fourth through seventh, Shadow Jack from Roger Zelazny's "Jack of Shadows" for fifth through eighth levels, Circe for characters from sixth through ninth level. And then a massive write up on S.Carlonius  by Gordon R. Dickson's  "The Dragon and the George" and "The Dragon Knight" along with a bestiary . Then there's a great bit of Ahaz & Skeeve from Robert Aspirin's comedy "Myth" series get write-ups and an adventure "Mythified" which will work with most levels.

What's here is very useful especially for adventuring in the world or campaign settings based on the fiction of the Wizards featured in the anthology. But this is only part of what can be done here. Instead these NPC write ups could be used for as a jump off point for a party of adventurers NPC patrons! Imagine having a party of adventurers recruited by Shadow Jack from Roger Zelazny's "Jack of Shadows" for an adventure on a post apocalyptic land scape ala Gamma World second edition.  Or locking horns with Merlin & the knights of the round table for an artifact or magic item.
Everything in this book is keyed with more then enough information to act as a jump off point for an old school or OSR  campaign. The adventurers could have these wizards as patrons for their parties. This is a great book to act as perfect set up for Troll Lord Games Castles & Crusades campaign.


Want a straight up Sword & Sorcery campaign with a twist or two use Gilgamesh's write up & set the PC's on to the path of greater glory & perhaps godhood. What about a super hero game ala Amazing Adventures! rpg?! Surely there can't be anything here for that game? Actually if we reach back into the mists of time to  Whiz comics #47 then we have echoes of Captain Marvel's the wizard Shazam. He's a perfect profile for using a wizard as the origin key point for a pulp or super hero! Thanks to the World's Mightiest Mortal blog we get a complete outline of this classic character's origin. 


This same style of hero or even demi god origin could be used with Circe, Merlin, or even gasp Morgan Le Fay for that matter. The limits here on the dungeon master's imagination. I've been toying with using the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide listing & generation rules for artifacts for this upcoming demi god game.


This leads me back to an idea that I had within my B/X & AD&D hybrid campaign notes on artifacts transcending time & space. Wizards might have the ability to use said artifacts like the gods to bend the very laws of physics & history to pervert reality. This would make gods such as Greyhawk's Luz very dangerous indeed. It also means that wizards such as Circe could indeed have very different agendas then what PC's might expect. This is another way of using Mayfair's Role Aids Wizards book in an even more unexpected & dangerous light. 

The Darkest Magic Play Session Report - The Use & Abuse of Mayfair Games Role Aids Arch Magic Box Set

We've gone from doing campaign notes to a quick update on Steve's AD&D/BX/OSR game latest play session report! So I've been getting it right in the neck. Steve's game ended with Apocalypse right now because of yesterday's blog entry.

Mostly  because I've been using a variety of old school sources & combining them with OSR resources to create the type of super hero & pulp campaign that my players have wanted.   Now my original campaign notes are a B/X & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons hybrid which had its roots in deep mythology with some classic modules as backdrop. I've been using Mayfair games Role Aids to help with some of the heavy DM lifting & lets continue to look at the Archmagic box set which delves into some of the blackest of magics.Going all the way back into Ninety Three the Archmagic box by

Daniel Gelon, Julian Jackson, Mike Nystul, & Doug Tabb

set didn't seem like it was going to set the AD&D world on fire & it wasn't supposed to. The box set was supposed to fill in a very specialized niche of the fantasy gaming hobby. And it did; "Adds high-powered spells and items to any fantasy campaign, but is "presented for use with ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS".

Rules for Archmages, Artifacts, Grimoires and Archmagics are presented.

Includes an adventure utilizing the rules within. Also includes maps of various mystic places and props depicting various powerful items.

Contains:

64 page rulebook
32 page adventure
48 page map book
12 loose single-sided sheets of props"

Now the thing about this box set is that it ports right into the Demons line of Mayfair products in a reverse screw sort of campaign adventure way. Now I've already heard the teeth gnashing from Steve my friend about there being no conversions for Archmagic into the Original Dungeons & Dragons rules set. The Vaults of Pandius site came through an Archmagic to  OD&D  conversion by Scott Moore. 

This means that about 90 percent of the box set of materials will work with the Godbound rpg by Kevin Crawford. For Troll Lord Games Castles & Crusades or Amazing Adventures! Rpg we'll be using the system straight on!
One of the reasons is for their to be Arch magicians guarding reality & dealing with the problem of necromancers & black wizards from beyond. Another is that arch mages are often the fulcrum in comics between the 'gods' & various super heroes as well as adventurers. They recruit local talent & parties of adventurers  to take on Herculean tasks. This is the whole cloth premise of Marvel's Seventies comic book group  the Defenders! Who often seem to act more like adventurers at the table top then some of the polished fantasy novels I've read.




Now I've already talked about the rise of the Primordial dragons yesterday but one of the things that Arch magic box set brought to the table was the ability of very high level magicians to create planes themselves. As my buddy Steve said this is a show of  'local talent' on the part of the arch mages & directly under the purview of the gods. This is sort of like  when Marvel's High Evolutionary went mad; after the Beyonders looked at his version of  Earth  & put it on display in one of their museums.  This was an example of local talent for Marvel's 616 universe.
This brings me to Chessboards By Dave Howell for the Primal Order cap system which is their book on planes. That's a bit simplified. The Planes book covers ;"covers such topics as the various types of planes and their relationships, planar growth cycles, ways to planes, and several varieties of interplanar travel.For those using The Primal Order, it also includes expanded guidelines on planar use primal energy, planar artifacts, and advanced interactions between planes and deities. Five samples metaplanes provide inspiration and illustrate important concepts. Usable with any roleplaying system, this reference work will give GMs the tools they need to create exciting new planes, run multiple settings in one campaign, or link several campaigns into one logically organized multiverse."


Much of what's in Planes bares a striking resemblance to some of the material in the Godbound rpg fannon & rpg resources. So its very interesting seeing the parallel design work across the table on this material. 
This all ties into me inheriting my co dungeon master Steve's game where the PC's have just taken an artifact of Luz back to their Earth! Things are quickly going to Hell quite literally. The dragons have awoken. The party has now got a major succubus from the Amazing Adventures! rpg Manual of Monsters on their behinds! Steve read yesterdays notes & played out the ideas there as an actual game.
Now I've got to pull two of my best friends in to help me co dungeon master my way outta this! So stay tuned! 


Its all pretty glorious! Thanks for reading & we've got more coming up! 

OSR Campaign Preparation Dragons & Divinities - The Rise of The Primordial Dragons

"A collection of powerful minions, monsters, and other entities. Divine servants to intercede between your PCs and their distant deities, mighty beasts to defy even your strongest party, or just a few fascinating creatures for your adventurers to glimpse and wonder about."

Once upon a time I traveled fifty miles to one of my best friend's house to buy a copy of The Primal Order's book Pawns. These creatures are the ones that I pull out when I want to shake up a campaign. But its been a long time since I've cracked open The Primal Order's Pawns book but then again its been a long time since players have challenged me this much. The biggest bugaboo has been trying to get players on board with a Thursday or Friday evening game.
The fact of the matter is that when your taking a variety of player personality types things can get very interesting very fast. I've been thinking about doing something very different for a long time now. Role Aids product line  from Mayfair games has been sitting on my shelves & now these books need to be used right along with The Primal Order Pawns book  by Nigel Findley. 



I've been toying with the ideas of using the Primorial dragons mythology & background for my campaign world. This mythology fits in with some of the draconic ideas presented in  the Teratic Tome by Rafael Chandler .
These are campaign leveling dragons and not your run of the mill wyrms but monsters capable of burning down Heaven itself. Many of these monsters are world enders  one of the reasons that you'll see the Teratic Tome mentioned in conjunction with high level divine campaigns.
So why do this?! I've been toying with using Luz for a while as an actual force of evil on the planes organizing chaos & sewing strife across the universe. His back alley cults have been hatching plans to awaken the dragon's nests across the Earth. He has knowledge of these through his maternal (by adoption)  grandmother  Baba Yaga,



These are not times to simply back down on heroes. The world really needs demi god heroes to step out of the shadows! But can it happen? That's going to depend upon if and when I can arrange for my players schedules to jive. Meanwhile I continue to pull out my campaign notes & the rise of certain mummy led cults of Orcus deep in the wastelands of the Empty Quarter. And what is it about those black eyed children who keep muttering the ram headed lord's praises on the fringes of society?




All of this comes from the Amazing Adventures Manual of Monsters & what  the effects that the rise of the Primordial dragons are having on the rest of the Earth's dragons?! What does the stirring of ancient evil have on Earth's heroes? Are they even noticing the increasing horrors around them?

Next I'm dusting off the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition  Fiend Folio for some of more dangerous & aggressive monsters to throw into the mix coming up! We'll get into those coming up! 

A Matter of Mayfair Games & Elves - More OSR Campaign Commentary

Way back in the mists of time in Nineteen Eighty Three Mayfair Games had the Role Aids line of products. They offered an inexpensive gap to help fill in some of the gap that was left in the mythology of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition at the time. Over the weekend I got together with some friends to discuss  Elves Book as a possible source for my upcoming OSR Castles & Crusades campaign. It was an interesting night to say the least.



Elves has a very innovative set up to its layout. The dungeon master is presented with different Elven adventure locations, NPC's, & adventure set ups that relate to the different Elven race variants that are presented in the book. Once again its got that classic AD&D pseudo Tolkein Dungeons & Dragons race out of pop culture legend.

Which is fine because it doesn't violate what I want to do in terms of my campaign mythology. According to the Wiki Entry on Mayfair games Elves; "Elves is a supplement describing elven characters and the various elven cultures, history, and gods. With six scenarios for elf characters, levels 4-7, one for each type of elf: wood elves, grey elves, dark elves, high elves, etc"I don't agree with the old take from Robert Dale review of  Elves for White Dwarf #57;"Robert Dale reviewed Elves for White Dwarf #57, giving the book a rating of 3 out of 10 overall.^[3] He called Elves "execrable, excruciating and extortionate", stating that "the price should dissuade any self-respecting gamer" from buying it.^[3] He felt that the purpose of the book, to aid roleplaying, is negated by the pseudo-scientific style in which the material is presented. He found that the adventures in the book were not specifically designed for elves.^[3] Dale concluded that Elves was a "merely amateur" rehashing of "widely current material lacking the redeeming features of a coherent setting or adequate presentation."" This is a really harsh view of the 'Elves' product in my mind & given the varying quality of Mayfair material its easy to see his opinion. But remember that Elves was made in Eighty Three & we only had Dragon magazine to disseminate 'official' material to the dungeon masters.  This fits in with the overall history of Mayfair Games Role Aids of the time; 

"Elves was written by Cheron Fitzgerald Carr and Delbert Carr, Jr., with Daniel Greenberg, Anne Jaffe, and Sam Shirley, with a cover by Janny Wurts, and was published by Mayfair Games in 1983 as a 96-page book.^[1] A second printing was published in 1985.^[1]

After the publication of Dwarves, the fourth Role Aids supplement, Mayfair Games published additional AD&D Role Aids supplements quickly and in volume. The line featured many adventures as well as an increasing number of source books, including race- and class-related books like Dark Folk (1983), Wizards (1983) and Elves (1983). Each product proclaimed its use with AD&D, though the disclaimer was soon moved to the back cover.^[2]:"

In my games the Elves are the Huldra ("hidden being") from the  Scandinavian languages. They were bred as a slave race for the gods of Fairy. They are all that remains of a race of extinct gods that parished across the planes. They have spiritually degenerated in some areas but traces of their elder leaders remain; 

"The Old High German word alp is attested only in a small number of glosses. It is defined by the Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch as a "nature-god or nature-demon, equated with the Fauns of Classical mythology ... regarded as eerie, ferocious beings ... As the mare he messes around with women".^[104] Accordingly, the German word Alpdruck (literally "elf-oppression") means "nightmare". There is also evidence associating elves with illness, specifically epilepsy.^[105]

In a similar vein, elves are in Middle German most often associated with deceiving or bewildering people "in a phrase that occurs so often it would appear to be proverbial: die elben/der alp trieget mich ("the elves/elf are/is deceiving me").^[106] The same pattern holds in Early Modern German.^[107][108] This deception sometimes shows the seductive side apparent in English and Scandinavian material:^[105] most famously, the early thirteenth-century Heinrich von Morungen's fifth Minnesang begins "Von den elben wirt entsehen vil manic man / Sô bin ich von grôzer liebe entsên" ("full many a man is bewitched by elves / thus I too am bewitched by great love").^[109] Elbe was also used in this period to translate words for nymphs.^[110]

In later medieval prayers, Elves appear as a threatening, even demonic, force. For example, there are prayers which invoke God's help against noctural attacks by Alpe.^[111]Correspondingly, in the early modern period, elves are described in north Germany doing the evil bidding of witches; Martin Luther believed his mother to have been afflicted in this way" 

This fits some but not all of the basic adventure conceits of Castles & Crusades "The Codex Celtarum". The fact that many of the ideas of various Elven nation states & tribes being part of the roiling chaos of Fairy. Brian Young does a really good job of taking the various Celtic mythological elements & presenting them in a viable & yet playable way.

 


We seem to have this view point that Elves are at once familiar & yet utterly alien to the human race. The fact is that half Elves are a perfect example of the utter alieness of these creatures. They are like humans but simply better. Stronger, faster, better reflexes, more attractive, & much longer lived. All of these up point the fact that Half Elves don't fit into Elven or human society. Why would creatures who are almost immortal breed with humans?!  Half Elves are the perfect filter between Elves & humanity. 
Elves with their patience, longevity, emotional capacity for violence, interactions with humans, and how they treat half-elves all speak of a race on the ragged edge of extinction. Sure this might take another million years or so but this is the blink of an eye to a race that lives for two thousand or more years. 

To humans these beings were gods or at least lesser godly spirits. But one thing I'm not going to be doing is shedding a spot light on all of the divine mysteries of the campaign. The Role Aids products varied in their setting  background  material & divine gods. Why?! Because various authors & designers were used on the books. So many setting & campaign elements don't jive together coherently. I'm going to let the players fill in the details in the matter of the gods & their various wars with the Elves. The History & Lore of Elves in Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons  has me even concerned. But that's going to be put on the back burner. I'll be using the Elven race as a light snack for all kinds of horrors in the more modern age end of the campaign. But time & again I've seen Elven adventurers used as a part of some pulp or super hero group in various table top role playing circles. 

Now given Amazing Adventures! Rpg 's  Book of Powers is easily available its pretty simple to convert or create a wide variety of Elven & sub Elven races as needed. There are even more options on the table given some of the OSR titles on the market.



Sure it sounds like I'm offering a lot of great PC options at the table but actually what I'm doing is setting up the players for all kinds of future mayhem! There will be a price to be paid coming up!