review

Palantir Quest (1994): wild goose chase (review part V)

David Skelector jeux de rôles, middle-earth, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

We’ll now be going through all five remaining chapters of the adventure. It looks (to me at least) like the adventure from now on has really overstayed its welcome for no good reason at all. I feel like adding more layers/depth to the previous chapters would have been a lot more profitable than this endless sightseeing tour that we get instead. Honestly, I think someone on the writing team decided that they had to use as many previously published sourcebooks as possible and include them in this adventure in some fashion, no matter how cumbersome it was to do so.

Anyway, Palantir Quest is too much of a railroad and as hinted in the title it has some very questionable design choices but there’s also some good bits here and there. Read on!

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Having survived the frigid north, the player characters slowly get back to civilization on foot. Empty-handed to boot, as the two palantiri they barely had time to see are now in the possession of an Easterling named Vacros and his hired band of smugglers.

When they reach Tharbad to report their failure what they get is an hostile greeting. In fact Commander Cilis is « bitterly angered by the news of his lost men.  » And the PCs « are not encouraged to dwell long in Tharbad. » YOU HAVE DISAPPOINTED THE COMMANDER! Well, I’m all for roleplaying and it could be an understandable reaction from this NPC but it’s not like the players could have done anything differently!

Now, based on the flimsiest of clue that they got weeks ago in-game ( before their very strenuous arctic ordeal), they’re supposed to push on and investigate the Juggler’s Hall in a desperate bid to find a way to restore their honor.

Upon reaching the Juggler’ Hall (again) they find that the place isn’t open to visitors at the moment, they’ll have to find a way to get in. A frontal assault is unlikely to succeed, what the player characters have to do is to infiltrate and investigate. Or, a nice alternative that is provided by the book is to talk to the ambitious wife of the « Master Juggler » whom could be persuaded to betray her husband and give information to the PCs. Eiher way, if they’re competent about it they’ll learn of the rendez-vous point of the smugglers, as stipulated in the delivery contract by the yet to be seen true villain of the adventure.

This leads them (after some minor events) to the Wold, right on time to be participants in a big four-way fight. It’s a great setup, somewhat lessened by the usual flaw of this adventure of forcing things too much.

What begins as a fight between the smugglers (Jugglers) and opportunistic bandits is soon complicated by the simultaneous arrivals of the PCs and an orc raiding party! There’s a fully statted roster, an okay map (below) of the site, several steps to what each sides are doing, all good. Less good is this advice: « The Gm should attempt to manipulate all of the PCs into the lair. » Because as written the adventurers have to get into that nearby cave, huh, in order for a landslide to happen automatically, thus forcing them onward to explore the (linear) underground system.

I’ll note on the plus side that there’s a very nice cursed sword to be found in the lair, a potent weapon that has the significant drawback of animating any nearby statues with hostile intents towards the wielder. Great item!

Stashed in the cave are two heavy boxes containing the palantir!. All the PCs have to do now is to bring them to the king to get their well-earned praises and rewards…

Except that NO! Once in Minas Tirith and upon closer examination by the royal seer it is revealed that those artefacts are fakes! YOU HAVE DISAPPOINTED THE ROYAL SEER! YOU HAVE DISAPPOINTED THE KING (Aragorn)!

How do you feel about that? Damn, I really hate these GOTCHA twists… And what’s that about, guilt tripping the players?

Anyway, The PCs are arrested and then subsequently released after it is established that they really are innocent, just a bit oblivious. Get back on the plot thread will you!

« It is recommended that the GM award a bonus of 10,000 XPs for the recovery of what the characters believe to be the true Seeing-stones, but then retract 80% of that bonus when they find out that what they have recovered are fakes. They should regain this 80% when they recover the real Stones (in addition to a bonus for achieving their goal). »

As the greatest glass makers in Middle-earth are right here in Minas Tirith and they’re the most likely to have crafted somewhat convincing fakes, the PCs can get on their path to redemption immediately and investigate the Glassworks. And the next part is actually quite well-made I’ll say. There’s three clues to be found, they make a lot of sense in context without being too obvious and, more importantly, it is up to the players to piece it together. No dumb spoon-feeding this time around. Hurray!

They should be able to discover a lead on someone called the « Green Man », and their next stop in order to find him is all the way north to Lake-town.

(some minor events on the road: a pair of trolls under a bridge, an haunted tower – serviceable filler)

This part is unfortunately way less well-conceived. Nobody knows who the « Green Man » is in Lake-town but the adventurers will stumble upon/be offered a job that leads to his discovery anyway. Call it Fate if you will. The captured smuggler (there’s just too much smuggling NPCs in this adventure) can tell the PCs where his men (now missing) were bringing the fake palantiri (before they reached the cave where they found them) but he knows nothing useful of his mysterious employer. But they get UNEXPECTED ASSISTANCE in the form of an old woman who tells of this evil sorcerer Taladhan « He came out of them woods, he did. » Yeah, right, thank you old woman, onward we go.

Oh and this Taladhan hired an assassin who’ll most likely kill at least one player character while he sleeps at the inn in Lake-town. That’s it *checks the list of replacement*, here’s this new character for you, keep going!

The adventurers leave Lake-town and follow the smugglers’ trail into Greenwood (Mirkwood was renamed with its ancient name after the end of the War of the Ring). They’ll have to fight some giant spiders and, after about six days of travel, will reach the spot where the smugglers were ambushed by Taladhan’s half-orc minions. They’ll also encounter a Silvan Elf that will conveniently brief the players on the current situation, which is as follows:

  • He has located Taladhan’s tower in the southern part of Greenwood.
  • He has seen « ugly men » with two crates a few months ago (the fakes)
  • He has seen another band a few days ago (the real palantiri)
  • Elves attacked this last band and took off with the smaller palantir to their tree fort
  • Those Elves are being attacked right now by the sorcerer’s minions (« ugly men » and Black Trolls)
  • The defenders can’t last long

But despite knowing all this the adventurers, as written, aren’t expected to go help the endangered Elves immediately but, instead, for some reason to do so only after they’ve dealt with Taladhan at his lair. Talk about odd prioritizing…

I would hope the players would insist on getting out of the railroad at this point but if they don’t they’ll go to the sorcerer’s lair, a sort of Orthanc-type tower carved inside a stone spire, and a symbol of the times surely, whereas the villain is a pale imitation of Saruman who was himself a pale imitation of Sauron who as a pale imitation of Morgoth…

Conveniently for the adventurers, the 25th level sorcerer Taladhan is one obsessive dude and he will only intervene if 80% of the current garnison (25 half-orcs and 2 Olog-hai Trolls, nothing to scoff at) is killed, otherwise he’s too busy playing with his new palantir toy to even care. But then the tower « is reached only by air across the violent spume of the waterfall that engulfs its foundation. » It’s a very nice site by the way. But I have no idea how the PCs are supposed to enter the tower, across the waterfall and get past the solid black iron doors (closed by « huge metal bars » from the inside), or how the baddies themselves are getting in and out without any bridge contraption for that matter. Climbing the vertical 165′ up to the balcony doesn’t seem like a feasible option. A Trojan Horse-style ploy maybe?

It’s mini-Orthanc alright, impregnable, so unless the players are really clever about it (or have just the right spell available, that’s a possibility), maybe the GM will have to put in a Wormtongue lookalike to untie the tactical impasse…

Whichever way it is achieved, it leaves the tree-fort battle to be resolved afterward. Dozens of half-orcs fighters with some trolls and twenty Elves on the adventurers’ side (not included: what if they came immediately, are the defenders more numerous? if they come 3 days later, are they still alive?). A hard fight unless (also not included) a crafty player character shows the cut head of the dead sorcerer for his minions to see or something like that I would think.

The adventurers finally have the real palantiri in their hands and will get back to the King’s court after some minor events (giant spiders, bandits).

One last unnecessary scene happens whereas Vacros and his accomplice have kidnapped the royal seer. Whatever, let the royal guards deal with this I say.

With that, the adventure FINALLY comes to an end:

And that’s it, that was Palantir Quest, ICE’s Middle-Earth most ambitious adventure, too ambitious perhaps as in my opinion it couldn’t deliver true quality content within such a lenghty journey, all in only 159 pages. I have some ideas on what I would do with this book, there’s something to be done with it undoubtely – cutting two-thirds of the journey and removing the railroad plot (making it a sandbox, yay!) would be a good start, but that’s for another post (if I gather the will to do so).

Palantir Quest (1994): look at those ballz (review part IV)

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Lord of the Rings, middle-earth, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

We’re now covering chapters seven, eight and nine of the adventure. With the first two doing all the wrong things in a rpg book and with the latter being actually interesting.

Part I

Part II

Part III

The adventurers have found the locate spell in the Royal Library of Annuminas and upon reading it, they get a strange vision whereas one player get to make a bunch of rolls, of course, and then learn three things:

  • There’s in fact two palantiri to be found!
  • They’re in a cave near a rocky shore.
  • Somewhere in the Bay of Forochel in the North.

The Plot Must Go On

Now they must get back to Tharbad as instructed. Commander Cilis requisition a boat, a crew and twenty fighting men to go with them. Before they can leave though, their boat will be the target of sabotage. The player characters can try to pursue the arsonists but as written they’re just impossible to catch. However, a Medium perception roll reveals a document detailing the plan for sabotage and written on a concert program coming from the Juggler’s Hall. Hilariously, if the PCs failed to get this clue they’ll automatically find: « Three, round, wooden balls uncomsumed by the fire also serve as a clue (they are juggling balls) […] ». Just to be sure that the players make the connection (or more likely, shrug it off).

And that was the whole of chapter 7, showing the players that they do indeed have opponents, the kind that bring their juggling balls everywhere they go, whatever they do.

« The Evenstar leaves Tharbad with sailors still repairing the fire damage resulting from the efforts of the saboteurs. »

After 12 days and a check on the seasickness table, the boat is now on the open sea north of Forlindon and gets caught in a tempest. The Evenstar manages to take shelter on a natural bay of the Isle of Himring. Why don’t the PCs go explore a bit while the crew make the necessary repairs?

On top of the steep cliffs lie the remnants of the fortress of Himring, which has an impressive backstory (taken from the silmarillion) as it was built in the First Age by the Noldo Elf Maedhros, the eldest son of Fëanor (and almost a demi-god really), as part of the defences against Morgoth. The structure, originally 900′ feet tall, is almost erased aboveground and what the PCs get to explore is that:

So, hmm yeah, a bit underwhelming isn’t it?

This is chapter 8.2.1 and it’s rightly titled « Digression on the Isle of Himring ». This « digression » it must be said is haunted by the 60th level (!) ghost of Uldor the Accursed, a First Age man who sided with Morgoth and is paying in his afterlife for his bad life choices. This Uber-ghost does have a stat block provided and, unsurprisingly, he’s a beast with 145 hit points, a +205 scimitar attack , +55 defensive bonus and can only be harmed by Elven made weapons, hugely outclassing the adventurers. Except that he’s been nerfed, his sword attack does no damage but inflicts a 1-5 temporary constitution loss (don’t forget that it’s Rolemaster, a character has most likely 60+ constitution) on the target. They still have to harm him with an Elven weapon though but serendipitously, this 7’8 »’ elven dude Maedhros has left his 12′ practice 2-hands sword there to be picked up millennia later. A very unwieldy weapon to be sure, even for a super strong character, so what we’ll be getting I think, is the most inefficient duel of all time. Just picture this ghostly warrior howling in frustration with his sword going through his adversary without apparent effect and his opponent just having a hard time swinging his final fantasy weapon around…

That resolved, there’s many other very strong magic weapons and other precious items to be found in fact, if the adventurers get part the locked doors on each side and get their hands on them.

Hmm, a totally uncharacteristic amount of treasure, including magic items, in one haul. Something fishy going on?

Leaving the Isle of Himring behind, there’s a few more days of travel before arriving at the Ice Bay of Forochel. The read-aloud says that the bay is a full 100 miles long and the plan is simply to follow the shoreline until there’s something worth investigating.

Which happens a few hours later, the PC who read the locate spell and received its vision recognizes the headland. It’s the spot!

They enter a cave:

The adventurers found the palantiri! Hurray!

And then they get screwed BIG TIME.

Because you see the bad guys are already there, hidden. Remember the guy with the disturbing laughter from the Juggler’s Hall? His name is Vacros and he’s here with 60 men, his damaged ship now sunk and the plan is to capture the PCs’ ship and leave with the palantiri…

« The GM is warned that Vacros’ success is crucial to the plot of the campaign: the ruffian should obtain both Stones and leave the PCs stranded in the Ice Bay. This does not mean that a fair fight won’t ensue, merely that Vacros must win. »

So a rigged but fair fight. Huh huh.

There’s nothing the PCs can do.Their boat is gone. Their equipment is gone and bye bye the cool stuff you just found like an hour ago.

Okay this is like all the worst sins a GM can do combined into that last scene but at least the coming chapter is interesting.

It’s about surviving.

And making allies of distrustful locals. Fighting dangerous beasts. Exploring lairs. Making a deal with a dragon.

All very nice.

And a somewhat restored agency to the players. Of course, the chapter is only nine pages long, it could have benefitted from being a bit more meaty.

Which way will you go?

Next, we’ll witness a wild goose chase going all over the place because clearly 3000 miles is not enough for an epic adventure. And then I might have some suggestions on how I would do things with the more interesting concepts of Palantir Quest.

Part V

Palantir Quest (1994) – dungeon à la sauce Rolemaster (review part III)

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Lord of the Rings, middle-earth, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I’ll be dividing my review of Palantir Quest in something like 7-8 parts I’m thinking (edit: took me 5). Yeah I’ll be quite thorough with this one, I’m not exactly sure why I feel the need to do so to be honest. On the one hand I don’t think there’s ANY real review of this product that exists at the moment. On the other hand I would be really surprised if someone was waiting for it at all. So that’s one of these things, just for the heck of it…

Part 1

Part II

We’ll now be examining the content of chapter five and six of the book. The player characters are leaving behind the kingdom of Rohan and should reach the reconstructing city of Tharbad into the Eriador region after a journey of about seven days.

There’s one fixed event on the road whereas the PCs have the opportunity to save a wounded Eriadorian guy and defeat some hostile nameless Dunlendings. In similar fashion to the earlier chapter, the rescued NPC will ask if he can be escorted to the next point on our map, in this case the town of Larach Duhnan. There, the PCs will have to take the soul-rending decision of which of two inns will they sleep in for the night. As there’s nothing to do (and no npc roster), I suppose the Game Master will encourage the PCs to leave asap and get to Tharbad not that far away.

Maybe it’s time to address somewhat of a big flaw of the book: there’s no side–quests hooks anywhere to be found to go along each chapter’s background history, truly excellent maps with keyed locations, nice buildings layouts and a « People of Note » section. Of course a GM worth its salt can add his own but it’s still a glaring omission.

Then, the player characters reach Tharbad and, as they were told to do so by the Royal Seer back in Minas Tirith, meet Commander Cilis in the restored Royal House. The latter expresses his doubts that there’s any books left in the library, he has seen it a few years ago and it is « no more than a moss-covered ruin ». They also meet Chief-Engineer Hearon who brings them on a tour of Tharbad and we get: « this is a good opportunity for the GM to adlib some meetings with the multi-cultural work force enjoying a well-earned drink in the cool evening air. » Nothing else from these two NPCs, not even a if you happen to find a… or a be on the lookout for… You know, something signaling opportunities, danger, anything!

I’ll note that Tharbad, with a bit of work, would make a very interesting homebase for adventurers as it should have a central role to a resurging kingdom of Arnor (northern Eriador) with its strategic location and afflux of newcomers.

So after after this talk with two NPCs and a rest at the Royal House, the adventurers will leave Tharbad behind and go further north.

Fortunately things will get more eventful in this next chapter.

It takes about 10 days from Tharbad to reach Annuminas, with a stop in-between at the town of Bree. But before reaching Bree: « The air is oppressive. You notice standing stones and strange monoliths littering the downs to the west. Strange, unnatural hillocks deform these western ridges. As you contemplate the scenery, a small figure runs across the hills waving its arms frantically and shouting in a high-pithced voice. »

The player characters have the opportunity to save the hobbit’s friend who was foolish enough to enter a barrow (as in Barrow-downs) – as a great pastiche from The Fellowship of the Ring (the book, it’s absent from the movie). The barrow, Lord Ravenor’s tomb, is a small eight-keys dungeon. There’s two wights within in one corner of the dungeon performing their morbid ceremony on the poor unconscious hobbit. There’s some treasure to be gained too: a few pieces of jewelry, gold coins, a nice magic ring (not powerful but useful) and some magic arrows.

Serviceable and, like I said, a nice pastiche.

After that, the PCs arrive in Bree. It is assumed that they relax a bit at the Prancing Pony, of course, I mean why not, and then continue on their way.

Top-notch art, as Middle Earth/ I.C.E. products were known for.

And now in Annuminas.

The city is completely in ruins, has been for centuries. The map (below) provides us with 10 keys but except for one (the Royal Library), they’re only for ambiance (i.e. « King’s Star Tower. A half-ring of stone remains from the royal observatory. It provides a sheltered camp site. »). There’s no encounters table provided either, though I suppose one could use the Old Arthedain‘s table of the Roadside and Wilderness Encounters found with the others at the end of the book.

Annuminas is not completly empty as there’s a family of seven trolls (3 males, 2 females, 2 youngsters) having a camp, guess where? Right at the PCs’ objective: the Royal Library! But I’m not really complaining, players must have challenges to overcome after all. The trolls would be quite dangerous to fight without a solid plan, probably impossible to beat in a fair fight in fact. Which is fine by me.

The trolls dealt with in some way or the other, the adventurers are free to explore the Royal Library. There’s not much aboveground anymore, a building with half of its walls ruined, but stairwells lead underground. An undergound library? That’s a terrible, terrible idea for books conservation! But, er, yes, maybe there’s some magic involved, let’s not delve on that too much.

« The most valued records and documents were removed from their ordered resting places to occupy the largely vacant shelves of the buried lowest floor of the library. Hasty but deadly traps were contrived and armed to protect the wealth so carelessly assembled. Then the last, brave, hopeless men turned to fight and fall to the hordes of the Witch-King. »

The Royal Library is a single Level dungeon with 29 keys, the only « real » dungeon of the adventure, such as it is.

(Side note: Not surprising, dungeon-crawling isn’t a primary feature of the I.C.E./MERP books. There is certainly some to be found of course and you know, there’s this little thing called the Moria fortress in the series. I guess you could also include Dol Guldur, Mount Gundabad and Angmar. Well, it’s more like stealth missions than dungeon-crawling as a real assault on either of those places would be suicidal even with high-level PCs.)

So, the closest thing to a dungeon in a MERP book let’s say. Let’s take a brief look at it.

Now the first thing that strikes me is that it doesn’t look like an underground complex at all. Yeah I know we must be lenient with dungeon architecture but this isn’t what I mean. The room at the center that you reach with either stairs is the Central Dome. Now, height isn’t mentionned anywhere for any locations so maybe there’s enough space for a dome. But way more revealing are rooms 5 and 7, East Garden and West Garden (which are in fact North and South on the plan, oops): « broken glass allows the filtered rays of the sun », « Prolific greenery has overflowed », « A reflecting pool filled with rainwater, sketchily mirrors the green splendor surrounding it. » This seems obvious to me, this is a refurbished dungeon (not the first time I see this), for an aboveground structure and the authors didn’t changed everything (or much?) from its original purpose.

With that out of the way, lets get back to the entrance.

The two stairs are both on the verge of collapsing and won’t support the weight of more than three men at a time. The way the Rolemaster system works, it’s odd but this is considered a trap and you have to detect it (Very Hard -20 and Extremely hard -30 for the other staircase) and somehow you can disarm it (?) (Sheer Folly -50 in both cases). One of the two staircase has also a (+10) fireball trap set off by the mere presence of intruders. That’s weird design. Shouldn’t the PCs just see that the staircases are damaged and take precautions if they wish so? Even more problematic is that there’s no way to know about the fireball trap – any dungeon designer worth his salt will give some realistic hints – a visible rune, some traces of burning or an incinerated badger maybe? Something to induce players agency you know.

So, a roll for this, roll for that unfortunate tendency I’d say.

But the PCs are now inside (and a bit crisped if they chose the wrong stairs). They already have the Royal Library’s master key from the start of the adventure, convenient as almost all the doors are at least « Extremely Hard -30 » to lockpick or will set off a spell if forced open. They have to find a specific book within the library with 20 out of 29 rooms having books in them. The objective is like sixty feet away from the entrance but the PCs will have to search randomly room by room, or maybe they have the right Seer spell available and will find the right room and the book in like 5 minutes, that’s a possibility. If not, what they have to contend with is mostly a handful of animated statues and hostile spells at almost every door. There’s also a 10% chance per hour of a ghost of one of the deceased librarian to appear and simply attack the PCs.

The books they’ll be finding everywhere are mostly abstracted (this section has lore on beasts, this one on astrology and so on) except for a few canonical ones (i.e. the silmarillion). No value is given to any books and nothing else can be found in the vicinity. Well, this isn’t a gold for xp game but still, unfun.

I’d say overall, the dungeon has good texture (rooms descriptions are nice if impractical), but it’s severely lacking in interactivty.

To be blunt, I don’t think this dungeon is worth it as is nor is the work of adapting it to one’s campaign unfortunately.

Adventure-wise, we have reached the next milestone, the PCs have obtained the spell to locate the palantir and will be sent to retrieve it.

Coming up, after a digression or two, we’ll see the adventurers become arctic explorers!

Part IV

Palantir Quest (1994) – players are actors (review part II)

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Lord of the Rings, middle-earth, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Just to be clear, I’ve never ran this adventure (nor played in it).This is a 3 decades late, external look at it we might say.

Part I

At page 14, after having informed the Game Master of relevant background information, the adventure begins with… extremely long read-alouds.

Well-written mind you, interesting for a true Tolkien aficionado perhaps, but boy if my mind would drift away as a player if I was read all this by someone!

But notice, between two grey boxes, a first challenge for the player characters! On how to deal with a « ten-foot portion » of muddy road. Yeah, well, small beginnings and all that…

Railroading into Middle-Earth’s 4th Age

(Side note: There’s a big hint on how the adventure will present itself on chapter 1.0 Guidelines: « Fantasy role playing (FRP) is akin to a living novel where the players are the main characters. Everyone combines to create a story which is never short of adventure. They help forge a new land and strange new tales in which the characters are forever immortalized. » (bold emphasis is mine)

After their mission briefing by the Royal Seer, the Player Characters (PCs) are ready to leave Minas Tirith.

The utlimate goal is to retrieve the lost palantir but in order to do that they first have to reach the Royal Library in ruined Annuminas in the north, to find a tome of spells that will help pinpoint its location. First stop is in Rohan in a place called The Juggler’s Hall.

It takes 10 days of travel to get there and somewhere in the middle we get this fixed event: upon arriving at the Inn of Greys the PCs see that it’s being attacked by bandits and the adventure just assumes that the PCs will intervene (and to be fair, why wouldn’t they?). Upon defeating the bandits the PCs meet Turibor the minstrel who’ll ask if he can accompany them on their journey north. This guy is a key NPC, I mean key as in unlocking another scene kind of thing. He’s the one who will bring the PCs to the Juggler’s Hall and if you had players that were expecting to go to Edoras and meet rohirrim riders they’d better forget about it, aside from taking new horses nothing happens in Edoras. No, instead you get the Thespian Intrigue in the Juggler’s Hall, involving the PCs in a theatre play (about the kin-strife that happened in Gondor, again. not really a nice fit for Rohan). The leader of the Wandering Conscience Company will offer 10 silver pieces and a choice of nice clothes to each character, for participating (acting) and help guard against sabotage from a rival company.

I’ll add that the Juggler’s Hall is oddly, really in the middle of nowhere, but it’s also a base for smuggling operations so there’s that. Talking of smuggling, there’s a bit of foreshadowing in this chapter as it’s mandatory that the PCs witness two NPCs shaking hands in « business-like fashion ». One of these NPC « may draw attention to himself by way of his disturbing laugh ». BUT: « However the PCs should be given no grounds to become suspicious of him ». Well, good luck with that Game Master! Hey players, here’s this fixed scene involving two shady NPCs, one has this disturbing way of laughing, y’know like a cartoon villain would laugh just sayin’, but don’t be suspicious! No no no, no reason at all!

And then the Thespian Intrigue.

The play itself is nicely conceived I’ll say, with a nice plot as mentionned taken from the kin-strife period (a Cromwell-like usurper gets hold of power in Gondor) and plenty of stuff happening (including a real knife stab (instead of a fake one) that the PC victim should try its best to go along with so that the play isn’t disrupted!). Of course the whole thing is nonsensical and out of place (irrelevant to the mission) but I’m pretty sure it could be great fun for the players. The Game Master though, in true Rolemaster fashion, has the cumbersome job to evaluate which + and – to use in the provided chart and get the results for the « Audience Appreciation Level » (AAL): « Having totalled the appropriate modifiers, the actor should roll on the appropriate column. The result is the number to which the GM must roll equal or less than in order for the AAL to increase by 5. If the GM rolls over the number, the AAl decreases by 5. At any time, an AAL of 0 means that the audience boos the company off the stage and leaves, while an AAL of 100 means that the audience immediately rushes the stage in a frenzy of hero worship and adulation. If the play end naturally, then the AAL should be added to an open-ended roll on the Hard column of the maneuver table, and the result is the number which the GM needs to roll under in order for the critics to like the play. »

Phew. I wonder why Rolemaster isn’t a popular system anymore!

Anyway, the PCs can get a substantial bonus reward (or not) depending on how well the play went and also experience points based on what happened so far or « as we recommend, he or she may just award points in a subjective fashion corresponding to how well the players are able to cope with the stress of being onstage ». How well the players cope with the stress of being onstage. Wow, that’s a weird thing to say. I thought the players were like, around a table with pens & papers & dice, not onstage.

This concludes this chapter, a weird one for sure. Next the PCs will leave to continue their journey to Tharbad, en route to the ruined city of Annuminas where they will get to explore a dungeon! Yay!

Part III

Palantir Quest (1994) – tunnel vision (review part I)

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Lord of the Rings, middle-earth, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I’ve been rummaging through my collection of (twenty-something) I.C.E. middle-earth books lately. I could get good money for them – last time I checked Palantir Quest in particular was on sale for 175 usd on ebay despite being in terrible condition (mine isn’t much better!). But y’know, I’m quite sentimental about these, they are the first rpgs books I’ve bought, some thirty years ago, at age fourteen-fifteen with my hard-earned money as a field hand at the time.

So, no selling.

Paid for in sweat and sore knees.

Palantir Quest is in fact an unusual one among this collection as being the only long format Adventures book among much slimmer adventures compilations. All the others in the line are sourcebooks, or « citadels » as far as I know. Incredibly detailed and well-researched sourcebooks I must add in case you haven’t heard of them, something that doesn’t exist anymore in rpgs I think, that required an entire team of dedicated people to do. Something to be nostalgic about no doubt. Keep that in mind if you please, because I’ll be a bit harsh with this one: I.C.E’s sourcebooks were absolutely great.

But back to our current subject.

From the book’s back cover: « Strange portents in the great Seeing-stone of Minas Tirith give promise that one of the lost palantiri of the North has returned to the lands of Men. Can the adventurers find this legendary treasure and bring it to King Elessar? Rogues of the wilds, blizzards out of the Forodwaith, and the greed in Men’s hearts all conspire against them. »

Adventuring into Middle-Earth’s 4th Age

The premise is quite interesting, unlike most of what has been published by I.C.E. this adventure takes place some years AFTER the events of the Lord of the Rings. Sauron has been permanently defeated, what remains of his forces has been scattered away and Aragorn, as the ruler of both Gondor and Arnor is now known as King Elessar. This is the begininng of a new era, the 4th Age of Middle-Earth, and what better news to go with this time of triumphant joy than the resurfacing of a long-lost palantir that could help unite both halves, North and South, of this new victorious kingdom?

Elon: « Imagine holding this super heavy bowling ball in your hands, straining your mind in a superhuman effort, and talk to ONE other person in the world … »

Yes, thank you Elon, very impressive.

But you need two palantiri to do that.

Aragorn/King Elessar has the one from Orthanc of course and the one that Sauron had has been destroyed (or is lost, buried under the ruins of Barad-Dur presumably) and Minas Tirith’s palantir (this book says) has been unfortunately imprinted by Denethor’s last moments of agony (a rather unpleasant sight to behold), this is why finding this other palantir would be incredibly useful.

Enter the PCs.

(Side note: Suggested starting level is 4, the PCs are presumed to have some prior accomplishments. There’s also a provided list of pre-made characters as well as suggested eventual replacement, one for each chapter.)

They’ve been convoked to Minas Tirith by NPC Tarquillan, the venerable Royal Seer, to do the king’s bidding and find the lost palantir of the North. Or not exactly that way – they’re told that a spell from a tome called « A Treatise on Subtle Magika » has been discovered to exist and (much faith has been put into that it seems) it could be used to locate the palantir that has only been glimpsed at. (a written spell? a bit peculiar to me thematically speaking but okay, let’s get on with it). The most likely location of the tome is in the Royal Library of the ruined city of Annuminas.

Unbeknownst to the PCs and their employer, Taladhan, a powerful evil magician no one has ever heard of (he apparently hasn’t got the memo that evil has been defeated) who’s scheming from his hideout in faraway Greenwood, knows everything about the plan to recover the palantir because the Royal Seer’s assistant in fact spies for him. Very astute of him to have put a spy there I must say, just in case there would specifically be news from a resurfacing palantir. But anyway.

Thus begins one of the most Tangential Fetch Quest in the history of RPGs. Probably.

Palantir Quest – Contents:

  • 1.0 Guidelines
  • 2.0 Introduction
  • 3.0 Minas Tirith
  • 4.0 The Juggler’s Hall
  • 5.0 Tharbad
  • 6.0 The Royal Library of Old Arnor
  • 7.0 The Docks of Tharbad
  • 8.0 The Ice Bay of Forochel
  • 9.0 Return to Civilization
  • 10.0 Return to the Riddlemark
  • 11.0 Search in the Wold
  • 12.0 The Fourth Tier
  • 13.0 Lake-Town
  • 14.0 Into the Forest
  • 15.0 Return to the King
  • 16.0 Master Tables
  • 17.0 MERP/Rolemaster Tables
  • 18.0 LOR Tables

Part II

Sub Terra: mille et une façons de mourir sous terre

David Skelector Boardgame, review

Sub Terra, du game designer français Nuts!, est depuis son acquisition il y a quelques mois rapidement devenu notre jeu de prédilection à jouer en famille et j’ai décidé de vous en glisser un mot.

C’est un jeu coopératif à la base, nos personnages (qui ont chacun des capacités spéciales) sont sous terre, dans un réseau de caverne infesté d’horreurs et doivent s’échapper en trouvant la sortie.

La mécanique du jeu est ainsi faite (le temps « s’écoule » via un paquet de carte, à la dernière carte nos lampes frontales s’éteignent et les chances d’être dévorés sont extrêmement élevées) qu’il est préférable de se séparer pour explorer plus efficacement. Comme tout bon film d’horreur quoi! D’ailleurs le jeu fait énormément penser au film The Cave, 2005 (et dans la même veine, à Sanctum (2011) et The Descent (2005)):

Pas le meilleur film du monde mais un bon divertissement en soi, avec une introduction (église de templier construite au-dessus d’un grand réseau de cavernes) absolument inspirante pour fans de rpgs je dois dire.

Entre les secousses, les éboulements, les poches de gaz, les inondations et bien sûr, les horreurs, l’exploration n’est jamais de tout repos.
L’exploration avance, l’agent et le chef y vont en duo mais l’éclaireur et la géologue sont bien loin de leur côté maintenant!
Une soudaine montée des eaux a mis l’agent inconscient le chef est à côté de lui et pourra le réanimer heureusement.
Un nid d’horreur, tout près…

Les parties durent environ 60 minutes à quatre joueurs. La difficulté est présente, nous échouons une fois sur deux à facile, mais échec ou succès les parties sont toujours enlevantes. Je recommande!

Dragonbane – rulebook walkthrough pt 2: character advancement & conditions

David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Part 1: Character creation and magic

If character creation in Dragonbane is a bit different from other D&D-adjacent system, we’re now gonna talk about two mechanics that makes it, hmm maybe not groundbreaking (what is nowadays?), but unusual in a good way.

Character advancement:

There is no levels in Dragonbane. Instead how your character can improve is by increasing his skills (including with weapons), gaining new spells (see part 1) and, less frequently, gaining new heroic abilities.

Each time you roll a d20 and roll a 1 (a dragon) or a 20 (a demon) you check a box next to the skill you used.

In addition, if you answer yes to these questions at the end of the session you can check a skill box of your choice:

  • Did you participate in the game session? (a freebie)
  • Did you explore a new location?
  • Did you defeat one or more dangerous enemies?
  • Did you overcome an obstacle without using force?
  • Did you give in to your weakness (optional rule)

(You can also find a teacher that has at least 15 in the skill you wish to improve and is better than you. The cost in time and money is left to the GM discretion, no direction is given in the rulebook beyond that unfortunately.)

Then, at the end of the session, with all checked boxes you must roll a d20 and exceed the number you already have in order to increase your skill by one. Pretty simple.

Heroic abilities: There’s 2 ways to gain new heroic abilities. The first is if you manage to increase a skill to 18 you immediately gain a new heroic ability of your choice. The other way is by accomplishing a « grand heroic deed », that’s also left to the GM’s discretion but it’s mentionned that it should be a rare event.

Pushing your roll & Conditions:

Now, another fun and interesting mechanics that is actually an optional rule, but I really see don’t why one wouldn’t include it, is the Pushing your roll. If a character fails a skill check he can choose to re-roll but with a cost, he’ll suffer from a condition from now on. Each attribute is linked to a specific condition: Strength >> Exhausted, Constitution >> Sickly, Agility >> Dazed, Intelligence >> Angry, Willpower >> Scared, Charisma >> Disheartened.

You choose the condition you’ll gain and will have bane (roll two d20 take worst) on any skill check linked to the affected attribute. You can’t choose a condition you already have and you’re also supposed to roleplay somewhat the whole deal.

You can also gain conditions in other ways, an environemental effect, a monster attack, etc. To remove a condition (or all conditions) you must do a shift rest (6 uninterrupted hours).

Closing Comments:

  • For me the character advancement system is reminiscent of the Elder Scrolls video games (I’ve played extensively to Morrowind back in the day, didn’t even try Skyrim though) where your stats simply improve with how much you use them. I like this.
  • An unfortunate side-effect though, at least for my young players, is the « I want to roll… » just in the hope of rolling a 1 or 20 and check the skill box. Listening to a door with an awareness check has never been so popular I tell you.
  • I’ve homebrewed somewhat the questions in my game (i.e did you explore a new location? >> did you find an iconic location in the dungeon?)
  • The way we play, my players’ characters suffer from at least one or two conditions each session, both from pushing their luck and dungeon hazards. The way to remove a condition is a bit more arduous than simply shift resting in my game, they must find a way for their characters to have a good time (i.e having a quality meal).
  • The conditions makes me think of my basic military training where I saw several guys vomiting from exertion (sickly!) but still going on, I dunno, makes sense to me.

Part 3: Combat and Monsters

Dragonbane – rulebook walkthrough pt 1: character creation and magic

David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Play reports, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I’ve been using the Dragonbane ttrpg system (DB) for several sessions now- testing the limits of it in fact, with a megadungeon campaign, but I think for the moment I’d do something between a walkthrough and a true review. Suffice to say I like Dragonbane a lot but like every other systems, it also has some flaws.

First thing first, I’ve seen it often called an « OSR » game but I don’t think that’s quite accurate. It’s a fairly light system (the rulebook is slim at 112 pages) and there’s also many random tables (i.e magic mishaps, injuries, etc.), but here the comparison ends as I think the implied style of play is a bit different than OSR (i.e all the different actions you can do in combat).

Character creation:

You have the classical humans, elves, dwarves, halfings and then you’ve also got those guys, the duck-persons mallards and also wolfkin.

Choosing your Kin, you get an ability from it, a small power that you can activate spending willpower points (your wp pool is equal to your willpower score), for example the mallards get « ill-tempered » giving them a boon (advantage, roll twice take best) on attacks at the cost of getting angry (a condition, more on that later).

Choosing a Profession (the complete list: artisan, bard, fighter, hunter, knight, mage, mariner, merchant, scholar and thief), you get an Heroic Ability, another thing you can activate spending willpower points (the fighter for instance gets Veteran, something that lets him play with his initiative order a bit).

If you choose the Mage profession, you don’t get a Heroic Ability but instead get access to three Rank 1 spells and two Magic Tricks from one magic School. Others can also learn magic but not at the beginning.

Next step is rolling your attributes (the same 6 as classic D&D, or thereabouts, willpower instead of wisdom, 4d6 take three, assign to one attribute at a time.

Lastly, based on your attributes numbers, you’ll have scores on skills, which are either free or trained (chosen from your profession’s list and a few you can choose as you wish), the minimum is 3, maximum is 14. thus if you have a 17 or 18 score in an attribute on a trained skill, you have 14 for that skill that will be used with a d20 roll under or equal. So, it’s a Roll Under system.

The whole character creation is pretty easy and fast as apart for Kin and Profession most of the choices are already made for you. A few more customizations, rolled randomly (i.e starting gear, a memento), and you’re ready to go. Nothing to complain there, all good.

Magic:

Spells are ranked from 1 to 5, with most within the 1-3 range, with each rank from 2 and above having a lower-ranked spell as a prerequisite.

There’s four magic schools: General, Animism, Elementalism and Mentalism. Everyone that has the Magic Talent heroic ability (from being a mage most probably) can access General magic and also choose one of the three other schools.

You can remember a finite number of spells depending on your Int score but can have more into your Grimoire. The magic system is somewhat Vancian (memorizing spells, spending them and getting to choose anew after resting) but with the addition that you can cast any spells that you have in your Grimoire if you double the casting time (2 rounds instead of 1 for most spells). That’s a nice touch, a bit more flexibility is good.

Spells also take magic points to cast (from you wp pool, as determined by your willpower score) and cost 2, 4 or 6 points depending on how strong you want the effet to be.

So both memorized spells and spell points, a bit cumbersome in my opinion.

But something pretty big is effectively missing from the whole thing: how do you acquire new spells? As it stands, it’s pretty much up to the DM to decide, that’s weird.

I would add that the spells list to choose from is a bit limited, some offensive spells are just stronger versions of lower-ranked ones, making the latter completely obsolete (which also feels wrong). There’s seventeen Rank 1 spells to choose from initially, with not too bad a variety of effects but it could also be better.

There’s also a nice (optional) Magical Mishaps table in case a character roll a 20 (remember, it’s a roll under system) whereas they could vomit a frog the moment they tell a lie for some time or some such.

Addendum:

There was a KS going on recently for financing two more Dragonbane books, one being the Book of Magic… They clearly recognized the need, that’s great, because as it stands the magic part of the game is the weakest.

Part 2 – character development and conditions

Dungeon Rats (gritty fantasy prison break)

David Skelector computer game, megadungeon, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I think that video games have now too prominent an influence over tabletop rgs, often to the point of denaturing the latter. But if we stay clear of what works for crpgs but should absolutely not be imported to ttrpgs, we can absolutely borrow some great ideas from one to the other.

Now the game I’m gonna talk about I can’t say it’s a great game, I would not even recommend it except for a very specific kind of gamers, those who like punishing turn-based tactical games, like say Darkest Dungeon or Battle Brothers.

Dungeon Rats by Iron Tower Studio is kind of an annex to the more complex Age of Decadence game, both set in the same ancient Rome-like world. If the latter offers a full immersive rpg experience, the first only focus on tactical combat with some (very well-made) crafting on the side.

The premise is quite interesting to me: we’ve been sent to a special kind of prison, a deep and nearly depleted mine, we’ve arrived at Rock Bottom… As we’re the fighting type we’ll be spared the back-breaking work and have a few missions until we’ll be facing a hard choice: live our the rest of our miserable, short life in the oppressive darkness or… try to escape.

Now, as we’re in the aptly-named Rock Bottom, to see the light of day and gain our freedom we have to go up!

But in order to do so we first have to go through gang territory:

And that’s where I said to myself that this game would be highly interesting as a ttrpg conversion. DR is a pretty limited game, mostly linear, from one fight to another without a lot of choices. Converted into a proper tabletop dungeon and with faction play with the above-mentionned gangs? And with the fascinating crafting/alchemy system (i.e. you can make liquid fire, or craft The Claw, a spear made with a scorpion pincer). There’s a lot of potential there methinks.

There’s more to fight than fellow prisoners though. From giant ants, scorpions, carnivorous plants, giant spiky worms to… demonic metal-skinned beings! Hmm, yeah, there’s a weird turn into sci-fi in the later part of the game, that’s a matter of taste I guess if one would keep the abrupt theming change or not.

Just for fun, the levels/sub-levels are thusly arrayed in DR, note that the whole thing is more horizontal than vertical (maybe 4 Levels, 5 counting the Fort):

  • Rock Bottom, where the latest prisoners are dumped
  • Deep Caves, below Rock Bottom, full of critters and lava but somewhat less depleted in ressources
  • Old Town, neutral ground, I would imagine, of the upper level
  • The River, fast underground river, access to precious fresh water, controlled by the Dredgers
  • Crystal Caves, eerily-glowing minerals
  • The Mines, labyrinthine, controlled by the Molerats
  • The Forge, soot-blackened, controlled by the heavily-armored Praetors
  • Ancient Factory, sub-level, sci-fi, robots
  • Old Cellblock, « proper » prison, home of the Emperor, ex-gladiator, inhumanly enhanced
  • Fort, above the dungeon, sunlight at last! but we’re not out of danger yet, a century of legionnaires is between us and freedom

The Sword of Roele review – crappy adventure, good dungeon pt 2

David Skelector Birthright, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG , ,

This is the long overdue second part of my review (that virtually no one was waiting for) of this mostly forgotten TSR adventure The Sword of Roele, for the Birthright setting. In the first part I’ve talked about how it has an absolute mess of a scenario, hilariously bad. But now I’m gonna talk about its main dungeon which I find, as the title says, pretty good.

The Sword of Roele, Wolfgang Baur, 1996, AD&D2E, levels 5-8

So you’ve gone through the arduous process of the module’s disjointed, scene-based nodes and finally found the adventure’s main dungeon where the macguffin, I mean the Sword of Roele is. You stand in front of:

The Great Tomb of the Order of the Sun

  • Mid-sized dungeon, 2 levels, 53 rooms
  • funerary complex of knights do-gooders and some of their major figures
  • designed by an evil magic-user architect to accomodate his own needs in his plans to achieve lichdom

The tomb’s only entrance is collapsed with only a narrow path to get in (shown as the « goblin path » on the map even though there’s no goblins in the dungeon, a obvious sign that the dungeon has been refurbished and changed from its original purpose). The PCs will immediately have to confront the troglodyte sentries and do some tunnel fighting.

There’s an whole tribe of 41 trogs in the rooms near the entrance. The trogs are also intruders to the dungeons.

Here’s a great bit:

« If the troglodytes lose 10 or more of
their number, they retreat into Areas 3
and 6. In the storage area they climb up
the tunnel into the audience chamber
(Area 8). They are cold-blooded so they
suffer only one-quarter damage from the
brown mold’s cold. In the hall, they hide
in the shadows behind the statues, waiting
for a chance to ambush foes. »

The trogs take advantage of their resistance to brown mold, that’s great!

When the PCs are in they’ll see large double-doors at their left (upper right on the map), they’ll feel a draft of cold air coming from the right (caused by the brown mold) and see an impressive hallway in front with rows of stone statues/caryatids on each side. They’ll probably notice the corpses of dead thieves on the floor too, at the limit of their light source. Good telegraphing for what represents the main gimmick of this dungeon: of course some caryatids are monsters (circled in red below)! As written the caryatids are the equivalent of lesser stone golems and are perfectly beatable. When I ran this dungeon I’d upgraded the stone statues to full stone golems status, they absolutely have to constitute a proper threat to force some hard choices (and clever ideas) from the players IMO.

a caryatid ready to crush your skull
An « optimal » run to reach the second level could look something like that, with some tense moments of crossing the hallway with the help of diversions. (huh, you may want to include room 21 and 22 if you feel confident! 😉 )

Apart from the troglodytes and caryatids the main denizens are of the undead variety with some constructs sprinkled here and there. The dungeon definitely suffers from a gygaxian naturalism syndrome where things make sense for a tomb but there’s a lack of wonder involved.

Aside: Funnily enough there’s several mention of a resident vampire in the tomb, he’s supposed to be a big deal but he’s in fact nowhere to be found, he’s not even statted! Oops!

The rooms themselves are a mixed bag.

Some are great, like the Chamber of Shadows:

« Three of this chamber’s walls are covered
with an abstract pattern of black
lines. The fourth wall depicts a black
bridge over a misty chasm to a gate of
light. Words are carved into three of the
four stone walls. »

[…]

« The painted bridge at the far side of the
room is the Bridge of Sighs and Shadows,
a magical link through solid rock between
this room and the Divination Room. Only
those who know its secret can cross it. »

Other rooms are pretty boring. There’s several rooms in a row that are just filler; here’s a room with undead falcons, here’s a room with undead hippogriffs, the next one with undead griffons…

The second level is smaller and is designed essentially to confuse the players. It’s heavy on teleportation tricks, traps and of course it has more undeads and constructs.

There’s no faction play in this dungeon, the troglodytes are immediately hostile and other than them there’s few sentient beings. There’s an imp to be found who actually gives good advice as it serves his purpose, that’s nice. There’s also an homonculus but if you’ve met the imp he’ll feel kinda redundant. As written you may also be accompanied by the ghost of the order’s high priest that you can meet before entering the tomb and he does have useful information to provide (and some big secrets) but he’ll get angry if you fall into the usual adventurer’s tomb-robbing habbits and most people will be happy to put him to rest one way or the other before long.

So all in all, this dongeon has several weaknesses, even a few gaffes, but it has also several strong points, the hallway with the caryatids being a favorite of mine. It’s not a great dungeon but it’s good and it certainly doesn’t deserve to be completely forgotten as it is now.