Rappan Athuk Week – Part Two

In town for a week, the PCs directed the local wizard/alchemist to brew another jug of healing (at a cost of 2,400 sp!). Frederick also put out fliers to hire a new man, and successfully employed the veteran Oswin as his new bodyguard. Various experiments with the ruby dagger were attempted on subjects caught by the local rat catcher, to no avail. The PCs returned to Rappan Athuk.

The players had the idea to make use of the continual light candelabra in the main mausoleum. But the special key seemed to be missing! They found it again, and quickly ducked into the trapped mausoleum, grabbed the candelabra, and left. They also searched the two side-mausoleum, finding only a single room each with empty, sarcophagi and a few broken, gnawed-off bones and scraps of cloth. ⁱ

The PCs were somewhat irked to find their old rope gone, strung up a new one, and started climbing down the Well again. The 1-in-20 chance that the rope comes loose came up “1” for Frederick, who landed hard in the water at the bottom for some dice of damage. The players were getting very unhappy about this level of risk. The magic candelabra dimmed from double-strength to merely normal-torch strength, and more fear saves were rolled and failed. ⁱⁱ

Only one path forward was apparent, through the clawed-shaped cavern with the piercers to the east, so the PCs went single-file in that direction. ⁱⁱⁱ Creeping forward, Gardy blasted with her magic wand once, twice, three times until the piercers stopped falling from the ceiling. Then the PCs ran forward with daggers and blades, and the fleshy/mouthy/tentacly soft topsides of the stony things, and stabbed, stabbed, stabbed until they were bloody and collapsed.

The PCs went forward and opened the secret door. Another 5’ wide snaky tunnel went north-by-northwest, corkscrewing once downward, and then entering a medium-sized cave. At the PC’s light, dozens, hundreds of rats could be seen on the floor scurrying away out of sight, a long squirming carpet of chittering fur, into various tiny holes and side-tunnels. More fear checks as at least one player uttered tangible disgust. Frederick thought to raise his light up and check the high wall/ceiling for dangers, and indeed – four pairs of large, hatred-filled green eyes! Instead of being surprised, Frederick had bought the party time to roll initiative, which they won. Gardy raised her wand and blasted – two huge panther-like creatures, hazy in their dim light, with long green tentacles sprouting from their shoulders, tumbled out of the high alcoves.

Two more of the creatures sprang down and attacked viciously with tentacles and bites. Rosalinde was grabbed and bitten, dead, her magic axe clattering on the stone. Gardy blasted that one again with the wand, and it failed to withstand it, paralyzed. Other PCs lunged at the remaining one but spears and swords slashed a foot away from where it really was – Frederick recognized the effect from the displacer cloak he wore. The displacer beast lashed out at Till (Gardy’s man), tore his arms from his sockets, and he died. The PCs bashed at the thing nigh-helplessly, its tough skin almost proof from damage. Maxine picked up Rosalinde’s magic axe. In frustration, Gardy fired the wand of paralysis again into the melee, paralyzing Iparaguire and Garabed, but not the beast! Oswin was grabbed and killed, a bloody mess. Finally the Veteran Maxine landed the 7^th blow on the thing, and it thankfully died. The PCs shook off paralysis and dread from losing 3 fighters to a pair of beasts, and made sure to finish off the creatures that were magically stunned.

Exploring the back part of the cave, Gardy found a batch of strange mushrooms in one of the alcoves and scooped them up, thinking them to be some hallucinogenic substance good for carousing later on. The far wall of the cave fell away in an open abyss and cliff out of sight, and water could be heard. Gardy cast her one levitate spell, took a candelabra, and magically descended the cliff. Several rats actually jumped off the cliff at her, trying to viciously attack. Hovering above the bottom, some 90’ down, she found a placid pool of water and a short way across, a sandy beach with a closed iron door beyond it. She rose back up the cliff and the party conferenced. With almost half the group dead, it seemed wise to return to town and get additional help.

As the party turned to leave the cave, a new threat emerged at the mouth of the exit tunnel – a dead, naked man, heavily tattooed, eyes and ears stitched closed, moaning for brains – a juju zombie! It stumbled forward into the cave and the party meleed, their blows raining down to no effect. So the organized a fighting withdrawal, wizards entering the tunnel first, with Maxine bravely circling, slashing at the thing with the +2 axe, then back into the tunnel herself. Worried about being trapped in the tunnel with thing on their rear, Frederick cast web to block the tunnel entrance – a d6 was rolled it came up “1”, and Maxine’s axe was likewise hopeless stuck in the web! So they wisely sacrificed it, heading back up the tunnel and returning to the Well. ^iv

So now the PCs only had to climb up the rope to the outside. Garabed rolled a “1” on the climb check not once, but twice in a row, and died there. Frederick likewise rolled a “1”, took too much damage, failed his save vs. death, and died. The rest made it up and escaped back to town. The players took a break for some Indian food and collegial debate about the design of the dungeon and the climbing rule. ^v

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i The PCs would have to repeat this action on every future escapade, because both the key and the candelabra teleport back to their starting locations at the end of a day.

ii At the end of the first night, Paul made a good point here about how the OED saving throw rule was a bit opaque to players, with numbers not appearing on the PC sheets as is customary. So thereafter I tried to be more explicit about what roll modifiers were happening in each case. They’re on the OED Player Aid Card, but in the future should probably be posted even bigger on the outside of my screen.

iii See the prior note about the mapping glitch that made it look like there was only one path forward (fortunately for the PCs).

iv This creature was only hittable with a magic weapon, which only the Veteran Maxine had at this point. Iparaguire was constantly stabbing with the ruby-hilted dagger, known to be magical, but which had no hit bonus. At this point there was some discussion that the hero of the protagonist of our story was really Maxine.

v The players were pretty much totally steaming at this point about the deadly climb checks, and you can’t help but sympathize. They’d rather heroically pulled off the fights with displacer beasts and juju zombie, and then had multiple PC lives slip out of their fingertips at the very end with daylight in sight. No money treasure found on this foray. Monster HD of 48 slain, so XP was 4800 ÷ 3.5 = 1370 each (685 for the henchman Maxine).

Rappan Athuk Week – Part One

For the July-4th weekend, I went up to Maynard, MA with some of my best friends and DM’d a D&D game for two days straight (breaks for meals, sleep, and pool time notwithstanding), which is of course one of my all-time favorite ways to spend the time. Paul S. has a birthday around then, so it’s a good opportunity to celebrate with some heroic (?) dungeon-crawling. For this year’s event, I brought Rappan Athuk, the Dungeon of Graves, by Bill Webb and others. If you’re not familiar with this, it’s arguably the biggest published megadungeon, having started play circa 1979 with the 1E AD&D rules, finally seen in print at the start of the 3E era, and still receiving regular expansions today. I brought the Swords & Wizardry PDF edition, which clocks in at 497 pages. All this week you’ll get a session-by-session description of the events, adjudicated with my OED house rules to Original D&D, with behind-the-screen annotations. Copious spoilers follow at every opportunity, so if you expect to play this, get the hell out now! ⁱ

We started with 4 players (Max, Joey, Paul, and Isabelle) with their 4 newly-rolled PCs of 4^th level each – all Wizards! Partly encouraged by my house rule that humans above 1^st start play with a free 1^st level henchman, every player agreed to make a wizard with a fighter bodyguard. ⁱⁱ They pronounced themselves the “Masters of the Four Elements” and did their best to specialize in one each of earth, air, fire, and water (despite the fact that I was handing them premade, purely random spellbooks). Rolls for magic items did not go so well – the only significant offensive item was Gardy’s (Isabelle) wand of paralysis. Garabed’s (Max’s) henchman Rosalinde had a battle axe +2, and as usual the party started out with a jug of healing potion (6 doses) from a wizard in town. ⁱⁱⁱ

I had read the introductory text prior to making PCs (… All who have explored Rappan Athuk offer this one universal piece of advice: “Don’t go down the Well.”!) If they could possibly clear out a feared Temple Of Orcus, and take whatever treasures they could find, that would be a mighty deed. So the PCs made their way down the Coast Road on horses to Rappan Athuk, getting their first first of the massive sunken grave complex. The went straight for the main mausoleum, using the special key to open the doors. ^iv Opening the sarcophagus, two wizards fled while the henchmen beat down the black skeleton. Then they carefully searched the sarcophagus inside and out, the far corners of the building, the walls, the ceiling – realizing that the whole place likely lifted up to squash people against the ceiling. Unnerved by this, they left the building. ^v

The party proceeded to the other end of the cemetery – checking out along the way the various rat holes (too small for humans to wiggle down), and open graves (one open with a marker bearing the name of Frederick [Joey’s PC]!). So they came to the fearsome monster-scratched Well and were convinced it was the only real way into the dungeon, and that the dire warnings about it were fakery and misdirection. ^vi

The group threw a torch down into water 90’ below, then spiked a rope and the whole party began rappelling down. This is not trivial, especially for wizards with low Strength and fighters in plate mail and other gear (and no thieves to assist). One wizard fell from about 30’ up into the water and had to take a draft of healing potion. ^vii

A small cave with murky, silty water and bits of flesh and bone floating in it. The party’s torch dimmed to half-strength, so one person could barely see another. The only way forward was one of two claustrophobic small tunnels. The whole party had to make fear checks, with several failing (take –2 on all d20 rolls on the level). Iparaguire (Paul) braved a search in the muck below, hoping out loud for a magic dagger of some sort – when lo and behold, indeed he pulled up an elaborate ruby-hilted one! ^viii

The party went westward into the darkness, scrunched up in single-file marching order, into a twisting back-tracking tunnel that confused the mapper. ^ix At a branch NE and NW, the NW was randomly chosen, bringing the party to a small room with alcoves on either side, at which place the point fighter was jumped by screeching black skeletons from every direction! Hemmed in by the tight quarters, the first fighter (Abbo, Frederick’s burly man) went down dead to the skeletons’ claws. The rest managed to beat back a few skeletons, use the alcoves for space and cover, and destroy the rest with some hard fighting. Maxine (Iparaguire’s bodyguard) picked up the morning star that she’d fumbled away in the fight. ^x

A medium-sized cave with a pool of water was reached, and the party was attacked by flying stirges from above; more fear saves were called for. One landed on Gardy’s hand, another on Rosalinde’s breastplate, and started sucking the blood at – as they were cut by friends, the mosquito-bats exploded in a bloody shower all over the PCs. After the initial fight, the party listened quietly, hearing more squeaks from above. Gardy fired her wand of paralysis cone upward into the darkness, and another score or so showered down into the pool, paralyzed. The party scavenged the bodies of several earlier adventurers, finding a magic arrow and boots, and left the room hastily. ^xi

A larger cave was explored, with spikes on the walls, but seemingly no other import than a few tiny rat holes worming away into the walls.

Down another tunnel, and the PCs found themselves back at the bottom of the Well from another direction. They turned back at this point to explore some more.

A narrow claw-shaped cave with several branching tunnels was entered, and a stony stalactite-creature fell almost on top of the leader fighter – a piercer! Listening, the PCs could hear more scraping into position above. Gardy fired her wand at the noise above, once, twice, three times, until the piercers stopped falling. The PCs ran across the small cave to one of the several short tunnels on the other side. Apparently another frustrating dead end, Iparaguire searched the wall for a secret door – and found one! Due to time constraints, the PCs turned back at this point.

As the party came back towards the Well bottom, shuffling along in cramped single-file, a lone wandering Wight came splashing through the murky water, eyes glowing red with hunger, and lunged forward to attack. Maxine at the head of the single-file party was well-armored (plus protection from evil by Iparaguire), but had no magic weapon with which to strike. So the party decided to freight-train the horrid thing, pushing Maxine and the wight back into the well-bottom in a mass of rushing bodies. Once they could maneuver, Rosalinde tried to attack with her magic axe. Iparaguire attacked with the ruby-hilted dagger, fumbled it back into the murk from whence it came, and spent the rest of the fight trying to regain it. Gardy fired her magic wand, not knowing the wight was immune, and accidentally paralyzed Garabed as he tried to climb up the rope to the outside. Rosalinde, seemingly the only person who could affect the monster, finally landed two solid blows and the thing went down. The party went back up the rope (with one person falling), and then back to town for rest and recovery. We broke for lunch and pool at this point. ^xii

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i For the history of the design of Rappan Athuk, see here and here. This was the first time that I was running on adventure on my digital tablet (not printed on paper), and I think it worked as well as I could hope for. A short PC roster and individual encounter records I kept on index cards and that worked incredibly well (I could mostly stand and run any encounter with just two index cards in my hand). The one issue is that I printed maps for where I expected the players to go, they went totally off-script, and I had to flip back-and-forth in my PDF between map and text all the time.

ii As we discussed later, 4^th level is a bit of awkward time (junior high) for Wizards. One level higher and they’d likely all have some game-changing mass-destruction spell, but at this point the best they have is something like knock, levitate, and invisibility. I debated quite a bit beforehand what level to set the PCs, and went with 4^th because the 1^st and 2^nd dungeon levels specify that level of difficulty (and the mass-damage spells would have made those challenges too easy). As it turns out, the PCs never went to those levels!

iii I had a deck of business-card sized 1st-level NPCs that were the output of my Arena NPC combat simulator, which includes the possibility of magic items, seen here.

iv I now realize that most DMs have all 8 gargoyles on top of the mausoleum attack before the PCs enter it (and likely on every entry, since they regenerate over some days). The S&W text I have says, “They animate and attack when approached or whenever they are touched”, the latter part making me think the “approach” was very close, like needing to climb up to the mausoleum roof. If I had instead read it as automatic attack before the mausoleum, then I’d likely have attended to the text that says, “If the party is of very low level... have less than the full 8 gargoyles animate.” It’s another example of the several classic dungeons that for some reason suggest scaling monsters to party size in the opening encounter, but never again after that (see also AD&D Module T1 and Holmes Basic Sample Dungeon, etc.)

v The fact that they didn’t find the secret door in the middle of the floor to the 1^st level set the track for the whole weekend of play – namely away from all the parts that I’d actually read and prepared for. This is where we learn once again the problem of major parts of an adventure being behind an unfound secret door. My instinct is, if I run this again in the future, to put the secret in the sarcophagus, which provides a point of attention for careful searching. Arguably I can be criticized here as terribly short-sighted DM for not just revealing the secret door when the PCs get anywhere near it. Looking at the Necromancer Games 3E forums online it seems like most groups do find it without much problem, so I’m not sure how other DMs are adjudicating that.

vi That kind of misdirection can be expected in our D&D games (and many others, I’m sure). I don’t know how many times I’ve had to learn this lesson, but we might call it the Iron Law of Warnings: the more you try to ward off players from going to a certain place, the more ferociously convinced they get about going there.

vii Rules-wise, this became a real point of contention in the game. The way the OED rules are currently written, the wizards and others had a 1-in-6 chance to fall on this trip, up or down; so the expectation should be that one of the party falls every such trip. I was rolling 1d6×10 for the exact height of a fall and hence damage. In addition, I assess a 1-in-20 chance that any rope breaks (once per particular climbing scene); this happened on the second time in, I think. Some players argued this climb should be free, not a distraction from the adventuring – and this sense was exacerbated at being convinced that the Well was the only viable entrance to the dungeon. This one I’m pretty settled on there needing to be a risk factor for a whole group of non-specialists making long, perilous climbs. The very first explorer was elevator-ed down, but this was then skipped until someone fell and got injured.

viii This is level 3A of Rappan Athuk; the equivalent dungeon level is listed as 9. From now through pretty much all the rest of the weekend, I was pretty much convinced at all times that a TPK was a few minutes away (and then we’d make new PCs and then be back to exploring the main mausoleum). The ruby-hilted dagger was a constant source of bemusement and experimentation for the players all through the game; in truth it is one of the 3 keys to level 3B, in which rests possibly the highest-level threat in all of Rappan Athuk (e.g., see end of Cabin in the Woods).

ix The other thing to be aware of is that from this point forward I’d read and prepared approximately none of the text or areas where the PCs were exploring. So all weekend long I was frantically swiping back-and-forth on my tablet trying to read the next few areas in advance and parse what happened as the PCs approached/entered. For example: There’s a point marked “A” on the 3A map that I swear to god I couldn’t find in the text over about a half-dozen scans while the game was running; so it just become nothing in our game. As it turns out, the side-tunnels of the well are supposed to places where PCs must dis-armor and army-crawl though naked if they wish to proceed (“A” is where this ends and they can stand up again). Would this have dissuaded the PCs from going further at this point? I’m pretty sure not.

x If the party had picked NE, they would have wound up in a river room being attacked by a pair of spectres, and beyond that the undead wizard with a pair of iron golems. (!) At this point Paul mapping did some erasures to clarify the confusing wind-around/cross-over, and in so doing accidentally wiped out the branch at this point. So the party was convinced for a long time thereafter that the dungeon was effectively linear, and had nothing else to explore in this direction. Which frustrated them but probably spared their lives.

xi They didn’t look in the pool to find the underwater tunnel, that would have possibly taken them to a batch of stronger undead and much stranger realms beyond.

xii The party only found about 100 sp in treasure in the session, plus 41 HD worth of monsters destroyed. Total XP: 4200 ÷ 6 = 700 XP per PC, 350 for henchmen.

Saturday Software: Wizard Spellbook Generator

One utility I find I need a lot when preparing both wizards in adventures and pregenerated PCs: an automatic OD&D wizard spellbook generator.

Run this on the command line; you'll need to enter the wizard's level and Intelligence score (either by command-line arguments or via interactive input). It will print out randomized spells matching the number of spells known on the appropriate Intelligence table (see OD&D Vol-1 or AD&D PHB; interpolated from min to max number by spell level). It's recommended that the DM or player then carefully select the spells memorized according to the wizard's situation, magic items, associated henchmen, etc.

The included spell index matches the OED Book of Spells, 2nd Edition (see sidebar), but you can modify that index however you like (see file SpellIndex.csv). Note that spells are each given a level, frequency code, and name; appearance of spells in the generator is weighted by the frequency codes that appear there (weightings given in FreqWeights.csv; these can be modified to suit your spell population and sensibilities, and even add any new codes you wish). The program will also handle any higher spell levels that you introduce (irrespective of the fact that OD&D spells only went up to 6th level).
 
Download it below (Java source code included).

• Spellbook Generator Program

Late-Era Gygax on Phantasmal Forces

I ran into an interesting quote from Gygax in the ENWorld Q&A thread, circa 2005. Noting that phantasmal forces started in Chainmail by conjuring a phantasmal force of fighting-men (see here), he seems to assert that it still works the same way in AD&D (link):

The illusionary force can be of any sort, but it must be a force--anything from a great swarm of insects to a herd of animals, a company of knights or a battle of pikemen, a tribe of bugbears or a flock of wyverns.

This seems to rather directly contradict the rule given in the AD&D PHB that allows "any object, or creature, or force" (including examples of missiles and a pit with spikes). That exact phrase was copy-pasted forward throughout the 2E and 3E rulesets. Looking at OD&D it may be slightly ambiguous: there it says "anything the user envisions" without further detail.

But for me this highlights that in Gygax's mind, the different game editions were very much a continuum of one long work (and not a series of discrete, standalone works). It reminds us of the numerous instances of a rule in OD&D that refers back to Chainmail; or many in 1E that only makes sense in a fuller context given in OD&D, etc. Gygax very frequently overlooked providing some important elements in OD&D and AD&D because -- I think -- in his mind they were obvious rulings based on familiarity with the prior game(s).

This does give some amount of credence to the argument that "you can't learn D&D from just reading the books" -- even though I always resist that, because it's exactly how I entered the hobby myself (not having any mentors available in the rural locale where I grew up).

The other thing I notice, lower down on that web page, is his use of the construction "A/D&D". Which reminds me of someone referring to programming in "C/C++" online, which in my experience usually triggers a hundred programmer voices crying out in horror that "there's no such programming language!".

Another random thought: Surely there's a D&D PHD to be had in going through the ENWorld Q&A and comprehensively analyzing all of Gygax's comments about the game from that time frame. However: My archived PDF copy, containing only Gygax's post and nobody else's, runs almost 2,500 pages! (Edit: I now have a raw-text version of the entire thread, and it runs 4,886 pages and 1.3 million words.)

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An interesting open question might be -- If this was Gygax's instinct in his own late-era play, then is this an attractive ruling for phantasmal force in D&D? Might it not be a much easier spell to judge, without all the misery of disbelief, and falling into empty spaces that don't really exist (i.e., always a squad of homogenous creatures)? I can see a certain clarity and charm to that. What do you think?

Cebes on Reincarnation

Cebes' theory of the soul from Plato's Phaedo:

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My feeling is that the argument is where it was, and open to the same objections which were urged before; for I am ready to admit that the existence of the soul before entering into the bodily form has been very ingeniously, and, if I may say so, quite sufficiently proven; but the existence of the soul after death is still, in my judgment, unproven. Now my objection is not the same as that of Simmias; for I am not disposed to deny that the soul is stronger and more lasting than the body, being of opinion that in all such respects the soul very far excels the body. Well, then, says the argument to me, why do you remain unconvinced?—When you see that the weaker continues in existence after the man is dead, will you not admit that the more lasting must also survive during the same period of time? Now I will ask you to consider whether the objection, which, like Simmias, I will express in a figure, is of any weight. The analogy which I will adduce is that of an old weaver, who dies, and after his death somebody says:—He is not dead, he must be alive;—see, there is the coat which he himself wove and wore, and which remains whole and undecayed. And then he proceeds to ask of some one who is incredulous, whether a man lasts longer, or the coat which is in use and wear; and when he is answered that a man lasts far longer, thinks that he has thus certainly demonstrated the survival of the man, who is the more lasting, because the less lasting remains. But that, Simmias, as I would beg you to remark, is a mistake; any one can see that he who talks thus is talking nonsense. For the truth is, that the weaver aforesaid, having woven and worn many such coats, outlived several of them, and was outlived by the last; but a man is not therefore proved to be slighter and weaker than a coat. Now the relation of the body to the soul may be expressed in a similar figure; and any one may very fairly say in like manner that the soul is lasting, and the body weak and short lived in comparison. He may argue in like manner that every soul wears out many bodies, especially if a man live many years. While he is alive the body deliquesces and decays, and the soul always weaves another garment and repairs the waste. But of course, whenever the soul perishes, she must have on her last garment, and this will survive her; and then at length, when the soul is dead, the body will show its native weakness, and quickly decompose and pass away. I would therefore rather not rely on the argument from superior strength to prove the continued existence of the soul after death. For granting even more than you affirm to be possible, and acknowledging not only that the soul existed before birth, but also that the souls of some exist, and will continue to exist after death, and will be born and die again and again, and that there is a natural strength in the soul which will hold out and be born many times—nevertheless, we may be still inclined to think that she will weary in the labours of successive births, and may at last succumb in one of her deaths and utterly perish; and this death and dissolution of the body which brings destruction to the soul may be unknown to any of us, for no one of us can have had any experience of it: and if so, then I maintain that he who is confident about death has but a foolish confidence, unless he is able to prove that the soul is altogether immortal and imperishable. But if he cannot prove the soul's immortality, he who is about to die will always have reason to fear that when the body is disunited, the soul also may utterly perish.

Socrates on the Elements

Regarding Plato's Timaeus, the translator Benjamin Jowett could write, "Of all the writings of Plato the Timaeus is the most obscure and repulsive to the modern reader, and has nevertheless had the greatest influence over the ancient and mediaeval world." Here Socrates explains the composition of the classical elements.

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I was wrong in imagining that all the four elements could be generated into and out of one another. For as they are formed, three of them from the triangle which has the sides unequal, the fourth from the triangle which has equal sides, three can be resolved into one another, but the fourth cannot be resolved into them nor they into it. So much for their passage into one another: I must now speak of their construction. From the triangle of which the hypotenuse is twice the lesser side the three first regular solids are formed—first, the equilateral pyramid or tetrahedron; secondly, the octahedron; thirdly, the icosahedron; and from the isosceles triangle is formed the cube. And there is a fifth figure (which is made out of twelve pentagons), the dodecahedron—this God used as a model for the twelvefold division of the Zodiac.

Let us now assign the geometrical forms to their respective elements. The cube is the most stable of them because resting on a quadrangular plane surface, and composed of isosceles triangles. To the earth then, which is the most stable of bodies and the most easily modelled of them, may be assigned the form of a cube; and the remaining forms to the other elements,—to fire the pyramid, to air the octahedron, and to water the icosahedron,—according to their degrees of lightness or heaviness or power, or want of power, of penetration. The single particles of any of the elements are not seen by reason of their smallness; they only become visible when collected. The ratios of their motions, numbers, and other properties, are ordered by the God, who harmonized them as far as necessity permitted...

What makes fire burn? The fineness of the sides, the sharpness of the angles, the smallness of the particles, the quickness of the motion. Moreover, the pyramid, which is the figure of fire, is more cutting than any other. The feeling of cold is produced by the larger particles of moisture outside the body trying to eject the smaller ones in the body which they compress. The struggle which arises between elements thus unnaturally brought together causes shivering. That is hard to which the flesh yields, and soft which yields to the flesh, and these two terms are also relative to one another. The yielding matter is that which has the slenderest base, whereas that which has a rectangular base is compact and repellent...

Mutant Bastards!

My good and highly talented friend B.J. Johnson (a.k.a. BigFella Games) has just released his own game product: Mutant Bastards, a lovingly detailed mashup of Gamma World and Wild West ideas some 20 years in the making. I played some of this a few years back, and I must say that B.J.'s capacity for world- and character-building is simply top-notch. And he's also an A+-grade fantasy and science fiction artist. (My top experience in video games is probably getting his art back from unit descriptions I'd designed and having my socks blown off with wondrous delight every time.)

Downloadable and print versions are now up on DriveThruRPG. Check it out! You can use the following affiliate link to get Mutant Bastards (and help support the Wandering DMs channel at the same time):

Mutant Bastards at DriveThruRPG