Post by geoffrey on Aug 19, 2012 20:32:21 GMT -6
With Towers of Krshal, author Albert Rakowski has given us one of the gems of the Old School Renaissance. He has achieved something that has been hinted at by many:
Matt Slepin wrote, “As an impressionable lad, I was far more impressed with the mostly-blank map in The Hobbit than ever I was with the complex map in The Lord of the Rings. And in gaming, the first map I can recall really inspiring me was a little scribbled thing in the Dave Cook Dungeons & Dragons Expert Rules (1981) showing a small fragment of the Known World called The Grand Duchy of Karameikos. A map such as that, with a few intriguing details over a great deal of blank space, calls out to a certain sort of gamer. The sort of gamer who is inclined to fill in the blanks himself during play, rather than have a game authour fill in the banks for him. This kind of map lives upon the creative use of blank space, which assumes an equal importance to the drawn-in spaces.”
(link: www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13777.phtml )
Amen. I like to apply Matt’s insight to text as well. The “creative use of blank space” in the text of a fantasy role-playing product is vital to avoiding what Aaron E. Steele calls “word walls”:
apaladinincitadel.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-word-walls-wont-work.html
In other words, I can’t count the number of times that I have read a description of a RPG book and thought it sounded really cool. But then when I get the product in hand, I discover that I can’t stand the cool ideas’ execution. I find such texts unalterably boring, filled with umpteen pages of description rather like that lampooned by Zak S.:
"This neighborhood has the fish market. The fish market has fish. Boats with fish on them sail in and out of this neighborhood. In the words of Granar Blazonhelm 'I smell fish, I must be in Fishinghood'. There are many adventures to be had in this place--you might not realize it, but boats can be exciting! Sometimes there are things on boats in addition to fish! Like cargo! Cargo comes into this fishing neighborhood from all over Worldimadeuppia, from as far as Vaguelysketchedoutjapanequivalentium. NPCs you might meet in this neighborhood include people who sell fish, people who buy fish, people who pilot boats, people who are riding on boats and people who fix boats. Here's a picture of a boat."
(link: dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/10/ok-im-confused.html )
In another post, Zak S. shares his insight that a D&D setting is best described in the form of rules and tables—and nothing else:
(link: dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-i-want-to-hear-about-your-setting.html )
I don’t know if Albert had read and digested all of the above, but Towers of Krshal sure makes it seem like it. It was written in the white heat of inspiration over the course of only three days. I can tell. At least 95% of the book’s 5,600ish words are gold. Almost no verbiage is wasted.
So what the devil is it?
Towers of Krshal describes the fantasy city of Krshal, which can be placed in any D&D campaign. How the city is described is a stroke of genius. With the exception of the 100ish-word Introduction and 4 maps, the entire product consists of tables. I read through the book without my interest flagging for a single moment. Allow me to give several examples:
One of the 50 “Rumors about the City” is that “Each full moon, a faceless woman walks on the Lame Dog’s Street. They say that anyone who has seen her died within a week.”
One of the “20 Towers” is the “Red Tower of Endless Ecstasy”.
One of the “8 Thinking Difference Engines” is the “Clockwork Sage. hypnotizes with its clock faces.”
One of the “Six Enchanted Six Shooters” is “The Wraith. It’s [sic] cylinder is covered by blasphemous runes. It don’t [sic] need any ammo to shoot but if someone opens its cylinder he / she must save vs. Death or die immediately.”
One of the 20 “Scrap Yard random finds” is a “Large collection of beer caps.”
One of the “20 Ghoul Mothers” is “Janette. AC 5, 122 HP. Her children are almost human-like and often infiltrate society of Krshal.”
One of the “20 Chthonic Gods” is “Akl’laan, Winged Monster singing on the gallows.”
One of the “20 Magical Lanterns” “Emits blood-red light. Any demon within its radius both deals, and receives double damage.”
One of the “Ten Sacred Oils” is ‘Rejuvenating Oil. Can “heal” damaged robots, drones etc. for 2-12 points.”
One of the “Ten Houses of the Dead” is the “Green Light Prosectorium”.
One of the “Ten Gardens” is the “Ligneous Cathedral of Qua’shan”.
The above gives you the merest taste of the entries in this magical little book. Add to that tersely-keyed maps of the city’s sewers, the Palatial Complex of Mar Gat’nep, the Worm Maze, and the Reversed Pyramid, plus two and a half pages of tables to generate additional towers for Krshal…
It all adds up to a fantasy city that is vividly described by hundreds of terse, mysterious, illuminating, and evocative entries such as those given above. Paradoxical though it sound, This little booklet does a better job describing Krshal than do most other FRPG city products. It does this by (to use Matt Slepin’s words) “the creative use of blank space”. The book inspires my imagination to fill in the blanks precisely by giving me only the barest of details. And thankfully the harried DM need not study or memorize any of this book to referee adventures within Krshal. Instead, he need merely tell his players, “You approach a city of innumerable towers…” And the rest gets rolled on the fly during the game using the tables in this book.
About the only criticism I can make of this book is that its English can be rough in places, but never such that the author’s meaning is in doubt. His English is certainly better than my Polish!
This is one of my favorite D&D books. I hope many others will find it an inspiration, too.
Click here to buy the $9.00 print book:
www.lulu.com/shop/albert-rakowski/towers-of-krshal/paperback/product-20262562.html
Click here to buy the $3.50 PDF:
www.lulu.com/shop/albert-rakowski/towers-of-krshal/ebook/product-20238638.html
Matt Slepin wrote, “As an impressionable lad, I was far more impressed with the mostly-blank map in The Hobbit than ever I was with the complex map in The Lord of the Rings. And in gaming, the first map I can recall really inspiring me was a little scribbled thing in the Dave Cook Dungeons & Dragons Expert Rules (1981) showing a small fragment of the Known World called The Grand Duchy of Karameikos. A map such as that, with a few intriguing details over a great deal of blank space, calls out to a certain sort of gamer. The sort of gamer who is inclined to fill in the blanks himself during play, rather than have a game authour fill in the banks for him. This kind of map lives upon the creative use of blank space, which assumes an equal importance to the drawn-in spaces.”
(link: www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13777.phtml )
Amen. I like to apply Matt’s insight to text as well. The “creative use of blank space” in the text of a fantasy role-playing product is vital to avoiding what Aaron E. Steele calls “word walls”:
apaladinincitadel.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-word-walls-wont-work.html
In other words, I can’t count the number of times that I have read a description of a RPG book and thought it sounded really cool. But then when I get the product in hand, I discover that I can’t stand the cool ideas’ execution. I find such texts unalterably boring, filled with umpteen pages of description rather like that lampooned by Zak S.:
"This neighborhood has the fish market. The fish market has fish. Boats with fish on them sail in and out of this neighborhood. In the words of Granar Blazonhelm 'I smell fish, I must be in Fishinghood'. There are many adventures to be had in this place--you might not realize it, but boats can be exciting! Sometimes there are things on boats in addition to fish! Like cargo! Cargo comes into this fishing neighborhood from all over Worldimadeuppia, from as far as Vaguelysketchedoutjapanequivalentium. NPCs you might meet in this neighborhood include people who sell fish, people who buy fish, people who pilot boats, people who are riding on boats and people who fix boats. Here's a picture of a boat."
(link: dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/10/ok-im-confused.html )
In another post, Zak S. shares his insight that a D&D setting is best described in the form of rules and tables—and nothing else:
(link: dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-i-want-to-hear-about-your-setting.html )
I don’t know if Albert had read and digested all of the above, but Towers of Krshal sure makes it seem like it. It was written in the white heat of inspiration over the course of only three days. I can tell. At least 95% of the book’s 5,600ish words are gold. Almost no verbiage is wasted.
So what the devil is it?
Towers of Krshal describes the fantasy city of Krshal, which can be placed in any D&D campaign. How the city is described is a stroke of genius. With the exception of the 100ish-word Introduction and 4 maps, the entire product consists of tables. I read through the book without my interest flagging for a single moment. Allow me to give several examples:
One of the 50 “Rumors about the City” is that “Each full moon, a faceless woman walks on the Lame Dog’s Street. They say that anyone who has seen her died within a week.”
One of the “20 Towers” is the “Red Tower of Endless Ecstasy”.
One of the “8 Thinking Difference Engines” is the “Clockwork Sage. hypnotizes with its clock faces.”
One of the “Six Enchanted Six Shooters” is “The Wraith. It’s [sic] cylinder is covered by blasphemous runes. It don’t [sic] need any ammo to shoot but if someone opens its cylinder he / she must save vs. Death or die immediately.”
One of the 20 “Scrap Yard random finds” is a “Large collection of beer caps.”
One of the “20 Ghoul Mothers” is “Janette. AC 5, 122 HP. Her children are almost human-like and often infiltrate society of Krshal.”
One of the “20 Chthonic Gods” is “Akl’laan, Winged Monster singing on the gallows.”
One of the “20 Magical Lanterns” “Emits blood-red light. Any demon within its radius both deals, and receives double damage.”
One of the “Ten Sacred Oils” is ‘Rejuvenating Oil. Can “heal” damaged robots, drones etc. for 2-12 points.”
One of the “Ten Houses of the Dead” is the “Green Light Prosectorium”.
One of the “Ten Gardens” is the “Ligneous Cathedral of Qua’shan”.
The above gives you the merest taste of the entries in this magical little book. Add to that tersely-keyed maps of the city’s sewers, the Palatial Complex of Mar Gat’nep, the Worm Maze, and the Reversed Pyramid, plus two and a half pages of tables to generate additional towers for Krshal…
It all adds up to a fantasy city that is vividly described by hundreds of terse, mysterious, illuminating, and evocative entries such as those given above. Paradoxical though it sound, This little booklet does a better job describing Krshal than do most other FRPG city products. It does this by (to use Matt Slepin’s words) “the creative use of blank space”. The book inspires my imagination to fill in the blanks precisely by giving me only the barest of details. And thankfully the harried DM need not study or memorize any of this book to referee adventures within Krshal. Instead, he need merely tell his players, “You approach a city of innumerable towers…” And the rest gets rolled on the fly during the game using the tables in this book.
About the only criticism I can make of this book is that its English can be rough in places, but never such that the author’s meaning is in doubt. His English is certainly better than my Polish!
This is one of my favorite D&D books. I hope many others will find it an inspiration, too.
Click here to buy the $9.00 print book:
www.lulu.com/shop/albert-rakowski/towers-of-krshal/paperback/product-20262562.html
Click here to buy the $3.50 PDF:
www.lulu.com/shop/albert-rakowski/towers-of-krshal/ebook/product-20238638.html
