Bellair's "Face In the Frost" as a setting

[tog]

Exactly what it says on the tin. I'm somehow envisioning a kind of D&D that's anachronistic without being full-on gonzo - eyeglasses, pocket watches, clocks, telescopes and a kind of early Renaissance feel. Bellairs, after all, has all three classes included - Figthing Men (the soldiers), Magic Users (Prospero and Roger Bacon), and Clerics (the plant-growing monk and Millhorn the Kabbalist).

As well, re-reading FitF made me realize that wizards in D&D should really take the place of sages - name-level Wizards should be not only researching spells but doing alchemy, biology, physics and should be the source of information for PCs about the world and how it works (for a price, of course). They might also be scrying not only the world but parallel worlds and other times, which is where the anachronisms might well come from.

Anyone else had thoughts like this?

[talysman]

I read it so long ago I barely remember much about it. But the description of the Southern Kingdom as being a multitude of tiny principalities and duchies that are more or less independent in modern times was one of the influences on my own campaign setting, the Nine and Thirty Kingdoms.

[Finarvyn]

It's been a long time since I read it as well, but I have positive memories of the book. I wonder if Bellars' other books had a tie-in element or if FitF was truly a one-shot.

Honestly, I can't recall if there is enough info there to build a campaign but I know that I liked the feel of the book.

[Finarvyn]

Wikipedia adds some interesting information:

Lin Carter said that during their correspondence Bellairs had shared with him “sketchy maps of the South Kingdom and some unpublished scraps, notes, and outlines for...further adventures” and that Bellairs had also produced a prequel, “which tells how his diabolic duo first became friends.” The prequel piece was to be included in Carter’s juvenile fantasy anthology Magic Kingdoms; the anthology was never published and Bellairs' short story is presumed lost.

In early 1980, Bellairs shared with author Ellen Kushner an unfinished manuscript for a sequel to The Face in the Frost entitled The Dolphin Cross. Over the years Kushner urged Bellairs to complete the story – in which Prospero is mysteriously kidnapped to a solitary island – but Bellairs instead focused his attention on his successful young adult adventures. The unfinished manuscript survived and The Dolphin Cross was included in the 2009 anthology Magic Mirrors, which was published by the New England Science Fiction Association press.

Nice to see that there had been further adventures planned, sad if they were never completed.

[kesher]

I love this book! I think I've read it once a year since I first stumbled across it five or eight years ago. A campaign would be a fascinating thing...

[tog]

Jun 15, 2016 18:13:00 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I can't recall if there is enough info there to build a campaign but I know that I liked the feel of the book.

I'm not referring to a campaign based on the world of FitF so much as a campaign with that sort of feel - elder Wizards with magic mirrors and scrying gadgets looking at different eras, including our own, leading to a kind of genteel gonzo that's less about plasma rifles and starships and more about Dwarven-machined pocket watches and mid-level Mages living in houses with screen doors.

There's a whole genre of "cozy" mystery novels, and I'm wondering if that might be something worth fooling around with D&D for. "cozy D&D?"

[tog]

One might wonder what there is for the PCs to do in such a world; monsters will be rare and mostly solitary/unique (THE catoblepas or THE lich or THE dragon), magic items also unique & special (really low-level Artifacts/Relics) and no great hordes of treasure. To that end I'm appropriating Jeff Rients' rules on XP for travel and sight-seeing:

Now imagine which of the places on the map are the coolest to visit. What places are breath-takingly beautiful? Which locations are desolate beyond imagination? What spots on the map have no mortals seen in generations? What places surge with magical energies or reek of unholiness?

By gaining most of their XP from travel, the PCs would conveniently also be forced to do a lot more socializing on the road - leading to more interesting talky encounters, problems to be solved, and suchlike.