Random B2 Thoughts

[crusssdaddy]

I've been re-reading B2 lately, for the first time in literally 25+ years. I'll post a few of my latter-day reflections, please join in.

'The Mad Hermit' is deadly as hell. Magic dagger + crazy dude bonuses + he likes to trick you + a killer pet. If he jacks you from behind, his first round attack is +7 to hit and does 5-11 damage - that's basically a death sentence for someone. Every round thereafter is only slightly less dangerous: +3 to hit for 4-7 damage.

Then BattleCat jumps in: 3 attacks per round for 1-6 damage (always strikes first), and the first 3 attacks are at +2 to hit if it jumps down on you... and it will keep trying to jump up a tree to get that +2 x3 to hit again and again.

Might as well line the party up and walk them into a wood chipper...

[snorri]

An "anthropological" thought about B2 : theis module is famous for the lack of names for NPCs. Geoffrey once suggested it was part of its magic, as it makes them look like Tarot figures.

I found another elegant solution: in the Borderlands, it would be very rude to adress someone by his name rather by his title, and knowledge of a personnal name is a mark of real familiarity.
Asking someone his name would be considered as a kind of offence, and asking someone the name of another, a mark of sillyness. So, people find absolutely natural to speak about the Castellan or the Money-lander.

Weird? Maybe not so much. Personnal name have strong ties with magic and sorcery, and some cultures dislikes using it. In her book on Yanonami people of Amazonia, Helena Valero explains she has been one the wives of a well-known chief, but learned his name only after years.

oh, and speaking of Borderlands : awizardinabottle.blogspot.com/2010/08/borderlands-hexmap.html

[rlaundry]

Nice work, snorri! You should share that over at the Hexographer forums once it's done. Joe would appreciate it, I think. he's always looking for good examples of what you can do with it.

[crusssdaddy]

Yeah, I was looking at the area map and thinking about stocking it sandbox style, then did a double-take at the scale - even by only adding a handful of different encounters, things would be only a few hundred yards apart.

[crusssdaddy]

From 55. EVIL CHAPEL:

"The south wall is covered by a huge tapestry which depicts a black landscape, barren trees, and unidentifiable but horrible black shapes in silhouette - possibly demons of some sort - holding aloft a struggling human. A gray sky is torn by wisps of purple clouds, and a bloody moon with a skull-face on it leers down upon the scene."

This should be the still-life of the OSR - every artist practices the basics of their trade by rendering this scene. There should be a website where artists submit their version so we can see different styles, visions, etc. That would be awesome.

[blackbarn]

Honestly, I usually change most names in a module anyhow, since I often find my tastes in naming don't match those of the author. Referring to each NPC by their profession is perfectly acceptable to me, and I find it makes for clearer character identification while reading it, too.

[geoffrey]

Aug 18, 2010 13:04:02 GMT -6 snorri said:

An "anthropological" thought about B2 : theis module is famous for the lack of names for NPCs. Geoffrey once suggested it was part of its magic, as it makes them look like Tarot figures.

I found another elegant solution: in the Borderlands, it would be very rude to adress someone by his name rather by his title, and knowledge of a personnal name is a mark of real familiarity.
Asking someone his name would be considered as a kind of offence, and asking someone the name of another, a mark of sillyness. So, people find absolutely natural to speak about the Castellan or the Money-lander.

Weird? Maybe not so much. Personnal name have strong ties with magic and sorcery, and some cultures dislikes using it. In her book on Yanonami people of Amazonia, Helena Valero explains she has been one the wives of a well-known chief, but learned his name only after years.

oh, and speaking of Borderlands : awizardinabottle.blogspot.com/2010/08/borderlands-hexmap.html

Interesting stuff! I love the lack of proper names in B2. ;D

[murquhart72]

Aug 18, 2010 18:58:49 GMT -6 crusssdaddy said:

"The south wall is covered by a huge tapestry which depicts a black landscape, barren trees, and unidentifiable but horrible black shapes in silhouette - possibly demons of some sort - holding aloft a struggling human. A gray sky is torn by wisps of purple clouds, and a bloody moon with a skull-face on it leers down upon the scene."

Is there an illustration or artist's rendering of this? I'd LOVE to see it! In fact, I'd really like to see any artist's take on this module.

[crusssdaddy]

Room 49 (mislabeled on the map as Room 44), the Gnoll COMMON ROOM, is very crowded. It's a 40'x20' room that holds 35 Gnolls - 6 males, 11 females, and 18 young, plus "the usual clutter of worthless furniture." Do they have bunk beds, or do they sleep like puppies, all in a big pile?

[ragnorakk]

I prefer the latter myself, with shreds of torn up newspaper all over the place.

[snorri]

Akso about borderlands:
awizardinabottle.blogspot.com/2010/08/borderlands-cultural-anthropology-and.html

[snorri]

I added another note about a curious Gary's quote which enlights the nature of bugbears: awizardinabottle.blogspot.com/2010/08/nepeta-cataria.html

[snorri]

Now, some suggestions about farming and economy in the Boderlands:
awizardinabottle.blogspot.com/2010/08/nearest-villages-not-to-speak-about.html

[scottenkainen]

There was a flurry of discussion on Keep on the Borderlands at the OD&D Guild back in February - games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ODDguild/msearch?query=Borderlands&submit=Search&charset=ISO-8859-1

Also, don't forget Kenzer & Company's excellent Little Keep on the Borderlands.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[snorri]

Yet another post, a work-in-pogress about Archeology of the Keep:
awizardinabottle.blogspot.com/2010/09/archaeology-is-my-daily-job-so-when-im.html

[snorri]

After a long time off, I released a new part about Borderlands anthropology. Still write in my so-called english, for sure :) :

"About burials, Chaos & Law in the Borderlands"
awizardinabottle.blogspot.com/2010/11/about-burials-chaos-law-in-borderlands.htm

[coffee]

That's a very good post, right there. I highly enjoyed it.

Have an exalt for that.

[ckutalik]

Agree this is great stuff. The Keep has always struck me as a strange beast. Why was there a whole hamlet inside the walls? What was it's pre-history? Thanks for taking this up.

[simrion]

Aug 21, 2010 20:13:21 GMT -6 ragnorakk said:

I prefer the latter myself, with shreds of torn up newspaper all over the place.

More like shreds of spell scrolls...puts new meaning to the phrase "Monsters should use the treasures they possess." ;D

[snorri]

I have sme ideas about the earlier history of the Keep, for a later post

[snorri]

After a while off,my new post on Borderlands anthropology :

Congregations of the Borderlands
awizardinabottle.blogspot.com/2011/02/congregations-of-borderlands.html

[cooper]

I've stated up Keep on the Borderlands for CHAINMAIL. as well as putting the keep in contex of the rules for stronghold building from ODD and arneson's FCC.

What's amazing is that the retinue of men at arms and heroes adds up perfectly with the 2-8 villages of 100-400 and 1:50 heroes to men at arms and 1:100 super heroes. Also all the orcs, goblins, etc add up to Arneson's idea of the fyd which was 30% of population being "combatants" and 1/2 of fyd staying behind to guard the women and young. This is exactly as it is in KotB. KotB is a textbook case of an arnesonian war game with a "law vs. chaos" set up.

I'm reading all your blog posts concerning KotB now snorri. I'll update when I'm done. Sound interesting.