Thursday, February 12, 2009
Retro: Eldritch Wizardry
While trying to waste some time last night in-between UI development tasks, I got in a weird mood and spent some time browsing through the old supplement for the original Dungeons & Dragons game, "Eldritch Wizardry."
As you can tell from the cover of the Paizo link, this book was a contributing factor to the uproar and controversy about D&D in the late 1970s. Besides the cover, the book also contained information on psionics (an element despised by many players - though I loved the flavor it introduced, in spite of an awful rule system), introduced the druid class, artifacts, new monsters, and the ever-popular demons and devils. Including Orcus, the demon-lord of the undead, and the baboon-headed Demogorgon.
As an aside, in 2nd edition D&D, weary of attacks from some parents and religious groups, D&D publisher TSR removed all references to demons and devils. They later replaced them under different names, "Tanar'ri" and "Baatezu." These were expanded upon significantly in the Planescape setting. In 3rd edition, realizing that making the game friendlier to alarmist parents and religious groups hadn't actually improved sales in 2nd edition, the designers restored the beings to their proper names, reconciling them with 2nd edition by stating that the "Tanar'ri" and "Baatezu" were actually specific clans or sub-groups of demons. Go figger.
Scanning through the early versions of now-classic D&D fixtures was entertaining. But the part I enjoyed most was the introductory notes by Gary Gygax. In them, he explained the purpose of the supplement, and it paints a picture of the early state of the hobby. Dungeons & Dragons, for all its simplicity, was beginning to get stale. Players already had copies of the core rules, and new the stats of the monsters and magic items by heart. While much rested upon the creativity of the Dungeon Masters (the players who created the adventures and ran the games), it was clear that the players demanded more. More content, more options, something to shake up the world and make things fresh again.
The parallels to modern MMORPG expansions are as obvious as they are unsurprising.
The emphasis on ultra-powerful artifacts and monsters (including the aforementioned demons, devils, and demon-princes, as well as the now-classic Mind Flayer and other psionic monsters) make it clear they were also shooting to satisfy the needs of the more hardcore community in need of greater challenges for their high-level characters and campaigns. It's also clear that they realized that they had found themselves surfing a tidal wave, and they were frantically trying to meet the demands of an audience that had far surpassed their expectations. They were gluing on bits and pieces of content without any strong theme or plan, simply making canonical a lot of best ideas that had been kicking around for a while or had appeared in their newsletter.
They had no clue how psionics would fit in with the rest of their system (and it never really did - at least not until 3.5 edition), but they threw it in anyway as an interesting variation. Mainly, rumor has it, because Brian Blume insisted on it, and his family had a significant investment in the company.
I admit, my fascination with the weird history of roleplaying games goes beyond my desire to capture some of the feel of that in Frayed Knights. I really enjoy these glimpses back into the history of the hobby, even though these bits predate my own involvement. A lot of the legacy and weirdness we have today in computer and tabletop RPGs came out of these chaotic, ad-hoc designs and the peculiar 1970s gamer culture.
Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:33 AM (Permalink)
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You mean there was an edition where psionics actually worked?
(And I say this as someone who likes psionics... but tends to think it doesn't belong in the same campaign as magic, unless you're doing Mega Crossover Hell, which is its own kind of fun.)
(And I say this as someone who likes psionics... but tends to think it doesn't belong in the same campaign as magic, unless you're doing Mega Crossover Hell, which is its own kind of fun.)
In 3rd edition, psionics were blended in to work a lot like the magic system. They were cleaned up even more in 3.5 (with the residual attack / defense modes getting turned into plain ol' powers). The problem was that in some ways psionics are a little TOO MUCH like magic... and it just became an alternative to arcane or divine magic.
I think the inclusion in D&D is very much a product of that era - 70's sci-fi / fantasy fandom, etc. Think Heavy Metal magazine, etc. The line was a LOT blurrier and they mixed a lot more. I mean, you have Anne McCaffrey insisting that the Dragonriders of Pern was SF! D&D games quite often mixed SF elements with powered armor and vibro-blades, or WWII era tanks with dragons. The fantasy of the earlier part of the century was often blended with SF (Robert E. Howard included some hints of SF in his Conan stories, too), and the early Judge's Guild support materials threw in lots of alien / future technology that had been lost / forgotten in their Wilderlands campaign.
And let's not forget the notorious D&D module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, with robots and blaster rifles and so forth... a favorite of Stephen Colbert's!
There's also the Dark Sun campaign setting, which apparently did a really good job with psionics, but I never played it.
So I think it CAN work pretty well, it's just not a common element of "traditional" fantasy.
I think the inclusion in D&D is very much a product of that era - 70's sci-fi / fantasy fandom, etc. Think Heavy Metal magazine, etc. The line was a LOT blurrier and they mixed a lot more. I mean, you have Anne McCaffrey insisting that the Dragonriders of Pern was SF! D&D games quite often mixed SF elements with powered armor and vibro-blades, or WWII era tanks with dragons. The fantasy of the earlier part of the century was often blended with SF (Robert E. Howard included some hints of SF in his Conan stories, too), and the early Judge's Guild support materials threw in lots of alien / future technology that had been lost / forgotten in their Wilderlands campaign.
And let's not forget the notorious D&D module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, with robots and blaster rifles and so forth... a favorite of Stephen Colbert's!
There's also the Dark Sun campaign setting, which apparently did a really good job with psionics, but I never played it.
So I think it CAN work pretty well, it's just not a common element of "traditional" fantasy.
Holy cow! That is a cover guaranteed to make parents and by-standers think D&D players are into the occult. What were they thinking? The worst part is that it isn't overtly fantasy in any way - nothing about the image, except perhaps for the burning brazier(and then only barely), precludes it from some modern setting. Also the title of "Eldritch Wizardy" sounds like the title of an occult book.
I'm no prude, and I say this as a D&D player of many, many years: if my mother had caught me with that book when I started playing at 10 years old - well, that would have been the end of my D&D career.
Speaking of psionics, I'm one of those gamers that hated the whole idea. As you mention, it's too much like magic, with a lot of duplicate effects, and it really doesn't jive with the fantasy setting.
My gaming group played the excellent Alternity PnP game (also by TSR) when we wanted sci-fi, and it also had psionics. I don't recall how well they worked in that rule set, because we avoided psionics like the plague there too!
I started at the tail end of 1st Edition D&D, but most of my gaming experience comes from 2nd Edition AD&D. I've played a smattering of 3 and 3.5. Haven't played 4th Edition yet. So I have to say - "Great post!" It's always wonderful to be shocked by something you thought you knew so well!
I'm no prude, and I say this as a D&D player of many, many years: if my mother had caught me with that book when I started playing at 10 years old - well, that would have been the end of my D&D career.
Speaking of psionics, I'm one of those gamers that hated the whole idea. As you mention, it's too much like magic, with a lot of duplicate effects, and it really doesn't jive with the fantasy setting.
My gaming group played the excellent Alternity PnP game (also by TSR) when we wanted sci-fi, and it also had psionics. I don't recall how well they worked in that rule set, because we avoided psionics like the plague there too!
I started at the tail end of 1st Edition D&D, but most of my gaming experience comes from 2nd Edition AD&D. I've played a smattering of 3 and 3.5. Haven't played 4th Edition yet. So I have to say - "Great post!" It's always wonderful to be shocked by something you thought you knew so well!
# posted by 
: February 12, 2009 10:01 PM
: February 12, 2009 10:01 PM
I can't speak to D&D, but basically, psionics IS magic, don't you think? It might have it's own rules, but magic isn't limited to any particular rules. (If you read fantasy, there are all sorts of different magic systems. And, of course, there's clerical magic in D&D. It's ALL magic.)
And yes, you're right about fantasy mixing with science fiction. But I tend to get tired of magic. I would love to see a SF RPG that did without magic (including psionics, ESP, fortune-telling, supernatural entities, telepathy, etc.). Why not have an RPG with technology, instead of magic (and not magic dressed up in high tech clothes, but something actually plausible)?
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And yes, you're right about fantasy mixing with science fiction. But I tend to get tired of magic. I would love to see a SF RPG that did without magic (including psionics, ESP, fortune-telling, supernatural entities, telepathy, etc.). Why not have an RPG with technology, instead of magic (and not magic dressed up in high tech clothes, but something actually plausible)?
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