@swordandbackpack / swordandbackpack.tumblr.com
At long last, the sixth installment of the Sword & Backpack RPG mixes has arrived and this one is KILLER. It’s a suitable soundtrack for tavern-brawling, back-alley skulking, or grimoire-studying, but if you just want to chill out with your halfling buddies and smoke some Old Toby, it’s good for that, too. (Awesome cover art by Alex Cox.)
Happy Halloween! After long last, the HALLOWEEN KNIGHTS RPG is finally here! Written by me with art by @betterlegends, we’re proud of what we’ve cooked up and are excited about what we’ve got planned. Click on the link below to grab the PDF of the manual and stay tuned for more spooky and fun stuff in the future...
Download the game here!
But wait, there’s more! As is the tradition with Rothbard & Gazpus games, we made a mixtape for you to play as you play, and this one also serves as an awesome mix for ANY scary party. Link after the cool image (also by @betterlegends)!
A brand new goblinoid for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS known as a “drumpf" inspired by someone you all might know… :-) Designed by me, art by the amazing @chiefasaur ! #dungeons #dragons #satire #politics #monster
The Grimoire Samizdat, excerpt number 2: “The First Spell: A Ward Against the Thieves of Delight.”
The Sorcerers’ Rebellion is now regarded as one of the darkest times in the history of the land, when the throne was seized through the guile of treachery of Karthus the Tyrant Wizard, the populace subjugated by his capricious and unjust rule, and all magic but his was outlawed upon pain of death. During those evil years many fought against his regime with subversion and sword, and one of the most powerful weapons against Karthus (and the weapon that, it could be argued, was a key element in his ultimate undoing), was the Grimoire Samizdat, a collection of hand-scribed spells, parables and practical advice for rebellion that was passed between the guerrilla sorcerers of the land in secret and under great threat. This magical tome was thought lost to fire and history, but the recent discovery of a copy by a Rothbard & Gazpus researcher has inspired us to publish this important volume in an edition available to all and sundry for the first time ever.
So watch this space with a keen eye, for over the next weeks, we shall post broadsheet excerpts from this fabled text, excerpts which are meant not only to advertise the new edition, but as tribute to its original authors (much of its content began as wall-scribblings and hastily posted parchment posters), and to edify and inspire, for resistance in the name of freedom should never be silent or secret, but should speak its truename proudly and with force.
Because this stuff gets lost in the shuffle, here is all of the Sword & Backpack RPG material that’s been published to date in one place, beginning with the broadsheet essays that started it all and ending with our latest publication, the Lanternport Adventure Setting. Everything you need to play Rothbard & Gazpus’s free, Moleskine-based RPG (except for a pencil, 20-sided die and a Moleskine or equivalent). Many thanks goes out to our artist collaborators on these things: Skuds McKinley, Pablo Clark and Sam Mameli are amazing. Click on the photos to download stuff/get swept away to a magical land.
THE SWORD & BACKPACK BROADSHEET COLLECTION (ONE-PAGE ESSAYS ABOUT FANTASY RPG TOPICS IN THE FORM OF EXCERPTS FROM A MANUAL FOR ADVENTURERS)
SWORD & BACKPACK: THE RULES
HOW TO ASSEMBLE YOUR SWORD & BACKPACK BOOK
THE DUNGEONPUNK MANIFESTO
SWORD & BACKPACK: THE FIRST MAGIC SUPPLEMENT
SWORD & BACKPACK: THE FIRST ADVENTURE SUPPLEMENT
SWORD & BACKPACK: THE SECOND ADVENTURE SUPPLEMENT
SWORD & BACKPACK ADVENTURE SETTING NO. 1: LANTERNPORT
Scan of 1981 D&D promotional leaflet from TSR (UK) that I found inside my copy of X2 Castle Amber.
The climactic scene of The Lord of the Rings, when Frodo and Sam reach the Cracks of Doom, is one of my favorite scenes in all of literature. So I was very interested a little while back when noted Tolkien scholar Stephen Colbert laid out a neat little analysis of the scene. Frodo seems to fail at his appointed task – rather than throwing the ring into the fire, he claims it for himself, and the ring is only destroyed by the coincidental intervention of Gollum. Colbert then notes that Gandalf should have known that Frodo would fail. Back in the second chapter, Frodo demonstrated to Gandalf his inability to throw the ring into the much cooler fires of his own hearth, after having only possessed the ring for a few hours. Therefore, one may assume, Gandalf must have intended for one of the other members of the Fellowship to intervene and ensure the ring’s destruction.
Colbert’s analysis is clever, in the same way that the theory that Gandalf had intended all along to use the eagles to reach Mordor is clever. In its cleverness, though, I think such analyses risk treating LotR as a D&D campaign and thus losing sight of the real literary themes of the story.
One of Tolkien’s key themes is the Augustinian view of evil. Most genre fiction takes a decidedly Manichean view of evil – a view that holds that evil and good are two great opposing forces in the world, like the light and dark sides of The Force. In a Manichean view, good must triumph by opposing evil, either to eradicate it or to restore a balance to the universe.
Manichean views of evil lead to a very common type of climax to stories: the contest of wills. Our hero confronts the villain, and through superior courage, grit, love, or what-have-you, they overcome the villain and their evil power. It’s Harry going wand-to-wand with Voldemort, Thomas Covenant laughing at Lord Foul, Meg breaking IT’s hold over Charles Wallace, Luke facing down Vader and Vader facing down the Emperor.
Any other writer could have given us a very typical Manichean Cracks of Doom scene. Frodo approaches the fire, and the ring’s temptation overtakes him. He puts the ring on and begins to claim it. But a tiny voice somewhere deep inside him insists that this is wrong. Sam cries out, and thinking about Sam’s love and devotion rekindles a spark in Frodo. His Hobbitish desire for food and good cheer wells up, and he tears the ring off and throws it into the fire. A dramatic ending and a nice echo of the moral of The Hobbit.
But that’s not what happens. Frodo’s goodness – even the innocent goodness of a little old Hobbit – can’t go toe-to-toe with Sauron’s evil. Indeed, Isildur proved it. He defeated Sauron by opposing him with the force of good, and defeated him. But Isildur couldn’t destroy the ring, and within the year it had destroyed him.
Tolkien holds instead to an Augustinian view of evil. Evil, according to St. Augustine, is not a force of its own, but rather is the absence or corruption of good. We see this most explicitly in the idea that Morgoth and Sauron can’t create anything of their own, but only corrupt and warp what has been created by others. We also see it when Gandalf and Galadriel describe what would happen if they took the ring – it would warp their own desire to do good until they became evil.
An Augustinian climax can’t involve a contest of wills between good and evil. In an Augustinian world, evil can only exist by leeching off of good. So evil must be given an opportunity to destroy itself, much like the self-defeating band of thieves described by Plato (on whose philosophy Augustine drew heavily). Good wins by renouncing evil, not by overcoming it.
And that’s exactly what happens at the Cracks of Doom. The ring isn’t destroyed because Frodo’s force of good overcame the ring’s evil. Nor is Gollum’s intervention a coincidence or deus ex machina (like the series of disarmings that happened to make Harry the master of the Elder Wand). Rather, the ring’s evil collapsed in on itself by drawing Gollum. The very corruption of Gollum that enabled the ring to escape the river drove him to wrestle desperately with Frodo for it and ultimately fall to his doom, ring in hand.
An Augustinian view of evil has definite moral implications, which are also shown throughout The Lord of the Rings. A Manichean world is a consequentialist world. To defeat the forces of evil, we need to think strategically. Sometimes we may even need to indulge in a little short-term evil in order to be able to achieve the greater good. But an Augustinian world can’t allow that kind of pragmatic approach. In an Augustinian world, any compromise with evil can only strengthen it, giving it an infusion of good that delays its self-destruction. An Augustinian world demands a deontological ethic, doing the right thing regardless of the outcome.
Again and again in The Lord of the Rings, we see that strategically pursuing the greater good fails, while remaining true to moral principles succeeds even when it looked foolish. On the cautionary side, we have Saruman and Denethor. Though they may point to the palantir as an excuse, they each ultimately made a thoroughly reasonable choice in the face of Sauron’s overwhelming advantage – to ally with him while playing the long game, or to give in to despair. Our heroes, on the other hand, repeatedly make foolish decisions based on hope. Aragorn is a good example – he decides to pursue Merry and Pippin because he owes them protection even though Frodo is the one who holds the fate of the world in his hands. Later, he decides to make a suicide attack on the Morannon rather than hunkering down in Minas Tirith, in the hopes of Frodo’s quest succeeding.
But the most important instance of doing the right thing despite the consequences comes from Frodo himself: he refuses to kill Gollum. Killing Gollum would have been an eminently reasonable idea – he’s a slinker and a stinker, and we know that he never redeemed himself or turned over a new leaf. Indeed, his main accomplishments were to lead Frodo and Sam into a death trap, then to try to kill them with his own hands at the Cracks of Doom. Both Sam and Faramir were right when they said that killing Gollum would have been a good idea!
But Frodo showed Gollum pity and spared his life because it was the right thing to do. And just like Gandalf could see Frodo’s unwillingness to destroy the ring back in Bag End, he also addressed this very issue. He instructed Frodo:
Frodo: It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill him when he had the chance.
Gandalf: Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.
And in the end, that pity was what saved the world. Frodo’s pity made it possible for Gollum to be there at the Cracks of Doom to take the ring. Frodo refused to give in to the small, reasonable evil of killing Gollum, and so he left the great evil of the ring exposed to destroy itself. That was Gandalf’s backup plan, not Aragorn’s strength to take the ring and destroy it. And so Frodo didn’t really fail. He succeeded at his quest back when he saved Gollum’s life, when he did the right thing even though it seemed foolish.
Some illustrations I did a couple of years ago - equipment lists are my favourite part of D&D.
Coming soon: additional maps and encounters to add some drama to the finale of the Lost Mine starter set adventure (a chain bridge and a gnome observatory).
Drow Rogue
The next big thing in Sword & Backpack land. Any of you out there play it?
– Gustaf Tenggren
well, i hacked up @swordandbackpack to be a little more kid friendly, and i probably did a bad job. i will be running game after game after game of S&B on saturday and i needed a bit solidity to the rules to make it go quick. i also took out all the beer references. (those poor kids don’t know what they’re missing) you can download the pdf and get instructions on putting it together here: http://www.swordpeddler.com/sword-backpack-tiny-lil-book-edition/ thanks gabe for giving the world such a cool game!
I cannot believe that I missed this a couple of months ago. Completely floored by @swordpeddler‘s excellent work here AND by the fact that Sword & Backpack was used to introduce a bunch of kids to the magic and wonder of RPGs. It’s going to sound corny, but it’s really awesome to know that something you’ve made has inspired someone else. There’s no other feeling like it, so no, thank YOU, @swordpeddler.
Art by Brandon Graham
I redid the character sheet for my Forlorn Hope game, digitally. Heavily influenced by Dyson Logos and others. Next step is to create individualized sheets for all the PCs, including class specific magic sheet and custom portraits.
Reading AD&D on a giant D6 (Dave Trampier, AD&D Players Handbook, TSR, 1978)
Genies descended from jann who sold their souls to the Sultan of the City of Brass, gaining power over flame. They’re fanatical minions of the Sultan, acting as his spies and assassins, even proselytizing for his cult on the Material Plane. Able to assume the forms of humans and become invisible, burning dervishes can easily turn up when the intrigues a party is investigating lead from the Material to the fiery reaches of the Sultan’s palace. Of course, they might be spirits of tyrannical fire that are serving some other power interested in wielding flame to spread dark powers. It should be noted that burning dervishes have virtually nothing in common with the real world mystics known as dervishes, particularly not the character of their religious expression. But the depth of their faith – their zealotry, to give it the proper name – is very real and burning dervishes work well as the lieutenants who will see to anything, obey any order, even those that an efreet might reject out of their sense of honor.
Alhough many efreet indulge in planar trade, the Sultan of the City of Brass is loath to directly involve himself in negotiations with such lowly creatures as mercanes. Instead, he relies on his burning dervish Vizier of Foreign Coins, though whether this station is faith in her judgment or an insult by not sending one of his own family members is the subject of widespread speculation. Many of the traders in the city’s famed bazaars believe it but the treasures the Sultan can grant them access to – to say nothing of the possible loss of influence in the court of one of the most powerful and wide-reaching courts of the Elemental Planes – silences many tongues.
Though brass men are the visible signs of the efreet-backed network of bankers and spies known as the Brass Ring, the constructs are simple guards and status symbols, nothing more. Every initiate has ritual tattoos on easily concealed parts of their bodies, inked by the silent, grim-faced “messengers” who ferry orders from the mysterious Masters of the Golden Chalice. Of course, when the situation is bad enough, those messengers bring more than simply orders, expressing the Masters’ wrath with steel and fist.
The souls of the most loyal and exception of the ifrit ghazis of a blue dragon emir are infused with the essence of flame conjured from low and infernal places. The process binds them utterly to their draconic master and infuses them with the full measure of his cruelty. Their power and strength augments their already considerable skill, letting them explode into massive forms to smite his enemies. Any magic that attempts to bind their minds against their lord and master fails unless extraordinary measures are taken, though their thoughts are not shielded from the likes of detect thoughts.
- Tome of Horrors Complete 89
The image above is by John-Paul Balmert.
