Books 49-50

[subplotkudzu]

49) Mrs. Roberto, or the widowy worries of the Moosepath League: This is the fourth of Van Ried's Pickwickian tales, and likely the weakest of the lot. Still, it is charming in its way, with Mr. Walton and Sundry attempting to brighten the mood of a glum pig and remainder of the League seeking to rescue the exotic widow Mrs. Roberto from the clutches of some unidentified foe. One thing at occired to me while reading this is that I don't recall ever having the villains in my games acting on wholly inaccurate information or suppositions - something I will have to rectify in the future.

50) The Oddysey: Homer's classic, I've been listening to the Norman Dietz reading as an audiobook during my long weekly drives to and from work. This was really good, unabridged, and containing much more detail than any version I have encountered before - enough to make me wonder whether I have ever actually read it or just absorbed the contents via cultural osmosis. Hearing it read made clear how it was intended to be performed, with the repetition of words and phrases verbatum throughout the text, and also made clear how much our language owes to the work - I was stunned to hear that four of Penelope's suitors "bit the dust" upon being struck by the spears of Odysseus and his comrades, thinking it a very modern phrase, until the image of someone being struck by a spear and falling face first into the ground, so greviously wonded that there was no way to break their fall, drove home in my mind.

Listening to this also reminded me how much influence the gods had in these tales - they're everywhere, messing with people in one way or another - and how one might make that work in a D&D game. Not by actually having the gods (under the GM's control) be constantly messing with the PCs, because that sort of railroading would get old quick, but by stating that taking levels in Cleric means that you are favored by one or two gods (selected by your choice of Domains), and that any clerics spells you cast are descibed by as the god directly manipulating the events on the scene, present but invisible (perhaps to all save yourself). This keeps the gods directly active in the game - flitting in and out of the PCs presence - without making them a source of player frustration.

If I were to run this, I would also take steps to all but eliminate evocation magic and other direct damage spells, but up the Save DC for magic by, say, 5 points, so that Wizard characters couldn't just blow people up, but their magic would have a higher chance of working. I'm still noodling around the edges of this.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

To model ancient Greek magic, don't eliminate the "zap" spells, just bump them up a few levels so that they aren't available to novice spellcasters. Circe, for instance, could turn men into beasts, and the Thessalian witches were said to draw the Moon down from the sky.

One might also bump most Divination spells _down_ the level lists, since that was the main job of most ancient Greek magicians.

JLC

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

Ah, but turning people to beasts is a Transmutaiton, not an Invocation. I don't mind, and indeed actively encourage, people turning other people into animals. What I don't want is people turning other people into cinders with battlefield-clearing fireballs.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

There's a Trojan War supplement to Testament which is pretty good for d20. And, while I've always preferred The Odyssey to The Iliad, this actually made me interested in playing a siege of Troy campaign.