It's a truism that we can never get enough stuff - particularly the obscure and exotic. So here's a little collection of characters from inside the pages of Dave Arneson and Richard Sniders Adventures in Fantasy game. Most of them are little more than a name and a class, but that's a start. You can consider these persons to be part of the world of Blackmoor - though that is never stated. Several of them do appear in Bleakwood, which could be anywhere, but was at one point set in Blackmoor, at least for a time. I've given the reference italicized as either I, II, or III for the main rules booklet, the magic booklet and the monster booklet, followed by the page number.
St Cuth - religious figure or god. Ip39
Al Haza - male wizard, 11th level, lawful. Inteligence 66 Ip45, Al Haza also has levels as a warrior from a previous career. Ip56 He is ranked as a Knight. IIIp47
He posses the green Talisman, which causes the target to be calm. An attacker targeted will act as if hit with a confusion spell. 50' radius, saving throw allowed.
Shema - female mage apprentice Ip45
Count Horace - maniacal human male warrior, Stamina 32. He owns the Axe of Blood sight which causes Horace to hate Magic Users. With the axe in hand, Horace gets double attacks at + 10% but -5% to defense when attacking an Mu. Ip52, IIp36 IIIp46. The story of how Horace got the axe and why he hates sorcerers is in IIIp46, 47
Omar the Swordman, human warrior, Stamina 54, Ip52 Future Baron Ip56
Horal, Warrior, Stamina 88 Ip52
Shoman, Male Mage level 6,Int 59, Stamina 87 IIp23,24
To'kar the terrible, chaotic mage IIp24
Hardeel the Magician, Male mage Level 6, Int 83 Stamina 36 IIp27, 28
Balcletian, mage level 7 or more IIp28
Sokar of the Fourth Circle, Level 4 mage, Intelligence 100 IIp41
Sh'ch'col'tika-r, Elf Male mage IIp32
The dragon Sco'la IIIp8
Monstrous Menagerie 2: Goblin Mode
1 hour ago
3 comments:
Interesting! I would, however, bet dollars to donuts that most of the names were from Snider, rather than Arneson. I've delved through Perilous Lands continually for almost three decades, and most of the names in this list follow Snider's formula, with the exception of Saint Cuth and Count Horace, which are more generic.
It would be very interesting to know how much of AiF was Arneson's, how much was Snider's, and how much they developed together.
I really need to go over AiF in depth; from what I recall, it compared very favorably in many ways with Powers & Perils, Snider's later RPG, though there were many further levels of complexity added in P&P.
Woah... just realized it has been 36 years since Powers & Perils was released, so more than 30 years! I still remember buying each of the four boxes as they were released, around the same time as RuneQuest III. I remember my initial disappointment at the seemingly pointless complexity of the system, but my utter joy at reading the Perilous Lands, which was one of the first published fully fleshed RPG campaign settings dedicated to Swords & Sorcery (as opposed to the more high fantasy of Greyhawk, the boxed set of which was released in the same year).
Thanks for your thoughts James - yeah I wonder who came up with which names myself. I expect Al Haza and Shema were Arneson's because they come from the sample dungeon that is certainly his baby, and mayby the apostrophy names, at least we see that in some of his other writings. But who knows... It is curious that sometimes they give a character name for an example and sometimes it is just "Player A".
>>>It would be very interesting to know how much of AiF was Arneson's, how much was Snider's, and how much they developed together.
Indeed. Well, having seen Arneson's planning notes, (fodder for a future post) I can say that the project followed his vision but did change a lot in some specifics. So I think overall it was a very collaborative effort. Having said that, I do think the order of the names on the booklets matches who was the lead writer of most of it. So I would say something like 90% of Book 1 is Arneson and the reverse for the other two. With the exception of the dragon and maybe the vampire, the monsters and magic are so similar to what Richard did, he has got to have been the main guy there.
>>>I really need to go over AiF in depth; from what I recall, it compared very favorably in many ways with Powers & Perils,
James I would love to see you write up something like that! I have read through all the P&P materials online and have the Perilous Lands, but I never played the game and don't claim to be especially familiar with the system - although I do see a clear chain of evolution from the Richard Snider Variant rules through Aif to P&P. I need to get back to work on the RSV and hope to focus on it in a few upcoming posts - too many irons in the fire!
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