[Review] Dragon #37; The Pit of the Oracle

Dragon #37
May 1980

Time for another Dragon issue. I read it mostly for the adventure but #37 has some decent articles, especially for 1980. We start off on a sour note, with very long letters discussing the topic of realism. The topic is especially bittersweet for although both parties can clearly see the nuance and some of the problems with a ‘realism’ approach, they are committing the cardinal sin of misaligning priorities, equating fantasy gaming with a fantasy novel and placing immersion above solid gameplay, and therefore they can never be satisfied and must forever suffer a horde of ill-mannered RuneQuest barbarians at the table, stealing all the kitchen furniture, having unprotected gay sex and lamenting bitterly how DnD’s hit points are unimmersive. Just say no! The rest is a volatile mixture of railing against ageism, the Editor slapping down what has to be the third woman letter complaining about the lack of female protagonists in adventures and stories in the dragon by suggesting that she could perhaps fucking get off her lazy ass and write some herself for once in her goddamn lifetime (paraphrased), some early (ultimately doomed) attempts to promote different gaming articles, and the mixed reception of the Angels bestiary in #35. And with that we go on to the main course.

The Theory and use of Gates (Ed Greenwood)
Interesting but unfocused article on the use of planar gateways in D&D. As a springboard of ideas to get you going it is adequate, I enjoy the brazen, adventurous calls for genre mixing and the use of portals as devices to introduce new NPCs and players. It is however, very helter-skelter, skipping from ideas into halfway implementation, to examples in fantasy literature (of note, the excellent Vanishing Tower but also the to me obscure Telzey Amberlain sf novel), to a proposal for a rather sadistic but potentially very interesting gate trap. As a primer to get you started, its adequate.

Neutral Dragons: Six new challenges for powerful players (Arthur W. Collins)
The first? in a slow but inexporable expansion of the number of dragon types until by the time of late D20 there would be enough dragons to fill a seperate bestiary (which happened!). How many fucking dragons do you need? In this case, creating a neutral breed based around gemstones is probably defensible and it does seem more complimentary then contrived. The abilities of the gem dragons (psionics, the ability to charm by voice, various breath weapons not related to direct damage) serve to differentiate them from their chromatic and metallic cousins. There’s some gripes about the execution: Psionic potential does not scale with the age of the dragon, say, but overal its above board. Having many of the breath weapons based on sound and vision provides interesting opportunities for counter-measures and the effects are often sufficiently debilitating to make them on par with the hit point based damage of the garden variety dragons. Bonus points for adding Sardior, the Ruby Dragon, as something to cross off of every self-respecting munchkin’s murder list. Bonus points for making them all assholes, thus avoiding ethical quandries.

Step by Step System for Urban Encounters (Jeff Swycaffer)
Random tables for encountering various city denizens, complete with levels, activities, complications and so on. Probably a bit more elaborate then it needs to be, but essentially solid and robust and on par with most of the stuff that is out there for city adventures today (exempting of course, the peerless Nocturnal Table), although perhaps a bit more generic.

Notice double hooker matrix.

Cities can help make character more real (Paul A leathers)

Another article on city-adventuring (a good topic), with suggestions on what various classes may do, possible complications and references to City State of the Invincible Overlord, the best supplement ever created, but I can’t help but lament that the actual structure of city adventuring is not touched on. Everyone knows what hexcrawling or dungeoncrawling is. With city-adventuring, this is not so well defined (now if not then). These suggestions would have been more helpful had there been a more common frame of reference. In addition, the article boasts that city adventuring will flesh out your character but then proceeds to discuss various adventures each class may have and achieve in the city. Its not quite at cross purposes there is some misalignment of premise and solution.

Greyhawk: The shape of the world (Gary Gygax)
Teaser trailer for what turned out to be mostly vaporware, including, perhaps fortunately, a Shadowland penned from gary’s outline by the excreable Skip Williams. The treat is the little hints of Gygax and Kuntz’s campaigns, notes on the original temple of elemental evil campaign, the glimpses of high level adventures riding around with armies complete with orders of battle for Bigby, Robilar, Tenser etc.

Sage Advice (Jean Wells)
By now mildly exasperated column where Jean attempts to teach the redditors of the 80s to please consult their fucking DM’s and read the rulebook before firing off retarded questions.

The History of Elfland (G. Arthur Rahman)
Surprisingly elaborate mood piece about the drawn out fall, rennaisance and eventual fate of a high elven kingdom. Rahman has a historian’s sensibilities, and tackles the history of the elves with the gusto of a modern day Livinus, hitting many motifs that should be pleasing and familiar to those familiar with Herodotus, Livy, Thuycidides and other ancient historians. Initiatives to preserve elven culture after a cataclysm destroys most of the civilization leading to increasing insularity and rigidity, the persecution and eventual ascendance of the half-elven Ercii as their forced relegation to then disgraceful mercantile professions brings them much wealth and status later on (cool it with the anti-semitic remarks etc. etc.), barbarian invasions, dwarven treaties, treaty violations, invocations of divine power, violent revolution and social upheaval, the corruption of the elven dynasty, and eventual transition into a peaceful, prosperous, liberal small government mercantile economy (perhaps the most fantastic element in the entire story). For the most part it feels like the chronology of an actual ancient kingdom, not a modern kingdom set in ancient times if that makes any sense. Background material like this very quickly wears out its welcome but if its all of this quality TSR has my retro-active blessing. Approved.

The development of dice, tables and combat resolution (John Prados).
Semi-academic article discussing rise of dice, chance and role of simulationism in wargaming and rpgs. Too theoretical this late in the evening, forcing me to tap out.

Presenting the Monties (Leonard Lafoka)
Tongue in cheek pantheon designed to torture Jim Ward. Forgiveable since it does not exceed the 1 page limit for jokes.

Magical Systems: Rationale and Reconciliation (Kristan J Wheaton).
Disgusting simulationist article about the theoretical nature of magic that uses voluminous paragraphs to communicate very little. “The discussion of magic in the preceding paragraphs as an evolutionay process has rationalized those systems of magic which were formerly at odds. All systems of magic are in harmony with one another, given the broad parameters of the evolutionay system and the infinite extension of alternate universes. The major conflict between Law and Chaos’s ultimate use of magic is resolved by understanding that Law may direct magic more effectively, while Chaos has the ability to control magic due to the thorough understanding of the basic unordered nature of the energy.”

Probably best ignored.

Armies of the Rennaisance Pt. VI (Nick Nascati)
Interesting article about the rise, costumes, peculiarities and armament of the Landsknechts, tactics of the Landsritters and Reiters and their eventual supplantation of the Swiss, whom they were modelled after. 1 page well spent.

Spell Research: The Hard Way (T.L. Jones)
More complex system that makes researching new spells more expensive, difficult and time consuming. Ah yes, the last thing we would want is for players to actually use that mechanic. A simple multiplier to the system in the DMG probably would have achieved the same thing, without so much extra fuss.

Giants in the Earth (Lawrence Shtick & Tom Moldvay)
Interesting article about the meaning of levels, prompted by complaints on earlier issues, and discussion of differences between AD&D and D&D systems in this regard. Also hints of a high level campaign in Ohio (Kent-a-Khron) using the D&D system, with levels over 20, prompting the need for entities that took up some place between the monster manual and the gods. The provided guideline lists 9-12 as mid-level, 13-16 appropriate for a hero, 17-20 at the peak of human ability within a single lifetime, and 21+ as equivalent to demi-god status. Not a bad guideline.

The Pit of the Oracle
Stephen Sullivan (1980)
OD&D
Lvl ??? (8+)

The surprisingly solid main course. It is 1980 and we are still with one foot in OD&D pulp fantasy land. They had not quite figured out the recipe for a perfect module recipe, but you get an adventure location with a surrounding region with additional opportunities for adventure. The dungeon is very OD&D like, replete with plentiful deadly traps, weirdness and fuck you combats and not a lot of interaction, but there is a central village full of NPCs, a dark secret, possible aid etc.

The setting is a bit darker then usual, very S&S. The village of Narrion lies at the edge of civilization, surrounded by high pallisade walls. The loch, forests and hills are populated with terrible menaces. To the east lie the lands of a terrible race of half-human serpent men (the Jarkung!). The Shunned Hills are inhabited by the ‘Lurkers in Shadow.’ The village itself is plagued by The Stalker, a beast proof against any wound. Everyone is so dejected there is a ‘Church of Apathy’ preaching passive acceptance and the futility of action. The one claim to fame is the Oracle, who speaks through a pit in the rock after offerings are brought down.

The village. On the one hand you will need to flesh this out a bit. It gives percentages for gathering rumors, and vague hints and directions about their actual topics. You don’t always get statistics, but the adventure gives you a description you can work with. There’s a conspiracy, a guy with a dark secret and so on. Whether that dark secret will survive a detect evil spell, now see that’s another matter, but then again finding the secret (the nervous innkeep has a secret tunnel leading into the Oracle Pit which is the very same as the Stalker!) is only the start of this pretty deadly dungeon. Guidelines are provided for fleshing out the creatures in the Shunned Hills (in actuality, Troglodytes) and there is a lake with a 160 hp plesiosaur if the characters are feeling feisty (or if not, there is a trap in the dungeon which can propel them in the lake!).

The adventure attempts to compress information by providing an index with the information and referring to it via letters. For example some buildings will just be labelled S/2, indicating a slum with 2 floors. In the dungeon, rooms are labelled ([title]/B/Non-shielded. Door M/L/U. The first letter of the room after the title indicates how well it is lighted, then whether the room is shielded (from divination and x-ray vision). For the door, its materials, handles or protrusions and type of lock. You gain brevity, at the cost of comprehension complexity, meaning you will either have to reference these tables very often during play, which sucks, or the DM has to memorize them, which is possible but not optimal. There is a second problem in that the keying is not always logically organized. The only way into room 6 is through room 7 which can only be accessed via corridor 17.

The Pit of the Oracle, excavated centuries ago by an honest to god Dark Lord, is a genuine hellhole nourished on the wrinkled teat of Ur-Kuntzogygaxian D&D. Forget interaction with some lady in the dungeon. This is a hellscape of mirrors of life-trapping, explosive bubbles, portcullis traps, stone idols with gemstone eyes and sorcerous protections, portals that vomit forth vile beasts from the lower planes and even a motherfucking giant stone face that petrifies those that look upon it (and promptly triggers the release of many Xorns). Someone was mainlining Supplement I.

Paltry treasure (~40.000 gp), with exorbitant magic items (~rod of lordly might, hammer of thunderbolts, deck of many things et. al.) are all concentrated into a single chamber. Monster assortment is very sparse and brutal: Ghosts, demons, vampires, elementals, poison spiders. Most encounters will probably be random. As far as tricks and traps are concerned, these are satisfying, they go hard but they are not monotonous. The one concern is that all the mirrors of life-trapping do not have other prisoners listed, meaning they are more (dangerous) annoyance then anything else unless half the party is trapped at the moment the PCs happen to roll a random encounter. There’s a good mixture too of risk and reward: an obscure fount that can be used to peer into the secrets of the past if a method of its operation is discovered, an Amulet of the Planes which is concealed in many pieces over multiple rooms, an evil invisible dancing vorpal sword but if the PCs end up grabbing it it loses its animation and they have a, well, dancing vorpal sword! Goes hard.
But there is a complication, and I am not talking about 14 HD worms with a horrific mind-controlling curse gaze-attack:

Meet the actual Oracle, a retainer of a vanquished (or has he?) dark Lord, with its soul and heart seperated from its body, and will regenerate 5 hp per round until they are destroyed, after which it dies. It can become ethereal 2/day, shuns the daylight, has oracular abilities and is a huge pain. The one weakness of the adventure is that other then these guidelines, where it encounters the players is left more or less open, meaning this adventure is going to vary in difficulty. It is also not clear if its spies in town will direct it towards the players. Putting it on the random encounter table in the dungeon proper would have been a good idea.

A second oddity about the dungeon is that as written, it will play a bit strangely. If you take the most obvious route in and skip the first level and just immediately go further down the pit, the largest hoard in the game is one room away (containing ~95% of the total treasure, unguarded) and after that you almost immediately get to break your teeth on one of the most ball-busting encounters involving two type VI and one dragon that all appear to be statues only to then have to explore a dungeon that has a lot more empty rooms then you would expect. I think that might work because on the upper levels there are assorted murals! that actually tell you what the fuck is going on with the dungeon and how the oracle came to be and how his soul was seperated etc. Good stuff, lore mixed in with actual gameplay, how we fucking like it. When to encounter the fucking Stalker is really the crux of the matter. There is an idol on the first floor that can summon him. Where else?

This dungeon is calibrated more for OD&D then AD&D so only about half of the really dirty tricks are anticipated properly but fwiw the dungeon is hardened against the more destructive magics, a fact that prevents you from using secret Sphere of Annihilation to tunnel your way through the damn thing to your hearts content. As a last complication, you require a reaction roll from the village after the monster has been destroyed, as they might not take kindly to your destruction of their main source of income.

This one is a bit odd and might need some calibration but it does feel something you could actually plop into your campaign world (albeit it in the region that is labelled ‘Bad Dudes only’) and its not lazy, it has spirit, style and quintessentially OD&D challenges. I think I rated Doomkeep **** and I will end up rating this a high *** even though this one has tricks that are about an par and a stucture that is more elaborate then Doomkeep.

Pretty solid issue.

Postscriptum:
I almost forgot to include this loveable raggamuffin. For a random dragon monsters, its pretty good. Obviously an owlbear derivative, but there’s something about chimeric animals that has a certain staying power and who doesn’t need a fortified wolf to put on the random encounter tables of his Chaos Wastes or something.