Dying Earth RPG
- Thread starter tleilaxu
- Start date
http://www.dyingearth.com/index.htm
You can download the first installment of their online mag, Excellent Prismatic Spray, and (I think) a quickstart pdf. Me, I would *love* to play that game.
There's actually a weird kinship between Dying Earth and D&D. As Gygax himself has said (and I think he's repeated it in a recent XPS issue, which I haven't read), the D&D spell-casting mechanic--read spell, store in "spell slot," shoot--is straight from Vance's novel. So are several actual spells, not least Prismatic Spray. Yet the feel of Tolkienian D&D and Vance's world is otherwise very different.
PS: Skywalker, I just started lurking on the Mechanical Dream list... are you guys *really* playing a PBEM with the authors?!? How very kewl.
You can download the first installment of their online mag, Excellent Prismatic Spray, and (I think) a quickstart pdf. Me, I would *love* to play that game.
There's actually a weird kinship between Dying Earth and D&D. As Gygax himself has said (and I think he's repeated it in a recent XPS issue, which I haven't read), the D&D spell-casting mechanic--read spell, store in "spell slot," shoot--is straight from Vance's novel. So are several actual spells, not least Prismatic Spray. Yet the feel of Tolkienian D&D and Vance's world is otherwise very different.
PS: Skywalker, I just started lurking on the Mechanical Dream list... are you guys *really* playing a PBEM with the authors?!? How very kewl.
Yeah, their download page has the first issue of Excellent Prismatic Spray, Appendices that didn't make it into the rule book, and an Excel spreadsheet for generating NPC names. That last one could be useful in a D&D game.
One thing I found peculiar about their site was that they listed the UK version of Tales from Dying Earth (from the same Fantasy Masterworks line that includes Conan Chronicles and Dunsany's Time and the Gods) with a prominent warning that it's "only available outside of North America". I bought a US version of Amazon. It is in print here.
I just started reading Dying Earth (finally), and I agree. It looks like great fun -- in a Chaotic Neutral Rogue/Wizard kinda way.
Spell preparation (formerly memorization) comes straight from Vance. In the first story in the compilation, we're told that a man could only fit two spells into his mind at once. With great training, he could fit four spells, or six lesser spells.
The funny thing is that a spell-point system would probably model that better than slots; you'd just have to keep the notion of spell preparation.
I think it also shows the lower level D&D used to be played at. A Magic-User with just four or six spell slots is under fifth level, even in 1st-edition AD&D.
And the naming convention used by many of the spells: Nystul's Magic Aura, Tenser's Floating Disk, Leomund's Tiny Hut, etc.
The simple addition of character races totally Tolkien-ized the game. With them, every party feels a bit like the fellowship of the ring. With just humans, the game would feel more like Dying Earth, Hyboria, etc.
Gez
First Post
Yeah. Gygax often said he drew more inspiration from Moorcock, Leiber and Vance than from Tolkien (merely the orcs and hobbits); but it's true that the multiracial party of adventurer was a big impact of Tolkien. Even if human cultures and physical appearance vary wildly in Tolkien's world; be they fantasy (Dying Earth) or sci-fi (Tschai, Giant Planet); they are all human. In Lyonesse, the heroes meet non-humans -- fey and halflings, who are named thus for their half-blood, human and fey -- but don't adventure with them.
Similar Threads
