Divine2021
Adventurer
Did either cite Manly Wade as an inspiration? I know Old Gods didn’t, and it shows in the quality of the product, imo.
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What Property That Has Never Had A TTRPG Adaptation Deserves one?
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
Wolfpack48
Hero
The Secret World MMORPG had a recent Kickstarter for a TTRPG and I would be keen on playing that.
Voadam
Legend
The Chained Coffin adventure and mini setting does explicitly
"Dedicated to Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986), who taught us to love
and fear the old mountains."
The intro talks more about his influence and inspiration.
I cannot escape the mountains.
In fairness, I’ve never actually tried, because the
call of those ancient giants is too powerful to
abandon. My soul is never calmer than when I
can feel bare rock beneath my feet, see the land vanish into
the mist of distance below me, and feel the wind touch my
face. The mountains are one of two places that I ever feel
truly at home.
Anyone familiar with Manly Wade Wellman’s John the
Balladeer tales therefore understands why these stories resonate
with me. Like the songs that John sings, these stories
have their own unique music that speaks to the soul. They
depict a land that feels both welcoming and foreboding,
much like the mountains themselves; a place of laughter
and shadow.
From the first time I read “O, Ugly Bird!” I knew Wellman
was a kindred spirit. I’ve returned many times to the Appalachians
he described, wandering along with John, that
champion of good, as he confronted everything from conjure-
men to demons to vampires, never tiring of either the
plots or the way that Wellman paints the landscape with
his choice of language. He remains to many the poet laureate
of the Appalachians.
Exposure to Wellman’s stories spurred me to explore the
mountains beyond what he wrote. I acquired various books
on Appalachian folklore and history, investigated musical
genres native to the region, and studied the people who
shaped the mountains—sometimes literally. This newfound
knowledge merged with my firsthand experiences
in New York’s Catskill region, providing me with a vast
storehouse of mental images and ideas. As that storehouse
swelled, I knew something had to be done with its contents.
Finally, one day, a flash in my brainpan struck. I experienced
a crystal clear mental vision of a band of people hauling
a mysterious coffin, one bound in chains and inscribed
with eldritch symbols, over a mountain ridge as a storm
raged. It was from this image, which itself owes something
to Faulkner’s As I Lay, Dying, that all this acquired mountain
lore coalesced into a single gestalt concept. And from
that concept, The Chained Coffin was born.
Luckily for me and for the adventure, Dungeon Crawl Classics
is a game dedicated to re-exploring the Appendix N
origins of fantasy role-playing. Wellman’s inclusion on that
list gave me the leverage necessary to pitch the adventure
to Joseph Goodman. I had no expectations about how he’d
receive the idea of an adventure set in a fantastical version
of America instead of the pseudo-Western medieval
Europe landscapes that dominate the hobby. Joseph took a
shine to the idea, however, and I got to writing.
* * *
One of the reasons I wrote The Chained Coffin was to demonstrate
that not every DCC campaign has to be a “gonzo”
place filled with blood gods, sorcerous robot villains, soul-chugging
swords, and other zaniness. If DCC RPG’s default
setting is “metal” (something I neither agree with nor enjoy),
then the Shudder Mountains are set firmly on “country
and blues.”
In fairness, I’ve never actually tried, because the
call of those ancient giants is too powerful to
abandon. My soul is never calmer than when I
can feel bare rock beneath my feet, see the land vanish into
the mist of distance below me, and feel the wind touch my
face. The mountains are one of two places that I ever feel
truly at home.
Anyone familiar with Manly Wade Wellman’s John the
Balladeer tales therefore understands why these stories resonate
with me. Like the songs that John sings, these stories
have their own unique music that speaks to the soul. They
depict a land that feels both welcoming and foreboding,
much like the mountains themselves; a place of laughter
and shadow.
From the first time I read “O, Ugly Bird!” I knew Wellman
was a kindred spirit. I’ve returned many times to the Appalachians
he described, wandering along with John, that
champion of good, as he confronted everything from conjure-
men to demons to vampires, never tiring of either the
plots or the way that Wellman paints the landscape with
his choice of language. He remains to many the poet laureate
of the Appalachians.
Exposure to Wellman’s stories spurred me to explore the
mountains beyond what he wrote. I acquired various books
on Appalachian folklore and history, investigated musical
genres native to the region, and studied the people who
shaped the mountains—sometimes literally. This newfound
knowledge merged with my firsthand experiences
in New York’s Catskill region, providing me with a vast
storehouse of mental images and ideas. As that storehouse
swelled, I knew something had to be done with its contents.
Finally, one day, a flash in my brainpan struck. I experienced
a crystal clear mental vision of a band of people hauling
a mysterious coffin, one bound in chains and inscribed
with eldritch symbols, over a mountain ridge as a storm
raged. It was from this image, which itself owes something
to Faulkner’s As I Lay, Dying, that all this acquired mountain
lore coalesced into a single gestalt concept. And from
that concept, The Chained Coffin was born.
Luckily for me and for the adventure, Dungeon Crawl Classics
is a game dedicated to re-exploring the Appendix N
origins of fantasy role-playing. Wellman’s inclusion on that
list gave me the leverage necessary to pitch the adventure
to Joseph Goodman. I had no expectations about how he’d
receive the idea of an adventure set in a fantastical version
of America instead of the pseudo-Western medieval
Europe landscapes that dominate the hobby. Joseph took a
shine to the idea, however, and I got to writing.
* * *
One of the reasons I wrote The Chained Coffin was to demonstrate
that not every DCC campaign has to be a “gonzo”
place filled with blood gods, sorcerous robot villains, soul-chugging
swords, and other zaniness. If DCC RPG’s default
setting is “metal” (something I neither agree with nor enjoy),
then the Shudder Mountains are set firmly on “country
and blues.”
Divine2021
Adventurer
That’s a truly amazing introduction. One reason I truly did not like Old Gods at all is that it didn’t capture the feel and magic of a region I know quite well like Manly Wade did through his works. It’s a matter of subjective taste, I get that, but one product feels like a creative writing exercise and the other feels like an unnatural conjuring of a place and a time—“a place of laughter and shadow.”
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Paulyhedral
Dice Fiend
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
Autumnal
Bruce Baugh, Writer of Fortune
I would love that, but yow would it be hard to do well. The Land is built on premises that run directly counter to so much conventional wisdom in gaming. Its people put preservation and restoration at the center of their lives, and the appreciation of beauty is crucially important. And there are zero moral escape codes - no evil deed’s consequences are avoidable. Forgiveness matters, but don’t dissolve consequences; whether evil means can ever achieve good ends is somewhat up for grabs, but for sure good ends cannot ever make evil means be good.
So I fear that (assuming it’s done well) the handful of people who like it would like it a lot, and for everyone else it’d sink without a trace.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Yeah, it's great literature buy would make for one off the wall game.
Aldarc
Legend
I believe that it did have one. A not very good one is still one.
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