Happy St. Cuthbert's Day

It has been a rough 2017 for me and mine. Someone in the house has been sick continuously since January, thus I have not been a position to do a lot of stuff here. However, on this auspicious day for those of us who love this hobby, I'd like to give a bit of an update on some of things that have slowly but surely been taking shape:

1. I've been piecing together a version of Moldvay's Basic as it might have looked with only MMII monsters available plus a few ideas thrown in for fun.
2. More slowly is the adventure that would come with the MMII Basic. I am toying with idea of having them in one volume rather than two, but that depends on how motivated I get in terms of finishing the adventure.
3. My oldest has been keen on trying her hand at being a Referee. I figure that Swords & Wizardry Light would be a great little system to cut her teeth on and we have been working on a mini-campaign that would cover levels 1-3. She and her friends are big fans of the school of magic trope in fantasy literature and S&WL has lent itself quite nicely to the concept. I am planning on compiling our ideas into a nice 16 page 5.5" x 8.5" booklet.

Hopefully these will be done and shared sooner rather than later, and that by publicly announcing them I will be even more motivated to get them finished.

May the intercessions of St. Cuthbert bring blessings to us all.

Happy St. Cuthbert's Day

Today is the Feast of St. Cuthbert, who has been a part of this hobby since the 1970's. Here is a link with which to peruse the various thoughts I've had through the years about St. Cuthbert and the games we play. Enjoy.

St. Cuthbert & Dr. Holmes

Today is a convergence of two significant events, at least for those of us of an age who dabble in this singular hobby of ours. I am in good company with those who were introduced to the world of RPGs by Dr. Holmes’ edition of D&D. Today, of course, marks the anniversary of his death. How apropos that today is also the feast day of St. Cuthbert, that oft misunderstood saint who has been with us as part of our hobby since he was first mentioned in passing in Supplement 3: Eldritch Wizardry.

Since I have been dabbling with re-imaging the Slave Pits of the Undercity on an island once occupied by the followers of St. Cuthbert, I have been doing some research on various relics that might show up somewhere within the confines of the Temple once dedicated to the saint. There are two that inspire (sorry, neither of them are a mace). One is unique and the other is a type of item that could potentially be found or made in greater quantity. In honor of today’s feast and today’s loss I’d thought I would share.

For hundreds of years, the body of St. Cuthbert remained incorrupt. There are multiple accounts about how his joints were still subtle and how the items found on his body were as fresh as the day that they were made. One of these accounts noted that when his tomb was opened in 1104, therein was found a pocket-sized Latin translation of the Gospel According to St. John, which is now in possession of the British Library.

In a campaign that includes St. Cuthbert, this relic could miraculously produce pages within that function as cleric scrolls. When used to pray for spells, St. Cuthbert’s Gospel Book produces a number of spell-pages equal to the number of spell levels the praying cleric can cast. These spells are determined randomly and will remain until cast appropriately. Only one page per spell level will appear within the book.

The monks of Lindisfarne would make prayer ropes, necklaces and rosaries from crinoid fossils — the stalk of ancient sea lilies. These would either wash ashore or be exposed in the rocks around the island. The monks believed that St. Cuthbert would forge them out of the rocks at night so that the monks could find them the next day. They came to be known as St. Cuthbert’s Beads.

Sir Walter Scott makes mention of this in his poem Marmion:

But fain Saint Hilda's nuns would learn
If, on a rock by Lindisfarne,

Saint Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame

The sea-born beads that bear his name:

Such tales had Whitby's fishers told

And said they might his shape behold,

And here his anvil sound:

A deadened clang - a huge dim form

Seen but and heard when gathering storm

And night were closing round.

But this, a tale of idle fame,

The nuns of Lindisfarne disclaim. (canto 2, verse 16) 

For my purposes, I definitely plan to have a version of these beads in my own campaign. I will also scatter several across the island of Hucwind. They radiate of magic, and the larger ones will have either crosses or a short prayer carved into them. With apologies to Sir Walter Scott, it might go like this:

On a rock by Hucwind, St. Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame the sea-born beads that bear his name.

If one or more is in the possession of one who recites this prayer, they will be the recipient of a Sanctuary spell. This may be done three times per day and the spell lasts one round for every bead strung together on a prayer rope or necklace.

Saintly Saturday: St. Cuthbert

As you may have noticed, my output on this blog has been seriously lagging of late. Not that I am finding myself any less enthusiastic about this hobby or things that go on in the OSR. The time that I have had available for my hobby in the last couple of months has been short and I have simply chosen to use it for actual play rather than musing. It has been rather startling to discover how time consuming musing can be, especially when one doesn't have something rather specific to muse about.

To this end I've been thinking — there are a number of blogs out there that have regular features that keep me coming back. A really good example is Grognardia. James has three regular types of posts: Open Friday, Retrospectives and Pulp Fantasy Library. It should be no surprise, then, that James has given me the inspiration for a type of regular post, which Blood of Prokopius has thus far lacked.

Petty Gods has garnered a lot of attention and enthusiasm. Though not exactly my cup of tea, even I ventured to submit something (a saint rather than a god). It occurred to me that hagiographies could be a wealth of information for campaigns, character ideas and adventure ideas. Since Orthodoxy commemorates the dead on Saturdays, it seemed appropriate for the one day a week that I could challenge myself to write. For those of you out there that doubt my premise, I wish to begin with a saint that has long been embraced by our hobby:

St. Cuthbert

Personally, I first encountered St. Cuthbert in B1: In Search of the Unknown, where he is mentioned in passing in the list of potential characters at the back with the cleric Tassit, the Servant of St. Cuthbert. The saint is also mentioned in Supplement 3: Eldritch Wizardry via the artifact the Mace of Cuthbert as well as in T1: The Village of Hommlet via the local church which is dedicated to him. I personally find it very interesting that T1 actually portrays a reasonable facsimile of a fantasy Christian setting. Hommlet is a mixture of those who follow the new religion (Christianity) and those who still cling to the old religion (nature-based paganism). Both are threatened by demon-worshipping members of the Temple of Elemental Evil. In fact, this is one of the reasons it is one of my favorite modules to this day.

To my knowledge, St. Cuthbert does not make the transition to being a "lesser god" until around 1983 with the publication of the World of Greyhawk 2nd Edition. He is described there as:

a stout, red-faced man, with a drooping white mustache and flowing white hair. He wears magicked plate mail. Atop his helmet is a crumpled hat, and a starburst of rubies set in platinum hangs on his chest...[He] hates evil but his major interest is in law and order and the dual work of conversion and prevention of back-sliding by "true believers."

In reality, St. Cuthbert was a 7th century hermit and a monastic who eventually became the bishop of Lindisfarne, also known as the Holy Island. When he died, his relics remained incorrupt and were the source of countless miracles. He is known as the Wonderworker of Britain.

The aspect of St. Cuthbert that I find most useful for a fantasy RPG campaign is the context within which he lived. Lindesfarne historically functioned in much the same way as the Keep on the Borderland.

Britain was conquered by Rome in AD 41. Christianity followed shortly thereafter — it was so well established, in fact, that there were British bishops at the First Ecumenical Council in AD 325. Rome abandoned its British colonies around AD 410. Shortly thereafter, pagan Goths invaded and conquered much of the island. Lindesfarne was the beachhead of the second wave of Christianity, trying to reclaim lost territory for civilization (where civilization is understood as Christian Rome and its successors).

In other words, T1 need not be tied to Greyhawk, but could very well take place in a fantasy version of 8th century Britain.