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This time around I had a chance to read The Dying Earth by Jack Vance before diving into Turjan's Tome. This book is a gold mine of ideas for D20 fantasy gaming material and for giving a sense of a different world that your characters may adventure in. As always, the writing style is larger than life in DERPG, and this supplement is designed specifically with that type of hero in mind: “...a stout hearted individual, armed with a well fashioned blade, a discerning intelligence, and that elusive thing men once knew as courage, can still unearth ancient mysteries, deliver the innocent from those who prey upon them, and genuinely change the world just before the sun goes out, enveloping it forever in darkness.” Turjan level heroes are not romantics or politicians; they are adventurers who crave action.
Chapter One details creating a Turjan level character. How is this useful for a D20 fantasy game? It depends on your gaming style and the maturity of your group, but DERPG uses the Persuasion and Rebuff abilities to temporarily remove control of a character from a player. This is a story driven and story driving mechanic and, for mature players, a chance to let their roleplaying abilities shine. DERPG encourages acting out your character's personality by rewarding the use of taglines. These are sayings with the flowery Dying Earth flavor that help players get into character. Although Turjan's Tome suggests taking a high Rebuff score if your player wants to avoid being influenced by NPCs, as a mechanic that encourages roleplaying I would reward my players for using them. Eight pages of these “pithy and poignant outbursts” can be found in chapter nine.
As a DM, the less I have to drag my players into my world, and the more they put of themselves into it, the greater the enjoyment for all. When one of my player's characters responds to his archrivals public threats with, “My patience is ended; make good your threats or crawl under a stone.” and then draws his sword in challenge, you better believe he's getting love from me in the form of XP or some other reward. Bottom line, any mechanic that encourages acting in character is worth rewarding if it is used by your players.
My favorite part of Chapter one is not really the rules, but the sample characters. There are five of them each created using a different methodology. As a game player, nothing makes the rules make sense more than examples. The player, Tara, creates Romac the Magician completely randomly in order to maximize his power potential. The warrior, Jandar Churm, is created to emphasize speedy attack over magic. The charming Elai the Rogue, inspired by a name from The Dying Earth book, is a thief with a penetrating demeanor that protects her from the influence of others. Although the game doesn't burden you with deep character generation and extensive background information, you readily get a sense of what your character's personality is like. I have never been a fan of the D&D alignment system, in fact I hate it. If you're looking for a different set of guidelines to flesh out personalities, Turjan's Tome is not a bad place to start.
Chapter two describes running a Turjan-level adventure. Turjan's Tome emphasizes heroic, Conanesque adventures with no regard for the “little people.” The characters are “callous, ambitious, rash adventurers” who “rush off into the unknown, equipped only with a sword, a pair of Live boots and a “head full of spells” with which to beat their foes. As this is already the stock D20 adventure type, this book's theme fits well with that mindset. It also describes a morality of cosmic justice based on the stories in the book, The Dying Earth. What goes around, comes around. If this is a theme in your campaign there are many ideas for implementing it in this chapter. Paladins and other altruistic characters would actually fit in quite well with this morality theme and the short stories of the Dying Earth with real gains which are not of the treasure hoard type.
The chapter has an adventure checklist that DMs should look over if they run a 'hack 'n' slash' D20 campaign. The essentials include the opportunity for bloodshed, horror, ruined wonders and lost knowledge. Other important elements include casual cruelty, weird magic, strange vistas and odd customs. There are also optional rules for speeding up the pace from a standard DERPG adventure. The pulp fantasy stories of Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Borroughs had as similar feel, where magic and wonder are not epitomized my Gandalf's enchanting fireworks displays but by chaotic sorcery and devilry that attempts to escape and cause havoc whenever possible. A summoned demon is going to eat someone before it answers the summoner's questions so said conjurer had best have a victim handy. Rescuing the victim and leaving the demon conjurer to his just reward is where the Turjanesque adventurer comes in.
Chapter four should probably have been placed after chapter two because it discusses the “Noble Qualities and Obscure Merits”, or tweaks, that you can add to your character. Tweaks are very similar to feats in D20 only in the case of DERPG there are quite a few which are designed to improve your persuasive and other non-combat abilities. Here's a situation: A friend or non-adversarial acquaintance has had a setback when pursuing a goal you do not want them to achieve. If you have the Eloquent style of the Persuade ability, you can take the First Loss is No Loss tweak. This allows you to convince your friend that, essentially, “better men have tried and failed so what chance do you have?” Remember, this is a roleplaying mechanic, not a combat mechanic, so if your players aren't mature enough to not take it personally, I don't recommend using these types of tweaks. But if backstabbing is the order of the day, or if your campaign is just one of high melodrama, these ideas could slide right in.
The remaining chapters deal with magic items, spells, personalities and hazards unique to DERPG. Actually they aren't so unique as much as they have the Dying Earth flavor stamped on them. How do you use it for your D20 fantasy campaign? Simple, replace the DERPG stamp with that of your campaign. These sections are not cheap lists of cut and paste, vanilla flavored numbers. Each item, spell, danger or person has a description that brings it to life by describing it's history. Although the numbers are DERPG it isn't a big deal to convert the ideas to your game. I wouldn't try for an exacting translation, as your D20 game already has its own tweaks anyways. As an example, Zokhargrim's Frightful Mask is a demon faced mask that terrifies all who see it. You could allow a reflex save to avoid the gaze of the wearer. A failure would mean the character is frightened for a number of rounds equal to the difference between failure and success, while a failure by 10 or more could mean the target is panicked for that same amount of time. That's just an idea, of course, but the D20 rules are flexible and freely available so you can redesign them to your heart's content.
The real meat of these chapters is the adventure hooks they come with. Zokhargrim's Frightful Mask was molded onto the face of a particularly vile demon captured by the magician Zokhargrim. Some believe the demon is still linked to the mask and the magician himself is known to be buried in the Valley of Graven Tombs. Hooked yet? When your PCs are told this by Ardenelter Margrabe, Specialist Purveyor of Kaiin, who needs the mask for a special customer, your players will know they are not on a simple smash and grab job. Especially when the mask is guarded by Chun the Unavoidable.
The section on magic has more than just spells, as it also has requirements for becoming an archmagician including Disputation, Mathematics, Vat Mastery and Warding. There are also rules for creating vat creatures, the golems of the Dying Earth. Some of this material is the same as that of the Primer of Practical Magic, but in DERPG terms. As the Primer showed, the Dying earth is a goldmine of ideas for converting to your D20 game.
Chapter eight, Beyond the Dying Earth, is devoted entirely to different worlds and time periods. I recommend them if your campaign involves space travel or time travel. Will your characters become the victims of the Arthropods of Kobori? Can your aspiring arch-magician discover the secrets of binding a Sandestin on remote Merchdilan before it is swallowed by the vast curtain of the NOTHING?
I also recommend them if your looking to rip your characters out of their ho hum elven forests and hobbit shires. Defending a dwarven mountain stronghold from the vast orcish hordes yet again may not be easy, but it's been done to death. Defending a gate to Porphirel (a world of weak porcelain people easily killed by meat-people humans) from exploitation by your world requires requires ruthless cojones! Will your paladin stand by his creed and against his own people?
I want to note that the Indices of Forbidden Knowledge are very useful, being a summary of the magic items and spells in the book. There are even summary descriptions for each. In general, the book is well laid out and an inspiring read as the author goes to lengths to inject the Vancian style into his writing.
I highly recommend Turjan's Tome of Beauty and Horror for those who want ideas on how to inject the rush of taking risks into their D20 games. You won't find another list of elven spells or dwarven artifacts, but you will find strange vistas, dark and aloof magicians, and a taste of something that isn't lembas.
-List of Favorites
Thrang is not someone who engages in casual small talk – describing Thrang the Ghoul-Bear.
“Soon enough the sun will depart. I will precede it. Goodbye!” - tagline (melodramatic death scene)
“Though she is undeniably alluring, I suspect that the first embrace with her would be your last.” - tagline (who kisses the succubus first?)
The names of the spells. Phandaal is, indeed, preeminent among wizards.
