Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Bipolar Disorder and the Reptile God


I just realized that the graph of page views here (which basically maps when I'm posting) is a pretty good map of my bipolar disorder cycles. I have been planning on getting back into the habit of posting on the blog, but I didn't really expect to start quite this soon. I have been working on a little sheet of possible blog topics so that I wouldn't suddenly run into "blank page syndrome" and utterly lose the ability to write.

However, with Erik Tenkar posting an account of Swords & Wizardry in the module N1 (Cult of the Reptile God), I wanted to at least offer a link to that post. It isn't really about Swords & Wizardry except as a vehicle for Old School gaming. I read the post mainly as being about what's Old School (always an interesting topic, IMO)  -- and also about the module.

Cult of the Reptile God is one of my favorite modules of all time. It has been a while since I read it, so I don't have anything analytical or brilliant to say about it, other that that it has all the components spot on.

1) A good villain who is the catalyst for events that are "clues" to locations and backstories.
2) The solution is not plotted out for the players. It's a sandbox.
3) A good home base

From discussions long ago on message boards, I thought I was the only big fan of that module. It appears that I was totally mistaken about that - there's a virtual fan club out there!

4 comments:

  1. I know how you feel Matt. I've been having 'blank page' for awhile and my own blog has more drafts than posts. I hope things get better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ever since I had chemo treatment for cancer a few years back, I find I have more writable thoughts, but I lack the focus to write anything at length.

    blogging fits my "head" fairly well. Content creation of publishable size? Not at all

    ReplyDelete
  3. I used to be able to knock out reams of game content with high frequency, but find it hard to focus and write stuff up in recent years. I have managed to get back into drawing maps frequently, but write-ups are much fewer and farther between. Age, internet distraction, and higher standards than what I spewed forth as a teen all block.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I remember N1 as one of the first modules I ran 'well' back in the day. Fond memories of this one! (Even with its flaws.)

    ReplyDelete