Bughunters can be mined for ideas, but – like most of TSR’s output in the ‘90s – is padded with too much fluff and empty space to present a truly high quality package.

Originally Published March 16th, 2002

WHY BUGHUNTERS?

Bughunters was a supplement for TSR’s Amazing Engine game – which hasn’t been in print for more than half a decade.

So why review it?

Well, first off, because a lot of RPG fans are bargain hunters: They’ll see this book in a remainder bin or on a clearance table and begin wondering whether or not its worth snapping up. And that’s what a review is all about.

Plus, I want to. ‘Nuff said.

WHAT YOU GET

Bughunters is essentially an unlicensed Aliens RPG: The PCs are ground-pounders in the United Terra Reconnaissance and Peacekeeping Force (UTRPF). As such they are charged with keeping Mother Earth safe from hostile aliens… And if there’s anything humanity has learned, it’s that every single alien in existence is hostile.

Bughunters mixes things up a little more by casting the PCs as Synners – synthetic humans. Synners originally became necessary because normal humans become debilitatingly ill if they go through an Isler jump (the FTL device of the setting) outside of cryogenic sleep. Once the law allowed the government to use synners in the military, however, it was inevitable that the genetic modifications would be extended to create super-soldiers. Once that happened, however, society no longer wanted synners living among them – so laws were pushed through that prevented the synners from ever mustering out of the UTRPF: Once created, they were in the military for life. And once that was true, the pressure from constant alien threats quickly allowed the military to generate their super-soldiers more quickly by using a braintaping technology to duplicate civilian personalities: The civilians had the consolation that some “part” of them was out in space having adventures, while the military got a pre-grown personality to insert into their rapid-growth clones.

So as a PC you are not only forced to fight a vicious alien menace for the rest of your natural lives (i.e., until one of the vicious aliens kills you), but most of your memories and your entire identity actually belong to someone else. That’s not only a solid premise for a game, it’s also a great source of characterization and drama: Character is not only what you are in the dark; it’s what you are when your back is pressed to the wall.

As a sourcebook, Bughunters provides all the usual suspects: In the player’s section you’ve got a future history of the universe; character generation rules; details on the life of a synner; combat rules; military equipment; details on ships; and a mini-sourcebook on Stargate, an L-5 space station where most synners start their careers (and, thus, a good starting point for most Bughunters campaigns).

The GM’s section contains some additional background information, including – of course – the stats for a number of vicious aliens for the PCs to hunt down and kill: Essentially, most of the intelligent life in the universe was created, modified, or enslaved by two Ancient races to serve in their centuries-old war. These races – referred to by many of the minor races as the Shapers (a psychic race featuring biological technology) and the Artificers (an insectoid race featuring advanced “hard” technology) – are completely exhausted by their long war, but the continued hostility is the reason why everyone humanity happens to meet in space is immediately a threat: They’ve been conditioned to assume that, if they don’t know a race, it’s probably serving the other side.

The book is wrapped up with some very helpful charts and tables, most notably a full-color, pull-out map of the local section of the Milky Way – complete with an accompanying table of stellar distances.

WHERE IT FALLS DOWN

Bughunters falls down by not going far enough: There’s fancy military equipment, but there’s not a lot of it. You get a few alien threats, but not enough to sustain a true “let’s hunt the new bugs this week” campaign. And so forth.

Perhaps the most unfortunate lack here is in setting details. Bughunters was always intended to be a stand-alone product, yet the creator has simply failed to deliver all that much in the way of real meat when it comes to the Bughunters universe.

Part of the problem here is that this was a TSR product circa-1993. Those of you who were in the hobby back then already know that the only thing TSR could be relied on to produce in those days were books with excessive whitespace, large fonts, and text with too much leading between lines: In short, products which employed every means possible to keep their actual word count and content to an absolute minimum while (literally) pumping up the margins.

But even taking that into account, there’s a lot of fluff here that doesn’t need to be here. Most of it (such as the introductory adventure) was probably also caused by corporate guidelines, so I’m not going to blame the authors or creators here. But it is an unfortunate reality of the book.

WHAT IT’S GOOD FOR

As a result, Bughunters is going to be primarily useful as something you tear apart for ideas and put back together in your own image. For example, I could easily see using some of the material and background material here for a bughunting campaign set about 25 years in the future of the Transhuman Space universe.

Looked at through this lens, Bughunters is a rich resource: There are a lot of very compelling pieces here which can be conveniently ripped out, turned around, and slammed into another game. Or used to create an entirely new setting to your heart’s content. Plus, there’s nothing really wrong with the material here – most of it can serve as a very reliable foundation on which you can simply continue building.

On aspect of particular note here is the ship design system: To design a ship in Bughunters all you need to do is slam together various modules – instantly creating your own, customized ship. I would have liked to see more modules to choose from, and more detailed floorplans of the modules, but this is another area where the foundation is very solid. The basic mechanic and floorplans are also completely system independent, so the whole thing is very easily portable.

The full-color map and stellar distance charts are also well done, and provide a resource for any science fiction campaign set galactically near Earth.

A Note on Amazing Engine: For those unfamiliar with the Amazing Engine product line, it was an attempt to produce a generic game (a la GURPS) by TSR. The engine itself has many strengths (which I may dwell on if I ever review the actual game system), but the game’s supplements suffered because of a methodology which required a complete set of character creation rules and (frequently) large chunks of the combat rules to be redesigned and reprinted. This helps contribute to Bughunters’ fluff problem. It also means you cannot play Bughunters as is without the Amazing Engine rulebook.

Style: 3
Substance: 3

Author: Lester Smith
Additional Design: Tim Brown, Karen Boomgarden, Newton Ewell, Tim Beach, Colin McComb of the Clan McComb
Line: Amazing Engine
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 1-56076-623-9
Product Code: TSR2702
Pages: 128
Year Published: 1993

Flipping through my copies of Bughunters, I’m going to be honest: I was overstating its usefulness as a resource. Except for the poster map of star systems near Sol. That’s pretty great.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Above all Those Who Slumber was the power of the One Who Was Born of Destruction, the Song Render, the Ender of Souls, the Dweller in Darkness. And among those who would speak his name, his name was Shallamoth Kindred – the act of desolation given life and mutilation given flesh.

This volume is a collection of lore regarding the Galchutt known as Shallamoth Kindred. It is a mixture of texts: Some poetical, some religious, some scholastic, some bombastic.

RANK WITHIN THE HOST: The Galchutt are not given to any order or hierarchy, and yet Shallamoth Kindred is often seen as their leader. No other Galchutt has ever been known to disobey it, and one of the ancient texts cited tells that “the Dweller in Darkness shall lead the Natharl’nacna host into the heart of creation, there to deliver all unto oblivion”.

THE FORM OF MAN: Shallamoth Kindred is described as being of two forms. The first of these – the form of man – takes the shape of a tall, lithe humanoid with indistinct features. This entire form is black like the deepest part of a bottomless pit, with the exception of its dagger-shaped eyes, colored the yellow-brown of diseased teeth.

THE FORM OF SOUL: The second form – the form of soul – is that of a squirming mass of ropy tendrils surrounding a bulbous, obese, pox-covered, decaying body with a vaguely humanoid shape. In some of the grotesque illustrations contained within this volume, vestigial bat-like wings hang limply around this form.

THE SUDDENNESS OF DESTRUCTION: “And he did move with the quickness of a razor.” “And in that moment he both came and was gone, leaving a wake of black madness in his tread.” These and similar quotations attest to Shallamoth Kindred’s ability to move with blinding speed and agility. It is literally capable of being there one moment and then gone in the next.

THE FACELESS FACE: “Its face was like the mirror nothingness. Its gaze a river of fire that touched thought but not earth.” Shallamoth Kindred never displays emotion. It never grows angry and it never shows fear. It does not gloat. It does not rejoice. It is impossible to manipulate or even to reason with.

THE CITADEL WITHOUT LIGHT: “And in the palace of the Kindred of Shallamoth, the eyes of the Galchutt are shut.” This phrase stands alone in the lower left hand corner of a page otherwise covered in a strangely warped mandala. Other passages refer to this place as the Citadel Without Light, and some speak of an inner sanctum: The Tourbillion. The Vortex of the World. From this Vortex, one can “step forth into the world”.

Another fragment describes the palace as being built entirely of mirrors which sometimes reflect less than can be seen, sometimes more, and sometimes something entirely alien.

Back to Chaos Lorebooks

The Slavers saga comes to an end with a whimper instead of a bang.

Originally Published March 16th, 2002

This review builds on my reviews of A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity, A2: Secret of the Slavers Stockade, and A3: Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords. It’s probably a good idea to read those reviews, found here, here, and here, respectively, before reading this one.

CONCEPT

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for the A-series of modules. Players who may find themselves playing in these adventures should not read beyond this point.

At the end of A3: Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords the PCs fell victim to the Slave Lords: For months now they have been imprisoned in their dungeons — spellcasters tortured and kept from sleep to prevent them memorizing their spells; thieves denied their tools; and fighters denied their weapons. As the adventure begins they are dosed with more sleeping potions and then dumped into the cave system which runs through the nearby volcano.

The PCs must survive essentially by their wits alone in these caverns until, finally, the volcano erupts – destroying the city of Suderham beneath lava and an invasion of magmen. There is also a sligth chance at this point that the PCs might stumble onto the Water Dragon — the ship the Slave Lords are using to escape. If this happens, the PCs have the opportunity to defeat the Slave Lords once and for all. If not… well, who knows? They might bump into them in the next pub they stop at.

WEAKNESSES

There is only one problem with A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, but it’s a biggie:

It doesn’t make any sense!

And I mean from page one, paragraph one. Keep the adventurers imprisoned for months? Why? Then knock them out again and dump then in volcanic tunnels? Why?

“Why?” is actually a very important question here, because it’s one I kept asking myself throughout the module. As another example: Why are there kobolds, myconids, giant ants, and magmen all living in close proximity to each other down here?

But the most baffling question of all is this: Why, after an epic, four-part adventure, was the decision made to deny the PCs an epic confrontation with the Slave Lords? These memorable villains, although drawn well on the page, are never truly pitted against the PCs as true masterminds and cunning opponents. Instead, the saga of Slavelords is allowed to die with a whimper at best – a complete anti-climax at worst.

STRENGTHS

About the only thing A4 has going for it is the titular concept: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords. Stripped of their equipment and their most potent magical abilities, the PCs are asked to escape their imprisonment, re-establish a power base, and strike a final, definitive blow against their would-be captors.

That’s a pretty cool idea. But there’s so very little of it to be found on the page here. The dramatic escape is, instead, rendered as absolute, incomprehensible stupidity on the part of the villains. The volcano’s eruption, a potentially brilliant and epic complication for the final act, is instead used as a tool for anti-climax. The final confrontation with the Slave Lords – a battle which should live in the memories of the players forever – is reduced to a whimpering formality, if it happens at all.

CONCLUSION

A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords is not worth your time. Buy A1-3, but skip this one: You’ll be much better off ignoring everything except the high-level concept of A4 (which you can safely glean from this review) and crafting your own ending to this epic.

Style: 2
Substance: 2

Author: Lawrence Schick
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Price: $4.99
ISBN: 0-935696-28-8
Product Code: TSR9042
Pages: 32
Year Published: 1981

Arguably a great concept for a tournament scenario, but a terrible railroad in any other context. And the execution on this one really is quite lackluster. The A-series is well remembered in any case, but I think it would be even more highly placed in the pantheon of D&D adventures if it had managed to even marginally nail the landing.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

It’s pretty well understood that over the last forty years, the sales of comic books in America have shifted inexorably from “floppy” pamphlets to graphic novel collections.

To understand this shift, one must first know that it follows a thirty-year decline of comic book sales at newsstands as the medium became one of the last lingering vestiges of the pulp magazine market that had dominated fiction sales from the mid-19^th century until being wiped out in the mid-20^th century by television and paperback novels. With their distribution system collapsing, comic books only survived the 1970s because of the creation of the direct market.

The direct market not only allowed Marvel and DC to survive with much smaller sales than they’d enjoyed in their heyday, it let small publishers and solo creators effectively distribute their creations. The result was a renaissance in North American comic book storytelling which carried the medium to new creative heights.

The history of the direct market is a saga in its own right, including Marvel failing to monopolize it in the ‘90s and instead blowing up the entire industry through exclusivity deals with fallout which continues to impact not only the comics industry, but neighboring hobby industries, unto this day. (You can draw an almost direct line from there to Paizo’s current financial woes, for example.) But the most important effect of the direct market was to ghettoize comic books: New readers could no longer discover comics in the mainstream stores they were shopping at; they instead needed to seek out specialty shops.

Comic book pamphlets have never really emerged from that ghetto.

Graphic novel collections sold in book form, on the other hand, could and did. Unlike pamphlets, they could be stocked in bookstores alongside other books, where they could be discovered by the general public.

Marvel and DC, however, have not been able to translate their complete domination of the pamphlet market into a similar domination of the book market. Instead, they combine for less than 10% of the market, while Scholastic Books dominates with 40% of the market.

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

A key turning point in the history of comics came when Scholastic Books licensed Jeff Smith’s Bone (previously self-published through the direct market). Its success caused Scholastic to expand and publish more comics, which leads pretty directly to Raina Telgemeier being the bestselling comics creator in North America.

Now, let’s say that you’ve never heard of Bone before, but your friend recommends it or you see a copy on the shelf at your local bookstore and you think it looks cool. What should you read first?

Well, that’s pretty easy: You read Volume 1. Then Volume 2. Then Volume 3, and so on until you reach the end of the story in Volume 9. This is easy. It’s intuitive. It’s obvious just from looking at the books on the shelf which one you should read next.

The same will be true for virtually any manga series. One Piece might have more than a hundred volumes and countless spin-offs, but there’s no question where you should start: Volume 1.

Let’s compare this to someone hearing about Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern: Blackest Night. They look around and they spot the Blackest Night Saga, collecting Blackest Night #0-8. This must be it!

Except… no. That collection does include the full Blackest Night mini-series, but the story was originally written to weave between multiple titles. So we’ll have to take a step back and consider:

Blackest Night Saga
Blackest Night: Green Lantern
Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps – Vol. 1
Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps – Vol. 2
Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps
Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps

Which of these should we read? Well, that depends on how essential you consider Peter J. Tomasi’s contributions to the story to be, but let’s assume we can ignore those and just pick up the comics written by Geoff Johns, so we grab Blackest Night Saga, Blackest Night: Green Lantern, and Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps.

Now… what order do we read these in? Well… that’s the trick, isn’t it? The original pamphlets included helpful blurbs that said, “The story continues in blah, blah, blah!” and you could just follow those from one issue to the next, but these have been removed from these collections. Your only real solution here is to search online for a reading order, and then skip back and forth between the collections trying to find the matching issues.

Okay, screw that. Can we just bypass this whole morass by grabbing the Blackest Night 10^th Anniversary Omnibus? Sort of. This collection is 1700 pages, costs $150, and includes not only the Blackest Night story, but every single crossover comic.

It turns out that what you probably want to buy is none of these, but actually Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Omnibus – Volume 2. That includes a bunch of other Green Lantern stories by Geoff Johns, but seems to include the complete Blackest Night story. I think. It looks like this might still be missing some stuff, but at this point I’ve spent over an hour researching this in the hopes of getting an authoritative answer, and I don’t care anymore.

And this isn’t an isolated problem. If you make an effort to read Marvel and DC books — and it’s definitely an effort — you’ll repeatedly find yourself forced to look up reading lists, desperately hoping you can avoid spoilers, just to figure out what seemingly random assortment of books and/or issues you need to follow just to read the thing you already want to read.

There are a number of reasons why Marvel and DC struggle with this.

First, they both have a vast library of legacy continuity. While there are many advantages to having this huge back catalog (including many of the most notable stories of the 20^th century), it also means that the answer to, “I like Batman, where should I start reading?” can’t be as simple, “Start with Volume 1!” Not only would it be impossible to publish the stories like that, but you don’t actually want people to have to struggle through decades of mediocre Batman comics before they can read Frank Miller’s Year One or Snyder’s Court of Owls or Grant Morrison’s iconic run.

Second, many of their stories — both old and new — are written to sell pamphlets. Crossover events, as we’ve seen, make sense when your goal is to make a kid bike back to the newsstand and buy another comic, but they can become labyrinthine puzzles that make the story impenetrable. On the flip side, these mega-crossover events also mean you’ll be happily reading a story and then — KABOOM! — it’s blown up by a completely different story that you likely don’t care about.

And it’s not just crossover events: Way back in 1968, for example, Stan Lee, Gene Colan, and Jack Kirby cooked up a story in which Doctor Doom would take control of Daredevil’s body in an attempt to ambush the Fantastic Four. The story started in Daredevil #37, continued through Daredevil #38, and wrapped up in Fantastic Four #73.

Although Fantastic Four #73 has been reprinted in at least six different Fantastic Four collections, the Daredevil issues have never been included. Out of five different Daredevil collections including the first two parts of the story, only one of them included the finale.

Finally, this isn’t just a problem caused by legacy issues. Marvel and DC still actively suck at this.

For example, arguably Marvel’s best superhero comic right now is Ryan North’s Fantastic Four. I simply can’t heap enough praise on the work North is doing — not only do I love it, but these are the comics that got my daughter excited about superheroes. In pamphlet form, this run has been published as:

• Fantastic Four 7 (2022) — #1-33
• One World Under Doom — #1-9
• Fantastic Four 8 (2025) — #1 thru ongoing

Even here, of course, we see the pain point of trying to track continuity across the ceaseless numbering reboots designed to sell pamphlets to collectors. But let’s go ahead and check out the reading order of the paperbacks:

• Fantastic Four – Vol. 1
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 2
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 3
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 4
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 6, pg. 113-136 (Giant-Size #1)
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 5
• One World Under Doom – Chapter 1
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 6, pg. 1-26 (also, there are no printed page numbers)
• One World Under Doom – Chapter 2
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 6, pg. 27-47
• One World Under Doom – Chapter 3
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 6, pg. 48-68
• One World Under Doom – Chapter 4
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 6, pg. 69-89
• One World Under Doom – Chapter 5
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 6, p. 90-112
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 1, p. 1-50
• One World Under Doom – Chapter 6
• One World Under Doom – Chapter 7
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 1, p. 51-72
• One World Under Doom – Chapter 8
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 1, p. 73 thru end of the book
• Fantastic Four – Vol. 2

Now, to be fair, I think one can quibble about whether or not Giant-Size Fantastic Four #1 needs to be read in its original publication order by jumping forward two volumes. But even if we ignore that, this is clearly batshit on multiple levels.

I particularly want to call your attention, though, to the decision to publish Volumes 1-6 of Ryan North’s Fantastic Four and then follow that up with a different Volume 1 of Ryan North’s Fantastic Four.

Didi: Hey, I’ve heard there are some really cool Fantastic Four comics I should read. Where should I start?

Gogo: Fantastic Four — Volume 1. But not Fantastic Four – Volume 1. Or Fantastic Four – Volume 1. Or Fantastic Four – Volume 1. Or Fantastic Four – Volume 1. Or Fantastic Four – Volume 1. Or Fantastic Four – Volume 1. Or Fantastic Four – Volume 1.

Didi: Ah. I see. I want Ultimate Fantastic Four – Volume 1.

Gogo: Don’t be silly. That’s completely different.

Didi: Uh… which Fantastic Four – Volume 1 do I want, then?

Gogo: Fantastic Four – Volume 1 by Ryan North.

Didi: Great!

Gogo: But not Fantastic Four – Volume 1 by Ryan North. You want Fantastic Four – Volume 1 by Ryan North.

Didi: For fuck’s sake.

This confusion doesn’t just affect readers. It also affects the retailers and distributors who are ostensibly trying to keep these products in stock and on the shelves. For example, the current listing for Fantastic Four – Vol. 1 (2023) at Amazon has been updated to show the cover for Fantastic Four – Vol. 1 (2026).

Which means, of course, if you do a search for “Ryan North Fantastic Four Vol 1,” what you’ll see are two listings for Fantastic Four – Volume 1 by Ryan North with, seemingly, the exact same cover. (I also wonder how many stocking errors are being made, resulting in the wrong book being shipped out even if a new reader does order the right one.)

It gets even sillier, though: If you grab Fantastiv Four Vol. 1 (no, not that one, the other one) and open it to the inside front cover, you’ll find This Guide Will Show You Were to Begin to Follow the Adventures of the Fantastic Four!, accompanied by pictures of the graphic novels you need to follow the series! This is incredibly useful! Exactly what…

… hang on. This is actually a completely different set of Fantastic Four graphic novels (including a different Fantastic Four Vol. 1) that has nothing to do with the reading order of the Fantastic Four graphic novel you’re currently holding in your hands.

These problems, of course, don’t just afflict bookstores. Digital comics are of rising importance, currently making up a fifth of all comic book revenue in North America, but navigating this morass through Marvel’s and DC’s digital platforms is arguably even more complicated.

A SOLUTION

Ultimately, to solve this problem, Marvel and DC will have to stop creating content primarily for pamphlets. This doesn’t mean they should stop publishing the pamphlets, but it does mean understanding that their primary goal is producing the books that — instead of being sold for a single month — can be potentially sold for years or decades to come.

The first and most important thing will be creating unique arc titles. Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One would not be as well-known today if it had been instead sold as Batman – Volume 1 among a slurry of a dozen other Batman – Volume 1’s. Yes, it can be difficult to title a serialized work before you’ve written it, but Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, and Rumiko Takahashi were able to pull it off, so I’m sure you can figure it out.

Optionally, I would recommend embracing this title on the pamphlets, too. So when someone launches Fantastic Four: Family Matters, it’ll be Fantastic Four: Family Matters #1 on the cover. Create a legacy numbering badge and use it consistently to get the best of both worlds.

When collecting crossovers, you need to include the full story in every collection that includes part of the crossover. For mega-event crossovers, this won’t be possible, but you need to figure out (a) a consistent way of collecting them (most likely a core narrative collection and a every-single-crossover omnibus) that (b) includes come clear method for referencing the individual parts, so that you can (c) clearly tell people reading other collections where to go if they want to follow the event.

Importantly, you should retroactively create titles for your backlog. Collections like Fantastic Four by John Byrne, Green Lantern by Geoff Johns, and Batman by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo have been a step in the right direction, but can be difficult to apply broadly across a medium where creative teams have often shifted rapidly. They also sound pretty dry and academic.

Collaborate with original creators to find these titles where appropriate, but I’m absolutely saying that it would be better for the earliest issues of Amazing Spider-Man (whether that’s thirty-eight issues, ninety-nine issues, or one hundred and twenty-two issues) to be published as Spider-Man: Origins than as anonymous volumes lost in the midst of generic archive collections labeled masterworks or showcases or epics.

You can absolutely keep an archival line for completionists, but that’s exactly what it should be: Archival.

For the general public, you want them to be able to clearly and uniquely identify and recommend different stories. This will never be as clear as One Piece or Spy x Family or Bone, where there’s a single story guided by a single creative vision that you can read from beginning to end. And that’s okay. The fact that there are so many different Spider-Man stories about so many different versions of Spider-Man or Batman or Superman can be a huge advantage… but only if you stop doing the equivalent of wrapping them in brown paper and randomly shuffling them around.

At the moment, for example, DC Comics is enjoying a huge amount of success with their Absolute titles. There are a lot of reasons for this — including, importantly, the high quality of the comics themselves — but I think a significant part of it is that, if I hear about how great Absolute Superman is, I know exactly what I need to do: I pick up Absolute Superman Vol. 1, read it, and then continue onto Absolute Superman Vol. 2.

By contrast, I picked up Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 — not to be confused, of course, with Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1, Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1, Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Vol. 1, or Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 — and started reading from one volume to the next… only to discover that for the story to make sense there’s a point where I just have to arbitrarily know that I need to stop reading Ultimate Spider-Man collections, go read something else, and then come back to Ultimate Spider-Man.

This is, fundamentally, a bad user experience. And it doesn’t have to be this way.

Blood gushes fresh in the mouth. Blood beats in the vein. Blood pours from the wound.  Blood roars through the brain. Blood flares in the scent. Blood thickens in death. Blood fills the throat. Blood cleanses the hunger.

Blood burns.

He is the personification of Rage. He is the Beast lurking in the heart of all men. He is the powerful, pulsing lust for domination and conquest which is coupled to every defiant breath of life. His howls are the primeval song of discord that belies all tongues.

He is Ravvan.

THE ROAR OF THE BEAST: “Though he is caged by the Sleep of the Faithful, the Beast’s rage beats upon the formless walls of that eternal prison just as the hot blood of passion beats through his veins. In spurts of rage, his will becomes manifest; whispers of the Beast that pulse through the red veils of the primal, holy fury.”

THE BLOOD OF RAVVAN: “Let his Blood be joined to your own. Let the Beast pulse through your veins. In Ravvan there is strength. In Ravvan there is life. In Ravvan there is truth. Take of his strength. Lust of his life. Heed his truth.”

THE IDOL OF RAVVAN: “And in the days of broken wisdom, we gathered the whispers of Ravvan and listened to his pulse in the many corners of the world. And we wrought of them an idol to give focus to his words that his pulse might deafen the world.”

Here the text describes – in loving, rapturous terms – a squat statue of obsidian depicting a demonic beast with slavering fangs; folded, bat-like wings; serrated horns; and long, vicious claws. “And through his eyes of ruby blood, the voice of the Beast rang true.”

THE SONG OF DISCORD: The “song of discord” appears to refer to both the “whispers of Ravvan” which can be heard “echoing through the chambers of the blood” and also to a prayer-chant:

The blood, the hunt
The dance, the fire
Return, return, return.

DESIGN NOTES

In the original Ptolus sourcebook, Ravvan appears as a beast god. I decided to slide him over into the ranks of the Galchutt because (a) it seems like a pretty good fit and (b) the Idol of Ravvan appeared in one of the adventures I was using in Act I of my campaign. I knew that the chaos cults would be featured heavily in Act II, and the connection would let me foreshadow what was coming. After the fact, the players could (and did!) look back and realize they’d been hearing whispers of the Galchutt for months before truly learning of their existence.

The song of discord is actually a secret deep cut. When I started running my first long-term D&D 3rd Edition campaign, I kicked things off with John Tyne’s Three Days to Kill. That adventure also features cultists, who put in appearance at the Festival of Plenty and sing a song:

The wine, the song
The dance, the fire
Return, return, return.

When I ran the adventure, I rewrote the lyrics. At the time, this had nothing to do with Ravvan, but as I was writing up Ravvan’s lore I felt a resonance with those older lyrics and so I incorporated them here.

I enjoy doing this sort of thing just for my own pleasure (and deep worldbuilding can turn up all sorts of interesting interconnections), but In the Shadow of the Spire also originally featured one of the players from that earlier campaign. This would have been a cool easter egg for them. Unfortunately, the player left before the group ever encountered this lorebook or heard the song’s encore.

Back to Chaos Lorebooks