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A History of D&D: 4th Edition – Wow, Just … WOW…

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What Am I Reading: Dungeon & Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5th edition

Part Four: WOW…

5th ed 1

I started to write a simple review of Dungeon & Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5th edition, but it grew into a series of blogs about the history of the game itself! Refer to my previous blogs for some of the terms if you are confused.

Just like everything else in the world, D&D was suffering from poor sales during the economic depression of the mid-2000s. Gamers were leaving the tabletop games in droves to play online. Neverwinter and World or Warcraft (WOW) were the dominant games in the sword-and-sorcery genres. This fit into the isolationist mode most of us were going into with the invention of smart phones. Instead of rows and rows of kids sitting on the benches in malls, now there are rows and rows of kids sitting in coffee shops texting. Probably texting the kids sitting right next to them. Zombie apocalypse indeed…

Sitting at a table with dice and paper was passé; why imagine attacking an orc compound when you can see it in 3D on your computer screen? Wizards of the Coast realized they were losing their gamers. So in 2007 it was time for a new edition of D&D. A version that would attract those gamers back! They couldn’t beat the electronic games … so what do you do if you can’t beat ‘em?

4th edition gets a lot of bad press – has ever since it came out. Once something is pronounced a bomb – whether it be a movie, a TV show or a game system – it cannot recover even if it really isn’t so bad. Go to your favorite browser and type “4th edition D&D criticism” and look at the topics: link titles include “What Went Wrong” and “It’s Awful” -and these are dated 2008 and 2009 when the game had only been out a year or less! I won’t add to the chorus of contempt except to reflect what I have already blogged before.

4th ed 2

                4th edition isn’t a bad system. Some bloggers said if it wasn’t called D&D it would not have lasted. That’s true, but that is the case with MOST non-D&D RPGS.

If done correctly and with players acclimated to the system, 4th edition might even be fun. But it was so vastly different from anything before it … it was hardly D&D at all! It was a table-top version of a video game. WOW on paper. Ironically, WOW had its own tabletop version of itself – with a hardback guide, etc. Its tabletop version of D&D did just about as well as D&D’s tabletop version of WOW.

The basic classes and races are the same – although it took three Player’s Handbooks to get all the classes listed (Barbarians, Monks, etc.). Later Player’s Handbooks added tieflings (a race with a demonic taint), dragonmen, crystaline beings, angelic Devas, etc. It kept the 3rd edition’s Prestige Classes but called them Paragon Paths.

And the role-playing aspect of the game is still there, albeit it is made secondary to combat. From the few modules I read, role-playing is set way back on the list of things to do while playing the game. Way way back.

The biggest changes are in the way 4th edition handles combat. Remember, we’re talking about a table-top MMORP (massively multi-player online role-playing game).

Play with miniatures is encouraged. Some scenarios/modules seem to require it. For the first time since the D&D Basic Set, back when it was a spin-off of Chainmail, players are encouraged to dig out their miniature figures and terrain, whip out their tape measures and roll play. Miniatures never went away, strictly speaking. Gamers could use miniatures throughout all the editions – but 4th edition made it a necessary part of combat. Without miniatures – using a power that pushed back an opponent one square made no real sense without something on the table to help visualize it. How can we know if the push-back pushed the orc back into the waiting arms of an assassin’s blade? Make a luck roll? Miniatures take the guess work out of it. And takes the imagination out of it, too.

Powers? Oh yes, perhaps the biggest change in 4th edition, and the one that makes it seem more like a table top MMORP than anything else.

Each class and race was given powers. These are abilities one can use in combat. At-will powers could be used every round (portion of combat) – Healing Surge can heal you for 6 points – keeping you alive to swing your mace at least one last time. Per-encounter powers can be used only once during combat – and you cannot use it again until the next mob of bad guys come around the corner – Flurry of Blows might give you two chances to hit in a round. Per-day is just that. Until you sleep and recover, you can only do this power once per day – Knock throws everyone to the ground.

It’s like the cool-down period for abilities in WOW – you have some buttons to click that gives you an arcane blast or sword swipe every few seconds, some you cannot use for ten or more seconds, come only once every few minutes.

Even the terminology and class “assignments” come straight out of a MMORP. Rogues are attack dogs – nicking and cutting opponents. Fighters are referred to as “tanks”. There’s a Warlord class that gives other characters plusses just by standing in the midst of combat – there’s no other real reason for the class. Combat combat combat.

With this, were I to play 4th edition, I would like to have all my powers laid out before me on cards. My at-wills to the left, per-encounters in the middle and per-day on the right. Other stats would also be available. That way I can keep track of what I used and when it will be available again. Just like on my computer screen. I go from playing on my desktop to playing on my desk top.

Stats for abilities became uniform. Before, if you had 14 Strength, it would give you a +1 on “to hit” rolls, damage, opening doors, etc.  A 14 Dexterity gave you +1 on initiative, “to hit” rolls for ranged weapons. Now a 14 in any stat gives you a +1 benefit on anything involving that stat. No more lists – if it involved Strength, you get +1 to your roll. I like that. (remember that I am winging it on the numbers here – don’t tell me “a 13 gives you +1, a 14 is +2. Cool, but regardless, if you get my point, let’s move on…).

With 4th edition, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) went with the nuclear option. It stopped producing anything remotely to do with 3.5. It left that to Piazo. Piazo was the company that published Dragon and Dungeon magazine. WotC cancelled both magazines – no one will care about 3.5 once 4th edition debuts!

“Um,” Piazo said, “would you mind if we continue with the 3.5-style game system? We’ll call it Pathfinder and it will be completely different from your new edition.”

“Of course you can, you little upstart, we’re too big to worry about such small potatoes as you…”

pathfinder

                I usually end these blogs with our little troop of characters trying to swing over a chasm. Just use the same ending as my last blog. Since it has nothing to do with combat combat combat, the roll play of swinging over a chasm is unchanged.

But that brings up one of my biggest criticisms – roll play vs. role play. In previous editions, I am a thief named Visilai; in 4th edition, I am a rogue/assassin hybrid with the invisibility character build!

Pathfinder started beating D&D in sales. Bad. Then the Star Wars Role Playing game started beating D&D in sales.  D&D was third overall. From the only game in town to third place. Something had to be done.

They quickly created a 5th edition.

They called it D&D Next. I call it D&D: The Apology.

TO BE CONCLUDED…

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

Continuing my history of D&D with 3rd edition – this changes EVERYTHING!

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What Am I Reading: Dungeon & Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5th edition

Part Three: You Turned My Game Upside Down …

 

I started to write a simple review of Dungeon & Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5th edition, but it grew into a series of blogs about the history of the game itself! Refer to my previous blogs for some of the terms if you are confused.

In 2000, Dungeons and Dragons, now owned by Wizards of the Coast, released a 3rd edition of the game. They referred to the “core books” – Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual but over the next seven years added dozens upon dozens of supplemental books and modules.

The biggest change was the d20 system.

3rd ed

                The d20 system turned dice rolling on its head. Instead of rolling lower, I had to roll higher! Not necessarily higher than my Dex, but higher than a fixed number that was based on what I wanted to accomplish. 10 is an easy task, 15 more difficult, 20 still more difficult. Tasks were given a Difficulty Class (DC). Remember the scenario from prior blogs…?

“I try to grab the vine and swing over the chasm.”

“That has a DC of 15,” says the DM.

{Roll} “8!! Finally! I beat my Dex! It’s about frickin time – after twenty years! Woohoo!”

“No, this is 3rd edition, you have to roll higher than the DC now. You fail. Your character plummets to his death. Mage?”

{Rolls} “I got an 18,” says the mage.

“You swing across safely,” says the DM.

“I hate this game…” mumbles the poor roller.

The people I have gamed with for nearly twenty years had a very hard time adjusting to d20. My wife suggested we look at it as an entirely new game system. We are no longer playing D&D; we are playing something like Rolemaster or Chill. That helped a little. Switching to Pathfinder definitely helped with the “it’s a different game system” mentality – primarily because it WAS a different game. But I am getting ahead of myself.

“Remember – roll higher,” is the 3rd edition mantra. Armor Class and Difficulty Class are similar. Before, the lower the Armor Class the harder it was to hit it. Now … roll higher. Someone with an AC of 18 is harder to hit than someone with an AC of 12 – in the older editions there was no such thing as AC 12. The limit was 10 going down to negative infinity, presumably … although negative five and lower were usually reserved for gods and unbeatable demons…

Classes and races remained unchanged. Thieves were now called Rogues. Bards were given their own class instead of a Thief sub-class. Half-orcs, removed from 2nd edition to appease the Bible thumpers, returned. Sorcerers were mages who cast spells without the aid of studying spellbooks were added as a class. That always smelled like an appeasement for whiners to me (“Why do I hafta study?” “That may work on your mommy, but not the DM! Study!”).

Experience points (XP) changed. As a character wins battles, solves puzzles and gets treasure, he gains experience. After gaining so much experience, he gains a level. This adds to his hit points, increases his ability to hit or avoid magical damage (called saving throws) and otherwise makes him more powerful. Different classes had different XP – a first-level fighter became a second-level fighter after accumulating 1000 XP. Magic User’s had to get 2000 XP to level up. Now it is all uniform – no matter what class 2000 got you to second level, 4000 to third, etc. (those may not be the exact numbers, but you get the idea)

Initiative was changed. Initiative is the term used to determine who goes first. “I hack at the ogre with my sword!” “Sorry, the ogre goes first.” “Who says?” “The initiative roll.” At the beginning of combat, each player rolled initiative on a dice (some used d6, some d10); the DM rolled for the bad guys. In the old system players or the DM who rolled 1s went first, all the way to 10. If you had a high Dex score you could subtract from that roll. If you were dexterous, you could go faster you see. When everyone was done, everyone rolled again.

3rd edition changed that. Those who rolled HIGHER went first. Once you roll, that was it until you were done with combat. “I go last AGAIN!?” “You rolled a 3; you go last until combat is done.”

Now there are Prestige Classes. These are class kits you can take at higher levels to make your specific character different from other players of the same class. Instead of just a cleric, you can be an undead slayer. Instead of a thief – er – rouge, you can become an assassin (brought back from 1st edition) or a dragon-horde stealer. As you go up in levels, you must pick certain skills and feats to give you the abilities to become a prestige class.

Leveling causes quite a bit of rule-hunting. In 1st edition, if you went up a level, you’d role more hp and find some new spells and that was it. In 2nd edition, you have more non-weapon proficiency points to increase your ability to Jump or Appraise. Now, along with the above, you may also get to increase a stat, or gain a skill or feat.

There I go again with the skills and feats, what are they? Oy. The optional non-weapon proficiencies of 2nd edition are the mandatory skills of 3rd edition. But now skills include, for example, what was once the domain only of thieves. If your wizard wants to learn pick-pocketing, he can get that skill. If he wants to wear heavy armor and use a sword, he can get that skill. Some skills have prerequisites (the wizard will have to learn the light armor skill first, for example). As with 2nd edition, some skills have levels, or slots. You get points to spend on skills when you create your character and when you level up. If I have two slots in the Jump skill, I can add +2 to your jump roll. At least they whittled the skill list down to 47 skills. Some of the rest were turned into feats.

Feats? They are harder to explain. These are bonuses you can choose to improve a character’s abilities and stats. These are real bonuses – not just for flare and role playing like a white scar down the cheek. A Feat can be, for example, Toughness, giving you two extra hit points; or Quickness, giving you +1 on initiative (I know there is a feat called Toughness; Quickness I made up as an example).In 3rd edition you had 60 feats from which to choose. You gained a feat every three levels. Not a lot, but when you could choose, where do you begin?

Thus now with feats and skills, the designers have finally closed the mouths of the whiners. Or have they?

“I try to snag a rock on the other side of the chasm with my rope,” says Mr. Poor Roller.

“You don’t have a rope. I took it when I picked your pocket,” says another player.

“You’re a gnome cleric!? Why are you picking my pocket?”

“It’s a skill I wanted.”

“Sigh, I try to grab a vine to swing across, I have the Jump Skill, 2 slots.”

“I have the Empowerment Feat active, so you get plus one,” says the gnome.

“I’d rather have my rope.”

“Your Dex gives you another +2,” says the DM. “This is DC 15”

“I cast Helpful Hand,” says the mage,” that’s another +1.”

{Roll} “Carry the five, cosine of the two vectors … 45? Do I do it?”

“Damned if I know,” says the DM.

“I hate this game.”

There was a 3.5 edition released shortly after 3.0. It cleaned up some of the inconsistencies, but it was otherwise the same game with no major changes. It’s what a new edition should do…

Said major changes would come in 2007 with the 4th edition. It was to 3.5 what 3rd edition was to 2nd and changed the entire dominance of the roleplaying game business. So much so the D&D label has yet to recover.

3rd ed books

TO BE CONTINUED…

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

End note: I made up the names of the “feats” because, frankly, I’m too lazy to look them up myself and I wanted this to come from my heart, but the rulebook. So ease up on the “that feat doesn’t exist” because I do not doubt you, I just wanted to give you the flavor of what a feats can do. If those are actual feats, I simply made a good guess…

What Am I Reading? The Last Witch of Cahokia

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What Am I Reading? The Last Witch of Cahokia

 LastWitch_front-Cover2-160x225

            The Last Witch of Cahokia (ISBN 9780979473746 Redoubt Books/Bluebird Publishing 2013) by Raymond Scott Edge concludes the trilogy of books beginning with Flight of the Piasa (“Flight”) and continuing with Witches of Cahokia (“Witches”).

            Here are the blogs for the previous two novels:

            You can read my review of Flight of the Piasa here: https://michaelgcurry.com/2014/07/03/what-am-i-reading-flight-of-the-piasa-by-raymond-edge/

            And my review of Witches of Cahokia here:

https://michaelgcurry.com/2014/08/02/what-am-i-reading-witches-of-cahokia/

            It is possible to read all three books alone, but this last book is really based on the events of the second. The first book is complete. The second is also complete, although the story of Snow Pine may confuse you if you do not read the first. But Last Witch (as I will refer to the third book in this little review) is based on the events of the second book: it will be difficult to read alone – although it also tells a complete tale.

            Four tales, in fact. It picks up in the days and weeks of Cahokia in all of its threads.

            1) Daniel French and his conflict with the Illini Confederation of the twenty seven female pre-Columbian skeletons.

            2) Josh Green’s “revenge” against the professors and university that wronged him,

            3) Fred Eldridge’s trip to China to examine an ancient Native American buffalo hide, and

            4) Shen Fu’s journal of meeting Wind Sage and their return to China in the early to mid-fifteenth century.

SPOILERS AHEAD

            We meet for the third time the family and friends of Daniel French. He has two problems – the first problem was introduced in Witches – the Illini Confederation demands the immediate reburial of the twenty-seven female bodies found near Cahokia Mounds.

            Daniel has meetings and discussions with the Illini Confederation and his Provost. This is a good and canny way of bringing in an Info Dump. “As you know, Bob, NAGPRA was passed in 1990 and it provides …” Subjects ranging from digs at Native American burial sites to the Mormon religion is discussed this way. The previous books had their info dumps as well, some awkward – discussing archaeological terms with fellow archaeologists – but the author whimsically gets around the awkwardness with an aside such as, “…ask a professor a simple question and you get a lecture.” A good way to get around a writer’s unavoidable conundrum.

            Daniels’ other problems deals with a mysterious character knows only as Ghost Dancer. Well, the readers know he is Josh Green, but the characters do not. Josh dug up the remains of Elijah Parish Lovejoy.

            As you know, Bob, Elijah Lovejoy was an abolitionist journalist who was killed by a pro-slavery mob in 1837, making him a martyr to the cause. See what I mean by unavoidable? His gravemarker is a nice historical site in Alton and many a speech and many a political announcements have been made there in the past nearly-two centuries. Josh sets up photo ops of the remains at various Native American massacre sites in the west and mid-west – as if he had stolen a garden gnome. He photographs the bones and mails the postcards to Daniel and the press.

            This is the “revenge” of which I speak. We follow Josh across the country in his ghoulish protest. Eventually he meets and befriends a Lakota family – Margaret, her brothers Peter, James and John and their father Poker Joe. Margaret helps Josh dry out and help redeem him. He goes through the ceremony to marry Margaret (who is excellently written as a strong and independent woman), become a member of the Lakota people, returns the Lovejoy remains, and takes up the argument against archaeological study of Native American remains.

            Throughout the book (and even on the back cover) was the mantra: “If I dug up your great-great-grandfather that would be sacrifice. If you dug up mine, that would be science, How can that be right?” the issue is discussed thoroughly through the book – particular at its end.

            The premise of course, couldn’t be further from wrong. Our European ancestors are frequently dug up and examined:

            Earlier this year ten skeletons from the Viking era were excavated in Flakstad, an island in the Norwegian Sea – some intact, some without heads – thought to be owners buried with slaves based on their diets revealed through isotope analysis.

            Also, eight graves were excavated dating from the early twelfth century in Brandenburg, Germany after being initially dug up by badgers.

            In 2008 a Templar Knight was found buried in an underground tomb near Rennes-le-Chateau in France. Did the Masons demand immediate reburial?

            The body of Sir Hugh Despenser the Younger was excavated at Hulton Abbey in Staffs, England – he is believed to be the lover of King Edward the First – hence his mutilated state.

            Then there was the news of finding King Richard III’s body under a car parking lot in early 2013. Did the royal family demand his immediate reburial?

            The point of Native Americans is that the European excavations are not put on display in museums and gift shops or held by private collectors. True – they bodies are or will be reinterred and given the respect due. Therein lay the difference, I think.

            But it brings up a point that was nagging me while reading the debate: Josh/Joseph’s stand is no different than his anarchic beliefs with the CRA – now he has an adopted family of Native Americans and the public opinion of guilty white folks to back him up. He is trying to accomplish the goals of the CRA but now through the sheen of respectability and precedent.  I didn’t buy it.

            But the author is to be commended for causing that reaction out of this reader – not condemned. This isn’t a mistake or an error on his part. To make me react this way to a fictitious character in a fictitious setting is the goal of every good writer.

            So what is the solution? The book provides one and, wisely, the solution is presented by Josh-Joseph. Thus expunging his earlier villainy in the eyes of the reader. Well, I’m with Daniel on this one; I still don’t trust him…

            In China, Fred and Marge Eldridge befriend Ben Wang, his wife Ah Cy and their daughter. Fred (and we) learns of Chinese culture as he examines the buffalo hide telling the tale of the White Buffalo Calf Women from Witches. The Cult of Ku, the bringing and cultivating of corn and the Viking rape – all events we the readers are aware from the prior book – are reviewed and examined with skepticism by Eldridge. Again Eldridge is brought to life and is a three-dimensional character as opposed to the nay-saying curmudgeon of Flight. Fred helps Ben and Ah when Ah becomes pregnant with their second child – verbotten in China – and his solution is written well. “Human rights” is the topic of discussion in these parts of the novel. What happens when my “pursuit of happiness” conflicts with others? What if there is no creator? Or there is a conflict as to who the creator is? How can these truths be self-evident if they have NOT been endowed?

            In a coincidence that only happens in novels, Fred is contacted by the same man who gave Daniel the transcript that made up the bulk of Flight – that told the tale of Sun and Snow Pine and their voyage to America and, eventually, to the cliffs of the Mississippi where the Piasa is painted.  This time he has a manuscript telling the tale of the Last Witch of Cahokia as told by a scholar names Shen Fu who travels with Admiral Zhu Wen, whom we met near the end of Witches. The last witch, who was unnamed save she was called She-Who-Waits, is given the name Wind Sage and travels with them back to China with the buffalo hide and Sun Kai’s manuscript in tow.

            It is tempting to parallel this part of the novel with Flight, but Shen Fu’s manuscript takes up only about 30+ pages of the book’s 244. It brings a nice conclusion to the witch’s line and it is fun reading Eldridge’s reaction to the manuscript. Comparing his skepticism with Daniel’s acceptance of Sun Kai’s manuscript in Flight is fun. Many times in Flight, Eldridge said to throw it out, it was fake, no one at the time wrote like that, etc. But here he was just as enthralled as Daniel with his manuscript – he asked about the historical events of the manuscript – even visited the village/city Shen Fu and Wind Sage lived. Stood on the Great Wall as they did and where they did. The writer did a good job showing the shoe on this particular foot.

END OF SPOILERS

            Last Witch pours a lot of information and brings up moral questions absent from the first two books. Between the info dumps and the morality discussions and, literally, lectures we are provided with enough information to take sides on the issues and be firm in our convictions. But we also find ourselves cheering on the peacemakers and hope they can find enough common ground to provide a reasonable solution – and hope we can do so in real life too.

            It is a novel of redemption and forgiveness and puts us in the middle of the debate between the search for knowledge versus respect for a culture’s beliefs.

            The author avoids the usual traps in books such as these – bad allegories, awkward info dumps, etc. Such things make a book preachy rather than entertaining. Witch is not preachy and VERY entertaining. I cared what happened to the characters – I hated to put it down at the end of a chapter during bedtime!

            The info dumps here are well done, although at times repetitive – the fact that the Cahokia Mound people have no known direct descendents and the Illini moved into the area centuries later is now etched in my brain.

            But that is a minor complaint – I loved all three books and will return to them in years to come. All three are quick and enjoyable reads.

            I hate to be petty, but there is one typo repeated from Flight in Witch … it’s “Shaggy” from “Scooby Doo” not “Scruffy” from “Scooby Do”. Although it‘s nit-picking, to a couch-potato boomer like me it might as well be in red type!

            Please don’t let things like that stop your enjoyment of these books. It didn’t stop me.

            Last Witch is still a Redoubt Book but published through Bluebird Publishing. My copies of the first two books were not so published. Thus the typeset and interiors of Last Witch is different from the first two. It certainly does not affect the readability of the story, but the difference is notable.

            Check the author’s website for his blog entries regarding his trip to China here: http://www.redoubtbooks.com/Author_s_Notebook.html

            Support independent authors! Support local authors! Read their books! Tell others to read their books! Post positive comments online if you enjoy it! Please?

 

Michael Curry

Dungeons and Dragons and Caving – a look at 2nd Edition…

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D&D3

What Am I Reading: Dungeon & Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5th edition

Part Two: Dungeons, Dragons and Caving …

I started to write a simple review of Dungeon & Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5th edition, but it grew into a series of blogs about the history of the game itself! If you are confused about some of the terms and initials – I define them in my previous blog: https://michaelgcurry.com/2014/09/03/a-brief-history-of-dungeons-and-dragons-being-an-eventual-review-of-dd-5e/

I pick up in 1982 …

The game in both its versions – D&D and AD&D caught on among us nerds like the plague! We played and played and bought supplement after supplement and module after module. Modules were scenarios and maps of a complete adventure the DM’s could use for their game sessions. I still love reading modules and imagining characters going through the game. It’s like reading the outline of a book and coming up the details on my own! Much like a ghost writer for most celebrity fiction…

New classes were introduced – the barbarian and the thief-acrobat. There was a Saturday morning cartoon.

D&D cartoon

                There were also complaints.  Lots of them. “I have an 18 Dex and I can’t roll for squat! Why should the Magic User make HIS Dex roll of 9 when he jumps and I can’t with my 18?”

“That’s the way the dice rolls,” says the DM.

“It’s not fair!” whines the poor roller…

And then there were the Christians…

Jesus D&D

Since neither D&D nor AD&D mentioned Jesus every third sentence it was deemed Satanic. They said the books taught youngsters how to actually invoke devils and demons – which of course explains their proliferation in the skies of the mid-1980s. D&D replaced Judas Priest as the chief cause of teen suicide. “That’s cruel, Mike.” True; and I apologize. I shouldn’t make light of such a serious subject – but to use D&D or Judas Priest as the straw man is also unfair. Those kids needed help from the adults around them and didn’t get it.

OK, back to the Christian nonsense: read Dark Dungeons – I’ll wait. http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.ASP

So between the whiners with bad dice and the kooks with bad divinity, TSR (the parent company that published D&D and AD&D) came out with a Second Edition in 1987. It came with a new Player’s Handbook, Monster Manuals (several of them) and Dungeon Master’s Guide.

The classes and races were toned down to satisfy the kooks (like you can ever satisfy the kooks) – Magic Users became Mages, Assassins were removed altogether. So were any references to devils and demons. Some changes weren’t so puritanical and made a bit of sense – Rangers became a sub-class of Fighters. Druids became a subclass of Clerics.

2nd edition introduced THAC0 – “to hit Armor Class Zero”. Players and monsters had armor classes – the thicker your hide or armor the better your armor class and the harder it is to take damage. Too much damage and you die. Fighters clad with metal plates ala Ivanhoe and King Arthur had ACs of 1 or less. Magic Users – er – mages in robes has AC 9 and were easier to hit – if you could get around the fighter in plate mail. Dragons had ACs in the negatives. A particular goblin had a THAC0 of 18, say. A player with a fighter with an AC 1 would be hit if the goblin rolled a 17 or higher (18 – 1) – not too good. The fighter had a THAC0 of 14 and this goblin had AC 7, so he could hit on a roll of 7 or better – which has pretty good odds of succeeding. This won’t be much of a fight…

I have yet to mention the dice used in the game – it started with what the rest of the world calls dice – a six-sided cube with dots on it you found in all the board games and in every scene of “Guys and Dolls”. D&D and other role-playing games use a lot more than those. There are 4, 8, 10, 12, 20, and even 30 and 100-sided dice available. You can always tell a gamer by the way they refer to a standard dice with the dots on them. We call them “six siders”. By the time I got into the game – d6s (six-sided dice) was used for rolling stats and some hit points – mostly the d20 was used. If I had a Dex of 15 and had to “beat Dex” (see my previous blogs), I had to roll a 15 or less on a twenty-sided dice.

Anyway, back to THAC0: once you got used to it, and you used your fingers and toes, it wasn’t so bad.

Magic and Clerical abilities were divided into “spheres” – your character concentrated on only a few spheres. You couldn’t cast just anything. Whether this is good or bad is an individual choice. Personally, I think we should be leery of any rule that limits play. On the other hand, it makes for more of a challenge in selecting how best to overcome a game’s obstacles. “Blast the orc with a fireball!” “But I’m an illusionist! All I can do is turn him purple!’ “What the hell good is that spell!?” “You didn’t mind when we hid in front of that purple tapestry!” “Shut up!”

They also added proficiencies. A fighter could no longer just pick up an axe dropped by that ogre and use it to slice necks. He had to be proficient in the weapon. The character learned proficiencies as he got higher and higher in level (note: as a character plays, he gains experience points and goes up in levels – this means he can gain hit points, gain more spells, gets tougher and better at what he does, etc.).

There were also non-weapon proficiencies. Here is where the rot set it, in my opinion.

Remember the scenario from Part One?

“I try to grab the vine and swing over the chasm.”

“Beat your Dex,” says the DM.

“I have the Jump Proficiency, so I can subtract one from my roll. {Roll} Good thing, I just made it!”

“It’s about time, Mr. Poor Roller. Now the Magic User – er – Mage, sorry, you roll your Dex.”

“I only have a Dex of 9…” {Roll} “Made it!” says the Mage.

“You always make it,” says Mr. Poor Roller.

“Whiner,” mumbles the Mage.

The Jumping Proficiency. Jumping. Anybody can jump! My grandmother could jump! Roll your Dexterity – if you roll shitty, you fall, if you roll low, you make it. You don’t need to be proficient in jumping…

And Jumping was only available to the Rogue class. If you were a Rogue, you got a plus to jump if you selected Jumping. The rest of us had to rely on our die roll. Between the four base classes there were about 68 skills to choose from.

68.

It gets worse.

But in the meantime 2nd Edition was an even better success that 1st! Character kits were introduced – there are different types of thieves (an urban pickpocket vs. a Robin-Hood-esque-good-guy) and with the different non-weapon proficiencies you add lots of different flavors to the basic classes. Classes had their own supplements. A mage could be a chronomancer and cast spells based on time. Different worlds and venues developed – Aztec-like rules and scenarios to play along with the Oriental Adventures (a 1st edition supplement); Dark Sun – set in a ecological-disaster-desert world; Ravenloft – a gothic horror setting, Spelljammer took the players into outer space: all were available as 2nd edition play.  The supplements filled the shelves.

D&D2

It was huge. Huge! So huge the fat and bloated company that was TSR sold the company lock stock and dragon hoard for $25 million to Wizards of the Coast.

And WotC took the game and changed everything…

 

TO BE CONTINUED…

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

 

A brief history of Dungeons and Dragons (being an eventual review of D&D 5e)

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What Am I Reading: Dungeon & Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5th edition

Part One: Making History!

The Dungeon Master looked up from his notes and pushed his glasses further up his nose. “The tunnel finally ends in a huge cavern – you can’t see very far. But before the entrance to the cavern there is a crack in the ground making a huge hole blocking your way.”

“How far is the gap?” A player says.

“About thirty feet – you can’t jump it.” The player checks his character sheet.

Another player asks, “I look above the gap to the ceiling, what do I see?”

“Several bleached white dangling roots – some are thick as tree trunks, some as thick as a person’s arm, some very thin.”

“Are they within reach?”

“No, you’d have to jump.”

“Can I make a running jump and use the vines to swing to the other side? I promise not to yell like Tarzan.”

“Roll …”

This blog started off as a simple review of the new Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook (Fifth Edition), but most of the changes made in this edition required an explanation of what went on before. The review turned into a history of the game itself.

Like the archaeological City of Troy, the information at the top of the site was built upon a lower city with its own information. This was built on the city before that, which was built on the city before that.

To explain the good and bad of Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook (Fifth Edition) and to really appreciate or discredit what they had done, I had to dig into the treasure and trash of its past incarnations.

It started with miniature gaming – those fellows (let’s face it, miniature gaming – especially in the 1960s and 70s – was a y-chromosome activity) who would lay out model train terrain on a huge table or piece of plywood in a garage or basement and place small-scale soldiers in Napoleonic or Civil War gear and equipment, take out their tape measures and rulebooks and become omniscient generals of historic battles.

Sometimes the gamers would take medieval troops or earlier-era figures for their miniature battles. Instead of Waterloo or Gettysburg, they would re-enact Bosworth Fields or the Battle of Alesia.

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Rulebooks for these types of game were plentiful. One such rulebook published in 1971 was called Chainmail by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perrin. It did well.

D&D1

The authors wanted to have some fun and added fantasy elements to their medieval miniatures. Instead of Charlemagne and his troops, elven soldiers took the fields. Wizards blasting bolts of fire took the place of ballista. Dragons flew overhead instead of boulders. Rules for such magical beings were informally written out.

D&D2

But what if the gamers wanted to storm the keep? What if they wanted to go after that dragon in his lair – deep within the bowels of the earth? Mass miniature battles were joined by individual characters exploring caves and castles. More rules were to help move groups of individuals instead of a mass of armies. Sometimes the gamers played the individual characters while the miniature figurines and terrain stayed in their cases.

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The individual rules took on new type of game and required a new game system. Gygax and friends called it Dungeons and Dragons (“D&D”). D&D had simple rules that were easy to follow. With some dice, a piece of paper and a pencil, you could imagine playing a Lord-of-the-Rings elf or wizard (called a magic-user) or a Conan-esque or Fahfrd-and-The-Grey-Mouser-like fighter or thief. You could wander castles and its dungeons or deep into the bowels of the earth to root out a dragon’s lair. You could use miniatures, true, but you could do without them as well!

D&D3

Your character was based on the following attributes – basic physical and mental abilities – strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution and charisma. You rolled three dice and the total was your level of that attribute – 3-18. The higher the roll, the better the attribute. Fighters needed high strength, Magic Users, not so much – they needed a higher intelligence to cast their spells. Thieves? Dexterity.

And to add to the Tolkien flavor you could also become an elf or a dwarf. If you played a human you chose which class you wanted to play – the aforesaid fighter, magic user, thief, cleric (a holy healer/ fighter – think Knights Templar). Elves and dwarves had no classes – you either played an elf or a dwarf.

D&D4

                In 1977 or so, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) debuted. It was had new rules and changed bits of the original. It wasn’t a different, improved edition to the original. In fact for a time it was its own game. But it expanded the basics: any race (elves, human, dwarves, halfling – non-copyrightable hobbits – half-orcs, gnomes) could be any class they wanted with some limitations. Elves can be fighters and magic users now. Dwarves can’t be magic users or clerics, though. They can be thieves! Anyone can be a thief.  AD&D had its own Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide and book upon book of extra rules, stats on monsters and other characters one might meet in their imaginative play. It added monks for the ninja-wannabes, rangers for the Strider-ites, and bards so one can be a wandering minstrel, I …

This is about where I came in. I learned of D&D and AD&D through, of all places, church camp. I learned the basics without actually playing the game. That came in 1981 when our high school science teacher started a Dungeon & Dragons club. There I played the game for the first time – a human wizard named Mylock. The group even made the yearbook!

The game was still basic and had lots of role-play. Theater of the mind, so to speak. But the dice were still important. Let’s go back to the opening paragraphs.

“… your Dex,” says the DM (meaning roll the dice and if it is less than your Dexterity score you can, indeed, swing across on a vine).

{Roll} “Made it!” says the player.

“I throw a rope across to him,” another player says, “and tie it to the Magic User. You’re next.”

The player playing the Wizard rolls. He has a low Dexterity and the odds of him rolling below that number is smaller than the others. “Missed it!”

“You fall into the chasm, but you are tied to a rope and splat against the wall for {roll} 2 hit points (you also roll a certain amount of “hit points” – this is how healthy you are and how much damage you can take before your imaginary character dies. Magic Users don’t have a lot of hit points – fighters do to help them survive all those sword fights).

“I pull him up,” says the first player.

“Make a strength roll,” the Dungeon Master says. (Note: the Dungeon Master – DM – is the person who oversees the players, sets up the scenarios, arbitrates the rules, etc.).

{Roll} “Argh! I have a 17 Strength and rolled an 18!”

“Those are the breaks – the Magic User dangles above the abyss! But no other harm comes to him.”
“Get me outta here!” shouts the Magic User.

“I swing across,” the second player says. He also has a high dexterity and is not too worried about his odds. “Made it. I help pull up the Magic User.”

“With both of you working together, you don’t have to roll Strength, the Magic User is out of the crack and standing beside you.”

The first player says, “I throw the rope across the chasm – let’s get everyone else across before something bad spots us.”

“Too late for that …” mumbles the DM to himself, who rattles his dice and smiles.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

What Am I Reading? The Last Witch of Cahokia

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What Am I Reading? The Last Witch of Cahokia

 LastWitch_front-Cover2-160x225

            The Last Witch of Cahokia (ISBN 9780979473746 Redoubt Books/Bluebird Publishing 2013) by Raymond Scott Edge concludes the trilogy of books beginning with Flight of the Piasa (“Flight”) and continuing with Witches of Cahokia (“Witches”).

            Here are the blogs for the previous two novels:

            You can read my review of Flight of the Piasa here: https://michaelgcurry.com/2014/07/03/what-am-i-reading-flight-of-the-piasa-by-raymond-edge/

            And my review of Witches of Cahokia here:

https://michaelgcurry.com/2014/08/02/what-am-i-reading-witches-of-cahokia/

            It is possible to read all three books alone, but this last book is really based on the events of the second. The first book is complete. The second is also complete, although the story of Snow Pine may confuse you if you do not read the first. But Last Witch (as I will refer to the third book in this little review) is based on the events of the second book: it will be difficult to read alone – although it also tells a complete tale.

            Four tales, in fact. It picks up in the days and weeks of Cahokia in all of its threads.

            1) Daniel French and his conflict with the Illini Confederation of the twenty seven female pre-Columbian skeletons.

            2) Josh Green’s “revenge” against the professors and university that wronged him,

            3) Fred Eldridge’s trip to China to examine an ancient Native American buffalo hide, and

            4) Shen Fu’s journal of meeting Wind Sage and their return to China in the early to mid-fifteenth century.

SPOILERS AHEAD

            We meet for the third time the family and friends of Daniel French. He has two problems – the first problem was introduced in Witches – the Illini Confederation demands the immediate reburial of the twenty-seven female bodies found near Cahokia Mounds.

            Daniel has meetings and discussions with the Illini Confederation and his Provost. This is a good and canny way of bringing in an Info Dump. “As you know, Bob, NAGPRA was passed in 1990 and it provides …” Subjects ranging from digs at Native American burial sites to the Mormon religion is discussed this way. The previous books had their info dumps as well, some awkward – discussing archaeological terms with fellow archaeologists – but the author whimsically gets around the awkwardness with an aside such as, “…ask a professor a simple question and you get a lecture.” A good way to get around a writer’s unavoidable conundrum.

            Daniels’ other problems deals with a mysterious character knows only as Ghost Dancer. Well, the readers know he is Josh Green, but the characters do not. Josh dug up the remains of Elijah Parish Lovejoy.

            As you know, Bob, Elijah Lovejoy was an abolitionist journalist who was killed by a pro-slavery mob in 1837, making him a martyr to the cause. See what I mean by unavoidable? His gravemarker is a nice historical site in Alton and many a speech and many a political announcements have been made there in the past nearly-two centuries. Josh sets up photo ops of the remains at various Native American massacre sites in the west and mid-west – as if he had stolen a garden gnome. He photographs the bones and mails the postcards to Daniel and the press.

            This is the “revenge” of which I speak. We follow Josh across the country in his ghoulish protest. Eventually he meets and befriends a Lakota family – Margaret, her brothers Peter, James and John and their father Poker Joe. Margaret helps Josh dry out and help redeem him. He goes through the ceremony to marry Margaret (who is excellently written as a strong and independent woman), become a member of the Lakota people, returns the Lovejoy remains, and takes up the argument against archaeological study of Native American remains.

            Throughout the book (and even on the back cover) was the mantra: “If I dug up your great-great-grandfather that would be sacrifice. If you dug up mine, that would be science, How can that be right?” the issue is discussed thoroughly through the book – particular at its end.

            The premise of course, couldn’t be further from wrong. Our European ancestors are frequently dug up and examined:

            Earlier this year ten skeletons from the Viking era were excavated in Flakstad, an island in the Norwegian Sea – some intact, some without heads – thought to be owners buried with slaves based on their diets revealed through isotope analysis.

            Also, eight graves were excavated dating from the early twelfth century in Brandenburg, Germany after being initially dug up by badgers.

            In 2008 a Templar Knight was found buried in an underground tomb near Rennes-le-Chateau in France. Did the Masons demand immediate reburial?

            The body of Sir Hugh Despenser the Younger was excavated at Hulton Abbey in Staffs, England – he is believed to be the lover of King Edward the First – hence his mutilated state.

            Then there was the news of finding King Richard III’s body under a car parking lot in early 2013. Did the royal family demand his immediate reburial?

            The point of Native Americans is that the European excavations are not put on display in museums and gift shops or held by private collectors. True – they bodies are or will be reinterred and given the respect due. Therein lay the difference, I think.

            But it brings up a point that was nagging me while reading the debate: Josh/Joseph’s stand is no different than his anarchic beliefs with the CRA – now he has an adopted family of Native Americans and the public opinion of guilty white folks to back him up. He is trying to accomplish the goals of the CRA but now through the sheen of respectability and precedent.  I didn’t buy it.

            But the author is to be commended for causing that reaction out of this reader – not condemned. This isn’t a mistake or an error on his part. To make me react this way to a fictitious character in a fictitious setting is the goal of every good writer.

            So what is the solution? The book provides one and, wisely, the solution is presented by Josh-Joseph. Thus expunging his earlier villainy in the eyes of the reader. Well, I’m with Daniel on this one; I still don’t trust him…

            In China, Fred and Marge Eldridge befriend Ben Wang, his wife Ah Cy and their daughter. Fred (and we) learns of Chinese culture as he examines the buffalo hide telling the tale of the White Buffalo Calf Women from Witches. The Cult of Ku, the bringing and cultivating of corn and the Viking rape – all events we the readers are aware from the prior book – are reviewed and examined with skepticism by Eldridge. Again Eldridge is brought to life and is a three-dimensional character as opposed to the nay-saying curmudgeon of Flight. Fred helps Ben and Ah when Ah becomes pregnant with their second child – verbotten in China – and his solution is written well. “Human rights” is the topic of discussion in these parts of the novel. What happens when my “pursuit of happiness” conflicts with others? What if there is no creator? Or there is a conflict as to who the creator is? How can these truths be self-evident if they have NOT been endowed?

            In a coincidence that only happens in novels, Fred is contacted by the same man who gave Daniel the transcript that made up the bulk of Flight – that told the tale of Sun and Snow Pine and their voyage to America and, eventually, to the cliffs of the Mississippi where the Piasa is painted.  This time he has a manuscript telling the tale of the Last Witch of Cahokia as told by a scholar names Shen Fu who travels with Admiral Zhu Wen, whom we met near the end of Witches. The last witch, who was unnamed save she was called She-Who-Waits, is given the name Wind Sage and travels with them back to China with the buffalo hide and Sun Kai’s manuscript in tow.

            It is tempting to parallel this part of the novel with Flight, but Shen Fu’s manuscript takes up only about 30+ pages of the book’s 244. It brings a nice conclusion to the witch’s line and it is fun reading Eldridge’s reaction to the manuscript. Comparing his skepticism with Daniel’s acceptance of Sun Kai’s manuscript in Flight is fun. Many times in Flight, Eldridge said to throw it out, it was fake, no one at the time wrote like that, etc. But here he was just as enthralled as Daniel with his manuscript – he asked about the historical events of the manuscript – even visited the village/city Shen Fu and Wind Sage lived. Stood on the Great Wall as they did and where they did. The writer did a good job showing the shoe on this particular foot.

END OF SPOILERS

            Last Witch pours a lot of information and brings up moral questions absent from the first two books. Between the info dumps and the morality discussions and, literally, lectures we are provided with enough information to take sides on the issues and be firm in our convictions. But we also find ourselves cheering on the peacemakers and hope they can find enough common ground to provide a reasonable solution – and hope we can do so in real life too.

            It is a novel of redemption and forgiveness and puts us in the middle of the debate between the search for knowledge versus respect for a culture’s beliefs.

            The author avoids the usual traps in books such as these – bad allegories, awkward info dumps, etc. Such things make a book preachy rather than entertaining. Witch is not preachy and VERY entertaining. I cared what happened to the characters – I hated to put it down at the end of a chapter during bedtime!

            The info dumps here are well done, although at times repetitive – the fact that the Cahokia Mound people have no known direct descendents and the Illini moved into the area centuries later is now etched in my brain.

            But that is a minor complaint – I loved all three books and will return to them in years to come. All three are quick and enjoyable reads.

            I hate to be petty, but there is one typo repeated from Flight in Witch … it’s “Shaggy” from “Scooby Doo” not “Scruffy” from “Scooby Do”. Although it‘s nit-picking, to a couch-potato boomer like me it might as well be in red type!

            Please don’t let things like that stop your enjoyment of these books. It didn’t stop me.

            Last Witch is still a Redoubt Book but published through Bluebird Publishing. My copies of the first two books were not so published. Thus the typeset and interiors of Last Witch is different from the first two. It certainly does not affect the readability of the story, but the difference is notable.

            Check the author’s website for his blog entries regarding his trip to China here: http://www.redoubtbooks.com/Author_s_Notebook.html

            Support independent authors! Support local authors! Read their books! Tell others to read their books! Post positive comments online if you enjoy it! Please?

 

Michael Curry

 

What am I Reading? Witches of Cahokia

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What Am I Reading? Witches of Cahokia…

 witches

            Witches of Cahokia (ISBN 978-0-9794737-2-2, Redoubt Books, 2009) by Raymond Scott Edge is a direct sequel to his Flight of the Piasa, although it can be read without having first read the prior book.

            You can read my review of Flight of the Piasa here: https://michaelgcurry.com/2014/07/03/what-am-i-reading-flight-of-the-piasa-by-raymond-edge/

            As with Flight … it tells two stories – Snow Pine and her descendants living amongst what will become the Cahokian Mound people of the Mississippi River north of what is now St. Louis; and archaeology professor Daniel French, his (now) wife Lauren and his mentor, Dr Fred Eldridge.

            Unlike Flight, the story of the ancient cast is told as a narrative – not as an epistolary last will and testament. In Flight the majority of the book favors the ancient cast’s story. Witches is more balanced between the two stories – leaning more heavily on the ancient cast especially in the first half of the book and then on the modern cast in the last half of the book – particularly as one plot winds down and the other picks up.

 SPOILERS AHEAD

             The story of Snow Pine and her descendants begin exactly (is it too much of a pun to say “literally”?) where Flight leaves off – with the death of her husband Sun Kai in the cave complex near present-day Alton.

            We learn Snow Pine’s side of the story during Sun’s search for her in Flight: how she was taken captive and sold to the Trading People, married Beaver Lodge, befriended his head wife Fawn Heart, and otherwise became part of the village due to her amazing healing techniques. She had a child with Beaver Lodge and called her Ming.

            She is eventually ostracized because she helped heal members of the Osage tribes who were at war with the Trading People. She went to live in the valleys and caves near Sun Kai’s grave and the Piasa painting on the cliffs of the Mississippi River. She is considered a witch as her legend grows and is left alone by all sides of the conflict.

            She continues to heal anyone who asks – friend or foe. This includes a young Osage warrior, Young Wolf, who falls in love with Ming (this takes place over several years). His mother, Buffalo Woman, joins Snow Pine and they and other Trading People and Osage women form a society called the Daughters of White Buffalo Calf Woman.

            They heal; they watch the migration of tribes and buffalo and report it to Snow Pine. She advises them to tell their hunters where the buffalo are migrating. In exchange, the Daughters look for any strangers during their travels that look like her. She is convinced her people will come for her and Sun – just as Sun predicted on his deathbed. Eventually all this information is written on joined pieces of buffalo hide.

            The Daughters meet every year at the winter solstice; every year they repaint the Piasa bird.

            But time ends all things – Snow Pine passes her leadership of the Daughters to Ming, who passes it to her daughter Cassie (named after Snow Pine’s ancient ancestor Cassandra). Cassie then gives the leadership role to Fawn Heart’s great-granddaughter Raven.

            Raven has a vision to go south to gather a crop of golden kernels, later called mahiz, that will sustain her people. She, her brother Wildcat and others head to (I assume) Mexico to gather maize. On the way they meet people both friendly and hostile. They rescue two children, a girl Mala and a boy He Looks Up, who were about to be sacrificed to the southern tribes’ god. Mala and He Looks Up are raised by the Trading People. He Looks Up brings his religion with him and it eventually takes over the Trading People’s lifestyle, changing it forever.

            This part of the story is one of the more shocking and unexpected plot twists and I will say no more for fear of spoiling a splendid turn in the tale.

            Note all this would still be in the “BCs” – Emperor Chin’in, a contemporary of Snow Pine and the reason she ended up with the Trading People, died in 210 BC; so three or four generations after that would still put us before the birth of Christ.

            A few chapters later, after we visit the storyline of the modern cast, we meet Forest Water and her daughter Timid Girl.  A strange visitor comes to the town. Could these be the strangers foretold by Snow Pine? Forest Water invites the stranger to her valley home. He rapes her. He is a Viking named Thornfield Skullsplitter. As she gets her revenge Forest Water is grateful that he is not of Snow Pine’s people.

            Some chapters later we meet Zhu Wen. He sails the world under the orders of Zheng He, an admiral during the Ming dynasty who sailed to east Africa and, some argue, landed on American shores. In Witches, Zhu Wen sails up the Mississippi River until he gets to the deserted mound city of Cahokia.

            Zheng He died in 1433, around the time of the end of the Cahokian Mound culture – the author did an excellent melding these facts together.

            He sees the Piasa and is shocked to spot a dragon from his own culture painted on a cliff face on the other side of the world. The White Buffalo Calf Woman named She Who Remembers spots his ship and knows Snow Pine’s people have finally returned as prophesied. She gives Zheng He Sun Kai’s journal and the buffalo hide of her coven, with fourteen hundred years of information. This finally answers a thread left from Flight – what happened to Sun’s journal and how did it get back to China?

 

            “Meanwhile” Daniel French’s story picks up ten years after the end of Flight – Daniel and Lauren are now married and have children. Both Daniel and Lauren are professors of archeology at SIU-Edwardsville, supervised by their former professor Fred Eldridge.

            Road construction unveils a pair of female skeletons from ancient times. Construction halts until the skeletons are examined. Eldridge sends Mr. & Mrs. French along with assistants Josh Green & Jenn Rauch. Unfortunately these two lovers have just joined the Creative Artifacts Society – an anarchic group of Luddites who bury false evidence at such construction and archeology sites to halt the destructive advance of society.

            The author makes no bones about the CSA’s villainy; their leader is a charmless terrorist who disappears quickly. I wonder if he will appear in the third book. Josh and Jenn plant an anachronistic buffalo hide amongst the finding at the construction site and the Frenchs and their friend, Jared Davidson, investigate. When they get too close, Josh and Jenn frame Jared for an attempted rape as their distraction. Eldridge must deal with the accusation and not only its affect on Davidson but on the department. Josh makes things more difficult by staging protests demanding Davidson’s removal from the university.

             More time is spent with Eldridge in this book – we meet his wife and learn a bit of his background – and we see more of him than the cynical curmudgeon from Flight. He still lectures and suffers no fools, but especially at the end, we see his love for his trade. You can hear the giddiness in his voice during his phone call to Daniel at the end of the book.  He goes to China at their invitation to examine a strange Buffalo hide the government has been keeping for quite some time…

            This presumably sets of the third book, but without doing it as a cliff-hanger.  If the story ended here, the reader would be satisfied.

 END OF SPOILERS

             There is foreshadowing of the next book, but it does not end in a cliffhanger. It ends the way stories end in life – some threads end (the CSA’s framing of Dr. Davidson, but not without consequences to Davidson, Josh or Jenn) and other threads begin (the Illini Confederation’s restraining order to stop any further investigation of the bodies found). I assume all these threads will be picked up and explored in the third book.

 

            Time was handled well – eventually, although as a reader it was frustrating at times. The readers know these women lived before the time of Christ as does their second and third generations, yet it seems as if the archeologists consider them part of the Cahokian Mount culture from a thousand years later. Only late in the book is something said about the time differences between the multiple generations of bodies found. A quick line earlier in the story (“…these could be from a thousand years earlier or more…”) would have helped that nagging criticism.

             Daniel and Lauren are just as likable as in Flight. They have aged and grown more confident in themselves and their skills as is expected. The growth in character of Eldridge is the most pleasant of all – we grow to respect his intelligence and authority rather than the somewhat-two-dimensional foil of Flight whose job seemed to be to consistently poo-poo anything Daniel had to say.  Note that Eldridge’s “two dimensionality” wasn’t as apparent while reading that first book. The impression the character made in Flight wasn’t necessarily the correct one. Then again, he wasn’t as central to that story as he is to Witches.

             New characters: Jared Davidson is a welcome addition and is written as a good and loyal friend. Josh is written as the smart-ass infallible know-it-all most college students are at that time in their lives (Daniel at that time in Flight was filled with doubt and less of a smart-ass, but he’s an exception). Jenn is a tool.

             I enjoyed Flight very much. I enjoyed Witches even more. It is a better book. The modern-day characters are given more to do than just be our guide to the story from the ancient past – they are given their own drama to allow their good and bad personalities a chance to be shown and to grow. Plus the epistolary style of the first book lends to a lack of immersion in the story, I think. Reading a “letter” – even an excellent one like Flight, in which the “letter” is a long narrative – is still reading a letter. That willing suspension of disbelief is harder to do than with a story set presently. You know the letter-writer will survive at least long enough to write the letter! In a current narrative, not so much. In fact, some of the deaths – whether naturally or at the hand of man (or woman or child) is sudden and shocking. I know we’re talking about fictional people who lived two thousand years ago, of course they are dead by now (and of course they never existed to die in the first place), but for the reader to be saddened even a little at their deaths – or be shocked when they are killed – shows good writing. We care what happens to them. The fact that the modern cast may have found their remains and their writing gives the reader a sense of closure.

             One last book in the trilogy is left. I’ll start it soon and hope to finish it before my Christmas “break” from reading (I always stop and read holiday fare between Thanksgiving and New Years – starting with A Christmas Carol, L Frank Baum’s Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Tolkien’s Father Christmas Letters and whatever else strikes my fancy.

            I’ll definitely blog about the third book when finished.

             Support independent authors! Support local authors! Read their books! Tell others to read their books! Post positive comments online if you enjoy it! Please?

 Michael Curry

Abby’s Road paperback is available at Amazon!

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Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption; and How Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped is now available in paperback from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/dp/0692221530/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406426653&sr=1-6&keywords=abby%27s+road

 

frontcover

It’s the story of my wife and my experiences with infertility treatment and the legal and emotional red tape of adoption. SPOILER: it ends happily!

backcover

I hope you enjoy it!

Michael G Curry

Abby’s Road available as a Nook book!

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What  way to celebrate my 100th post!!

Good news! My book, “Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption, and How Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped!” is now available for your Nook at Barnes & Noble! Hoo-rah!!

frontcover

 

 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=2940045637930

 

Reading is in my Blood (Sugar): Diabolical Diabetes Part 2

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Diabolical Diabetes Part Two: Reading is in my blood (sugar)

chocolate-sculpture-book

            My doctor said I had to get my blood sugar down from the 300s to normal levels. It would affect my kidneys, eyes and other organs as I slogged my way through my 50s.

So I said to myself, “Okay, let’s do it.” And when faced with something of which I know little and want more information, I do what man has done since the days of the caveman – I read a book about it! 🙂

My doctor recommended Sugar Busters (or The New Sugar Busters! Cut Sugar to Trim Fat) by H Leighton Steward, Morrison C Bethea, Sam S Andrews & Luis A Balart, ISBN 0-345-45537-1 by Ballentine, 2003. Since my wife works at a library, it is fairly easy for me to get and read such things.

It starts with explaining refined sugars and enriched flour and how bad such things are for us – and strictly eliminates them. My wife refers to the book as “Sugar Nazis” and I agree. But I am also an all-or-nothing sort of person and I need such absolutes. At least for now. No white bread. No bread at all if I can do it.

In later chapters it compares itself to other “diet plans” – if only to avoid copyright infringement. And it spends some time on the famous Atkins Diet. I find the differences between the two small. Atkins says no carbs, Sugar Busters says carbs in moderation and “good” carbs – the aforesaid brown rice and whole wheat.

What helps for the rest of you is that the “diet” doesn’t concern itself just with diabetes, but childhood obesity and women’s weight issues. This plan can be done by the whole family.

That’s because it is chocked full of recipes. It tells you what kinds of food to stock (whole wheat flour, veggies, fruits) and what to throw out – white flour, sugar, etc. And then it includes lots of recipes – including recipes from famous restaurants and chefs from across the country. I especially like the fresh spinach salad with bacon. I add a bit of Dijon mustard to the vinaigrette. Yummy.

An interesting takeaway is this: eating fruit 30 minutes before a meal helps with the fruit’s digestion. It’s filled with good tidbits like that.

My doctor made a good suggestion. Well, no wonder; she also has excellent taste in patients, too …

***

            My wife recommended The Insulin-Resistance Diet by Cheryle F Hart & Mary Kay Grossman, ISBN 978-0-07-149984-2 by McGraw-Hill, 2008. She thought it was less intense than the “Sugar Nazis”. And it is. It’s a book for the rest of us who do not have the willpower to cut off our beloved bread and sweets entirely. I needed the intensity to get my blood sugar down. But once down – or as down as a diabetic can be – how to I keep it down even when I am bad? And I know I will be bad. After a week or so of “boot camp” – I wanna pizza and a Snickers bar.

This book’s mantra is balance. Balance is the key. The call it the Link and Balance See Saw. I see it more as an apothecary scale. Neutral foods – veggies, etc. – in the middle, with carbs and proteins on either end. If the meal or things you are eating are balanced – it’s good for you.

It provides an extensive list of foods by category – carbs, proteins and neutral. It even includes commercial products – name brand cereals and fast food entrées!

Balancing carbs to protein is about 2 to 1, slightly more to the carbs (2.14 to 1 from some of their examples – I keep it at 2 to 1). If a product has, say, 18g of carbs, but also has 9g of protein – this is balanced and good for you. On weekends I enjoy instant (plain) oatmeal with some cinnamon and Splenda in it. With this balance system – I also cook two slices of bacon or sausage patties for the protein and eat that with the oatmeal. Any excuse to eat bacon.

This has really gotten me looking at the nutritional labels on foods. Especially fast foods. Look at a Subway sandwich – I get the flatbread with tuna with plenty of veggies, mayo, hot sauce and pepper jack cheese. 40g carbs (yow!) minus 2g fiber (see Diabetes Breakthrough) balanced with 20g protein. Balanced.

It also includes lots of recipes as well as how to Link and Balance with commercial products like Hamburger Helper. The section on what to look for in menu items in specific types of restaurants is interesting too (Chinese, Mexican, Italian, etc.).

And no eating just before bed. Cholesterol collects when you sleep. If you go to bed with a full tummy, it can raise your cholesterol. This was always a problem for me.

The book has testimonials or life-stories, which I ignore. “Remember Susan, the receptionist from the beginning of this Chapter?” No, and I could care less.

A better book than Sugar Busters for later use; less militant and more techy and number-crunchy, which is fun! That’s not to say Busters is not a good book, it is! It’s what I needed for the first month or so, Insulin Resistance is what I can use afterward to keep my blood sugar under control after the Busters boot camp lowered it to normal levels.

***

            And speaking of boot camp, this brings us to The Diabetes Break-Through by Osama Hamdy & Sheri R Colberg, ISBN13:978-0-373-89284-6, Harvard Health Publications/Harlequin Health, 2013.

This is a very regimented and controlled eating plan. It tells you what to eat and when (and how) to exercise. Like Sugar Busters, someone who needs the discipline and has the willpower and self-control to follow it to the letter will benefit by this book.

During Week 1 you will eat this and here’s how you will exercise. During Week 2 you will eat this and exercise thusly…

The menus are not draconian and suggest the same foods as the other two books. You may eat a tablespoon of peanut butter on a slice of whole wheat bread, for example.

The book explains measurements in general terms – a cup is about the size of your fist, my thumb a tablespoon and my thumb’s tip a teaspoon. That was my favorite bit taken from the book.

I like that it lists specific diabetic-friendly meal-replacement shakes and frozen dinners. The next day I was putting them in my grocery cart and have been dining on them ever since.

Here I learned that my glypizide can sometimes cause weight gain. Hmm.

Not as many recipes as the other two books, but plenty of exercise instructions and illustrations – much more so than the previous two books.

The layout is very strict and militant – which are not words I would use to describe the diet itself. Fortunately I am past the first month of getting my blood sugar down to manageable levels, so I do not need the strict instructions of the first few weeks. As with Insulin Resistance, anyone who loves techy number-crunching will like the structure of the book – if not the diet itself!

It mentions a way to look at the nutrition chart that the others do not. You subtract dietary fiber from the total carbs – they don’t really count as carbs. You can also subtract one-half of the sugar alcohol from the total carbs, too. Look at the Atkins’ Peanut Butter Granola Bar (which I eat for breakfast on hectic week-days) – 18g carbs, but 5g is fiber and 11g is sugar alcohol. This makes the bar, according to this book, effectively only 8g of carbs. Considering its 15g of protein, this is REALLY good for me according to the Insulin Resistance Link and Balance See Saw. Why does no one else mention this? A web search seems to confirm this idea of net carbs – WebMD has a nice page about it. They warn to be careful of such labels as “net carbs” though.

***

            So I use all three books – their recommendations for food, eating out, checking the labels, buying groceries, etc. The books share common ground but are unique enough to get something out of each of them. Somewhere among the three lie the truth, I think. I just have to ignore the individual hype.

Next time I will tell you how it is going…

Wish me luck!

To Be Concluded

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry