I made a decision to name this weblog the Track of the Susurrus in tribute to sport designer Albie Fiore (1946 – 2009). I first seen his work in White Dwarf journal Problem 9 (Oct/Nov 1978) once I was 13 and simply beginning with D&D. In that problem is an journey for first-level characters referred to as The Lichway, and to me it’s simply probably the most good journey module ever designed; it’s superbly introduced in simply three-and-a-half pages, has a unbelievable motive for being – and a possible twist that may flip the entire journey upside-down for the gamers.
It additionally has one other adventuring social gathering – performed as NPCs (Non-Participant Characters) by the DM (Dungeon Grasp), which was the primary time I had ever come throughout that concept. And, to high all of it, a novel monster which can or will not be the boss monster – the Susurrus.
It’s maybe no shock on reflection this mini-adventure must be one of many best of the old-fashioned guidelines period; Albie was not solely a video games designer, a crossword puzzle creator for the Guardian, and an creator of storylines for kids’s sequence similar to Scooby Doo, he was additionally an architect. And he had additionally frolicked as a chef on personal yachts and picked up antiques specialising in slot machines.
Because the sequence Purple Dwarf would have it mentioned of him as Ace Rimmer, “What a Man”!
While I didn’t DM the journey till I used to be 16, preferring my very own hand-crafted adventures and the run-through of the traditional sequence of G-series from 1978 onwards, The Lichway has one of many fondest and most visceral recollections for me. I can nearly actually bear in mind being stood within the Crypt of Life (Location 8) and seeing the bridge of bones and the 2 bone-made lich-gates hanging off their hinges and welcoming the social gathering to discover additional – in the event that they dare. While I used to be a DM, the gamers had been so immersed in that journey it turned a residing occasion for all of us. I recall – fairly viscerally, even forty years later, the dronesong of the Susurrus and describing it haunting the halls of the complicated because the gamers bravely pressed on into the temple.
I recall too that I ran the journey for a brand new set of characters for my taking part in group, consisting of my brother and some mates, as we’d binged the Large sequence, delved via the Drow sequence and maxed out a little bit throughout Expedition to the Barrier Peaks by 1980 or so. We had been taking part in nearly continuous for a number of years and having a blast. So, after we ran Lichway, we had been all nonetheless fairly younger (15-16) however comparably completed as gamers of the sport. That gave us one of the best of all worlds, I believe, trying again, and presumably another excuse why Lichway sits so fondly in my reminiscence.
When it got here to naming a private weblog, then, weaving ideas about role-playing, historical past, sport design and my private taking part in historical past and assortment, I needed one thing that will make me nostalgic the second I thought of it – and even now, even now, I can nonetheless hear that haunting noise of the long gone, a previous that’s not but really asleep nor totally useless; the track of the Susurrus.
