"Go to the sign of Marvel's Axe, a dubious inn on the edge of the Thieves Quarter, in the City of Greyhawk, and look to your own wrist. If you perceive a bracelet and dangling dice, watch for the next throw in the war between Law and Chaos and be prepared to follow the compelling geas." -Signal

Friday, June 24, 2011

Village Book One - Judges Guild, Cassandra's Waiting Light

In an earlier post I had written about the Island Book which was released by Judges Guild and how it was probably still the most useful of the premade mapping products. I had said it beat out the Village book but perhaps not by much. I still hold with that but the margin may be even closer than I recalled.

The Village book was released in 1978 and then again in 1979 with this same exact cover. The only difference between the two are the Booty List that is in the back of the book. Other than the other products listed in the end they are identical. There is a third printing that has a different cover and marketed as a Universal Fantasy Supplement.

The Village book consists of forty-eight different maps of villages. The villages range in size from a few building to ones that are on the upper end of what might be called a village. In addition to the maps there are nine pages of tables that will help the DM randomly determine the contents of the villages and their makeup. The tables are what I had forgotten about and help inch this closer to being the equal of the Island Book.

In the end this is still a product that is worth having. I was recently made aware that most of the earlier Judges Guild products are available online as PDF files. I prefer a hard copy to an electronic copy so I would look on the secondary market first but that is a matter of taste. Regardless of how you get it I think this is something worth having.

Spell:

Cassandra's Waiting Light


Level: Second
Range: 12"
Duration: 1 Month/Level
Ares Effect: 3" Radius
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 1 Round
Saving Throw: None

When this spell is cast it creates a specialized Light Spell. The light affect created by this spell will have a trigger effect and phrase.

The use of this phrase will cause the light effect to either come on or go off as is appropriate. The trigger effect is more specific and will only cause the light to either come on or go off.

This spell will remain until such time as it is dispelled or the duration expires. The caster of the spell may also cancel the effect at will.

The material component of this spell is a living firefly or similar such creature. The creature is released when the spell is cast and will vanish until the spell duration expires.

Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the write ups last, were all written up or conceived of back in the 80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :) Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.

2 comments:

Jason Zavoda said...

I found all the various series books from Judges Guild to be extremely helpful (Island Book. Village, Castle, Temple...) Mostly just a series of maps if I remember them correctly. Simple, but handy to scan through for a quick template to use or build upon.

Jim Whitehead said...

Amazon still carries this one. Its nice for quickly creating a paper-and-pencil AD&D and similar game from our wild early days. For use with miniatures, I suggest you scan in the pages you will use in a game and print them out in a 4 page format that enlarges each page to a 2x2 grid sized for minatures. (Some printers can do this. Copy shops can do this easily for you also).

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