I made a decision to name this weblog the Tune of the Susurrus in tribute to recreation designer Albie Fiore (1946 – 2009). I first observed his work in White Dwarf journal Problem 9 (Oct/Nov 1978) once I was 13 and simply beginning with D&D. In that situation is an journey for first-level characters known as The Lichway, and to me it’s simply probably the most good journey module ever designed; it’s fantastically 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 get together – 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 is probably not the boss monster – the Susurrus.
It’s maybe no shock on reflection this mini-adventure ought to 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 writer of storylines for youngsters’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 Pink Dwarf would have it stated 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 basic sequence of G-series from 1978 onwards, The Lichway has one of many fondest and most visceral recollections for me. I can virtually 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 get together 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 dwelling 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 enjoying group, consisting of my brother and some mates, as we’d binged the Big sequence, delved by means of the Drow sequence and maxed out somewhat throughout Expedition to the Barrier Peaks by 1980 or so. We had been enjoying virtually 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 achieved as gamers of the sport. That gave us the perfect of all worlds, I believe, trying again, and presumably one more reason 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, recreation design and my private enjoying historical past and assortment, I wished one thing that might 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 isn’t but really asleep nor solely useless; the tune of the Susurrus.
