Chattin' about Lords of Creation

[seneschal]

I picked up Horn of Roland and Omegakron at Kaybee Toys years ago even though I didn't own the parent game, hoping to mine the scenarios for ideas. Of the two, Omegakron seems most adaptable to another game system, although the GM would have to work around the module's railroad-y intro. Lots of neat ideas but almost too much over-the-top post-apocalyptic goofiness crammed into one setting; it makes Thundarr the Barbarian look like The Earth Abides. Horn of Roland could be a fascinating mystery if played right, but like the other module it ultimately becomes wacky rather than eerie in a Doctor Who way.

[shart2069]

If I'm remembering right, the 2nd adventure was "The Yeti Sanction."

It was sort of a 1930s/40s pulp adventure involving the Himalayas and a Yeti and secret agents and stuff.

Of course, that was only the obvious part - there were otherdimensional forces of some kind at work.

I do remember that in the one of the 3 modules, they listed the titles of the upcoming 4th and 5 modules that were never published.

I think one of them was visiting the Trojan War or something.

My boxes are like 5 feet from me, but on a shelf behind another shelf kind of sandwiched into a corner behind my desk.
Someday I'll dig them out when I've got a spare hour to rearrange some things.

[Goblinoid Games]

There is something about this game I realy like. It is clearly flavored by Moldvay's experience working on D&D. But...when I read through it and the adventures it just has an odd feeling of being incomplete. Mainly in terms of the setting. It isn't very clear what the setting is supposed to be, in fact I'd say it is basicaly incoherent as-is, like there is some critical explanation missing. Fun read though!

[Keps]

I own but have never played the games as well. The Omegakron game I picked up just last year after realizing it's based in my home town of Akron. The building on the cover and all of the map locations are real places around my town. Tom Moldvay's town too. The monster manual that comes with the LoC box set is laid-out, with the same artist/s, as the 1st edition(original)D&D Monster Manual. You could rip a page out of one and stick it in the other and you couldn't tell.
I would try playing this game with an older group of gamers as a one-off but as a player, world creating/mind-bending/time-travelling/reality-warping just isn't my cup of tea. Upside: You could pull some good stuff for Mutant Future/Timemaster out of these books. Cheers to Tom!

[seneschal]

Where TimeMaster at least has a science fiction explanation, and Mutant Future posits a societal collapse (pick one), the two LoC modules I have don't have a common grounding. For science fiction and fantasy to work, you have to have a premise and stick with it logically no matter how wacky it is. E.g., Percy Jackson -- the Greco-Roman gods had human kids and are now trying to kill them. In Horn of Roland and Omegakron, however, the player-characters are being shepherded around assorted alternate realities by the Greek god Prometheus (their sponsor?) in adventurers where they are just as likely to encounter ghosts and witches as robots and space rangers -- with street gangs, talking animals, and ancient Celtic deities thrown in to boot. They might wind up in future Ohio, or the Bermuda Triangle on an island that would make Sid & Marty Kroft's The Land of the Lost seem normal. It's kitchen sink, anything goes cranked up to 11.

[BigJackBrass]

Whenever I try to start a Lords of Creation game I'm halted by the feeling that it will end with a lot of frustration for the players, or a serious amount of work from me to tie it all together. Because of that I've generally just taken some of the ideas and incorporated them into other games.

It's likely wishful thinking, but I always assumed that everything about the setting would be made clear in the remaining supplements, The Towers of Ilium and Voria, neither of which were published but they were mentioned in Heroes magazine, vol.1 #4, p. 43. I suspect I'd have been disappointed had they been released

For those interested in the game, here's everything I'm aware of for it, aside from the boxed adventure supplements:

In Avalon Hill's Heroes magazine:
Survival Run of the Starnomads (adventure) by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 1, pg 15-33
Dragonslayers (NPCs) by William Wilson Goodson Jr. - Vol. 2 issue 2, pg 11-12
Pirates, Buccaneers & Highwaymen (NPCs) by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 4, pg 9-13
Swordsmen Real and Reeled (NPCs) by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 5, pg 36-39
Alienating Yourself, Part 1 (science fiction races) by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 2, pg 7-8
Alienating Yourself, Part 2 (science fiction races) by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 3, pg 8-10
The Creations of Abnaric Elgar (fantasy races) by "Drachir Redins" (Richard Snider) - Vol. 2 issue 3, pg 27-30
Musketeers, Swashbucklers & Crimson Pirates: Dueling Rules for Lords of Creation by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 3, pg 19-30
Thugs (background and NPCs) - Vol. 1 issue 5, pg 43-44
A Matter of Gravity (environmental rules) by William Goodson - Vol. 1 issue 6, pg 44

There was also some material in issues five and six of the Pseudo-Dragen fanzine. As I don't read Danish I'm afraid I can't tell you much more than that.

Not a great deal for a game with such potential, but then Avalon Hill never really understood how to handle role-playing games.

[mystaros]

The essential concept behind LoC was that the characters were travelers in time and space (much like Doctor Who or Time Tunnel), as well as through dimensions and alternate realities (a la World of Tiers, Sliders, Land of the Lost, or Otherworld). Eventually the characters would gain the power to not only affect events, but to build their own universes and take on opponents in a far grander scale.

The only unifying factor, around which the campaign was based, was the characters themselves plus whatever groups of other time/space/dimension hoppers (enemies or allies) the game master chose to use. Every world could be different, very different in fact, with completely different laws of physics and such...

So it would take a heck of a game master to keep a regular, true "campaign" going. Mostly, it could be used as a fun series of one-shots, just using the same characters in different worlds...

[seneschal]

It is perhaps sacrilege to suggest this to owners of the original game, but would it be possible to re-create the feel and intent of Lords of Creation with TimeMaster? Or perhaps a combination of Mutant Future and Labyrinth Lord?

[Vlark]

In Avalon Hill's Heroes magazine:
Survival Run of the Starnomads (adventure) by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 1, pg 15-33
Dragonslayers (NPCs) by William Wilson Goodson Jr. - Vol. 2 issue 2, pg 11-12
Pirates, Buccaneers & Highwaymen (NPCs) by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 4, pg 9-13
Swordsmen Real and Reeled (NPCs) by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 5, pg 36-39
Alienating Yourself, Part 1 (science fiction races) by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 2, pg 7-8
Alienating Yourself, Part 2 (science fiction races) by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 3, pg 8-10
The Creations of Abnaric Elgar (fantasy races) by "Drachir Redins" (Richard Snider) - Vol. 2 issue 3, pg 27-30
Musketeers, Swashbucklers & Crimson Pirates: Dueling Rules for Lords of Creation by Tom Moldvay - Vol. 1 issue 3, pg 19-30
Thugs (background and NPCs) - Vol. 1 issue 5, pg 43-44
A Matter of Gravity (environmental rules) by William Goodson - Vol. 1 issue 6, pg 44

You can grab several of those issues of Hero Magazine here:

http://www.powersandperils.org/heroes_index.htm

Look in the sidebar for the links.

EDIT:

Also, here:

http://www.vftt.co.uk/ah_heroes.asp