I want to stake a claim right at the top of this piece, before I get into the weeds of world-building and military logistics and the peculiar genius of Elizabeth Moon.
I read this in the early 90s and was totally blown away. I read the series again about 6 years ago (during the 'rona?) and I remember being astonished at how well it held up. Thank you for writing this post, it's very inspirational and I think next month I'm going to sit down with Hommlet and do some real hard thinking & brainstorming. (I run Tales of Argosa for my campaign)
I read it when I was younger and saw copies on the shelf at the local used bookstore. I picked them up and started reading, and like you I have been impressed at how well the series holds up.
I read this in the early 90s and was totally blown away. I read the series again about 6 years ago (during the 'rona?) and I remember being astonished at how well it held up. Thank you for writing this post, it's very inspirational and I think next month I'm going to sit down with Hommlet and do some real hard thinking & brainstorming. (I run Tales of Argosa for my campaign)
I had never heard the phrase "domain play," though I've been doing this for 30+ years and knew the concept as something that most games ignore (Pendragon and Ars Magica being exceptions). I would like to read more about your experiences with this, if you're willing to write them.
I also love this bit about taking book characters and gamifying them. Have you already done Holger Carlsen in another post? I'm going to try that with Barbara Hambly, though I might use a different system.
I'll make sure to write about domain play in the future. A lot of the modern discussion of it assumes a requirement for a kind of Bath-ian antagonism between the players' characters, but I never needed that. I was informed by the old Companion and Master's Sets for D&D about certain ways to run domain play (and the "Master" series in the Expert Modules does a great job of presenting a campaign for domain play) and then later by Birthright.
When I ran a game that focused on Domain level stuff, I used Warhammer's Mighty Empires boxed set to map out some of the conflicts and that worked very well. I've been reading the newer Paksenarrion novels lately, where she is a supporting character, and I think it captures domain play perfectly. In fact, I'd say that the "Deed" charts Paks' journey from 1st level to Name Level and then the new series covers her, and other characters, name level experiences in domain play.
I often start my campaigns with seeds that will pan out well for domain play when PCs are first level. For example, I often start my campaigns (which are open ended and have no scripted ending so can last a long time through generations of characters) with The Veiled Society adventure in Karameikos. It does a great job of setting up political entities (from the Duke and his opposition to secret societies etc.) that will all be handled differently as the characters advance in level to get to name level.
This is very true, but most of her work has been for Baen. They publish some excellent fiction, but they don’t have anywhere near the reach or cache of Tor.
I think she’s an author with a dedicated fanbase, of which I am certainly one, who deserves broader acclaim, but who is overlooked for a variety of reasons. Her books are not romantacy, grimdark, progression fantasy, or even tolkienesque. They echo a different old tradition, the Poul Anderson one, that is rewarding and worth reading, but that doesn’t command a large market.
They are often not best served by their covers either. I was going to throw in a joke about how Sheepfarmers Daughter should sell better than it does because it has one of the best covers Baen has ever produced.
The first thing I did after finishing your article was find a copy online and start it. I read four chapters at two in the morning
I hope you enjoy it.
I read this in the early 90s and was totally blown away. I read the series again about 6 years ago (during the 'rona?) and I remember being astonished at how well it held up. Thank you for writing this post, it's very inspirational and I think next month I'm going to sit down with Hommlet and do some real hard thinking & brainstorming. (I run Tales of Argosa for my campaign)
I read it when I was younger and saw copies on the shelf at the local used bookstore. I picked them up and started reading, and like you I have been impressed at how well the series holds up.
I read this in the early 90s and was totally blown away. I read the series again about 6 years ago (during the 'rona?) and I remember being astonished at how well it held up. Thank you for writing this post, it's very inspirational and I think next month I'm going to sit down with Hommlet and do some real hard thinking & brainstorming. (I run Tales of Argosa for my campaign)
I had never heard the phrase "domain play," though I've been doing this for 30+ years and knew the concept as something that most games ignore (Pendragon and Ars Magica being exceptions). I would like to read more about your experiences with this, if you're willing to write them.
I also love this bit about taking book characters and gamifying them. Have you already done Holger Carlsen in another post? I'm going to try that with Barbara Hambly, though I might use a different system.
I'll make sure to write about domain play in the future. A lot of the modern discussion of it assumes a requirement for a kind of Bath-ian antagonism between the players' characters, but I never needed that. I was informed by the old Companion and Master's Sets for D&D about certain ways to run domain play (and the "Master" series in the Expert Modules does a great job of presenting a campaign for domain play) and then later by Birthright.
When I ran a game that focused on Domain level stuff, I used Warhammer's Mighty Empires boxed set to map out some of the conflicts and that worked very well. I've been reading the newer Paksenarrion novels lately, where she is a supporting character, and I think it captures domain play perfectly. In fact, I'd say that the "Deed" charts Paks' journey from 1st level to Name Level and then the new series covers her, and other characters, name level experiences in domain play.
I often start my campaigns with seeds that will pan out well for domain play when PCs are first level. For example, I often start my campaigns (which are open ended and have no scripted ending so can last a long time through generations of characters) with The Veiled Society adventure in Karameikos. It does a great job of setting up political entities (from the Duke and his opposition to secret societies etc.) that will all be handled differently as the characters advance in level to get to name level.
Moon may be underrated, but she's been continously writing and publishing for a long time- that's something...
This is very true, but most of her work has been for Baen. They publish some excellent fiction, but they don’t have anywhere near the reach or cache of Tor.
I think she’s an author with a dedicated fanbase, of which I am certainly one, who deserves broader acclaim, but who is overlooked for a variety of reasons. Her books are not romantacy, grimdark, progression fantasy, or even tolkienesque. They echo a different old tradition, the Poul Anderson one, that is rewarding and worth reading, but that doesn’t command a large market.
I agree- Baen does excellent work but they get pigeonholed for doing a certain kind of book that is not representative of their whole line.
They are often not best served by their covers either. I was going to throw in a joke about how Sheepfarmers Daughter should sell better than it does because it has one of the best covers Baen has ever produced.