Saruman Go Boom
Hey, hope all’s well with you.
The Tolkien news I couldn’t mention in the last email is now mentionable - THE HANDS OF THE WHITE WIZARD is out! (Well, in PDF. Print soon.) This is my latest Big Giant Campaign for The One Ring rpg, in which you play adventurers working for Saruman the White. Or, possibly, spying on him. It traces his possible downfall, from the wise leader of the Council to the corrupt and fallen traitor, and gives players a chance to save him. Maybe. (Sort of.)
Weirdly, I have much less anxiety about this one than Moria. Moria has so much psychic weight that it was like maintaining a cathedral. This one was more like borrowing Mr. Tolkien’s shiny car, only to have him lean in the window and say ‘by the way, here’s a route map’ in the form of the Tale of Years. And the route map takes you through a minefield and a rollercoaster. See, Appendix II of LOTR clearly says:
c. 3000 The shadow of Mordor lengthens. Saruman dares to use the palantír of Orthanc, but becomes ensnared by Sauron, who has the Ithil-stone. He becomes a traitor to the Council. His spies report that the Shire is being closely guarded by the Rangers.
But other sources mention people like Gandalf and Galadriel being suspicious of Saruman, so there was space for a period where Saruman was going from ‘arrogant and secretive, but well-intentioned’ to ‘traitorous’. Fertile space for a campaign book, especially with stuff like Balin’s expedition in the middle.
The art and layout, as is usual for Free League, is staggering.
My favourite piece, though, is this one from the introduction chapter, showing Saruman before the fall.
Saruman as he should have been, as Gandalf put it.
Hands of the White Wizard is available for preorder now from Free League, as is the equally lovely 5e Trials of Saruman.
Speaking of 5e, I’ve started popping along to the local D&D club on the weeks when my regular group isn’t around. I’m trying to wrangle time to run some play testing there, as there’s a lot of testing to do. Merryshire is done in second draft, and I’m powering through The Dreadful Hare adventures. Meanwhile, Terraforming Mars is evolving in very interesting ways; we’ve completed the initial detailed outline and the core mechanics, but there’s a lot of writing to do now.
Also on deck are several secret projects, which I shall refer to as FISH STEW, PSYCHIC ICEBERG PILGRIM and LIBEL DUNGEON until they’re announced. Oh, and I’ve also been putting some finishing touches to NO CODENAME AS ANY CLEVER CODENAME I GIVE IT WILL INSTANTLY BE CRACKED BY ONE RING PLAYERS WHO READ THIS NEWSLETTER AND I ALREADY GOT MY WRIST SLAPPED FOR BEING TOO FORTHCOMING ABOUT HANDS SO NO HINTS THIS TIME BUT IT’S A BIG ONE.
Over in the land of fiction, THE DUNGEON BOOK is off collecting blurbs and proofreaders and other necessary things. Mike Carey called it
An absolute joy
and Django Wexler said
The Dungeon Book manages the difficult task of being epic and heartfelt both at once, and does it with style. I fell in love with Bait and her menagerie of friends immediately
and Jackson Ford said
For a story set in the deepest, darkest dungeon, The Dungeon Book absolutely bursts with warmth, heart, and energy. One of the best things you're going to read this year
All of which is very gratifying and I didn’t have to threaten or bribe any of them very much at all.
It’s also been let slip that Edel’s doing chapter art for it. Here’s the narrator, Cornelius the (ex-)Master of the Dungeon.
The other standalone fantasy book I’m doing is proving exceedingly troublesome, in that I’ve written four different openings, none of which flew, necessitating meetings with agents and editors and discussion of deadlines. Fortunately, as a standalone that hasn’t been officially announced, it’s a moveable feast.
I’ll be at Dragonmeet at the end of the month, but it’s more of a flying visit than usual, to the extent that I’m half-considering going straight from convention to airport on the Saturday night.
Currently reading: Just finished Cameron Johnston’s FIRST MAGE ON THE MOON, as well as a reread of THE PREMONITIONS BUREAU (FISH STEW research) so now hacking through PRE-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES: ANATOMY OF THE PRE-MODERN WORLD.
Currently watching: Twin2’s on a western kick, so we’ve just watched the Dollars trilogy and are off to see Once Upon A Time in the West next weekend. Watched the new Slow Horses. Also, Pluribus.
Everything is exciting and everything is awful and it’s still the best time in human history to be alive and it’s all weird and deeply scary, so try to have fun in the gaps.
Gar