Aquaria is the name of BECMI D&D author, Frank Mentzer's, home campaign. For a while now, Frank has been talking about getting his setting published. Unfortunately, family affairs kept him busy over most of last year, but recent posts at Dragonsfoot and the Piazza have shown that he has not given up on this idea.
Recently, the Piazza in particular has seen alot of interest in the Aquaria setting, and rumours have it that the first ever Aquaria forum will be created at the Piazza in the near future. With the Piazza community getting interested in Aquaria, we are seeing alot of interesting discussions and creative input. Dave L is already in the process of making maps for the setting based on Thorf's hexes. This has all been done with Mr Mentzer's blessing.
Aquaria is of particular interest to me because of Frank's role in it ofcourse, but also the fact that he uses the cosmology he created for the BECMI system with his setting, including Immortals, 5 dimensional spaces, Dimensions etc. Like Blackmoor, Aquaria is nominally located within the Greyhawk Setting, though if it is published, it will probably be presented as an independent setting. This should be relatively unproblematic as the Greyhawk connection has perhaps not had such a strong impact on the Aquaria campaign in actual play.
Frank recieved alot of unfair criticism in the Blogosphere when he last made an annoucement on this subject, so I am hoping the sceptics will wait and see this time around, rather than attack something which might turn out to be the next really good thing for fans of Old School D&D and younger gamers alike.
A list of existing products tied to the Aquaria Campaign can be found here.
-Havard
Interesting take a look at the eastern half of Map 5 Valon (or Map 2 boxed set) of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy and compare it to Aquaria.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in seeing it just as an example, but can't see myself ever running a world with the Immortals stuff in it. I do hope he manages to get it published though. It seems like he always had his own viewpoint and voice on the D&D game, and different takes on the material are always a good thing to get out there in the public eye.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for more BECMI goodness. I've been playing BX mainly over the last few years, but BECMI will always be home.
ReplyDelete@Rob: Yeah, I believe I have heard this before. As you no doubt have seen, Frank just commented on this matter here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4138&p=54669#p54637
@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
"I'd be interested in seeing it just as an example, but can't see myself ever running a world with the Immortals stuff in it."
Why do you see running a world with Immortals as so different from running one with Gods? :)
Bluescreem: "'m all for more BECMI goodness. I've been playing BX mainly over the last few years, but BECMI will always be home.
ReplyDeleteIts pretty much the same system anyway. BECMI just added more juicy stuff to it. :)
Chello!
ReplyDeleteI'm just surprised that he's catching flak for wanting to put it out there. I guess that's because all these OSR "leaders" have such "original and innovative" ideas. Yeah, right.
@Anthony: Thanks for pitching in Lord Kjeran! :) Although I have alot of respect for these bloggers, it is worth keeping in mind that they have their own agendas. Most are pretty open about that, but it is easy to forget that instead of promoting all old school editions, they are promoting just one or two editions, whereas some editions aren't considered old school enough. A rulebook published in 1981 is considered too new for some grognards, even though that was almost 30 years ago! I'm sure that if you ask the guys just getting into 4E, it doesnt matter to them if a game was published in 1974 or 1984. Its all ancient history to them...
ReplyDelete