Tag: Vincent Florio

Orcz: Those Pesky Orcz (2024)

So Justin LaNasa (LaNasa) has released Orcz: Those Pesky Orcz. also titled as Those Pesky Orcs, full title: Those Pesky Orcs: A Game About Vile, Corrupt, Aberrant Creatures By Justin LaNasa1Justin LaNasa Orcz: Those Pesky Orcz. A Game About Vile, Corrupt, Aberrant Creatures (Adamantite Games, Wilmington NC, 2024) [“Those Pesky Orcz“] (Those Pesky Orcz) and… it’s not very good. In fact, in the time that has passed since its release and my writing this, it has been confirmed it is not just bad, but it is a wrong thing that should not exist.

The evidence of this is that on 19 June 2024, the official Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) channel on YouTube released a 41+ minute video2“New 2024 Player’s Handbook Reveal | D&D” (19 June 2024) D&D Beyond YouTube <www.youtube.com> that briefly features a depiction of orcs as like, a happy people with mixed personalities, and roles, and the old school gamers community collectively shat themselves in disbelief.3Brian Anderson (21 June 2024) Drunkards and Dragons (@The_DrunkDragon) X née Twitter <currently suspended for a rules violation>

A screenshot of Wonderfilled reposting an X post by "Drunkards and Dragons" (@The_DrunkDragon) 21 June "It's time to start the trend #DnDIsDead after seeing the new players handbook artwork for Orcs."
Yes, Stephen Erin Dinehart IV also tried to jump on this bandwagon.

There was a torrent of raging Twitter posts (X was called Twitter back then), YouTube videos and all the rest about how this could not be – if orcs were not cartoonishly and ontologically evil, it was not D&D.

But literally nobody pointed to Those Pesky Orcs as an alternative, as a product that supplied a better and more correct explanation. That’s how bad it is.

Now it was taken off the market but it seems that it’s now in this weird situation where 3rd party retailers will sell and also if I try to buy it through Amazon Australia they will try to offer me a Print On Demand copy from the USA.

The product claims to be family-friendly, but I feel the need to provide content warnings for the following things that I personally would not expect in a regular tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG): piss-play (consensual and non-consensual), sexual assault, ritual murder, rape, slavery, and human trafficking.

Oh yeah. Welcome to the final release of the nuTSR saga.

Continue reading Orcz: Those Pesky Orcz (2024)
  • 1
    Justin LaNasa Orcz: Those Pesky Orcz. A Game About Vile, Corrupt, Aberrant Creatures (Adamantite Games, Wilmington NC, 2024) [“Those Pesky Orcz“]
  • 2
    “New 2024 Player’s Handbook Reveal | D&D” (19 June 2024) D&D Beyond YouTube <www.youtube.com>
  • 3
    Brian Anderson (21 June 2024) Drunkards and Dragons (@The_DrunkDragon) X née Twitter <currently suspended for a rules violation>

The Cult of Abaddon (2022)

So, nuTSR is essentially dead and buried at this point. They’ve settled with Wizards of the Coast,1 TSR LLC v. Wizards of the Coast LLC, 2:21-cv-01705, (W.D. Wash.), Document #66 the web site is gone,2 Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum <https://tsrmuseum.com> Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20240627031048/https://tsrmuseum.com/ and all their products are gone.

The iconic "The evil is defeated" GIF from Cabin in the Woods.

Let’s talk about their, now historic, “products”, or at least the ones I have access to. Starting with The Cult of Abaddon (2022) by Vincent “The Evil Dungeon Master” Florio with “input and ideas from” Ernie Gygax (credited as Ernest G. Gygax Jr, a truly baffling representation).3 Vincent Florio The Cult of Abaddon (TSR LLC, Lake Geneva WI, 2022)

The front cover for The Cult of Abaddon, including all the general markup to try to make it look like a classic module and the TSR LLC trademark... well the Diesel artwork they started using in lieu of the Justin LaNasa artwork.

It proclaims to be an Old School Renaissance (“OSR”) adventure module published by TSR Hobbies (and “TSR-Hobbies”), suitable for entry level characters. It is one of the few products to few the TSR Rating Meter which specifies it as suitable for ages 10+. 4Vincent Florio The Cult of Abaddon, above n 3, at back cover

As is customary for these kind of products, it doesn’t specify a particular system that it works for – but there is generally an assumption that it’s for Basic Dungeons & Dragons (“BXD&D“), Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (“AD&D“), AD&D Second Edition or some system adapted to replicate this. So you’re not actually saying it’s Dungeons & Dragons (“D&D“) but everyone knows that’s what you mean.

I obtained my copy via Lulu during the brief window when Vincent was selling it as a pdf – making it direct competition with nuTSR’s print only (which never seems to have shippped). So, I guess that makes me one of the foremost scholars on this work, and that’s probably for the best.

The post about that has been scrubbed of Vincent’s blog, but one post that is left up makes it pretty clear the module was originally going to be part of his Mazes & Perils (2012) game, but that he evidentally lost interest in.5 Vincent Florio Mazes & Perils Artifact: The Gemstone of Abaddon (The Evil Dungeon Master, 10 January 2017) <https://www.theevildm.com/p/mazes-perils-artifact-the-gemstone-of-abaddon> Evidentally, he ultimately decided it was not good enough for his own system, but was a perfect fit for the stuff nuTSR were wanting to push out.

First Impressions

While nowhere near as bad a the Star Frontiers: New Genesis “beta”, its extremely amatuer in content and design – reading very much like an early draft by a hobby creator who normally is the only one to read their own work, and assures themselves they’re too genius to need second drafts.

The first paragraph has run on sentences, random use of ampersand (“&”) instead of typing “and”, and random capitalization. It then goes on to explain, with this level of sloppiness and inconsistency, that the title is quite misleading as the party will not have any meaningful interactions with Abaddon or really learn anything meaningful other than they’re bad and doing bad things.

When this was first announced, I noted there it was kind of worrying that they’d decided to use Abaddon, a name from Jewish folklore, in a story about a cult poisoning water supplies, particularly when combined with the less well known “red hand” symbols. Naturally the author denied he was anti-semitic, volunteered his wife was jewish, etc and while I’m personally not convinced but will concede that nothing in the work or his response indicates he was aware of these. Rather he seems just ignorant and too lazy to check anything. Of course, you can be lazy, ignorant and antisemitic so – I encourage you to use your own judgement.

Then it gets worse. Also spoilers ahead, but I sincerely doubt anyone reading this will ever be interested in playing it anyway.

Continue reading The Cult of Abaddon (2022)