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Hi all
Would it be possible or fun to make a variant based on the writings of Jack Vance. It could be called Vangband or Vanceband or something like that. I have thought about it, but I could not do it myself. But if someone else is interested here are some thoughts.
Spells:
In his Dying Earth series there are a number of spells described that have tantalizing names like
the Spell of the Slow Hour
Lugweiler's Dismal Itch
Inside Out and Over
the Spell of Internal Effervescence
Ctambard's Rein of Long Nerves
Xarfaggio's Physical Malepsy
Call of the Violent Cloud
Excellent Prismatic Spray
Phandaal's Gyrator
Charm of Untiring Nourishment
Panguire's Triumph of Discomfort
Thasdrubal's Laganetic Transfer
to mention some.
Some spells seem at first to be hard to fit or implement in the Angband spell system. For example, the Spell of the Macroid Toe, which causes the toe of the victim to swell to the size of a house. This would immobilize the victim, but not paralyze him.
In an Angband context, this could be a temporary effect during which various teleportation spells would be useless. After the temporary effect, there could be a message, something like "Your/It's toe returns to it's original size." and the player/monster can move once more.
Phandaal's Mantle of Stealth is a spell but has a name that sounds like it is an object. One could possibly choose to implement it either way.
If one would want different spell realms as in Zangband, in the short story Green Magic there are four different spell realms mentioned: white, black, purple, and green magic.
If one wants different cities (with wilderness), here are some suggestions:
Almery
Kaiin
Ampridatvir
Azenomei
Objects: I think that present objects (rings, potions, amulets etc) in Angband can be readily transferred to a Vance setting, perhaps with some name changes.
Some specific objects that are mentioned in the Dying Earth series are:
Thyle dust
Expansible egg
Tube of Blue Concentrate
IOUN stones
Live boots
Rapier of T'sais
Scintillant dagger
Monsters:
But it is the many Vance monsters and villains that I find most intriguing. In the Dying Earth series there are examples like:
archveult
asm
clevenger
deodand
erb
flantic
gid
basilisk
grue
hoon
felinodore
madlock
leucomorph
pelgrane
pincerlizard
rostgobler - hyperborean sloth
sime
tasp
vampire-weed
visp
whorl
and many more. For uniques there are many to choose from:
Mazirian the Magician
Liane the Wayfarer
Thrang, the Ghoul-bear
Koolbaw, the walking Serpent
the demons Phampoun, Yaunt, Jastenave, Aldemar, Suul.
Blikdak, another demon
Iucounu, the Laughing Magician
Faucelme
Nissifer
Magnatz
and of course Chun the Unavoidable, which I believe already is found in OAngband.
If one includes monsters/uniques from other books one could also have:
King Kragen, Greater Kragen, Lesser kragen
Various dragons from the Dragon Masters: Termagant, Fiend, Long-Horned Murderer, Blue Horror, Jugger, Striding Murderer
From Planet of Adventure:
Blue, Green and Old Chasch, Chashman
Dirdir, Dirdirman, Immaculate Dirdirman
etc
and as uniques:
The Five Demon Princes
Hildemar Dasce (Beauty Dasce)
Aila Woudiver
The Tree of Kyril - "Twenty miles high and a trunk five miles in diameter. The Vital Exprescience"
Three-Legged Joe
The Phantom Milkman
Laoome, Third of Narfilhet, the Worldthinker, the Final Sage of the Fifth Universe (long name that)
and last but not least
Bad Ronald
"Having read the book, you feel an intense desire to kill this character"
And for those of you who are unfamiliar with the work of Jack Vance, I can only recommend that you check it out.
Would it be possible or fun to make a variant based on the writings of Jack Vance. It could be called Vangband or Vanceband or something like that. I have thought about it, but I could not do it myself. But if someone else is interested here are some thoughts.
Spells:
In his Dying Earth series there are a number of spells described that have tantalizing names like
the Spell of the Slow Hour
Lugweiler's Dismal Itch
Inside Out and Over
the Spell of Internal Effervescence
Ctambard's Rein of Long Nerves
Xarfaggio's Physical Malepsy
Call of the Violent Cloud
Excellent Prismatic Spray
Phandaal's Gyrator
Charm of Untiring Nourishment
Panguire's Triumph of Discomfort
Thasdrubal's Laganetic Transfer
to mention some.
Some spells seem at first to be hard to fit or implement in the Angband spell system. For example, the Spell of the Macroid Toe, which causes the toe of the victim to swell to the size of a house. This would immobilize the victim, but not paralyze him.
In an Angband context, this could be a temporary effect during which various teleportation spells would be useless. After the temporary effect, there could be a message, something like "Your/It's toe returns to it's original size." and the player/monster can move once more.
Phandaal's Mantle of Stealth is a spell but has a name that sounds like it is an object. One could possibly choose to implement it either way.
If one would want different spell realms as in Zangband, in the short story Green Magic there are four different spell realms mentioned: white, black, purple, and green magic.
If one wants different cities (with wilderness), here are some suggestions:
Almery
Kaiin
Ampridatvir
Azenomei
Objects: I think that present objects (rings, potions, amulets etc) in Angband can be readily transferred to a Vance setting, perhaps with some name changes.
Some specific objects that are mentioned in the Dying Earth series are:
Thyle dust
Expansible egg
Tube of Blue Concentrate
IOUN stones
Live boots
Rapier of T'sais
Scintillant dagger
Monsters:
But it is the many Vance monsters and villains that I find most intriguing. In the Dying Earth series there are examples like:
archveult
asm
clevenger
deodand
erb
flantic
gid
basilisk
grue
hoon
felinodore
madlock
leucomorph
pelgrane
pincerlizard
rostgobler - hyperborean sloth
sime
tasp
vampire-weed
visp
whorl
and many more. For uniques there are many to choose from:
Mazirian the Magician
Liane the Wayfarer
Thrang, the Ghoul-bear
Koolbaw, the walking Serpent
the demons Phampoun, Yaunt, Jastenave, Aldemar, Suul.
Blikdak, another demon
Iucounu, the Laughing Magician
Faucelme
Nissifer
Magnatz
and of course Chun the Unavoidable, which I believe already is found in OAngband.
If one includes monsters/uniques from other books one could also have:
King Kragen, Greater Kragen, Lesser kragen
Various dragons from the Dragon Masters: Termagant, Fiend, Long-Horned Murderer, Blue Horror, Jugger, Striding Murderer
From Planet of Adventure:
Blue, Green and Old Chasch, Chashman
Dirdir, Dirdirman, Immaculate Dirdirman
etc
and as uniques:
The Five Demon Princes
Hildemar Dasce (Beauty Dasce)
Aila Woudiver
The Tree of Kyril - "Twenty miles high and a trunk five miles in diameter. The Vital Exprescience"
Three-Legged Joe
The Phantom Milkman
Laoome, Third of Narfilhet, the Worldthinker, the Final Sage of the Fifth Universe (long name that)
and last but not least
Bad Ronald
"Having read the book, you feel an intense desire to kill this character"
And for those of you who are unfamiliar with the work of Jack Vance, I can only recommend that you check it out.
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