OSR Morgaine Campaign (C.J. Cherryh)

10 Feb, 2024

A photograph of a slightly worn mass-market paperback copy of the Fires of Azeroth, by C.J. Cherryh, published by DAW Books. In the foreground, a white-haired woman sits atop a white horse, led by a man in the midground. The woman is looking toward the viewer; the man is looking away. They are framed by trees.
Cover artwork by
Michael Whelan

I've returned to reading my way through the Morgaine Cycle of (science) fantasy novels by C.J. Cherryh. I'm currently on #3, the Fires of Azeroth. I'm also working on a depthcrawl project (most of what I've been posting about this year lol).

It has struck me, while reading, that much of the Morgaine Cycle can be structured as an old-school (OSR) depthcrawl—or as a standard pointcrawl, but procedural generation is more fun. The campaign could be as such:

Player Characters

Start with one elf (or qhal, in Cherryh's jargon) and one non-elf, preferably a human fighter. I'm imagining using Old School Essentials or similar.
The elf begins with a magic (Witchfire) weapon of terrible power.
The non-elf is bound to the elf (ilin bound to liyo).
Give them each a horse.

Goals

The elf's goal is to find and pass through gates to other worlds, while simultaneously destroying them. The gates are powered by Witchfire. The magic weapon is key to destroying the gates.
The non-elf's goal is to keep the elf alive; or, failing that, to destroy the elf's magic weapon to keep it from the hands of those who would abuse its power.
If the non-elf dies, find a replacement non-elf to become bound to the elf. Don't become attached to non-elf characters (though you will).
Use multiple, shorter, depthcrawl area lists differentiated by terrain/theme. Include the gate on an area list, at a specific depth, or use a progress tracker (like in Emmy Allen's The Stygian Library).

Non-Player Characters

Other alliances can be made, but those allies do not (or should not) go through the gate. The campaign focuses on the elf and their ilin.
Enemies and random non-player characters might make their way through, especially to escape the player characters or some other crisis.
The gate and weapon represent Power to most non-player characters and are enticing, corrupting.
On most worlds, elves are evil and (formerly?) powerful, but rare. On, say, 1-in-6 worlds, they're good, or at least neutral, forest-dwellers.

I might have to try this out as a solo game! Cherryh's works are so inspiring!!

#appendix-n #dnd #old-school-essentials #osr