Yuletide D&Dr

Well, this is my yearly Christmastime post about Dungeons & Dragons, to celebrate decades of times playing my favourite role-playing game in maybe its best environment, the time of year where it brings such atmosphere. I blogged about it before and it has since become more or less a tradition on Vraie Fiction. Last year, I even blogged about it twice, here and here. Like almost every time I do blog about D&Dr, I accompany the post with a picture by classic fantasy, sci-fi and of course D&Dr illustrator Larry Elmore. In fact, the post pretty much an excuse to have some of his art on this blog.

This image is from the cover of The Bloodstone Lands module from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. I never liked Forgotten Realms, well in fact I never liked much of the already-made settings of D&Dr. I much preferred our created world. That said, the name of the lands is great, and what a tempting image, if one ever wanted to play in a campaign setting. This picture works so well. There is the snowy background, the beautiful winter landscape. There is even a pine tree, so you have your Christmas tree (albeit without lights or decorations) on the image. At the center of the image, you see a duel between a wizard and a fighter, the wizard seemingly the evil one, with his goat's skin used as a hood, and the top of his staff is also a goat's head. Goats obviously have devilish associations. So yes, I always loved this cover. And to fully enjoy it, or, why not, a game of D&Dr this Christmas, if you play it, I give you again O Come, O Come Emmanuel, a Christmas carol which I also associate with my favourite game. I often do with Christmas carols, but this one in particular, and as it is also a tradition from Vraie Fiction this time of year, here it is.