The Talking City of Oz
Author: Ron Baxley Jr.
Illustrator: G.T. Adams
Publisher: E.E.T. at Coci's Press
If only these walls could talk... Well, with all of the other things that talk in Oz, why not?
The story starts slow, with a dialog between Dorothy and Ozma setting the stage for the action to come. For those who think this means a big, steaming infodump, fear not! Ron manages to make it tolerable, and even entertaining. The characters have a realistic back and forth with some amusing background action. He also avoids the "idiot lecture", in which two fully knowledgeable people state the obvious for the benefit of the audience. If there's something that he feels the reader should know that doesn't fit into the dialogue, he finds a place for it in the narration.
It seems that Ruggedo the Nome King had a backup plan in case his invasion described in The Emerald City of Oz didn't pan out. A creature named Jaggedo has lived under Oz ever since, making plans and staying carefully under the radar in spite of magic used to seek him out. In fact, the Wizard is out gathering magical ingredients to cast a spell that will reveal him.
From this slow start, the action (and the puns) begin to flow freely. Dorothy encounters the Metronome (an urban Nome with a good sense of rhythm) in the Emerald Palace as he is making his final preparations to steal the Emerald City. Although she is able to make her escape from the city, she looks back to see the City shrink into the ground and seemingly say its first words.
Haunted by this thought, she then encounters the Woggle-bug leading a quartet of flies. Dorothy made the mistake of trying to swat a friendly fly in the opening scene and this is where it comes back to bite her (not literally, of course). Dorothy makes a formal apology to the fly in front of the Professor, which he then accepts. She also explains the predicament to the Woggle-bug and he and the flies gladly agree to help. They then shrink by means of a magic lantern, reversing the process which caused the Woggle-bug to his current size, so that they can mount the flies and take to the air.
From there, they travel through the Tar Nation (with its population of Tar-Tars), help a house that has been coated in pain (because someone left the "t" off of the paint) and buy a dime novel (a story etched onto a small coin) before they discover and thwart Jaggedo and recover the Emerald City, which has been animated by the Powder of Life.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Cast An Ozzy Spell: Mrs. Yoop's Magic Apron
First of all, I'd like to announce that I'll be participating in the GM's Day Sale over at RPGNow and DriveThruRPG. For the duration of the sale, you can get Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road in Print, PDF, or the Print/PDF bundle for 10% off! (I'll also be mirroring this sale on my Lulu Store for those of you who prefer to shop there.) [EDIT: Actually, it gets better. Since this was my first GM's Day Sale, I wasn't sure if I should be marking down my products or if they were. So I reduced my prices, then the sale kicked in and reduced them further! BEST PRICES EVAARRR!!!!]
This month, I wanted to do a magic item that points out something interesting about the magic of Oz and how it works with the rules of the game.
Mrs. Yoop's Magic Apron
Power: Apportation 4 (2)
Scope: Self/Person/Object (0)
Ritual: Simple (Say "Open!") (0)
Item: Limited Use (only to open and close things) (-2)
Effect Power: 0
What makes this item interesting isn't the effect itself, but who is wielding that effect. Since Mrs. Yoop is a Yookoohoo, she doesn't normally have access to Apportation magic. But she does have the ability to create an item that uses Apportation. Just one more instance of a time when a magic item is better than a spell.
Since this sort of thing has come up a few times, I just wanted to present something of a "Master List" of the times when you'd want a magic item rather than a spell.
If you don't want to roll: Creating a magical item does not require a roll, while casting a spell does. If you need a particularly large or potent effect, or are worried that your Brains skill is not up to the task, a magical item may be a better expenditure of Oz Points than trying to get a big enough bonus.
If you want an enduring effect: Only some spells offer permanent effects (Transformations and Transmutations) and those have significantly raised Difficulties. Duration is not a factor for items, so their effects last as long as makes sense.
If you need a power that only magic items can provide: Some things, like Scrying or Travel, are exclusively limited to items. Other times, such as with Mrs. Yoop's Apron, it can allow you a form of magic your training doesn't normally allow you to use.
This month, I wanted to do a magic item that points out something interesting about the magic of Oz and how it works with the rules of the game.
Mrs. Yoop's Magic Apron
Power: Apportation 4 (2)
Scope: Self/Person/Object (0)
Ritual: Simple (Say "Open!") (0)
Item: Limited Use (only to open and close things) (-2)
Effect Power: 0
What makes this item interesting isn't the effect itself, but who is wielding that effect. Since Mrs. Yoop is a Yookoohoo, she doesn't normally have access to Apportation magic. But she does have the ability to create an item that uses Apportation. Just one more instance of a time when a magic item is better than a spell.
Since this sort of thing has come up a few times, I just wanted to present something of a "Master List" of the times when you'd want a magic item rather than a spell.
If you don't want to roll: Creating a magical item does not require a roll, while casting a spell does. If you need a particularly large or potent effect, or are worried that your Brains skill is not up to the task, a magical item may be a better expenditure of Oz Points than trying to get a big enough bonus.
If you want an enduring effect: Only some spells offer permanent effects (Transformations and Transmutations) and those have significantly raised Difficulties. Duration is not a factor for items, so their effects last as long as makes sense.
If you need a power that only magic items can provide: Some things, like Scrying or Travel, are exclusively limited to items. Other times, such as with Mrs. Yoop's Apron, it can allow you a form of magic your training doesn't normally allow you to use.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Another Year, Another DunDraCon
We left for the convention shortly after my last blog posting, which is why it was so short. My friend Mike did all the driving, as he has for the last few years. One of these days, either my wife or myself will get a driver's license (and maybe our own car), but that hasn't happened yet.
Mike has family in the Bay Area, so he arranged for us to stay at his mother's house Thursday night. You see, I had only reserved the hotel for the nights of the convention. Even with my tax return, this was something of a shoestring affair. Which just means that more people need to buy my game.
Friday morning, we made the final leg of the trip, from Mike's mom's house to the hotel. It was still rather early and registration was not fully set up. But since both my wife and I had signed up to run games, our badges had been pre-printed and filed.
DunDraCon Fridays are actually pretty boring. The Dealer's Room isn't open, so there's no chance to check out the new hotness of gaming. There were a couple of seminars being held that day that we wanted to check out, though.
First was a seminar about "Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse". Although it's a remarkably unlikely occurrence, it does capture the imagination. There was a good bit of discussion on disaster preparedness in general, including mistakes that people make when they're getting ready for a disaster. They talked about preparing a "go-bag" of essentials in case you need to leave the area immediately, as well as being prepared for "bugging in", hunkering down in your own home or neighborhood in case heading for the hills is a bad idea.
Although not one of the original presenters, this guy
demonstrated his "lobotomizer" or "Lobo" for short; A personal defense weapon inspired by the novel World War Z. It can be wielded as an axe or a short spear. In short spear mode, the axe blade serves as a bladed handguard for close fighting. The pointed end also includes a feature to allow easy removal if it ever gets stuck in a zombie skull.
The second one was about kids and gaming. It was put on by a family of gamers (the parents had introduced the children to their hobby) who had worked on putting together a games program at the local school. I thought the seminar was good, but very dry. They focused on the educational benefits, both in terms of using games to teach concrete lessons and teaching social interaction via play (turn-taking, cooperation, etc.). This probably came from their practice going over these elements to all of the various administrators and school boards that it took to get approval for their program.
Saturday was the busiest day of the con for me. I had to be up bright and early to run The Jaded City of Oz for the grown-up group. Everyone was there promptly and was kind enough to let me record the proceedings for future use as a podcast. I've wanted to do an Actual Play recording to help give an idea to those non-gamers among my fans a better idea of the game. We did get a little adult with our language and humor, so I'm debating how much I should try to edit that down. There's keeping it family-friendly on one hand, and then there's making sure that the whole thing makes sense on the other.
I was actually surprised that I took most of the 4 hours that were allotted to me. When I ran the adventure last year, I only took about 2 hours to run through it. But once the adventure was completed this year, I had only about 30 minutes to buy some gaming stones from the dealer's room (I didn't have enough to go around in the grown-up game) and grab some lunch before I had to report to the kids room.
The kids room actually had a number of events going on. 6 tables were set up, including one table where a fellow was helping kids make leather crafts. It was pretty noisy, which had a notable effect on how I ran the game. I didn't do all my funny voices or try to do anything particularly clever. I was a bit more forgiving on die rolls and a bit freer with Oz Points, but that was at least partly because it was kids.
I did manage a few hours of free time before I was off to my next convention activity. Two more seminars that I wanted to be sure and catch, including one on self-publishing in the games industry. Even though I'm already published, I still like to check these things out. Especially since this focused more on getting into distribution, which is something that I've been meaning to do.
Sunday was either the easiest day or the hardest day of the con, depending on how you look at it. I got to sleep in that day, and got my first real chance to be a player in a game, after being the Narrator twice in a row the previous day. There were three games I was interested in that day and they were all at the same time, so I could only play in one. I decided to let the fates pick for me and wound up playing in a GURPS Horror game set during WWI. 6 hours well spent.
But then, it was crunch time. My wife was running a Pathfinder game Monday morning and we still had a lot to do. We had to pregenerate all of the characters for the players and flesh out the monster encounters that we wanted to do. We still didn't have time to get everything just the way we wanted it, but my wife managed to keep her players entertained well enough with what we had. Not too bad, considering it was her first time as a GM in quite a while.
Now, I must show you and tell you about the big stack of books I bought this year. Not a terribly big stack of books this year. Maybe next year.
From top to bottom:
Burning Wheel: The Adventure Burner is the last of the supplements for Burning Wheel Revised. I've been able to pick up the others at previous DDCs. Burning Wheel Gold is the latest set of the core rules. Rather than 2 slim softcovers, he decided to go with one hardcover book this time. Same tempting price point. (I really need to play this game someday.)
Diaspora: Diaspora is a rather interesting beast. It's a hard sci-fi RPG in the tradition of Traveler, but using the pretty cinematic (and shiny) FATE system. It's really very well written and uses the tools it's given very well, in my opinion.
Reign Enchiridion: I'm guessing Enchiridion is some fancy term for "The short version" because this is the short version of the Reign rulebook. I actually got this one thinking of my friend Mike. He's a strategy gamer at heart (loves his RTS's) For quite some time he's been looking for a game that handles both the individual action of an RPG while still allowing a player to command an army, as in an RTS. From what I've heard, this is the game, but it'll take some reading for me to make a recommendation.
GURPS Horseclans: Only one GURPS book that I didn't have has gotten scratched off my list this year. It is apparently based off of a series of science fiction novels written by the late Robert Adams. I haven't read the novels yet, or this book, so we'll see.
Lost Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci and The Book of Sigils: Two supplements for the classic steampunk RPG Castle Falkenstein. Although both books focus on magic, they are two different kinds of magic. The Lost Notebooks cover "Engine Magic" which is how the setting makes all of those wonderfully impractical Victorian inventions and makes them practical. The Book of Sigils focuses on Sorcery in the setting and how an arcane Lodge is established. It also provides a few new spells for sorcerers to learn.
Bastards & Bloodlines: This one was for my wife, mostly. She loves settings full of odd sorts of people and this provides a few of those for her D&D games.
Coalition Wars: Siege on Tolkeen: This was the one Palladium book I purchased there. Since I've got something of a project in the works, I thought it might come in handy. The seller had a few other books, but my budget didn't allow me to get too deep. This is also the first book in the Coalition Wars metaplot, so it should be interesting.
Pathfinder: Picked up two of their Adventure Path modules this year. If I buy 1-2 a year, and they publish 12 a year, well . . . I'm never going to catch up, but it'll be fun to pretend.
Exalted: Graceful Wicked Masques: This supplement for the second edition of White Wolf's epic anime fantasy RPG focuses on the Fair Folk. The Fair Folk book for the first edition had lots of neat ideas, but also some rather silly numbers. I'm interested in seeing how it turned out this time around.
(I know, I'm not putting up many pictures. Just a few to illustrate the story. If you want to see more pictures of cool and random things at the con, check out our fan page on Facebook)
Mike has family in the Bay Area, so he arranged for us to stay at his mother's house Thursday night. You see, I had only reserved the hotel for the nights of the convention. Even with my tax return, this was something of a shoestring affair. Which just means that more people need to buy my game.
Friday morning, we made the final leg of the trip, from Mike's mom's house to the hotel. It was still rather early and registration was not fully set up. But since both my wife and I had signed up to run games, our badges had been pre-printed and filed.
DunDraCon Fridays are actually pretty boring. The Dealer's Room isn't open, so there's no chance to check out the new hotness of gaming. There were a couple of seminars being held that day that we wanted to check out, though.
First was a seminar about "Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse". Although it's a remarkably unlikely occurrence, it does capture the imagination. There was a good bit of discussion on disaster preparedness in general, including mistakes that people make when they're getting ready for a disaster. They talked about preparing a "go-bag" of essentials in case you need to leave the area immediately, as well as being prepared for "bugging in", hunkering down in your own home or neighborhood in case heading for the hills is a bad idea.
Although not one of the original presenters, this guy
demonstrated his "lobotomizer" or "Lobo" for short; A personal defense weapon inspired by the novel World War Z. It can be wielded as an axe or a short spear. In short spear mode, the axe blade serves as a bladed handguard for close fighting. The pointed end also includes a feature to allow easy removal if it ever gets stuck in a zombie skull.The second one was about kids and gaming. It was put on by a family of gamers (the parents had introduced the children to their hobby) who had worked on putting together a games program at the local school. I thought the seminar was good, but very dry. They focused on the educational benefits, both in terms of using games to teach concrete lessons and teaching social interaction via play (turn-taking, cooperation, etc.). This probably came from their practice going over these elements to all of the various administrators and school boards that it took to get approval for their program.
Saturday was the busiest day of the con for me. I had to be up bright and early to run The Jaded City of Oz for the grown-up group. Everyone was there promptly and was kind enough to let me record the proceedings for future use as a podcast. I've wanted to do an Actual Play recording to help give an idea to those non-gamers among my fans a better idea of the game. We did get a little adult with our language and humor, so I'm debating how much I should try to edit that down. There's keeping it family-friendly on one hand, and then there's making sure that the whole thing makes sense on the other.
I was actually surprised that I took most of the 4 hours that were allotted to me. When I ran the adventure last year, I only took about 2 hours to run through it. But once the adventure was completed this year, I had only about 30 minutes to buy some gaming stones from the dealer's room (I didn't have enough to go around in the grown-up game) and grab some lunch before I had to report to the kids room.
The kids room actually had a number of events going on. 6 tables were set up, including one table where a fellow was helping kids make leather crafts. It was pretty noisy, which had a notable effect on how I ran the game. I didn't do all my funny voices or try to do anything particularly clever. I was a bit more forgiving on die rolls and a bit freer with Oz Points, but that was at least partly because it was kids.
I did manage a few hours of free time before I was off to my next convention activity. Two more seminars that I wanted to be sure and catch, including one on self-publishing in the games industry. Even though I'm already published, I still like to check these things out. Especially since this focused more on getting into distribution, which is something that I've been meaning to do.
Sunday was either the easiest day or the hardest day of the con, depending on how you look at it. I got to sleep in that day, and got my first real chance to be a player in a game, after being the Narrator twice in a row the previous day. There were three games I was interested in that day and they were all at the same time, so I could only play in one. I decided to let the fates pick for me and wound up playing in a GURPS Horror game set during WWI. 6 hours well spent.
But then, it was crunch time. My wife was running a Pathfinder game Monday morning and we still had a lot to do. We had to pregenerate all of the characters for the players and flesh out the monster encounters that we wanted to do. We still didn't have time to get everything just the way we wanted it, but my wife managed to keep her players entertained well enough with what we had. Not too bad, considering it was her first time as a GM in quite a while.
Now, I must show you and tell you about the big stack of books I bought this year. Not a terribly big stack of books this year. Maybe next year.
From top to bottom:
Burning Wheel: The Adventure Burner is the last of the supplements for Burning Wheel Revised. I've been able to pick up the others at previous DDCs. Burning Wheel Gold is the latest set of the core rules. Rather than 2 slim softcovers, he decided to go with one hardcover book this time. Same tempting price point. (I really need to play this game someday.)
Diaspora: Diaspora is a rather interesting beast. It's a hard sci-fi RPG in the tradition of Traveler, but using the pretty cinematic (and shiny) FATE system. It's really very well written and uses the tools it's given very well, in my opinion.
Reign Enchiridion: I'm guessing Enchiridion is some fancy term for "The short version" because this is the short version of the Reign rulebook. I actually got this one thinking of my friend Mike. He's a strategy gamer at heart (loves his RTS's) For quite some time he's been looking for a game that handles both the individual action of an RPG while still allowing a player to command an army, as in an RTS. From what I've heard, this is the game, but it'll take some reading for me to make a recommendation.
GURPS Horseclans: Only one GURPS book that I didn't have has gotten scratched off my list this year. It is apparently based off of a series of science fiction novels written by the late Robert Adams. I haven't read the novels yet, or this book, so we'll see.
Lost Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci and The Book of Sigils: Two supplements for the classic steampunk RPG Castle Falkenstein. Although both books focus on magic, they are two different kinds of magic. The Lost Notebooks cover "Engine Magic" which is how the setting makes all of those wonderfully impractical Victorian inventions and makes them practical. The Book of Sigils focuses on Sorcery in the setting and how an arcane Lodge is established. It also provides a few new spells for sorcerers to learn.
Bastards & Bloodlines: This one was for my wife, mostly. She loves settings full of odd sorts of people and this provides a few of those for her D&D games.
Coalition Wars: Siege on Tolkeen: This was the one Palladium book I purchased there. Since I've got something of a project in the works, I thought it might come in handy. The seller had a few other books, but my budget didn't allow me to get too deep. This is also the first book in the Coalition Wars metaplot, so it should be interesting.
Pathfinder: Picked up two of their Adventure Path modules this year. If I buy 1-2 a year, and they publish 12 a year, well . . . I'm never going to catch up, but it'll be fun to pretend.
Exalted: Graceful Wicked Masques: This supplement for the second edition of White Wolf's epic anime fantasy RPG focuses on the Fair Folk. The Fair Folk book for the first edition had lots of neat ideas, but also some rather silly numbers. I'm interested in seeing how it turned out this time around.
(I know, I'm not putting up many pictures. Just a few to illustrate the story. If you want to see more pictures of cool and random things at the con, check out our fan page on Facebook)
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Just A Quick One Today
I just have a moment today as I'm finishing packing and other arrangements for DunDraCon this year. More news later.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Landing in Oz
Once you've decided to start an AiO campaign. the question then becomes "How to begin?" Do you want the characters to be new arrivals in Oz? Natives? Some combination of the two? Canon characters? New creations?
A "new arrivals" game has a number of advantages. First of all, it doesn't require the players or the characters to know much about the setting before play begins. Also, it puts the players in something very similar to Dorothy's (silver) shoes, allowing them to connect to the setting that way.
While everyone is familiar with the tornado that swept Dorothy to Oz, it's not the only way to get there. Shipwreck is actually the most common way to arrive in Oz (though Oz is surrounded by desert and has no shoreline, there are a number of fairy countries surrounding Oz that can be used for adventures).
If your players are a bit more familiar with the setting or simply enjoy testing the flexibility of the character creation rules by coming up with wacky characters, a natives campaign is also totally doable. Wandering adventurers like our friend Woot are also out touring the land of Oz, so it's no stretch at all to accommodate your group of traveling adventurers.
Another question to resolve is: How did all of the characters meet and become friends? Are they outsiders who all traveled to Oz in the same incident (like in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz or The Road to Oz)? Or is one character an outsider who makes friends as they explore the land (like in The Wizard of Oz)? Or are they all natives that are all on the same quest (like in The Patchwork Girl of Oz or The Tin Woodman of Oz)? Do your players want to play out the process of meeting, or assume that the adventure proper begins after the characters have already met?
A "new arrivals" game has a number of advantages. First of all, it doesn't require the players or the characters to know much about the setting before play begins. Also, it puts the players in something very similar to Dorothy's (silver) shoes, allowing them to connect to the setting that way.
While everyone is familiar with the tornado that swept Dorothy to Oz, it's not the only way to get there. Shipwreck is actually the most common way to arrive in Oz (though Oz is surrounded by desert and has no shoreline, there are a number of fairy countries surrounding Oz that can be used for adventures).
If your players are a bit more familiar with the setting or simply enjoy testing the flexibility of the character creation rules by coming up with wacky characters, a natives campaign is also totally doable. Wandering adventurers like our friend Woot are also out touring the land of Oz, so it's no stretch at all to accommodate your group of traveling adventurers.
Another question to resolve is: How did all of the characters meet and become friends? Are they outsiders who all traveled to Oz in the same incident (like in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz or The Road to Oz)? Or is one character an outsider who makes friends as they explore the land (like in The Wizard of Oz)? Or are they all natives that are all on the same quest (like in The Patchwork Girl of Oz or The Tin Woodman of Oz)? Do your players want to play out the process of meeting, or assume that the adventure proper begins after the characters have already met?
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Cast an Ozzy Spell: Whooo's Your Tin Woodman?
I know this is late. Sorry, guys.
Now that I've laid down some guidelines on Transmutation effects, let's see them in action. One of the many Transmutations that we see Mrs. Yoop do in The Tin Woodman of Oz is turning the Tin Woodman himself into a Tin Owl. If this were nearly any other character, this would be a Transformation using those rules. But since the Tin Woodman is made of tin rather than flesh and bone, this spell is considered a Transmutation.
This involves a change to both Form (he now looks like an owl) and Function (he can actually fly like an owl, too), so 2 points of Power there. He also takes a reduction in Size, but his Substance (tin) remains the same throughout. So altogether, it's a Power 3 effect.
Power: Transmutation, Tin Woodman to Tin Owl (3)
Scope: Person/Object (1)
Ritual: Simple (-1)
Duration: Permanent (2)
Effect Power: 5
A pretty powerful spell, really. Mrs. Yoop must have some Oz Points hiding somewhere in order to pull that one off.
Now that I've laid down some guidelines on Transmutation effects, let's see them in action. One of the many Transmutations that we see Mrs. Yoop do in The Tin Woodman of Oz is turning the Tin Woodman himself into a Tin Owl. If this were nearly any other character, this would be a Transformation using those rules. But since the Tin Woodman is made of tin rather than flesh and bone, this spell is considered a Transmutation.
This involves a change to both Form (he now looks like an owl) and Function (he can actually fly like an owl, too), so 2 points of Power there. He also takes a reduction in Size, but his Substance (tin) remains the same throughout. So altogether, it's a Power 3 effect.
Power: Transmutation, Tin Woodman to Tin Owl (3)
Scope: Person/Object (1)
Ritual: Simple (-1)
Duration: Permanent (2)
Effect Power: 5
A pretty powerful spell, really. Mrs. Yoop must have some Oz Points hiding somewhere in order to pull that one off.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Oz Is Not A Cookie-Cutter Land
(Except for Utensia, but I digress)
I recently discovered that an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's Scarecrow of Oz was in the works by the same studio that has previously done a Tin Woodman of Oz film. (I gave it a pretty big thumbs down)
The original story was clever in many ways, mostly by subverting romantic tropes. Although the Tin Woodman and the Tin Soldier are rivals for the affection of Nimmie Amee, neither of them really loves her. You see, now that they're tin, their hearts are not as capable of properly loving her (The Tin Woodman got a heart from the Wizard, but it was a kind heart rather than a loving heart. The Tin Soldier got a tin heart from the tinsmith, but it was cold and hard.). When they finally find her, they discover that she is married to an unusual man named Chopfyt who is actually made of their original meat parts (You know, the bits that got cut off and had to be replaced with tin). So, in a sense, neither of them wound up marrying Nimmie Amee and yet both of them did.
The movie adaptation revises the story so that the love story is played straight. The Tin Soldier is gone, though Nimmie Amee is still married to Chopfyt. But this happens early in the film, rather than at the climax. Instead, the Tin Woodman meets a Tin Girl (who happens to be a tin replica of Nimmee Amee) and falls in love with her over the course of their adventures.
Even though Baum wrote 14 books in the Oz series (and a number of other books as well), he never reverted to formula. Even when he was repeating himself, he never truly repeated himself. For example, Tik-Tok of Oz was an adaptation of his musical extravaganza The Tik-Tok Man of Oz (itself an adaptation of early Oz novel Ozma of Oz) . While each of those stories shared the same basic narrative, the details quickly became radically different.
So when you're preparing for your next Oz adventure, don't worry so much about the "supposed to"s. Baum didn't.
I recently discovered that an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's Scarecrow of Oz was in the works by the same studio that has previously done a Tin Woodman of Oz film. (I gave it a pretty big thumbs down)
The original story was clever in many ways, mostly by subverting romantic tropes. Although the Tin Woodman and the Tin Soldier are rivals for the affection of Nimmie Amee, neither of them really loves her. You see, now that they're tin, their hearts are not as capable of properly loving her (The Tin Woodman got a heart from the Wizard, but it was a kind heart rather than a loving heart. The Tin Soldier got a tin heart from the tinsmith, but it was cold and hard.). When they finally find her, they discover that she is married to an unusual man named Chopfyt who is actually made of their original meat parts (You know, the bits that got cut off and had to be replaced with tin). So, in a sense, neither of them wound up marrying Nimmie Amee and yet both of them did.
The movie adaptation revises the story so that the love story is played straight. The Tin Soldier is gone, though Nimmie Amee is still married to Chopfyt. But this happens early in the film, rather than at the climax. Instead, the Tin Woodman meets a Tin Girl (who happens to be a tin replica of Nimmee Amee) and falls in love with her over the course of their adventures.
Even though Baum wrote 14 books in the Oz series (and a number of other books as well), he never reverted to formula. Even when he was repeating himself, he never truly repeated himself. For example, Tik-Tok of Oz was an adaptation of his musical extravaganza The Tik-Tok Man of Oz (itself an adaptation of early Oz novel Ozma of Oz) . While each of those stories shared the same basic narrative, the details quickly became radically different.
So when you're preparing for your next Oz adventure, don't worry so much about the "supposed to"s. Baum didn't.
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