tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61864117879779627312024-03-13T02:01:16.354+00:00Nagora's CornerRole-playing in the age of Arneson and GygaxNagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.comBlogger178125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-26036171477913258882023-10-19T22:04:00.004+01:002023-10-21T10:35:09.493+01:00Tinkering With Psionics<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-orgb6a3a8e">
<h2 id="orgb6a3a8e"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixo6_VloTUEC3Zzw9dTdWFJVrowoy68vcpJMhVBoV2owl4j8eX6lcfUp0Wn5EDKLArezp9Wm3W-wTfcu_t7z_MzCxN2jaAdP8NN9dIP7f0qCr9xxMLY4XP6GUUI6vJPWWSa9f09mtAKoBTuh4afD4qNUt3eCD5FdlZglocmxPK-SGqJEu3sZPgbwBERlk/s2000/hammer.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1468" data-original-width="2000" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixo6_VloTUEC3Zzw9dTdWFJVrowoy68vcpJMhVBoV2owl4j8eX6lcfUp0Wn5EDKLArezp9Wm3W-wTfcu_t7z_MzCxN2jaAdP8NN9dIP7f0qCr9xxMLY4XP6GUUI6vJPWWSa9f09mtAKoBTuh4afD4qNUt3eCD5FdlZglocmxPK-SGqJEu3sZPgbwBERlk/w320-h235/hammer.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just a gentle tap should fix it - oh...</td></tr></tbody></table>Minor Repair Shop</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1">
<p>
I started this post (which is not about 1:1 time) intending just to look at psionics from the point of view of the DMG rather than starting at PHB and trying to work out how it all fits together. In the process I re-did the psionic combat table to be more useful, and in the end I decided just to re-write the system, but only slightly.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-orge740aeb">
<h2 id="orge740aeb">2. Character Generation</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-2">
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org32532e7">
<h3 id="org32532e7">Chance of having Psionics</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org32532e7">
<p>
1% plus 1 for every point of Int, Wis, or Cha over 15. At least one of these three ability scores must be 15 or more.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org874641d">
<h3 id="org874641d">Psionic Ability</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org874641d">
<p>
Add INT, WIS, CHA. Multiply by the number of these scores that exceeds 14. Add 1d10 and double the total. The result is the character’s total Psionic Ability.
</p>
<p>
“Psionic Strength” starts equal to Psionic Ability but is expended in psionic combat and in powering psionic disciplines. This score is <b>not</b> divided into attack and defense and recovers at the rate given on PHB p117, up to a limit of the creature’s Psionic Ability. There is no separation into attack strength and defense strength.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
The character above with Int 12, Wis 17, and Cha 18 has a base of 94 plus 1d10. After rolling a 6 for a total of 100, s/he has a psionic ability of 200.
</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgf735d1b">
<h3 id="orgf735d1b">Modes</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgf735d1b">
<p>
Everyone gets C and F. Others are found below:
</p>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Mode</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Requirement</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">A</td>
<td class="org-left">Cha 17+</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">B</td>
<td class="org-left">Int 18+</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">C</td>
<td class="org-left">Auto</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">D</td>
<td class="org-left">Wis 15+</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">E</td>
<td class="org-left">Int, Wis, and Cha 15+</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">F</td>
<td class="org-left">Auto</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">G</td>
<td class="org-left">Int 12+</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">H</td>
<td class="org-left">Wis 16+</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">I</td>
<td class="org-left">Int 16+</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">J</td>
<td class="org-left">Cha 18+</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
So the above character would have modes A,C,D/F,G,H,J.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgd335edb">
<h3 id="orgd335edb"><br />Psionic Combat</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgd335edb">
<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg89QZWs2UfcH8DPlutZq3a5ufprO16Kcgjj3kj9wm0eE8Ol36TbbFIrXc2UL9U0JL2Sh02YqUpup5L48h3ooW7c0QePq0ya9RscMe2SB2PL4Ig6h3bpxQs5mwlG1lu0I3hjawgDa-fRhTzFHYqodU7XiQyr9ggFvJKb84Z8q5tjQ-VrKJdnv779dlBmKg/s567/mentalcombat.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="210" data-original-width="567" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg89QZWs2UfcH8DPlutZq3a5ufprO16Kcgjj3kj9wm0eE8Ol36TbbFIrXc2UL9U0JL2Sh02YqUpup5L48h3ooW7c0QePq0ya9RscMe2SB2PL4Ig6h3bpxQs5mwlG1lu0I3hjawgDa-fRhTzFHYqodU7XiQyr9ggFvJKb84Z8q5tjQ-VrKJdnv779dlBmKg/s320/mentalcombat.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
As standard, an attacker can pick any mode to attack with and the defender automatically “picks” the best defense mode available. Area attacks and defenses work as described on PHB p110. Attacking with mode J means the attacker can only defend with mode G.
<p></p>
<p>
Psionic combat proceeds segment by segment as usual, although I would suggest that the DM merge this in with whatever else is going on so that a <i>fireball</i> on segment 3 will actually interrupt or even kill psionic combatants before the round is over, for example.
</p>
<p>
On any given segment a figure may have no more than two modes or disciplines, or combination, running. Disciplines are generally paid for per round but a figure may “scrap” a discipline and replace it on any segment, no refunds given.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgece118d">
<h3 id="orgece118d">Discipline Costs</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgece118d">
<p>
The costs listed in PHB are doubled. Psionic blast may only be made against a non-psionic if the attacker’s current strength is 200 or more but the cost for it and all other modes remains as printed.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org126be43">
<h2 id="org126be43"><span class="section-number-2">3.</span> Re-jigged Table IV. A PSIONIC VS. PSIONIC IN MENTAL COMBAT TABLE</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-3">
<p>
The categories for psionic attacks are doubled in size to 50 points. So: 01 to 50, 51 to 100, 101 to 150, 151 to 200, 201 to 250, and 251+.
</p>
<p>
For the new categories, here’s a list of the best defenses against each attack in terms of <b>total cost</b>, with best being on the left and worst on the right. Costs are subscripted in the case of attacks. For the defenses against psychic crush the main number is the percentage chance of death and cost is again subscripted.
</p>
<p>
You can use this table for normal by-the-book psionic combat by reducing the categories back to 25 points each; the costs are the same but it’s much easier to see what’s best against any given attack.
</p>
<p>
Remember that best available may be limited by remaining points being too low to activate an option when a defender is close to exhaustion, something not noted on the table but important only near the end of a combat.
</p>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org36e46b8">
<h3 id="org36e46b8">Up to 50</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org36e46b8">
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Attack Mode</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">A Psionic Blast<sub>20</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 4</td>
<td class="org-left">H 7</td>
<td class="org-left">I 9</td>
<td class="org-left">G 9</td>
<td class="org-left">J 10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">B Mind Thrust<sub>4</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 3</td>
<td class="org-left">G 6</td>
<td class="org-left">I 8</td>
<td class="org-left">J 11</td>
<td class="org-left">F 13</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">C Ego Whip<sub>7</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 3</td>
<td class="org-left">G 5</td>
<td class="org-left">I 8</td>
<td class="org-left">F 9</td>
<td class="org-left">J 10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">D Id Insinuation<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 2</td>
<td class="org-left">G 8</td>
<td class="org-left">I 9</td>
<td class="org-left">H 11</td>
<td class="org-left">J 11</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">E Psychic Crush<sub>14</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">G 0%<sub>2</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 0%<sub>3</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">I 0%<sub>8</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">J 0%<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 2%<sub>1</sub></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org584db5d">
<h3 id="org584db5d">51 to 100</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org584db5d">
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Attack Mode</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">A Psionic Blast<sub>20</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 7</td>
<td class="org-left">H 9</td>
<td class="org-left">J 10</td>
<td class="org-left">I 10</td>
<td class="org-left">G 11</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">B Mind Thrust<sub>4</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 4</td>
<td class="org-left">I 8</td>
<td class="org-left">G 8</td>
<td class="org-left">J 12</td>
<td class="org-left">F 16</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">C Ego Whip<sub>7</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 3</td>
<td class="org-left">G 6</td>
<td class="org-left">I 8</td>
<td class="org-left">J 10</td>
<td class="org-left">F 13</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">D Id Insinuation<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 3</td>
<td class="org-left">G 10</td>
<td class="org-left">I 11</td>
<td class="org-left">H 13</td>
<td class="org-left">J 13</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">E Psychic Crush<sub>14</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">I 0%<sub>8</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">J 0%<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 1%<sub>3</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">G 2%<sub>2</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 5%<sub>1</sub></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org602b3f1">
<h3 id="org602b3f1">101 to 150</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org602b3f1">
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Attack Mode</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">A Psionic Blast<sub>20</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 11</td>
<td class="org-left">J 11</td>
<td class="org-left">I 12</td>
<td class="org-left">H 12</td>
<td class="org-left">G 14</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">B Mind Thrust<sub>4</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 5</td>
<td class="org-left">I 10</td>
<td class="org-left">G 11</td>
<td class="org-left">J 13</td>
<td class="org-left">F 19</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">C Ego Whip<sub>7</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 4</td>
<td class="org-left">G 8</td>
<td class="org-left">I 9</td>
<td class="org-left">J 11</td>
<td class="org-left">F 18</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">D Id Insinuation<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 5</td>
<td class="org-left">G 13</td>
<td class="org-left">I 15</td>
<td class="org-left">H 16</td>
<td class="org-left">J 16</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">E Psychic Crush<sub>14</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">J 0%<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">I 1%<sub>8</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 2%<sub>3</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">G 4%<sub>2</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 9%<sub>1</sub></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org7b69246">
<h3 id="org7b69246">151 to 200</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org7b69246">
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Attack Mode</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">A Psionic Blast<sub>20</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">J 12</td>
<td class="org-left">I 15</td>
<td class="org-left">H 16</td>
<td class="org-left">F 16</td>
<td class="org-left">G 18</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">B Mind Thrust<sub>4</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 8</td>
<td class="org-left">I 12</td>
<td class="org-left">J 15</td>
<td class="org-left">G 15</td>
<td class="org-left">F 23</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">C Ego Whip<sub>7</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 6</td>
<td class="org-left">I 10</td>
<td class="org-left">G 11</td>
<td class="org-left">J 13</td>
<td class="org-left">F 24</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">D Id Insinuation<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 8</td>
<td class="org-left">G 17</td>
<td class="org-left">J 20</td>
<td class="org-left">I 20</td>
<td class="org-left">H 20</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">E Psychic Crush<sub>14</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">J 2%<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">I 3%<sub>8</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 5%<sub>3</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">G 7%<sub>2</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 14%<sub>1</sub></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orge3372e8">
<h3 id="orge3372e8">201 to 250</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orge3372e8">
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Attack Mode</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">A Psionic Blast<sub>20</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">J 14</td>
<td class="org-left">I 19</td>
<td class="org-left">H 21</td>
<td class="org-left">F 22</td>
<td class="org-left">G 23</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">B Mind Thrust<sub>4</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 12</td>
<td class="org-left">I 15</td>
<td class="org-left">J 18</td>
<td class="org-left">G 20</td>
<td class="org-left">F 27</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">C Ego Whip<sub>7</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 9</td>
<td class="org-left">I 12</td>
<td class="org-left">G 15</td>
<td class="org-left">J 16</td>
<td class="org-left">F 31</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">D Id Insinuation<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 12</td>
<td class="org-left">G 22</td>
<td class="org-left">H 25</td>
<td class="org-left">J 25</td>
<td class="org-left">I 26</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">E Psychic Crush<sub>14</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">J 4%<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">I 6%<sub>8</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 9%<sub>3</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">G 11%<sub>2</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 20%<sub>1</sub></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org65361bc">
<h3 id="org65361bc">251 and up</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org65361bc">
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Attack Mode</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"> </th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">A Psionic Blast<sub>20</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">J 17</td>
<td class="org-left">I 24</td>
<td class="org-left">H 27</td>
<td class="org-left">F 29</td>
<td class="org-left">G 29</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">B Mind Thrust<sub>4</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">I 19</td>
<td class="org-left">H 19</td>
<td class="org-left">J 22</td>
<td class="org-left">G 26</td>
<td class="org-left">F 31</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">C Ego Whip<sub>7</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 13</td>
<td class="org-left">I 15</td>
<td class="org-left">G 20</td>
<td class="org-left">J 20</td>
<td class="org-left">F 39</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">D Id Insinuation<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 17</td>
<td class="org-left">G 28</td>
<td class="org-left">J 31</td>
<td class="org-left">H 31</td>
<td class="org-left">I 33</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">E Psychic Crush<sub>14</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">J 7%<sub>10</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">I 10%<sub>8</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">H 14%<sub>3</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">G 16%<sub>2</sub></td>
<td class="org-left">F 27%<sub>1</sub></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
For example, if a fresh intellect devourer (modes C D/F G; 200 points) attacks a mind flayer (A/F G H; 280 points)) with Ego Whip (C), we can quickly see that the best defence option for the flayer is Mental Barrier (H) and the costs are 7 to the attacker and 6 to the defender.
</p>
<p>
The mind flayer obviously responds with its only attack option - psionic blast (A) to which the devourer’s best option is actually either F or G since they work out at the same cost. This comes to 20 for the attack and 29 defense cost
</p>
<p>
The totals for the segment are: flayer 20+6=26, and devourer 7+29=36.
</p>
<p>
At the start of the next segment the mind flayer has 256 points and the intellect devourer has 164.
</p>
<p>
<b>Note:</b> that I have altered the attack modes for both monsters. In both cases the text contradicts the summary and I have followed the text for various reasons.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org4780083">
<h2 id="org4780083"><span class="section-number-2">4.</span> Re-jigged IV. B PSIONIC ATTACK ON DEFENSELESS PSIONIC TABLE</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-4">
<p>
Simply use the table in DMG as-is but increase the attacker’s categories to 50 points as above and use the defender’s Psionic Ability (i.e., their original score).
</p>
<p>
The defender initially uses Psionic Ability to select the column, which is just the normal method. However, any points damage now reduce this Psionic Ability score as well as the target’s hit points, potentially moving the defender left on the table for later attacks. These lost points recover at the same rate as normal hit points but the only standard method for speeding this process is <i>heal</i>, which will restore all but 1-4 points.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
A character with a Psionic Ability score of 228 who has exhausted their Psionic Strength points is attacked with ego whip by an entity having a current Psionic Strength of 200. The defender loses 35 hit points and Psionic Ability is reduced to 193. A second attack costs 40, reducing them to 153. A third such attack will allow the attacker to possess them, turning them into a “robot”, assuming that they are still alive.
</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org8fcb7e0">
<h2 id="org8fcb7e0"><span class="section-number-2">5.</span> Nothing Surprises Me Anymore</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-5">
<p>
One apparent change from the OD&D system is that psionics are never surprised. They automatically throw up the best defence they can. This change came in after PHB was written and causes some of the text there to be erroneous.
</p>
<p>
As an optional rule, you could allow surprise but restrict the defender to using Mind Blank (or whatever their cheapest defence mode is).
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org7b69e25">
<h2 id="org7b69e25"><span class="section-number-2">6.</span> Great Minds Think Alike<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZaznpeC7NDddRG1kiU3tTlHV5UUEoT2A1IcWI-XhHWT1lLipdCIXG5et3Y-s0dWQXWoIX3ky42aLsgYP6GU-28WmBRsmdOBg2N3wGKdo1kX94R9488385IWJ6ptp6ZFFAt7si6I7FPsXrxDhCPyaz4hEyr2SmsYM2YGAp6lF4b0x3FiRZW8WTcvrv3-Y/s696/kirbyunimind.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="696" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZaznpeC7NDddRG1kiU3tTlHV5UUEoT2A1IcWI-XhHWT1lLipdCIXG5et3Y-s0dWQXWoIX3ky42aLsgYP6GU-28WmBRsmdOBg2N3wGKdo1kX94R9488385IWJ6ptp6ZFFAt7si6I7FPsXrxDhCPyaz4hEyr2SmsYM2YGAp6lF4b0x3FiRZW8WTcvrv3-Y/s320/kirbyunimind.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Incredible! A Jack Kirby head without a hat!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-6">
<p>
At the start of psionic combat, and potentially at the start of each <b>round</b> thereafter, a group of psionic beings who are able to physically link together may create a unimind - a psionic creation which engages in combat for the round.
</p>
<p>
One member is chosen from the group and the unimind has a psionic strength equal to this being plus 20% of each other prion in the group. Its modes are those of that individual plus any one (attack or defense) from each other member. If the points donated by others exceed the psionic <i>strength</i> of the nominated psion then s/he suffers 1hp damage for each point over. This may manifest as nose bleeds, throbing veins, static electricity sparks or anything else the DM feels looks good.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
If a character with an ability 150 psionic strength points remaining is boosted by 180 points to create a unimind with a strength of 230; that character will lose 30 hit points.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
The individual members can not be psionically attacked, although they may be the targets of disciplines as well as normal attacks and spells.
</p>
<p>
All psionic combat is carried out by the mind, which may use one attack mode and one defense mode per segment. The individuals may use a discipline but may not their modes independently.
</p>
<p>
When the mind is dissolved, all strength lost or expended by it is divided equally, with individual odd points distributed to the <i>weakest</i> figures first. Any figure reduced to less than zero psionic strength suffers hit point damage equal to the excess, and retains the negative score until normal point recovery restores them.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Three psionic characters with scores 90, 140, and 172 engage create a unimind centred on the strongest individual. Its psionic strength is 172+24+18=214 and its psionic modes are those of the central figure plus up to two more from the others.
</p>
<p>
After some psionic combat, the mind has expended 77 points and is reduced to 137. The 78 points are divided by 3, giving 25 and a remainder of 2. Final scores for the three figures are 90-25-1=64, 140-25-1=114, and 172-25=147.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
Note that, tactically, the unimind may not always be the best option as it can only make one attack per segment whereas, in this example, the group would be able to make 3 individually.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-orgb8d2326">
<h2 id="orgb8d2326"><span class="section-number-2"><br />7.</span> I’m in Two Minds about Demogorgon</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-7"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimPy2SLlLWaHDVUtjvsfm6lJvoBv8B6Zp4zvKwzG3av_-S3qdW24tpWE2GLLRmlZyEUgF7MqGMFbDlmLSUysuHbVg-BY-OQFIyhi3k31y_XU_Jyk2UCqkzrs7W5On5dmKM63ioOt008x3U_kDYkpRDvGSGN55yfH-iqx7ybciemYLIgTyivO-QIEb-I1I/s800/11.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="613" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimPy2SLlLWaHDVUtjvsfm6lJvoBv8B6Zp4zvKwzG3av_-S3qdW24tpWE2GLLRmlZyEUgF7MqGMFbDlmLSUysuHbVg-BY-OQFIyhi3k31y_XU_Jyk2UCqkzrs7W5On5dmKM63ioOt008x3U_kDYkpRDvGSGN55yfH-iqx7ybciemYLIgTyivO-QIEb-I1I/s320/11.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
<p>
The DMG (p79) says
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
It is possible to engage in only one psionic activity in addition in defense modes at a time, i.e., a psionic, while defending, could either attack or use a psionic discipline. It is never possible to attack and use a psionic discipline or to use two psionic disciplines simultaneously.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
Well, you say “never”, but Demogorgon has all modes and a psionic ability of 150 “<i>per head</i>”. I assume that the Big-D can in fact use two psionic disciplines simultaneously, or attack and defend with one head while performing a psionic discipline with the other. I personally would limit him to using each mode once - if both heads use psionic blast then he simply attacks at a power level of 300 instead of two attacks at 150, and at a cost of 20 rather than 40.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-orge0352d1">
<h2 id="orge0352d1"><span class="section-number-2">8.</span> Other Options/Thoughts</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-8">
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgdcd0c68">
<h3 id="orgdcd0c68">Open Your Mind</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgdcd0c68">
<p>
What if psionic-related spells and effects allowed an attracted psionic to attack the caster as if they were a defenceless psionic (assuming they’re not actually psionic)? That might make dealing with demons a bit tougher.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgc773bb2">
<h3 id="orgc773bb2"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1F9cUBzab4IIN6eIHlIzFRE8UHirEj7tRzLx4Iq7l4R63p0CrEq9j0R8r1uCwmbLhjJ-LOtPKDt-xDFzrR3gzixZLksetzX-j8ie-YF6wSbAxMEVHzu0ESd8G7SnO1T3-_j8BK9z2iYSyY_HjoYszBB8slfRT65QfvJ4-8yb4HL6Qt1rW7H5HGSdDInw/s480/latent.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1F9cUBzab4IIN6eIHlIzFRE8UHirEj7tRzLx4Iq7l4R63p0CrEq9j0R8r1uCwmbLhjJ-LOtPKDt-xDFzrR3gzixZLksetzX-j8ie-YF6wSbAxMEVHzu0ESd8G7SnO1T3-_j8BK9z2iYSyY_HjoYszBB8slfRT65QfvJ4-8yb4HL6Qt1rW7H5HGSdDInw/s320/latent.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Latent Psionic Ability</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgc773bb2">
<p>
Any character with an INT, WIS, or CHA score over 14 has a latent psionic ability. If some magic item increases any of these scores, even one well below this limit, the character may roll again for a chance to develop psionics. If the item’s effect is temporary then any such powers are lost again once the score(s) returns to normal.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org4d071e7">
<h3 id="org4d071e7">Remaining Problems</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org4d071e7">
<p>
There’s not enough variety in which modes are good. Really, you want B, G, and H unless you can get the big guns of E and J.
</p>
<p>
It’s difficult to make multiple-psions work in a good, stereotypical way that evokes book, comic, and film archetypes.</p></div></div></div><div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org198174a"><div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgdae4d7e">
</div>
</div>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-5035415185699047012023-03-18T15:58:00.001+00:002023-03-18T21:52:20.312+00:00What is the Moon Good For?<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6vjJYWtpNTblLSLUX1IyHjJ_jDDGIlLrxQ7-iZdAOK5BlpBQH4SHDWyfXjtDXKvj0ECyyL0hHkqEqspCt3VAuis0u-KtDPSfsyMfaQhaURepPa2Tbk02I6r5y0bk8G6yrb7ToAQAyCR6LRFYiJ9oeTM3RIqTplqfn8qDginapHNnZeOH5je4ePLLj/s512/00057-4024827294.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6vjJYWtpNTblLSLUX1IyHjJ_jDDGIlLrxQ7-iZdAOK5BlpBQH4SHDWyfXjtDXKvj0ECyyL0hHkqEqspCt3VAuis0u-KtDPSfsyMfaQhaURepPa2Tbk02I6r5y0bk8G6yrb7ToAQAyCR6LRFYiJ9oeTM3RIqTplqfn8qDginapHNnZeOH5je4ePLLj/s320/00057-4024827294.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />So, I recently discovered that the world upon which The City State of the Invincible Overlord (CSIO) is situated has two moons, according to the Necromancer edition of the setting. There’s nothing I know of in the original release to say that this is the case, but it’s not unlikely enough for me to reject it.
<p></p>
<p>
Partly this is because it never mattered.
</p>
<p>
Never mattered that there was a second moon in the sky? In decades (on and off) of play? If that’s the case, then does it matter if there’s even a single moon? What, in short, is the moon doing for us?
</p>
<p>
The reason is that at least one moon has an important game purpose - modulating lycanthropy. This is, of course, vitally important if any PC is afflicted with this curse, but also if the PCs know of an NPC with it.
</p>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-orgae9fbcd">
<h2 id="orgae9fbcd">Simulation Vs Gamism in Lunar Orbits</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orgae9fbcd">
<p>
I looked up the information and found that the “main” moon, Howla, had a period of 27 days and that the small one, Vannis, just 13.
</p>
<p>
Clearly <i>exactly</i> 27 days and <i>exactly</i> 13 days would be improbable to say the least. Since I was working on a calendar program (more of this in a later post) my first instinct was to add a small fraction of a day to each number. But on reflection I stuck with the unrealistic round numbers.
</p>
<p>
Adding fractions of a day to the lunar cycle may add realism but any such addition is subject to the hassle/reward ratio — is the hassle of adding some feature to the game world outweighed by the reward of how that feature improves the experience of playing the game. A hassle/reward ratio greater than one means you shouldn’t do it. Remember that the reward part includes both the players and the DM. Just because you personally love complicated calendars or weird languages doesn’t mean your players do too.
</p>
<p>
So, unless your group of players has <i>more</i> than a couple of astronomers in it, making lunar orbital periods non-integer is a bad idea. Leaving the numbers as exact values means that predicting the lunar phase is easy - easy on you, easy on the players. That makes it easy for you all to think about the implications of the passage of time. And in the case of a werewolf scenario, for example, the focus should be on the adventure and the werewolf, not working out how many hours 0.13 of a day is and trying to calculate backwards to previous reports of attacks over the last year. To hell with that!
</p>
<p>
Werewolves aside, there are plenty of functions related to the moon. Illumination is a big one - whether trying to travel into the night or trying to get into places unseen. Another one is religious, with many of the deities in D&DG having holy days linked to the phase of the moon. Which leads to quasi-religious things like demonic rituals which must be performed on a night with no or a full moon.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org950135c">
<h2 id="org950135c">Ambiguous Druids, Batman!</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org950135c">
<p>
The “official” relationship between druids and moons is a bit unclear. They are stated as worshipping the sun and moon - the combination of which creates the lunar phases, of course - and the sickles they use represent the moon. However, there is no reference to moons in the definitions of their material components. I would suggest that there should be some requirement in connection to lesser mistletoe.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-orga775d03">
<h2 id="orga775d03">Sailor Moon</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orga775d03">
<p>
A lesser usage for the moon is the fact that it controls the tides. This assumes, as I do, that at least one moon is as large as our own moon and has a similar effective gravitational field down on the surface of the parent planet.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-orgec12b5f">
<h2 id="orgec12b5f"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGG9oVfkhWsxpKcMc4DWR4TGl94zqB7nLC5qeXjkmNJ1ibV0R3-iWpHmwTsUwaftKtsh4SbwqpXbPhNSWZMb91gYLFflpxOghoWPcqr-jofgzCAU4Uxv4oAkvFs7tCLaCMzXRYK8xeMG_YDAcSwM2B-bR7p7UhkAI7OisQVCUF9gdi451Th64huRfT/s512/00068-1271633817.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGG9oVfkhWsxpKcMc4DWR4TGl94zqB7nLC5qeXjkmNJ1ibV0R3-iWpHmwTsUwaftKtsh4SbwqpXbPhNSWZMb91gYLFflpxOghoWPcqr-jofgzCAU4Uxv4oAkvFs7tCLaCMzXRYK8xeMG_YDAcSwM2B-bR7p7UhkAI7OisQVCUF9gdi451Th64huRfT/s320/00068-1271633817.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stable Diffusion displaying a weak grasp<br /> of lunar phases</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Luney Tunes</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orgec12b5f">
<p>
If one moon is good, useful, and pretty easy to use, then two is probably better, yes?
</p>
<p>
Well, yes! The two moons given for CSIO are pretty easy to track even with two of them and with two moons you can easily plan for special but rare effects like two full moons or nights with no moons at all. In the case of CSIO these two events happen once every 350 days (each) and so are likely to be once-in-a-year possibilities for all sorts of rituals and shenanigans. Again, the simple nature of integer lunar periods makes it fairly easy to predict these events and the DM can plan NPC actions ahead of time and players can attempt to predict them too.
</p>
<p>
With an annual event like this, there is potentially a lot at stake for PCs and NPCs alike - if the deadline is missed or a ritual interrupted there is a long time to wait for another chance.
</p>
<p>
I would suggest that in a world with two moons that druids’ Greater Mistletoe be linked to the night of the double full moon instead of the night of Midsummer.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org7fd58a8">
<h2 id="org7fd58a8">Priest of the Rising Moon</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org7fd58a8">
<p>
With two moons you could have a priesthood of clerics who’s spells are modified by the combined value of the moons. For example, as I write this the two moons of CSIO are at 77% and 35%, for a total of 112%. Spells could have their various parameters modified to reflect this (probably in bands - hassle/reward again), so that when the two moons are full their spells are twice as effective but when both are new they are powerless.
</p>
<p>
While this might be too much variation for a single-classed PC, it could be fun for an NPC cult or for multi-classed characters who are not completely dependant on their clerical abilities.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org16149e5">
<h2 id="org16149e5">The Dark Side of the Moon</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org16149e5">
<p>
A final thing about multiple moons is that they can eclipse each other and the sun. This is much harder to model than just the phases but with events this rare the DM could just handwave it by introducing an upcoming, or unanticpated, event as desired.
</p>
<p>
These sorts of events fit nicely with “The Stars are Right” scenarios where the stakes are even higher than they are for annual events. If someone stops the ritual tonight it might be centuries before it can be tried again!
</p>
<p>
That’s some thoughts on moons for now. Next time, or the time after, I’ll look at how this fits in with Gygax’s notion of why time is so important and how I know what phases the moons are over the City State of the Invincible Overlord.</p>
<p>
Yes - I’ll be looking at 1:1 time.
</p>
</div>
</div>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-89878312066237462512023-02-05T08:00:00.061+00:002023-02-05T08:00:00.226+00:00Encounter: Granny Grindle<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicQj1dWzrg4ZuNyNTbZfBw4EK9omG48ffTwZ_qvPWzRBxQ7ygGGQomBNBYSNRSM_YlSrmlTWQoAzt-ge92fXnPtlNQ2auwO68avGO6d8SG_omT-hkkSJVN4DaBRarczkeR4VKF0S_SBGMj1bWNvqsqQ9in_dJXjMdrLmvHHcHa782Q02e_eu-YQOle/s859/granny.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="859" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicQj1dWzrg4ZuNyNTbZfBw4EK9omG48ffTwZ_qvPWzRBxQ7ygGGQomBNBYSNRSM_YlSrmlTWQoAzt-ge92fXnPtlNQ2auwO68avGO6d8SG_omT-hkkSJVN4DaBRarczkeR4VKF0S_SBGMj1bWNvqsqQ9in_dJXjMdrLmvHHcHa782Q02e_eu-YQOle/s320/granny.jpg" width="274" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hooray - Granny's in Town!<br />Hide!<br />Art: Fritz Mock</td></tr></tbody></table><h2 style="text-align: left;">Granny Knows All</h2>"Granny" Grindle (AKA Granny Grind-Your-Bones, AKA Granny Tattle) is a greenhag who lives alone in the wild a few miles from the nearest village, in a turf cottage built in front of a cave on a mossy outcrop of rock which is accessed through a stout wooden door. She is evil, sure, but she has a weakness for knowledge which she hoards almost as obsessively as she does the bones of her many victims.<p></p><p>When divination has failed and sages have shrugged their shoulders, those that are desperate, foolish, or greedy enough might consult with Granny Grindle.</p><p>Granny has 39 hit points and a collection of what she calls "nicknacks". Most of these are in fact bones she's carved to pass the time, and quite a lot are folkitems - macrame, basketweave, and even knitted goods brought to Granny as offerings by people in the local area. These people she doesn't eat very often; she likes the status she has amongst them and their offerings of local gossip are worth more to her than jewels. She uses the information gathered to subtly stir up trouble in the local villages, stoking grudges and creating misunderstandings with carefully worded ambiguous statements which can never quite be proven to be malicious on her part. It's like a 200-year-old soap opera, and Granny loves her soaps.</p><p>"Outsiders", other than ogres and giants whom she enjoys the company of, are a different kettle of fish. A poor reaction roll will see them eaten before negotiations of any kind are opened. Assuming that a party approaches her with the intent to consult her and she doesn't take an instant dislike to them, then a fee may be arranged. Granny is a plot device, so her chance of knowing the answer to a question must be decided based on the DM's campaign and the nature of the question but generally it should be high if it deals with history or magic within about 100 miles. She should have a good chance to identify rare magic items too, again depending on the DM's conception of the campaign world. But assume that Granny has some supernatural sources of information.</p><p>Granny will generally work by giving a partial answer to show that she knows whatever it is a party is interested in, then demand that they agree to perform a task for them. If they refuse, she will kill them. If they agree she will use her special power <i>group quest</i> (1/week). This is like the normal <i>quest</i> spell (cleric, 5th level) but it will affect any number of creatures (of Int 3 or above which can understand the language of the demand) within 6" <u>who are willing</u>. The spell will dissolve if any member of the group fulfils the demand or of the demand becomes impossible (e.g., a quest to find and bring a certain person back to the caster will dissolve if that person dies). The members of the group will magically know if the quest is dissolved. The task is a single collective one - each member can not be assigned a different task even if they are related, for example each member may not be quested to retrieve a different part of the Rod of Seven Parts. Finally, the spell fails if the caster tries to change the quest from what was agreed; but otherwise there is no save. Other than this ability she has the normal powers of a greenhag.</p><p>Her demands are invariably one of two types:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Bring back some information about something or someone. She is willing to entertain suggestions about what she might like to learn about but she's always on the lookout for information about other hags and witches or anything about local nobility which might be good for blackmail.</li><li>The death of someone who crossed Granny and escaped. This includes people who found a way to break their quests, even if the spell was dissolved automatically for some reason. Granny only cares that they didn't come back with the results she demanded.</li></ol><div>Once the quest is fulfilled, of course, there is no ongoing obligation on either side. If Granny thinks that a person might perform other useful jobs, or is in fact a bit dangerous, then she will feign friendliness and bid them good day.</div><div><br /></div><div>Any outsider who seems unlikely to be of interest to Granny again will go in the pot for stew.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are using the previous post's map, I'd place her on the Copeland Island (Hex 0400).</div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Treasure</h3><div>Granny has some "real" treasure, mostly collected from the remains of those who ended up in the pot:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Coins</b></div><p></p><div>346 pp, 471 gp</div><div><div><br /></div><div><b>Gems</b></div><div>Blue Sapphire (1000 gp)</div><div>Chalcedony (50 gp)</div><div>Deep Green Spinel (100 gp)</div><div>Freshwater Pearl (10 gp)</div><div>Golden Yellow Topaz (500 gp)</div><div>Total value = 1660 gp</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Magic Items</b></div><div>Cubic Gate - 1: PMP, 2: Happy Hunting Grounds, 3: Seven Heavens, 4: Ether, 5: Nirvana, 6: Elysium (17500 gp)</div><div>Potion of Fire Resistance (400 gp)</div><div>Total value = 17900 gp</div><div><br /></div><div>Total value<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>21761 gp</div></div><div><br /></div><div>The cash is scattered about in little clay pots in the cottage; the gems are woven into dream-catchers in the windows along with lots of coloured glass and ceramic. Magic items are hidden in the cave behind various heaps of bones.</div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Appearance</h3><div>Granny generally looks like a little old human woman in dirty but normal clothing. However, she is habitually invisible when not in her cave/cottage, travelling around her domain using <i>pass without trace</i> and spying on locals to increase her knowledge. If she sees a party approaching she will (assuming that she doesn't just attack them) ensure that they encounter her in whatever form seems most likely to aid her negotiations within the restrictions of her <i>change self</i> power. She may appear as a human, halfling, or half-elf. She may even appear in her natural form if she thinks it will help put the party on the back-foot.</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Tactics</h3><div>All discussions will take place outside the cottage in an area around a cauldron with tree-stumps for seats. She will insist on everyone sitting and she will sit with her back to the open woods, not the cottage. She's been nearly cornered in the past and will not let herself be pushed into a confined space.</div><div><br /></div><div>If negotiations break down or Granny feels that something is amiss, she will turn invisible and then use <i>pass without trace</i> and her <i>90% move silently ability</i> to quickly withdraw and evaluate the options. Her preference will be to pick off a party one at a time but her surprise chance will be only 1-4 against a party who have seen her turn invisible and are expecting trouble. </div><div><br /></div><div>Her terrible strength is her main weapon and if she is able to surprise a target without a helm from behind each successful attack with her clenched fists during surprise will do 6 damage and result in unconsciousness if she succeeds in a roll on the assassination table. If there is no one within 12", an unconscious victim will have their throat cut (instant 0hp and bleeding out). Note that any attack negates her <i>invisibility</i>, but once she has resumed that she may mimic the dead figure's voice to lure others into her grasp.</div><div><br /></div><div>Granny is particularly deadly against humans at night.</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Location</h3><div>Granny will be found just on the edge between inhabitation and wilderness; a few miles from the nearest village just inside a forest or scrubland. Maybe on an island that can be reached by rowboat without too much danger. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you are using <a href="the previous post's" target="_blank">the previous post's</a> map, I'd place her on Copeland Island (Hex 0400).</div><div><br /></div><div>Don't forget that a greenhag can swim as fast as an unencumbered human can walk and can <i>breath water</i>.</div>Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-69544873686209403032023-02-02T22:24:00.006+00:002023-02-07T16:37:09.284+00:00Getting started, thinking small<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNL0azCxRtV9NlFychnLpZd8HdPNUGQ9JkTJE8QDP_Suv1FCbhAghPUiRZCQPhzGl69MUbUyJtkMJAxcDTZfksva2TmsWCwt0d3F_ZmPs8qUDYr8Hvm8esZ1VeJ-rk1qe9MiBNVB-zGQj4Nan9McrF8rr5rdMz1ucncogaMbBVtFDzadwSEGBBhE1/s400/nieblogthumb.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="283" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNL0azCxRtV9NlFychnLpZd8HdPNUGQ9JkTJE8QDP_Suv1FCbhAghPUiRZCQPhzGl69MUbUyJtkMJAxcDTZfksva2TmsWCwt0d3F_ZmPs8qUDYr8Hvm8esZ1VeJ-rk1qe9MiBNVB-zGQj4Nan9McrF8rr5rdMz1ucncogaMbBVtFDzadwSEGBBhE1/s320/nieblogthumb.png" width="226" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://nagorascorner.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-hex-map-of-ancient-greece.html" target="_blank">Last time</a>, I uploaded a map of the area we normally think of as constituting what we call "Ancient Greece" - a designation that the people living there may have struggled to understand given that they so rarely thought of themselves as being anything other than rivals until Alexander the Great rolled in and told them all to shut up. After he died, of course, they went back to not thinking of themselves as one nation until the Romans rolled in and told them all to shut up and pay their taxes.<p></p><p>Anyway.</p><p>That map is fairly typical of a small campaign map. For comparison, the individual map sheets in Judges Guild's seminal Wilderlands campaign are each about ⅙th the size of the Greek map in area, but there were 18 of them in the full campaign, which comes out at 3 times the area. The famous Darlene Greyhawk maps cover about 10% more than that again. So our "Ancient Greece" campaign is not exceptional but it <i>is</i> a massive geographical area to cover. If you are starting out running a campaign, this sort of thing can be very intimidating. Where to start?</p><p>Let's have a look at a smaller map - the one used in the thumbnail above. There's <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hSWSfXSEu0J_ONTCDVxXkU6KHsbFTynW/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">a jpeg of this map</a> scaled so that it will fill an A3 sheet at 300dpi (or A4 at 424dpi).</p><p>The hex size on this map is 6 miles face-to-face (the size of the <i>small</i> hexes on the Greek map) and it is a very special map because it is the map I live on. But more than that. It is the map:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I was born on (hex 0201)</li><li>My parents lived on when I was very small (0101)</li><li>I went to school on (0301)</li><li>I was legally married on (0301 again)</li><li>We had our wedding reception on (0304)</li><li>I had my first programming job on (0101)</li><li>And, as mentioned, we now live on (in a specific hex with almost no other inhabitation, so I'm keeping that to myself)</li></ul><div>I <i>have</i> lived and worked away from this map - I recently returned after 10 years in England - but my parents only left it - ever* - for holidays and my grandparents maybe only even did that once or twice.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since I've spent a lot of time on this map I can tell you something useful about it: those 6m hexes are <b>huge</b>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even with modern motorised transport and decades of living here, there are entire hexes on this map I have never passed through and many places in the hexes I have which I have never seen or visited. This is a map you could explore on foot for a lifetime.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>This little map of 22 hexes is in fact big enough for a campaign</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>At this point, I suggest you try to make a similar map for where you live now. At A3 size, the scale is 1"=2m, or 1:126720. If you use <a href="https://www.qgis.org/en/site/" target="_blank">QGIS</a> and save an area to that scale from the Open Street Map dataset (included) as an image you can import the image into <a href="https://inkscape.org/" target="_blank">Inkscape</a> and add the hexes with the <a href="https://github.com/lifelike/hexmapextension">Inkscape Hex Map Extension</a>. Be aware that the extension currently takes "hex size" to be point-to-point, so you need to give it sizes which are 1.155 times what you would expect to.</div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJiMu7q8GIPqmf5ABn4VRsJR0ao-LHIPpF_D3lT-5U2AP0h1BpnHG0p1PmZbeKPO4tDr1sdCx598VZVw1595YMAlLxpONkgEfB--kp_eK2te4MEWMZeBAyzu_biZ1xweA4Lz-GRq0aByxrZsZj4S8yeTqjXO8xL0W7AWC-0JxLV9lEAoj3ItYD2wn1/s478/cueball.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJiMu7q8GIPqmf5ABn4VRsJR0ao-LHIPpF_D3lT-5U2AP0h1BpnHG0p1PmZbeKPO4tDr1sdCx598VZVw1595YMAlLxpONkgEfB--kp_eK2te4MEWMZeBAyzu_biZ1xweA4Lz-GRq0aByxrZsZj4S8yeTqjXO8xL0W7AWC-0JxLV9lEAoj3ItYD2wn1/s320/cueball.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even searching a sea hex takes time.<br />(It took me about an hour and a half to track this<br />bloody image down and I'm not sure it was worth it).<br />Art: Don Simpson's Megaton Man</td></tr></tbody></table><br />If you do that then you will immediately see what I can see on this map - finding something the size of, say, a tomb in one of those hexes is going to be bloody hard unless the tomb is <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/mausoleum-halikarnassos" target="_blank">Mausolus's</a> or the hex is made of flat glass, or you have magic.</div><div><br /></div><div>Going back to the post "<a href="https://nagorascorner.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-lorry-load-of-sand.html" target="_blank">A Lorry-Load of Sand</a>" from last year, I would guess that most of the hexes on this map would have been forest with the exception of the Ards Peninsula (running south from 0401) which would have been, in ye olden time, forested hills; 0101 would be forested hills and marsh (plus sea). Civilisation/patrolled would have been basically restricted to 0104, 0204, 0205, 0301, 0302, and 0305 (Belfast is a very new city, if you're wondering about that large conurbation in hexes 0101/0102 on the modern map).</div><div><br /></div><div>If we plug in the details to the sandbox generator and selecting only plains, forest, hills, marsh, and shallow salt sea we get (seed 3645131196):</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>0101 3 forest lairs, 0 marsh, and 1 salt water shallow lair. I've divided the results from the table to reflect the distribution of terrains. All plain wilderness.</li><li>0102 3 forest lairs, wilderness.</li><li>0103 I'm classing as patrolled and we get no lairs</li><li>0104 is densely populated and we get no lairs again.</li><li>0105 is patrolled and we get 2 forest lairs.</li><li>0106 is patrolled, 1 forest lair.</li><li>0201 (hex 7 on the table) is sparsely populated hills (Craigantlet) with no lairs.</li><li>0202 is wild forest with 2 lairs.</li><li>0203 is sparsely populated forest with 1 lair.</li><li>0204 is densely populated and probably plains (Downpatrick area), so no lair.</li><li>0205 is half populated hills and half patrolled (fishing boats and traders for Dundrum) shallow sea, giving us 1 sea lair (I rounded up).</li><li>0301 (hex 12) is the area around what will one day be Bangor abbey/monastery and is basically populated hills, with no lairs.</li><li>0302 is about half and half sea lough and hills, busy enough to count as densely populated. No lairs.</li><li>0303 is unpopulated low-lying forest, no lairs.</li><li>0304 is semi-populated and divided between plain and shallow sea. 1 lair on the land.</li><li>0305 is semi-populated woodland, 1 lair.</li><li>0306 is shallow sea. Semi-populated by boats trading up and down the coast (and some actual patrols to protect them). One lair.</li><li>0401 (hex 18) semi-populated sea and hills. One lair in the hills.</li><li>0402 unpopulated forested hills and patrolled shallow sea. 2 forest lairs (4 indicated, halved), no sea lairs.</li><li>0403 as 0402 with 1 forest lair.</li><li>0404 same again but no lairs at all, and finally.</li><li>0405 open shallow sea with nothing in it.</li></ul><div>That's a total of 20 lairs in total.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>What are the lairs? Let's develop one of these hexes and see. Things will depend on your mix of acceptable monsters for your campaign, of course, but for hex 0101 four rolls on the DMG temperate tables for forest and salt water gives:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Tribesmen (20)</li><li>Pseudo-dragon (1)</li><li>Shambling mound (2: 11 HD and 9 HD)</li><li>Giant shark (1: 11 HD) </li></ol><div>The giant shark doesn't actually lair and technically I should have re-rolled (just as I did for the merchants I rolled for #1) but I decided that perhaps this shark just patrols here a lot. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>Why does it patrol here a lot? Well, maybe those (Celtic) tribesmen are doing something. Let's look at them in detail.</div><div><br /></div><div>The base 20 is augmented by another 20 women and 20 children, so that's 60 in the tribe. There is also (some of this is rolled, some is a set number from the MM text): two 3rd level fighters, a 4th level fighter, and a 5th level chief. Additionally, two 4th level "druids" under the leadership of an 8th level witchdoctor (also druidic). There's 20 slaves, but no captives.</div><div><br /></div><div>They have ivory - probably walrus or perhaps whale products like narwal horns - worth 4,000gp. The village itself is just a bunch of huts; there is no wall of any sort</div><div><br /></div><div>The slaves will be a mix of tribal taboo-breakers and useful captives from other tribes. </div><div><br /></div><div>The 5th level fighter leading them has stats that look like this (from <a href="https://nagorascorner.blogspot.com/2022/09/more-iv.html" target="_blank">More IV</a>):</div><div><br /></div><div>Str: 18</div><div>Int: 6</div><div>Wis: 15, Alignment Neutral</div><div>Con: 12, hp 37</div><div>Dex: 12, AC 7</div><div>Cha: 15<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Com: 16</div><div><br /></div><div>Basically, a charismatic lunkhead. Presumably the witchdoctor is the brains. Let's look at him:</div><div><br /></div><div>Str: 16</div><div>Int: 12</div><div>Wis: 17, Alignment LN</div><div>Con: 8, hp 50</div><div>Dex: 10, AC 7</div><div>Cha: 7</div><div>Com: 12</div><div><br /></div><div>Yes - everything you'd want in a leader except no one likes him.</div><div><br /></div><div>So let's say that they have no normal captives because they worship the giant shark and normally captives get sacrificed to him. Having run out they're on the lookout for someone else to sacrifice. The slaves know that they'll be next if no one else is found, so their reaction dice to strangers will be at -20% in terms of rebelling. The full tribal members will be even worse at -30%. However, they will deliberately hide it.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've always assumed that the indication of "druidic" casters in tribesmen does not necessarily mean that the casters are strictly druids with druid alignment restrictions, so I would definitely go with a <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRKaAiBy-Go" target="_blank">Wicker Man</a></i> or <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI2oS2hoL0k" target="_blank">Burn the Witch</a></i> feel.</div><div><br /></div><div>The shambling mounds will be in the marshes where the river flows out into the tidal mudflats - the area which has extensively been reclaimed and modified on the modern map. They - or the remains of their victims - are rich in treasure:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>1000 cp,</li><li>Jewelry (4): 7000 gp Seal, 3000 gp Chain, 2000 gp Crown, 2000 gp Buckle,</li><li>Scroll of Protection - Electricity, </li><li>Spell Scroll (Magic User: Transmute Rock to Mud, Mass Charm, Mass Invisibility, Glassteel, Cone of Cold, Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer),</li><li>Bracers of Archery, </li><li>Potion of Speed</li></ul></div><div>The pseudo-dragon might be an ally against the tribesmen due to its N(G) alignment, but even if a party hears a rumour of such a thing existing how would they find a 1½' long creature in a 6 MILE hex which is, as mentioned previously, bloody huge? They would need magic, of course.</div><div><br /></div><div>In any case, its treasure consists of gems:</div><div><br /></div><div>2 x Aquamarine (500 gp), Black Pearl (500 gp), 2 x Bloodstone (50 gp), Blue Quartz (10 gp), Carnelian (50 gp), Deep Blue Spinel (500 gp), Fiery Yellow Corundum (1000 gp), Freshwater Pearl (10 gp), Lapis Lazuli (10 gp), 2 x Red-brown Spinel (100 gp), Tourmaline (100 gp), Turquoise (10 gp), 2 x Zircon (50 gp) for a total of 3590gp.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, there it is. A small campaign map into which to place your first dungeon and a hex fleshed out with some tougher opponents for later. Roll up the rest of the encounters, add a few settlements (I'd go with 0204 for the major one) and maybe a patron sending the party on their first expedition.</div><div><br /></div><div>Get a ring binder or some electronic equivalent (or my <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-worthington/campaign-mapbook-i/paperback/product-20008346.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Campaign Map Book</a>!) and use a page for each hex, noting down what the PCs do in each which may affect other inhabitants and their views and actions in response.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you can, once the ball is rolling get someone to role-play the leaders of particularly strong lairs - whether large groups of bandits or individual intelligent monsters. Then you'll get some use out of all those hexes you rolled up and someone else will do some of the work for you!</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">*Actually, Dad was evacuated during the war off the top of the map, but that was a bit exceptional.</span></div><p></p>Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-18020131398811325682023-01-28T12:48:00.008+00:002023-02-02T22:21:29.617+00:00A Hex Map of Ancient Greece<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJmdnoL3hU9rFKqRfGabx9ER4sd9wQBuApVKAZegNuDCFLpwWsTPfCkVKBEAVikXBxKgU6oIj22YIOqsqMDIOm9gi9sciT9f31cBpo-h0ekOPgCkBXF9gwMfsglm_1nVkqn_5E9QqBp56wJFGsMuXv3ym3bpxYz82Z95eZh4Ghvgiaqchq_dqbD2Yi/s555/thisissparta.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Hex Map Showing Sparta Location" border="0" data-original-height="509" data-original-width="555" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJmdnoL3hU9rFKqRfGabx9ER4sd9wQBuApVKAZegNuDCFLpwWsTPfCkVKBEAVikXBxKgU6oIj22YIOqsqMDIOm9gi9sciT9f31cBpo-h0ekOPgCkBXF9gwMfsglm_1nVkqn_5E9QqBp56wJFGsMuXv3ym3bpxYz82Z95eZh4Ghvgiaqchq_dqbD2Yi/w200-h183/thisissparta.png" title="This is Sparta!" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is Sparta!</td></tr></tbody></table><br />I was tinkering and put together <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/10disQ6nrXSa_f2rDYUus1VtzeZDz9KkN/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">this hex map</a> of the area we usually call Ancient Greece (download it; it's a lot better than the preview makes it look). Not everything - Crete is probably the biggest missing part, but also the northern area, including Thessalonika. And of course there's nothing of the Italian/Sicilian colonies to the west which everyone always forgets about.<p></p><p>The big hexes are 36miles and inside them are 6 mile hexes (don't forget: a 6 mile hex is still 20,000 acres).</p><p>The map itself is the size of a single index mapsheet in my <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-worthington/campaign-mapbook-i/paperback/product-20008346.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Campaign Map Book</a> by sheer luck rather than intent. But the 6:1 ratio is ideal for that if you fancy splashing some cash my way.</p><p>Here's a little index for the map which I'll try to update from time to time:</p><br />
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Place</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Type</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Hex</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Argos</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0607</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Athens</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0807</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Corinth</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0607</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Delos</td>
<td class="org-left">Island</td>
<td class="org-right">1108</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Delphi</td>
<td class="org-left">Temple</td>
<td class="org-right">0506</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Elis</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0307</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Elusis</td>
<td class="org-left">Temple</td>
<td class="org-right">0806</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ephesus</td>
<td class="org-left">City/Wonder</td>
<td class="org-right">1606</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Halicarnassus</td>
<td class="org-left">City/Wonder</td>
<td class="org-right">1609</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lindos</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">1811</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Marathon</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0806</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Megalopolis</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0408</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Messene</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0408</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Mt Olympus</td>
<td class="org-left">Mountain</td>
<td class="org-right">0502</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Mycenae</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0607</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Olympia</td>
<td class="org-left">Temple/Wonder</td>
<td class="org-right">0308</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Plataea</td>
<td class="org-left">Site</td>
<td class="org-right">0706</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Pylos</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0409</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Rhodes</td>
<td class="org-left">City/Wonder</td>
<td class="org-right">1810</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Sparta</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0509</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tegea</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0508</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Thebes</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">0706</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Therea</td>
<td class="org-left">Volcano</td>
<td class="org-right">1210</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Troy</td>
<td class="org-left">City</td>
<td class="org-right">1302</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div><br /></div><div>It's sometimes hard to decide when something is a city or a temple complex so take the "Type" column with a pinch of salt. Also, Corinth is very near the place where three hexes join so I might be wrong there.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, the background map is of course a modern map from <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=8/37.684/25.043" target="_blank">OpenStreetMap</a> and while at this scale changes in coastlines are mostly invisible, I would point out that there was historically no bridge between the western Peloponnese and the mainland and it certainly would not have been called the A5.</div><div><br /></div><div>I say "mostly" invisible because there is some controversy over the location of Ithica - Odysseus' home. The modern island of Kephalonia has two clear regions - an east and western "lobe". It has been suggested that the western of these was the original Ithica and the channel between the islands was filled in by a combination of uplift and huge landslides caused by earthquakes. </div><div><br /></div><div>I actually went to the bother of going there and having a look myself and, especially from the air, it is clear that there has been <i>very</i> significant landslipping and there is plenty of evidence - and indeed modern records of - land uplift by really strong earthquakes. There is a major fault complex where three tectonic plates meet just to the west/southwest of the island.</div><div><br /></div><div>So I'd say it's likely that these were two islands in the past, possibly even the historical past if Scrabo's text about a shallow channel is definitely referring to this location. But that of course does not mean that the western area (now called Paliki) was then called Ithica. However, the modern Ithica bears no resemblance to the low-lying island good for horses which Homer describes. Unless "good for horses" means that it's ideal for watching them fall over cliffs or roll down precipitous slopes into the sea.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, I mention all this mainly because it illustrates that the area is active enough that a detailed modern map can in fact be an inaccurate guide to the ancient landscape described in stories. We're sort of used to the idea that rivers move about over time. Not so much islands.</div>Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-41361303872637441432022-12-29T21:03:00.001+00:002022-12-29T21:03:22.152+00:00The Duty of Good<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMvrhdMwpTWE6g0by_tsxbmLFBp0qJVRnL02Wct2trRYMV2GMGxX4zX3rXQki47XfNEaIz2RkH6B9GEBqZLWjgkY04pjC9DdQkSa4C1yX9d66OuoTEKLaUhOFMmtzlNQQYnBWodhTeK1tRRsjjnJ6Vf8P9fK1Q_EPsq21cY79e4gdjv2mGWXqI329m/s600/rengoku.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMvrhdMwpTWE6g0by_tsxbmLFBp0qJVRnL02Wct2trRYMV2GMGxX4zX3rXQki47XfNEaIz2RkH6B9GEBqZLWjgkY04pjC9DdQkSa4C1yX9d66OuoTEKLaUhOFMmtzlNQQYnBWodhTeK1tRRsjjnJ6Vf8P9fK1Q_EPsq21cY79e4gdjv2mGWXqI329m/s320/rengoku.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This excerpt from the <a href="https://hmv.com/store/film-tv/blu-ray/demon-slayer-mugen-train" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Demon Slayer movie “Mugen Train”</a> is a discussion between a demon-slayer in training and his mother. Mostly it is the mother talking except for the part in italics. Her explanation of her son’s duty is a neat encapsulation of what Good in AD&D is about:<p></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Do you know why it is you were born with greater strength than so many others?
</p>
<p>
<i>Uh… no, ma’am, I don’t.</i>
</p>
<p>
It is so that you can protect the weak.
</p>
<p>
Those who are born blessed with more bountiful gifts than others are obligated to use those gifts for the sake of the world, for all of our fellow brothers and sisters.
</p>
<p>
You must never use that God-given strength to bring harm to mankind or for your own selfish desires.
</p>
<p>
It is the duty of those born strong to help those who may be less fortunate, a responsibility you must carry onward with due purpose.
</p>
<p>
Be sure you never forget that.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
Good and Evil in AD&D is framed in the context of the strong and the weak. This can be missed but references to strength and weakness appear in the summaries for Chaotic Evil, Neutral Evil, and Lawful Evil. The Good alignments are not described in these terms but more by what the outcomes should be - “bringing life, happiness, and prosperity to all deserving creature” and similar. But the implications inherent in being the opposite of Evil are clear enough.
</p>
<p>
We could perhaps imagine a demon mother advising her child:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Do you know why it is you were born with greater strength than so many others?
</p>
<p>
<i>Uh… no, ma’am, I don’t.</i>
</p>
<p>
It is so that you can prevent the weak and undeserving from usurping what is rightfully yours.
</p>
<p>
Those who are born with fewer gifts than others are obligated to use what little they have for the sake of their betters, for the strong.
</p>
<p>
You must never believe that there is anything wrong with using your God-given strength to bring "harm" to weaklings or for your own desires.
</p>
<p>
It is the duty of those born strong to keep those who may be less fortunate in their places, a responsibility you must carry onward with due purpose.
</p>
<p>
Be sure you never forget that.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
I think when looked at in these terms, the question of whether Lawful Good is “more Good” than Chaotic Good is shown to be the non-sequeter that it is. The paladin and the CG thief are clear on what Good is trying to do. They differ, essentially, on political grounds about how to achieve that goal.</p>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-56462174037484176972022-10-15T16:57:00.007+01:002022-10-15T17:07:04.303+01:00D&DG Worshippers 8: Finns<h2 style="text-align: left;">Finnish Worshippers</h2><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQi_o318x_vDXuL63gWu5vO3h1oY36_GiYOPhbq7DW7tPK1FoenPKVPH8nR8L9cO_AvNSdEq8NicIyGOuL-PjVZfTNu_x-BMiZUTKcTqDLY5Jrc0g-MqDQbw5nSZZjVcq_LGUFrI-239AEZhPv9lRZpUJdSQwTkajVkg1H81GV7b1ZfMnjtvP8rV0i/s1170/v%C3%A4in%C3%B6m%C3%A4inen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="593" data-original-width="1170" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQi_o318x_vDXuL63gWu5vO3h1oY36_GiYOPhbq7DW7tPK1FoenPKVPH8nR8L9cO_AvNSdEq8NicIyGOuL-PjVZfTNu_x-BMiZUTKcTqDLY5Jrc0g-MqDQbw5nSZZjVcq_LGUFrI-239AEZhPv9lRZpUJdSQwTkajVkg1H81GV7b1ZfMnjtvP8rV0i/w400-h203/v%C3%A4in%C3%B6m%C3%A4inen.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Men! Amiritegirls?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Another pantheon without gods for thieves, but plenty of support for bards so possibly best to use that column. Finnish monks probably just don't exist.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Encounter</td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Cleric</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Druid</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Fighter</b></td>
<td class="org-left"><b>Ranger</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Paladin</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Magic-user</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Illusionist</b></td>
<td class="org-left"><b>Thief</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Assassin</b></td>
<td class="org-left"><b>Monk</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Bard</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ahto</td>
<td class="org-right">1-6</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-20</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-9</td>
<td class="org-right">1-10</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Hiisi</td>
<td class="org-right">7-15</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">21-44</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">11-19</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-38</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">11-26</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ilmatar</td>
<td class="org-right">16-22</td>
<td class="org-right">1-17</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-33</td>
<td class="org-right">10-22</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">27-35</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Kiputytto</td>
<td class="org-right">23-30</td>
<td class="org-right">18-35</td>
<td class="org-right">45-51</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">23-31</td>
<td class="org-right">20-29</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Louhi</td>
<td class="org-right">31-36</td>
<td class="org-right">36-48</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">32-41</td>
<td class="org-right">30-36</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Loviatar</td>
<td class="org-right">37-43</td>
<td class="org-right">49-64</td>
<td class="org-right">52-59</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">42-47</td>
<td class="org-right">37-45</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">39-63</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">36-46</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Mielikki</td>
<td class="org-right">44-51</td>
<td class="org-right">65-82</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left">1-40</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">48-55</td>
<td class="org-right">46-53</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">47-58</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Surma</td>
<td class="org-right">52-59</td>
<td class="org-right">83-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left">41-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">56-62</td>
<td class="org-right">54-61</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">64-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tuonetar</td>
<td class="org-right">60-68</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">63-75</td>
<td class="org-right">62-74</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">59-64</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tuono</td>
<td class="org-right">69-80</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">60-84</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">76-84</td>
<td class="org-right">75-84</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">65-74</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ukko</td>
<td class="org-right">81-91</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">34-100</td>
<td class="org-right">85-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">75-90</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Untamo</td>
<td class="org-right">92-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">85-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">85-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">91-100</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><br />
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-64890149290817962462022-09-17T17:44:00.013+01:002022-10-15T16:59:59.531+01:00More IV<style>@media print{.noprint{display:none}}</style>
<div class=noprint>
<p>I <a href="https://nagorascorner.blogspot.com/2012/08/in-praise-of-iv.html" target="_blank">still love method IV</a> and the little webpage I mention in that other article has had some success/praise and quite a lot of usage from other people who like a bit of ivy. However, that page runs on my personal computer here at home and I am due to move. Overdue, in fact. Very overdue.<p>Anyway, the point is that my computer will go offline for a while so I thought I'd move the utility up to this site instead. So here it is, complete with a new feature: you can ask for sets that qualify by race instead of class. Enjoy and let me know if there's any bugs</p>
<P><B>Note</B> that I still use the OD&D order for ability scores.
<table border=1>
<tr><td>Qualify by:</td><td><input type=radio id='qualC' value='C' name='qualifyby' checked=true><label for='qualC'>Class</label> <input type=radio id='qualR' value='R' name='qualifyby'>Race</label></td></tr>
<tr><td>Two 15s:</td><td><input type=checkbox id=two15s checked></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td><input type=button id="gobtnIV" value="Go" onclick="ivy.go()"></td></tr>
</table>
</div><p id="resultIV"></p>
<script>
outputareaIV=document.getElementById("resultIV");
ivy={
go:function()
{
var count=0;
var tries=0;
var nofifteens=0;
var qualR=ischecked("qualR");
var qualifications;
console.log("Go!");
if(ischecked('two15s')) nofifteens=2;
output="<table border=1 width='100%'>\n";
output+="<tr>"+asCells(['Set','Str','Int','Wis','Con','Dex','Cha','Com',(qualR)? 'Demi-human':'Classes'],true)+"</tr>\n";
lines=[];
do
{
count++;
output+="<tr><td>"+count+'</td>';
do
{
all='';
set=[];
fifteen=0;
five=0;
tries++;
for(n=1;n<7;n++)
{
a=score();
if(a>14) fifteen++;
if(a<6) five++;
set[n]=a;
}
qualifications=qualifies(set);
}while(fifteen<nofifteens || five>1 || qualifications.length==0);
// comeliness doesn't count towards 15's or 5's
set[7]=comeliness();
output+=asCells(set);
output+='<td>'+qualifications.join(', ')+'</td>'+"<tr>\n";
}while(count<12);
output+="</table>\n";
output+="<P>"+tries+"\n";
if(qualR)
{
output+='<P>D=Dwarf, E=Elf, G=Gome, ½=Half-Elf, H=Halfling, O=Half-Orc</p>';
output+="<p>Race qualifications allow for the fact that race is picked before racial bonuses are applied so, for example, a dwarf can be played with a rolled constitution of 11.\n";
output+="<P>I have not limited race by scores which are too <strong>high</strong>, so beware of that when picking a particularly great set of scores as any over the racial limits will have to be reduced.\n";
}
else
{
output+="<P>Letters represent the classes which the set qualifies for (before race mods) - 'M' is magic user, 'm' is monk.\n";
}
output+="<P>Each set of ability scores qualifies for at least one class/race.\n<P>Comliness includes the charisma modifiers from UA.\n<p>The number at the end of the list is the number of sets rolled to produce the list of 12.";
outputareaIV.innerHTML=output;
function ischecked(itemID)
{
return document.getElementById(itemID).checked;
}
function score()
{
var t=0;
t+=toint(Math.random()*6)+1;
t+=toint(Math.random()*6)+1;
t+=toint(Math.random()*6)+1;
return t;
}
function toint(n)
{
return n | 0;
}
function comeliness()
{
var com=score();
c=this.set[6]; // Cha
if(c==3) return com-5;
if(c<6) return com-3;
if(c<9) return com-1;
if(c<13) return com;
if(c<16) return com+1;
if(c<18) return com+2;
return com+3;
}
function asCells(a,header=false)
{
var result='';
for(var i=0;i<a.length;i++)
{
if(a[i] !== undefined)
{
if(header)
{
result+='<th>'+a[i]+'</th>';
}
else
{
result+='<td>'+a[i]+'</td>';
}
}
}
return result;
}
function rnd()
{
return Math.random();
}
function qualifies(set)
{
if(qualR)
{
return raceq(set);
}
else
{
return classq(set);
}
}
function classq(set)
{
var q=[];
if(comparel([6,6,9,6,3,6],set)) q.push('C');
if(comparel([6,6,12,6,6,15],set)) q.push('D');
if(comparel([9,3,6,7,6,6],set)) q.push('F');
if(comparel([12,9,13,9,6,17],set)) q.push('P');
if(comparel([13,13,14,14,6,6],set)) q.push('R');
if(comparel([3,9,6,6,6,6],set)) q.push('M');
if(comparel([6,15,6,3,16,6],set)) q.push('I');
if(comparel([6,6,3,6,9,6],set)) q.push('T');
if(comparel([12,11,6,6,12,3],set)) q.push('A');
if(comparel([15,6,15,11,15,6],set)) q.push('m');
// if(comparel([6,9,6,6,12,12,15],set)) q.push('H');
if(comparel([15,12,15,10,15,15],set)) q.push('B!!!!');
return q;
}
function raceq(set)
{
var q=[];
if(comparel([8,3,3,11,3,4],set)) q.push('D');
if(comparel([3,8,3,7,6,8],set)) q.push('E');
if(comparel([6,7,3,8,7,3],set)) q.push('G');
if(comparel([3,4,3,6,6,3],set)) q.push('½');
if(comparel([6,6,3,10,6,3],set)) q.push('H');
if(comparel([5,3,3,12,3,5],set)) q.push('O');
return q;
}
function comparel(requirements,scores)
{
for(var i=1;i<7;i++)
{
if(scores[i]<requirements[i-1])
{
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
}
};
</script>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-780330241624778142022-06-11T10:43:00.008+01:002022-06-11T10:44:51.250+01:00D&DG Worshippers 7: Egyptians
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; width:auto"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EMvrPMVuhku1LTc9EozsM_2DSZKVUp0F9YcePRnkcy5mhqY8qm8pMN52a7WYQDVGAnWbxswj3TRq3kuFIJdR0hCRqH_h_JEwHk8WWpS6Z-0kph1y6nGS5fWc4f7s6T5iE38FY1gTCYn9aWusMr5nkzT5XCm35hkVUznog58LYLDyf78j4mhRNE9P/s564/thothset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Thoth and Set. Or is it?" border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EMvrPMVuhku1LTc9EozsM_2DSZKVUp0F9YcePRnkcy5mhqY8qm8pMN52a7WYQDVGAnWbxswj3TRq3kuFIJdR0hCRqH_h_JEwHk8WWpS6Z-0kph1y6nGS5fWc4f7s6T5iE38FY1gTCYn9aWusMr5nkzT5XCm35hkVUznog58LYLDyf78j4mhRNE9P/w178-h200/thothset.jpg" title="Thoth & Set" width="178" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Art: <a href="https://inonibird.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Inonibird@tumblr</a></td></tr></tbody></table>Egyptian Worshippers</h2><div>The first of three biggies this week: The Egyptian pantheon, which will be followed by Finnish and then Greek. Between them they probably cover about two thirds of non-homespun pantheons in use by AD&D DMs, with Norse covering most of the remainder.</div><div><br /></div><div>The table has some interesting aspects. If you meet an Egyptian paladin there is a surprising number of possible patron deities s/he may be following, but a ranger on the other hand is always a follower of Osiris. Thieves are all devoted to Bes. There's also a wide range of options for illusionists, although dominated by Set and Thoth, which is a very Conanesque rivalry.</div><div><br /></div><div>The lack of clerics for certain deities is a little surprising too - Horus in particular. This is something we've seen before in other pantheons using this method, but in the case of Horus we can at least imagine that the paladins of Horus serve that purpose and perhaps the DM could make a slightly expanded paladin variant which has more extensive clerical spell casting abilities. Alternatively, multi-classing could be allowed even for humans providing one class is cleric for a deity not listed.</div><div><br /></div><table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Encounter</td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Cleric</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Druid</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Fighter</b></td>
<td class="org-left"><b>Ranger</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Paladin</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Magic-user</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Illusionist</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Thief</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Assassin</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Monk</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Bard</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ra</td>
<td class="org-right">1-10</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-11</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-8</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Anhur</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">12-24</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">9-11</td>
<td class="org-right">1-6</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-40</td>
<td class="org-right">1-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Anubis</td>
<td class="org-right">11-21</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-21</td>
<td class="org-right">12-20</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Apshai</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">25-34</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Bast</td>
<td class="org-right">22-29</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">35-41</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">21-26</td>
<td class="org-right">7-18</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Bes</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">42-47</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">27-32</td>
<td class="org-right">19-29</td>
<td class="org-right">1-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-35</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Geb</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">48-59</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">33-38</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Horus</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">22-53</td>
<td class="org-right">39-45</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Isis</td>
<td class="org-right">30-39</td>
<td class="org-right">1-43</td>
<td class="org-right">60-65</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">46-53</td>
<td class="org-right">30-45</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nephthys</td>
<td class="org-right">40-47</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">66-71</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">54-60</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Osiris</td>
<td class="org-right">48-58</td>
<td class="org-right">44-72</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left">1-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">36-100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ptah</td>
<td class="org-right">59-68</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">72-80</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">61-71</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Seker</td>
<td class="org-right">69-75</td>
<td class="org-right">73-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">54-79</td>
<td class="org-right">72-76</td>
<td class="org-right">46-54</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Set</td>
<td class="org-right">76-83</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">81-91</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">55-77</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">41-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Shu</td>
<td class="org-right">84-91</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">80-100</td>
<td class="org-right">77-82</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tefnut</td>
<td class="org-right">92-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">92-97</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">83-88</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Thoth</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">98-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">89-100</td>
<td class="org-right">78-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-13599754136238215792022-06-04T10:44:00.075+01:002022-06-11T12:57:02.024+01:00A Lorry-Load of Sand<h2 style="text-align: left;">Filling the Sandbox<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; width:auto"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_-tzv8LHYgswSFaAR_acCPILIU6J85gBMiouorvNLIWPLThwj8KizUAmhvC9y_0yF7FjVC7PnuiOdI6RhWK_-sloS0vbzJJzN85nSxPx9hh2XajpHzL5fx10V1xoifOYtkWJTTb-6qTWLeyLlRnvg3FOpFU79YY7Cn43r4xxpCaVOykrUt-X8kcMt/s1331/sandboxhex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1331" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_-tzv8LHYgswSFaAR_acCPILIU6J85gBMiouorvNLIWPLThwj8KizUAmhvC9y_0yF7FjVC7PnuiOdI6RhWK_-sloS0vbzJJzN85nSxPx9hh2XajpHzL5fx10V1xoifOYtkWJTTb-6qTWLeyLlRnvg3FOpFU79YY7Cn43r4xxpCaVOykrUt-X8kcMt/s320/sandboxhex.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hex-shaped sandbox:<br />the gag writes itself</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></h2><div>Whether starting a new campaign or simply needing to expand the "known world" to reflect the players' expanding range of operations, or because you dropped them through a hatch to China, a decent wilderness map is a necessity which is sometimes needed quickly.</div><div><br /></div><div>By "decent" I mean: gives the DM ideas and information which can be fed to the players as scenarios, plots, and NPC motivations, and is able to support play when the players decide to ignore everything and wander off into the wilds to see what they find.</div><div><br /></div><div>Arneson recommended setting four "adventures" per 100 square miles (i.e., 10 x 10 miles; Arneson seems to have been a bit reluctant to use hexes in the early days, perhaps because of a lack of suppliers of hexpaper). Gygax, in the DMG (p47) modulates encounter frequency by population density and terrain. This post combines these two facets of wilderness into an interactive cavalcade of numbers to get your map off the ground quickly. The calculation assumes that Arneson's number is based on forest (6 checks per day in Gygax's table) and wilderness (1 in 10 chance in DMG). It also allows for 25% of encounters in non-wild areas being patrols, which are not lairs. The chance of a lair being a fortress is left to the encounter tables proper.</div><div><br /></div><div>The function below takes various parameters which you can manipulate to suit. The output is a long list of hexes and the number of lairs in each hex generated with a random poisson distribution based on the average number of encounters based on the above factors. I've amalgamated Gygax's population levels so that each hex shows the number of lairs if it is wilderness, sparsely populated, or densely populated. Similarly, each hex is listed for each terrain type since clearly I don't know what the terrain is on your individual map.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can also choose between a simple list of "give me 100 hexes" or an area coverage with hexes numbered in the classic Judges Guild method of 3212 being the 32nd column of the map, and hex 12 of that column. The defaults for the area option are set to match the Judges Guild Wilderness maps's layout of 52 columns and 34 hexes per column (you need to set 5-mile hex size manually if actually using the JG mapping system). If you are a freak that has hexes oriented with the points up the page, you'll have to adjust to fit.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, as an example, if I'm looking at CISO Map 1 at the Plain of Cairns, I could generate 15 hexes, selecting only "plain" and "hills" but, since the village of Dorn in in there, keeping all three levels of civilisation active. If, for example, I get this result:</div><div><br /></div><div><table border="1" style='width:auto'><tbody><tr><td></td><th colspan="100"># Encounters by Terrain</th></tr><tr><th>Hex</th><th>Plain</th><th>Hills</th></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>0/1/0</td><td>2/1/1</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td></td><td>0/3/0</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>0/1/0</td><td>0/0/1</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>2/0/1</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>0/1/0</td><td>2/0/0</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>0/1/1</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>2/0/0</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>1/0/1</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>1/1/0</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td></td><td>1/0/0</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td></td><td>1/0/1</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>2/0/0</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td></td><td>1/0/1</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div>Starting in hex 3629 (wild, hills) I have two lairs (I rolled hobgoblins and werewolves on DMG tables). South one hex (wild and split between hills and plain, so I would usually take the higher number), we have nothing rolled for wild. Since each civilisation level is diced for independently it is possible for a hex to be, like this, free of monsters on wilderness but populated on sparse or dense. Beware of fudging the result to be "more interesting" as the tendency is to over-egg the pudding.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then, going now to the hex southwest of Dorn (plain, patrolled) I have a lair (merchants are rolled but they don't lair, so a re-roll gives wild boar). The hex south of that (plain, wild), is clear, and the final hex in that column (3730 on the map) is again empty (the 1 indicated being for patrolled, not wilderness). </div><div><br /></div><div>Hex #6 equates to Dorn itself and we have a lair in the same hex - a halfling village.</div><div><br /></div><div>And so on. Alternatively, I could have generated the lairs for the entire map and walked down the columns in a similar way, making notes as I go.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's the tool:</div><div><br />[Update: I've added a seed option. Basically, if you supply the same (numerical) seed the results will be the same for the same other options (number and size of hexes), so you can effectively bookmark a result and come back to it later].<br/><br/></div><div>
<table style='width:auto;border:0px'>
<tr><td>Hex width (miles):</td><td><input type=text id="hexsize" value=6></td></tr>
<tr><td>Base rate (encounters per 100sqm):</td><td><input type=text id="encrate" value=4></td></tr>
<tr><td>Output:</td><td><input type=radio id="linearA" value="L" name="format" checked=true><label for="linearA">Linear</label><input type=radio id="linearB" value="A" name="format"><label for="linearB">Area</label></td></tr>
<tr><td>Population levels:</td><td><input type=checkbox id=Wildciv checked><label for='Wildciv'>Wild</label> <input type=checkbox id=Sparseciv checked><label for='Sparseciv'>Sparse/patrolled</label> <input type=checkbox id=Denseciv checked><label for='Denseciv'>Dense</label></td></tr>
<tr><td>Terrains:</td><td><span id=yourterrainhere></span></td></tr>
<tr id=linearrow><td># Hexes:</td><td><input type=text id='hexes' value='10'></td></tr>
<tr><td>Seed:</td><td><input type=text id='rndseed' autocomplete="off" value=""><input type=button value='New & Update' onclick='seedbox.update(); gobtn2.onclick()'></td></tr>
<tr id=arearow style='display:none'><td>Columns:</td><td><input type=text id='width' value='52'> Height:<input type=text id='height' value='34'></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td><input type=button id="gobtn2" value="Update"></td></tr>
</table>
<p id="result"></p>
<script language='javascript'>
var terrains={"Salt, Deep":1, "Mtns":2, "Salt, Shallow":2, "Plain":3, "Desert":3, "Rough":3, "Hills":3, "Fresh":3, "Scrub":4, "Forest":6, "Marsh":6};
var civ={"Wild":10, "Sparse":12, "Dense": 20};
//Standard sort order
var terrainsort=["Plain", "Scrub", "Forest", "Rough", "Desert", "Hills", "Mtns", "Marsh", "Fresh", "Salt, Shallow", "Salt, Deep"];
var terrainshort=["plain", "scrub", "forest", "rough", "desert", "hills", "mtns", "marsh", "fresh", "saltshallow", "saltdeep"];
seedbox=document.getElementById('rndseed');
seedbox.update=function()
{
seedbox.value=Math.round(Math.random()*(2**32));
}
seedbox.update();
tout='';
temp=terrainsort;
for(var t=0;t<terrainsort.length;t++)
{
tout+="<input type=checkbox id="+terrainshort[t]+"terr checked><label for='"+terrainsort[t]+"terr'>"+terrainsort[t]+"</label> "
}
document.getElementById("yourterrainhere").innerHTML=tout;
// console.log(civ);
linearabtn=document.getElementById("linearA");
linearbbtn=document.getElementById("linearB");
outputarea=document.getElementById("result");
linearabtn.onclick=function()
{
document.getElementById("linearrow").style.display='table-row';
document.getElementById("arearow").style.display='none';
}
linearbbtn.onclick=function()
{
document.getElementById("linearrow").style.display='none';
document.getElementById("arearow").style.display='table-row';
}
gobtn2.onclick=function()
{
seed=seedbox.value;
seed=bounds2(seed,1,2**32-1);
seedbox.value=seed;
rng=mulberry32(seed);
hexsizeelement=document.getElementById("hexsize");
hexsize=bounds2(hexsizeelement.value,0.125,150);
hexsizeelement.value=hexsize;
encrateelement=document.getElementById("encrate");
encrate=bounds2(encrateelement.value,0.00001,100);
encrateelement.value=encrate;
hexarea=(Math.sqrt(3)/2)*hexsize**2; //Square miles per hex
basemu=(hexarea/100)*encrate; //Average encounters per hex in wild marsh
hexeselement=document.getElementById("hexes");
hexes=(bounds2(Math.floor(hexeselement.value),1,10000));
hexeselement.value=hexes;
widthelement=document.getElementById("width");
width=bounds2(widthelement.value,2,150);
widthelement.value=width;
heightelement=document.getElementById("height");
height=bounds2(heightelement.value,2,150);
heightelement.value=height;
//cache civilisation and terrain choices;
levels={
Wild: document.getElementById("Wildciv").checked,
Sparse: document.getElementById("Sparseciv").checked,
Dense: document.getElementById("Denseciv").checked
}
show={};
for(var t=0;t<terrainsort.length;t++)
{
tout+="<input type=checkbox id="+terrainshort[t]+"terr checked><label for='"+terrainsort[t]+"terr'>"+terrainsort[t]+"</label> "
show[terrainsort[t]]=document.getElementById(terrainshort[t]+'terr').checked;
}
// console.log(levels);
// console.log(show);
out='';
out+= "<table border=1><tr><td></td><th colspan=100># Encounters by Terrain</th></tr>";
out+= "<tr><th>Hex</th>";
for(t=0; t < terrainsort.length;t++)
{
if(show[terrainsort[t]])
{
out+="<th>"+terrainsort[t]+"</th>";
}
}
out+="</tr>";
if(document.getElementById("linearA").checked)
{
for(i=1;i<=hexes;i++)
{
out+="<tr><td>"+i+"</td>";
for(t=0; t < terrainsort.length;t++)
{
dohex(t);
}
out+="</tr>";
}
}
else
{
for(column=1;column<=width;column++)
{
for(row=1;row<=height;row++)
{
if(row==1 && column >1)
{
out+="<tr><td colspan=1000 style='text-align:center' align=center>Column "+column+"</td></tr>";
out+="<tr><td></td>";
for(t=0; t < terrainsort.length;t++)
{
if(show[terrainsort[t]])
{
out+="<th>"+terrainsort[t]+"</th>";
}
}
out+="</tr>";
}
// JS *still* doesn't have printf or similar!
out+="<tr><td>"+String(column).padStart(2,0)+String(row).padStart(2,'0')+"</td>";
for(t=0; t < terrainsort.length;t++)
{
dohex(t);
}
out+="</tr>";
}
}
}
out+='</table>';
result.innerHTML=out;
}
function dohex(t)
{
var bits=new Array;
var n=0;
var e=0;
for(var c in civ)
{
ttype=terrainsort[t];
mu=basemu*(terrains[ttype])/6;
mu=mu*(10/civ[c]);
if(c !== "Wild")
{
mu*=.75; // 25% of encounters are with patrols, so not a lair
}
e=poisson2(mu);
// We filter here so that the seeding works, even though it's inefficient
if(levels[c] && show[terrainsort[t]])
{
bits.push(e);
n+=e;
}
}
// console.log(mu);
if(n>0)
{
e=bits.join('/');
}
else
{
e='';
}
if(show[terrainsort[t]])
{
out+="<td>"+e+"</td>";
}
}
function poisson2(mu)
{
var p=-mu;
var n=-1;
var q=0;
do
{
r=Math.log(rng());
q+=r;
n++;
}while(q>p);
return n;
}
function bounds2(v,mn,mx)
{
if(v>mx) return mx;
if(v<mn) return mn;
return v;
}
// JS doesn't define a seedable random number generator, so let's use someone elses.
// https://github.com/bryc/code/blob/master/jshash/PRNGs.md#mulberry32
function mulberry32(a)
{
return function() {
a |= 0; a = a + 0x6D2B79F5 | 0;
var t = Math.imul(a ^ a >>> 15, 1 | a);
t = t + Math.imul(t ^ t >>> 7, 61 | t) ^ t;
return ((t ^ t >>> 14) >>> 0) / 4294967296;
}
}
</script>
</div>Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-31366081256238128702022-05-28T11:37:00.003+01:002022-05-28T11:37:49.663+01:00D&DG Worshippers 6: Cultists<h2>Cthulhu Mythos Worshippers</h2>
<p>This is a tricky one. Deities and Demigods treats the various beings of the Mythos as monsters. Very few of them have specific class levels, which means that the method of using those levels to assign a probability that someone of that class worships a specific deity is a little questionable. However, the classes which are not represented are: Rangers, Paladins, Thieves, Monks, and Bards. Of these the only two that seem problematic are Monk and Thief; no one was expecting a Paladin to worship any of thise lot anyway!
<P>Thieves can be rationalised, I think, in that they simply do not see anything very positive for themselves in the long-term goals of Cthulhu and Co. The end of all things is not very appealing to the person who loves shiney stuff.
<P>Monks are harder. I personally absolutely can see Evil monk cultists but AD&D's decicision that monks must be Lawful rules out this most Chaotic of pantheons. One way around this might be Nyarlathotep masquerading as the head of some LE order who are unaware of the true nature of their "Master". Anyway, here's the table:
<P><table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left" />
<col class="org-right" />
<col class="org-right" />
<col class="org-right" />
<col class="org-right" />
<col class="org-right" />
<col class="org-left" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th scope="col" class="org-left">Encounter</th>
<th scope="col" class="org-right"><b>Cleric</b></th>
<th scope="col" class="org-right"><b>Druid</b></th>
<th scope="col" class="org-right"><b>Fighter</b></th>
<th scope="col" class="org-right"><b>Magic-user</b></th>
<th scope="col" class="org-right"><b>Illusionist</b></th>
<th scope="col" class="org-left"><b>Assassin</b></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Cthulhu</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-13</td>
<td class="org-right">1-20</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Azathoth</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">14-27</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Cthuga</td>
<td class="org-right">1-55</td>
<td class="org-right">1-71</td>
<td class="org-right">28-40</td>
<td class="org-right">21-50</td>
<td class="org-right">1-38</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Hastur</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">41-53</td>
<td class="org-right">51-72</td>
<td class="org-right">39-68</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ithaqua</td>
<td class="org-right">56-78</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">54-63</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">69-83</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nyarlathotep</td>
<td class="org-right">79-100</td>
<td class="org-right">72-100</td>
<td class="org-right">64-73</td>
<td class="org-right">73-85</td>
<td class="org-right">84-100</td>
<td class="org-left">1-100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Shub-Niggurath</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">74-87</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Yog-Sothoth</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">88-100</td>
<td class="org-right">86-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<P><br>I thought I'd also throw in the pivoted table for Nyarlathotep showing the chance that a worshiper of that being is any given class, since he is the being most likely to be incountered in a non-combat situation:
<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides" style='width:30%'>
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left" />
<col class="org-right" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th scope="col" class="org-left">Class</th>
<th scope="col" class="org-right"><b>d%</b></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Cleric</td>
<td class="org-right">1-15</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Druid</td>
<td class="org-right">16-30</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Fighter</td>
<td class="org-right">31-49</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Magic-user</td>
<td class="org-right">50-65</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Illusionist</td>
<td class="org-right">66-81</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Assassin</td>
<td class="org-right">82-100</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-47835700535912574422022-05-08T17:46:00.008+01:002022-05-11T12:57:12.523+01:00Levels Distribution<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org06779f1">
<h2 id="org06779f1">Simulating, but simulating what?</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org06779f1">
<p>
I’ve mentioned before that D&D has a problem in deciding what it is simulating, but that happens at the table too. Many DMs have a simulationist streak but it is sometimes hard to decide whether we’re simulating some sort of extrapolated reality based on the world as experienced personally by the PCs, or something more literary.
</p>
<p>
One topic where this plays out is in the realm of classed NPCs. When making broad-brush strokes about a campaign, for example, the numbers of high-level NPCs in the countries around the starting location, it’s handy to have a quick way of generating those numbers. But what method to use?
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org804850d">
<h2 id="org804850d">Basic Assumptions: Demographics</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org804850d">
<p>
Two basic assumptions carry through both methods: firstly that classed characters are 1% of the human population. Secondly, that the age demographics are something like the Coale-Demeny West table at level 4. This basically means that half the population is old enough to have or have started training in a class, and that 60 is a reasonable expectation for characters.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org680a627">
<h2 id="org680a627">A. Simulating PCs</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org680a627">
<p>
One approach I have used is a complete simulation based on entrance requirements for the classes, age demographics, and an assumed rate of experience point accumulation.
</p>
<p>
Without going into too much detail, what you find with this approach is that there are relatively few 1st level characters, especially thieves, because it takes so little experience to pass through the low levels, resulting in a sort of bulge at mid-levels. Exactly where depends on how much xp per month you figure in, how many active months in a year you assume etc.
</p>
<p>
For fighters this gives an output something like this for 1000 fighters:
</p>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style='width:auto'>
<colgroup>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Level</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">#Fighters</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">1</td>
<td class="org-right">33</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
<td class="org-right">42</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">3</td>
<td class="org-right">59</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">4</td>
<td class="org-right">107</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">5</td>
<td class="org-right">205</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">6</td>
<td class="org-right">209</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">7</td>
<td class="org-right">273</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">8</td>
<td class="org-right">70</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">9</td>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
The shape of the bulge varies depending on how exactly you see the rate of xp gain working over time, but you get the idea. Mid- to high-levels dominate over the lower levels.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-orgfcdc32f">
<h2 id="orgfcdc32f">B. Simulating Fiction & The Implied Reality</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orgfcdc32f">
<p>
The above doesn’t fit most people’s expectations of the world which are taken from fiction and/or the Monster Manual’s listings for “Men”. The implied world is one where low-level characters are outnumbered by 0-level normal people, and low level characters greatly outnumber name-level characters.
</p>
<p>
As a simple example, an encounter with 200 bandits will consist of 200 0-level bandits, 6 second-level fighters, 10 third-level fighters, 7 fourth-level fighters, 5 fifth-level fighters, 4 sixth-level fighters, one seventh-level fighter, and a tenth-level fighter. The MM seldom places first-level characters, although Berserkers do have them at a ratio of 1:10 compared to 0-level types.
</p>
<p>
Another area where the game departs from the “simulated PCs” method is in the incidence of the individual classes. Rather than depending on the odds of qualifying for each class, and some factor for how desirable the classes are, we can just use the numbers from DMG p35 (which assumes that the distribution of prospective henchmen in a town or city is the same as the general distribution of classes everywhere).
</p>
<p>
For the purposes of quickly determining what’s happening in a specific country, or in a town, we quickly boil the assumptions down to this:
</p>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style='width:auto'>
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Class</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Divisor</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Cleric</td>
<td class="org-right">1200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Druid</td>
<td class="org-right">6000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Fighter</td>
<td class="org-right">561</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Paladin</td>
<td class="org-right">4545</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ranger</td>
<td class="org-right">4545</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Magic-user</td>
<td class="org-right">1200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Illusionist</td>
<td class="org-right">6000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Thief</td>
<td class="org-right">1600</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Assassin</td>
<td class="org-right">8000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Monk</td>
<td class="org-right">200000</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
So, a location with a population of 300,000 will have on average 535 fighters, 2 monks (I’m rounding up at .5), and 38 assassins (300000 divided by 561, 200000, and 8000 respectively). Here’s the full table:
</p>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style='width:auto' >
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Class</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Divisor</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">#</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Cleric</td>
<td class="org-right">1200</td>
<td class="org-right">250</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Druid</td>
<td class="org-right">6000</td>
<td class="org-right">50</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Fighter</td>
<td class="org-right">561</td>
<td class="org-right">535</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Paladin</td>
<td class="org-right">4545</td>
<td class="org-right">66</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ranger</td>
<td class="org-right">4545</td>
<td class="org-right">66</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Magic-user</td>
<td class="org-right">1200</td>
<td class="org-right">250</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Illusionist</td>
<td class="org-right">6000</td>
<td class="org-right">50</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Thief</td>
<td class="org-right">1600</td>
<td class="org-right">188</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Assassin</td>
<td class="org-right">8000</td>
<td class="org-right">38</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Monk</td>
<td class="org-right">200000</td>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
But what levels are these guys?
</p><p><a href="https://nagorascorner.blogspot.com/2022/05/whats-highest-level-cleric-in-this-town.html">Last week's post</a> was really just a bit of Javascript which tries to generate higher levels based on how hard they are to reach as an absolute number.</p>
<p>
What the method boils down to is that the ratio of 1st level clerics to 2nd level clerics is the ratio 1500:3000 (the maximum number of xp in first and second level), so basically 2:1. This is a fairly complicated calculation so I’ve done tables up to high levels below.
</p><p><i>Aside: An obvious alternative is to take the ratio of the mid-points of the various levels rather than the maximum values. This leads to a normal ratio of 1:3 at lower levels, and since this is compounded the numbers appearing of even 4th level and upward are insignificant. So, if this method gives too many mid-level characters, you could try adjusting that.</i></p>
<p>
How it works is to set a maximum possible level, then assume that all the NPCs are distributed across those levels in inverse proportion to the amount of xp needed to reach each level. The tables are normalised so the values add up to one.
</p>
<p>
Here’s the tables.
</p>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style='width:auto'>
<colgroup>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Level</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Bard</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Cleric</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Druid</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Monk</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">1</td>
<td class="org-right">4.706451e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">5.045307e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">4.587672e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">5.254946e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
<td class="org-right">2.353225e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">2.522653e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">2.293836e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">2.489185e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">3</td>
<td class="org-right">1.176613e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">1.261327e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">1.223379e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">1.182363e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">4</td>
<td class="org-right">5.883064e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">5.821508e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">7.340276e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">5.254946e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">5</td>
<td class="org-right">3.765161e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">2.751985e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">4.587672e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">2.489185e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">6</td>
<td class="org-right">2.353225e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">1.375993e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">2.621527e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">1.206493e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">7</td>
<td class="org-right">1.568817e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">6.879964e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.529224e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">5.911814e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">8</td>
<td class="org-right">1.107400e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">3.363538e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.019483e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">3.378179e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">9</td>
<td class="org-right">8.557183e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.681769e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">7.340276e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">2.364725e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">10</td>
<td class="org-right">6.275268e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.121179e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">4.587672e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.689090e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">11</td>
<td class="org-right">4.706451e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">8.408845e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.058448e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.244592e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">12</td>
<td class="org-right">2.353225e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">6.727076e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">1.223379e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">9.458902e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">13</td>
<td class="org-right">1.568817e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">5.605896e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">6.116896e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">6.756359e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">14</td>
<td class="org-right">1.176613e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">4.805054e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">2.621527e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">5.254946e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">15</td>
<td class="org-right">9.412902e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">4.204422e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">2.293836e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">4.299501e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">16</td>
<td class="org-right">7.844085e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.737264e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">2.038965e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.638039e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">17</td>
<td class="org-right">6.723501e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.363538e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">1.835069e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.152967e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">18</td>
<td class="org-right">5.883064e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.057762e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">1.668244e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">19</td>
<td class="org-right">5.229390e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">2.802948e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">1.529224e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">20</td>
<td class="org-right">4.706451e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">2.587337e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">1.411591e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">21</td>
<td class="org-right">4.278592e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">2.400907e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">1.310764e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">22</td>
<td class="org-right">3.137634e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">2.240847e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">1.223379e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">23</td>
<td class="org-right">2.353225e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">2.100794e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">1.146918e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style='width:auto'>
<colgroup>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Level</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Fighter</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Paladin</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Ranger</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">1</td>
<td class="org-right">5.029507e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">5.064549e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">4.894399e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
<td class="org-right">2.514753e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">2.532274e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">2.447199e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">3</td>
<td class="org-right">1.257377e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">1.160626e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">1.223600e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">4</td>
<td class="org-right">5.588341e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">5.803129e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">5.438221e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">5</td>
<td class="org-right">2.874004e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">3.095002e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">3.058999e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">6</td>
<td class="org-right">1.437002e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">1.466054e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">2.039333e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">7</td>
<td class="org-right">8.047211e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">7.958577e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.359555e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">8</td>
<td class="org-right">4.023606e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">3.979288e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">9.063702e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">9</td>
<td class="org-right">2.011803e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.989644e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">4.894399e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">10</td>
<td class="org-right">1.341202e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.326429e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">3.262933e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">11</td>
<td class="org-right">1.005901e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">9.948221e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">1.748000e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">12</td>
<td class="org-right">8.047211e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">7.958577e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">1.193756e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">13</td>
<td class="org-right">6.706009e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">6.632147e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">9.063702e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">14</td>
<td class="org-right">5.748008e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">5.684698e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">7.305073e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">15</td>
<td class="org-right">5.029507e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">4.974110e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">6.117999e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">16</td>
<td class="org-right">4.470673e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">4.421432e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">5.262795e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">17</td>
<td class="org-right">4.023606e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.979288e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">4.617357e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">18</td>
<td class="org-right">3.657823e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.617535e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">4.112940e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">19</td>
<td class="org-right">3.353005e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.316074e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.707878e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">20</td>
<td class="org-right">3.095081e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.060991e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.375448e-04</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style='width:auto'>
<colgroup>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Level</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Magic-user</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Illusionist</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">1</td>
<td class="org-right">4.897863e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">4.883469e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
<td class="org-right">2.448932e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">2.441735e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">3</td>
<td class="org-right">1.224466e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">1.220867e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">4</td>
<td class="org-right">5.442070e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">6.104337e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">5</td>
<td class="org-right">3.061165e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">3.139373e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">6</td>
<td class="org-right">2.040776e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">1.831301e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">7</td>
<td class="org-right">1.360518e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">1.156611e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">8</td>
<td class="org-right">9.070117e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">7.577797e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">9</td>
<td class="org-right">4.897863e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">4.994457e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">10</td>
<td class="org-right">3.265242e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">2.497229e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">11</td>
<td class="org-right">1.632621e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.664819e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">12</td>
<td class="org-right">1.088414e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.248614e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">13</td>
<td class="org-right">8.163106e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">9.988915e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">14</td>
<td class="org-right">6.530485e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">8.324095e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">15</td>
<td class="org-right">5.442070e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">7.134939e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">16</td>
<td class="org-right">4.664632e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">6.243072e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">17</td>
<td class="org-right">4.081553e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">5.549397e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">18</td>
<td class="org-right">3.628047e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">4.994457e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">19</td>
<td class="org-right">3.265242e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">4.540416e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">20</td>
<td class="org-right">2.968402e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">4.162048e-04</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style='width:auto'>
<colgroup>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Lv</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Thief</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Assassin</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">1</td>
<td class="org-right">4.947792e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">4.984702e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
<td class="org-right">2.473896e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">2.492351e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">3</td>
<td class="org-right">1.236948e-01</td>
<td class="org-right">1.246175e-01</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">4</td>
<td class="org-right">6.184740e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">6.230877e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">5</td>
<td class="org-right">3.092370e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">2.990821e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">6</td>
<td class="org-right">1.455233e-02</td>
<td class="org-right">1.495411e-02</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">7</td>
<td class="org-right">8.835343e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">7.477053e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">8</td>
<td class="org-right">5.622491e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">3.738526e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">9</td>
<td class="org-right">3.865463e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">2.492351e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">10</td>
<td class="org-right">2.811246e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.759306e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">11</td>
<td class="org-right">1.405623e-03</td>
<td class="org-right">1.300357e-03</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">12</td>
<td class="org-right">9.370819e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">9.969403e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">13</td>
<td class="org-right">7.028114e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">7.477053e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">14</td>
<td class="org-right">5.622491e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">4.984702e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">15</td>
<td class="org-right">4.685409e-04</td>
<td class="org-right">3.742724e-04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">16</td>
<td class="org-right">4.016065e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">17</td>
<td class="org-right">3.514057e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">18</td>
<td class="org-right">3.123606e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">19</td>
<td class="org-right">2.811246e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">20</td>
<td class="org-right">2.555678e-04</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
One way to use these tables is just to find the number of clerics, say, in a town using table 1, then you can multiply that number by the value given for 1st level clerics on the table below to find how many Acolytes there are; then multiply <i>the total number of clerics again</i> by the value given for second level clerics to find the number of Adepts, and so on.
</p>
<p>
<b>For example</b>, Say you have a large town with 12,000 inhabitants. Table 1 tells you that there will be 12,000 divided by 1200 = 10 clerics in the town. Multiplying by 10 all the way down the cleric table gives this:
</p>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style='width:auto'>
<colgroup>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Level</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"># Clerics</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">1</td>
<td class="org-right">5.041905</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
<td class="org-right">2.520952</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">3</td>
<td class="org-right">1.260476</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">4</td>
<td class="org-right">0.581758</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">5</td>
<td class="org-right">0.275013</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">6</td>
<td class="org-right">0.137506</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">7</td>
<td class="org-right">0.068753</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">8</td>
<td class="org-right">0.033613</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">9</td>
<td class="org-right">0.016806</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">10</td>
<td class="org-right">0.011204</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">11</td>
<td class="org-right">0.008403</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">12</td>
<td class="org-right">0.006723</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">13</td>
<td class="org-right">0.005602</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">14</td>
<td class="org-right">0.004802</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">15</td>
<td class="org-right">0.004202</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">16</td>
<td class="org-right">0.003735</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">17</td>
<td class="org-right">0.003361</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">18</td>
<td class="org-right">0.003056</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">19</td>
<td class="org-right">0.002801</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">20</td>
<td class="org-right">0.002586</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">21</td>
<td class="org-right">0.002401</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">22</td>
<td class="org-right">0.002241</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">23</td>
<td class="org-right">0.002101</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
What I normally do is actually feed the values into a poisson-distribution random number generator so that I get a spread of values who’s mean is the number given, which is what last week's program does (I've added the source code at the end here).</p><p>This final result is much more like a literary setting where the central characters (the PCs) are much less likely to encounter high level NPCs than low level ones. However, there is an issue with high levels.</p><p>Once the xp totals reach name level (for most classes) the amount of xp needed increases at a constant rate. This means that the <i>ratio</i> from, say, 12th level to 13th level, to 14th is gradually falling rather than increasing. The practical result is that the representation of very high level characters in the population reaches a plateau and 22nd level clerics are not really any rarer than 21st level ones, as you can see in the above table.</p><p>You might want to tinker with this for your campaign.</p><p><a href="https://gitlab.com/tworthington/npclevels" target="_blank">I've stuck the code up onto GitHub </a>but I would warn you that I'm not a Javascript programmer and this is the first real program I've written in the language so the code is not great (I've done lots of glue-code in it of course, AJAX and stuff, but that's mostly calling other programs and just updating displays rather than being a complete application). The program was originally in Perl but I wanted to post it on the blog so I converted it. Consequently, the JS is currently the more up-to-date version but if I make further change it's more likely to be to the Perl version since that version's output is suitable for reading into Emacs' org-mode where I can further format and manipulate it.</p><p>Anyway, with the code on your local machine you can fiddle with assumptions such as half the population being too young to be classed, or perhaps add features such as generating ages for the npcs. Or whatever!</p><p></p><pre></pre><p></p>
</div>
</div>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-44496822823944072912022-05-02T16:45:00.008+01:002023-02-12T10:00:21.765+00:00What's the highest level cleric in this town?<h2 style="text-align: left;">Or: D&D meets Javascript</h2><div>Without any further explanation (which will come in the next post), here's a bit of javascript which generates NPC levels based on an input (total) population:</div><div><br /></div>
<table style="border: 0px; width: auto;">
<tbody><tr><td>Population:</td><td><input id="popin" type="text" value="1000" /></td></tr>
<tr><td>Max level:</td><td><input id="maxlevel" type="text" value="23" /></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td><input id="gobtn" type="button" value="Go" /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<p id="demo">Click "Go"</p>
<script language="javascript">
classes="clerics druids fighters rangers paladins magicusers illusionists thieves assassins monks bards".split(/\s+/);
//classes=new Array('clerics');
demo=document.getElementById("demo");
popin=document.getElementById("popin");
levelmax=document.getElementById("maxlevel");
gobtn.onclick=function()
{
normals=bounds(popin.value,1,1e10);
limit=bounds(document.getElementById("maxlevel").value,1,30);
popin.value=normals;
levelmax.value=limit;
npcpop=(normals/2)/100;
dyn={
fighters:(npcpop*.4395),
magicusers:(npcpop/5),
clerics:(npcpop/5),
thieves:(npcpop*.1495),
monks:(npcpop*.01),
bards:(npcpop*.001),
}
// console.log(npcpop);
dyn.rangers=(dyn.fighters/10);
dyn.paladins=(dyn.fighters/10);
dyn.illusionists=(dyn.magicusers/6);
dyn.druids=(dyn.clerics/6);
dyn.assassins=(dyn.thieves/6);
dyn.fighters=Math.max(dyn.fighters-dyn.paladins-dyn.rangers,0);
dyn.magicusers=Math.max(dyn.magicusers-dyn.illusionists,0);
dyn.thieves=Math.max(dyn.thieves-dyn.assassins,0);
dyn.clerics=Math.max(dyn.clerics-dyn.druids,0);
// console.log(dyn);
// console.log(classes);
out="<table width=100% border=1><tr><td></td><th colspan=100>Level</th></tr><tr><th>Class</th>";
for(i=1;i<=limit;i++)
{
out+="<th>"+i+"</th>";
}
out+="<th>Total</th></tr>";
for(const chrclass of classes)
{
classpop=dyn[chrclass];
// console.log(chrclass);
if(classpop>0)
{
classarrayfn=window["do"+chrclass];
// console.log(classarrayfn);
classarray=classarrayfn(classpop);
n=classarray.reduce(function(avar,cvar){return avar+cvar},0);
normals-=n;
if(n>0)
{
row="<tr><td>"+chrclass+"</td>";
// console.log(chrclass);
classarray.shift(); //No level 0
classarray.forEach((p)=>
{
if(p)
{
row=row+"<td align=right>"+p+"</td>";
}
else
{
row=row+"<td align=right></td>";
}
});
// console.log(row);
for(i=classarray.length;i<limit;i++)
{
row=row+"<td align=right>-</td>";
}
row+="<td align=right>"+n+"</td>";
row+="</tr>";
out+=row;
}
}
};
out+="<td>0-level</td><td colspan=100 align=right>"+normals+"</td></tr><tr>";
out+="</table>";
// console.log("Normal people: "+normals);
demo.innerHTML=out;
}
function pick(rate,fixed=0)
{
if(fixed) return Math.floor(rate);
return poisson(rate);
}
function poisson(mu)
{
var p=-mu;
var n=-1;
var q=0;
do
{
r=Math.log(Math.random());
q+=r;
n++;
}while(q>p);
return n;
}
function dolevels(pop,maxlv,xpneeded)
{
// console.log("levels "+pop);
perlevel=200;
// limit=bounds(document.getElementById("maxlevel").value,1,30);
if(maxlv==0)
{
max=limit;
}
else
{
max=bounds(maxlv,1,limit);
}
// console.log(max);
levels=new Array(0);
while(xpneeded.length>0)
{
n=xpneeded.shift();
levels.push(n);
}
if(levels.length<maxlv)
{
perlevel=levels.pop();
}
// console.log(levels);
den=0;
sum=0;
prev=0;
divs=new Array();
t=0;
for(let level=1;level <= max; level++)
{
if(level<levels.length)
{
sum=(levels[level]-prev)/1+prev;
den+=1/sum;
prev=levels[level];
}
else
{
sum=prev+(perlevel/1);
den+=1/sum;
prev+=perlevel;
levels[level]=prev;
}
divs[level]=sum;
t+=sum;
}
x=pop/den;
t=0;
tl=0;
c=0;
result=new Array();
for(let l=1;l<=max;l++)
{
n=pick(x/divs[l]);
result[l]=n;
t+=x/divs[l];
tl+=x/divs[l]*l;
c+=n;
}
//# print "$c\n";
// console.log(result);
return result;
// #print "\n$t\n";
// #print $tl/$t;
// #print "\n";
}
function doclerics(clerics)
{
return dolevels(clerics,0,new Array(1.5,3,6,13,27.5,55,110,225,225));
}
function dodruids(druids)
{
return dolevels(druids,23,new Array(2,4,7.5,12.5,20,35,60,90,125,200,300,750,1500,3500,4000,4500,5000,5500,6000,6500,7000,7500,8000));
}
function dofighters(fighters)
{
return dolevels(fighters,0,new Array(2,4,8,18,35,70,125,250,250));
}
function dorangers(rangers)
{
return dolevels(rangers,0,new Array(2.25,4.5,10,20,40,90,150,225,325,325));
}
function dopaladins(paladins)
{
return dolevels(paladins,0,new Array(2.75,5.5,12,24,45,95,175,350,350));
}
function domagicusers(magicusers)
{
return dolevels(magicusers,0,new Array(2.5,5,10,22.5,40,60,90,135,250,375,375));
}
function doillusionists(illusionists)
{
return dolevels(illusionists,0,new Array(2.25,4.5,9,18,35,60,95,145,220,220));
}
function dothieves(thieves)
{
return dolevels(thieves,0,new Array(1.25,2.5,5,10,20,42.5,70,110,160,220,220));
}
function doassassins(assassins)
{
return dolevels(assassins,15,new Array(1.5,3,6,12,25,50,100,200,300,425,575,750,1000,1500,2000));
}
function domonks(monks)
{
return dolevels(monks,17, new Array(2.25,4.75,10,22.5,47.5,98,200,350,500,700,950,1250,1750,2250,2750,3250,3750));
}
function dobards(bards)
{
return dolevels(bards,23,new Array(2,4,8,16,25,40,60,85,110,150,200,400,600,800,1000,1200,1400,1600,1800,2000,2200,3000,4000,500));
}
function bounds(v,mn,mx)
{
if(v>mx) return mx;
if(v<mn) return mn;
return v;
}
</script>
<div><br /></div><div>Although I said that the explanation will come next time, here's a little bit of info. The numbers of characters are based on the NPC henchman class frequency (although I took ½% off fighter and thief to give to bards), with a poisson distribution around that mean, and the levels are based on the relative amount of xp needed to attain the given level, and also randomised using a poisson distribution.<P>Also note that population is expected to be the full population including the aged and children amounting to 50% of the total and who are assumed to not be of interest.</div>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-56842826848005057212022-04-06T20:24:00.013+01:002022-04-06T20:32:22.632+01:00D&DG Worshippers 5: Chinese<style>table td + td { border-left:.4pt solid black;} table {width:100%} </style>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; width:auto"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeiBQwGaslvCSmJ7s089E2rhzp3MuBXjIGC_T7BRDSy9IEz9YVyfyxcWIFqfoVBkJ-xuHTkWtTwnmRRo1YMF0AZC6M8-m8ZCEzNQ0THC7ZGCLutyrgVgrPSPD3aL_qQaWKjT011FIJTSOOhhUEIA5W4fDn1VRcgDzqg8CYyTBD_5vZSMSKCOcrJLY2/s690/shangti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeiBQwGaslvCSmJ7s089E2rhzp3MuBXjIGC_T7BRDSy9IEz9YVyfyxcWIFqfoVBkJ-xuHTkWtTwnmRRo1YMF0AZC6M8-m8ZCEzNQ0THC7ZGCLutyrgVgrPSPD3aL_qQaWKjT011FIJTSOOhhUEIA5W4fDn1VRcgDzqg8CYyTBD_5vZSMSKCOcrJLY2/s320/shangti.jpg" width="249" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shang-Ti, crusher of tortoises</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Chinese Worshippers</h2><div>So we arrive at a mythos I knew nothing about when I got GD&H, but thanks to that and the later D&DG I have developed... well, no real knowledge of the gods involved since then.</div><div><br /></div><div>I probably picked up more from watching Monkey - that the Eastern pantheon (as it was known in GD&H) is basically a bureaucracy mirroring that of the Imperial Chinese court in the days before the Mongols arrived to teach the emperor a few unpleasant lessons. I have at least read the Penguin Classics translation of The Journey West (which is truly terrible) and Cowboy Bebop sent me off on a bit of a dig into Feng-Shui (nuts but fun) and that's about the extent of it.</div><div><br /></div><div>The introduction to the mythos lists a few magical items, including a reference to the I-Ching as a tool for controlling matter and motion, and what I think is supposed to be Monkey's staff (all 7t 16cwt 88lbs of it). It also introduces the idea that the head of a church might be simply "gifted" with the powers of a high priest, presumably in the case that the emperor is more of a military man than a holy one.</div><div><br /></div><div>The method I'm using here to generate the tables based on the deity's own class abilities throws up something new as well: gods without either clerical or druidical worshippers. In all cases except one - Huan-Ti, god of war - the gods in question are in fact demi-gods and we can perhaps handwave this, especially if we assume "demigod" to have the literal Greek sense of having one mortal parent.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the case of Huan-Ti, I guess we just have to assume that the god of war is not interested in spell-casting and simply does not take on clerics in the normal sense. It seems that the deity is based on the mythological emperor of the same name who supposedly became an immortal after death. If so, it is strange that he is said to wear red +3 platemail as Huan-Ti is the "Yellow Emperor" and strongly associated with the colour (according to Google).</div><div><br /></div><div>One very notable omission is Monkey himself - Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, Great Sage Equal to All Heaven.</div><br /><table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style="font-size:80%">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Encounter</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Cleric</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Druid</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Fighter</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Ranger</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Paladin</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Magic-user</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Illusionist</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Thief</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Assassin</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Monk</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Bard</b></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Shang-ti</td>
<td class="org-right">1-9</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-100</td>
<td class="org-right">1-13</td>
<td class="org-right">1-17</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-30</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Chang Kung Ming</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-17</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-18</td>
<td class="org-right">1-11</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Chih-Chiang Fyu-Ya</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-21</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">12-28</td>
<td class="org-right">31-50</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Chih Sung-Tzu</td>
<td class="org-right">10-22</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">22-36</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">14-26</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Chung Kuel</td>
<td class="org-right">23-36</td>
<td class="org-right">1-21</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">18-36</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">27-36</td>
<td class="org-right">18-30</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">19-45</td>
<td class="org-right">29-44</td>
<td class="org-right">51-70</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Fei Lien</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">37-46</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-17</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">45-52</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Feng Po</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">47-56</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">18-34</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">53-61</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Huan-Ti</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">57-75</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">46-73</td>
<td class="org-right">62-80</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Kuan Yin</td>
<td class="org-right">37-53</td>
<td class="org-right">22-42</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">37-49</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">71-100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lei Kung</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">43-58</td>
<td class="org-right">37-52</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">50-58</td>
<td class="org-right">31-42</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lu Yueh</td>
<td class="org-right">54-66</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">53-69</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">59-70</td>
<td class="org-right">43-59</td>
<td class="org-right">35-66</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">No Cha</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">59-73</td>
<td class="org-right">70-83</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">60-73</td>
<td class="org-right">67-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Shan Hai Ching</td>
<td class="org-right">67-73</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">84-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">71-77</td>
<td class="org-right">74-82</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tou Mu</td>
<td class="org-right">74-86</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">76-90</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">78-81</td>
<td class="org-right">83-87</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Wen Chun</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">91-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">82-90</td>
<td class="org-right">88-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Yen-Wang-Yeh</td>
<td class="org-right">87-100</td>
<td class="org-right">74-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">91-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">74-100</td>
<td class="org-right">81-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-17407682445065321632022-03-15T20:29:00.004+00:002022-03-15T22:33:01.938+00:00D&DG Worshippers 4: Central Americans<h2 style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhzuvNME-k_N8jo5fco1b0RGDzwKLPwo9atqlRRZGzEFeNQceIJ3OIKrp7gn3Vt1Nh3gc4D8yqmofHxWu2jWR-MSUXBP5A-eo6dby3SwurFvguHPAZj5pWN_zK5bHJnR7dI0twaMjbIUqk9VoTrcBN6WtiNjcbn78YXDhlPtN3mQAXGcaL4RZgC4tI9=s875" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="875" data-original-width="551" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhzuvNME-k_N8jo5fco1b0RGDzwKLPwo9atqlRRZGzEFeNQceIJ3OIKrp7gn3Vt1Nh3gc4D8yqmofHxWu2jWR-MSUXBP5A-eo6dby3SwurFvguHPAZj5pWN_zK5bHJnR7dI0twaMjbIUqk9VoTrcBN6WtiNjcbn78YXDhlPtN3mQAXGcaL4RZgC4tI9=s320" width="202" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Xochipilli (Lombard Museum)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Central American Worshippers</h2><div>For the first time we come to a pantheon in D&DG in which every PHB class is represented amongst the gods. The idea of a paladin of Quetzalcoatl in authentic Aztec dress and arms certainly appeals, but it does bring up yet another problem with the book's coverage of "pagan" religion - aspects, or the lack thereof.</div><div><br /></div><div>Quetzalcoatl is listed as lawful neutral, so why would any paladin hold him in high regard, let alone Camaxtli, the neutral god of fire. And as for Chalchiuhtkicue - she's <i>chaotic</i>, for Set's sake!</div><div><br /></div><div>Many polytheistic deities represent or control an aspect of the world which has the potential for a wide range of effects on the human world. Loki and fire is the classic example, but Chalchiuhtkicue's element of water is another. Even more abstract ideas can have variable levels of desirability depending on how they are applied: law, passion, invention, love etc. can all be positive or negative depending on the degree or the type. Because of this, deities often has aspects which represented these facets of their sphere of control and different forms for each aspect.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the UK I think we generally associate this with the Hindu pantheon, if we associate it with anything, but it manifests all over the place. If you go to Nashville, Tennessee and look at the <a href="https://alanlequire.com/athena-in-depth/" target="_blank">statue of Athena</a> you will see a giant snake beside her on the dais. That snake is none other than Athena's father, the great god Zeus from whom we get the words "Deus" and "Deity" itself, in his chthonic (underworld) form*.</div><div><br /></div><div>*Edit: I may be misremembering this (see comments) but Zeus Ktesios was a widely worshipped form of Zeus as a snake protecting a family or household, which is what I thought he was representing on the Parthenon.</div><div><br /></div><table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style="font-size: 80%;">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Encounter</td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Cleric</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Druid</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Fighter</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Ranger</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Paladin</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Magic-user</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Illusionist</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Thief</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Assassin</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Monk</b></td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Bard</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Quetzalcoatl</td>
<td class="org-right">1-13</td>
<td class="org-right">1-17</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-29</td>
<td class="org-right">1-10</td>
<td class="org-right">1-17</td>
<td class="org-right">1-63</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-29</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Camaxtli</td>
<td class="org-right">14-23</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">30-46</td>
<td class="org-right">11-19</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Camazotz</td>
<td class="org-right">24-30</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-20</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">20-30</td>
<td class="org-right">18-34</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-17</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Chalchiuhtkicue</td>
<td class="org-right">31-40</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">47-64</td>
<td class="org-right">31-40</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">30-51</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Huhueteotl</td>
<td class="org-right">41-48</td>
<td class="org-right">18-30</td>
<td class="org-right">21-40</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">41-47</td>
<td class="org-right">35-47</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">18-33</td>
<td class="org-right">1-31</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Huitzilopochtli</td>
<td class="org-right">49-54</td>
<td class="org-right">31-47</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-57</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">48-52</td>
<td class="org-right">48-53</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">34-50</td>
<td class="org-right">32-63</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Itzamna</td>
<td class="org-right">55-65</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">65-83</td>
<td class="org-right">53-59</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Mictlantecuhtli</td>
<td class="org-right">66-72</td>
<td class="org-right">48-66</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">58-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">60-68</td>
<td class="org-right">54-69</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">51-67</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tezcatlipoca</td>
<td class="org-right">73-77</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">41-80</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">69-76</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">68-83</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">52-60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tlaloc</td>
<td class="org-right">78-87</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">81-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">77-86</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tlazolteotl</td>
<td class="org-right">88-94</td>
<td class="org-right">67-84</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">87-94</td>
<td class="org-right">70-90</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">84-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">61-82</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Xochipilli</td>
<td class="org-right">95-100</td>
<td class="org-right">85-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">84-100</td>
<td class="org-right">95-100</td>
<td class="org-right">91-100</td>
<td class="org-right">64-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">64-100</td>
<td class="org-right">83-100</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><br />
<div>So, if we say that a paladin follows or venerates a deity who is not lawful good we need to ask - is there an aspect of this god which fits. In the case of Quetzalcoatl it's a pretty small step from a god of "law giving" to an aspect which uses the law to help the weak. Water, likewise, can be harnessed for such socially positive things as irrigation, turning water-wheels, or even fishing. Xochipilli is a bit more of a challenge as the god of gambling (in D&DG; in real life that was his brother Macuilxóchitl, apparently).</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, gambling is generally part of a game and games have rules (even "I bet that snail crosses the path faster than that snail" generally includes rules like "you can't pick your snail up and just throw it across the path"), so that's lawful. The Good part is a bit trickier but perhaps we can imagine a paladin of a god which encourages us to enjoy life and be more flexible in the face of changing fortunes. An up-beat paladin would be quite a change, wouldn't?</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyhow, aspects were a common part of polytheistic religions (and, if you scrape the surface, you can find traces in most monotheistic ones), and are glossed over in D&DG. RuneQuest generally didn't do a great job here, although some of Stafford's writing did include them. But mostly they are an uncharacteristic weakness in RQ's religiousity. Petal Throne, especially with Bob Alberti's wonderful Mitlanyal guide to the gods of Tekumel, did do it a bit better.</div><div><br /></div>Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-70757907723224596262022-03-04T22:37:00.002+00:002022-03-04T22:39:49.474+00:00D&DG Worshippers 3: Celts<h2 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkZNnooNtcnqVQpB3JE49mlLX07PcFyPuPHncxyOtzyaA_ixU5fWLilpldJw5lBVNlCWqYBym_ghMoirhIbJZtuK0R7rBtMUlgc4KBJVJEpERnK8fG_A0wehxjJtIUEA_9oLZ-Oz39buStMBcp2MC9BxMFnKQVGXBdOzsE9g8RUmFYtU2gA4hLGSK2=s1000" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="1000" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkZNnooNtcnqVQpB3JE49mlLX07PcFyPuPHncxyOtzyaA_ixU5fWLilpldJw5lBVNlCWqYBym_ghMoirhIbJZtuK0R7rBtMUlgc4KBJVJEpERnK8fG_A0wehxjJtIUEA_9oLZ-Oz39buStMBcp2MC9BxMFnKQVGXBdOzsE9g8RUmFYtU2gA4hLGSK2=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />Celtic Worshippers</h2><div>This week we have the Celtic pantheon from D&DG and, like the Babylonian one, there is a distinct lack of thieves in the results (and paladins, but you have to get used to that). There are a couple of assassins and of course lots of options for bards, both of which could subsume thievery functions.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><style>table td + td { border-left:.4pt solid black;} table{width:100%} td{text-align:right} td:first-child{text-align:left}</style>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Encounter</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Cleric</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Druid</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Fighter</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Ranger</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Magic-user</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Illusionist</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Thief</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Assassin</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Monk</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Bard</b></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Arawn</td>
<td class="org-right">1-16</td>
<td class="org-right">1-9</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-30</td>
<td class="org-right">1-15</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Brigit</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">10-18</td>
<td class="org-right">1-8</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">16-42</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">10-19</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Dagda</td>
<td class="org-right">17-27</td>
<td class="org-right">19-27</td>
<td class="org-right">9-20</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">43-54</td>
<td class="org-right">1-24</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">20-31</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Diancecht</td>
<td class="org-right">28-47</td>
<td class="org-right">28-36</td>
<td class="org-right">21-30</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">55-63</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">32-37</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Dunatis</td>
<td class="org-right">48-58</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">31-42</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">38-48</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Goibhnie</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">37-45</td>
<td class="org-right">43-54</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">49-57</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lugh</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">46-65</td>
<td class="org-right">55-67</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">58-68</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Manannan Mac Lir</td>
<td class="org-right">59-78</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">68-78</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Math</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">66-68</td>
<td class="org-right">79-81</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">64-86</td>
<td class="org-right">25-40</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Morrigan</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">69-75</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">31-65</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left">1-56</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">69-74</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nuada</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">76-81</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">66-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left">57-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">75-80</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ogham</td>
<td class="org-right">79-89</td>
<td class="org-right">82-91</td>
<td class="org-right">82-91</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">87-100</td>
<td class="org-right">41-69</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">81-91</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Silvanus</td>
<td class="org-right">90-100</td>
<td class="org-right">92-100</td>
<td class="org-right">92-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">70-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">92-100</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><br />
<div>However, the solution I used with the Babylonians of going with a general alignment table doesn't work as most of the deities are neutral and for "worshippers' alignment" they generally have something of the style "all beings interested in <deity's sphere of control>". So Brigit is worshipped by "Beings worshipping fire and poetry", for example. Once could almost say that the Celtic deities are rather catholic in their acceptance :)</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, there's no easy conversion to alignment for quickly generating NPCs.</div><div><br /></div><div>As an alternative, I thought I'd look at the probabilities from Zac's original method and here is what we get:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups" style="width: auto;">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Encounter</td>
<td class="org-right"><b>Cleric</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Dagda</td>
<td class="org-right">1-40</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Arawn</td>
<td class="org-right">41-45</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Brigit</td>
<td class="org-right">46-50</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Diancecht</td>
<td class="org-right">51-55</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Dunatis</td>
<td class="org-right">56-60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Goibhnie</td>
<td class="org-right">61-65</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lugh</td>
<td class="org-right">66-71</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Manannan Mac Lir</td>
<td class="org-right">72-77</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Math</td>
<td class="org-right">78</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Morrigan</td>
<td class="org-right">79-84</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nuada</td>
<td class="org-right">85-90</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ogham</td>
<td class="org-right">91-95</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Silvanus</td>
<td class="org-right">96-100</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="width:auto; float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqwc5JOrW3XK86IkxhKQr8UI0lw07apUedKbLBu31C_A0uycNbe6Cwan6Nm-TkvMYtY6kpovbP1u78Y_BdI75CWSX0fUbIBO-bXjAza4DPtC1RMSUv02l4NkwzhL-RKwylcP_GjloUd8IfF53v4PNb_400TyX4s1upNkEPTM-FF6IR8HlUVIOJsaIF=s474" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="474" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqwc5JOrW3XK86IkxhKQr8UI0lw07apUedKbLBu31C_A0uycNbe6Cwan6Nm-TkvMYtY6kpovbP1u78Y_BdI75CWSX0fUbIBO-bXjAza4DPtC1RMSUv02l4NkwzhL-RKwylcP_GjloUd8IfF53v4PNb_400TyX4s1upNkEPTM-FF6IR8HlUVIOJsaIF=w320-h240" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just liked the image, TBH</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Although I was initially enthusiastic about the system Zac presented - who would turn down the chance to get something useful from Deities and Demigods, after all? - his approach did not in fact give much nuance. The head of the pantheon gets a base 40% of results and all the rest are weighted according to their hit points. Hit points are taken as a proxy for the amount of worship the deity enjoys which, ignoring the issue of it being a dubious theological concept, seems reasonable for game purposes.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem is that most pantheons don't have that much of a range, with 2:1 between top and bottom being rare.</div><div><br /></div><div>Part of the problem is that D&DG doesn't contain that much information on each pantheon. The Greek pantheon has 19 deities listed out of hundreds - the Norse one is a similarly small selection. Another part is that the cap of 400hp isn't <i>that</i> much higher than the top levels for PCs and dipping much below 200hp makes a deity vulnerable to a high-level party which could possibly muster more hp between them. So the design is constrained and consequently there's not really room for obscure deities with small cults.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, still, the idea of getting some value out of D&DG is very appealing. It is, after all, nearly a dead loss. The research is patchy, for a start, and it has basically no grasp or representation of religion at all. Compared to Cults of Prax for RuneQuest it's something of a joke in roleplaying terms.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even today, most people who play D&D have relatively little grasp of polytheism (apologies to Hindu and Japanese readers) and D&DG doesn't really illuminate the subject much. It certainly doesn't get into the differences between types of polytheism.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The DM must also make sure that the cleric is aware of his or her place in the community and the church hierarchy." (D&DG p9).</div><div><br /></div><div>The church what, now?</div><div><br /></div><div>Greek worship seems to have had no such thing. Each city seems to have had a particular favourite deity, and almost everyone agreed that Zeus was usually in charge of everyone, but there was no "church" in which to have a place. Individual clerics would "work" - usually part-time, often voluntarily - at a temple or shrine and the more important the temple the more important the post was, politically. But the priests worshipping the same deity in a temple three miles up the road had no need to obey or even much care about any statements made by the high priest of a city even as regards the proper worship of the god in question. And since every city was fiercely independent, there was even less power for the would-be church leader once s/he got to the neighbouring city limits.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Sumerian experience seems to have been very similar, and even in Egypt there was real power vested in the priests near to the throne, but that power was not especially doctrinal in form and had no reach up- or down-stream unless the current pharaoh put his or (occasionally) her weight behind it.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the Celts, and many others, the picture is very similar but with "tribe" swapped in for "city". Indeed, this tribal favouritism for one god is probably the seed from which city cults grew.</div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="width: auto;float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilFemjpEVuhMD0kphGch9vNe-2zjVsG6iGwnzKM1E3d9XutVMpne9qhRY6bJ3hp2uvtmlpHg-2WwjYD6QRx23vSh0M0Ip8oai0e-obmZGPg3XLDMcEEElYvTlBFbLTaiGLPm6QrU7vmEEHThlQFyPwE4VHe3of1iYb1XuGvc_hkSNd1S8sHzvnWixG=s960" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="754" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilFemjpEVuhMD0kphGch9vNe-2zjVsG6iGwnzKM1E3d9XutVMpne9qhRY6bJ3hp2uvtmlpHg-2WwjYD6QRx23vSh0M0Ip8oai0e-obmZGPg3XLDMcEEElYvTlBFbLTaiGLPm6QrU7vmEEHThlQFyPwE4VHe3of1iYb1XuGvc_hkSNd1S8sHzvnWixG=w157-h200" width="157" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old Time Religion</td></tr></tbody></table>With no church to issue edicts, personal worship was very much an individual's choice. Relatively little writing has survived which expresses the feelings of normal people, or even members of the elite classes. But what does survive is often reminiscent, I find, of the sort of stuff one might find on a Reddit forum devoted to a boy-band. Passionate, but often rather arbitrary. Outside of special occasions like childbirth or illness, people generally worshipped the deities that they just <i>liked.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Things do often change, however, as states become more intrusive (read: more militaristic) and we start to see State Religions.</div><div><br /></div><div>To my eye, D&DG was written with Empire of the Petal Throne in mind. The strict hierarchies, nation-wide temples, and relatively small numbers of adventuring clerics who are semi-detached from the main clerical body fits with EPT's half-way house between the Christian Churches which clearly underpinned the original game, and the reality of most polytheistic "religions". Individuals, especially clerics, are expected to follow a specific deity through most of their lives - in EPT this is generally a Clan thing, or sometimes an occupational requirement.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi_FUhLieF6yNQFEoVnw3XfLG9PQuFfl_PINJdvg4v5ArqEDc9-Qzy6V1H1FRot7c2LZwh-u8x5bsMjg1sBjCR7-iffJ1DXkyBY2DBLJoXuV8gexJXJW1yeD0gTHyX5RsEdkQvv3oyEMAUVx4kWy__d3Zi0DEJtmhbeUCnOVWtveOFwoqZtqQOUM4tk=s474" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="474" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi_FUhLieF6yNQFEoVnw3XfLG9PQuFfl_PINJdvg4v5ArqEDc9-Qzy6V1H1FRot7c2LZwh-u8x5bsMjg1sBjCR7-iffJ1DXkyBY2DBLJoXuV8gexJXJW1yeD0gTHyX5RsEdkQvv3oyEMAUVx4kWy__d3Zi0DEJtmhbeUCnOVWtveOFwoqZtqQOUM4tk=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />What's odd about the D&D version of this is that it throws out the main functions of the Church: the determination of what is appropriate behaviour for the deity and punishments for transgressing the rules (unwritten or otherwise). In the Church's place the deity itself makes these calls, and tells the clerics either via dreams, messengers, or literally to their face.</div><div><br /></div><div>In AD&D there are no doctrinal disagreements - a cleric who is transgressive has no spells and if they're high enough level to cast 6th or 7th level spells they will be told by <b><i><u>GOD</u></i></b> that they are wrong!</div><div><br /></div><div>So we have this weird mix of an assumed Church within the cleric must "be aware of their place", and at the same time no temporal authority for any officials in that Church <b>especially</b> if they are not spellcasters.</div><div><br /></div><div>D&DG tells us that 'Cleric "adventurers"...rarely have any important place in their religion's hierarchy'. This only makes sense if all the important clerics are spellcasters, otherwise we get scenarios like this:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Pope </b>(0-level political genius): It is wrong to eat fish on the first Tuesday of the month.</div><div><b>Fred Bangashagga</b> (cleric, 5th level): Actually, an angel told me that's not true. It came up when I was asking for <i>create food and water</i>.</div><div><b>Pope</b>: Arse.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, it's possible to invent reasons for deities to subvert some of these observations, but the deity in question would need to be really into secrets and concealment (and of course there are always mystery cults in any pantheon) but even that is a level of sophistication which one will not find in D&DG.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, really, all D&DG is, is a list of gods divided into cultures and with a bunch of very variable quality notes attached. The reference chart is at once very handy and at the same time complete baloney in terms of accurate historical observations.</div><div><br /></div><div>But. It is lovely. </div><div><br /></div><div>It has that great Erol Ottis cover, lots of good illustrations inside, and lots of numbers which gamers usually like to see. I'm talking nostalgia here: the desire to see something the way you saw it when you were younger. And when I was younger I thought D&DG would be really great and really useful.</div><div><br /></div><div>Which brings us back to the current series of posts as an attempt to at least get a bunch of tables that answer some useful question about the game world. Specifically, the question "this bloke the players have just walked up to in the street - what deity does he worship?"</div><div><br /></div><div>It's not much but it's about the most a 57 year-old can get out of a book that his 15 year-old-self really loved.</div>Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-79002865281094042862022-02-24T21:16:00.004+00:002022-02-28T17:49:44.890+00:00D&DG Worshippers 2: Babylonians<style>table td + td { border-left:.4pt solid black;} table{width:100%} td{text-align:right} td:first-child{text-align:left}</style>
<h1 class="title"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghj0clzM3AUuIRBbmkkLiacg7l4pzJoNAZvHpCig14qYAOvBEa8ydROiWoFt8VfpgVZjaLMw_JWkOQl1X-Pnq7sY7FvM368dtayIf0ASBjxHzHSOrbzN9jcXmiVHi_wGVTh-iVEQbplCSHdGnQGvknQ7IB44Zj7b5dDnVoQKD2TDrV21hG5luD7daG=s603" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghj0clzM3AUuIRBbmkkLiacg7l4pzJoNAZvHpCig14qYAOvBEa8ydROiWoFt8VfpgVZjaLMw_JWkOQl1X-Pnq7sY7FvM368dtayIf0ASBjxHzHSOrbzN9jcXmiVHi_wGVTh-iVEQbplCSHdGnQGvknQ7IB44Zj7b5dDnVoQKD2TDrV21hG5luD7daG=w199-h200" width="199" /></a></div><br />Babylonian Worshippers</h1><div>So, following on from the previous post, here's the table for Babylonian worshippers:</div><div><br /></div>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Encounter</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Cleric</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Druid</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Fighter</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Ranger</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Magic-user</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Illusionist</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Thief</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Assassin</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Monk</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Bard</b></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Anu</td>
<td class="org-right">1-25</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-16</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Anshar</td>
<td class="org-right">26-50</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">17-31</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Druaga</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">32-44</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-11</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Girru</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">45-58</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">12-42</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Istar</td>
<td class="org-right">51-69</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left">1-100</td>
<td class="org-right">43-61</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Marduk</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">59-75</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">62-73</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left">1-100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nergal</td>
<td class="org-right">70-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">76-85</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">74-89</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ramman</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">86-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right">90-100</td>
<td class="org-left">1-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br /><div>This brings a problem with the system to the fore: there are no Babylonian deities listed with thieving skills (other than Druaga who presumably inherits the thieving abilities based on his assassin level).</div><div><br /></div><div>In fact, this problem was there last week because none of the listed American deities have levels in the Paladin class and, in fact, neither do the Babylonian ones. That's not such a big deal - most campaigns can trundle along without paladin NPCs - but no thieves seems an unlikely social setup.</div><div><br /></div><div>Looking at this I tried doing the table based on alignment, with the weights being the deity's hit points - a direct link back to Zak's original idea, albeit with a different methology. Here's the result:<br />
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Encounter</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>LG</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>NG</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>CG</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>LN</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>N</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>CN</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>LE</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>NE</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>CE</b></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Anu</td>
<td class="org-right">1-43</td>
<td class="org-right">1-32</td>
<td class="org-right">1-62</td>
<td class="org-right">1-30</td>
<td class="org-right">1-41</td>
<td class="org-right">1-41</td>
<td class="org-right">1-34</td>
<td class="org-right">1-25</td>
<td class="org-right">1-32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Anshar</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">26-44</td>
<td class="org-right">33-56</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Druaga</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">35-53</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Girru</td>
<td class="org-right">44-73</td>
<td class="org-right">33-54</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Istar</td>
<td class="org-right">74-100</td>
<td class="org-right">55-74</td>
<td class="org-right">63-100</td>
<td class="org-right">31-49</td>
<td class="org-right">42-67</td>
<td class="org-right">42-67</td>
<td class="org-right">54-75</td>
<td class="org-right">45-60</td>
<td class="org-right">57-76</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Marduk</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">50-75</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nergal</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">76-100</td>
<td class="org-right">61-79</td>
<td class="org-right">77-100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ramman</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">75-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">76-100</td>
<td class="org-right">68-100</td>
<td class="org-right">68-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">80-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div><div><br /></div><div>It's okay and is another way to slice the data but in this case I'm using the "worshippers' alignment" entry for each deity and, looking ahead at the Celts, that might pose a problem too. Looking slightly further ahead to the Cthulhu Mythos, it isn't going to make for a particularly interesting range of options (spoiler: Chaotic Evil is what I'm talking about).</div><div><br /></div><div>But for now it's okay.</div>Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-52487231754761948252022-02-21T21:01:00.007+00:002022-03-19T12:22:04.306+00:00D&DG Worshippers 1: North Americans<style>table td + td { border-left:.4pt solid black;} table {width:100%} td{text-align:right} td:first-child{text-align:left}</style>
<h1 class="title"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgb30tp93t00Cx__wmxK4q0Cf_k71SqwIwN8NgDbi1ENWSkhqW1oF9V5fhLwc7VF_rvnSe_sXPj22SmCNeOOxULbMargyO1psJ-1v8Mmm59pvxPkY6WT_cnSpjxGbQdHbaJeRUY0z40eIJ1SsDLAAyXRkhw45sPWO8rDGm3jwR731NWDvmRmtmfwkd8=s960" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="960" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgb30tp93t00Cx__wmxK4q0Cf_k71SqwIwN8NgDbi1ENWSkhqW1oF9V5fhLwc7VF_rvnSe_sXPj22SmCNeOOxULbMargyO1psJ-1v8Mmm59pvxPkY6WT_cnSpjxGbQdHbaJeRUY0z40eIJ1SsDLAAyXRkhw45sPWO8rDGm3jwR731NWDvmRmtmfwkd8=w200-h133" width="200" /></a></div><br />American Worshippers</h1>
<p>Wider blog for better tables!
</p><p>I decided to try to get some use out of D&DG and following <a href="http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2012/10/deities-and-demigods-is-totally-book.html" target="_blank">an idea from Za</a>k I used the relative levels in each class listed for the deities to come up with tables showing which one an NPC of a given class followed as their favourite. Zak originally suggested running down each deity until you hit a success but I felt a single table would be more useful.</p><p>Here's the first one for the American Pantheon as listed in D&DG.</p><table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Encounter</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Cleric</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Druid</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Fighter</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Ranger</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Magic-user</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Illusionist</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Thief</b></th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col"><b>Assassin</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Monk</b></th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col"><b>Bard</b></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Raven</td>
<td class="org-right">1-12</td>
<td class="org-right">1-17</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-11</td>
<td class="org-right">1-11</td>
<td class="org-right">1-16</td>
<td class="org-right">1-35</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Cyote</td>
<td class="org-right">13-27</td>
<td class="org-right">18-37</td>
<td class="org-right">1-60</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">12-21</td>
<td class="org-right">17-33</td>
<td class="org-right">36-80</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Hastseltsi</td>
<td class="org-right">28-37</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">12-29</td>
<td class="org-right">22-29</td>
<td class="org-right">34-45</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">1-55</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Hastsezini</td>
<td class="org-right">38-49</td>
<td class="org-right">38-54</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">30-43</td>
<td class="org-right">30-50</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Heng</td>
<td class="org-right">50-59</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">44-54</td>
<td class="org-right">51-59</td>
<td class="org-right">46-56</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Hotoru</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">61-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">60-66</td>
<td class="org-right">57-66</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Shakak</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">55-68</td>
<td class="org-right">67-76</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Snake-Man</td>
<td class="org-right">60-69</td>
<td class="org-right">55-68</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">77-87</td>
<td class="org-right">67-81</td>
<td class="org-right">81-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left">1-38</td>
<td class="org-left">1-100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tobadzistsini</td>
<td class="org-right">70-80</td>
<td class="org-right">69-82</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">69-89</td>
<td class="org-right">88-94</td>
<td class="org-right">82-91</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">56-100</td>
<td class="org-left">39-100</td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Yanauluha</td>
<td class="org-right">81-100</td>
<td class="org-right">83-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right">90-100</td>
<td class="org-right">95-100</td>
<td class="org-right">92-100</td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-right"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
<td class="org-left"> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><br /><p></p><p></p><div>More soon.</div>Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-69187571616530765862022-02-04T22:01:00.008+00:002022-03-04T22:43:04.239+00:00Fred T. Jane and The Deep Roots of D&D<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orgc1aa5a5">
<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiiCWXsFkfO5mnZrsX6uAmJ3hTcT4z4uMlE0zfoHQy7JR2s2NIWg8u3_3Gp7p96ZYPxBdNW43PbiNqJ5ZVrnJK7xGJvBfMb0J3rSkq9RL9_IfyWWgZZwnheX7GoQy953oSqL8UmyoQJgOwC927lGacnj8bL6toK3IRTxpsRicZ2f9sDoU3jYZKkVx8L=s800" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="800" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiiCWXsFkfO5mnZrsX6uAmJ3hTcT4z4uMlE0zfoHQy7JR2s2NIWg8u3_3Gp7p96ZYPxBdNW43PbiNqJ5ZVrnJK7xGJvBfMb0J3rSkq9RL9_IfyWWgZZwnheX7GoQy953oSqL8UmyoQJgOwC927lGacnj8bL6toK3IRTxpsRicZ2f9sDoU3jYZKkVx8L=w200-h146" width="200" /></a></div><br />There comes a point in any genealogical backtrace when you realise that everyone in the world is now an ancestor of whoever you are studying. Generally, the researcher, politician, or random nutjob on YouTube then slides the window forward a few generations so that they can continue to make arbitrary claims like being of African descent (like everyone else), from native-born English stock (except for all those Anglo-Saxon immigrants that were born in Denmark and Germany), or that their opponent is from genetic background that prevents them from being president of the United States of America (unlike, for example, all those people who actually lived there before the speaker’s closer ancestors arrived on boats to steal it).
<p></p>
<p>
So it is with games. By the time we get back to the 1800’s, it’s almost tautological that any given game can be found to have some influence on D&D, perhaps because it used dice, perhaps because it required players to speak, and possibly because it had a referee. And the latter is the link I’m looking at here, combined with the implied corollary that the rules are known to be, perhaps intentionally, incomplete.
</p>
<p>
Fred Thomas Jane was a geek (or nerd, if you prefer). He was just a typical example of the type: into science-fiction, fascinated by modern technology, and with a mathematical mind that appreciated applied physics and engineering, who read a lot. He also was a talented artist and a game designer.
</p>
<p>
Here’s one of his more expressionistic, even slightly futurist, images of the London Underground in 1893.
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhWUA8PCfe4oMlmSa03t4F1rlBzFl0M1pJV9TVJYimmgA7xiOMw_z7-rkz6ZmjNw3nxSPGXJYgykGl7S3LsHzD9GjaXFLDeHdCdHJqFKohl5nMnCnrrYRjHZiUlRNHW_mra4bEYgqONRHR0Yk1IlhHyy78AHCaDmqYKwQ6UzWiIZm-VbjJPdSIu2Nnb=s1323" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="823" data-original-width="1323" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhWUA8PCfe4oMlmSa03t4F1rlBzFl0M1pJV9TVJYimmgA7xiOMw_z7-rkz6ZmjNw3nxSPGXJYgykGl7S3LsHzD9GjaXFLDeHdCdHJqFKohl5nMnCnrrYRjHZiUlRNHW_mra4bEYgqONRHR0Yk1IlhHyy78AHCaDmqYKwQ6UzWiIZm-VbjJPdSIu2Nnb=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p>And another of an imagined Moonbase (in the year 2000) from 1894.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNmA_RY9oeGXT7NWX8pzABLjzMnnR8FG-LaF8nzN4w2Vh2hTCS6f1q71HJ0YRmneal3iGh5Fd5I9hqXFlaKQ1uTSB5gUCvaWcN-kFexEKZW3Hqs1jvJoDOhGeS0F_pgn7Iau9apZsA4vsJGOuh0DA7blG_hLhWDJL34iXVuTA4E1sCwFUOehK7O7c-=s800" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="498" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNmA_RY9oeGXT7NWX8pzABLjzMnnR8FG-LaF8nzN4w2Vh2hTCS6f1q71HJ0YRmneal3iGh5Fd5I9hqXFlaKQ1uTSB5gUCvaWcN-kFexEKZW3Hqs1jvJoDOhGeS0F_pgn7Iau9apZsA4vsJGOuh0DA7blG_hLhWDJL34iXVuTA4E1sCwFUOehK7O7c-=s320" width="199" /></a></div><br /><p>He also wrote a few <a href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/jane_fred_t" target="_blank">science-fiction novels,</a> including an alien abduction yarn where the spaceship is disguised as a “summer house” - could this have been a <i>gazebo</i>?! - and the excellently-titled <i>The Incubated Girl</i>.</p>
<p>
He even illustrated some Sherlock Holmes stories.
</p>
<p>
But, of course, Jane’s claim to fame was built on his fascination with warships, in particular battleships and then dreadnoughts. Like many of us, he found himself pondering how to simulate the operation of these floating fortresses for the same reason that so many games continue to be designed on any number of real-world topics: to see which ships were best, all else being equal.
</p>
<p>
He first released his classic work <i>Fighting Ships</i> to the public in 1898 when he was 33 years old, and were an immediate hit in an imperial age where battleships were the pinups favoured by boys and young men. The ships’ vital statistics were included in a new and compact form, rating armour and arms with a letter code.
</p>
<p>
To modern eyes Jane picked the wrong method for these and in a foreshadowing of Arneson’s choice of Armour Class decades later, set the best armour as class “A” instead of that being the worst armour and E the best. As the imperial arms race continued, Jane was forced to add AA, then AAA, and so on until resorting to notation of the form A5 as shorthand for AAAAA and even higher. Clearly, ascending armour classes would have suited his purpose better.
</p>
<p>
At this distance in history it’s been hard to precisely order events but it seems that the rules needed to turn <i>Fighting Ships</i> into a game - the simply-titled <i><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25095/naval-war-game" target="_blank">“The Jane Naval War Game”</a></i> - were released either at the same time or immediately afterwards and these sparked interest in Official Circles™.
</p>
<p>
These were quite wide circles - the rules were apparently playtested, or at least carefully-enough read for corrections to be suggested by Grand Duke Alexander Mihailovitch Of Russia, Prince (later Lord) Louis Mountbatten (the one murdered by the IRA), Captain H. J. May of the Royal Navy, and Lieutenant R. Kawashima of the Imperial Japanese Navy. There was some input from Australia too.
</p>
<p>
The rules went through a familiar pattern of a simple initial edition, a series of releases with more complexity, and then a “reset” in 1905 with an edition which threw much of this extra complexity back overboard and put the emphasis on the game referee to decide using their presumed knowledge of real-life naval combat; by now the game was solidly established as a teaching/training tool for the navies of the world.
</p>
<p>
I’m not suggesting that <i>The Naval Wargame</i> was a direct ancestor of D&D. When Jane died in 1916 at the age of just 50 and the game almost immediately went out of print, never to return. With the first world war in almost full swing (America would not join for another year and a half), the ability for tourists to wander around the naval dockyards of the world, even onto the docked warships, became a quaint notion never to be seriously entertained again. With the characteristics of the ships now much more secret than before it was hard to update the rules accurately, not to mention the rate at which ships were being deployed and, in some cases, sunk.
</p>
<p>
So the chances that Gygax had even heard of it in 1973 are slim. Arneson, with his life-long interest in sea-battles probably had heard of it but I doubt that he had seen a copy; I think the nearest publicly available copy was in Michigan, and no complete set (with all the markers, ship “character sheets”, and strikers used for the combat system intact) survives today.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float:right; width:auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjut9Ya48XkMZLnf794kzhaFT-igwUs-H4JB-K4oXpss93Z-nfclIvJ7lyEtnAVhnpAyMkEWegKUmW72TlY32_GwHPrgB0QSiUiBJF81NBaDx4Rc5fPelePY3vgMHs2BO5SUIyec6AA-bJpnI31Fzyb80OOXvn1UWzodxCm7b3bn1lnCTnERYS2w8xi=s651" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="651" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjut9Ya48XkMZLnf794kzhaFT-igwUs-H4JB-K4oXpss93Z-nfclIvJ7lyEtnAVhnpAyMkEWegKUmW72TlY32_GwHPrgB0QSiUiBJF81NBaDx4Rc5fPelePY3vgMHs2BO5SUIyec6AA-bJpnI31Fzyb80OOXvn1UWzodxCm7b3bn1lnCTnERYS2w8xi=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Take 3000d6 damage</td></tr></tbody></table><p>But the game’s heavy reliance on a referee is another example of the <i>type</i> of game that was common for many decades, and everyone involved with CHAINMAIL and hence D&D would have taken the idea of loosely-defined rules which are interpreted by a trusted game-master not just in their stride but as the <b>normal format</b> of a game which was simulating some reality.</p>
<p>Hex and counter games which did away with the referee were certainly around but they paid for that freedom with deeply detailed rules. CHAINMAIL was by no means unusual in being what appears, to an Advance Squad Leader player, to be a pamphlet which might be advertising a game rather than the thing itself. Such games had no influence of any note on D&D and, like Jane’s game, this would lead to problems when a wider audience held the rules in their hands, an increase in complexity followed by something of an Old School Reformation.</p>
<p>
Jane was, to a large degree, a typical gamer who one could encounter at a convention today. Interested in science-fiction, even writing some of his own, and wanting to try recreating old battle or imagine “what-if’s” and “maybe one day” scenarios with a set of rules he’s put together under one arm and a source-book of stats he’s illustrated himself under the other. Rather like a certain <a href="http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2013/02/arnesons-naval-illustrations.html" target="_blank">Mister Arneson</a>, in fact.</p>
<p>
Jane’s ships floated on the primordial soup from whence D&D emerged.
</p>
</div>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-30621270461736735682022-01-22T20:12:00.003+00:002022-01-22T20:12:22.203+00:00A Bit More Traveller<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org14b743a">
<h2 id="org14b743a"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/images/1/1c/Imperial-Sunburst-Sun-Navy-Traveller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="96" data-original-width="100" height="96" src="https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/images/1/1c/Imperial-Sunburst-Sun-Navy-Traveller.jpg" width="100" /></a></div><br />The Old School of Marc Miller</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org14b743a">
<p>
As a minor follow-up to the previous post, I’ve been meaning to post this definition of what is generally thought of as “Old School play” from Marc Miller. You can read the full text of the original post on <a href="https://www.jamesthegeek.com/2020/01/11/general-musings-on-marc-miller-and-traveller/">James the Geek’s blog</a>. That is a recounting of a chat James had with the man in 2018, following a game Miller ran for James and some others, but the following sections were particularly interesting:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
While playing Traveller, Marc role-plays. Very little rules. Traveller is truly a rules-light game system once you start playing. For our scenario, we generated characters by only rolling up stats. No skills. Just stats and pick your service. All rolls were made against those stats, but you couldn’t roll against the same stat again, until you had used them all. Oh, and you had to support your decision on which stat to use. After that, it was all role playing. Creating a communal story. He made it up as he went along, allowed us to build the story, and acted as “referee” just as intended. After we were through, he said “There. Now you know how I play Traveller.”
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
The following very much reminded me of how random generation of monsters and treasures work for me:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
“Think of a world. Now think of another one. And another. After a while you run out of imagination or things get a little boring.” That’s where the world generation system steps in and helps you by creating worlds that you now have to creatively explain. Why would millions of people choose to live on a desert world with a tainted atmosphere, for example? The more I learned about his play style, and his original ideas for the game, the more it became apparent that the systems, while there to aid us, could be completely ignored (and should be) in order to simply play the game
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
Miller was in, if not on the ground floor then at least on the mezzanine level in the lobby and had a background in wargaming so it’s no coincidence that he shares many of the same perceptions as Gary, Dave, and various early stars of the D&D world.
</p>
<p>
Next time, I’m going to look back a bit further at another gaming referee who started a global phenomenon which is still with us: Fred T. Jane, of <a href="https://shop.janes.com/products/magazines/janes-defence-weekly-654-ma-shop2022">“Jane’s Defence Weekly”</a> fame.
</p>
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Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-4908631552164598332022-01-08T22:49:00.006+00:002022-01-23T10:48:10.431+00:00Vancian Space Travel<style>tr:nth-child(even) {background: #CCC}; </style>
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<h2 id="org3b6afa5"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LzjReWounQNaigk7ZIkVvVw8dO3bHkBK/view?usp=sharing" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="622" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSPC0pGtYsjAi7jeHLBE3jScEMi8nuORt4slsrbVD25Qohim9QLPP5ljnxpRtuzLDstSKGasomYeqwgnoIpDnpWPgqkNDLerH8hI_7FeT_egHAB2sP_GJaDj5KtW6bQ-a-vumScqz6cxqYk1I1L1SAR9Ofrg-W-u6DuvRIGsD-7AMK8h51TV37R3kY=s320" width="242" /></a></div><br />Introduction</h2>
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<p>
Vance generally gets invoked in the OSR in relation to D&D where the magic system was inspired by some of the stories in his Dying Earth series. Vance also had an obvious influence on the science-fiction side of the fence, with his <i>Demon Princes </i><b>and</b><i> Planet of Adventure</i> series joining Asimov’s <i>Galactic Empire</i> and <i>Foundation</i> stories as major influences on the tone of Traveller, the first SF role-playing game.
</p>
<p>
The original release of Traveller was in the form of three little books, mimicking the format of D&D and included rules for generating a setting from scratch - planets, populations, encounter tables, and alien monsters. There was no implied political setting.
</p>
<p>
All that would change fairly quickly with the release of <i>Supplement 3 - The Spinward Marches</i> in 1979. Now there was an empire, covering many sectors of space, and each sector had a name and enough planets to support a hundred PC parties without them ever encountering each other.
</p>
<p>
It was a huge success and the idea of playing one’s own <i>Traveller</i> setting became more or less extinct. Certainly moreso than that of running one’s own D&D gameworld.
</p>
<p>
But <i>Traveller</i> has seen some reformation in the last decade too, and there are people running non-imperium games of their own devising.
</p>
<p>
This post is inspired by (but not based on) Vance’s <i>Demon Princes</i> books. There is no Empire, but there is a sort of civilised centre of worlds where life is generally good and mostly comfortable for the vast majority of the tens of billions of inhabitants. Of course, at that scale even 0.001% of people having problems they need someone’s help with, or someone to manipulate into helping them, is a quarter of a million potential patrons and/or plot hooks.
</p>
<p>
Beyond these settled worlds are the barons and their estates. There is no empire partly because there is so much space. Why take orders from some egotist on a throne when you can take a ship, go 300 light years and find a world to run exactly as you want it run? Out there, beyond the core worlds, is where these men and women live and they deal, sometimes by necessity, sometimes for fun, with the inner worlds. Hopefully the player characters can get caught in the middle from time to time and find adventures that take them out of their comfort zone.
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<h2 id="org048113f">The Home Worlds Sector (801631670)</h2>
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<h3 id="orge9f10a9">Introduction</h3>
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<p>
The sector of space containing Earth is referred to by astronomers as the Home Worlds Sector. The use of the term “sector” is fairly nominal; only one subsector is heavily populated and there is little agreement on which systems are worth mapping beyond the subsectors adjacent to that one.
</p>
<p>
Non-astronomers tend not to even think in terms of sectors and subsectors, talking only of “core” and “outer” worlds. In colloquial terms, the direction of travel which moves towards the galactic core is “inwards” and “coreward” is used to mean travel from the outer worlds towards the settled inner planets. All of which tends to annoy astronomers and ships’ navigators who are forever complaining about “loose terminology”.
</p>
<p>
99% of people, of course, never really deal with any of this. They are born on a world, live work and breed on that world, and then die on it without ever needing to think about directions and terminology for interstellar travel.
</p>
<p>
The Traveller, however, rarely meets that 99% when dealing with the high-population planets of the core. Their view of the different worlds is for the most part a distorted one which inhabitants would not recognise. A peaceful world of 9 billion might to a Traveller evoke memories of a violent mercenary mission to a deserted region of desert; a world riven by civil strife might be where he or she once spent a month of luxury living in a 5-star resort spending some huge payday from a wealthy patron.
</p>
<p>
Hardened Travellers are not the people to ask for tourism advice.
</p>
<p>
The total population of the world which make up humanity is around 26 billion. The age of empires is, everyone hopes, behind us, and no world of more than a million population is currently ruled by any other with the exception of Disco and Ocean; the smaller settlements are generally economically dependant on some other world which also sets the rules.
</p>
<p>
As this guide is intended partly as a historical outline as well as a travel guide, the systems are presented in order of their colonisation. Only the most politically or historically significant ones are treated here; the UPP list at the end must suffice for most.
</p>
<p>
The dates given after each system name are the year of their founding in the New Sun calendar wherein the arrival of the first human colonists at New Sun is year 1. The current year is 903.
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<h3 id="org6985609"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Sector 1 - Core Worlds</h3>
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<h4 id="orgfe225f5">0810 Sol</h4>
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<p>
The old system of Sol has multiple settlements but all of these are really vestiges of a by-gone era. With the collapse of the Earth ecosystem in the 21st/22nd century and the disaster of the attempted evacuations, the whole system went into decline.
</p>
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<ul class="org-ul">
<li><a id="orgf348bd0"></a>Mars<br />
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<p>
Mars dominates Sol today but even so, that domination is mostly in the hands of a research and education establishment - the Institute for Human History (IHH). They maintain an underground facility for about 1000 staff and students on Mars itself as well as two orbital ports around Earth, another one around Titan, and a base on Luna. Mars itself is equipped with a class-B start port with both orbital and ground components. The old ports on Phobos and Demos are abandoned, as are the ports on or around Venus, Triton, and Mercury.
</p>
<p>
The IHH do not welcome visitors, which is why the system is classed as Amber by the TAS - if you come here, come prepared for emergencies or come with a well-equipped cruise ship. If you run into trouble and need help, the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, they say.
</p>
<p>
The IHH itself is supported in grand style by various wealthy patrons who have an interest in history so there is rarely any question of trade as such, so Mars can be a very insular place to spend time on. A hundred years ago there was some scandal about Director Strikland’s quasi-fascist control of the planet which led to a withdrawal of funding and the whole affair was squashed more or less instantly as the planet has no real means of support, at least in the style to which the inhabitants have become accustomed.
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<ul class="org-ul">
<li><a id="org4307081"></a>UPP<br />
<div class="outline-text-6" id="text-org4307081">
<p>
B420389-8
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</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a id="org0b3b168"></a>Earth<br />
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrYb4HlCq01w1JSGs_vYa_Nn3sOzmYi5VsZek9d-WOtKkPoUZxOJ1Yq0y8KylCLLo2CyJ7fWIUv6MtvUQrcOHqVmozN4GOjiPa5O6jkpkt3P5dvaIXKG-j6SzCLCTkzRrYam8RaIS-uw9rCc5DRbjY474F6SAm_P9my8UBGIlMNFh6gsidfFcpouTG=s647" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="647" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrYb4HlCq01w1JSGs_vYa_Nn3sOzmYi5VsZek9d-WOtKkPoUZxOJ1Yq0y8KylCLLo2CyJ7fWIUv6MtvUQrcOHqVmozN4GOjiPa5O6jkpkt3P5dvaIXKG-j6SzCLCTkzRrYam8RaIS-uw9rCc5DRbjY474F6SAm_P9my8UBGIlMNFh6gsidfFcpouTG=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div><br />Earth is a dead world. The IHH historically had a scientific mission to find a way to re-terraform the planet but with the evaporation of the last liquid water on the surface almost four-hundred years ago the institute has really only used it as a testbed for ideas applicable to less drastic cases of “hothouse” conditions. Earth is now more than ever the twin of Venus. Two ports are maintained and are bases for various scientific and historical missions.
<p></p>
<p>
Despite being officially dead, Earth is the subject of an almost unlimited number of legends, myths, and just plain wild stories. Underground bunkers of art treasures, mutant creatures and even humanoids genetically engineered in the last desperate days of the planet’s life, shipwrecks laying on the now dry seabeds full of gold, towers created by scientists indistinguishable from wizards who remain - immortal but trapped - trying to find a way to fix a broken world. etc. Nothing is too weird when it comes to Mother Earth.
</p>
<p>
The Moon (Luna) has a class-C port on it which houses a department of the IHH which specialises in the early history of space travel. It also has a sizeable transient population of tourists interested in seeing Earth with their own eyes. The various sites of 20th and 21st century landings can actually be quite busy at times but there is no disguising the fact that the barren Earth has, for most people, a much more depressing psychological impact than they anticipate, and there is little signs of the amusement and even wonder that one finds on Rome or Athena, for example.
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<ul class="org-ul">
<li><a id="orge931784"></a>UPP<br />
<div class="outline-text-6" id="text-orge931784">
<p>
B8B0000-0
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</li>
</ul>
</li>
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<h4 id="org70ee9ff"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjA8NRG3qmdVOa7zvPdUvImdu26-fOufx8qoqmP22N3lMK6iYDq-swTaWTbm8O_FdN2S917GiMCkk6-1Hjx18Nm1kebijpTrhGxtGd1vO4MRnJFdpBnMLzH9-VN4xN2xLCsVUJW_b_HbhQeajXL99lmjgZ7Y0icQAYr1uQ3-xUjqdVToFjVyl3xUGES=s341" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="341" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjA8NRG3qmdVOa7zvPdUvImdu26-fOufx8qoqmP22N3lMK6iYDq-swTaWTbm8O_FdN2S917GiMCkk6-1Hjx18Nm1kebijpTrhGxtGd1vO4MRnJFdpBnMLzH9-VN4xN2xLCsVUJW_b_HbhQeajXL99lmjgZ7Y0icQAYr1uQ3-xUjqdVToFjVyl3xUGES=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />0609 New Sun (Year 1)</h4>
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<p>
As the situation on Earth deteriorated a massive push to find a viable “lifeboat” led to the decision to colonise “New Sun”, whose world had been scouted some decades before.
</p>
<p>
The simple fact was that New Sun’s primary world (i.e, the world judged easiest to colonise) was not ideal, and neither was Snowball which had also been explored in those early days of jump technology. But needs must when the Devil drives, as they say, and a project was put together, ships commissioned and volunteers sought. When the number of volunteers was found to be far more than could be handled, the project fragmented into two groups: the lottery group, and the so-called elite group with the latter buying places for themselves and their families at auction. New Sun society was cursed by this class-based division for centuries after, of course.
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<p>
The world is very dry and as a result prone to dust storms. At the best of times, it is possible to work outdoors without any equipment but most of the time a filter and eye-protection will be needed and when the storms come the outdoors is a dangerous place for a person on foot.
</p>
<p>
Nevertheless, colonisation began and was reasonably well organised with different people being dispatched in waves based on the skills needed at that point. In the space of 60 years an estimated 930,000 settlers went to New Sun even as the technology base which was sending them began to falter as Earth’s ecosystem started to come apart.
</p>
<p>
The hard life lead to a strange type of feudalism building up on New Sun, with service and protection at the core. This has continued into the modern age with the aristocratic families monopolising technology and capital.
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<h4 id="org6560b16">0913 Snowball (73)</h4>
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</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhZrnL8MB0GiYICe-RLigillNmSCNqLh8JDT52ct9NDvzWtQQyVDOnQVH7e7p4RbLsW9r8AaMcD3cNwH2fw0MRsp1XgAWK9wlf8iDibtxs9Wf5pWD-IJBZSSLhb2b65EKOxydDH6TawLqXRGlWj-J_6kN1q2zxKJGgRTCTItWHtTiY9p-nqccfGXImb=s277" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="277" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhZrnL8MB0GiYICe-RLigillNmSCNqLh8JDT52ct9NDvzWtQQyVDOnQVH7e7p4RbLsW9r8AaMcD3cNwH2fw0MRsp1XgAWK9wlf8iDibtxs9Wf5pWD-IJBZSSLhb2b65EKOxydDH6TawLqXRGlWj-J_6kN1q2zxKJGgRTCTItWHtTiY9p-nqccfGXImb" width="277" /></a></div><br />Snowball’s name is not quite accurate. The planet’s equatorial region is actually a fairly wide belt of generally fertile land. The planet’s inclination to its sun is so small that what passes for seasonal change is mostly caused by the elliptical orbit rather than a change in the angle of insolation.
<p></p>
<p>
As the writing on the wall on Earth became ever clearer, some rich people refused to believe it. These people became known to later generations as the “Generous Fools”.
</p>
<p>
Thinking that they saw an opportunity to exploit the growing panic, these individuals started to build spacecraft and sell tickets to Snowball (New Sun’s colonies having exclusive rights agreed with the UN). Many hundreds of ships were built even though the ticket prices were often rather low - <i>any</i> profit being taken when high profit was unavailable.
</p>
<p>
In the end, of course, the money and other goods taken for the tickets was worthless and many of the Generous Fools ended up as farmers on Snowball where they were viewed with a range of attitudes from gratitude to contempt.
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<h4 id="org4e191c9">1310 Nirvana (98)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYqVlvWED4x0W5qxS6xp4YAqS9AWib_0K1gn4ZHuqdQqdz0biYyf8wJxugxPnWEDg7W8t74GbijAee_qbmrvGdsUxnfkPYe_GQvzNKMoFtzTpy1-PCGD2sKh4LUmBa1MDfWFGPj67YXmX0C4xZq_z73jDNQZteYO5BnzBd_pB068HgeC2Uuoh3uwsI=s480" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="480" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYqVlvWED4x0W5qxS6xp4YAqS9AWib_0K1gn4ZHuqdQqdz0biYyf8wJxugxPnWEDg7W8t74GbijAee_qbmrvGdsUxnfkPYe_GQvzNKMoFtzTpy1-PCGD2sKh4LUmBa1MDfWFGPj67YXmX0C4xZq_z73jDNQZteYO5BnzBd_pB068HgeC2Uuoh3uwsI=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />At last! A world actually suited to human life. Sort of. The main problem with Nirvana was that it already had life at the microscopic level and many of those microbes had a liking for human tissue.
<p></p>
<p>
The problems with Nirvana would eventually be ironed out and today it is a populous planet which compares well with Earth as it was but it took nearly 300 years to get to that stage and in the meantime humanity’s search for a decent new world went on.
</p>
<p>
In a case of nominative determinism, over the centuries Nirvana has attracted people of a certain philosophical bent and today the world is a direct-democracy which has elected to abandon almost all laws as other worlds know them. All weapons are legal and the weapon shops of Nirvana are famed, as are the protective systems of Nirvana. Beyond those, the world’s cooperative scientific model of completely open publication has lead to, well, a Nirvana of high-technology deployed for the benefit of all the citizens.
</p>
<p>
Most legal punishments consist of variations on banishment or exile.
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<h4 id="org126c54d">0607 Dust (100)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-Ek5_F-1HvE6aHB1biWZfWGDIADT0dqfPBi1UUa4xCN9d1E92VIjg9PGS9jnCZW6NAwdVXs2Z2i_JKt1G3Or6lDcpGtEF-nRzLqa8-uy1RwptuPVaBHGfj0rh4pOhKkEPKC3zl_SRyVxF9MP1ZfZyv2XzEcEmNDFsrRh8fSGsdYiaSDxy4yAk0bIC=s600" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-Ek5_F-1HvE6aHB1biWZfWGDIADT0dqfPBi1UUa4xCN9d1E92VIjg9PGS9jnCZW6NAwdVXs2Z2i_JKt1G3Or6lDcpGtEF-nRzLqa8-uy1RwptuPVaBHGfj0rh4pOhKkEPKC3zl_SRyVxF9MP1ZfZyv2XzEcEmNDFsrRh8fSGsdYiaSDxy4yAk0bIC=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />A couple of gas giants and uncounted millions of asteroids - the “dust” the system is named for.
<p></p>
<p>
Dust was settled as jump-2 technology became economical and the demand for rare elements spiked just as things got messy in Sol’s asteroid belt and supplies from there were disrupted.
</p>
<p>
Today, Dust is the standard destination for the would-be anarchic individualist who wants only to deal with his (it’s almost always a ’his’) neighbours to defend their right to not have anything to do with his neighbours. Pirates and other outlaws who think Dust is a golden opportunity generally discover quite quickly that the low-recharge rate of a mining laser is made up for if there’s a dozen of them pointing at you.
</p>
<p>
Everyone else will usually find Dusters to be friendly and helpful to a stranger in need who doesn’t want to stay long.
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<h4 id="orgad5eb4b">1113 Surtur (Amber) (120)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgbmoP7MPWGYZwzONhc08G3GnFebPMK34SagkTqOrU_G5RP24C8rhOxykbUY289iC3Lr5nDBdByZ98mXxe2_nv-dpOYGcxWK5p-zig42lAtmnhfHtb6QNCV7-beMu20VJgrotwECAsNGfUj5ivFiO_SoOK2Qz3qnprLQcMEQHuEDYMxHXS4okL6X207=s600" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="600" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgbmoP7MPWGYZwzONhc08G3GnFebPMK34SagkTqOrU_G5RP24C8rhOxykbUY289iC3Lr5nDBdByZ98mXxe2_nv-dpOYGcxWK5p-zig42lAtmnhfHtb6QNCV7-beMu20VJgrotwECAsNGfUj5ivFiO_SoOK2Qz3qnprLQcMEQHuEDYMxHXS4okL6X207=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />Nirvana was a bust, at least initially, so the search went on. Surtur was and is a decent world for various types of crop but the high levels of volcanic activity make it hard work for humans and mammals generally. Those without respiratory troubles can usually only work outdoors for a day or two before taking a break in one of the air-conditioned domes. Geological sources of energy are cheap and life in the domes is generally good.
<p></p>
<p>
Near the poles the air is cleaner but with no land masses or ice caps there, the locals have resorted to giant artificial floating holiday destinations for open-air breaks.</p>
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<h4 id="org4fcb887">0909 Sirius (134)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXq6JEGCEh3vSafG4AJU1sIBXfz_xnYmrk8CZ1HTPd7DuWzENL8wkOgdCKjDK8uaULmNbmTT-B78sCugwNH9AYlEt5t6xl2WsAfG2s8tiY1P_8AlO-devO7RPKjQXIXSN6BSu_WrXDXPrn4wFH81psxW-gDwOmg4YSDAyCpBm-8jl-bnPMwebyDThz=s550" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="550" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXq6JEGCEh3vSafG4AJU1sIBXfz_xnYmrk8CZ1HTPd7DuWzENL8wkOgdCKjDK8uaULmNbmTT-B78sCugwNH9AYlEt5t6xl2WsAfG2s8tiY1P_8AlO-devO7RPKjQXIXSN6BSu_WrXDXPrn4wFH81psxW-gDwOmg4YSDAyCpBm-8jl-bnPMwebyDThz=w200-h144" width="200" /></a></div><br />Settled initially as a research project, Sirius became a fashionable destination in the 650’s when a story swept the inhabited worlds that its blue light had unexplained (and, in fact, entirely fictional) health effects. In the hundred years after that spa resorts grew into proper colonies and the demand for living space has made Sirius a popular destination which is cheap now that the health-claims have not only been debunked but reversed to some degree.
<p></p>
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<h4 id="orgf29afab">0912 Glorious (180)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgleCbnoc2AMyu8BUJoQGfwn7_atPSIpgPPUAlp81oK2gpYJxktz1_uHZ71Qsof8oo_0MBOwxc6IU5gBQdPDLx8iGbZmcLTPNYuEEpdk_rQDL_MZXAxle_OkmnBhCO6SXmtau44FcqrHUnCf7mJsApPcMSJzn8hNAZ3Xp7KufvKTOrg79KpLtasVPiI=s600" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="595" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgleCbnoc2AMyu8BUJoQGfwn7_atPSIpgPPUAlp81oK2gpYJxktz1_uHZ71Qsof8oo_0MBOwxc6IU5gBQdPDLx8iGbZmcLTPNYuEEpdk_rQDL_MZXAxle_OkmnBhCO6SXmtau44FcqrHUnCf7mJsApPcMSJzn8hNAZ3Xp7KufvKTOrg79KpLtasVPiI=w198-h200" width="198" /></a></div><br />By 180, Earth was no longer classed as inhabitable outdoors except at the south pole. The average daytime summer temperature in Ecuador had passed 65°C and food production was falling despite the best efforts of hydroponics and “vertical farms”. Water was becoming too scarce to support these technologies at the levels needed.
<p></p>
<p>
So when a world with an ocean almost the size of Earths was discovered, the claimants celebrated with a name that expressed the contrast they saw between a wet but lifeless world and the ancient homeworld teeming with life dying of thirst. Only thirty years of terraforming was needed before the “seed domes” of the pioneers could be taken down (“Dome #1” was retained as a tourist destination by a far-seeing colonial council).
</p>
<p>
The air is slightly chemically tainted, however. Long term exposure leads to adaption and the locals do not need or use any filtering or other respiratory equipment but visitors will need to bring some as the only supplies locally are for asthmatics and the very old; they are not sold commercially.
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<h4 id="org4a6c248">0511 Big (222)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiU3JDyU9p1oR2iRj1ZciL3PXN1pncvLUhO6iVVMEdqcUiXr0STeJZQnrh9VqaA0tbqF8Bh5UNlfGND0FwBAMdBQbnIK3maA5sTflhy0nCi8w30LdfZFWYGqCTGYJWxOjOQQX644mBKz92lO8fEMFHXAf7-0BfJZXwL8cpIplMVBt7_GpAQX8XQpl4k=s600" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiU3JDyU9p1oR2iRj1ZciL3PXN1pncvLUhO6iVVMEdqcUiXr0STeJZQnrh9VqaA0tbqF8Bh5UNlfGND0FwBAMdBQbnIK3maA5sTflhy0nCi8w30LdfZFWYGqCTGYJWxOjOQQX644mBKz92lO8fEMFHXAf7-0BfJZXwL8cpIplMVBt7_GpAQX8XQpl4k=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />A huge (10600 mile diameter) “rocky” world with a surprisingly low density (4.6) which partly balances out its large size so that surface gravity is 1.15g.
<p></p>
<p>
The hydrographic value of 40% is a double-edged sword. Combined with the world’s size it means there is many times more land on Big than on Earth, but much of it is desert and probably always will be no matter how much effort is put into terraforming.
</p>
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<h4 id="org2ed4d2b">0205 Santos (222)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjluz3W2xt8dWUqnH-Hrgqe_DRcaWG6dum6CKAMax-2B4b05SmXClUcoQRGZgFyezBOAihbENKOTLzCYzgSkfC7U3B4Ogk7UZ7jrHJB5AFfuzpMS2-cUK6y39V6QWoLuhl3CEXwdqEyB4sXP-w5OjCJO76Hox8rWqfRiRhRHbilPBaPMHNqaIbuZOuZ=s1112" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="1112" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjluz3W2xt8dWUqnH-Hrgqe_DRcaWG6dum6CKAMax-2B4b05SmXClUcoQRGZgFyezBOAihbENKOTLzCYzgSkfC7U3B4Ogk7UZ7jrHJB5AFfuzpMS2-cUK6y39V6QWoLuhl3CEXwdqEyB4sXP-w5OjCJO76Hox8rWqfRiRhRHbilPBaPMHNqaIbuZOuZ=w200-h163" width="200" /></a></div><br />A small, non-descript world notable today for its ruins and Joni’s Pub.
<p></p>
<p>
Joni’s mock-Tudor inn (known as “The Star King” by its sign) is the haunt of bounty hunters and patrons from across the core worlds, a neutral ground for negotiations and exchanges, and a safe place to stay. One reason it’s a safe place is that Joni’s pub is frequented by Hamish - a 7’ tall Tech-F battle robot with the means to enforce Joni’s peace.
</p>
<p>
If asked, Joni says Hamish was here when she arrived, while Hamish will volunteer nothing about himself beyond the fact that he is waiting for “Mister Rogers”. A journalist once investigated and was unable to find any details about Hamish but was able to show that he has been waiting for at least 150 years.
</p>
<p>
Hamish’s senses extend into orbit and around the world via a network of devices. Whoever Mister Rogers is, it is clear that Hamish does not want to miss him. A side effect of this is that it would be very hard to mount a surprise attack on the cafe, if such a thing was desired.
</p>
<p>
Joni claims ownership of a single square mile of Santos and as far as she is concerned people can do what they like elsewhere. However, the world is a miserable ball of mud with a very high level of rainfall. People tend not to stay long unless they are archaeologists looking at the ruins of the original colonisation attempt, which was abandoned to the rain some five centuries ago.
</p>
<p>
As far as Hamish is concerned, people can do what they like so long as they stay away from his scanner network. They will be warned by automatic systems on the equipment - once.
</p>
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<h4 id="orgf7156c1">1210 Petir’s World (261)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhr7oPc0A8PNCriYL6YtOpLNfPlp8X5r1oLS52BPVdU1bH4Ii5-qHtFgB9yt4jYd2zCe_-Iup0TrV5vzhjc2CmssVb8fazGMHpZ8t_23uX1TTjTLCdCwSZcIzybgG20QysTafu-c5DLMV8xL1ugr963p9DR6LaVEADD4RI3Crwj-dPnZ8Vx3mziYv0V=s613" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhr7oPc0A8PNCriYL6YtOpLNfPlp8X5r1oLS52BPVdU1bH4Ii5-qHtFgB9yt4jYd2zCe_-Iup0TrV5vzhjc2CmssVb8fazGMHpZ8t_23uX1TTjTLCdCwSZcIzybgG20QysTafu-c5DLMV8xL1ugr963p9DR6LaVEADD4RI3Crwj-dPnZ8Vx3mziYv0V=w163-h200" width="163" /></a></div><br />Petir the Bold’s world (history does not record his real name) was the first sign of things to come. A group led by the self-styled Bold man somehow put together an expedition from Earth in secret, using data probably stolen during the sacking of the United Nations. Echoing the New Sun settlement from two centuries before, Petir’s expedition was split into two social classes. What was different was that the lower class was termed “serfs” and had come on the expedition on the strict understanding that they and their children would be servile for seven generations.
<p></p>
<p>
Whether the signatories believed the “contract” could or would be enforced is a matter of academic debate still, but the alternative was a slow death on Earth and many simply said what they needed to say in order to get a foot on the last ladder off-world.
</p>
<p>
Petir took a huge number with him in a fleet of ships, many taken by force or mutiny. It is estimated that the first colony consisted of half a million people - by far the largest attempted.
</p>
<p>
Probably half of them died before the 50 years of terraforming was completed - many, it is claimed, worked to death. No matter what they had thought they had signed up for the reality was actually worse than the “contract” had suggested. Hundreds of rebel leaders were executed or simply assassinated until eventually the serfs gave up and peace reigned on Petir’s World for about a hundred years when the Anti-Colonial Alliance swept its regime away along with that of Rome. The world remains a harsh one, the vast areas of desert broken only around the relatively small seas in the equatorial regions.
</p>
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<h4 id="org77f67e7">1003 Ocean (285)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJVxOlvH8vgGBulieet2J_S3C3FobD5T2845RofRcISpoLOQkP128H4IvUcmmCx4oHA5kkj3SEscoG0hTvvDlmeM_PaDLewhkINbHy77ku1FgVJA211BfaVdSvbWZ_ReaIMUiWoCLP4B1iD0YbCqKL_3Cs4whY2oENv2RAZkbXNo-Yz4Ok4uBHz0ur=s639" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="639" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJVxOlvH8vgGBulieet2J_S3C3FobD5T2845RofRcISpoLOQkP128H4IvUcmmCx4oHA5kkj3SEscoG0hTvvDlmeM_PaDLewhkINbHy77ku1FgVJA211BfaVdSvbWZ_ReaIMUiWoCLP4B1iD0YbCqKL_3Cs4whY2oENv2RAZkbXNo-Yz4Ok4uBHz0ur=w200-h158" width="200" /></a></div><br />A water world now stocked with fish and whales from Earth’s DNA archives. A surprisingly large number of inhabitants, who use the few larger islands as manufacturing bases to supply the nomadic clan-ships that ply the ocean.
<p></p>
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<h4 id="orge546e49">1505 Rome (300)</h4>
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<p>
The 2nd century was a period when power became more and more concentrated in the hands of a few technocrats and military leaders. In the first place, people like Petir the Bold who could take people off Earth were able to write their own terms. Later, those who knew the secrets of mechanised agriculture and high-technology in general could control huge populations simply by controlling the machines that fed them.
</p>
<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhKvP7QxiMychrJMYcuOb5qWr6vjwg_bocbHeChoFnvaeesb7jzNXI6sTDTLQZqCS3E8D38HrcXad4v4dVcmZ-aqQmECVHQujfAgPSzW9eJEx7a-GfS85OADZKeDkyKYQRwJ_-4pXFehmwZjxXwEUqQ_cg3nKoGefATx9UI0_fBHkpi36EuDA2y-bzF=s1600" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1233" data-original-width="1600" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhKvP7QxiMychrJMYcuOb5qWr6vjwg_bocbHeChoFnvaeesb7jzNXI6sTDTLQZqCS3E8D38HrcXad4v4dVcmZ-aqQmECVHQujfAgPSzW9eJEx7a-GfS85OADZKeDkyKYQRwJ_-4pXFehmwZjxXwEUqQ_cg3nKoGefATx9UI0_fBHkpi36EuDA2y-bzF=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />Several of these demagogues were apparently fascinated by what they saw as Earth society’s Golden Age where people like themselves ruled without the need to listen to the Demos. One of these, a Zachary Parks, was particularly fascinated by the Roman Empire and led a colonising expedition to a world newly detected by the Vast Telescope Array newly inaugurated by the Surtur Institute of Science.
<p></p>
<p>
The speed of the expedition caught everyone by surprise - Parks must have been preparing in anticipation of the VTA being as successful as it proved to be - and his fleet of cutting-edge J-3 ships moved in for a claim before the SIS had even got as far as suggesting a name for the new worlds it had discovered.
</p>
<p>
True to its inspiration, Rome would grow to be the first interstellar empire in human society, eventually sparking an alliance which smashed it into individual pieces.
</p>
<p>
Today, Rome is something of a backwater, its glorious recreations and imaginings of its imperial past and inspiration are somewhat shunned and the world is littered with “New This” and “New That”, towns and cities built in modern styles away from the reminders of what was. Time has not erased the memory of the things done and even tourism is fairly non-existent and travelling facilities are poor.
</p>
<p>
While the population is devoted to its democratic present, there are some both from off-world and locals who are hypnotized by the glamour of the past and some of the most unsavoury people to be found anywhere can be found in the ruins of Rome.
</p>
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<h4 id="org2e84ec7">1305 Athena (303)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjOVBu2i3GDoBW9ELVs_arqT4EYMWXOXSWngZPGH4g3RjObLoDFLsmVove9qQouIfc53QW097PxINz1J8Al17byAOjlYp0zmNcb-FNHdKOwpZpEWfhDBcC6D-yisuxXBhCLfzcViW4Vgm3QJohNebFirtOLsgYrkkulkWvtnwid5NXHrrpdrh-1CclW=s768" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjOVBu2i3GDoBW9ELVs_arqT4EYMWXOXSWngZPGH4g3RjObLoDFLsmVove9qQouIfc53QW097PxINz1J8Al17byAOjlYp0zmNcb-FNHdKOwpZpEWfhDBcC6D-yisuxXBhCLfzcViW4Vgm3QJohNebFirtOLsgYrkkulkWvtnwid5NXHrrpdrh-1CclW=s320" width="250" /></a></div><br />In the wake of Park’s “snatching” (as the Surtur Institution of Science put it) of Rome, almost exactly the same thing happened with Athena. In this case, however, this snatch was organised (by Mari Kenkyusha) in order to set up a democratic light to face the fascistic world of Park’s imagining. This is why the capital city of Athena is called Pharos and not Athens despite the fact that the ancient Parthenon of Earth was brought there piece by piece and set up along with a huge statue of the goddess in memory of that once-great city (definitely worth a visit, by the way).
<p></p>
<p>
In the event, Athena was able to hold off Rome but nothing more. The reach of the empire simply went around the highly-motivated and skilled military power of Athena and left it as a self-sufficient bubble of democracy in a volume of might-makes-right.
</p>
<p>
Modern-day Athena is a fanatically democratic society but what is more likely to immediately strike visitors is the robots. In the last three centuries robotics on Athena have advanced further than the world’s general tech-level would indicate and positronic robots instilled with the Three Laws of Robotics are everywhere. Very few are androids, and the body styling can date an individual robot in the same way that clothing can date a photograph, but there are some “humaniform” robots. Almost all robots encountered outside of agriculture or industry are fully autonomous in that they can generally respond to situations without needing instruction and it can be a shock to the visitor to discover that the official functionary asking for passes or showing them in to meet a VIP is treated by someone as property. Various rumours exist around the sector that these synthetic slaves are not enough of a power trip for the riches and most corrupt Athenians, and that missing children may be traced here. The Athenian police deny these allegations and no such case has ever been found, let alone brought to trial.
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<h4 id="org67e600c">1315 Sanctuary AKA Beck’s World (Amber) (402)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgsRQvXnWBJtH6YyiDbxHY9Iv1aXUm5h7KtHbox2ACszXINiCSFd1Vz6ChlzftoP99PiR1YntLJpcNfkpW8tA7v7sl3zvOAOD27AxO-Ioh0KVOcWohR28oNxOoBVvcGcl9MqkRveeCBqDzPX2AWr8TUiH-c7nfWCSj3_rz3Fh-S5494oADeEgtbfHkl=s636" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="568" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgsRQvXnWBJtH6YyiDbxHY9Iv1aXUm5h7KtHbox2ACszXINiCSFd1Vz6ChlzftoP99PiR1YntLJpcNfkpW8tA7v7sl3zvOAOD27AxO-Ioh0KVOcWohR28oNxOoBVvcGcl9MqkRveeCBqDzPX2AWr8TUiH-c7nfWCSj3_rz3Fh-S5494oADeEgtbfHkl=w179-h200" width="179" /></a></div><br />Near the end of Rome’ reign, a charismatic leader called Beck led a colonisation of this system. It is fairly nondescript system except for an extensive asteroid belt.
<p></p>
<p>
Beck wanted this world to be a place free from the attentions of Rome and so hid its existence. He put together a team which infiltrated the VTA at Surtur and programmed in subroutines which prevented the telescope from ever showing the location of Beck’s World (which the VTA actually discovered while his team were looking for a candidate world).
</p>
<p>
Colonists were recruited by cells operating in great secrecy and the initial settlement was quite small.
</p>
<p>
The tradition that Beck’s world is beyond the reach of the law is one that still informs the system today, hence the common name, and this, not Dust, is where the forward-thinking outlaw should build themselves a base.
</p>
<p>
Of course, the other worlds know this and the place is crawling with agents and double-agents operating with no-holds-barred to protect the interests of governments or to enact revenge on behalf of rich patrons who have been offended by some one or other of Sanctuary’s denizens.
</p>
<p>
Not quite an anarchy, there is a council of sorts who’s main purpose is to prevent any increase of the law level among the scattered asteroid settlements, and to mediate disputes. Each asteroid gets one representative and any votes for action must be passed by a majority of all representatives, not just those present at a meeting (which may be remote).
</p>
<p>
Almost any Sanctuarian will, if challenged, wrap themselves in the glory which was the storming of the Roman Senate by a platoon of men led by quite an elderly Beck himself in what was the final act of the Anti-Colonial War.
</p>
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<h4 id="orge143a65">0613 Metalio (Red) (538)</h4>
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<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhR-YzcBUdcw04KCoUYjlPyy7xUBdE6tVZLjFllgOkjhOH9f5LY0J7Qz11taj5-RWnnJv2R1ajMykzzQPPj_Nz3KYz0SA8UrDN3zSaYupCXSv0k0F4SRY_HoxBj6aUeAldc1Oc9OrnBozPD6JTmoDZaWDkEBfE8TqG-xgHFXKZh7BvgX_XStdr7OQ4l=s600" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="600" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhR-YzcBUdcw04KCoUYjlPyy7xUBdE6tVZLjFllgOkjhOH9f5LY0J7Qz11taj5-RWnnJv2R1ajMykzzQPPj_Nz3KYz0SA8UrDN3zSaYupCXSv0k0F4SRY_HoxBj6aUeAldc1Oc9OrnBozPD6JTmoDZaWDkEBfE8TqG-xgHFXKZh7BvgX_XStdr7OQ4l=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />A disastrous experiment in completely mechanised colony preparation. Don’t go here unless you like fighting robots.
<p></p>
<p>
The inability of robot brains to survive hyper-jump while active has generally kept the danger to humanity subdued but the system is monitored very carefully. But don’t let that lead you to assume that someone will see you’re in trouble and come pull you out. They won’t.
</p>
<p>
The “naval base” marked on the map is a small monitoring force, watching for any signs of the robots trying to escape and, if such are seen, will send a message ship to 0612 Intenon to alert much larger forces, while the remainder here will try to engage.
</p>
<p>
The robots know the naval force is there and have probed it several times electronically, but so far they have not succeeded in disabling the fleet, assuming that was their intention.
</p>
<p>
The monitoring force keeps a lot of its records on paper.
</p>
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<h4 id="orge6b59fb">0612 Itenon (Amber) (544)</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-orge6b59fb">
<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEginkkBoVyBz3S9V1sZsHmG9bwOWzL9Al_M-5AYZ0EHaBN5hmOK_6FQNbeNk6y2-vfajDQeN7B7uf0y0I8sJ2COsMWSr2DS6zaoO45LfI-thwFvMwph7f544kx-h5VblViOB0MqwP_KHxG_H375ax_oy5xYUyFThxPgDmcWF7j1CJrtsKvgFNfD0LEz=s640" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="640" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEginkkBoVyBz3S9V1sZsHmG9bwOWzL9Al_M-5AYZ0EHaBN5hmOK_6FQNbeNk6y2-vfajDQeN7B7uf0y0I8sJ2COsMWSr2DS6zaoO45LfI-thwFvMwph7f544kx-h5VblViOB0MqwP_KHxG_H375ax_oy5xYUyFThxPgDmcWF7j1CJrtsKvgFNfD0LEz=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />Itenon is part of the monitoring system for Metalio. Travel to this system is restricted to official business. There are some ground facilities but these are really just for emergency uses, such as vessels with compromised hulls during some possible conflict which makes it difficult to dock with the three (heavily armed) orbital stations. Should these facilities be destroyed, there is a gas giant where it may be possible to refuel.
<p></p>
<p>
Funding is provided for all of this by Athena, New Sun, and several corporations.
</p>
<p>
The Scouts maintain a fast ship here who’s main purpose is to take the news of a disaster to HQ on Sirius in a single jump.
</p>
<p>
The research station <i>carefully</i> analyses data returned from Metalio. There is a small nuclear device in the basement which can be triggered in various ways, none of which can be rescinded by anyone in the station.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-4" id="outline-container-orgab24591">
<h4 id="orgab24591">0604 Disco (791)</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-orgab24591">
<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgECBvvl010NS-xQe7vHvtojITzZ1M1mFs3TSTLPC305p_QO9uV_Fd9Se9tpIzq-8hgvqb8Pmi0BMkUA-uDwrJOtlz6txBmfVK4HLdGbe0-1PnBgL2RkgblAcybBBPCFLXLngNLJli6T7F_LaRiatyKKsWneCXZSmWsxsOHK8HF_IDTaPgYWTXLhCS8=s728" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="728" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgECBvvl010NS-xQe7vHvtojITzZ1M1mFs3TSTLPC305p_QO9uV_Fd9Se9tpIzq-8hgvqb8Pmi0BMkUA-uDwrJOtlz6txBmfVK4HLdGbe0-1PnBgL2RkgblAcybBBPCFLXLngNLJli6T7F_LaRiatyKKsWneCXZSmWsxsOHK8HF_IDTaPgYWTXLhCS8=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />More than 250 years after the last previous colonisation, Disco was claimed by a group from the now rather over-populated Ocean.
<p></p>
<p>
The world had been explored by various scientific and mercantile bodies over the centuries but nothing of any real value was found on either count so the potential of a world with a decent hydrgraphic rating and temperature range was untapped, partly because of the high (32°) axial tilt and consequently somewhat extreme seasonal changes.
</p>
<p>
A hundred and twelve years on, Disco has a population of almost a billion and a thriving technological tradition which has given humanity the class-U jump drive.
</p>
<p>
Sentiment is growing for independence from Ocean and there have been some protests about taxation levels, despite them being low compared to those paid by citizens of Ocean. The Colonial Office on Ocean is maintaining a watch over events and there are agents on the ground, with potential for hiring off-worlders for infiltration and other work.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-4" id="outline-container-org795caed">
<h4 id="org795caed">0704 Beesve (900)</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-org795caed">
<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAlioXb4_cHOsXo58d3rwAuZHzpkEmERdIuqFrQyHarSWfVMT-5bw4G10O-djvGYiD3eYKd8K0h57GLatFmxshMRA705LmwNjam9BfaAAYIka-PkbMKzRig5hQ_iuFkCBzSofdcliKtb0H1qQewrOuDzGxXzqmDA8kyX51PyxOH7pGeHCiAh9W-Yy_=s700" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="700" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAlioXb4_cHOsXo58d3rwAuZHzpkEmERdIuqFrQyHarSWfVMT-5bw4G10O-djvGYiD3eYKd8K0h57GLatFmxshMRA705LmwNjam9BfaAAYIka-PkbMKzRig5hQ_iuFkCBzSofdcliKtb0H1qQewrOuDzGxXzqmDA8kyX51PyxOH7pGeHCiAh9W-Yy_=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />A remarkable system of what appear to be generation ships, but which do not travel anywhere other than their orbits. The world of Beesve itself is a very mineral rich ball of rock with no water and almost no atmosphere. The population actually living there is almost zero; about 12,000 miners spend periods of up to a year on the surface before taking breaks.
<p></p>
<p>
Broadly speaking, each world-ship is linked to a claim on the surface, which supplies the maintenance needs while solar and fusion supply the power needs. Within a claim, the ship council’s word is law and the law level given is the norm for ship-board; weapons are not restricted on the claim itself.
</p>
<p>
There are about 4,000 ships (with an average population of about 2.5 million inhabitants) and about 3,000 claims - some amalgamation of claims has taken place over the years.
</p>
<p>
It is not an especially welcoming place, but it does engage enthusiastically in trade with anyone else who turns up, but only Disco can really say to have a general trade agreement via the Miner’s Union.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgb32d692">
<h3 id="orgb32d692">Abandoned Worlds</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgb32d692">
<p>
The last century of Earth saw everyone who could get away. The terraforming technology of the time was not advanced and many of the projects failed quickly as the chosen world proved recalcitrant towards the great machines. Other worlds died more slowly from internal social issues, sometimes personality-based, sometimes from clashes of culture or class due to the frantic “selection process” used to pick the colonists. And of course dumb luck played its part too.
</p>
<p>
Many of the abandoned worlds failed because they were economically dependant on some resource which failed before the colony was self-sufficient in food, water, or air. Because the majority of abandoned worlds were settled for only a few decades centuries ago, there is little known about them other than perhaps a name or some legend about what might have been left behind - smaller versions of the many stories about Earth.
</p>
<p>
There are abandoned casino worlds and orbital stations, safari worlds, workers' paradises and free market experiments, and strange building projects like Jane’s Folly. A tropical world, thought to have been terraformed around 780, the only structure on this world is a two-mile high building which is a three-dimensional maze of rooms and corridors. The location of Jane’s Folly and its purpose are lost, but occasionally Travellers go off looking for it and come back empty-handed or not at all. A person who has not been seen for a long time is sometimes described as “looking for Jane”.
</p>
<p>
The Scouts know more than anyone else about these worlds, the TAS is next. Beyond that almost no information is available and both of these organisations do not share much with non-members.
</p>
</div>
<div class="outline-4" id="outline-container-orge5e4b56">
<h4 id="orge5e4b56">Class F spaceports</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-orge5e4b56">
<p>
Starport facilities do not last long after abandonment, but some unpopulated worlds do have class “E” ratings where a ground landing area is still intact enough to have some functionality despite a lack of staff. For example on 1206 Itilte, there is a fresh-air facility on a high plateau where filter masks are not needed.
</p>
<p>
These worlds have been given the special classification of “F” to indicate abandoned “E-level” facilities.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-4" id="outline-container-orgcee38e4">
<h4 id="orgcee38e4">The Scouts</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-orgcee38e4">
<p>
The Scout Service is a private multi-system organisation which explores space, obtaining and collating information. Their ships and pilots can be hired to survey planets and the fees they charge governments and companies for this covers the salaries and maintenance costs of the scouts.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgc968693">
<h3 id="orgc968693">The Outer Worlds</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgc968693">
<p>
Beyond the map shown are the Outer Worlds. Even before the expedition to New Sun was underway, a few private individuals who had access to Jump drives were exploring space. As the centuries passed there were more and more of these explorers and more and more of them did not come back but stayed away from the core worlds on a permanent basis.
</p>
<p>
Terraforming technology became portable around the year 220 and from about 300 there are rumours and reports of worlds “out there” being turned into private estates by hyper-rich beings. Evidence from Travellers suggests that perhaps one in twelve of these stories is true. Which still leaves a lot of planets, all of them apparently ten parsecs or more from the nearest Core World.
</p>
<p>
Economically these Outer Barons (or just “Barons”) seem to be completely independent, so money is never an issue when dealing with one. If a Traveller interacts with a Baron the reasons for that interaction are invariably about honour or the ownership of something which is not for sale (whether stolen from them or in the possession of someone else).
</p>
<p>
Many of the Barons have agents in the Core Worlds who are on the lookout for those things which interest their masters, perhaps the majority of which are obtained by completely legal means.
</p>
<p>
The Barons themselves, of course, do sometimes argue amongst themselves but this is rare and Travellers who find themselves caught up in such a “misunderstanding” should look at themselves and assume that there is at least two other freelance (i.e., mercenary) groups involved which are at least as well equipped. Prices should be negotiated accordingly!
</p>
<p>
Normal life on the Outer Worlds tends to have a feudal feel to it. Even where the Baron in question is not actually trying to be a petty tyrant, the bottom line is that s/he has the money and technological power. On the other hand, many of the “peasants” are out there because they don’t fit in anywhere else and anyone trying to free them might get a surprise.
</p>
<p>
Some places are truely bad, however, and tales of slavery and worse do surface from time to time.
</p>
</div>
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">World</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Hex</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">UPP</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Abbeus</td>
<td class="org-right">0101</td>
<td class="org-left">X79A000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Alsece</td>
<td class="org-right">0104</td>
<td class="org-left">X545000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ouarri</td>
<td class="org-right">0108</td>
<td class="org-left">X400000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Orussoer</td>
<td class="org-right">0109</td>
<td class="org-left">X578000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nuesan</td>
<td class="org-right">0110</td>
<td class="org-left">X636000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Leququ</td>
<td class="org-right">0111</td>
<td class="org-left">X201000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Onmala</td>
<td class="org-right">0112</td>
<td class="org-left">X200000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Onetst</td>
<td class="org-right">0113</td>
<td class="org-left">X320000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ladireth</td>
<td class="org-right">0114</td>
<td class="org-left">C555668-4 G Ag Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Arerus</td>
<td class="org-right">0116</td>
<td class="org-left">E10079A-7 G T Na</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tereit</td>
<td class="org-right">0201</td>
<td class="org-left">X335000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Santos</td>
<td class="org-right">0205</td>
<td class="org-left">E353100-4 G Ni Po</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Enrienal</td>
<td class="org-right">0214</td>
<td class="org-left">B101300-9 G Ni A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Errima</td>
<td class="org-right">0216</td>
<td class="org-left">X433000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ceabceso</td>
<td class="org-right">0218</td>
<td class="org-left">X000000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Bionin</td>
<td class="org-right">0302</td>
<td class="org-left">X100000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tiabab</td>
<td class="org-right">0303</td>
<td class="org-left">X222000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Alveus</td>
<td class="org-right">0306</td>
<td class="org-left">X000000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Thnuqu</td>
<td class="org-right">0312</td>
<td class="org-left">X77A000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Zaaloned</td>
<td class="org-right">0315</td>
<td class="org-left">X586000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Isxeitst</td>
<td class="org-right">0403</td>
<td class="org-left">X544000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Legees</td>
<td class="org-right">0404</td>
<td class="org-left">X668000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nuusat</td>
<td class="org-right">0409</td>
<td class="org-left">X62A000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Diesit</td>
<td class="org-right">0410</td>
<td class="org-left">E7A5686-2 Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Isnulo</td>
<td class="org-right">0412</td>
<td class="org-left">X426000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Thinil</td>
<td class="org-right">0415</td>
<td class="org-left">F837000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Anerat</td>
<td class="org-right">0416</td>
<td class="org-left">X9A1000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Edraab</td>
<td class="org-right">0505</td>
<td class="org-left">C482540-7 G S Ni A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Qugeanon</td>
<td class="org-right">0507</td>
<td class="org-left">X669000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Raorst</td>
<td class="org-right">0510</td>
<td class="org-left">X400000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Big</td>
<td class="org-right">0511</td>
<td class="org-left">BB64532-A S Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tionve</td>
<td class="org-right">0602</td>
<td class="org-left">X332000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Disco</td>
<td class="org-right">0604</td>
<td class="org-left">A686869-E G R Ag Ri</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Itquar</td>
<td class="org-right">0605</td>
<td class="org-left">X73A000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Dust</td>
<td class="org-right">0607</td>
<td class="org-left">C000410-A G Ni A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">New Sun</td>
<td class="org-right">0609</td>
<td class="org-left">A541651-A De Ni Po</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Oronnu</td>
<td class="org-right">0610</td>
<td class="org-left">E665568-2 G T Ga Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Itenon</td>
<td class="org-right">0612</td>
<td class="org-left">B343000-0 N A S R G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Metalio</td>
<td class="org-right">0613</td>
<td class="org-left">X402000-0 N G R</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Zaoute</td>
<td class="org-right">0615</td>
<td class="org-left">D759000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Tionma</td>
<td class="org-right">0616</td>
<td class="org-left">X262000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Arxethal</td>
<td class="org-right">0617</td>
<td class="org-left">X320000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Isxeor</td>
<td class="org-right">0702</td>
<td class="org-left">E64A334-3 Ni Wa</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Legeal</td>
<td class="org-right">0703</td>
<td class="org-left">X768000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Beesve</td>
<td class="org-right">0704</td>
<td class="org-left">B110A76-C G In Na</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Quanso</td>
<td class="org-right">0716</td>
<td class="org-left">X510000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Leabit</td>
<td class="org-right">0717</td>
<td class="org-left">A697778-8 Ag</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Usqula</td>
<td class="org-right">0801</td>
<td class="org-left">B131564-9 N De Ni Po</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Sol/Mars</td>
<td class="org-right">0810</td>
<td class="org-left">B420389-8 R G A Ni R</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nuonveal</td>
<td class="org-right">0812</td>
<td class="org-left">B250621-8 G De Ni Po</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Thteat</td>
<td class="org-right">0813</td>
<td class="org-left">D3108BA-4 G Na</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ararbe</td>
<td class="org-right">0815</td>
<td class="org-left">B000336-C G T As Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Stouti</td>
<td class="org-right">0818</td>
<td class="org-left">X9B7000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">New Tionma</td>
<td class="org-right">0901</td>
<td class="org-left">X332000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Onraal</td>
<td class="org-right">0902</td>
<td class="org-left">XAB1000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Isseor</td>
<td class="org-right">0904</td>
<td class="org-left">X637000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Beilbe</td>
<td class="org-right">0906</td>
<td class="org-left">C97A596-A G S Ni Wa</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Etleus</td>
<td class="org-right">0907</td>
<td class="org-left">BAF4652-B G N Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Sirius</td>
<td class="org-right">0909</td>
<td class="org-left">B776723-6 G S N Ag</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Glorious</td>
<td class="org-right">0912</td>
<td class="org-left">E577323-4 G Ga Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Snowball</td>
<td class="org-right">0913</td>
<td class="org-left">C688556-6 G Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Etledi</td>
<td class="org-right">0915</td>
<td class="org-left">X9E3000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Soesqu</td>
<td class="org-right">0917</td>
<td class="org-left">X432000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Qurear</td>
<td class="org-right">0918</td>
<td class="org-left">X550000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Regema</td>
<td class="org-right">1001</td>
<td class="org-left">X538000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lexese</td>
<td class="org-right">1002</td>
<td class="org-left">X6B2000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ocean</td>
<td class="org-right">1003</td>
<td class="org-left">B88A788-A G S Ni Ri Wa</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Edbive</td>
<td class="org-right">1006</td>
<td class="org-left">E575221-7 G Ga Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Eronab</td>
<td class="org-right">1008</td>
<td class="org-left">B8B4465-9 G N Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Esditi</td>
<td class="org-right">1013</td>
<td class="org-left">X9A2000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Atabes</td>
<td class="org-right">1015</td>
<td class="org-left">X410000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Eratit</td>
<td class="org-right">1016</td>
<td class="org-left">X585000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Isgece</td>
<td class="org-right">1018</td>
<td class="org-left">F8D4000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Inracein</td>
<td class="org-right">1105</td>
<td class="org-left">E7C0562-3 G De Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Xeveno</td>
<td class="org-right">1107</td>
<td class="org-left">E345523-6 G Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ratibe</td>
<td class="org-right">1108</td>
<td class="org-left">D563645-3 G T Ni Ri</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Instlo</td>
<td class="org-right">1110</td>
<td class="org-left">A746238-D Ga Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Surtur</td>
<td class="org-right">1113</td>
<td class="org-left">C5A3523-5 G De Ni A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Storou</td>
<td class="org-right">1116</td>
<td class="org-left">B231697-8 G De Na Ni Po</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Maseab</td>
<td class="org-right">1118</td>
<td class="org-left">X524000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Inablois</td>
<td class="org-right">1202</td>
<td class="org-left">X510000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Itilte</td>
<td class="org-right">1206</td>
<td class="org-left">F593000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nuonlo</td>
<td class="org-right">1209</td>
<td class="org-left">D223A62-5 G S In Na Po</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Petir’s World</td>
<td class="org-right">1210</td>
<td class="org-left">C453523-9 G De Ni Po</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Erbein</td>
<td class="org-right">1217</td>
<td class="org-left">X667000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Noenqu</td>
<td class="org-right">1302</td>
<td class="org-left">X224000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Athena</td>
<td class="org-right">1305</td>
<td class="org-left">A685623-B N Ag Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nubion</td>
<td class="org-right">1306</td>
<td class="org-left">F140000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Riusor</td>
<td class="org-right">1308</td>
<td class="org-left">D426698-4 G Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Noarxe</td>
<td class="org-right">1309</td>
<td class="org-left">X54A000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nirvana</td>
<td class="org-right">1310</td>
<td class="org-left">A668820-C Ga Ni A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Etmaet</td>
<td class="org-right">1311</td>
<td class="org-left">X100000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Sanctuary</td>
<td class="org-right">1315</td>
<td class="org-left">D000541-8 G S As Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Alxeed</td>
<td class="org-right">1316</td>
<td class="org-left">X100000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Anleet</td>
<td class="org-right">1401</td>
<td class="org-left">X360000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Loatse</td>
<td class="org-right">1404</td>
<td class="org-left">A110613-A G Na Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Betius</td>
<td class="org-right">1407</td>
<td class="org-left">X579000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lousar</td>
<td class="org-right">1411</td>
<td class="org-left">B987599-8 G Ga Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Serati</td>
<td class="org-right">1413</td>
<td class="org-left">X664000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Zaries</td>
<td class="org-right">1414</td>
<td class="org-left">C728832-8 G S T</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Stabgeit</td>
<td class="org-right">1416</td>
<td class="org-left">XA6A000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Arouve</td>
<td class="org-right">1417</td>
<td class="org-left">X583000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Nuleon</td>
<td class="org-right">1418</td>
<td class="org-left">X647000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Leoued</td>
<td class="org-right">1503</td>
<td class="org-left">X85A000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Besenoce</td>
<td class="org-right">1504</td>
<td class="org-left">CA89853-6 G Ri</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Rome</td>
<td class="org-right">1505</td>
<td class="org-left">D567824-9 G T Ag</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Oretma</td>
<td class="org-right">1507</td>
<td class="org-left">X88A000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Reonce</td>
<td class="org-right">1509</td>
<td class="org-left">C946751-9 G Ag Ga</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Genuno</td>
<td class="org-right">1511</td>
<td class="org-left">X638000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Bexese</td>
<td class="org-right">1512</td>
<td class="org-left">X7A2000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ininxe</td>
<td class="org-right">1514</td>
<td class="org-left">X433000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Bitire</td>
<td class="org-right">1516</td>
<td class="org-left">X665000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Atgeor</td>
<td class="org-right">1517</td>
<td class="org-left">X835000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Ouzaal</td>
<td class="org-right">1518</td>
<td class="org-left">X9B4000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Enxeou</td>
<td class="org-right">1601</td>
<td class="org-left">X889000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lestor</td>
<td class="org-right">1604</td>
<td class="org-left">X624000-0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Reesla</td>
<td class="org-right">1607</td>
<td class="org-left">X310000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Geesse</td>
<td class="org-right">1608</td>
<td class="org-left">X539210-1 G Ni A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Raarus</td>
<td class="org-right">1609</td>
<td class="org-left">X657000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Xerile</td>
<td class="org-right">1611</td>
<td class="org-left">X899000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lolodi</td>
<td class="org-right">1613</td>
<td class="org-left">B576657-B G N Ag Ni</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Erlenu</td>
<td class="org-right">1614</td>
<td class="org-left">F634000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Vebete</td>
<td class="org-right">1617</td>
<td class="org-left">X435000-0 G</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Geveve</td>
<td class="org-right">1618</td>
<td class="org-left">X559000-0 G</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-68356645645217331802021-12-31T12:34:00.006+00:002022-01-01T20:04:50.425+00:00<div id="content">
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org619d61d">
<h2 id="org619d61d">Book Roundup</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org619d61d">
<p>
I thought I better make some sort of post this year! Here’s some books I’ve read which may or may not be of value to DMs.
</p>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org3687d8f">
<h3 id="org3687d8f"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-aTuwQODF1DHOsJ5udbjGz8HWyEyujREg6NgZFiAqAK55IGTSy-da4Pkzq7Sq0AI74bMCZLhvRsgb9djAZNYTDLb9Er5AISwkDE1HiucsrhQ27-9Y5hm83FSW_8E8g2KAoACuMEupaLuTkKRzID6wKNJv6gXKMGcjgeEkDHr8LEwARX7BYzVaFvrO=s1415" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1415" data-original-width="834" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-aTuwQODF1DHOsJ5udbjGz8HWyEyujREg6NgZFiAqAK55IGTSy-da4Pkzq7Sq0AI74bMCZLhvRsgb9djAZNYTDLb9Er5AISwkDE1HiucsrhQ27-9Y5hm83FSW_8E8g2KAoACuMEupaLuTkKRzID6wKNJv6gXKMGcjgeEkDHr8LEwARX7BYzVaFvrO=s320" width="189" /></a></div><br />Glory Road - Robert A. Heinlein, 1963</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org3687d8f">
<p>
When I were a lad, I had quite a few Heinlein’s on the shelf and while I liked his work I often found it a bit too right-wing military-worshipping for my taste. Over the years of moving house and multiple consequent de-clutterings, I noticed that the only RAH left was Glory Road. So I decided to crack it open for the first time in about 40 years and have a read.
</p>
<p>
Broadly speaking, it’s terrible.
</p>
<p>
More narrowly, it’s great.
</p>
<p>
There is a fun, pulpy, Appendix-N worthy short story about an Earth man who is whisked away to perform a mission on behalf of and with a beautiful warrior-woman and her loyal henchman.
</p>
<p>
Unfortunately, this short-story is embedded in a full-length novel which is padded out with long, tedious discussions of sexual politics as well as some on the topic of political politics.
</p>
<p>
Heinlein was very much an anarchic monarchist at heart. His idea of an ideal government seems to have been one where the government exists only to preserve individual freedom. That individual freedom extends to the person in charge of the government, so the goal is to find the right person and give them absolute power safe in the knowledge that they will only use it very sparingly and always for good. A lovely notion, I suppose.
</p>
<p>
At the level of men and women, all interactions are consensual and considered. Contracts of various sorts feature in the story and trouble arises from our hero not understanding when an implicit, social, contract has been entered into. This gives Heinlein the chance to discuss the sexually liberated ideal societies in the book by the central character’s spluttering shock at discovering he has created insult or injury by assuming that 1950’s American standards of decency have no place in the wider scheme presented here.
</p>
<p>
The story is told from this person’s point of view, which allows pages of reflection and self-analysis which is really the author justifying the imagined morals in the best light possible.
</p>
<p>
Outside of that, the characters ostensibly are on a quest to find the <i>Egg of the Phoenix</i> for reasons which are not made clear to the hero until after it is obtained (I’m assuming that no one is expecting a pulp hero to fail). Dragons are faced, mystical gates transport the trio to worlds and demi-planes infested with golem-type constructs, fire-breathing dragons are fought, wards are set, and Cyrano deBergerac puts up a heroic defence of the Egg.
</p>
<p>
<b>Spoilers ahead</b>.
</p>
<p>
I really struggled to get through the politics but then Heinlein does something at the end of the book which changes the whole tone of what has gone before.
</p>
<p>
After the Egg is obtained we switch back to science fiction and it, and the beautiful warrior-woman turn out to be cybernetically linked.
</p>
<p>
The woman who has been called Star throughout turns out to be the Empress of a huge trans-dimensional empire - the wielder of absolute power over not just her world but Earth and every other world known to her hyper-advanced science. The Egg is a device which allows her to access a thousand years of the Empire’s records - not just facts and figures, but stored personalities of previous emperors and a handful of empresses which she, as a relatively newly assigned ruler needs to absorb in order to improve her ability to rule, mainly by knowing when her predecessors intervened without good reason. Heinlein’s view is that improvements to governance generally take the form of reducing the frequency of its actions.
</p>
<p>
The man. Well, the man’s name is the subject of a baffling amount of discussion in the story. His full name is Evelyn Cyril Gordon so he is sometime referred to as just “Gordon”, sometimes as “E.C.”, and sometimes as “Easy Gordon”. But generally he’s just called “Oscar”. Huh? The author cares an awful lot more about all this than I ever did, I can tell you.
</p>
<p>
Anyway. Oscar has apparently faithfully presented RAH’s views on sexual equality and freedom throughout the novel. He has played the part of the manly-man doing manly things for a couple of hundred pages, often to the utter boredom, not to mention sneering, of this reader.
</p>
<p>
Now we’re back on Star’s ruling world (“Center”) and we see a glimpse of <b>her</b> view. Oscar is a pet. A lovely pet, but compared to monitoring twenty universes for signs of trouble, he is simply not that important; nothing to do with Star as a person is very important compared to her duty. Star had to go along on the mission for several not-entirely-convincing reasons but perhaps the unspoken one was that she could not trust the Egg to anyone.
</p>
<p>
Oscar’s life on Earth is revealed to be a sort of eugenics project - one of many, all intended to find someone with the ability to go and get the Egg. He is not the first to attempt it, not by a long-shot, and his predecessors all died in the attempt, as did many scouts who obtained the information about where the Egg was hidden.
</p>
<p>
I finished the book last night and I’m still working though the implications for the story of these final revelations. I still feel that there is far too much of Heinlein’s politics put down on the pages, but I wonder now if part of the reason for that is to give him a chance to satirise himself at the end. “This is what I think,” he may be saying, “And look how egotistical it is to believe that one man has the perspective to make declarations about what is and what should be.” Which fits, in a neatly circular way, with what is being said.
</p>
<p>
I have not read Starship Troopers in an even longer time than Glory Road, and I don’t have a copy but this ambiguity is very similar to what I see in online debates about Trooper’s meaning.
</p>
<p>
I find myself wondering if a book I really struggled to get through was in fact a work of genius.
</p>
<p>
Worth a read.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgfaefc29">
<h3 id="orgfaefc29">Pilgrims - Matthew Kneale 2021</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgfaefc29">
<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNh4_Cpy2FemXTzsi1fFm0O20e001ZKP1MwDz_Dke5bSqn79oGbszKnItRZOUnKMzncmBSxgFusDFp8pyF2kcPvDuMKlEUKzacz7LC7elf7WPxVOoP7HcRduijoXS6SQKb5JZ8n0D8sJtL89S6l5PemDft16Z01ZoHCGk1ET3Es5ZByvZpSMuLK33S=s500" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="326" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNh4_Cpy2FemXTzsi1fFm0O20e001ZKP1MwDz_Dke5bSqn79oGbszKnItRZOUnKMzncmBSxgFusDFp8pyF2kcPvDuMKlEUKzacz7LC7elf7WPxVOoP7HcRduijoXS6SQKb5JZ8n0D8sJtL89S6l5PemDft16Z01ZoHCGk1ET3Es5ZByvZpSMuLK33S=s320" width="209" /></a></div><br />There’s one iron-clad rule when browsing books in a bookshop: anything printed on the cover which is not by the author is wrong.
<p></p>
<p>
This goes doubly so for anything attributed to a newspaper review, and triply for any newspaper review which says the book is a comedy.
</p>
<p>
Newspaper book reviewers are generally very dull people, likely to laugh hysterically at a fart-joke. Consequently, they often mistake a humorous remark by a character as being enough to classify the entire work - and all this applies to their film reviews too - as a work of hilarity.
</p>
<p>
So, when I saw on the cover that the Financial Times felt that this book was “Uproariously Funny” my assumption was that it would not be, and I was right.
</p>
<p><i>
Pilgrims</i> follows a group of, well, pilgrims from England to Rome towards the end of 1289. It’s a bad time of year to be travelling and naturally, since they all are sinners, they are a fairly bad-tempered group with the additional friction of class mixed in.
</p>
<p>
Amusing things happen, certainly, and some of the characters are people one could imagine travelling with and their company helping rather than making the hardships worse. Some are hypocrites, some take pleasure in others’ failings, some are misguided, and one is on the pilgrimage for what seems a very trivial reason.
</p>
<p>
But that’s not comedy - that’s people.
</p>
<p>
The humour that is shown is often of the very real sort of <i>let’s try to get through this</i> type that people resort to when they must do something that is very, very difficult.
</p>
<p>
Children die, people are lost in blizzards, secret’s are revealed which in the religious setting of the day represent the risk of being burnt at the stake. The Uproariously Funny book ends with a grim depiction of anti-Semitic ethnic cleansing.
</p>
<p>
But, yes, some people make funny remarks at times.
</p>
<p>
Generally, a nice depiction of mediaeval Europe and an insight into the degree to which there was an international cultural flow motivated by pilgrimages, and the mental spaces and walls in which people lived, loved, and died.
</p>
<p>
The writing is a bit weak at times but if this is a period or subject you’re into it’s definitely worth reading. If they’re not then it’s not going to blow you away, I think.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orged30461">
<h3 id="orged30461">Thebes, The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece - Paul Cartledge 2020</h3><div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orged30461"><p>A nice, simple, straight-up review: this book is shit. The author’s credentials suggest that he must know the subject but the text demonstrates that he has no idea how to present it clearly to a reader. It's a shame as the Greek Thebes does deserve a good book.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhVFu8TpYfh_hhrSUBGWY1lA_Xt2ju5-gkX28aQvMBIELRyn4ho6vXc1yrwQ4JG9WooaUj0iAg8SzMPJN1WLC6Qlr5hLk2bOGA_HYnnvNlYVg3W7CzGY96I4HTf-aj-BNM-Zv8RdHJNo3hiW9TRvdpVdvMtN-y5Vp_fnT4zu2PZUuvGulqva0rrRotk=s606" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhVFu8TpYfh_hhrSUBGWY1lA_Xt2ju5-gkX28aQvMBIELRyn4ho6vXc1yrwQ4JG9WooaUj0iAg8SzMPJN1WLC6Qlr5hLk2bOGA_HYnnvNlYVg3W7CzGY96I4HTf-aj-BNM-Zv8RdHJNo3hiW9TRvdpVdvMtN-y5Vp_fnT4zu2PZUuvGulqva0rrRotk=s320" width="211" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>
<p>
Avoid.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgdbda76d">
<h3 id="orgdbda76d">London Bridge and its Houses (2nd Ed) - Dorian Gerhold 2021</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgdbda76d">
<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-7pYiRCh8FIC6K6rdw0zrOmHnD7gjE7a8oryz6QxMUelnOsspoILTZB1elFhoPMYAvPpbBRDmiAmXlsLtiq3K-V0X0_LYIQQhILAsHRGAphY3RsGZ9wJpH1q7C68u_YoAjCx2q2zaLxUFvj37YOzEFRcXuRkGv3G0OJFvzQykk49OHeO1eKrgtBLk=s400" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="400" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-7pYiRCh8FIC6K6rdw0zrOmHnD7gjE7a8oryz6QxMUelnOsspoILTZB1elFhoPMYAvPpbBRDmiAmXlsLtiq3K-V0X0_LYIQQhILAsHRGAphY3RsGZ9wJpH1q7C68u_YoAjCx2q2zaLxUFvj37YOzEFRcXuRkGv3G0OJFvzQykk49OHeO1eKrgtBLk=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />Just a bloody pleasure. The illustrations are clear and those which are representational rather than schematic are atmospheric. The text is clear and supported by hard data thanks to the fact that many records connected to the bridge have survived to the present day.
<p></p>
<p>
The idea of 600 people living on a bridge over a river for half a millennium seems straight out of a fantasy book or game (and will be appearing in one near me very soon), but it was a real thing in the capital city of England.
</p>
<p>
The data given here, including rents, tenants, construction methods and maintenance requirements, as well as what was being sold in the shops under the houses, is overkill for anyone thinking of putting such a thing into their own city but all together it is very inspirational despite the lack of fantasy elements.
</p>
<p>
I would never have thought of the houses on London Bridge having basements - still less the houses which were not situated over piers!
</p>
<p>
If you are planning a fantasy city, even one without a bridge, this is full of ideas about what would be found in the sort of pseudo-mediaeval period that typical D&D campaigns exist in. The book covers up to 1761 when the houses were removed and some anachronistic elements such as printing presses (truely enormous numbers of books were published on the bridge) could well be back-projected to an earlier fantasy date.
</p>
<p>
If you have any interest at all in mediaeval cities, you should buy this book.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org8df9190">
<h3 id="org8df9190">His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman 1995-2000</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org8df9190">
<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihU0sf21_Ag8iQ_iOjGETlVRt6l0nygi5nBxdru0pbm0WnLpseA5oag8CJmA-LxxHUvrXm4pZJCDbqa6poCnLjpRp_KFial2pwSzuone1BglfnPOpfd7HXKdyFOOqqAU2PspgqDxzivD5gtIlDFXjfmutjFrS4Vl82BUVvvn0L4l2HPuKhkFMqSuDr=s321" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="201" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihU0sf21_Ag8iQ_iOjGETlVRt6l0nygi5nBxdru0pbm0WnLpseA5oag8CJmA-LxxHUvrXm4pZJCDbqa6poCnLjpRp_KFial2pwSzuone1BglfnPOpfd7HXKdyFOOqqAU2PspgqDxzivD5gtIlDFXjfmutjFrS4Vl82BUVvvn0L4l2HPuKhkFMqSuDr=s320" width="200" /></a></div><br />It’s tricky reviewing books which are aimed at younger readers when you are not yourself a younger reader. I found the first Harry Potter book to be completely without merit of any kind, but I’m not the target audience so I just shrugged and walked away.
<p></p>
<p>
His Dark Materials <i>is</i> clearly aimed at non-adults, despite what Pullman says. However, the books that make up the one-volume edition I read, are generally juvenile only in the characters they focus on being young teens and only really actively avoid depicting sex, in regard to "adult" topics.</p>
<p>
</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgH_n1x3LOMy-iSKwj-_yOFb5qSSiPFMihGwHRpnHOV6n7F09u-YTBFU4MjXgVDNDAFhcFjFS25JF6kZbyb4W2xZUw-AF2b2M91uAznXAA-8rq4-tQeFmNmUgYJXvVCd7QJYEwSBzYXyEuUu50dFwbhPMZACSl_rxUdolnIz1tQmm0WMGRBuZvl3_m5=s540" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Stop That!" border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="540" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgH_n1x3LOMy-iSKwj-_yOFb5qSSiPFMihGwHRpnHOV6n7F09u-YTBFU4MjXgVDNDAFhcFjFS25JF6kZbyb4W2xZUw-AF2b2M91uAznXAA-8rq4-tQeFmNmUgYJXvVCd7QJYEwSBzYXyEuUu50dFwbhPMZACSl_rxUdolnIz1tQmm0WMGRBuZvl3_m5=w200-h200" title="Stop That!" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stop That!</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The problem is that the story is actually <b>about</b> sex and not wanting to deal with that head-on means that there are scenes which are clearly leading up to sexual encounters or matters, where the reader can almost feel the “camera” being knocked aside to move onto some other time or place to leave the characters to get on with things.
<p></p>
<p>
The young teens of the story - Lyra and Will - are approaching puberty, which some people believe is an analogue of The Fall in Eden; a gateway to sin. Sin in this case seemingly represented by “Dust”, an almost L. Ron Hubbard conception of wilful magical material drifting between the parallel worlds of the universe but which do not accumulate on pre-pubescent children.
</p>
<p>
Will is from our world, Lyra is from a parallel world. Lyra’s world is magical, and every human is accompanied by a soul-companion in the form of a totem animal, called a “daemon”. Much of the deeper plotting in the book revolves around the question of what happens if a person is separated from their daemon and Pullman achieves a powerful sense of Evil when dealing with this matter. The book’s anti-religious stance is most clearly articulated in this central accusation that religion destroys rather than nurtures the soul and that The Church is parasitical on its congregation.
</p>
<p>
Where he is not so successful is in the bigger picture. It’s just <i>too</i> big, and he fails where Lovecraft fails. The reader’s mind (nor the writers) simply can not correctly grasp the scale of threats to reality, still less battles to save it which involve armies of angels and multiple-dimensions and worlds mobilised into physical conflict with each other and those angels. It becomes blandly repetitive.
</p>
<p>
In the turning point of the final movement God dies and reality is saved, but the narration is weak in the face of such cosmic events. When we return to Lyra and Will and the consequences for them, the book once more is able to move the reader in a way which the defeat of a demiurge simply does not. Perhaps such ideas are best left for poets like Milton, who is the inspiration for much of the conflict.
</p>
<p>
The ending is poignant. Believable and realistic, but sad even with the promise of wonderful things to come; the golden future not quite breaking though the immediate moment of loss.
</p>
<p>
Worth reading.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-50770080439972441252020-07-04T12:47:00.005+01:002021-07-03T18:59:36.793+01:00Circular Argument<style type="text/css">
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GpvRbowfqxM/XwBjiin2pzI/AAAAAAAABa0/7kP3OAeIo-YvyYNtMhXdfRtR5zWKaQO7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/thaumaturgiccircle.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="664" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GpvRbowfqxM/XwBjiin2pzI/AAAAAAAABa0/7kP3OAeIo-YvyYNtMhXdfRtR5zWKaQO7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/thaumaturgiccircle.png" width="200" /></a></div>
Magic resistance in AD&D is not <i>very</i> precisely defined, although it’s not too bad compared to some rules. It is initially covered in the Monster Manual thusly:<br />
<blockquote>
Magic resistance indicates the chance of any spell absolutely failing in the monster’s presence. [Discussion of chance based on caster level and saving throws]. Note also that the magic resistance of a creature has an effect on certain existing spells such as hold portal, where it indicates the probability of the magic resistance shattering the existing spell.
</blockquote>
By Monster Manual II the text had altered slightly:
<br />
<blockquote>
MAGIC RESISTANCE is the chance a spell might fail when cast on the monster; this chance is expressed in a percentage.[Discussion of chance based on caster level and saving throws].
<br />
A creature’s magic resistance extends only to its immediate possessions, i.e., anything carried or worn. Area-effect spells will still function if targeted on a magic-resistant creature within their area. The creature itself might not be affected, although all others in the spell area will be subject to spell effects. A fireball, for example, may wipe out a cluster of orcs, while an agathion standing in their midst might be totally unaffected. The percent of magic resistance of a creature has an effect on certain existing spells such as hold portal, where it indicates the probability of shattering the existing spell.
</blockquote>
This leaves the question of spell-like powers to the DM but I have never met or heard of a DM who actually ran a game where magic resistance did not affect these in the same way as it did spells. The question of what level the spell-like powers were cast at was generally settled either by the monster description or by the various hints here and there that HD should be used as a surrogate for level.
<br />
So, what about paladins’ <i>protection from evil</i> power?
<br />
<br />
Well, what about it? Surely it’s just another spell-like power and presumably it’s regarded as being of a level equal to the paladin?
<br />
<br />
Yeah. Just like those protective circles any character can draw with a bit of chalk…er, what?
<br />
<br />
The sixth level clerical spell ’<i>aerial servant</i>’ introduces the idea of the magical protection circle and the DMG presents these three as options for protection from the servant:
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mjQT2dN8wrU/XwBmMHgwOoI/AAAAAAAABb4/7JLwKsiFTeML2MiNkQGTrjAUqE-mqw56wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/dmgcircles.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="559" height="103" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mjQT2dN8wrU/XwBmMHgwOoI/AAAAAAAABb4/7JLwKsiFTeML2MiNkQGTrjAUqE-mqw56wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/dmgcircles.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
These are presented as an <i>alternative</i> to casting <i>protection from evil</i> and no spell is apparently required. Which fits with real-world folklore. Certain symbols simply keep certain monsters out.
<br />
Similarly, we are informed by the Monster Manual that demons can be kept out by a thaumatergic circle if lesser than a type VI, and ’special pentagram’ if they are that degree or higher.
<br />
<br />
Devils are a little less clear, but magic circles are effective, but have to be ’ensymboled’ in the case of greater or arch devils.
<br />
<br />
MMII tells us that a pentagram will keep out dæmons.
<br />
<br />
Up to this point, the power of these circles has been presented as a simple “if you are facing <i>these</i>, then use <i>this</i>” proposition. There is no hint that their use involves spell casting and basically, there’s no reason to think that they don’t work as advertised.
<br />
<br />
This introduces some balance questions as regards the power of demons and devils. Any street artist could render him/herself safe from the powers of Asmodeus using a bit of chalk and an umbrella, assuming they had a flat bit of space to draw and stand on.
<br />
<br />
My interpretation of how they work has always been that they are not “magic” in the normal sense, they are somehow expressions of the fantasy equivalent of physics. Gravity causes demons and devils to fall; magic symbols can cause them to be repelled. Maybe it’s a sort of phobia or a twisting of the planer effects that allows them to manifest in a different world.
<br />
<br />
Unearth Arcana then brings in the sixth-level magic-user spell <i>ensnarement</i>. This details the use of magical inscriptions of this type as prisons rather than guards. The spell itself is unusual in that the saving throw is actually an Int test between the monster and the magic-user who is trying to trick the subject into stepping through a <i>gate</i>-like portal.
<br />
<br />
For example, if the monster being summoned is a Type IV demon with an Int of 12, and the summoner has Int 14, the monster rolls 3d6, adds 2 for the difference in intelligence and if the result is greater than 12, the demon steps through the special gateway and finds itself in the diagram prepared for it, probably a pentacle.
<br />
<br />
There is some doubt but it seems that magic resistance is not applicable as the question is whether the demon falls for the trick and thereby steps through voluntarily.
<br />
<br />
But what about the portal - what about the <i>gate</i> spell in general? Magic resistance “indicates the chance of any spell absolutely failing in the monster’s presence”. In this case there would be at least a 60% chance of failure if we assume that the gate-like opening appears “in the monster’s presence”.
<br />
This is where I think the slight change to the description of magic resistance in MMII comes it. Now the effect “is the chance a spell might fail when cast <b>on</b> the monster”. <i>Gate</i> and <i>ensnarement</i> are not cast directly at the monster and both spells become much more workable when used on the sort of beings they are intended for, which generally have high magic resistance scores.
<br />
<br />
Once the monster is in the trap, a check is made to see if the diagram is correct. This is significant as the question appears to be independent of the spell and applicable to those trying to use the diagrams as protective mechanisms.
<br />
<br />
On usage, there is a chance that the diagram fails. Firstly, there is a base chance which can be brought to zero (and no further) by expenditure.
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6r5M5cOiSxQ/XwBpSL-kxWI/AAAAAAAABdA/N7VigQkyuC4ghfSLQ9GwmWkcK_Ci8PqDgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/tekumeldrip.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="344" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6r5M5cOiSxQ/XwBpSL-kxWI/AAAAAAAABdA/N7VigQkyuC4ghfSLQ9GwmWkcK_Ci8PqDgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/tekumeldrip.jpg" width="183" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Always be careful <br />
where you bleed</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In classic AD&D style, the logic for this is somewhat dubious. A hand-drawn diagram has a base 20% chance of failure when used. This can be reduced by 1% for each 1000gp spent in combination with an extra turn’s work on the drawing. So it takes 20,000gp to reduce this to a base zero chance of failure.
<br />
<br />
Alternatively, the magic-user may have a permanent diagram inlaid or carved somewhere. This has a base chance of failure of only 10% but taking that down to zero is extraordinarily expensive: 50,000gp and an entire month of additional work (no guide is given about the base time needed).
<br />
When some creature is snared, there is a roll to see if the diagram works (assuming it’s the right type of diagram, of course). The failure chance is equal to the monster’s Intelligence score plus its HD (or level), minus the same score for the caster, plus the final base chance.
<br />
<br />
So, the Type IV demon has an escape chance of 23% (12 Int plus 11 HD). The caster is, let us assume, 12th level and adding this to their Int score of 14 gives 26, for a score of -3. The cheapest of inlaid floors would give the demon just a 7% chance of escape, a quick chalk diagram 17%. Higher quality materials and time could easily reduce this to no chance at all.
<br />
<br />
There is an issue here with the description of how circles work. The text says that inlaid circles need only be tested on first use. But there’s no guarantee that the second occupant of the circle is not more powerful and/or intelligent than the first. It seems unreasonable that a magic-user could summon an imp to “test” a circle before using it on Asmodeus. Not having any flaw that an imp can find is not the same as being able to hide shoddy workmanship from the gaze of the Master of Hell.
<br />
<br />
So I would suggest that each test establishes that the circle is proof against the intelligence plus HD of whatever has been captured. Ensnaring a second imp will work automatically; further rolling is needed for a more powerful target which, if successfully caught, then establishes a new “high score” of what can be held within the inlaid pattern.
<br />
<br />
Be that as it may, the question of magic resistance remains well and truly out of the picture.
<br />
<br />
So, where does this fit with the spell <i>protection from evil</i>?
<br />
<br />
The drawing of a circle as part of the spell seems only to be indicative of the range of the protection - 3’ diameter in the case of the basic spell, and 20’ in the case of the area effect spell.
<br />
<br />
Nothing more is needed than to draw a circle on the ground, or even in the air using the material component. As such, this is mainly a somatic component not directly connected with any of these diagrams, not even the lesser magic (protection) circle. So there is no real reason to view the repulsion field, once established, like other spell and subject to magic resistance.
<br />
<br />
As an aside, it’s worth remembering that magic-users are significantly more adept at this spell than clerics, not only do they cast the spells much more quickly (1 and 3 segments casting time versus 4 and 7), but magic-users get the 10’ radius spell as a 3rd level spell rather than the cleric’s 4th level - 32,500xp earlier.
<br />
<br />
To finally bring this back to our paladin, I can’t see any reason to treat their <i>protection from evil</i> effect any differently from the spell as regards the magic resistance roll.
<br />
<br />
This has an unpleasant effect for the paladin since all demons and devils have magic resistance.<br />
<div>
<br />
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org7e48abb">
<h3 id="org7e48abb">
The Paladin’s Problems</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-0-1">
The <a href="https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=84089&p=2075367&hilit=chalk#p2075507">objection</a> has been raised by <a href="https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=84089&p=2075367&hilit=chalk#p2075507">Skalding</a> on <a href="https://www.dragonsfoot.org/">Dragonsfoot.org</a> that
<br />
<blockquote>
Paladins are meant to be exceptional figures, holy exemplars of LG conduct. So holy that they are immune to disease, can cure by touch, and can sense the presence of concealed evil. One of their special powers is a constant circle of protection.
<br />
It makes very little sense to suggest that the circle hedges out summoned beings except for demons and devils because [insert one reading among many of a particular mechanic.] Even though demons and devils can be kept away by properly chalked circles, and devils repelled by holy objects
</blockquote>
I sympathise with the reasoning but I feel that it misses out on some advantages of the paladin’s power. Firstly it is mobile, which a chalked circle is not, secondly it is 1" radius, not 10’. But more importantly it is constantly renewed.
<br />
<br />
It is hard to read the description of magic resistance’s effect on <i>hold portal</i> and not feel that it should have the same effect on a normal <i>protection from evil</i> spell, i.e., that it should dispel it if the resistance succeeds. At the very least it should allow the monster to encroach on its target for duration of the round.
<br />
<br />
Against the paladin that doesn’t work as the effect is a continual one without any need for concentration or casting. Breaching it once means nothing more than it has been breached once.
<br />
<br />
My xp calculations place the Type I demon at level 7. With a 50% MR, against a 7th level paladin the Vrok’s effective MR is a whopping 70%.
<br />
<br />
Pausing only to note that against any other class the Type~I has a 100% chance to be able to affect the character with its powers, let’s look at what this means in practise.
<br />
<br />
Against AC -1 the demon normally needs to roll 14, so it has a 35% of striking. Add in the effect of the protection and this drops to 24½%. So the paladin effectively has +2 to their armour against each attack.
<br />
<br />
And at the start of each round of combat there is a 30% chance that the demon will be forced out of melee range (offering a free attack at it’s back, I think) and have to close to combat again, which takes a round of combat where the paladin can be doing something else (I’m assuming that the demon already used its charge option for the turn, which of course had a 30% chance of failing).
<br />
<br />
If the demon chooses to attack from range then there is no question of magic resistance affecting the protection and the normal <i>protection from evil</i> modifiers of +2 to AC and -2 to saving throw targets apply. Which is weaker than what has been put forward for the drawn diagrams but of course it retains the advantage of mobility.
<br />
<br />
So I think the paladin is doing all right against an equally levelled monster and, again, it’s worth remembering that none of these partial protections are available to any other class, not even clerics.
<br />
So that’s sorted, then: static diagrams are powerful but limited, mobile spells and powers are more flexible but more vulnerable to MR. Job done.
<br />
<br />
Except…
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org3df1db6">
<h2 id="org3df1db6">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3YcHFey9sk8/XwBrCLa1ytI/AAAAAAAABdM/OC7uH8joM_EUuZRL4Cdqwe6pchI1FbR7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/forkids.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="856" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3YcHFey9sk8/XwBrCLa1ytI/AAAAAAAABdM/OC7uH8joM_EUuZRL4Cdqwe6pchI1FbR7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/forkids.jpg" width="186" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The considerate summoner<br />
always has a host body <br />
ready<br />
(Art: <a href="https://blog.threadless.com/lets-summon-demons/" target="_blank">Carlyn Hill</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We Need to Talk About Demogorgon</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1">
The Big D has a magic resistance of 95%, the highest in the Monster Manual and ignoring the odd MR mechanic of the daemons, exceeded only by the Crimson Death in MMII.
<br />
<br />
A protection from evil spell by an 11th level caster (or 11th level paladin) thus has only a 5% chance to have any effect on Demogorgon, and a 15% chance to keep Orcus at bay.
<br />
<br />
That seems fine to me. These are ultra-high level god-like monsters.
<br />
<br />
The problem comes with the magic item, <i>scroll of protection from demons</i>. What is its effect on Demogorgon?
<br />
<br />
If it is treated as a normal spell effect then Demogorgon’s magic resistance should penetrate it. We’re not given any guidance as to what level protections scrolls are but even if we assume an arch-mage has created the scroll, there is a 60% chance of the protection failing. And in fact there’s a substantial chance of it failing against any but the very weakest of demons - 15% against a Type I demon, for example.
<br />
<br />
This seems wrong for an item specifically stated as protecting against demon princes; it should do what it says on the tin.
<br />
<br />
One thought was that the scroll might actually create one of the diagrams perfectly. That fails on two points: firstly, a simple pentacle protects against all demons so there’s no reason for the progressive levels of protection for different powers of demons, and secondly the fact that the effect of the scroll moves with the user.
<br />
<br />
At this point I think we have to simply give up on trying to fit the protection scrolls into the magic resistance framework - they just don’t fit.
<br />
<br />
For my personal rationalisation of this I’m falling back on my old idea that there are things that can be done to the “space-time” of the PMP which can create spaces or barriers that the nature of certain foreign beings can not tolerate. In the case of the scrolls of <i>protection from demons</i>, <i>protection from devils</i>, and so forth the barrier prevents voluntary entry, but the monster can be forced in by the actions of the scroll user.
<br />
<br />
This twist in space may be created by magic but the result is not magical, in the same way that a <i>dig</i> spell creates a real hole (probably). As such magic resistance does not protect against the barrier.
<br />
<br />
What happens to a demon which is forced into the circle by an outside agent? That’s a DM call but I’d send them back to the abyss or wherever. But it would be like trying to get a cat into a bath, not something the creature would do willingly (presumably it’s extremely painful).
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-orgfee6bc6">
<h2 id="orgfee6bc6">
At the Table</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-2">
The six types of protective circle below can be drawn by any character using various materials which may be available either at home or on an adventure. They can be used in various ways to attempt to protect a character or characters from some enemy, or to block portals. They are perhaps most useful for hiding from any <i>detection</i> powers or ESP employed by the relevant monsters.
<br />
<br />
In each case the base chance of failure, due to inaccurate measurements and other issues, is 20% (I assume that inscribing is not likely to be available as an option other than at home base). When the diagram is tested this chance is increased as usual by the INT and HD/level of whatever is attempting to breach the protection. Whichever character drew the diagram may subtract their own ability score from this. Furthermore, the various classes allow the artist to subtract their level or some proportion of their level from the failure chance, depending on the diagram and class:
<br />
<br />
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Class</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Devices</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Mod</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Magic-user</td>
<td class="org-left">All</td>
<td class="org-left">Level</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Cleric</td>
<td class="org-left">All</td>
<td class="org-left">Level</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Illusionist</td>
<td class="org-left">Magic Circle, Thuamaturgic Triangle</td>
<td class="org-left">Level</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Druid</td>
<td class="org-left">Pentagram, Thuamaturgic Circle</td>
<td class="org-left">Level</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Thief</td>
<td class="org-left">Pentgram</td>
<td class="org-left">Level-9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Paladin</td>
<td class="org-left">Pentagram, Basic Circle</td>
<td class="org-left">Level-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Bard</td>
<td class="org-left">All</td>
<td class="org-left">Bard Level÷2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Monk</td>
<td class="org-left">Pentagram</td>
<td class="org-left">Level÷2</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Thieves and paladins below 9th or 8th level respectively do not receive any modifier when their diagrams are tested for failure. Bards and monks round all fractions down.
<br />
<br />
In each case, “pentagram” includes the ability to produce a pentangle.
<br />
<br />
Finally, the DM may feel that an additional penalty is needed to reflect less than ideal circumstances, from 1% up to maybe 25%.
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org0551f68">
<h3 id="org0551f68">
The Diagrams</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-1">
Brief discussions of the devices follow, in each case the normal time to draw it is included in parenthesis.
<br />
<br />
None of this is quite by-the-book as there are inconsistencies and gaps in the book text. I’ve italicised particularly non-conformist parts of my own devising.
<br />
<br />
When referring to beings “from” a plane I generally mean native to that plane, so devils are from Hell, even though they may pass through to various other lower planes at will. The exceptions to this are the astral and ethereal planes. In those cases the diagrams block activity for any being currently on the named plane.
</div>
<div class="outline-4" id="outline-container-orga20d400">
<h4 id="orga20d400">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hb2dGYiTmkk/XwBmd2CnakI/AAAAAAAABcE/2D-_ha40owcJN-Dt0eYFWv5rzRni-M-rwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/pentangle.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="458" height="189" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hb2dGYiTmkk/XwBmd2CnakI/AAAAAAAABcE/2D-_ha40owcJN-Dt0eYFWv5rzRni-M-rwCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/pentangle.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pentangle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Pentangle (5 rounds)</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-1-1">
A pentangle may be placed on a location or object while a being not of the plane is magically held by other means within. If all exits from the prison are adorned with a pentangle, the magic effectively becomes permanent. The trapped being may not use any power or physical action in order to leave; at least one pentangle must be broken by some outside agency.
<br />
<br />
<i>A pentangle can also be used to seal a reversed divination spell. For example, if </i>obscure object<i> is cast on a magical sword and the sword placed into a case, if the case is sealed with a pentangle upon the lock(s) or bindings, then the spell effectively becomes permanent until the seal is broken. The object itself is contained by the seal and no special power or effect may be activated or utilised while it is so cloistered. Only one such item (or being) may be protected by any one case, room, or other container.</i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
</div>
<div class="outline-4" id="outline-container-org81c7b95">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mSg2UuB-VS4/XwBml5A3BYI/AAAAAAAABcI/ulmxV4u-zm4rVdIiUVHK5tyzcHnRCIbtgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/pentacle.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="485" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mSg2UuB-VS4/XwBml5A3BYI/AAAAAAAABcI/ulmxV4u-zm4rVdIiUVHK5tyzcHnRCIbtgCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/pentacle.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pentacle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 id="org81c7b95">
The Pentagram (6 rounds)</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-1-2">
A pentagram will block the passage or attack of any creature native to planes 17 to 21 inclusive (see PHB p121). It will not block devils <i>or arcanodaemons</i>.
<br />
<br />
<i>If a location, such as a room, has pentacles placed such that the outer circle touches each door-frame post, they will prevent entry by the above beings, even using teleport-no-error or such like. Similarly, sendings, detection, and all other powers will be unable to penetrate the location. Pentagrams so placed will not prevent the exit of such creatures or the effects of their powers from the room.</i>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-4" id="outline-container-org67cfcad">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AFpEeTjUlWU/XwBmvRMH1EI/AAAAAAAABcU/hN7v7jokjjoZZFnPaJFIfsACiNY7ia9_QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/protectioncircle.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="485" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AFpEeTjUlWU/XwBmvRMH1EI/AAAAAAAABcU/hN7v7jokjjoZZFnPaJFIfsACiNY7ia9_QCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/protectioncircle.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Protection Circle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 id="org67cfcad">
The Basic Protection Circle (1 round)</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-1-3">
This will block any lesser devil, and any hostile detection, sending, or similar divination power etc which is used by them <i>or any caster of less than 6th level</i>.
<br />
<br />
They may be used as described for pentacles for securing areas.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-1-3">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="outline-4" id="outline-container-org5671044">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RI4G30J3M3g/XwBnO9Cm41I/AAAAAAAABcs/cBCv8wQoGDc--J-C1zhQ2v64g2Ii57kQACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/thaumaturgictriangle.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="485" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RI4G30J3M3g/XwBnO9Cm41I/AAAAAAAABcs/cBCv8wQoGDc--J-C1zhQ2v64g2Ii57kQACLcBGAsYHQ/s200/thaumaturgictriangle.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thaumatergic Triangle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<h4 id="org5671044">
The Thaumatergic Triangle (5 rounds)</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-1-4">
Tricky and thus slow to draw due to the uneven angles, this device prevents passage, sendings, powers etc. from beings originating in planes which are neutral - Concordant Opposition (if in use), and the Inner Planes, including the Ether, <i>and also including alternate Prime Material Planes to the one occupied by the diagram, as well as creatures from planes 11 to 13, 15 to 17, 19 to 21, and 23 to 25</i>.
<br />
<br />
May be used to prevent ingress as above <b>except</b> for beings on the astral plane of existence.
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="outline-4" id="outline-container-orge0725f5">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-em9JZSm_nXE/XwBm9piWLjI/AAAAAAAABcg/j4zHMPGjntcd5CflJOIcH2H4Q3-LFfsQACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/magiccircle.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="664" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-em9JZSm_nXE/XwBm9piWLjI/AAAAAAAABcg/j4zHMPGjntcd5CflJOIcH2H4Q3-LFfsQACLcBGAsYHQ/s200/magiccircle.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Magic Circle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 id="orge0725f5">
The Magic Circle (2 Turns)</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-1-5">
Blocks beings from planes 10 to 15, as well as 22 to 25, and the Astral plane.
<br />
<br />
May be used to prevent ingress as above <b>except</b> for beings on the ethereal plane.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="outline-4" id="outline-container-org485bde7">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--uoBXTmolY4/XwBnYV8AoII/AAAAAAAABcw/UtcIsl-nICM2xZrboFlSa5ei7RYfNpMpwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/thaumaturgiccircle.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="664" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--uoBXTmolY4/XwBnYV8AoII/AAAAAAAABcw/UtcIsl-nICM2xZrboFlSa5ei7RYfNpMpwCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/thaumaturgiccircle.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<h4 id="org485bde7">
Thuamaturgic Circle (2 Turns)</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-1-6">
Blocks actions in the same way as the Thuamaturgic Triangle but is also effective against demons with less than 80% magic resistance (used here as a measure of power, not in the normal way).
<br />
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org67dc6df">
<h2 id="org67dc6df">
</h2>
<h2 id="org67dc6df">
</h2>
<h2 id="org67dc6df">
<br /></h2>
<h2 id="org67dc6df">
Notes</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-3">
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orga516a0a">
<h3 id="orga516a0a">
Ingress blocking</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-1">
The above assumes that the doors being protected are the only way into the location. If there’s a window, then that must be protected in some way too. The DM might want to allow pentagrams to be used in some way, or s/he may decide that more stringent requirements be met such as inlaying the gaps between bricks/stones/planks with lead or similar.
<br />
<br />
The object is to give a party in trouble some way to gain some breathing space. Since non-planer aid can usually be obtained by such beings which will be unaffected by diagrams, the rules above shouldn’t be too unbalancing.
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org20d5b25">
<h3 id="org20d5b25">
What is “Extra-Planar”?</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-2">
Travellers on other planes will find that a diagram meant to protect them from beings from that plane will have no more effect than a chalk circle will have on a mugger in the players’ home town.
<br />
<br />
Conversely, the players may find diagrams deployed against them as the “planer interloper”, as the DM sees fit or appropriate.
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org7094af4">
<h3 id="org7094af4">
Moral Issues</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-3">
While it is probably not an issue for Evil or neutral characters to use any of these diagrams, it may cause questions to be asked if a Magic Circle is used against creatures from the Upper Planes (Arcadia round to Gladsheim) by a Good-aligned character.
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org804a2aa">
<h3 id="org804a2aa">
Gods and Wishes</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-4">
Diagrams need to be limited in their power to some degree. They are vulnerable to damage by agents or other actors from the plane on which they exist as they have no effect on such beings and, for example, the cleaner might wipe away “those funny chalk marks” on the laboratory floor. But, still, it seems unreasonable that a deity would be adversely affected by them.<br />
<br />
A <i>wish</i> should probably be able to destroy a diagram which the wisher can see.
<br />
<br />
Lesser deities should also probably be able to ignore diagrams they are aware of if the diagram was created by a demi-god or mortal. Greater gods should be able to ignore those created by lesser gods, demigods, or mortals.
<br />
<br />
This area is difficult as there are different conceptions of how gods should work in a gameworld; the DM must ultimately decide for themselves. Personally, however, I think that the ability to hide items using pentangles should be 100% proof against anything except very specific <i>wishes</i> by beings who already have a good idea where the item is hidden.
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-34089299478987215662020-06-28T16:28:00.000+01:002020-06-28T16:28:28.786+01:00Race to the Bottom<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org61c703d">
<h2 id="org61c703d"><span class="section-number-2"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yEVfU2fOtbM/XviHeMz2IEI/AAAAAAAABYk/wlsbTYRnTIA8l559LRGDAg_p5xOcC4ctQCK4BGAsYHg/s1210/quixote.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1210" data-original-width="963" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yEVfU2fOtbM/XviHeMz2IEI/AAAAAAAABYk/wlsbTYRnTIA8l559LRGDAg_p5xOcC4ctQCK4BGAsYHg/s320/quixote.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Blog Post<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>1</span> Light and Shade in The Postmodern Totalitarian Dungeon</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1">
<p>
The new Satanic Panic has arrived at our door. In the wake of events in the US (and some actions in the UK) I expected the flash point to be the phrase “Dungeon Master” but instead it has mainly come from the use of “orcs” in the game.
</p>
<p>
WotC have decided that they need to act as if orcs are a substitute for black people in the game. As a subsidiary of a faceless multinational corporation WotC have no choice (assuming that they wanted a choice) but to be careful about anything which threatens sales - even imaginary ones. So, just as TSR before them removed demons and devils from the game because some strange people felt that they encouraged devil-worship, WotC are going to make sure that “orcs and drow are just as morally and culturally complex as other peoples”. Isn’t that generous of them? I’m sure the oppressed members of these fictional races will celebrate this date forever in their imaginary but terribly complex social structures.
</p>
<p>
This process is in itself not new - the D&D brand has suffered for a long time from the “everyone’s the same” disease which makes player choices in such things as race, sex, and even in some cases character class meaningless. This leads to the paradox that choice in these areas is demanded as being vital while at the same time treated as completely without actual significance. What’s new is the fear behind it and that fear has grown as a response to an insidious totalitarian thought pattern that has been growing in society in general for some time. It is a trend that should - must - be resisted.
</p>
<p>
Postmodernism is primarily a belief in the unimportance of context. There are no facts, there are only assertions and views. Each idea or proposition is seen as a “story” or perhaps a view point. Everything becomes relative. Everything. This is a powerful idea and it certainly can have a positive aspect.
</p>
<p>
“Votes for women!”
</p>
<p>
“No.”
</p>
<p>
“Why not?”
</p>
<p>
“Errr…”
</p>
<p>
By shaving away context one shaves away “tradition” as an excuse. But something else creeps in.
</p>
<p>
“The world is flat!”
</p>
<p>
“No it isn’t.”
</p>
<p>
“That’s my view; you have no right to cast shade on my point of view.”
</p>
<p>
“But you can <i>see</i> it’s not flat. Go up a hill; go to the beach and watch the ships come over the horizon.”
</p>
<p>
“Don’t you oppress me.”
</p>
<p>
Saying that all bets are off and that we start on an even playing field has facilitated an approach to public debate which is simply a room full of people asserting their “story” as being as valid as any other. And some people have been asserting that D&D is dyed in the wool racist because it is possible to draw parallels between how orcs are presented in the game and how some human “races” were presented by members of other human “races” in our world.
</p>
<p>
Arneson and Gygax never draw this parallel (mostly because it’s moronic) and Gygax seems, at least in Greyhawk, to mostly take the view that racism based on skin tone hasn’t really occurred to anyone, at least so far.
</p>
<p>
But in the postmodern view an author’s opinion or explanation when alive is largely irrelevant to discussion of their work, and a dead author may as well not have existed. The text stands alone as it was printed; a rather bizarre notion given that language changes over time. The only value an author’s words have is in confirming (rarely in denying) the conclusions of the analyst of their works.
</p>
<p>
Which brings us to things like James Mendez Hodes’ blog post <a href="https://jamesmendezhodes.com/blog/2019/1/13/orcs-britons-and-the-martial-race-myth-part-i-a-species-built-for-racial-terror">about “Orcs, Britons, And The Martial Race”</a> which takes at its starting point a comment by Tolkien in a letter to a film producer that orcs might be portrayed by taking what 1950’s Europeans would regards as the ugliest of “Mongol-types” and imagining them “degraded”.
</p>
<p>
Hodes immediately takes this as Tolkien saying that he and his mother’s family are exactly what he had in mind by the word “orcs” and then asks the simple question “why would he say that?” to which the equally simple answer is “he didn’t”.
</p>
<p>
Hodes then mixes this misunderstanding (and it’s hard to believe that it’s not a deliberate misunderstanding) with a load of extrapolation, a shallow understandings of history, generalisation, and of course a huge dollop of ignoring what Tolkien was doing and what he actually meant.
</p>
<p>
By the time we’re a third of the way through the first post (there are two) the question that Hodes is asking is <i>which</i> forms scientific racism most influenced Tolkien. Not “if” or “might have”.
</p>
<p>
The whole screed is illogical but pivots on a type of selective reading that is implied in much of the material floating about concerning racism in D&D. Because Hodes has no interest in other parts of the <b>same letter </b>from Tolken which portrays Sauruman as hopelessly corrupted and wanting only “cling to life to its basest dregs”. This is the wizard who starts the story as Sauruman the <b>White</b>!
</p>
<p>
Tolkien, this supposed white-supremist, discusses in this letter the importance of distinguishing between hypnosis and what he intended as seductive and “persuasive” words from Sauruman the White and the fact that listening to him is “dangerous”, not “inspirational” or any positive adjective.
</p>
<p>
In all three of his Middle Earth works, Tolkien consistently presents racism as a negative thing, a tragic mistake that divides people who should be working together and which allows Evil to thrive.
</p>
<p>
But Tolkien’s own words are only useful if they can be twisted to bolster the argument, otherwise they are ignored.
</p>
<p>
As a footnote to looking at Hodes’ paranoid delusion we see a neat version of the double-standard he works with when he presents this (rather bad) Elmore image:
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6mmTRV8RSbg/XviINzMciOI/AAAAAAAABZE/uSuBOAGPzPY8059s5_BBn4tGQz8lcpSKgCK4BGAsYHg/s1333/shard.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6mmTRV8RSbg/XviINzMciOI/AAAAAAAABZE/uSuBOAGPzPY8059s5_BBn4tGQz8lcpSKgCK4BGAsYHg/s320/shard.jpg" /></a></div><p>In it Drizzt is shown as…an elf with black skin. Which, basically, is what drow have always been. As far as I can see, Hodes thinks that if you have black skin then you “should” have facial features like a person of recent Sub-Saharan African descent. Hodes has such a hard-and-fast notion of what proper (“pure”, perhaps, is the word) races are that he can not cope with the idea of a fantasy world where skin colour is not part of a package brought about by evolution to cope with an environment.</p>
<p>
Elmore, it should be noted, does not depict humans that we would recognise as of recent Sub-Saharan African descent very often, which we’ll come back to below.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org2993543">
<h2 id="org2993543"><span class="section-number-2">2</span> Sympathetic Racism</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-2">
<p>
Another approach that comes up in these discussions is that orcs are portrayed in the same way that black humans are in certain circles. This resonance is stated as if it in some way mattered, if true (although in fact very few negative depictions of black people I have seen have really resembled anything I’ve seen in depictions of orcs).
</p>
<p>
If you say to me “orcs are an evil race of marauders created to destroy civilisation” and I reply “Oh, you mean like black people?” then clearly the problem is with me, not the orcs, and I’m unlikely to have been so polite as to say “black people”.
</p>
<p>
If you say to me “Drow are an evil dark-skinned race who dwell in a subterranean matriarchy” and I reply “Oh, you mean like black people?” I think you would be within your rights to ask to see my discharge papers from the local secure mental facility.
</p>
<p>
The postmodern mode of “thought” makes this sort of racism-by-resemblance possible by removing context. If the reader tries to introduce reality by saying that there was no intent to link orcs and humans with black skin or that black people don’t live in a subterranean matriarchy, the old refrain is rolled out that the dead hand of the author is powerless to clarify that no parody or attack was intended. Offence has been taken, that's all that matters.</p>
<p>
In computing, we’ve had a lot of this too. GitHub has recently stated that it will no longer use the word “master” for the master branch of software under development. The fact that the word was being used in a way entirely unrelated even to the type of slavery that sees one database being a slave of another was not considered worth discussing because they thought that the online mob who are crusading on this point instead of doing anything worthwhile about real slavery would not leave them alone until they did it. Truth is not a defence in the postmodern world.
</p>
<p>
GitHub is a subsidiary of a faceless multinational corporation Microsoft, by a strange coincidence.
</p>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-orgbc81174">
<h3 id="orgbc81174"><span class="section-number-3">2.1</span> Which Racists, Exactly?</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-1">
<p>
Like the Satanic Panic before it, one thing the racist RPG witch hunt (sorry, perfectly harmless wise woman hunt) lacks is any real evidence for a problem.
</p>
<p>
To be blunt, racists are generally stupid and certainly lack the imagination and empathy to spend time sitting at a table playing even a 5e D&D campaign. I’m sure there are some somewhere, but it’s not really their bag.
</p>
<p>
What <b>is</b> a problem is online forums and to some extent online gaming. These venues do allow trolling to take place without much effort, or intelligence, or empathy. As such, they attract a lot of weak minds who mainly just want to kick someone and hear them cry out.
</p>
<p>
While I personally think that even within this group real racism is thin on the ground (real racists stick together on their own groups and places where there isn’t a crowd of people telling them they’re asshole losers), it does not make the online scene very welcoming. It may be true that the dickhead who called you a fat bastard or a nigger, or an ugly bitch would have called you <b>anything</b> they thought would hurt you and did not in fact care about any of those things, it’s not something that people should have to put up with.
</p>
<p>
But this is not caused by D&D (or whatever game you might be playing). It’s caused by (generalising here) the need of human males to try to prove that they are not at the bottom rung of the social ladder by showing that there is someone somewhere they can spit on. In the past such behaviour would have been restricted to their home town or village, now they can roam the world from their laptops trying to find people to attack.
</p>
<p>
Racists are not playing D&D because they’re either playing it with other racists, in which case they will become bored and stop, or because the group of decent people they managed to get involved with will eject them, possibly before the end of the first session.
</p>
<p>
There is something of the classic abusive relationship here were one person makes another suffer so that they can then stop the suffering and look like a rescuer. First, tell people that they are being misrepresented and insulted and then start a campaign to end the misrepresentation - instant social champion. Along the way of course you’ve told a load of innocent people having fun playing a game that they are vile racists, but hey: social champion badge!
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org24cf32c">
<h2 id="org24cf32c"><span class="section-number-2">3</span> The ’R’ word</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-3">
<p>
One major source of difficulty is the word “race” itself. In our world it is outmoded and basically meaningless. To talk about “the black race” or even “Asians” is not to talk about a real thing. It’s the same as talking about “the ginger race” or “people from Reading”. People have black skin and there are people living in Asia, but they are not actually different “races” in any meaningful sense. At <i>best</i> the word introduces a package of generalised physical features and at worst it suggests physical ideals compared to which other “races” and in particular mixing of races are judged inferior or wrong.
</p>
<p>
On the other side of this fence, the races of, say, Greyhawk are actual things in the gameworld. Because this is a fantasy, race <i>can</i> be a real thing. Gnolls are not orcs, which are not storm giants, which are not beholders. All are intelligent species - which is as close to a working definition of race as I can come up with both in fantasy and reality, the difference being that it has no useful application in reality as there is only one intelligent species on Earth - the Scot (joke).
</p>
<p>
The most common casually racist term I see on a day-to-day basis is “African American”. This euphemism is annoying because it simply means “black American” and uses the wholly inappropriate word “African” as a replacement for “black”. Everyone in America is descended from Africans - including the native Americans - just like everyone everywhere else.
</p>
<p>
Using the word “African” introduces a fig-leaf of objectivity to the discussion of race - instead of talking as if having a different skin tone makes you a whole difference type of human being (a nonsensical ides) we’re talking about people from a whole other continent. Who have probably never been there and who’s great-grandparents probably never went there either. But, hey, they’re from Africa! Of <i>course</i> they’re a different race!
</p>
<p>
Bollocks.
</p>
<p>
I suspect that this “African American” euphemism is behind the complaint that Elmore’s Drizzt is “in black face”: “black” equals “African”; "African" equals "black". It does not.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-orga8624f3">
<h2 id="orga8624f3"><span class="section-number-2">4</span> Hand Yourself In - The Totalitarian Approach</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-4">
<p>
We are at a point now where there is an assumption in some very vocal corners of the Web that using certain races (beholders still seem fair-game) is racist and that therefore the DM who does so is either racist or pig-ignorant.
</p>
<p>
It is not enough to argue that your game is not <i>intended</i> to be x, y, or z. Your context does not matter, only that of the player/reader and, thanks to the miracle of postmodernism, they can never be wrong because <b>everything</b> is subjective. Except your racism. That’s definitely a real thing and saying it’s not real proves how racist you are.</p>
<p>
The fact that you are offending someone is enough to show that you are at fault. No one, it seems, should ever be offended and it is clearly the height of madness to suggest that seeing insult where none is intended is a character flaw.
</p>
<p>
The above is, in truth, deeply believed by many people I see or interact with online. “Throwing shade” on someone else by saying that they are wrong or mistaken is a new taboo which is deeply and sincerely felt by people who have been brought up on it. It negates the ability to engage in anything but the most stunted of playroom debate - “play nice or we’ll stop”.
</p>
<p>
So the DM is expected to follow the classic Stalinist formula: “The party says I am a traitor; I do not <i>think</i> I am a traitor but it is impossible that The Other is wrong, so it must be that I <i>am</i> a traitor even though my name is spelt differently on the arrest warrant; I must have been spelling it wrong myself all these years.”
</p>
<p>
To look at how this affects play decisions, I’m going to take as an example Dr. Ian Slater, AKA “Ulan Dhor” on Dragonsfoot and other places.
</p>
<p>
Here’s some extracts from <a href="http://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2020/04/race-in-d-part-2-im-historian-by.html">a blog entry</a>, the second in a set about “race in D&D”.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Colonialism is a project of resource acquisition that involves the use of military force to seize land and engage in cultural genocide.
</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>
Part of the colonialist project was a justification of widespread violence and outright theft. How do you justify mass slaughter and subjugation? The primary method for this was a process sometimes called “othering”, in essence, you claim that a group of people are lesser than you, somehow flawed, thus justifying treating them as less than human. You can do whatever you want to the “other” as they aren’t really human, they are corrupt, primitive, animalistic, uncivilized.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
The message is obvious so I’ll not quote more: the non-human races in the game <b>are</b> representations of real “races” which were treated this way and the game excuses this - indeed extols that treatment as worthy of reward in the form of levels, wealth, abilities and so on.
</p>
<p>
Once again, similar activities are set as being of similar motive and moral value. Chopping wood is seen as an endorsement of the death penalty because necks. And, also as usual, “The Other” is shorthand for “the noble savage who is never wrong, always peaceful, and always innocent”.
</p>
<p>
Now it’s hard to generalise even about AD&D games, let alone all the games of 2e, 3e, 4e, and 5e that have been played under the banner of the name “D&D” but a lot of settings, especially in the early days, were post-almost-apocalypse. Something happened and the monsters nearly took over.
</p>
<p>
Let us look at that from a different angle:
</p>
<p>
Something terrible happened on Earth and a war started between those who believed that human life was expendable if ending it would garner political support for those who ran society, and those who had decided that slavery was wrong and who were trying to achieve more fairness in their societies even against internal resistance. Even today, long after this near apocalypse, the borders of the nations that were fought have not been pushed back to extinction. There are still Syrias, there are still Saudi Arabias, there are still Azerbaijans and there is still internal resistance. But we’re at a better place than in 1939.
</p>
<p>
Ian’s thesis comes apart immediately as we see that here there is an alternative representational model that can be applied. The Other are not “POC” as he calls people who’s skin is not some arbitrary level of lightness (when they don’t have a tan - racism can be very long-winded if nothing else); they’re Nazis and STASI and KGB, The Klu Klux Klan and Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirt’s, they are the thugs in vans that smash windows of Jewish shops and beat up homosexuals. </p>
<p>
We can go further. The PCs represent the victims of colonisation. The orcs (pig-faced in D&D) are the brutal police that are trying to keep them in their “humans only” ghettos, gnolls are perhaps the British, bugbears are the Spanish etc. The game setting is an analogy for the period when the European empires had grasped almost the whole world, but this time some people have stood up and are fighting back; the apocalypse is resisted.
</p>
<p>
Now we have two alternative metaphors for the Evil races of D&D to place beside the one being peddled by the postmoderns. If we have to pick one (and we certainly don’t), why is it assumed that we are all picking the one where the orcs are black people?
</p>
<p>
You may say that this is nonsense and I would largely agree. The three options are all arbitrary and there’s no reason to pick any one of them as the model for your game, and even less reason to claim that they represent the meaning of the game as a whole.
</p>
<p>
All three interpretations are weak, although the second and third ones stand up to more scrutiny. For example, if orcs are supposed to represent black people, why are they shown as slavers? If you try hard you can justify a lot of the problems with the race theory but the comparison of orcs with the intolerant of our world is distinctly closer than the analogy with the oppressed. But the similarity in both cases is largely projected, in my opinion. Where Ian sees “historical precedents” I see mostly meaningless surface similarities.
</p>
<p>
There’s also a subtle prejudice in this claim of historical precedents. If we were to accept that the game encodes <i>something</i> about race relations, it is perhaps odd that we are to assume automatically that the relationship being replayed is the one that casts the “White Man” as the strong and noble one, because the game is rigged.
</p>
<p>
D&D assumes that the PCs are going to “win”, if the players are skillful. All monsters exist to be defeated. A particular group may not eliminate all monsters in the world, but the explicit expectation in D&D and AD&D was that the borders of what is settled and safe would be pushed back by them - the so-called “domain game” phase of early play.
</p>
<p>
<b>Why</b> are we to assume that the losing side of this conflict represents non-white peoples? Or turn the question around: why is the assumption that non-whites are always weaker than whites? What sort of enlightenment is this, exactly?</p>
<p>
Let’s look at a player who Ian discusses thusly:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
The first camp finds inherently evil humanoid races to be a problem. The coding is too strong and too unpleasant. I realize this is hard for someone who is not a POC to understand, it was hard for me to understand for the longest time as well. But this isn’t people being “snowflakes” or “triggered”, this is a real, visceral dislike for something that reminds them far too much of real world prejudices.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
This certainly smacks of thought-crime: if you can’t see the problem, it proves you’re racist even if you didn’t think you were. The clue is the common usage in this area of the word “coded”: if you can’t see what the poster sees it’s because you’ve not been let into the secret meaning which is hidden from the ignorant and foolish. Yes, foolish people like <i>you</i>, sir.
</p>
<p>
But the coding isn’t quite as Ian presents it here. The suggestion - made explicitly by Hodes and others - is that a race which is presented as avaricious, brutal, base, and militaristic must be a “code” for the representation of people in our world distinguished by skin tone. Here’s the main issue with that:
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rOpl83BasSs/XviG5lfA6-I/AAAAAAAABXw/WFBn_I2_ObIRLzmm-D_coHltRgJCMT3zACK4BGAsYHg/s536/german.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="361" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rOpl83BasSs/XviG5lfA6-I/AAAAAAAABXw/WFBn_I2_ObIRLzmm-D_coHltRgJCMT3zACK4BGAsYHg/s320/german.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DMD0UjFJFbE/XviHALNJd9I/AAAAAAAABX8/2WtgjDZcK6kEPZhPQwbquYZkP668-7FqgCK4BGAsYHg/s753/britishfrench.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="753" data-original-width="623" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DMD0UjFJFbE/XviHALNJd9I/AAAAAAAABX8/2WtgjDZcK6kEPZhPQwbquYZkP668-7FqgCK4BGAsYHg/s320/britishfrench.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VC_O_Mkf5so/XviHFFMUNrI/AAAAAAAABYI/ugZ9npVW_csh1QK7vYCq1H-y3Oo937sBwCK4BGAsYHg/s825/alliedhydra.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="825" data-original-width="528" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VC_O_Mkf5so/XviHFFMUNrI/AAAAAAAABYI/ugZ9npVW_csh1QK7vYCq1H-y3Oo937sBwCK4BGAsYHg/s320/alliedhydra.jpeg" /></a></div><p>In all these examples predominantly white-skinned nations present other white-skinned nations as avaricious, brutal, base, and militaristic beasts (including an allied hydra, interestingly). There are mountains of this material. There is nothing about being presented in this why which is uniquely or distinctively associated with black people.</p>
<p>
I personally am white-skined, especially on one side of my arms for some reason. But, if you think I don’t know about dehumanisation think again. My upbringing under “white privilege” like many others was not very privileged. In the time and place I grew up, people with anything other than white skin and brown or black hair were functionally non-existent. What did exist was a bigotry that cared nothing about skin colour but everything about what you called the 8th letter of the alphabet.
</p>
<p>
I personally have been blown up into the air by two separate terrorist bombs and had my home damaged by another one; I lost my business to an attack; my grandmother was shot dead in her own home; a friend was blown to bits by what would now be called an IED. I now work in a multi-cultural office with very few colleagues who are as pale-skinned as I am.
</p>
<p>
I have a “real, visceral dislike” for anything to do with the Republic of Ireland’s political and religious leaders, including to some degree the flag of the country. But I don’t imagine that every scenario with a plucky band of rebels facing an Evil Empire is an analogy for the history of Ireland or is supporting the killing and/or exiling of my family just as I don’t assume that <i>everyone</i> from Boston supported the bombing campaign that killed thousands of people in my homeland.
</p>
<p>
So why are non-white people supposed to automatically take on the weaker side of the game milieu when it is presented to them? Why, even if they are told to view the games in terms of real-world race, should we expect them to identify with the oppressors that are being driven back instead of the pluky band of survivors that are pushing them? Something deeper is wrong here, I think, and once again the problem is not with the game.
</p>
<p>
Ian continues:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
If you are going to be respectful of others and work to ensure that POC have a voice at the table you can’t just ignore POC voices that don’t fit the narrative.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
There is trauma and there is paranoia and there is immaturity. The desire that the world be rounded off to prevent you from being offended is the latter; the first two need treatment. Either way, the issue is not with the game itself.
</p>
<p>
Should we, as DM’s, simply pander to people who project these values and fears onto our games? The answer is, it depends. For Ian it is a commercial question as he charges to run games and it’s natural for him to see what side his bread is buttered on. For others it’s a question of whether putting one person’s irrational feelings above one’s own self-expression for the sake of a game or a friend. That’s a personal decision.
</p>
<p>
What I <i>do</i> believe is that DMs who do not intend humanoid races to be stand-ins for supposed real world “races” and who continue to play normally should not in any way have to apologise for it.</p>"Monster" has a root in the Latin word for warning. It is not the role of monsters to be sympathetic or fully-rounded. It is their role to say "to act like a troll is to become a troll". Intelligent monsters are still monsters - as Stalin and Pol Pot demonstrated.</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org51af96f">
<h2 id="org51af96f"><span class="section-number-2">5</span> A History of Western Art</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-5">
<p>It’s noticeable that none of the blog posts I have read on this topic seem to seriously consider that human player characters can be black and how that fact can be harmonised with the imagined racist celebration of colonisation.</p><p>However, there is some justification for that.</p><p>
Picking on Larry Elmore for a moment, you can search his website and find out of maybe a hundred or more illustrations about 2 featuring people who look like real-world people of recently Sub-Saharan African descent. There are maybe a couple more of dark-skined drow.
</p>
<p>
I’ve not looked at Jeff Easley or Keith Parkinson’s sites for a while but I don’t remember either, or Dave Sutherland’s work being replete with people that didn’t look like me - pale with dark hair. There were a few blonde women.
</p>
<p>
It is hard to believe that the original D&D “crew” were not all people living in areas which were almost completely populated by “white” humans who’s last non-European ancestor was a thousand years in the past. None of the artists were, as far as I know, living in anything larger than what would be a medium-sized town by British standards and multiculturalism, especially when they were growing up, was not something they probably had a lot of experience with.
</p>
<p>
The artists painted and drew what they saw around them, and they probably imagined, if they thought about it at all, that the people buying the products looked like them.
</p>
<p>
If D&D had been invented in Sri Lanka the same thing would have applied and among the snakes and nagas all the adventurers would have looked fairly like the people who generally live in Sri Lanka.
</p>
<p>
There were some exceptions. Arneson lived in Minnesota and was a friend of M. A. R. Barker, who had travelled much further afield in Africa, Asia, and South America than anyone else associated with the early days of role-playing.
</p>
<p>
But Arneson didn’t draw and Barker was focused on Empire of the Petal Throne, a game notable for it’s overt celebration of everything that is being questioned in D&D at the moment - colonisation, slavery, conquest - but which, perhaps because of its baldness or just obscurity, doesn’t seem to be attracting much flak. Or maybe it’s okay because the colonisation, slavery, and conquest are not being done by while-skinned people.
</p>
<p>
This artistic background set D&D up with a very very “white” public face. It has not generally been a game which a kid with black skin would look at in a shop and think “these adventures could be about <i>me</i>!”
</p>
<p>
As the option to play basically anything you like has gradually taken hold among the owners of the name “Dungeons and Dragons” it seems to me that an odd thing has happened - few of the later artists have thought that “anything you like” could include alternative human “races” with the exception people from China or Japan.
</p>
<p>
You can have scales, horns, or wings. But, strangely, black skin is substantially rarer in the art than any of these things, I believe (I’ve not done an in-depth survey but I see a lot of fantasy art and a lot of gaming art every week).
</p>
<p>
This is something that should be looked at, I feel. I would not expect a Japanese RPG to feature many Europeans in its artwork, given how extraordinarily homogeneous Japan is, but Britain, France, and the US for three are not like Japan and have substantial numbers of people who have neither horns, wings, nor white skin.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org24d553d">
<h2 id="org24d553d"><span class="section-number-2">6</span> Old School is Old</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-6">
<p>
D&D is in its roots a backward-facing game. With the exception of the orc, every intelligent race, and a lot of the others in the original game was drawn from folklore and stories that pre-dated the 20th century, sometimes by millenniums.
</p>
<p>
Additionally, a large proportion of this folklore was drawn from very genetically monocultured regions such as Tudor England. Black people did exist in Europe in the past, but they were certainly a small minority and their existence is further hidden by the fact that many of them were poor. Othello is a remarkable work that places not only a black man at the centre and gives him power and wealth, but which portrays the white lead as a deeply evil man who, despite sharing quite a lot with the audience, never really reveals why he’s prepared to drive Othello to murder and suicide.
</p>
<p>
Othello stands out because there is nothing else like it before or for a long time after in Western literature.
</p>
<p>
</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rvIcmWly5lg/XviIbn8unMI/AAAAAAAABZU/nRig899FMCUXePsUjDomEivDMJypitH0wCK4BGAsYHg/s953/innocents.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="953" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rvIcmWly5lg/XviIbn8unMI/AAAAAAAABZU/nRig899FMCUXePsUjDomEivDMJypitH0wCK4BGAsYHg/s320/innocents.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not Historically Accurate<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>For the most part, the folkloric influences on D&D were racially blind because the people telling and preserving the stories never considered a world different from the one they saw within five miles of their village - generally a homogeneous world arranged in a neat hierarchy with a Jesus at the top who’s skin tone they no more questioned than they wondered why the soldiers in Breugel’s <i>Massacre of the Innocents</i> were wearing 16th century armour. Why? How could they?
<p></p>
<p>
This is a world divided into the known and the exotic, with the latter comprising for normal people almost everything farming. And even then, foreigners grew some weird crops.
</p>
<p>
Appendix N likewise shows the literary roots to be quite old - a lot of it pre-dating World War II.
</p>
<p>
So when someone like Graeme Barber says in <a href="https://pocgamer.com/2019/08/02/decolonization-and-integration-in-dd/">a blog post</a> that D&D has a “tradition of exoticism, racism, and problematic practices” it certainly doesn’t sound unlikely. But that tradition isn’t very well exemplified by the original games by Arneson and Gygax, despite Barber’s pointing the finger at Gygax for things that happened after he lost control of the company and the game he created (in the case of half-elves and half-orcs, something Barber seems to really dislike, the concepts actually predate Gygax by some time; half elves go back over a thousand years).
</p>
<p>
D&D <i>is</i> nostalgic for a fantasy past but generally speaking it is focused on the opportunities for a small group of people to do something about what is wrong- to overthrow the dictator, or free the slaves, or stand up for the Right Thing against brute force. The game even gives the label “Good” to those who do these things, and “Evil” to those who oppose them - hardly an endorsement of the latter. Once again we find that a BtB game of AD&D presents slavers as bad and those that free slaves as good; what mental hoops do we have to jump through to make the bad people represent both the black human and the slave trader at the same time?
</p>
<p>
Saying that an interest in the past means that someone supports racial segregation is the sort of idiotic non-argument that Barber seems particularly keen on.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Evil human cultists living in squalor and being obscene? Clearly an aberration from normal society. Goblins or Orcs living in squalor and being obscene? Normal and how they are because they’re Goblins and Orcs. That last example has some roots in racist depictions and narratives of POC that were used as rationalizations for colonialism.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
It’s hard to see what Barber is trying to say here, given that both evil cultists and goblins and orcs are equally valid targets for Good characters to combat and, almost certainly, kill. Mainly, though, his problem seems to be that he thinks goblins and orcs are real and should be covered by the international declaration of human rights. Goblins were invented by people who probably never met one of these "POCs" and orcs were based on goblins. Barber continues a theme which is that he has the process backwards. The depictions of people he is talking about have their roots in goblins, werewolves, and other monsters including the actual bogyman, not the other way around.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org19e95d6">
<h2 id="org19e95d6"><span class="section-number-2">7</span> The Problem of Race in the Actual Game</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-7">
<p>
By far the biggest actual problem with race in D&D is that the players are human. In the comments to Barber’s post on decolonisation and integration in D&D a poster (who uses the word “coded” to show that he’s been illuminated) says:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Thank you so much for sharing this point of view! As a 36 year old white guy I am legit going to make my PC and future NPCs more well rounded as people.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
What he means is that he’s going to make his non-human character more human.
</p>
<p>
Human players can not genuinely play non-humans as completely rounded individuals. They have not been non-human and no one else has. There is no basis or possibility to have non-human thought patterns. Since they are fictional, each author has a different view of non-humans and there is no possibility to do any sort of rational study of them and their culture.</p>
<p>
When I looked at rebuilding the demi-humans into more alien races the best I could do was to try to formulate some new motivations around reproduction, since that’s something that everyone can relate to.
</p>
<p>
But for thought patterns and deep behaviour differences, we can do very little more than take “human” and slap on some modifiers: “obsessively logical”, “very aggressive”, “very passive”, “intellectual”, “empathetic” or whatever.
</p>
<p>
The new Racism Panic brigade see this through their lens of racism and back-project once again that these are labels being applied to real-world people. If we say that tinaliya are unable to understand humorous metaphors and therefore jokes, the characteristic is wound back from the tinaliya to whatever race the paranoid thinks is being parodied and then accuses the speaker of depicting <race> as being humourless. </p><p>Sometimes the hunt for who is being maligned can be quite convoluted - Hodes feels that the Maori are being insulted by “warlike” races, despite the fact that the Maori at the time of Cook’s voyages were proudly both warlike and tribal. But the important things for Hodes and those like him are that: a) <i>someone somewhere</i> in the real world must be <b>intended</b> as a parallel, and b) those people <i>must</i> and <i>should</i> feel insulted. In a similar way to how women <i>should</i> be insulted by <a href="http://nagorascorner.blogspot.com/2012/07/chainmail-burqa.html">Red Sonja</a>.
</p>
<p>
Everywhere we turn, the basic problem, it seems to me, is the fantasy element. Any fantasy element is created by humans living in the real world. As such, it will have parallels with many things, people, and events. If your DM is able to work without referencing anything she or he has read or seen before, get a DNA sample so we can do some cloning.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org82b6046">
<h2 id="org82b6046"><span class="section-number-2">8</span> Real World Problems</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-8">
<p>
I recently came to realise what the deepest problem with postmodern analysis of history and art is:- removing context allows the <i>worst</i> interpretation to be put on anything while at the same time making it very hard to argue against it because it’s not literal invention or lying. It’s just picking and choosing bits and, again without the restriction of contextualisation, comparing and judging them in relation to completely different times and places (i.e., today).
</p>
<p>
This fits with another axiom of postmodernism and the nihilistic philosophy of people like Kierkegaard: there is no such thing as progress. “Primitive” and “civilised” are labels applied by people higher up the power-structure, so the theory goes. Anything presented as progress is propaganda and lies to make the reader support some elite. A small extension of this leads us to dismissal of “experts”, since “expert” presupposes the ability to move from ignorance to knowledge, something that can not fit within a worldview that rejects objective facts and the notion of progress. How can you be an expert in something that is subjective?
</p>
<p>
Generally the people who come out with this crap don’t choose “primitive” options over “civilised” ones when they have a root canal abscess. They tend not to ask passersby to treat their cancer. Pain has a way of focusing ones mind on question of whether everyone’s opinion is equally valid.
</p>
<p>
There <i>is</i> progress, there has been progress, and there will be more in the future, if we want it.
</p>
<p>
Race in D&D <i>could</i> be a parallel for unpleasant views in the real world. It could also be a parallel for the fight against fascism. It could be about the fight for women’s votes, or the roll-back of the Age of Empires. None of these are off the table if you are prepared to look hard enough and hit enough things with your one-idea hammer. </p><p>D&D could even be escapist fun!</p>
<p>
But maybe the real issue is that a school of thought is growing up that is more concerned with proving that everything is shit rather than doing something about the shit. A school which organises marches about long-dead slavers no one had heard of and film it on their Apple phones made in the sweat shops of China for a fraction of their own minimum wage and who wear pre-ripped jeans made by children using caustic liquids in horrific conditions.
</p>
<p>
A school of thought that says that all patriotism is nationalism and all nationalism leads to gas chambers and slave mines. That certain words or even <b>numbers</b> should be abandoned because some half-assed group of right-wing survivalists in a hut in Montana once used them for disgusting poster campaign.
</p>
<p>
A school of thought which says that having fun is wrong - that all anyone should ever feel is guilt about not being miserable and shame about how someone you never met was badly treated by someone else you never met. That says that the value of your despair or pain depends on the colour of your skin.
</p>
<p>
It is a perverse doctrine which preaches anti-racism while one foot is founded on on the Myth of the Noble Savage, pretending that there was something special and innocent about the people that Europeans conquered and colonised from the 15th century onwards. That, having found the right combination of factors in their own nation first, the Ethiopians, Zulu’s, or Aztecs would have <i>not</i> set out to conquer the world, despite having been fighting for control of their local regions for centuries.
</p>
<p>
It replaces meaningful change with cheap gestures and meaningful dialogue with cries for boycotts and ostracising. Linguistic clarity and subtlety is traded for a list of prescribed words and thoughts seemingly drawn directly from Orwell’s Newspeak appendix in 1984.
</p>
<p>
Above all, it seeks to build a structure of guilt and fear which is unjust because it seeks to engender guilt and shame for the actions of other people.
</p>
<p>
It has an insidious corrosive effect on everything it touches because it <i>creates</i> racist context where none existed before. It asks people to take sides; it says “you are either with us or against us”, creating groups and excluding middle ground from discussion. In fact it attempts to make everyone either Us or The Other. I have seen people online say that anyone who objects to this digital burning of material would be better off dead. Almost, one could say, as if they were “inherently evil”.
</p>
<p>
History is all we have to guide us - specifically the bad parts. If we ban ideas and words because they reminds some people “far too much of real world prejudices” we lose the ability to talk about them and the chance to learn from them.
</p>
<p>
As an example of this from outside the hobby, take Armando Iannucci’s “colour-blind” <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6439020/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_2">The Personal History of David Copperfield</a>. Iannucci has adapted the Dickens story and cast it with whoever he felt would be good in the part, regardless of ethnicity <i>without changing the time period</i>. The result is a gross visual lie about the past which gives the impression that racism was not a problem in 1850. Just 17 years after the abolition of slavery the viewer is shown a rainbow of skintones in a Dickensian <i>Song of the South</i> swapping bon mots and smiling at funny little dogs and their funny little owners.
</p>
<p>
The Sydney Morning Herald declared that “Dev Patel’s David Copperfield decolonises Dickens’ classic”. David Copperfield was never colonised in the first place! Unless the reviewer is still worried about the treatment of the native Britons by the invading Romans.
</p>
<p>
How can a young viewer of this form any notion of the reality of race in 1850’s Britain? How can they contrast their own modern experience of multi-cultural Britain with a sea of white faces in 1850? How can they ask “why?” if they’re not shown the reality? The existence of racial tensions has been whitewashed and with it the chance to examine it, to see what has improved, and what has not in the course of 170 years.
</p>
<p>
These are real problems in the real world and the Iannucci example shows how dangerous it is to start self-censoring, calling in the airbrushers from time to time to ensure that the past is always presented in a light that is acceptable to whoever has power in the present.</p>
<p>
In the name of avoiding unpleasantness, we make the claim of no progress both apparently true and, eventually, actually true. Everything becomes an equally valid “story” and no reason can be given for change except that of force, whether in the form of arms or in the form of online hectoring, bullying, and bans. That which is awkward is "fake news"; alternative facts create alternative pasts; ugliness is removed from sight lest it offend someone.</p>
<p>This is a dragon that needs slaying. Possibly a dragon of colour; I’m not sure.
</p>
</div>
</div>
Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186411787977962731.post-4548125696680864972020-06-20T11:37:00.000+01:002020-06-21T09:02:00.885+01:00Bounty Hunters (Fighters)<div class="outline-2" id="outline-container-org3df12c3">
<h2 id="org3df12c3">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Grcl9mhIigM/Xu3kzP-rNSI/AAAAAAAABVc/ogMnLeEpJOkASkATMJwPXDZgdwf-2xplQCK4BGAsYHg/s600/bh1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Grcl9mhIigM/Xu3kzP-rNSI/AAAAAAAABVc/ogMnLeEpJOkASkATMJwPXDZgdwf-2xplQCK4BGAsYHg/s320/bh1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Overview</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1">
Bounty hunters are similar to rangers in their abilities to track and infiltrate but are slightly less combat-oriented as well as being much more morally ambiguous. Unless otherwise specified, bounty hunters are treated as fighters.
<br />
All bounty-hunters must be of non-Good alignment. They must have STR 12, Con of 11+, and Cha of 13+. Either Wis or Int must be 13+
<br />
Bounty-hunters get 10% bonus xp of Int, Wis, and Charisma are 15+.
<br />
Hit dice are d8s, with a single die at first level.
<br />
Humans, dwarves (Max: 9th), and gnomes (Max: 7th) may be bounty hunters.<br />
<ol class="org-ol">
<li>Bounty-hunters surprise on 1-3 on d6 if ambushing or if in a disguise the opponent trusts.</li>
<li>Bounty hunters track as Rangers.</li>
<li>Bounty hunters climb walls as Thieves.</li>
<li>Bounty hunters may wear any armour that is not “bulky” (this includes all magical armour). They may not use shields.</li>
<li>At 9th level, Bounty hunters receive limited clerical spell-casting abilities (see below).</li>
<li>Bounty hunters can learn twice as many languages as their Int score would indicate, but the extra ones are “smatterings”, basically the ability to describe someone and understand basic directions and descriptions. They may start with up to 3 smatterings.</li>
<li>A bounty-hunter may conduct interviews (see below).</li>
<li>At 9th level or above a bounty hunter may open an agency. Doing so attracts 2d6 1st level bounty hunters over a period of 2d10-1 weeks; they may be employed or rejected as desired but no replacements will automatically appear for rejects. A bounty hunter may not employ more juniors than their own henchman limit (but do not count towards it) and once an employee reaches 9th level they will depart to start their own agency unless offered partnership (in which case they do become full henchmen if they were not already).</li>
<li>Bounty hunters running agencies may become Good aligned.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org0a495f6">
<h3 id="org0a495f6">
<span class="section-number-3"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5RKsau3K_w/Xu3lRerBZ2I/AAAAAAAABWE/2VznK5stSZcwB0R5H5j9Yw6bo27DJorDwCK4BGAsYHg/s779/bh3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="779" data-original-width="522" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5RKsau3K_w/Xu3lRerBZ2I/AAAAAAAABWE/2VznK5stSZcwB0R5H5j9Yw6bo27DJorDwCK4BGAsYHg/s320/bh3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maybe just shoot him?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
1.1</span> Spell use</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-1-1">
A bounty hunter devoted to an appropriate deity may obtain divination spells from that deity as follows:
<br />
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Level</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Spells/Lv/day</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">9</td>
<td class="org-left">1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">10</td>
<td class="org-left">2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">11</td>
<td class="org-left">3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">12</td>
<td class="org-left">3 1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">13</td>
<td class="org-left">3 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">14-16</td>
<td class="org-left">3 3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">17+</td>
<td class="org-left">3 3 1</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
They do not obtain any further spell casting abilities beyond 17th level. The bounty hunter must possess a holy symbol of the deity both when praying for the spells and casting them. <i>The bounty hunter must be on good terms with their deity to receive spells.</i>
<br />
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">xp</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">Lv</th>
<th class="org-right" scope="col">d8 HD</th>
<th class="org-left" scope="col">Title</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">0-2200</td>
<td class="org-right">1</td>
<td class="org-right">1</td>
<td class="org-left">Snoop</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">2201-4250</td>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
<td class="org-left">Shag</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">4001-9000</td>
<td class="org-right">3</td>
<td class="org-right">3</td>
<td class="org-left">Tail</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">9001-19000</td>
<td class="org-right">4</td>
<td class="org-right">4</td>
<td class="org-left">Ferret</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">19001-36000</td>
<td class="org-right">5</td>
<td class="org-right">5</td>
<td class="org-left">Mole</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">36001-75000</td>
<td class="org-right">6</td>
<td class="org-right">6</td>
<td class="org-left">Nose</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">75001-135000</td>
<td class="org-right">7</td>
<td class="org-right">7</td>
<td class="org-left">Dick</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">135001-300000</td>
<td class="org-right">8</td>
<td class="org-right">8</td>
<td class="org-left">Detective</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">300001-600000</td>
<td class="org-right">9</td>
<td class="org-right">9</td>
<td class="org-left">Bounty Hunter</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">600001-900000</td>
<td class="org-right">10</td>
<td class="org-right">9+2</td>
<td class="org-left">Bounty Hunter (10th level)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">900001-1200000</td>
<td class="org-right">11</td>
<td class="org-right">9+4</td>
<td class="org-left">Bounty Hunter (11th level)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
300,000 xp per level for each level over 9th; 2hp per level over 9th.
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org46715e6">
<h3 id="org46715e6">
<span class="section-number-3">1.2</span> Weapons, Attacks, and Proficiencies</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-1-2">
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-left"></col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Class</td>
<td class="org-right">Initial #</td>
<td class="org-right">non-prof penality</td>
<td class="org-left">Added profs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Bounty hunter</td>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
<td class="org-right">-2</td>
<td class="org-left">+1/2 levels</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
<table border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-right"></col>
<col class="org-right"></col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">Level</td>
<td class="org-right">#attacks</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">1-8</td>
<td class="org-right">1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">9-14</td>
<td class="org-right">3/2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-right">15+</td>
<td class="org-right">2</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Bounty hunters may become proficient in any single-handed melee weapon except polearms (they <i>may</i> become proficient with the spear). They may use any missile weapon except the sling or staff-sling.
<br />
If using the specialisation rules from UA, they may become specialists in any permitted melee weapon.
</div>
</div>
<div class="outline-3" id="outline-container-org2c6fe08">
<h3 id="org2c6fe08">
<span class="section-number-3">1.3</span> Interrogation</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-1-3">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1nH59BzFK5s/Xu3l3pb9t6I/AAAAAAAABWg/Cm_3u66zmzwRGvtcBNntF09MW53W5TL3QCK4BGAsYHg/s230/bh2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Bounty Advert" border="0" data-original-height="173" data-original-width="230" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1nH59BzFK5s/Xu3l3pb9t6I/AAAAAAAABWg/Cm_3u66zmzwRGvtcBNntF09MW53W5TL3QCK4BGAsYHg/d/bh2.jpg" title="In Search of Bounty" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[Is this right? Ed.]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Bounty hunters can attempt to obtain information from questioning others. In order for the bounty hunter to have any special chance their personality score (Charisma plus Intelligence plus level) must be higher than the interviewee’s. The hunter may substitute Wisdom for Intelligence for this purpose only; the interviewee may not do so even if they are another bounty hunter, and a bounty hunter may not make this substitution when dealing with magical weapons with Ego points. If using comeliness, the interviewee may substitute that for charisma if of the opposite sex to the bounty hunter (other comeliness effects may affect proceedings if using all the UA rules, of course).
<br />
The interview may only be conducted with a single person the bounty hunter can focus on providing answers. A litigation trickster or other advisers may be present but their contribution should be no more than to advise whether to answer a question or not.
<br />
During questioning, the player may ask to make a saving throw against a number of questions equal to the character’s level <i>before</i> asking the question (this limit is per day; they may conduct more than one interrogation per day if desired). <i>After</i> giving the NPC’s answer, the DM should secretly roll a saving throw Vs Spells for the bounty hunter. If the answer that was given was a lie, evasion or obfuscation, and the saving throw is successful, the DM should inform the player that the interviewee is not telling the whole truth. If the bounty hunter’s personality score is lower than the interviewee’s, then make the roll but treat it as a fail; the player should not be explicitly told that their score is too low.
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Repeating the same question within 3 turns will not allow a roll even if a roll was not made previously. Answers which are long-winded allow still only a single roll and the interviewer may have to ask further questions to refine their knowledge. A player may, of course, come to their own conclusions based on how the questions are being answered.
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Smatterings can not be used as languages for interrogations.
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<span class="section-number-3">1.4</span> Agency Income</h3>
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Assume that the income is on an order of 1cp per month per 100 head of population in the settlement where the agency is, multiplied by the level of the lead bounty hunter, per partner. Each junior hunter contributes 5% of this total per level per month to the partners’ profits.
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So, a new agency in Greyhawk (pop. 58,000) lead by a 9th level bounty hunter would bring in 5220cp per month, or 313gp and 4sp per year profit for the bounty hunter in addition to any special jobs s/he takes on personally. If there were 7 junior hunters with an average level of 4 then an additional 7308cp per month would be generated, or 438gp, 9sp, and 6cp per year.
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Multiple agencies in a location will split the available cases on a ratio based on the total levels of the partners. So instead of getting 1cp per 100, each agency would get 1cp per 200 head of population if the leaders of the agencies are the same level.
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Another example: the above agency has opened in Greyhawk where a more established agency is already operational, lead by a 10th level bounty hunter and his 9th level partner. The ratios here are 9:19, so the new agency will do its calculations based on 1cp per 311 population and the established on on 1cp per 147 population (i.e., 28/9 x 100 and 28/19 x100). Thus, the new agency’s base monthly income will be 1678cp instead of 5220cp, before adding juniors.
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<span class="section-number-2">2</span> Notes</h2>
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A character class should be something which conjures an image instantly in the mind of any hearer aware of the genre it is drawn from. The bounty hunter is certainly a well-known archetype in many genres from fantasy, to westerns, to modern day television and cinema. There have been various attempts to draw up a bounty hunter class for D&D, and this is mine.
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There is a strong overlap with the private detective in the above description as the pure “find things for money” aspect of the bounty hunter is a bit limited for long-term play.
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Some development is needed of the agency concept - income rates, mainly - and even so it may not fit every campaign.
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Nagorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10805769538648631984noreply@blogger.com0