Isn't the Goblin Sweet?

The image of the goblin in the MM is one of the worst in the book, I think, and like the entry itself grants far too much weight to Tolkien's use of the word in The Hobbit. Tolkien himself seems to have realized how badly he had used the terms "goblin" and "hobgoblin" in The Hobbit and neither figure very much at all in The Lord of The Rings.

So, let's have some more gobliny-goblins. Any spell effects are at 11th level unless otherwise noted and these suggestions are made under the assumption that not every goblin encounter is automatically a combat encounter. Pick or roll (combine more than one if you like) [edit: just to clarify that the double quote symbol here means scaled inches as per AD&D norm]:

1. Spider climb at will
2. Invisibility at will
3. Chameleon power (hide in shadows 90%)
4. Blink
5. Jump
6. Mirror image (d6 images, roll per use)
7. d4 bags of sleeping dust - throw as grenade to cover 2" radius, or throw one pinch to affect single target (4 pinches per bag). Effect as spell
8. Can eat anything other than magical metals. 6" move/1" through solid rock. Can only manage 1cu" per hit point per day
9. Can "read auras"; know alignment
10. Displaced as per beast; +2 to AC and initiative.
11. Fart as troglodyte stench - other goblins not immune.
12. Sticky - blunt weapons and similar objects require an open-door roll to retrieve after a strike (whether goblin is dead or not)
13. 18/00 strength
14. Immune to fire
15. Treat clean, fresh water as acid doing 1d8 damage to goblin
16. Spoils food within 1"; goblin can only eat such "food"
17. Sneezes any time its side rolls a 1 for initiative. Sneeze counts as exposure to disease to non-goblins within a 3" wide/long cone.
18. Sneezes any time its side rolls a 6 for initiative. Sneeze stuns opponents in 3"x3" cone (save Vs breath weapon) for this round (ie, they miss their turn).
19. Pick pockets 90%
20. Pick locks 90%
21. Pick nose and flick it, accuracy/range as thrown dagger +3. Hit does 1pt damage as acid.
22. Summon 3d6 kobolds once per day. Kobolds NOT automatically friendly to goblin (roll reaction dice at +10)
23. Choking dust and dirt follows goblin in a 1" radius. Save Vs breath weapon or incapacitated for round - no attacks and goblin +4 to-hit.
24. Can charge every round.
25. Parry/catch missile weapons, 90% success, but only 2 per round maximum.
26. Backstab as thief.
27. Bite does 3d6 damage, swallow whole on natural 20. Anything smaller than ogre may be swallowed; anything swallowed is gone for good (wish will restore as normal). If the goblin swallows anything larger than itself then it may not use either the super-bite or swallow abilities until the next sunset.
28. Riddle power. If opponents accept a challenge to a riddle competition then each side, starting with the goblin, takes turns to ask a riddle. If the opposing side fails to answer then they are subject to a geas from the winner. Riddle competition: Either ask actual riddles (not recommended unless you know a lot of riddles) or take turns making a save. Party saves against Rod/Staff/Wand with wisdom bonuses. The whole party may roll and any save counts. The party members (must) take turns to riddle and the goblin saves on  a 3+ but must subtract the riddler's wisdom bonus (or add their penalty, thus can't fail against WIS 3 or 4). Goblin geas will be dangerous but not suicidal and usually involve some great or famous gemstone.
29. Precognition. +2 on initiative in combat. May give general hints about such things as how dangerous a particular choice is (eg, opening door, getting on a ship). Never loses at cards and knows when others are cheating etc. No details (eg, opening the door is dangerous because there are 4 ogres guarding 3416gp inside), just general impressions.
30. Speak with animals
31. Speak with rocks - sense locale's history for the previous 12hrs in decreasing detail as impressions age.
32. Immoveable. If feet on solid ground, the goblin can not be overborn or pushed past, so long as there is no more than 1" space around him or her. Despite the goblin being too small to achieve this, it does so anyway.
33. INT 18+d4. Huge forehead.
34. Charm women power. Limited ability to charm women (of any race) with corny chatup lines. If the woman fails a save against spells (WIS bonus applies) then they will be unable to attack the goblin and will try to protect him. They will not do anything else, such as obey orders etc. They will regard him as a "lovable scamp".
35. Once per day can stamp foot and create earthquake as per cleric spell at 16th level.
36. Horns, charge does 1d3 damage and counts as overbearing attack in whatever system the DM likes.
37. Horns, charge does 1d6 damage and counts as overbearing attack.
38. Horn, charge does 1d10/3d6 damage.
39. Pax faery. If attacked by elves, half-elves, brownies, pixies halflings, other goblins, giants, dragons, or similar creatures of faery (DM's ruling on what counts), the goblin may produce a sparkling silver card which requires all such creatures and their allies to refrain from combat with the goblin (and the goblin from attacking them) and its allies. The punishment for breaking this ban is death, exile, or fine of 10,000gp at the discretion of the King of the Elves, who will first have to track down the miscreants. The card itself is magical, may only be used once (and vanishes), and alerts the King to any breaches. The truce enforced by the card lasts for a week, after which all bets are off.
40. Very light. Automatic feather fall; has trouble with high winds.
41. Mounted on giant badger.
42. Goblin is 3 inches tall; otherwise as normal combat, damage etc.
43. Frightening to horses. Horses will not approach within 3". If charging, rider must make save Vs paralyzation to not be thrown. Paladin's warhorses and similar intelligent horses may make a save against magic. Unicorns, seahorses, and hippogriffs count as horses.
44. Whistle causes confusion (save Vs spells) within 6". Can not whistle and fight or run at the same time.
45. Can smell gold within 6" (3" through closed doors, but not through solid walls).
46. Can smell gold or silver as above.
47. Causes living plants to wilt within 1". If plant has hit points (eg, ents), causes 1d6 damage per round; doubled if the goblin actually touches it. Not popular with druids, who can sense this power from 12". Very easy to track across any non-barren landscape.
48. Belch as combined gust of wind and stinking cloud at 3rd level.
49. Can repair magic items. Any magic item (not potions or scrolls) which has failed a saving throw can be repaired at a cost of it's xp value and time requirement of 1 day per 100gp cost (all fractions round up). The goblin will work under duress, in which case time is increased by 50% and cost decreased by the same factor but the repaired item will fail to work any time that such a failure is likely to kill the user (DM's discretion) and thereafter is beyond any repair save a wish. All parts of the item must be available; he can not make new stuff although he might be able to turn the stump of a broken magical longsword into a magic dagger or shortsword.
50. Goblin sage. As per DMG sage but major field is automatically "Goblins" (specialization fields as per humanoid and giant kind field) and one minor field will be "humanoids and giant kind".  DM decides just what constitutes a goblin research library.
51. Roadrunner. May charge at rate of 78" up to 7 times per day.
52. Gibbon arms. May move through forest at base 18" move, adds 2' to weapon reach.
53. Tourette's. Incapable of being quiet for more than 1 round. Generally says whatever one word is most important to not say.
54. Anti magic. 50% Magic resistance in 2" radius. Involuntary.
55. Chaotic Magic. Transforms any spell effect within 2" into a randomly rolled effect from the same spell list and level - may result in original effect. For example, a fireball aimed at the goblin's area may be transformed into haste or dispel magic. Only effect is affected, so "impossible" ranges are allowed. If the result has no logical effect (eg, secret page) then the spell simply fails. Magic from items which have no direct spell equivalent are not affected, although scrolls are.
56. Polymorph self as often as desired but result always has the same colouration as the goblin. No healing effect and maximum size is that of a human.
57. Can understand any language.
58. Shillelagh. Goblin can magically produce a large magic club from nowhere as per druid spell but without the material requirement.
59. Beguiling as per rod once per day, lasting 1 turn.
60. Discord as per symbol. Requires that the targets enter into conversation for at least 5 minutes real time during which the goblin will subtly question the party's purpose.
61. Wears large hat which operates as a bag of tricks (roll d8 for type instead of d10). Hat only operates for goblins.
62. Wears a large floppy hat which polymorphs any object put into it, including the wearer. The current wearer was not originally a goblin. The changes induced can be dispelled, and remove curse will work on living things so affected but otherwise are permanent so long as the object is in the hat (living things will want to keep the hat and retains no clear awareness of their previous life/form). If removed, the effect wears off in about a day. Kingdom will not be changed but otherwise anything that fits into the hat will change into absolutely anything else which will fit into the hat at the DM's whim after 1d6 rounds. The hat has an owner who is immune to its effects and is looking for it. Unique, the hat is worth 10,000gp to a collector but only 1000xp to an owner.
63. Berserker goblin! +2 to attack and damage, 12" move, AC 10. 
64. Sells magic fruit from market barrow. Goblin is protected by a powerful curse (as per reverse of remove curse, at 9th level) and restricted from being very dishonest by a geas. The prices below are what he'll take. He'll ask for 2d10 more per item at first.
• Apples (1d8 in stock) cost 10gp and prevent all disease for a day, including mummies, daemons, etc. ("Keeps the doctor away, they say, your honours"). 
• Pears (1d8 in stock) cost 50gp and act as love potions if given to (and eaten by) opposite gender ("How's your father, my lord? Getting out much these days?" refuses to sell to women).
• Plums (2d4 in stock) cost 5gp and grant +2 on all saving throws for an hour ("strengthens you up for difficulties, your lordships") non-cumulative.
• Cherries (2d20 in stock) cost 1gp each and heal 1hp each ("help with hurts, sirs").
• Apricots (1d12 in stock) 30gp each. +10 to saves against poison for an hour ("Keeps nasty things out of your blood, my friends"). Note that a natural 1 is still a fail. Non-cumulative
65.  Legend lore ability, as per spell. One item at a time, thank you.
66. Goblin is encountered sitting on a stone outside a house built into the bank of a hill or similar; the house is very large with a massive door. If talked to, the goblin will mention "her indoors" but is generally indifferent to passersby. "Her indoors" is a troll.
67. Can shrink or enlarge by a factor of 4, at will somewhat like the first-level magic user spell enlarge.
68. Passwall 6/day.
69. Regenerates 1hp/round while above -10.
70. High in iron. AC 0 (AT 3+3), hair made of wire. HD 4+4. MV 6".
71. Lives in a giant owl nest with the giant owls who raised him. Very confused about his own identity as a goblin.
72. Brewer. Makes 100 quarts of fantastic ale per year (in the autumn). The beer dismisses fatigue (application varies but, for example, a quart negates 10% of forced march fatigue). Price negotiable from 10sp to 100gp per quart depending on how much he thinks the buyer can afford. Addictive. Each quart consumed adds an addiction strength of 1. Each day, any character who has drunk the beer must make a saving throw against poison or be compelled to seek out the beer. The saving throw die is reduced by the current addiction strength. Heal or remove curse eliminates addiction, neutralize poison reduces it by 1d6. Once at zero, the addiction is broken. If the addiction strength exceeds CON and a day passes without drinking the beer, the character must make a system shock roll. If this is failed then CON is reduced by 1 until the beer is drunk. If CON reaches 0 the character dies.
73. Slippery. Can not be held by grasp or shackle; can slip between any iron bars etc. more than three inches apart.
74. Poisonous bite. Roll once per goblin - 1-3: sleep forever; 4-5: personality lost (like Void in Deck of Many Things); 6: death. First two can be cured by a dispel magic, remove curse, or the kiss of true love.
75. Can issue a dying curse or geas on his killers if not below -3hp. Only if "unjustly" slain (basically, if he didn't attack first).
76. 7hp. When "killed" splits into two goblins of 3hp each; when they're killed split into 1hp goblins which die normally.
77. 4th level illusionist.
78. Redcap. Each point of damage he does with his shortsword heals him by one point to a maximum of 20 (still fights as 1-1HD). However, if the blood on his woolen cap ever dries out he will die (subtract 1hp per day; 1hp per round in sunshine).
79. Tracks as per ranger (ranger-lord if using UA rules).
80. Magic Mushroom seller. Roll/pick from potion table ignoring any potions that affect others (eg, animal control). The goblin will sell mushrooms for the given effects. If the effect is poison or delusion, roll again for what he claims the effect to be. He will have a sample of this latter mushroom ready for testing/demonstrating. Price is ½ of the listed one but effects last for half the time that a potion would and require the eater to fail a save versus poison or the mushrooms will have no effect (remember dwarf bonuses).
81. Farrier. Will shoe any horse for 1gp per leg in 15 minutes per shoe. The horse will move twice as fast as normal. After 6 days of such movement (whether consecutive or not) the horse will need to make a saving throw(Vs Poison) each time it is ridden beyond its normal speed or drop dead after 1d4 rounds. The goblin will not mention this side-effect and if challenged afterwards will simply say "What the hell did you expect would happen if you rode that fast?" The goblin's horseshoes can be removed by any village blacksmith.
82. Gemcutter. Roll as per DMG p30 with +25 on die for skill level. Charges 50% more than normal and will try to steal the stone and replace it with a high-quality fake if the roll of percentile dice is equal to or less than the lower bound of the gem's base quality roll (DMG p25). For example, a stone is rolled as "51-70: fancy stone"; the goblin will try to steal it on a roll of 51 or less and will always try to steal 5000gp stones. Will not hold a grudge if caught, but won't stop trying to steal future stones either.
83. Poisoner. Sells poisons as per DMG p20 at listed costs (will ask for double).
84. Selling "golden lariats" for 2500gp which compel those tied up by it to tell the truth. In fact, 50% force the holder of the lariat to believe anything they're told by the person inside it. In either case the goblin will not be located again and a saving throw against spells blocks the effect. DM should roll save in secret in either case; wisdom bonus applies.
85. Wardog trainer. Will train wardogs in 3 weeks for 35gp per dog (maximum of four dogs at a time). At the end the dogs will understand a range of incredibly complex instructions such as "attack the third one from the left" so long as they are about combat or guarding. They will also never attack any goblin, bugbear, or kobold, and will attack gnolls and gnomes on sight, regardless of orders.
86. Faker. Sells a range of 6+6 magic items from DMG for list price. They are all normal items with illusions on them so that they can be demonstrated. The magic wears off at the next full moon. He will have one real item of medium value which is kept back.
87. Fortune teller. For 1gp will foretell one event in the character's life. Does not tell of the outcome but is 100% accurate. So, if the goblin says "you will meet the devil tonight" then the character will for some reason encounter a devil tonight but what happens after that is unstated. The first time a character comes to the goblin the prediction will be fairly dull. The next time the price will be 10 times greater and the fortune more significant. Each visit increases the price by x10 and the importance of the events greater and more dangerous. Effectively, the goblin is making the events happen rather than predicting them. DM needs to be careful with this one.
88. Charm seller. Sells a "luck charm" made of green stone for 30gp. Gives +3 on the next saving throw; +2 on the one after that and finally +1 on the saving throw after that. 20% grant penalties in the same way instead of bonuses.
89. Made of leaves. The goblin is made of leaves and changes colour with the seasons. Damage from weapons and magic missiles simply disperse the leaves, which swirl together again, effectively regenerating 1hp per round no matter how low the goblin's points go. Fire, acid, and various area effect spells such as cone of cold will do real damage and eventually kill it.
90. Double body. The goblin is actually two goblin bodies joined back to back (with 2d8-1 hp, fighting as 1HD). When in a hurry first one body runs and then lets the other run while it rests. Surprised only on a 1 and can fight two opponents at the same time.
91. Horse Whisperer/thief. Will promise to guide the party or show them something which requires dismounting; simply jumps on biggest horse and scarpers. Has the ability to charm horses by word.
92. Ventriloquism.
93. Is familiar for a witch, who is watching proceedings through his eyes, and is likewise capable of casting spells as if he were a projected image.
94. Is scouting for children for the oven of his green hag mistress.
95. Is scouting for selfish people for his night hag mistress.
96. Is scouting for food for his black dragon mistress.
97. Is a polymorphed prince. LG and shunned by real goblins but with no memory of his previous life. Very depressed.
98. Inventor. Telescopes, astrolabes, food mixers. All made from bits of other things, anything purchased will fall apart after a few weeks. Eccentric and neutrally aligned.
99. Would-be bard. Mandolin and floppy hat. Plays well but sings like a tortured cat.
100. Chef. Renowned among humanoids, The Great Oesophagus runs a campsite deep in the forest where he serves food of the highest quality ever seen by his typical clientèle. The encounter is either with this camp (which is very large) or with a group of humanoids travelling there. The hill giant bouncers enforce a no-fighting safety rule as well as a no-elf rule. Humans will be allowed in if not obviously good-aligned but will have to remove helms and leave weapons at the entrance to the deep dell of the camp. Due to its ingredients, eating the excellent food is an evil act which will require atonement for any Good-aligned creature. Some of the contents of Oesophagus's larder are still alive and their families may pay a reward.

Armour and Shield for Monster Manual Men (and Women, Stan)

The monster manual helpfully provides a list of chances that various classes will have magic items. Unhelpfully, the categories used do not match up with the random tables in the DMG, making a random encounter with humans one of the most tiresome things that can happen to a DM playing wilderness encounters by-the-book. The problem categories are "armour" and "shield".

Here's those two classes of items split into groups using the frequencies from the DMG and without the cursed items.

Armour
For DMG-based campaigns just roll on the following table. For UA-based games, roll 1d6 and on 1-3, use this table and on 4-6 use the second table.

d%	Armour
1-11	Leather +1
12-21	Plate +1
22-30	Plate +2
31-39	Ring +1
40-48	Studded +1
49-55	Chain +1
56-62	Scale +1
63-68	Chain +2
69-74	Scale +2
75-80	Splint +1
81-84	Plate +3
85-88	Splint +2
89-91	Chain +3
92-94	Plate +4
95-97	Splint +3
98	Plate +5
99	Plate of Etherealness
00	Splint +4

d%	UA Armour
1-10	Leather +2
11-18	Field plate, +1
19-25	Bronze plate +1
26-32	Elfin chain +1
33-39	Field plate, +2
40-46	Full plate, +1
47-52	Leather +3
53-58	Studded, +2
59-63	Bronze plate +2
64-68	Elfin chain +2
69-73	Full plate, +2
74-78	Ring, +2
79-81	Elfin chain +3
82-84	Field plate, +3
85-87	Full plate, +3
88-89	Chain +4
90-91	Elfin chain +4
92-93	Field plate, +4
94-95	Full plate, +4
96-97	Scale, +3
98	Anything
99	Elfin chain +5
00	Field plate +5

Shields
The first table is for plain DMG shields, and the second is a combined table for using with Unearthed Arcana, so you don't roll to see which table to use, you just use one or the other.

d%	Shield
1-41	Shield +1
42-64	Shield +2
65-82	Shield +3
83-91	Shield +4
92-96	Shield +5
97-100	Shield, large; +1, +4 Vs Missiles

d%	UA Shield
1-26	Shield +1
27-41	Shield +2
42-53	Shield +3
54-59	Shield +4
60-62	Shield +5
63-65	Shield, large; +1, +4 Vs Missiles
66-83	Buckler, +1
84-95	Buckler, +2
96-100	Buckler, +3

Guards! Guards!

Ready for Action!

Men-at-Arms
That's enough Terry Pratchett titles for now.

The BtB stance is that 1% of the world's human population are capable fo advancing in level in the way that the PCs do. But, in addition to these, there are several other types of character who have aspects of such "full" characters. Spys, for example, have levels but not XP and have a very small subset of the Assassin's skill set (ie, spying) which increases with their level. Interestingly, no guidance is given as regards to hit points.

But the most common "semi" characters are the watchmen and mercenary soldiers  who are encountered either patrolling areas or guarding specific places.

Unlike the spy, these characters do no increase in level, at least in any formal mechanical way laid down in the rules, but they do have the full list of abilities from their model class, specifically "Fighter".

The default level of these fighters is zero - the men-at-arms level where the fighter has 4-7 hp, and seems (from reading the details for clerical followers) to have 3 weapon proficiencies. Their ability scores run from 6 to 15 except
for STR which ranges from 7-16, and CON which ranges from 9 to 18.

Some improvised weapons are more frightening than others

These guys are still a step up from the normal soldier of pseudo-mediaeval times, who would in fact probably be a fit farmer with some padded armour and some agricultural weapon nailed to a long stick or pole. Those guys have 6-15 across the board and d6+1 hp and can fight at level 0 with their one weapon (if that). They're the bulking agent of armies and guard houses - very cheap, very expendable, not very reliable. We'll not worry further about them.

"Take me to the correct movie reference!"

Carry on, Serjeant
Getting back to the men-at-arms, they are essentially "privates" or "constables"; they have no leadership qualities. The initial step on the command ladder is the "Serjeant". There can be as many as 1 serjeant per 5 men-at-arms, and as little as 1 per 10. What happens if these numbers are ignored? Well, in the case of too many serjeants, probably nothing more than wasted money and perhaps arguments over who's in charge, whereas too few serjeants probably means a morale penalty.

The serjeant is equal to at least equal to a first level fighter and their ability scores are slightly different, although still (I think) based on 3dA (averaging d6s where the 1 is replaced by a 3 and the 6 by a 4). For serjeants, this is boosted by 2 for STR and only 1 for CON, for ranges from 8-17 and 7-16. Hit points are based on 1d10.

While mercenary serjeants are always 1st level, watch serjeants range up to 3rd (presumably reflecting the lower rate of mortality in the upper ranks or something).

Interestingly, the rules seem to assume that in a city the 1st-level serjeants will all be assigned to watch patrols rather than being put with "City Guards" who seem to have more localised briefs - gates, walls, and police functions, which I take to mean more or less riot-police rather than beat-police. City guard leaders are always at least 2nd level.

"I'm 3rd level, you know. Or is it 4th?"

As The Sparks Fly Upwards...
...so the serjeant takes orders from someone else. Specifically, a lieutenant.

The mercenary lieutenant is 2nd or 3rd level; the watch lieutenant 4th or 5th. Each lieutenant is able to command their level times ten men-at-arms, although these must still be handled by the normal number of serjeants (who do not count towards the limit). Beyond this, the lieutenant is also able to handle a number of "special" serjeants equal to their own level. These serjeants are available for tasks other than simply directing troops.

The ability scores for lieutenant are not spelt out, personally I would use the serjeant method for those under 4th (ie, hero) level, and switch to the "special character" method from DMG p11 for those of 4th level and up with class minimums applied, so that STR and CON would run from 9-18 and 7-18 but with an average of 13.

"Captain", not "King"

Aye, Aye,  Captain
Top of the chain is the captain. The mercenary captain runs from 5th level up to 8th (yes, that means mercenaries have no 4th level fighter equivalents BtB - maybe they have a gap year) but is mechanically very similar to the lieutenant except s/he can command twice as many troops per level. So a 7th level captain can have 140 men-at-arms at the bottom of the command pyramid they lead. The captain may additionally have a number of lieutenants on special duty equal to their own level.

Captains are assumed to lead homogeneous troops - i.e., they lead "light foot" or "longbowmen" or "medium cavalry".

Both the captain and the lieutenant cost 100gp per level per month, which includes their uniforms, food, and barracks/housing.

Paying the troops

Economics (Stupid)
Let's look at the make up and cost of a large watch in a city which is headed by the highest level captain (8th) working at full capacity; what are the numbers?

The bottom level is limited by the captain's ability to command, so that's simply 160 guardsmen on duty at any one time. This number of guards requires 4 lieutenants of the 4th level (or 5th, for that matter, but 4th is cheaper) and 16 serjeants. The captain has up to 8 assistant lieutenants and the 4 "command" lieutenants have up to 4 assistant serjeants each. 8 assistants seems excessive, so I'd pare that back to a nice Bilko-style 2. Similarly, I'll take half the normal number of assistant serjeants.

We'll assume that the guards themselves are classified as light troops and cost 1gp per month with the serjeants costing 10.

That comes to a total of: 1 captain (800gp), 6 lieutenants (2400gp), 24 serjeants (240gp), and finally 160 men-at-arms (160gp).

So that's a total guard compliment of 191 with a monthly cost of 3600gp and an annual cost of 43200gp.

For a fighter, that equates to a city population (men, women, and children) of 10286 just to pay the guard (assuming PHB taxation levels); for a cleric that comes down to 8000 BtB. This in turn, gives a population to guardsmen ratio of  between 54 for the fighter and 42 for the cleric. Magic users are even more disadvantaged with a required population of 14400 and a population to guard ratio of about 76.

"We're collecting for new uniforms...bit tactless I suppose."

These population figures are pretty high for a mediaeval English city and we should probably double them to come anywhere close to a total monthly cost for running the place, but on the other hand ancient Rome is reputed to have had more than a million inhabitants (many, many arguments on this point) and even with doubling costs could have supported something in the region 15,500 men-at-arms plus their commanders using these figures which equates to 5185 guardsmen guarding the city during any 8hr shift (you hadn't forgotten that, had you?), although all could potentially be called up in an emergency.

I literally have no idea whether this is realistic or not, although the figure for Rome seems low but on the other hand, I've pulled the "doubling" cost for the whole of the city's infrastructure out of nowhere so maybe that's the issue.

Anyway, the point here was to look at what the 1e rules imply (probably unintentionally) about what it means to "encounter a watch patrol" and also what resources the NPC town or castle owner may have for assigning higher level guards to high-status locations such as treasure vaults and important prisoners while still preserving the particular mix of 0-level men-at-arms within the setting.

Inappropriate armour's not just for women

Repeating 20's at 20 Yards
Those men-at-arms are not to be ignored, particularly by non-fighters. They can be using missile weapons, and they can also simply overwhelm a party in the open by a mass overbearing charge. Even against fighters, if the men-at-arms can get within missile range, the combat tables and the limits of shields mean that even +5 platemail and +5 shield is not truly proof against their attacks (a dozen longbowmen will do an average of 1¾hp of damage per round if they can pin down such a target behind a ditch or in a courtyard, more if they can surround it).

While spellcasters are essentially neutralized by mass melee combat (they can certainly still use magical devices but so can everyone and even then overbearing and grappling is a major threat), the fighter should come into his/her own with a 4th level fighter able to attack four men-at-arms in a round and a lord being almost untouchable in melee by normal humans.

"Elementary, my dear Robin."

You've come to Nottingham once too often! (Which is to say "once")
Thus the game is designed for Conan's slaughter of Bêlit's crew, or for the attack on the castle to come down to the "main event" of Errol Flynn against Basil Rathbone - the two high level characters must resolve the combat between them. Hector must face Achilles; Ferdia must try to stop Cuchulain. Everyone else who tries just adds to the pile of bodies that line the battlefields like the embankments of a red river.

This is absolutely the origin and intent of the multiple attacks against <1HD rule and once the DM starts placing even 1st level fighters in every guard post or along every stretch of curtain wall, that is lost if one is playing by the book. It can be patched up, of course, by changing the threshold at which one grants the multiple attacks and I think that's particularly useful when play is not centred around areas with lots of humans. Having a single normal orc "block" the multiple attack ability seems okay when the fighter is 2nd level, but by 10th level it seems obviously out of whack when the same fighter can slice across a normal battlefield like a tank.

I have tried a "sliding" version of the rule where, for example, a 10th level fighter would get 2 attacks against an opponent with 5HD but it's irritating and fiddly in the middle of AD&D's very fast combat resolution and currently I'm thinking about giving the full number of attacks if the opponent's HD are less than half the fighter's.

The Travellers [Monster/Race]

The Travellers
The mysterious race known to the Druids as "Travellers" come from some alternate PMP where psionic powers are much more commonly developed by that plane's "humans" than in the normal AD&D world. The actual "Travellers" are a group of these humans who have developed the psionic science of "probability travel" and combined it with a desire to explore the multiverse. It is surmised that most of the race stay at home and thus do not become Travellers, and there is no over-all name for the race, who's homeworld is unknown, at least on any world where magic works.

All Travellers have Int, Wis, and Cha of at least 13 (roll 4d6, discard lowest and move any score under 13 to 13), with one of the three being 16 (pick at random or choose); their other ability scores are in the normal 3-18 (just roll 3d6) range. Psionic strength is calculated using 1d20x5 plus the normal bonuses given in PHB.

Travellers select their attack and defence modes in order (ie, a Traveller with 2 attack modes must take A and B; one with 4 defence modes must take F-I).

Disciplines are rolled on the PHB table using 1-60 (d3 + d20) plus 40, and probability travel must be selected as a major discipline.

The level of a Traveller when encountered will be 1d6+5 (or enough to have obtained all their rolled disciplines, whichever is higher) and they generally function as magic users for purposes of which psionic disciplines and magic items they may use, but they have 8-sided hit dice and may receive up to 2hp per level CON bonus. They may use any weapon but receive a -4 penalty for any melee weapon (they use missile weapons normally).

Their homeworld is technological rather than magical to a degree that they suffer/benefit from the same relationship to magic as dwarves do in respect of magical saving throws and difficulties using certain items (they have no special bonuses as regards poison, however).

They regenerate 1hp per turn so long as they are alive.

Those encountered will be Chaotic but may be of any morality from Good to Evil, and 90% are male (due to socio-political issues on their homeworld, it is assumed, although perhaps that is just the sex-ratio of their race). They tend to travel alone, but the more powerful practitioners may use some of their psionic ability to bring non-Traveller companions along on their adventures across the worlds.

Although able to travel to the Outer Planes, the Travellers are known to avoid such and it is thought that their technological background somehow makes such locations more dangerous for them in some way. They may be encountered on the Inner Planes with more regularity but even then only if the Traveller's disciplines will are those that make the environment more survivable for them.

Travellers have various reasons for their travelling and some are rivals while others friends or lovers of sorts, but no example is known of two Travellers regularly travelling together. They are uniformly tight-lipped about life on their homeworld and do have a tendency to treat other intelligent beings with a touch of condescension. If they join a party, it will always be as leader (this may not be stated up-front, but it will always be assumed by the Traveller).

Each Traveller will have fields of interest as per a sage but they travel light and may or may not have facilities equal to a library with them when determining chances to know specific information.

Companions
Due to the requirement that the Traveller is the leader, any characters who agree to join them become NPC henchmen under the Traveller's direction. This does not preclude "short-term engagements"; basically single adventures.

Plot Hooks
A Traveller is posing as a sage in a city and has been buying items off adventuring parties which correspond to his/her field of interest. Players being what they are, it will only be a matter of time before they attempt to rob the Traveller. The Traveller's companions may also turn up as hired help for parties investigating particular areas/legends relevant to the Traveller.

A Traveller sans companions materializes by a party who are lost or otherwise desperate and offers to transport them to safety if they first help him/her investigate some nearby site. Depending on the Traveller's alignment, they may not honour this but in any case a successful outcome may result in an offer to take either PCs or henchmen on as companions.

The party come across a village decked out in Nazi insignia. A Traveller has studied Hitler and other fascists and decided that the system is a good one but only where there is no threat from other technologically advanced nations. Using their psionics, they have dominated (perhaps literally using that power) this area as a test bed. The local blacksmith has made a crude tank powered by steam under direction of the Traveller. Currently it fires nothing more effective than steam (3" long cone, 2" wide at terminal, 2d6 damage, save against breath weapon for half) but the Traveller is considering taking on a magic-user companion to beef it up a bit.

An injured and slightly delirious Traveller is encountered who is being pursued by "silver suits"; s/he is keen to get in touch with "Giji and his sons". What these things may be is up to the DM.

An evil Traveller has taken up a position of power in a neighbouring area (probably as the power behind a throne) and is spreading their influence over the surrounding territory. The PCs are contacted by a noble who has lost his lands and wishes to hire a group to investigate and overthrow this new power. The noble is eventually revealed to be another Traveller, a long-standing foe of the evil one. If the evil one flees this world, the good one will follow, possibly after offering companionship if the party has been helpful.

A Traveller contacts the party, seeking "those who can deal with the exceptional". The barest of plans will be outlined but the target is apparently some artefact of great power guarded by many terrible monsters whom the Traveller describes as "nothing you have ever encountered before". The Traveller is not worried about these monsters and in fact seems eager to get started, excited even. The size of the party is limited by the Traveller's probability travel power as the artefact in question is on The Starship Warden.

The party is openly contacted by a Traveller who wishes to be shown the "unique flora and fauna of this world" and is willing to pay in both gold and a smattering of "magic items" which may, in fact, be technological items such as video phones, laser pistols, super-insulated tents and other similar equipment which is useful for adventuring.

And so forth... Eventually the Gay Deceiver will make an appearance and then all bets are off!

What's the Point of a Campaign World?

A campaign world gives the DM the ability to try different settings (tropical swamps, arid deserts, highly magical areas, suppressed magical areas, underwater kingdoms, sky-realms etc.) while allowing the players to adventure there without rolling new characters.

For radically different settings which would logically distort the gameworld too far (cars and aeroplanes; spaceships etc.), the alternative PMP, and the Inner and Outer Planes serve the same function.

Non-combatants

Moving house soon (to London) so things are quiet on the gaming front and time is in lacking, but here's a short post:

Non-Combatants
Any living thing will fight if cornered, so for non-combatants the following is suggested for when that happens:

1. Fighters receive multiple attacks as if the non-combatant had less than one HD regardless of how many it does have,
2. Attacks by the non-combatant are at a combat level of 0 at most (less if particularly weak).
3. If the non-combatant manages to strike a combatant figure, the latter may save Vs death and if successful the damage is non-lethal.
4. Non-combatants will only actually make an attack attempt during a round on a roll of 1-3 on a d6; otherwise they just panic and/or make ineffectual thrashings of some kind.

Making a hexmap with Inkscape

Okay, slight departure but I've been wanting to do hexmaps with Inkscape for ages and I finally got a decent workflow and I thought I'd share. This isn't going to be a tutorial on Inkscape, so if you don't know how to do the basics (and we're not going much beyond the basics, really) then you'll need to go elsewhere first.

Don't forget that you can click on the illustrations following in order to see a larger version.

Layers
The first thing is to set up our page, which is simply a case of setting the page dimensions. I'll assume A4 here but of course you can do any size you want.

Once the page is created, make a new layer below the current one and call it "sea" or "water". You don't need to do this if you are absolutely sure that there's no water in the area which takes up more than one hex.

Make this layer the current one.

Grid
Next up, go to document properties and create a new Axonometric grid. If there is a rectangular grid, remove it.

The grid spacing is up to you, but the grid in the current version of Inkscape always works so that hexes which align with it are always with the point up the page. Additionally, the grid spacing is as measured on the grid dialogue box is also aligned this way so if you want hexes x units from face to face, you would use a grid spacing of 1.156x. However, this causes problems later with snapping to hexagonal shapes and we actually use half this distance, so for 1" wide hexes, the grid spacing is 0.578", and for 15mm wide hexes, the grid spacing is 8.655mm. I'm using half inch hexes in this worked example to represent 1 mile per hex. Set major lines to "2".

Enable snapping and set "snap nodes or handles" and "snap to cusp nodes" on.

Settings
Go into preferences and under "Clippaths and masks" select "Put all clipped/masked objects into one group" and "Ungroup automatically created groups".

Also in preferences, under "Selecting", make sure that "Select only in current layer" is on, and that under "Clone" you have Inkscape set to unlink clones when the original is deleted (this will be changed later when we come to do trees and such).

The final preference to check is unter "Tools" itself (bad UI design here) where "Visual bounding box" should be selected, although it probably already will be.

In the document properties, this time, make sure that the page background is set to a solid colour (generally white) rather than being transparent. This will save you some annoyance if you want to post the map online somewhere as well as shrinking the image size on disc.

Colours
We're about to create the sea layer, so if you've not decided on a colour-scheme you should at least pick that colour now. I've found that the Aqua colour in the default palette prints out nicely but it does look a bit bright on screen, so maybe think about using "Blue" for the water (and "Navy" for deep water, perhaps) if you're not going to be making printouts.

The sea, the sea

Zoom out a bit and make a hex using the star tool. Make sure that the hex is aligned with the grid and is the size of one of the hexes formed by the grid lines.

Now duplicate the original hex and put the duplicate to the "south east" of the first. Select both hexes and group them. Fill them with the colour you're using for water.

Select the group and go to Edit>Clone>Create Tiled Clones.

On the first panel of the dialogue, select "width, height" instead of "rows, columns". Set the units to whatever is appropriate and the values to the width and height of your page. For A4, for example, this means selecting 'mm' and a width of 210 and a height of 297.

Symmetry should be left at the basic "P1".

Under "Shift" set the per-row shift-X to 0, the per-column shift-X to '-33.33%', per-row shift-Y  to -14.28%, and the per-column shift-Y to 0.

Click "create" (there may be a bit of a pause here). Once the clones are created, delete the original item, which should still be selected.

A4 on the Beaufort Scale 

You now have a page worth of sea hexes in groups of 2. Firstly, select all (Ctr-a) and ungroup them so that you have a page of single hexes, then while they are all still selected, drag them into position on the page, making sure that the top left hex is aligned with a set of grid lines.

If everything has gone to plan, the bottom right hex should also be aligned to the grid. If not, either you've done something wrong or your computer is broken; get a new one (in fact, there's likely to be a small drift due to rounding but it should be very minor).

That's all for the sea later for now: lock it and switch to the original layer (which we can call "land").

The Third Day
At this point, I generally create a single green hex somewhere on the page. I duplicate this (Ctr-d) and place the duplicate on the map, duplicating that and placing the next one until I've "blocked out" the area I'm mapping, if it's an island or some other area with a lot of water.

For areas with proportionately little water, repeat the process we used on the sea layer to make a completely green layer. From this, you can selectively pick hexes and delete them to form the outlines of the water areas. In my case there's only two major areas of water, the sea in the north east and a substantial lake in the middle of what will become "Centaur Valley".

Either way, you'll now have a mixture of land and water hexes. The water hexes should only be those hexes you want to have no external coastline (ie, either completely water or containing their own islands.

The Hills are Alive!
Now you can start selecting hexes that you want to transform into other types than plains (which is what I'm assuming the green is). Just use the shift-click to select all the hexes of one terrain type and then select the colour from the palette at the bottom of the screen. Repeat as needed for desert, swamp, mountains and so on.


 At the end of this stage the intent is that you should have a map which can be used as an overland movement tracker. Essentially, no detail smaller than a whole hex is visible. This is, practically speaking, probably all you absolutely need barring settlements, roads, and rivers, but it's a bit ugly.

In the example at the right, I've used dark green for wilderness forest and plains (we'll be differentiating these later), olive for swamp/marsh, light green for populated forest and plains, blue for water, and shades of brown for mountains (darker is higher). These mountains are limestone cliffs with flat areas of limestone paving on the top - a cross between the Dordogne Valley, The Burren, and the plateaus of Venezuela (as depicted in Pixar's "Up"), although rather lower than the latter - a maximum of uplift of say 200'.


Niel Oliver says "Cooast"!
The first finesse I'm going to aim for is nice coasts; lakes (coast that completely surrounds a water hex) are done slightly differently but I'll do "normal" coast lines first.

Selecting coastline

Click on each hex that you want to contribute something to the coast you want to add. The easiest way to do this is to hold down "alt" and drag the mouse over the hexes which adjoin the water you want to shape.

Once these are selected, duplicate the selected hex (ctr-d) and then combine them into a single object by using the Path>Union menu item. Fill this in with grey to visually show the extent of what will become a clipping mask for the coast. It's not too important if you've accidentally picked up some non-coastal hexes at this point.

Initial coast mask

What might be more significant is that due to rounding errors when we cloned all these hexes, sometimes the mask includes black hexsides within it. I said that I'm assuming you have experience with Inkscape but this might be worth looking at. Essentially, you'll need to activate the node tool and delete the extra nodes that link one corner of the hex to the other. That will probably leave you with  a loop or something between two node that should be connected with a flat face. Select these node and then set the line segment to be a straight line; don't try manipulating the control points to make the line straight. If this proves too difficult, it might be worth simply doing the coast in two sections.

New coast sketched in

Now use the freehand draw tool (or the curve tool as you wish) to draw the coastline you want over the grey mask. Complete the coastline by drawing a curve back from one end of the coast to the other such that the outline you have includes all the non-coastal hex-sides of the underlying mask. You can edit the result with the node tool (and you'll be able to edit the final result too, so don't worry too much). You'll find this all a lot easier if you turn off "snap to grid" and it may help to set the mask to be semi-transparent too.

Coastal mask ready

Now select both your outline and the grey mask and click on the Path>Intersection menu item. You should now have a mask which has your coastline on one side and the remaining hex shapes on the other. Deselect everything.

You should be seeing the grey mask of the new coastline with the underlying land hexes sticking out from underneath it. The next step is to select both the mask and all these hexes (again, I'd recommend using the alt key in conjunction with dragging the left mouse button). Once that's done, simply select Object>Clip>Set from the main menu.

Coast with clipping mask
set.

You should now see that the coastal hexes have been shaped to match your mask.

Internal coasts are done in a similar way: select all the land hexes which will be affected by the new lake, duplicate and merge them to make a mask as before.

This time, however, the mask is cut out using just a single shape which forms a closed loop on itself. Select that and the mask and then pick Path>exclusion instead of intersection. This should give you a hollow mask which can then be combined with the land hexes underneath to make a nice lake shape with the hex lines intact.

So far, so good

If you're not worried about having hex lines on the water, you can of course simply draw a filled shape and plonk it down on the page wherever you like without worrying abut masks and so on.

If you want to fiddle with the coast shape now that it's done then, if you have Inkscape 1.4.8, you can click on any coastal hex and activate the node tool and that will let you work on the mask if you have "show clipping path(s) of selected object(s)" on.

Getting Fancy
For fancy stuff, we'll do some rivers and trees. Basic rivers are simple enough - just draw a line and colour it blue. There's also the option on the line drawing tools to draw as a "triangle out", which essentially takes the line you draw and makes the start pointy and the end wide. This is pretty handy for quickly sketching in rivers that flow from a source to an outflow somewhere, although it works much better for longer rivers than short.

But you can do a little bit more with this, using the Path menu. If you draw the line (either normal or triangle in) and then select either "Stroke to path" for normal lines or "Object to path" for triangle lines, you will be able to edit the entire shape of the river, adding cataracts, deltas or pools and so on where you want them.

You can join two rivers together as well, and then edit the result to give a nice looking confluence rather than just a blunt junction using the same method: just draw the two rivers so that one runs onto the path of the other and then select Path>Union to join them up. Edit with the node tool to make the confluence look as you want it.

Once the rivers are done, we can chuck in some trees using the spray tool. I use a light green for agricultural land, and a darker one for wilderness. Either, as well as hills and mountains, can have trees.

Go to the inkscape preferences and under "Clones" select clones to be deleted when the original is deleted, then create a new "Trees" layer and work on that. If you really screw up, you can delete the original tree that you are cloning from and all the clones will disappear too (you can copy the original before deletion if you just want to start again). And because all the trees on the map will be clones, you can edit the original and the changes will be automatically replicated across the whole map.

Draw a  single tree (Blogspot won't let me upload an svg file, so you'll have to get one from somewhere else if you don't want to draw it yourself). Once you're happy with it, select it and switch to the spray tool.

Click on the "clone" option and set rotation to 5, scale to 20, scatter to 30, and focus to 0. Experiment with these and the "amount" setting to find a setup you like.

Once you're ready, "spray" trees onto the map where they are needed. Try to spray from the top of the page downwards as, because of the way the tool overlaps the trees, this looks better.

Because we've cloned the trees, if you edit the original the change will be reflected in all the trees on the map. Don't forget that you can move or delete individual trees that have sprayed out onto water or otherwise look untidy.

I generally have two types of tree - coniferous and deciduous - for different areas and a marsh symbol. I guess you could add a cactus icon too.

I've not had much luck in doing a similar spray effect for mountains yet, but I'm looking into it. The problem is that random trees look good, but random mountains look strange and turning down the spray speed to stop them crowding each other makes the mountains too sparse.

I've experimented with transparent hexes with symbols drawn in them and cloned onto the map, and you can see a few examples of hills done this way on the previous example there, but it's rather tedious to do, so I'm not sure about that method yet.

Where is Everyone?
The next layer I would add would be for markers - basically settlements and lairs. Adding them on a layer means that they can be easily changed as play affects them, or you have more ideas to add. Having them on the top layer also means that the trees don't overprint them and obscure important things.

Labels can also be added on this layer, again free from overlapping trees.

Just Showing Off Now
By this point, the map is very settled and there should be no real chance of major changes, so the remaining areas of the sea layer that are not being used aren't really doing much. If you are feeling frisky, you can now use this layer to allow shaping of things like the mountains.

The idea here is simply the same as the previous instructions for making a coastline, but now the "coast" is the edge of some other feature. Once again, select the hexes to be shaped, then duplicate and merge them; draw your new shape and find the intersection and use the result as a clip mask as before. The end result will be some exposed sea tiles in the middle of your landmass.

Simply unlock the sea layer and select the exposed tiles and set their fill color to suit the landscape in the area (ie, make them into land hexes).

Here's a final detail from the (uncompleted) example map of where I've started doing this near the south end of the valley.

So, that's hex maps with Inkscape. Just export it as a bitmap for the web, or as a PDF for print or whatever you like.

Shameless Plug
It's not a huge amount of work once you've done it a few times and have got into the way of it but it's not really worth the effort for maps that are for your own consumption. They're much easier to make with pencils and paper, so I should probably plug my campaign map book here - it's a spiral bound book intended for the DM to keep all the outdoor maps for a single campaign in, using Imperial measurements.

I'll not be about for the next week or so but I'll try to answer any questions anyone has when I get back.