Assumptions of a 5e World: Races, Part III: Halflings

Oh, Halflings...

A lot of people have some pretty strong ideas and criticisms about Halflings--and most of it valid. The evolution of the D&D Halfling has strayed far from its Tolkien roots.

1. Field Mice and Citizen Soldiers
There are two quotes in the PHB that strike me as interesting regarding the Halfling racial character. First:

The diminutive halflings survive in a world full of larger creatures by avoiding notice or, barring that, avoiding offense. (p. 26)

And:

For them, adventuring is less a career than an opportunity or sometimes a necessity. (p. 27)

This, along with the very pastoral and no-nonsense description found in the flavor text remind me of the romanticized small-town America in the early part of the 20th Century--plain talking, lawful, and pleasant farm folk who are willing to take up a noble cause when it is just to do so. However, there is also a side to them which attempts to remain anonymous. They integrate into other communities as easily as forming their own, often becoming an invisible, but vital, aspect of society. Even urban halflings, cooks and butlers extraordinaire, routinely move around unseen by the taller folk.

2. Subraces
Personally, it has been difficult for me to really get a strong feel for the subraces of halflings. The Lightfoot Halflings are sneakier, chattier, and more prone to wanderlust, while the Stout Halflings are hardier. And that's really all the differentiation in the PHB. The subraces appear to be almost more mechanical bonus options compared to living, breathing cultures.

3. My Halflings
What might differentiate the two is the environment they come from. Shire-based halflings, more rustic and laconic, might fit the traits that the Stout Halflings possess. City halflings mesh up well with the Lightfoot Halflings--the charisma bonus is suitable for members of the service industry and the Naturally Stealthy trait relies on being around tall people, something urban halflings have in far more abundance than their rural counterparts.

For the most part, I don't see much of a reason for Stouts to be out and about in the world unless there is a pressing need. And when they do leave their homes, they do what they need to do and then come home. A Stout who chooses the life of adventure would certainly be a bit scandalous. Lightfeet, on the other hand, could easily be brought on initially as servants of adventurers, evolving into adventurers in their own right and slipping into more mainstream culture. The majority of Lightfeet would probably cock an eyebrow and "tsk" the adventurous halfling, but urban halflings are far more tolerant of this behavior than the Stouts.

On Friday... HUMANS!

Assumptions of a 5e World: Races, Part II: Elves

Continuing my look at the assumptions of the world that would exist in D&D's fifth edition, I'm going to look at Elves today.

1. Basic Premise

So, the first sentence of the profile (after the Dragonlance quote) states that "Elves are a magical people of otherworldly grace, living in the world but not entirely part of it." This basic premise of elves has two things to talk about--inherent magicalness (what an awful word, can someone give me a better one?) and detachment from the world.

The first is easily explained thanks to the Fey Ancestry trait. But what does this ancestry entail? Are elves what happen to Fey when they stay away from the Feywild for too long? Are they creations of the Fey? Are they crossbreeds of Fey and something more mundane? Do the elves even know?

The detachment is likely a combination of their unusually long lifespan and their alien nature. I've got some ideas I'll share below.

2. Subraces

So, according to the PHB, there are two subraces of elf--High and Wood Elf (I know Dark Elves are in the book, but fuck those guys. Seriously.). The long story made short is that High Elves are a little more intelligent and inherently magical and Wood Elves are a little more wise and adept at hiding in natural surroundings. I do find it interesting that Grey/Sun Elves and High/Moon Elves were combined into one category of High Elf.

To me, this means that High Elves remain closer to their Fey ancestors and Wood Elves have embraced life outside the Feywild. Which means, in my game, I'll likely make that extra language that High Elves get Sylvan to further strengthen that connection. I've got a few more thoughts on how I will implement elves in my game, but first...

3. Drizzt/Drow Rant

You know how a lot of people hate Dragonlance?
That's how I feel about Drizzt.

First, The Crystal Shard was the first D&D novel I really loved as a kid. I thought it was fantastic. Drizzt was a rad idea, I liked the relationship between Bruenor and Wulfgar, and my exposure to fantasy literature wasn't all that developed, so it didn't seem as tired to me then as it does now. Then Drizzt became the spokesman for the Forgotten Realms and we got oversaturated with him. But what really pissed me off about the Drizztification of D&D is now every single swinging dick gamer wanted to play the "good" evil race. UGH. So yeah, I blame Drizzt for a lot of my annoyance in games. And I liked my Drow mysterious and unknown. Now there is just too much canon out there. And another thing--why do they need to be black-skinned? I'm not going all social justice here, but why should they have such a big target on their back (and face and hands and...)? If I incorporate some kind of Dark Elf into my game, they will be radically different than the ones in D&D canon.

4. Elves in my Game

High Elves. Holding on to their connection to the Feywild, they most certainly have a superiority complex over the rest of the world. Native practitioners of magic, they certainly look down upon the brutish methods the other races use to access the Weave. Bards, sorcerers, and warlocks would be exceedingly rare in High Elf society, Wizards dominating all aspects of magical culture in elven society. The Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster paths are very common coming from the High Elf enclaves.

Wood Elves, on the other hand, use very little learned arcane magic. I'm not sure what separated them from the Feywild, but whatever it was it sent them on a path to secrecy and evasion that granted them the Fleet of Foot and Mask of the Wild traits. They will still have spellcasters, but they will be the more native ones--sorcerers, druids, rangers, etc.

Elven culture is isolated into various enclaves--High Elves out of arrogance (and the location's connection to the Feywild), Wood Elves out of paranoia--but the elven wanderlust mentioned in the PHB does bring elves into the world of man. I reckon that High Elves will send people out for a brief stay in short-lived society to keep an eye on them, make sure there is no threat to the enclaves and possibly some appropriation of culture and technology. The High Elves are too busy navelgazing and reminiscing about Fey times to really be doing any of that work themselves. So, a young High Elf might head out for about 20-50 years then return to the enclave for a century or so to process and philosophize about what they learned on walkabout. The elves on this Grand Tour would certainly be living opulently and refusing to do a lot of the heavy lifting for any endeavors they are involved in. While large swaths of the people hold them in similar disdain as they would some of the more foppish nobility, there is a sycophantic group of romantics and opportunists who form their entourages.

Wood Elves, on the other hand, would keep a lower profile when they move around in foreign circles. They would often interact with human society through interlocutors (maybe a human/half-elf order of rangers and druids). The rare Wood Elf adventurer would likely be ranging about looking for some kind of advantage for the Wood Elves, be they allies or maybe an artifact. I just have to suss out what the big threat to the Wood Elves is.

So yeah, elves.

Assumptions of a 5e World: Races, Part I: Subraces and Dwarfs.

So, I've had the 5e Player's Handbook for about two weeks now and I have slowly been getting a feel for it and the world that it implies. I'm going to start with the races, since that's the first thing that the PHB discusses. As always, your feedback is encouraged.

1. Subraces are back!

I am no expert on some editions of D&D, but it seems like every other major iteration of the game either adds in or subtracts out subraces. I don't recall hearing about them before Unearthed Arcana, and they seemed to be gone when 2e came around. 3e brought them back, 4e did away with them. I may be wrong here, but this might be the first PHB that actually has mechanically separated subraces. Personally, I like the idea of subraces. Your low-density races might be more homogenous, but in a D&D-trope-centric world, there are going to be plenty of dwarfs and elves, so it makes sense that there will be substantial differences in culture.

2. Dwarfs

Karkaz Axeshield, representing Mithril Hall Vocational Technical School,
scored his education on a throwing hammer scholarship.

Dwarfs in 5e are certainly your typical grudge-bearing, greedy, god-fearing grumps they always seem to be. They all get to use dwarfy weapons (hammers and axes--and the terrifying thought of THROWING HAMMERS (see the picture to the right)) and have some sort of vocational training. Of note, they don't get an attack bonus against greenskins--which means that a 5e world doesn't necessarily HAVE to have the Dwarf-Greenie conflict.

Hill Dwarfs are wiser and more resilient than Mountain Dwarfs and Mountain Dwarfs are stronger and more armored than Hill Dwarfs. Mountain Dwarfs are also 4" taller, on the average, than Hill Dwarfs.

The assumption I am getting from this is that Mountain Dwarfs have a much more militant society than Hill Dwarfs. I reckon they are on the frontlines of SOME conflict and have a mentality where EVERYONE is a member of the militia when push comes to shove. It could be a siege mentality similar to Israel or maybe an isolationist streak like Switzerland.

Hill Dwarfs have been a little less straightforward than their cousins. I'm seeing them as a more introspective and philosophical than the Mountain Dwarfs, but I'm at a loss to explain the extra hit points. Maybe the outdoor hill living has helped Hill Dwarfs provide a healthier and more balanced diet than the iron rations-chowing Mountain Dwarfs.

So, what I am taking from all of this is that the dwarfs who left the mountains became a little softer and more intellectual than the Spartan dwarfs in the mountains, fighting ancestral foes.

3. My Dwarfs

With all of these assumptions, I am wondering how the different dwarf subraces (to include the Duergar) came to be in my D&D 5e world. Greed and Grudges seem to be the main negative drives of dwarf culture, while family and faith are the positive drives.

Ten thousand years ago, the dwarfs ruled huge swaths of the Underdark, being at the top of the subterranean cultural pyramid. Unfortunately, they grew lax in their homage to the Stone Spirits that gave them their power to rule over the Underdark. One clan's hubris was so powerful that they forswore the Stone Spirits and declared themselves superior over all--even the Gods. The remaining clans, while not as degenerate, hedged their bets, providing lip service to both sides in the conflict, waiting for a clear victor before going all in. This angered the Stone Spirits, who cursed the Dwarfs. The rebel clan became the Duergar and the remaining clans became the Dwarfs we know today, exiled from their great cities to the fringes of the Underdark, closer to the surface. Some of the dwarfs repented their inaction and dedicated themselves to service of the Stone Spirits, hoping one day they will return their calls and prayers. They renounced the greed and hubris that led them to exile and toil in the mountains, hoping to regain a portion of their lost glory. Some of the dwarfs turned their back on the Stone Spirits and the mountains. They settled in the hills and took the gods of man as their own. Fully committed to their greed and lust, they are ruthless merchants, decadent profiteers, traffickers of flesh, and all manners of base commerce.

Next week, I'll try to finish out the Big Four races.

Ratnyvarosh: Rules for NPCs (Part 4): The Warrior Class

THE WARRIOR CLASS

Warriors represent the common fighting man, inferior to the fighter and cavalier classes by a significant margin. Warriors are your standard hirelings, mercenaries, and soldiers. While warriors eventually become adequate combatants, they are still quite limited compared to the PC classes.

Warriors have the following special ability:

* Limited Ability Score Bonuses

Warriors require a minimum strength score of 8 and a minimum constitution score of 5. They can be of any alignment and use any armor. Warriors can gain proficiency in any weapon and can utilize any armor. They begin the game with two weapon proficiencies and earn a new one every four levels. They suffer a -3 penalty on “to hit” rolls with weapons they are not trained in. 

Table A-X: Warrior Level Advancement

X.P. Level HP. Attack

0 1 1d6 A

1000 2 2d6 A

2000 3 3d6 B

4000 4 4d6 B

8000 5 5d6 C

16000 6 6d6 C

32000 7 7d6 D

64000 8 8d6 D

128000 9 9d6 E

192000 10 9d6+1 E

256000 11 9d6+2 F

+64000 +1 +1 +1/2 levels

Limited Ability Score Bonuses

Warriors are in tune with themselves to the extent that they are able to use their full abilities in combat-related rolls. The Warrior can utilize the melee “to-hit” and damage bonuses from their strength score, the initiative and missile “to-hit” bonuses from their dexterity score, and the hit point bonuses from their constitution bonus (albeit at the non-fighter rate). They do not roll percentile dice when they have a strength score of 18. If their ability score is low enough to provide a penalty, the warrior must take that penalty.

Ratnyvarosh: Rules for NPCs (Part 3): The Noble Class

NOBLE CLASS

Noble NPCs represent the bulk of the upper crust of Ratnyvarosh. 

The only requirement for entry into the noble class is being born at the appropriate social station. 

Nobles have the following abilities and restriction:

* Starting skills

* Limited dual experience use

* Inability to receive ability score bonuses

Nobles can gain proficiency in dagger, lance, rapier, spear, and swords (bastard, broad, long, and short). They begin the game with one weapon proficiency and earn a new one every five levels. They suffer a -6 penalty on “to hit” rolls with weapons they are not trained in. Nobles are proficient in mail armor and everything lighter than it and shields. Nobles fight using attack column A and never advance in martial ability.

Table A-X: Noble Level Advancement

X.P. Level HP.

0 1 1d4

1001 2 1d4+1

2001 3 2d4+1

4001 4 2d4+2

8001 5 3d4+2

16001 6 3d4+3

32001 7 4d4+3

64001 8 4d4+4

128001 9 5d4+4

192001 10 5d4+5

252001 11 5d4+6

+64000 +1 +1

Starting Skills

Noble characters start with a free level in the courtly graces skill. This skill need not be paid for with x.p. and does not count as an initial escrowed skill.

Limited dual experience use

As a noble gains experience (typically through the daily x.p. means, occasionally through the ill-advised adventure), for every two x.p. they gain, they are able to sink one experience point into a skill without sacrificing the point for leveling. For example, a noble who has just reached 2^nd level has 500 free x.p. to spend on skills (usually buying back their initial skill in escrow).

Inability to Receive Ability Score Bonuses

Nobles have simply not developed the self-awareness to translate their natural abilities into benefits in combat. Nobles do not receive melee “to hit” or damage bonuses from strength, positive magical attack adjustments from wisdom, initiative, missile “to hit”, or armor class bonuses from dexterity, or hit point bonuses from constitution. Nobles with low scores, however, receive the penalties inherent.

Ratnyvarosh: Rules for NPCs (Part 2): The Expert Class

EXPERT CLASS

Experts are similar to commoners, with the exception of having a natural aptitude toward their chosen profession. Only individuals who are atypically strong, intelligent, wise, etc. qualify for this class. This aptitude is NOT in martial pursuits, simply the secondary skill areas. The warrior class is the appropriate class for combat-minded base-born NPCs.

Experts require a single score of 15 in the primary ability score of their initial skill. For example, for a blacksmith to utilize the expert class, they need a strength of 15.

Experts have the following abilities and restriction:

* Dual experience use

* Inability to receive ability score bonuses

Experts can gain proficiency in club, dagger, quarterstaff, scythe, sling, and spear. They begin the game with one weapon proficiency and earn a new one every five levels. They suffer a -6 penalty on “to hit” rolls with weapons they are not trained in. Experts are proficient in only leather or padded armor. Experts fight using attack column A and never advance in martial ability.

Table A-X: Expert Level Advancement

X.P. Level HP.

0 1 1d4

1001 2 2d4

2001 3 3d4

4001 4 4d4

8001 5 5d4

16001 6 6d4

32001 7 7d4

64001 8 8d4

128001 9 9d4

192001 10 9d4+1

252001 11 9d4+2

+64000 +1 +1

Dual Experience Use

As an expert gains experience (typically through the daily x.p. means, occasionally through the ill-advised adventure), they are able to use their x.p. earned to count towards both leveling and skill purchase. So, an expert who has just reached level 3 will also have 2,001 x.p. to spend on skills.

Inability to Receive Ability Score Bonuses

Experts have simply not developed the self-awareness to translate their natural abilities into benefits in combat. Experts do not receive melee “to hit” or damage bonuses from strength, positive magical attack adjustments from wisdom, initiative, missile “to hit”, or armor class bonuses from dexterity, or hit point bonuses from constitution. Experts with low scores, however, receive the penalties inherent.

Ratnyvarosh: Rules for NPCs (Part 1): The Commoner Class

THE COMMONER CLASS

Commoners represent the bulk of the world of Ratnyvarosh’s population. Typically commoners are tradesmen who do not qualify for the expert class and have not dedicated their lives to martial pursuits, as the warrior class. They are of base-born stock, with upper class-born using the noble class.

There are no specific requirements to be a commoner. 

Commoners have the following abilities and restriction:

* Limited dual experience use

* Inability to receive ability score bonuses

Commoners can gain proficiency in club, dagger, quarterstaff, scythe, sling, and spear. They begin the game with one weapon proficiency and earn a new one every five levels. They suffer a -6 penalty on “to hit” rolls with weapons they are not trained in. Commoners are proficient in only leather or padded armor. Commoners fight using attack column A and never advance in martial ability.

Table A-1: Commoner Level Advancement

X.P. Level HP.

0 1 1d4

1001 2 1d4+1

2001 3 2d4+1

4001 4 2d4+2

8001 5 3d4+2

16001 6 3d4+3

32001 7 4d4+3

64001 8 4d4+4

128001 9 5d4+4

192001 10 5d4+5

252001 11 5d4+6

+64000 +1 +1

Limited dual experience use

As a commoner gains experience (typically through the daily x.p. means, occasionally through the ill-advised adventure), for every two x.p. they gain, they are able to sink one experience point into a skill without sacrificing the point for leveling. For example, a commoner who has just reached 2^nd level has 500 free x.p. to spend on skills (usually buying back their initial skill in escrow).

Inability to Receive Ability Score Bonuses

Commoners have simply not developed the self-awareness to translate their natural abilities into benefits in combat. Commoners do not receive melee “to hit” or damage bonuses from strength, positive magical attack adjustments from wisdom, initiative, missile “to hit”, or armor class bonuses from dexterity, or hit point bonuses from constitution. Commoners with low scores, however, receive the penalties inherent.

Ratnyvarosh: Character Creation (Part 2): Classes - Bards and Jesters

Bards (and Jesters)

Human bard player characters are considered Bachelors of Arts from the Bardic Academy of Ratnyvarosh. They are assumed to have completed their apprenticeship and early studies and are traveling the world as journeymen. The Bards of Ratnyvarosh are the primary historians of the town, reciting great epics of heroes past and joining parties of adventurers to chronicle the next generation of greatness. Elven bards are assumed to have progressed from the intense one-on-one tutoring under a Great Minstrel and are currently wandering the lands to learn new music and compose songs based upon their travels. Bards are unchanged from the Adventures Dark and Deep Players’ Manual.

Jesters (only playable by humans) learn their craft from the highly secretive (and paranoid) Jester’s Guild. They look to keep a monopoly on mirth in Ratnyvarosh, and while they don’t get involved in every joke made within the walls, anyone who looks to start making a living at comedy will often be given one invitation to join the guild. One. No one knows what they do with the people who defy them, but they are rarely seen again. Jesters are unchanged from the Adventures Dark and Deep Players’ Manual.

Ratnyvorosh: Character Creation (Part 1): Abilities and Race

Character generation for the Ratnyvarosh campaign follows the standard Adventures Dark and Deep guidelines, with modifications and descriptions provided below.

ABILITY SCORES

Ratnyvarosh characters’ ability scores are generated by rolling 4d6, dropping the lowest score and applying the results in order to the six ability scores: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. After those scores are generated, players can choose one of two options to modify their scores:

1.) A player may swap two scores (and only two scores), provided the higher score goes into an ability which is a requirement for the class the player chooses.

OR, 

2.) A player may re-roll ONE ability score, but that player MUST take the result of the second die roll, even if it is lower than the original.

The tables in the Players’ Manual pp. 4-7 are unchanged for Ratnyvarosh.

CHARACTER RACE

The town of Ratnyvarosh is 95% human, meaning there are only about 100 demi-humans in the town at any given time. While this does not preclude players from creating demi-human characters, it does serve to show that demi-humans stand out.

Dwarves are regarded as greedy hoarders of precious metals and gems. The general consensus is that they want to control all of the mining operations in the world and will resort to shady practices in order to gain control of non-dwarf mines. All dwarfs in Ratnyvarosh are of the mountain dwarf (Players’ Manual, p. 10) variety, and are simply known as dwarfs.   In addition to the rules for mountain dwarfs in the Players’ Manual, mountain dwarves suffer a -1 on all “to hit” , damage, skill, and ability rolls in bright sunlight. At night or during overcast days, they suffer no ill effects. However, they gain an additional 25% to their racial abilities in regard to stonecraft. In Ratnyvarosh, they tend to live in the Undercity, given their predilection for darker places. Hill dwarfs and grey dwarfs are not currently known to exist in the Ratnyvarosh campaign, but may make an appearance in later supplements.

Elves are trusted even less than Dwarfs. Aloof and mysterious, elves rarely show any interest in the plans of humans, looking down upon their much shorter-lived cousins. When they do interact with humanity, there are often layers between what they are trying to accomplish and what they are portraying. Inscrutable does not even begin to describe the elves. The elves encountered in Ratnyvarosh are typically of grey elf stock. The elves of Ratnyvarosh refer to themselves as the silver ones. Half-elves are EXCEEDINGLY rare and would certainly require an unusual background worked out with the game master. There are rumors of other sub-races of elves, be they the sylvan folk (wood elves in the Players’ Manual), the golden ones (high elves), or the savage folk (wild elves). Dark elves are not known to exist in the Ratnyvarosh campaign and none of the other sub races are available for use as player characters at this point. Future supplements may detail these sub-races.

Gnomes and halflings are not known to exist in the Ratnyvarosh campaign.

Half-orcs exist in the Ratnyvarosh campaign and suffer many of the traditional prejudices found in other fantasy settings. In the town of Ratnyvarosh, they are almost exclusively found in the Undercity, as the watch takes very aggressive interest in any half-orcs that choose to brave the surface. Other humanoid races are also allowed in the town, but are rare and beyond the scope of this particular supplement. Like the other races, more information regarding humanoid races as player characters may appear in later supplements.

Ratnyvarosh: Designing the Rathole

So, I am continuing to work on my Ratnyvarosh project and have started the first "neighborhood" in the town: The Rathole. Clearly, this is not the upper crust.

GAME INFORMATION

While no part of the Undercity is anyone’s idea of pleasant, the Rathole, also known as the Asshole of Ratnyvarosh, is without a doubt the least desirable place to visit, let alone live. Still, this shadowy slum provides a very necessary service to the town: Illicit goods and flesh. The Drudge Market is the only market within the town where slaves can be openly purchased and along the Whorewalk you can satisfy all manner of carnal desires—with the exception of a classy courtesan (If you have to ask where to find those, you can't afford them).

Three groups vie for control of the Rathole. The Association of Procurement, a collection of pimps and madams, controls the majority of the town's prostitution activities through both the Upper and Lower Whorewalk. The Slaver’s Guild controls the Drudge Market and Dark Market section of the Rathole. A brutal gang of thugs known as the Rat Bastards terrorize the Rat Road and Bastard Lane.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

When I get back to my apartment in NY tonight, I'll scan the detail map I made of the neighborhood and include it in a future post where I detail some of the establishments.

My plan right now is it detail 10% of the city's locations. My my estimate, it will be a little under 80. Some will be larger than others. That will give me the flexibility to add stuff as needed when I actually sit down to run the game. If this makes it to the production/distribution level, it allows whoever is using Ratnyvarosh to make it their own.

So, I'm thinking for each section it'll be: Loose background, some locations, some NPCs, and a few adventure seeds. Is there anything else people think should be on there?

At this point, I'm considering adapting it for +Joseph Bloch's Adventures Dark and Deep system. I've been enjoying 1e a little more lately, and I think it's the smoothest version out there.

As always, feedback is encouraged.

Ratnyvarosh, the Arena City

Well, I made a whopping one post throughout all of 2013. I am hoping that the numbers will increase considerably in 2014.

I suffer greatly from Gamer ADD (I'm curious if that has anything to do with my actual ADHD), and even going through blog posts past, you can see I start and discards with disappointing frequency. My goal during this semester away from graduate school is to actually finish a project, to the point where I could consider collecting it and distributing in a PDF format.

The bi-weekly AD&D group I play in recently started a new shared-world campaign, allowing us to rotate through the DM position. I was considering creating a Tekumel-style undercity for our tentpole crater city, but during research, the idea morphed into my current project--Ratnyvarosh, the Arena City. I was researching Roman architecture and stumbled upon the Wikipedia entry for the Arles Ampitheatre. The idea of an arena being turned into a town fascinated me, and that's what I've been working on.

I am probably cramming more people into this city than existed in Arles, although the footprint is largely the same. There are close to a thousand "buildings" in the town, the majority small 10'x10' cubicles or shacks. So the image that is slowly being constructed is a densely packed, grimy, smoky town with plenty of dark alleys for illicit activity juxtaposed with some elaborate mansions and palaces.

The world surrounding Ratnyvarosh is a largely ruined post-apocalyptic wilderness. It has to be to keep the Varoshi penned up in a cesspool. I've started throwing around some ideas of what is around the city, using a pointcrawl motif where wilderness site like the Blasted Ruins and Barren Shores are linked to specific locations such as the Citadel of the Bound and the Wrecked Spaceship. Serious development on that will come if I actually finish a treatment for the city itself.

I've finished the preliminary maps, so now I am going to pore over them over the next few days and figure out what makes sense. There are three locations which are large enough to warrant being considered their own "sections"--simply called The Citadel, The Palace, and The Mansion. Other than that, I've got an undercity I need to break up into neighborhoods and the town that is exposed to sunlight to suss out.

I'll keep you posted. Here are some snaps of the maps.

It's Been A While...

...but I'm at a point where I have stuff to blog.

A week or so ago, I was checking out the /r/lfg subreddit and several people were remarking that they'd love to learn D&D but didn't have anyone to teach them. I can't remember the last time I played with completely new players and thought that it might be a neat little thing that might get me back to my roots as a DM and break up the drudge of graduate school.

Once everyone immediately jumped on board and we quickly set a date to start playing (Tuesday afternoons as they are all in Europe--which is another neat wrinkle--and that's one of my days off from class), I realized I had to have something to run. So here is the deal.

Ninja Birds abound in the as-yet-unnamed
land of adventure and mayhem.

I'm going to be running Swords & Wizardry Whitebox with the following bits bolted on:

• I'm going to be using the encumbrance and movement rules from Lamentation of the Flame Princess
• Tenkar's Luck rules
• The Reputation mechanic from Mongoose's Conan d20
• The Holmes five-point alignment system
• Jeff Rients' Carousing rules
• Some tweaks to ability score bonuses to satisfy my inner statistics nerd
• An ebb and flow mechanic in combat where if one side ends up rolling a streak of high (or low) numbers, good (or bad) things start happening to the battlefield.

But the biggest change to the game will be the classes. I talked about this on Google+ back in June, but I am going to do it for real for real now. The basic premise is "what if the basic character classes only apply to levels 1-3?" Once a character reaches 4th Level, they will move into a new class, more specialized in what they want to do. And I am doing it in tiers: Basic (1-3), Heroic (4-7), Super Heroic (8-12), Legendary (13-18). So you could go from Fighting-Man to Knight to Paladin to Divine Champion. I'll likely post the new classes here when I gin them up. Fortunately OD&D advances somewhat slowly so I have some time.

From a DMing standpoint, I'm in the first year of a doctoral program. I don't have THAT much time to work on the game. Zak S.'s Vornheim and somewhat freeform world generation concepts will be invaluable to me. A lot of my early work will be working on (and stealing) random tables. And even though some might think that first time players should get a "traditional" experience, I'm not at all interested in running a "traditional" sandbox game. To start, I'm going to focus primarily on Fiend Folio monsters. And any other "normal" animals will get a weird treatment. I'm also a fan of the Empire of the Petal Throne concept of PCs
being "barbarians" in a new and foreign place. I want this to be a bizarre, hostile world. Bizarre to the point where it will take them learning about who is what before they can truly realize what's good and what's evil.

So, I'll be posting more, I think. I committed to having the house rule document to the players before the weekend is over, so I'll likely post a link to that here as well. 

A to Z Blogging Challenge: I is for Illusionists

I never quite got the feel for Illusionists.  They always seemed to be pale shadows of Magic-Users.  I can't say there have been many versions of D&D (and by extension, the clones thereof) who give me a character class I can really sink my teeth into.

Starting Off in Greatholm

You want to play a demi-human or a spellcaster?

Those are for earners, bucko, and you ain't earned squat yet.

One of the things I've wondered how to handle in my Lamentations of the Flame Princess game is how to handle the potential conflict between a Lawful Cleric and a Chaotic Magic-User/Elf.  I decided not to handle it and instead let the players handle it themselves.

The campaign will start off with the PCs making Neutral Fighters and Specialists.  As the game moves on, they can encounter various groups that could, for lack of a better term, "unlock" the demi-human and spell-casting classes.  And there may be some other options out there to compete with Clerics and Magic-Users.  Just sayin'.

I want my sandbox to be a sandbox where exploration is rewarded in many different ways: treasure, experience points, and even character options.  With my method of multiclassing, you'll be able to eventually play a magic-user or a cleric if you can be initiated into their mysteries, you'll just be paying your dues as a fighter or a specialist to begin.  Now, once the party unlocks the different options, you'll be good to bring in these new classes and races as henchmen, or start new 1st level characters in the unlocked race/class.

The only thing I'm wondering is how to reconcile the multiclassing with demi-humans.  Something to work on over the next month.

Human Multiclassing

The Lamentations of the Flame Princess game I am working on will largely be focused on humanity.  I'd like the characters to be drawn exclusively from Clerics, Fighters, Magic-Users, and Specialists.  However, I'd like to keep the game in line with a bit of the Swords & Sorcery paradigm of the heroes being good at many things.  What does this mean?  Multiclassing.

Each one a Fighter/Thief... and Human

I know that the B/X rules didn't have any type of multiclassing in them (unless you are an Elf, of course), but here are my initial thoughts on the deal:

• Characters do not begin the game multi-classed.  I'm not 100% tied to this one.  Maybe work multi-classing at the beginning in with the character's background.
• To be eligible to learn a class, they must study under a teacher for an as-yet-undetermined time (with an as-yet undetermined cost) which grants them level 1 in the class studied (I think I'll tie this in with some of the rules from the Hill Cantons Compendium, found over at... Hill Cantons).
• When you have multiple classes, your experience points are spread equally among the classes you use in an adventure.  This means that if a Fighter/Specialist goes a whole session never getting in a fight, but uses his Specialist skills, all of the XP gained go into Specialist.  With the ubiquity of Fighter and Specialist skill usage, there won't be the question of what happens in a role-play only session (not with anyone *I* have DM'd for, at least).
• Of course, since I have aligned Clerical magic with Law and Arcane magic with Chaos, there will be no Cleric/Magic-Users in the game.

Since all of the players will be humans, they will all be on the same page for these, and there shouldn't be much of a competitive edge.

Any thoughts on this?

Hobbit Wizards, Norwegian or Otherwise

Who knew the Shire was in Norway?

The Rangers won the game I went to on Wednesday, thanks to an overtime goal by Mats "The Norwegian Hobbit Wizard" Zuccarello.  Standing in at a "mere" 5'7" and bearing a passing resemblance to Elijah Wood, Zuccarello has previously led the Swedish Elite League in scoring and looks to have a pretty good future, despite his relatively diminutive size for an NHL forward.

The thought of a Hobbit Wizard is kind of curious.  It was expressly forbidden in earlier versions of the game and is just not that efficient in the 4th Edition.  Plus, it kind of takes away from the "aw-shucks" quality of Hobbits.

I confess that I haven't read the books since just before Fellowship of the Ring came out in film.  I saw the movies in the theaters but only once.  I'm not expert on Tolkien or the stories.  I have, however, played a metric ton of Dungeons and Dragons and can say that Halflings are not Hobbits.  I'm not sure if there is an exact reason, but the longer I play D&D, the less I like D&D Halflings.  This isn't because of the changes in appearance.  It's because they are pretty much as pointless as gnomes.  Anyone who has played D&D with me knows that I just don't see the point of gnomes and I'm starting to get that way with Halflings as well.

I received the Blu-Ray edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy for Christmas and I was watching them with my fiancee a week or so ago. One of the things I noticed about the four hobbits is that they are not pure adventurers.  This isn't something that translates too well into a role-playing game, since you want to play a pure adventurer.  The only hobbit with a real responsibility is Frodo.  Look what it does to him.  The other three hobbits, Samwise, Merry, and Pippin, all serve a very different purpose--they are the consciences of their charges.

I don't see any of these guys making it in the NHL.

Hobbits were innocence.  Halflings are mischief.  Hobbits resort to trickery to overcome the fact that they are not fighters, sorcerers, or powerful in any material way.  Halflings  seem to enjoy trickery for the sake of it.  Hobbits are the heart and soul of any group they are part of, while Halflings just seem like little douchebags.

I'm thinking of not allowing Halflings into my Lamentations of the Flame Princess game.  If a player insisted, I guess I'd relent as long as he played it more like a Hobbit than a Halfling.  Instead of any kind of thieving bonuses, I'd give them some kind of ability to influence opinions, but only if they were on behalf of "the right thing to do."  The penalties for not being a fundamentally good person and wearing your heart on your sleeve would be steep.  Really bad saving throws and absolutely no abilities of suggestion.

What do you think?

Third Time's The Charm: Royalty, Peerage, and Orders of Chivalry

FINALLY, a place in Morristown, NJ with outlets.

So, the fiancee and I have a partial season tickets for the New York Rangers and on game days, if she can't work from home, I'll head into New Jersey with her and chill out while she works.  We'll have to find a new system when I start school in two weeks, but it's better these ways than her coming all of the way back to PA for us to go all the way back across New Jersey to go to Manhattan and it's better than taking two vehicles (especially when my vehicle is a 20mpg pickup).  ANYWAY, so I planned on parking it in a Barnes & Noble or a Borders and working on the blog while Mrs. Higgipedia earns the mortgage payment.  I drop her off at the office and order some tea and realize there is nowhere to plug my almost drained MacBook Pro into.  I didn't really feel like trucking around Central New Jersey, so I just parked it there and took advantage of the book selection to pick up The Rough Guide to Cult Football, a wonderful purchase if you are into the beautiful game.  After meeting Mrs. Higgipedia for lunch, I tried ANOTHER coffee establishment, which turned out not to have outlets either.  I continued to read my book and moved on after finishing some coffee.  I went to the Morristown Greenberry's Coffee, checked for outlets first (I might not learn quickly and without pain but I do learn), and ordered some tea.  And here we are.  I've been working on the background on my sandbox.  I felt like fleshing out the nobility for Greatholm, patterning it after Great Britain's royalty, since the island is clearly my sandbox's GBR analogue.  Anyway, here is what I'm working with.

The Three Classes of Nobility in Greatholm
I wanted to make the system of nobility something that was a little different than what I usually see published.  One of the only games that really deals with nobility that I have experience with is Pendragon, and I'm looking at taking a different tack then that.

Royalty is defined as the Sovereign of Greatholm (the King), his wife (the Queen Consort), the surviving wives of Sovereigns past (the Queen Mother or Queen Dowager), the Sovereign's children (Princes and Princesses), and the children of the Sovereign's sons (also Princes and Princesses).  This constitutes the strict definition of the Royal Family and the line of succession.  If, through some happenstance, the entire Royal Family were to be slain, then it would come down to everyone else proving lineage to Sovereigns past to determine the new Sovereign.  Expect a civil war to break out.

Peerage are the hereditary nobles given title by the Sovereign.  In descending order, the Peers of Greatholm are: Dukes, Marquesses, Earls, Viscounts, and Barons.  Some of the peerages are tied to areas (the Duke of Avonlea) and some are tied to families (Earl Lovegood).  Once granted, the title can only be revoked by the Sovereign.  The children of those holding a peerage are considered to be nobles, but do not transfer nobility to their offspring.  The children of the heir to the peerage become enobled when their father inherits the peerage.  I've written a list of the Peerages of Greatholm but I don't really see the need to include it here.  If I ever put out a full-blown Guide to Greatholm, it'll be in there.  If you want to see it, just let me know and I'll send you a copy.

Orders of Chivalry are chartered by the Sovereign, some of whose members comprise the lowest level of nobility in Greatholm.  They are various orders of merit and knighthood which honor those who serve the crown in many different capacity.  The Most Venerable Order of Hawkshead is the highest of the chivalric orders, limited to a membership of twenty-four--The Sovereign, the Duke of Avonlea, four officers, and 18 members selected from the Peerage and Orders of Chivalry.  The Valorous Order of the Falling Star is a military order based in several castles surrounding Starfall Gorge.  Some of the higher orders (such as Hawkshead) require a noble title to join, while others allow for commoners to enter them (Falling Star is such an order).  Members of an order are not automatically ennobled, becoming nobles only when they reach the rank of Knight within the order.

PCs and Nobility
Since you have to be born into Royalty, it is highly unlikely that I will allow my PCs to be royals.  Nobility, however, can be earned and it isn't transferred to all descendants.  This makes it a bit more palatable for a PC to be the child of a Lord/Lady (a non-heir child of a peer), close to nobility, but not actually able to dispense justice by virtue of birth.  Since the Sovereign can create peerages, outstanding service to the Crown can result in the creation of a new title to be given to a PC as well.

Chivalric orders are a much better route to nobility for PCs.  I plan on creating some orders that are not as specific as the Falling Stars, which will offer a bit more flexibility to the PCs.  As they do more for that order, they can be made Knights of the order, thereby ennobling them.


As always, I welcome your feedback.

Sandbox: Here we go.

So, as part of my new year plans for actually finishing a sandbox project, I picked up Inkwell Ideas' Hexographer program and started working on my sandbox.  I made a pretty big map, but turned to a particular island to focus on.  What evolved was the island of Greatholm.

Greatholm, after a day of work.

Clearly, I still have a lot of work to do, but it's giving me some ideas for the game.  Having three cities is nice, because it gives me some versatility in character.

I used S. John Ross's Medieval Demographics Made Easy to figure out what the island has going on with it.  The capital, Whitehaven, is home to a little over 12,000 of the island kingdom's 750,000+ citizens.  The second and third cities, Ballykin and Beckby, respectively, clock in at 9900 and 8400.  With thirteen other towns floating around, as well as a few castles, it gives me a lot of opportunities for local flair and roleplaying while keeping a lot of room open for exploring and adventure!

I've got some ideas on what to do with the different parts of the island and some of it might end up on here.  What I need to do is get a group settled into a game and pick a system, though.  I can do flavor text all day long, but where the rubber meets the road is the actual game itself.

4e Rules with an OSR vibe: Is It Possible?

Since I'm going to be playing in a 4e game in a week or two and (hopefully) running a Lamentations of the Flame Princess game in the not too distant future, I'm looking at my current D&D life and wondering, "Are they TRULY incompatible?"

If there is something that seems to unify 99% of the OSR community, it's the thought that the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons is an abomination.  I certainly didn't like it when my brother shared it with me a few years ago.  It was way too video-gamy for my liking.  What caused me to give it a whirl was the simple fact that if I wanted any kind of regular game, I'd need to start joining the Colorado Springs Living Forgotten Realms games.  As I played, I gained an appreciation for the difference the edition brought.  It's not my D&D, but it's what's out there.

Reading a lot of the OSR blogs out there really helped reconnect me to what I loved about gaming back in the 80s when I started playing.  One thing that I don't share with many of my 20+ year gamers is a complete loathing for 4th Edition.  I do recognize, though, that they are vastly different games.

How incompatible ARE they?

In a GameSpy interview, Gary Gygax has this to say about 4e:

The new D&D is too rule intensive. It’s relegated the Dungeon Master to being an entertainer rather than master of the game. It’s done away with the archetypes, focused on nothing but combat and character power, lost the group cooperative aspect, bastardized the class-based system, and resembles a comic-book superheroes game more than a fantasy RPG where a player can play any alignment desired, not just lawful good.

Edit: Okay, I edited that out.  When I saw the quote, it was attributed to his opinions on 4e, not 3.5, and in my haste, I didn't look close enough at the original source interview to see that it was done about four years before 4e was released.  My bad on that one. Thanks BryanD for fact-checking where I didn't!

I picked up Matthew Finch's A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming, which seems to be a pretty good handbook for what OSR seems to be.   Looking at the four "zen moments" which define Old School D&D you've got:

• Rulings, Not Rules
• Player Skill, not Character Abilities
• Heroic, not Superhero
• Forget "Game Balance"

Understandably, Gygax and Finch park their car in the same garage.  I'm looking at the details in Finch's Primer and my 4th Edition Rulebooks and am now convinced that you can play Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition in an Old School manner.  You just won't be able to use any adventures I've seen published for 4e.  This isn't a big deal for me.  I could be wrong, but I don't think I started using modules heavily until 2nd Edition.

I am going to posit that you CAN run 4th Edition in a manner befitting Old School D&D.

How?  Well, I'm going to address each of Matthew Finch's points and explain how you can run 4e differently (but without changing the game) and capture more of an OSR feel.

Rulings, not Rules: Okay, there is no denying that 4e is rules heavy.  I touched upon it a few months ago, and I agree that 4e is a "statute law" game where OD&D is "common law."  There are certain things in 4e which are codified in the rules that used to be the purview of the DM.  Jumping across chasms, for example.  The 1st Edition Player's Handbook doesn't have any rules that I could find about how far a normal character can jump.  4th Edition covers it under the Athletics skill.  Does this mean that the rules are more important than the DM's ruling?  Not just no, but hell no.  It just means that the DM will have to make a call for less circumstances.  In fact, the architecture of the rules makes it easier for a creative DM and a creative player to do things a little different.

Again, it comes down to negotiation, JUST LIKE OLD SCHOOL D&D.  Let's look at "The Ninja Jump" example from the Primer.  Here's how it would have gone down at my table.

GM: "You're up on the ten-foot high ledge, and down below, the goblin is about to attack Frank the Cleric."
John the Roguish: "I grasp my sword, blade downward, and leap off the edge, driving the sword blade deep into the goblin's back using the weight of my body and the fall to cause tons of extra damage."
GM: "Okay, you aren't in melee contact with the goblin, so your normal powers don't apply here.  I'd actually call this a charge, since you are moving in a straight line with an attack after it.  Of course, you are also falling 10 feet.  And the goblin will have to make an Athletics check to remain standing.  Sound good?"
John: "Here we go!"
GM: "First, we resolve the attack.  Take your charge attack."
John: "Wow.  That was an epically bad roll.  Even with my bonuses an 11 vs. AC"
GM: "Not good enough.  The goblin manages to avoid your blade, but there is still the matter of 170 pounds of rogue crashing into him.  And... I rolled as awesome as you did.  He's prone.  Let's see what happens with that fall.  Okay, you fall ten feet, so you take... 4 points of damage and are prone.  Make your acrobatics check.
John: "14.  No damage."

It's all fun & games until a Goblin ninja jumps YOUR ass.

GM: "Okay, you're in the same square as the goblin, so move yourself out.  You and the goblin are prone.  Frank, you're up."

It's not the horror story that some people make it out to be.  The difference between OSR and 4e is simple: OSR requires DMs to make up rules, while 4e requires DMs to interpret them.  If a GM can't interpret the rules to allow players to do cool stuff, then he needs to learn the rules better or learn how to think outside the box.  If a PC feels hemmed in by the rules, then he needs to open up his imagination.  Don't blame the system, blame the players.

Player Skill, not Character Abilities:  If a puzzle becomes a bunch of die rolls, it's not really a puzzle.  It's a bunch of dice rolls.  Let's look at the Spot check debate.  It's really easy for a lazy DM to say that players can just roll Perception and find everything.  The 4e Player's Handbook describes searching as something that occurs within the squares around the PC.  So, to search a room, the players are going to have to move around and describe their searches, coupled with some Skill checks.  The ten foot pole?  An item bonus on Perception checks in certain circumstances.

Heroic, not Superhero:  Okay, sure, 1st-level characters in 4e are far more survivable than OSR 1st-levels.  I still don't quite consider them superhuman, though.  The Warlord I made for my upcoming 4e campaign is a half-elf who basically has a knack for inspiring his fellow adventurers through his battlefield vision and sheer arrogance.  Standing behind them in battle, he targets enemies with his longbow, helping his friends fighting in melee bring down the opponents while exhorting them on to greatness.  There is nothing superheroic about anything a 1st-level character can do in 4e.  Sure, he's no farmer with a pitchfork, but that's kind of the point of the game, isn't it?

Forget "Game Balance":  That's easy.  Throw out the modules.  Most OSR DMs do that anyway.  Sure, the rules have these carefully balanced formulas which determine what kind of monsters you should fight at whatever level.  I can't say I ever followed the 1e monster stocking tables, either.

It's funny.  I grew up immersed in two things: D&D and Punk Rock.  You here people talk about the new bands and how much they suck compared to the old school.  What people don't realize is that there was JUST AS MUCH CRAP back in the 70s and 80s as there is today.

It isn't hard to run 4th Edition with an old-school edge.  It isn't hard to write a 4e sandbox.  All you have to do is think for yourself and move beyond a hard and fast adherence to every word written in a rulebook.  You take the framework of a system and inject YOUR vision into it.  Creative players and a creative DM will be able to make magic happen regardless of what version of a game you are playing.

I issue this challenge to anyone who feels that they can't have an old-school game using the 4th Edition rules:  Work out a time where I can run you through a game.  I can even take an old module and adapt it.  After we are done, you still might not like the game (No matter what anyone says, it's a new game with an old name), but I am certain you will realize that the biggest problem with 4th Edition isn't 4th Edition, it's crappy people and crappy adventures.  When good people surround themselves with good people, a good game will result.  Don't let "them" tell you how to play 4th Edition.  Play it your way!

After all, isn't that what punk rock is all about?

What It Is: D&D 4e Red Box

Hope everyone had a happy holiday.  I can't report any gaming finds, but my fiancee DID get me a beer making kit.  In about a month (I have a few more things to pick up before I can begin), I should be trying out my first stout.  I'm very excited.

My biggest complaint? No Bargle or Aleena.

One of the things I got for Mrs. Higgipedia this year was the new D&D 4e Red Box.  While I am realizing my heart is with the older versions of D&D, I do enjoy aspects of 4th Edition.  I've found that it is a more balanced and egalitarian system than previous editions.  All races and classes can generally contribute in equal amounts at all levels.  Still, the home game I am trying to organize (if you are in the Stroudsburg, PA area and interested, drop me a line.  You can reach me by email or through the Facebook page on the right column of the page.) is going to be based on Lamentations of the Flame Princess, with some house rules.  I don't hate 4e the way a lot of OSR aficionados do,

That said, a mutual friend of the future missus and I is starting up a game next month and we're using 4th Edition.  Mrs. Higgipedia hadn't played D&D since 2nd Edition so I knew I had to give her an idea of the differences between the editions.  Looking around the internet, it seemed that Wizards' new Red Box would be a great fit for my needs.  So, it was one of her presents.

We were in a hotel on Long Island over the holidays and we broke out the box and gave it a whirl.  We played through the tutorial once, with Mrs. Higgipedia making for herself a nifty little Human Rogue.  We decided we'd run through the tutorial a few other times, so she could see what other characters she can make (most of my books are still in storage) and get a better idea of the gameplay.  There is a lot to unlearn and relearn when you are making the jump from 2e to 4e after fifteen years of not playing.

The box itself is a great homage to the set that got a lot of us into the hobby.  If you go back to my very first post, you'll see why I love the game so much.  When you open it, there is a lot similar and a lot dissimilar.  The Player's Book, the DM's Book, and dice are what I remember from my old Red Box.  The new one comes with cards, tokens, and maps (all reflections of the much more map-oriented version of the game as it exists now).  One of the things I don't like about the new game is the filler piece that keeps the books at a slightly more aesthetically pleasing angle, but takes up a lot of room.  I'd prefer a smaller box than filler.  It makes me feel like I am getting ripped off.

For the most part, the tutorial in the Player's book gives you the very basic tools you need to understand the game, adding concepts as needed (Just like the Moldvay Red Box).  It's a very simple two part adventure which illustrates the concepts you'll need to understand.  You get to create a human/elf/dwarf/halfling fighter/cleric/rogue/wizard and go to town on some goblins.  Very basic, very simple.  It then encourages you to gather some friends and have them try the tutorial and start a game.  With this, I am convinced that despite Hasbro and WOTC being these large corporate entities, there are still those in the industry on their end who remember what it was like to grab some friends and play a new game in one of the basements.  The Red Box is a throwback to that.

When all is said and done, your opinions of the Red Box are your opinions of the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons.  If you hate 4e, you'll hate the Red Box.  If you like it, you will appreciate that it is one of the few games out there that is written with the customer who has no preexisting context for table top roleplaying in mind.  The only other game I've bought in a long time that does more than a cursory job at this is Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

I am glad I bought the Red Box for Mrs. Higgipedia and she seems to be glad as well.  As always, I welcome your thoughts on the product.  Just please be a little more constructive than "Fourth Edition Sucks."