Building Fantasy Worlds in Five Easy Steps

Building Fantasy Worlds in Five Easy Steps

World building can be fun for some, a trial for others and a pain in the ass for everyone else. The idea is simple: put together a memorable environment in which to place adventures. The reality is much worse: try to take an established rule system and concoct out of it a coherent fantasy land that doesn’t necessarily feel like a kitchen-sink smorgasbord. How to go about doing it?!?

Some time back I stumbled across a random setting generator for GURPS, the basic premise of which was quite simple: the generator will take any two or three GURPS setting books, randomly determined, and with that info your job is to mash them together into a single, coherent setting. This could lead to some fun and weird results. (i.e. Weird War II + Dinosaurs + Autoduel = Instant Setting Gold!)

Fantasy RPGs can have a similar theme. Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder and others have one thing in common: lots of race and class options. By limiting what races or classes are available in your setting, you can move your campaign away from “Kitchen Sink Fantasy Land” and into “focused concept fantasy land.” Sometimes less is more. The charts I provide below are intentionally obscure about specific systems, however. For games like Tunnels & Trolls and Legend this is not much of an issue, but for D&D or Pathfinder you may need to match up the closest iconic race or class as appropriate.

As a side note, if you are running a retro Spelljammer campaign or are eyeballing Distant Worlds for Pathfinder, these charts could help spice up a fantasy space traveller’s journey.

So ultimately, the charts below don't so much let you avoid the kitchen-sink fantasy world so much as embrace the concept and then mix it up a bit. A true smorgasbord, if you will.

For fun, make these decisions randomly! Here are five charts that, if you start rolling, will lead you to a set of base rules around which you can build your entire world and environment. Enjoy!

Step 1. Character Races (2D20):
What sentient species are available as player races? Roll 1D8+1 times on the following chart for an average spread, or either roll 2D10 times for a diverse world or 1D4+1 times for a simple world. Alternatively, assume a mono-racial world for purposes of what players can choose rom. You can always assume human is one of the race options and then roll the difference for the remainder. For each race you roll, make three more checks:

Randomized Spread (D20): 1-10 normal (1D8+1), 11-15 diverse (2D10), 16-18 simple (1D4+1),19-20 monoracial (1).
Humanocentric? (50%): On 50 or less the campaign is humanocentric.
Frequency (1D6): This is the “rarity” of that race in the setting, from 1 (almost unique) to 6 (ubiquitous). For a humanocentric campaign humans are always ranked 6.
Variability (50% chance each; then roll 1D6+1): This is to determine if the race is a singular, unique or otherwise distinct species all its own, or if there are multiple variants; the number indicates how many racial/cultural variants there are. Humanocentric campaigns have wide variability.
Traditional Option: If you want, you can pick the “traditional package” from dwarves, Halflings, elves and gnomes first, and then fill in the differences with additional rolls. This will skew your random setting to the conventional side of things.

Table 1: Sample Chart (Generic Fantasy Land)
2D20 Roll/Result
2 – Dwarves
3 – Halflings
4 – Elves
5 – Gnomes
6 – Goblins
7 – Orcs (and Half-Orcs)
8 – catfolk
9 – Kobolds
10 – Leprechauns
11 – Pixies
12 – Giantkin
13 – Trolls
14 – Ogres
15 – Tieflings (Demon touched)
16 – Celestial Planetouched
17 – Wolf Folk and Gnolls (1-3 wolf folk, 4-6 gnolls)
18 – Tengu
19 – Frog Folk
20 – Dragon Men
21 – Sentient Golems
22 – Lesser Demons
23 – Homunculi
24 – Doppelgangers
25 – Naga
26 – Elemental Planetouched (1D10: 1-2 fire, 3-4 water, 5-6 air, 7-8 earth, 9-10 exotic, below)
27 – Winged Elves
28 – Insect Men
29 – Robots
30 – Worm Men
31 – Grays
32 – Ratfolk
33 – Lava Men
34 – Stone Warriors
35 – Myrmidons
36 – Ghouls
37 – Revenants
38 – Shadow Men
39 – Deep Ones/Fish Men
40 – Seraphim

Exotic Elemental Subchart (1D10): 1-smoke, 2-lava, 3-sand, 4-lighting, 5-mist, 6-mud, 7-chlorine, 8-radiation, 9-plasma, 10-light

Step 2, Magic: How common is magic in this world? Is there more than one type of magical force? Roll to find out!

Table 2a: Nature of Magic:
D20/Result
1-10: Magic is common and people are used to it.
11-15: Magic is uncommon and people may fear it.
16-18: Magic is rare, and people fear and respect those few who can wield it.
19: Unique! Magic is unique and is unavailable save for specific instances or conditions.
20: Non Magical Universe! This universe operates on purely modern laws and physics. This may mean that things like planetouched creatures come from other dimensions or are aliens, and that perhaps magic in the world is actually a product of lost technology.

Table 2b Types of Magic: Roll 1D4 times below to see:
D20/Result
1-5: Classic arcane magic
6-10: divine magic from the gods
11-14: eldritch magic from the far realms
15-17: psionics
18-19: technology so advanced it looks like magic
20: “realistic” magic from the real world, in which magic is the product of reading subtle patterns and coincidences as part of a design.

Step 3, Character Types:
This is a bit trickier. Some games are full of classes (D&D, Pathfinder) and some eschew classes entirely (Legend, BRP). To make up for this, I’ll offer a range of typical class/profession types drawn from several games. To use the chart, choose one methodology as follows:

Random Determination: Roll 1D10: 1-6 average, 7-8 classic, 9-10 permissive

Option 1 (Average): Roll 2D4+4 times on the following chart and pick one appropriate title from each choice to pair with an equivalent class, profession or type in your preferred game.
Option 2 (Classic): For a focused old-school experience, Roll below but aim for only 2+1D4 classes, and you must have one of each “core” type (a cleric type, wizard type and fighter type and optionally rogue type); re-roll as needed until you have one of each.
Option 3 (Permissive): All classes on the list are permitted!

Table 3: Class/Profession Options
D20/Result
1 – Ranger/Archer
2 – Fighter/Warrior
3 – Barbarian/Berserker
4 – Warden/Nature Magic Warrior
5 – Druid/Naturalist
6 – Shaman/Spirit Mage
7 – Wizard/Sorcerer
8 – Cleric/Priest
9 – Paladin/Templar
10 – Assassin/Hunter
11 – Oracle/Prophet
12 – Witch Hunter/Inquisitor
13 – Artificer/Alchemist
14 – Thief/Rogue/Swashbuckler
15 – Spellblade/Magus/Paragon
16 – Soldier/Mercenary
17 – Commoner/Citizen
18 – Merchant/Craftsman/Expert
19 – Warlock/Witch/Hexer
20 – Captain/Nobleman/Knight/Warlord

Step 4, Cultures:
Now to determine the core culture of your campaign, and possible secondary cultures. The premise here is to determine if your fantasy world is simple or complex, and from there to determine just to what extent:

Table 4a. Campaign Cultural Complexity (D20)
D20/Result
1-10: Typical Range; Roll 2D6 on Table 4b below for a range of cultural types available in the world and table 5c for technological complexity. Two of these cultures (the first two rolled) will he dominant/primary to the campaign.
11-18: Simple Range; Roll 1D4+1 cultures from Table 4b; the first one is considered primary.
19-20: Monocultural: The campaign is dominated by or revolves entirely around a single culture shared by all (more or less). Roll once below.

Table 4b: Cultural archetypes (D20)
D20/Result
1 – Cassic fantasy medieval
2 – Colonial Expansionist region (pick randomly from one other culture for source/origin)
3 – East Indian Vedic inspired
4 – Middle-Eastern inspired
5 – Pseudo Egyptian
6 – Pseudo Greek
7 – Pseudo Roman
9 – Pseudo Viking
10 – Pseudo Japanese
12 – Psuedo Chinese
13 – Psuedo Mesoamerican
14 – Pesudo Pre-Columbian Americas
15 – Renaissance Period European Style
16 – African inspired
17 – Polynesian inspired
18 – Dystopic or Decadent Advanced Civilization (i.e. Melnibonean, Acheronian)
19 – Barbarian Culture (ala Goths, Gauls)
20 – Ancient Mesopotamian inspired

This next table dictates the average technology level of most lands; roll on this chart once for the whole world, or once per culture (you may veto any roll that sounds crazy to you, but I encourage you to think outside the box on this, too!)
Random Technological Diversity (D20): 1-15 roll once for dominant tech, with a 20% chance each culture will be different; 16-20: roll individually for each culture.

Table 4c: Technological Complexity (D20)
Dice Roll/Result
1-4: Stone Age
5-8: Bronze Age
9-12: Iron Age
13-16: Steel Age
17-19: Reinaissance Era
20: Special (Roll D6: 1-3 Steampunk, 4 Industrial Age Victorian; 5: World War I level Tech; 6: retro futuristic)

Optional Table 4d: Religion by Culture
If you want to know a bit about religion and deities in the world, roll a D20 once for each culture:
1-6: a pantheon of gods with 2D10 deities
7-10: 1D4+1 different rival religious groups vie for control of the culture
11-14: monotheistic deity dominates
15-17: spiritual/animistic worship dominates
18: a hodge podge of borrowed religions from other lands
19: A cargo cult religion dominates the land
20: A non-religious philosophy dominates the land

Step 5. Distinctive Features:
Every good fantasy world has a quirk or problem. Roll on the following table once for a single primary feature, or roll 1D4 times for a range of interesting problems:

Table 5: The Features! (D20)

1 – Evil overlord threatens to conquer the world
2 – ancient immortal fallen angel seeks to enslave the world
3 – lost powerful artifact could ignite an apocalypse in the wrong hands
4 – the dragons seek to enslave the civilized world
5 – the kingdom or civilizations of the world are on the brink of a world war
6 – the lands are just recovering from a devastating war and the artifacts of that war remain a threat
7 – massive racial animosity between cultures and or species causing conflict
8 – invaders from (Roll D6: 1-space, 2-planes, 3-another continent, 4-spirit world, 5-underworld, 6-the future, 7-the past, 8-inside the mind)
9 – Mythosesque deities threaten to awaken and (roll D6: 1-2 enslave, 3-4 possess, 5-6 destroy) everyone
10 – Ancient prophecy of doom looms nigh! Someone must stop it from happening
11 – The sacred calendar ends soon and a new magical shift will wipe out this world and begin a new one; cultures and species alike are freaking out.
12 – world either (Roll D6): 1-3 grew from the ashes of a post-apocalyptic era long ago or 4-6: is a young world newly created by the gods only a 1D10X10 centuries ago.
13 – Terrible (roll 1D10: 1-4 plagues, 5-7 curses, 8-10 diseases) wrack the lands
14 – A plague of monsters threatens all (1D6: 1-vampires, 2-zombies, 3-werewolves, 4-roll on the Table 1 chart; 5-demons, 6-dragons)
15 – this is a desert world, with very little water
16 – this is a water world, with very little land
17 – This is an arboreal world, dominated by forests
18 – this is a cold world, in the middle of an ice age
19 – Fickle gods toy with man on a regular basis while waging their cosmic wars
20 – Regardless of how common it is, magic is feared and dangerous (Roll D10: 1-2 magic causes corruption; 3-4 magic is culturally prohibited; 5-6 magic is granted by dark gods; 7-8 magic is granted by demons; 9-10 magic slowly destroys those who use it)

And now you are done! Here’s a few sample settings I’ve rolled up from this chart:

Cytaria, Land of the Vast Ocean

Races of the Land: Humans (Freq 6, Var special), ghouls (Freq 4, Var 6), orcs (Fre 3, Var 1), ogres (Freq 4, Var 0), and pixies (Freq 1 Var 2); the land is humanocentric

Magic: Magic is Uncommon and people fear it. Magic comes in three flavors: divine, eldritch and psionic

Character Types: Permissive…all classes/types are permitted!

Cultural Complexity: only two principle cultures (simple) with a world tech average of iron age; one is a pseudo Chinese(iron age tech, dominated by 2 religions) and the other a pseudo Roman analog (renaissance era tech, animistic religion).

Features: This is a water world, and the current cultures survived a post-apocalyptic era.

Introduction to Cytaria:

This ancient water world was once a paradise for the races of the world, among whom man has always been dominant. An ancient apocalypse devastated the old world, and sank the great continents leaving only a chain of islands along which most of the surviving people live. Two dominant cultures persevered through this ancient event, the proud imperial kingdom of Artorios with its proud faith in the spirits of nature, and their eastern rivals, the Ken’Lan Empire, torn apart by war between two dissident religious factions. Artorios today is a kingdom on the cusp of a great renaissance in trade, discovery and science, while Ken’Lan remains held back by traditionalism and cultural moors, still focused heavily on iron age advancements.

Magic is not common throughout Cytaria, and most commoners are fearful and suspicious of those who learn the art. There are many breeds of sorcerer in the land, but all practice magic granted by the gods, magic stolen from the demons of the Far Realms or the inner magic of the Ken’Lan, a psionic magic taken from the spirit within.

Cytaria’s lands are dominated by humans, but aside from humanity there are many survivor races of old, including the rare pixies from the fey realms, and the more numerous orcs, ogres and ghouls. There are many breeds of ghoul by region, the seelie and unseelie pixies, the tall black orcs and the shorter green orcs, and the less variant ogres.

The Lands of Gazadon

Races of the Land: Gnolls (Freq 2 Var 6), Insect Men (Freq 5 Var 0), Doppelgangers (Freq 2 Var 0), humans (Freq 4 Var 0), lesser demons (Freq 1 Var 5), ratfolk (Freq 3 Var 3), stone warriors (Freq 2, Var 1), and ogres (Freq 5 Var 0)

Magic: Magic is common and people are used to it. There are only two “arts” of magic, being tradsitional arcane casting and the darker eldritch arts.

Character Types: (classic array) Assassin, Shaman, Thief, Alchemist, Druid, Knight

Cultural Complexity: typical complexity, world average tech renaissance level; Greek-like (2 religions), Mesopotamian-like (4 religions), Chinese-like (stone age and 4 religions) and Viking (monotheistic)!

Features: Terrible curses and diseases wrack the lands. A plague of planetouched elementals (lighting men) are overrunning the land! Mythosesque deities threaten to awaken and enslave all.

Introduction to Gazadon

Gazadon is a rough place to live. Humans are not a majority in Gazadon, and they’re not even as common as the Sulari Insect Men who rule over them! Indeed, the ogre barbarians of the wilderness are more numerous in this lands than humans.

The world of Gazadon is dominated by eight races, including the dog headed gnoll men who come in many breeds, the mysterious doppelgangers that masquerade among other societies and races, humanity itself which is the singular race of dusky skinned me descended from a lost empire that fell to the invading Sulari, the lesser demons of the Na’quar, the prodigious ratfolk and their sea kingdoms, and the enigmatic stone warriors of Aravosk, relics of a forgotten era.

Magic is ubiquitous and everyone can learn it with some ease; even slaves are allowed to learn some magic, albeit not battle magic. All magic comes from learning the basics of arcane energy, but some mages seek more powerful magic through eldritch studies of the cosmic gods of old.

Adventurers in this land belong to one of the six great professions, the assassins, shamans, thieves, alchemists, druids and knights. In this land, the role of shaman and druid is blended with the qualities of both mage and priest, but alchemists are considered true students of magic.

The world at large is at a level of renaissance level technology thanks to the Sulari Empire, which dominates from its city-states in a sort of early republic ruled by the insect men and their human slaves. The arid desert kingdoms of Chathwa are a splinter branch of unified sulari and humans with some ogres and Na’quar demons in their ranks. The distant lands of Amasa’tenaru are still in an idyllic stone age but here men, ratfolk, ogres and gnolls exist free of Sulari domination. Last but far from least the arboreal kingdoms of the barbaric and Viking-like ogres of Nojnasar stand ever-ready to overwhelm the Sulari and bring down the gates of their empire. The Nojnasar worship the All Father deity Ramnos, whom they revere as the sole deity, unlike all other lands that worship multiple gods and pantheons.

Amidst all this chaos there are numerous threats to the land that arise all the time. A mysterious wasting disease spreads throughout the empire like it is unstoppable, and there are rumors that the desert kingdom of Chathwa labors under a mysterious curse. The eldritch alchemists of the land are determined to steal the secrets of the ancient star gods, but greater numbers of cultists pledge themselves to the awesome and dark power of these beings, to call them down from the sky. Elsewhere, across the entirety of the world mysterious planar rifts open up and an invading army of elemental humanoids called the Zviq’arzen are forcing their way into the world to take over from the Sulari as the new rulers. Heroes are needed!

Walla! Instant Plot-Thick Realms for High Adventure.

Pathfinder PDFs made Tablet Friendly

Story here, but if you have Pathfinder PDFs and you've noticed how unbearably they chug on your handheld or tabelet, then this is worth investigating. I just downloaded my lite edtions of the core book, Bestiary and Gamemastery Guide and I can say that there is a noticeable difference in speed and performance although the pdf reader on the Nook still gets anrgy when I try to expand a page.

As a side note, I kind of like the cleaner, whiter pages. It looks less cluttered and actually feels easier on my eyes. Wish the print books looked like that!



Don't get too close! I'll hook ya'! You'll see!!!! I'm tellin ya' not all Fiend Folio beasts were Lava Men. Raaar!!!!!



Muh-Mor-Pee-Gee Madness: Or, What's up with this genre, anyway???

I've noticed that two genres/substrata of gaming at large that seem to engender fierce opinions and feelings, usually expressed as fact regardless of the subjective nature of such, are D&D and MMOs. I think the reason is simple: both D&D and MMOs in general require a great deal of personal investment and energy from the player to get something out of them, and both are sufficiently involved that its more or less impossible to not get a sense of personal ownership on the game. In D&D's case this leads to situations where people loudly and angrily state that their preferred edition of D&D is the ideal, almost biblical edition while the current iteration or all other iterations are heresy of the worst sort. Likewise, among MMOers I think this argument is typified by the average gamer who discovers MMOs through WoW and proceeds to harshly scrutinze all other RPGs in the context of how WoW-like (or not) they are. This is exacerbated by the old guard, who sourly blog about the good old days of Everquest, when community meant something, or Ultima Online, back when getting ganked every hour was a proud badge of honor you wore as you streaked to your (probably looted) gravesite.

So I preface what I am about to say with the above observations, because I'm about to do a bit of the same with Star Wars: The Old Republic. I've played this off and on now for (according to Raptr) about 50 hours. I've not gotten past level 15, but I have five characters running coterminously. Altitis, the term is. So I haven't even set foot in a starship yet that I then piloted, and I have yet to successfully tackle the first real multiplayer instance (the one on the fleet, where you have two options to get to Coruscant: go to the cityworld on shuttle A unmolested, or get on shuttle B for a serious Imperial Arse Kicking). Shuttle B make my poor Republic Trooper's bum hurt, every time.

But as I said, I've played for about 50 hours now. That's more than most single player games ever demand. And yet, I feel like I've barely done anything. Hmmmm.

So, my observations!

1. Huge ass corridors. Everywhere. And running. Endless, endless running. All MMOs require running, sure. All MMOs eventually give you mounts, but it feels like a good progression. Star Wars litters the landscsape with speederbikes and land speeders....they're everywhere, and you can't use any of them. What the hell. People complain that the game emulates WoW too much in terms of game mechanics. Well, this concept of a modern SF future in which everyone walks miles and miles to do anything...it's bat shit insane, I tell you!

SWTOR desperately needs to integrate vehicles, and not in a tiered reward fashion like WoW and other MMOs. I need a speeder bike I control from level 1, or the ability to rent/steal one.

2. So much story and yet SO LITTLE STORY. This hit me last night, while jumping between my bounty hunter, who at last escaped the Nooblet zone, and my freshly minted sith warrior, who promptly got lost multiple times in the confusing tombs of Corriban. There's not actually as much story going on as it might seem. Maybe the republic trooper section confused me (that has a bit of story and a decent continuity) but at some point I realized that most of these quests with voice over were starting to feel really inane. I imagine the same thing would happen in WoW or Tera if instead of getting a quest text box I got a fully interactive speech/conversation path. Then again, Age of Conan did this and I usually enjoyed the interaction a bit. But then, Age of Conan made no bones about player morality (or amorality, as the case may be). Unlike Star Wars, which leads me to...

3. I want to be evil but my buddy won't let me. The morality system is being tempered by the damned henchmen. I didn't notice this until I moved over to the dark side/imperial sith component of the game, because its generally pretty easy on the Republic side to just go, "Hey, I'm a good guy, and I'm going to make good choices." So when you make a bad, dark-side-point choice in the Republic side you'll be all, "whoa, that wasn't cool" and try to avoid making that decision in the future. 

Now, I tend to be a bit more involved when I play RPGs, in that I have a hard time playing the bad guy because for whatever reason I have a difficult time separating my personal moral compass as a human being from the virtual moral compass of my character. So for me, I like as GM to set up really evil characters because I know they will eventually get taken down by the PCs, or at least motivate the PCs (in theory) to excel at becoming good to stop the baddies. But as a player at best I play mildly amoral types with a heart of gold. So for me, I decided that after learning how to play a really bad, bad wastelander in my fourth Fallout 3 playthrough that I'd try to play a genuinely evil Sith or bounty hunter (or both, as it worked out) in SWTOR.

Not so with the dark side, as it turns out! You have plenty of dark side choices, yes. But you have mutliple problems, and its a subtlety that I am reasonably sure the writers of Bioware intended: you can often get rewarded with light side points for doing what is clearly regarded as the right thing even by Imperial standards. This is an interesting situation, because it means that being a good sith isn't the same as being a good imperial, apparently. Also, you get a naggy companion character, at least on the bounty hunter side, who frowns upon you if you get all evil and dark-sidey with her watching.

I tried to play my bounty hunter as utterly inimical and evil...a person who takes the first bounty and follows through, no matter the counter offer, no matter how often she is shown that the path she's being paid to follow is actually paved with babies and kittens being trod under her jackboots, and I have this whiny camp follower with me who ruins it every time by either disparagingly questioning my ethics or glowering while I rack up negative points with her friend-o-meter. Jeez!

Anyway, it was at this point that, rather weirdly, I realized that downside of fully voiced speech for a character that I supposedly had personal ownership on. My bounty hunter wasn't really MY bounty hunter, because if she was, I'd have shot the whiny henchman I was saddled with and also that big stupid hutt, then taken their stuff. Instead, I was one of three bounty hunters that Bioware allowed for: the "heart of gold bad guy secretly yearning to do good," the "neutral planet bad guy with no real opinions," and the "I am in ur houz eatin yur kittens" bounty hunter who liked having a whiny goody two shoes camp follower along only because it allows for a shocking contrast. Hmmmm.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that the game is good and thought provoking but damnit I still can't for the life of me figure out why I keep getting drowsy and start falling asleep while playing. What the hell????

Rift, to its credit, is standing up as my favorite MMORPG now, and is looking to have some serious legs. If I have to cut back, and I may, I'll stick with Rift. I think I can play that one for the long haul.

Bizarre Plot Arcs: The Gateways Beyond

In an ongoing series in which I occasionally post some notes on the stranger plot threads I worked up (and sometimes even used), I offer you....an alternate story arc for the paragon plot for the 4E campaign that I was running up through last year.

Mark (alias Stondar), I don't think you read my blog, but if you do stop reading, everything below is a spoiler for you! Even though you guys pursued an entirely different storyline set in the Xorian Wilderness, the plot bits below are still revealing.

The rest of the world will wonder who and what all these beings are in the plot below (the stuff that isn't tied to Planescape/Sigil, anyway). The characters and plots tie to the region of Therias in the Realms of Chirak (described within that mighty tome, as well). All of the key figures, including Khaelos, Morrigan, Aspylion, Thaldyron and Thalion are ancient spirits, survivors of the apocalypse who served as the generals of the fallen gods; they each tried to steal divinity and found it forever out of their grasp, and so now they each play mortals as pawns, to manipulate them into harnessing the divine energy found within the "etheric pools" which are said to have been formed from the blood of the god Gerigos.

Anyway, the important detail is I have something to blog about which is already written. Also, keep in mind this was intended as a story arc for 4E, demonstrating that no edition is immune to overly complex and mythic story arcs, if you are but willing to push it to the limit, one more time.

The Gateways Beyond: Paragon Level Planar Campaign Arc

Premise

   Khaelos the Bold has sought refuge in the city of Sigil, where he knows that his more powerful brethren among the Spirit Lords can not find him. He has divided his essence equally between his astral self and the corporeal form of a shadow rat, and uses this to masquerade his quasi-divinity from the Lady of Pain.

   Khaelos needs a way to return to Therias that will insure the Spirit Lords can’t once again imprison him. To this end he has conspired to discover some means in the outer planes by which he may return, warded against their spells of imprisonment. Attached to his champion Stondar, he has insured that the dwarf did not return home like his companions, and is now working day and night to find clues as to how he may insure his own freedom.

   Some weeks in the City of Doors are spent with constant searching and toiling as the Shadow Rat form works through agents to study ancient tomes and lost librams of lore, seeking out some clue as to how to reverse his fate and return home, triumphant. He stumbles across something unexpected, a vague reference to an ancient word of power, the fabled Code of the Tetragrammatron. With this word of power, Kaelos could achieve true divinity in the planes….and perhaps even reawaken the soul of Ga’Thon once more.

   To get the ball rolling, the rat hires an astral corsair named Zernadas (an eladrin rogue) and his ship, the Eternal Night to begin the journey. Ostensibly the purpose of the trip, made manifest by the shade-patron (created by Khaelos’s magics) Garnagas the Wise (a tiefling scholar), is to travel to a remote Astral Dominion known as Naelandras. There, it is said the ancient Nurimites dwelt in eternal splendor, a race born out of the magnificence of the creation of the First World. Garnagas contends he is a scholar who wishes to study the ancient ruins of this grand race, but the truth is that Khaelos thinks the ruins hold the key to uncovering the Code of the Tetragrammatron.

The Plot of Baelisko

    Meanwhile, the rogue githyanki overlord Serathys has unexpectedly entered the fray. The spirit lord Baelisko is, like Khaelos, a thousandspawn, but unlike Khaelos he long ago managed to subdue his innate compulsion to carry out the will of Ga’Thon. Baelisko hires Serathys and his small fleet of githyanki vessels to carry him through the astral sea, to seek out Khaelos and stop him once and for all.

    Elsewhere, four of the Spirit Lords have determined that Khaelos has escaped, and Morrigan, Aspylion, Thaldyron and Thalion have assembled to determine how to bring Khaelos back from the planes and imprison him once more. They have sought out the services of a small company of mercenary angels, the Steel Wings of Kharyldor, led by the ancient general Metaron to find Khaelos and his crew and return them.

   Amidst all of this, there is a fourth entity involved in the matter: an unstoppable sorcerer turned in to pure energy, contained within ancient armor, called the Herald of the Sleeping Dark.  Surrounded by fanatical cultists who seem to follow mindlessly, suffused with potent chaos magic, this seems to be some sort of entity being manipulated by or in service to the beings of the Far Realm, and it too seems interested in Khaelos’s discovery.

Secrets:

1. The Code of Tetragtrammatron exists, and a clue can indeed be found at Naelandras. Indeed, it may even appear that the code was what destroyed that ancient civilization. The evidence points towards the last of the race’s kind fleeing to a realm beyond even the Far Realm, to a domain of an entity known as Ea…alias Io.*

2. Io has the secret of the code but protects it, for the code can unmake all of existence if it is revealed. It is not so much a prescription for godhood as a key to unraveling existence and then remaking it in the image of the code-reader. Only a “Blank Slate,” a being of pure a priori existence with no imprinting of this universe upon its mind could read the code safely. An innocent being, essentially.

3. The Herald of the Sleeping Dark** represents an unnamed Far Realm entity (in this case the being called Yaggath), one of the so-called Star Gods that seeks to burst forth in to the mortal realm and unmake existence.

4. Most lesser beings can’t even begin to contain the power of the Code. Most will simply be extinguished and then absorbed by it; only true gods can even have a chance of surviving an attempt to read it. Khaelos believes he has a chance, if he can use his shard of the chaos stone to imbue his mind with sufficient divine force.

So this plot never took off, due mainly to the fact that I wanted to keep the campaign centered on Chirak proper and not cavort off into the planes. Mark has noticed that when my campaigns migrate into the planar realms (Planescape style or otherwise) they tend to stall and return later as reboots, so I realized this could have to do with the fact that I simply wasn't as interested in planar adventures as I thought, and so I scratched the tale above and went with something a bit more...prime material.

*Io, alias Ea, continues to exist in a sort of spiritual form at the edge of the known universe, beyond even the Far Realm. This is one of those "big reveals." Especially if you are dragonborn.

**The Herald of the Sleepind Dark demonstrates how I get a theme/name concept in mind and if I don't use it when I intend to it eventually morphs into something I do (ala the Temple of the Whispering Dark).

Sunday train of thought derailed, film at 11

So its a lazy Sunday and the first Mother's Day for my wife. Yay! Marcus is being good....he's in the "learning to crawl" stage at almost 6 months, which I am led to believe is pretty decent. He's got the crawling backwards part down to a science, but he's still working on forward momentum that carries him more than a foot before face-planting. But he's very determined little kid, which is an excellent sign!

Marcus using the "move forward an inch then fall forward a foot" travel method

I was thinking about the whole Kickstarter phenomenon, when it occured to me that maybe now that Steve Jackson Games has pulled off a staggeringly successful Ogre Deluxe Anniversary Edition kickstarter, maybe they will experiment with some GURPS book hardcovers in the future (like, say, a print edition of the Dungeon Fantasy series). I'd throw some coin into a kickstarter like that.

Troll Lord Games has a kickstarter going, too, for a 5th printing of Castles & Crusades Player's Handbook with new cover art (not much changing internally though....maybe some errata, I guess?). I'm temped to do this but I've hardly gotten proper use out of my current C&C books; I might be swayed to contribute to an edition that included an optional and flexy skill system that worked like 2E proficiencies did, but I susepct that's a tall order to ask of C&C, let alone the OSR crowd in general which seems to have an allergy to skill systems. Anyway the CKG has some nice (albeit not ideal) solutions to skills.

So I want to run C&C more, but Pathfinder has a Vader-like force grip on all of my cohorts in gaming locally. Convinving them to to anything else is like trying to sway Luke to the dark side (Anakin was a pushover, of course). Speaking of which...

So my Saturday night group got a funny sort of reboot. I proposed that we pause the high level game for a change of pace (we were losing regular players and the last session we didn't even end up playing...it was quite a tragedy). Part of the reason (imo) is that as is inevitably the case the quirky and outrageous nature of high level D&D/Pathfinder gaming caught up to the fact that my scenario designs and campaigns tend to be optimally built around a level 1-10 power scale. When characters start hitting level 13-14, its hard not to feel a sort of sea change creep into play, one in which PCs can walk through most combats effortlessly, and a challenging encounter either means a painful slog as the foes are optimized to mitigate the skills and spells of the PCs, or potentially so deadly that the threat inevitably comes from who gets initiative first. When I as GM find myself experiencing each fight from two angles, being, "how can I make this challenging in a meaningful way?" or the other side of the coin, "ouch, how do I dumb or scale down the opposition a bit so that we don't see a level 14 TPK?" then I know its time to take a break again. Some players like that ridiculously high level of play.....and I used to, in 1st and 2nd edition, but it is an unpleasant book-keeping/balance clusterbomb of an experience in 3rd edition systems. It also reminds me that 4E fixed a lot of the issues with 3rd edition high level gaming (albeit at the expense of introducing new problems).

So the new game is exciting, starting at level 2 and I have returned everyone to the Realms of Chirak, in the new territory of Eredoth, first new Chirak game since late last year. I'm looking forward to where it goes, but I do think I'm once again wearing out my interest in 3.5/Pathfinder.

Actually, I'd love to try something more exotic like Legends of Anglerre, or AGE System, see how those systems work, experience something different. 4E for me, at least, was a different and new experience....and I can honestly say I don't feel I've exhausted its potential.

Snip! Edited to remove grumpy old man syndrome from infecting my blog...

Holdin' on to Black Metal

Love this video. Oh, happy Saturday! Let us all rejoice in the ritual sacrifice of whole grains to the Gods of the Morning Dawn, may they stave off the inevitable zombie apocalypse just one more day.

Tales from the Watchers of the Sullen Vigil: the Naga

The Naga of Sarvaelen

Naga in Sarvaelen are an ancient race, cursed long ago with the serpentine traits that mark their lineage. Once, or so the story goes, the Naga were among the greatest of the old ones, the races that predate modern men long ago. A series of ancient tomes, most of which are now lost to history called the “Yavandreth Manuscripts” tell a bit of the ancient tale of the naga. A mostly complete  set of the four surviving tomes can be found at the Library of the Sun in the port city of Aramen, Aeronost’s southern port and capital of the so-called Stormsinger Coast province. There the lone monk Procosius maintains these books and remains the land’s foremost authority on Naga lore.
As legend goes, naga were once men, albeit of a breed of old that was naturally inclined to sorcery and spoke directly to the Old Gods, who were cast down during the Great War two centuries ago. Their ancient king was the sorcerer Kaliya, a powerful necromancer and priest of the old gods revered by his people. These four gods were said to grant great strength to the naga.

According to the Yavandreth Manuscripts, Kaliya did something to anger his gods. There are conflicting tales. One says he was to sacrifice his eldest child in honor of the gods and as a payment for his great necromantic talent, but he refrained from doing so and brought down a great curse upon his people. Another tale suggests something similar, but that it was his wife, Padmavati, could not bear to lose her child and so spirited him away before Kaliya could sacrifice the infant. Yet another tale says nothing of this curse induced by loss of sacrifice and instead suggests that the naga were formed when they sought to make a dark pact with the elder god called Dev Yama’Dragoth. Yama’Dragoth (known in later centuries only as Yama) granted the naga their wish, giving them supreme power and immortality as sorcerers, but in exchange he took their humanity, leaving only the twisted, serpentine forms naga are known for today.
Whatever their origin, naga appear to be half men and half serpent, often with strongly reptilian facial features and sometimes the wide, decorative “hoods” of a cobra enveloping their head and neck. Naga are fearsome to behold. Naga are known for their poisonous bite, also a shared feature with the cobra, and they are exceptional swimmers, albeit not aquatic, a common misconception among humans since the only known kingdom of the naga is to be found on the Isle of Stoneblight, where the naga city of Nagapuram can be found.

Nagapuram is an impressive, ancient city located on an expansive island about two hundred miles off the Stormsinger Coast in the Pavain Sea. The naga call the island Manak’tagar, and  defend it vigorously from outsiders; one must seek a benefactor to vouch for a foreigner who seeks to visit the island and it’s amazing city of ancient monuments. Stories of travelers, diplomats and merchants indicate that there are ten thousand naga within the city and probably three times as many slaves, usually of humans from the south eastern kingdom of Sammar, which does not normally disturb the citizens of Aeronost who have frequently had to deal with hostile pirates from that distant land.

The island itself is ruled by the so called Living Goddess who goes by the name of Padmavati, the mythical first queen of the naga. Whether she styles herself a descendent or a reincarnation of this first naga queen is unknown, but she does believe she is a demigoddess, imbued with the powers of the current naga patron deity, Manasa.

The naga are a potent force locally, and the diplomats of Aeronost have sought to keep them as allies rather than enemies. Still, the naga are so feared that the often do as they will, and treat much of the Stormsinger Coast as their own domain. This has often led to unfortunate bloody conflicts between the soldiers and naval forces charged with protecting the dominion of the Pavain Sea and the forces of Nagapuram.

In the region of Aelghast, there is a small community of about one hundred naga who have taken up residence in the subterranean caverns around a sacred hot spring that they call Uk’halat. The hot spring has been turned into a shrine dedicated to the seven-headed serpent god called Agharda, said to have devoured the original four naga gods of old and absorbed their essence. It is believed by this remote group of exiles that the seven heads of Agharda represent the seven kingdoms of the naga, spread throughout the world, and that worshipping this deity will reunite the naga into a powerful force that will resume the mantle of rule again.

This worship of the seven-headed god is regarded as heresy by the Living Goddess Padmavati, as it was only a century ago that the cult of Agharda was embraced by her people. This period led to a vicious war with the distant eastern empire of Kadatha, and nearly led to the destruction of the naga kingdom. As a result of this conflict Agharda’s worshippers were forced into exile lest they be hung for heresy. This branch near Aeronost follows the fanatical priest Yazzad Sydaris, and call their unique sects the “Sons of Sydaris” or simply Sydarites. They believe that Sydaris has a unique ability to channel the thoughts and speech of Agharda.

Because the naga are so ubiquitous throughout Sarvaelen’s lands, the appearance of one is not regarded with fear or suspicion save in the most remote regions of Aereonost and the other kingdoms along the Pavain Sea. As such, a naga character is certainly a possibility in play.

Naga Statistics for BRP

STR 3D6, CON 3D6, SIZ 2D6+6, DEX 3D6, INT 2D6+6, APP 3D6, POW 2D6+6 EDU 3D6

Armor: naga scales provide 1 point (or 1D2) of natural armor.

Movement: Naga move at a speed of 10 meters and swim at a speed of 16 meters.
Attacks: Constriction (1D6+DB) or Bite (1D3+DB plus poison); Naga poison is Potency 15 vs. CON;  inducing paralysis for 1D6X10 minutes in the target (this effect strikes in 1D6 rounds); if a target is bitten more than once in that period each successive strike deals 1D6 damage directly and reduces DEX permanently by 1 until all HP damage is healed. Naga can only bite once before they must regenerate more poison; this takes 1D6 hours before the poison sacs in their cheeks are refilled.

Swimming: Naga base swimming score is 80%.

Naga Character Statistics for Legend

STR 3D6, CON 3D6, SIZ 2D6+6, DEX 3D6, INT 2D6+6, CHA 3D6, POW 2D6+6

Hit Locations: use the same hit location chart as lamia (MoL); tails have the same HP as legs.

Armor: naga scales provide 1 point of natural armor.

Movement: Naga move at a speed of 10 meters and swim at a speed of 16 meters.
Attacks: Constriction (1D6+DB) or Bite (1D3+DB plus poison); Naga poison is Potency 75 vs. Resilience, inducing paralysis for 1D6X10 minutes in the target (this effect strikes in 1D6 CAs); if a target is bitten more than once in that period each successive strike deals 1D3 damage directly to two random locations, and reduces DEX permanently by 1 until the damage is healed. Naga can only bite once before they must regenerate more poison; this takes 1D6 hours before the poison sacs in their cheeks are refilled.

Swimming: Naga have a base swim score equal to DEX+STR x 4.

A Typical Naga in Legend:

Average Stats: STR 11, CON 11, DEX 11, SIZ 13, INT 13, POW 13, CHA 11

Naga Hit Location Chart:
D20 Hit Location           AP        HP
1-6 Tail                             1          5
7-9 Abdomen                    1          6
10-12 Chest                      1          7
13-15 Right Arm                1          4
16-18 Left Arm                  1          4
19-20 Head                       1          5

CA: 4 Move: 10m; 16m swimming; SR: 12 Damage Bonus: +0 MP: 13

Typical Armor: 1 point natural; usually they wear leather or soft leather. Warriors wear chain and sometimes plate

Skills: Swim 88%, Evade 50%, Perception 60%, Persistence 45%, Resilience 50%, Stealth 70%

Weapon Skills: Constriction 50%, Bite 45%, one other 45% (usually spear or sword)

Weapons:
Constriction (1D6)

Bite (1D4 plus poison, see above)
Scimitar (1d8; bleed)
Short Spear (1D8+1; impale)

Naga in Tunnels & Trolls:

Naga are already in T&T, on page 27 of the 7.5 edition rulebook! If you are using an older edition, the stats are:

STR X1.5, CON X1, DEX X1, INT X2, LK X1.5, CHR X1.5, WIZ X1, SPD X1 (but double when swimming)

Naga Venom: Naga deal poison damage the first time they get spite damage in on any attack. The victim makes a save vs. CON equal to the level of the Naga or become paralyzed for 1D6X10 minutes (this sets in within 1D2 rounds). Additional spite damage is dealt as normal but deals 2 points for every spite to a paralyzed victim. Naga can only use this initial venom attack once before it must regenerate; the regeneration takes 1D6 hours.

Constriction: This naga attack deals 4 dice plus personal adds in combat. If the naga using this attack deals any damage (including spite damage) he can make a Save vs. DEX (usually equal to the target’s level, but the GM can decide) to grab and constrict an opponent. If he succeeds the naga deals its full HPT in damage to that target the next round automatically. The naga can keep the hold each round by making a STR save vs. the target’s level (or GM’s judgement) each round. If the naga critically fails a save during this process the target break free an deals it’s HPT for the round in damage against the naga instead!

Next Week: The Dragons of Sarvaelen....cthonic wyrms of the earth, the heralds of the old gods.....not your ordinary fire breathers....!

Pathfinder MMO Kickstarter

Wow, so Goblinworks, whom I hadn't heard much about recently, is now doing its own Kickstarter for the Pathfinder MMO project. The Kickstarter phenomenon, which unless you've been living under a rock* with no internet access is something you should have been hearing about by now, is apparently turning into the new cool way to suss out extra funding and support for a project while also demonstrating general interest in said project. Steve Jackson Games just recently knocked one out of the park for the new Deluxe Anniversary Ogre edition, for example, and of course there was the recent Wasteland 2 event.

I admit, I am not sold on the vision of a Pathfinder MMO as being described by Ryan Dancey and the rest on their web page....it sounds very much like an MMO in Pathfinder name only, and the idea that the Pathfinder ruleset can't translate well to the medium seems ludicrous to me, given that we have a very healthy (and entertaining) D20-system RPG out there already in the form of Dungeons & Dragons Online.

That said, the Kickstarter's barely begun and they've already almost met their base funding level (the enormously modest $50,000 sum, of which they probably can't even afford to pay a year's salary to one programmer). So presumably they're hoping for a runaway success ala Wasteland 2...

Myself, I admit that I'm having a hard time seeing how they will pull this off, still. I want them to, I think a Pathfinder MMO could be a lot of fun....but that said, they've got some stiff competition out there. This year alone has Tera and Guld Wars 2, as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic and probably the WoW expansion Mists of Pandaria looming. Admittedly those are all "here and now" and I would be surprised if we see a working Pathfinder MMO before 2015, but I still don't know how Pathfinder will distinguish itself sufficiently to gain traction in such a volatile market.

Plus, attracting Pathfinder fans is not their problem; attracting the entitlement-minded prima donnas that are the MMO crowd in general will be the real challenge. Browse through the forums at mmorpg.com sometime, and you'll see what I mean; these people will condemn a game with all the vitriol and venom they can muster if they so much think the game made them sneeze or something...!





*In which case, stop reading my blog and go watch Avengers, you rock-dwelling loon!!!!

Everway

Check out the Everwayan, a blog about my favorite amazingly dice-free freeform RPG from the nineties, Everway.

Everyway was a unique game, with a huge bounty of creative energy tied within it. The game relied on simple, intuitive relationships and grades of effect along elemental themes, cards used to tell a story and determine a personality through free association, and some excellent thematics. It's hard to explain....and much more satisfying to simply see and experience. A unique RPG, and none since have come along to compare to it. If Everway were released today, it would look like a hefty indie RPG with a staggering budget and cart blanche on artistry and design.




There's another blog post by Cave Felix that takes a walk through Everway char gen right here. Anyway...all of this brings back memories, and also makes me wonder what ever happened to my copy of the game. Hmmm......Ebay may get another visit soon....

The Avengers

I saw it. My wife saw it....can't say much more other than, "Have YOU seen it?" Because I'd hate to spoil it if you haven't!

Bullet points of amazement:

1. First comic hero genre film to get "it" right.

2. Perfect pacing in this movie. Seriously, this movie has no dull lag spots.

3. Everyone got memorable dialogue (just about) and the blend of characters and interaction was a spot-on Whedon masterpiece. I'm not a Whedon fanboy, but I can understand why some people would be.

4. It honestly makes the Dark Knight Rises trailer look a little sad and disappointing in contrast.

5. Stick around for two bonus clips, one midway through the credits and one at the end.

6. Bar for super hero films has now been set at the right level (imo). They all need to aim for and beat Avengers-level respect for the medium of comic book heroes.