Conquerors and Kings, part 2 - Tiny Realms

I made a recent post pointing out and trying to resolve some parts of the domain and realm rules that I found confusing. I could have saved myself some effort by digging through the Autarch forums before instead of after writing the post. Such is life.

I am still going to write several posts exploring the domain game prior to level 9 because I find something compelling in game play that interacts with the broader game world instead of treating that play as some sort of "end game" campaign focus change.

Domains and Realms

For our purposes, a domain is an area of land that has been cleared of monsters and secured with a stronghold. According to the published rules, domains can be as small as one square mile or as big as 16 six mile hexes, approximately 500 square miles. The average domain is 1 six mile hex, about 32 square miles. 

Realms are defined by the rules as composed of multiple domains. The rules further list the smallest realm as a barony, though it shows the number of domains in a barony as one, a seeming contradiction.

Alex Macris, the primary designer of ACKS, stated in several different posts on the Autarch forums a couple of things that shed light on this conundrum. First, he posted that an early draft of the rules drilled into the barony size realms with rules for knight level domains smaller than 1 six mile hex. He also stated, in a different post I believe, that he changed his rules design to an expected domain size of one regional, 6 mile, hex; so a barony is the base domain assumption.

Population Assumptions

Alex wrote two blog posts, here and here, about his underlying math for domain and realm population. Based on the economic output and subsistence costs for agrarian populations, Alex uses an assumption of 21 families per square mile, or 105 people per square mile. The stated base assumption for overall realm populations is 50 people per square mile. [Note: I believe, but am not completely certain from my reading, that this is supposed to be exclusive of urban settlements.] 

I feel, for my game, that the most interesting way to represent this population is through sets of manors, or latifundia if you want a classical feel, each with about 21 families. That would mean an average barony with 160 families would have 8 manors of 20 or so families each. These 8 manors would be spread over 16 square miles, which coincides with the Revenue by Realm table.

My light, hobby-oriented research on manors shows that a "typical" manor is 1,000 acres or more composed of croplands, common areas (pasture land, deer parks, and such) and support areas (administrative centers, temples, and so forth). Again, this fits in pretty solidly with Alex's assumptions of 21 families per square mile. I think it is safe to assume that between 40 and 50% of a manor would be cropland.

Land Value and Population Density

When I started down this rabbit hole of what an exploded view of a 6 mile hex should look like, I created a spreadsheet that tied land value to population density. At first blush this seemed intuitive; the more economic output you could get from a particular piece of land the more peasants you can attract and support on that land, right? Maybe, but the more I read on various historical models of land ownership and how that affected agrarian land usage the more I become convinced that population density is actually a factor of land ownership and degree of centralization of governmental authority, at least within the limited range of normal values ACKS uses to generate land value (3d3 gp/family).

This entire exploration of domains, realms, population density, and land value started from a fairly simple question I asked myself while creating some regional maps for my campaign. "Should every hex in a multiple hex domain have the same land value?" When I mentally stumbled over the notion that a "serpentine" domain composed of a line of 16 six mile hexes stretching nearly 100 miles would have a uniform land value; I fell into the rabbit hole of what is the right level of economic and population detail for a domain. My ultimate conclusion: I am going to split the most import 6 mile hexes in my campaigns into local hex maps with hexes 1 1/2 miles across to mirror the scale from the 24 mile campaign hex to the 6 mile regional hex. This gives me local maps with hexes of about 2 square miles (about 1250 acres) which is a good size to use for a manor.

Finally, to answer the question that started all of this; no, every hex in a multiple hex domain should not have the same land value.

Here's how I've decided to handle it in my games. If the primary terrain type of a domain hex matches the primary terrain type of the stronghold hex, I'll use the stronghold hexes land value adjusted by d3 - d3. For any domain hexes where the primary terrain is different than the stronghold hex, I'll roll a new 3d3 land value. Manors will start with a land value that matches the regional hexes land value. In a later article I will add some house rules that will expand on the upkeep and investment rules to allow for land value changes over time.

Harn Manor

Inspired by +Rob Conley I bought some Harn products that arrived yesterday. I'm still traditionalist enough that I vastly prefer hardcopy products to pdfs so I purchased them directly from Columbia Games through their online store. Following Rob's advice I picked up Harn World; and because I have been digging into domains and population density rules for ACKS, I also picked up the interesting looking Harn Manor.

I had some qualms when I ordered the products that they came unbound and 2-hole punched. I've tried this format in the past and durability of the pages has been an issue for me. When they books (can I call them books when they are unbound?) arrived I was surprised and pleased and the weight and finish of the paper stock used. I don't expect durability to be an issue with the production quality of the books. Columbia prices the Harn product line as a premium product and the attention to physical quality reflects that.

I spent several hours last night reading Harn Manor, and I expect to spent a few more tonight; I may be hooked. In my gaming circles, Harn garnered a certain amount of awed respect and derision. The level of detail, as described to us by the guy who owned it, left us simultaneously gob-smacked and pitying for gamers just trying too hard. About the same reaction we had to Advanced Squad Leader, the detail was admirable but we suspected it might not turn out to be that much fun. The reality of digging into Harn Manor left with me with about the same reaction; with one more layer, fascination.

I will never use the entire set of manor generation rules in any of my games, its just too much detail for what I want. But, reading all that juicy, juicy detail and mining it for ideas and as inspiration for a level of zoomed-in-focus sandbox building that goes beyond my usual "here's a village to start in approach" has energized me. If you have ever had the itch to detail every single NPC in a village, no matter how insignificant, then you should own this book.

My current ruleset of choice is ACKS, mostly because I love the level of worldbuilding detail Autarch created to support mid and high level game play. But +Alexander Macris made a deliberate design choice to zoom into the regional hex level (6 mile hex) and avoid any further detail. I would like to include play at the lowest level of landed nobility which means dealing with fees and manors. I had begun outlining an approach I wanted to take for adding this detail to my ACKS campaign but Harn Manor is going to help me get there faster.

Even when the detail goes to a level that feels a bit excessive to me, the presentation and writing is always clear and enjoyable to read. There are frequent hints on how to use the information in game. If there are inaccuracies in the information relative to their stated model of medieval England I am not scholar enough to spot them. Maybe more importantly for gaming purposes, the details are plausible and internally consistent and therefore eminently gameable even if they are not "realistic" in some points.

I highly recommend this book and I can tell it is going to be one of my top go to reference sources for worldbuilding.

Conquerors and Kings

Interwoven amongst the varied demands of work projects and family life I have been slowly digesting the wonderful work that Alex Macris did with Autarch's Domains@War. The opening chapters in the campaign book on raising armies and the expanded insight of the economics of domains has been fascinating for me.

The hardcopies of D@W arrived at a serendipitous time for me. I have been spending some effort in reconciling the information on domain management in Chapter 7 (Campaigns) of the core ACKS rulebook and the world building/realm information in Chapter 10 (Secrets). In particular, I was trying to relate the rules on stronghold costs and population limits from the player's perspective in chapter 7 to the tables of "typical" realms in chapter 10. Two things in particular kept throwing me. First, the Ruler's Stronghold Value for the various realm sizes in the Revenue by Realm Type chart on page 230 and the Minimum Stronghold Value table on page 127 don't seem to line up very well. Second, this paragraph from Strongholds and Domains on page 125:

To establish a stronghold, the adventurer must first secure
an area of land, known as a domain. The minimum size of a
domain is a 1-square mile area of land. An average domain size
is a 32-square mile area of land (1 6-mile hex on a standard
wilderness map) while the maximum size of a domain is
500 square miles (1 24-mile hex on a large scale map, or 16
contiguous 6-mile hexes on a standard map).

and the population and size values for a barony from the Realms by Type table on page 229 seem a bit at odds with each other. I feel like there are some missing assumptions about character levels and progressions and expected growth and expansion of player domains across levels that are not stated but must have affected the sections I've been struggling with.

The demographics tables on page 235 only make my confusion worse.  A barony is the smallest realm type; being a realm it should have vassal domains, possibly including one controlled by a fresh level 9 fighter. But, the Maximum NPC Population by Realm Type table on page 235 says a barony will have a maximum npc level of 5 and it takes a good size county or smallish duchy to find a level 9 character. Parenthetically, the Realms by Type table says it's quite likely to have 2 baronies in a single 6-mile hex which is hard to reconcile with the quote above that says an average domain size is 1 6-mile hex. After a lot of head scratching and attempts to reverse engineer the Realms by Type and Revenue by Realm Type tables so they fit the domain rules in chapter 7, I've come to the conclusion they were never meant to.

It could be that I should just shrug it off and chalk it up to the players characters being the special beings they are and they simply do not fit into the typical world building guidelines. It's a perfectly good game answer but I don't really buy it. Alex and his cohorts spent entirely too much effort making the rest of the character rules and campaign rules tie together in nice internally consistent structures. I think the real answer to my dilemma is contained in the aforementioned unstated assumptions around changes in the domain game as characters level.

There are a couple snippets in the rules that may point me to the correct assumptions. The rule about minimum domain size being 1 square mile and the XP from Domain and Mercantile Income table on page 146 strongly imply to me that domain rulership can and should be explored before reaching the class levels that allow for the building of strongholds and attraction of followers.

At 9th level (Warlord), a fighter can, assuming enough gold is at hand, build a castle and become a great leader of men, taking a 0th level mercenaries and 1d6 fighters of 1st-3rd level will come to apply for jobs and training.

This class power description seems to read that a fighter earns the right to build a castle at 9th level. I think it is really supposed to say that a 9th level fighter attracts a body of mercenaries but a castle is required first.  The difference might be hair-splitting (or self evident to you, gentle reader) but when combined with the XP from Domain and Mercantile Income it says to me that the domain game can start at whatever level the PC can acquire the resources to start clearing and building. By the time they reach 9th level a fighter should already have a domain spanning a full 6 mile hex or more and be thinking about how to use those attracted followers to claim a broader realm with vassal domains.

I have participated in discussions of the domain game that assume that it starts at level 9 or name level, an assumption supported by the usual interpretation of the class power (and ones like it for other classes) that I quoted above. What I could not find in the domain and strongholds rules in chapter 7 was any level requirement for owning a domain or stronghold only a level requirement for attracting the followers that automatically come with a domain and stronghold. What I did find is a class power at level 5 for the various fighter type classes that gives them a leadership bonus when leading mercenaries and henchmen. This rule from page 49 defines the difference between henchmen and mercenaries:

Henchmen are typically  very loyal and are willing to take reasonable risks; in particular, they are the only sort of hireling who will generally accompany an adventurer into a dungeon, lair, or ruin. Mercenaries are hired soldiers, and will guard, patrol, and otherwise serve in wilderness settings, but only as part of a larger force, not an adventuring party.

Since by definition mercenaries are not suitable for the typical adventuring use, the fighter receiving a morale boosting ability for leading mercenaries implies to me that fighters (and their PC cohorts) are expected to start participating in battles, clearing wilderness terrain of threats, and guarding property. All of which are standard components of the domain game. [edit: nDervish on the Autarch forums pointed out a rules section on page 134 that explicitly states that characters below 9th level can gain possession of stronghold and would start interacting with the domain rules, without the benefit of followers. That section is a bit smaller than the four paragraphs and two rules quotes I took to back into that rule.]

Between the leadership ability many classes get at 5th level, the very small minimum domain size, and the ability to gain XP for domain income at any level, I conclude that levels 5 - 8 are the true beginning of the Conqueror tier of play. By level 9 PCs should already by planning or possibly already have achieved some degree of realm rulership and have entered the King tier of play. But is it really feasible for  a 5th level fighter to clear a small domain, say one or two square miles, and build a suitable stronghold to start attracting peasant families?

The answer to that will be explored in a companion article as this one has already grown to an unwieldy size.

Flavors of Spellcaster

Sometimes I am struck by ideas that seem to be floating in the currents of my little corner of the gaming community. Today I was reading an interesting blog post from the always thought provoking +Wayne Rossi and his notion of spellcasters with powers rather than traditional D&D spell use crashed into a post from +Rachel Ghoul on a Sorceror class design for ACKS.

One of the things I really like about Rachel's sorceror class is the addition of powers granted by the sorceror's bloodline. The single approach to arcane spell casting of vancian spells seems to work against the intent of the sorceror as an instinctive caster of magic inherited through fantastic descent. Wayne's post really brought home to me that what I wanted from a sorceror was a class with more frequent use of a limited number of inherent powers.

Don't get me wrong, I like the traditional vancian caster. I think it models a caster of a hermetic tradition really well. It's tropes of material components as manifestations of the laws of sympathy and contagion (I'm a big fan of the deCamp and Pratt Harold Shea stories) feel satisfying to me. I also want other flavors of spellcasters in my games; ones that represent other mythic and literary traditions. 

Background -- Jotun Tribelands

I always come back from GaryCon with a renewed sense of purpose to get more gaming in and to create some adventures to run at the next con. The demands of work and family tend to distract me from my resolve as the year progresses (as shown by my post history). Apparently I need to attend more cons.

So with my rekindled resolve, here's some background on the area I am going to concentrate on for my campaign setting and adventures, The Jotun Tribelands.

The Tribelands lay in the area between the north shore of the Sea of Strife and the southern foothills of the Jural Mountains with the heaviest population concentrated in the Barysthenes river valley. The chief cities are Chersonesus at the outflow of the Barysthenes into the Sea of Strife and Bas-Morheath which lies in the great bend of the Barysthenes.

Historical Background

In the years before the Dread Goddess led her people to the shores of the Sea of Strife, a small  kingdom, Taurica, arose along the banks of the Barysthenes River. The Tauri were a semi-nomadic people who lived primarily on raiding and plunder. The Tauri were also noted builders of Kurgans. They had two notable permanent cities, Chersonesus and Symbolon. Chersonesus was located at the outflow of the Barysthenes and was a noted haven for pirates raiding the Sea of Strife. Symbolon was located about 150 miles north at a bend of the Barysthenes.

When the Cyrenes began their encroachment into the basin of the Sea of Strife they were held back for a time by the ferocity of the Tauri; but the Tauri were not loved by their neighbors (and frequent victims) among the cities of the Sea Kings and in their last campaign aid was refused them and Symbolon was lost and the remnants of the Tauri scattered.

After the death of the Fell Empress the Cyrene Empire began to dissolve into petty satrapies and isolated garrisons with a few families huddled near the walls for protection. In the former kingdom of Taurica the descendants of the Tauri waged a guerrilla war against the remaining Cyrene nobility and bureaucrats who were attempting to carve a new kingdom out of the remains of the empire. To their lasting regret, the Tauri were successful in destroying what remained of the Cyrene power structures and Barysthenes valley settled into barbarism and tribalism. Into this relative power vacuum arrived the migrating Jotun and Vargr people. Their alliance was not numerous but was well organized and they quickly assumed the mantle of rulership in the Barysthenes valley and in the surrounding highlands.

The Jotun make no claim of Kingship in the valley, though they built a city, Bar-Morheath, on the site of destroyed Symbolon. This lack of overt ambition on the part of the Jotuns is probably what allows the uneasy peace between the remnants of the Tauri and the Jotuns; for the dream of lost Taurica lives on in the hearts of many of the Tauri.

The Varg Hunter

So the holidays are long over and to a certain extent my work projects are lightening up, so here I am trying to get back into the swing and habit of working on my campaign setting and this blog.

In an earlier post I outlined a new race, the Varg, who were created an age ago by Cloud Giant wizards to use as troops in the Kin Wars.

Now I present for you entertainment and comment the first racial class for the varg, the Varg Hunter. The hunters serve much the same purpose in the Jotan Tribelands that rangers do in the classic AD&D rules. They guard the boundaries against incursions of chaos, particularly the humanoid races.

Please let me know what you think.

A long silence

For those of you so gracious as to follow my mumblings on this blog, thank you so much and I apologize for my long silence. I have a large project at my day job that launches this weekend and I've been quite buried in pre-launch activities.

Still I wanted to take a few minutes to clear my head and post something to this blog before I get completely out of the habit of posting. If all goes well on Saturday then I will actually get back to posting about the sandbox I've been working on (and what the blog is ostensibly about).

In the meantime, more from the September 30 Day Challenge that everyone hoped was dead.

Favorite non magic item?

The war dog. I've lost track of the number of war hounds I have bought and lost over the years and from many characters. Cheaper in the long run then henchman and they never ask for a share of the treasure.

A character you want to play in the future?

I would like to play a viking flavored paladin of Tyr. Old school lawful good of course but with a distinctly viking code take on the lawful side of things. Luck and skill in battle were important qualifiers of leadership and rulership in norse lands so lawful vikings have to respect the concept of might makes right. No blood eagles though, that was Odin's thing.

30 Day Challenge - Day 25

Well, I have now officially missed the 30 days of September challenge; but I'm going to persevere and finish it. Probably before we hit the 30 days of November.

Favorite Magic Item?

This one is easy for me. I had a ruggedly handsome dwarf character once. A master smith and fell hand in battle with hammer or axe. Then one day his stout band of brothers found a Deck of Many Things, and not just any garden variety Deck of Many Things; this deck had the complete major and minor arcana.

Since we had a complete deck of cards, he challenged his comrades to a game of Dwarven Suicide Poker, a game that can only be played with a complete Deck of Many Things. As the name of the game would suggest the game ended in tears. Many major curses (and one artifact) were scattered through the players.

As for my character, well he was changed. While trying to fill an inside straight he was turned into a 6' tall, golden haired, golden eyed "human" with white feathery wings. And so was born the Angel of the Lord, Meshugganah.

30 day Challenge - Day 24

Favorite Energy Type?

This is another of those questions that feels rooted in WoTC versions of D&D. I don't remember talking about energy types in my first 20 years of D&D gaming.

Still, a challenge is a challenge so I will say my favorite energy type is raw sexual magnetism. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out how to implement that at your gaming table (or if you should). Almost certainly involves Succubi.

30 Day Challenge - Day 23

Least Favorite Monster?

I should have included this question with the omnibus monster post. I personally feel like the hall of infamy of really stupid or silly (not in the fun way) monsters is entirely too large to point at one inhabitant and say, "that one is the worst of the worse." However, I will point out one monster book as earning my particular dislike in nearly its entirety, I loathe the original Fiend Folio. I still simmer at the thought of having actually spent money for that drech.

New Playable Race - Varger

The Varger

During the Kin Wars, powerful casters among the giants created a number of living weapons and servant races. The Varger, bred from the great mountain wolves and giant stock were living weapons used to hunt down the creations of their masters enemies. Eventually the Kin Wars ended for lack of living Giantkin to continue the fighting. The Varger and their allies the Jotun migrated southward seeking friendlier climes.

The Varger are large demi-humans standing 6 1/2' to 7' tall on average. Their hair is thick and the color is typically silver, white or gray with streaks of tawny mixed in. Most Varger have icy blue eyes though some few individuals have amber or golden eyes. The Varger are uncomfortable with domesticated animals and will very rarely own any.

Varger Custom Classes

The varger were created by lawful giants to hunt the beastmen creations of chaos. Though the giants are nearly extinct the varger continue to hunt the forces of chaos wherever they find them. After the kin wars the varger settled in the lands of the northwestern shores of the Sea of Strife. There they have become an important bulwark protecting the rich cities of the Sea Kings from incursions of hostile races from the west. In return, the Sea Kings trade with the varger on generous terms, particularly the trade in arms and armour.

Varger character classes are created using the varger racial category and experience points. Requirements, class category values, hit points per level after 9th, and experience point progressions are modified as noted below.

Requirements

All varger classes require a minimum Constitution of 9 or better.

Class Category Values

Fighting: Varger will never willingly restrict their run speed or encumber themselves with heavy armours. Regardless of points spent in the fighting category varger classes are restricted to the narrow armour selection, leather armour or lighter and shields. Varger classes that have a Fighting Value that would normally have the broad or unrestricted armour selections still receive the benefit from the Fighting Value Trade-Offs table (Player's Companion, page 79); one of the custom powers from this benefit must be Wolf's Quickness (see below)

Thievery: Any build points allocated to the Thievery Value stack with build points allocated to the Varger value for purposes of determining the classes choice of thievery skills. Varger can taking Tracking (same as the Tracking proficiency) as a thievery skill.

Varger Value

Value	Varger	XP Cost
4	Varger + 4 racial powers + 10 thievery skills	1350
3	Varger + 3 racial powers + 7 thievery skills	950
2	Varger + 2 racial powers + 3 thievery skills	650
1	Varger + 1 racial power + 2 thievery skills	450
0	Varger	250

When building a varger custom class assign between 0 and 4 build points to the class's Varger Value. At Varger 0, all varger gain the following four varger custom powers:

• Animal Reflexes: The character gains a +1 bonus on surprise rolls and initiative rolls. This does not provide a bonus to casting spells. While Animal Reflexes is similar to taking the Combat Reflexes proficiency selected as a custom power, for game balance purposes, consider Animal Reflexes a separate power at let it stack with Combat Reflexes.
• Infravison: Varger have the superior night vision of their wolfish ancestry granting them Infravison to 60'.
• Run with the Pack: Varger are swift and tireless runners. The character does not need to rest every 6 turns. He can force march for one day without penalty, plus one day for each point of Constitution bonus. The character's base movement speed is increased by 30' when wearing leather or lighter armour. The custom power can stack with the Running proficiency.
• Varger Tongues: All varger speak four bonus languages: Giant, Gnoll, Goblin, and Wolf.
• 
  

Additional points allocated to the Varger Value stack with points allocated to the Thievery Value for purposes of thievery skills, strongholds, and magic item usability. Use the combined values, up to a maximum of 4 points, to determine the number of thievery skills received, varger racial powers are treated as custom powers traded for from the thievery skills available. 

EXAMPLE: A varger custom class has Hit Dice 1, Fighting Value 2, Thievery Value 1, and Varger Value 2. Adding the effective Thievery Values together (1 + 2) yields 3. The class has an effective Thievery Value of 3. The class would have 8 thievery skills to choose; 10 skills from the Thievery Value of 3 less the 2 varger racial powers. The class will also get access to any magic items usable by either fighters or thieves since both have an effective value of 2 or better.

Varger 1: A Varger Value of 1 gives the class the Smoke on the Wind (see below) racial power. The class will have a number of thievery skills appropriate for their effective Thievery Value less 1 for the racial power.

Varger 2: In addition to the power above, a Varger Value of 2 grants the Alertness (Player's Companion, page 93) custom power. The class will have a number of thievery skills appropriate for their effective Thievery Value less 2 for the racial powers.

Varger 3: A Varger Value of 3 gives the benefits of Varger Value 2 plus the racial power I Can Smell Your Fear (see below). The class will have a number of thievery skills appropriate for their effective Thievery Value less 3 for the racial powers.

Varger 4: A Varger Value of 4 gives all of the abilities of Varger Value 3 plus the racial power Wolf Hide (see below). The class will have a number of thievery skills appropriate for their effective Thievery Value less 3 for the racial powers. The class will have 11 thievery skills to choose from in addition to the racial powers.

Experience Point Progression After 8th Level

Varger increase the amount of experience required to gain each level after 8th by 30,000XP.

Wolf's Quickness: Works as Blade Dancing (Player's Companion page 93). Given a different name for flavor.

Smoke on the Wind: Varger move with the natural grace and stealth of a wolf. Opponents suffer a -1 penalty on Surprise rolls when encountering the character.

I Can Smell Your Fear: The character always knows the exact reaction result (Hostile, Unfriendly, etc.) of creatures he interacts with, even if the creatures attempt to lie or conceal their reactions. Creatures with Charisma greater than the character's Wisdom are immune to this power; and the character will know it.

Wolf Hide: The character has a base AC of 1 instead of 0.

30 Day Challenge - The Monsters

I always intended to combine some of the favorite monster posts. They are kind of repetitive so putting them together made sense from the outset. It is, therefore, just happy coincidence that combining all of them into one post will, mostly, get me current with the 30 day challenge.

Favorite Undead?

The original ghoul, a perfect blend of scary as hell to face and always beatable by even a low level party. Love them.

Favorite Aberration?

This is a category I've always dipped into sparingly. A bit of weird and exotic spice to mix in with the humanoids and dungeon vermin. My favorite is the Aboleth and his minions but the lead is slight.

Favorite Animal/Vermin?

I'm going to answer this as a two-parter. I like bears because they are big, scary and random in their actions in real life and they have always made for interesting encounters in my experience. As serious threats but not automatically belligerent my players tend to be divided in their preferred approach making for some fun gaming sessions. 

My favorite vermin is the creepy and scary Carrion Crawler. Climbs walls, move quietly, paralyses you with nasty poison tentacles, whats not to love?

Favorite Immortal/Outsider?

First, I hate the term outsider but then I'm not really a fan of the great wheel cosmology from AD&D and I despise the iterations that came later for Planescape and the abortion that was the 3.x Manual of the Planes. 

Rant aside, give me the Balor/Balrog/Type VI demon. I like demons in general but the professor was right on with the being of shadow and flame. 

Favorite Elemental/Plant?

Another twofer, I'm going to call this a tie between the Salamander and the Treant (since I'm not publishing this I call fair use on Prof. Tolkien's copyright). Classics of myth and literature both and scary in battle.

Favorite Humanoid et al?

Excluding the playable races since they were covered in a previous challenge day, I will go with Ogres. Like the ghoul they have a good balance of scary through many levels of play and yet beatable by a low level party. They are a walking gut check and encourager of non-combat solutions.

Favorite Dragon?

I've used them all, but tip of the blog pen to the Red Dragon. Nothing says classic dragon like breathing fire.

Favorite Monster Overall?

Far and away with no real competition, Humans. Smart, unpredictable and capable of the most brutal acts imaginable. Nothing inspires fear like a high level human opponent.

If you lasted this far thanks for reading the omnibus monster post. Tomorrow I will start down the home stretch of the challenge. Ta for now.

30 Day Challenge - Day 13 & 14

I was doing so well at keeping current with this. Ah well.

Favorite Trap/Puzzle?

I'm going back to the original killer dungeon for this one. The Sphere of Annihilation in the demon's mouth from Tomb of Horrors. It should just be a dick-move trap except there all the clues in the world in the dungeon that its a really bad trap and even a modicum of careful play will keep the players from losing more than part of their 10' pole on this trap. Still, I've run it twice back in the day and played through it once on the receiving end and every single time someone talked themselves into putting a body part through the mouth, even acknowledging that all of the clues pointed to a bad result just before putting a body part through the mouth, classic.

Favorite NPC?

It probably says something about my skill as a DM that after 35 years of gaming, mostly behind the screen, that I really don't have an NPC that stands out in my mind as a favorite. I always try to keep the focus on the player characters and NPCs are largely a means to an end in my sessions, whether that end is information, equipment, McGuffins, or just some comic relief. 

I guess my favorite NPC archetype is the sympathetic villain. That villain who thwarts or works against the players at every turn but there is something about the villain that the players (at least some of them) can't help but respond positively too. There was the twin sister of one player character who embraced the dark prophecy that the siblings were born under and worked to bring about its fruition against her brother who was fighting against it, despite the fact that it would lead to her death. There was the leader of an order of Paladins who constantly worked against a player character paladin because doctrine demanded it and he just wouldn't accept the paladin's word that she had received a vision that was guiding her. I can't really call either of them favorites, I can't even remember their names anymore, but it's definitely an NPC type I go back to time and time again. 

30 Day Challenge - Day 12

Favorite dungeon type/location?

I am a big fan of the castle/small fortified village as a dungeon location. Probably dating back to the Moathouse from the Village of Hommlet. There is something about the combination of open area and small outbuildings and towers that appeals to me. 

Background - Jotun Tribelands

Far north of the Sea of Strife giants formed the earliest kingdoms. Giants don't make comfortable neighbors, even for other giants, and warfare among the various giant kindred was constant. During this long struggle sorcerors and shaman among the kindred began breeding new peoples by magically combining part of their own essence with that of various other creatures. Thus were born the beastmen, orcs, ogres, gnolls and the various goblin kin; servants of chaos all. These same breeding programs also gave rise to the Vargr, created to hunt the chaos beastmen, and the nearly human Jotun; both servants of law. 

All of the created people breed much faster than the giant-kin that created them and soon the skirmishes between chaotic giants and lawful giants were being almost entirely fought by their created servants. But the giants had made a mistake by including a portion of their own essence in the created people. As their numbers grew they began to chafe at the yoke of their giant masters. Their is no love to be found between the beastmen and the Jotun and Vargr; but a day came when their hatred of their masters burned hotter then their hatred for their longtime foes.

At the battle of Sigissmund's Fjord the servants people on both sides turned on the giant commanders. The subsequent rebellion was swift and bloody. Nearly all of the giant-kin were slain and of the various servant races perhaps one in five survived the destruction. The land was ravaged by the great magical forces unleashed by the giants in their desperate fight against their own creations. The remaining giant kin scattered to the mountains and remote places to hide and slowly regather their strength. 

The Jotun and Vargr moved south along the valley of the River Vol and eventually settled along the north east shores of the sea and along the Vol River, forming the Jotun Tribelands. The restrictive trade practices of the Sea Kings are hardly burdensome to a people long enslaved; and, so far, the various Jotun and Vargr Tribes live happily under the influence of the Sea Kings.

30 Day Challenge - Day 11

Favorite Adventure you have run?

I'm going to limit myself to published adventures for today's challenge to spare you all my gaming fiction if I tried to describe one of my own adventures.

I am a big fan of Gary Gygax's giant series of modules (G1 - G3) and my favorite of the three is the middle one, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. The module I have used the most often and in some form or another for pretty much every group I've ever DM'd for is Mike Carr's B-1 In Search of the Unknown. 

B-1 was an invaluable teaching tool for a new DM and has a very well designed map for classic dungeon exploration play. I also had the chance to play Fight in the Skies with Mike Carr at GaryCon V last March and Mike is just one hell of a nice guy and a great game designer. 

Background Cyrene Kingdoms

300 years ago in the far east beyond the headwaters of the Tiphrates River, the Dread Empress Cyrene forged a realm that reached the shores of the Sea of Strife. Her armies, inspired by equal measures of fear, love and lust for their Empress, held the lands in her name for 250 years. She was finally destroyed two generations ago by the greatest hero of his age, Rostam.

For some years following her death, the priests of her cult as Empress and Goddess were able to hold the empire together. Beset by dreams of power from the inside and the destabilizing influence of the Sea Kings, the once dread empire has dissolved into a patchwork of petty kingdoms and independent fiefdoms. The cult of Cyrene is still prevalent in the lands where she once ruled and the priests whisper into the ears of every kinglet and nobleman the dreams of reforging the empire and ruling it again in Cyrene's name.

Through trade, bribery and espionage the Sea Kings have been successful in keeping the various ambitious rulers at one another's throats. It is a risky game they play, the constant strife may create a ruler strong enough to subdue his neighbors and sweep across the region.

30 Day Challenge - Day 10

Craziest thing that happened that you saw?

So many funny, silly, over the top and awesome things have I seen. I think I will have to give this one to my friend Tom Kroupa. In a long running DragonQuest campaign Tom was playing Sarvik, a member of the College of Black Magics (Witch to you and me). Our party was on a mission to find an artifact, The Cloak of Command, that was believed to be capable of turning the tide of battle for our beleaguered home kingdom that was beset by a ruthless and stronger neighboring despot. We were beginning to get somewhat desperate in our quest has we had already been in search of the cloak for several months and were currently deep in the enemy kingdoms holdings.

We finally found our objective in a ruined temple deep in a swamp guarded by an insane, and insanely powerful, priest. The fight with the priest was long and difficult and nearly cost us several party members. While the party was catching its breath and healing our severely wounded comrades, Sarvik grabbed the cloak and put it on. The members of the party still on their feet reached for their weapons and ordered Sarvik to take of the cloak. That's when Sarvik showed us the power of the cloak. He ordered us to surrender. Compelled by the artifact level enchantment we threw our weapons at his feet and surrendered.

We quickly and loudly pointed out to him that our surrender wasn't getting him out of the swamp. 

Sarvik drew the cloak around himself and ordered us to "Serve me for the rest of your lives".  

Then Sarvik and the rest of us learned about the drawbacks of this particular artifact. A wearer of the cloak was allowed one and only one command. The party began to make gleeful plans for the horrible things we were going to do to Sarvik once we freed our selves from the magically induced surrender. 

That was when Tom played the card that turned the whole situation into crazy and awesome. He had learned a spell that had a very low chance of success, less than 10% cast chance in the current situation, and a better than 50/50 chance of backfiring and going horribly wrong for him. Knowing that he had nothing left to lose since he had squandered his one use of the cloak, Sarvik cast the spell. Tom rolled an 01 on percentile dice (a critical success in DragonQuest) and great shadowy bat wings unfurled from his back and he flew away from us at great speed never to be seen again.

Ordinarily, we would have taken Tom out back and hit him a few times for being a douchebag; but his exit was so awesome and the series of events were such an emotional rollercoaster that we had to congratulate him for his epic moment.  

30 Day Challenge - Day 8 and 9

These seem like related questions so I'm going to answer them in one post.

Favorite Character Played?

This is a tough one. I've played dozens of characters that I enjoyed but there are two that I just can't pick between. So you get not one but two descriptions of someone else's character. I'll try to be brief.

Jason of Dimart was a fighter that I played for nearly three years in an amazing campaign. In the course of his career he won many accolades and eagerly spent his loot on improving his social standing. When he was knighted for services to the crown he spent a fortune on new armor and regalia to fit his new station. When asked to help the crown against the actions of pirates, he bought and outfitted a war cruiser.

While on a diplomatic mission for his King he killed a man who impugned his wife's honor. He embraced the resulting outlawing and dual classed into Thief and eventually made the switch to Druid and became a 1ed. Bard. The only character I've ever played long enough to accomplish that feat.

Aemilie Medani d'Medani AKA Captain Bellamy was a 4ed Warlord modeled after the classic Pirate Queens of 18th century. For nearly a year of sessions everyone in her party was convinced that Bellamy was a male half-elf pirate who had lost his ship to a rival. The look on everyone's face when she was revealed as a female scion of the Eberron House Medani is a memory that still makes me smile to this day.

Favorite Character Not Played?

I'm going to have to depart from D&D for this one. The life-path based character generation system for classic Traveller was a really fun mini-game in own right. After having a couple of characters die during character generation, I finally had a character survive his career rolls and finish with a small free trader. Alas, the campaign itself was never played. I still regret not getting to actually play Traveller.

30 Day Challenge - Day 7

Favorite Edition?

This one seems to be an incitement to the kind of edition warring that led me to flee EnWorld. So let me preface my answer with a little background disclaimer. I have been playing D&D since 1978. In those 35 years I have played every edition ever printed and I have played all of them with pleasure for at least a couple of years each.

That said, my favorite edition is Gary's own Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. In a lot of ways I consider all of the OSR games that take the LBBs or Holmes or Moldvay/Cook or Mentzer editions and add something of their own to them as siblings of 1e AD&D. I love to pick and choose and grab the good stuff from any of them and in a lot of ways I really consider them all the same version. Not unlike the way we use to pick and choose what we were going to include in our campaigns from Unearthed Arcana or Judges Guild material or Arduin or Dragon articles.

These days I run Adventurer Conqueror King with a few bits pulled from AD&D.