Re: Creating a Campaign
Ubiquitous
n...@available.com wrote:
>I think my next campaign, whenever that happens, will be Forgotten
>Realms. Maybe a pre-made setting would work better for me.
Check out Greyhawk, the world's oldest and finest campaign setting.
>Anyway, I'd like to know what you do to create a new campaign. Do you
>make small campaigns that span only a few levels, or epic,
>long-lasting campaigns? Do you use specific setting like Forgotten
>Realms, or home-growns? How long is your typical campaign in
>developement before it goes 'live'? Thanks for the help.
I have some interesting papers on that, somewhere.
I'm bound to run into them sooner or later.
--
======================================================================
ISLAM: Winning the hearts and minds of the world, one bomb at a time.
Ubiquitous
: In article <i5asi0duajhrf8g3b...@4ax.com>,
: n...@available.com wrote:
:>Anyway, I'd like to know what you do to create a new campaign. Do you
:>make small campaigns that span only a few levels, or epic,
:>long-lasting campaigns? Do you use specific setting like Forgotten
:>Realms, or home-growns? How long is your typical campaign in
:>developement before it goes 'live'? Thanks for the help.
:
: I have some interesting papers on that, somewhere.
: I'm bound to run into them sooner or later.
I hate to post a followup to my own article, but I found it.
The article in question was written by Roger Moore for Polyhedron
and is quite extensive (issues #11 thru #126) and includes MANY examples
of campaign worlds. Unfortunately, the article is quite large (248 Kb!),
so I better email it individually, unless you don't mind me posting it
and chewing it over here...
MB
If you could post them here that'd be great. If not, let me know, and
I'll get you my address.
Dr. Rich Staats
> >Anyway, I'd like to know what you do to create a new campaign. Do you
> >make small campaigns that span only a few levels, or epic,
> >long-lasting campaigns? Do you use specific setting like Forgotten
> >Realms, or home-growns? How long is your typical campaign in
> >developement before it goes 'live'? Thanks for the help.
>
> I have some interesting papers on that, somewhere.
> I'm bound to run into them sooner or later.
There might be some helpful things to check out my WWW site on
world/campaign creation at
http://www.geocities.com/dr_games/staats2.htm
I usually think of campaign creation as either top-down or bottoms-up.
Top down is where the GM plans most everything in advance, and
bottoms-up is where the players' actions determine what gets developed
and what gets forgotten in the campaign design. (You can have
combinations of the two.)
Dr. G.
Ubiquitous
The joys and pains of original campaigns
The first AD&D campaign I ever designed by myself was great fun to make up.
It was also terrible in actual play. I have mercifully few memories of how
it ran, except that after the players' characters had encountered six types
of dragons in a single day, they quietly elected someone to suggest to me
that maybe I should not roll for encounters every hour on the hour, and
maybe I should make dragons more rare, as they were sort of special and
also very dangerous.
Seventeen years later, I am better informed on how often lethal
encounters should bedevil fantasy heroes. I've also never lost my personal
interest in creating original AD&D game worlds of my own. Some have seen
game play with welcome success, while others exist only as unorganized
collections of doodles and notes on the backs of old envelopes or index
cards.
I was looking through the "Original Campaigns" folder in the TSR Online
section of America Online some months ago, and I was pleased to see lots of
other kindred souls--gamers who had developed their own unofficial fantasy
game worlds or lands with obvious pride and excitement. This made me want
to doodle more on the backs of old envelopes, and so I did until the mess
on my work desk convinced me that it was time to do something useful with
all that idle-hours work.
That's where this column comes in. After enjoying five and a half years
of writing about science-fiction games with "The Living Galaxy" column, I
decided a change would be nice. "A World of Your Own" will look at creating
and running original AD&D campaigns. Many of the same principles previously
applied to SF games work perfectly well for fantasy (as some readers have
already told me),and some new creative Dungeon Mastering techniques can be
devised as well.
The philosophy of this column is exactly the same as the previous one:
<Creativity is a learned trait, not an innate one>. Any DM can develop
creative ways of making up exciting campaigns. All you need is a bag full
of tricks and some time and willpower to practice them. After that, you've
got the world--<your> world--by the tail.
Some World-Making Thoughts
One caveat should be pointed out. My definition of an <original> campaign
is one for which an enormous amount of development work is required of the
DM, who is free to select whatever elements he wishes for the campaign
mixture. It's been my experience that original AD&D campaigns are usually
founded upon one or more non-AD&D fantasy sources (Tolkien is always
popular), often combined with a variety of game elements from different
official AD&D campaigns. It is very rare to see a campaign made up with
little or no reference to other fantasy or science-fiction sources.
Regardless of the sources used to build it, an original campaign is
nearly always unique; no two DMs select and assemble the elements of their
worlds in the same way. For example, one popular type of original campaign
I've seen is based upon medieval Europe, with elves, dwarves, and other
fantasy elements added directly to it. Some even use actual maps of
medieval Europe. I've seen perhaps a half-dozen campaigns like this, and
not one of them was a close copy of any other.
In the course of this column, several original and <spin-off> AD&D
campaigns will be developed as examples of world assembly. A spin-off
campaign is one based upon a minor setting previously published by TSR;
often, little has been offered for it beyond a general description and a
few statistics. I like spin-off worlds because they start off with a
semi-official status with a useful bit of background to give the DM a
foundation on which to build everything else. More on this topic later.
Each installment of this column will look at elements of game-world
creation from two perspectives: that of the DM and that of the players. As
I painfully learned so long ago, the DM creating the world must <always>
consider the viewpoint of the players, whose enjoyment is the key measure
of success for a campaign. If it ain't fun, it ain't worth doing.
This divergence in viewpoint is what I once called <top-down vs.
bottom-up>. The top-down view is your own as the DM; the bottom-up view is
that of the players whose heroes experience the joys and threats of
wandering in the landscapes you create. DMs aren't normally accustomed to
the bottom-up view unless they spend some time as players
themselves--something I strongly recommend. In small groups of gamers,
however, this can be difficult; one person is usually tasked to be the DM,
and no other DM is available.
There is an excellent solution: have <multiple DMs>, operating in
round-robin style. If a gaming group has several participants who wish to
alternate between being players and DMs, everyone who wants a chance to run
an original campaign can do so. This was theset-up I remember from my
earliest days of gaming. Having multiple DMs guaranteed a high level of
involvement, originality, and interest on everyone's part.
In our case, the same group of player characters was also used in each
campaign. The group played out an adventure in one DM's campaign, then
moved on to the world of the next DM (minus the characters of DM #2, who
were replaced by the characters of DM #1). Once the gold was counted and
experience divided, PCs moved from world to world by means of secret
interplanar gates, magical spells (<astral spell>, <plane shift>), magical
devices (<cubic gate>, <well of the worlds>), psionics (Probability
Travel), artifacts, teleporter machines, meddling deities, spelljammers, or
what have you. Even PCs who had settled down and built castles liked to
come out of retirement and travel to other worlds now and then.
Obviously, potential DMs should agree among themselves as to which
"campaign-connecting" systems they will use in general. PCs can move from
world to world most easily by using the official systems outlined in the
SPELLJAMMER(R) and PLANESCAPE(R) campaigns. The Mists of Ravenloft might
also shift PCs around (with an unpleasant stopover on a Ravenloft "island"
first, of course). Anything is possible.
Having the same group of PCs active from game to game keeps a certain
level of continuity going, no matter who is the DM or which world is in
use. You could rule instead that a different set of PCs should be used for
each new game world, but this forces players to shift a lot of mental
gears, and it isn't nearly as fun as having characters who go
world-hopping. More troublesome here is the tendency I've seen in groups
which use only world-specific characters to split up after a few weeks,
dividing into two or three smaller groups of players who play in only one
world per group. The break-up inevitably occurs with some grumbling that
one DM's world is better than the others and the expected amount of hurt
feelings. You can call this process the "yugoslavification" of a gaming
group.
Of course, having the same group of PCs go from world to world also
increases the amount of "pollution" from world to world, and it lessens
each DM's ability to control the "purity" of his game world. Well, you
can't have everything. For our part, we simply got used to the pollution or
added minor physical laws to each game world that caused, for instance,
technological items to run out of power more quickly on some worlds than on
others (or to cease operating altogether). This is perfectly fine, and in
fact this very trick is used in some official worlds like the GREYHAWK(R)
campaign, where gunpowder does not work at all.
Speaking of "campaign pollution," gamers may as well know that most
official TSR game worlds have, either by deliberate plan or by accident,
acquired elements once unique to other specific worlds. A valley in the
FORGOTTEN REALMS(R) campaign holds a group of grugach elves who came over
from the GREYHAWK campaign. Spelljamming ships regularly haul trade goods
and passengers between Toril, Krynn, Oerth, and other places. Elminster,
Dalamar, and Mordenkainen exchange spells, magical items, and information
on an irregular basis, and each claims to have visited or spied upon other
worlds.
Despite all this and more, each world maintains its own identity and
resists being overwhelmed by imported materials. Your original campaign is
surely no different. The appearance of an elf in a world that has no native
elves need not disrupt life greatly; or, if it does, perhaps things will
come out for the better. It's all a question of how you, the DM, handle
things.
Adjusting the Focus
We'll assume that you and your gaming friends have decided to start a
round-robin, multiple-DM group, with each player/DM running his or her own
AD&D game world. You now need to make up <your> world.
Get a notebook, a pencil or pen, and a quiet place to think and
scribble (preferably a quiet place with easy access to your library of AD&D
supplies). You have only two questions to answer:
1. What do you want to have in your world?
2. What do you <not> want to have in your world?
What follows is actually a very tough balancing act between <narrowing>
the focus of your world, selecting items to make it unique and interesting
to your players, and <broadening> the focus to include a wide variety of
adventures, encounters, and other things of interest that will prolong and
enhance game play. The trouble is, the more things you throw out of a
world, the less flexible (and hence the less interesting) it becomes over a
long period of game play. But the more things you include, the less unique
and more generic the world becomes.
One thing that we've discovered here at TSR is that you don't need to
select or reject hundreds of things in order to make a world unique. You
should be able to put into a paragraph most or all of the major elements
that make your original campaign distinctive. Check out the following three
examples of TSR's official campaigns:
* DARK SUN(R) campaign: Desertlike world ruined ages ago by
life-consuming magic, little free water left. Survival-oriented adventures
progressing to slave revolts against city-state tyrants and attempted
renewal of world. Physically powerful characters, widespread use of
psionics, gladiatorial slaves, isolated city-states. Unique races/monsters:
half-giants, mul (half-dwarves), thri-kreen, many vicious psionic monsters.
Halflings are carnivores, maneaters; elves live in deserts; dwarves are
beardless monomaniacs. No gods. One dragon (<the> Dragon). Wizard spells up
to 10th level.
* DRAGONLANCE(R) campaign: Small multinational southern continent and
numerous islands. Marked by heroic struggles of good against evil;
characters self-motivated to take on increasingly dangerous adventures.
Emphasis on meetings, combat, or alliances with dragons of all types. No
psionics, orcs, lycanthropes; technology confined to tinker gnomes. Clerics
are a recent development. Unique races/monsters: kender, tinker gnomes,
gully dwarves (all played for humor); draconians. Minotaurs are evil but
civilized. Major empire (Solamnia), ongoing war with draconian/evil forces.
World devastated in the past by Cataclysm (directed by gods), other
Dragonwars. Wizard spells affected by world's threemoons.
* GREYHAWK campaign: Large, multinational region, part of major
continent. Pragmatic adventuring to gain personal power and riches, usually
by being hired for missions that further the employer's larger political
ends. Many famous wizards, spells, and artifacts originate here. Humans
dominate most political life. Very broad assortment of native monsters and
races, a few specific to this world (grugach, valley elves, beastmen,
crystalmist, Greyhawk dragon, etc.). Detailed underground regions (drow,
mind flayers, etc.). Ancient wars destroyed land to the west. Recent wars
left much of local region under the yoke of an evil demigod and his
humanoid armies; major evil kingdom on eastern coast has just disintegrated
into civil war; further fighting is certain. Gunpowder does not function
here; psionics does.
Each of these game worlds has one or more general themes, goals and
patterns of action that affect the style of play. Each has a unique
history, particular races and monsters, its own set of politics, and its
own tweaks on character classes and magic.
Your world is likely to have many of the same elements found in other
campaigns, but assembled in complete different ways. Perhaps you like the
idea of gunpowder technology falling into the claws of evil humanoids--a
major disaster for the forces of Good. Heroes will find themselves facing
gnoll mercenaries dressed in Renaissance European finery, using swords,
muskets, and pistols to storm and loot cities and towns. The elements here
can be found in many places in AD&D game lore, but they're assembled in a
unique way.
Hook, Line, and Sinker
A long-term original campaign, then, needs all the variety you can
stuff into it, within the restrictions you place on the world to give it
uniqueness. You cannot afford to have heroes show up at your world and
become disenchanted with its possibilities. This is disastrous. Better a
giant meteorite should hit your main continent than this. (Actually, being
hit by a giant meteorite isn't a bad idea. It did Ansalon a mountain of
good.)
Look at your world from the bottom up. Who are your players? What
characters do they have? What things does your group like to do in gaming?
What are the characters' goals and aspirations? What riches are they
yearning for? Will your world provide the group with many adventures or
just one? (Your answer had better be <many>.) What things can you put on
your world that will give those players thrill after thrill, and keep them
coming back for more?
(A special note: I'm going to ruin a future column right now by telling
you that there is one thing you can put in your game world that will, just
by itself, <absolutely, positively, nearly always> guarantee that PC heroes
will come back in droves: a bunch of dungeons. Good old-fashioned,
multiple-level, monster-and-treasure-infested dungeons. Gamers gravitate
toward dungeons faster than kender toward an open pocket. I am completely
serious. More on this in a now-ruined future column.)
There's obviously no timetable for development involved here.As soon as
one DM is ready with his new campaign world, the group can go there. It
would help to develop a small part of the new world for starters, then keep
developing your world between games. Just cross your fingers that the group
doesn't decide to wander around in the early stages to see what you've got
set up. A small dungeon is always helpful here to limit the scope of the
campaign for a short time.
Speaking of dungeons, a good fast-start adventure would be one from
DUNGEON(R) Adventures that fits your world set-up as closely as possible.
You can change the details to fit the particulars of your campaign lands
(give all gnolls arquebuses, remove all ogres and kobolds, give the
halflings batlike wings, make the giants blue, etc.). You might be able to
get away with adventure bits borrowed from other published modules, too, as
long as no one else is borrowing from the same material. Good luck.
In the next issue, we will pick out a bunch of spin-off AD&D game
worlds, ones previously published but only partially developed, and we'll
tinker with them like gnomes with an Erector set.
Ubiquitous
Just how weird can a weird world get?
In the last issue of POLYHEDRON Newszine, we talked about the creation and
refereeing of original AD&D campaign worlds. This time, let's invent two
original campaigns based on "spin-off" worlds, ones only briefly mentioned
in previous AD&D products.
Camelot--With Rings & Elves
Caroline is a big fan of the classical elements of fantasy: elves, dragons,
wizards, knights, castles, and so on. She especially likes elves, and for
weeks now she's been tinkering with an alternate AD&D campaign set on a
world largely populated by elves--with no humans at all. While thumbing
through a friend's copy of the SPELLJAMMER accessory SJR4 <Practical
Planetology>, she read about the ringed world known as Bodi, on pages
16-18. She hated the name Bodi, preferring to use Albarin, but she liked
the set-up for Bodi otherwise and quickly adopted it into her campaign
notes.
Albarin (Bodi to outsiders only!) is a small green world that was
settled by spelljamming elves 20,000 years ago. The world is almost
completely forested, with a rich and diverse ecology, and it is as close to
paradise as elves could hope for. Tragically, the elves have lost nearly
all the secrets of magic they once held. They have also lost contact with
their gods, and so have no priests among them. Tasloi and green dragons are
the only other sentient races present, both hostile to the elves and each
other.
[[Modifications]]: Caroline wants elven <kingdoms>, not tribes. Her
knowledge of Arthurian legend, especially in Chaosium's <Pendragon> game,
leads her to design an elven Camelot named Valona (an anagram of Avalon). A
powerful elven warrior wants to unite the scattered elves of his world
under his rule, to protect them fromthe savage tasloi migrating northward
from the equatorial jungles. To do this, he invents an order of knighthood,
bringing law into the lives of the elves, and orders the construction of a
hilltop castle where the elves might find safety even from dragons.
For flora and fauna, Caroline decides that at whim she can add many new
nonmagical creatures, as well as variations on standard creatures (such as
talking cats). She adds dryads to the world, but makes them naturally
invisible. Undead and goblinlike humanoids are completely unknown.
Caroline decides to disallow the use of <smoke powder> and gunpowder on
this world; it spoils the playing atmosphere of the game, so local laws of
alchemy prevent it. Also, though she dislikes psionics, she allows outside
characters to use their psionic powers; no native creatures will have them.
[[Initial Quest]]: The PCs for the Albarin campaign will come in from
another world, and might eventually leave for elsewhere and return later.
How and why will they go to Albarin? What will the PCs do when they get
there? The players dislike the long travel times involved in spelljamming,
so cross-world travel will have to be by an instantaneous magical <gate> or
spell. And the thing that will lead the group to Albarin will be . . . a
priest.
An elven goddess named Rhiannon (Caroline decides) knows about Albarin.
Many books recording the lost magical knowledge of the elves were stolen
and hidden long ago in a deep cave by a green dragon, who hoped to use
their spells. The books were believed lost forever--except by Rhiannon, who
wants them back in elven hands.
The PCs' first mission to Albarin, then, is to head down into that cave
and recover those lost texts. The books will let elven wizards of the world
gain levels according to standard AD&D rules; they were previously limited
to the 4th level after a lifetime of magical study! These books are
critical to Valona's future, and the trip to get them will be dangerous.
(The green dragon is now an undead monster similar to a FORGOTTEN REALMS
setting dracolich.)
Caroline creates a low-level elven wizard-priest who receives dreams
instructing her to gather heroes (the PCs) and proceed to a hidden glade,
where the NPC must cast a spell (<teleport without error>) from a scroll
she had previously found. The spell will carry the elf and the group to
Albarin, where the group can find Valona. After the local elves get used to
their strange visitors, the hero-king of Valona asks for the PCs' help in
finding the magical texts of legend.
Obviously, the wizard-priest is a Maguffin, a plot device used to move
the story along. The incautious NPC will eventually be lost or killed at
Caroline's whim. This forces the PCs to recover the volumes themselves,
sparing them the indignity of tagging along after a minor NPC. Before she
dies, however, the wizard-priest brings knowledge of the goddess Rhiannon
to the elves, granting them the power to become priests and further ensure
their survival.
Future adventures could include the discovery of the dryads and their
secret culture, attacks by evil spelljamming groups, quests against the
dragons, and battles with the tasloi. There might be strife among the elves
if some prefer the hunter/gatherer life or hope to set up their own
kingdoms. Other races might be present on Albarin, unknown to all but
themselves. Perhaps some dragons willeven make peace with the elves. Who
knows?
[[Players' Viewpoint]]: Caroline wants Albarin to look, smell, sound,
and feel like the most wonderful forested wilderness ever. The leaves are
greener, the sky bluer, and the water clearer than on any other world. She
emphasizes this using descriptions given to the players: "You look out over
a great green meadow, wet with morning dew and sewn with a riot of purple
and orange flowers. An armada of brilliant yellow butterflies floats above
the long grass, as silent tendrils of fog enshroud the trees."
Albarin, however, has other special characteristics drawn from the
original description of Bodi. First, its small size means the horizon
appears closer to the viewer than it would on an Earth-size world. Even if
the PCs never know Albarin's diameter (2,500 miles), they'll soon figure
out that this world is much smaller than usual.
Second and more importantly, Albarin has a ring around it, like the
rings of Saturn. Caroline sits down with paper, pencil, ruler, compass, and
her imagination to figure out what the ring will look like from different
points on Albarin's surface, at different times of the day and night, and
during different seasons.
She decides that, like Saturn's rings, Albarin's ring is tilted to the
plane of the world's orbit, and the ring faces the same direction in the
celestial sphere no matter where the world is in its orbit. At some times
of the year the ring appears brightly lit; at other times the ring is
darker, lit from behind by the sun. The elves of Valona poetically call the
ring the Skybridge, the Arch of Glory, or the Crystal Rainbow.
Experiments with a flashlight and a paper-and-rubber-ball model of
Albarin also gives Caroline ideas on the ring's appearance from the world's
surface. She goes so far as to design a calendar for the world based upon
the ring's appearance during the seasons.
Speaking of calendars, Caroline decides that Albarin has a year much
longer than Earth's--20 times longer, in fact. She keeps the day length
given for Bodi in <Practical Planetology>--18 hours--though the local elves
pay little attention to the time since they never sleep, using instead the
guidelines for <the reverie> in <The Complete Book of Elves>. Non-elves
from other worlds will find the short days and nights irritating, never
feeling they get enough sleep before the sun rises or enough accomplished
before the sun sets.
[[Resources]]: For her campaign, Caroline plans to make use of books on
Arthurian legends, the <Pendragon> game, the <GURPS Camelot> book, the AD&D
game's HR3 <Celts Campaign Sourcebook>, Robin Hood movies, notes on the
elves of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, English faerie legends, and
DRAGON(R) Magazine articles on elves (especially issue #155's article on
the elven goddess Rhiannon, modified for this campaign). The AD&D <Complete
Book of Elves> is also greatly used.
Caroline borrowed the idea of introducing true priests to Albarin from
TSR's DRAGONLANCE saga, and might later borrow ideas for running complex
green-dragon NPCs from the COUNCIL OF WYRMS(TM) boxed set or the
<Draconomicon>.
Kingdoms Under Siege
Mike and his friends like AD&D campaigns featuring warfare, combat, feats
of derring-do, powerful heroes, and outnumbered forces of Good triumphing
against brutal forces of Evil.
Mike, a long-time gamer, is starting a new campaign based upon a
spin-off world from an old, out-of-print AD&D module, Q1 <Queen of the
Demonweb Pits>. The unnamed world appeared on page 17, with five paragraphs
of text and an illustration that stuck in Mike's mind for years. (Remember
it?)
The world, which Mike later named Moraad (moh-RAHD), was one of many
being invaded by chaotic-evil monsters commanded by the evil drow-goddess
Lolth. In module Q1, the last kingdom of mountain dwarves, Maldev, is under
attack by thousands of gnolls, bugbears, and other beasts. Kandelspire, the
castle-gate to Maldev, is the point where the heroes enter the world to
challenge Lolth's armies. In Mike's campaign, however, the players can
either generate local high-level heroes or bring in PCs from other
campaigns.
[[Modifications]]: Maldev's world was so briefly described in Q1 that
Mike makes no changes to its description. He fleshes out the world
considerably, though, to support a long-term campaign there.
Moraad (as Mike works it out) is an Earth-sized world with no moons. It
has dozens of irregularly shaped seas that fill the huge valleys between
its many mountain ranges. Mountains on Moraad are spiky in appearance, very
thin and sharply pointed; mountain building occurs through the growth of
crystalline rock, not plate tectonics, with a spike mountain growing as
much as an inch every year. This "living rock" looks something like granite
and is just as strong. It makes great building material, as it stops
growing once it has been cut from the earth and polished.
Moraad has a 25-hour day, a white sun, and a purple-blue sky. The
"stars" (here called <asters>) look like small moons, each as large in the
sky as a thumbnail at arm's length. Asters drift slowly and randomly across
the sky, giving off steady light equal to a full Moon. A year here is 500
Moraadian days long.
Until 20 years ago, Moraad was like other AD&D worlds such as Oerth,
Krynn, or Toril. Then it was discovered by Lolth, who saw that the world
had a large number of gnolls, bugbears, and other chaotic-evil monsters.
She dispatched drow agents to lead those monsters against the humans and
demihumans in a great war.
All elven and most human nations have now been conquered; only a dozen
kingdoms on a large peninsula survive, thanks to a nearly impassable
mountain range cutting them off from the rest of the world. (The gnolls are
lousy sailors, so a sea invasion is not forthcoming.) Maldev is a large
dwarven kingdom sitting astride the only pass into this region, called Far
Hergis. If Maldev falls, so will Far Hergis and the rest of civilization on
Moraad.
Elves are almost unknown here; most were exterminated by Lolth's armies.
Humans, halflings, gnomes, and dwarves are common in Far Hergis, and
firbolg giant-kin are present and may be used as PCs. Rangers and paladins
are surprisingly common, thanks to the war. <Reincarnated> humans come back
as werebears (since this world's creator was a bear-god) and can be PCs. In
fact, adult bears on this world have some intelligence and can even talk.
The orcs of Moraad were the only humanoids who did not follow Lolth.
These orcs are neutral and not the enemies of dwarves,though they are
barbaric and warlike; all of their kingdoms have now been destroyed. Orcs
and half-orcs are allowed as PCs.
Psionics are allowed in this campaign though not commonly seen. Magic is
plentiful but swiftly destroyed in combat. There is no gunpowder; <smoke
powder> can be made but is rare. Spelljamming is as yet unknown, but
interplanar travel has occasionally been used by wizards and priests.
Engineering and construction skills are highly advanced, especially among
humans and dwarves. Gnolls, on the other hand, are barbaric and
short-sighted, destroying much.
[[Initial Quest]]: As players in Mike's group love playing powerful PCs,
Mike specifically designed his Moraad campaign as a high-level one, using
the guidelines set down in the <DUNGEON MASTER(R) Option: High-Level
Campaigns> book. The initial quest for heroes here is to defend Maldev and
destroy Lolth's forces at Kandelspire. Following that, the group must
locate the <gate> from which Lolth is commanding her forces, then destroy
it. (Killing Lolth is not possible; she is too powerful.) Then it is a
matter of attacking and destroying far-flung armies of evil, locating other
surviving pockets of civilization, and reconquering fallen lands.
Mike allows native PCs to be generated at 8th level, making them
refugees from lost kingdoms attempting to reach Far Hergis and make a last
stand there. To add role-playing elements, he works with native-PC players
on their families, histories, allies, enemies, abilities, and special
knowledge of the world. PCs arriving from other worlds (summoned by various
lures promising great adventure or treasure) will soon be worked into the
tapestry here as they set their own goals and find them blocked by Lolth's
forces.
[[Players' Viewpoint]]: The spike mountains, the purplish sky, the white
sun, the lack of a moon, and the asters will quickly set this world off
from all others at a quick look. More remarkable will be the shockingly
ravaged condition of the lands conquered by Lolth's forces, who have
enslaved or murdered whole populations, burned forests and fields, stolen
anything of value, and ruined everything that they couldn't cart away.
What will catch the players' attention in the long run, Mike hopes, is
the constant challenge the campaign provides. Mike plays the gnolls and
other evil beings of this world to be wickedly clever. The gnolls use
sophisticated traps, ambushes, and tactics. They throw dirt in opponents'
eyes, hurl flaming bottles of oil, use poison on their blades, fire burning
arrows into wooden towns, practice crude martial arts (punching, kicking,
wrestling), and employ minor magical items like potions or wands. It will
be a nasty, dirty campaign, but a <very> exciting one.
[[Resources]]: Mike uses many <Complete Handbooks> in his campaign,
especially those on fighters, thieves, wizards, priests, rangers, paladins,
psionics, druids, and gnomes and halflings. <The Complete Book of
Humanoids> is used for orc, half-orc, and firbolg giant-kin PCs, and for
gnoll, bugbear, and ogre NPCs. Of the DMGR series, <Monster Mythology>
provides updated details on Lolth and her cult, and <The Complete Book of
Villains> is invaluable for NPC creation. The <Tome of Magic>'s new spells
are available to the PCs, and Mike uses his four ENCYCLOPEDIA MAGICA(TM)
volumes for treasure hoards.
Far Hergis is European in nature, and Mike uses three of thegreen AD&D
Historical Reference books to describe the nations there: HR1 <Vikings>,
HR2 <Charlemagne's Paladins>, and HR3 <Celts>. Orcs are culturally like
Goths or Vandals. Firbolgs are Celtic; dwarves are Norse; halflings are
Frankish; gnomes are Bavarian. Humans are found everywhere. Mike doesn't
use the special rules for magic in the HR series; he prefers faster-moving
"normal" spellcasting. Ruins and dungeons are plentiful in Lolth's lands,
and Mike adapts modules from DUNGEON Adventures to fill the bill.
The heavy emphasis on detailed, individual combat encourages the use of
the <PLAYER'S OPTION(TM) Combat & Tactics> book. For massive battles
between armies, Mike uses the BATTLESYSTEM(R) 2nd Edition rules with
cardboard counters, played out on a tabletop or floor.
The quest to destroy Lolth's <gate> here was inspired by similar events
in the original DRAGONLANCE campaign (destroying Takhisis's <gate> at
Neraka). Gnollish dirty tricks were inspired by magazine articles on ways
to make monsters more effective ("killer kobolds").
Next month, more original campaigns--and a look at how they are pieced
together.
Ubiquitous
Dark and alien places, part 1
Creating a "home grown" AD&D campaign is really a labor of love. You do it
because you feel the creative spark and have the time and energy to give it
free rein, to build something that goes beyond the norm. However, players
often prefer the realism and security of a fantasy campaign world that
resembles medieval Western Europe (e.g., TSR's GREYHAWK or FORGOTTEN REALMS
settings); ignoring this issue may leave you with no players in your
campaign.
The two AD&D worlds designed in our last issue, Albarin and Moraad,
have fantastic qualities but are still reasonably Earthlike (perhaps I
should say "Oerthlike"). But more unusual worlds have their appeal, too.
People like the DARK SUN and Kara-Tur settings because these <are>
different and have popular elements within them, such as psionics and
powerhouse player characters, or samurai and ninja. When designing an
original AD&D setting, a DM should expand the allowable types of
characters, monsters, and adventures to broaden the campaign's appeal and
draw in players. If part of your campaign is necessarily limited, other
parts must be broad, popular, or flexible to make up for the loss of
options.
Caroline, the DM for the "elven Camelot" world of Albarin, allows a few
non-Albarin PCs to enter her campaign, but she prefers native PCs, who must
all be high elves. Luckily, high elves have many class options and can
reach fairly high levels; lots of gamers like them. Dragons, knighthood,
and high-fantasy heroism are popular, too. Caroline can accommodate both
hack-and-slash gamers and "deep end" role-players in her adventures,
encouraging the latter by working out past histories for PCs, involving PCs
in family or tribal politics, and setting up personal relationships between
PCs and NPCs. If some players feel the setting is too constrained, she lets
their PCs leave (using a magical <gate>opened when the major adventure is
completed) but always leaves the door open for their return.
Mike, the DM for the besieged world of Moraad, isn't particular about
the issue of native vs. outsider PCs. He uses Caroline's tactics to produce
deeper role-playing, but his campaign really centers around combat and
saving the world. He allows a range of PC races (more if outsiders are
counted), and the main villain is Lolth, a well-known figure who's been
around in AD&D literature for almost 20 years. The dirty tricks used by the
gnolls and other humanoids keep the players challenged and excited. Player
and their PCs can come and go as they like, using a variety of means. Best
of all, the notion of saving the world has much appeal if handled well.
In this issue and the next, two more original campaigns are briefly
detailed--ones with unearthly conditions, since neither world has sunlight
or day/night cycles! This is a major divergence from the norm, but each
world builds its appeal by using popular elements found in other AD&D
campaigns, as well as encouraging atmospheres of mystery, danger, and the
unknown.
The Dungeon Planet
Beth and Ron are fans of elves--<dark> elves, that is. They heard from a
friend at the local hobby shop that one of the old SPELLJAMMER accessories
(SJR6 <Greyspace>, pages 10-16) had a planet in it mostly peopled by drow;
thrilled, they scoured the stores until they found a copy, learning more
about this world from the old SPELLJAMMER boxed set's <Lorebook of the
Void>, pages 89-90.
Kule (a.k.a. Celene, or the Handmaiden) is the smallest and closest of
Oerth's two moons--Oerth being the homeworld of the GREYHAWK campaign. A
blue, airless globe less than 100 miles across, Kule keeps one face always
toward Oerth. Its rough, cratered surface has many ancient ruins, but below
them are extensive passages, subterranean lakes, and cavern cities
inhabited by drow, kuo-toa, mind flayers, and the like.
The 20,000 drow of Kule live in one enormous city, Urrq'azzt, built in
lava tunnels beneath an extinct volcano. The volcano's crater is filled
with air, and spelljammer docks were built on the crater floor. Vast
underground farms feed the population. Lolth is, of course, worshiped, and
a matriarchy of priests is in charge. Of the 15,000 mind flayers,
two-thirds live in one large city called Sharp Beak, which has a minor
spelljammer port; the others live in small groups nearby. Kobold slaves and
other unfortunates serve as food for the illithids. Humans and other beings
live beneath Kule, but not in great numbers.
Beth and Ron are overjoyed. Many of the players they know also love to
play drow PCs, and all the players they know love dungeons. They quickly
decide to create an all-dungeon underdark campaign for this planet and its
inhabitants--with, of course, a few changes.
[[Modifications]]: The Urrq'azzt government as detailed in <Greyspace>
is too rigid for chaotic drow, think Ron and Beth; they add some mutually
hostile family houses, each with its own political agenda; rapid
changeovers in government personnel asindividuals are "removed" or fall out
of favor; and a thick topping of personal rivalries, treachery, spying,
theft, and intrigue.
The drow of Kule are noted to be less xenophobic, violent, and
repressive than drow elsewhere. This suits the two DMs fine, as they want
to allow for neutral and good drow NPCs and PCs. Many Kule drow are still
chaotic evil, but an equal number are of other alignments, mostly chaotic.
These drow (even the evil ones) are more likely to torment or banish foes
instead of killing them. This prolongs drow PC lives while motivating them
to avoid capture, dishonor, humiliation, fines, theft, slavery, torture,
mutilation, or being cast out of their families or city.
How did these drow change? Urrq'azzt is a spelljammer port, so Ron and
Beth make it a major stopover for wildspace drow from Toril, Oerth, and
secret bases in the Grinder of Greyspace. Many drow citizens here travel
widely and have a cosmopolitan view of the multiverse. Government drow
travel much less and are more traditional (chaotic evil and intolerant) in
their views. Unpopular government decrees are thus often ignored by the
populace.
In the process of reviewing his old drow gaming materials, Ron looks at
the out-of-print AD&D module Q1 <Queen of the Demonweb Pits> and gets an
idea or two. Lolth is interested in conquering Oerth itself, among other
worlds; perhaps she means for the drow of Kule to serve this end in some
fashion, such as spare troops. (Not that most of the drow of Kule would
think much of this plan.) He files the thought away for future reference.
Even more interesting is Ron's rediscovery of the Labyrinth of Arachne,
a seemingly endless dungeon-universe in Q1, on page 16. What if, he thinks,
the Labyrinth is part of Kule's underdark? Lolth uses it to breed her
spider pets and dispose of unwanted prisoners, using her magical <gate> in
the Demonweb to reach this area. Ron now remembers something from <Lorebook
of the Void>, on page 90: "There is some speculation that dimensional links
exist between the ruins of Kule and the Oerthian underdark." It fits! Ron
will draw out maps for this region later as the campaign expands.
The drow and illithids are concentrated in very few spots in Kule's
underworld, most likely where water and air are plentiful. Beyond that is
an underground world of artificial tunnels, volcanic tubes, water-carved
caverns, etc. How far does this underdark extend? If Kule is at most 100
miles in diameter, its surface area equals at most 4 x pi x (50 x 50) =
over 31,400 square miles. A one-level-deep cave system just below the
surface would thus cover an area about the size of South Carolina--but you
can put another level below that, and another level below <that>, and so
on, right down to the core. Kule could have <millions> of miles of tunnels.
Perhaps there is even a "bubble" of air at the center, where ancient ruins
and treasures lie about, guarded by terrible foes.
So, what lives down here in this lightless habitat? Aside from the
Labyrinth's spiders, our DMs add underground beasts from sources like the
<Dungeoneer's Survival Guide>; GREYHAWK modules D1 <Descent into the Depths
of the Earth>, D2 <Shrine of the Kuo-Toa>, and D3 <Vault of the Drow>; and
FORGOTTEN REALMS accessories and adventures like <The Ruins of
Undermountain>, <Ruins of Undermountain II: The Deep Levels>, <The Drow of
the Underdark> and the MENZOBERRANZAN(R) boxed set. Beth adds rock-eaters
likethoqqua, osquips, and denzelians to Kule's subterranean ecology, to
guarantee new tunnels to explore, and the usual fungi, rothe, bats, rats,
bugs, molds, and slugs--a nasty mess. And there are undead of all types,
though they are thankfully rare, and sometimes you find albino carnivorous
apes.
New monsters are created by revamping real-world cave creatures or
tinkering with AD&D game ones. Giant cave crickets, giant millipedes, giant
blind fish, giant beetles, pedipalps, solifugids, and more are culled out
and altered. Some creatures are given luminescent eyes or antenna lures,
like deep-sea fish; many have superb infravision, up to 120 feet in range.
Some have minor spell-like powers, like the ability to shoot <burning
hands> spells from their mouths or <magic missiles> from their eyes. Ron
and Beth ensure that no player will know all there is to know about a
monster. Spiders in particular are divided into many new, awful species
that eat drow as easily as anything else.
The drow and mind flayers have a quiet, vicious war going between them,
with the outnumbered kuo-toa killing whomever they can catch. Other Oerth
races here (less than 1,000 of each) include dwarves, duergar, gnomes,
svirfneblin, stout halflings, goblins, humans, derro, pech, outcast
driders, myconids, centaur-ants, jermlaine, snyads, mites, troglodytes,
beholders, trolls, wererats, crysmals, and kobolds who escaped from the
mind flayers. From Toril come a few cloakers and deep dragons. From the
Elemental Plane of Fire, now living in the few active volcanos present, are
salamanders, fire bats, mephits, magmen, etc. The Elemental Plane of Earth
contributes its share of odds monsters, too.
These beings arrived in a variety of ways: caught by Lolth and dumped in
the Labyrinth; enslaved by other races who got here by spelljammer, spell,
device, or <gate>; hired by spelljammer drow as mercenaries; walked through
unrecorded <gate> in another world's underdark; read cursed scroll; etc.
Some can be used as PC races, like the humans, dwarves, gnomes, halflings,
and beings from <The Complete Book of Humanoids>. Escaped kobolds from
Sharp Beak would love to help drow defeat the nasty illithids who were
going to eat them. If the DMs are up to it, new PC races can be created
(e.g., derro, troglodytes, wererats, snyads, and mites). Nondrow PCs would
nearly always be either favored slaves seeking freedom or hired help,
making for interesting role-playing between characters.
What's not present? Aboleth, mainly (too powerful, not enough water).
Nondrow elves are killed on sight. Any creatures with no reason to go
underground are absent, including huge critters and those that need
sunlight to live.
Ugly surprises are also in store. The mind flayers, for instance, have
not only psionics but psionic-powered magical devices never before seen.
Mind flayers are kept out of sight for the most part to keep their
appearances special and horrific. Derro are also psionic, but they are
given clever trap- and tool-making skills, with nasty devices like glass
green-slime grenades and poisoned crossbow bolts.
The drow of Kule keep time in their dayless domain using complex water
clocks, though magical timepieces are not unknown. As drow are chaotic,
however, no two clocks show the same time. Every 91 Oerth days, the drow
can look up from their spelljammer port out ofthe cone of their volcano and
see Oerth above eclipse the sun; this holy day starts one of their
"months," and four such months equals a year (which exactly equals an
Oerthian year). Kule, of course, has no true days and nights (much less
seasons); the drow don't care, waking or sleeping as they please in no set
schedule.
Finally, the drow of Kule import the magical mineral <tumkeoite> from
Erelhei-Cinlu (the drow city in AD&D module D3). Tumkeoite, described in
module D3, emits ultraviolet light as it decays, and UV light is the
special radiance that grants drow weapons, armor, and items their great
bonuses. Tumkeoite is incredibly valuable to all drow--thus, it is valuable
to their enemies as well.
[[Initial Quest]]: Beth and Ron will alternate as primary DMs, with the
secondary DM running monsters or major NPCs who interact with the PCs. Once
the players have created their characters, they are made part of the same
house or family of drow; nondrow are allied with or enslaved by that house.
The PCs' early missions, given by their house, include investigating a
reported mind-flayer outpost near their city, hunting for a thief and
stolen tumkeoite, and playing elaborate tricks on an enemy house.
The players develop their own missions for their PCs, too. An enslaved
goblin longs to become a free warrior. A drow wizard hunts for magical
items and spells of his own. A priestess hunts for the drider who killed
her father. A free dwarf thief plots to destroy and loot all mind-flayer
colonies.
The bigger picture appears as the PCs explore their world. Are there
<gates> here to other planes, worlds, or drow cities? What if Lolth
attempts to get these rebellious drow to do her bidding? Where would a
spelljamming trip lead? What do the mind flayers secretly plan for their
enemies? What lies in the ruins on the surface, or in the endless
unexplored parts of this dungeon world? Beth and Ron have lots for the PCs
to do.
[[Player's Viewpoint]]: The PCs will spend nearly all of their time in
tunnels, caves, and their buried city. As the upper world is in vacuum, PCs
will rarely go there. The greatest mysteries around lie on their own world,
with its hundreds of thousands of miles of tunnels. Beth and Ron <never>
let the players think their world is fully explored just because a
spelljammer can look down on it from above. Few drow are even aware of the
Labyrinth's presence, for instance, and the layout and defenses of the
distant mind-flayer city are uncertain. The drow city is a tiny speck on a
moon whose underdark they barely know.
[[Resources]]: Aside from previously mentioned products, Ron and Beth
make use of books on real-world caves, spelunking, and cave life. Color
pictures of cave formations are passed around the room, as part of an
adventure or to emphasize the alien nature of the underground world. Future
game products on the AD&D underworld, such as <Night Below: The Underdark
Campaign> boxed set due out this December, could be cannibalized for more
clever ideas.
<Acknowledgements>: I appreciate the commentary that gamers offered
about parts of this material on America Online, in the TSR Online section.
Special thanks to DTorsiello, BrettE1, and MB Drapier, who told me how to
spell "Erelhei-Cinlu."
Next month: The sun goes out.
Ubiquitous
Dark and alien places, part 2
Last month, we looked at an original AD&D campaign set in a sunless
environment--the underdark of a small moon, Kule. The game play in Kule is
founded on the exploration of unknown caves and dungeons, battles against
subterranean foes, the solving of old mysteries, and (as always!) the
gaining of personal wealth and experience. There are thousands of miles of
underground passages on Kule, but the world still has the feeling of being
small and almost cozy with its closed-in dungeon environment.
This month's campaign world is also sunless, but for a different
reason; the theme and play of this campaign are unlike the previous one,
too. The environment of this new world is played out in the open, on a
spherical world's surface. Though the themes of exploration, mystery
solving, personal growth, and defeating foes are present here, there are
also nightmarish and unearthly scenes, and survival is a key problem.
Paranoia, anxiety, and fear are hallmarks of this campaign, as in the
RAVENLOFT(R) campaign's Demiplane of Dread--but there are important
differences between that setting and this one, as will be seen.
Night Everlasting
Our DM this month is Norman, a fan of horror settings. Hoping to
develop a personal gaming universe, Norm tinkers with creating a new
"island of terror" for the RAVENLOFT campaign but abandons this, preferring
an actual planet. His vision of a new world is influenced by the Cthulhu
tales of H.P. Lovecraft and others, featuring a chaotic cosmos apparently
geared toward destroying mankind--nothing personal here, as is often the
case in Ravenloft.
Norm also likes the works of William Hope Hodgson, an early 20th
century horror writer noted for his novel, <The Night Land>. In this book,
Hodgson described a monster-infested Earth far in the future after the sun
has died; humanity, barricaded in a single pyramid-like city called the
Last Redoubt, faces extinction but never relents in its struggle against
the fantastic beasts and terrors at the end of time.
Could this happen to an AD&D game world? Norm scribbles some notes and
soon generates the outlines of his new campaign, based upon a briefly
described setting from the out-of-print AD&D module Q1, <Queen of the
Demonweb Pits>, on pages 17-18: the Nightworld of Vlad Tolenkov.
Nightworld (Norm's working title for the setting) was a normal AD&D
world like Oerth or Toril, with the usual intelligent races and monsters.
Then, without warning, this world's sun had an unexpected eclipse--and was
<gone>. The sun had entered a gigantic antimagical dead zone, a wildspace
<sargasso> (as described in the SPELLJAMMER setting) that snuffed out the
magical connection from the fire body to the Elemental Plane of Fire.
Darkness and cold fell over the world in moments. Seas began to freeze,
cold winds howled, peoples rioted, and the end of life was at hand.
This event came to be known as Blackout, and the sentient response to
it as the Time of Madness. In an effort to save their worshipers and
themselves, many local gods swiftly sacrificed the majority of their power,
merging their divine essence with the earth to draw deep volcanic heat
close to the surface. This caused a vast upsurge in earthquakes and
volcanic activity across the world, but it saved most of the world's life
as well.
However, the Sacrifice (as it is now called) and Blackout spawned
explosions of wild magic that horribly altered many living beings. Worse, a
number of non-neutral deities native to this world vanished after Blackout,
in a cataclysmic battle fought during the Sacrifice between extreme
alignments. This, the Highslaying, prevented the world from falling into
the claws of evil gods entirely, as local conditions were ripe for it. The
gods who survived the Highslaying and Sacrifice were reduced in power (most
are now demigods), but they are desperately sought and highly involved
patrons of their current worshipers.
About a thousand years have passed since the legendary time of
Blackout. Many people no longer believe there ever was a sun in the sky,
though educated folk sadly know better. Let's look at Norm's world and see
how different a place it is.
[[Modifications]]: As a last gesture to help humanity survive the days
after Blackout, some of the surviving gods caused deliberate changes in
their followers, altering them to better adapt to Nightworld's sunless
horrors. (Norm was influenced here by the pseudo-undead entry from the
<Monster Manual II>, which he borrowed and modified.) A few highlights from
Norman's modifications to standard AD&D set-ups are noted here.
Some changed humans became carnivorous hunters, meat-eaters and
blood-drinkers with 90-foot infravision, quiet movements, and great
resistance to cold. Their pale faces, long fangs, great strength, and
peculiar appetites make them look much like vampires. These expert hunters
are popularly known as Stalker folk, to distinguish them from the true
vampires that Stalkers hate.
Other humans developed the ability to detect and consume any sort of
organic matter, even carrion, gaining powerful senses of smell and taste.
Their fingernails have become claws with a mild poison that temporarily
paralyzes attackers. They also have light-enhancing "starlight" vision that
allows them to see outdoors as well as if the sun were still out. These
ghoul-like humans are called Gatherers, as they rarely hunt live prey.
Another deity severely altered his own followers--all goblins--to grant
them flight. The three-foot-tall, thin-boned Aerials resemble short
werebats; they are covered in dark-red fur and have pug noses, needle-sharp
teeth, tiny yellow eyes, and huge ears. Their arms have become broad bat
wings with fingers at the first wing joint. They have 30-foot infravision
and 240-foot echolocation "sonar," useful for open-air flight. Though not
always evil, Aerials are often nasty, selfish, and crude. (Their statistics
are like those of goblins in <The Complete Book of Humanoids>.)
Other human types resemble cloth-wrapped mummies, wights, or other
corporeal monsters or undead. The "mummies," for instance, are normal
humans of a particular religion, wrapping their bodiesin mourning for their
slain world and pantheons; many of these people are powerful specialty
priests.
Some large human cities survived Blackout, accommodating themselves to
the awful new world. In most cases, high walls have been built up in
several rings around a hilltop city, fortress, manor, or castle. Between
each ring, livestock is kept and fed on fungi, roots, and other vegetation.
Small lakes, fed by cold rivers and carefully checked for poisons, bring
citizens their needed water. Nets capture blind, albino river fish for
food. Priests and wizards cast <continual light> spells on rocks and poles
in the outlying countryside, to warn of approaching monsters. Huge nets
hang over city streets and from tower to tower, catching carnivorous bats
and other unpleasant night fliers later slain by town guards or armed
citizens. Archers and siege machines are plentiful, to ward off marauders
and wilderness beasts.
Each city is inhabited primarily by a single race, with rare travelers
from distant cities bringing trade goods, news, and so on. People awaken,
work, eat, and sleep in three shifts of about eight hours each; time is
kept by watching star movements (the world still rotates) and is announced
by bells, horns, or criers.
Vast dungeons have been excavated below the cities for sleeping and
food-growing space and as emergency shelters. Underground rivers and
aquifers are tapped. Mines bring up a coal-like flammable rock used as
fuel. Ventilation shafts circulate air with the aid of huge, animal- or
human-powered fans, pushing out smoke through great smokestacks. Tunnels
also reveal subterranean foes like bulettes, umber hulks, purple worms, or
ankhegs that attempt to dig their way under cities, so the tunnels are
stoutly built and heavily patrolled. In some cities, long tunnels reach out
to nearby hills, where small fortresses and communities are built.
Earthquakes are feared, and many tunnels are magically reinforced. Few
large underground chambers are built, to avoid mass casualties in case of a
roof collapse.
Neutral and evil human necromancers have been brought into military and
government service, raising numerous skeletons to serve as simple laborers
and massed soldiers. Necromancers oversee the construction of tunnels,
walls, reservoirs, roads, and other works; some are military officers, and
a few are medical doctors. (As a side note, zombies deteriorate over time,
smell awful, and often disturb onlookers who might recognize the bodies as
former family members or friends. Fresh bodies are thus dumped into pits
containing rot grubs or scavenging insects, which clean all dead flesh from
the bones; a <cloudkill> spell slays the scavengers, and the bones are then
<animated> for service.)
The open air of Nightworld is always cool, about 45-50 degrees
Fahrenheit in still air. Winds are rare and usually the result of magic or
atmospheric disturbances from volcanoes. The sky is cloudless and filled
with thousands of stars. Surface dwellers can see their breath if light is
available. Thick clothing is worn in layers, with sandals over foot
wrappings when normal shoes or boots are not available. Gloves are rare but
hats common, worn as much out of fear of dangerous bats as for warmth.
Armor is always padded for heating, then oiled or wrapped to reduce its
noise.
The most common surface livestock of Nightworld are goats,sheep, and
pigs, which proved hardier than cattle (the latter now nearly extinct).
Horses are carefully kept and extremely valuable. Wild and giant boars have
been captured and domesticated in some areas, and giant goats are used as
mounts in others. Chickens and geese are kept in magically lit underground
chambers. Manure from livestock is used in huge fungus farms above and
below ground. Dogs, wolves, and giant rats are used as pets.
Of the demihumans, the dwarves fared best, as their great underground
cities were perfect shelters. Their armies brave the horrors of the surface
to gather supplies and treasures from abandoned centers of civilization.
Hill and mountain dwarves eventually shared their buried kingdoms with
humans, halflings, and other friendly surface races, leaving aboveground
structures and upper dungeon levels to the "star lovers."
The crafty duergar--the gray dwarves--held their own buried kingdoms,
but they enslaved the strongest and most lawful (thus most trustworthy)
humanoids as workers and war fodder. Goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins survived
the Time of Madness in large numbers, either as slaves of the duergar or in
their own buried enclaves. Humanoids and duergar have become less evil (as
so many evil gods perished in the Highslaying), though they are still
unpleasant, aggressive, competitive, and tyrannical.
Gnomes are popularly thought to have been largely wiped out by
Blackout. However, they survive in secret, using illusions and stealth to
keep their enclaves hidden. A few gnomes live with other peoples.
Nightworld gnomes are not tinkers or machine-lovers; they are solemn,
secretive, and know much about their dark world. Illusionist/thieves are
very common, acting as scouts and spies.
Every kind of elf, however, has been nearly wiped out. Their forests
gone, high and gray elves went mad; only a handful survive, but as
monsters, their minds unhinged. Their faerie cousins, such as pixies and
sprites, suffered the same fate or died. Aquatic elves and other sea races
have nearly vanished, replaced by ferocious sahuagin, sharks, aquatic
trolls, and ixitxachitl. Drow were devastated by legions of dwarves and
their allies who engaged in great wars to make their part of the underdark
safe.
Chaotic-evil beings--gnolls, bugbears, ogres--suffered greatly, never
able to pull together to overcome the terrible challenges of the Blackout
and after. Unorganized surface creatures have become worse than savages,
abandoned by their gods and preyed upon by monsters and each other. In many
ruined cities, barbaric humans and humanoids battle for survival.
Mongrelmen--distorted beings created from bursts of wild magic that flared
over the world as the sun died and the gods warred--hide in many other
ruins.
Allowable PC races include humans (in all their new forms), dwarves
(hill, mountain, and gray), halflings (stout and hairfoot), gnomes,
and--using the <Complete Book of Humanoids>--mongrelmen, goblins (and
Aerials), orcs, and hobgoblins. Common classes include fighters, rangers,
barbarians (from <The Complete Barbarian's Handbook>), specialty priests,
gray druids (from <The Complete Druid's Handbook>), thieves, and wizards,
especially necromancers. Bards are rare; paladins and most druids are
unknown. Norman keeps notes for future PCs types from lands based on other
cultures.
The foes facing the civilized world are great. These threatsare on the
whole random, chaotic, and unthinking, unlike the Dark Powers of the
Ravenloft demiplane. Duergar, humanoids, and rebel necromancers provide the
bulk of organized "thinking" villains, though some vampires and liches rule
minor kingdoms of undead created from the countless bodies of those who
died in Blackout. Dragons, giants, and beholders survived as well, but
mutated into new forms thanks to wild magic and other forces. Norm wishes
for these to have horrific appearances and behaviors, and he borrows
critter ideas from MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM(R) RAVENLOFT appendices.
Many new species of wild trolls rampage over the dark lands, consuming
everything they find. Some "cleanup crew" monsters normally seen in
dungeons (e.g., slimes, oozes, puddings, and jellies) are found in the
open. Huge, mindless vermin have spread over the world: giant beetles,
ants, spiders, slugs, and more scour the land for every last scrap of
organic matter, consuming even the soil. (Giant ants and beetles now create
their own underground farms and cities, though these creatures are not very
intelligent individually.) Bulettes, ankhegs, purple worms, umber hulks,
and so forth have mutated into new, unpredictable forms. Small bugs like
cockroaches are very common.
After deciduous and evergreen surface plants perished, new plant life
filled in the gaps. Giant fungi, many luminescent or poisonous (or both),
are found everywhere. Great thornbush forests have sprung up, cultivated by
giant insects. Thornbushes provide shelter for the insects, and their roots
are nourishing food. Mosses and lichens are everywhere.
Birds are almost entirely extinct, except for fast flightless species.
Flight is dangerous in near-total darkness. Anything that flies more than
1,000 feet above the ground also runs into a nearly airless region of
extreme cold, the limit at which the magic-filled earth is able to warm the
atmosphere. Bats, however, survive in many forms and fly about constantly,
using echolocation to catch their prey and avoid collisions. Some bats have
magical powers that make them unusually dangerous.
[[Initial Quest]]: The first quest for any group on Nightworld will
vary greatly, depending on whether the PCs are natives or outsiders who
arrived for a short visit. In the latter case, the PCs can trek across a
hostile landscape in search of a legendary item. Potential allies might, of
course, look like certain enemies; adventurers must learn caution and use
negotiation and stealth.
In the former case, a full campaign, Norm starts small (short ventures
into the outer world, plus troubles in the starting city) and builds up to
bigger things (long treks across dangerous, monster-infested countryside).
This gives players a chance to understand their environment and strengthens
the uneasiness they will feel about certain monsters, persons, objects, and
situations.
In time, the heroes will learn that their world is in trouble. The
gods' magic is not enough to counter a growing force of evil in the world,
spreading chaos and madness through the great wilderness areas.
Increasingly vile beasts are encountered, and bizarre events are seen and
recorded. Is something behind these events? How great is the danger the
world faces? The PCs will have to find out.
[[Player's Viewpoint]]: The players will quickly learn that the safest
place for their heroes is underground in a dungeon, and themost dangerous
place is on the surface in the open air--quite the reverse from the usual
state of affairs!
As noted before, Nightworld is played for mystery and fear. Virtually
nothing is known about the world outside of a handful of fortified or
buried cities. Volcanic regions might have bizarre new cultures and forms
of life, but no one is sure. Wilderness monsters are drawn to sources of
light and sound, so anyone crossing uncivilized lands must do so silently
and in hiding. Carelessness results in massed, insane attacks by countless
horrors. (Obviously, intercity trade is infrequent at best on this world.)
[[Resources]]: Aside from borrowing game material from various
RAVENLOFT and <Call of Cthulhu> sources, Norm makes sure to scan horror
products for other games: Steve Jackson Games' <GURPS Horror> rules,
Mayfair's <Chill> system, and so on. New species of life are adapted from
books Norman finds in the local library on mushrooms, fungi, insects, and
nocturnal creatures. He even makes use of TSR's GAMMA WORLD(R) rules for
new "mutations" to add to some of the grossly changed lifeforms on
Nightworld to make them more frightening and dangerous in effect. Norm uses
the special methods for describing encounters from the RAVENLOFT rules to
enhance the element of fear and uncertainty in game play.
As final notes, Norm elects to allow psionics (wild talents only) but
not spelljamming. Travel to other planes is very difficult, and some
high-level priest spells are not available, since most gods are only
demigods. Undead are harder than usual to turn or destroy, but not
impossible. The Fear Check from the RAVENLOFT rules is kept for meeting
certain wilderness monsters.
Ubiquitous
High Magic Replaces High Tech--on Earth! (part 1)
The RPGA(R) Network's LIVING DEATH(TM) campaign highlights a special facet
of our look at original AD&D campaign creation, which is that our own
planet can (and does) serve as the basis for many such campaigns. The
RAVENLOFT Gothic Earth setting is a perfect example of this point. This
column and the next will investigate several such "magical Earths" and
highlight their development and differences.
Gothic Earth is our Earth in the 1890s, with a streak of horror found
in the RAVENLOFT set-up. Characters armed with pistols and spells hunt or
are hunted by supernatural monsters. Special game mechanics (like fear,
horror, madness, and powers checks, and the ever-popular curses) and DMs'
tips on giving imaginative monster descriptions help intensify a sense of
uncertainty and fear during play.
Other examples of magical Earths for the AD&D game are found in the
green-cover Historical Reference Campaign Sourcebook series, published in
1991-1994. Each book takes a famous historical period in European
civilization and details it for use as a campaign area. The series includes
HR1 <Vikings>, HR2 <Charlemagne's Paladins>, HR3 <Celts>, HR4 <A Mighty
Fortress>, HR5 <The Glory of Rome>, HR6 <Age of Heroes>, and HR7 <The
Crusades>. The times covered rangefrom the early Greek city-states in 2200
B.C. (in HR6) to the Thirty Years' War, in A.D. 1650 (in HR4). Some books
overlap in time, covering different regions and cultures but creating a
broad picture of Europe when used together--HR1 and HR2 in particular.
The HR series could easily describe the <same> magical Earth, since
they generally share the same modifications to spellcasting (the "slow"
AD&D system, you could call it). You could even attach Gothic Earth to
these volumes as their "future history," as is done in the <Chronomancer>
optional accessory, with minor historical changes.
But still other magical Earths have been presented or alluded to in
TSR's fantasy games. This column presents one peculiar Earth wholly
unconnected to the previous versions: the "modern" magical world depicted
in the AMAZING ENGINE(R) MAGITECH(R) game. Because of the amount of
development work required for this campaign and its complex nature, details
on it will be continued into next month's column as well.
Magic in the Modern Age
Larry is one of a group of "round-robin" Dungeon Masters, as described in
this column in POLYHEDRON issue #111. Everyone else in his group is working
away on their own campaigns, but Larry hasn't come up with a satisfactory
one. Discouraged, he stands in front of his bookcase of games and looks it
over for ideas. His eyes soon come to rest on his copy of the MAGITECH
game.
Shame it's not for the AD&D game, he thinks. That was a crazy planet.
After a moment, however, he remembers that the MAGITECH world's races,
monsters, and some of its spells came directly from the AD&D game. He pulls
out the booklet and looks at the cover: a minotaur in a t-shirt and a
pistol-waving girl riding a flying carpet over a subdivision. Modern magic,
eh? Larry is hooked.
He sits down and goes over the book with a pen, highlighting important
points and adding his own notes. MAGITECH Earth has a history similar to
our own, but with many fantastic elements thrown in. Minotaurs rule an
independent Texas. The Mayans are elves; hobgoblins are neo-Aztecs. Lizard
men rule southeast Asia. Europe and Japan are blasted, monster-filled ruins
after World War II. The U.S. ends at the Mississippi River but includes
what we call Quebec and the Maritime Provinces; Canada is Ontario and
little more; Native Americans own the rest of North America. Venus (now
called Hanahpu) was colonized by elves. Advanced magic replaces technology
at every level of society; even children can cast minor spells.
Electricity, fossil fuels, and gunpowder are not used. A crazy planet,
indeed.
From the start, Larry decides his campaign world is <only> for
visiting, not for long-term living. No PCs will be allowed to originate
from this world. This is not the way most AD&D campaigns are created, but
because the PCs in round-robin group jump from place to place, a
visitors-only world is viable. Besides, the MAGITECH world is so advanced
that Larry wants to avoid giving "primitive" PCs prolonged contact with it.
He will have to watch the outflow of magical items and spells carefully so
they won't severely disrupt anyone else's campaign setting!
Larry studies the big game map of ruined Europe and the smaller map of
the Earth's nations. He considers basing the campaign in postwar Europe,
with its mutant monsters and blasted cities--it looks like the GAMMA WORLD
game to him, and he loved that game. He hangs on to that thought, but he
wants a more civilized starting point. He rejects the United States and
other developed countries as being <too> civilized; handling so much magic
could be troublesome, and the wild-and-woolly adventures that players like
would be outlawed. His gaze drifts over to the island of Madagascar.
A high-school report on this island comes to mind. Prehistoric fish
live off the coast here. Giant flightless birds like moas once lived here,
too, but the locals ate them all. Arabs who saw those birds came up with
the tales of the roc. A famous pirate, Captain Kidd, used the island as a
base. Some kind of apes called lemurs hang out in the jungles. This is not
the most advanced country there is--but for adventuring purposes, that's
good. The heroes can enter the world here, then be teleported or flown into
the ruins of Europe on some secret mission.
Larry continues making notes. The following are some of the results.
[[Modifications]]: Larry is a cinematic DM. His motto is: Think
Visually! An AD&D campaign set on a magical version of Madagascar presents
him with a chance to produce startling scenes, characters, creatures, and
adventures that smack of high-adventure pulp movies. Since next to nothing
is said about Madagascar in the MAGITECH game, and because that world is
heavily altered anyway, he feels free to improvise after referring only to
an encyclopedia and a few books with color photographs of the island, its
cities and countryside, and its peoples. And, because this <is> an island,
it is a nice, tidy, "closed" environment, rich with foreign flavor.
First, some real-world information:
Madagascar is an enormous island (the fourth largest), covering 226,658
square miles--about the size of Texas. Oblong in shape, it is 980 miles
north-south by 360 miles east-west. Its terrain includes rain forests on
the east coast, a forested and grassy spine of mountains running
north-south down the middle, thorn forests and brushland to the far south,
and dry, open woodland and savanna to the west. The mountains are
5,000-10,000 feet high.
Most people here are either Indonesians, who crossed the Indian Ocean
two millennia ago to settle here, or black Africans; most of the rest are
of Arabic or French descent. These groups contain over a dozen smaller
ethnic groups within them. Farming and nomadic herding are the primary
occupations; fishing and hunting also supply food. The island was a native
kingdom before it was taken over by France in 1885; French and Malagasy (an
Indonesian tongue) are the main languages. Most locals practice tribal
religious ceremonies involving cattle sacrifices, prayers at family tombs,
and offerings to spirits; Christianity still runs second.
Madagascar, says Larry's encyclopedia, produces cattle, fish, sheep,
pigs, peanuts, castor beans, coffee, corn, potatoes, rice, cassava,
vanilla, cloves, salt, tobacco, sugar beets, sugar cane, textiles,
graphite, semiprecious stones, kapok, rosewood, chromite, bauxite, coal,
natural gas, oil, and . . . <uranium>. (Yes! thinksLarry.) It is rich with
natural resources, but underdeveloped.
Larry will use much of this information to add depth and drama to the
setting. The people and beliefs of this land appear strange to most Western
eyes--but this is great. Larry wants the players (through their PCs) to
feel a bit alienated and out of place, which will make them nervous and put
an edge on events. Lists of nouns and adjectives are made for use in
descriptions--the look of the landscape, the sounds of a village, the dress
of the people, the smell and taste of the food. He culls out some French
phrases that will be useful and practices them. A lucky break comes when he
finds a good travelogue video on Madagascar, and he watches it twice to get
strong descriptive passages from it.
In the end, Larry's Madagascar is not much like the real one. The
Indonesians become green-scaled Khmer lizard men. Black humans are Zimbabwe
migrants, the French are dwarves, and the Arabs are Muslim humans. French
rule ended when Europe was destroyed by Adolf Hitler in 1945. The islanders
then reinstated their old monarchy, created a new flag, and kept a mild
anti-European (anti-dwarf) prejudice. Tribal religions work fine, giving
the land a pagan, unfamiliar feel. (Larry doesn't detail this part greatly,
preferring it stay mysterious and unknowable.)
Further, Larry's Madagascar is on the creepy, criminal side. A blind
eye is turned toward illegal activities if the price is right. Spies,
gangsters, and fugitives congregate here. Every major NPC has at least one
dark secret, and things are never what they seem. A black market thrives in
stolen magical goods, gems, spices, rare wood, and that peculiar element,
uranium. Poachers sell the eggs, young, hides, and skulls of rare monsters.
Some rich, debased plantation owners employ slaves--local convicts,
zombies, kidnapped foreigners, or even intelligent lemurs. Official secrets
smuggled out of African and Asian nations are sold to foreign powers here
through diplomatic channels, and the lizard-man king of Madagascar offers
land and gold to those who sell secrets to <him>. Thieves loot prehistoric
ruins in the wilderness, braving unnamed horrors for art objects to sell to
museums overseas. Necromancers and mad wizards are rumored to live in
isolated caves. Civil liberties are changed or repealed at whim. It's a
wild and corrupt land, but a lively, challenging, and rewarding one, too.
Additionally, Larry resurrects the elephant birds (the huge flightless
birds extinct in our own world), which are now herded and even ridden by
locals. Also resurrected are large, extinct species of jungle-dwelling
lemurs, some up to gorilla size, that Larry read about in a science
magazine. After collecting data on lemurs in general, he makes them fairly
intelligent, giving them speech, culture, and Stone Age weapons--and a
hostile attitude toward others. The deep seas around Madagascar contain
prehistoric creatures from hundreds of millions of years ago, with things
far more dangerous than the large, blue coelacanths (<SEE luh kanth>)
discovered there in our real world. (Coelacanths were once thought to have
died out before dinosaurs ever appeared.)
Larry highlights details that bring out the contrasts of this island.
Airports, hydroelectric plants, and railroads are rare; primitive tools are
common. A few skyscrapers rise from the heart of Antananarivo (<Ahn tuh Nah
nuh REE voh>), the capital, but theyare surrounded by the countless shacks
of the poor. Rich and poor, ancient and modern, obvious and mysterious,
natural and manmade, colorful lights and trashy streets, suspicious natives
and lying merchants: Larry develops a movielike view of this land that he
will weave into all adventures here. This is <not> a comfortable place, but
it is an exciting, intriguing one.
As topping, Larry tosses in a few modified AD&D game monsters. Talking
birds in the jungle, giant ants and giant vultures on the savanna, and
stirges, giant eagles, manticores, and rocs in the mountains are added. He
designs a variant race of kuo-toa found along the coast, devoted enemies of
humanity but so far little known. He alters all standard monsters to keep
players on edge, like the miniature vampiric bulettes that infest the sewer
system, or the brightly colored rot grubs that look and smell like flowers
until you reach down to pick them. For fun, he gives the island a dozen
species of carnivorous plants, and assumes the importation of African
creatures like zebras, giraffes, and gazelles, which are domesticated and
herded.
Larry allows room for placing other sentient races on the island in the
future, such as aarakocra in the mountains, tabaxi and tasloi in the
jungle, and so forth. These races, however, will be few in number, dirt
poor, and usually hostile to foreigners.
Climate and weather are carefully worked into the adventures. Larry
wants the players to feel the dry, baking heat or the wild, thundering
rain. He even keeps a calendar and adds festival days for more local
flavor. Whatever day it is in the real world when an adventure is played is
also that day on his version of Madagascar. He keeps in mind especially
that Madagascar, being in the southern hemisphere, is hottest in December
and coolest in July.
Mapping the island is not a great problem. A color photocopier is used
to blow up maps for better detail, and Larry carefully transfers all
relevant data to a desktop-sized, square-grid map for his own use. He also
prepares a small, somewhat inaccurate and less-descriptive map for the
players (their PCs can buy such maps anywhere on the island) and creates
some sketches or photo montages of local scenes.
The most complex problem Larry faces, however, is in creating AD&D
characters for this world using some of the MAGITECH rules on
character-building. Considerable freedom is available here, since he is
dealing only with NPCs, not PCs, and can thus bend the rules quite a bit
more. He eventually decides that adult civilized MAGITECH NPCs all start
off with 8 hp and are the equivalent of multiclassed 1st-level
fighter/thief/cleric/wizards. This comes as a result of their extensive
education; the people aren't really holy priests or robbers, but they can
use spells once made only for clerics, and they have athletic powers and
mechanical skills like thieves.
These citizens can then advance in any of these classes with further
experience and training, or by using magical enhancements. Special classes
(bards, specialist wizards, rangers, etc.) can be substituted for one of
the basic four classes in highly trained individuals (e.g., a commando
sergeant who is a 6/7/4/5-level ranger-thief-druid-wizard). People from
less-civilized regions, like most of Madagascar, have the standard AD&D
classes, one or twoeach per the usual rules. The PCs, no matter <what> they
do, will not be able to gain similar powers.
On top of this, NPCs (civilized or not) have occupations and batches of
skills. Larry freely gives out skills to NPCs with regard only to
appropriateness and logic. He imagines that the players will have fits when
their PCs are treated by doctors who use sagelike knowledge and priest
spells but are neither sages nor priests--but giving the players fits is,
after all, part of the joy of being a clever DM.
Larry looks over the MAGITECH spells and converts most of them to AD&D
statistics in rough form. He is careful to read the sections in the
MAGITECH rules about anti-magic elements, math and magic, Psyche Focus
spellcasting methods, spell storing, and so forth, and he incorporates
these into the roleplaying of his NPCs. The PCs will go nuts trying to get
such powers--to no avail. They might be able to get some of the spells,
though, and this is fine.
The world is shaping up nicely. Now for a major-league, terror-filled,
character-killing adventure. (Larry's group has high-level PCs, and he
doesn't want to disappoint them.)
Next month: The Shining Man.
Ubiquitous
High Jinks on a High-Magic Earth (part 2)
Last month, we looked at several "magical Earth" AD&D campaigns founded
upon our own world's history and geography (with a little magical
distortion, of course). TSR has published a number of these magical Earths,
not always for the AD&D game but often with material sufficient to allow
adaptation to AD&D game play with a reasonable amount of development work
on the DM's part.
Conversion enthusiasts should look for a marvelous full-color map of
the British Isles published for an SPI board game about 15 years ago, a map
that begged for use as an AD&D campaign setting. If any reader finds a copy
of ARES(TM) Magazine issue #11 (November 1981), he or she should check out
the inserted map for the <Albion: Land of Faerie> game. It is drawn out on
a hex grid of 12 miles per hex, just right for role-playing, with some
interesting notes on setting up a faerie kingdom on those enchanted
islands.
The AMAZING ENGINE <For Faerie, Queen, and Country> game, featuring
low-level magic and "little people," is set in Victorian England and could
be converted to AD&D rules and appended to the Gothic Earth set-up from the
RAVENLOFT <Masque of the Red Death & Other Tales> boxed set and the <Gothic
Earth Gazetteer>. (Readers of POLYHEDRON Newszine will recall Bill Connors'
past Gothic Earth articles and the current LIVING DEATH campaign run by the
RPGA Network.)
Other examples of magical Earths in TSR literature are obscure but
fascinating. Gary Gygax's original vision of the GREYHAWK setting, for
instance, was to place it on an altered Earth. For details, see the
DANGEROUS JOURNEYS(TM) NECROPOLIS(TM) adventure, page 4, and the first page
of Gygax's incomplete serialized novel, "Gnome Cache," published under a
pseudonym in DRAGON issue #1 (June1976; check page 28). Taking a map of
Earth and mutating it in a few places is an interesting idea for an AD&D
world.
Another magical Earth is alluded to in the old D&D(R) module X2,
<Castle Amber>, and later in the AD&D MYSTARA(R) adventure, <Mark of
Amber>. The infamous d'Amberville family of Glantri is said to have
originally come to Mystara from a medieval French province called Averoigne
(<ahv eh ROYN>), an Earthly setting originally popularized in a series of
fantasy-horror short stories by a famed pulp writer, Clark Ashton Smith, in
the 1930s. The magical Earth containing Averoigne is called "Laterre"
(French for "the Earth"); it could easily be the very same magical Earth
described in the Historical Reference sourcebooks noted in last month's
edition of this column. (This connection was made explicit in the optional
AD&D accessory, <Chronomancer>.)
As long as we're talking about the MYSTARA campaign, the continental
outlines of the entire Known World are based upon continental-drift maps of
Earth during the Jurassic period, 135 million years ago. The Permian
supercontinent Pangaea had broken apart at that time, and you can make out
the shape of the future continents North America, South America, and Africa
in the mess. The world map for the Known World was first published in the
inside covers of the DM's rules booklet in the D&D Master Set from 1985;
this map was later reprinted in DRAGON issue #153, on page 69.
Many of the various kingdoms of the Known World were inspired by
real-world nations from history, but they are quite jumbled together, with
countries from wildly differing time periods existing side-by-side, making
for extraordinary campaign variety. (The RED STEEL(R) campaign region, in
particular, has countries founded on everything from 17th-century Portugal
and 19th-century Texas to ancient Assyria and aboriginal Australia.) This
sort of historical borrowing goes on in almost every official AD&D world,
but these planets, and Mystara as well, do not count as alternate "Earths"
just because of it.
The Shining Man
On to the current topic. Last month, we followed a DM named Larry as he
set about creating a "visitors only" AD&D campaign world based upon the
AMAZING ENGINE MAGITECH version of Earth. This month, Larry creates some
adventures, checks the players' viewpoint, and takes stock of his resources
for campaign ideas.
[[Initial Quest]]: The primary question is, how do the world-hopping
PCs to get to the island? Through a <gate>, Larry decides. A transplanar
explorer from MAGITECH Earth was killed on the PCs' current planet. His
personal effects include a magical coin that will transport those around it
to a prehistoric stone <gateway> in Madagascar when the cryptic letters
carved on the coin are recited. An unknown extinct race built the <gate>;
it currently seems to be unguarded in the wilderness.
When the PCs arrive on the island, they have a few strange encounters
of Larry's choice before finding a paved, two-lane highway to the capital.
On the way, they meet an old, rich dwarf in a self-driving limousine. The
dwarf, who says his name is Martin, speaks with a German accent, uses a
gold-headed cane, and wears awhite leisure suit. (He registers as lawful
neutral and has numerous magical devices--rings, clothing, his car, and
other strange items.) Martin uses a magical translator to greet the PCs,
chat with them, and make the PCs an offer. (Oddly, he isn't put off by
their looks.) If the PCs will perform a complex mission for him, he will
see to it that they are returned to their homes, wherever they are, in
complete safety. If they refuse, they are free to go, no strings attached.
(They will be followed, however, by plainclothes private detectives in
Martin's pay.)
If the PCs agree, they are swiftly introduced to such bewildering
wonders as gunlike wands, aluminum armor, clairscopes, talkie-balls, power
tomes, reflectors, wrist watches, bus golems, autocarriages, Damascus air
carriers, autobulettes, and seven wonder soap. They are given a few useful
items, some changes of clothing and armor, and asked to visit some old,
distant ruins to hunt in one particular building for information on a World
War II project called <Der Leuchtenmann> (German for "The Shining Man").
Any pieces of equipment associated with this project would also be welcome.
The willing (if nervous) PCs are then sent by private Damascus air carrier
to Europe, eventually landing in the blasted, burned, monster-filled hell
once called Berlin.
Herr Martin knew, of course, that the PCs were coming: the <gate> is on
his property and constantly monitored. He wanted the PCs because they are
untraceable; he even fed them magical potions in their drinks that will
erase their memories of having ever met the dwarf if they are captured and
questioned. Miniature magical transmitters have been placed in their
clothing and equipment so the dwarf can track their progress and
conversations, using equipment in his secret hideout.
The bad news for the PCs is that the Shining Man is a real creature
with doomsday-weapon powers. The mad dwarven scientists of Hitler's regime
used tremendous magic and three tons of processed uranium to create a
15-foot-tall black-metal golem to attack the Allied powers. The radiation
pouring out of the golem is so lethal that it has killed everything else in
the air-raid tunnels under Berlin where it lives. (The skeletons of the
dead are plentiful, including mutant monsters and a previous team Martin
sent in.) Larry uses the radiant golem from the first MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM
SPELLJAMMER appendix for the monster, removing its pacifist nature. It is
possible to cause the golem to reach critical mass and explode like an
atomic bomb, the only real way to destroy it; this information is in the
files the PCs are seeking. Martin thinks the golem exists but doesn't know
of its terrible powers.
The PCs probably won't be able to bring the golem back, but they can
bring back some encoded books and scrolls about it. Martin will be pleased
to receive anything, though he will sigh unhappily if told of the loss of
the golem. (He will be happier if the golem is left undisturbed, so he can
send adventurers back for it later.) He keeps his word to send the PCs back
to their world; all they really had to do was to wait for at least thirteen
days, then walk back through the <gate>, which would automatically send
them off to another world--maybe their own world, maybe not.
Martin is more than he seems. Secretly an internationally hunted war
criminal of the old German regime (his full name isMartin <Bormann>), he
plans to avenge himself on all Allied powers who fought against the Axis in
World War II. The Allies were virtually every other nation on Earth;
hundreds of millions of sentients died in the fighting, far more than the
number slain in World War II on our own world. The PCs are merely Martin's
dupes. With the data the PCs bring back, Martin can have another radiant
golem built on Madagascar using the uranium mines he owns. If the PCs try
to attack him, they will find that he is actually a cleverly made,
lifelike, remotely controlled golem; the <real> Martin is deep in hiding
and cannot immediately be found. The evil dwarf (his true alignment is
disguised by magic) will find a way to avenge himself on the group and the
world in a later adventure, if his many flunkies don't kill the PCs first.
If the PCs try to escape to a world in another DM's campaign by walking
back through the <gate> on the dwarf's land without Martin's permission,
they must fight a small company of heavily armed soldiers and monsters in
Martin's pay who guard the <gate> in secret. These guards have orders to
only spy on beings leaving the <gate>, but they are to shoot anyone trying
to explore or enter the <gate> if Martin didn't authorize it.
If the PCs return to this fun-filled island, future adventures on
Madagascar could include searching for Captain Kidd's buried treasure
(complete with undead guardians); diving for treasure aboard a shipwreck
now held by evil deep-sea monsters; rescuing enslaved humans and lemur folk
from a tobacco plantation run by a crime syndicate; hunting for
necromancers in the mountains; and a return trip to Europe to bring back
the lost Spear of the Valkyries (one of Martin's hopes, if he and the PCs
are still on speaking terms later). Larry keeps in mind Appendix II (pages
120-1) of the MAGITECH volume for additional adventuring ideas. Any patron
who hires the PCs on this island will surely be no paladin, but some
patrons will be more trustworthy than others.
Beyond this, the PCs can be sent on a voyage to the magical United
States (Larry could have loads of trouble as well as fun with this one, as
the PCs will never see so much commonly used magic in all their lives), or
they could even be sent to Venus. And, of course, there's always Herr
Martin.
[[Players' Viewpoint]]: The unfamiliar languages of Earth guarantee
that the PCs will need magical translators; these and a few other devices
should be okay for the PCs to take to another world. A gunlike <wand of
lightning> or <three-barrel gun>, for instance, is within reason; a magical
grenade launcher with four grenades (and no more) is probably okay. An
autodont or autobulette is probably too much. Giving MAGITECH devices a
preset number of charges will help get rid of them, especially if
recharging "high-magic" devices is too advanced a process for normal
medieval-style wizards to handle.
The advanced magic of this world should be presented as overwhelming
and even frightening; the PCs should be clearly out of their depth. The
players may at first think the PCs are on our own high-tech Earth (the
highway and a random sighting of a distant Damascus air carrier could do
it), and the discovery that this is not so will likely confuse them. Larry
emphasizes this point by having all locals react to the PCs as if they were
primitivebarbarians or (possibly) actors in costume.
The PCs will surely be tempted to buy or steal some of these remarkable
items. Larry anticipates this and makes sure some personal items have
magical alarms or traps on them if anyone uses them but their rightful
owners. Other magical items might be rigged to malfunction or not function
at all if stolen, and some might emit silent magical warnings to the local
police. Stealing police or military equipment will draw extremely
unfavorable attention, similar to a modern city-wide police manhunt by air,
land, and sea, with broadcast warnings to the public and numerous powerful
sensing and combat devices. The PCs will have to keep low profiles.
Larry plans to avoid having the players find out that they are in the
MAGITECH world, to keep the surprises fresh. He doesn't use the book during
play, reading from doctored photocopies, redrawn maps, or his own notes. He
won't use the word "magitech" in his DM descriptions, either.
[[Resources]]: Aside from tidbits from encyclopedias, travel guides,
travelogue videos, animal-life texts, and so forth, Larry finds a copy of
<National Geographic> magazine from December 1990, which has a color map
("Africa Threatened") with useful material on Madagascar and its wildlife.
DRAGON Magazine offers numerous helpful articles for developing a
sub-Saharan African campaign; some parts being useful for the MAGITECH
nations of Zimbabwe and Madagascar if "updated" by a few centuries: "Out of
Africa" and "Gaming the Dark Continent" (issue #122); "The Dark Continent"
and "Arms and Armor of Africa" (issue #189); "An African Genesis," (issue
#191); "Real Warriors Ride Elephants!" (issue #195); "Magic from the Gods"
(issue #200); "Mythic Races of Africa" and "Campaign Journal" (issue #202);
"The Priests of Africa" (issue #209); and, "The Deities of Africa" (issue
#215).
For the journey to the ruins of Europe, Larry pulls out the GAMMA WORLD
game, a treasure trove of monsters, mutations, and technological artifacts
that Larry turns into magical devices. The GAMMA WORLD treasure lists from
some of the modules are especially helpful for on-the-spot ideas. Seeking
more inspiration for "high magic" devices, Larry finds equipment
sourcebooks for cyberpunk RPGs to be the most helpful, particularly Steve
Jackson Games' <GURPS Cyberpunk, GURPS Ultra-Tech>, and <GURPS High-Tech>
books, and the three <Chromebooks> for R. Talsorian's <Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.>
game. He makes a point of skimming the <GURPS Atomic Horror> book for
further ideas on adventuring in Europe.
If the radiant golem should be fixed to explode, Larry wishes to make
it a memorable event. He uses the information in an old DRAGON issue about
atomic weapons in the TOP SECRET(R) game ("Agents and A-bombs" and "After
the blast," from issue #108) for this purpose. Larry fixes the golem's
explosive power at about 10 kilotons, despite all its uranium, as it will
undergo only partial fission. The PCs will have a reasonable chance to
escape with only minor radiation sickness if they try this option;
otherwise, they can simply flee and leave the golem alone.
Madagascar's array of carnivorous plants are borrowed from many AD&D
game sources, with the usual modifications. Chaosium's <Call of Cthulhu>
game is checked for other deep-sea monster ideas; thekuo-toa will be the
MAGITECH world's equivalent of the Deep Ones. "Playing in the Paleozoic,"
from DRAGON issue #176, provides many new horrible monsters to use for the
deep waters near the island. Larry adapts some to hang around along the
Madagascar coasts for local color, so to speak.
My thanks to Bruce Heard, without whose help I would never have
pronounced "Averoigne" correctly.
Next month: tea with Queen Elizabeth--the First.
Ubiquitous
More things than are dreamt of, part 1
We looked at the idea of running an original AD&D campaign set on Earth in
the last two issues, focusing on a campaign derived from the AMAZING ENGINE
MAGITECH game. For all its wonders, this setting was also quite limited in
play--ironically, because it <has> so many wonders!
Despite the problems in maintaining game balance with player
characters going to an advanced-magic or advanced-technology Earth, this
idea has remained very popular with adventure designers. Look at the
examples in the accompanying sidebar for proof.
We've established that Earth is a great place for a variant AD&D
campaign. In this issue and the next, we'll look at original campaigns
based on an Earthly setting once described by TSR, but not to the degree of
detail found in the FORGOTTEN REALMS or DRAGONLANCE settings. These fantasy
Earths are based on real history, so a good bit of historical research will
make the campaign go all the better. But the DM must do more than thumb
through textbooks; he must sift through facts in search of the gold of
adventure, and keep those facts from obscuring that glitter. The central
technique for world-building here is creative research.
A World out of Time
There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
--William Shakespeare, <Hamlet>
Eileen, a senior undergraduate student majoring in English literature, is
in an AD&D gaming group with a half-dozen members. The current DM is
burning out and asks if anyone else would like to run the group for a few
months in an alternate campaign. Eileen quickly volunteers and sets to work
on her own world.
The previous campaign was based in Cormyr in the FORGOTTEN REALMS
setting. If a change is called for, Eileen wants to make it a notable one.
Fascinated by the Elizabethan period in English history, she wishes to put
her historical knowledge to use by running an original AD&D campaign set in
England, using the HR4 <A Mighty Fortress> campaign sourcebook. This
96-page book, the fourth in the Historical Reference series, outlines the
Elizabethan Age, Counter-Reformation, and Thirty Years War in Europe.
Eileen's late 16th-century England, however, is going to be ahighly
variant one. She wisely suspects that the gamers in her group will be put
off by a purely historical campaign lacking magic, monsters, and mythical
lands. (She suspects such a campaign would bore her, too.) The historical
element will be kept as much as possible, because it gives the campaign a
universally recognized look, mood, and flavor. Libraries are full of
information on the Elizabethan period; getting historical, legendary, and
mythic material relevant to the period is easy.
In fact, there is so much historical source material available that it
can be overwhelming. Fortunately, Eileen already has a good understanding
of the period from her non-gaming studies and classical reading:
Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser, etc. She elects to deeply research only
those areas relevant to an upcoming adventure, and to keep the adventure
locations fairly limited. No sense in looking up ship construction if the
PCs aren't going sailing, or in getting maps of London if they don't go
there.
After considerable thought, Eileen writes down the broad outlines of
her variant historical campaign. In brief, her major points follow (with
side notes following bullets).
1. The campaign will have a limited lifespan, both in real time (a
year or less, until Eileen graduates or the other DM takes over) and game
time (the period from about A.D. 1550 to 1600).
* Game time is a common limitation of historical-based RPGs, whether
they involve Camelot, the Old West, Prohibition-era crime-fighting, or Cold
War spying. This limitation can be partly undone by using different groups
of characters operating in different places at the same time.
Eileen plans to use an episodic set-up linking many of the important
events of the 16th century; her adventures will each be about 1-10 years
apart in game time. The limited span of history she's using encourages her
to weave the highlights of the period into her adventures: the ascension of
Elizabeth I; the struggle with Mary, Queen of Scots; the Spanish Armada;
the colonization of America; and so on. Eileen will add fantastic elements
(royal wizards, strange monsters, fairie courts, new islands, etc.) to
these events, but will let much of real history occur as usual.
2. All PCs must be natives of this new world. (Note that this is
exactly the opposite of the ruling for the MAGITECH world.) PCs with
unusual or fantastic qualities appropriate to the period must be unique;
there cannot be more than one of any particular nonhuman or unusual human
character race in the campaign (one dwarf, one giant, etc.). At least half
of the initial group of PCs must also be either of European origin or
human. Players must work with the DM to generate characters for this
campaign; no standard PC-creation system applies (i.e., you make it up as
you go along!).
* Though her world is human-dominated, Eileen allows for nonhuman
races as well as non-European nationalities and religions, for the sake of
increasing player interest in her campaign. She suspects white Europeans
will be common choices as PCs (as usual), and there can be <many> sorts of
these. Her world is male-dominated but less so than the real world; female
adventurers are not too uncommon. She is also happy to consider other PCs
such as:
-- A black Ethiopian Christian from the empire of Prester John (a
fabled character of medieval times, but a real person in Eileen's world).
-- A wealthy young noble Muslim from Mughul India, touring England
with one manservant, an elderly male NPC.
-- A Scottish giantess, about eight feet tall, who is human but as
strong as an ogre. (Everyone else in her family is normal.)
-- A bearded Swiss dwarf, from an Alpine people who gave birth to the
legends of dwarfs. (This constitutes a new human race, a branch of <Homo
sapiens> like the Neanderthals; the dwarfs--not "dwarves"--are descended
from Roman mining slaves.)
-- A short, ugly man rumored to be a changeling, a faerie child left
in place of a human child taken away to some magical realm. No one is quite
sure whether to believe this. (<He> thinks he's human, but he is a true
nonhuman and uses goblin-PC statistics modified from <The Complete Book of
Humanoids>.)
-- A wispy woman who is actually a half-elf; her mother was an Irish
faerie who married an English sailor. She has faerie sight, which allows
her to see invisible things at all times.
-- A cyclops of roughly human size, much like the cyclopskin in the
MONSTROUS MANUAL(TM) tome, that was captured in Africa and brought to
England as a prodigy. The cyclops, now baptized, has been adopted by a rich
English merchant.
Other possibilities include a Japanese wu jen (see HR4, page 47), a
brownie or other fairie creature, a conquistador, a Native American
warrior, or an Inca priest.
3. This AD&D campaign will not use material from the SPELLJAMMER,
RAVENLOFT, PLANESCAPE, or <Chronomancer> accessories. This is an important
point because the above four are "linking" campaigns that connect different
AD&D game worlds. Eileen wants to separate her campaign from all others.
However, she does allow for the possibility of magical gates leading to
other places, though not to standard AD&D game worlds. Gates might lead to
different places on Earth, past or future periods in Earth history, or to
the Moon (which is inhabited in this campaign).
4. The magic system used will be that presented in HR4, on pages 45-47
and 90-92. Wizards may use white or gray magic only; black magic
(necromancy) is strictly for villainous NPCs. Clerics may be Catholic,
Protestant, Muslim, or Jewish; none may use baneful spells (e.g., <cause
light wounds, harm>), and <all> must behave as if of good alignment,
preferably lawful good, even though alignment does not exist here for PCs
(see #11, below). The cleric and wizard kits given in HR4 are permitted,
with player-designed variations allowed if they fit the campaign. Alchemy,
astrology, and numerology are developed as detailed wizard proficiencies.
If a player made a good case for playing a witch (here, something like a
neutral druid), Eileen would accept it.
5. Psionic wild talents in rare individuals are possible, but
psionicists from <The Complete Book of Psionics> are not. No more than two
wild-talent PCs are allowed at any time, and all of them <must> be human.
(A half-elf or changeling is unusual enough!)
6. Nonmagical gunpowder firearms are allowed as normal for the period.
Magical <smoke powder> does not exist. Any technological device known from
this period is open for purchase, though certain devices invented up to
about 1700 (e.g., calculating machine, phosphorus, telescope, steam engine)
might also be allowed under special conditions.
* Eileen has modified her world's history a bit to allow for unusually
advanced technology. The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci and the futuristic
writings of Roger Bacon, for instance, are published and widely read in her
world, but were not in our own. More ancient works survived in her world as
well, such as the complete Trojan War cycle and all of Aristotle's books.
7. Very few monsters from standard AD&D references will be used.
Instead, original monsters based on the legends and lore of Elizabethan
times (including medieval bestiaries and ancient myths) will be created.
The griffons and manticores of Eileen's world won't be like "standard"
ones, for instance. Normal animals, including those that existed in the
16th century but are extinct in modern times, will of course be found.
(Quaggas, Florida cougars, Tasmanian wolves, passenger pigeons, great auks,
Labrador ducks, and dodos are okay--but <no dinosaurs>!) Certain creatures,
especially dragons, are greatly rumored but almost extinct; they do not
resemble the dragons of the MONSTROUS MANUAL tome.
8. Geographic changes include the addition of more and larger
mid-Atlantic islands, creating fabled places known to Elizabethan times,
such as Antillia, St. Brendan's Isle, the Isle of Brasil, Friesland, and so
on. Atlantis is not known to exist here, but it appears in classical works
by Plato, etc. Legendary places like El Dorado and Avalon might be included
later, but will be kept secret for now except in rumors. One special
adventuring spot comes from Jules Verne's <Journey to the Center of the
Earth>, in which "Arne Saknussemm . . . a learned professor of the
sixteenth century" and an alchemist, discovers vast caverns under an
Icelandic volcano. (Perhaps he will hire some PCs to accompany him!)
* Eileen makes it a point, too, to use real countries or place names
that no longer exist, such as the Viceroyalty of New Spain (now Mexico),
with its provinces of New Vizcaya, New Galicia, New Mexico, New Leon,
Yucatan, and Guatemala. St. Augustine, founded by Spain in 1565, is now the
oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in North America; the PCs
might get to visit it, but they'll do so as English spies!
Norumbega (now New England) offers PCs the chance to meet with
Hiawatha as he creates the mighty Iroquois Confederacy of Five Nations.
Eileen keeps this region in mind, as she wishes to make an alteration in
her world to allow the Five Nations to withstand European colonization.
Perhaps the PCs will unknowingly help!
9. Historic events, places, cultures, and personages of the period
must be worked into each adventure and must be relevant to the course of
the adventure. The PCs, for example, might be asked by an Oxford professor
to search for a lost notebook of Leonardo da Vinci, journey with Sir
Francis Drake around the world (1577-1580),or hired by Sir Walter Raleigh
to assist his Virginia colony at Roanoke Island in 1588. (The PCs are
<certainly> going to meet Queen Elizabeth at some point!) Eileen's
historical studies turn up many events not mentioned in HR4 that she can
work into her adventures, like Tycho's supernova of 1572, the discovery of
Nova Albion (California) by Drake in 1579, the heroic fight of the ship
<Revenge> in 1591, and lots of solar and lunar eclipses. And who could
forget the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1582, which
will make campaign timekeeping a nightmare because Protestant countries
ignored the change?
* Given that adventures occur about 1-10 years apart in game time, PCs
might age greatly during the course of the campaign. With each new
adventure, players can have the option of running their old PCs, using new
PCs who are their old PCs' relatives or friends, or using new and unrelated
PCs. Family trees of PCs are possible. Events between adventures are
determined by mutual agreement between the players and DM.
It is entirely possible (and even desirable) that the actions of the
PCs will affect certain major events in the game world; see "The Living
Galaxy" in issue #110, pages 31-32, for an example involving the Roanoke
colony.
10. Some historic events are modified to further increase the unusual
nature and variety of the campaign. The many religious wars and massacres
of medieval and later times are reduced in number and intensity in Eileen's
Europe, largely thanks to the common ground shared by spellcasting clerics
of every religion. Viking Christian colonies have survived in Newfoundland
and Labrador; Iberian Christians fled to Antillia when the peninsula fell
to the Moors; Prester John's Ethiopia is real. Some literary characters are
allowed in the campaign as NPCs: Prospero from <The Tempest>, for instance,
with Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Puck from <A Midsummer Night's Dream>.
11. Alignment is replaced by religion in almost all magical effects
known to the PCs. Thus, the <detect alignment> spell becomes <detect
religion>, and alignment on character sheets is replaced by religious
affiliation (Anabaptist, Jesuit Roman Catholic, Anglican, Russian Orthodox,
Sephardic Jew, Sunni (Ottoman) Muslim, Puritan, Huguenot, Lutheran, etc.).
PCs should generally act within the restrictions of their religions and may
express tolerance for other religions. However, the <detect evil> and
<protection from evil> spells do exist; they affect only evil supernatural
creatures and not mortals. <No> alignment languages are used. Alignment
still exists for certain role-playing purposes for the DM and players
(e.g., PCs cannot commit evil acts without suffering for them, and some
magical items are evil and harm any PCs handling them).
But Wait! There's More!
This is one possible variation on the world presented in HR4. Next
month, we look at some reference materials for this campaign, and another
DM will recast HR4 in an entirely different way, for an entirely different
purpose. More later!
SIDEBAR
AD&D Voyages to Earth & Back
In addition to the different versions of Earth described in this column in
the last few issues, the following Earth-based adventures should be noted.
As variant campaigns go, these are <very> variant!
* Gary Gygax worked up the details for an AD&D adventure to an unnamed
modern city in his column, "From the Sorcerer's Scroll" in DRAGON issue
#30. (A later column noted that the player characters in that adventure
refused to go to the modern city once they realized what was happening!)
Further details on modern-world campaigns were offered by Ed Greenwood in
DRAGON issue #57, in "Modern Monsters: The Perils of 20th-Century
Adventuring."
* In the old D&D adventure IM1 <The Immortal Storm>, Immortal-level
player characters must voyage to Chicago's suburbs and to Manhattan Island,
about 1985, to pick up a few important items needed on their home planes.
* In DRAGON issue #100, the module "The City Beyond the Gate" describes
a heroic adventure to recover the lost artifact known as the <Mace of St.
Cuthbert>--now in a museum in modern London.
* The quasi-deity Murlynd from the GREYHAWK campaign, as depicted in
DRAGON issue #71 ("Greyhawk's World") and the 1983 WORLD OF GREYHAWK boxed
set's <Glossography>, has obviously visited the American Old West. His
extraplanar home, revealed in module EX2 <The Land Beyond the Magic
Mirror>, contains such amenities as a VCR and a stamp collection, so he's
been hanging around other Earthly time periods as well, probably with some
friends like Mordenkainen, Keoghtom, Heward, and (gasp!) Zagyg the Mad
Archmage.
* Elminster of Shadowdale, spokeswizard for the FORGOTTEN REALMS
setting, has magical gates in his secret hideout leading to Wyoming in the
year 1894 and to Ontario in the present year. (See the SPELLJAMMER
accessory SJR2 <Realmspace>, pages 51-52.) Maybe Murlynd and Elminster
party around in the Wild West together--a terrifying thought. Worse, maybe
their 1894 Earth is that of the RAVENLOFT Gothic Earth campaign. . . .
* In DUNGEON issue #21, heroes voyage to a land dominated by Greek
deities: Arcadia in ancient Greece itself. (This should be the same world
described in the Historical Reference Campaign Sourcebook HR6 <Age of
Heroes>, and probably also the same place called the "canyon of centaurs,"
reached by a gate in the old AD&D module S4 <The Lost Caverns of
Tsojcanth>.)
* An insurance salesman from (of all places) Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, is
accidentally summoned and captured by townspeople on the border of Cormyr
in the module, "A Question of Balance," in DUNGEON issue #14.
* Battles between AD&D characters and Nazi soldiers from the Eastern
Front in World War II were recorded in <The Strategic Review> issue #5, in
"Sturmgeschutz and Sorcery" and DRAGON issue #15, in "Monty and the German
High Command" (later reprinted in POLYHEDRON Newszine!).
* Certain <alternate world gates>, small magical items described in the
ENCYCLOPEDIA MAGICA accessory, volume II (pages501-502), open magical doors
to Earthly environments that use non-AD&D rules systems from TSR: the BOOT
HILL(R) Old West game, the GANGBUSTERS(R) Prohibition-era game, the TOP
SECRET modern-espionage game, and the GAMMA WORLD postwar-future game.
These items can be found in almost any AD&D campaign.
* And, lest we forget, there is one extraordinary NPC who originates
from Earth and has visited almost every other campaign world: Baba Yaga,
the ogre-witch of Russian folklore. Two detailed descriptions of her
magical hut (one in the recent AD&D module <The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga>
and the other in "The Dancing Hut," in DRAGON issue #83) reveal various
items that she has picked up when revisiting her old homeworld through the
ages.
We will mercifully skip over the published sagas describing AD&D
characters teleporting aboard a lost Earth starship called the <Warden>;
D&D and AD&D characters visiting the remains of crashed starships on
Mystara and Oerth (the starship on Mystara was definitely from Earth, and
one of its crewmen became an Immortal); a tribe of blue mutant kobolds from
an AD&D universe that inhabit a postatomic setting in North America (which
appeared in this very newszine), and the appearance of Captain Blood, fresh
out of the Bermuda Triangle. Whew!
Ubiquitous
More things than are dreamt of, part 2
In the last issue here, one Dungeon Master created an original AD&D
campaign partially based upon a TSR product, the HR4 <A Mighty Fortress>
campaign sourcebook. Eileen, our DM of the month, introduced enough new
material to HR4 to place her personal stamp clearly over the final result:
a magical Elizabethan England.
This installment covers some of the resources that could be used to
expand the HR4 setting into the result seen in the last issue. We also look
at a few other ways the HR4 setting could have been developed and used.
This issue becomes more important in a later installment of this column
when we will look at creating highly variant versions of "official"
campaigns, such as the WORLD OF GREYHAWK, DRAGONLANCE, or FORGOTTEN REALMS
settings.
First, however, a few thoughts on research.
About 14 years ago, POLYHEDRON Newszine published an article called
"Research is not a dirty word." In it, Kim Eastland pointed out that
research goes quicker than you think if you know where to find good
resources. He went on to list some outstanding books that could add
immeasurably to many fantasy RPG campaigns.
If you take time to look for campaign ideas in a library or bookstore,
you tap into an incredible wealth of creative material. Anyone can create
an original and exciting AD&D campaign world with just a little time and
trouble. The good side for the DM is that doing the research can be as much
fun as running the game itself. You just have to know when to call it
quits. You want to expand the options of your campaign as much as possible
without micromanaging it to death from the start.
Adding More History
A reasonable knowledge of English and world history is necessary for Eileen
to flesh out and operate her campaign. Her players don't need to know <all>
the details of who was who and what was what during Elizabethan times (they
can look it up if they want), but the more familiar Eileen is with this
period, the better her campaign will flow and the more confident she will
be during play in fielding questions.
It helps to know, for instance, that the New World of the Americas has
been known to England for only the last 50 years or so when the campaign
starts in A.D. 1550. Little of these lands have been explored. The Iroquois
Confederacy will not run into European nations until 1600 or so, so (unless
history is changed a bit) no Mohawks could be brought to England before
then. Science has not yet uncovered dinosaurs or cavemen; most people still
believe in the Garden of Eden, speaking of "antediluvian times" (before the
Biblical Flood) when they mean prehistoric periods. That the Earth is round
is also common knowledge; any sailor knows this.
Gorton Carruth's <What Happened When> gives a thorough overview of
early American times. Another resource Eileen could use for New World
adventures would be volume 1 of Samuel Eliot Morison's <Oxford History of
the American People>. More specific books should be examined for
information on things like the Roanoke colony of Sir Walter Raleigh, life
in a Spanish fort on Hispaniola, or the Portuguese colonies on the Azores.
Could Celtic Christians from Ireland have reached America in A.D. 850? When
did the Plains Indians get horses, and how? What was early Bermuda like?
Historical magazines like <American Heritage> and detailed encyclopedias in
libraries are especially worthwhile for starters.
Just as important is Eileen's familiarity with the mundane details of
daily life in England from 1550 to 1600, supplemented with short handouts
giving historical details for her adventures. Knowing the "character's-eye
view" helps loads in getting players in the mood. One minor but sticky
detail, for instance, is that tea was little known in England during this
time, so PCs can't really have tea with the Queen (as an earlier
installment of this column implied!) until after 1600. What is life like in
a university town like Oxford or Cambridge? How did the streets of London
look, sound, and smell to visitors? What was Elizabeth's palace like, or
Shakespeare's home? Back to the library she goes.
Clothing and uniforms of the period are described in a large number of
inexpensive, profusely illustrated, and easy-reading books by Osprey
Military in its Men-At-Arms and Elite series. Racks of these large, white
paperback books stand in almost every hobby store in America. The 16th- and
17th-century offerings cover the conquistadors, Henry VIII's army, the
Armada Campaign of 1588, forces involved in the Thirty Years War and
English Civil War (infantry and cavalry), soldiers in the Irish Wars,
Polish armies, Landsknechts, the Ottoman Turks, Mughul India, and
samurai--more than enough for Eileen's campaign needs.
Adding New Lands
Some lands that we know to have been mythical are quite real in Eileen's
world, though their presence has not greatly affected world history. Most
of these places were discovered after 1400, and they are now taken for
granted. Researching such legendary places and making them "real" is an
enjoyable task for Eileen.
For instance, Antilia, a rectangular island reputed to be the home of
Iberian Christians expelled by the Moors in the 8th century, is placed just
west of the Azores in Eileen's world, rising from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Maps of Antilia (or Antillia) appear in J. B. Post's <An Atlas of Fantasy>,
but were originally from Samuel Eliot Morison's <The European Discovery of
America>. The Isle of Brazil, described in L. Sprague de Camp's <Lost
Continents>, was rumored to be home to a wizard and giant rabbits.
Other resources here include <The Dictionary of Imaginary Places>, by
Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi; <The Dictionary of Mythical Places>,
by Robin Palmer; <Curious Myths of the Middle Ages>, by S. Baring-Gould
(Eileen has to get this one from the recesses of a major library, as it was
published in 1881), and <No Longer on the Map: Discovering Places that
Never Were>, by Raymond H. Ramsay. The Atlantic will become slightly
crowded with new islands. California, Eileen learns, was once thought to be
an island, too. Perhaps in her world it really is. Europe itself could
undergo slight changes, such as adding the legendary Breton city of Ker-Ys;
Africa gains the kingdom of Prester John.
Beyond the addition of imaginary lands, Eileen wants to keep a focus
on the real world as it existed in 1550. There were nations then which are
now forgotten, and national boundaries that don't resemble modern ones at
all. <The Anchor Atlas of World History> (in two paperback volumes) is
extremely useful, as it shows how borders shifted over time through
warfare. The <Atlas of Warfare> (Richard Natkiel and John Pimlott)
clarifies much on the battle of the Spanish Armada, should heroes become
involved in it. Another resource is <The Penguin Atlas of North American
History>, by Colin McEvedy, obviously useful for the New World.
Encyclopedia entries and historical magazines are again useful here.
Adding More Technology
Technology and magic are competitors for getting things done in Eileen's
world, though sometimes the two are combined for creating rare and
especially powerful devices. Consider the possibilities of magical
telescopes, eyeglasses, printing presses, iron smelting plants, compasses,
astrolabes, abacuses, adding machines, slide rules, acids, watches,
portable clocks, sundials, paving stones, stagecoaches, gunpowder, bullets,
rifles, pistols, micrometers, thermometers, air pumps, cannon, cannonballs,
waterwheels, windmills, stone bridges, postal delivery systems, water
pipelines, canals and canal locks, dikes, oared galleys, full-rigged
galleons, and carracks, not to mention the usual swords, daggers, shields,
rings, etc. What of all the marvelous things dreamed of by Leonardo da
Vinci? Galileo lived during Elizabethan times, as did Francis Bacon. What
if <they> knew of magic--and used it?
Books on the technological achievements of Elizabethan and earlier or
later times are plentiful. Among the good, easy-readingones are L. Sprague
de Camp's <The Ancient Engineers>, Frances and Joseph Giles' <Cathedral,
Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages>, and
Derry and Williams' <A Short History of Technology>. Even the current
<World Almanac and Book of Facts> fills in much of the technology, real and
potential, of the time. As noted last month, Eileen's world has slightly
more advanced technology than our own world did at that time. (Perhaps
secret societies of wizards, technologists, and crazed eccentrics are
responsible.)
In addition, the pure and applied physical sciences leaped ahead:
mathematics, hydraulics, astronomy, architecture, surveying, anatomy,
optics, ballistics, aeronautics (gliders!), cartography, botany, geometry,
bacterial theory, and so forth were growing rapidly. How will these
sciences interact with wizardry?
Adding New Monsters & Peoples
Eileen's monsters are picked from bestiaries common to the time. Some of
the books she finds in the library and local bookstores include <The
Elizabethan Zoo>, <A Dictionary of Fabulous Beasts>, <The Book of Beasts>
(translated by T. H. White), and C. J. S. Thompson's <The Mystery and Lore
of Monsters>. The last one reveals the interest during this time in humans
born with odd deformities, such as giants, dwarfs, people with three legs,
etc. Certain Greek and Roman monsters are borrowed in limited numbers from
mythology books (no big centaur herds roam the steppes).
Normal animals exist, of course, among them a few magical ones that
can talk or perform other unexpected actions. For example, there are normal
lions as well as "lyons" that share the bizarre characteristics attributed
to lions by the bestiaries. Big monsters are very rare but dramatic:
dragons, sea monsters, etc.
And then there are the faeries. Eileen draws heavily upon books like
Katharine Briggs' <Encyclopedia of Fairies>, Jorge Luis Borges' <Book of
Imaginary Beings>, Robert Kirk's <The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns
and Fairies>, and Thomas Keightley's <Fairy Mythology> (recently
republished as <The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and Other Little
People>). Robert Kirk's book is especially useful as it is so old; Kirk
died in 1692, so his faeries are very close in time to the Elizabethan
ones. <Russian Fairy Tales>, collected by Aleksandr Afanas'ev, has much
Russian material dating from the Elizabethan period, including Baba Yaga
and her magical hut--good luck to the PCs! Creatures from Shakespeare ("A
Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Tempest," etc.) and Christopher Marlowe
("The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus") are available as well. Perhaps Doctor
Faustus was a real person. . . .
Drawing From Odds & Ends
In addition to the above, Eileen can draw upon movie videos, picture books,
TV shows, historical romance novels, fantasy and science-fiction novels,
and role-playing materials from TSR and other companies to flesh out her
Elizabethan world.
* The AD&D <PLAYER'S OPTION Combat & Tactics> book has an excellent
rules expansion on gunpowder weapons.
* Chaosium's <Call of Cthulhu> game has the <Strange Eons> (<Strange
Aeons> in Great Britain) supplement which offers adventures set during the
Spanish Inquisition (1597) and the end of Elizabethan England (1603).
* The <Lace & Steel> game, from the Australian Games Group, reveals
another world, Mittelmarch, in which humans, satyrs, harpies, and centaurs
live in condition similar to those in 1640 in Europe. (The game was
described in the editorial for DRAGON issue #177.) Eileen may wish to
borrow materials from this game for hers.
* A number of fantasy and alternate-history science-fiction novels
cover the period from 1500 to 1700 or so, offering many ideas for world
creation. Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett's <Armor of Light> is of special
interest here as it is set during Elizabeth I's reign. In addition, there
are Melinda Snodgrass's <Queen's Gambit Declined>, John Brunner's <Times
Without Number>, Keith Roberts's <Pavane>, Phyllis Eisenstein's <Shadow of
Earth>, Poul Anderson's <A Midsummer Tempest>, and Orson Scott Card's
<Seventh Son> and other Alvin Maker novels.
Short fiction along this line includes A. Attanasio's "Ink from the
New Moon," L. Sprague de Camp's "The Round-Eyed Barbarians," and Robert
Silverberg's "Looking for the Fountain," anthologized in <What Might Have
Been: volume 4, Alternate Americas>, edited by Gregory Benford and Martin
H. Greenberg.
* Speculations about the consequences of a successful Roanoke colony
in the New World appeared in POLYHEDRON issue #110 in "The Living Galaxy."
Eileen could follow a similar path in her own campaign.
* A campaign using Sir Francis Drake's voyage of discovery couldn't be
hurt by using a scale model of his ship, the <Golden Hind>. Airfix makes a
nice 1/72nd-scale version of this vessel.
* Jules Verne's <Journey to the Center of the Earth> brings up the
possibility of an alchemist named Arne Saknussemm hiring some PCs to go
cave-exploring with him in Iceland. Moreover, the Incas were supposed to
have taken all their most valuable items and hidden them in vast
underground caves, says <The People's Almanac>, by David Wallechinsky and
Irving Wallace (page 691). Anyone for a really <big> dungeon crawl?
Eileen also has the option of playing videos of Shakespeare's plays as
campaign extras for willing players. ("This is what your characters saw at
the Globe Theatre.") Copies of artwork from Elizabethan times can be
displayed during games in books or prints, a great idea if the art shows
landscapes, street scenes, or personalities worked into an adventure. Music
from the period can be playing softly in the background during game
sessions. Eileen might (at the extreme) also call for a pot luck dinner to
go with a game, selecting foods available during this period.
A last thought: How far should Eileen go in introducing Middle English
into the game? A little bit goes a long way, perhaps. It is not difficult
for Eileen to select a few dozen words and phrases common to the time and
drop them into conversations, gradually increasing the number if the group
enjoys speaking with "thees" and "thous" and crying out peculiar oaths when
a sea monster appears. A book on Middle English would certainly be of help
here.
Other Worlds Beyond
Eileen's modified version of HR4 is but one direction a historical campaign
set on Earth could take. Given the period around 1600, a DM could set up a
world in which the Americas do not exist, and the Atlantic and Pacific join
to form an immense sea full of hundreds of islands (perhaps the larger
islands lie where the Rocky Mountains would have been). The trade route to
India and China would be clear, if very, very long!
If the light of Tycho's supernova of 1572 had carried a huge wave of
cosmic radiation with it to the Earth, human and animal life might have
perished. Perhaps then the elves and other "legendary" creatures would
reclaim the world, letting most human areas revert to nature but keeping
the traditions and appearance of the Elizabethan Age alive in their own
way.
If the Spanish Armada had conquered England in 1588, a Europe unified
under one church is possible. If this civilization was not friendly to the
faerie world, an interesting campaign covering the resulting war between
humans and nonhumans could be developed.
Japan of the 1500s could be developed along the lines of the old
<Oriental Adventures> volume, complete with a few monsters, wu jen, and so
forth. Using Japan in place of England as the campaign focus turns the
world on its ear. What would explorers find if they ventured out into the
Pacific?
Moving the campaign focus in England ahead a few decades could lead to
a setting in 1650, with the cloud of the English Civil War hanging over
all. Roundheads and cavaliers, with a touch of the fantastic--an
interesting possibility for a creative DM.
Next month: We leave Earth behind and build another new world.
Ubiquitous
New world opening--no humans allowed! Part 1
As in the last few issues, fictitious Dungeon Masters this month jump
into creating original game worlds for the AD&D game. This time, however,
our DMs will make one important change in the nature of things, in their
quests for the ultimate Least Boring Campaign: human player characters are
<not allowed>.
Why bother to do this? Aren't all AD&D campaigns supposed to be
"humanocentric"? This old dictum from the AD&D 1st Edition <DUNGEON MASTER
Guide> has become less critical in recent years, as a flood tide of new
character races has swept over the fantasy landscape. With resources at
hand like <The Complete Book of Humanoids> and the COUNCIL OF WYRMS boxed
set (not to mention the peculiar nonhumans in the DARK SUN and SPELLJAMMER
settings), the PC options are vast, and many players take them.
Playing in a nonhuman-PC campaign has an advantage, too, in that it
gives the campaign a special spin. Removing humans entirely throws the
campaign onto the shoulders of races with strong, built-in role-playing
hooks and assorted special powers and abilities. Players who regard human
PCs as too "vanilla" (i.e., lacking in personality, cultural identity,
uniqueness, etc.) willreadily seize on nonhuman campaigns. Humans, if they
exist as NPCs, might be cast as villains who seek to destroy or enslave
other races; with their enormous flexibility and unlimited level
progression, humans would make terrible--and natural--foes. Can other races
put aside their differences to unite against this worst of all possible
enemies?
There are many difficulties involved in putting such campaigns
together, of course, not the least of which is the question of how many
gamers will be attracted to a campaign in which nonhuman races dominate all
activities. Humans might not even exist in such campaigns, having never
appeared in the region or having died out or left for other lands ages go.
Would such a concept work in gaming? We'll give it a shot.
Where No Human Has Gone Before
Nonhuman kingdoms and worlds are not uncommon in the AD&D game. A campaign
made up only of high-elf player characters, for instance, could be run in
any number of places: the WORLD OF GREYHAWK setting's kingdom of Celene,
the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting's Evermeet Island, the DRAGONLANCE campaign's
elven lands of Southern Ergoth, the BIRTHRIGHT(R) campaign's domains of
Tuarhievel or the Sielwode, the MYSTARA setting's nation of--oops, no, skip
that, Alfheim's been destroyed. Sorry. Anyway, there's all that and about a
dozen other places besides, including some places detailed earlier in this
column. If you are using drow or shadow elves, the possibilities expand
even further. At least you can use what's left of Alfheim--I mean, Aengmor.
For the sake of strangeness (and let's face it, some days we all like
a little strangeness in our fantasy), let's skip over the common demihumans
like elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. We'll have some DMs pick more unusual
nonhumans for their campaigns, and we'll take a quick look at how they set
things up.
Minotaurs
Paul's friends are hack-and-slash role-players. While searching for a
short-term campaign that will keep the group occupied while the regular DM
is out of town for a couple of months, Paul (the new DM) looks over a copy
of the <Time of the Dragon> boxed set. He is intrigued by the small
continent of Taladas from the DRAGONLANCE setting, on which lies the
Imperial League of Minotaurs. Many minotaurs are chaotic evil in alignment,
but Paul confers with the players, wins their approval, and puts together
an aggressive but non-evil campaign using only minotaur explorers and
adventurers as PCs. Source material he uses includes the <Time of the
Dragon> and <Tales of the Lance> boxed sets, <DRAGONLANCE Adventures>
(using AD&D 2nd Edition rules), and (of course) the <Taladas: The
Minotaurs> accessory, with various Complete Handbooks for kits and
proficiencies, the ENCYCLOPEDIA MAGICA volumes for treasure, the MONSTROUS
COMPENDIUM DRAGONLANCE appendix for monsters, <PLAYER'S OPTION Combat &
Tactics> for--well, combat and tactics, and so on.
Minotaur fighters, priests, mages, and rangers are allowed as PCs,
starting from 1st level and most having military backgrounds.(Proficiencies
cure the lack of thieves and scouts in the party.) Taladas minotaurs are
not like those detailed in the <Complete Book of Humanoids>, but Paul uses
that book for creating a few non-minotaur NPCs. Given the Imperial League's
Roman look, he borrows cultural bits from books on the Roman Empire and the
sourcebook HR5 <The Glory of Rome>. The more "Roman" a minotaur looks, the
better, though one minotaur PC from northeastern Ansalon might be allowed.
Paul prefers to keep the campaign centered around Taladas, ignoring
Ansalon for the most part. He doesn't plan to use much SPELLJAMMER
material, though he checks references to the League and Taladas in <The
Complete Spacefarer's Handbook> and the <War Captain's Companion> boxed
set, and he will have spelljammers land or take off from Kristophan as
background color. No PLANESCAPE or RAVENLOFT adventures are planned,
either. (Paul wants his group to stay "grounded.") However, he elects to
have the PCs work away from the League (or at least any part but
Kristophan) until he become more confident in running the homelands.
The <Otherlands> accessory thus comes in handy for adventuring
possibilities, and Paul sets up his first series of adventures to be a
secret, commando-style exploration of the islands of the Spine of Taladas,
with an eye toward their conquest. Paul decides that a long-simmering
conflict between the Imperial League and the Sea Witch, Sagarassi (who
lives on an island south of the Spine) is coming to a boil. League ships go
where they will, and other races don't always like being spied on. An
exploration ship of the League was attacked and sunk by koalinths working
for the Sea Witch when the ship scouted the Sea Witch's home island; as a
result, the League has secretly voted to make the region safe in the only
way it knows how: total conquest. The PCs are the first wave of this policy
to establish bases for the Imperial navy throughout the Spine, then move on
the Sea Witch and destroy her and her followers (and everyone else who gets
in the way).
The PCs are to scout the islands out, pretending if caught to be
confused or stupid explorers (or possibly fugitives from League justice).
The establishment of a forward base in the Spine for spying on local
activities is also hoped for. This will keep the adventures tense and
active for weeks to come, as well as limiting the campaign's scope to keep
it from wandering and losing its focus. Possible foes include Mischta and
Nzunta ogres, Bolandi, jungle and sea monsters, dragons, pirates, lacedons,
koalinths, mermen, and Dargonesti elves. (The minotaurs of the League make
no distinction between different undersea races, viewing them all as
potential threats.) The dragons could easily be the nastiest foes, as one
island in the Spine is a hatchery for good dragons on Krynn! (Perhaps
negotiation would be better than fighting.)
About the time that Paul is ready to start his campaign, <Dragons of
Summer Flame> comes out and gives him a nasty turn. He meant to start the
campaign in 352 AC, following information given in "The Chronology of
Krynn," in DRAGON issue #224 (pages 72-76); just as the War of the Lance
ended, the Imperial League begins its war of conquest. If the campaign
catches on and runs beyond its expected expiration date (the other DM might
even join!), Paul doesn't want the campaign to end in 30 game years when
all gods andmagic go away--and the DRAGONLANCE campaign ceases to become an
AD&D setting! Besides, everyone in the group has bought a copy of the book,
so there aren't any secrets left regarding the future. The Knights of
Takhisis conquer all. Who'll play in the campaign if their PCs' deeds are
ultimately regarded as futile?
While glumly flipping through a friend's copy of <Chronomancer>, Paul
suddenly notes the existence of alternate realities of Krynn, on page 87 in
that book. If he changed a critical event at a temporal node, he'd create a
new and perfectly legitimate DRAGONLANCE campaign! Stunned at the news,
Paul sneaks a peak at a bookstore copy of <The Second Generation> and finds
his node. The capture of Ariakan (page 292 in the hardbound version of the
book) now ends in the youth's death in combat with the Knights of Solamnia.
The Knights of Takhisis are never formed. The long-duration play option is
saved.
Paul sighs with relief and goes home to get his campaign ready. The
players won't know right away that things have changed, but the news of
Ariakan's death will soon arrive in Taladas with the news of the war's end,
and the surprised players can draw their own conclusions. Who knows what
the future now holds in store?
Dragons
Lisa runs a straightforward WORLD OF GREYHAWK campaign in which the
group is just now wrapping up another grand adventure. With the <Mace of
Cuthbert> safely recovered and Iuz's invasion force destroyed outside
Radigast City, the tired players are ripe for a short-lived, change-of-pace
campaign. "Let's do something different," they ask in unison. "Sure," she
says, without the slightest idea of what she will offer then next.
When everyone has left to go home from the game, Lisa looks over the
piles of AD&D game supplies in her hall closet. Nothing seems to click. At
random, she pulls out the COUNCIL OF WYRMS box, which she bought as a curio
but has never played. The rule book is straightforward enough. Could she
run dragon PCs around in the Flanaess? Probably not without screwing up the
regular campaign; it wouldn't do to mix dragons with regular PCs. The
campaign will probably have to be on the Io's Blood Islands; Lisa grimaces,
thinking of the time it will take to familiarize herself with the world.
She puts the box aside for further examination and takes a last look
through the piles--and spots her equally unused copy of SJR6 <Greyspace>.
Lisa hates anything having to do with the SPELLJAMMER campaign. She
hates science fantasy, spelljammers, crystal spheres, the whole schtick.
She bought <Greyspace> out of curiosity, read it once, and put it away. But
something now clicks in her mind. Wasn't there a planet in Greyspace
populated only by dragons?
A minute of looking supplies the answer: Edill, a gigantic airworld,
is filled with dragons. Most are metallics, with other types here and
there; silver dragons predominate. Silvers make good characters, Lisa
remembers from the COUNCIL OF WYRMS rules, though other metallic or gem
colors could be used. Could she use the COUNCIL OF WYRMS rules to run an
all-dragon campaign on this world? A quick glance at the booklet shows no
reason why not. Kindred (demihumans) and half-dragons would not exist, but
the loss wouldbe no trouble. There's no point in running hatchlings, given
that this won't be a long-term campaign, so PCs can start at 6th level and
stay there for the whole adventure. The higher levels will give the PCs the
ability to take lots of damage and make their plans more flexible. Lisa
nods, absorbed. This could work.
What about adventures? Maybe the PCs could explore some of the flying
bodies of earth and rock in Edill's atmosphere. Maybe one has a gigantic
dungeon, like Hammerim's deathtrap dungeon in Book 3 of the COUNCIL OF
WYRMS boxed set. Who would build such a thing? Regular PCs often face
liches and mad wizards; the PCs could find and explore a mile-long rock in
which an undead red-dragon wizard has built its laboratory and lair. Maybe
the undead dragon has great spells and has collected dangerous monsters and
traps from its explorations of other planes, or perhaps it has been trading
with the humanoids said to be helping the red dragons of Edill in
<Greyspace>. Lisa is getting excited.
With the boxed set, Lisa can also design some special treasures in the
undead dragon's home, magical things the PC dragons can use and keep: giant
amulets, rings, necklaces, gems, staves, etc. Lisa checks Book 2 of the
boxed set and finds more treasure possibilities on pages 49-50.
Spellcasting dragons can be wizards or priests; the rest can be warriors.
<Greyspace> has its own local draconic deity, Rais, who introduces spells
from the <Tome of Magic> to the campaign. Most dragons of Edill are
philosophers, but the PCs could be bored youths who want more adventure in
their lives. Maybe their elders sent them off to learn wisdom, and instead
they spotted this orbiting rock and decided to examine it.
Best of all, Lisa thinks, she won't be bothered with spelljamming
details. The dragons will just fly up to the orbiting rock and start
exploring like in a regular adventure. They'll fight evil monsters that can
dish out plenty of damage, collect some magical wealth, and, with luck,
defeat the monstrous undead dragon at the dungeon's end. It will be a
challenge to design a dungeon with corridors 50 feet wide--but Lisa is
ready to give it a shot. She will study the Hammerim dungeon for nasty
ideas, and she pulls a few other killer modules, old and new, from her
closet for idea-fodder as well: <Tomb of Horrors>, <Temple, Tower, and
Tomb>, <Labyrinth of Madness>, and various copies of DUNGEON Adventures.
She makes a note to borrow copies of the two MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM
SPELLJAMMER appendices from a friend, to search for horrible monsters and
guardians to use in the adventure.
The next session of game play will be devoted to rolling up the new
dragon PCs and going over the basic rules. Lisa will also take time to type
up a short, one-page background for the players on what life is like on
Edill, what the PCs know about themselves and other dragons, and so on.
They can select their spells, pick out one or two minor magical items each,
and conduct introductory role-playing to get everyone in the mood. The
following week will bring the actual start of the adventure, with the
sighting of the giant flying rock.
The Edill campaign has the potential of becoming an intermittent
campaign, with a new adventure played for a few sessions every few months
as a break from the normal routine. Someof the players might even buy
miniature figures of their dragon characters and paint them up. It will
certainly give everyone something exciting to talk about, and Lisa's
reputation as a great DM will be secure.
Before she falls asleep that night, Lisa comes up with one last
detail, something to really surprise the players. In the regular campaign,
the wizard Mordenkainen has vanished and cannot be found. Lisa tossed the
event in to throw the players off guard and force them to carry through the
mission to recover the Cuthbert artifact without the wizard's assistance,
though she hadn't decided what became of the renown spellcaster. Now she
thinks, why not make him a prisoner of the undead red dragon? The PCs might
rescue him without knowing at first who he was. The effect would be quite
amusing and dramatic when the players figure it out. Mordenkainen would
quickly thank the dragon PCs and <teleport> back to Oerth, only to find
that the regular PCs fixed everything up while he was gone. He would reward
the regular PCs, then have them go questing for treasures to send to the
dragon PCs of Edill to reward <them>! That would tie off the loose ends
quite nicely.
Other Thoughts
The two nonhuman campaigns described here were conceived of as short-term
ones, used to fill time when a standard AD&D campaign is interrupted or has
reached a nice stopping point. However, a nonhuman campaign could run as
the main event, too. This possibility will be explored in next month's
installment.
Ubiquitous
New world opening--no humans allowed! Part 2
Last month, we looked at AD&D campaigns set up using only nonhuman races,
our two examples being Krynnish minotaurs and silver dragons. This month,
we continue our snooty disregard for humanocentric campaigns by taking up
with a setting populated by another sort of nonhuman--but this one comes
with special problems far beyond those that we encountered with minotaurs
and dragons, if you can believe that.
Again, a major problem to be faced in this campaign is the question of
how popular the setting will prove to be for players accustomed to more
traditional (human-and-demihuman) adventures. The setting is not only
peculiar in itself but is knotted up in rules-conversion problems that
would make even the most courageous and devoted DMs run for cover. It is
<not> a world for everyone. With that cheerful thought in mind, we look at
the "furry Oriental" world of Myoshima.
Rakastas
Kurt is the DM of a group just starting an AD&D 2nd Edition campaign
using the MYSTARA and RED STEEL settings. Several of the group members
(Kurt among them) once played in a Basic-through-Masters D&D campaign set
in the Known World, and theywere inspired to begin a "discover the world"
campaign based on the D&D <Champions of MYSTARA> boxed set and the "Voyage
of the Princess Ark" series that ran in DRAGON Magazine from issues #153 to
#188. The player characters start off in Glantri in the year 1010 AC with
an experimental flying ship created by an eccentric wizard who goes along
as a background NPC. The ship's large crew will provide the players with a
broad selection of new PCs if their initial ones are killed, imprisoned, or
otherwise lost. The group's mission is simple: test out the ship, explore
the reaches of the Known World, and avoid disaster.
Kurt elects to follow the old D&D game's mechanics for flying ships
and "space travel," as given in the <Champions of MYSTARA> boxed set and
DRAGON issue #160, "Up, Away, and Beyond" (with corrections in issue #161,
page 44). He ignores all SPELLJAMMER materials since the group will not be
leaving the world of Mystara, and PLANESCAPE, RAVENLOFT, and <Chronomancer>
materials are similarly disregarded for now. The focus of the campaign is
to explore the world, not the whole universe and outer planes. Kurt also
disallows psionics of all sorts, as they were not used in the old D&D
campaign material and no one is familiar with them. References to psionics
in the RED STEEL books are ignored.
One of the players, Murray, takes the role of a rakasta, one of the
cat-people who hail from Bellayne on the Savage Coast and from Myoshima,
the invisible moon of Mystara. Murray is a fan of Myojo, the samurai
rakasta who became Prince Haldemar's close friend and ally during the
<Princess Ark>'s adventures. As a result, Murray invents a character
history stating that his PC is actually a samurai who was kidnapped from
Myoshima by the crew of a Heldannic flying ship, and he was stranded on
Mystara after his successful escape. The samurai became a wandering
warrior, and he happened to be in Glantri when the ship's crew was being
hired. He signed on at once, secretly hoping to return to Myoshima. For
now, the samurai rakasta has adopted the dress (but not all the mannerisms)
of a Bellayne warrior. He keeps his katana and wakizashi (long and short
swords) hidden to avoid their theft and the discovery that he is an
off-worlder, though the latter is bound to become an open secret during
play.
This is a very creative history, but it promises Kurt a few headaches.
After some thought, Kurt uses all the rules for rakasta PCs from the RED
STEEL campaign boxed set's Campaign Book, pages 7-11 and 124-125. He gives
the PC the samurai kit for fighters from <The Complete Fighter's Handbook>,
working out the details with Murray, who wishes to use as much material as
possible from the AD&D 1st Edition <Oriental Adventures> volume. All
proficiencies are chosen from <Oriental Adventures>, with whatever
modifications are needed to bring them into the AD&D 2nd Edition game. The
rakasta can achieve the 15th level of ability as a samurai fighter, as per
the RED STEEL book, but starts at 1st level like everyone else.
The campaign takes off and does very well. The rakasta samurai Miyowa
Kitikata (Kurt winces at the name, but Murray is adamant) achieves
considerable experience and power. Then trouble strikes. Murray's work
schedule suddenly changes, and he will soon no longer be able to meet when
the other players do. Kurt and Murray work outa suitable "farewell"
session. During one of their adventures, the flying ship's crewmen sudden
find themselves in space, orbiting Mystara. When a squadron of rakasta
warriors riding flying tigers surrounds the ship, just as happened in one
episode of "The Voyage of the <Princess Ark>" (DRAGON issue #160), Kitikata
immediately calls off the rakasta attack, reveals his true nature, and
takes his leave of the ship and crew to return to his home on Myoshima.
However, this does not mark the end of Kitikata's career. Murray
approaches Kurt a few days after starting his new work shift and asks to
run his rakasta PC on rakasta-dominated Myoshima itself, in a series of
solo adventures with Kurt moderating on a night different from the group's
meeting night. Kurt has the time and interest, but he soon discovers that
he has let himself in for a new round of headaches. In a nutshell, he has
agreed to develop an entire game world for one player's use. (Murray might
come up with a few friends to run other rakasta, but Kurt isn't counting on
it.) It's fortunate that Kurt and Murray are good friends!
Kurt's first problem is to look up all the relevant information on
Myoshima and its societies and races. Before long, he has the following
list of references:
* AC9 <Creature Catalogue>, page 44. This presents rakasta as
"monsters" but has a little useful information on them.
* DRAGON issue #160 (August 1990), "The Voyage of the Princess Ark"
(part 7), pages 41-44. This was the article that introduced Myoshima and
its cultures, and it contains most of the information on this peculiar
little world. Much later information is repeated from this material. The
next installment in DRAGON issue #161 (page 41) mentions that asteroid
fields are found close to Mystara; these might possibly be in orbit around
the world, since flying ships can hide among the rocks.
* AC1010 <Poor Wizard's Almanac>, pages 4 and 58. This has some
information on Myoshima, known as Patera to the Immortals alone, and
describes the deep-space appearance of the parent body, Mystara, with brief
mention of Matera, the other moon. Much the same material is repeated in
AC1011 <Poor Wizard's Almanac II> and AC1012 <Poor Wizard's Almanac III>.
* <Champions of MYSTARA> boxed set, Heroes of the <Princess Ark>
booklet, pages 3, 80, 92-93. This contains information on Myojo, rakasta,
and Myoshima.
All of this material, of course, is in D&D game terms. Thus, Kurt's
next problem is to convert the relevant D&D game material to AD&D 2nd
Edition game mechanics. Some of this work is made easier by the section
covering such conversions in the D&D <Rules Cyclopedia>. But Kurt must also
convert some materials from the 1st Edition <Oriental Adventures> volume to
2nd Edition standards--spells (there are no segments, and priest spells are
not in spheres) and the morale and initiative systems in particular.
Several other AD&D 2nd Edition books are of use here in developing either
PCs or NPCs from Myoshima:
* <The Complete Fighter's Handbook>: Offers the samurai and barbarian
kits for fighters. Many rakasta warriors on Myoshima canbe barbarians or
have similar primitive-warrior kits if they are not from the two major
civilized nations of Myoshima and Rajahstan. (Optionally, the barbarian kit
from the <PLAYER'S OPTION Skills & Powers> hardbound could be used, with
modifications to make it fit the game world.)
* <The Complete Wizard's Handbook>: Offers the wu jen kit for wizards.
However, all wu jen spells are taken from <Oriental Adventures>, with
appropriate conversions to the AD&D 2nd Edition game.
* <The Complete Ninja's Handbook>: Used for NPC foes only, not for any
PCs.
* DRAGON issue #189, "The Other Orientals," pages 28-32: Offers the
bushi (fighter), kensai (fighter), sohei (priest), shukenja (priest), ninja
(thief), and yakuza (thief) kits for AD&D 2nd Edition campaigns. All
Oriental priest spells are taken from the shukenja spells in <Oriental
Adventures>, with appropriate conversions to the AD&D 2nd Edition game.
Kurt looks over the fighting-monk kit in <The Complete Priest's
Handbook>, but elects to use a modified version of the <Oriental
Adventures> monk instead.
The allowable classes and kits for Myoshiman rakasta in this campaign
are eventually worked out as follows, using clues in the RED STEEL booklet:
* Fighter (barbarian/bushi/kensai/samurai kits): 15th level.
* Wizards (wu jen kit): 15th level.
* Priest (shukenja/sohei kits): 12th level (see below).
* Thief (yakuza kit): 13th level.
* Monk (modified from <Oriental Adventures>): 17th level.
No "gaijin" classes (paladin, ranger, druid, etc.) are permitted to
Myoshiman rakasta. Kurt considers the 2nd-level limit to rakasta priests
(as given in the RED STEEL Campaign Book, page 8) to be too low, so he
raises it to 12th to be more in line with the other limits. He sees no
reason to limit rakasta monks, since they come with their own martial-arts
weapons (claws and teeth).
Additionally, Kurt borrows the rules for honor, family structures,
birthrights, and money from <Oriental Adventures>. The honor system will be
especially important for role-playing Miyowa Kitikata in this one-player
campaign.
With the furry-Oriental PC problem resolved, Kurt still faces a
potentially more difficult problem: designing the satellite world of
Myoshima itself. General details on the world are available, but Kurt
doesn't see the point in mapping out the whole place. He would rather
produce an exciting and workable campaign while cutting all possible
corners.
First, Kurt does a little mathwork. If the circumference of Myoshima
is about 3,000 miles, then its area would be about 3 million square miles,
or about the area of Australia or mainland China. Kurt sketches out a rough
map of the world, placing the three freshwater seas, some islands, the
various nations mentioned in the books, and so forth. However, he doesn't
feel like drawing out every city in detail. After some thought, he digs out
hisgaming supplies and finds some of the <Oriental Adventures> modules he
used long ago for another campaign and never bothered with since. He is
certain that Murray has seen little of these products, though Murray does
have <Oriental Adventures>.
This is nice, Kurt thinks. From OA4 <Blood of the Yakuza>, he notes
the city of Nakamura, which he decides to rename and place on the world of
Myoshima as a seaport of the empire of Myoshima, on the shore of one of
those huge freshwater seas. This will be Miyowa Kitikata's home town. Kurt
carefully goes over the information in the module, changing all references
to humans into references to rakasta. He won't need a fully detailed map of
the empire of Myoshima, just maps of the places to which Miyowa goes. (In
the back of his mind, Kurt keeps the knowledge that the empire of Myoshima
is not on a group of islands like Japan; it is a continental nation. Thus
many maps of fantasy Japanese realms like Wa and Kozakura in the FORGOTTEN
REALMS campaign cannot be used.) More maps of other cities (renamed and
dropped into the campaign) are pulled from the <Kara-Tur: The Eastern
Realms> boxed set and other OA-series modules.
Various monsters are drawn from the MC6 MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM Kara-Tur
appendix and <Oriental Adventures>; bakemono, goblin rats, goblin spiders,
oni, and wako (rakasta pirates) will become common foes. Rakasta ninja and
other sorts of villains can be taken from <The Complete Ninja's Handbook>
and <The Complete Book of Villains>. Magical items and treasures are as per
<Oriental Adventures> and other references.
What about adventures? Much can be borrowed from many sources. Plot
elements, locations, villains, allies, and quests can be taken from OA1
<Swords of the Daimyo>, OA2 <Night of Seven Swords>, OA6 <Ronin Challenge>,
OA7 <Test of the Samurai>, and FROA1 <Ninja Wars>. Kurt has a subscription
to DUNGEON Adventures, and he sorts through some of the oldest issues in
search of Oriental adventures that can be dropped on Myoshima. The
following adventures strike him as suitable: "The Kappa of Pachee Bridge"
(issue #5), "Samurai Steel" (issue #7), "The Artisan's Tomb" (issue #10),
"The Waiting Room of Yen-Wang-Yeh" (issue #17), and "Crocodile Tears"
(issue #18).
Is there a way to connect some of these adventures together? Kurt
makes up a possible starting scenario: After Miyowa reports back to his
liege and tells of his adventures and what he has seen and done on Mystara,
he might be regarded as worthy of taking on greater risks and
responsibilities. (He's quite extraordinary already just for having
returned home!) His lord given him a series of special assignments in many
spheres of interest: recovering lost artifacts and tomes; rescuing
kidnapped nobles and diplomats from pirates; defeating the plots of
Heldannic knights who seek Myoshima, in order to attack, loot, or conquer
it; scouting out enemy encampments and distant islands.
Eventually, Miyowa might be promoted and granted his own estate by the
Emperor of Myoshima himself, and then even more adventures will take place.
Rather than retiring, Miyowa can become embroiled in palace politics,
conflicts with neighboring lords, and more. He could certainly return to
Mystara to go adventuring with his old allies on the skyship, should Murray
have an off-night togame with his friends again.
A new source of materials for this campaign comes to light when Kurt
looks through a large collection of DRAGON Magazines at a friend's house.
Many issues have helpful bits. DRAGON issues #121, 151, and 164 are devoted
to <Oriental Adventures> gaming. "Sage Advice" questions and answers on
Oriental campaigns appear in issues #121,122, 151, 161, and 162. Articles
on new types of martial arts (can't have an Oriental campaign without them,
even with just one player) appear in issues #122, 127, 136, and 164. More
Oriental treasures are listed in issue #126, and new arrow types (Miyowa is
an archer) in issue #146. A marvelous work on sea voyaging for Oriental
ships is in issue #130, and Oriental police forces are described in #151.
Yuan-ti, who make superb evil villains, are further detailed with Oriental
trappings in issue #151. Best of all (for Kurt), long tables of Japanese
names can be found in issue #121. Kurt spends some time at a photocopier
getting some of this material into his DM's notebook for the campaign.
Kurt himself has a few recent issues of the magazine, and from them he
culls out materials useful in case Miyowa Kitikata meets some rakasta from
Rajahstan, an India-style nation on the world of Myoshima. Weapons and
armor from India appear in issue #189, and Indian kits and spells are found
in issues #225 and #226.
The campaign is started and goes well. Murray brings a friend from
work along for the second game, then a third joins later. Kurt's creation
gains its own measure of popularity, much to his amazement, and Myoshima
lives on.
A Few Last Notes
Any masochistic DM trying to work out a calendar for Myoshima should be
aware that Mystara has no axial tilt, unlike many worlds (including Earth).
All references to Mystara having any sort of tilt are erroneous, and such
references in DRAGON issue #160 and the <Champions of MYSTARA> boxed set
should be corrected.
Myoshimans will be perfectly aware of the existence of the HOLLOW
WORLD(TM) setting, as their world orbits Mystara in a polar orbit. Mystara
will regularly eclipse the sun during part of the year; at other times,
half of Myoshima will be in darkness for long periods of time, while the
other side will be in sunlight for long periods. With a captured rotation,
little Myoshima (which is assumed to be very close to its parent world,
much closer than the Moon is to Earth) is also divided into a Nearside and
a Farside, with the Farsiders never seeing Mystara. It may be assumed that
the empire of Myoshima lies mostly on Nearside, as these rakasta seem
familiar with it.
The change in making the maximum level of rakasta clerics 12th level
from its old place at 2nd level was made official through the RED STEEL
folder in TSR Online, on the America Online information service. This
folder and the ones for the MYSTARA campaign should be consulted for more
information on these settings and their possibilities.
Next month: A visit to a centaur planet.
Ubiquitous
New world opening--no humans allowed! Part 3
In the last two issues of this marvelous newszine, we've looked at three
original AD&D campaign worlds, each dominated by different nonhuman
creatures--Krynnish minotaurs, silver dragons, or Oriental rakasta. Each
campaign has its own peculiar limitations on character variety, world
set-up, and frequency of play.
This month, we look at a Dungeon Master who aims to produce a nonhuman
campaign with many character options, an expansive but unique world set-up,
and constant play as a full-time campaign. Let's see how she goes about
turning her campaign into the, um, <centaur> of attention for her gaming
group.
Four Legs Beat Two
Angie likes horses. (She owns one.) As it happens, she also likes centaurs,
and she wants to design an AD&D campaign world populated by centaur-folk,
with a smattering of other races in minor roles. She mentions the idea of
an all-centaur campaign to some of her friends, and the idea is received
with enthusiasm; she won't lack for players at the first session of gaming.
But how will she keep the players in the group as the campaign moves on?
Angie starts off with some basic assumptions about her campaign world,
Hareth. In essence, it will be played out in every way as a standard AD&D
campaign, but with the following changes. Some changes are extreme, but
campaign survival is at stake.
Hareth has no humans or demihumans; they are unknown and replaced by
centaurs as the dominant race. To get the greatest character variety for
her group, Angie looks up the statistics for centaur PCs in PHBR10 <The
Complete Book of Humanoids> and modifies them so that on her world, centaur
PCs--by the grace of their deities, their excellent minds, and their
peculiar world--can achieve up to the 16th level of ability as fighters,
rangers, paladins, clerics, druids, bards, mages, specialist wizards, or
psionicists. Thieves appear only as fighter/thieves, as their range of
abilities is greatly restricted (can't climb walls, rarely hide in shadows,
etc.); these characters function largely as either scouts or bandits.
Centaurs can be multiclassed within reason; Angie uses the rules for
multiclassed elves and half-elves as her guidelines. Experienced PCs can
achieve levels higher than the 16th, but special quests, ceremonies, or
sacrifices are required first. Centaur PCs and NPCs follow the usual rules
for humans in level advancement, but have one hit die more at every level
(e.g., a warrior has 9 HD at 8th level).
Angie figures she can get away with such high level limits given that
many AD&D products experiment with PC generation (e.g., dragon PCs in the
COUNCIL OF WYRMS boxed set can reach the 12th level of ability as fighters,
priests, or wizards) and that PCs in her campaign cannot interact with
characters from other campaigns, avoiding "campaign pollution" problems.
Most centaurs of Hareth are semi-nomadic, having large camps or crude
villages that function like minor city-states. Some alliances between
centaur tribes have aided civilization amongthem, especially given the
pressures centaurs face from marauding humanoids, giants, and dragons.
There are even a few true cities on seacoasts or along rivers or lakes,
which to human eyes would be sprawling affairs with wide, dusty streets and
high-roofed, single-story buildings with huge doors. City walls are of
stone or wood and rarely over one story high. Floors are nearly always of
packed dirt and straw, even in royal households; roofs are wooden and often
placed by crane. Windows are high, since eye level to a centaur is higher
than for a human. Street traffic includes centaur-, horse-, or ox-drawn
carts and wagons of every sort. Several cities have primitive railroads
using animal-pulled wagon trains. Ironworking and magic are well known and
widely practiced.
The main cultural groups of centaurs are loosely based on horse
cultures from our world, especially American Plains Indian, medieval
European, and Mongol/Tartar societies. All three groups are equally
advanced in magic and technology, and they are usually friendly toward one
another. This helps them greatly against their humanoid and giant rivals,
who are universally barbaric and destructive. Many character kits are
allowed, as appropriate to the set-up; Mongol-type centaurs have Oriental
kits. The barbarian kit is a good choice for all regions. Centaurs
domesticate animals, raise crops, create complex tools and weapons, wear
armor, use money, and even have a few barge-like boats for river travel.
Angie finds it necessary to further detail centaur characters
according to their size, weight, carrying and hauling capacity, movement
sideways and backwards, combat abilities, swimming and diving abilities,
effects of kicking, and the effects of weapons used by charging centaurs
and <against> charging centaurs. She manages to get copies of two old
issues of DRAGON Magazine having articles on centaur characters (#103, "The
Centaur Papers," and #105, "The Rest of the Papers"). She has read about
the centaur world called Torus in the SPELLJAMMER accessory, SJR4
<Practical Planetology>, but she wants Hareth to be a sphere. Torus could
be an outer planet in "Harethspace," Hareth's crystal sphere. Perhaps PCs
will reach that doughnut-shaped world someday.
Angie has no plans to use the <Chronomancer> accessory in her
campaign, but she includes PLANESCAPE, RAVENLOFT, and SPELLJAMMER campaign
monsters on her world as interesting "interlopers." Spelljammer ships and
wildspace travel are currently unknown, however. Psionics are allowed, as
per PHBR5 <The Complete Psionics Handbook>. Angie spends some time in local
hobby stores looking for miniatures of centaurs and humanoids, and she
encourages her players to paint up their own centaur figures.
The centaurs of Hareth protect their legs with wrappings of heavy
waxed cloth or leather straps. They shod themselves with iron shoes, braid
their tails, and often wear clothing to protect themselves in cold or rainy
weather. Decorative jewelry is common, and some centaurs tattoo or paint
their upper bodies.
"Generic" Centaur Accessories
To supplement her campaign, Angie freely borrows materials from many AD&D
accessories, particularly the "generic" ones. However, she quickly finds
that she must adapt most materials to fit thepeculiar demands of her game
set-up.
For example, Angie owns all four of the ENCYCLOPEDIA MAGICA volumes,
using the treasures and treasure tables therein in normal play. Most
magical items are used without significant changes, such as the potions and
oils, scrolls, shields, rings, wands, rods, staves, gloves, girdles, belts,
helmets, jewelry (amulets, bracelets, necklaces, etc.), gems, dusts,
stones, bottles, books, tools, and musical instruments.
There are no magical pants or shoes, however--at least, not for
centaurs. (Humanoids might have some.) Magical "horseshoes" otherwise
replace all sorts of magical shoes, sandals, and boots. Magical sidebags
supplement the various containers like sacks, bottles, bags, etc. Centaurs
do not use saddles, so those don't appear in Angie's treasure lists. Cloaks
and robes are modified to fit the centaur form, and magical blankets exist.
Magical carpets and rugs are almost unknown, as the great weight and sharp
hooves of a centaur would destroy them quickly; what few such items exist
are very large and thick. Magical rings and jewelry are supplemented by
magical anklet-like pastern chains that fit just above the hooves. And a
centaur's tail can have a magical ribbon, strap, chain, or band placed
around it at the root. Certain magical items, especially those using wizard
spells of the 9th level (e.g., <shape change>, <time stop>, <wish>), are
extremely rare and produced only by the centaurs' gods themselves.
Magical armor, a critical element in any treasure table, is redesigned
so that it becomes either partial sets of armor (fitting either the equine
or human half of a centaur) or full sets (fitting the whole character).
Among the weapons, magical lances, spears, and javelins become common.
Heavy crossbows, which require foot cranks to wind up, become very rare.
<Smoke powder> is not found on Angie's world, as she wants to keep firearms
out.
Just as important are the changes Angie makes to named items and
spells to make them fit her campaign background. <Boccob's blessed book>
becomes a <blessed book of wizards>, for instance; <Bigby's clenched fist>
is now merely a <clenched fist>, and <Mordenkainen's faithful hound> is a
<faithful hound>. Historical notes in the EM volumes are always changed to
fit campaign circumstances. Artifacts from other game worlds do not appear
in Angie's campaign; she has her own list of local artifacts for game play.
Of course, references to humans or demihumans in spell or item descriptions
are changed to centaur, humanoid, or other creature references where
appropriate.
In the field of monster selection, the MONSTROUS MANUAL tome and its
yearly appendices meet many of Angie's campaign needs. The humanoids can
gain levels in various classes, as per <The Complete Book of Humanoids>.
Many undead creatures exist on Hareth, but these are usually humanoid
undead created by humanoid spellcasters. Evil lycanthropes exist, but they
are orcs when not in were-form. Standard types of dragons exist; COUNCIL OF
WYRMS rules are not used for them. Normal and giant animals like bats,
wolves, great cats, rodents, bison, horses, oxen, fish, insects, reptiles,
frogs, and the like are common. "True" monsters like basilisks, beholders,
behirs, perytons, carnivorous plants, purple worms, treants, trolls, and
wyverns are well known.
Summoned and enchanted monsters like elementals and golems are very
rare, brought into being only by powerful humanoid or centaur spellcasters.
A centaur wizard's homonculous has four legs (of course), though his
familiar will be of the normal sort. Intelligent evil beings can be
designed using <The Complete Book of Villains>.
Fixing Up Centaur Quests
It doesn't take long for Angie to find out that there are no published AD&D
adventures designed for centaur PCs. However, some adventures can be
modified to allow for groups of huge, four-legged, half-ton centaur heroes.
One useful adventure, though it is long out of print, is the 1978 module G1
<Steading of the Hill Giant Chief>, which is perfect for Angie's campaign
as a giants' stronghold. DUNGEON Adventures has a number of adventures that
Angie can modify for her world, but for the most part she is on her own.
One complex adventure that Angie has her eyes on as her campaign
begins to generate high-level characters is the justly famed DRAGON
MOUNTAIN(R) boxed set published in 1994. The DRAGON MOUNTAIN setting moves
from world to world, as outlined in Book II, page 2. Angie decides that
Hareth is one of the unlucky worlds visited by Infyrana's mountain, though
in the past only Hareth's humanoids suffered from the depredations of the
mountain's kobolds. However, centaurs have pushed humanoids back into the
mountains in recent years, seizing the fertile plains and unknowingly
putting themselves in the path of Infyrana's reavers. Old humanoid legends
warn of the coming of the "cursed peak," but who pays attention to the
mumbling of evil shamans?
After reading through the boxed set carefully, Angie sets up this
adventure with only minor use of Book 1, which would be difficult to use as
written. Instead, she has rumors of a war or uprising spread through
humanoid tribes in the mountains near her campaign's central region;
eventually, nomadic centaurs are also attacked and their encampments
looted. The centaur PCs are eventually brought into the picture as the
situation worsens, and the old legends of a haunted or cursed mountain
begin to circulate once more and reach the PCs' ears.
Angie gets ready for the group's arrival at Dragon Mountain. Kobold
tactics of grappling and overbearing (Book II, pages 4-5) are modified to
include netting, entrapment, and tripping for their big foes. Centaurs,
being large creatures, take more damage from weapons than humans or orcs
would. High mountain roads must be negotiated with great care; turning
around could be impossible on a narrow path, and an avalanche could wipe
out the party. Once heroes get inside the mountain, ceiling height and
corridor width must be considered, as well as weapon length and character
weight. (Centaurs will trip almost every weight-sensitive trap they find.)
There are few opportunities to charge in short hallways, and retreat from
narrow tunnels could be nearly impossible. Pit and blade traps that could
cut or break a centaur's legs are especially dangerous. On the good side,
spells like <web> have limited value against heavy, swift centaurs.
Prisoners inside the mountain dungeons are mostly humanoids from
Hareth, with a few peculiar creatures from other worlds (even elves,
dwarves, and humans are possible, though only as NPCs). Just to be sneaky,
Angie allows Infyrana to adopt the form of any sort of humanoid, but not a
centaur. It is unlikely that centaur PCs will be able to defeat Infyrana's
forces, but the adventure will certainly challenge the characters in ways
that won't matter to human-sized heroes.
Other Worlds & Races
Surely some readers out there have considered creating and running AD&D
campaign worlds which also feature nonhuman races in the fore. Other
possibilities that could be explored include the following:
* Humanoids: The only major all-humanoids campaign I recall published
by TSR was the GAZ10 <Orcs of Thar> setting for the D&D game. With PHBR10
<The Complete Book of Humanoids>, an all-humanoids campaign became fully
possible for the AD&D game. A Dungeon Master could set this campaign on a
large island, with various barbaric humanoids cooperating against enemies
like giants and dragons (using <The Complete Barbarian's Handbook> for
humanoid character-building), or expand the setting to a whole world run by
advanced humanoid races who make war on each other, with the PCs being
entirely of one particular humanoid race.
* Oceanic races: Years ago, I compiled pages of notes on setting up an
AD&D campaign entirely underwater, with players using character races such
as aquatic elves, mermen, locathah, and so on. The notes are long lost, but
the idea is as strong as ever. Enemies would include ixitxachitl, sahuagin,
kraken, sharks, and other unfriendly creatures. Resources include the D&D
game's CREATURE CRUCIBLE(TM) accessory, PC3 <The Sea People>, as well as
numerous references to aquatic elves, especially in PHBR8 <The Complete
Book of Elves>. One challenge here is to constantly think in three
dimensions, remembering that opponents might face each other across
different altitudes when undersea.
Good luck trying your hand at this type of campaign creation!
Ubiquitous
Islands in the multiverse--an overview, Part 1
Thanks to the great flexibility of the AD&D game system, thousands of
entertaining fantasy worlds can be developed by Dungeon Masters and players
alike, leading to years of enjoyable play. Sometimes, however, it is
difficult to break out of the standard campaign mold formed from elements
of medieval European history and legend, and from the works of fantasy
authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, and Robert E.
Howard. A change may be called for to freshen the thrills of discovery,
conflict, and triumph.
TSR has provided a number of unusual game campaigns with their own
particular twists: the RAVENLOFT Gothic horror setting, the SPELLJAMMER
techno-fantasy campaign, the politically charged BIRTHRIGHT world, and so
forth. Even with these choices, many DMswant original campaigns of their
own design, new worlds built from the ground up with unique histories and
quirks.
Since this column's start in POLYHEDRON issue #111, we've looked at
the creation of a number of AD&D campaigns with unusual twists: worlds
dominated by nonhuman races, worlds under siege by powerful enemies, one
world hidden entirely underground and one world with no sun, a world with
extremely advanced magic, and several worlds based upon our own Earth's
history.
This column starts another miniseries detailing unique AD&D campaigns,
but one in which we tinker with the geography of the campaign setting
itself. In this and the next few columns, we will look at <island>
campaigns.
Isolated and Small
The above two words describe the essential elements of an island, by
definition a small land mass surrounded by water. A broader definition
would be that all islands are small habitable regions separated by a
hostile medium that can be crossed only with difficulty and danger. Within
this new definition, many sorts of island campaigns can be created.
An island society can be highly personal, as a limited number of
beings must daily cope with each other and their environment. Communities
may vary radically from island to island, though they are each separated by
only a few miles from each other, and they can evolve independent
histories, customs, and wildlife.
Lastly, because each island is small, a large group of islands could
fall prey to a single threat that attacks each island individually and
destroys its relatively weak defenses. Island populations are vulnerable to
many dangers. External threats could include pirates, enemy navies and
armies, storms, plagues, and other regional disasters. Internal threats
include the rise of tyrannies and police states that brutalize unarmed
citizens, and crop failures that produce poisonings or starvation.
The following are a few island campaigns that could be (or already
have been) developed for the AD&D campaign. Note their similarities as well
as their differences.
Oceanic Islands
The most obvious island campaign is that set among a large group of
islands in an ocean. In fantasy literature, the four Earthsea novels by
Ursula K. LeGuin best depict this sort of set-up (<A Wizard of Earthsea,
The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore>, and <Tehanu: The Last Book of
Earthsea>). It is impossible to recommend these books enough to DMs
interested in creating this sort of fantasy campaign; by all means, read
them!
Among official AD&D game worlds, the following island regions exist as
potential campaign locales. I won't try to list all of the accessories,
adventures, and other game materials describing these island settings, as
there are so many available.
* AL-QADIM(R) campaign: Al-Faraq, Al-Qirmiza, Al-Tarik, and Al-Zuhm
island chains, and numerous other southern islands. (I'm not counting all
of the zaratans, of course.)
* BIRTHRIGHT campaign: Khinasi domains of Ghamour and Suirene; Isle of
the Serpent; Anuire isles of Albiele, Baerghos, Caelcorwynn, and Dantier;
Brechtur isles of Krakenstaur and the Zweilunds; Torova Temylatin.
* COUNCIL OF WYRMS campaign: Io's Blood Island Chain.
* DRAGONLANCE campaign: Western islands (Sancrist, Northern Ergoth,
Southern Ergoth, Enstar, and Mostar), Dragon Isles, Blood Sea Isles, Spine
of Taladas (see this column in issue #119).
* FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign: Evermeet, Lantan, Moonshae isles, the
Nelanther, Nimbral, and the Pirate Isles of the Inner Sea.
* GREYHAWK campaign: Lordship of the Isles, Sea Barons isles,
Spindrift Islands.
* Kara-Tur campaign: Kozakura, Wa.
* MYSTARA campaign: Cestia, Kingdom of Ierendi, Minrothad Guilds,
Oceania, Ochalea, Serpent Peninsula isles.
There are also AD&D campaigns that use our Earth as a setting, as
noted in previous columns. Gothic Earth of the RAVENLOFT <Masque of the Red
Death & Other Tales> boxed set and the "historical" Earth of the Historical
Reference Sourcebook series (HR1-HR7) are good examples. A campaign using
either set of rules could each be played out among our world's islands,
particularly in the British Isles, as was done in this column in issues
#117-118. One other Earthly campaign mentioned in this column is
island-centered: the MAGITECH Earth's Madagascar, in issues #115-116.
Wildspace Islands
Wildspace is itself a hostile medium, and collections of small,
closely spaced, habitable asteroids and worlds could be used as the core of
a SPELLJAMMER island campaign. Travel from world to world could be
accomplished by spelljammers, <teleport> spells, or other means. Aside from
the addition of a third spacial dimension in "naval" play, this campaign
has many similarities to the Oceanic Islands setting described earlier. If
you think of the big worlds like Oerth, Toril, and Krynn as wildspace
"continents," the island connection for the smaller worlds becomes even
clearer.
The most famous wildspace "island" is of course the Rock of Bral,
detailed in the 1989 SPELLJAMMER boxed set and in SJR5 <Rock of Bral>. It
is implied that there are other worldlets close to the Rock, on which food
is grown for the Rock's people. Other collections of wildspace islands
include the following:
* SJR2 <Realmspace>: Tears of Selune, moons of Glyth, Garden, and
earth bodies inside Coliar. The Rock of Bral is often recommended for
placement in the Tears of Selune.
* SJR6 <Greyspace>: The Grinder, Borka, Greela, and earth bodies
inside Edill and Gnibile.
* SJR7 <Krynnspace>: Moons of Krynn, moons of Zivilyn, earth bodies
inside Zivilyn, Stellar Islands. The fate of these worlds in Krynn's Fifth
Age is unknown, but SPELLJAMMER campaigns could be set in Krynnspace in an
earlier age. Or, you could skip the Fifth Age entirely, as was done in this
column in issue #119.
* <The Astromundi Cluster> boxed set: Astromundi Cluster.
Planar Islands
A third type of AD&D island campaign involves planar islands: small
demiplanes and partial planes usually found floating in the Ethereal Plane,
as described in the PLANESCAPE boxed set, the DUNGEON MASTER Option:
<High-Level Campaigns> tome, and the AD&D 1st Edition <Manual of the
Planes>. The Demiplane of Shadow and the Demiplane of Dread (a.k.a. the
RAVENLOFT campaign) are the best known "big islands" within the Ethereal
Plane, though other peculiar regions have been described. The lands
presented in the old AD&D adventures EX1 <Dungeonland>, EX2 <The Land
Beyond the Magic Mirror>, and WG6 <Isle of the Ape> are bizarre partial
planes created by the GREYHAWK campaign demigod Zagyg.
Travel through the Ethereal Plane from one of these "islands" to
another is accomplished using any of the means presented in the PLANESCAPE
or <Manual of the Planes> rules. Such travel is obviously dangerous at
best, considering the number of fiends one can meet when wandering the
planes. For this and other reasons, a planar-island campaign would work
best for high-level characters, unless supported by a spot like the city of
Sigil to give low-level wayfarers a chance to stay alive.
The Ravenloft demiplane itself is structured like a collection of
islands, with one large central land, the Core, surrounded by small Islands
of Terror. Anyone playing in a RAVENLOFT campaign is automatically playing
in an island campaign!
Other Island Campaigns
An island-hopping campaign could be set up in the Astral Plane, with
high-level adventurers moving among populated floating rocks or fortresses.
The optional <Chronomancer> rules allows a DM to set up a sort of island
campaign in which discrete areas of land are connected across time, with
heroes never ranging far overland from any particular town, castle, or
dungeon. The Nightworld campaign described in this column in issue #114 is
a sort of island campaign, as overland travel between the surviving
city-states is very hazardous, turning the cities into land-based
"islands." And the floating continents and islands of the HOLLOW WORLD(R)
setting, inside the world of Mystara, could be used as the basis for a
striking sort of island campaign--especially if you like skygnomes.
The key elements for an island campaign, again, are a number of small,
relatively isolated lands surrounded by a hostile medium that can be
crossed with difficulty. This allows a variety of adventure settings to be
developed in close proximity to each other, adding to a campaign's
longevity.
Next month: more on island campaigns, and the problems of living in a
very limited space.
Ubiquitous
Islands campaigns--Part 2: Sea to Shining Sea
Having moved to a new city far from his old gaming group, Luis wants to
start an AD&D campaign that he hopes will attract a new group of gamers.
Getting the word out will be easy; he'll advertisehis campaign on bulletin
boards in local hobby shops and over local modem-accessed BBSs for gamers.
However, creating a unique campaign with high appeal and staying power can
be hard.
Hearing that most local groups are running "traditional" fantasy
campaigns, Luis chooses to give his campaign a special flavor to draw
players looking for a fresh change. He likes tales and movies about
Caribbean pirates in the 17th century, so he decides to put together a
high-seas campaign based in a large island chain on an oceanic world. With
the help of a couple of books on Caribbean history, Luis designs a
background that parallels to some extent the exploration and settlement of
the islands, with many elements of high adventure and combat.
In this column, we follow Luis's design work on his world as an
example of an island-based campaign setting. In particular, we look at the
element of <storytelling>, particularly in the historical background, as
critical to the campaign's set-up. Rather than plunk down a map of a bunch
of islands, deck them out with monsters and treasure, then toss in the
player characters and expect the campaign to run itself, Luis tells the
tale of how things came to be, and he lets the PCs finish the story in any
manner they choose. If a background history is rich, exciting, and filled
with adventure hooks, the campaign really <will> run itself, with the
players eagerly taking part in the festivities.
World of the Great Sea
Luis's campaign world, Oeyan, is Earth-sized, with a huge continent, Zuria,
in the southern hemisphere. Here dwell many standard races and monsters of
the AD&D game, with the most magically or technically adept races organized
into fiercely competitive kingdoms or federations. The political set-up is
reminiscent of Europe about the year 1700, with ferocious wars breaking out
between fast-expanding, power-hungry empires.
The rest of the world is covered by a titanic ocean filled with tiny
islands, until one gets to the northern hemisphere on the side of the world
opposite Zuria. Here lies Boreos, a minor continent the size of Australia,
with mountain- and jungle-covered coasts, a desert-and-prairie interior,
and an extensive island chain on its western coast. Ships setting sail from
northeastern Zuria can catch strong ocean currents and favorable winds to
reach the island chain, collectively called the Antipodes, then the minor
continent Boreos. The fastest return trip is to either head eastward again
from southern Boreos along the equator, to land somewhere in northern
Zuria, or to catch a counterclockwise-turning ocean current that eventually
brings the ship back to northeastern Zuria (though it will be a cold trip).
The nations of Zuria have been aware of the existence of Boreos and
the Antipodes for only 200 years, when a lone ship returned to port with
wild tales of a land beyond the ends of the Great Sea. Subsequent voyages
revealed the full extent of this new realm, and exploitation followed
exploration almost at once.
Luis loosely based his world's history on that of our own world, with
particular attention to the discovery and settlement of the islands of the
Caribbean Sea. (The Antipodes are based on theGreater and Lesser Antilles;
Boreos is loosely based on South and Central America.) The background Luis
developed provides many adventure hooks and explains how things came to be
as they are.
[[History]]: Before the coming of the Zurians, the Antipodes and the
coasts of Boreos were inhabited by many tribes of lizard men, bullywugs,
and aarakocra. These groups continually skirmished with one another; the
aggressive lizard men dominated the savage bullywugs, and the peaceful
aarakocra avoiding contact with both whenever possible. All had migrated to
this region from Zuria thousands of years before.
Then a small fleet of four hobgoblin-crewed ships from the Gothmarian
Imperium appeared, making landfall on a few islands and killing some of the
lizard men as trophies. The ships had become separated from a large war
fleet during a hurricane, and the crews were able to resupply and repair
their fleet before attempting to return to Zuria on the northern current.
Only one ship survived the return journey, thanks to storms, starvation,
and sea monsters. Its crew's tales, however, ignited a fire in the minds of
hobgoblin royalty, engaged in a bitter struggle against the elven-dominated
High Kingdom of Yerendeon, the humans' Two Suns Empire, and the
gnome-and-halfling Diara Federation. Perhaps the new lands, however
distant, held the riches and resources the Gothmarians needed to triumph
over their foes. Numerous hobgoblin fleets were dispatched in rapid
succession to conquer and loot these lands at all costs.
The hobgoblins arrived in the Antipodes in force, battling every tribe
they met and attempting to enslave natives to dig mines for precious metals
and gems. Magical diseases introduced by hobgoblin priests decimated native
tribes that fought back, and carnivorous apes--long used by the Gothmarians
as shock troops and now introduced to the Antipodes to root out bullywug
enclaves--took control of many island jungles and swamps.
The lives of those enslaved were no better. Thousands of lizard men
and bullywugs died in hobgoblin mines from cave-ins, dehydration, or
malnutrition. The treatment given slaves was unrelentingly cruel, and
rebellions were brutally suppressed, with mass executions always following
a rebellion's end. As the unlucky natives died out, their lands were soon
overrun by boars and cattle brought in by the meat-eating Gothmarians as
food animals.
Luck was not entirely with the Gothmarians, however. Local diseases
ravaged the hobgoblins as well, and the mines on the islands soon played
out and were abandoned. The enslaved natives who survived mistreatment were
rebellious and untrustworthy, and uprisings became increasingly common and
more difficult to put down. Worse, the aarakocra now cooperated with rebel
lizard men and even some bullywugs, and native tactics grew more
sophisticated. The natives were masters of poisons and traps, even if their
magic was no match for that of the Gothmarians. Most annoying of all, the
ships of other Zurian kingdoms reached the Antipodes, and the elves,
humans, and others gave aid to the natives and attacked Gothmarian shipping
from hidden bases on the islands.
Then Gothmarian explorers discovered enormous deposits of gold,
silver, and gems in the coastal mountains of Boreos. The strikes were so
huge that they beggared the imagination; within a year, the royal
treasuries in Great Gothmar overflowed with riches.Gothmarian estates in
the Antipodes were nearly abandoned as the hobgoblins swiftly migrated to
Boreos and set up vast slave mines and refining plants, sending house
slaves, war prisoners, and criminals from their empire on Zuria to work and
die alongside captured Antipodeans. (They'll enslave PCs as well, of
course.)
Piracy against Gothmarian treasure ships increased greatly once news
of the strikes spread over the world. Elven and human sea captains in
particular became notorious for their exploits against the Imperium, and
some became renegades who attacked all shipping wherever it was found, even
that of their home nations. In response, Gothmarian colonies and mines
began fortifying themselves and constructing elaborate wall and tunnel
defenses.
About this time, Gothmarians discovered a species of pepper native to
the Antipodes that proved as irresistible to them as sugar is to humans and
halflings. Enterprising Gothmarians immediately set up plantations to grow
and process "skullburner" peppers, using slave labor from every source to
perform the backbreaking, dawn-to-dusk chores. Many ex-soldiers now retire
to such estates, which they run with ruthless efficiency.
More trouble was in the wind. An explosive, magical mineral called
<fulzer> was then discovered in huge quantities on Boreos. When refined,
<fulzer> could be used with <smoke powder> firearms, which were known but
only rarely used on Zuria because of their inherent dangers and the
difficulty in making <smoke powder>. With vast quantities of easily refined
<fulzer> available, the Gothmarians developed firearms and explosives
technology at a rapid pace. Hobgoblin soldiers, backed by spellcasting
priests and equipped with the best armor, muskets, swords, and pistols that
money could buy, soon pushed back the forces of other races, expanding and
tightening the Gothmarian grip on the Antipodes and Boreos. The Gothmarian
Imperium was suddenly able to hold its own (or even make considerable
advances) in its wars against other kingdoms on Zuria as well. Only the
powerful magic, fighting skill, and willpower of the other races can ensure
their freedom.
[[Current Campaign Set-Up]]: Luis's campaign begins 50 years after the
discovery of <fulzer> on Boreos, when every kingdom and island is
threatened by gun-toting, cannon-using hobgoblins. You can see how his
detailed history almost completely sets up the tone and feel of the
campaign; the history is like the first part of a novel, which the players
can complete in any manner they like.
The PCs can be humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves, gnomes, or
halflings if they want to be from Zuria, but Luis also allows PCs from the
Antipodes and Boreos, using <The Complete Book of Humanoids>. In the latter
case, aarakocra, advanced bullywugs, and lizard men are allowed. Standard
rules for generating characters are followed, though Luis includes
additional cultural information affecting the creation of each character.
For instance, gnomes and halflings control several huge merchant houses, so
any class and kit that logically derives from exploration and trade is
allowed and perhaps even expanded. Further, aarakocra, bullywugs, and
lizard men are generally uncivilized, so most would be barbarians or
related kits as appropriate; however, some individuals might have gone to
Zuria and received better training and education, allowing other kits to be
used. The <Shaman> optional accessorymight be useful in detailing the
religions of the Antipodes.
Hobgoblins from the Gothmarian Imperium can gain classes and levels as
per <The Complete Book of Humanoids>, but all must be NPCs. They are
civilized (if also brutal, wicked, corrupt, tyrannical, and cruel), and
they have firearms technology up to the level of flintlocks, as per
<<PLAYER'S OPTION Combat & Tactics>, chapter seven, with any armor up to
full plate. Outfitting hobgoblin NPCs is easy, since their empire is so
rich that it can afford to turn its soldiers into walking arsenals. Luis
uses the ENCYCLOPEDIA MAGICA volumes to outfit Gothmarian spellcasters and
treasure hoards. Hobgoblins are rich but have only limited abilities to
produce magical items or cast high-level spells; lately, though, they can
steal whatever they want from other kingdoms and races, and thus they lack
very little.
Gothmarians have trained a plains-dwelling species of giant boar to
serve as mounts and pack animals, though the creatures have awful tempers
and sometimes go berserk in combat. Carnivorous apes, taken young from the
jungles of Zuria and raised as pets and servants by Gothmarians, are also
commonly found in regions settled by hobgoblins. True goblins are common
slaves of the Gothmarians, and they are often encountered in large numbers
on skullburner pepper plantations or in local militias under hobgoblin
commanders.
Elven PCs never use (and can barely tolerate) firearms, as the noise
and smell are extremely offensive to them. Gnomes and halflings can use
pistols without trouble, though both hands are required for aimed shots.
Dwarves dislike pistols and muskets but have an interest in <fulzer> siege
weapons and explosives, for warfare and mining purposes. Humans will
readily use any weapon they discover, firearms included. Firearms are not
yet manufactured in great quantity by any people but hobgoblins, so weapons
must be seized in battle from dead or disabled Gothmarians.
Seafaring kits and proficiencies (particularly Swimming) are made
available to all PCs, even spellcasters. Some characters might even inherit
small sailing vessels, own small boats or naval equipment, or gain favors
from ship captains or crew. Luis creates deck plans for several types of
sailing ships for use in his adventures, and he does his best to dispel
player uneasiness over sea travel by not having the PCs' ships sink in
every adventure. Adventures most often take place on the islands
themselves, though ships might be threatened by hurricanes, pirates,
Gothmarians, sea monsters, giant sharks, or evil undersea races like scrags
or merrow. Plastic model kits of sailing ships add great flavor to gaming
sessions.
What of the PCs' goals? PCs might choose to become privateers, paid by
their home governments to prey on Gothmarian ships and renegade pirates.
They can attempt to set up their own island kingdom--hardly impossible
given the chaos of the times, as islands are conquered and reconquered by
different forces every other year. They might become true pirates, raiding
any and all ships around, or they could form mercenary marine companies and
attack Gothmarian islands, mines, forts, and ships in swift, commando-style
raids. Some PCs might even wish to become merchant princes or smuggler
lords, hauling valuable cargoes from island to island. They can play out
their adventures against the great canvas of history thatLuis provided, and
they can eventually determine the outcome of the great war against the
Gothmarian Imperium, for good or ill.
[[Last Notes]]: Luis's Gothmarians combine the worst elements of the
colonial-era Spanish, English, French, and Dutch with a few unique sins of
their own. Though they compete with each other in many ways, the humans,
demihumans, and other PCs races of his campaign are still united by an
extremely dangerous common foe that might ultimately enslave or destroy
them all. Great courage, daring, and skill are called for as a result, and
Luis's island campaign lacks nothing in the realm of thrills and wild
exploits.
Down-to-Earth Models
An island, for our purposes, is a body of land less than one million square
miles in size, completely surrounded by water. Real-world islands vary
greatly in every way, ranging from huge, frozen, barely populated Greenland
to tiny, tropical, heavily populated Oahu. Some island clusters are
governed as single nations, like Japan, Madagascar, and the Philippines, or
as many separate nations, like the Greater and Lesser Antilles of the
Caribbean Sea (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico,
etc.). A large island might hold several nations itself, though usually
only two (e.g., New Guinea, Hispaniola, Ireland).
It's difficult to generalize about islands, as they have so many
differences--especially where their uses are concerned. Consider the places
in history earned by Bikini Atoll (site of some early American atomic
tests), Barbados (once the world's top supplier of sugar), Elba (place of
exile for Napoleon Bonaparte), Guadalcanal (scene of a decisive battle in
World War II), and currently newsworthy islands such as Cuba, Taiwan,
Okinawa, Sri Lanka, and Tahiti. These remarkable differences make islands
very exciting as adventure locales.
A DM can model an island campaign after one or more real-world islands
with relative ease. The DM can draw out island maps while preserving
certain similarities to real places, then write up a past history of the
region that mirrors in some ways the real history of the model. Fantasy
elements can always be substituted for real ones: Modern nations become
kingdoms or empires, and different ethnic, religious, or political groups
of humans become fantasy races. Spells, spellcasters, magical items, and
artifacts can take the place of technology. The DM is also free to add new
elements that make the campaign diverge from the model in many more
ways--spelljamming, gates, unexpected events, and so forth.
Next month, we examine "islands" in the outer planes.
Ubiquitous
Islands campaigns--Part 3: Speaking (demi-)planely
We've looked into the theory and practice of island campaigns for the AD&D
game. It's time now to look at a variation on this theme that carries it to
an extreme: island-demiplanes campaigns.
Ethereal thoughts
Long before the AD&D 2nd Edition PLANESCAPE boxed set or even the AD&D 1st
Edition <Manual of the Planes> volume came out, a series of short adventure
modules for the GREYHAWK campaign introduced the concept of island
demiplanes. These modules (EX1 <Dungeonland>, EX2 <The Land Beyond the
Magic Mirror>, and WG6 <Isle of the Ape>) described bizarre "partial
planes" and demiplanes floating about in the Ethereal Plane, each a
separate universe with its own magical and physical laws. Other planes,
demiplanes, or pocket dimensions (the terminology gets loose and fuzzy
here) appear in the venerable adventures Q1 <Queen of the Demonweb Pits>
and S4 <The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth>.
Here we should stop and clarify what we mean when we talk about a
demiplane. We turn to <DUNGEON MASTER Option: High-Level Campaigns>, pages
44-45, and see that a demiplane is a discrete (finite, bounded) world
floating somewhere in the Ethereal Plane. A demiplane can be quite small,
under a mile across, or up to Earth size or larger. We can picture one as a
planetlike object surrounded by thick, multicolored ether-fog. Characters
traveling through the Ethereal Plane initially see only a small part of any
demiplane when they come upon it, its features appearing out of the dense
ether like an oceanic island out of the sea mist. (The description of the
Ethereal Plane is taken from <A DM(TM) Guide to the Planes>, page 23, and
<A Player's Guide to the Planes>, page 6, both from the PLANESCAPE campaign
boxed set.) A demiplane can be of any shape; those in the modules EX1, EX2,
and WG6 seem to be flat, like the Demiplane of Dread. (What's on their
undersides, then?)
Each demiplane, as noted earlier, has its own physical and magical
laws. A demiplane can be created artificially by great spellcasters,
demigods, or gods using powerful magic; most small demiplanes are probably
born in this manner. The GREYHAWK campaign's mad demigod, Zagyg, is
notorious for creating many such micro-universes, some of which are further
developed and used by that campaign's quasi-deities. Descriptions of those
beings appear in DRAGON issue #71 (pages 19-22), module EX2 (page 8), and
the 1983 WORLD OF GREYHAWK boxed set.
"Created" demiplanes are almost certain to reflect one or more
particular themes or concepts, often in complex and many-layered form.
Particular alterations in certain spells or spell-like powers encountered
on such demiplanes should reinforce these themes. The "Alice" partial plane
(we'll call it a demiplane) of EX1 and EX2 is a good example of this, but
even better is the RAVENLOFT campaign's Demiplane of Dread (a.k.a.
Ravenloft), which is grounded in Gothic horror. This demiplane's theme is
greatly reinforced by its alterations to spells and local monsters.
The most famous demiplane other than Ravenloft is certainly the
Demiplane of Shadow, which has long been referenced in AD&D game
literature. For details on this demiplane, see the <Manual of the Planes>
(page 21); DUNGEON issue #35 (pages 8-24, the adventure "Twilight's Last
Gleaming"); DRAGON issue #213 (pages 22-30, the article "The Demiplane of
Shadow"); and the PLANESCAPE boxed set's <A DM Guide to the Planes> (page
23). The Demiplane of Shadow seems to have been created naturally, but its
own laws (and monsters,like the shadow dragon depicted here) still reflect
its themes of twilight, mystery, and borderlands.
Doors to Demiplanes
A DM using the PLANESCAPE set-up could create a variant campaign based
exclusively in the Ethereal Plane, in which PCs use magical devices,
spells, vehicles, or psionics to navigate from one strange demi-region to
another. A look through the four ENCYCLOPEDIA MAGICA volumes reveals
several types of ethereal armor (volume 1, pages 74-75 and 82), an ethereal
cloak (volume 1, page 301), an ethereal shield (volume 3, page 1096), and
some ethereal potions and oil. A group of experienced adventures in an
Ethereal Plane campaign could start off using such devices to travel from
demiplane to demiplane. Instead of boarding a ship and sailing off on an
adventure, the PCs instead don their ethereal armor or whatever, then fly
off (fade out?) together to their goal, perhaps linking arms or ropes if
lacking a true vehicle.
The existence and gathering of such devices begs for a campaign
background to make their presence logical. Ethereal-travel devices might be
supplied by an organization seeking to explore the various demiplanes. For
instance, the PCs could be members of a kingdom's special military force
fighting a plane-crossing army of fiends. The PCs gain their items from a
common armory or win them for themselves. Their missions would be very
specific: explore a demiplane and report back on all activity there; hunt
for a secret enemy base and destroy it; capture war prisoners or recapture
escaped ones; recover a stolen item; etc. With a campaign background like
this, the existence and use of many ethereal-travel items (which might be
regarded as unbalancing in any other campaign) is logical and acceptable.
The PCs might also start out as the assistants or allies of a powerful
plane-crossing being, such as a quasi-deity from the GREYHAWK campaign, a
wizard from the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting, or a person or monster who turns
out later to be a meddling demigod in disguise. They start off with a home
base on the Prime Material Plane, perhaps as part of a regular campaign
world like Toril or Oerth. Each adventure consists of the PCs being sent
off into the Ethereal Plane on a special mission--not necessarily a
military one--with the provision for the PCs to eventually establish their
own mission plans in pursuit of a larger goal: the defense of a kingdom or
world, the establishment of an extraplanar settlement or fortress, or the
gathering of knowledge and power for the PC's own personal use.
Demi-Samples
It is very appealing to think about running an island-demiplanes campaign,
because the DM's imagination is the only limit on designing each miniature
world. Plenty of exciting ideas appear in the <DUNGEON MASTER Option:
High-Level Campaigns> tome, in chapter two. The <Manual of the Planes>
mentioned something about a dying demiplane of electromagnetism--hmmm.
Elements of a demiplane can be borrowed from almost any published adventure
setting, especially anisolated island or town. Flip through back issues of
DUNGEON Adventures and see if something clicks, or look at some of the
worlds appearing in SPELLJAMMER materials.
It is also helpful to look at other published examples of demiplanes
or pocket dimensions (discrete worlds or micro-planes attached by magical
gates to another, larger world). The DRAGONLANCE modules DLA1 <Dragon Dawn>
and DLS4 <Wild Elves> feature elf-inhabited pocket dimensions, and the
Kingdom of Caer Sidi and Labyrinth of Arachne from module Q1 are especially
interesting to study. Consider, too, these possibilities:
[[Avalon]]: Avalon is the magical island where King Arthur's body lies
in suspended animation. This could be a demiplane populated by faerie folk
of English legend, perhaps with wizards like Morgan le Fay or Merlin in
attendance.
[[Poseidonis]]: This was the alleged name of the last island of
Atlantis to fall beneath the waves. This could also be the name of a
demiplane to which the survivors of Atlantis fled when their continent was
destroyed. Prehistoric life would abound, and a strange spellcasting system
could be devised that would confound PCs who attempt to use magic here.
[[Lost Island of Terror]]: Suppose one of the bits of the Demiplane of
Dread separates from the rest of the group, forming its own tiny demiplane.
This island can be devised after studying similar ones described in the
RAVENLOFT campaign boxed set or in the accessory RR4 <Islands of Terror>.
[[Gypsyland]]: The wayfaring Rhennee folk of the GREYHAWK campaign are
supposed to have come to the Flanaess from another world. Could they
somehow be related to the gypsylike Aperusa of wildspace or the Vistani of
the RAVENLOFT campaign? Is there a demiplane from which these folk
originated?
[[Westworld]]: Imagine a demiplane where dwarven prospectors with
shotguns and mules hunt for gold, centaur tribes in war paint gallop across
the plains, and the deer and the antelope play. Firearms would work here,
and magic might not be very powerful. Perhaps Zagyg or Murlynd (one of the
GREYHAWK world's quasi-deities) had something to do with this demiplane's
creation.
Next month: A leap into wildspace.
Ubiquitous
Islands campaigns--Part 4: The wild, wild wildspace
We've examined oceanic islands, and we've examined island demiplanes. Where
else can an AD&D islands campaign be set? In this issue, we look to the
planets and stars to generate an exciting, long-playing island campaign in
the wildspace of the SPELLJAMMER setting--linked to the FORGOTTEN REALMS
campaign.
Stephen has a passing interest in "ground-based" game settings, but his
true love is for the SPELLJAMMER campaign. After collecting numerous
SPELLJAMMER products from game auctions and hobby-store sales, Stephen is
eager to start his own campaign--but everyone else in his group is involved
in an interlocking series ofFORGOTTEN REALMS adventures and is reluctant to
leave the familiar lands of Toril.
Stephen's group uses a "round-robin" DM system in which a group of
willing gamers take turns acting as the group DM. Stephen can easily be a
DM himself--but how can he get the players excited about an off-world
adventure? Is there a way he can connect his wildspace campaign to the
group's FORGOTTEN REALMS set-up once the current adventure pauses or ends?
Stephen picks up his copy of SJR2 <Realmspace> and flips through it,
eventually settling down to read one part in detail: the Tears of Selune.
A Whirlpool of Worldlets
The Tears is a cluster of hundreds of small asteroids that trail the
moon Selune in its orbit around Toril. The center of the asteroid cluster
is equidistant from both Selune and Toril, so that the three form the
points on an equilateral triangle with sides 183,000 miles long. (Those
readers with knowledge of astronomy would say that the Tears are at Toril's
L5 point.)
The Tears form a close-knit group of islands with radically varying
populations. It should be easy for any group of Faerunian adventurers (with
the right nudges from the DM) to get to and from the Tears, which are
clearly visible in the night sky of Toril. It should also be possible to
make a venture into the Tears relevant to a "groundling" campaign in some
way--the recovery of a lost artifact or kidnapping victim transported from
Faerun to the Tears, for instance.
Stephen learns that the Rock of Bral (a mile-long
asteroid-city described in several SPELLJAMMER products) can easily
be placed in the Tears as an adventure setting, and he elects to do
so; it is an excellent place to introduce "groundlings" to the
wonders of wildspace. His search for gaming materials on these
settings turns up the following sources, which he studies
carefully:
* SPELLJAMMER <AD&D Adventures in Space> boxed set, <Lorebook of the
Void>, page 94 (Tears of Selune), and <Concordance of Arcane Space>, pages
94-96 (Rock of Bral);
* SJR2 <Realmspace> accessory, pages 29-31 (Tears of Selune);
* SJR5 <Rock of Bral> accessory;
* DRAGON Magazine issue #159, "Bazaar of the Bizarre: Magic from the
stars" (notes from the Rock of Bral);
* DUNGEON Adventures issue #28, "Visitors from Above" (adventure
leading to the Tears of Selune);
* SPELLJAMMER Cloakmaster Cycle, volume three: <The Maelstrom's Eye>
(visitor's description of the Rock of Bral); and
* The recent FORGOTTEN REALMS adventure, <Stardock>.
The Measure of the Tears
It is important to figure out the full expanse of the Tears and their
individual sizes. Travel times from worldlet to worldlet depend on
distance, and a planetoid's size determines what you can put there.
According to <Realmspace>, the Tears are each size A, meaning each has a
maximum diameter of 10 miles across. Given thatthere are "hundreds" of
asteroids here, they will need plenty of space to avoid colliding with one
another. Stephen assumes, however, that nearly all of the Tears follow
stable orbits around their central worldlet, Castle, and collisions are
almost unknown.
Stephen decides the whole planetoid cluster is shaped like a flat
disk 80,000 miles across, rotating around Castle (so-called because of the
beautiful castle that stands there). The cluster is seen edge-on from
Toril, so it looks like a line of bright, slowly moving stars trailing
Selune across the night sky (see the illustration in <Realmspace>, page
31).
Travel times across the Tears are extremely fast. It takes only 10
minutes (10 rounds, or 1 turn) to leave a planetoid and move to the edge of
its gravity field. It then takes at most <one minute> (and usually much
less) to reach any spot in the Tears from any other spot, after which
another 10 minutes is spent moving through the gravity field of the
destination world to land on it. For gaming purposes, then, a trip across
the Tears from one world to another always takes just 20 minutes (2 turns).
A trip between Toril and any one of the Tears takes 50 minutes (5
turns). Trips between the Tears and the great moon, Selune, take 40 minutes
(4 turns); between Toril and Selune, 70 minutes (7 turns). Other distances
and travel times between worlds in Realmspace are given in <Realmspace> and
the <Concordance of Arcane Space>, page 91.
Such rapid speeds mean that trade is shockingly swift between any of
the Tears, Toril, and Selune. Except for the great expense in purchasing
and maintaining a spelljammer that can touch down on and take off from land
or sea, as well as the rarity of such craft, it would seem logical to
transport goods across Faerun in record time by spelljammer. With the
limited size of cargo holds, a spelljammer captain would certainly look for
goods of small size and enormous value: magical items and artifacts, gems
and jewelry, wealthy passengers, etc.
Such speeds also mean that military or piratical attacks on any
asteroid could come at any moment from any direction. The Tears are very
vulnerable to assault by wildspace navies. Once a spelljammer fleet
achieves "wildspace superiority" above a world by destroying its local
navy, it can bombard the world's cities, fortresses, armies, and other
targets at leisure, or else drop invasion forces wherever it likes.
Stephen considers this possibility. How could an asteroid's population
defend itself? And how many people could live on an asteroid's surface,
anyway? Stephen makes up a table showing the surface areas of spherical
asteroids of various sizes up to 10 miles, then assumes (after much
reading) that about 500 people could fit in comfortable crowding per square
mile of land. These 500 people need land to grow food and live, air to
breathe, and water to drink; Earthlike conditions must prevail on the
asteroid! After a few minutes punching buttons on his calculator, Stephen
comes up with the table shown with this article.
It must be pointed out here that the surface area of a
10-mile-diameter asteroid is less than that of many famous real-world
islands, such as Oahu, Tahiti, Okinawa, Martinique, or Guadeloupe. An
8-mile-diameter asteroid has the surface area ofGuam. We're talking about
some <very small places>! It must also be noted that these fantasy
asteroids need not be spherical; they can be potato-shaped, rectangular,
flat, or shaped like polyhedral dice, and no wildspace captain would bat an
eyelash.
After some more figuring, Stephen decides the best defense against
wildspace assault is a good, deep hole in the ground. Attack shelters as
large as caverns would be dug out on heavily populated or important
worldlets, easy enough to do with basic mining techniques. (Some shelters
in the Tears might actually be old mines dug out by local spacefaring
dwarves.) These caverns would be stocked with food, water, weapons, and
other supplies in case of siege or assault, with numerous tunnels to the
surface.
Small wildspace colonies would benefit from having their own
spelljamming forces; even a small vessel can be packed with long-range
weapons and marines. If two asteroids orbit one another very closely or
several asteroids travel together in very close formation, each asteroid's
defenders can fire upon wildspace attackers and produce interlocking fields
of fire for mutual defense.
Individual asteroid colonies in the Tears thus stand the best chance
for survival if they maintain a common spelljammer fleet that actively
patrols their homelands. They can also carefully haul very small asteroids
into positions as tiny moons of their homeworlds; a big rock 100 yards
across can be tunneled out to hold military personnel, supplies, and
ammunition for surface weapons like catapults and ballistae.
The <Lorebook of the Void> (pages 93-94) states that the Tears are
home to "long-standing civilizations" such as "human nations, beholder
factions, elven outposts, and other races." Certainly, the humans and elves
at least will have taken the above possibilities to heart, and their
homeworlds will be well defended. Such defenses are sorely needed given the
other inhabitants of the cluster and the many outside dangers that face
them.
Surface Areas and Populations of Spherical Planetoids
Diameter Surface Area Maximum
(miles) (square miles) Population*
1 03.14 1,570
2 12.57 6,285
3 28.27 14,135
4 50.27 25,135
5 78.54 39,270
6 113.10 56,550
7 153.94 76,970
8 201.06 100,530
9 254.47 127,235
10 314.16 157,080
* Surface population assumes 500 people per square mile, with dwellings,
farmland, water, air, livestock, etc., but no imports.
Ubiquitous
Islands campaigns--Part 5: Ecological nightmares
In space, weirder is better--or so says <The Complete Spacefarer's
Handbook>. An AD&D islands campaign set in wildspace thus demands the
addition of unique elements: bizarre monsters, startling flora, strange
societies, and everything else you don't normally meet outside the walls of
your local city-state.
Last month, we looked at Stephen's SPELLJAMMER campaign, set in the
Tears of Selune near Toril, home of the FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign. This
month, we look over Stephen's shoulder as he works out the ecology--or,
rather, ecologies--of his Tears campaign.
As noted last month, the Tears is a cluster of hundreds of small
asteroids that trail the moon Selune in its orbit around Toril. In the real
world, wildlife from a continent often migrates to nearby islands; in the
SPELLJAMMER campaign, thanks to the huge distances and hostile medium
involved, wildlife will have to be brought in by spelljammers or through
magical <gates>. It might be introduced deliberately (such as pigs brought
in by spelljammer crews for food, which then escape and run wild) or
accidentally (such as giant rats in the cargo hold or parasites on the
pigs).
Of course, wildlife in the Tears could be brought in from nearly any
crystal sphere in existence, not merely Realmspace, although the Tears are
probably visited most often by spelljammers from Toril. It is also possible
that some forms of life originated in the Tears, created there by one or
more deities or magic-using beings. In short, the sky is the limit on flora
and fauna.
Or is it? Because each Tear is only 10 miles diameter or less, a
stable ecology on a Tear cannot support very large creatures. Anything over
the size of a human is likely to run out of food and starve. Individual
Tears are not likely to have exactly the same ecologies, either; each of
the several dozen Tears with air envelopes could have markedly different
encounter tables.
Also, since most visits to the Tears come from Toril, Toril's wildlife
will likely be present in abundance--or at least whatever wildlife survives
best in this strange environment. (In short, expect to meet some giant
rats.)
The key issue in determining a Tear's wildlife, Stephen decides, is
noting which intelligent races live on or visit that Tear. An intelligent,
spacefaring race will have enormous control over the ecology of its world,
and undesirable predators probably became extinct long ago unless they
found some way to escape or survive attacks by the spelljamming races.
The various references cited in last month's article say that the
Tears have been long inhabited by humans, beholder factions, elves, and
other races. A dwarven citadel named Whitestone appears in the Tears in the
DUNGEON Adventures module, "Visitors from Above." The infamous Stardock
asteroid (described in the third DUNGEON CRAWL(TM) adventure, <Stardock>)
was visited by mind flayers from Glyth. After some research, Stephen comes
up with the following lists of possible inhabitants of the Tears:
Intelligent spacefarers
From the 1989 SPELLJAMMER boxed set, 1993 FORGOTTEN REALMScampaign
boxed set, <Realmspace>, and MC6 MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM Kara-Tur appendix:
humans (particularly from Shou Lung, Wa, and Faerun), gold and moon elves
(particularly from the Imperial Fleet, Evermeet, or ancient Cormanthyr),
drow elves (from Faerun and elsewhere), half-elves, shield and gold dwarves
(from Faerun), Faerunian gnomes (illusionists command spelljammers), tinker
gnomes (minoi and gnomoi, from Krynn), halflings (Faerunian or from Anadia
in <Realmspace>), hengeyokai (from Shou Lung or Wa), dracons, giff, neogi
(with umber hulks and slaves), mind flayers (from Glyth in <Realmspace>),
with umber hulks and slaves), beholder races and beholder-kin (from H'Catha
in <Realmspace>), aarakocra and lizard men (from Coliar in <Realmspace>),
and, of course, the arcane.
From MC7 MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM SPELLJAMMER appendix #1: grommam,
hadozee (with elves), lakshu, rastipedes (digging tunnels). Reiger and
lakshu are less likely but still possible.
From MC9 MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM SPELLJAMMER appendix #2: aperusa (almost
certainly!), gravs, monitor (one only), scro, xixchil.
Stephen next looks at minor intelligent races and less intelligent
wildlife. He knows that islands can have some very peculiar creatures, such
as the dodos, moas, and Tasmanian wolves of Earth (all of which are now
extinct). With this in mind, and assuming the Tears have accumulated weird
creatures from all across the Known Spheres--particularly with the Rock of
Bral drawing trade ships in--Stephen produces more lists.
Tribal folk, flora, and fauna
From the MONSTROUS MANUAL tome (brought in from Toril by spelljammers
or <gates>): various small birds, fish, insects, reptiles, and mammals
(bats, rats, blood hawks, dogs, pigs, cats, ravens, etc.), brain moles,
brownies and killmoulis, carrion crawler, cave fisher (in tunnels),
centipedes, dopplegangers (in human groups), dragonets, fungi (all sorts),
galeb duhr, gargoyles, gith pirates, goblins and kobolds (tunnel-dwellers,
brought as slaves or workers by evil spelljamming crews), golems and other
constructs, grell, gremlins, kenku, lurkers, lycanthropes (in human groups;
time of shapechanging based on phases of Toril or Selune), mimics, molds,
mongrelmen, mudmen, oozes and slimes and jellies, otyughs, ponies and small
horses, plants (carnivorous), puddings, ropers, rust monsters, scorpions,
spiders, sprites, stirges, troglodytes, undead (many sorts, especially
skeletons and zombies as workers), xorn, yuan-ti.
From MC6 (brought in by spelljammers from Shou Lung and Wa): bakemono,
goblin rat, hannya, hu hsien, korobokuru (could be a PC race, but not a
major spelljamming race), kuei, nat, p'oh, tengu.
From MC7: aartuk, albari, argos, beholder-kin, chattur, jammer leech,
mortiss, rat (all types, from Toril and elsewhere), rock hopper, slinker,
asteroid spider, symbiont, infinity vine (creating small, vine-covered
asteroids), wryback, zard.
From MC9: alchemy plant, buzzjewel, contemplator, moon dragon (only
one), fal, feesu, firebird, gossamer, gullion (lots of 'em), lhee,
mercurial slime, space owl, silatic, skullbird, sleek, sluk, astrosphinx
(maybe one), stargazer, starfly plant, yitsan, zurchin.
From MC14 MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM FIEND FOLIO(R) appendix:aballin,
al-mi'raj ("space bunnies"), denzelian (carves tunnels in asteroids,
creating homes for other creatures), gorbel, kharga, ruve, symbiotic jelly,
zygraat.
From <Realmspace>: powderpuff, crispyleaf, and plainsjan (from
Anadia).
Finally, the Tears might have some "asteroid imitators" among them,
monsters that look like rocks or small Tears but are something else
entirely. These are threats to spelljammers but would not often bother the
ecosystems of other Tears.
"Asteroid imitators"
From MC7: astereater, gravislayer, space mimic, rogue moon, murderoid
(small).
From MC9: bloodsac, gammaroid (maybe a dead one's shell), meteorspawn.
Putting it all together
Stephen is free to pick and choose when assembling the description and
encounter tables for a particular Tear, though he wants to various elements
to fit together as well as possible. The following are some examples
showing how he can make use of the above information.
Long Block
Long Block is a rectangular Tear measuring 5 miles long, 2 miles wide,
and 1 mile thick. It was a titanic, lifeless rock slab until some long-ago
spelljammer or wizard dropped a few denzelians here, which tunneled through
the rock for many centuries. Long Block is now honeycombed with narrow
tunnels, many of which are lined with metal ores that the denzelians cannot
digest.
The upper surface of Long Block became covered with various species of
fungi and molds after a food-hauling spelljammer was abandoned here by
pirates two centuries ago; the cargo rotted. Just under a century ago, a
group of rastipedes quietly settled here and began collecting and exporting
metal to the dwarves at Whitestone, who refine the metal, turn it into
finished goods, and sell those to many other groups in the Tears. Some of
the fungi and molds are edible to rastipedes, who like the taste.
Apparently out of spite, the neogi at Journey's Legg (their own
fortified Tear) dropped a group of umber hulks on Long Block a decade ago.
All were slain within a year, but rastipede losses were serious. The
rastipedes now go out of their way to fire on neogi-style vessels within
range, and their few ships carry extra weaponry to attack any such craft
they find in the Tears.
Years of trade with other Tears have introduced minor pests to Long
Block: chattur, stirges, al-mi'raj, gullions, ravens, sleeks, and all sorts
of rats and centipedes. The rastipedes can put up with these critters
fairly well, but they take drastic measures to kill rust monsters and other
metal-eating beasts.
Nearly all the rastipedes live underground on Long Block. Entrances to
the extensive tunnels are hidden and armored againstinvasion, with
defensive weaponry hidden by magic or ground cover. From wildspace, Long
Block looks fuzzy and colorful, thanks to the thick fungus and mold growth
feeding on many centuries of debris that once covered the asteroid's
surface. The rastipedes need to import water, however; eventually they hope
to fill a great reservoir in the center of their worldlet, making them
fully independent.
Ubiquitous
Islands campaigns--Part 6: Strange heroes, strange adventures
In this final look at island campaigns, we'll build a framework for running
small-world adventures in wildspace. We'll make these adventures a sideline
to a ground-based fantasy campaign, adding a dose of exotic player
characters and settings to the usual mix.
We turn once again to our DM of the month, Stephen, who must scribble
down the outlines of his SPELLJAMMER campaign-to-be. What points will shape
the scenarios he runs in the Tears of Selune? Stephen decides on the
following:
1. His adventure will start in Faerun in the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting,
move to the Tears of Selune, then return to the Realms at its conclusion.
This allows his Realms-loving players to have a wildspace adventure close
to their old homestead.
2. The adventure's outcome will have a direct effect on some of the
characters of the Realms. The PCs need not save the world, but their
adventure will be relevant to at least a few of the peoples of Faerun,
whether NPC rulers or the PCs themselves. This keeps the players involved
and allows for tie-in adventures later on, run by Stephen or another DM.
3. Speaking of tie-ins, Stephen elects to use some of the NPCs,
monsters, magical items, and places described in previously published
SPELLJAMMER or FORGOTTEN REALMS materials, to give his adventure an air of
reality and campaign legitimacy. If possible, he will also tie his
adventure in with previous Realms adventures in his group, so the group's
experience in the Realms has continuity and "reality."
4. The adventure's settings will include several worldlets in the
Tears, showing the variety of settings possible in an islands campaign. And
players will have the option of bringing a PC from the standard Realms
campaign or creating a new PC with a wildspace background.
Leaving the World Behind
Stephen's high-level group has just completed a long adventure using the
two boxed sets about Undermountain. The weary group will start Stephen's
adventure in Waterdeep.
Stephen will use the DUNGEON CRAWL adventure <Stardock>, which he has
just purchased and has reasonable hopes that no one in the group has
already read. To be on the safe side, he has made significant changes in
the adventure.
The beginning of <Stardock> is left as is. The date isadjusted to
Higharvestide 1367 DR, two years earlier than given in the module, to fit
the current campaign time. This requires minor alteration of the motives
for some villains in the adventure. The PCs are also warned by Khelben
Arunsun and others to never reveal the identity of their rescue victim.
Once the PCs reach Stardock itself, however, things change. The Rift
<gate> between Stardock and Undermountain is destroyed by the villains to
prevent the PCs from escaping or more heroes from gaining entry to
Stardock; an easy return to Undermountain is not possible. Halaster
Blackcloak is in a magical coma and may be dying. (The coma helped the
villains read his thoughts.) The only hope for him is to get medical and
magical attention from a nearby source--and that is the Rock of Bral, to
which the PCs are directed either by the new PC Stephen adds to the group
(see below) or by papers found in Stardock.
A spelljammer, a common hammership, is kept at Stardock in Stephen's
version of this adventure. Unknown to the PCs, this hammership was hijacked
several years ago by mind flayers from Glyth, a distant world in
Realmspace. The PCs could use this ship to return to Waterdeep, but this
will not cure Halaster's condition and will reduce their final reward. If
the PCs take the ship to Bral, no one there will think oddly of it except
for the mind flayers, who know at once where the ship came from. The
illithids will correctly surmise that Stardock is no longer held by its
former owners, and they will quickly send word to their allies at Glyth to
prepare an attack on Stardock and the PCs.
The SJR5 <Rock of Bral> accessory is the next text used for the
adventure's setting. Once there, the PCs must seek out Gamalon Idogyr, a
wizard noted in the villains' papers to have knowledge of the methods they
used to put Halaster in his magical coma. Though the papers make Gamalon
appear to be evil, in fact he is of good alignment and knew of the
coma-inducing magic only because he had seen it used before and wished to
come up with an antidote for it. He has set aside this project for more
important business until the PCs find him. (Gamalon appears in SJR5 on page
32.)
Finding Gamalon is only part of the trouble the PCs face. If they have
been incautious and have told many people who they have rescued, it will be
only minutes before various factions on the Rock of Bral--many of them
criminal groups--check the authenticity of their claims. Very few people
have ever seen Halaster (Gamalon is one of them), but magic can determine
his identity. Halaster is widely known as the creator of Undermountain, and
the secrets his mind holds are worth killing for, so far as criminal groups
are concerned. The PCs will then be attacked multiple times, perhaps
simultaneously by rival groups.
To cure Halaster, Gamalon needs a substance from another colony in the
Tears, a dwarven citadel named Whitestone (first described in DUNGEON
Adventures #28, in the adventure "Visitors from Above"). Some PCs must go
to Whitestone and obtain this material by offering the dwarves a reward for
it, while others must go back to Stardock to grab papers and materials left
behind that will assist Gamalon in his attempt to cure Halaster.
The group going to Whitestone discovers that a royal wedding is taking
place there, and few dwarves are on hand to greet them.To get the
substance, the PCs must use stealth and trickery to get into the place
where the substance is stored and make away with it. The substance is toxic
and will paralyze anyone who touches it. The dwarves will not be pleased to
know that it has been stolen.
At Stardock, the PCs have no trouble getting inside and hunting for
what they need. However, a spelljammer from a very hostile group docks soon
after the PCs do. Neogi and umber-hulk slaves from Journey's Legg, the
neogi hideout in the Tears, have come to pay their sometime-allies in
Stardock a business call. Their allies were eliminated long before the PCs
arrived, but the neogi will assume differently once they spot the PCs. The
fight will be severe. Stephen makes use of "The Ecology of the Neogi" from
DRAGON issue #214 and "Magic with an Evil Bite" in issue #184 (with new
neogi spells).
Once Halaster is cured, he can return to the Realms on his own. The
PCs can be sent home by Halaster or can return home on their hammership,
exhausted but richer for their experience.
New Faces, New Races
To work the group more deeply into his adventure, Stephen seeks out one
player in the group to take a special character at the start of his own
campaign. This character can also be added to the group as an NPC, then
played as a PC by any player whose own PC is put out of action.
The new PC is a moon elf, a 10th-level ranger from Evermeet using the
corsair kit from CGR1 <The Complete Spacefarer's Guide>. He works on
special commission for Evermeet's queen following the Second Unhuman War,
attacking scro ships in the vicinity of Toril, Selune, and the Tears. (The
Second Unhuman War is described in "Campaign Classics: The Scro" in DRAGON
Magazine Annual #1.)
Stephen wants the moon elf to have considerable knowledge of wildspace
for use in the adventure. To simulate this, Stephen photocopies material on
Realmspace, the Tears of Selune, the Rock of Bral, and the elven Imperial
Fleet (and its connections to Evermeet) from SJR2 <Realmspace>, SJR5 <Rock
of Bral>, and portions of the original SPELLJAMMER boxed set and the <War
Captain's Companion> boxed set; this goes to the elf's player.
Other PCs can be developed if players do not wish to use their regular
PCs. A giff fighter with the marine kit (from CGR1) could work with the
moon-elf ranger/corsair as a partner. A hadozee fighter/thief, secretly a
spy for the elven Imperial Fleet, could join the group at Bral to eliminate
threats to all spacefaring elves. A human thief using the Aperusa kit
(CGR1) could charm her way into the group in Waterdeep or even on the Rock
of Bral, picking up anything of interest and lending "color" and humor to
the adventure.
Firearms, often used in SPELLJAMMER adventures, can be further
developed using the rules for them given in the article "Sorcerous
Six-Shooters," in DRAGON issue #232. A few new magical items could be added
to the campaign by using the article "Bazaar of the Bizarre: Magic from the
stars" in DRAGON issue #159.
=========================
END FILE
Ubiquitous
: web...@polaris.net (Ubiquitous) wrote in message news:<EYednUVYmtt...@comcast.com>...
:> I have some interesting papers on that, somewhere.
:> I'm bound to run into them sooner or later.
:
: There might be some helpful things to check out my WWW site on
: world/campaign creation at
:
: http://www.geocities.com/dr_games/staats2.htm
Nice web page, Rich.
Dr. Rich Staats
Thank you Ubi!!!
First Prophet of Kaos
wrote:
>POLYHEDRON issue #111, column #1, September 1995
>The joys and pains of original campaigns
>
>The first AD&D campaign I ever designed by myself was great fun to make up.
>It was also terrible in actual play. I have mercifully few memories of how
>it ran, except that after the players' characters had encountered six types
>of dragons in a single day, they quietly elected someone to suggest to me
>that maybe I should not roll for encounters every hour on the hour, and
>maybe I should make dragons more rare, as they were sort of special and
>also very dangerous.
This is, sadly, out of date. Even by Ubi standards.
--
Never underestimate the ability of others to
misinterpret what you've said.
Ubiquitous
>On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 21:46:26 -0500, web...@polaris.net (Ubiquitous)
>wrote:
>>POLYHEDRON issue #111, column #1, September 1995
>>The joys and pains of original campaigns
>>
>>The first AD&D campaign I ever designed by myself was great fun to make up.
>>It was also terrible in actual play. I have mercifully few memories of how
>>it ran, except that after the players' characters had encountered six types
>>of dragons in a single day, they quietly elected someone to suggest to me
>>that maybe I should not roll for encounters every hour on the hour, and
>>maybe I should make dragons more rare, as they were sort of special and
>>also very dangerous.
>
>This is, sadly, out of date. Even by Ubi standards.
And how is it out of date?
Zenobia
(Ubiquitous) wrote:
>POLYHEDRON issue #111, column #1, September 1995
>The joys and pains of original campaigns
>
>The first AD&D campaign I ever designed by myself was great fun to make up.
>It was also terrible in actual play...
I don't have a problem with you posting this although some
people here may have. I assume it's copyright.
I have a problem with you not attributing it to an author. Who
wrote this? If you wrote it can we have your real name please?
If it was written by someone else then please give that person
credit for what they've written. It's the least you can do.
Ubiquitous
: On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 21:46:26 -0500, web...@polaris.net
: (Ubiquitous) wrote:
: I have a problem with you not attributing it to an author. Who
: wrote this? If you wrote it can we have your real name please?
: If it was written by someone else then please give that person
: credit for what they've written. It's the least you can do.
I already have; did you read the thread in its entirity?
Douglas Bailey
> Ubiquitous wrote:
>>POLYHEDRON issue #111, column #1, September 1995
>>The joys and pains of original campaigns
>
> I have a problem with you not attributing [this] to an author. Who wrote
> this? If you wrote it can we have your real name please? If it was
> written by someone else then please give that person credit for what
> they've written. It's the least you can do.
The least he can do is a quantity in which Ubi specialises.
doug
--
"Interrupting my train of thought, lines of longitude and latitude
Define, refine my altitude..."
--Wire
First Prophet of Kaos
wrote:
>In article <vmn9j09r8g56ld1bt...@4ax.com>, ka...@ecn.ab.ca wrote:
>>On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 21:46:26 -0500, web...@polaris.net (Ubiquitous)
>>wrote:
>
>>>POLYHEDRON issue #111, column #1, September 1995
>>>The joys and pains of original campaigns
>>>
>>>The first AD&D campaign I ever designed by myself was great fun to make up.
>>>It was also terrible in actual play. I have mercifully few memories of how
>>>it ran, except that after the players' characters had encountered six types
>>>of dragons in a single day, they quietly elected someone to suggest to me
>>>that maybe I should not roll for encounters every hour on the hour, and
>>>maybe I should make dragons more rare, as they were sort of special and
>>>also very dangerous.
>>
>>This is, sadly, out of date. Even by Ubi standards.
>
>And how is it out of date?
Dragons are no longer particularly special, nor necessarily dangerous.
Arivne
> web...@polaris.net (Ubiquitous) wrote:
>
<snip>
>
> I have a problem with you not attributing it to an author. Who
> wrote this? If you wrote it can we have your real name please?
> If it was written by someone else then please give that person
> credit for what they've written. It's the least you can do.
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=cgthkg%24dou%241%40news.utelfla.com&rnum=1
"The article in question was written by Roger Moore for Polyhedron
and is quite extensive (issues #11 thru #126)..."
Arivne
Matt Frisch
into the ether:
>Unpublished, column #17
>Islands campaigns--Part 6: Strange heroes, strange adventures
How come this isn't 17 of 6?
Ian R Malcomson
>I have a problem with you not attributing it to an author. Who
>wrote this? If you wrote it can we have your real name please?
>If it was written by someone else then please give that person
>credit for what they've written. It's the least you can do.
"The article in question was written by Roger Moore for Polyhedron and
is quite extensive (issues #11 thru #126)"
He already did that.
--
Ian R Malcomson
Firelock
> I usually think of campaign creation as either top-down or bottoms-up.
> Top down is where the GM plans most everything in advance, and
> bottoms-up is where the players' actions determine what gets developed
> and what gets forgotten in the campaign design. (You can have
> combinations of the two.)
I would even say that the combination approach is the most common,
whether the DM intended it so or not.
Walt Smith
Firelock on DALNet
Zenobia
I had considered that. Then I saw that each post was a separate
issue of Polyhedron and each had a different title. So there's
no guarantee that it was all by the same author. Someone, like
me, who didn't know better could easily think the article was
unattributed.
Ubiquitous
>Dragons are no longer particularly special, nor necessarily dangerous.
Troll O Meter
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Ubiquitous
If they were from different authors, I would not have written
that they were written by one guy.