Greatholm: Wickster Town & The Surrounding Area

So, this past Wednesday, I started my Adventures Dark and Deep game through the NEPA Dungeons & Dragons Meetup group.  I may start a second one, and I'm considering a bi-weekly Skype game using those rules.  I'm digging what I'm reading so far and I want to see where I can take the game.  Anyway, the game Wednesday went well.  You can read the session writeup on the campaign's Obsidian Portal page.

In the mean time, I've been working on fleshing out the area.  Using Expeditious Retreat Press's Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe as a guideline, I started developing Wickster a lot more.  A lot of it is handwritten right now, so it'll take some time for me to translate it all into electronic copy, what I am offering is a more detailed map of the area the campaign is taking place in.  While there are no more details in it than the Greatholm map I posted last month, it's got lots of room for expansion.  Here is is:

If you'd like, feel free to use it.  You never know when a good map will come in handy.  Once again, I have to thank Inkwell for the outstanding Hexographer software.  It's a godsend for me.

Just to give you a little direction, the areas in red borders are land that belong directly to the owner, not the King.  Most of them are pretty clear who they belong to (The Duchy of Avonlea = The Duke of Avonlea), but there are two Church Lands which bear notice.  The Westleigh Archdiocese is the seat of the Church of the All-Father and the Starfall Protectorate is an "Area 51" of sorts, filled with heresies the good people of Greatholm have no need for.

You'll note Michael Curtis's Stonehell Dungeon on the map.  I don't know if the players will bite on it, but a megadungeon is there in case that's the direction the party wants to take.

As I add things to the Obsidian Portal page, I'll add it here as well, for those who are following Greatholm.

Greatholm Name Generator

So, today I put together a random name generator for my Adventures Dark & Deep campaign, which starts Wednesday.  I decided to share it.

MALE NAMES

01-04 Adam

05-08 Geoffrey

09-12 Gilbert

13-17 Henry

18-21 Hugh

22-26 John

27-30 Nicholas

31-34 Peter

35-38 Ralf

39-43 Richard

44-48 Robert

49-52 Roger

53-56 Simon

57-61 Thomas

61-65 Walter

66-70 William

71-72 Algernon

73-74 Almarick

75-76 Aretas

77-78 Chrysogon

79-80 Clarence

81-82 Endymion

83-84 Ewball

85-86 Jessamy

87-88 Justin

89-90 Ybel

91 Alberic

92 Aloysius

93 Augustus

94 Bonamy

95 Percy

96 Erasmus

97 Euseby

98 Theophilus

99 Horace

00 Sidney

FEMALE NAMES

01-05 Agnes

06-10 Alice

11-15 Avice

16-20 Beatrice

21-25 Cecily

26-30 Emma

31-35 Isabella

36-40 Joan

41-45 Juliana

46-50 Margery

51-55 Matilda

56-60 Rohesia

61-62 Aspasia

63-64 Clorinda

65-66 Corisande

67-68 Dillian

69-70 Sophrona

71 Albina

72 Alma

73 Amanda

74 Ancilla

75 Augusta

76 Aurora

77 Althea

78 Anthea

79 Delia

80 Zenobe

81-85 Male Name

86-90 Feminized Male Name

91-95 Roll Twice

96-00 Male-Female Combo

SURNAMES

01-20 Surname (1)

21-40 Surname (2)

41-60 Trade

61-80 Locality

81-00 Placename

Surname (Sub-1)

01 Achard

02 Adeney

03 Albelin

04 Altard

05 Arundel

06 Aubert

07 Auvray

08 Baignard

09 Ballard

10 Bassett

11 Bauldry

12 Bavent

13 Beaumont

14 Belet

15 Bellecote

16 Beringar

17 Bertran

18 Blouet

19 Bohon

20 Bolam

21 Bonel

22 Bonvalet

23 Bordel

24 Bossard

25 Botin

26 Bouchard

27 Bradwardine

28 Brai

29 Brereton

30 Brevedent

31 Brinon

32 Brix

33 Bully

34 Buron

35 Cayley

36 Calmette

37 Campion

38 Caradas

39 Carnet

40 Caunter

41 Ceauce

42 Challenge

43 Cheney

44 Claville

45 Colleville

46 Comyn

47 Corbet

48 Corbon

49 Cosin

50 Courcelle

51 Courcy

52 Courseume

53 Cruel

54 Cumin

55 Darcy

56 Digby

57 Emory

58 Esteney

59 Evelyn

60 Faintree

61 Fergant

62 Fitzalan

63 Fitzhugh

64 Folet

65 Fossard

66 Framan

67 Froissart

68 Furnival

69 Garin

70 Giffard

71 Gilpin

72 Godefroy

73 Gouel

74 Grancourt

75 Griffin

76 Groulart

77 Gueron

78 Guildersleeve

79 Gurney

80 Hachet

81 Harcourt

82 Hendry

83 Herbard

84 Holland

85 Hugonin

86-90 Combine 1-2

91-00 Combine 1

Surname (Sub-2)

01 Martel

02 Mathan

03 Maunsell

04 Medley

05 Mercier

06 Meulan

07 Middleton

08 Monceaux

09 Montague

10 Montgomery

11 Morphew

12 Mortain

13 Mortmain

14 Musard

15 Mustel

16 Nelond

17 Neuville

18 Ormond

19 Osmond

20 Painel

21 Pantoul

22 Parry

23 Paschal

24 Patris

25 Pennant

26 Percy

27 Peveril

28 Picard

29 Pipin

30 Pippery

31 Plucknet

32 Poignant

33 Pont

34 Postel

35 Prestcote

36 Quincarnon

37 Raleigh

38 Rassent

39 Renold

40 Riviere

41 Roger

42 Ross

43 Roussel

44 Runeville

45 Scolland

46 Senlis

47 Sollers

48 Strivelyn

49 Stukely

50 Tessel

51 Theroulde

52 Tibon

53 Tilly

54 Torteval

55 Tourmente

56 Tourneville

57 Tranchant

58 Valance

59 Vastel

60 Vauville

61 Venois

62 Ventris

63 Vernon

64 Vesli

65 Villon

66 Vipont

67 Vivers

68 Wadard

69 Werables

70 Wissant

71 Hynde

72 Jubert

73 Lacy

74 Ligonier

75 Loges

76 Loucelles

77 Lucy

78 Lynom

79 Maignart

80 Malleville

81 Mallory

82 Mandeville

83 Mansel

84 Marchmain

85 Margas

86-90 Combine 1-2

91-00 Combine 2

UPPER UPPER CLASS SURNAMES

01-17 Neville (Royal)

18-50 Stanley (Aberfirth)

51-75 Dudley (Avonlea)

76-00 Herbert (Avonlea)

MIDDLE UPPER CLASS SURNAMES

01-06 Auchmulty

07-11 Balston

12-19 Beauchamp (Drumtilly)

20-23 Bigod (Elshaw)

24-25 Bohun (Glendale)

26-30 Cattanach

31-38 Courteney (Astonwold)

39-46 Findlay

47-50 Fitton (Westeidin)

51-58 Frewer

59-62 Hendry

63-67 Lamond

68-71 Lovegod

72-73 Lovell (Treafon)

74-79 Mortimer (Norcott)

80-86 Sidney (Astleyham)

87-90 Stannard

91-96 Vane (Caelbach)

97-00 Wackrill

LOWER UPPER CLASS SURNAMES

01-10 Surname (1)

11-20 Surname (2)

31-60 Placename

61-80 Combine Placename/Surname 1-2

81-90 Combine 1-2

91-95 Surname (1 or 2) - MUC

96-00 Surname (1 or 2) - UUC

Adventures Dark & Deep: Odds of Rolling a Character

So, messing around a bit with Adventures Dark & Deep, in anticipation of playtesting some it with Stonehell Dungeon, I wondered what the odds were of rolling certain types of characters.

Even using the 4d6/Drop One method, it's virtually impossible to roll a Paladin.  Wow.  Cavaliers, Rangers, Barbarians, and Illusionists have less than 10% of a chance of being rolled (and only Barbarians are higher than 5%).  Fortunately, you can almost always guarantee a character of one of the big four.

Old School can be harsh, can't it? ;)

Greatholm: A World Without Stars.

In Greatholm, the night sky is barren.  The Heavenly Aegis of The All-Father protects the good people of The World from the fell creatures that would come from the stars.  Only The All-Father's four sentinels -Byrdlung, Guthfugel, Lyftfloga, and Paloer - watch over us from the dark while the All-Father tends to his other children.

I was in my Astronomy class on Wednesday and we were talking about the basics of orbits and such and how the constellations appear to shift in the night sky due to the movement of the Earth on it's axis as well as its rotation around the Sun.  The professor mentioned some stars and it got me thinking of Raggi's interpretation of the Contact Other Plane spell in Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  Then I started thinking, "What would happen if there were something blocking the stars?" From there, the Aegis of The All-Father was born.  And just for fun, no moon.  Night is DARK.  The years are longer (almost twice as long as our years) and the seasons are harsher.  The summers are hot and the winters are FRIGID.  I'm excited about the direction Greatholm is taking.

What It Is: All the Treasures of the World by Faster Monkey Games

Did I say I wouldn't have time to review the first two entries in the All the Treasures of the World series by Joel Sparks and published by Faster Monkey Games?  Well, you can thank Mother Nature for giving me the time.  Thanks to about two or three inches of snow, East Stroudsburg University cancelled classes for the second time in a week.  Mrs. Higgipedia and I got to spend another snow day together and, while she works, I'll write up a more comprehensive review.

Now I know what some of this stuff is!

All the Treasures of the World Part I: Gems is a twelve page supplement which serves many purposes: random treasure generator, introduction to gemology, and rules supplement for the evaluation and sale of gems.  With it, you can generate a gem the size of a grain of rice up to one as big as a cantaloupe, which could be worth anywhere from a measly silver penny to 100,000 gold pieces.

The first section allows to to randomly generate gems.  You can either roll for value on the table provided or, if you know the value of the gem (which is more likely from my experience), you can roll on the charts based upon value to find out what type of gem you've found.  For example, a 1d20 roll on the 10gp Base Value chart gives you a Moss Opal if you roll a 12.  I wouldn't know a Moss Opal from a Moss Agate, so I look at the descriptions in the back and see that Moss Opals are green and white with a sparkle to them.  You polish them (as opposed to cutting them) and they are medium sized.  One of the nice things about Gems is that they have two scales for size: real-world and fantasy.  If you want gems the size of fists and melons (keep in mind the Hope Diamond is like an inch around and a half inch thick), go with the fantasy rules.  If you are bit more realistic, go with the Real-World size chart.

Are we done with gems?  Heck no!  While it's a no-brainer to move up and down a chart to reflect the changes in value based on size and quality, Gems includes charts to make it a lot easier to randomly generate the sizes and quality based on final value.  You find a gem worth 500gp?  Well, on a 3d6, I roll an 8 and find that find that it's a Larger (one step) 250gp Base Value gem of Good (average) quality.  Rolling a d6 on the 250gp table, we get a Flame Pearl (and after checking the description) the size of a pea (or a marble, if you are using the fantasy sizing).  They also explain how some gems can have stars and cat's eyes and some other distinctions that most of us unversed in gemology might not know.

The last section gives some rules for identifying gems as well as detecting (and trying to pass on) fakes.  They show how jewelers, merchants, fences, and PCs will all have different abilities to detect certain things.  PCs are not very good at it, comparatively, so be wary if you plan on ripping off the pros.  I'll probably bump Dwarves up to the Merchant level of identifying things in my game (as well as any who have a merchant or mining background).

All the Treasures of the World Part II: Jewels is a little trickier to work with, since the nature of jewelry means that you have to manage a few more moving parts.  Jewels breaks down each piece of jewelry based upon what type it is, what it is made of, any kind of style or motif, and gems added.  I think the easiest way to show what the supplement is capable of is to walk you through the creation of a few bits of jewelry.

Let's say you want to buy your mother some nice, simple copper earrings.  Looking at the item chart and cross-referencing the materials chart, you come up with 5 sp.  Happy birthday, mom.

Something a little crazier?  Well, let's see what the King's Crown would be like?  Well, it's made of platinum, which makes it's frame along worth 300gp.  It's masterfully engraved with 12 images of past Kings' triumphs, upping the value to 2880gp.  We're going to go with the nonpareil level of gemstoning, since it's a sovereign's gaudy headgear.  The glory on it is a 2500gp gem (A flawless blue diamond the size of a pea), surrounded by 30 100gp gems (Lesser sapphire chips),  with 66 10gp gems (Flawless star garnet chips) in the setting.  The King's Crown is worth about 9,000gp.  Good luck fencing THAT.

Gems and Jewels  are a wonderful investment of four dollars (two bucks each).  I plan on using them extensively in my sandbox.  If you are a fan of flavor and detail in your treasure, these are indispensable.

Random Treasure Generation Spawning Adventure Hooks

So, I picked up the Gems and Jewels treasure supplements from Faster Monkey Games today.  Great supplements.  I'm heading off to Colorado for the weekend for a wedding, so between that and schoolwork, I doubt I'll have time to write a review for the blog.  Still, they are a combined $4 and provide some neat flavor for the game.  What I didn't expect was it can also generate some plot hooks!

I really dig Swords & Wizardry's random treasure system, so I used it for this experiment.  I just picked an Ogre Mage at random from the monster list, which gives a 600gp base.  I got one 100gp trade out that ended up being 142gp worth of gems and jewelry.  I picked a 100gp gem and 42gp worth of jewelry.

Before I share the results, I'm using the alternate currency system from an issue of Footprints which will have my Sovereign Crowns (the gold piece) worth 250 Silver Pennies, so the final numbers might look a little strange.  Anyway, here is what we've got:

• 20 Sovereign Crowns
• A huge (egg-sized) Blue Spinel, with a Star of poor quality (4 Crowns)
• Man’s Heraldic Banded Copper Ring with a Shield Pattern with an 8-point Coronet  (Size 2) (30 Pennies)
• Woman’s Plain Silver Signet Ring (40 Pennies) with a channel of 20 Flawless Pea-Sized Onyxes (10 Pennies each)  (Size 2) (1 Crown, 40 Pennies)

An 8-point Coronet on a ring is significant, since the system can only generate up to 9-point coronets.  This is likely the ring of a Prince.  Why would a prince have such a ring of such low value?  I have two thoughts:

1.) It's really old--before the Kingdom had really nice things.
2.) It's simple because of modesty/piety of the prince OR it was his "war ring," since he wouldn't take his really nice things on campaign with him.

Either way, it'll be very difficult to pawn the Prince's jewelry.  How the Ogre Mage came into possession of the ring is curious and can generate stories.  The woman's ring, on the other hand, could very well be the ghetto fabulous accoutrement of a wealthy merchant's wife.  Would the merchant want the ring back?  Is his wife alive?  Did he feed her to the Ogre Mage?

Or, you could reverse engineer the adventure from these--Maybe the prince or wife commissioned the PCs to look for the items.  Maybe their families were concerned about their absence.  What did the Ogre Mage DO with the bodies?  Are they dungeon dressing?  Slaves somewhere?  Willing co-conspirators?

Anyway, check out the treasure generators.  I love them.

Props: Adventures and Zines I plan on using in my Greatholm Campaign.

Well, it's Martin Luther King Day and I can't get squat done.  The problem with living off the government teat (My income streams are pretty much the State of Pennsylvania and the Veterans Administration right now) is that you have to deal with government hours.  So, what is there to do but head on down to the Cheeky Monkey Coffee House and try to read and write some stuff.  Last night, Mrs. Higgipedia and I sat at the local Perkins so she could get some of her reading done while I went through a lot of my PDFs to see what I might use for my Greatholm Sandbox.  It gave me a great chance to look through a lot of wonderful things made by the OSR Community.

Skull Mountain, by Faster Monkey Games.  I plan on having two megadungeons on the island.  Skull Mountain will be one of them (The other one might end up being The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth).  I'll have to tweak it a bit to make it a little more "weird," but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.  I must confess, I never went to their website before.  I'm glad I did, because it turned me on to the $2 PDFs they put out covering Gems and Jewelery, which I plan on snapping up as soon as I get paid.

Blood Moon Rising, by Small Niche Games.  I talked about this one briefly when I talked about folk festivals.  It's nice because it allows the PCs to participate while the events unfold.  A lot of open choices there and hooks to bite on.  I might try to work The Inn of Lost Heroes into my game as well. 

Death Frost Doom, Hammers of the God, Three Brides: No Dignity in Death, and Tower of the Stargazer, all by Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  These are the ones I own.  I'll likely pick up The Grinding Gear when I get paid and A Stranger Storm when it becomes available.  I get pretty brand loyal when I find something I really like.  I've liked the reviews and play journals for Death Frost Doom.  Seeing Beedo's write-ups about his game has me thinking that Greatholm would likely be toast if 13,000 undead started coming down the mountain.  What I've read of Three Brides looks wonderful.  Tower of the Stargazer was a fun time with my brother back in October.  I loved the playtest of A Stranger Storm.  I am a geek for James's stuff, as it fits exactly what I want out of my game.  Of course, finding players who fit that mold might be more difficult...

I also went through a bunch of zines for things to use.  I'm trying to keep house-rules to a minimum, what with my existing Arcane Magic idea and plans for some tweaks to Alignment and Psychology and two potential new classes I've been mulling about in my head.

Encounters, Jesse Walker's zine from Australia, is quite possibly the best LOOKING D&D fanzine on the internet.  The content is as great as the layout.  There are three issues available for download and the fourth should be out shortly.  It would certainly behoove you to check out Encounters.  Footprints and OD&Dities continue to put out some good stuff in them as well.

Anyway, it's given me some stuff to think about and work on.  If you aren't already checking some of these out, I recommend you do so.