Cyclopean Ruins

Almost two weeks ago I posted a query concerning Numenera. My interest in that book has cooled somewhat, but not the quote that I shared in that post.

I simply can not shake the image of a small band traversing a flat, windswept landscape. The wind howls, pulling at their cloaks as they clutch them desperately around their bodies. The light is failing, and in its twilight seems somehow thin, washed out. They arrive at a cliff face, not more than 10-12' high, curving away to either side, fading into the wan light.

They quickly negotiate that smooth face, gaining its summit. Continuing on their course, a short time later they arrive at a precipice. The lip curves away, behind them this time, symmetrical and smooth, lost in the gathering darkness. One of them takes a tube from a fold in his cloak and places it to one of his eyes. Instantly the distance shrinks before him and he can gaze upon far vistas as if they were at arm's length. There at the edge of his extended vision, he sees another precipice. This one, while curving beyond the limits of his vision, is marked by deep indentations, uniformly spaced and consistent in their depth. They march along the edge of that far cliff, fading from sight.

The view of this scene pulls back, revealing the group to be standing on a giant gear.

So, here is my idea: a post-apocalyptic fantasy set among the cyclopean ruins of an advanced previous civilization. The system I think would be suit my vision? Well, this is a weird, bleak, somewhat hopeless, blend of fantasy with a dash of sci-fi post apoc. It is over-the-top in-your-face balls-to-the-wall and a lot of other hyphenated descriptors. So, naturally, I'm thinking DCC.

Aranor Prehistory

In The Time Before the lands were ruled by the First, the first intelligent peoples given life by the gods. The First were a divine race, being near-gods themselves. They were mighty in all things that were of the Creation. They were all warriors, wizards, bards, weaponsmiths, and artists. They were fearless and absolutely sure of their power. So sure, in fact, that in time they waged war against the gods themselves.

Of course, they were doomed. They did make an accounting of themselves before their revolution was thrown down, though. Ultimately they were defeated. Their punishment was to have their essence split. They were divided into humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs. Some of the First escaped the sentence, and bade their time, hidden from the gods.

Once the Lessers, as the First refer to the "split" races, had developed sufficiently the First came out of hiding. They very carefully assimilated themselves into Lesser society, albeit as overlords and rulers. They had carefully laid out boundaries for themselves, to prevent them gathering or coming into conflict, in order to not draw the gods' attention. They became known as the Mage-Lords.

The Mage-Lords bred, bred with, and otherwise manipulated the Lessers to create new races and/or modify the original Lessers to better fit their needs. They were ruthless and cruel, vengeance burning hot and bright in their hearts. Some descended into a madness the depth of which only godlings such as they could fathom. These became known as demons and devils.

The empires of the Mage-Lords were vast and powerful. The Mage-Lords possessed a command of magic and artifice the world has never known since. The states and provinces of their empires were interconnected by dimensional gateways and teleportation devices. Paired scrying mirrors were used for communication. Many of the greatest cities were connected by paved highways. Trade was facilitated by these paved roads, as well as by caravansary at regular intervals.

For generations the Mage-Lords were content to rule within their enclaves. Eventually, though, they turned ravenous eyes on their brethren. Their wars forever changed the world. They shared minor secrets of their magic and artifice, instructing certain talented Lessers. Some were deployed as battle mages. Some were imprisoned in magical smithies, slaves set to making magical artifacts of war.

For thousands of years these wars were waged. Eventually all of the Mage-Lords became embroiled in these conflicts. The gods were content to allow these wars to play out. They realized who the Mage-Lords were and watched as they killed each other off. Eventually, there was only one, called Zagrath. Swollen with pride, he believed that having killed all of the other Mage-Lords and assimilated their power, he was ready to vie against the gods.

He marshalled his forces and summoned great and terrible magic. He opened a gateway to the gods' realms and sallied forth. The struggle was titanic. Zagrath bested many of them before he fell. Eventually the gods, at first divided, came together and overcame the upstart. They visited every manner of suffering on him they could conceive. Finally, when they tired of their sport, they threw him down. Literally. Already broken and mad, he plummeted from unimaginable heights to crash into the world. What was left of his mind was lost in that unending fall, and what remained of his body was utterly ruined in his landing.

He landed on a peninsula extending from the southeastern shores of Calanthas, known as Fahldrag. He crashed into a mountain whose original name is lost to time. Now it is called Sloth Negaimus. It is widely believed that Zagrath lies there still, where he fell, a mad godling in a ruined body, plotting revenge and conquest.

There are whispered legends of lost prophesies that as Zagrath warred against his brethren, he kept them alive. He didn't merely assimilate their power. He kept them alive after a fashion, tapping into their living power. Some say that without Zagrath to hold them in thrall they will regenerate their former power and return to torment the world. Most of these legendary prophesies are scoffed at by sages and intellectuals as fabrications of charlatans and hustlers.

There is also the prophesy of Niamician. It is well-recorded and attributed, even if it isn't widely respected. No one knows exactly what Niamician saw in his prophetic vision, but it drove him irretrievably mad. His only writing of the prophecy was this:

"When Zagrath rises, dark and bloody,

clutch tightly your fear with one hand,

and weep your despair into the other."

Ruminations on OD&D: The Endgame

It isn't hard to do an internet search (I prefer DuckDuckGo, sorry, Google) and find all sorts of forum posts, blog posts, and pontification about the ballyhooed "endgame". They run the gamut between lamenting its loss, to praising various clones for bringing it back to full glory. This post isn't like that. This is just a couple of ideas for integrating the endgame into the ongoing campaign/world. I'm not going to pretend they're original or profound, they're just my take.

First off, "name level" characters who construct strongholds attract followers. Why not base part of a campaign around that? Once the characters establish themselves, say 3rd level or so, they can offer their services to a name-level NPC who has established a stronghold. Perhaps this NPC is just starting out, so to speak. His stronghold is small and he is looking to expand. The PCs can pledge their service, and the NPC can send them on "missions". He can offer them support services, like healing and magic item identification, in exchange for finding whatever loot he desires. Maybe their liege is a cleric who sends them on a mission to recover the shrine idol stolen by bandits. The PCs would return the idol, and perhaps a tithe of other treasures recovered, and keep the rest.

I wouldn't base an entire campaign around this concept, but for a few levels, it could bring a logical structure to things. Plus, if the PCs have been honorable in their oath, when they reach name-level they will have a powerful friend and ally who can help them establish their own domain. Which brings me to . . .

Point the second. Once the PCs reach name-level, I think it would provide a nice break from the high-level game to have followers become PCs every now and then. Have each player fully create a follower, and sometimes have a session or three using the party of followers. If the campaign continued long enough, one day those followers will establish their own strongholds. I know it sounds ambitious, but the setting would develop strongholds, villages and towns, and politics very organically if it could be pulled off.

Magic Colleges in Aranor

What follows is an introduction to the three main, formalized magic training institutions in Aranor. One thing I failed to include is that there is a lot of political maneuvering, as the colleges attempt to align themselves with powerful patron states, and the various kingdoms court the favors of the colleges.

An Imperial College of Magic

The Imperial Colleges of Magic maintains the best, most prestigious centers of magical learning in all of Aranor. They are located across the world. Magic-Users from the colleges (they prefer to be called “Imperial Wizards”) are easily recognized by their robes. Base colors indicate a wizard's area of specialty, while other various adornments indicate rank. Note that the character's rank as an Imperial Wizard, and his level as a Magic-User are not necessarily related. Rank is more about clout and political influence. Not all Imperial Wizards are concerned with rank, so do not be tempted to rash action due to the simplicity of an opponent's garb.

Another institution of magical learning that is gaining popularity is the Guild of Arcane Lore. While not as large and institutionalized as the Imperial Colleges, it is spreading and being sought by more and more prospective students. Graduates prefer to be called Guild Wizards or Loremasters. The institution is decentralized, with students being taught in small groups in what the Guild calls chantries. These are small buildings, or perhaps a small compound, usually built on a magically significant location. Loremasters are also recognizable by their robes, but they have no indications of rank on theirs. At first disrespected by the Imperial College, the Guild has persevered and consistently provides a high degree of quality instruction, and has begun earning the grudging respect of the Imperial College.

An alternative to more traditional forms of magic is Alchemy. A guild devoted to standardizing and formalizing the practice has formed within the last fifteen years. Its goal is to establish firm guidelines for rank (apprentice, journeyman, and master) and to establish uniform rules governing the practice of the trade. They are also seeking to promote the craft and spread its practice far and wide. Alchemy has been practiced for centuries, but until the last generation or so it was limited to a folk-craft. Knowledge of it was handed down orally, with any writings on the subject (such as specific recipes) being closely guarded. It was that secrecy that was one of the major hurdles overcame in establishing the guild. Now the movement is well underway to standardize certain recipes, but still allowing Master Alchemists to develop and maintain recipes with “trade secret” status. The Imperial Wizards view the alchemists as poor cousins basically, being people unable to actually develop magical skills and having to rely on “smoke and mirrors to simulate true magic”. The alchemists, on the other hand, take a great deal of pride in being able to replicate magical affects that the Imperial Wizards spend half their lives studying to achieve.

The final method for learning magic is the oldest. The mentor/student relationship has existed for as long as magic has been practiced. Wandering masters may arrive in a town, make his presence known, take on some students for a time, then move on. Some masters live in remote towers and take on students that prove themselves worthy by the completion of some hazardous task. However the relationship is established, there is no guarantee as to the quality of instruction or how far the instruction will ultimately go. Wizards trained in this way are not afforded the same respect as their formally trained brethren. In fact, they are often referred to as Rag Wizards, since they don't have the formally recognized robes of the Imperial Wizards or the Loremasters.

In fact, in the highly competitive world of the magically gifted, there are many derogatory terms for one's competitors. The Imperial Wizards are the most elitist of any of the groups, and are disdainful of all the other groups to some degree or another. As noted they refer to individually taught mages as rag wizards. They refer to the Loremasters as “Lories”. Alchemists they call “lead-heads”, “bubble-heads”, or “mixers”. All the other groups refer to the Imperial Wizards as “Dandies”.

My Campaign World

Alright, here we go. This is a world I've worked on, off-and-on, since sometime around 1990 or '91. It has gone through certain changes, including maps and writings, over the years. Mostly due to trying to warp it to fit whatever system I've been enthralled by at the time. I can't even count how many times I've picked it up and put it down again. Now, I've picked it back up. I'm not going to warp it anymore. I believe the LBBs are flexible enough to fit right in without requiring the setting to reflect certain unalterable aspects of the rules.

Now that the preamble is out of the way, here is the basic map of Northern Calanthas, the principle campaign area. It has seen the most specific development. It is the northern half of an island-continent (most of the continents are island-continents), which is divided by the Sundering Sea. The "d" in Sundering is hard to see on the map because I forgot to write it.

Northern Calanthas

I've also added a brief introduction to the Northlands to my Pages section, so be sure to grab that to go with the map. I have a lot of stuff written for this. It is in various stages of development, and reflects my interest in a number of systems. My goal is to post it as I get it at least a little cleaned up (hopefully polished), and stripped of specific system references. Please feel free to offer any comments or thoughts.

The Limitations of Vancian Magic

I'm a LBB guy. When it comes to D&D, that's my thing. I have come to appreciate all the quirks and idiosyncrasies and love the game for them. One of those is Vancian magic. It is very flavorful, yet tactical at the same time. It also imposes some rather strict limitations on how magic works in a particular world.

When I work on my campaign world (which has been off and on since '91), one of the first things I like to do to tie the mechanics to the world is tweak magic. There are two main forms this takes: Ley Lines (or mana pools, or whatever I decide to call flows or fonts of magic power), and Colleges. Not as in Abjuration, Invocation, etc, but as in centers of magical learning. Oftentimes I try to combine the ideas.

The problem with Vancian magic is that there is very little about it that is variable. For the most part things are automatic; spells are always cast successfully, their maximum parameters are based on either caster level or target HD, or are fixed, acquisition of ability occurs at a constant rate. It is very difficult to modify any of that based on training or proximity to a power source.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just bitching, but I'm just not satisfied with the idea of the benefits of studying at Beavis' College of Fire Magic simply adding an additional distance to their range on a Fireball. I could allow the player to choose a parameter each time the spell is used, and improve it by 10%. There is just something about that that leaves me feeling flat. Maybe I'm the one with limitations.

I just like some sort of spell point or fatigue system. Actually, I like magic to be somewhat risky, and the player never knowing for sure how much longer it will obey his commands. With spell points it is too easy to know just how much longer you can keep casting. That's one thing that's cool about magic in Spellcraft & Swordplay. Depending on the casting roll, the M-U can either just keep firing away with the spell, or he may lose the use of it altogether until after he re-studies it.

I know what you're saying. House rule it in. I'm a purist when it comes to my LBB D&D. Wholesale system changes won't work. Besides, once I start down that dark road, I start changing other things, and before you know it ADD takes over. It may creep in anyway. This kind of angst usually opens the door for it. I guess we'll just have to see.

Ailoria: A New Map

This is a hand drawn sketch (obviously) of a new setting/world. I was waiting for my wife at an appointment she had Saturday morning, and it just came to me. It's going to be a gritty, S&S themed thing. I feel awkward over what to call it. I hate calling it setting because that, to me, connotates something designed as a backdrop for a specific purpose. I don't feel comfortable with world either, because obviously, it isn't. Besides, I know me, if I start calling it world, then I'll feel compelled to venture beyond the confines of this map. I want to keep my efforts focused here.

Anyway, I'm going to develop it along the lines of the small-kingdom concept I discussed in this thread. I'll also be trying out the Welsh Piper's Hex-based Campaign Design.

Speaking of it being gritty S&S, I've come to realize something. I don't want pure, true-to-the-sources S&S. I want an S&S style, but I don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. I still want some classic D&D tropes. Some. For example:

• I don't want the chief adversaries to be limited to humans. I want monsters.
• I don't want to have to make up some horror lost to time, in order for the adventure to truly have a monster. 
• At the same time, I don't want to have to consider the implications of orcs having their own nations. Monsters exist, but mainly as antithesis to civilization and the forces of Law. They are the Bad Guys, and are not to be trusted.
• Lastly, I want to allow for good, old-fashioned dungeon crawls. I don't want every adventure to be a case of sneak-in-without-getting-caught, grab the loot, and run-out-before-we get-killed.

So, there it is. This will be my design log, which I'm sharing in hopes of getting feedback that will help me do this the best I can. This map is the starting point. I'm going to port it into GIMP and try to pretty it up. That will be submitted for comment, as well.

PS> The name is pronounced EYE-loria.