Why being an adventurer ?

To answer this classical question, I made a random table - randomness is the answer to any D&D-related question, anyway. It proved to be very practical at first, as it gives both a quick'n'easy background and a personnality trait, without wasting too much time for a potentially dead 1st level PC.

1 – Broken love. You want to forget her/him, or to prove your own value.

2 – Taste for adventure. You just like the thrill of coming death. 

3 – Family tradition. Dad was an adventurer. Mum was an adventurer. You got no choice.

4 – Drunkard. You joined adventurers while being drunk. Now you drink to forget you did.

5 – Faith. It’s your religious duty to smite the enemy.

6 – Uniform. These adventurers looks so nice, you wanted to be one.  

7 – Family problems. They threw you out and don’t give you money anymore.

8 – Justice. When they caught you, they give you choice: hand-cut, or go far away. 

9 – Travel. As a kid, you wanted to see others countries. Now, you do.

10 – Vengeance. Your family was murdered. You’re the arm of vengeance.

11- Poverty. Famine, disease, you need so much money.

12 – Credulity. You really thought it would be easier and you’ll get rich and famous.

13 – Discipline. You were fired off the military. Too much a troublemaker.

14 – Patriotism. Your country is your first love. You will fight for the Land and the Flag.

15 – Feudal obligation. Service of you Lord is a duty and you won’t fail.

16 – Sense of duty. You feel you need to be there, to help people.

17 – Error. It was supposed to be another one. It should have been.

18 – Younger brother. Your older brother will inherit all, money and land. 

19 – Sheriff. He wants you, dead or alive. You’re better far away from him.

20 – Glory. You deserve it. Now, you just have to show them.

Epées & Sorcellerie RPG English Translation Released!

Once again, Dave made a clear and enthusiast advertisement message for the realease of our firsrt Frightful Hobgoblin game. So, as i'm still lazy, I cut&copy. I ust add I'm very happy and proud of these news!


"It has been a long time coming, but the day is finally here. Frightful Hobgoblin is proud to announce the release of the English translation of Nicolas Dessaux's Epées & Sorcellerie roleplaying game, now available in both print and pdf versions from Lulu.


The pdf (7.4 megs) is a free download, while the print copy (8.5 x 11 paperback) has been released at cost and can be purchased for $9.57 US (€6.68).


Inspired by Original D&D and Chainmail, along with some modern additions, Epées & Sorcellerie is a complete game in just 68 pages. Players can be human, orc, elf, dwarf, or halfling, and become a warrior, priest or sorcerer up to level 12.
With some interesting variations on familiar themes, whether you play it in its own right, or mine it for ideas to use with your current game, the Epées & Sorcellerie RPG is well worth checking out. And you can do so for free! So what are you waiting for?"

Eight variants on the Caves of Chaos

During my last ‘Newbies in Blackmoor’ game session, I used goblins and hobgoblins caves caves from KotB as a former gnome mine which has been conquered by these goblinoids, so as a separate dungeon. And, for my Borderlands group, I placed several classical outside of their ‘normal context’, including Lost city pyramid in a marsh, two days from the village of Orlane – even if, after a first attempt, the characters choose to delay visiting that intriguing place. That’s how I build my sandbox campaign using classical material. 

So, a I must play soon with another group of players, I was looking around what modules I could use, and it gave me the idea to suggest alternate versions of the Caves of Chaos:

1 – The mountain caves. No changes, except reverse the level lines, so goblins, kobolds and so on are on the upper side. Maybe have a skull entrance on 51 tunnel to the temple, in the lower part of the mountain. 

2 – The frozen caves. Same plan and creatures, but the caves are dig into Ice, not rock, in a polar setting. Probably the Keep is set on an island. Tunnels are slippery and orcs wear furs and use seal bones as tools. Easy to make others options like the desert caves, the jungle caves and so on…

3 – The undersea caves. Same plan, all creatures being replaced by their water cousin if any, or others filling the mood (a bloody killer whale instead of the owlbear ?). Sahuagins could fit the role for Temple of Chaos priests. A few traps should be changed, but not that’s much.

4 – The urban caves. Same plan, but the caves are set under a city, and their openings lead to some well known buildings. The keep could be the town’s keep as well. Maybe replace some creatures, like bugbears or gnolls, by a thieve’s guild or a smuggler’s gang. 

5 – Caves of the giants. Turn kobolds to ogres, goblins to hill giants, hobgoblins to stone giants, gnolls to frost giants, bugbears to fire giants, ogre to an athatch an minotaur to Ettin, add each of them a few pets. Fore sur, makes the Temple fo Chaos a drow fortress and the High priest a drow female priest, and link this to the G-D-Q modules. 

6 – The vertical caves. Same plan and creatures. Use the map as if it was a slice. The blank space in the middle is a very big cave. Then, add a lot, a lot of ladders, ropes, stairs and other means to go from a room to another. It turns to a nightmare to explore… A variant is the pit caves: Turn the map with east upward. 

7 – The alien caves. Same plans, some technological changes. Allow tech weapons to the creatures which use range attacks and give a sci-fi outlook to the overall. The caves are located on an asteroid. As options, combine with 5 (without gravitation) or changes creatures to Barsoom ones. Use the keep as a space ship, for sure.

8 – The caves of Law. Use Halflings for Kobolds, gnomes for Goblins, dwarves for Hobgoblins, elves for gnolls, hsiaos (from RC) as bugbears and a temple of Law protected by statues. Use as home base, or send avengers from the Keep of Chaos. 

How Tom Moldvay did influenced Vampire?

When “Vampire: The Masquerade” was released, my favorite players all wanted to play that brand new Vampire instead of D&D. There was already a French RPG about Vampires, but it vanished as soon as this one appeared in the game’s stores. At first, it looked as something entirely new, focusing on ”storytelling” rather dungeon crawling. I was caught into the vampire mood for the next ten years. Now, reading back Vampire and discovering the history of our hobby more deeply, I find very striking how oldschool is Vampire, and more, how Tom Moldvay influenced it!

So… imagine a game were you pick a class (fighter / brujah, ranger / gangrel, thief / nosferatu, wizard / tremere, bard / toreador, then assassin / assamite, illusionist / ravnos, and so on), an alignment (Law  / camarilla or Chaos / Sabbat) and explore old pyramids (Diablerie in Mexico!) to get experience points and raise levels (generations – vampire is the only game with a descending level system). Nothing really new since Dave Arneson… Just, Mark Rhein*Hagen was a genius to make old concepts to feel new, and a great game designer.

Anyway, my point is not about the Oldschool vs Newschool debate, but about Tom Moldvay’s influence on Vampire. Writing an extensive article on Moldvay for the French Wikipedia, I took the time to read as much as I can of his writings. “Trouble Brewing” was a blast!  With more than 170 NPCs described with a fair amount of details, it’s a perfect campaign setting. The city of Lakefront is, clearly, Chicago during the 20’s. What was the first campaign setting published for vampire, celebrated as one of the most complete one at that time? “Chicago by night”, which described a fair amount of NPCs. More, what town was described in the Vampire’s core book? Gary. Gary! Remember the Chicago area was already the base setting for the C&C society, where Blackmoor and Greyhawk were first located. I just can’t imagine all this to be a hazard.

A common characteristic of Tom Moldvay’s modules are opposing factions. The best sue of this feature is The Lost city, where the Cynidiceans are three opposing factions and characters can join one of them, or use their oppositions for their own goals. But this feature appears in Isle of dread, in Castle Amber, in the Volturnus series and so on… Even if this appears under the pen of others writers (Paul Jacquays, for example), this feature is more typical of Moldvay than any other oldschool module designer. And these factions lead to Vampire’s coteries, more than any Ravenloft’s lone castellan. Maybe I’m wrong, but I enjoy dreaming it!

Who and what are Frightful Hobgoblin?

As I'm a lazy guy, and Dave Macauley made a nice post on his blog (http://theresdungeonsdownunder.blogspot.com/, go have a look!), I just copy and paste it. Anyway, this is wonderful news for me to announce Epées & Sorcellerie will soon be released in English, and the first book of Aventure Fantastiques is available in french now.
 

Who and what are Frightful Hobgoblin?

Frightful Hobgoblin is an Anglo-French RPG publishing company that will shortly be releasing a variety of products in both French and English. These products will be available both in PDF format and in print through print on demand publishing. Initial releases include:

Orcs

The original version of Dungeons & Dragons provided a unique description of orcs, somewhat different to later editions. The supplement Orcs expands upon the original description with the addition of many cultural details about the daily life and customs of these humanoids. It includes guidelines for playing an Orc character in OD&D and compatible games.

Epées & Sorcellerie

Released in 2009, this French RPG will shortly be available in English. Mixing OD&D with Chainmail and using only a 2d6 mechanic, Epées & Sorcelerie is a complete role-playing game in 64 pages.

Aventures Fantastiques

A new French version of the classic role-playing game. This booklet will enable play with the four core classes and races, with rules for character generation, magic, combat and adventures. A second booklet of monsters and magic items will be released later, with an English translation to follow.

 Team

Nicolas Dessaux... It's me...

David Macauley is an Australian who started gaming at the age of 14 in 1981, with Holmes D&D, and has been hooked on the older versions of the game ever since. He has worked as a proofreader and occasional editor with various OSR authors and publishers, including Brave Halfling Publishing, Goblinoid Games, James Raggi, Moritz Mehlem, and others. A strong supporter of the OSR, he is also the Labyrinth Lord Society organizer.

Congregations of the Borderlands

« Groups sent on a mission will be blessed and given up to 100 g.p. each for any needed supplies. », states, once again, Keep in the Borderlands. I was a bit puzzled by that blessing, and searched a few more explanations. The first one was technical: even if we adopt the « small scale » on the map, the 6 turn duration of the Bless spell should last before they arrive in the caves. 

So, I read once again the spell description in OD&D (which was the rule set Gary had in mind when writing KOTB), Holmes (for which the module was officially released) and Moldvay (for which the module was adapted later). The text is almost the same, and makes sense: the spell should be cast before the battle, but will really be active once the fight begins. So, nothings prevent to cast a Bless spell long time before it could be useful. The only « technical » problem is any fight, even a minor one, will starts the spell effect and the six turn duration…

Anyway, the real question is not technical, but once again, anthropological. Why are the groups be sent on missions blessed? For sure, this provides a help in the first battle, which can’t be bad. But can this be the only reason? I suspect at least another one, which is embedded into the struggle between Law and Chaos. Law, as I already stated, seems obsessed by the idea of purity, and considers contact with Death and Chaos as impure. So, a Bless protects the groups from the impurity of Chaos.

Maybe I am wrong on that hypothesis, but searching for more clues, I was puzzled by another detail I didn’t noticed earlier about the Borderlands religion: « He [the curate] will only use the cure on a member of his congregation, such as an officer of the Guard or a shopkeeper. » So some spells could be reserved to congregation members and some are not. The reason should be discussed in detail, but the main fact is such: there is something called a congregation, and some people, including shopkeepers, could be members.

Congregation is a broad word, which could apply to an autonomous Church (in a protestant meaning), or a group of secular people practicing their faith in common, under the leadership of monks or priests (in a catholic meaning). Both meanings seems possible in the context, but it means the congregation is, apparently, more restrictive than alignment.

In the first sense, it would mean the Law itself is divided between several churches. Why not, after all? If there’s a dogmatic interpretation of the Law, it’s rather probable there are several dissents, or at least, coexisting interpretations… The fact the Priest tries to convert people to his (fake) faith by discussing theology provides a good base for this: it means several theological visions of the Law may coexist. I can easily imagine Borderlands people as highly religious dissenters, living faraway from the corruption of town and cities, and viewing their faith as a citadel of the Law protecting the world from Chaos.

In the second sense, Law church would have groups of secular people, praying altogether, organized around a curate or another religious figure. Catholic Church provides many examples of such “Third Orders”. The formulation Gary chose provides a good base for this: it seems that not every people in the Keep are a member of the congregation, even if all of them appear implicitly to be lawful.

Both explanations could apply altogether easily. The curate’s acolytes seem to consider the Priest “very highly”. They consider him as a member of the same faith, even if the curate himself is secretly defiant about him. I’m inclined to think the Law is not a so-much organized church. Many theological interpretations and congregations do exist, sharing the same basic pillars of the faith, but opposing on many other aspects. This diversity affects even an isolated and faraway place like the Keep, so just imagine how it could look in town and cities?

About burials, Chaos & Law in the Borderlands

Long time I didn’t posted, due to my almost full-time involvement into the social movement in France. So, today, I will release a text I started to write just before I vanished from this side of the blogoshpere. So, continuing my study into the Borderlands anthropology, I discovered some aspects I wouldn’t have suspected. A good remark from a reader led my on that way. What are burial customs in the Borderlands? This inquiry leads me, as one can expect, to the religious background of the Keep and the Caves.

 Two points should be noted to begin this inquiry. First, there’s no mention of graves, or a cemetery, nor any burial ground in the Keep. Second, there are coffins and sarcophagus in the Caves. The easiest way would be to say: “Keep’s graves are elsewhere, or unmapped”. This is not the solution I will adopt here. Rather, I consider the lack of grave or cemetery in the Keep should be considered as an anthropological feature. There’s No graves, no burial in the Keep.

Presence of graves in the Sanctuary of Chaos, in the Caves, is part of a more general design: Chaos is strongly associated to corruption, night, darkness, blood, evil, pain, torture, death and demons. It has nothing to do with freedom, at all. Instead, Chaos is a plain submission to a strong hierarchy, which is obviously a corrupted mockery of the Law. Here, any debate about nature of Chaos and its relationship to evil is pointless: Chaos is Evil, incredibly Evil, and death is one of its attributes. Why does servant of Chaos have coffins? For their own servants, says Gary, and it seems clear the Wight is a former servant himself. So my suggestion is that Chaos uses graves because they hope to turn undead – in the strongest sense, they seek to become themselves undeads, as a reward of their dedication to Chaos.

What do we know about the religion of the Keep? Even if almost no detail is explicitly written, it seems most inhabitants are servants of the Law. People are described as seeking champions of the Law, and being themselves law-abiding and honest. More, each day, up to 100 silver pieces are offered to the chapel, in a place where a little more than 200 people are listed to live. Even if, like I suspect, more people live in the castle than those listed, and the chapel may be a religious centre for villagers as well, this is a sign of a living religious practice. People of the Keep are pious and view themselves as soldiers of the Law, even if they’re in service of a castellan. This explains why the curate is the second influential person in the keep.

The chapel itself has an altar and seems to be a luminous place, with tainted glass windows, but there’s no mention of any statue, or any painting. So, what deity or deities could be venerated here? My suggestion is the chapel is dedicated to a unique, unnamed and somewhat conceptual deity. Unique, because the priest likes to discuss theology, which is rather a monotheist feature – a polytheist would more likely discuss about cosmology or mythology. Unnamed, because, as I already suggested in a former post, if Borderlanders consider as rude to call someone by his personal name rather by his title, this custom would likely extend to their religion. Think to Judaism, where the name of God is so sacred it can’t even be pronounced. Conceptual, because this unnamed deity seems to equates the Law, rather than being a mythological being with associated tales.

Reverse of Chaos, Law is righteousness, sun, light, good, health and life – a list of words which fits the spells the clerics can use. I will suggest that in the Borderlands, blood and death are so strongly associated to Chaos that they should be avoided absolutely, like a taboo. This would explain both why there are no graves in the Keep, and why clerics should use only maces, which are reputed to be bloodless weapons. Incineration of bodies is probably the best way to keep them from turning to undeads and to keep the purity of the citadel of the Law, the Keep.