The Silver Marches Campaign

So, my ADHD ass has started work on a new campaign, this time for 5e (boo, boo, hiss).

This time, we’re heading back to the Forgotten Realms, to Luruar, or the Silver Marches.

This campaign is a war story, loosely based on The War of the Silver Marches plot line from the earliest days of 5e. Issue being, though, that I haven’t read those books yet.

And I’m not going to jump to them, I’m slowly working through some of the older series, and I think I dropped off the Salvatore books right around The Thousand Orcs, so I have a long ways to go. But I’m pretty sure I have a decent enough understanding of the event based on the wiki readings, and based off of the dozens of books I’ve already read.

I’ve got this. None of this is canon, but it will be for my table.

So to start, Lady Alustriel, High Mage of Silverymoon abdicates rule of Silverymoon in the year 1482, to defend Candlekeep’s collection of Nether Scrolls, to prevent the lich Larloch from obtaining them. In her stead, she appoints Methrammar Aerasume, her son.

Methrammar is lauded as a worthy successor of Alustriel – he previously acted as marshal of the Knights in Silver to great acclaim, securing numerous victories in defence of the city, and organizing rescue and aid for smaller settlements. The citizenry of Silverymoon nearly unanimously vote in favour of Methrammar’s ascension to the role of High Mage.

All is not well in the confederacy of the Silver Marches, however. In particular, Citadel Felbarr, Citadel Adbarr, and Mithral Hall all take exception to Methrammar’s leadership. Though Silverymoon is an equal partner within the Silver Marches, it is often seen as the defacto ‘face’ of the confederacy.

Essentially, the Dwarven holds feel that Alustriel’s son will just be a continuation of her rule, and that the other cities should have more representation beyond the Silver Marches; essentially, they feel they will be overshadowed again, and that a new, less famous face should represent Luruar.

And so the confederacy of the Silver Marches collapses, leading to the disbanding of the Argent Legion, the army made of conscripts of each confederated cities. The players are former members of the Argent Legion, now far from home and looking for work and adventure.

I’m most likely going to steal adventures from Dragon of Icespire Peak for starting quests; nobody in my group has played them before.

The threat starts small – small goblin raiding parties threatening smaller settlements, scaling up with orc bands occupying abandoned Legion watchtowers and fortifying their positions, and eventually full-scale war, and mobilization of individual cities’ armies.

Eventually, the occasional drow will begin to appear, performing intel drops and assassination of key targets. The drow, of course, are manipulating things on the surface, riling up and backing an orc chief that rejects the ideals of the Kingdom of Many Arrows, and wishes to return to earlier days, where only the strong survived and dominated the weak. A fascist, obviously. He seeks to return to a “better” time in orcish history, and is backed by several orc shamans, who feel that Obould’s vision defies the will of Gruumsh, and that the old ways must be preserved.

The drow seek to destabilize the North, and are using the orcs to weaken the cities. As the war escalates, the drow work to cast the darkening, a spell to dampen the intensity of the sun, and will allow then to work unimpeded on the surface.

That’s all I got for now.

On WotC and Prose Preservation

I’ve been on a collecting binge lately, and WotC is really starting to get on my nerves.

It’s 2022, and I recognize that I’m almost two decades behind on some of this, but WotC has done a piss-poor job of preserving their legacy of novels.

Let’s start with the reasonable. WotC has published hundreds of novels since buying out TSR. The vast majority of these books are not available even as ebooks. This is frustrating. They’ve had lots of time to digitize these and release them. Maybe they don’t own the rights to some, maybe they just can’t be arsed, I don’t know.

What’s truly egregious, to me, is that since reformatting their website, there are dozens upon dozens of short stories, novelettes, novellas, and even full-blown novels that have utterly disappeared. Gone.

It used to be there were tons of previously-unpublished works that eventually found life as free downloads on their website.

They are utterly gone. It’s frustrating, and seems like sheer malicious laziness. Do better.

Obscurish: Black Easter by James Blish

James Blish is a name that is not likely to be familiar to those outside of the Star Trek community; though he is far more prolific outside of Star Trek, he is well-remembered for his twelve Star Trek novels, written between 1967 and 1977. Still, I’d like to ramble on his 1968 novel, Black Easter.

Black Easter was originally sold to me as a horror novel, but to be clear, it isn’t – at least, not really. Hell, the novel itself is billed on its spine as a fantasy novel. It is the story of an arms dealer who contracts a black magician, by the name of Theron Ware, with the goal of loosing all the demons of hell upon earth for a day. Why? While he is a little concerned about the longevity of his industry with the proliferation of nuclear weapons, ultimately he wants to unleash chaos for aesthetic purposes – to simply know what would happen.

What sets Black Easter apart from other hell-on-earth novels is the content of the novel itself. Blish has done his homework, citing direct passages from real-world grimoires, and extrapolating magical practicies where the texts fail. If nothing else, Blish understands the classical magic practices of Western Europe.

Thankfully though, the strength of his characters elevates Black Easter beyond dry recitation – the writing is smart, quick, and surprisingly witty, with characters who purport to be honest, but clearly have motivations beyond the page.

Honestly, I can recommend this book on the strength of the characters alone – they’re interesting and surprising in their own right, and you’re never quite sure what anyone is getting out of their dealings, both with demons, and each other.

If you have any interest in hell-on-earth novels, I’d strongly recommend Black Easter, though I can’t guarantee it will be easy to find (unless you like online shopping, but where’s the fun in that?). Most often, this novel is printed along with its sequel, The Day After Judgement as The Devil’s Day, though honestly I had some difficulties finding that as well.

Still, if you want an obscurish novel that you can all but bet nobody in your circle has read, Black Easter will be a sure bet.

The Fisherman – Modern Horror Classic?

Not really, no.

I see this book touted in horror circles as a modern classic, as a genre-defining work, something that will have massive influence and will shape authors for years to come, and to be honest… no? Not really?

I liked it, even enough to say yeah, it was pretty good, but I’m scratching my head at why precisely this book has so much praise lavished upon it.

John Langan is a good writer. A strong writer, even. I’d read another book by him, I’d happily buy some short stories, but a modern classic The Fisherman is not, I think. It’s Lovecraft by way of Stephen King, maybe some Machen thrown in there for flavour. Good characters, good story, good writing, but thats about all I can say for it – it was good.

Worldbuilding; Morgansfort campaign

As some characters have survived thus far (only one fatality, that of Talbot, human assassin, impaled by a giant bee’s stinger), it’s time I sat down and did some actual worldbuilding. Our campaign takes place upon the world of Oorith, beneath the crimson cataract of a red star. The sky itself is a deep midnight blue, owing to the dimming light of said star, and some stars are visible even in the daytime.

Oorith, along with nearly infinite other worlds, is the battleground for the universal forces of Law and Chaos, not to be confused with the broader concepts of Good and Evil. After all, does not the idealistic revolutionary represent the chaos of life? And is not the iron-fisted dictator he strives to overthrow typical of the tyranny of law? With this in mind, it is not uncommon to find both Chaotic and Lawful priests within a settlement (though some places may favour or disallow certain faiths all the same), though both vie for the hearts and minds of those who can serve their masters, the Lords of the Higher Spheres.

Not every person upon the face of Oorith takes sides in the endless struggle. Many are not even aware of the war that wages all around them. Whether or not they are aware of it, however, they are still manipulated by the forces of Law and Chaos. All play their part within the conflict.

Clerics, upon reaching second level, must choose a side. No cleric may remain neutral in the conflict, and those that refuse to pledge themselves are demoted to fighters of first level, and may not regain their cleric levels under any circumstances, even if they choose a side later on.

Clerics of Law wear blue, the colour of peace and order. Those of Chaos, yellow, the colour of confusion and malleability. They must wear these colours proudly; to hide or mislead others by removing or altering these colours is tantamount to sacrilege, and may result in the cleric’s standing in the eyes of the Lords of the Higher Planes being stripped entirely. Their commitment may be seen as false, and they may be demoted to fighters of half their current level. Generally there is little a former cleric can do to reinstate themselves, however truly great acts on behalf of their former Lords may persuade them to change their minds, though this is exceedingly rare.

Upon declaring one’s allegiance, a cleric is tasked with travelling to a site of great import to Law or Chaos, and engaging in ritual to swear a binding oath.

Lawful clerics will typically cut a band of flesh off of their right wrist, wrapping around to create a sort of “bracelet”. This flesh is rendered as a burnt offering, as the cleric submerges this wound in salt, to seal the wound and create a band of scar tissue, by which a cleric may be identified.

Chaotic clerics engage in a similar act of self-mutilation, carving into their skin the eight-pointed star of chaos, and rubbing bone ash into the wound to solidify the symbol in scarified form.

Lawful clerics may heal others and create light, while Chaotic clerics can instead inflict wounds upon others and create globes of darkness. Both may turn the undead, as such creatures are unnatural to the universe, and repulsive to both Law and Chaos.

Morgansfort Session 1

Our heroes: Talbot, human assassin; Pansy, halfling ranger; Terra, human cleric; Steven, elf thief.

Starting right outside the sunken fort ruins south of Morgansfort, knee-deep in swampy Marsh, our heroes embark.

Unfortunately, not all of our heroes survive their very first delve into the ruins. In an attempt to hold shut a warped door, Talbot succumbs to the furious stings of the giant bees contained therein.

Should the party attempt to clear the room of 6 giant bees, they will be able to harvest both giant bee larvae, along with royal jelly, to use or sell as they see fit.

I’m considering allowing the players to sell the royal jelly and/or larvae to farmers, to augment their bee hives, or perhaps a magic-user, to breed their own strain of giant bees.

Two new characters should be joining next session; Talbot is being replaced by a near-identical human assassin, and a magic-user.

My players were a little unprepared for the intensity and ferocity of the giant bees, and combat in general. This is understandable, as even with my warnings, most of my players have only engaged with 5e before.

As a result, I’ve decided that I will be using the alternate GP for XP rules. This, surprisingly, is not standard in BFRPG, but is presented as an option in the book.

Into the OSR; a new BFRPG Campaign

After many long months, I’ve finally regained my ability to think straight (thanks, Ritalin). As such, it’s time to get back to work, and start a new campaign.

This is in no small part due to the recent announcement of new Dragonlance and Spelljammer material for 5e. I don’t have any particular love for 5e, I’m not opposed to it, but my ADHD limits my ability to peruse large stat blocks and complex page layouts, along with ballooning hit points and PC abilities. Instead, I’ve changed tracks and decided that my players would join me in a new Basic Fantasy RPG campaign.

If you haven’t seen BFRPG before, please please PLEASE check it out. It’s a wonderful system based on the SRD of 3rd edition D&D, but steeped in the traditions of old-school D&D.

The party, as the campaign begins, includes a human cleric, human assassin, halfling ranger, and elf thief. As far as party makeup, despite the lack of a magic-user, I feel that the party is somewhat balanced. Character death will likely occur relatively quickly, what with my players being inexperienced in OSR play (though not fully ignorant of it), and thus this particular party makeup will likely change.

I will be running BF1 – Morgansfort: The Western Lands, available here for free.

Thus far, I am implementing little in the way of house rules, aside from torches and lanterns having fixed illumination durations, as opposed to the variable times referenced in the rulebook.

I’m also not particularly interested in running a campaign in the setting as described in the book. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I’m happy to just toss things in as they suit my needs and desires. Likely this will end up resembling Greyhawk at the end of the day, but I’m not picky.

First session, Friday, May 20th, 2022. Updates coming, hopefully.

On Cairn, a darling of an RPG

Cairn is an ultra-light rpg by Yochai Gal, based on a framework of Knave (Ben Milton), and Into the Odd/Electric Bastionland (Chris McDowall).

Since purchasing a print copy from Amazon, I’ve given myself the chance to really pore over its 24 pages, as I can read physical media much more easily than pdfs.

There are, of course, many interesting decisions as far as game design go, but I’d like to dial in on one particular facet here; the interaction of inventory and HP (here called hit protection).

In Cairn, PCs have ten inventory slots. Normal-sized items take up one slot, bulky items take up two or three slots, and fatigue (which can be acquired, for example, by casting spells) can quickly sap your inventory slots.

HP is specifically described in the book as being your ability to avoid injury, and not as your bodily fortitude or constitution. This is a fairly important distinction from the typical understanding of hit points (not so much in the OSR community, but in the larger D&D and D&D-adjacent community) as being the amount of physical punishment you can endure before dying.

How do these interact? Simple. When all of your inventory slots are full, your hit points are reduced to 0. You can still cut about with your pockets full of jewels and your backpack overflowing with spellbooks, but carrying all that stuff weighs you down. It makes you slow and makes you vulnerable.

That suit of magic armour you found, all that treasure, it impedes your ability to avoid an arrow or axe.

I just thought it was an excellent design choice.

The Elf Game

…is what I’m calling my hack-bastard game for the time being, and because my attention can’t be held by basically anything for any period of time, I’ve already made changes to it since my last post.

For now, let’s take a look at the fighter class.

Level	Hit dice	Attack bonus	Damage bonus	Experience points
1	1+2	+1	+1	0
2	2+1	+2	+1	2,000
3	3	+3	+2	4,000
4	4	+4/+1	+2	8,000
5	5+1	+5/+2	+3	16,000
6	6	+6/+3	+3	32,000
7	7	+7/+4	+4	64,000
8	8+1	+8/+5	+4	130,000
9	9+2	+8/+6	+5	240,000
10	10+2	+8/+7	+5	360,000

A very simple advancement table for the fighter. Establishing a few things first:

1. Levels 1-10. Rarely have I found that campaigns get to levels above and beyond 10. Typically characters retire or die long before this point.
2. Hit dice are d6’s. Keeps the total HP manageably low, and also means less bookkeeping when it comes to monster creation/tracking
3. Attack bonus. Sort of ripped from 3.x as far as design philosophy goes. Ascending AC, too, less comparing scores for my players who struggle with finding information quickly on their sheets. Multiple attacks beginning at 4th level. The fighter needs to be (obviously) the best fighter. I struggled with the actual progression of the attack bonuses here a bit, but I’ve settled at capping it at +8/+7. In OD&D (converting to ascending armour class), the fighter reaches a maximum bonus of +7 at 11th level, and technically receives no additional attacks. Still, if we’re crunching the levels from 12+ to 10, it feels appropriate.
4. Damage bonus. This is the fighter’s gimmick. In theory, no other class is getting a damage bonus (maybe ranger, either bow damage or favoured enemy-type deal). By the time the fighter reaches 5th level, they should be able to cut down kobolds, goblins, and other weakling monsters down in a single blow. This shouldn’t make the fighter too invincible; getting piled-on by 8-10 kobolds will still bring a fighter down pretty fast, if the kobolds pass their morale checks.

That’s all for now. Waiting on feedback from a particularly trusted player on some of the classes, which should retroactively re-inform the fighter.

AOB/XECMI-whatever hack

How do you make a hack? Identify your needs.

Feeling burnt-out on 5e, and not-quite-adequately serviced by nearly any early version or hack thereof, I need to make my own. Some requirements;

• Single hit die – a la OD&D, using a d6 as the hit die for every class. What does this accomplish that variable dice doesn’t? In essence, keeping hit points low, but using a single hit die also means less record-keeping for me, the DM. My ADHD means I have to make the system do some of the heavy lifting for me, since I can’t be counted on for it every single session.
• Single damage die – also in the vein of OD&D, keep the numbers smaller, less math for my addled brain. Additionally, it allows me to differentiate classes from each other by granting certain classes damage bonuses. Even a small bonus will make a pretty significant difference in the damage output of two different classes.
• Simple skills – my players are used to 5e, and though some would argue against the use of skills at all, I like a little bit of customization between characters.
• Ascending armour class – a couple of people I regularly play with have difficulty quickly finding information on character sheets. While this is partly solved by having simpler sheets, I feel that the less they need to reference or compare scores on their sheets, the better.
• Inventory slots – I find counting pounds or stones or kilos tedious. Moving on.
• Ability scores don’t really matter that much – an actual OSR principle! Having great stats is nice, and will give you a bit of an edge – but it’s not everything. It’s nice to have, but you don’t need it to be effective.
• Simple character classes – Ideally, everything you need to know about your character class (except for spells) is on one page. Easy to reference.
• Single saving throw score – I think Whitebox does this, and I’m doing it too. Roll over your class’s saving throw score with a d20, bonus equal to half of your character level rounded up. Each class should also be particularly skilled at saving against a general class of things, which they will instead use a bonus equal to their full character level.

That’s probably it, honestly. OSR systems are largely interchangeable, I doubt that’s a controversial opinion, and in the grand tradition of the old-school scene, I have to put my two-cents in.