Colorful Characters 13: Maedhar Krekpe

Note: I’m considering supplementing Colorful Characters with some other features. Something like “Malevolent Monsters”, or “Amazing Artifacts.” Just to give myself some more options on what to post on a Friday/Saturday. Let me know in the comments if you would like more variety like that, or if you’d prefer Colorful Characters remain a weekly feature.

Maedhar Krekpe was born in a massive city to an affluent merchant family. He was always a thin, bookish child, and excelled in the expensive private academies his family sent him to. He decided very early on in life that he wanted to become a Wizard, and worked hard to pursue that goal. He applied to the magic academy when he was eleven. His aptitude was so impressive, that one of the test administrators offered him the opportunity to become her personal apprentice. An offer the young boy accepted eagerly.

They boy excelled in his studies, which focused primarily on the school of evocation and the practice of alchemy. In the evenings, his teacher–an elderly woman, with leathery skin and calloused hands–would tell him stories about her life as an adventurer. Tales of goblin tribes and slain dragons. Some were perhaps exaggerated, but they none the less filled the young students head with visions of himself as a traveling wizard, using his skills and knowledge to triumph over evil, and rescue a village in the process.

Maedhar grew, and learned, and when he was 28 he joined a small group of adventurers as a fully certified Wizard. The group went on a number of adventurers together, and in many ways it was just as Maedhar had imagined. He never managed to slay any dragons, but he did stop a tribe of orcs which was stealing pigs from an outlying village. After a couple years on the road with his companions, the group heard that a barbarian tribe was poaching in the King’s forest, and took it upon themselves to bring the uncivilized brutes to justice.

They scoured the forest for a week before finding the tribe’s encampment. They contemplated whether or not to attempt diplomacy, but the party’s leader–a cleric with much more experience than the rest of the group–decided that it wasn’t likely enough to work for them to sacrifice the element of surprise. They made plans, and launched a surprise attack.

They were slaughtered.

Maedhar awoke days later, bound in a tent. He wasn’t sure why he had been spared, because the last thing he remembered was seeing his compatriots hacked to pieces by the masterful barbarian warriors. He waited, unable to move, for some time before anyone came to check on him. The barbarian spoke a few words, but Maedhar didn’t understand his language. Then the barbarian pointed to Maedhar’s ring–which depicted a bear–and then to his own chest, which was tattooed with the silhouette of a roaring bear. Apparently the tribe viewed him as somehow connected to them, and had decided to spare him. At least, for a little while.

He was then unbound, and led through the village to a large hut, where a middle aged woman sat on a large chair. He was made to sit on the ground before her, while she questioned him in broken common. He gathered that they were the Tribe of the Dire Bear, and that she was their matriarch. They did not understand that this was the King’s forest, and did not accept that they were not allowed to hunt here.

During his questioning, Maedhar heard wet, sickly coughing from the corner. He looked, and saw a young boy laying on a mat on the ground, sweat covering his forehead. He asked what was wrong with him. The matriarch did not answer at first, staring at him in stony silence, contemplating whether to humor him. Finally she answered that the boy was her son, and that he was very sick. They had been unable to help him with any of their traditional remedies. Maedhar offered his help. Again, the matriarch considered, obviously distrusting of the violent outsider, but eventually allowed him to try.

Maedhar still had a few healing potions with him, given to him by his adventuring companion. He gently poured the magically healing liquid into the boy’s mouth, and he visibly improved instantly. He sat up, and quaffed the rest of the potion in a few large gulps. There was a murmuring in the hut, and the Matriarch approached Maedhar. She kissed him on the forehead, and said.

“Dire Bear send you to help us. You be Clan of Dire Bear now.”

Maedhar wished to return to civilization, but the matriarch would not have it. She said that he must stay with them, for he knew the location of their village. And, after seeing the brutal efficiency with which they fought, the bookish Maedhar was not inclined towards any foolish escape attempts.

It has been three years since Maedhar was accepted into the Tribe of the Dire Bear. In that time he has integrated himself fully into their society. He has married a woman, and has a young child of his own. He no longer wishes to return to civilization, but still views himself as a scholar.

Personality
Maedhar has not lost himself in barbarian culture. He is still a bookish fellow, without much interest in developing himself physically. However, he now holds community and family as paramount values, which he feels civilization has lost sight of.

He speaks boldly, and cares deeply for the members of the Tribe of the Dire Bear. He is also compassionate and welcoming towards outsiders, but is deeply distrusting of them at the same time.

He is always eager to study the spells or scrolls of Wizards he meets. A lack of magical study material is, he says, the only downside to living among the Tribe of the Dire Bear.

Tactics
Maedhar is not a close quarters combatant, and he knows it. In battle, he lets his barbarian compatriots handle the direct combat, while he stays to the side and focuses on buffing them, and casting ranged damage spells such as Scorching Ray and Magic Missile.

If forced to fight alone, Maedhar will prefer to flee. If he can’t, he will cast Mage Armor and Shield, and quaff his Potion of Bear’s Endurance, before attempting to fell his enemies with his offense spells and clumsy dagger thrusts.

Thoughts on Use
Maedhar could show up in a game in a number of different ways. If your adventurers encounter a group of barbarians, the presence of Maedhar can provide an unexpected challenge. Not only is Wizardry an unusually skill to find amongst barbarians, but education is likewise uncommon. If your party is attempting to negotiate with the tribe to get them to leave the lands of Baron Hammak, Maedhar will be able to tell his barbarian cohorts that Baron Hammak is untrustworthy, thanks to his knowledge of the nobility.

Maedhar’s affluent family might also engage the PCs to find their son. They would likely believe him to be dead, but they might have heard tales of the wizard who lives amongst the barbarians.

Maedhar Krekpe (CR 3)

XP: 800
Male Human Wizard 4
LG humanoid
Init +2; Senses Perception +0

Defenses

AC 12, Flat Footed 10, Touch 12 [10 + Dex(2)]
hp 29 (4d6 + 2)
Fort +3 Ref +3 Will + 5

Offense

Speed 30ft
Melee Silver Dagger + 0 (1d4 – 2/19-20 x2)
Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 4th; Concentration +7;)
2nd (3/Day)– Bear’s Endurance, Scorching Ray, Scorching Ray
1st (4/day)– Magic Missile, Magic Missile, Mage Armor, Shield
0 (At Will)– Acid Splash, Flare, Message, Message

Stats

Str 7 (-2) Dex 14 (+2) Con 14 (+2) Int 16 (+3) Wis 13 (+1) Cha 13 (+1)
Base Atk +2; CMB +0; CMD 12
Feats Scribe Scroll, Brew Potion, Metamagic: Empower Spell, Metamagic: Extend Spell
Skills Craft (Alchemy)(+10), Knowledge (Geography)(+10), Knowledge (History)(+10), Knowledge(Nobility)(+10) Spellcraft (+10)
Languages Common, Elven, Gnomish, Tribe of the Dire Bear Tongue
SQ
–Bonded Object: Masterwork quality silver ring, with a bear etched into it and gilded with gold. A single small emerald is set into the ring, serving as the bear’s eye.
—Evocation Specialist. Opposition Schools: Divination, Necromancy
—-Intense Spells: Evocation spells which deal HP damage have their damage increased by 1/2 the caster’s Wizard level.
—-Force Missiles: (6/day) As a standard action, you can unleash a force missile which automatically strikes a foe. The missile deals 1d4 points of damage, plus the damage from Intense Spells. This is a force effect.
Gear Fine Purple Robes, a few pieces of ornate silver jewelry, 2 Potions of Cure Light Wounds, 2 Potions of Bear’s Endurance, Small silver dagger
Spellbook:
Level 0– Resistance, Acid Splash, Daze, Dancing Lights, Flare, Light , Ray of Frost, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Open/Close, Arcane Mark, Prestidigitation
Level 1– Burning Hands, Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp, Mage Armor, Enlarge Person, Feather Fall, Magic Weapon, Shield
Level 2–Bear’s Endurance, Darkness, Gust of Wind, Scorching Ray

Designing a Village in Detail

Not too long ago, Zalekios conquered a small village. It’s something I’ve wanted the character to do for some time. And, in our last game, my GM was gracious enough to include an opportunity for conquest. To be honest, I have no grand and evil scheme to further overpower my character through corrupt governance. Certainly, I have plans on how I’ll make use of my subjects, but the ways in which the town will benefit Zalekios are much less interesting to me than the challenges and opportunities ruling over a town will provide. The need to fortify it, defend it, and ensure that my subjects are unable to oust me while I’m out adventuring, all sound like interesting and entertaining challenges to me.

So once I had the town under my thumb, I asked my GM if it would be alright for me to make a detailed map of the village. He agreed, and we spent some time going over what my limitations were. Geographically, the village is located in a large area of plains, with no major shifts in elevation or terrain type for several miles around. Neither are there any significant bodies of water, or forested areas nearby. Honestly, I think he just made the environment as simple as possible because he’s afraid of my ingenuity. But that’s okay with me. I like a challenge.

I was also told that I had a total of 377 villagers, 27 of which could be level 1 experts, adepts, warriors, or aristocrats. The rest are level 1 commoners. Other than that, he left everything up to me. I’ve checked in with him periodically throughout the town creation process, but he hasn’t vetoed any of my decisions yet. Of course, I’ve kept everything in line with what one would find in a dirt-poor town, so he hasn’t had much to say “no” to. He and I have been playing games together long enough that we have a pretty good sense of what the limits are in each other’s games.

Now, even as a GM, I don’t often have the opportunity to truly build a thoroughly detailed community. Normally it’s simply not an efficient use of time. It’s much easier and faster to simply plot out the most basic outline of what the town is like: what kind of government it has, what its economy is based on, whether it has any unusual traditions or culture, and whether it has any noteworthy landmarks or NPCs. Everything else can be generated on the fly. Even with more detailed cities which my players return to often, I rarely do more than sketch out general “districts,” and identify the location of the main roads through the town. The port city of Niston, which the players in my Ascendant Crusade game have visited in between adventures for several years now, is still just a rough collection of squares marked “Affluent Area,” “Merchant Section,” “Slum,” “Docks,” and so on.

As a player preparing to govern this town, however, I find the idea of exacting detail appealing. Knowing precisely how many warriors are in the town guard will help me plan my defenses. And since the character in question is Zalekios, knowing just how many commoners I can eat before my breeding stock gets too low is important! Additionally, a large part of my plans involve modifying the town, in the form of watch towers, walls, work camps, etc, so I want to know precisely what I have to work with.

I decided to start by figuring out what kind of population I have. I broke my population into three age based groups. First would be children, defined by Pathfinder as anyone under 15 years old. Last there’s the elderly, which I defined as anyone over 55. In between those two groups are the adults. So out of my 377 total population, I needed to figure out how many people fell into the three groups. I decided to use a population pyramid to work out a basic percentage. I spent some time looking for one which applied specifically to medieval villages, but didn’t have any luck finding one. So I just stuck with the closest to average I could find. What I wound up with, using some very rough estimation, is 91 children, 260 adults, and 26 elderly. I figure that, to keep things simple, I would split the genders evenly. Since my population is an odd number, I flipped a coin, and determined that the odd person out is a woman named Old Ms. Dyterran, by far the oldest person in the village at 84 years. Her children are dead of old age, but she lives with her grandson and his family. She likes to tell scary stories to children.

Outliers such as old Ms. Dyterran aside, I find these numbers to be telling of the type of community this is. With a max population of 377, it’s a very small community. People’s lives will be interconnected. But I would estimate that the community is still too large for everyone to know everyone else. Even acquaintance level relationships are difficult to maintain when there’s several hundred of them. However, when you break things down by age, the numbers get remarkably smaller. If there are only 91 children under the age of 15, then how few must there be between the ages of 8 and 12? If there’s only ten or twenty kids your age in town, you probably know all of them. That goes doubly so for the old folks, who probably all know each other quite well by now.

Moving on, I estimated that there would be 89 households, based on the adult population. That’s assuming that every household is centered around an adult couple. Children and elderly would live with said couples, as would a number of dependent adults who are over the age of 15, but have not yet struck out on their own. This would mean that there are 2.9 adults per household, 1.02 children per household, and 0.29 elderly per household. So if you walk into one of these 89 homes at random, the odds are that there are two wedded adults there, who live with one young child and one adult child. And there is a roughly one-in-three chance that one of the couple’s parents is still alive, and also living in the house. So most homes contain 4-5 people.

Once I had some ideas on what the population numbers looked like, I moved on to economics. Fun fact, if you google “Plains People,” all you really come up with are the Plains Indians, and they were nomads, so information on them was no help in this project. However, Wikipedia has a great deal of information on plains which I found extremely useful in this endeavor. While it may not be an ideal source if you’re looking for facts you can rely on, Wikipedia more than accurate enough if you’re just looking to inject a little realism into your role playing games. Turns out “plains” is an exceptionally broad category, which covers dozens of terrain types.

I decided that my GM’s goal in providing me with an endless flatland of plains was probably closest to the American prairie. Which, I learned, is excellent for farming. However, farming there required more advanced farming equipment than was available when it was first settled. Apparently, up until that point, farmers used wooden plows, but steel plows needed to be developed to handle the tougher earth. I decided one of my experts would need to be a dedicated toolmaker. Animal husbandry is also an option for people living in an area like the American prairie. Using that information, I decided that farming would be the main source of food and income for this village, with pigs and chickens providing them with some dietary variety.

The only major landmarks of note are the homes of the mayor and wizard, both of whom Zalekios killed in his secret coup. Since Zalekios is impersonating the mayor, he’s taken up that residence, and billeted his small army of 33 goblins in the Wizard’s home. I mocked up this “Town Character Sheet” in open office writer.

From there, it was time to draw the map. As with the previous steps, I decided to do some research first. I dug through a number of sources for maps, including my own books, the Cartographer’s Guild, and just plain old google image search. I saved a few dozen samples to reference as I went to make my own map, and used elements from several of them. However, this map, from the Warhammer Fantasy RPG, was my biggest aide. It is at the same time both extremely simple, and extremely detailed. If you step back and look at the whole map, you see what appears to be a birds eye view of a large city. Each building and side street is distinct, and you get a sense of what the town is like from a street view. There are clearly affluent areas near the parks, with larger houses, etc, along with poorer areas of much smaller buildings clustered together. Yet for all its detail, the map is drawn quite simply. Each individual building is little more than a brown shape with either an “X” or an “I” drawn on top of it to indicate the slant of the roof.

To start with, I sketched out a “districts” map, like the ones I mentioned above. It looked like a series of circles, like a bulls-eye. The small, center circle was designated for important buildings, like the mayor’s residence. It’s also the location of the town square, where meetings would be held. Around that is the residential area. This was a much larger section, which would contain most of the town’s buildings, arranged around the center of town roughly evenly. The largest circle, by a significant margin, is the farmland, which surrounds the entire town.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

The areas of brown within the town indicate pig pens, whilst I imagine many homes have chicken coops next to them. The small circles in the center of the two ancillary “town squares” represent wells. The two white buildings are the Mayor’s residence and the Wizard’s home. The crosshatch patterns surrounding the town represent farmland.

There are still a number of problems with this map. My scale is way off, for one thing. The more important buildings near the center of town should be much larger, while the residential buildings can be relatively small. The farmland was also truncated due to the limited size of the paper. Normally I’d remake the map before posting it, but at this point I’m not sure I’ll bother remaking this map. Even though it’s not “to scale,” it effectively demonstrates the layout of the town.

Anybody else have experience detailing small towns? Any tips on how to improve my process?

News: Dungeons And Dragons 5th Edition

I was exhausted and fell asleep last night, so I’m sure by now that everyone is aware that the New York Times broke the story that Wizards of the Coast is working on Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. Shortly thereafter this was followed by an announcement on the WotC website my Mike Mearls, titled “Charting the Course for D&D: Your Voice, Your Game.” Now, technically, they could be talking about D&D 4.5 or something, but given the phrasing of “developing the next iteration of D&D,” I think it’s safe to assume that we’re talking about 5th edition here.

Like many other gamers, my first reaction was annoyance and anger. 2nd edition D&D was released in 1989, and wasn’t replaced until the year 2000. When third edition was released, it only took three years for them to come out with 3.5, but that was okay. Only the core rulebooks needed to be re purchased, and the update was pretty necessary. But then to completely drop third edition for fourth edition a mere five years later was frustrating. Particularly since I found fourth edition to be a significant step down from third edition. And now, here we are in early 2012, less than four years after the initial release of 4th edition, and we’re already talking about 5th. It won’t be released for a few years yet, but still. It’s far too quick.

I understand that the role playing landscape isn’t the same as it was in the 70s. No edition will ever have the 15 year lifetime that 1st edition had. Increased competition means that games need to keep evolving and improving their rules systems to remain interesting to gamers who have a lot more options than they did thirty years ago. And 4th edition, by all indication, hasn’t been faring very well in the marketplace. Competition has been particularly fierce for Dungeons and Dragons since the release of Pathfinder, which stole a large portion of the D&D 3.5 playerbase, including myself, right out from under Wizard’s Nose.

That’s the point in the stages of anger where I realize that this announcement doesn’t really apply to me anymore. I haven’t purchased a Wizards of the Coast product since 2008. Fourth edition is not a game I found even slightly appealing, and as wiser men have said: I’ve got better games to play.

So with the realization that a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons isn’t the worst thing in the world, lets scrutinize what’s going on here.

That is why we are excited to share with you that starting in Spring 2012, we will be taking this process one step further and conducting ongoing open playtests with the gaming community to gather feedback on the new iteration of the game as we develop it. With your feedback and involvement, we can make D&D better than ever. We seek to build a foundation for the long-term health and growth of D&D, one rooted in the vital traits that make D&D unique and special. We want a game that rises above differences of play styles, campaign settings, and editions, one that takes the fundamental essence of D&D and brings it to the forefront of the game. In short, we want a game that is as simple or complex as you please, its action focused on combat, intrigue, and exploration as you desire. We want a game that is unmistakably D&D, but one that can easily become your D&D, the game that you want to run and play.

This sound familiar to anyone?

Paizo Publishing today unveiled the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, a tabletop fantasy roleplaying game that will serve as the anchor for the company’s popular line of Pathfinder adventures, sourcebooks, and campaigns. Today marks the beginning of a year-long Open Playtest of the new rules, which are based upon the popular 3.5 rules available under the Open Game License. The Pathfinder RPG is designed with backward compatibility as one of its primary goals, so players will continue to enjoy their lifelong fantasy gaming hobby without invalidating their entire game library. The first Pathfinder RPG Alpha release is available now as a free 65-page PDF download at paizo.com/pathfinderRPG. Until the finished Pathfinder RPG’s release as a hardcover rulebook in August 2009, all of Paizo’s popular Pathfinder-brand products will continue under the current 3.5 rules set.

That’s an announcement pulled directly from Paizo’s news post on March 18th 2008. I guess Wizards of the Coast has been paying more attention than I gave them credit for.

Tabletop gaming has always been about community and creativity. GM not only create fantastic worlds for their players, but helpful rules to make the game more fun. Players craft their character’s persona as they play. And everyone enjoys the game together. In the age of the Internet, that community has become so much larger. It’s expanded from the small group of people around our gaming tables, or the people we chat with at our friendly local gaming store. Now through forums and blogs, our community covers the world. And it’s only appropriate for Wizards to acknowledge that, and take advantage of it. Honestly, it’s kind of silly they didn’t realize that back in 2008.

We want to be involved in the games we love. As soon as it’s in our hands we’re going to be house-ruling it anyway, so why not see if we can get some of our house rules actually included in the published game? For myself, I’m not sure yet if I’ll be participating in this project. I’ve thrown my lot in with Paizo, and I’ve been happy with their products. Still, I’m sure I’ll look over the first copy of 5th edition I can get my hands on. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be amazing. Maybe I’ll want to be part of making it better.

Time will tell.

Hey Atheist Gamers: Stop It

Is it just me, or do Atheists comprise a larger portion of the tabletop gamer population than they do of the general population? Maybe I only notice it because I actually pay attention to the gaming community, but it certainly seems that we gamers are disproportionately atheistic. Enough so that at least one tabletop forum I frequent has an in-joke of starting posts with “I’m an Atheist.” as a non-sequitur. I won’t venture a guess as to why, but perhaps Jack Chick was on to something.

Personally, this is really cool for me. I, myself, am an Atheist. And I’m not exactly passive about it. At least two people credit me with helping them on their road towards Atheism, and believers usually find my brash and uncompromising outspokenness on the subject of religion to be unpleasant. I can certainly get along just fine with believers, but if I can game with like-minded folk, so much the better! I think everyone can agree that it’s nice to feel you are with people you don’t need to worry about offending with your opinions. Not that our opinions on religion should be coming up around the game table.

I say “shouldn’t,” because, unfortunately, they do. And I’m not talking about religious zealouts who try to demonize Role Playing. I’m talking about you, my fellow Atheists.

More and more often I’m hearing tales of Atheist players and GMs who go on an in-game crusade against religion. Players who refuse to group with clerics, distrust all in-game religious institutions, or even engaging in diplomancy to convince NPCs that there are no deities. And the GM stories…oh the GM stories. I’ve heard of GMs who refused to allow any deities in their games. GMs who cause paladins to lose their powers over questioning their god’s will, and explain it by stating that all gods demand unquestioning faith. Even of GMs who have gods strike players down for minor sins, because they apparently take their deific role playing cues from the old testament.

And it needs to stop.

There’s a line most atheists are familiar with, a common rebuttal to the assertion of a deity. It can be phrased various ways, but stated simply, it goes “I don’t believe in God for the same reason I don’t believe in unicorns. There’s simply no evidence that they exist.” Well guess what motherfuckers? Pathfinder Bestiary, page 269: Unicorns.

Religion within the game world should be no more offensive to an atheist than the magic, or the monsters, or the dungeons which don’t make a lick of logical sense. (“Mad wizards” can’t explain everything, Mr. Gygax). Nearly every fantastic element in the games we love can be traced back through history to some primitive human’s attempt to understand the divine. What about devils!? Surely there are few imaginary creatures more religious than devils! Yet I’ve never heard of a fanatically atheistic GM bastardizing that concept.

I understand that you don’t like religion. I get that it hurt you. I don’t like it either, and it hurt me too. I don’t like that I spent hours of my childhood each week listening to someone tell me about what a bad person I am. But you know what? I’m betting your parents didn’t take you to the temple of Kord every Godsday. And neither did mine. Fantasy gods never hurt anybody.

So get the fuck over it.

Colorful Characters 12: Queen Herea Yellinda Quist the Fourth

Queen Herea Yellinda Quist the Fourth was born to the aging monarchs of a small human kingdom. The day she was born, a great festival was held for all the people of the kingdom, as it had been thought that the kindly king and queen were too old to produce an heir. These festivities were to last for seven days, but were brought to an early end when the queen–who was greatly loved by her people–died two days after Herea’s birth.

In the absence of his wife, the king doted on their daughter. Were it not for the nannies and tutors helping to raise the girl, he would have spoiled her rotten. Even so, the girl grew up with a somewhat inflated sense of self and an expectation that she could always get what she wanted eventually. Fortunately for her future subjects, these faults were tempered by the girl’s intelligence, and education.

As a child, the future queen became immensely fond of riding, and of mounted combat. The king saw to it that she was trained in each by the finest riders in his kingdom. And each year on her birthday, the king held games in her honor. The winning jouster was awarded a finely crafted mithril lance, presented to them by the young princess herself.

When Herea was 15 years old, her father took ill. The clerics did their best to save him, but the disease was virulent and violent. Every time the king coughed, he sprayed a mist of blood into the air. After several weeks of ineffective casting, he ordered his clerics to stop their attempts to cure him, and he had Herea brought to him. In his final hours, he spoke to the princess on matters of state. And imparted to her all the wisdom he could between hacking coughs, and gasps for breath. He hung on for perhaps a day, and when Herea left his side, she did so as queen.

A few hours of hastily imparted wisdom cannot turn an impetuous teenager into a ruler, however. Herea’s rule has been plagued by misjudgements and a failure to understand the complexities of ruling over a large population. She has at least had the wisdom to delegate more power to her father’s most trusted stewards and advisers. And in the last decade, they have done much of the ruling of the kingdom–though some bear a growing resentment of the child queen they serve.

While she allowed her kingdom to be ruled by others, Herea developed a taste for gambling. A vice which has cost her dearly, and depleted her family’s fortune to critical levels. Now 25, the queen has sworn off gambling, but fears that her grumbling advisers may use her mismanagement of her fortune as an excuse to stage a coup. So in an attempt to rebuild her family fortune, she has been discreetly funding parties of adventurers. She provides the basic equipment which they cannot afford, and in return receives 25-50% of the treasure (negotiated with each individual adventuring party.)

Thus far the venture has been only somewhat successful. Herea is waiting for the right adventuring party to come along, one which she can trust, so she can share with them a map she found amongst her family heirlooms. A map to an ancient treasure which would solve all of her money problems for a long time…

Personality
Herea is smart, but she’s not quick. She’s still a little spoiled as well. She doesn’t take things too seriously, even though her situation is often quite serious. In negotiations, however, she is fierce. A trait no doubt born of her expectation that she will always be able to get her way eventually.

Tactics
Queen Herea is not a combatant. Her best option if attacked is the small dagger she keeps hidden in the folds of her gown. Most of the time, however, the palace guards are more than able to handle anyone who threatens her. If not, she will likely run.

If attacked while mounted, though, Herea may get caught up in the joys of mounted conflict, and fight much more fiercely.

Thoughts on use
She’s a quest giver, da-doy!

For evil characters, she would also make a good assassination target.

Queen Herea Yellinda Quist the Fourth (CR 5)

XP: 1,600
Female Human Aristocrat 7
CN humanoid
Init +1; Senses Perception +0

Defenses

AC 11, Flat Footed 10, Touch 11 [10 + Dex(1)]
hp 29 (6d8 + 0)
Fort +2 Ref +3 Will + 6

Offense

Speed 30ft
Melee +4 Bejeweled Dagger +8 (1d4 + 4/19-20 x2)
Ranged +4 Bejeweled Dagger +9 (1d4 + 4/19-20 x2) (10ft.)

Stats

Str 10 (+0) Dex 13 (+1) Con 10 (+0) Int 17 (+2) Wis 9 (-1) Cha 15 (+2)
Base Atk +4; CMB +4; CMD 15
Feats Skill Focus (Ride), Mounted Combat, Iron Will, Leadership
Skills Appraise (+12), Bluff (+11), Diplomacy (+11), Knowledge (Nobility)(+12), Ride (+13), Sense Motive (+8)
Languages Common, Old Common, Elven
SQ
–Mounted Combat: Once per round when your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt a ride check to negate the hit. The hit is negated is your Ride check result is greater than the opponent’s attack roll.
–Royal Privilege: Any service which can be sourced locally can be purchased at cost. (Half the listed price).
Gear Small Bejeweled Dagger, +4, Amulet of True Seeing, 100gp
Available Funds: Can spend up to 7k on an adventuring party. Prefers not to spend more than 1k. Has a total of 22,000 gold pieces left in treasury. Current taxes and expenditures have the treasury being reduced by an amount of 100gp per day.

Training Groups of NPCs

Over the many many years which I’ve played my Rogue/Warlock, Zalekios, he has often run into a group called the Dragon Forged. Truth be told, I don’t even recall our first encounter. I believe they tried to accost me on the road, followed by a healthy dose of torturous murder on my part. If I recall correctly, I was so annoyed with their attempt to burgle me, that I performed the closest thing to a good deed which Zalekios has ever attempted. I rooted out their evil plan to trick the nation of Alamon into going to war with their southern neighbor, Mulgran, and foiled it simply to spite them. Alamon awarded me with a rather rare artifact, and I believe I’m still considered a minor hero in that kingdom, since I never had a second adventure in that area.

The Dragon Forged have been a pebble in my shoe ever since. And as I’ve gained higher and higher levels, my dealings with them have become ever more comical. Most recently I was awakened by one of my goblins and alerted to the fact that my tower was under siege. I look out over my balcony, and what do I see but two small warbands of Dragon Forged, impotently attempting to break down my door. So I spend a few rounds lobbing Eldritch Blasts at them before I get bored, jump off the third story balcony, and attack the low-level twats in melee.

What? Zalekios has a wisdom modifier of 0. It’s ROLE PLAYING. >.>

The rabble is dispatched quickly enough, and I’m left wondering why my GM would waste time on such a pointless little skirmish. I actually made sure I kept a few of the pests alive, just so I could torture them and hopefully discover why the GM had chosen to send them against me. But first, I resolved, I would finish my night’s rest.

Yet no sooner had I laid my evil head to my evil pillow, than I was awakened yet again. I seriously considered killing the goblin this time, but Zalekios is trying to work on conserving his resources better, and I resisted. The goblin had a good reason to awaken me anyway: there was a dragon circling the tower. Thinking my GM was sending me a somewhat more deadly challenge, I rushed to the balcony, skeletal hands glowing black with eldritch might. But the dragon didn’t attack. It alighted on my balcony, and morphed into a human shape.

This dragon, as it turned out, was the dragon in ‘Dragon Forged.’ Apparently his goal all along has been to cause all the great nations on the continent to go to war with each other, and continue warring until nothing is left but ruination. Being Chaotic Evil himself, Zalekios is fond this this notion. The dragon had also noticed that, given his follower’s repeated failures, and my repeated pwning of them, that perhaps I was just the psychopath to lead him to victory. He offered me a position as his chief lieutenant, with complete command over the forces of the Dragon Forged, to the end bringing about the catastrophe we both desired.

It took me a few days, but I came up with a rather solid plan I think. It’s not only multi-layered, but has fail-safes which kick in if some element of the plan fails. Made me feel like god-damned Xanatos. The details of that plan, however, may be written about at a later date after I’ve had an opportunity to see how the plan unfolds. However, one of the elements of the plan was that I required the Dragon Forged to not suck. To that end, my GM and I worked out some simple rules for training large groups of NPCs. I’m not sure if I’ve seen rules for anything like this in any official supplements, so they may be of use to you if you are ever in need.

A character can train a group of NPCs in any class that character has at least 3 levels in. For example, a 4th level rogue / 2nd level fighter can train a group how to be rogues, but not how to be fighters.
A group of NPCs can never be trained to a class level higher than 2 levels below the current class level attained by their teacher. For example, a 10th level rogue can train a group of NPCs to be level 8 rogues, but not level 9 rogues.
Each level requires [2 * The Level Being Trained To] months. For example, training a group from level 6 to level 7 requires 14 months.
Training costs [1000 * The Level Being Trained To] gold pieces. For example, training a group from level 6 to level 7 costs 7000 gold. This cost is for training only. Items such as training equipment etc. Any cost for food and lodging of the trainees would be extra.
Training more than 10 people at a time adds a 2% failure rate for each additional person. For example, if you’re training 10 people, then there is no failure rate. However, if you’re training 11 people at once, then you must roll a D%. If you roll 1-2, then the training fails and the materials and time is wasted. Training 12 people at once has a 4% failure rate, training 13 has a 6% failure rate, and so on.
Hirelings can be used to train groups in classes which they have.
New Feat: “Teacher:” Characters who have this feat only need to spend half as much money when training groups of NPCs.
New Feat: “Improved Teacher:” Characters who have this feat reduce their failure rate for students above 10 to 1%. (11 students has a 1% failure rate, 12 students has a 2% failure rate, and so on.)

I quite like the system. At first glance, and for our game, it balances well. Each level of training comes with a cost in both time and money which keeps the system from being abused to create massive armies. Also, note that this system says nothing about loyalty. Simply that skills are imparted from one high level character, to multiple lower level characters. If the GM is feeling particularly dickish, he or she could simply have the students turn on their teacher once they have nothing more to learn.

I’m sure the system has numerous flaws, though. It was really just slapped together by the two of us chatting back and forth one evening. I’d be interested to hear anyone’s thoughts on what flaws it has, or how it could be improved.

Star Wars: Periods for Play

I thought I’d round out Star Wars week with a summary of the classic time periods available to Game Masters. The political and social landscape of the galaxy changes drastically as time progresses in the Star Wars Universe. Each provides unique opportunities for adventure. And while you may want to stick to what you’re already familiar with (either from the films, or from books you’ve read) this list can help foster ideas about where you’d like to take your games as time progresses in your own little version of the Star Wars Universe. Or, perhaps, even give you an idea of which periods you’d like to look into further.

As with all Star Wars posts, this list focuses on the classic Star Wars trilogy and the fiction based on it, rather than anything based on the prequel films, which were bad. For those unaware, the Battle of Yavin (where the first Death Star is destroyed) is used as year zero. Dates are measured as either Before the Battle of Yavin (BBY) or After the Battle of Yavin (ABY).

Pre-Rebellion Imperial Era
From the establishment of Palpatine’s New Order in 19 BBY, to the signing of the Corellian Treaty in 2 BBY

Most of the truly iconic imperial technology had not yet been deployed during this period. The Death Star was, obviously, still being designed and built. And ship types such as the Imperial Star Destroyer, and the Executor Class Star Destroyer (or “Super” Star Destroyer) were likewise still on the drawing table. Though some would have been under construction in secret shipyards owned by Kuat. The Emperor also humors the Imperial Senate, providing the illusion of representative government.

There is no organized resistance to the Empire. There are many dissident groups, but they are independent from one another, and easily crushed by the Empire. It isn’t until two years prior to the Battle of Yavin that a group of Imperial Senators, in an act of treason, sign The Corellian Treaty, bringing the disparate rebel groups together to form The Rebel Alliance.

Rebellion Era
From the signing of the Corellian Treaty in 2 BBY, to the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY

Also known as the First Galactic Civil War, this period is probably the most well known, as it takes place primarily during the original trilogy of films. The Rebel Alliance and Empire engage in a brutal conflict. Many of the Empire’s most notable atrocities and most terrifying weapons occur during this period: the destruction of Alderaan by the Death Star, and the creation of the Executor class Star Destroyer among them.

Early New Republic Era
From the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, to the Conquest of Coruscant in 7 ABY

After the death of both Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader at the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Empire is thrown into chaos. A whirlwind of successors hold the reigns of power for a short time, only to be assassinated or otherwise removed from power. Sometimes a single leader dominates, other times a small group will declare itself a ruling council of some kind. Meanwhile, more and more powerful Imperial leaders simply split off from the Empire, becoming Warlords.

In the days after the Battle of Endor, an interim government is formed by the Rebel Alliance, calling itself the Alliance of Free Planets. And one month after the battle of Endor, the Declaration of a New Republic is issued. Planets begin breaking off from the Empire immediately, joining the New Republic. Imperial responses to these “secessionists” is sporadic at best. Most of the New Republic still relies on secret bases, but the government makes itself visible. The New Republic continues to be viewed as a feeble government, in its infancy, until the conquest of Coruscant three years after the death of Palpatine.

New Republic Era
From the Conquest of Coruscant in 7 ABY, to the signing of the Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty in 19 ABY

The New Republic consistently grows in power, whilst the Empire becomes continually weaker. There are some brief periods of upheaval, in which the Empire surges and becomes a serious threat to the stability of the New Republic, such as the dreaded Thrawn Crisis, or the brief rule of the Reborn Emperor.

This is simultaneously one of the most and least varied periods in Star Wars history. On the one hand, the number of major events which occurred during this period are numerous and interesting. Yet when all is said and done, everything returned to more or less the status quo.

The Empire’s territories steadily shrink during this period, until Fleet Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, as supreme commander of the Empire, with the backing of the Moff Council, signs the Pellaeon-Gavrisom treaty, ending the 21 year Galactic Civil War.

One other major event occurs during this period which will shape the fate of the galaxy through the future: Luke Skywalker establishes his Jedi Praxeum on Yavi IV in the year 11 ABY, officially beginning the training of a new generation of Jedi Knights.

Late New Republic Era
From the signing of the Pellaeon Gavrisom Treaty in 19 ABY to the start of the Yuuzhan Vong War in 25 ABY

Remarkably little has ever been written about this period. Primarily just the children’s books and young adult novels written about the youthful adventures of Han and Leia’s children and their friends. So aside from those relatively minor threats to galactic peace, these few years are a time of relative tranquility in the galaxy.

New Jedi Order Era
From the start of the Yuuzhan Vong War in 25 ABY with the First Battle of Helska, to the end of said war in 29 ABY with the Liberation of Coruscant.

The Yuuzhan Vong invade the galaxy, initiating one of the most brutal and bloody wars in galactic history. The Yuuzhan Vong’s organic technology is, at first, completely invulnerable to any attempts to attack it. Thousands of worlds are conquered by this technology-hating species, and completely reformed to fit the needs of the Yuuzhan Vong. Trillions upon Trillions of beings are killed, and many completely loose hope that anyone can stand against the onslaught.

The New Republic has grown complacent and weak in the years since the treaty with the Empire, and is ill prepared to handle the invasion. It consistently makes major blunders, and eventually loses control of Coruscant to the invading Yuzzhan Vong hordes. After the death of Chief of State Borsk Fey’lya, along with much of the senate, Cal Omas was elected leader of the New Republic. And shortly after the New Republic victory at the Battle of Ebaq 9, it was decided that a new, more united government would be required if the war was to be won.

And so the New Republic was dissolved, and reformed as The Galactic Alliance, which also included the Imperial Remnant, as well as the Hapes Consortium. And, with the cooperation of the Chiss Ascendancy and the Jedi Order, the Galactic Alliance was able to push back the Yuuzhan Vong, defeat their war machine, and make peace with those who remained.

Galactic Alliance Era
From the Liberation of Coruscant in 29 ABY, to the blundered Operation Roundabout in 40 ABY, sparking the Second Galactic Civil War.

This is yet another period of relative calm, like the late New Republic era. The damage done during the Yuuzhan Vong war is never fully undone, but much effort is invested by the Galactic Alliance in trying to soothe the wounds of the war. Finding new homes for a planet’s worth of refugees, and so forth.

Second Galactic Civil War Era
From Operation Roundabout in 40 ABY, to the Battle of Shedu Maad in 41 ABY

The planet Corellia begins to express a lack of satisfaction with Galactic Alliance rule, and talks of succession. The two governments posture at one another, until a series of blunders leads to an all out war between Corellia and the Galactic Alliance. Neither side has the moral high ground in this conflict. More than any war prior to it, the Second Galactic Civil War pits family members against one another.

Guided by Sith teachings, the grandson of Darth Vader, Jacen Solo, gradually assumes power over the Galactic Alliance, and takes the name Darth Caedus for himself. Under his leadership, the Galactic Alliance becomes as loathsome as Palpatine’s empire before it. The Hapes Consortium withdraws from the Galactic Alliance, and the Jedi Order abandons it.

Darth Caedus is killed at the Battle of Shedu Maad by his sister. Natasi Daala is named Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance.

Side Note: New Project

There’s still one post left in Star Wars week coming up this evening, but I wanted to take this opportunity to make note of a new project of mine which some of my readers may or may not be interested in. I rather like superhero cartoons, such as the old Batman animated series. My ladyfriend, Morrie, quite likes them as well. So we settled on a fun project: watch each and ever episode of the five shows produced by Bruce Timm (Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited) and write about them in turn. We call the project Trapsing Through The Timmverse, because I like assonance.

If you’re uninterested in my non-role playing shenanigans, then simply enjoy this lovely picture of a Batdwarf.

Star Wars: Creating Atmosphere

Atmosphere is essential to creating an authentic Star Wars experience for your players. A good GM knows that atmosphere is important in any game. But Star Wars presents a unique challenge, because the goal isn’t creating an atmosphere which enhances feelings of dread or excitement. The goal is to create a far more specific atmosphere which enhances the illusion that the players are acting out a continuation of the Star Wars films. There’s a certain feel to the Star Wars mythos, one which sets it apart from other internally consistent fictional universes. It’s a dirty, gritty place, yet never a hopeless place. It’s a universe of stark contrasts between good and evil, where even characters who exist as a shade of gray have picked a de facto side.

The West End Games core rulebook for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game (second edition, revised and expanded) has some great tips for creating the Star Wars atmosphere. These are some of my own thoughts on how to enhance that atmosphere.

Used Universe
One of the core principals behind the original Star Wars films was the Used Universe philosophy. Unlike other future-tech media, which was filled with gleaming white, or worse, chrome technology, the Star Wars universe is a dirty patchwork which breaks down half the time. Many other works of fiction, such as Firefly, have adopted the used universe philosophy, and it is arguably the most important part of the Star Wars atmosphere.

Very little in a Star Wars game should look pristine and new. Even the ships of the Imperial Navy should have obvious score marks from battles, off-color hull plates where replacements were added, and corrosion here and there. Outside the Imperial Navy, this should be even worse. The ships of the rebellion, or ships owned by smugglers and pirates, often have multicolored hulls from the numerous replacement hull plates which have been installed over the years. And the interiors should be no better. Things get piled in corridors or empty store rooms, sections of ships might even be completely shut down to save on precious energy if money is tight.

Ancient Universe
Have you ever really thought about the line “For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic?” That means the old republic must have existed for at 1001 generations. A generation is an imprecise method of describing time, but even by lowballing and saying that one generation is equal to thirty years, we’re talking about a single government which lasted longer than the entire history of human civilization. And before the rise of the Old Republic, there must have been hundreds or thousands more generations of pre-republic history.

Nobody remembers a time before traveling around the universe was commonplace. No planet has a history which is unaffected by the existence of interstellar travel–at least no history which anyone remembers.

That said, it doesn’t mean there are no unexplored planets. And there’s always the unknown regions to provide unknown challenges.

Tactile Universe
The original Star Wars films were made in the late seventies and early eighties, and reflect the technology of the period. In the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, Han solo flips switches, adjusts levers, and even spins dials. Holograms are grainy and heavily tinted to green or blue, and computer readouts are primitive, to say the least. This can create cognitive dissonance for players who already own technology much more advanced than that seen in Star Wars. The handheld comlink Luke Skywalker uses to tell C-3PO to shut down the garbage masher doesn’t really stand up when it’s compared to a Samsung Galaxy II, or whatever the kids are excited about this week.

This dissonance can be solved somewhat by mixing your tech levels based on the technology being used. Ships and military hardware, for example, should have more tactile controls. Mechanical parts which need to be physically manipulated in order to bring about the desired effect. This can be explained as simpler hardware being more reliable than touch screens and fancy high definition readouts. Don’t be afraid to mix a little bit of high-end future tech in there as well, though. Traditionally, datapads have always been a kind of cross between an e-reader and a TI-85 calculator. But there’s no reason you couldn’t let your players use them as tablet computers.

Fantasy, not Science Fiction
Star Wars should never be confused with science fiction. There’s nothing scientific about it. The distinctive scream of a TIE fighter would never be heard in the vacuum of space, no planet could ever exist as a single biome, lightsabers make no sense, and The Force is magic. A Star Wars GM could never make a bigger mistake than enforcing the laws of science onto the fantastical universe of Star Wars.

That’s all there really is to say on the matter.

Droids Like Their Lot
Stories which take place in space tend to fall into two groups. Either there are no robots, or very very few robots, such as in Firefly or Star Trek. Or robots are omnipresent, but they’re secretly plotting the downfall of humanity, such as in the Terminator or Matrix films. Such stories often place emphasis on the balance between how advanced artificial intelligence has become, and whether humanity has granted civil rights to those artificial intelligences. Personally I take the Speaker For the Dead / Questionable Content position on this issue, but that’s neither here nor there.

In Star Wars, robots (which are always referred to as droids, despite rarely being androids of any kind) are both highly intelligent, and completely content with their subservient position to the organic species of the galaxy. There are a handful of exceptions within Star Wars cannon. IG-88 and 8T88 are both good examples. And, of course, there was the great droid revolution, but that was an isolated incident.

Their contentment with subservience doesn’t mean they’re always docile, or even that they’re content under whichever master currently owns them. More highly intelligent droids can do plenty of grumbling, and R2-D2 is notoriously sarcastic, even with his beloved master Luke. Droids can have very strong personalities, but it’s unlikely that they’ll ever actually turn on their masters without outside interference, such as a malicious hacker (or “slicer” in star wars terminology).

Unique Terminology
A GM who isn’t a devoted Star Wars fan might find this to be more trouble than it is worth, but I for one find the unique terminology of the Star Wars universe to be an important element of immersion. Many things which exist on earth, and also within Star Wars, have alternate names. Paper is Flimsi, Coffee is Caff, and a bar is a Tapcaff. I could create a list of cross-referenced terms (like some kind of English to Star Wars dictionary) and might actually do so at some point, but simply making a point to use the terms you’re already aware of can be helpful.

In the same vein, it’s good to make use of Star Wars’ unique slang and material names. You, like me, may feel that “Bantha Fodder” is a shitty sub-in for the word “shit,” but many of the later novels have done a good job of creating more organic sounding profanity. Words like “Sithspit,” “Stang” or “Karking” have the kind of punch we expect from profanity. Other examples of slang include “Eyeball” for a TIE fighter, “Squint” for a TIE Interceptor, or “Impstar Deuce” for an Imperial Star Destroyer Mark II. And it never hurts to make up your own. Just remember to avoid making up terms which sound as goofy as “Bantha Fodder.”

As a quick example of how helpful this can be, consider this scenario: Your players are rebel commandos. They’re on a transport on their way to a mission. As they come out of Hyperspace, the NPC pilot exclaims:

“Shit! There’s a Star Destroyer out there. Looks like a victory class, and it’s launching TIEs! Man the guns, people!”

There’s nothing wrong with that, but I don’t think it holds up well when compared to a more flavorful exclamation:

“Sithspit! There’s karking Star Destroyer, looks like a Vic. And it’s deploying squints! Get to the quads!”