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Saturday, 7 November 2015

Way back Machine and Gords Greyhawk

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Disclaimer: This page is not an official TSR or Trigee page. It is derived from material written by Gary Gygax for those companies and the use of such trademarks as D&D, AD&D, The World of Greyhawk, Greyhawk Adventures, Gord the Rogue et al. do not constitute challenges to the trademarks which may be owned by either of the above companies.
I have now completed my initial proofreading, formatting, and cross-ref linking, the original format having been uploaded from my ancient Mac SE/30 in June of '98. 2/2/99
I began working on this document while reading the Greyhawk Adventures/Gord the Rogue series of novels back in the mid to late eighties while in high school. At that time there was very little information availible on the City of Greyhawk - that boxed set had not yet come out and neither had the second edition of AD&D. I noticed that there was a good deal of campaign relevant information availible in the novels and began taking notes. I later noticed that EGG's Greyhawk differed quite a bit from the Greyhawk material that was published after he and TSR parted ways. I found his Greyhawk to be richer and more vibrant, which only made sense as Oerth was his campaign world. Carl Sargent's suppliments captured much of the detail and spirit that I found in Gygax's Greyhawk, and the Brown/Moore/Johnson/Reynolds version seems an interesting attempt to reconcile the old with the new, but these notes had already lent much depth to my own campaign. Also included here are references to pre-1986 Greyhawk material when specifically indicated, including pointers to Dragon articles and Greyhawk information which appeared in non-Greyhawk rule books, such as the 1st edition DMG. I had refrained from making them freely availible until recently, when TSR's copyright policy reduced in strictness and when I was able to get the ok from Mr. Gygax and Trigee to make public my notes on their lands and characters. Again, this is in no way an official document for TSR or Trigee. Expect major plot spoilers for those novels to be found within these notes.

Contents:

Bibliography:
  • 1. Gygax, E. Gary Saga of Old City Random House Inc. dist. TSR Inc., Lake Geneva WI, 1985.
  • 2. Gygax, E. Gary City of Hawks, Berkley Publishing Group, NY, 1987.
  • 3. Gygax, E. Gary Dragon # 100 "At Moonset the Blackcat Comes" 1985.
  • 4. Gygax, E. Gary Night Arrant, Berkley Publishing Group, NY, 1987.
  • 5. Gygax, E. Gary Artifact of Evil Random House Inc. dist. TSR Inc., Lake Geneva WI, 1986.
  • 6. Gygax, E. Gary Sea of Death, Berkley Publishing Group, NY, 1987.
  • 7. Gygax, E. Gary Come Endless Darkness, Berkley Publishing Group, NY, 1988.
  • 8. Gygax, E. Gary Dance of Demons, Berkley Publishing Group, NY, 1988

Links

  • Tom Harrison chairs The Council of Greyhawk which includes the archives of the Oerth Journal, a net-zine which has recently featured some of Rob "Robilar" Kuntz's recollections of the Greyhawk campaign including Erac's cousin and a certain demon from S4, and Robilar and Mordenkainen's adventure in Dave Arneson's City of the Gods from his Blackmoor campaign.
  • Roger E. Moore, excellent former Dragon Magazine editor and a current TSR game designer, has compiled a listing and brief descriptions of the various references to the Greyhawk campaign published in TSR and non-TSR sources, from Men and Magic in 1974, to the fragments of Ivid the Undying which appeared in Dragon Magazine in 1994 in this Greyhawk Index.
  • Carl Sargent's Ivid the Undying is a thorough look at the Great Kingdom, in the From the Ashes time.
  • Randy Richards coordinates the World of Greyhawk Fan Club on AOL.
Consider the original material found herein and the organization and phrasiology applied to the old material to be Copyright 1998 by Chris Siren and may be reused as far as I'm concerned, so long as I'm credited with researching it. Of course, you'll have to comply with TSR & Trigee's guidelines as well, but if it's just for personal use you're in the clear.
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Friday, 6 November 2015

PenDragon

Note: This includes some material excerpted from the Pendragon Book of the Manor. Please also see here for more about the book's contents, and for ordering a copy.

Retinue

A retinue is the mark of a nobleman. The bigger the retinue, the more important the nobleman.
Knights always have at least their squire as retinue, and when they can afford it, will hire other people as well. Landholders have a natural retinue of their household. Ranking Lord Knights have an elaborate retinue that reflects their personality and interests.
Here’s a guideline to some possibilities.

Contents

Glory for Retinue

Expenditure of treasure for Retinue personnel who are Professionals gets Glory, even if they have to be dismissed next year. Thus this is one of the most common ways to spend money. It acquires Glory, and the knight has a temporary expert in a skill, if needed.

Hiring Retinue

Most jobs on the manor are filled by the son of the person doing it. That is the feudal class system. Thus any Specialist Worker, Servant Personnel, Skilled Help or Unskilled Laborer is automatically replaced. However, the new replacement has skills at beginning level. 
There is no cost to finding Mercenaries. 
For Professional Personnel, the cost of £ 1 must be spent to find a suitable professional if one is desired.

Starting Skills, Skill Progression

Starting skills for all Retinue personnel begins at 1d6+6.
The Key Skill progresses at the rate of 1 point per year, up to 15. Afterwards roll 1d6 and on a roll of 1 he goes up one point in that skill.
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Professional Personnel

If a job is rare and requires education and expertise to be effective, it is probably professional. Each has a Key Skill. This indicates the skill that this person is a specialist at. Starting skill is 5+2d6. When in a retinue, they can perform this task instead of the knight.
Beginners are paid £ 1 per year per Key Skill, while persons of reputation and skill (Key Skill 16+) get £ 2, and sometimes more (figure +£ 1 for each full 5 points above 16 in a Key Skill). Individuals with multiple skills are thus expensive and special. A beginning Herald, with skills in Heraldry, Recognize and Courtesy would cost £ 3 per year, while such a one with 20 years of experience could be worth £ 12!
  • Bard. An expert entertainer who can sing, play harp and tell stories. Bards (as opposed to musicians and troubadours) have a special status due to their pagan religious traditions, even if professing Christianity. Such an expert always costs £ 1 more than their Key Skills would indicate. Key Skills: Sing, Play Harp.
  • Clerk, Reader/Writer. He is usually a church person, but not a priest; or perhaps simply was educated by the priests. Key Skill: Read Latin.
  • Doctor, Physician, Chirurgeon. Starting pay is £ 2. Key Skill: Chirurgery, First Aid.
  • Engineer. This man knows how to build castles and take them down. He can build towers and castles, and also make siege engines, emplace them, dig tunnels and so on. Key Skill: Siege.
  • Herald. An expert at recognizing coasts of arms and badges, he can also paint a shield, advise on tournament protocol, and make loud public announcements. Key Skill: Heraldry.
  • Lawyer. An expert on the ins and outs of law, i.e. - Court business. Key Skill: Courtesy.
  • Mistress. A woman dedicated to personal pleasure. Key Skill: Lust.
  • Musician. A professional trained at playing the courtly instrument of harp. Key Skill: Play Harp.
  • Priest(ess). A holy man (or woman). Key Skill: Religion
  • Proctor. He is a master at keeping figures and books—i.e. an accountant. Key Skill: Stewardship.
  • Raconteur. A professional storyteller, who has memorized histories, legends and other tales and can retell them in an entertaining manner. Key Skill: Orate.
  • Singer. A professional vocalist, also knows many songs for any occasion. Key Skill: Singing
  • Steward. An expert who looks after a manor sized estate, is usually a noble esquire. Key Skill: Stewardship. Note that if a knight is not married with a wife to support, but has engaged a Steward instead, his £ 1cost replaces the costs to support the family. (Yes, this leaves £ 1that goes to the landholder).
  • Troubadour. A poet and musician, who specializes in songs and poems of love and romance. Key Skill: Singing, Play Lute.
  • Valet, Body servant. He is not only an expert in getting and cleaning nice clothing, but also helps in grooming, dressing properly and information on protocol, etc. Key Skill: Fashion
  • Squire. An additional squire to the normal complement of the Knight’s station. Key Skill: Age Euse the rules above under “Your NPC SquireE
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The Wandering Bards

Bards are ordinarily not for hire, but live on gifts given to them. They wander the land going where their intuition and poetic obligation urges them to go. They do not charge a fee, but do their job and rely upon the largesse of their host for rewards. No one wishes to short change them, for this could incur their wrath—the satire that is a curse coming from the mouth of a bard!
A qualified bard, who lives at the rate of about £ 2 per year, gets about 1½ denarii a day, or the cost of a noble’s feast for one person. Thus a suitable reward for him would be to have him sit among the knights to eat for the duration of his stay, plus a place to sleep equivalent to a knight’s lodging. The bard would not ask or expect more. Of course, giving more warrants a Generous check for largesse.
And remember that bards whose skills have earned them great fame deserve more. Calculate about double fee for each five years of experience. But do not be stingy with the truly great! If Taliesin himself sings in your hall, it would not be overly generous to give him a gold ring worth £ 20!
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Lady’s Retinue

Wives and daughters live at the same level as their warder -- whether father, husband or brother. Wards of a baron live at their appropriate income level as if they had their estates. 
The wives and older daughters of the household knights and esquires are generally handmaidens to the lord’s wife, a high class rank in a noble household. Pages are in her care, to be trained.
The wife of a nobleman, and likely of any wealthy knight, has her own household of helpers. In addition to her handmaidens, plus whatever professional from the list above that she can afford, she may also have:
  • Fashion Expert. Seamstress, clothing designer and perhaps most importantly, knows what is au courant. Key Skill: Fashion.
  • Flower Gardener. He is critical to maintain luxury gardens. Key Skill: Industry (Gardening) £ ½
  • Groom. He, sometimes she, takes care of the horses. Key Skill: Horsemanship £ ½
  • Professional Hair Dresser. She is also skilled at making wigs. Key Skill: +1d6+3 bonus to APP. This lasts for one day.
  • Professional musician. She brings pleasure to the household as they work. Key Skill: Play Harp
  • Protocol Expert. She makes sure no social faux pas occur. Key Skill: Courtesy.
  • Recognizer. She remembers who, what and when among the people at court. Key Skill: Recognize.
  • Spinner. All women spin, but she is an expert. Key Skill: Industry (Spinning)
  • Tutor. She, or he, is a teacher of the Classics, the Bible and literature. Key Skill: Read.
  • Weaver. All women weave, but she is an expert. Key Skill: Industry (Weaving)
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Chief Steward

A single steward can be Chief Steward over several manors. Each manor needs it own Steward, but the Chief Steward can lead them, similar to how a unit leader leads in battle.
At the start of the “Stewardship Phase” of the BoM “Complete Landholding System,” (before Step D.1., page 43), a Chief Steward may attempt her Stewardship skill against the average of the Misfortune levels of the manors under her care. Use the Results Table on page 44, but interpreted to provide the modifiers below.
A Steward who would get the Gentlewoman's Bonus does get it for the results of the Chief Steward roll.
The result is a modifier given to the Stewardship skill for the all under stewards before they make their own attempt a at Step D. 1.
Chief Stewards cost the same as ordinary stewards to maintain.
    Harvest Results Modifier
  • Incredible: +10
  • Excellent: +5
  • Good: +2
  • Regular: 0
  • Meager: -2
  • Bad: -5
  • Very bad: -10
  • Negligible: -15
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Thursday, 5 November 2015

Deleted Posts By WOC

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Dungeons & Dragons
So Defilers like walking?
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#1 Aug 31, 2007 6:41:45
oorlof
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Me and my group are starting a Dark Sun game this evening, and although we've got no wizards in the group yet, I'm curious about how Defilers cast their spells.

Here's what bugging me. Everytime a Defiler uses his magic, he turns the ground he's standing on infertile. So does that happen instantaneously, i.e. does the caster have to move out of the defiled zone to be able to cast a spell again? Or does the affected area merely grow, the two radii added together?
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Aug 31, 2007 7:05:02
denbyak
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There is no more life in his area I think it was like a 5 foot zone. He can draw from farther away but its harder and there are feats to fix that. What always got me was, he drained life when he memorized and then more when he casted. As we are on the topic I would like to say I miss the differences between defilers and preservers from the 2ed material.
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Aug 31, 2007 13:23:36
brun01
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You don't need to get out of the area. There was a rule for this in the original setting.

Casting Multiple Spells from the Same Location:
If a defiler casts more than one spell from the same location, the radius of destroyed vegetation expands around him. Consult the Defiler Magical Destruction Table for the highest level spell cast from that location, then add one yard for every other spell cast. (Spells equal to the highest level spell are treated as additional spells).
For example, the defiler Grifyan casts a lightning bolt, a 3rd-level spell, while in the scrub plains. The area of ash around him will be 4 yards. In the next round, he casts a magic missile spell, expanding the radius of ash by 1 yard, bringing the total of burnt earth to 5 yards. In the third round, Grifyan decides to unleash an advanced illusion, a 5th-level spell. Since this is the highest-level spell cast from this location, the area of ash is recalculated; 5 yards for the 5th-level spell, plus 1 yard each for the two lower-level spells cast, for a total radius of ash of 7 yards.

You only need to adapt it a little to work with 3.5 rules...
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Aug 31, 2007 14:27:44
lyric
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And I think they defiled EITHER at memorization (off stage spell power gathering) OR when they cast their spells (on stage spell power gathering).. at least as far as I recall...
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Aug 31, 2007 14:42:17
flip
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And I think they defiled EITHER at memorization (off stage spell power gathering) OR when they cast their spells (on stage spell power gathering).. at least as far as I recall...

Actually, defile when preparing only existed in DS2. In DS3, you defile when you cast. Period.
flip Athas.org overcouncil
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Aug 31, 2007 14:48:36
lyric
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ahhh.. my bad rusty memory, and I have yet to actually play more than a handful of 3e games, none of which are darksun
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Sep 01, 2007 7:56:43
Pennarin
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It's odd that DS3 hasn't incorporated what Bruno quoted.
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Sep 01, 2007 9:47:04
oorlof
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Thanks, that's the kind of ruling I was looking for, Bruno. I'll show it to my DM. I think we'll go for radius = sum (spell levels)*5, so casting two lightning bolts nets you a (3+3)*5=30 feet radius of ash. Cuts down on recalculating when someone casts a higher level spell than he started the defiling with.
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Sep 02, 2007 9:52:52
ruhl-than_sage
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Thanks, that's the kind of ruling I was looking for, Bruno. I'll show it to my DM. I think we'll go for radius = sum (spell levels)*5, so casting two lightning bolts nets you a (3+3)*5=30 feet radius of ash. Cuts down on recalculating when someone casts a higher level spell than he started the defiling with.

It might be a good idea to put some sort of limit on how far a defiler can draw energy from. Would suggest 50ft-100ft +5ft-10ft per caster level, for ease of use you could write this on the character sheet under the heading Draw Radius:.

Also, two things about how you calculate defiler radius.

1st, you really need to figure the type of terrain into your calculations because the amount of life around you is essentially how much energy is available in a given area. Using the method you have mentioned. I would suggest that you set a per level variable radius based on terrain type

Dense Forest/Jungle/Swamp/Water Gardens 1ft
Grassland/Crop Fields/Gardens 2-3ft
Scrub Plains/Cactus Gardens 5ft
Rocky Badlands/Stoney Barrens/Sandy Wastes/Mountains 7-8ft
Salt Flats/Boulder Fields/Silt Sea 10ft

Second, the reason the radius was calculated the way it was in 2e is because the amount of area in a 5ft radius is only a fraction of the amount of area in a 10' radius. Every time you double the radius you effectively quadruple the total area affected. So subtracting the original radius you get 3 times as much area affected on the second casting of the same spell as if you just add radiuses together. You can either ignore this for simplicity or you can insert a very approximate rule like the one that they used in 2e. Or, here are some other suggestions:

1. If you are using a battlemap you base your calculations on how many squares or hexes would be effected instead of actual radius. An just build out in a approximately circular fashion
2. You can center the radius for each spell just outside of the last effected area.
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Sep 02, 2007 13:28:32
lyric
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hi sage how ya doing :D
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Sep 03, 2007 6:58:57
terminus_vortexa
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Lyric! LONG time, no read! Good to see you back, bro!
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Sep 03, 2007 14:12:30
lyric
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hey! the great Terminus Vortexa!! Wassup bud? :D I'm doing well ;) are you?:P
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Sep 03, 2007 14:35:10
terminus_vortexa
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I'm doing great, bro! I moved to Iowa sometime after your departure from the boards, and am enjoying the country life! Email me at [email]TerminusVortexa@gmail.com[/email], and we'll catch up!
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Sep 03, 2007 14:53:05
lyric
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will do, have done short message away ;)
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