In the previous session Arturo and Vinto depopulated the village of Phandelvia of Redbrand Ruffians and scouted out two entrances to the ruined villa nearby, the gang's hangout. The new session begins with Vinto persuading his new canine companion to sniff about in the concealed tunnel leading into the hillside. With the coast clear, the two foresters head inside and infiltrate the Redbrand base in the villa cellars. They attract the attention of a horrible arcane abomination hiding in a ravine in the center of the room. While the creature's necrotic magic can't seem to get hold of them, its psychic intrusions make for a maddening encounter. Having tasted enough of their steal, it begins exploiting the darkness of the ravine and at one point even throws a rickety bridge at the adventurers before they tire of the game of cat-and-mouse and press onward and downward.
(Vinto's player rolled a "1" during the psychic contest. We agreed that he owes me a truly deep, dark secret from the character's past as homework before the next session.)
Listening to a door at the bottom of the stairs, Arturo hears the all-too-familar gutter-tongue of goblinoids engaged in some sort of torment. After quietly peering in, Arturo and Vinto invade the room to ambush the bugbear occupants, closing the heavy door behind them to help muffle the sounds of battle. The initial barrage of arrow and blade let's Arturo overwhelm two of the hulking goblinoids in a bloody melee, but the third sorely presses the archer in the confined space of the barracks. Arturo has just brought down the second beast when he turns to see the battered black mastiff standing protectively over Vinto's sprawled form. The last bugbear and the wounded swordsman's eyes meet - and the human conceives and executes a desperate gambit.
(I really appreciate my player stopping for a moment and considering the dire situation. Unable to sustain another blow, facing down a perfectly healthy bugbear, his partner making death saves, and backed into a literal corner behind enemy lines. In play were two dead bugbears, a primed escalation die, a desperate gambit, and two successful, painful attacks - the Charisma check was just a formality at that point - well played.)
With a high-pitched imitation of the tortured little goblin victim laying unconscious on the barracks floor he charges forward screaming in the goblin tongue about "his" torment and vengeance. His strikes are telling blows that viciously wound the bugbear. In the face of a seemingly possessed and murderous fiend, the bugbear makes for the exit behind him to get reinforcements. However, the mastiff hound guarding the fallen archer mauls its leg as it tries to pass, dragging him to the floor. The beasts screams are cut short by spartha blades, and Arturo quickly sets to work helping Vinto recover, barring the chamber doors, and eventually striking up a conversation with the goblin they "rescued." The goblin proves obsequious and helpful having an extensive knowledge of the area and its secrets and no love for the "pink-skins" that would join in on his abuse. A few kind words and a shared meal reveal the relative location of most of the other dungeon inhabitants and a secret passage leading directly to the wizard Glass Staff's inner sanctum and earn the little monster his release into the forest.
The Maretia 'Brothers' use the bugbear leader's master key to lock the nearby ruffians in their own common room before making their way to he secret stairwell and launch a surprise attack on the gang boss. They catch him completely unawares at his writing desk, not ten feet from where the secret door opens up. Using the element of surprise, Arturo rushes forward and knocks the eponymous staff from its resting place, far out of reach of the flabbergasted mage. Unprepared and ill-defended, Glass Staff is is overwhelmed immediately and wounded before he can even cast a spell. He quickly surrenders and pleads his case to his captors.
As it turns out, Glass Staff is really Iarno, the contact Sildaro was supposed to meet in town. He felt forced to abandon his original agreement to raise a town guard to secure the area because a strange Numidian elf (as Iarno describes him) calling himself Spider had already gained control of much of the area. So long as he's allowed to complete his real mission - to gain access to whatever remains of the legendary Forge of Spells beneath the mines on behalf of the Archemagos - Iarno really doesn't care who opens the mine (or has to die, for that matter). Seeing the path of least resistance (or "the non-suicidal path," as Iarno would call it), Iarno took up the role of Glass Staff.
(I changed Iarno's background, and those of most other NPCs from
their Forgotten Realms organization in the original adventure to Byzantine Age Icons. Sildaro is associated with the Emperor / Imperial Court as a noble. Iarno is an agent of the Hermetic Order. The Grey Weaver has his hooks into the syndicate the PCs were working with. The priest in the previous episode is an obvious connection to the Pontifex, while one of the local retired veterans in town is a hook to the Praefectus rather than the Realm's Order of the Gauntlet.)
The Maretia 'Brothers' take the prisoner to Sildaro and the four of them manage to get the remaining Redbrands to surrender themselves. In exchange they are promised not to face trial for treason - the only crime where a citizen can face execution as punishment. While the potential to die a galley or mine slave in such a judgment is very real, Sildaro and the Town Master seem keen on the idea of putting them to public use. A family is rescued from being sold into slavery, though the father has been killed. His loyal hound was the one that lead the adventurers to his remains and now stays at Vinto's side. They finally kill the lurking abomination to retrieve the poor man's corpse, and find a treasure cache in the ravine that includes a masterwork blade.
The mother mentions an abandoned heirloom in a now-ruined village that the adventures would be welcomed to as a reward. As it turns out, a local halfling family says a wise druid just headed off towards that same village not two days ago - and if anyone knows the location of this "Cragmaw Keep" where Gundren Rockseeker was taken, it'll be the well-traveled mystic. A few other townsfolk seek the fearsome heroes out with petitions, but most will have to wait until the Gundren is brought back safely.
Monday, June 22, 2015
Monday, June 15, 2015
Assets - Vehicles and Real Estate
Following up on the earlier article: Assets - Rewards Beyond Money and Magic, I wanted to go over a few other example scales I've drafted for our Byzantine Age game. Just keep in mind is that whatever scale and system you come up with, we're just dealing with rough metrics here, not recipes. They help me (the DM) eye-ball the distribution of rewards / spoils among party members as well as how much of a stake each character has in the game world beyond his character stats. Also, each Asset Type has its own scale, don't just assume the "relative bigness" of, say, a Rank 4 Ally translates to the same scale as a Rank 4 Contact or Vehicle. There's nothing wrong with trying it, but mileage will vary based on how combat-heavy, role-play-intensive, political you want your game to be.
Sample Scale - Vehicles
1: Mule / Ox2: Draft Horse3: Wagon w/ 2 Horses / Oxen4: Skiff5: Charger6: Barge7: Caravel / Longship8: Galleon / Galleas9: Ship of the Line10: Airship
Alright, so maybe that scale is complete rubbish or maybe it totally works for your game. Heck, I'm not even sure I want to have Airships in my game. However, the part that matters is how this list came about. I took the "smallest" vehicle (in terms of value) I could bother quantifying and and biggest I was willing to tolerate. Then I started thinking about everything that fell in between and filled in an arbitrary number of data points sorted out. Yes, there's no entry for a row-boat, but is it hard to find an equivalent? Some broad sub-categories start to shake out: things the peasantry has access to, things merchants and knights have, and then things like military vehicles above that. Maybe you want to run a Planescape adventure or something? What does your scale look like if you have a Spelljammer at the top of the chart?
Sample Scale - Real Estate
1: Shack / Cabin2: Cottage / Apartment3: House / Workshop4: Small Farm / Store / Warehouse5: Large Farm / Mine / Dock6: Manor7: Tower8: Keep9: Small Castle10: Castle
So here we go again. The scale is probably rubbish (I didn't even include an entry for a floating sky-fortress that shoots laser beams and roosts a flight of dragons). I started with the most modest thing I could see someone owning as personal property (rather than renting - lots of peasants are merely tenants or serfs). Then I decided a full-sized Castle was probably the largest individual holding I wanted to have on this scale. Controlling a city like say, Ravenna, isn't really covered under Real Estate as much as it would be by Station. The town around a decent castle is probably pushing it already. But this also illustrates that you'll have bleed-over and that's perfectly fine. If you own your own manor you're part of the landed class, so a reward of a manor inside the Empire itself is going to have to be go with some sort of minor Baron title at the very least. Also, instead of paying some ridiculous fee to operate a holding my players are going to be responsible with finding staff and making their holdings productive. The idea of needing to raid dragon hordes every few months just to pay for your "owning a castle" habit is a sign things have swerved horribly off-course.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Assets - Rewards Beyond Money and Magic
Personally, I've always been the kind of player who could never be satisfied with Experience Points, Gold Pieces, and Magic Items. A large part of the charm to systems like World of Darkness is that it allows you to spend points for things beyond super-powers: influence, allies, access to information - whatever they lack in exoticism they make up for in sheer utility. Even more critically, they are incentives for characters to be immersed or invested in the game world beyond wherever they happen to be standing at the time. I got my first taste of this in d20 game hording boons and favors from Living Greyhawk modules and the introduction of Icons in the 13th Age game setting and Factions in the Fifth Edition of Dungeons and Dragons revisited the idea. So in Byzantine Age, I really wanted to bring all these different kinds of rewards together into a general category called Assets.
Below are my Asset Types, and yes the number ten was completely arbitrary. There's no pressing need to even bother quantifying this stuff in many games, but some categories and examples helps reassure my players that are otherwise worried about overreaching. These kind of things are meant to be a bit wibbly-wobbly, but useful.
I've also fallen into the habit of sticking some sort of a number value on these things - less of a price-tag and more a squishy scale of relative "bigness." Some categories need more than one number; Allies, Contacts, and Favors are usually dealt with individually (each alliance or favor rated by itself), while wealth is just a single lump of everything you have available (coins, art objects, etc.). Some categories are easier to peg than others. Take Station, for example. Here's a scale of station for our Byzantine Age game. While a character might have one rating relative to the Empire, it doesn't mean the same thing on the Germanic side of the Danube or in the sands of Persia.
I actively encourage these kinds of assets to bleed over into various categories and interact with one another. A simple example would be starting a self-sustaining business. One would typically convert some Wealth into the purchase of some Real Estate (in this case a tavern) and put in the effort of finding a reliable sort of Servant to manage the establishment. Once the business is up and running it should provide the owning character with a fair bit of income as well as be a source of information, contacts, and fame.
It also provides the Dungeon Master with a variety of potential encounters and hooks. Do the PCs put in the effort to find the right person for the job? That could be a side-quest unto itself. If they don't put in the effort, they may have to deal with issues of mismanagement like incompetence or embezzlement. Have the PCs created enemies or rivalries that could come home to roost? Such events should be doorways to opportunity though, rather than turn their assets into a poisoned prize. That defeats the entire purpose of the exercise.
Below are my Asset Types, and yes the number ten was completely arbitrary. There's no pressing need to even bother quantifying this stuff in many games, but some categories and examples helps reassure my players that are otherwise worried about overreaching. These kind of things are meant to be a bit wibbly-wobbly, but useful.
Magical Resources: Permanent Magic Items, Supernatural Abilities, Divine Boons
Vehicles: Warhorse, Carriage, Pirate Ship, Pegasus
Wealth: Access to Adventuring Gear, Lifestyle Expenses, Fungible Investments
Real Estate: Workshop, Farm, Tower, Manor
Servants: Slaves, Employees, Lackeys, Minions
Contacts: Access to information, people, markets, etc. if you make it worth their while
Allies: Go out of their way to provide aid, though the resources and dedication will vary
Favors: Boons, Debts, Blackmail
Glory: A relative measure of personal fame (or infamy)
Station: Earl, Archbishop, Guild Officer, General
I've also fallen into the habit of sticking some sort of a number value on these things - less of a price-tag and more a squishy scale of relative "bigness." Some categories need more than one number; Allies, Contacts, and Favors are usually dealt with individually (each alliance or favor rated by itself), while wealth is just a single lump of everything you have available (coins, art objects, etc.). Some categories are easier to peg than others. Take Station, for example. Here's a scale of station for our Byzantine Age game. While a character might have one rating relative to the Empire, it doesn't mean the same thing on the Germanic side of the Danube or in the sands of Persia.
-4: Proscribed: Exile
-3: Hunted: Wanted Criminal
-2: Outsider: Barbarian
-1: Bondage: Slave
0: Servitude: Serf
1: Citizenship: Commoner
2: Taxpayer: Artisan, Yeoman
3: Privileged: Soldier, Steward, Man-at-Arms, Priest, Mayor, Guild Member
4: Peer: Landless Nobility, Knight Errant, Military or Guild Officer
5: Minor Lord: Baron, Lieutenant, Guildmaster, Bishop
6: Lord: Earl / Count, Commander, Patrician, Archbishop
7: Major Lord: Duke, General, Doge, Cardinal
8: Sovereign: King, Warlord, Consul, High Priest
9: Overlord: Emperor
I actively encourage these kinds of assets to bleed over into various categories and interact with one another. A simple example would be starting a self-sustaining business. One would typically convert some Wealth into the purchase of some Real Estate (in this case a tavern) and put in the effort of finding a reliable sort of Servant to manage the establishment. Once the business is up and running it should provide the owning character with a fair bit of income as well as be a source of information, contacts, and fame.
It also provides the Dungeon Master with a variety of potential encounters and hooks. Do the PCs put in the effort to find the right person for the job? That could be a side-quest unto itself. If they don't put in the effort, they may have to deal with issues of mismanagement like incompetence or embezzlement. Have the PCs created enemies or rivalries that could come home to roost? Such events should be doorways to opportunity though, rather than turn their assets into a poisoned prize. That defeats the entire purpose of the exercise.
Interviewer: Well, can you... blow up the world?
The Tick: Egad. I hope not. That's where I keep all my stuff.
Monday, June 8, 2015
Ludus Siciliae - III
The third session of our Sicily Campaign took place entirely in P'andelvia. The Rockseeker brothers started their operation to reclaim the Lost Mines from this village, but no one has heard from them in weeks. Our PCs, Arturo Maretia and Vinto, arrived in the middle of the night, delivering the wounded knight Sildaro to safety. While the wagon with the Rockseekers' supplies had arrived earlier that day, they sit idle now. In the morning the two warriors intend to ask around town to discover the whereabouts of this so-called "Cragmaw Castle," the place the goblins said their bosses took Gundren Rockseeker and his map.
The Maretia 'Brothers' awake the next morning and get a quick lay of the land from the windows of their chambers. The inn is converted from an old design of insula (Roman apartment building) that housed miners in service to whoever owned that villa on the edge of town - back before it became an overgrown ruin. The innkeeper is busy preparing for a large rush at lunch-time, and indicates to the crowd of villagers coming out from a house across the way. There's a positively ancient-looking priest leading the congregants in some hymns and giving a sermon after the Mass has let out. A motherly-looking figure breaks away and quietly crosses the road to the inn, greeting the two brothers warmly.
She introduces herself as Haelia, the operator of the local miner's exchange, and expresses her condolences on their difficult travels and the loss of their patron, Gundren. Without ever losing her tone or expression she subtly menaces them with a table-knife in a manner more fitting a gangster. It's quite apparent that she is their local contact with the crime syndicate that dispatched the "boys" on this mission in the first place. Without ever breaking her Stepford Smiler facade, she mentions that if she has to report their failure on top of the problems she's having with this Glass Staff character setting up a protection racket on her turf - well, things are going to get unpleasant.
Speaking of unpleasant, rather than disbanding into the informal feast the innkeeper hoped for, the end of church services has become a scene. People are escorting their children away and man are clearing the streets as a band of young toughs in leather armor wearing red cloths on their belts are now menacing the old priest. Despite efforts to break up the altercation with common sense (Sildaro), appeals for decency (the priest), and subtle intimidation (Arturo) all Hell breaks lose and Vinto has take a shot on someone. That draws the attention of the two oafs to charge across the town square at him. Before the injured man can follow gives him a fatal sword-fighting lesson. The reluctant, younger gang member flees into the improvise church in horror. A few more arrows are shot and the two thugs a couple of hits on Arturo but they are left dead in the dust.
They come back to the church area to see the priest unsuccessfully trying to save his former assailants life and resigning himself to performing Final Unction for the man. There's a brief sidebar about priests not being the same thing as adventurer-type clerics - the crux of which I'll cover in a World Setting article soon. The two rangers spare Eduardo, the teenager hiding in the improvised church. He's panicked and insists they all flee town before Glass Staff finds out what's happened. Arturo reuses some of his father's old lecture material and gets the kid coherent again. Ed insists that they are in terrible danger. The guy to cross the boss-wizard was fed to a hideous monster in the pit, and his wife and kids are getting sold as slaves! Plus the boss has "these giant goblins" working for him now.
Arturo and Vinto get all the useful information they can out of the Redbrand defector and leave Sildaro in charge of him. Ignoring the verklempt town master, they mosey over to the Sleeping Giant Taphouse to pick another fight. They pull out an old merchant's trick, bribing the bartender quietly to give them watered wine while they appear to be ordering the harder stuff the Redbrands are pounding away. A rigged drinking contest ensues, after which the inebriated thugs decide it would be best to get back to their billets. Their two new drinking buddies (who one of the Redbrands is still trying to recruit) follow them outside and promptly assassinate them. The three thugs suffer Disadvantage from the poisoned condition and just flail around until they are gutted like fish. Most the NPCs aren't thrilled with the idea of them completely depopulating the gang in such a fatal manner (a few of the locals have errant kin like Ed) and both Sildaro and Haelia wants some young, fighting men under thumb for their own reasons. The local undertaker, on the other hand, is thrilled.
We wrap up the game with the two adventurers scouting the villa, investigating the main entrance first and then the one in the woods that Ed had mentioned. Near the concealed tunnel Vinto comes across a mastiff hound that looks the worse for wear. It shows signs of recent abuse and starvation, but stubbornly refuses to leave the entrance area. He feeds the beast at it seems trusting enough of him, but it seems very sour on Arturo. Near as they can tell, the dog doesn't like something about how the swordsman smells ....
The Maretia 'Brothers' awake the next morning and get a quick lay of the land from the windows of their chambers. The inn is converted from an old design of insula (Roman apartment building) that housed miners in service to whoever owned that villa on the edge of town - back before it became an overgrown ruin. The innkeeper is busy preparing for a large rush at lunch-time, and indicates to the crowd of villagers coming out from a house across the way. There's a positively ancient-looking priest leading the congregants in some hymns and giving a sermon after the Mass has let out. A motherly-looking figure breaks away and quietly crosses the road to the inn, greeting the two brothers warmly.
She introduces herself as Haelia, the operator of the local miner's exchange, and expresses her condolences on their difficult travels and the loss of their patron, Gundren. Without ever losing her tone or expression she subtly menaces them with a table-knife in a manner more fitting a gangster. It's quite apparent that she is their local contact with the crime syndicate that dispatched the "boys" on this mission in the first place. Without ever breaking her Stepford Smiler facade, she mentions that if she has to report their failure on top of the problems she's having with this Glass Staff character setting up a protection racket on her turf - well, things are going to get unpleasant.
Speaking of unpleasant, rather than disbanding into the informal feast the innkeeper hoped for, the end of church services has become a scene. People are escorting their children away and man are clearing the streets as a band of young toughs in leather armor wearing red cloths on their belts are now menacing the old priest. Despite efforts to break up the altercation with common sense (Sildaro), appeals for decency (the priest), and subtle intimidation (Arturo) all Hell breaks lose and Vinto has take a shot on someone. That draws the attention of the two oafs to charge across the town square at him. Before the injured man can follow gives him a fatal sword-fighting lesson. The reluctant, younger gang member flees into the improvise church in horror. A few more arrows are shot and the two thugs a couple of hits on Arturo but they are left dead in the dust.
They come back to the church area to see the priest unsuccessfully trying to save his former assailants life and resigning himself to performing Final Unction for the man. There's a brief sidebar about priests not being the same thing as adventurer-type clerics - the crux of which I'll cover in a World Setting article soon. The two rangers spare Eduardo, the teenager hiding in the improvised church. He's panicked and insists they all flee town before Glass Staff finds out what's happened. Arturo reuses some of his father's old lecture material and gets the kid coherent again. Ed insists that they are in terrible danger. The guy to cross the boss-wizard was fed to a hideous monster in the pit, and his wife and kids are getting sold as slaves! Plus the boss has "these giant goblins" working for him now.
Arturo and Vinto get all the useful information they can out of the Redbrand defector and leave Sildaro in charge of him. Ignoring the verklempt town master, they mosey over to the Sleeping Giant Taphouse to pick another fight. They pull out an old merchant's trick, bribing the bartender quietly to give them watered wine while they appear to be ordering the harder stuff the Redbrands are pounding away. A rigged drinking contest ensues, after which the inebriated thugs decide it would be best to get back to their billets. Their two new drinking buddies (who one of the Redbrands is still trying to recruit) follow them outside and promptly assassinate them. The three thugs suffer Disadvantage from the poisoned condition and just flail around until they are gutted like fish. Most the NPCs aren't thrilled with the idea of them completely depopulating the gang in such a fatal manner (a few of the locals have errant kin like Ed) and both Sildaro and Haelia wants some young, fighting men under thumb for their own reasons. The local undertaker, on the other hand, is thrilled.
We wrap up the game with the two adventurers scouting the villa, investigating the main entrance first and then the one in the woods that Ed had mentioned. Near the concealed tunnel Vinto comes across a mastiff hound that looks the worse for wear. It shows signs of recent abuse and starvation, but stubbornly refuses to leave the entrance area. He feeds the beast at it seems trusting enough of him, but it seems very sour on Arturo. Near as they can tell, the dog doesn't like something about how the swordsman smells ....
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Campaign Setting - Shaping Icons
Worlds Are Theoretical; Campaigns Are Alive
I love game world settings that come with compelling pillars and features, but leave an overwhelming majority of the map under a shroud of ambiguity. It gives me a lot of room to work with as a Dungeon Master. I don't have to run the same world the same way for different groups of players. I can fill out a massive campaign bible for various places ahead of time, and leave other places in a quantum sort of state - only finalizing their states once the players go to observe them. It's also great for encouraging players to build the world with / for me as we go. In this regard I've always preferred running my games in settings like the Nentir Vale setting from D&D 4th Edition or the Dragon Empire from 13th Age. I also love how games like World of Darkness turn well-known cities and towns into a completely uncharted wilderness full of horrors.
So we have a campaign game going now, and as Arturo and Vinto venture out into the world we have to start solving for some of these variables - in particular it means hashing out the Icons with whom they interact. When the players came up with their backgrounds they deliberately supplied their own hook into the adventure. Their idea is that the two "brothers" have been coerced into some sort of dangerous quest due to running afoul of the law. Arturo has been something of a malcontent in his social station and fell in with what the player's described as a some sort of shadowy syndicate. But when his associations caused Vinto to wind up imprisoned he took rash action and engineered an unsuccessful escape attempt, compounding the issue. Benefactors in the syndicate managed to expunge the offenses from the official record - but such things do not come without a price.
An organized crime syndicate in the Roman Empire? This Sounds like a job for the Gray Weaver icon. Mobsters from Sicily, nobody will ever see that one coming .... In particular, though, this forced me to consider what kind of interests this Icon had, and his relationship with the Empire itself. So the skeleton needs to be a bit more fleshed out. We already have an historical character for the Emperor (Justinian the Great) and there's a major historical event tied to smuggling and shady mercantile affairs in this era - the smuggling of silk worms from China into the Empire. So now an idea took shape - one I've been familiar with from many years with the Legend of the Five Rings franchise - an Icon who works as the Underhand of the Emperor. Of course, an organization like that needs mysteries and motives - so I did a little more digging and spun up just the right person (more on that another time).
So the Gray Weaver is ultimately working for the increased prosperity and security of the Empire as a whole, but is happy to use nefarious means and odious men to accomplish his goals. He'll obviously be concerned with the looming crisis of succession (Justinian is in his late 70s with no son and unable or unwilling to favor any of his nephews) and has his fingers in many pies. If the PCs distinguish themselves he'll start to take a personal interest. If he finds common cause with them, he may fold them further and further into the heart of his grand conspiracy. On the other hand, if he fails to see redeeming qualities in their character he won't hesitate to play his pawns ruthlessly ... even crime bosses have their standards.
I love game world settings that come with compelling pillars and features, but leave an overwhelming majority of the map under a shroud of ambiguity. It gives me a lot of room to work with as a Dungeon Master. I don't have to run the same world the same way for different groups of players. I can fill out a massive campaign bible for various places ahead of time, and leave other places in a quantum sort of state - only finalizing their states once the players go to observe them. It's also great for encouraging players to build the world with / for me as we go. In this regard I've always preferred running my games in settings like the Nentir Vale setting from D&D 4th Edition or the Dragon Empire from 13th Age. I also love how games like World of Darkness turn well-known cities and towns into a completely uncharted wilderness full of horrors.
So we have a campaign game going now, and as Arturo and Vinto venture out into the world we have to start solving for some of these variables - in particular it means hashing out the Icons with whom they interact. When the players came up with their backgrounds they deliberately supplied their own hook into the adventure. Their idea is that the two "brothers" have been coerced into some sort of dangerous quest due to running afoul of the law. Arturo has been something of a malcontent in his social station and fell in with what the player's described as a some sort of shadowy syndicate. But when his associations caused Vinto to wind up imprisoned he took rash action and engineered an unsuccessful escape attempt, compounding the issue. Benefactors in the syndicate managed to expunge the offenses from the official record - but such things do not come without a price.
An organized crime syndicate in the Roman Empire? This Sounds like a job for the Gray Weaver icon. Mobsters from Sicily, nobody will ever see that one coming .... In particular, though, this forced me to consider what kind of interests this Icon had, and his relationship with the Empire itself. So the skeleton needs to be a bit more fleshed out. We already have an historical character for the Emperor (Justinian the Great) and there's a major historical event tied to smuggling and shady mercantile affairs in this era - the smuggling of silk worms from China into the Empire. So now an idea took shape - one I've been familiar with from many years with the Legend of the Five Rings franchise - an Icon who works as the Underhand of the Emperor. Of course, an organization like that needs mysteries and motives - so I did a little more digging and spun up just the right person (more on that another time).
So the Gray Weaver is ultimately working for the increased prosperity and security of the Empire as a whole, but is happy to use nefarious means and odious men to accomplish his goals. He'll obviously be concerned with the looming crisis of succession (Justinian is in his late 70s with no son and unable or unwilling to favor any of his nephews) and has his fingers in many pies. If the PCs distinguish themselves he'll start to take a personal interest. If he finds common cause with them, he may fold them further and further into the heart of his grand conspiracy. On the other hand, if he fails to see redeeming qualities in their character he won't hesitate to play his pawns ruthlessly ... even crime bosses have their standards.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
World Setting - Icones
Icons make the world ago ‘round …
One of the best things about the use of Icons from the Archmage Engine is that they were implemented from the outset to be pillars that define the game setting. So in this Byzantine Age setting it was important to set those proverbial stakes in the ground before letting the players make camp in the world. Icons fall into 3 general categories with some bleed over here and there: Romans, Neighbors, and Barbarians.
The Roman Icons define the public aspects of the Empire itself. The Emperor in Constantinople is the main force of law and culture within the Imperial borders. The Praefectus in Antioch represents the military influence and interests of Rome. The Archemagos concerns himself with those who use arcane magic to serve or threaten the Empire. The Pope’s main spheres are those of religious practices and moral philosophy among the people of the Empire and beyond. The Grey Weaver, on the other hand, is a mysterious figure whose main interest is the flow (licit or otherwise) of wealth and information across the Empire, a shadowy hand that’s influence could be felt anywhere. Depending on the time period and theme of the individual campaign, these roles could be filled by different characters (and some of their loci might even change) but their core functions in defining the Empire are largely the same.
Neighboring Icons obviously define zones immediately outside Imperial dominion. These relationships can be a lot more flexible campaign-to-campaign, but they presume a civilized power with diplomatic relations between themselves and Constantinople. The Rose Prince and High Thane represent the relevant Elven and Dwarven civilizations. The Sassanid Persians are lead by their own emperor. While these people may technically be “barbarians” in the strictest Roman sense of the word, no well-educated Roman would want to make a fool of himself to dismiss their civilizations so casually.
Barbaric Icons obviously do not represent everyone that the Romans would consider barbarians in the world, but they are the four who pose the greatest threat in the current era. Ironscales and his fellow draconic disciples hold sway beyond the Rhine and Danube in Germania - a land where many past foes and invasions of the Empire have begun. The Brazen Khan is whatever horse-lord has managed to consolidate the loyalty of those marauding bands in the wild plains north of the Black Sea. The Winter King is no man at all, but the fearsome Lord of the Giants in the Frozen Wastes beyond Germania. The Eternal Pharaoh was once a man, but has returned as an unliving mockery ranging from the Upper Nile to plague the rich province of Aegyptus.
While the inhuman monsters are solidly in the Barbaric Villains category and the Praefectus and Imperator are at the heart of the Roman Empire - it is very easy to shift the other Icons up or down depending on the historical period, individual character, and minor historical adjustments we want to have in our campaign. Go back a couple of Emperors in real world history and Rome herself (and the Pontifex Maximus) aren’t even a part of the Empire anymore. It’s very easy to conceive of Dwarves and Elves that are openly hostile to Rome due to Caesar trying to conquer Gaulia Hyboria or Caligula sending wave after wave of men to die in a vain attempt to seize some “impudent” Thane under the Alpine Mountains. Likewise the Bronze Horde or the Draconic Order could have reached some manner of truly civilized accord with Rome as a client-state or trading partner years earlier. Each campaign can be drastically different due to modifying the relationships between Icons.
World Setting - Alterna Historia I
Campaign World: Custom Terra with fantasy fictionalize history
Campaign Setting: The Province of Sicily, Roman Empire; 33rd year of the Glorious reign of Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus Augustus in Constantinople; 560 A.D.
Campaign Mechanics:
Dungeons and Dragons, 5th Edition is the primary mechanical base for the campaign. The character attributes, class features, ability checks, and combat mechanics are played directly out of the Player’s Handbook. Pretty much everything else is taken from the Archmage Engine system or the 13th Age Rulebook. Instead of selecting a background from the PHB each player invents a single Background in the 13th Age style. when one would normally interject their background points into a check under the Archmage Engine, instead the character gets to add their proficiency bonus to the check. The Escalation Die mechanic is used in combat. The Montage Technique is used for travel and non-combat group challenges as appropriate. Stunts are also handled under the 13th Age style. Icon Points are introduced to player characters over their first 3 levels, one at each level - preferably over the course of play.
Setting Icons:
Each Icon is represented not only be a figurehead, but also by a particular organization. The icon relationship represent any relationship that would have sway over the greater part of an organization. Each organization is also associated with a powerful Locus - a physical area where they hold the greatest sway and the fortunes of which are directly reflected upon the organization. Many of these have obvious analogs to familiar faces in the default 13th Age setting - and rightly so. The Icons of the 13th Age were crafted to fill some of the most common, yet flexible NPC pillars the commonly occur in fantasy game settings and literature. There’s no reason to discard an old trope out of hand.
ICON LIST:
ICON LIST:
Imperator - Constantinople
Praefectus Oriens - Antioch
Archemagos - Alexandria
Pontifex Maximus - Rome
Grey Weaver - Syracuse
High Thane - Khazad
Rose Prince - Hyboria
Ironscales - Germania
Sassanid Emperor - Ctesiphon
Brazen Khan - Sarmatia
Winter King - Utgard
Eternal Pharaoh - Thebes
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