GURPS Apocrypha (part II) - Magic

(Following my prior post.  This does NOT include the reordering of colleges I've done, the vast number of new spells, or me tearing down the prerequisite chains and rebuilding them more along the lines of "Cadence requires 6 Body Control spells instead of Grace+Haste.")

p. 6    Learning Magic, generally:

* Mages may not start with a higher level than Magery/3.  They may improve Magery at double cost.  My approval is required for Magery 5, and players should not expect to improve past Magery 6.

* Each wizardly order has “consonant” spell colleges.  This affects both access and time required to learn spells.  An Average Consonant spell requires a minimum of one week to learn (given proper materials, sources, and practice time), a Hard spell a minimum of two weeks, and a Very Hard spell four to six weeks.  Non-Consonant spells require half again normal time.  (These numbers are reduced, as per RAW, by 10% per the learner’s level of Magery.)  Mages must learn no fewer than 50% of their spells in Consonant colleges.  Defense, Knowledge and Enchantment spells count as “consonant” for purposes of learning time, but do not count as consonant for the 50% learning rule.

* Spells are further divided into three categories within their respective colleges: Unrestricted, Restricted and Secret.  The only Restricted spells mages can learn are Consonant.  Secret spells are mostly unknown to the wizarding population, and are often cult secrets of wizardly orders.  Beyond that, many orders have proprietary secret spells unknown even to other orders using the same colleges of magic.  Some colleges do not have Restricted spells: Defense, Knowledge, Enchantment, and (several of) the interdisciplinary elemental colleges.

* Learning new spells requires either finding a teacher (using appropriate Hireling rolls) or doing substantial research in a well-stocked magical library (requiring a Research roll and access to said library).  Both approaches can be hit or miss.

* As a loose rule, I allow improving existing spells by a level per experience award, provided the spell was used in the preceding sessions.  Please note that a skill level of 21 is rated expert, one of the best in all the land, and skill levels that reach -21 – never mind surpass it – must be justified by strong arguments and approved by me, which will not be easy.  Skill-25 denotes, in my mind, around the best in the world, and I’ve allowed only two spellcasting PCs to reach that level (with a single spell each) in four decades.

* Magery/1 is a prerequisite to use most spells.  Characters with Magery/0 can cast Average spells.

p. 6    Mana: Clarification: only mages can cast spells, period, regardless of the ambient mana level.  There is no point to someone without Magery learning a spell, although I won't forbid it.

p. 7    Casting Spells:  I require that players tell me what spells are being prepared and the target/s if any, without me having to prompt them.  Failure to provide this information in full, at the time a Concentrate maneuver is taken, will mean that no spell is cast.

p. 7    Critical Success:  Regardless of skill level, rolls of 3-4 is a critical success, a roll of 5 is an automatic success, a roll of 16 is an automatic failure, and rolls of 17-18 critical failures.  In addition to there never being an energy cost for a Critically Successful spell, such spells do not have a maintenance cost, and can effectively be maintained for as long as the caster is awake to consciously continue the spell (at his or her discretion).  The caster only needs to do so at the regular time of maintenance, so can keep spells with long-term durations going for quite some time.  Such maintained spells do not count for -1 against ongoing spells.

There are special Critical Success charts for Missile Spells.  Critical successes for the following types of spells have no Critical Success chart, but have the following effects:   

Regular/Resisted/Special: Resistance rolls, if any, automatically fail.  On a roll of 3, the caster may turn the spell into an area spell covering the entire megahex, if he or she wishes.
    
Blocking: A magical backlash stuns the aggressor until a roll at IQ (IQ-3 for a roll of 3) is made.

Area: The spell’s area may be increased by half again (double with a roll of 3) at the caster’s discretion with no extra fatigue cost; he or she may hold the area at any point short of the increased zone, and can have non-inclusive shapes.  Resistance rolls, if any, automatically fail.
    
Enchantment: The item gains 1 point of Power for free.  If it is already self-powering or does not need mana to make it work, then it gains an extra level of effect or loses a magical Quirk, at the caster’s discretion, as well as a special effect that does not improve the material quality of the item, per se, but is flashy, flamboyant or impressive.  This special effect can be suppressed by a Concentration maneuver on the part of the wielder.  On a roll of 3, the item gains the previous effects and abilities, as well as a random secondary enchantment (GM’s discretion) of a creation cost no greater than ¼th that of the base enchantment OR immunity from any future Quirks for subsequent enchantments.

Information: The caster gains significantly more information than the result would indicate.

p. 7    Critical Spell Failure Table: replaced with my own.

p. 8    Energy Cost: The Recover Strength spell does not exist.

Mages can draw mana from outside of Consensual Reality (i.e., other than from personal fatigue, HT or Powerstones) to cast their spells.  When doing so, if mages exceed their “Threshold Rating” — normally zero, but see below — they must roll on the Magical Calamity Table, adding +1 for every full 5 points of “extra” fatigue drawn to power the spell.  The following two new advantages are used for this system:

Increased Threshold         5/level
For each level of Increased Threshold that you have, add 6 to the Threshold Rating.

Safer Excess             5/level
Your Calamity rolls for overstrength magic use are at +1 for every 10 points of excess, instead of +1 per 5. Every additional level doubles this effect (+1 per 20, +1 per 40).

p. 8    Magic Rituals: The implication is that for skill 10-14, you can’t move 1 hex on a Concentrate maneuver.  I allow a hex of movement nonetheless.

p. 8    Magic Ingredients: I don’t require them.

p. 9    Alternate Magic Rituals: I don’t allow mages to omit required words or actions at a penalty.  I do allow the +1 to skill for a double-time, very loud and showy incantation; this can be combined with a Ceremonial casting (see below).

p. 10    Changing Maintained Spells: I don’t allow this.

p. 10    Canceling Spells: While it doesn’t specify, I’ve always allowed this as a free-time action.

p. 11    Regular Spells: The penalty for distance is -1/three hexes.

p. 11    Area Spells:

*  The base area starts at a megahex, not a hex. 

*  A caster can not create an area with “holes” in it.  He can only reduce the area inclusively, so that a straight line can’t be drawn between two points in the area to a point outside the area, except that a Wall spell may be in a curved line.  This means that a caster is subject to his own spell if he’s within the area at the time of casting, unless explicitly stated otherwise in the spell description.

p. 12    Ceremonial Magic: Assistants can also contribute by the Lend Energy spell, in an alternative to the other procedures.  Energy thus provided needs to be discharged within a minute, or it vanishes.

p. 14    Long-Distance Modifiers: Touching the subject – unless the spell requires it – adds +4 to skill level, as per BSII.

p. 15    Player-Created Spells: I don’t use this system.  Speak to me if you’re interested.

p. 15    Designing Wizard Characters: The -10% “Usable only for spellcasting” limitation on Fatigue Points can not be bought.

p. 17    Power of a Magic Item: I don’t use this, and items generally work just fine in a low-mana zone.

p. 18    Slow and Sure Enchantment: Reduce the number of mage-days to make an item four-fold.  A great many item costs throughout the book have been changed; take no listed enchantment cost for gospel.

p. 19    Using Magic Items: Substitute the enchanter’s effective skill level for Power.  Beyond that, every magic item has 1 free FP of energy, as if it were enchanted with Power-1.

p. 19    Multiply Enchanted Items: I use the old Fantasy Trip Rule of 5: a person may only have up to five:

* ... active spells on him at any one time.  Casting another spell on him will shut down the oldest friendly spell, in my exclusive judgment.  Hostile spells cannot be canceled, and any further attempt to cast spells on a subject already affected by five hostile spells will not work.  However, this cannot be used to “dispel” spells on a hostile target through casting petty spells on him.

* ... or magical items on his person at any one time.  If the limit is exceeded, none will work.  The “not working” might last a while after the number is reduced back down to five.  It could last quite a long while.  Powerstones count against this limit.  A Powerstone can, however, be embedded into an item that has five spells, and if it is designated an Exclusive Powerstone, it and the item are treated as a unitary item and the embedded Powerstone does not count against the Rule of Five.

* A magical item may only be enchanted with up to five spells (but see above). An attempt to place any further enchantments on it will simply fail.  The only exception is an item with the Staff or Wizard’s Staff enchantments, or an Exclusive Powerstone as cited above, none of which count against the limit.

p. F71 - Magical Legality Classes:  GURPS Fantasy sets this list out:

    MLC 4: Spells of healing, perception, knowledge, communication, crop fertility, food production.

    MLC 3: Spells of movement, protection, illusion, concealment; temporary incapacitation spells; spells that shape materials or control natural forces or living creatures; spells that inflict injury or break material objects.

     MLC 2: Spells of mind control, flight, necromancy; permanent incapacitation spells; spells of elemental summoning and control.

    MLC 1: Curses; spells for teleportation, Gate creation, invisibility and perception through physical barriers.

    MLC 0: Large-scale destructive spells, large-scale mind-control spells, large-scale curses.

    For the most part, Celduin polities are at least MLC 3.  MLC 2 is usually restricted to licensed College members, and almost always tightly controlled. Individual Orders may (if under the table) teach at MLC 1, but the practice of these spells is usually illegal, and at level best strictly controlled.

GURPS Apocrypha -- Basic Set changes

(Provoked by a discussion on the Reddit GURPS board, this goes page-by-page through the Characters book)

p.10    The point cost for creating new characters is 135 pts.

p.11    The disadvantage limit is -50 pts.  

p.14+    ST/HT cost ten points per level for the first three levels; DX/IQ cost 15 points per level for the first three levels.  They cost 15 and 20 points, respectively, for the next two levels.  Scores lower than 10 have a negative cost: -10 pts per level for ST or HT, -15 per level for DX or IQ.  I will not let a character have an attribute lower than 8, and an attribute that low will seriously impair a character; I discourage it.

p.16    Characters all have +5 bonus Hit Points, at no charge.  (This doesn’t apply to NPCs.)  I do not base HP on ST, but on HT.  I do not base Fatigue Points on HT, but on ST.  I do work with the ±30% limitation, but am slightly more generous when it comes to spellcasters.

p.17    Light Encumbrance reduces Move by 1.  Medium Encumbrance reduces Move by 2.   Heavy Encumbrance reduces Move by 3.  Extra-Heavy Encumbrance reduces Move by 4. 

p.29    Rank costs 3 pts/level.

p.32    Advantages: A separate list summarizes the changes to point cost, and those Advantages that are restricted or unavailable to PCs.  New Advantages include:

Combat Calm (5 pts): You think and react much faster in a crisis situation than others.  You add +1 to Fright Checks.  Furthermore, you may take your time thinking of a proper course of action, even during round time.  Effectively, while other players may be required to make immediate, time-restricted decisions, you get an extra minute or more to decide.

Fast Reflexes (5 pts/level):  You have unusually quick and reactive hand-eye coordination.  You add +1/level to any DX roll to catch an airborne object.  You also add +1/3 levels (round down) to all weapon parries.  You may learn the Parry Missile Weapons skill, and add 1/3 the level (round down) to any such skill roll.

Fixed Property (10 pts):  You have up to ten times your regular starting Wealth tied up various properties or other capital investments.  Possessions that can be directly used for adventuring, as well as those that can easily be converted to cash, should be purchased with normal starting Wealth.  There are two main drawbacks connected with the property: they are not easily convertible to hard cash, and they are subject to calamities such as natural elements, theft or war.  The property can be beneficial in the way that it provides income, which should be purchased as Independent Income or earned through work.

Spatial Perception (1 pt/lvl):  You have a keen eye for judging distance and size, and roll IQ +2/level for judging the distance to or the size of any subject in LOS.  One-fourth your level (round down) is added to any Navigation roll.

p.119    Disadvantages: A separate list summarizes the changes to point cost, and those Disadvantages that are restricted or unavailable to PCs.  New Disadvantages include:

Battle Addiction (-10 pts):  You are addicted to combat, and must make a Will roll to avoid an obvious combat situation.  You are not necessarily vicious towards your enemies (as with Bloodlust) and do not have to enjoy hurting others -- you are simply addicted to the thrill of violence.  It is quite possible that you don t enjoy your addiction at all!  No character with this disadvantage can take any Pacifism disadvantage.  You do not necessarily run around bashing heads and attacking everyone you meet.  You can try to avoid potentially violent situations ... but when the opportunity presents itself, you can t resist joining into a fight! 

Chronicler (-10 pts):  You are an inveterate diarist.  This takes the form of an in-character writeup of each gaming session, from the viewpoint of the character, of at least 750 words (about two single spaced typed pages), which is due to be submitted to the GM by the start of the next game session.  Skilled artists may substitute an 81/2" x 11" sketch pertaining to the game session.  You receive no experience points as long as any writeup is outstanding.  After ten such writeups, you are no longer required to submit any, but you receive one bonus XP for each further writeup you do submit.

Compulsive Behavior/Wanderlust (-5 pts):  You have a difficult time staying in anyone place for a long time; the need to explore is too great.  After six months of living in one place, you must make a Will roll each week or travel again for at least a month.  You may have a permanent dwelling and even a family, but can never totally give up your wanderings ... see something new, go somewhere you have never been, wander until you have experienced something new and exciting.  Another version is specific to sailors – the desire to return to the sea.  You must never leave the close proximity of the ocean or you must start making Will rolls after one week away from salt water.

Dandy (-5/-10 pts):  You are the height of fashion and good taste.  Everything you own must cost at least 10% more than normal.  Your clothing must at all times be very proper and formal, even when it would be restricting or absurd (a dandy would go dungeon diving in a frock coat and silk breeches). You take several extra minutes to prepare to do anything, as it takes time to ensure your hair and clothing are in proper order and that all your jewelry is polished.  You must also bathe and change clothes at least daily if possible.  At the 10 pt level, your tastes often go beyond tasteful fashion into the gaudy and impractical, even at the expense of safety and good judgment.  In general, you must make a Will roll to undertake any activity that will get you dirty, or risk your  good looks.  Aesthetics are the principal motivator for your decisions, often to an absurd degree. This counts as an Odious Personal Habit with a -2 reaction to anyone but other Fops.

Minor Medical Ailment (-5 pts): You have a minor and intermittent medical problem, such as a bad joint or arthritis, that occasionally handicaps you.  Make a HT roll per game session (or game day, whichever occurs more frequently).  Failure to make the roll inflicts certain penalties for 1d6 hours.  These can also be triggered by stress: heavy lifting can throw out a bad joint, eating a lot of rich food aggravates gout, camping in cold, wet weather can set off rheumatic joints or a bronchial condition.  The GM should impose extra HT rolls, at penalties if the situation calls for them, whenever needful.  Some possible MMAs are as follows:

        -1 ST, -1 DX: Bad shoulder, arm; arthritic or rheumatic hands; hernia
        -1 DX, -1 Move: Bad leg or foot; arthritic or rheumatic knees or ankles; gout
        -1 IQ, -2 Fatigue: Fibromyalgia; headaches; cancer; diabetes
        -1 DX, -2 Fatigue: Various dystrophies; malaria; dietary deficiencies
        -1 HT, -2 Fatigue: Bronchitis; cancer; fibrillosis; diabetes
        -2 Perception, -2 Fatigue: Lupus; diabetes

These are relatively minor cases; full-blown versions of most of the listed syndromes are considerably more debilitating, and should be reflected through lower stats and/or disadvantages such as Unfit, Wounded or Chronic Pain.

p.170    I do not use the game-time-for-points method; all skills must be improved through earned experience.

p.171    A roll of 5 is an automatic success, and a roll of 16 an automatic failure, regardless of skill level.  I don’t bother with the “Relative Skill Level” system.

p.174    A separate list summarizes the skills available in the Celduin campaign.  Generally speaking, I don’t strictly adhere to the modifiers set forth in skill descriptions; I’m more wont to ballpark them.

p.254    Psionics are generally unavailable (barring a whopping Unusual Background cost).

p.259    A separate list summarizes the available orders (especially wizardly Orders) and their templates.

p.260    A separate list summarizes the available races and their templates.

p.275    I don’t use the rules for missile weapons, and use the rules from the 2nd edition, which has a Point Blank (PB) modifier of +4, a “snap-shot” penalty of -4 (firing without a round of Aiming), and an Increment (Inc) penalty of -1 per Increment in hexes to the target.

p.286    I don’t use the Reaction Penalty rule, or think it takes only 3 seconds to don armor.

p.290    I award character points after every three sessions.  Improving attributes (including raising secondary ones independently) costs double the normal amount of character points.

p.292    As mentioned before, I do not use the Improvement Through Study method of improving skills.

The Village of St. Chanan's

I am active on the RPG Pub, my gaming forum of choice.  There's a topic about usable gaming content in blogs, and I figured I'd take up the challenge and work something up.  So here 'tis!

The Village of St. Chanan's

 

HISTORY

St. Chanan’s is a sometime-castle, situated in a border hill country.  In the most recent war, it was invested by a force far greater than its lord and the inadequate garrison could withstand.  The attacking general ordered an immediate escalade, which was badly botched, and while successful sustained far too many casualties.  In any other war, between any two other nations, the ensuing massacre would have been a tale of horror on the lips of minstrels continent-wide; in this war, it was one of all too many.

Intending to render the fortification unusable, the raiders murdered almost everyone they could catch, pulled down the donjon, turned the villages in the valley into smoking ruin, and was about to start on the walls when they were recalled, leaving an empty shell save for the (however much looted) church in the courtyard.  The war has been over for three years now.  The castle was not reclaimed, what with the lord’s heirs carrying on a pitiless war of their own in the courts, over its possession.

TODAY

No one’s sure who made the suggestion, but the several dozen villagers who remained moved in within the walls, to what they now call St. Chanan’s, after the church to the Moon God that still – miraculously – stands.  The outer wall remains in usable condition, and the villagers live inside the towers.  Every day the villagers head out to tend their fields and herd the goats to pasture; every night they come back within the somewhat-dubious safety of the walls.  The fortification is not terribly defensible as it stands, but the towers themselves are fairly secure.  Should PCs find themselves inside, the dwellings within are furnished catch-as-catch-can, with furniture and goods either salvaged from the depredations in the area, or from the donjon itself – it’s by no means unlikely to find a rich, embroidered tapestry serving as a family’s quilt.

The border country was exhausted in the war, and with nearby towns razed and pillaged, St. Chanan’s has become a trading post.  Cross-border traders are treated with nothing beyond bare civility, but without trade St. Chanan’s dies, and they are not targeted.  The area marked with asterisks is where peddlers set up stalls or wagons.  A cut of all sales goes to the villagers, but they are more interested in goods useful to them than in coin, and are downright resistant towards gold, preferring to be paid in silver – gold is too easy to steal, they feel.  They are not very interested in things they cannot use, and offering them jewels, weapons or magical items in trade will fall flat (“Pretty necklace.  Can I eat it?  Will it plow a straight furrow?”), believing that they cannot resell such items without being cheated or robbed.

Beyond that, St. Chanan’s doesn’t produce much beyond local crafts, goats’ wool and goat cheese.  These are of good quality, and cheese is available in bulk – typically aged in caves, those weren’t pillaged by the invaders.  The local goat cheese is a white cheese similar to feta, and aged in large balls about 6" wide.  (They have thick rinds and will travel well.)

St. Chanan’s has no leader, and the villagers govern by consensus, meeting as needed.  They are otherwise a sober lot, and aren’t wont to chatter with outsiders without a good reason to do so – law and order has broken down throughout this stretch of the border, and strangers who aren’t obviously traders are suspected of being bandits until proven otherwise.

The fortress is built on a leveled-off hill.  It isn’t all that high – though it has good sightlines for the region around – nor all that steep, save for the bluff just north of the walls.  It has the one well, large and delved by a sorcerer in days gone by.  Travelers are welcome to camp inside the walls, in the center of the compound between the ruins of the donjon and the garden at #9.  The grass is cropped short enough to be unsuitable to feed mounts, however, although one can obtain hay from the villagers for about double the going rate.

CUSTOMS

The builders were pious, and sigils of the Moon God – a chevron of seven different phases of a moon – are over every stone doorway and the gatehouse.  The inner door of every tower has a niche with a devotional statue in it (only a few were desecrated), and locals touch their foreheads and lips to the statues when passing by.  It is an inviolable custom to have oil lamps burning below each statue, but also the source of much contention: a large sum of money dedicated in better days as an “oil fund” is administered by the priestesses of the Moon God, and felt by them to be beyond touching ... no matter how many villagers think there are far better uses for the money than to keep lamps burning beneath eighteen statues.

The villagers hold to several other folk customs.  Adults bear a small wooden or leather tube on their sashes, inside which is a ribbon embroidered with the words “If the Moon Lord does not keep the watch, in vain do mortal sentries do.”  The same phrase is painted over or etched into every lintel.  It is also the custom to ring bells in order to drive demons away, and to wear animal masks into religious ceremonies; a great grief to the villagers is that most of the elaborate carved and painted wooden masks they used to have were burned by the invaders.  Those who rely on crude workarounds feel an inchoate sense of shame (and no small amount of anger) out of the loss of their heritage.

The villagers frequently burn incense or potpourri in their tower dwellings, even down to sweet grass or foraged herbs if that is all they can get.  (They won’t discuss why readily, but in the aftermath of the massacre, the stench was so great that they needed the incense to be able to get a decent night’s sleep, and can’t collectively shake the habit.)  New scents are a trade good that interest them highly.

 

LOCATIONS

1) Blacksmith: Kenesh the smith (Smith-13) runs one of the two interior shops, and lives on the first floor as well.  A burly, easygoing man, he is a perfectly competent smith and a good farrier, but has no experience in armoury beyond knifemaking, forging arrowheads, and basic repairs.  One quirk of his is that he sings while he works ... constantly.  It is always verses from the locals’ epic poem (see #10), and to a tune he makes up on the spot.  Kenesh isn’t a bad singer, mind, but the habit does grate on some nerves.

2) Gatehouse: The gatehouse is in good repair save for the gate itself.  That was smashed by the invaders, and all repairs managed was to make it able to keep goats from straying out at night; it will not deter a determined assault for more than minutes.  The gatehouse remains well stocked with coal, sand (much cheaper and convenient than boiling oil) and weapons that the invaders were unable to cart away.  The invaders smashed the fortress’ artillery, but the villagers repaired two ballistae, one for each of the gate towers.  Not being siege engineers, the degree to which the reconditioned ballistae are safe to operate is anyone’s guess.

Four mercenaries live in the gatehouse, and serve as the village’s guard, keeping an eye on the traders, loitering around the compound during the day to give the illusion of it being patrolled.  The mercs are combat veterans (around 90 pts, on the average), but are either too old or too battered to serve in the line any more.  They are what the villagers can afford, and some locals grumble at scraping up the wherewithal for that much.  They are at least well-supplied from the stores in the fortress, with good swords and mail.  The villagers ignore the detachment as much as possible (the traders, at least, exchange greetings and news), and the mercenaries leave them be.  This is a decent retirement gig, and they’re disinclined to jeopardize that.  

Pereval is the leader of the unit, who call him “Sergeant,” a term at which he himself sneers.  He’s not yet old, and not yet crippled ... he’s just been in too many battles over too many wars, and is past it.  Pereval’s method of peacekeeping is intimidation, backed up by his glaring, orange-gold eyes; it is rumored that he has demon blood in him, something he carefully does not gainsay.  Of course, he talks a far better game than he can back up these days, but he is veteran enough to gauge the prowess of potential foes, and neither he nor his men fight with any degree of chivalry.  They will keep the peace within the walls, but aren't up for pursuing marauders who get away.
                                    
3) St. Chanan’s Church: While the invaders thoroughly looted this small temple, they shrank from destroying it.  The only remaining decorations are the padded kneeling cushions, overlooked by the invaders, and painted murals depicting the saint, purportedly the bodyguard of the Moon Lord as He walked the land.  (In fact, “St. Chanan” is apocryphal, and the organized authority of the moon faith does not recognize his existence.)  A tapestry from the old donjon now serves as an altar cloth, and services and ceremonials continue here.  It is also the closest the locals have to a community hall, and is used for meetings and gatherings.

Learned Elena Macardry is the embittered priestess (Theology-14, various scholarly skills/ Public Speaking-13, Physician-12).  Once the respected (and well-supported) chaplain of the castle’s lord, she heavily resents her now-straitened conditions.  While the villagers still support her out of piety, they do not love her, for she arrogantly treated them as simple clods who were beneath her before, and their memories are long.  No longer young, gone to fat, she is prone to rages and lashing out at everything – the tallow candles which replaced rich beeswax, the humble fare which replaced dainty imported viands, the traders still offering her books she can no longer afford to buy, old grievances both real and imagined ... and, secretly, the god she is sure betrayed her.  Only two teenage acolytes still serve her, and that for a roof over their heads and a decent meal – she has driven the others away.  The Learned is a lay priestess without supernatural powers, but is a skilled scholar and theologian, a good public speaker (when she doesn't lose it and harangue her congregants for their failings), and a fair physician.  

4) Statue Seller: Industriously, Sabek (Merchant-11) salvaged numerous small statues and busts from the ruins, and peddles them as antiquities to credulous buyers.  Most are quite fine (barring the occasional chip, scratch or fracture), and a number are made of valuable materials such as porphyry, jadeite, alabaster and the like.  He emulates the perceived manner of the itinerant traders, and believes that he is a champion hustler.  The traders, in return, treat him with bemused condescension.

This shop, as well as #5 through #8, are exterior stalls, made of scrap wood and felted overhangs and drops.  The degree to which they’re open is weather-dependent.

5) Tailor/tentmaker: Melev (Sewing-14) is a young fellow, lean, pious, bespectacled and diligent, sure that if he just works hard and keeps on working hard, he will Get Ahead, and so be allowed to marry the agemate of his dreams.  While he sews the simple caftans, vests and peaked hats of the area, and will copy non-local garments if he’s allowed to take them apart for templates, where he really shines is in tentmaking, using felt from the goats.  Melev’s pyramid tents are sturdy, warm and shed water admirably – if you don’t mind the weight – and it only takes him a week to make one.  (However, the itinerant traders value his tents highly, and one might have to pay a surcharge to bump one in the queue.)  He will also add colorful abstract appliques or embroidery to the tents, and indeed works in one set up in this location.

6) Provisioner: Sonsy and middle-aged, Khautyn is the friendliest, most outgoing local the PCs might encounter, short of Kenesh.  She prepares sausages (Cooking-13, Merchant-12) from goats, from game the hunters bring in, and from other sources best left unmentioned.  The sausages are of good quality for what they are, and keep well on the road – the more sensible traders scoop up as many as she might have available.  If she lacks sausages, what she also has available in profusion is Good Advice, which she’ll dole out to patrons asked for or not.  Her eldest daughter Indigo is a goatherd, and the light of Melev’s (#5) eye, affections she reciprocates.

7) Leatherworker: Alpa is a slender young woman (Leatherworking-13, Artist/tooling-15), with fierce hawk-like features and an intense manner.  Her work is in saddle- and tackmaking, and she readily does repairs of trail gear, which occupies much of her time.  She can do other work – and does very nice tooling in abstract patterns – but only slowly, and the other calls on her time interrupt.  Apparently deeply affected by the burnings, she’s manifesting an odd syndrome: an inability to draw inferences or conclusions from a statement.  For instance, you can tell her, “I’m down to my last dozen silver sinvers,” but she won’t be able to get from there to “... and that means I can’t pay you much for the work.”  The other villagers are aware of the issue, and try to look out for her as best as they can; Khautyn the sausage maker especially will keep an eye out.

8) Cartwright: Labrys and his two teenage children (all that survived of his family) are kept busy repairing the wagons of the traders; he is skilled enough and honest that traders will stagger well out of their way to cadge a repair (Carpentry-14).  They are also available for general carpentry as needed, but if they’re otherwise idle, they’re busy making a wall-sided wagon, sturdy and sound.  (If the PCs need a wagon, the gang is within a day of finishing it, and while Labrys himself has no more use for gold than the average St. Chanan’s local, the traders will willingly take the gold and play middleman, delivering to Labrys such goods as he might find useful.)  Not quite to the point of sullenness in dealing with outsiders, the cartwright will only talk about business, and that in little more than monosyllables.

9) Several small canvas-and-scrap stalls are arrayed from here to the gatehouse, and reserved for villagers who have anything to sell: mostly produce, in season, but also cheeses, handcrafts, gathered herb bundles, and the like.  For anything that would be sold in bulk, the villagers negotiate directly with the traders.

10) The Moon and Goat: The settlement’s tavern has a crudely painted sign depicting a goat taking a bite out of a moon.  Its interior is a jackdaw’s mix of furnishings from the old donjon and crudely fashioned tables and chairs from scrap wood; the bar itself is the high table from the old Great Hall, of wrought mahogany and baroquely carved.  It would be worth a great sum if it hadn’t been cut in half, lengthwise, for the purpose, and the usual reaction of traders seeing it for the first time is a pained groan.  (They groan a fair bit harder upon hearing that the rest of the table was chopped up for firewood and table legs.)  The Goat is a relatively convivial place, where the traders take their meals and swap tales of the road.  Any villagers patronizing it of an evening are likely to have a looser tongue than usual.

The story above is divided into living quarters for the proprietor’s family, as well as four small private rooms for rental.  Only two have windows – arrow slits, really – and all are equipped with rope-frame beds with mattresses stuffed with goat’s wool, nightstands, water jugs and chamberpots.  Simple locks (+2 to pick) were salvaged from elsewhere within the fortification.  There is a small copper bathtub, but hauling and heating water takes some doing, and baths are pricey.  

The fare is relatively simple: goat cheeses, goat stews with root vegetables, sausages, barley flatbreads.  The one leavening in the mix is that the hill country produces culinary herbs in profusion, so the stews are well-seasoned, and they can be seasoned to taste if the tavernkeeper is warned in advance.  Barley beer and herbal teas make up the great majority of the drinks; wines and spirits must be brought in, and at a stiff premium.  Stews are served in stoneware bowls salvaged from the donjon, and eaten with the flatbreads – the bowls were once valuable, with fine glazes and decorative scenes – but are chipped and cracked from constant tavern use.  (If magically repaired, they could fetch a fine price.)

A couple times a week, locals provide entertainment.  Instrumentalists include goat-skin hand drums, wooden flutes, and a fretless five-stringed instrument resembling a guitar.  Otherwise, there is an epic poem revolving around the heroic deeds of the locals’ forebears.  Most villagers have memorized some of the poem, and a couple pride themselves on knowing all of it: there are over ten thousand verses, and getting through it all would take months.

Beyaza is the tavernkeeper (Innkeeper-13), a quiet middle-aged woman with a talent for unobtrusiveness and blending into the background.  She will tend to a customer’s needs with little comment, and respond laconically and evasively to questions.  Her family are cooks and servers, and in case of any trouble, the one closest to the door will slip out and – in order – roust the mercenaries in the gatehouse, the blacksmith, and any other villagers available.

Talo has rented one of the rooms for a couple months now.  He dresses simply, openly carries long knives (Knife-15), and is a short, wiry fellow with abrupt, jittery mannerisms.  Talo doesn’t have any visible profession, isn’t interested in work, but pays his tab every week in good silver ... or else goes out to the traders’ row and buys something the tavern could use in lieu of the same.  He’ll engage in jocular, neutral conversation, but reacts angrily to any personal questions, including when he’ll move on (“None of your damn business”) or whether he intends to stay indefinitely (“You hear me the first time, pal?”).

11) Ruined Donjon: What’s left of the donjon is a stub, consisting of the first story – the rest of the rubble was sold off as building stone and carted away.  The practical villagers use the ruin to pen up their goat herds during the night, toss them garbage generated within the compound to eat, and use the droppings to manure their fields.  The goats are used for dairy and their wool, and excess kids are slaughtered for meat.

12) Garden: The broad oval space is a tightly landscaped community garden, where the locals grow vegetables and herbs.  There is barely enough space to walk between plots, and the villagers are intolerant of outsiders breaking the perimeter (fenced by large stones from the donjon).  A couple youths bearing switches are tasked with keeping goats and other draft animals out.  The fortification’s well is at the southeast corner.

PERSONALITIES

The villagers generally have a reasonable spread of crafts (generally at skill -12/-13), for PCs who want to avail themselves of the same: basket weavers, tapestry/quiltmakers, charcoalers, cheesemakers, fletchers, brewers.  They’re usually willing to hire out for it, as long as it doesn’t impede the work of herding or farming.

Bekova (Area Knowledge/Crossbow-16, Survival/Traps-14) is a representative hunter and trapper, who brings in meat for the locals, and trades hides and furs to the itinerant peddlers.  She is lean, quick, good in the field, a crack shot with a crossbow, and mingles as little as possible.  All know that she’s the one to speak to as far as knowledge and conditions of a 15-mile diameter area around St. Chanan’s, but pinning her down is hard, and she’s seldom interested in dealing, unless a party has magical aids to hunting they can offer her.

Dastan is the local cunning man, a masterful forager, and the one to go to for medicinal herbs (Magery/1 (ceremonial), Naturalist-14, Herbalist-15).  He is a sardonic, sometimes sarcastic aging fellow with little tolerance for fools, but is one of the only villagers willing to take gold or valuables as payment.  Dastan also has magical powers on the hedge-witch level, mostly in simple illusions, communing with animals, finding lost items and minor scrying, but doing so takes a lot out of him.  The locals hold him in a superstitious awe, for they fear his curses.

A representative trader is “Master” Argelle (Merchant/Intelligence Analysis-14, Fast-Talk-15), who passes herself off as an alchemist, selling a medicinal tonic of her devising. Argelle’s Famous Tonic is touted to help what ails a person (although she doesn’t make specific, explicit claims that might come back to haunt her) and to promote general health and growth.  Her sales patter is masterful, entertaining and popular, and her demeanor is warm and caring.  Argelle runs a circuit, moving around the region in a loop taking about a season; she stops here at St. Chanan’s to rest up for a week at a time, not being as young as she used to be.  The Tonic is bitter herbs and honey with a stiff alcohol content, but her real purpose is as an agent of one of the warring border nations, scouting around the area, and bearing confidential messages for the nation’s intelligence apparat.


ADVENTURE HOOKS

* There are credible rumors that the war is about to resume.  Having accepted a few too many of those otherwise unsellable pieces of jewelry, weapons and magical trinkets, the villagers seek to hire the party with them as short-term mercenaries to stiffen the defenses.  The value of the goods they offer are roughly twice what the going rate for the mercenary work would be ... if the party survives to cash them in.

* One of the heirs approaches the party.  There’s been nothing to indicate that the secret vault beneath the donjon was ever found, either by the invaders or the villagers.  The heir is sure there’s portable treasure in there, and is willing to hand over a blueprint of the donjon indicating the right spot for a 50:50 split of whatever’s found.  How the party pulls it off is their business.  (How they will manage with the fact that the heir doesn't have an undisputed legal right to the goods, and that the other heirs will be on the warpath if they find out, is also their business.)

* The lawsuit’s been settled; the castle has a new legal owner.  While the new Lady of the manor wants to get her fief in order and is not unwilling (within her finite means) to help the villagers rebuild, they are all squatters and she wants them out of the fortification.  She offers to pay the party well to drive them out and keep them out until she and her entourage arrive.  A city-bred agent of the Lady will travel with the party to do the talking, and will prove supercilious and dismissive of “country folk” and their customs.

* A villager is dead certain that one of the party was in the attacking force that torched her home, laughing as her screaming family burned to death inside.  She means to make certain the PC is dead ... as cruelly as possible, however she can manage.

* A band of slavers/bandits thinks St. Chanan’s would make a very handy base of operations, and that they can just scoop up traders.  They’re either there and in control when the party arrives, or strikes when the party is there.

 

Tidbits III: Convert-sations

This may just be me, but I've never considered converting supplements to the system I use from a system I don’t the horrible, barely-possible chore a lot of gamers think it needs to be.

I'm not a RPG rookie, and I'm pretty confident in my ability to pick up a game, thumb through the rules, and figure out quickly enough what means what.  "Might 80" means you're a strong dude, "6th Circle" means you can kick the ass of anyone not named Conan, "Evocation of Violet Tumescence" appears to be the system's list of temporal spells, and "21 XYW" means you're an outstanding fireballing pitcher with control issues ...

(Oh, wait, I just lapsed into APBA baseball speak.  Anyway ...)

Converting this isn't tough.  I know, in GURPS, what a strong dude looks like: he's got ST of 13-15.  I know what someone who can kick the ass of anyone not named Conan looks like; we're talking maybe 350-400 pts.  I know how to make up a wizard with a good command of temporal spells; that'd be a dozen Gate spells, say.

(Alright, I might need to take some time to replicate a 21 XYW pitcher.  Hrm.  The guy led the league in ERA that season by a giant whopping margin, as well as strikeouts/inning, but he also led the league in wild pitches by nearly twice as many as the 2nd worst.  In short, you're screwed if he hits you with a thrown missile, but he's not the most accurate guy in the world.)

I refuse, and always have refused, to worry about whether I get the equivalencies "exactly" right.  The guy who wrote the original supplement isn't running the adventure, I am.  If the original NPC could beat down three starting characters in that system 75% of the time (not that anyone's particularly run the numbers), and the eventual NPC in my system could do it 50% of the time, who's to know, and who's to care?

Exotic Settings: The Land of Loh (I)

So ... on the gaming forum I frequent these days, there's been a recent debate on exotic settings -- what elements are desirable, how to do it, what not to do.  And I mentioned the recent work I'd done in putting the culture of this region on my gameworld together, and promised to post some sections for people's review.  This will not be for everyone, and the section I'm posting here is particularly long: no skin off of my nose if you pass it up!

A caveat: much of this is not original.  The concept of Loh comes from Kenneth Bulmer's Dray Prescot/ Scorpio series, and three of his later books in the series were set there.  It's a teensy bit generically Oriental, but far from excessively so.  A good bit more comes from M.A.R. Barker's seminal RPG Empire of the Petal Throne, and its setting, the empire of Tsolyanu on the world of Tekumel.  A large reason EPT never really took off, despite being the second RPG in print after D&D, is that its Malay/Mayan fusion of a setting is weird to Westerners: too exotic, too non-European, too violent, too sexualized, not in keeping with Ren Faire/Merrie Olde standards of chivalry.  I've always felt I was more adaptive than creative, and it saves a great deal of time to take what smart people have written and twist it to my own ends.  (Therefore, no nonsense about plagiarizing in these setting posts; I cheerfully admit that much of this is not my original work.) 

So ... here 'tis.  Lohvian culture practices and miscellany.  Loh = the region; Serioli = the language and ethnic group.

* * * * * * * * *

Politics:  Nominally, the Empire of Walfarg (currently styled the “Empire of Taira”) still exists, and the Seal Emperor rules from the Jasmine Throne in Tsungfaril, with the High Lords of the Twice Thirteen Dominions as His loyal servants and lieutenants, in a vast realm ranging down the great Valley from the Wizards’ Realm almost to the sea.

The facts on the ground are far different. In fact, the Emperor reigns, not rules, and the sway of Tsungfaril does not stretch much beyond the core dominions: Mindroling, Jenderak, Chai Yarchen, Hul Cheka – and in weaker reigns, not always that far.  In an Ottoman-like system, the various High Lords jockey for position and influence, in ever-shifting coalitions and cabals ... formally paying lip service to the Jasmine Throne, effectively as independent warlords.  

The three dominions that now comprise the nation of Mirdain are formally an independent kingdom, defying the Emperor’s writ.  So, too, it has been many years since Tsungfaril’s writ ran as far as controlling Vankaris, Lohrhiang, Simbiling or Chai Seletari, and the Dominions further downriver are only nominally are part of the Empire: words on paper and empty titles proclaimed before the Jasmine Throne.  The Dominion of Ternantung is not even that much, and it is carefully left unsaid in Tsungfaril that there used to be two more Dominions: Vinkleden and Panjang, now part of the New Moon Confederacy and the westernmost reach of the ancient imperial lands.

The Clan: The fundamental unit of Serioli life is the clan. Most Lohvians live with others of their clan in a common dwelling, or “clan house.” A small clanhouse might have only the extended generations of a single family, while those in great cities might house over a thousand clan members, servants and slaves.

Serioli children know who their mothers are (see Marriage Customs, below), but paternity is often casually tracked, and the identity of biological fathers is not usually considered terribly important. Adult males are “clan-fathers” or “clan-uncles” to a child, while adult females are “clan-mothers” or “clan-aunts.” Children are commonly given “school names” when they survive to nine months old, and do not receive their adult names until their 14th year, upon which they earn their majority. Lifestyles are polyamorous, and many formal marriages are triads or groups.

Clanhouses may be as simple as rural dwellings of thatch or sod, to walled estates or multistoried complexes.  Middle-class clan houses include a walled front courtyard where transactions and deliveries take place; an entrance hall, with sitting-rooms off to the side; a refectory which doubles as a celebration hall; slaves’ quarters and animal pens around the rear; warehouses for mercantile clans; sundry kitchens, restrooms, closets, etc.  Private family apartments are the norm among higher clans, with those of a higher lineage within a clan having preference.  Separate dormitories are common for children, young men and young women (although fraternization is not frowned upon).  Some clans also have large baths tended by specially-trained slaves, massage rooms, workshops (for the crafting clans), or other facilities.

Most clans have traditional occupations, so in addition to being the centers of family life, clanhouses are where the bulk of the trade and commerce of Loh takes place.  Those (say) born into a stoneworking clan are trained in masonry as they grow.  If the clan’s occupation is not to one’s liking, a young adult – at age 14 – is free to engage in a number of occupations, such as the military, the priesthood, the civil bureaucracy or sorcery.  It is difficult, however, to take up a different trade under the control of a different clan.

Marriage Customs: Everyone gets married: to be an adult bachelor/ette is considered weird, and people just don’t take conspicuously unmarried types other than uhus seriously.  Group marriages are common, and many patterns are possible.  The outright social rules are:

    (1) marrying someone from a higher status clan is laudable, but a “marriage price” needs to be paid upward as compensation;

    (2) you can’t marry within your lineage, but there is no incest taboo otherwise – for instance, if your father is from a lower lineage, he would take his wife’s clan name upon marriage, and it would be quite legal and proper to marry a half-sibling from the father’s first marriage;

    (3) by contrast, it’s also weird to be a virgin upon marriage, and sexual experimentation as a youth is expected ... but only within your lineage and generation.  Experimenting with one’s (teen, full) sibling is expected; doing so with your best friend’s parent/child is taboo.  (Further, while premarital sex under these circumstances is the norm, premarital pregnancy as a result is shocking and not to be tolerated.)

    (4) blatant cross-generational marriage is frowned upon, but this is determined upon lineage lines, with considerable fudging and jostling.  Even so, a much older person will almost never marry a much younger person, fudging notwithstanding ... if children are necessary, concubinage is one way out.  (Children born of slaves, however, are always, always held illegitimate.)

    (5) Societal pressure to be married is so strong that widowers will often marry wives’ younger sisters, and widows their husbands’ younger brothers.  Such a marriage will keep the link between the families and maintain the existing household structure intact.  However ...

    (6) ... a person may also be wed to a dead person.  In the ceremony (and often in the nuptial bed) the role of the deceased is acted out by a stand-in, more often than not a lineage relative of the deceased.  Any children born of the union are attributed to the dead spouse, and are recognized as his/her descendants; it is a cultural imperative that no one question the parentage.  A ghost can thus become the culturally and legally recognized parent of a newborn child.

Society:  An important element is the concept of khomoyi, or “place.”  Everyone has a role, and is expected to fulfill it.  Striving to achieve unseemly heights, ambition beyond one’s station, is considered somewhat blasphemous.  Likewise, failing to maintain one’s station is considered a threat to society.  

This is tied to the dual ethic of lan (noble) and bussan (ignoble) actions.  To act within one’s station is lan.  It is noble, for instance, for someone born into a mat-weaving clan to participate in the clan business of weaving mats.  That person can also nobly seek to be a simple soldier in the ranks, or a low-ranking acolyte in a temple.  Acts of presumption, in contrast, are bussan.  Should (say) the mat weaver join a temple and ambitiously begin to scheme to be the High Priest, he would be looked upon as behaving in an unseemly and ignoble fashion. Similarly, should someone from a high ranking clan take up the work of a simple laborer, society would be shocked at such ignoble behavior.  Failure to behave “nobly” reflects badly upon the clan as well as the individual, and clan members will be quick to react to such behavior.

These values are situationally subjective.  Is not a woman lan when she performs acts of charity and kindness?  Is she not bussan when she acts in a violent fashion?  In both cases, these are dependent on whether the recipients are worthy of the behavior.  To show kindness to a sworn enemy of one’s clan may be lan to his clanmembers; it is certainly bussan to one’s own.  The Lohvian understands, as few outsiders do, that morality is malleable and situational, and the only sound path is to cleave to one’s clan and faith.

Should a person continue ignoble behavior, the clan will seek to correct it, first with advice, then with sanctions.  Ultimately, a persistently ignoble member will be ejected from their clan.  To be made “nakomé” – clanless – is considered a horrifying fate (using the term to someone, as it happens, is a deadly insult).  Such people will find themselves without lodging or employment, dependent upon handouts, unprotected, and only acts of startling nobility and character would induce a clan to invite a nakomé to join.

Attire:  The well-dressed Lohvian wears a poncho-like tunic called a firya, overlapping four or five inches down from the shoulder, open down the sides but secured with loose, often-decorative lacing.  A double sash (slightly offset to form a flattened “X”) belts the firya, often plaited with the clan’s colors.  Loose, baggy trousers are also worn by both sexes, though kilt-like garments are also in fashion.  Headgear is diverse: turbans (among the upper classes), basketcaps and headcloths all common.  Full robes are also worn by the upper classes.

More uncommon garments include the so-called “mage’s mantle,” a sleeveless knee-length mantle almost exclusively worn by sorcerers, generally patterned, embroidered or colored in styles particular to the order.  Priests often don gi-like open heavy shirts, but almost invariably wear braids at the shoulder (very like European-style military fourragères) that denote faith, status and rank; a Heraldry (Serioli clerical) roll will determine the exact status.  Finally, it is a custom that wearing a grey silk scarf is a privilege reserved for warriors who have slain an enemy in combat.

Gestures:

    Arm held outward, palm down, two fingers extended: interruption will NOT be tolerated.
    Both hands, palm down, fingers spread widely: apologies.   
    Clapping the hands together: summoning a slave.  Rather a deadly insult if obviously NOT doing so.
    Clapping a hand to the throat, taking it away, and raising the chin: “I bare the throat” – the ritual resignation of Jikaida, and generally meaning “You win” and/or “I give up.”
    Clasping the right upper arm of another with your right hand: Fervent greeting of close comrades.
    Fingersnapping: applause.
    General interjections, hesitation markers or response particles: Ai, Cha, Hai, Khe, Ohe, Tla.
    Hand out, palm up, rocking side to side: Asking for help.
    Holding the left hand breast-high, folding the fingers inward, and shaking it slightly back and forth: disapproval.  “I don’t agree.”
    Making a circle of one’s thumb and forefinger, and making an emphatic jerk of the hand: insinuating the other person is clanless, a strong insult.
    Palm held upwards: general approval
    Slapping the fingertips into the palm of the same hand: Between lovers, denotes affection and sexual desire.  Between others, an obscene gesture.
    Slapping the chest with an open right hand: Llahal!
    Tapping the middle three fingers to one’s opposing upper arm: A faith greeting within Upuaut circles; an insult – “Burn you!” – to someone known not to be of the faith.
    Two fingers touching closed lips: agreement, acknowledgment; very much so, if the fingers are tapping.

Holidays: Above and beyond normal Celduin holidays, Lohvians celebrate these:

    Hasanpór (Kelusse 1): a day of feasts, gift-giving, pageants and parades.

    Rites of Kaopan (Planting season): ensuring the fertility of the fields through the placement of blue and yellow paper hexagons, incense, and sacrifice (the most highly prized which involve slaves).

    Drénggar (Hisivan 10): The Unveiling of Beauty, commemorated with spectacular rituals and debauched orgies. 

    Menggano (Hisivan 17): The Enhancement of the Emerald Radiance.  Following close on the heels of the Unveiling of Beauty, with a whole week to recover in between, Lohvians throw themselves into this festival with a will, honoring it with elaborate feasts, more ritual, and more orgies. 

    Lésdrim (Celebros 10): The Birthday of the Seal Emperor.  Commemorated with military parades and drills throughout the bounds of the old Empire – even in far-off dominions in which Tsungfaril’s writ runs very thinly indeed.  Held on this day no matter the actual birthdate of the reigning Emperor.

    Vraháma (Oranor 10): Celebration of Splendid Victories, commemorated with military pageants at local military barracks and at temples of Upuaut.  Battles prominently attributed to localities are highlighted.

    Ngaqómi (Alatur 12): Feast of the Many-Colored Lanterns, where rice lanterns are sent skyward, followed by block parties, feasts ... and the occasional orgy.

    Chitlásha (Harvest time):  Masque of the Old and the New, celebrated with public carnivals.

Proverbs and Idioms

    A habit once formed is a rod of laen.
    Give an enemy no time even to say farewell to his last breath.
    Bad blood never dries.
    It is not seemly for a mortal to overmaster the Gods: saying of the epic hero Hrugga, who won the world, two moons, and half as much again from the Goddess Vasha – yet graciously continued to stake everything he had on each play until he had lost it all back again.
    Brave times demand brave men.
    Do not worry about being there for the launching, just be there for the laying of the keel: mariners’ saying relating to having children.
    What lasts longer, the mountains or the River?
    He has never strayed from his color: the highest praise one can offer; the literal meaning is obscure, but is thought by some to refer to the White Lotus’ lodges.
    Like groping for a sovereign in a barrel of snakes.
    Men act not because of honor or duty but for a slight to their great-grandfather's chamberpot.
    Naivete is the clay from which heroes are molded.
    Nothing truly glorious is attained through moderation.
    Let us nobly end what treacherously began!: statement by a Seal Empress (whose forebear was a usurper) to her executioners.
    ... since the gods were children.
    Webs spun over webs make for tangles.
    The head of an enemy is a joy for one's descendants.
    To bargain with a Warwiker (Menaheem, Confederate, elf ...) is to throw away one's purse.
    Trust was ever the death of heroes.
    We are the People, and our lands are the World.  All else is the concern of barbarian gods.
    What greedy eyes cannot see, clever hands cannot steal.
    Where power exists, there are deeds.

Miscellany:

    * Gamelan: The national musical style, performed in ensembles with metallophones, gongs, drums and bamboo flutes. 

    * Pastimes:  Loh is pleasure-oriented and lax.  Bribery and trafficking in favors are a way of life.  In Loh, you can buy anybody or anything.  The more decadent go in a big way for music, dance, mime, jugglers, alcohol, drugs, illicit sex and street parties.  This relaxation has also created a renaissance of literature and the arts.  Filled with schools, with poetry symposia, with aspiring artists and writers, Loh believes itself unequaled as a home for the intellectual elite.  The average Serioli knows more of poetry and literature than upper-class citizens of more work-oriented lands.  (That all this flies in the face of cultural precepts of moderation, frugality and modesty is a well-known paradox, and gives the clergy, busybodies and philosophers much upon which to chew.)

    * Sport: The popular sport in Loh – aside from gladiatorial matches, archery and hunting – is marotlàn, a soccer-like game played by four simultaneously competing teams of five or six a side, using a leather or canvas ball about the size of a volleyball and played on a hexagonal field.  Competitive kite flying is also popular, with the strings bearing glued-in shards of glass or pottery so as to cut the foes’ kites free. 

     Qadàrni is the curious custom of having a full-scale battle to settle a score, satisfy a point of honor, or adjudicate an intractable dispute or legal case.  The competitors can be any entity – private individuals, clans, temples, societies, and even political polities up to Dominions.  Qadàrni battles (in stark contrast to so-called “low” wars, Qadardááli, where no holds are barred) are governed by strict rules of honor.

    First off, the forces involved can be as large as the competitors can afford, although honor demands that the sides start (nominally) even, and it gains little honor if one’s forces are known to be a great deal more capable than their numerically even foes.  Indeed, to choose to fight a foe that is significantly more numerous is considered dishonorable, as the commander is seen to be putting his personal glory over all other considerations.  Secondly, to cheat, employ treachery or otherwise act dishonorably is not allowed.

    Such a battle begins at dawn and takes one hour, or when one side is either disabled – or slain – to a man or concedes; prisoners, however, may be taken.  If neither side concedes, a panel of judges determines the victor; each side nominates a judge of proven worth and honor, and those two pick a third.  The result of a qadàrni battle is considered binding and final on all.  (It is also a major spectator sport, and an occasion for a great deal of gambling.)

    * Funerals: Regardless of standard religious rites, a Serioli funeral has certain traits.  Cremation is the universal practice, and the fabric with which body is wound, and the amount and quality of the wood chosen, is heavily rank-dependent.  The ashes of infants who have not yet received their school names are always interred within their clanhouses, because their spirits are considered too young and dependent to know where else to go.  While cremations take place the day after death, if a soul is not passed on through the repositor/dikaster system, the clan holds a feast a month thereafter, to celebrate the soul’s arrival at the sunny uplands beyond the Ice Floes.  This trip is considered in Loh to take a month (and it is not considered that a soul would fail in this).  A particularly honored clan member is memorialized – if space allows – by a stone or metal plaque set in the inner wall of the clanhouse’s courtyard.

    The souls of those who die during Alyena are believed to sometimes return to their clanhouses in the form of a spirit-bird.  These revenants are always malicious and evil, no matter the character of the dead.  Further, while suicide has no particular stigma in Loh, killing oneself by drowning is considered highly shameful.  Those who do it are posthumously cast out of their clans and lineages (and the bodies tossed into garbage piles or middens), but the shame and disfavor linger like a miasma over their relatives.

Advantages (for characters born in Loh):

    Harmony [+10]: You are receptive to the flow of the elements around and through you.  You can learn the Esoteric Skills Autohypnosis, Body Control, Breath Control, Mental Strength and Pressure Secrets, as well as cinematic versions of Erotic Art, Physician, Architecture and Natural Philosophy, and detect and identify spiritual disturbances.  Those who seek or practice the harmonious life (or Varuna worshipers, since this is a variant of Blessed) sense your inner harmony, and react to you at +1.
                               
    Uhu [+9]: Serioli custom is for a third gender: the uhu, who are without primary or secondary sexual characteristics.  Uhus shave themselves bald, and their voices have a noticeable odd tang to them.  They cannot bear or engender children, and are immune to seduction (though not necessarily to Sex Appeal rolls, however much at penalties).  It is considered meritorious to be an uhu, in that one can live one’s life dispassionately and with calm.  They have preference as teachers, advisors, bureaucrats, priests and judges, the more so in that an uhu cannot rule in its own name, lead a clan or business enterprise, or have heirs-at-law (their possessions go at death to the lineage or lord).  It is considered declassé and shocking to make someone an uhu surgically; far more often, they are made so by White Lotus mages, who are paid very handsomely for the privilege.  The point cost includes the Social Regard: Respected and the Longevity advantages, as well as an offsetting Reputation between those who respect the uhu’s clear head and those who find the state unnatural and creepy.

Disadvantages (for characters born in Loh):

    Code of Honor (Serioli) [-10]: Show humanity to others, especially those set under you or who owe you duty; good will is more important than following exact rules.  Influence others by example rather than by force.  Respect Serioli society, its customs and traditions.  Understand the distinction between khomoyi, lan and bussan, and live by them.  Perform your duties properly and with honor to the Emperor, your overlord, your parents, your spouse, your teachers, your older siblings and your friends ... living or dead.

    Compulsive Behavior (Ladravaya) [-5]: The Vengali Table of Correspondences is taken to extremes.  A fireplace must face to the north.  A woodbin must be painted green.  Savory foods really should only be eaten during the night time.  Pressing a sheet of lead against your chest is a good remedy for coughing fits.  And so on.  This can also be expressed as an Odious Personal Habit, depending on how obnoxious you make yourself over this.

    Delusion (Serioli chauvinist) [-5]: Everything Lohvian is just better.  Serioli is a finer, purer language than the monkey speech belched by the rabble outside the Valley.  Serioli ways are just superior.  Serioli blood is better than the thinner stuff flowing through barbarian veins.  Outside ways are not treated with contempt – it is not their fault that they were born foolish barbarians – as much as with indifference.

    Disciplines of Faith (Contemplation) [-5]: You engage in regular meditation through stillness, attention, breathing exercises and calisthenics, at least once daily.  At all times, you maintain habits of moderation in diet, possessions and enjoyments.  Other people who spend time with you, if not themselves students or fellow contemplatives, regard you as unworldly and react at -1.

    Social Stigma: unmarried [-5]: Adults in Lohvian society are expected to be married (see below), and widow/ers are expected to remarry, without unseemly delay.  Only clergy or those under strong vows of service avoid the stigma.

    Vow (The Three Treasures) [-5]: As a model for living, strive to: (1) practice mercy or nonaggression;  (2) be frugal and economical; (3) be humble, and do not dare to put yourself first.

Survival Game II: fantasy

Following the previous post, what would I go with for a fantasy character in terms of personal camping/trekking gear?

Well, okay.  Using my tweaks on GURPS weights for such things, and drawing on many decades of personal camping experience, I make the following assumptions:

* First off, that we’re talking an adult rather than a sixteen year old.

* Second, for encumbrance, I normally stick with the simpler multiples of ST used in earlier editions, but let’s assume standard 4th Edition Basic Lift for a character with average ST.  That gives a ceiling of 60 pounds encumbrance to stay within Medium Encumbrance.  This gives a -2 penalty to a lot of things like Stealth, Climbing, Swimming and the like.  ST 11 goes up to 72 pounds.  That’s the most I want a character to be hauling, and I’m not all that comfortable with even that much, on a route march by anyone who expects to be on top form for adventuring at the end of it.

* Third, that we’re not talking deep wilderness long-term camping, but that the PC is versed in basic survival techniques.  The character will run into the occasional farmstead that will sell food, and won’t need to hunt ... but knows wild mint and onions when he sees them, and has a notion which mushrooms are good to eat or not.  A half hour of forage in a forest will turn up stuff for the stew pot.

* Arms and armor: a rapier, scabbard for the same, leather armor covering torso and the head, belt knife and scabbard, a belt pouch.  Total weight, 19.3 lbs.  Add 3 lbs for clothing.  37.7 pounds left.

So, let’s go for a medium backpack, weighing 3 lbs and with a 40 lb carrying capacity.  To this, we add:

- 2-quart waterskin (4)
- steel firestriker and tinderbox (.2)
- 2 4" wax candles (.2)
- hatchet (2)
- 50' heavy twine (.2)
- personal basics (1; razor, soap, willow stick, linen roll for bandaging, that sort of thing)

All of this is pretty self-explanatory, or else explained in the previous post.  There’s a lot of space saving involved.  No whetstone; use a rock.  No axe, alas, but you don’t need to build a cabin, after all: get by with the hatchet.

For shelter and bedding, we add:

- light three-season bedroll (6)
- Forester tent (6)
- 30' jute rope (1.8)
- large sack (1)
- small sack (.5)

Yeah, I know, no mattress pad.  That’s what the sack is for, to use as what’s called a “browse bag.”  Spend a few minutes foraging for dried leaves, pine needles and the like.  Sift through them to sort out branches, lumps, rocks and vermin.  Stuff them into your large sack, and spread the sack out in your tent.  That’s what you roll your bedroll onto.  The small sack is what you stuff your spare clothes into, and that’s your pillow.  Yes, you will want a pillow, however buff and rugged you picture your character being.  (And, y’know, you have those sacks handy in case of loot!)

The Forester tent is the lightest tent there is, short of using shelter halves.  You can see from the illo how it’s set up; that opening’s about 3' high.  Part of your nightly routine will be to cut the poles and the pegs for it, but we’re just talking trimming saplings, and they don’t have to be dowel-true.   The Forester benefits from being outstanding in high winds, in trapping heat from a fire in front, and from being as good as any tent before the invention of mosquito netting in dealing with bugs.  The only serious drawback is space: it’ll fit two people only if they’re very friendly and don’t move much, you can't put much personal gear in it and still have room for YOU, and you can see that it isn’t the best option to slither out of in case of 3 AM monster attacks.

For extra clothing, we add:

- half-poncho, covering head, shoulders and upper chest (1.5)
- spare tunic (1)
- spare pair of wool socks (.2)

For cooking purposes, we add:

- wooden mess kit, with cup, small bowl and spoon in a fitted box (think bento box; 1)
- 2-quart pot (3)
- 1-pint pot (1)
- jar of cornmeal (1)
- 1-pint wine (1)
- jerky (1)
- ½ pint cooking oil (.5)
- box of cooking spices (1 oz ground mustard, 3 oz tea, 4 oz salt, total weight .5)
- ½ pint honey (.5)

The meal is for cooking pones, which can bake on a flat stone, or even in raked ashes from the fire.  Shave some bacon into the mix.  Haute cuisine it is not, but it’ll do.

In the field, you’ll be making a lot of stews in the larger pot.  (The smaller one is for tea and hot water for washing up.)  That’s what the wine is for, actually – tarting up your stew.  Ditto spices, and the honey’s for your tea, and energy.

The total comes to 36 lbs, leaving a little over a pound and a half left both for food from the nearest farmhouse (most of which you ought to have eaten on the spot, granted) and for little things you just want to have around.  A smoker’s pipe.  Those dozen porcupine quills that you’re sure you’ll need one day.  A religious amulet.

One consideration when it comes to weight, by the bye: GURPS has standard equipment modifiers for things like Cheap, Fine, Stylish, Rugged, Waterproofed, and so on.  One option is for lightweight gear.  It's not as sturdy, it's a good bit more expensive, but it's likely an option that you can at least try to talk you GMs into exploring.  Copper cooking gear's a good bit less durable than iron, but if you absolutely need to save a couple extra pounds ...

Obviously, all this becomes a lot easier with a party: only one person needs to carry the cook gear, after all, the mail coat, sword-and-board the heavy fighter totes is offset by the gear the party mage isn’t carrying, and a group that stands watches can either hotbunk in Foresters or haul a much larger multi-person tent.  A single donkey can reliably carry 100 lbs in rugged terrain for long-distance marches; a trained pack mule (much more expensive!) can manage twice that. 

And just as obviously, this load has to change with conditions.  A half-gallon waterskin won’t satisfy so much as a day of drinking requirements for hiking, and if you’re not traveling in an area with frequent streams, you need to carry a lot more.  (A week’s worth of drinking water, that approaches sixty pounds per person ... without factoring in cooking, washing, or how much more one consumes with strenuous labor or hot temperatures.)

From the forums: Metagaming Monsters

Something I've done a whopping lot over the years is pontificate on gaming forums.  While the exchanges summarized below are about metagaming over NPC monsters specifically, the subject of metagaming generally is a hot button topic for me.  Read on for some modest ranting.

~~~~~~~~~

ForumDood: Whaddaya mean adventurers don’t know all the stats of monsters? Does your world have taverns?  Do adventurers stop by taverns to have a drink?  Do they talk to other patrons when having said drink?  If so, word has just spread in that town of the critters said adventurers have encountered.

"Alright, smart guy, what are its stats?"

 

These are, of course, taverns much akin to those in our own history.  You know, the ones where travelers swore that they'd seen dragons, hippogriffs, manticores, Amazons with their bow arm breasts cut off ... things like that.  Or, ya know, where the travelers blurted out, "It was TEN FEET TALL!!! Fangs like spears! Hide like steel! It ripped apart trees and boulders like they were PAPER!"  

Anyway, you just might be more sanguine about the honesty and reliability of your average drunk wanderer, trying to impress the locals, than I am.

For my part, no, of course not: players don't get to use their past knowledge any more than their PCs get to know the formula for gunpowder, who's really behind that death cult or how to rig a Leyden jar.

Beyond that, it's relatively simple: I don't feel the need to be bound by the sourcebook as far as critters go.

ForumDood2: How do you handle situations where the players know something the PCs don't, like a monster that has a weak spot if you hit it between the eyes or something.

Well, for one, GURPS makes provision for such skills.  Naturalist, Hidden Lore (Monsters), Occultism, Folklore ... they're all valid choices.  The better the roll, the more likely the info is both sound and useful.

For another, I'm not a huge fan of "This is an unstoppable juggernaut except for its left testicle, upon which a good shot will surely slay it" monsters. That smacks too much of the pull-the-right-lever-or-die dungeon fantasy BS I got past decades ago.  There are certainly useful strategies to engage certain beasts, and that's as far as that goes.  And even that doesn't mean some critters stop being tough -- sure, you made the roll, and you remember reading that giant crocodiles have relatively soft underbellies.  Awesome, but that's still a very tough, very tenacious 30' lizard with teeth the size of short swords, slithering on the ground so that it’s not showing you the underbelly, and it's comin' for you ...

ForumDood: Generic D&D-land assumes that critters like orcs and trolls are fairly common.

See, you're metagaming yourself: you presume that there's a certain density of monsters, that they all have unitary stats and abilities, and that these apply to every campaign out there.

I agree that "generic D&D-Land" is a thing, but sorry, that doesn't make any sense.  Some lions are a lot tougher and more capable than others, the same way that some humans are a lot flimsier and less capable than others.  I see no reason to presume that ANY foe of ANY kind always has 20 HP and always does 1d6+1 damage and always has the exact same move or armor protection, any more than were I to play D&D, I would presume that every enemy fighter I encountered was precisely 2nd level and had 20 HP and carried a bog-standard broadsword and sported AC 6.

ForumDood3: Do you suppose that people who live in an area where lions are a genuine threat to life would know a few things about lion habits, or would they be just as clueless as a zoo-goer like me?

It depends.  Do any of us really need to be told that human beings are very good at (a) thinking we know more about a subject than we really do, (b) swallowing the POV of the loudest, or the first, or the cutest, or the most eloquent speaker on a subject over that of acknowledged experts, and (c) blathering our inflated, flawed views to anyone who'll listen, except when they're (d) deliberately lying about the subject to get a rise out of the listeners?  How many parents, for instance, have rejected the all-but-unanimous advice of thousands of pediatricians, doctors and researchers on the subject of vaccination, on the strength of the word of the likes of Jenny McCarthy, whose credentials are that her boob job got her into Playboy a couple decades back?  (I won't even touch the subject of COVID anti-vaxxers, living in a land of compulsory childhood vaccination, except to observe that they tick off all the boxes above, and that I make zero apologies for schadenfreude every time another one of them wheezes its last from the disease they claim is a liberal media hoax.  To the degree their proselytizing emboldens others to follow their despicable example, they are each and every one of them murderers.)

Sure, a veteran herder or livestock farmer on the verge of lion-infested country would probably have a good handle on the habits of lions -- otherwise they wouldn't get to be veteran herders or livestock farmers.  Of course, those folks might be real willing to pull the chains of the outlanders ... "Aw, sure, yooze guys got nuttin' t'worry aboot.  Them lions be as meek as sheep.  Just toss 'em some raw candleroot, ye'll be fine. Where do ye find candleroot, ye ask? Why, happen I got some, right back in th' dryin' shed!  What's it worth t'ye?"

I would presume such skills of no one else.  A number of other folks might have such skills.  Did you pick such skills when you designed your character, by the way?  A number would not, beyond the basics of common sense practice for any scary-looking critter lurking about.  (I'm minded of the Sudanese NBA player Manute Bol, renowned for having killed a lion with a spear as a goat-herding teenager.  Far from being an epic battle, he stated that the lion was old, asleep, and that he'd snuck up on it from behind.  Otherwise, he opined, the lion would have eaten him.)

Otherwise?  Look.  You and I live in a world of mass media and mass education.  People in a medieval world didn’t grow up watching Animal Planet, or have access to Wikipedia articles or encyclopedias.  "Damn, that’s a huge cat.  You think that's one of those lions Farmer McHayseed was telling us about?" "I dunno. He didn't say they had stripes." "Never mind that.  Who's got the candleroot?" is the best I’d expect from medieval types.  

Make it an owlbear or a gelatinous cube, and “What the hell is THAT??  Mitra save us!” is more likely.

ForumDood4: Big furry cats who hunt. Are they social? Do they have a special diet? Are they different from those OTHER stories of cats? Fuck if we know.

And beyond that, there'll be the guy who is absolutely convinced to the marrow of his bones that he knows All About Lions, based on a dimly remembered conversation he overheard between two panther hunters a few years back.  And this is talking about something so basic and mundane as lions.  How will even expert naturalists manage to explain rare and bizarre monsters, comprehensively and accurately?  ("TEN FEET TALL, fangs like spears ..." yeah, yeah.)

My classic "confirmation bias" adventuring anecdote comes from a combat LARP session.  We had a Raise Dead spell, and a second-event newbie (unable, per the system, to have the spell at all before his fifth event) was absolutely convinced that the spell worked a particular way.  Me, I was a "magic marshal" of twelve years experience and the Grand Master of the guild that taught the spell, I set him straight.

So I thought, anyway ... yeah, not so much.  The guy just wouldn't take my word for it.  Soon three other veteran magic marshals joined the conversation, each of whom had ten years or more experience teaching and adjudicating the system.  One of those marshals had invented the magic rules then in use.  Another was the guy who'd invented the previous magic system the then-current system had replaced.  The third helpfully had a pamphlet of the official rules on his person.  

The newbie just didn't care -- he was just one of those types who Knew What He Knew and no one could ever tell him any different -- and wound up being escorted off the event site when he started throwing punches.

 And guys like that can be found around gaming tables all over the land.