Old School Miniatures: On the Cheap

Times are hard. Metal figures are expensive. Buying enough lead figures to make up a decent band of brigands, for example, can set you back forty or fifty euro's. And then, of course, there's the whole new issue that most modern fantasy rpg miniatures are targeted for the modern audience/gaming industry. By which I mean late medieval armour, dress and accoutrement's as opposed to the more traditional "old school" dark-age style.

However, all is not lost. You can still acquire decent looking miniatures for your RPG while keeping up that all important Old School feel -and without putting too much of a dent on your pocket book. The answer: wargames miniatures.

Plastic mould technology these days is so good that it's possible to produce plastic figures that rival (or even exceed) their metal counterparts. Moreover, even metal wargames miniatures (from historical specialists at least) tend to be cheaper than roleplaying miniatures and even most fantasy wargames ranges.

True, you can splash out ten or twelve pounds for a pack of random pre-painted miniatures, but going down that route might cost you a veritable fortune before you get enough figures of a given monster type to use in an encounter. Plus the paint jobs tend to be terrible. Contrast the painted miniatures at the beginning of this article with any of the D&D figures available on ebay. I bought a pack of 32 of these plastic vikings from wargames factory's Hammer of the Gods Range for £18 (You lucky Americans can get them for $19.95). These figures here, 8 of them, took four hours to assemble and paint and cost me the equivalent of £4.50. If I'd bought 8 viking looking types in single figure Reaper miniatures packs, it would have cost me at least £24 (probably as much as £30, depending on where you shop). How many packs of D&D boxes would I have had to fork out for to obtain 8 human warriors in chainmail? A heck of a lot, let me tell you.

As it is, I intend on painting another four of these guys for gaming purposes. The last twenty (plus 8 figures from the Saxon Fyrd box) are going to make a Viking Mercenary unit for my Norman WAB army. The remaining 24 Fyrdmen are going to be split into a unit of 8 archers (on stone, roleplaying bases) and 16 unarmoured RPG melee types. And voila, for a grand total of £36 quid, I've got myself another wargames unit AND all the armoured and unarmoured human NPC warrior-types I''ll ever need for an Old School RPG campaign.

Of course, it would be nice to have some more disciplined looking armoured warriors as well. Which is why I bought 8 metal Norman spearmen from Wargames Foundry for a grand total of £8.00 as well. I'll paint these guys up and use them as henchmen and hirelings for my PC's. Pictures to follow when I've finished painting them.

I also forked out another £8 for a pack of Saxon "outlaws" from the same firm -giving me a nice mix of armed civilians for use in gaming as hapless civilians, prisoners, mule-skinners and even torch-bearers for the party. I'll post up my painted versions here at some point too,

Grand Total: £52.00 for 80 gaming miniatures. How much would it cost to order all that from Reaper Miniatures eh? £300 quid at least, I reckon.

Amorvrin and Gulmorvin: The Undead of Harn

One of the most fascinating variations on traditional fantasy tropes within the Harn setting is the world's treatment of undead. While other settings have skeletons, zombies, wights, wraiths and much, much more besides, Harn has the Amorvin and the Gulmorvin. Or rather, those souls exposed to the Shadow of Bukrai who chose to embrace a new existence in undead form, and the animated bodies of souls which choose oblivion instead. The former, mostly corrupt, evil and decadent beings to begin with; become the Armovrin: intelligent, evil beings who seek to subsume the world into chaos by spreading the taint of Shadow. The latter are those souls which refuse the Shadow (and who fail to resist it's influence) only to be utterly destroyed, their bodies no more than an empty, mindless which barely contains the Shadow essence within.

Both forms of Undead serve the mad God of Death, Margoth, a being who sought to possess Bukrai and was instead driven mad by it's influence. Bukrai is a primordial force, representing the very chaos of the primeval universe. A being which embraces oblivion and destruction. Though once he sought to master Bukrai, Margoth has long-since subsumed himself to it's foul purpose. Many Amorvin, perhaps even the great majority, were once mortal followers of Margoth who chose to “live on” in his service, long after their mortal existence had ended. In all Kelestia, the world of Harn, only one being, Bukrai, has the power to destroya soul, utterly. It is a power it employs both greedily and often. Soon it will have amassed an army large enough to eradicate every living thing on Harn. And after it, the world entire.

Amorvrin are created from a living body, near-death and infested with Shadow. Gulmorvrin can are created from the empty shells of the recently dead. The Shadow's pernicious influence greatly slows the process of decay, allowing some of it's to retain a certain “life-like” quality for decades, while others gradually fade away into nothing. While Amorvrin seek to further the influence and power of the Shadow throug intrigue and violence, the Gulmorvrin exist in a state of near-limbo, stored away in vast vaults until called upon by the clerics or Amorvrin of their faith to take action.


THE UNDEAD IN OSRIC-HARN:

Harnic undead cannot enter any place consecrated to a deity other than Margoth. Pious followers of any deities (paladins, druids, clerics and even 0 priests) may use the holy symbol of their faith to repel such creatures. In OSRIC-Harn, this will permit such characters, of any alignment, to Turn Undead. However, only Priests of Margoth may rebuke or command them. The Undead of Harn do not suffer injuries as do mortal creatures Some may even only be harmed by magical weapons. Therefore the Undead of OSRIC-Harn are immune to backstab damage. When destroyed both Gulmorvrin and Amorvrin crumble to dust, but unless slain by a consecrated (blessed or undead bane weapon; including holy water) Amorvrin will reform in their lair, ready to take revenge, within 13 days. While all undead exist as (and exude) pockets of the Shadow, Amorvrin are more dangerous in this regard than the mindless Gulmorvrin.

Nor do the undead of Harn share a common appearance. The Undead of Harn decay over the pasage of long years,their bodies becoming more skeletal and eventually more ethereal. They “decay more slowly” than natural corpses, in a process that can require hundred of years (longer, if the right balms and herbal treatments are applied). OSRIC-Harn undead are just as likely to be skeletal as they are fleshy or etereal. Consequently, the undead of the OSRIC-Harn campaign are not divided into Armorvrin and Gulmorvrin based solely on traditional, arbitrary expectations of which “type” of undead constitutes a “free willed” or “mindless” monster. In efect the traditional concept of mindless and free-willed undead has been on it's head.

OSRIC-Harn undead are not divided into Amorvrin and Gulmorvrin based on arbitrary notions of sub-type. Instead, they are defined based on their hit-dice (when alive) and whether or not the soul of the dead being chose to accept Shadow or attempted to deny it. OSRIC-Harn will therefor e have Amorvrin zombies just as it will have Gulmorvrin vampires. No player can ever be sure that the "zombie" they face is "merely" a 2HD monster. It could very well be a 4HD monster with the sleep spell memorized..

Some distinction is possible. Both types of undead exude a sense of cold, of decay and evil in the form of a palpable, shadowy aura. Observant players might be able to distinguish between the two based on behavioural cues. However, the most common means of distinguishing between brainless Gulmorvrin and cunning armorvrin is by the shadows tht envelop them. That it, by the presence of lack of a Shadow aura. A dim, shadowy manifestation of intelligence and free will in the form an inky black mist drifting lazily about the undead form) happens to be. It is this aura that facilitates the corruption of otherwise pure souls by the Almorvrin.

Amorvrin undead of a given "sub-type" are considerably more powerful -and dangerous- than their mindless, Gulmorvrin counter-parts. Amorvrin undead types will be turned as though they were two steps higher on the turning table than the “standard” Gulmorvrin version. Amorvrin who advance under this rule to the extent that they “ fall off the top” of the table cannot be turned by any means. Neither form of undead, no matter how powerful, may ever be able to step onto consecrated ground. They are so impure, the ground itself refuses to accept their presence in a place of reverence and veneration. Any creature that tries shall be smote down by the very gods themselves.

MYRVRIA AND THE "UNHOLY OATH":


Any creature engaging an Amorvrin in melee risks corruption and death from exposure to the Shadow. Any character in such a predicament must save vs Death magic every other round of melee combat or become Tainted. Tainted characters cannot heal lost hit points by any natural or magical means until a Remove Curse spell is received. If the character dies (or falls into negative hit-points) while under the influence of this curse, he will receive a visitation from the demi-goddess, Myrvria, who will offer him “eternal life” (as an Amorvrin) and his “heart's desire”. All for the small price of taking the Unholy Oath:

“To own myne form, when breath Hath fled, shall I gift myne soul.”

Uttering this oath thirteen times binds the soul to Morgath and allows the Shadow to mould and shape it. Characters who accept the pact rise from death thirteen days later as an Amorvrin of a type with a number of hit dice equal to (or less than) his own. He cannot be raised or reincarnated, not even by a true resurrection or divine intervention. His soul is gone. Utterly consumed by the Shadow. Once this pact is made, only a “true” death at the edge of a consecrated blade will save him. If the dead or dying character refuses to take the oath, he must make a final saving throw against Death magic upon reaching -10hp. If he succeeds, his soul has fought off the Shadow infestation and, while he is still dead, the character may be raised by normal means. If the test is failed, his soul is consumed as before, and the corpse shall rise as rounds as a Galmovrin.

This occurs on the 13th round after death. The character becomes a Galmovrin of a type possessing a number of hit dice equal to his own or less (DM discretion). He will be fully under the control of the Amorvrin or the Spellcaster who created him. Like a character who accepted the Unholy Pact, his soul has been utterly consumed and is now beyond even the power of a God to recover.

Any character reborn as an undead being must change his good-evil alignment track to Neutral evil. All Gulmovrin are considered lawful evil, regardless of previous alignment.

THE ANIMATE DEAD SPELL

Recently slain characters (killed within the last 13 rounds) whose body is affected by a raise dead spell must also succeed on a Death saving throw or suffer the destruction of the soul and rise again as a Gulmovrin.

If the character has been dead for longer than 13 rounds, he does not need to make this save. His body will rise as a Gulmovrin, but his soul is safe in paradise. A character whose soul has not been consumed by the Shadow but whose body has been animated as a Gulmovrin can be raised as normal provided “his” Gulmovrin is slain. Thereafter, a Remove Curse spell must be cast upon the body. If the Shadow remnants lingering within the corpse is not removed from the body prior to the character being returned to life, then the dead characters soul is called back to his body and consumed by the taint still within the body. At the DM's discretion, the corpse will again rise as a Gulmovrin 13 rounds after spell completion. On very rare occasions however, part of the characters soul might survive the botched process. In which case the character rises as an Amorvrin 13 days after spell completion. An especially unpleasant fate for the character if his corpse has since been buried in consecreated ground during this time.

Gulmovrin created by the Animate Dead spell are always Lawful Evil.

ATTITUDES TO THE UNDEAD:

Needless to say, were the lore concerning how swiftly a single Almovrin can create a horde of fell followers to become widely known, no man or woman in Harn could ever sleep soundly again. Therefore, the churches and faiths of Harn guard this knowledge jealously, allowing the common folk and nobility to hear only the vaguest rumours of Undead creatures and their power. The church of Margoth is an exception. They want people to be afraid, but are unlikely to be believed. Starting players, therefore, should be unaware of much of the above information. Knowing only that certain restless dead are rumoured to walk and that the power of faith is said to repel them. Perhaps only a cleric or paladin of Larani (who is Margoth and Bukrai's most unyielding foe) might have an inking of the greater truth.

The Gods of Harn may be divided on many thorny issues, but on one thing (and one thing alone) do they agree. The spread of the Shadow-taint must be combated by every means at their disposal. Even Paladins of Larani and anti-paladins sworn to Agrik have been known to (temporarily) set aside their differences against this common foe of life itself.

The British Old School Revival? Lets see?

I came across this blog article courtesy of another blogger. It does an excellent job of describing the history of the RPG industry in Britain, even going so far as to point out why the British Gaming industry took the direction it did.

My following comments will make a hell of a lot more sense if you take the time to read the original article (on Fighting Fantasist - heres another link)) first.

While I myself lived through many of the same events as the Fighting Fantasist - and can empathise closely with the nostalgic sentiments contained within the article, by it's strictest definition I would have to class myself as a hybrid British-American style old school gamer. Or even an American-style old School Gamer, rather than a "British style" one. At least, going by the argument presented within the article I'm responding to. Hell, before I read the artictle I hadn't even thought there was a difference!

While Fighting Fantasy, Warhammer and WFRP have all certainly influenced my preferred, dark, gritty, melancholy DM style, I can't deny that American games such as 0D&D had (and have) a far greater greater role in my gaming history and development than they did for the blogs author.

For one thing, I was introduced to Fighting Fantasy and Games Workshop through the red box D&D edition. Not the other way around as the article suggests is the case with most UK gamers. In fact, I stumbled across Glasgow's Games Workshop store in Queen Street because I was desperately trying to track down the "Dragon and George" wargames store (which did a sideline in RPG's and RPG Miniatures) that I'd stumbled across a few years before while out shopping with my favorite aunt and uncle. As it was, a box Of GW oringinal plastic Space Marines (circa 1988), a box of lead Haelequins and the 2nd ed Ad&D Players Handbook were the eventual result of that happy accident.

Yes, artists such as Blanche (and those other greats that featured in the original Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader book) and Pat Mills (of Slaine and 2000AD fame - actually, he might have been the writer rather than the artist, but either way he was still a huge influence) were more influential on my gaming -and fiction- style than the original TSR artists (whose style I never really warmed to). Yes I still have every 2000Ad comic from issue 500 right up until the mid 2500's (it was a weekly comic). Yes I cherish my treasured White Dwarf magazine collection and still discuss classic scenarios, like the Dark Rise Over Irrilian mini-campaign (ground-breaking for it's time) and the Druid's Grove with my fellow old fogey's. But even so, when I think of Old School, it's still the Red Box, 1st ed Ad&D (2nd ed had just come along when I started gaming. Most local gamers I knew resisted the edition shift for a while) Harnmaster and RuneQuest 3rd ed that I think of first.

Not Fighting Fantasy, not Lone Wolf, not Judge Dredd, not WFRP. And sure as hell not Chainsaw-bloody-warrior.

Though they all pretty awesome games, I have to admit. And I did like killing zombies with my chainsaw. Hoo-Yah!

In any case, it's interesting to see the development of gaming in Britain from another point of view, from another Brit. It's just that in this case our particular gaming experiences over that same time period have been so different. But then, I was only 8 years old ("I'm nearly nine!") in 1988. Perhaps it was because I seem to have come across gaming so much later in the decade than Coopdevil, Fighting Fantasist's author. It may very well even be because I was younger (I haven't checked Coopdevils profile yet so I'm not really sure of his age, but I suspect he'll be a bit older than me) during this formulative period for the gaming industry. Were TSR and other non-GW licensed games more prevalent in Britain in my early days, as oppossed to his? Possibly. GW (and White Dwarf) started to become much more GW-centric a year or two after I bought my first issue of White Dwarf magazine (Number 86 I think it was. The featured adventure was "A Murder in Lofton". See? It really was as good as the article says). Or were American games and supplements such as those produced by TSR simply easier to get a hold of in Glasgow than elsewhere in Britain? Frankly, I'm not sure. But I'd love to hear other peoples opinions -from both side of the pond- on why our respective outlooks could be so different. Likewise, if anyone can point me at similar essays on British Gaming History and the "British OCR Revivial", I'd appreciate it. I'd love to take a look.

Ivashu: The Monsters of Harn

One of the the many excellent design features of the Harn setting has to the the Ivashu: a rationale for incorporating absolutely any wild monster idea from any game setting into your Harn campaign.

Essentially, the Ivashu are the spawn of the “Craven God”, Ilvir, the only Harnic deity actually resident on Harn. Ilvir spends his aeons absorbed in the creation of new life-forms, yet, for some undisclosed reason, he has only a finite number of souls to work with. For this reason, all his creations are sterile. Thus, he will never run out of souls to work with for very long.

These beasts literally spawn in a pit not far from the Trobridge Inn sand-box I'll be using in the early stages of my OSRIC-Harn campaign.

The more intelligent Ivashu speak a language of their own, Ivashi, which I'm going to otherwise restrict to followers of Ilvir and a few specialist sages. Many, however, are semi-intelligent at best. Others are little more than dangerously powerful beasts.

Many of these creatures will (at least initially) seem familiar to gamers from one game setting or another. However, they tend to have subtle but interesting difference. Over the next few weeks I'll be considering some of the more common, “canon” Ivashu; while at the same time figuring out how to incorporate them into the OSRIC rule-set.

Adwelna: The Beloved Torturer

These fifteen foot bloated, be-tentacled worms are found only in the deep forests of the Felsha mountains (which, happily, happen to be found in my little sand-box). The Adwelna grasps prey in its tentacles before slowly devouring them whole over in a period of hours, relying on it's acidic saliva to turn part of the still-living body into mush before cramming in another body part. Luckily, the beasts are apparently quite slow, although they can be relentless in pursuit of prey. They have a “hex” power to stun their prey, helping them overcome their lack of speed.

Mechanically, this makes them rather similar to the Carrion Crawler(c), though of course it's not actually called that in OSRIC. Although the crawler is a bit of a “dick” monster I've always liked it, both as a player and as a DM. For low-level parties, they are manageable when alone and sometimes (barely) manageable when encountered in small numbers. Provided, that is, the party is prepared for them. I wont be using psionics in the HARN-OSRIC campaign, so the Hex power has to go. I might simply keep the paralysis tentacles of the Crawler as a “hex” function, but this seems too easy (or rather, too “dickish”). My favoured alternative would be to replace the tentacle paralysis with a slow effect. This would at least mean that characters would be able to escape it's clutches (at least until they stop and make camp) provided they don't close to melee range.

I'll also drop the number of attacks from 8 to 5 (as the Adwelna has only five tentacles, not eight) and have each attack cause 1d4 damage plus the slow effect. I'll also make it AC3 all over, as opposed to having different AC on different facings as with the Crawler.

Another “run-away” factor that the Adwelna should have that the Crawler doesn't is slow speed. Carrion Crawlers were such a bitch in early editions of D&D because, in addition to their multiple paralysis attacks each round, they were damn fast. Faster than most PCs in fact. So I think I'll reduce the speed to say, 40ft per round, and the jobs a good 'un. This would make them something of an “ambush hunter”, which is fairly in keeping with their traditional campaign role.

OSRIC-Harn stat-block:

Frequency: Uncommon, Number Encountered: 1 or 1D4, Size: large, Move: 40ft, Armour Class: 3, Hit Dice: 3+1, Attacks: 5, Damage: 1D4 + slow (save vs paralysis or half speed for 1d4 hours or Remove Curse), Special Attacks: Slow, Grapple, Special Defences: None, Magic Resistance: standard, Lair Probability: 50%, Intelligence: Semi, Alignment: Neutral Evil, Level/XP: 3/105+3/hp.

Treasure (Lair Only): 1d8 x 1000cp (50%), 1d6 x 1000 sp (25%), 1d3 x 1000 gp (25%), 1d8 gems (30%), 1d4 jewellery (20%), 1 sword, armour or misc weapon (20%).

Tactics: The Adwelna will attack from ambush, seeking to slow its prey, either through bludgeoning or grappling. Once grappled, a foe will be bludgeoned or and/squeezed until unconscious, at which point it will thrust the adventurer into it's mouth to be devoured (1d4 acid damage per round). It may or may not continue to attack while in the process of feeding, but will certainly defend itself if attacked during this time.

Though semi-intelligent, this may not be evident to adventurers due to its inability to form words. It does, however, understand Ivashi. It may or may not choose to consider Ilvirian pilgrims passing through it's territory as prey. It will, however, always view an adventuring worshipper of Ilvir as such.

DUNGEON ECOLOGY II: Wind Obelisks

I've just recently begun reading through StoneHell Dungeon, looking at it as a possible alternative lay-out for the OSRIC-Harn campaign's mega-dungeon, Elkall-Anuz. Up till know I've been working on the assumption that I would be using the Ruins of Greyhawk to represent the possible birthplace of orc-kind of Harn, but viewing repeated articles on Stone Hell Dungeon persuaded me to drop a few quid and have a look.

Obviously, I'm very impressed. Else I wouldn't be considering simply abandoning all the work I've been doing converting the Ruins of Greyhawk to Harn. Stone Hell only has the first 6 dungeon levels unleashed so far, whereas Ruins has nearly thirty. More than I could likely ever need. Since I have a good few months yet before the campaign gets off the ground, I have plenty of time to think through my options.

In his introduction to StoneHell, Michael Curtis writes that, “While concepts like dungeon ecology and realism are not completely ignored in Stonehell Dungeon, neither are they acquiesced to if they stand in the way of a good time”. That said though, he's clearly put a little thought into it. The dungeon has everything from a magical coolant system to a magical air-circulatory system.

You can read the authors blog here: The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope.

By the way, spoiler warning. You might not want to read the rest of this article if you plan on playing the Dungeon. The spoilers won't ruin the play experience for you, but they do unravel one or two minor mysteries.

The magical air conditioning consists of a series of “Wind Obelisks”, scattered throughout the dungeon. Each serves as a teleportation portal, but, unlike most such portal, permits only the entry of fresh air and the egress of bad. A particularly important concept, as anyone who has ever been down a mine will tell you.

The coolant system is apparently connected to some sort of arcane device found in the later dungeon levels (the ones to be dealt with in a later supplement) but works on the same principle as the Obelisks. One magical item teleports hot water out of the dungeon, it's counterpart teleports cold water back in.

Nice simple concepts for a magical dungeon ecology. Both of which will work well with my magical “store-room” idea, regardless of which mega-dungeon I eventually decide to use. I'm not yet sure what sort of arcane device I'll hook the water system up to. It might be related to the arrival (or creation) of the Harnish Orc, but that seems a little too obvious. Too neat. I may have to think of something else.

Harn

Harn. One of the most detailed, evocative and highly rated campaign worlds ever published. So why doesn't it have the market recognition it deserves?

That's certainly not a question I'm sure can answer, though I might have a stab at it in a later article. In any case, I love the game world almost as much as I love "old school" gaming. While the Harn setting was always a little too "magic poor" for the tastes of most of members of my gaming circle in the eighties and nineties, the feudal setting evokes images of the Anarchy period of English History (the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda) as well as the succession crisis and civil wars in the later reign of King Henry the Second and his magnificent wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Because I love both the Harn setting and the OSRIC old school rules, I've decided to mesh the two together for my next campaign. The (very political and not really old school) Dragon Age game I've been running since Christmas last year is about to reach it's end. While one of my players is looking to run a Savage Worlds game, the likelihood that I'll be changing jobs in March means that I'll finally have more time for gaming. As in enough time to play in one campaign and GM another.

The fact that two of my fellow gamers will likely be moving in with me and the missus around that time doesn't hurt either. So, as much as I'm looking forward to outwitting someone else for a change (as opposed to being the outwitted DM myself) I'm already working on the next campaign.

I already foresee several challenges in integrating the magic-poor Harn setting with the OSRIC rule-set. For one thing, I'll have to bend and twist a lot of monsters into shape. The scarcity of magic in the Harn system shouldn't be too much of an issue. The entire island of Harn has a human population (including Kingdoms and Tribes) of just half to three-quarters of a million people. Thus there are very few adventurers to spread those very rare magical items between. The PC's wont have to worry (much) about going to loot a place that's already been cleared out by other adventurers the week before. To most folks, they'll just be yet another band of mercenaries, albeit a group that takes on slightly nuttier risks than most such outcasts.

Additionally, while Harn has very few monstrous humanoid races (orcs being about it) it does have a large number of unique, vaguely-defined creatures created by the "Craven-God", Ilvir. Meaning that I therefore have a built-in rational for incorporating just about any weird beast ever to see print into the campaign. Just so long as I use them in small amounts.

On the other hand, the orcs of Harn are divided into a number of "sub-races". It wouldn't be too hard for me to simply replace some of the existing sub-races of orcs with variations on creatures such as goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears and so on (but not Kobolds, I have different plans for them). True, it could be argued that this would construe a wasted opportunity to inject a little something extra into the culture and lifestyle of the ubiquitous orc. Yet the orcs of Harn are already unique in so many different ways that I see no need to develop them further. I will, however, elaborate on what makes the orcs of Harn so special in a future blog post.

I plan on using the excellent published Trobridge Inn settlement as a starting point for the campaign. It's a small Inn and village located on a main caravan route, the "Salt Road", many days travel from the nearest "civilised" outpost. It's also right in the middle of a half dozen excellent adventure locations. These include three different sets of ancient ruins, several more recent battlefields, the largest Orc Warren on Harn, two hostile (human) barbarian tribes and some adventure locations of my own devising. The Inn is also one of the few places on Harn visited by Elven merchants. Coincidentally, these elven merchants are among the few beings to traffic in magical or high quality expensive goods. Thus, there will be visits by someone that the PC's can sell their most expensive loot to at least a couple of times a year.

Even better, the Inn affords plenty of opportunity for politics and intrigue. The local brigand is something of a wannabe knight and has taken control of much of the settlement; charging tolls for use of the ford and forcing the villagers to pay him “taxes”. Needless to say, as most of the inhabitants live in this dangerous area precisely because they wish to escape the feudal system this brigand is trying to emulate, there is a certain degree of resistance to his plans. This resistance centres around the fortified Inn complex itself, with the Innkeeper (and his mercenaries) having the active, open support of the village Craftsmen and the more tacit support of the village as a whole.

Factor in that the Inn lies in the wilderness almost half-way between the Thardic Republic and the Kingdom of Kaldor (both of whom the Brigand is trying to court in return for recognition of his “knightly” status) and you can see that there will be as much scope for adventure at this “safe haven” as there will be out in the dungeon or wilderness.

And on top of it all, by the time the characters reach “name level”, the Kaldor succession crisis should be reaching boiling point. That includes plenty of time for the PC's to make a name for themselves beyond the relative back-water of the Inn. That is, before they get dragged into this budding little civil war by one side or the other.

DM Bliss.

I'll keep you updated with more articles reagrding the OSRIC-Harn campaign as things progress.

Dungeon Ecology

Its been well over a year since I last posted. Lets hope I have a better track record this time. The War of the Burning Sky campaign folded after six months due to my work commitments, but links to it can be found under my rpg.net alter ego, "Calavingian", on RPG.net. You'll also find links to my current games, such as the Dragon Age campaign I've been running on and off this last year.

In this session, I wanted to record an idea for Dungeon Ecology I recently suggested on the Huge Ruined Pile blog (there should be a link to it on this page, as its one of the sites I follow). Dungeon ecology has been a huge issue for years. After the first gamer asked his DM how the hell a 90ft dragon managed to squueze itself through the 10ft wide dungeon corridors, I'd like to think his second question was: what the hell does it eat?

Granted, the answer was probably "adventurers", but what else did it eat? Moreover, what did it's minions eat? Various supplements over the years have sought to address the issue by having plenty of "prey" animal encounters, such as giant rats, mushroom rooms, bats, spiders, centipedes and so forth, but rarely did you encounter enough of them in the dungeon to support a hundred odd humanoids - even assuming they had control of a safe route to the surface for foraging (and most dungeon denizens don't).

Then again you had the issue of waste disposal. To be frank: where did these monsters shit? Or more importantly, where did they put all that shit? Sure a few dungeons had latrine shafts, privies and the odd shit-smeared crevasse, but what did they do when these holes finally filled up? Sure shit burns, but it makes a hell of a lot of greasy, choking smoke in the process. And ventilation in an underground chamber can't be that great. What monster wants to choke to death on burning shit just to keep warm or dispose of waste?

Fortunately, in a world of magic and mayhem such as that found in most D&D settings, there are options. One I have used in the past -and plan on using again very soon- is outlined below:

Scattered throughout the dungeon are various magical rooms. Each of these rooms contain a number of barrels. Some of these barrels contain junk or waste materials, such as urine, faeces, scraps of iron, ragged strips of leather, food scraps and so forth. Others contain fresh water, gruel, newly smelted iron ingots, tanned leather or iron rations. Each barrel only ever contains one type of resource or material waste at a time.

Each day, at midnight, the contents of barrels full of "waste" are magically recycled into fresh, new resources of that type. Broken bits of iron or steel are replaced with fresh ingots. Faeces is replaced by pottage or a watery gruel. Urine becomes fresh water and so forth. Removing the barrels from the room will not duplicate the magic: purely because these are normal, everyday barrels. It is the room itself, not the barrels, which are enchanted.

And in case your players get any funny ideas, any material produced by these barrels (except for material that has since been "reworked" in such way, as as swords forged from the iron or food that has been consumed) disappears upon being removed from the dungeon.

Hence, the intelligent monsters within have a reason to stay there, despite the presence of enemy tribes and adventurers). Moreover, they have a reason to war and feud with one another for control of these rooms (rather than fighting over the actual resources themselves). Logically, this means every monster lair (or at least, every lair occupied by intelligent beings) needs to have control over at least one such room. If the tribe doesn't, it will perish. Unless it can convince another tribe to allow it access to the magical rooms they control - a possible means of establishing an internal power structure within the dungeon, with weaker tribes such as kobolds and goblins acting as servants/minions of more powerful tribes in return for access these rooms.

If players can seize control of such a room (and keep it) then fresh forays to town for new supplies become a lot less frequent, allowing them to spend more time in the dungeon. Of course, this is balanced by the time they must now spend defending this room from other monsters that want it for themselves. I suspect that this is how most tribes ending up in the dungeon: they moved in, captured such a room, and have been busily using the resources it creates to defend themselves (and it) ever since. Perhaps one tribe is actually the degenerate descendants of an adventuring band that got all caught up in the idea of defending "their" supply room long ago?

Actually, thats not a bad idea. But what have they degenerated into? Neanderthalls? Grimlocks? I'll take the time to have a few thoughts on that one, then spring it on the players later.