NOTE: MY PLAYERS SHOULD NOT READ THIS ENTRY
My 2e campaign world is relatively new, only 4 years old. I use the Skills and Powers, Combat & Tactics, and the Spells & Magic rules in this campaign. In this post I am going to review the steps I went through to provide in-universe reasons for certain racial traits.
I began with a world map created with AutoRealm. I created a world with 2x the diameter of Earth because I wanted to introduce certain ideas into the campaign about elemental forces. Plus, big maps!
There are three major continents - one in 'the North', one in 'the South', one the crosses the equator. The north pole is covered with a massive plateau of 6,000 square miles and the south pole is a flat plain.
Then I went into a history that stretched from before the use of metal tools until the year before play started. Key historical events are;
-in the the late Paleolithic all the demi-human races were concentrated in the tropical southern continent. Humanity was enslaved by Elves. The long-lived elves and their natural magic allowed them to dominate the other races. Dwarves hid in the mountains, working on weapons, Gnomes hid in the forests, Halflings skulked about, and Humans were slave labor. Humanoids lived on the northern and eastern continents.
-a human, furious about the inability of Humans to use magic, had a breakthrough and began to understand preparing spells. He and his descendants developed the magic-user abilities over three generations eventually culminating in the magic-user class.
-Humanity began developing magic-users in secret until they staged a mass uprising. This began generations of warfare between Humans and Elves and a civil war between the Elves. The pro-Human branch of Elves lost the civil war were driven underground by the winning Elf factions.
-Surface Elves gained a limited ability to use prepared magic at the expense of much of their innate magical ability.
-The subterranean Elves used magic to darken their skin to aid in underground stealth.
Note: This is used to explain in-universe a few points:
1) Humans have unlimited potential as magic-users because they invented the use of prepared spells.
2) The limit on maximum level as magic-user for Elves and Half-elves is because the use of prepared magic is alien to them - it is literally against their nature.
3) Gnomes are good at Illusion because they had to hide from Elven slavers
4) Dwarves are resistant to magic because of their long war against the naturally-magical Elves.
5) A real reason why Drow are black-skinned as an underground race and their hatred of other elves.
6) The plot twist that the Grey Elves are the ancient villains of the Elven civil war that drove the Drow underground.
Next will be how I built a histroy
Monday, June 10, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
Roleplaying Tips: Roleplaying Wisdom
Intelligence seems like an easy stat to understand. We all know people of average or below average intelligence and we all like to think we know how to play a high Intelligence.
Don't we?
But Wisdom - in my experience that is just a bit tougher. Now, we can talk all day about what Wisdom is in real life (I prefer Aristotle's view in the Nicomachean Ethics as expanded upon by St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica, but that is a different discussion) but let's focus on what it means as a game mechanic. Some people seem to think it is willpower, others insight or intuition, and, well, it seems to confuse plenty of people.
I am going to throw my own hat into the ring and say that, in terms of game mechanics, Wisdom represents the ability of a character to both remain true to their own ethics, morals, and goals and to discern the motives of others.
'But Rick,' I hear you ask, 'Why do you think that and what does it mean?'.
Well, first of all it echoes a lot of the concepts of Wisdom I mentioned above (although of course, to Aristotle and Aquinas an evil man is inherently unwise). It also explains both the 'bonus to saves vs. charm, etc.' and the 'more spells for clerics with a high Wisdom' things. The resistance is largely a good sense of self and the ability to discern the real motives of the charmer - 'Wait, I don't want to leave the room! And why is this 'friend' of mine so smug?'. The bonus spells are from both more focused prayers and a reward for devotion.
So a low Wisdom character will be easily distracted, have poor impulse control, and dither. A high Wisdom character will be focused, have good impulse control, and be decisive.
But what does this look like during play? Well, it can be little things; when the character enters a shop to buy a week of iron rations they come out with 2 weeks of iron rations, flask of brandy, a bottle of wine, and a new hat. Why? The brandy can be used for medicinal reasons, the wine is a good year, it rained down his neck on the last trip, and the shop keeper gave him a great bulk deal for buying 2 weeks instead of one - he really saved money!
It can also manifest as, bluntly, social awkwardness. A low Wisdom character can't 'read' others very well. They drone on with stories that are (too everyone else) obviously boring; the speak too loudly for the circumstances; they think the best of bad people and believe slander about good people.
Lastly, it can be shown as inattention, impatience, and as being easily distracted. They stop listening to instructions before the end; they daydream instead of focusing on the task at hand; they interrupt a lich's soliloquy because they are bored.
This could be moved around, too. A skilled thief with a low Wisdom might be good at reading other's motives and be patient in his job but have no impulse control. A magic-user with a low Wisdom might just be very socially awkward. The variations can be a lot of fun.
Here is an example from the Real World to give you ideas.
In one of the largest robberies in American history a team of professional criminals succeeded in stealing untraceable cash and jewelry worth more than $20 million in current value. None of the few victims saw a face and they seemed to get away free and clear. One of the gang members had two jobs - drive the getaway vehicle and then dispose of the getaway vehicle. He did the first part very well, but the second part? Instead, he decided to visit his girlfriend. He went to her apartment, celebrated too hard and fell asleep - after parking the van in a no parking zone. The vehicle (covered in his fingerprints - he had taken off his gloves since he was going to destroy the vehicle) was easily identified both by description and the empty bags from the scene of the robbery still in the back.
The driver had the courage to help stage the heist but showed a rather low Wisdom score in being easily distracted!
How can you reflect this as a GM? Sit down with the player of a low Wisdom (below a score of 8) character and work out with them how it will manifest itself. Then if you feel the player is not reflecting the low Wisdom in play you could do some of the following:
- An easily-distracted character is on guard duty - they have to roll equal to or below their Wisdom score on d20 or be more easily surprised.
- A socially-awkward character could have a -2 (or more!) on their reaction rolls with an important NPC.
- A character with poor impulse control might have to roll equal to or under their Wisdom score on a d20 to avoid buying more gear/armor/etc. than they need.
- A dithering character might have to make a Wisdom check, as above, in order to make a decision in a high-stress situation; if they fail they keep dithering until they make the roll ( a new roll every segment) or a member of the party with a positive reaction adjustment from Charisma gives them an order.
- If you are using the Maintenance & Upkeep rules from my supplement Far Realms a low Wisdom character might spend 10% more each month to reflect poor impulse control and falling prey to the occasional con man in the streets.
This can also add to your NPCs, too. An evil magic-user might have a 17 Intelligence but his 7 Wisdom could be his downfall!
As for high Wisdom scores (above 14), just remind the player that her character isn't rash, indecisive, etc. Perhaps in an extreme case, such as a cleric with an 18 Wisdom, the GM might occasionally (no more than once per overall arc) slip the player a note being explicit about an NPCs motivations. An NPC with a high Wisdom will be focused and dedicated, good at reading people, and almost impossible to con. This should be even scarier than a brilliant foe!
Have fun at the table!
Don't we?
But Wisdom - in my experience that is just a bit tougher. Now, we can talk all day about what Wisdom is in real life (I prefer Aristotle's view in the Nicomachean Ethics as expanded upon by St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica, but that is a different discussion) but let's focus on what it means as a game mechanic. Some people seem to think it is willpower, others insight or intuition, and, well, it seems to confuse plenty of people.
I am going to throw my own hat into the ring and say that, in terms of game mechanics, Wisdom represents the ability of a character to both remain true to their own ethics, morals, and goals and to discern the motives of others.
'But Rick,' I hear you ask, 'Why do you think that and what does it mean?'.
Well, first of all it echoes a lot of the concepts of Wisdom I mentioned above (although of course, to Aristotle and Aquinas an evil man is inherently unwise). It also explains both the 'bonus to saves vs. charm, etc.' and the 'more spells for clerics with a high Wisdom' things. The resistance is largely a good sense of self and the ability to discern the real motives of the charmer - 'Wait, I don't want to leave the room! And why is this 'friend' of mine so smug?'. The bonus spells are from both more focused prayers and a reward for devotion.
So a low Wisdom character will be easily distracted, have poor impulse control, and dither. A high Wisdom character will be focused, have good impulse control, and be decisive.
But what does this look like during play? Well, it can be little things; when the character enters a shop to buy a week of iron rations they come out with 2 weeks of iron rations, flask of brandy, a bottle of wine, and a new hat. Why? The brandy can be used for medicinal reasons, the wine is a good year, it rained down his neck on the last trip, and the shop keeper gave him a great bulk deal for buying 2 weeks instead of one - he really saved money!
It can also manifest as, bluntly, social awkwardness. A low Wisdom character can't 'read' others very well. They drone on with stories that are (too everyone else) obviously boring; the speak too loudly for the circumstances; they think the best of bad people and believe slander about good people.
Lastly, it can be shown as inattention, impatience, and as being easily distracted. They stop listening to instructions before the end; they daydream instead of focusing on the task at hand; they interrupt a lich's soliloquy because they are bored.
This could be moved around, too. A skilled thief with a low Wisdom might be good at reading other's motives and be patient in his job but have no impulse control. A magic-user with a low Wisdom might just be very socially awkward. The variations can be a lot of fun.
Here is an example from the Real World to give you ideas.
In one of the largest robberies in American history a team of professional criminals succeeded in stealing untraceable cash and jewelry worth more than $20 million in current value. None of the few victims saw a face and they seemed to get away free and clear. One of the gang members had two jobs - drive the getaway vehicle and then dispose of the getaway vehicle. He did the first part very well, but the second part? Instead, he decided to visit his girlfriend. He went to her apartment, celebrated too hard and fell asleep - after parking the van in a no parking zone. The vehicle (covered in his fingerprints - he had taken off his gloves since he was going to destroy the vehicle) was easily identified both by description and the empty bags from the scene of the robbery still in the back.
The driver had the courage to help stage the heist but showed a rather low Wisdom score in being easily distracted!
How can you reflect this as a GM? Sit down with the player of a low Wisdom (below a score of 8) character and work out with them how it will manifest itself. Then if you feel the player is not reflecting the low Wisdom in play you could do some of the following:
- An easily-distracted character is on guard duty - they have to roll equal to or below their Wisdom score on d20 or be more easily surprised.
- A socially-awkward character could have a -2 (or more!) on their reaction rolls with an important NPC.
- A character with poor impulse control might have to roll equal to or under their Wisdom score on a d20 to avoid buying more gear/armor/etc. than they need.
- A dithering character might have to make a Wisdom check, as above, in order to make a decision in a high-stress situation; if they fail they keep dithering until they make the roll ( a new roll every segment) or a member of the party with a positive reaction adjustment from Charisma gives them an order.
- If you are using the Maintenance & Upkeep rules from my supplement Far Realms a low Wisdom character might spend 10% more each month to reflect poor impulse control and falling prey to the occasional con man in the streets.
This can also add to your NPCs, too. An evil magic-user might have a 17 Intelligence but his 7 Wisdom could be his downfall!
As for high Wisdom scores (above 14), just remind the player that her character isn't rash, indecisive, etc. Perhaps in an extreme case, such as a cleric with an 18 Wisdom, the GM might occasionally (no more than once per overall arc) slip the player a note being explicit about an NPCs motivations. An NPC with a high Wisdom will be focused and dedicated, good at reading people, and almost impossible to con. This should be even scarier than a brilliant foe!
Have fun at the table!
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Dungeon Master's Log - 1e campaign, part 3
[Check the archive and labels for previous entries]
Four of my sons returned to In Search of the Unknown. When last we left our heroes they were camped in the door maze. After sleep, re-memorizing spells and a light meal (what with a fear of rations running low) they set out and soon learned that the trail of nails they had left behind was gone. Why? they don't know.
This time they took a different corridor and encountered the library. After spending some time trying to figure out how the fire beetles got fed and then trying to get to the fire beetles, the left since none of the books were valuable.
They hit a random encounter (3 orcs) and made short work of them. The monk was particularly effective, although they all did well. Then - they hot the trick room. I am not going to spell out the full details since the little imps read this blog, but they are now certain they need a dwarf in all 1e parties for the chance to detect shifting rooms and walls. After another random encounter they ended up - back in the maze of corridors, but they did take a different route, finding the gymnasium and the hobgoblins inside. After a short, but tough, fight they prevailed. The cleric healed as best he could and they continued. After a trip down the zig-zag hallway they went to the three large guest rooms north to south fighting and killing a giant spider, 2 kobolds, and some skeletons respectively. Then the hit the false stairs (which they quickly figured out, to their credit). Starting to get a little sense of direction in the absence of a map they were soon camped in the hidden supply room, resting and healing.
I am very pleased with how they are working as a party. They have always had sound tactics, but as they flesh out the characters the party is shaping up very well. One insight from post-play review was from the oldest, J., and the second-oldest, A., that they thought parties where all the players weren't brothers might have more trouble working together.
That is certainly true.
Four of my sons returned to In Search of the Unknown. When last we left our heroes they were camped in the door maze. After sleep, re-memorizing spells and a light meal (what with a fear of rations running low) they set out and soon learned that the trail of nails they had left behind was gone. Why? they don't know.
This time they took a different corridor and encountered the library. After spending some time trying to figure out how the fire beetles got fed and then trying to get to the fire beetles, the left since none of the books were valuable.
They hit a random encounter (3 orcs) and made short work of them. The monk was particularly effective, although they all did well. Then - they hot the trick room. I am not going to spell out the full details since the little imps read this blog, but they are now certain they need a dwarf in all 1e parties for the chance to detect shifting rooms and walls. After another random encounter they ended up - back in the maze of corridors, but they did take a different route, finding the gymnasium and the hobgoblins inside. After a short, but tough, fight they prevailed. The cleric healed as best he could and they continued. After a trip down the zig-zag hallway they went to the three large guest rooms north to south fighting and killing a giant spider, 2 kobolds, and some skeletons respectively. Then the hit the false stairs (which they quickly figured out, to their credit). Starting to get a little sense of direction in the absence of a map they were soon camped in the hidden supply room, resting and healing.
I am very pleased with how they are working as a party. They have always had sound tactics, but as they flesh out the characters the party is shaping up very well. One insight from post-play review was from the oldest, J., and the second-oldest, A., that they thought parties where all the players weren't brothers might have more trouble working together.
That is certainly true.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Disease, Fear, and Player Motivation, plus a Sneak Peek at Far Realms
I was a soldier for 8 years and spent most of my time out of Ft. Bragg hanging out with guys who have absolutely nothing left to prove.
[Sidenote: there are an amazing number of RPG geeks in Special Forces].
One of the toughest, most unflappable men I knew was a senior sergeant I'll call Robert. Now, Rob bench pressed small cars, could run 2 miles in less than 9 minutes, was one of the most experienced jumpmasters on Ft. Bragg, and knew enough martial arts to be asked to be in a Van Damme movie. He was the Real Deal.
In Desert Shield/Storm I finally saw fear in his eyes, though. Real fear. What was the phrase that scared one of the toughest men in the Army?
"The local that's been delivering food might have typhus"
Disease has killed more soldiers than bullets ever will. Parasites are close behind. Indeed, some anthropologists believe that malaria has killed more people than any other single cause ever. That is a pretty big deal. Disease is part of warfare, too, with diseased animals being used as part of sieges for millennia.
What does this have to do with gaming? Well, to me, tons.
That is because disease and parasites can be used like any other threat to drive the plot and give the players a challenge to overcome. Also, they offer a unique opportunity to threaten players regardless of level! A 17th level Cleric with malaria is in about as much trouble as a peasant with the same. Oh, sure, spells can cure it but is the cleric in any condition to cast it on himself when in the throes of a flare up? The characters might not fear a group of Kobolds in their lair, but the sight of roaches scuttling among the piles of garbage and waste scattered throughout could give them pause; after all, the bloody flux doesn't care about your armor class.
No, I don't think you should reduce your players to germ-phobic paranoiacs nor must you plunge your campaign into a grim nightmare of plague pyres and chants of 'bring out your dead'. But just like food and water, concerns about disease shouldn't be absent from your campaign, either. Plus, disease can be a plot point.
Brother Dorn walked slowly down the lane toward the Jonmy home, hoping that the youngest child hadn't taken a turn for the worst. He was too tired to walk any faster, having just come from the Ulrin family home and his attempts to comfort Alsee after the death of her husband.
It was so very odd! Sure, Winter was the time of cold and sniffles, but a plague like this? It was worse than his own youth when the Yellow Death had come. He'd asked the Bishop for aid, but the note back said that every village in the diocese had the Winter Plague and that the senior clerics and even the paladin Sir Eirik were going village to village in an attempt to stop the illness. And that was odd, too, a sickness in every village, even the ones away from the King's road.
Speaking of odd, who was at the well? Even with the plague the women filled their casks during the day, not in the bitter cold of a mid-Winter night. As Dorn came came to the edge of the village square he realized the figure in the middle of it was too tall to be any of the village women. And dressed in a hooded robe?
Then Dorn's sleep-deprived brain realized something that made him even colder than the chill east wind - the figure was pouring something into the well. And the hooded robe might be the dirty yellow worn only by the priests of the Rotted One. But the Plague Priests had been wiped out generations ago!
As he stood there, stunned, the figure at the well, perhaps sensing Dorn's gaze, shot a look in the direction of the religious brother. The two of them spent a moment staring into each other's eyes across the dozen yards separating them, the Brother's face pale in exhaustion and shock, the figure's face covered in a stained linen mask. The moment was broken as the Plague Priest turned to run and Dorn opened his mouth to shout an alarm.
All this being said, there are three elements of my campaign I am including in Far Realms; the Religious Brother and the Healer. The first are custom rulles on diseases and parasites.
The second is the Religious Bother (or Sister) is a non-adventuring (i.e., NPC-only) sub-class of the Cleric. Compared to Clerics, Religious Brothers have fewer hit points, fewer weapon proficiencies, lesser fighting skills, and fewer spells. However, they do serve an important role in the campaign. Where Clerics are meant to represent the Crusading Priest the Religious Brothers (and Sisters) are the village/parish priests, the ordained monks, the fully-vowed nuns, and the other non-combat clerical spell casters. The can be henchmen to player characters and can also be among the followers attracted by high-level Clerics when they build a stronghold.
The third are healers. Healers are hirelings proficient in herbs, poultices, and tending the sick. They can reduce the likelihood of characters getting ill and speed recovery from disease and parasites. In extreme cases they can even reverse the effects of level drains!
Together these three elements allow you both make disease and parasite a motivator, add depth to your campaign with NPCs, and make henchmen/hirelings an integral part of play.
[Sidenote: there are an amazing number of RPG geeks in Special Forces].
One of the toughest, most unflappable men I knew was a senior sergeant I'll call Robert. Now, Rob bench pressed small cars, could run 2 miles in less than 9 minutes, was one of the most experienced jumpmasters on Ft. Bragg, and knew enough martial arts to be asked to be in a Van Damme movie. He was the Real Deal.
In Desert Shield/Storm I finally saw fear in his eyes, though. Real fear. What was the phrase that scared one of the toughest men in the Army?
"The local that's been delivering food might have typhus"
Disease has killed more soldiers than bullets ever will. Parasites are close behind. Indeed, some anthropologists believe that malaria has killed more people than any other single cause ever. That is a pretty big deal. Disease is part of warfare, too, with diseased animals being used as part of sieges for millennia.
What does this have to do with gaming? Well, to me, tons.
That is because disease and parasites can be used like any other threat to drive the plot and give the players a challenge to overcome. Also, they offer a unique opportunity to threaten players regardless of level! A 17th level Cleric with malaria is in about as much trouble as a peasant with the same. Oh, sure, spells can cure it but is the cleric in any condition to cast it on himself when in the throes of a flare up? The characters might not fear a group of Kobolds in their lair, but the sight of roaches scuttling among the piles of garbage and waste scattered throughout could give them pause; after all, the bloody flux doesn't care about your armor class.
No, I don't think you should reduce your players to germ-phobic paranoiacs nor must you plunge your campaign into a grim nightmare of plague pyres and chants of 'bring out your dead'. But just like food and water, concerns about disease shouldn't be absent from your campaign, either. Plus, disease can be a plot point.
Brother Dorn walked slowly down the lane toward the Jonmy home, hoping that the youngest child hadn't taken a turn for the worst. He was too tired to walk any faster, having just come from the Ulrin family home and his attempts to comfort Alsee after the death of her husband.
It was so very odd! Sure, Winter was the time of cold and sniffles, but a plague like this? It was worse than his own youth when the Yellow Death had come. He'd asked the Bishop for aid, but the note back said that every village in the diocese had the Winter Plague and that the senior clerics and even the paladin Sir Eirik were going village to village in an attempt to stop the illness. And that was odd, too, a sickness in every village, even the ones away from the King's road.
Speaking of odd, who was at the well? Even with the plague the women filled their casks during the day, not in the bitter cold of a mid-Winter night. As Dorn came came to the edge of the village square he realized the figure in the middle of it was too tall to be any of the village women. And dressed in a hooded robe?
Then Dorn's sleep-deprived brain realized something that made him even colder than the chill east wind - the figure was pouring something into the well. And the hooded robe might be the dirty yellow worn only by the priests of the Rotted One. But the Plague Priests had been wiped out generations ago!
As he stood there, stunned, the figure at the well, perhaps sensing Dorn's gaze, shot a look in the direction of the religious brother. The two of them spent a moment staring into each other's eyes across the dozen yards separating them, the Brother's face pale in exhaustion and shock, the figure's face covered in a stained linen mask. The moment was broken as the Plague Priest turned to run and Dorn opened his mouth to shout an alarm.
All this being said, there are three elements of my campaign I am including in Far Realms; the Religious Brother and the Healer. The first are custom rulles on diseases and parasites.
The second is the Religious Bother (or Sister) is a non-adventuring (i.e., NPC-only) sub-class of the Cleric. Compared to Clerics, Religious Brothers have fewer hit points, fewer weapon proficiencies, lesser fighting skills, and fewer spells. However, they do serve an important role in the campaign. Where Clerics are meant to represent the Crusading Priest the Religious Brothers (and Sisters) are the village/parish priests, the ordained monks, the fully-vowed nuns, and the other non-combat clerical spell casters. The can be henchmen to player characters and can also be among the followers attracted by high-level Clerics when they build a stronghold.
The third are healers. Healers are hirelings proficient in herbs, poultices, and tending the sick. They can reduce the likelihood of characters getting ill and speed recovery from disease and parasites. In extreme cases they can even reverse the effects of level drains!
Together these three elements allow you both make disease and parasite a motivator, add depth to your campaign with NPCs, and make henchmen/hirelings an integral part of play.
Monday, June 3, 2013
The Weekly Useful Magic Item - plus: Encumbrance and Water!
My first ever! Well, first ever on purpose; I put the Robe of Deeppockets up last week.
I have always had a special fondness for magic items like Daern's Instant Fortress or the Bag og Holding; useful but not combat-oriented. So I will try to add a new useful item each week!
Magic item; Everfull Flask.This is a small metal pint flask designed to be slipped into a pocket [i.e., a hip flask] with a cork and metal stopper attached to the bottle with a chain. It is typically found full of resh water. At any time the flask is not full and the stopper is in place after 5 minutes the flask will refill itself with fresh, clean water that is pleasantly cool. Without the stopper in place the flask will not refill itself.
Other things may placed into the flask (oil, potions, etc.) but the flask will not refill itself until after the other liquid is removed. The flask makes all saving throws as hard metal.
The Everfull Flask is meant to be a 'nice to have' magic item about utility rather than effect. It only produces a pint of water at a time, the gap between pints is at least 5 minutes, and it only refills with the cap on - you can't use it to put out large fires or flood a room. So why have one? Well, with one of these you never need worry about dying of thirst.
Your players aren't worried about their characters running out of water? Maybe you should fix that. See, water is heavy 1 pint = 1 lbs in game. And you need at least a gallon of water every day just for drinking. If your players are sending their characters into a dungeon they need at least 2 full wine skins each for 8 hours of walking and fighting [for historical reasons I set a wine skin's volume at a quart] through a dungeon. That's 4 lbs. of water. Oh, they get stuck or lost and are there overnight? Then they start taking penalties for thirst and dehydration.
Or they can take the 'Flask!
I have always had a special fondness for magic items like Daern's Instant Fortress or the Bag og Holding; useful but not combat-oriented. So I will try to add a new useful item each week!
Magic item; Everfull Flask.This is a small metal pint flask designed to be slipped into a pocket [i.e., a hip flask] with a cork and metal stopper attached to the bottle with a chain. It is typically found full of resh water. At any time the flask is not full and the stopper is in place after 5 minutes the flask will refill itself with fresh, clean water that is pleasantly cool. Without the stopper in place the flask will not refill itself.
Other things may placed into the flask (oil, potions, etc.) but the flask will not refill itself until after the other liquid is removed. The flask makes all saving throws as hard metal.
The Everfull Flask is meant to be a 'nice to have' magic item about utility rather than effect. It only produces a pint of water at a time, the gap between pints is at least 5 minutes, and it only refills with the cap on - you can't use it to put out large fires or flood a room. So why have one? Well, with one of these you never need worry about dying of thirst.
Your players aren't worried about their characters running out of water? Maybe you should fix that. See, water is heavy 1 pint = 1 lbs in game. And you need at least a gallon of water every day just for drinking. If your players are sending their characters into a dungeon they need at least 2 full wine skins each for 8 hours of walking and fighting [for historical reasons I set a wine skin's volume at a quart] through a dungeon. That's 4 lbs. of water. Oh, they get stuck or lost and are there overnight? Then they start taking penalties for thirst and dehydration.
Or they can take the 'Flask!
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Fantasy Demographics, or: Why Elves and Orcs Fight Different Wars
Note: This post deals with Real World ideas, concepts, or choices that are very personal. It is not meant to offend but is just a discussion of how these factors impact fantasy role playing game campaigns. Thanks.
Waaaaay back when, my Dad took me to see Soylent Green. Now, I was very young, but in my father's defense we both love science fiction movies, so we went anyway. This began my rather odd hobby of studying demographics (which led me to reject the threat of overpopulation by 5th grade, but that is another story). Thus there was something in both the Complete Book of Elves and the Complete Book of Dwarves which just intrigued me. In the complete CBoE they state that the average Elven female has 2 children. In the CBoD they state that the average Dwarf female has 3 kids, but 2/3 of all births are males.
Why does this matter?
Math.
Not to get too wonky (although I can talk about demographics for literally hours. And I am not using 'literally' for emphasis, I mean it literally) (see what I did there?), but a key metric in demographics is Total Fertility Rate (TFR for short) which is, simply, 'how many children does each woman in a population have, on average?'. TFR means a lot - it allows you to calculate the growth or shrinkage of future generation, determine the demographic momentum of a society, all sorts of really... boring... to... anyone... else... stuff....
Yeah.
Anyway, when the books say 'the average Elf female has two kids' this means 'the TFR is 2'. This is important because in the Real World replacement TFR (the TFR where the population neither grows nor shrinks over generations) is between 2.1 and 2.4 - each woman has just over 2 kids each on average. Since a certain number of people never have kids for a variety of reasons, it must be above a flat 2.0. In a modern industrialized nation like, oh, France, 2.1 is equilibrium. In a modern nation with a higher rate of mortality for youth it is more like 2.4.
Here's the point, though - in pre-modern societies replacement TFR was more like 3.5-4.5. Why? Poorer health care and a higher mortality rate. Remember, the reason the average lifespan before the mid-20th Century was 35-40 for most of the world was because so many children died - if you lived to be 14-16 you were almost certainly going to live to be 75-80! Well, barring other factors. Like war.
Chronic war really increases the replacement TFR number, for obvious reasons. Plague can do the same.
Well, the CBoE said 2, but maybe they reaslly meant, oh, 2.3. With magical healing, a natural resistance to disease, etc., this probably means that Elves have a stable population, barring war.
Let's talk about Dwarves for a moment.
In the Real World we assume a gender ratio of about 50/50, so the 66/34 male/female of the Dwarves is really important.This means if you start with 300 Dwarves you will only have 100 couples (it takes two to make little dwarves and, more importantly, TFR is tied to the number of females). If they have a TFR of 3 that means the next generation will be = 300 Dwarves. Also perfect equilibrium since that generation will also have 100 females
"OK," I hear you say, "so the generations are stable, so what?"
One, it means that if you accept these numbers Dwarves and Elves can't really expand - if there is already a city that houses 2,000 Dwarves why build a new one? After all, there is no population growth. Sending people off is a drain of the most important resource of a society - the people. There are probably a number of social pressures to avoid this.
Two, it will have a huge impact on how Dwarves and especially Elves go to war. Here are some of my thoughts on this:
While Dwarves have an 'excess' male population (the 33% of each generation that will have no wife) allowing them to go to war relatively easily, women and children are virtually irreplaceable. So while male Dwarves roaming the mountains prospecting and killing Orcs for fun might be common, they will almost certainly guard their women and children fiercely. This is a simple explanation for why you traditionally never see Dwarven women - they are quite directly the most precious thing in Dwarf society.
For Elves it is even more extreme - any loss of life might not be replaced for two or more generations. That is pretty serious.
This means the Elves must really strive to limit battle deaths and while Dwarves can sustain some heavy losses of life on the battlefield women are too precious to risk.
Which leads me to a fantasy element - lifespan of non-humans.
It takes a human about 16 years to be considered an adult and human generations are counted as about 25 years. If we follow the age guidelines in the DMG (and why wouldn't we?) it takes a Dwarf about 60 years to mature and an elf about 120. With a bit of extrapolation we can guess that a Dwarven generation is about, oh, 60 years and an Elven generation is about 250.
Wow. That's big.
Why? because it takes at least a generation to recover from a major loss of life. World War I caused the death of a huge number of young men. One of the reasons World War Ii was a generation later is, arguably, the hostiles needed to wait until the next generation finished growing up to continue the fighting. The Black Death caused so much loss of life that it really took five generations for Europe to recover.
This means that it would take the Dwarves 75 years to recover from a war that killed their 'excess' males and about 30% of the rest of the males. This means an Elven society struck with something like the Black Death wouldn't recover for more than a millenium. That is high stakes stuff.
Let's change tacks just a little bit and think about Orcs. We can extrapolate that they mature around 12 and that an Orcish generation is, oh, 20 years. We know they are 'fecund' because we are told they are. What does this mean in comparison with Elves? Well, in the Real World there are societies that reached TFRs of 9+ in the 20th Century, so 'fecund' could be quite a large number! But let's just assume that between disease, violence, and generally being Lawful Evil Orcish societies grow about 25% per generation.
What does this mean? More directly, what does this mean for a campaign (since this is about a game, after all)?
Here is a scenario;
The Orcish tribes and the Elven kingdom have been on edge for a decade, but now war is really begun. The Elves are smarter, better trained, have better gear, and have more spell casters. The Orcs are more disciplined and there are many more combatants. When they begin the war there are 3,000 Elven soldiers (out of a kingdom of 20,000) and 7,500 Orcish warriors (out of 20,000 Orcs).
After 5 years of brutal fighting the Elves prevail; they slaughter over 5,000 Orcs while losing only 1,000 Elves. The Elves return to their homes, triumphant, and the good feelings and other factors cause a spike in births, meaning the next generation of Elves will be about 10% larger.
Humiliated, the Orcs retreat to their homes. There is no surge for them. At this point, the Year of the Great Battle the two sides are roughly as follows;
Orcs: 3,500 surviving warriors. 7,500 potential warriors not yet mature from the 2nd generation. And 6,000 females with mates available to birth the 3rd generation.
Elves: 2,000 surviving soldiers. 3,000 potential soldiers not yet mature from the second generation. And 9,000 females with mates to birth the 3rd generation.
In Year after the Great Battle (YGB) 20 the second generation of Orcish warriors are mature and ready to fight - all 7,500 of them! They face off against - the first generation Elvish warriors again. After all, the young Elves still have over two centuries to mature! The Orcs are young and the cream of their army dies in the Great Battle. The Elves are battle-hardened and fierce, so this time the Elves kill another 4,000 Orcs but only lose 500 Elves. So in the second generation we have;
Orcs: 3,500 surviving warriors. 7,500 potential warriors from the 3rd generation (25% growth, remember?). 6,000 females with mates to birth the 4th generation.
Elves: 1,500 surviving soldiers. 3,000 potential soldiers from the 2nd generation. 9,000 females that will eventually birth 2,700 soldiers in the 3rd generation.
Reeling from two defeats in two generations, the Orcs wait, biding their time and skirmishing with Humand and Dwarven forces in raids, raids which whittle down their comabt numbers but mean their warriors are experienced.. Finally in YGB 60 the 4th generation of Orc warriors, whittled down to 7,500 (remember that 25% growth?) but battle-hardened face off against - the 1,500 surviving 1st generation Elven warriors! As evenly matched individually as the first battle, but incredibly outnumbered, the Elves fight as defensively as possible. They barely manage to drive off the Orcs losing another 1,000 elves to 4,000 Orcs.
Barely able to send 500 soldiers to the field, the Elves retreat into the mountains.
As you can see, the humanoid races, with their higher fertility and shorter generations, have a massive advantage in warfare over multiple generations!
In other words, if Elves and Dwarves do have such low fertility, they are going to be wiped out. As a matter of fact, as DM you need to explain why they haven't been wiped out already.
Please allow me to digress from fantasy to reality for just a moment. I am going to assume that most readers of this blog like most roleplayers are from nations with low birthrates. This is, historically, an anomaly. While real world demographics do show periods of stability and periods of decline, these were caused by bad weather and plague - birthrates remained high relative to modern birthrates. While the majority of the current world is below replacement TFR this is very unusual.
Back to FRPGs. As you can see from the example I give above, have only replacement TFR is a big problem because it means that societies can't replace major losses in anything approaching a reasonable amount of time! For this reason in my campaigns I tend to have birthrates higher. Add in the fact that FRPG worlds tend to be shockingly lethal, I tend to make them much higher than you see in the modern world, much more akin to Europe of the High Middle Ages. I essentially assume that per generation population growth for Humans is about 30%, for Halflings it is 25%, for Elves, Gnomes, and Dwarves it is 15% and for the major humanoid races it is 40%-60% (not counting war or disease for any of these). I also have the sex ratio be about 50/50 for everyone but Dwarves where it is 55/45 male/female.
Even with more reasonable TFRs, though, the issue of the length of generations remains - Orcs can go through almost 4 generations before Dwarves get to 2. For Elves it is closer to 12 generations to 2. This will have a profound effect upon how the various races wage war.
First, the various bonuses Dwarves and Elves have (bonuses vs. certain races or with certain weapons) make sense because of their longer lives. The same applies to the greater numbers of powerful individuals in their forces. In any given battle Dwarves or Elves will prevail over Orcs of the same number. It will be more lopsided in their favor against Goblins and much more even against Hobgoblins. But Dwarves and Elves must do their utmost to avoid a long-term war of attrition because they simply can't win such a war.
Suddenly, there is a reason Dwarves built such strong mountain fortresses and Elves live in thick forests with many sylvan allies; these positions are defensive, giving them the advantage, and can give them better warning of potential attacks. Both races will be as selective as possible about engaging forces they cannot overwhelm and must limit their losses as best they can.
In a similar vein, Gnomes and Halflings make a lot more 'sense', too. The Halflings have great stealth and skills with missile weapons because they rely upon avoidance and ambush. Gnomes, with their illusions, are natural commandos. Like Dwarves and Elves they have these skills because they need them to survive as a society.
Humanoids, on the other hand, are much more like hammers than rapiers. Their goal in war is to close with and engage the enemy with as much force as possible. With their numbers than can afford to be profligate on the battlefield because they recover from the loss of soldiers faster than their foes. Wave attacks by Goblins to 'soften up' the front lines for the hammer blow of a Hobgoblin charge may seem like a terrific loss of life but every Dwarf they kill is one less Dwarf their grandchildren will have to fight!
This can also explain why Humans so often seem dominant in FRPGs; with a birthrate and generation length much closer to the Humanoids they are both much more capable for fighting humanoids on their own terms and invaluable allies to the other demi-human races.
Please think about it and I hope this can add to your campaigns.
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