In 2015 I ran a Majestic Wilderlands campaign using D&D 5th edition. One of players was Douglas Cole who blog frequently on Gaming Ballistic. He also kept a journal of his time in the campaign (https://gamingballistic.com/category/actual-play/majestic-wilderlands/). Given the interest over in the Medieval Authentic I figure it would help to show an example of actual play.
Re-skinning History
One technique I use is re-skin history. I will take one or more incidents, change names, and make the background fit. Earth's history is incredibly diverse and easy to find stuff to adapt to a campaign if you are well-versed in history.
For example, Saladar, King of the Grand Kingdom (from Blackmarsh, Points of Light) just died and his only child surviving to adulthood is the Duchess Aleia. Alias was married Geran, Duke of Powin, part of the neighboring Kingdom of Gwyneed. However the Grand Kingdom is only two generations old. The seven realms having been united by King Aldric the Bold, Saladar's father, 50 years ago. When Aldric died, Saladar's older brother, Aldric the Red (II) took the throne but died in a hunting accident a few years later. As he had no child Saladar was crowned king. Unfortunately Saladar's eldest, Prince Edwin, died while patrolling the eastern borderlands leaving only Aleia as his heir.
However Barons did not like the idea of a Queen being in charge. Their hold over their estates throughout the seven realms was tenous and they desired a strong warrior king like King Aldric the Bold. Palanon was the grandson of King Aldric the Bold, however his mother was King Aldric's daughter so he wasn't considered as a candidate for the kingship until King Saladar died without a male heir. Palanon's supporters moved quickly as it would take two month for the Duchess Aleia to arrive at the capital of the Grand Kingdom. The royal treasury was seized and Palanon was proclaimed King just as the Duchess crossed the borders a few week later.
The Duchess Aleia was known for her fiery temper and wasn't about to give up. She issued a call for loyal supporters to gather under her banner. And with that call the Grand Kingdom was plunged in the era of the Chaos.
Now if you don't recognize any of this, this is a thinly veiled re-skin of the Anarchy period of England (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anarchy). Saladar is a King Henry I who lost his son in the shipwreck of the White Ship, leaving only his daughter Matilda (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Matilda). Palanon is Stephen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen,_King_of_England)the grandson of King William the Conqueror by his daughter Adela of Normandy.
But it not enough
OK so you made the above background and re-skinned it nicely. Right now it is useless vanity piece you wrote for your enjoyment. The only thing that makes it matter is how it defines the behavior of the NPCs that the PCs will encounter.
If you read medieval history a lot what drives things is the social webs that surround those in power. In one sense the Anarchy was two biker (or horse?) gangs (Matlida, and Stephen) fighting over turf with various allied gangs coming and going for their own reasons. So the next step one need to take is to define who does the Duchess Aleia know, do they support her (or not), and why. The same for Palanon. For myself I try to keep to the rule of the half-dozen. At each level I only focus on a half-dozen npcs. That way I can keep things in my head. The actual number should be whatever you are comfortable with keeping in your head. Some can to more and some need to do less.
For this type of background what will impact the players the most are retinue of the lowest ranks of nobles with land and power. Those who follow Barons, Sheriffs and the like. So sketch out Palanon, and Aleia, half dozen of their main supporters, and then of them pick a handful who impact the area the PCs are starting in. Then define their retinues and the NPCs that the players are most likely to encounters. Chancellors, Bailiffs, Captains of the Guard, etc. The retinue depends on their lord for privilege and survival so whatever whom the lord is backing they will back.
Finally this is the average, there will be exceptions and variants. But you have to have a norm. So keep a rough count of how often you make an major exception to the rule and if it exceed half of what your are detailing then quit writing up exception and go with mild quirks to add color. For example you defined a regions that has two Barons and five knights. No more than a single Baron and two the knight should vary greatly from the feudal norm in some way. The rest will have quirks to add color.
"One technique I use is re-skin history. I will take one or more incidents, change names, and make the background fit."
I'm aways struck by how different my Wilderlands is from yours Rob, considering I use your Barbarian Altanis from the 3e box set! :)
Mine is so very Flash Gordon meets Frank Miller's 300 by way of Carry on Cleopatra and Barbarella (& a bunch of Blake's 7) and certainly Heavy Metal magazine - all fictional tropes, sf sci-fantasy sword & planet sword & sorcery and occasional high fantasy... I was quite shocked seeing your version of the far north in Fight on! #3 and seeing you'd based it on Medieval Russia. In my mind it's all sorcerous Ice Schooners skimming the glacial wastes, blue Avalonians wielding Ice Magic against rampaging Yeti/Wampa packs, frozen cities beneath the ice holding terrible secrets of the Ancients... probably some blue babes without many clothes, too. :D
I do a lot of history reskinning for background events in my non-authentic AD&D campaigns. The truth has always been stranger than fiction.
The First Game (https://gamingballistic.com/category/actual-play/majestic-wilderlands/)
Background
Doug made a Paladin of Veritas the God of Truth. The religion of Veritas or the High Lord is associated with the Sylvan culture of the Elves in the Majestic Wilderlands. In the region the players are adventuring in there are several cultures that define how NPCs behave. The feudal cultures of the Tharian Horse Lords, Ghinorian (chosen of Mitra). And the Sylvan culture of the Elessarians (Celt like with druids) and demi-humans (Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, etc). One aspect of the Sylvan culture is that is tracks closely to the D&D default of the adventuring party of a kalidoscope of races. This makes it easier for a newcomer to roleplay as a member of this culture. For Doug it had the benefit being somewhat distant from where the campaign was taking place. So it played into Doug not knowing the setting as well as the other players.
Paladins in the Majestic Wilderlands are respected and feared. Respected because they are divine agents of their god. Connected to the deity directly as their agent. Feared because as divine agents they are sent to where there are problem. Their active involvement in a region means somebody in trouble and it could be them. There also tensions between paladins and the political and religious hierarchy. While paladin respect the rule of law and those who hold position, in the end they answer only their god.
While paladins are more recent myth than historical religion always enjoyed a privilege place in society. Typically it was woven in tight with the secular half with the the sovereign acting as King and Priest. The advent of Christianity meant, among other things, the role of King and Priest were separated and turned into parallel hierarchies. In Western Europe particularly, the head of the church, the Pope, contended with Kings over who had the final say. Eventually the Kings won the war, but during the 12th and 13th century the Papacy was ascendant.
Overall the Majestic Wilderlands was polytheistic. Behind the scenes there was only ten major divine powers. However when translated through local culture and its history this resulted in a complex melange of religions. The storm god, was known as Thor to the Skandian Vikings, but in the south to the Ionian barbarians he was Mantriv the Thunderer.
Out of all the cultures, the Sylvan culture led by the Elves were the most aware of the true nature of the divine powers of the world. They viewed as enlightened beings of power imparting great truths through their teachings. The leader of these powers was Veritas the High Lord who name means Truth. Paladins of Veritas main purpose is to promote harmony among the races and to deal with threats to that harmony. The clerics of Sylvan cultures call themselves the Trehaen or teachers. When I use D&D as my rules they are based off the Druid and Ranger class.
The regions that the campaign was set there are two other important religion. First is that of the Ghinorian who arrived a millennia ago from the south. They believe themselves to be the chosen people of Mitra the goddess of honor and justice. I always depicted them as a faux Catholic Church and much of the details are taken from or inspired by the historical medieval church with a dash of Judaism. The Church of Mitra is often the religion my players "get" right away. I deliberately play with the stereotypes people have of the medieval church in the details and in the roleplaying.
The next important religions is that of the Tharian Horse Lord. They swept in from the west 200 years ago and conquered the City State of the Invincible Overlord a century ago. They believe in a High Lord however unlike the Elves their focus of worship is directed to a concept they call the Lars. They believe each clan has a council of dead ancestors established by the High Lord to guide the clan and its members. The clerics are those in charge of the proper ceremonies to honor the Lars and perform auguries to seek counsel with the Lars in the clan's time of need. I was inspired by the religious customs of China and Republican Rome. In creating this.
Again I said in my previous post was important about all of this is how the influenced the behavior of the NPCs the PCs encounter. The Tharian norm is do right by their ancestor. The Ghinorian was to live by the code that Mitra teaches, the Sylvans desire harmony between all.
The Situation
The current dynasty and most of the nobles of the City State are Tharian Horse Lords. While top dog their culture has a serious issue. They are vastly less sophisticated than the Ghinorians and Elessarians (Sylvans) they conquered. For the past century they been playing catch up as they have little in their culture to handle complex economic transactions or handle the rule of thousands living a city as opposed to several hundred clansmen. Over time many Tharian became disillusioned and turned elsewhere for answers. The most popular of which is the martial faith of Set the Dragon God. Set and Mitra are rivals and their respective religions despise each other.
Fifty years ago, the current Overlord's father was having political issues, mostly with the Ghinorian merchants and the few nobles that remained. During that time a Set Mission arrived from the south. In a deliberate snub to the Ghinorians in City State he granted permission for the mission to build a Temple of Set right next to the Cathedral of Mitra. However what started as joke, turned into something more. The worship of Set grew in popularity among the younger generation of Tharians. They were attracted to a religion that advocated a warrior ethos similiar to their own, emphasized that the strong had the right to rule, and was sophisticated as the Church of Mitra in having an answer to many of the problems they faced.
Again how this translate to the player level? Mitra versus Set thanks to Conan and Jaquay's Dark Tower is an enduring trope in tabletop roleplaying. So most when hearing Mitra and Set know that they are not going to like each other. That Mitra is the good guy in all this and Set is the bad guy in all this. This dynamic was always been part of how I ran the Wilderlands. I loved the Dark Tower adventure and its background. It quickly became incorporated in my take on City State with the Hellbridge Temple being dedicated to Set, and instead of there being three central temple each dedicated to a different god, I made it the Cathedral of Mitra. Most of my players expected good clerics to be kind of like Catholic priests so this all reinforced each other.
The Set versus Mitra conflict has been a central dynamic since the first campaign I ran in the Wilderlands. I had campaigns where the players were on the side of Mitra and campaign who were on the side of Set. By the mid 2000s the consequences of all these campaigns was that City State and the territory the Overlord controlled was about to be torn apart in civil war.
The campaign that Doug became part of is where it happened.
The First Game
When D&D 5e came out we all wanted to try it. I really like the Phandelver adventure in the boxed set so volunteered to run it. In case it grew into something more, I took it out of the forgotten realms and set in the Majestic Wilderlands. I located it in a frontier march the City State maintained on the borders of the orc infested forest of Dearthwood. Outside of a few reference and custom maps I pretty much ran the first part of the campaign straight out of the book. I ran this part from July 2014 to October 2014. The players were successful in completing the adventure and won the respect of the town.
Then after the New Year everybody wanted to play 5e again. So I started where we left off. Only this time the long build up to civil war was about to explode
This is my account of that first session. (http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-playtesting-of-5e-is-over-phandalin.html)
The last time we played 5e the players successfully dealt with the Black Spider in the Wind Echo caves and were heading back to Phandalin. They were gone a number of days and in the mean time a messenger arrived from the Mitran rebels in City State that the time to overthrow the Overlord and his nobles was at hand. The leader of the miners, Halia Thorton, was an known adherent of Set. And previously Sildar Hallwinter I made a Black Lotus Agent. The Black Lotus is the Overlord's secret police.
Sildar could see the pitchforks being pulled out and got the miners out although it was too late for Halia. Sildar, his group, and the party met each other on the trail, got attacked by a random patrol of orcs, and a few round into the fight the rest of the PCs showed up.
My inspiration for figuring out how the rebellion would play out is reading the accounts of various peasant revolt throughout the Middle Ages and the Reformation. Like Wat Tyler (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants%27_Revolt), the Hussites (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussite_Wars), and the Peasant War in Germany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Peasants%27_War). When reading about these I tried to imagine why people were acting the way they did. And when it came time for me to use this in my campaign, how would those same beliefs and feeling play out in the particular circumstances of my campaign.
For the Ghinorians, they been in a culture shock ever since the Tharians conquered them. The fact they are now starting to worship the deity they despised the most was the final straw. For Wat Tyler and his group it was also the intersection of several things, the economic disruption of the Black Death, the high taxes, the regency of a young king (Richard II) all combined to form a powder keg that exploded in 1381.
Thinking about the reason for my own civil war allowed me to come up with a multiple intersecting reason for why NPCs acted the way they did. Some are fighting because of economic, some out of religious beliefs, other have a personal grudge against the Tharians. It makes the situation more interesting, more believable, and gives the players more choices on ultimately what they decide to do or not do.
What made this particular situation interesting is that the players knew Phandalin and its inhabitants well from the initial 5e run. So to see the town they worked to protect tear itself apart involved some tough choices.
Quote from: S'mon;1014168I'm aways struck by how different my Wilderlands is from yours Rob, considering I use your Barbarian Altanis from the 3e box set! :)
The deal was that it quickly became obvious EVERYBODY's idea of what the Wilderlands was like was very different from each other. So when it came to me writing my portion, I sat down with the original stats and just started writing with a blank sheet of paper. The result was not based on anything specific to my Majestic Wilderlands but it is based on what I learned over the 20 years of refereeing (at the time).
To be honest I really like what I wrote and wished I had enough time in a day to run a campaign based on just that material instead of what I wrote for the Majestic Wilderlands. I like both a lot.
And doing that and the Wild North is what inspired me to write Points of Light and latter Blackmarsh.
Quote from: S'mon;1014168Mine is so very Flash Gordon meets Frank Miller's 300 by way of Carry on Cleopatra and Barbarella (& a bunch of Blake's 7) and certainly Heavy Metal magazine - all fictional tropes, sf sci-fantasy sword & planet sword & sorcery and occasional high fantasy...
That works :D, not my style but I had fun with Jason Sholtis of Operation Unfathomable when he refereed his adventure for a group I was part of.
Quote from: S'mon;1014168I was quite shocked seeing your version of the far north in Fight on! #3 and seeing you'd based it on Medieval Russia.
You can blame GURPS Russia for inspiring me to do the digging to come up with the Wild North.
The other goal was to generate everything straight out of OD&D. I used Inspiration Pad Pro create the OD&D treasure types and for each monster lair stuff is rolled exactly how the book says too. I wanted to see exactly how it would look if you made a whole region like that. The same with all the castles and keeps, I used the Book III rules to generate who lived where and what. And then figured out the explanation afterwards.
Here is a screenshot of the raw data
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2023[/ATTACH]
So if we look at
Quote0424 Ruin In a Large Crater, a Partially Operational colossal amphibian skeleton is guarded by Undead Class Wights
This inspired
Quote0424 Half buried in the bog is the broken remains of one of Koschei the Undying (Hex 4516) huge mechanical constructs. There are 8 wights (3 HD) inhabiting the remains. They are all that left of the original operating crew.
And this
Quote0426 Citadel 8th Level Fighter guarded by 7 5th Level Fighter with 130 men
Inspired
Quote0426 Shadowmere Tower; Vomilav Ftr8 C Human(Rurasin); 130 Men
Vomilav is a son of Vadim who uses Shadowmere Tower as base to terrorize the villages around the Led'anove Marshes. Every new moon Vomilov leads his Shadow Guard (Ftr5) and his men on a raiding expedition. Several years ago Koschei the Undying (Hex 4516) kidnapped one of his women. Vomilav was able to rescue her and also destroyed the giant mechanical construct that was sent to destroy his tower. (Hex 0424). The two evil lords are now bitter enemies.
The whole Wild North project is why I am so negative about any comment that OD&D can't be used to run sophisticated and detailed settings. From the posted image it looks like all the results are pretty vanilla but if you look at them with a theme in mine like Russian myth, and look for possible connections you get stuff that rich and detailed.
And you can look at the same list in the image and get a world of Flash Gordon meets Frank Miller's 300 by way of Carry on Cleopatra and Barbarella (& a bunch of Blake's 7) and certainly Heavy Metal magazine out of them.
If I was to do another period for Dark Albion besides the Rose War, it would probably be the Anarchy.
Quote from: estar;1014251The whole Wild North project is why I am so negative about any comment that OD&D can't be used to run sophisticated and detailed settings. From the posted image it looks like all the results are pretty vanilla but if you look at them with a theme in mine like Russian myth, and look for possible connections you get stuff that rich and detailed.
And you can look at the same list in the image and get a world of Flash Gordon meets Frank Miller's 300 by way of Carry on Cleopatra and Barbarella (& a bunch of Blake's 7) and certainly Heavy Metal magazine out of them.
Thanks Rob; very insightful stuff as always!
My copy of Fight On! 3 seems to have vanished, but if it ever resurfaces I think I'll use your Wild North for an alternate-world setting. But meanwhile this makes me think I need to do a bunch of random rolls for the areas fringing the core play area in my own Wilderlands (eg northern Oricha, where several PCs are currently near the River of Visions/Northwatch); I don't think I have the OD&D tables but the 1e ones should give a similar effect...
I definitely find history very useful and informative. I remember with my Nerathi-Alryan vs Altanian conflict being inspired by the Balkan wars of the 1990s. It warmed the cockles of my heart when a very aggressive player had a sudden epiphany as his Altanian PC Varek Tigerclaw looked down at the captive Nerathi noblewomen he'd just executed, and said "There are no good guys here". As the realm descended into genocidal civil war - spurred on by his own actions in fighting the 'bad guys', the Nerathi Black Sun.
That was around 2012. In 2017 turns out there are some good guys here, and Altanian PC Hakeem Greywolf has just united Nerathi & Altani in a new empire that commands widespread support from both sides and from other factions too, such as the Ghinarians of the Ghinarian Hills and the Amazons. Not to mention the gargantuan brass dragon & former Nerathi Archmage Dyson Logos, who sleeps beneath Dyson's Delve. :)
Hakeem's player is smart; after defeating the Black Sun, rather than declare himself Emperor he is ruling as Regent for his son Hassan, who when of age will marry the Nerathi-Alryan princess Eratha (daughter of Lord Bronze of Hara/Mara) and they will rule as at least nominal equals. So both sides have a strong stake in making the new empire work.
A lot of players would have taken the Varek/Black Sun approach of trying to completely annihilate the enemy. Which is satisfying, but creates more and more enemies utterly convinced THEY have to destroy YOU too. It was very satisfying seeing players take a different approach and build bridges, not charnel fields.
When I create a character i usually do it in these steps:
I start listening to music in a certain genre and/or style I wish to go towards with the character concept. (step 'zero', I always use music for inspiration)
For my example let's say music like this one:
Spoiler
[video=youtube;Zyer_4rNlKg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyer_4rNlKg[/youtube]
Imagine a character, boy or girl, what the origin of it is (first step: example a street urchin, from a certain historically inspired setting, like from ancient India) who then has something happen to him/her (second step: being taken from the street by a seemingly kind old man) which has an effect
-often very strong- on the character's fate (third step: being groomed to act like a reborn goddess/priestess for a fake religion/cult to swindle food and income from followers) which is likely to change the 'route' a normal person of the prior origin would take. In case of a street urchin this is most likely rogue/thief.
Here I start to build the mature/adult personality of the character as it grows from being a child, how it would react or change his/her own circumstances. (fourth step: taking actions to become free from the old goat puppeteer, becoming actual leader) and what else there might happen which would inflience the character deeply (revelation: character's prayer is replied to by an actual divine being, finding faith in a god).
Once I have these, or similar details I look over them, look for irregularities to fix and historical cases to compare my imagined character to, sometimes making these more evident (possible comparison to Buddha or a follower of a certain god like Kali) or when inconsistent with my image that emerges of the character in the concept I remove it. At this point I have the little puzzle pieces of the background combined into 'the big picture', and can then look how to make my character concept overlap the RPG system used in the best way.
In case of above example: A girl, formerly a street urchin of a cultural background similar to old Indian who got lifted out of the slums by a cult leader to be groomed into a puppet acting as a lure for followers while the old geezer controls her from the shadows. She's too clever and/or charismatic however and manages to take control of the cult and get rid of the old man, then as trying to find her own path her prayers get answered by a deity.
If the system would be D&D she would most certainly start out as a rogue with things like streetwise, and more than likely be multiclassed into cleric. Have to say this character is not likely to be introduced as a level 1 character, but could be between level 5-9 (and this example character is an actual char concept of mine for such scale of xp)
I rarely create characters without trying to reuse events or people from real history, or at least compare these to create a more realistic/plausible history. Another, more simple example would be the creation of a greek hoplite-themed warrior commander who would first have a background and only then would I look into how to recreate things like phalanx command, spear & shield combat/tactics he would likely use with the tools the RPG system is giving.
When I make historical medieval setting characters I look for music that is 'knightly' or clerical (gregorian chant) and using it as inspiration I take similar steps as listed above to prepare a character concept and then build up the char properly.
...sorry, this comment became once again much longer than I intended when I began to write it. o_O
Quote from: RPGPundit;1014307If I was to do another period for Dark Albion besides the Rose War, it would probably be the Anarchy.
I'd love to see a Migration Period RPG. War bands roaming all over Europe, barbarian kingdoms rising and falling, the fall of Rome (western roman empire anyway), and lower tech arms/armor. Certainly less stable socially and roaming/adventuring is built right in. Maybe throw in a low magic aspect.
Quote from: estar;1014251The deal was that it quickly became obvious EVERYBODY's idea of what the Wilderlands was like was very different from each other. So when it came to me writing my portion, I sat down with the original stats and just started writing with a blank sheet of paper. The result was not based on anything specific to my Majestic Wilderlands but it is based on what I learned over the 20 years of refereeing (at the time).
To be honest I really like what I wrote and wished I had enough time in a day to run a campaign based on just that material instead of what I wrote for the Majestic Wilderlands. I like both a lot.
And doing that and the Wild North is what inspired me to write Points of Light and latter Blackmarsh.
This became apparent fairly early on, My earliest add-on
Great Glacier Map set north of Valon & the Campaign released around 2002-2003 was substantially different to what everyone else thought that the Wilderlands should be, but when I spoke to Bob a couple years after he was quite pleased to see this, and also encouraged me to write more adventures set in the Wilderlands. He really enjoyed seeing people use and tweak his campaign setting.
Well ... this rather points up one of the (several) crucial flaws in the alignment/G-vs-E-driven plots of much of the earlier RPG period: that it took the hobby a long time to get past the simplistic fantasy novel "Those are the minions of evil / We're the followers of the White Light Side" and recognize that just plain geopolitics and alignment-free dynastic struggles came with more rich plotlines than any group would need.
Onwards to the second session.
Here is my account (http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-session-begins-morning-after-i.html)
And Doug's account (https://gamingballistic.com/category/actual-play/majestic-wilderlands/page/3/).
My accounts stop after this point as the mapping and writing I am doing for this eats up the hobby time I have available. Doug's accounts get more detailed after this point and basically become my record for the rest of the campaign.
So last session I setup the situation and this session I throw in the wrinkle. Which is there another force at work Pan Caulderax an ancient dragon who long been a evil force in the region. His current plots are the main reason why Veritas called one of his paladins into the region.
Generally I have two or three major things going on, while they intersect from time to time. They represent the separate plans and goals of NPCs with power. Along with personal goals they offer choice to the players. They can ignore much of the civil war politics and pursue the evil dragon, or ignore the evil dragon mostly and deal with the civil war. Or ignore both and do something else all together. I don't know at this point and willing to work with whatever the PCs decide.
In this case the primary goal is to protect Phandalin, the town that most of the PCs grew to know very well in the previous campaign. And the immediate threat to that was several local knights loyal to the Overlord like Sir Varius of Highgarden.
But first most of the session dealt with one of Glasstaff's associates returning to the Redbrand Hideout to resupply and they found it looted and abandoned except for two local kids exploring the place.
Translating it down
Big events and plots don't mean shit to the PCs unless it translate into individual NPCs they can interact or effect other NPCs they care about. Not matter what earthshaking even you want to happen you have to think about how it looks the local level where the PCs operate.
In this case the two threads (civil war and dragon) translated into a list of local knights and their personalities, and a letter detailing more local personalites that the PCs can interact with to find out more about what going on with the plans of the Evil Dragon.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2029[/ATTACH]
Quote from: Ravenswing;1014413Well ... this rather points up one of the (several) crucial flaws in the alignment/G-vs-E-driven plots of much of the earlier RPG period: that it took the hobby a long time to get past the simplistic fantasy novel "Those are the minions of evil / We're the followers of the White Light Side" and recognize that just plain geopolitics and alignment-free dynastic struggles came with more rich plotlines than any group would need.
Yup, in my case the need to come up with interesting challenges for when the PCs tried to topple or build their kingdoms led me to drop AD&D 1st alignment early on. Didn't make sense in light of how NPCs behaved accept as one personality indicator.
Quote from: GameDaddy;1014392This became apparent fairly early on, My earliest add-on Great Glacier Map set north of Valon & the Campaign released around 2002-2003 was substantially different to what everyone else thought that the Wilderlands should be, but when I spoke to Bob a couple years after he was quite pleased to see this, and also encouraged me to write more adventures set in the Wilderlands. He really enjoyed seeing people use and tweak his campaign setting.
Yeah Bob Bledsaw as pretty pleased with what everybody was doing with the Judges Guild stuff. For the Wilderlands with the scant background info and terse locale listing pretty any type of setting could be woven out of it. Although from what he told me, his own take was closer to S'mon and than mine. So when I wrote up my portion of the boxed set, I made sure to include more swords & sorcery, planetary romance, gonzo fantasy than I otherwise would have.
The third session of the campaign is where the players experience the medieval landscape I use in this region of the Majestic Wilderlands.
For Doug's Account see this post (https://gamingballistic.com/2015/02/17/majestic-wilderlands-journey-and-recon/).
Instead of writing up a blog post, I worked on this map.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2031[/ATTACH]
The Map
From my reading and the Harn material I owned, I had a pretty good idea of what a medieval landscape looked like at the local level. But this time I wanted to plot it out for myself. Each small hexes are 1/2 mile and the yellowish-brown blobs are fields under cultivated. The region practices three crop rotation. So only two out of three fields will be planted, the third will have some kind of cover crop suitable for grazing and left fallow for the year.
Manor villages are marketed by diamonds. They consist of a manorhouse and a dozen to two dozen peasant homes. Maybe a craftsman or two and/or two or three yeoman who are freeholders.
Note that woods are scattered throughout the region and are carefully managed by coppice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicing) to provide firewood throughout the year. This is a frontier district with the edge of settlement to the map's northeast with Maradan and Highgarden on the border.
The swamp near Elkana is an example of wasteland that not suitable for grazing or planting. The dotted pattern you see near Salan, and other manors are hills. The pattern allows me to overlay terrain with vegetation. The open areas next to Salan and Highgarden are use for grazing mainly sheep.
Journey to Highgarden
The first problem the players run into is that there are no horses to be had. The fact that the manor in Phandalin was abandoned meant there was no knight in residence. Despite Phandalin being the market village for the region, there wasn't the need or demand by anybody in the village to justify keeping a stable of horses. Instead they relied on OXs, mules, and donkeys. The horse collar is a recent innovation in the Majestic Wilderlands (invented a century ago) and hasn't spread everywhere yet. Without horse collars, oxen are way more efficient for the amount of upkeep they need. So they hired the fastest runners.
The path the party chose took them past Tormar. Tormar is the estate of Sir Melius, a Tharian Horse Lord who was granted land near Tain for service to the Overlord. Most of his peasant tenants are Ghinorians, adherent of Mitra. And when he heard news of unrest, the knight started to patrolling his land with some yeoman. Sir Melius is an average knight. Loyal to the Overlord, but a decent lord to his tenants. He has some quirks mostly due to his military service but he is not evil.
As for the encounter, he was outmatched by the party. He could probably take any one party member on, but even with the yeoman added it wasn't going to enough. So the fight ended quickly with the knight surrendering and offering his ransom. During questioning they learn more about Sir Varius who is not well-regarded by Sir Melius. Sir Melius declined to join Sir Varius "enthusiastic" response to the news of rebellion in favor of waiting for a formal call from the Sheriff of Tain. As a Knight of the March of Dearthwood,. he is a direct vassal of the Overlord. Since Dearthwood is a March, the Overlord appoints a Sheriff to act as his viceroy/governor.
However from the news gathered from Phandalin and Sir Melius is looks like two other local Knights Sir Varius, and Sir Colin are not going to wait and take matters into their own hand. While Sir Varius may be a twit, Sir Colin is widely known for his ruthlessness and brutality.
Highgarden
One cheat I use to east prep are maps from Harn and Lythia.com. Highgarden is from Many Manors (https://www.lythia.com/series/many-manors/) a free download on Lythia.
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I gotten pretty good as depicting the life of a medieval village/hamlet. Basically there are several social circles to consider.
The field workers - the peasants working in the field under the supervision of a Reeve. Typically this group is bound to the village in some way. Ghinorian Lords practice Tenant Farming with contracts, the Tharian Horse Lords have thralls which are effectively the same as serfs. Highgarden has thralls.
The local craftsmen - unlike urban craftsmen they are mostly focused on supporting the village. A smith will be making or repairing tools, the woodwright would be doing the same for wooden items, the miller grinding the grain and a lot of the time baking. Only rarely they will get a "customer". Typically they are paid out of the harvest or in kind. What business the manor lord transact will involve at least partial payment in going.
The goodwives - Most of the time the women are back at the village doing weaving, tending vegetable gardens, minding children. Only at harvest when all hands are needed will they be out in the fields as well. Typically they are led by the wife of the Reeve.
The Yeoman - they work their own fields and are careful not to have their land and flocks mixed in with the manor lord's demesne. As this would jeopardize their status as freemen. They owe a small rent with the rest made up by serving as the lord's man at arms. Often one yeoman would be appointed as the Beadle who keeps the peace and collects fines. Yeoman are generally armed as Light Footmen with leather, bows, and spears. Maybe one in five will be a medium footmen with chainmail armor.
The Servants These are peasants and craftsmen who work in the manorhouse as employees of the lord. They are led by the Steward.
The Clergy In these regions there are nearly always two shrines. One for the manor lord who is a Tharian Horse Lords who worship his ancestors in the form of the Lars (a council of the clan's ancestral spirits). Another for the villagers who worship Mitra. Obviously there going to be issues now with the rebellion and all.
The Lord of the Manor This includes their family, their wards, and and their squires (if any). They are on top of the social heap in the manor and will have connections to other lords in the region.
Note: It is quite possible for a PC party to easily take out a manor lord however unless they are willing to engage in genocide word will quickly get around and a mob of local knights and yeoman will start tracking the PCs to bring them to justice. Because I have traveller/wilderlands style lists of how big each manor and settlement are, I can quickly come up with a number.
You take the number of manors in the area, and that how many knights there are.
Add that number again for light horse to represent the squires.
Multiply the number of knight by three to figure out the number of yeoman they bring.
One in five yeoman will be medium foot. The rest are divided evenly between spear as primary weapon and bow as primary weapon.
Another thing I do is whatever number I come up with that what I stick with. More than a few times the PCs caused trouble and were pursued. Through good tactics they were able to beat enough of the locals or defeat them outright and were victorious. This an important technique because there will also as many times when the numbers will overwhelm them. Because they know I do this they may not like they were beaten but they know I am being fair.
So when the PCs encounter or interact with a manor. I keep the above in mind when making up the NPCs they encounter. For example if they walking towards the manor during the day, likely their first encounter will be with those working in the fields. Or if they came to the manor during the day in a direction where the fallow fields are, then they will encounter the goodwives.
The Paladin
As I said earlier Paladins are the mortal divine agents of their deity. The primary method by which the deity lets the paladin know what is going on is through their Detect Evil ability. Now I learned through long practice at doing this that it is not fun to make this come kind of radio from God. Over time I came up with the idea that the Gods will not interfere with free will. The gods will warn the paladin that something is up or give a direction in which the paladin feel he ought to go. But figuring out what is up and how to deal with it for the Paladin to do. It a bit of juggling act between too much and too little information.
For this part of the campaign, was that Veritas let the paladin know that the situation with Sir Varius and Sir Colin was very bad and that much evil will result from their actions.