OK, maybe it wasn't the last blog post.

I have a couple of different campaign worlds I am working on right now. One of them is my 30+ year old world that I have worked on and run games in since I was in junior high- my Garnia campaign. I have worked on it with my BFF Darryl since the early 1980s. We have both run games there. We have both contributed significantly to the canon. Originally I was the idea guy and he was the cartographer, but that fell by the wayside almost immediately when I outsourced several lengthy eras of history to him so we could have back story; which, as I recall, was a bit of advice from an old article in The Dragon. We're older and better at writing now, both of us have taken a lot of college level history. I was a history major with a minor in medieval and renaissance studies. I forget what he did as an undergrad, but I know he was working on a masters in US history at one point. So I have tons of material, mostly in my brain, but a lot of it written out, that I could share. Garnia started out as a pretty generic D&D (AD&D) world, and it still is, but it has a lot of historical baggage added on too. So it makes me feel a little constrained when it comes to creating for it, and I am not sure that a lot of it would translate well to other campaign settings, as it is a heavily Celtic influence world (with a few other cultures thrown in around the world for diversity).

Then I have my new “Shattered Empire” setting that I started writing last December or maybe January. I started writing that world as a more D&D-ish setting for my (then) new Swords & Wizardry campaign. The campaign kind of went on hiatus while my wife was in the hospital and getting radiation, then we moved across the state, so I don't actually have a play group anymore. But I kept right on writing stuff up for it, I was inspired and it's all new and shiny to me. I started writing it up for Swords & Wizardry Complete, used Delving Deeper as another sourcebook for inspiration and played one session of Labyrinth Lord there, so I am pretty sure it works for any OSR game, or the original D&D (or AD&D) game. This was the elevator pitch emailed to my players-

“My primary working thesis is that I want this to feel like 1970’s D&D, something I was only there for the tail end of. So I jumped in and did some research on 0e and it’s retroclones Swords & Wizardry and Delving Deeper.

What I came out of that with was that 0e was just as much about science fantasy as it was about swords and sorcery, there are Androids, Cyborgs and Robots on the monster lists. Gygax, Arneson and crew didn’t limit themselves to just standard fantasy fare. “Expedition to the Barrier Peaks” was not a fluke, it was fairly standard for the game at the time. So too was the almost forgotten art of the (mostly randomly designed) mega-dungeon.

There is a strong “Arthurian” vibe to the overland encounters. Randomly you will almost certainly be challenged to a joust by some knight or other noble, just to prove yourself. There is an entire separate rules section covering jousting, something pretty much lacking from later editions.

Robert E. Howard’s “Conan the Barbarian” was a much larger influence than Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”; all Gygax seems to have lifted from Tolkien’s work were the Hobbits, Ring-Wraiths and Ents. Honestly, pulp fantasy and sci-fi elements are practically exuded from the games metaphorical pores.

Early D&D was set in a post-apocalyptic world, not necessarily post-nuclear holocaust (although it could be), but like a fantasy version of Europe in the period immediately after the fall of the Western Roman empire.

In retrospect, my own style of DMing tends to amplify the weird, post-apocalyptic tone of early D&D.

So I started working on a campaign world that would reflect these ideas and I first came up with the city of Dusk, then Helltown. Here, in this setting, you will find Sir Thomas Mallory, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, an abundance of pulp era science fiction and a curious bit of actual history. Feudal lords and noble knights abound in the rural areas, evil priests and sorcerers scheme everywhere, the cities are invariably decadent and corrupt, noble savages batter the ramparts of civilization, but so too do armies of Undead, and the lands between the civilized areas are untamed, howling, primeval wilderness filled with nature spirits, savages, monstrous creatures and demonic hordes. “

Would you play a game in this setting?

Anyway, it's been a lot of fun to write stuff for, and I think that stuff I wrote for this setting would need not too much tweaking to fit most people's campaigns. So the only thing stopping me from starting my new blog now is lack of a cool name. I am wracking my brain to find something that says something that reflect both my personality and the flavor I am going for. No more ramblings; concise, content oriented, OSR.

Which version of D&D do I like better? How about you?

     

 

I have consistently second guessed myself while I run (A)D&D games for my group about which version (or retroclone) I like better for play. I range between the simplicity and adaptability of S&W Whitebox and the complexity and completeness of 1^st edition AD&D (sometimes including “Unearthed Arcana”, but rarely anything later). Sometimes I decide a particular retroclone looks like it'll be good for what I want to play- I just started playing S&W Complete for instance, or I'd really like to play “Lamentations of the Flame Princess” (and so would a couple of my players) sometime soon.

I guess what it comes down to is that I like the adaptability of the early edition stuff based on OD&D and it's semi-gonzo SF additions to our standard fantasy fare. I like the simplicity and lower power level of OD&D, B/X and their clones. I have written a few rules sets now using S&W and B/X as a template. However, something in my head keeps dragging me back to 1^st edition AD&D (or Labyrinth Lord+ Advanced Edition Companion- more on this later). I suppose it's because that's my old default. When I was just starting to play AD&D was just arriving on the scene and B/X wasn't quite here yet (I actually started with Holmes Basic).

Now, the power creep/edition (larger HD, more powerful magic items, more special abilities) is what pulls me away from AD&D towards OD&D or B/X. The absolute familiarity with (and perhaps even mastery of) the rules set is what drags me back. My D&D formative years ran from 1980-85ish, AD&D OA makes it under the wire, and UA slips a bit in sometimes, but my core system has always been PH, DMG and MM.

I guess the power creep is something I never noticed before the 3e era, probably because my default system was 1^st edition and I never really looked at it objectively compared to the Holmes Basic and Cook/Marsh Expert sets. 2^Nd edition was largely the same as 1^st, only with a lot of inconsistent or unused (I am looking at you weapon vs. AC) rules being either tossed or overhauled. With this in mind, perhaps I should be playing either LL-AEC or straight 2^nd edition AD&D, but I can't fully commit to either of those systems because I know 1^st edition, with all it's warts & weirdnesses, it's Gygaxian purple-prose (a feature, not a bug- it immeasurably increased the vocabulary of pretty much everyone I knew), I have it practically memorized, even after all these years and anything I don't have memorized I can find in seconds in the book- no lengthy searches or game stoppage, and I know how to house rule it without breaking it in any way. Plus, I own multiple copies of all the books (including the premium reprints I got cheap on Ebay). I have given away complete core sets to my players that don't have them (another feature of Ebay- when I feel I am running low on extras for my table, I can usually find them really cheap there), and each of my kids has gotten a complete core set+ OA. My wife came with her own set.

But then I think about sub-classes, particularly Fighter sub-classes, which irritate me; why should a Fighter not be the best at fighting? Every other sub-class loses something, or at least fundamentally changes something, from the core class to make up for gaining their new abilities, not Rangers or Paladins though, so what's up with that? It's not that I hate the idea of Rangers and Paladins, and I get that it's harder to get the stats to be one of them and that they level slightly slower, but they still make better fighters than Fighters do, and that's what irks me. I don't take issue with creating a new subclass for the purposes of playing exactly the character class that you want to play even, I've made them in the past and I probably will again in the future. I am pretty sure that was the impetus behind the design of every AD&D sub-class. Think of them as customized class options for your role-playing needs.

Now, Labyrinth Lord +Advanced Edition Companion is a game that plays functionally identical to my experience with 1^st edition AD&D, my only real problems with using it as a go-to system are that I already own multiple copies of AD&D and it's B/X based, which means that I need 2 rulebooks and have to ignore a bunch of stuff from the first.

I guess what was trying doing here was get all of these stray thoughts down where I can see them and mull over my options, what it has, apparently, done was talk myself into running 1^st edition AD&D again, with the option of using retroclone ideas as house rule options. Thanks for reading, I am still open to suggestions and differing opinions, because I will, most likely, go back and forth on this for the next day or so before I run something for my oldest daughter Ashli and her boyfriend Rae who are coming to visit this weekend.

Now some other stuff that's been on my mind- if you were going to run a single adventure for three to five players and had access to pretty much every adventure published by TSR for Holmes Basic, B/X, BECMI and 1^st edition AD&D what would you run? I am missing a few from the end of the era, but I have most of them. I was thinking something tournament style, that'll give the group focus and a sense of urgency, plus they won't have to worry about losing a beloved character because these types of modules usually have a bunch of pregens included. I was also thinking something a little higher level, because we never get there in campaign play and I think that they might enjoy playing characters at level 9+ for a change. Not The Tomb of Horrors though, that's a straight out meat-grinder and I've seen parties with all experienced players die in the entryway.

Also, I was thinking about other game systems recently, especially the ones like GURPS that pretty much mandate during character creation how you are going to role-play your character and that's one of those things I've never actually seen the need to have enshrined in rules. Some people think that alignment is unrealistic and too much of a straight-jacket to your role-playing, in my experience these are the same people that want to see at least part of your character creation include at least some options for deciding how you must role-play your character. GURPS has a bunch of these, off the top of my head I can recall codes and berserkerism and addiction as role-playing options that grant you some tangible character creation bonus with a few rules on how you must then play your character as a trade off. I am not a huge fan of point-buy systems in general anyway, I kind of like some randomness in character generation and I don't think all PCs should be created equal (but with the option for a master min-maxxer to really work the rules to make a Frankenstein's monster of a PC).

I am also not a big fan of skill systems, I never saw the point. The way I see it, if you want to do something, you ask your DM if it's possible and he figures out whether or not it's at all possible and then determines how it should work. I guess it helps if you have some sort of background, like the secondary skills in the DMG; although those work best for humans, those are some tables that could use a redesign based on a PC's race, the region they come from (or where the campaign starts) and maybe the general tech level. I guess they'd be best tailor made for every DM's campaign world. Not that I don't use skill systems where appropriate, just not a fan. This is likely because of 2^nd edition AD&D's poorly thought out and ill-named Non-Weapon Proficiency system, which, while optional, was both over used and miss-used in my experience, all the while being extremely unnecessary. Yes, I realize that the 2^nd edition system is a direct descendant of the 1^st edition system which premiered in my beloved Oriental Adventures book, it's just that I am that contrary. Also, I hate that system and have eliminated it in my upcoming retroclone Samurai!, wherein I replace them with a set of backgrounds that grant you the ability to do certain things. But generally speaking, if you can give me a halfway decent reason why you should be able to do something, I usually let you. I base this on the fact that I can speak, read and write English, and to a lesser extent, French and Spanish. I can swim pretty well, do math (even some higher math) and all the other stuff I learned in public schools and just living in rural upstate NY. Usually, no matter how well I min-max a character, there is no way I can come close to what I could do even when I was a teen-ager, much less as an adult, and on top of all that, I am a pretty decent fighter, both armed and unarmed, and an ordained clergyman. That's right folks, I am dual-classed...

What about Henchmen, Hirelings, and other Retainers? I swore by them in the early days of playing D&D, not so much for the extra swords in the fight, but for handling the mundane stuff like carrying the light sources or acting as bearers for the loot we found, but we usually had a couple of “special” guys too, usually a Thief hired on to open locks and search for traps- oddly enough, even when we had Thieves in the party. You can't be too careful in the dungeon. Later, as the games started having more overland and wilderness type adventures, we started having people just for helping out with the horses (and staying with them while we went into dungeons) and some extra muscle to help out with guarding our camp. Now it seems like even the people I played with back in the day avoid them like the plague. I can understand (although not agree with) the notion that Henchmen are experience point and treasure leeches, but what about the ones that only get paid a pittance and don't get a ½ share of experience points? Plus it makes Charisma less of a dump stat if they are included in the game.

What's the deal with people not liking (A)D&D for more pure role-playing type game sessions? There's nothing stopping you from going all thespian with a D&D character, as a DM I actually will give an XP award or some other type of bonus as a reward for good role-playing, it's within my purview as DM. But some players insist that there is something inherent about D&D in particular that stunts role-playing. I don't get it. Sure D&D evolved from wargaming, and there was a certain wargame mentality to the role-playing by association. I don't hate that to be truthful, but I think that it is making less of the game than it can be. That said, there are some things that I can't stand to role-play like, say, buying equipment or any other mundane, somewhat boring task. Who wants to role-play mucking out stables or brushing down their horse? I don't, not as a player and not as DM; some stuff can be glossed over pretty easily and we don't lose anything by doing so. You probably want some real interaction the first time you meet the duke though, and maybe a bit when you are invited back for dinner. These role-playing vignettes are a great opportunity for mini-information dumps as a DM and I think that players and DMs alike should grasp the opportunity to try their hand at being more of a thespian. The exchange between DM and players there can lead to some really cool ideas for your campaign heading down the road.

A new contest

First, I'd like to say that falling out of the habit of regularly blogging blows; it's like taking a break from college, or quitting exercising for a while- it is so very hard to get back into the habit. Second, yet another apology to David, my wife has been driving around with your loot from my contests in the back of her minivan for something like a month now. Mea culpa, I should have taken care of it myself.

Art by Todd Lockwood.



Now, on to the contest, generously sponsored by Warlord Games (so far), I have a box of their Celtic Warriors, from their Hail Caesar line of products ready to send to the winner. I'll also throw in a copy of the AD&D 2nd edition "Celts Campaign Sourcebook" for 2nd place and, I guess, a pdf of same for 3rd place.

The contest, since it is October, is to get something Celtic and/or Horror themed (better if it's both), short adventure, long adventure, monster(s), anything that fits the theme and is OSR related, anything from B/X to AD&D to Call of Cthulu will be welcomed. Adventures will be judged by my small, elite group of players and myself, anything that can't really be classified as an adventure will be judged by the Council of Central NY Game Masters.

All entries should be received by midnight EST,October 31st and the winner(s) shall be announced sometime in early November. Authors retain the rights to their work, so feel free to publish it on drivethru RPG/RPG Now, I also make no claim to any art created for or used in your contest entries. Enter as many times as you want, at the end of the contest I'll put all the files together in a zip file and upload it to Dropbox or some other storage site.

Happy October!

Ave Caesar! A Contest Update

I just want to reiterate all of the contest rules and prizes here and announce that I am extending the submissions deadline until the end of January rather than the Ides, because, while the Ides sounded cool, don't think it gave enough time with the holidays in the way.

So here we go-

The contest is to write an Ancient Roman Empire themed adventure for early edition D&D, AD&D or one of their popular retroclones. One Page Dungeons are fine, but I have had people need more space, so short adventures are acceptable too. I am willing to accept anything you are willing to submit, up to and including huge hex-crawls; every adventure will be judged on it's own merit.

The fine print- I intend to publish these submissions to the web as a free series for the OSR community, if you want to opt out of having me give your work away to everyone, mention it in your submission email.

All adventures should be submitted via email to me at williamjdowie AT gmail DOT com by midnight on January 31^st EST. I will then email them to the rest of the judges.

The good stuff-

Everyone who submits an entry, or really, really wants one gets a refrigerator magnet. So far the magnets have made it to Europe and Australia, as well as all over the USA, let's see how many continents and countries we can hit while the supply lasts! Just send me your postal address with your submission and my wife will mail it out within a few days, unless you live in Maryland or Germany, in which case I will have to nag her for weeks.

Grand Prize-

PDF copies of 43 AD and it's supplement Warband, courtesy of Zozer Games.

8”x10” Canvas Print courtesy of easycanvasprints.com

Roman Numeral D4(x2), D6(x2) and D10(x2).

One commissioned Character portrait courtesy of Mona Dowie.

Second Prize-

PDF copy of 43 AD courtesy of Zozer Games.

Roman Numeral D4, D6(x2) and D10.

One commissioned Character portrait courtesy of Mona Dowie.

One Old School 1984 Ral Partha Roman Legionary lead miniature, unpainted.

Third Prize-

PDF copy of 43 AD courtesy of Zozer Games.

Roman Numeral D4, D6(x2) and D10.

One commissioned Character portrait courtesy of Mona Dowie.

Prizes may be updated, as I am constantly on the lookout for more sponsors and I am not averse to opening my own vault of gaming goods if I think we need more submissions.

Mongol Conquest of November Contest

Since the Mongols have pushed on into November, I thought it would be best if I reiterated the terms of the contest for everyone, especially since there are some new faces here.

The contest is for short adventures with a Mongol theme, featuring the Mongols as the heroes. I am sick of seeing them as the bad guys.

Short adventures CAN be in One Page Dungeon format, but they do not have to be. The Village of Hommlett was a short adventure, I just don't want to have to judge 20 mega-adventures, or pit a huge adventure against a One Page Adventure- it's not really fair.

The adventure should be designed for OD&D, B/X D&D or AD&D or one of their retroclones (Swords & Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord, etc.), because those are the games I know best and those are the games I play and it's my contest.

I'd like to see the adventures have at least a "wilderness" component to them, because outside is where the Mongols are going to shine, but I am only one judge and if you have a dungeon based adventure that's cool enough, even I can be swayed.

Multiple entries are fine.

Every entrant should email a copy of their adventure to me at williamjdowie AT gmail DOT com along with their postal address so I know where to send their prizes. Every entrant receives a refrigerator magnet at least and the other prizes are pretty cool too so far.

First Prize - Tom Wham's "The Great Khan Game", it's theoretically both a Forgotten Realms product and a 2nd edition AD&D product from the labeling on the box, but in reality it is neither. Instead it's just a fun beer and pretzels game. My copy has been played a few times, but not since it was new. I gave it to my brother and he never played it despite loving the game, because he couldn't find opponents that were interested. Eventually it made it's way back to me. The box has some serious shelf wear, so it's to play not collect. Now it can be yours!

Additionally, easycanvasprints.com is providing an 8x10 print to the first prize winner.

Second Prize - Al Qadim: A Dozen and One Adventures boxed set. This is an AD&D 2nd edition accessory for the Al Qadim campaign setting. I liked it and read through the short adventures, but never ran an Al Qadim game, so a lot of the specifics were of little use to me. This box has some shelf wear too and I can see one corner torn, again, not a collector's piece, but in good shape otherwise.

Third Prize - The Double Lankhmar Combo pack, 1st edition AD&D's "Lankhmar: City of Adventure" and 2nd edition's "Lankhmar: Thieves of Lankhmar". Both are in reasonably good shape for their age, but are really meant for play rather than a pristine collection.

Entrants to the contest should be aware that I intend to collect the adventures into a single document and freely distribute them on the internet after the contest is over. If you do not want me to include your adventure in the collection for this contest, you should make it known when you send it to me.

If you don't intend to enter the contest, but are still interested in helping out, email me at the above address and become a judge! I'll send you a refrigerator magnet too.

If you are affiliated with a company that might want to sponsor the contest in some way, I'd be happy to hear from you too.

Lastly, Richard LeBlanc, one of the hardest working men in the OSR has already come up with some helpful stuff for making Mongol themed adventures here and here and don't forget to check out his new Mongolian monsters here, here, here and here. I also did just the one thing here.

Steppe Warrior Class

The Steppe Warrior is a hardy nomad from one of the tribes that range across the steppes from the taiga in the north to the deserts and mountains of the south, they are the bane of more settled, civilized lands when they are united and a scourge to each other when they are not. They live by following their herds, hunting wild game, gathering wild fruits and vegetables and by raiding their neighbors. I introduce this class as the warrior elite of their society. I might have picked the Scythians, the Turks, or the Huns as my model, and there are a great many similarities among steppe peoples, but I chose the Mongols, because it's Mongol Month. Feel free to give me feedback and/or use this class as you will- I present it as a gift to the OSR community in baroque AD&D 1st edition format; absolutely unplaytested because I have been beating my head against a brick wall with this class for the better part of a month.

Enjoy!

The Steppe Warrior is a sub-class of Fighter. Steppe Warriors have no Prime Requisite and therefore receive no bonuses for high Ability Scores. In order to become a Steppe Warrior a character must have 12 Strength, 12 Wisdom, 15 Dexterity and 14 Constitution. Steppe Warriors are born horsemen, as such they receive no penalties for shooting from horseback and have a number of advantages to being mounted as they level up. They may be of any Alignment, but only Humans, Half-Elves and Half-Orcs may become Steppe Warriors. Half-Elves are limited to 8th level as a Steppe Warrior, Half-Orcs are limited to level 10. The Steppe Warrior receives 1d10 per level gained for hit points plus 2 hit points for every point of Constitution they have above 14. Steppe Warriors make Saving Throws as a Fighter of the same level.

A single classed Steppe Warrior may Specialize in one of the following weapons-

Composite Short Bow

Scimitar

Horseman's Mace

Light Lance

Experience                              Level               Hit Dice                       Title

0-3000                                      1                        1                            Khazak

3001-6000                                2                        2                            Nokhor

6001-12000                              3                        3                            Ba'atur

12001- 20000                           4                        4                            Noyen

20001-40000                            5                        5                            Orlok

40001-80000                            6                        6                            Darugha

80001-145000                          7                        7                            Taishi

145001-225000                        8                        8                            Gurkhan

225001-310000                        9                        9                            Khan

310001-625000                       10                     9+3                   Khan (10th Level)

625001-950000                       11                     9+6                   Khan (11th Level)

950001-1250000                     12                     9+9                   Khan (12th Level)

All Steppe Warriors are virtually born in the saddle; riding and mounted combat are their birthright, as such attacks made from the saddle are made as though they were one level higher. They are unlikely to ever be thrown from their mount (85%) and if they are they are equally unlikely to be injured, this percentage increases every level by 1%. Furthermore, as mounted archery is integral to their mode of warfare, they suffer no penalties for firing while mounted, even while moving, and may fire at any point during their move in any direction.

All Steppe Warriors also have the following abilities-

-Hide in Natural Surroundings: with the same percentage chance as a Thief of the same level using his Hide in Shadows ability.

-Surprise: In Natural Surroundings a Steppe Warrior can Surprise an opponent on a 3 in 6 and is only surprised 10% of the time. This only applies in natural surroundings.

-Leadership: When dealing with other Steppe Warriors a Steppe Warrior adds his experience level to his Charisma score to get an effective Charisma with other Steppe Warriors.

-Survival: a Steppe Warrior can effectively survive in the wild by hunting and gathering, he can build shelter and make fire.

Tracking- A Steppe Warrior can track as a Ranger of equivalent level, but only outdoors.

The Steppe Warrior only continues to improve in horsemanship throughout his career-

-At 3rd level they can vault into the saddle, regardless of how heavily armored they are, and have their mount underway in a single segment.

-At 4th level a Good Aligned female Steppe Warrior may handle and ride a Unicorn as a steed.

-At 5th level a Steppe Warrior can urge his mount to greater speeds than normal, adding 2" to the movement rate for up to 6 turns. This causes no damage to the mount.

-At 7th level a Steppe Warrior can urge his mount to jump further than normal.

-At 9th level the Steppe Warrior can ride Pegasi, Hippogriffs, Griffons or other flying horselike creatures at the DM's discretion.

Summon Horde- Starting at 8th level the Steppe Warrior gains the ability to summon a Horde of his people, he is a recognized leader among them. Take his experience point total and divide it by five to get the size of the horde. Therefore an 8th level Steppe Warrior could summon between 290-550 men to his side, while a 12th level Steppe Warrior could summon between 1900-2500 men, this horde is in addition to their normal followers.

The Horde must have a stated purpose for gathering, (plunder the wealthy city of Kashgar, rescue the Great Khan's Daughter, etc) and it will take a week to gather in the Steppe Warrior's home territory. A Horde will disband after a number of weeks equal to the summoner's level. A Horde may be held together for an additional 1-2 weeks if there are exceptional circumstances (23 or higher effective Charisma, massive plunder distributed to the Horde, stated goal within easy reach, etc), but never longer and if a Steppe Warrior has a Horde disband under him, he is disgraced in his homeland and may never raise another Horde.

The Horde will also have two aides equal to 1/2 the level (rounded down) of the character summoning it and those aides will each have two assistants each equal to half their level (rounded down), thus a 9th level Steppe Warrior summoning a horde will have two 4th level Steppe Warrior Aides and four 2nd level Steppe Warrior assistants. Clerics, Shamans or Witch-Doctors (depending on the nature of the Steppe Warrior's tribal religion) may also be present at the DM's discretion.

Multiclassing- Steppe Warrior/Cleric 1/2E, 1/2O; Steppe Warrior/Druid- 1/2E; Steppe Warrior/Magic-User 1/2E; Steppe Warrior/Thief 1/2E, 1/2O; Steppe Warrior/Assassin 1/2E, 1/2O; Cleric/Steppe Warrior/Magic-User 1/2E; Cleric/Steppe Warrior/Assassin 1/2O

Optional Starting Money Table-

To show just how cash poor the steppe is and to reflect the normal equipment found there I came up with this-

Roll 1d6x10 for starting gold- buy anything with that. For interesting, exotic fun let them buy stuff from the Oriental Adventures book too. Currency exchange rates are on page 38.

New items-

Dried Meat- 1GP/Week

Koumiss- 1SP/Gallon

Ger, Small- 150GP

Dried meat could be mutton, beef, camel, horse or some variety of wild game, it is typically placed under the saddle when riding so the horse sweat and crushing action can soften it enough to eat. Koumiss is a drink made from fermented mare's milk. A Ger, also known as a Yurt, is either a very sophisticated tent or an easily dismantled and moved cloth covered house used by nomadic and semi-nomadic people throughout Eurasia, depending on who you ask.

Roll 1d6 on this table for an armor, weapon and horses package.

Assume everyone starts with one set of clothes which includes a furry hat, if they have a bow, it is a Composite Shortbow and that they have a quiver for the arrows. They also start with a saddle, bit and bridle.

1- Leather Armor, Light Lance, Dagger, 1d4 Steppe Ponies*

2- Padded Armor, Bow, 12 Arrows, Hand Axe, 2d4 Steppe Ponies

3- Shield, Light Lance, Scimitar, Bow, 12 Arrows, 2d4 Steppe Ponies

4-Leather Armor, Shield, Dagger, Hand Axe, Bow, 12 arrows, 2d4 Steppe Ponies

5-Chainmail, Shield, Scimitar, Bow, 12+2d6 Arrows, 4+2d4 Steppe Ponies

6- Lamellar**, Hand Axe, Light Lance, Bow, 12+2d6 Arrows, 4+2d4 Steppe Ponies

DM's should, of course, feel free to adjust this table to their needs, there are way more combinations of armor, weapons and horses that I could have done, I just wanted to keep it simple. The Steppe Ponies are pretty essential though, even a poor Steppe Warrior should have at least one horse.

*Steppe Ponies should be treated as Light Warhorses, but with better morale and AC 6, they also forage on their own and thus do not require fodder and are hardier than most horses with better endurance, they almost never come up lame.

**Treat as Scale armor, I threw it in for flavor and accuracy. Truth be told they had leather lamellar too, but I didn't want to be confusing.

Roll 1d6 on this table for extra stuff.

1. Horseman's Mace, Winter Blanket, Small Iron Pot

2. Guard Dog, bone whistle, Large Sack

3. Pack Camel, Pack Saddle made for said Camel, 25lb sack of rice flour

4. 1d6+2 Sheep, Sheep Dog, Iron Shears

5. 1d4 Yaks, Wagon, Small Ger (12')

6. Helmet, Horseman's Mace, Dagger

Obviously, this was just off the top of my head and DM's should feel completely free to adjust the "extra stuff" as they see fit. My intention here was to throw the Horseman's mace into some starting kits and add some more culturally fitting, but not necessarily of obvious immediate use, items into the mix. "What am I going to do with 4 Sheep?" a player might ask, I say think outside the usual box. Sheep are walking provisions, trade goods and a bit of an early warning system, although the dog that comes with them is better at that.

Common Medieval Mongol Names-

Mongol Female-

Altani, Bargujin, Borte, Chabi, Chagur, Chakha, Checheyigen, Chotan, Doregene, Ebegei, Gurbesu, Ibakha, Khadagan, Khogaghchin, Khojin, Khorijin, Khugurjin, Khulan, Nomolun, Onggur, Sokhatai, Sorghaghatani, Tekine, Temulun, Yesugun, Yesui

Mongol Male-

Abagha, Aguchu, Ajinai, Akutai, Alagh, Alchi, Altan, Bögen, Babür, Bagaridai, Bala, Barlas, Bartan, Batu, Baykara, Begter, Berke, Chagatai, Chanai, Chigu, Chilagun, Chiledu, Dagun, Daritai, Djebe, Dodai, Esen-Buga, Günkan, Ghazan, Gughlug, Harghasun, Horkhudagh, Hulegu, Husun, Inalchi, Inancha, Iturgen, Jurchedei, Khachi, Khachigun, Khagatai, Khogaghchin, Khudu, Khuyildar, Kokochu, Koksegu, Kubilai, Megetu, Morokha, Mungke, Munglig, Nakhu, Nayaga, Nogay, Noyan, Ogodei, Okhotur, Oljaitu, Oronartai, Sahruh, Sencer, Shiragul, Shirgugetu, Soyurgatmis, Subotei, Suyiketu, Taghai, Tamachi, Temuge, Temujin, Temur, Toghoril, Toghtoga, Toktamis, Tolui, Torolchi, Turgay, Ukhuna, Ulugh, Utudai, Yegu, Yesunge, Yokhunan

OK, so, I pretty much adapted this from the Unearthed Arcana Cavalier and Barbarian classes and toned their abilities down for the most part, so they wouldn't be overpowering, but like I stated above, this is all completely untested. I had a bunch of other ideas for them and I really wanted to include some stuff I cut, but when I thought about it I kept thinking that "This is like the Cavalier's whatever" or the "Barbarian's Horde summoning ability is important"; and it is, the English word "horde" comes from the Mongolian "ordu". So in the end I decided to default to Gygax and mix and match and alter most of the stuff I wanted from those two classes with a few of my own ideas and cut a bunch of stuff out. I guess in the end you know it's done when you can't cut anything else, right?

Questions, comments and criticisms are welcomed, particularly if there is something glaringly obvious that I left out.

My Mongol Adventure Contest

First- I want to point anyone who might be working on an adventure for my contest to Richard LeBlanc's Save Vs. Dragon blog because today he put up something that might prove useful to all of you- Creatures of the Steppe.

Second- We have officially gotten a sponsor: easycanvasprints.com They are providing an 8"x10" canvas print to the first prize winner. I am still looking for other sponsors too, but that's a pretty good start, eh?

That's about all I can think to write now, it's been a long day. I just wanted to update everybody on the contest and the awesome new resource available thanks to Richard!

Mongol Adventure Contest- Things I Forgot

Eventually I'll remember to mention everything in one post when I announce a contest, but it wasn't for this one.

The adventures should be Swords & Wizardry, B/X D&D (Labyrinth Lord) or AD&D (AEC) compatible. Those are the gaming languages I speak best.

Multiple entries are allowed.

The contest will be running through October 31st, 2012.

EDIT- I have extended the deadline to November 30th, 2012.

The prizes, if none of my prospective sponsors come through, will include sweet loot from my personal hoard. Last grand prize was a copy of "GDQ 1-7 Queen of the Spiders". This time I am thinking of a matched set of "Lankhmar: City of Adventure" and "Lankhmar: Thieves of Lankhmar" for the grand prize and working my way down from there, but I am flexible.

That said, if you want to sponsor the contest, send me an email and we'll talk!

To clarify my earlier post- it doesn't HAVE to be a wilderness adventure, any type of adventure is cool, as long as we make it Mongol themed. Use your imaginations!

If you are interested in being a judge, email me and I'll send you a magnet too.

My email address is williamjdowie AT gmail DOT com in case you all missed my late edit to my last post.

That's about all for today, today is my daughter Ashli's 20th birthday and I hope it's a good one, she's had a rough year with learning to live with a disability and depression stemming from that. I pray 20 will be easier for her than 19 was.

Three Days In...

And I haven't got much to show for Mongol month yet. I have some ideas, but getting them down is a little rough right now. I am working on a Steppe Nomad type class for Labyrinth Lord (B/X D&D) and I keep adding too much to it and needing to scale it back. I am a bit of a Mongol fanboy I guess.

Anyway, I have been doing some refresher reading through the Mongol section of my library to keep things fresh for me, and I got this book in the mail from Amazon today-

I kind of like these "Life in the time of" type books, so I am a little surprised I never had one for the Mongols, although I guess they are a bit of a specialist topic.

Anyway, between writers block and fanboyism, I also tried to find some decent mongol type miniatures to paint up for Mongol month, but I keep coming back to The Assault Group and they're a British company and therefore pricier than I really want to go with for wargame quality miniatures, so anyone who can point me elsewhere would be a real help.

Anyone got anything Mongol oriented they'd like to see? Any questions they'd like answered? I am planning on visiting my longtime collaborator Darryl tomorrow and we are the go-to Mongol answer guys. I think we should put together an adventure featuring my, as yet unmade, Steppe Nomad class and post it here for you all to use and enjoy. Maybe as a finale to the Month? That would give us time to come up with something cool. I don't know, I'll ask him what he thinks tomorrow. I am tired and rambling more than usual, so good night everyone!

Bonus Post- B/X Alignment Musings

I know I have been rushing trying to get all Norse stuff in during April here for the A-Z Posting Blitz, but I have been thinking about Alignment in B/X D&D since I rolled up all those pregens for my new Norse campaign and wanted to get some of those thoughts out before I forgot about them. I know that OD&D had the Lawful-Neutral-Chaotic Axis, and so does B/X, but I never really gave it much thought because I started playing D&D with Holmes Basic which had a proto-AD&D Alignment axis, and I never saw or heard about the older, original three alignment axis until much later, so when I saw the B/X version of Alignment I assumed it was dumbed down from Holmes or AD&D for the younger audience it was aimed at and never really gave it much more thought.

Now it occurs to me that I was just wrong. I was wrong first because I was misinformed, original D&D used the same Alignment system as B/X, which was later adopted by BECMI and Cyclopedia D&D. Secondly, I was wrong because I think the Alignment system in D&D, as opposed to AD&D, is not a simplified system at all, it just doesn't encompass all of the moral choices that a Character can make in a game, rather it is about where their ultimate loyalties lie. AD&D muddied the waters there, it was AD&D that made Alignment not so much a statement of allegiance, but a moral code. In OD&D, B/X, BECMI & Cyclopedia D&D, Law represents a commitment to civilization, Chaos to those forces that oppose it. To be fair, they don't do the best job of explaining this clearly.

I am not sure how I feel about this to be honest. I have lived most of my life with the nine-fold Alignment system. I have defended it, often, against it's various detractors. I have found it to be a useful role-playing tool for helping to get players to consistently play their Characters with the same moral and ethical standards from game to game, and I think we all know players that need the help out there. Mostly, I think in AD&D Alignment terms most of the time. So this conclusion that Law and Chaos aren't really moral/ethical/behavioral outlooks on life, but rather an allegiance to the concept of being pro or anti civilization, while groundbreaking for me, leaves me at another one of those places where I have to wonder whether AD&D was a good idea or not, and I grew up with AD&D, it's like asking me if I love my mother or America.

I consider almost every day switching from B/X to AD&D. AD&D is like home to me, I know it like the back of my hand. B/X is the experiment for me, so I can get some experience playing the "other" D&D game that was out back then. I have to say that there is a whole lot of stuff I like in B/X D&D, stuff I remember using back in the day in AD&D that I probably took from the Expert book and other stuff like the way that all the spells are better, Morale is easier to use, and probably a dozen other things; but I keep defaulting back to AD&D at weird times too, like when I rolled D6s for all the Thief's Hit Points or the way I keep thinking of all the ACs as starting at 10.

All that said, the more that I think about it, the more I realize the way I have always played AD&D was closer in spirit to OD&D or B/X, probably because I started with Holmes; but I whittled away the rules from AD&D that I didn't like or didn't understand. I won't go through the usual litany of AD&D rules that get listed as superfluous, everyone knows them by now, and each one of them has their supporters and detractors; I support some myself and dislike others.

It does make me think though, that the D&D Next team should maybe be looking at Labyrinth Lord as a model for the 5th edition of D&D. Labyrinth Lord already has "modules" for what you want to add to your game, from "Original Edition Characters" to the "Advanced Edition Companion" you cover the D&D games from the time period of 1974-1985. If they added an "AEC II" that covered all the crazy late first edition AD&D stuff and an "Oriental AEC", we'd be covered up to the advent of 2nd edition. Some sort of "2nd edition companion" would get us through the 1990s, although I know most OSR types hate post Gygax era TSR D&D, it would at least give us completeness and show the robustness of the system.

This Blog

Pictured- The Arms of the Lady Mattea Di Luna, mundanely known as my lovely wife Mona, my inspiration in all things.

I hope my blog is not getting stale. I noticed that I lost a follower today, it's happened before and it always kind of bums me out, like I let down somebody that was expecting something better of me. My blog was never really supposed to attract readers at all honestly, it was just supposed to be a writing exercise to help me organize my thoughts about the stuff I like to do. I just happened to discover the OSR through blogging and made it a big part of my life and what I blog about. Despite my desire to blog more about a number of things, things happening in my life, good, bad and just time consuming, have left me with less time to devote to blogging as regularly as I'd like to; so maybe that's the reason that I lost a follower, or maybe they just moved on in their interests. I can't tell who it was, as much as I'd like to have a personal relationship with everyone that reads my blog, it's not like it was when there were only a dozen or so of you; I can't keep close track anymore; I'll miss you just the same because it feels like a personal failing on my part.

Anyway, on to less maudlin things, I am actually trying to collect my thoughts for a review/retrospective on the Cook/Marsh Expert Book. I just want it to be good, not simply me saying something like "Cook and Marsh continued on in the vein set forth by Moldvay and it continued to be excellent"; while true, it's somewhat lackluster in comparison to the multi-part review that Moldvay's Basic book got. I am afraid I am going to need to go through it again and actually take notes, section by section, like I did with the Moldvay Basic book and make the comparisons to AD&D, that I keep trying to avoid doing.

I offered up the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion as a supplement to B/X for my players since there was some grumbling initially, at character generation and later with the higher mortality rate, about the lack of AD&D-isms in B/X. To my real surprise, every one of my players that I have spoken to so far has rejected it, even the one that really missed the AD&D death at -10HP rule; he stated that he was "...in this [Basic D&D] mode now.", and would rather just stick with it. My kids, who had originally missed separate races and classes, were all like, "We don't care about that now.". My wife never really cared which rules set we used. Audra is brand new to RPGs at all, so it really doesn't matter to her. Lee Ann I haven't spoken to yet, because she's always working lately, they're short RNs where she works; I suspect will not care either, although she had never played Basic D&D before I introduced her to it. Dalton I haven't spoken to yet either, but I strongly suspect he will prefer to stay with B/X, because he is planning on switching his newbies from AD&D to B/X-LL ASAP.

We play the Anarchy of Stephen and Matilda campaign this weekend, so I will get a chance to talk in person with everyone that I haven't yet. This weekend I plan to run Tim Shorts adventure "Knowledge Illuminates", so I am hoping everyone can make it. I am still reading 1215 Year of the Magna Carta, but I am better than half way through, which I consider pretty good since I am mostly reading it in the morning before breakfast and right before I go to bed at night. I suppose I could cut down on my OSR blog reading and really knuckle down on this whole getting more blogging/reading/campaign preparation done, but I get so many cool ideas from the OSR blogosphere. Even if they aren't things I would ever use, they keep me on my creative toes, you know what I mean?

In non-RPG news, I started my diet for real yesterday and started exercising because I found out that my Barony is hosting the Kingdom of Aethelmearc's Spring Crown Tourney, and it's holding it in Brewerton, NY; a town I practically grew up in, because it is my friend Darryl's hometown. The Tourney is being held the week before my wife's birthday and I found out about it on Valentine's day. This strikes me as too much coincidence to not be fate guiding my hand and forcing me towards this goal, so I am going to bust my ass to shake off the rust as a fighter, lose some fat and gain some muscle over the next three months and, hopefully, make my wife a Princess for her birthday. This is not an impossible goal, I have achieved similar goals in the past, just not won the Crown, although I came close, twice. This time, Deus lo volt!

OA Quasi-Session

In an effort to not completely screw over my eldest daughter and force her to essentially retire her character, I went with yet another alternate dying rule for my Oriental Adventures campaign and removed the odious broken leg result from her. Instead she ended up unconscious for an hour and losing a point of Comeliness permanently due to scarring. The party healed her up some, waited for her to regain consciousness, then entered the Moathouse proper through the broken doors to the great hall area. There were no random encounters during this time. I described the room to them, not as well as if I had found my original conversion notes, but pretty good from the actual module and my memory of what I had changed. The loss of those notes will continue to haunt me until they are found or someone admits to throwing them away because they didn't realize what they were, but I digress. I fear that I am just going to have to do it all over again, which I guess isn't a big deal, since I did it once, but it is rather annoying.

Anyway, I sketched them a map of the room and what they could see, they looked around and then quickly decided to check out the storeroom to the left, the one with the stairs down that they could not see, oddly enough with Misaki leading the way, and sure enough she heard the rats in there and started looking for them. Well the module says these rats are hungry and fearless, so I just had them roll initiative and combat began. Unfortunately, Aiko was the other person in the storeroom with Misaki and, while she actually got to attack the rats first, she got dropped by three lucky rat hits in the first round. Well, there are thirteen Giant Rats in this encounter, so I guess it's a pretty tough encounter for a (mostly) first level party, particularly in the tight space of the storeroom. It took the party four rounds to kill them all, no one else was even injured. Aiko made her save versus death, but ended up permanently deaf and unconscious for the next four hours. The party decided to retreat to Hondo and return to the strange Moathouse for further exploration later.

Honestly, it was a super short session. Lee Ann couldn't make it, which should have been OK because she died last session anyway and it actually made introducing her new PC less difficult for me. The real problem here was that my daughter Ashli was really beginning to believe that Aiko was just an unlucky character and wanted to roll up a replacement, and my daughter Ember has pretty much been dissatisfied with Natsumi the Sohei since she started playing her too. So both of my daughters spent the after the battle time rolling new characters. Ember will be playing the Human Samurai Kato Momoko, who has awesome stats; Ash will be playing Natsua of the Bear-Killer Clan, a Korobokuru Barbarian of the Forest variety.

Interesting trivia about OA Barbarians- at the top of page 15 in the OA book it says in the second paragraph "Barbarians are automatically considered outsiders and thus occupy the lowest levels of the caste system. Barbarian characters never roll on table 38:Character Birth.", then on page 31, about the middle of the page on table 37:Birth Requirements By Class- when you get down to the Barbarian class it says under Birth Table Required- Yes, it says that for Family too, but when one page tells you one thing and another tells you the exact opposite, which one are you supposed to go with? I mean, for some classes the Birth Table is not required, but is optional, but the class description for Barbarian outright forbids the use of the Birth Table, it says they "NEVER" use it. I tend to think that they mean for Barbarians to use it because they explicitly mention Barbarian characters twice under the Ancestry section, and imply how a roll could apply to a Barbarian character at least one other time.

I also killed Non-Weapon proficiencies officially today and scaled back proficiencies to their core class standard AD&D numbers, so now it's a race to see who gets their versions of all the classes and races done first and best for playtesting, Fabian's got a strong lead, but it's more B/X style because it's for Labyrinth Lord; Dangerous Brian is coming in pretty strong with a "closer to AD&D" version for OSRIC; I hate to throw my hat in too, but I kind of did today in a little way, just deleting bits of AD&D OA that were driving me a little nuts. I am still willing to let my players playtest anything that comes out from the OSR for OA, but I think they are a little scared of new material for an old game or something, or maybe just not using the rulebook and it's official classes and material. Still, I alter the game slightly every time we play, so I wonder how long it will be before the game isn't really an AD&D OA campaign anymore and just becomes a product of the OSR's combined creative talent with me at the helm.

I still haven't put anything more than holding pages up on Obsidian Portal, other real life stuff keeps intruding on my taking care of my D&D campaign time. On a completely unrelated note, here are a couple of pictures of some FASA Star Trek RPG stuff I got off EBay that arrived on Saturday and I forgot to show you all.

Is it time for an Oriental Adventures Retro-clone?

I mean a full on retro-clone, not a few add-on classes for Labyrinth Lord, or a conversion of an earlier version of D&D, like Ruins & Ronin for OD&D/S&W, but an AD&D 1st edition, OSRIC* I guess, Oriental Adventures book. I never bought OSRIC, I just downloaded the free .pdf files because I already own 1st edition AD&D, but I just might to work on this project. Mostly because I hate to read lengthy works on my computer and I like real books. To be clear here, I am not volunteering to retro-clone OA, I am volunteering to be a team member on a retro-clone project. I think that someone with experience doing this sort of thing would be a better team leader than me, and I have already had one major project (B/X WW2) more or less fail, although that was more due to me being more enthusiastic about it than my gaming group.

Since I brought it up, I have to ask, how closely do you have to hew to the original rules in a retro-clone? Can you correct things that turned out to not really work in play? Can you add to the game? I guess I am asking because, despite what EGG intended it to be, I always considered AD&D to be a toolbox like earlier versions of D&D, if non-weapon proficiencies have to be included at all, can we make them optional? Can we make them work like they did in 2nd edition? Can we rename them "Skills"? The OA NWP system kind of made expectation that there would be a certain style of play, involving a lot of time spent in Courts, and that there would be all of these peaceful "contests", but there weren't really any guidelines for how to run an adventure set in a court, so did anyone ever do that? Should we write some guidelines for it? Can we expand the Ancestry and Birthright tables? I know we have to change them and I hate writing random tables, I know there are people out there that love doing them though, so that's another reason I want a team. I am good at coming up with cool random stuff on the fly in the game, not so much at making an entire table of it before hand.

Should an OA retro-clone be even more narrowly focused on Japanese culture and myth? Or should we open it up to more of Asian myth and legend? If that's the case where do we draw the line? I think the obvious intent is EAST Asia, and one of the odd bits of 3e's OA book was incorporating stuff from the Indian subcontinent, even odder considering the clearly Rokugan setting, but they did make the alternate fantasy India-based setting free DLC. Can we incorporate stuff that was published in other TSR materials like modules or boxed sets or 2nd edition stuff? I have almost everything TSR ever made for OA, with the sole exception of the Kara-Tur trail maps, which I assume are just maps, right? I even recently acquired the 2nd edition Ninja book, which, technically isn't an OA book, but might be useful, I don't know I haven't really read through it yet. Hell, I even have the next "connected" part of the Forgotten Realms- The Horde boxed set, and most of the stuff to go with it, because I felt it was supplemental to Kara-Tur and Oriental Adventures; and, of course, because the Mongols are wicked cool. I know we can't use any Kara-Tur material in a retro-clone and would have to create our own mini-Asian setting for it, if we were going to include any setting information at all, but those things all have little tidbits of inspiration and occasional rules clarifications or entirely new rules- usually new monsters or spells as I recall, it's been a while since I read through my OA module/boxed set collection.

There's a lot of old school goodness in OA and I think it is deserving of a real retro-clone, but I don't really know the ground rules of retro-cloning I guess. So, has anyone reading this blog written a retro-clone before? Would you like to be team leader on a new OA retro-clone? Can anyone answer the questions I have? Does anyone else want to be on the team? On the plus side, I am pretty sure I can get it lavishly illustrated at a pretty reasonable rate :) If we can't get a team together I guess I can keep muddling through and subtracting what I think doesn't need to be there, tinkering with stuff and adding in a few bits for my own game, but I think this could be a good community project.

*Although I'd be OK with a full on supplement for Labyrinth Lord AEC too. I am down with both OSRIC and LL; S&W too, but it already has Ruins & Ronin.

These came in the mail the other day, Ashli's birthday actually-



They popped up on my EBay radar because they were listed as Clan War cards. Don't judge me too harshly, I just figured since they were cheap I'd see what all the fuss was about and if the CCG sucks, I can still use the cards as art inspiration for my OA campaign.

Miyama Province Guide

Image unrelated, except in that it amuses me that apparently WotC has decided that October is going to be Kara-Tur month too. So this is the cover of this month's Dragon "Magazine", used entirely without their permission, but I assume they'll like the free advertising.


This is what I sent my player's yesterday, again most of it comes from module OA1: Swords of the Daimyo by David "Zeb" Cook and a lot of it was already typed up by Fabian from Bladesharp on his OA website Adventures in Kozakura, I just edited it for my campaign and reformatted it a little. I actually kind of wish, just a little, that I was waiting to start my new game until Fabian was done converting all of the Oriental Adventures classes to Labyrinth Lord, but just a little. Thanks for all your help Fabian!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Given the stunning failure of last years participants in my AD&D OA campaign to put an end to the Black Temple's shenanigans, I have created an alternate beginning timeline for the new campaign that includes the last aborted TPK ridden Oriental Adventures sessions. Instead of being stopped before they grew too powerful, the Black Temple grew to be a threat to the entire empire of Kozakura and a huge force of allied good aligned Samurai, Sohei, Shukenja and Wu Jen were forced to gather to put an end to the threat. This allied army battled the Evil army of the Black Temple and it's hordes of undead, humanoid and other planar minions and defeated them in an epic battle forcing them back to the Black Temple itself where they were sealed inside by mighty magical wards, wards that seem to be weakening now...

Now onto the nitty gritty stuff that everyone who lives in or around Miyama would know; I give you all "The Native's Guide to Miyama Province"; enjoy.

Religion-

In Miyama, as in all of Kozakura, there are two principal religions—the Way of Enlightenment, and the Eight Million Gods. The Way of Enlightenment is divided into several schools while the Eight Million Gods is split into many separate shrines. While different schools (or shrines) may hold essentially similar beliefs, the exact methods of worship, deities, and outward manifestations may be radically different.

Within each school or shrine, there are two groups of worshipers. The first group is more or less devoted to that particular school or shrine. This includes the Priests, Monks, Shukenja, Sohei, and devout worshipers of the group. These people do not entertain or practice the beliefs of other schools or shrines. The second group of worshipers, those who practice the rituals of more than one school or shrine, are far more common. This group includes the majority of the common people. They make offerings to one or more of the Eight Million Gods at planting time, pray for their departed according to the rituals of the Way of Enlightenment, and make donations and offerings to temples of both religions.

Korobokuru deities are all animal spirits. Many of their heroes have been elevated to half-animalistic demi-gods.




Miyama Province- Geography & Politics-

Miyama Province is located in the very center of Kozakura. It is the strategic key to controlling Shinkoku (the main island) and Kozakura as a whole. The province is divided into two main sections—the Northern Plain and the Southern Plain. Running through the middle of the province are the wooded peaks and ridges of the Kurisammyaku (Chestnut Mountains). Twisting through the hills and mountains, fast-rushing streams have cut narrow valleys. Most of these valleys are choked with the forests that carpet the mountain slopes. Some slopes have been cleared for farming.
Like the imperial government, the government of Miyama is a confusing, factional affair. The power struggles at the top between the shikken, shogun, and imperial line are reflected in the official posts and appointments made in Miyama. Each faction has some representative within the province. The top two positions in Miyama are the shugo-daimyo and the kokushu, or provincial governor. The shugo-daimyo is appointed to the province by the shogunal authorities. The kokushu is the imperial representative. Each of these has a number of minor officials under him. In addition, there are the samurai jito of the many estates (shoen) found throughout the province

The Social Order-

The Niwa FamilyAs noted before, the Niwa hold most of the land, the position of shugo-daimyo, and several of the shugodai posts. In addition, a number of the lesser family members hold jito positions on the largest shoen in Miyama. The Niwa family is the most powerfulin Miyama. Its efforts are aimed at retaining that power and perhaps some day conquering their neighbors.

The Hori FamilyThe Hori are a branch of the Niwa family, founded 32 years ago. The Hori hold posts of shugodai and shugo-matadai within Miyama. They control Hori Castle on the Northern Plain. They have less property than the Niwa, but act as jito on many Niwa shoen. Today, all members of the Hori family are distantly related to the Niwa. Thus the Hori are part of the Niwa family council, advising on major family decisions. The fate of the Hori is closely connected to that of the Niwa. The Hori hope to someday acquire control of the Niwa family, either through marriage or might of arms.

The Igi Family
As mokudai, the Igi have managed to gain control over several shoen of public (imperial) land. The Igi have been especially lax in making the payments to the emperor and the distant nobles who hold manager and protector rights. Although these nobles have filed many complaints with the shogun, little action has been taken. The Igi make certain the shogun and the shugo-dai both receive their proper payments, perhaps ensuring their neutrality in the matter of property rights.
The Igi are working hard to convert public land into private shoen, installing their own zussho wherever possible.

The Tsu Family
Once a powerful court family, the Tsu now retain only a limited presence in Miyama. Although they hold the title of kokushu, the Tsu have left most affairs in the hands of the Igi. Once they were
greater and more powerful than the Igi; now the situation is reversed. The Tsu are now considered an ally family of the Igi. They have only a few possessions in Miyama and these are carefully controlled by the Igi.

The Samurai Families
In addition to the four principal families listed above, there are a number of smaller samurai households. Most of these are retainers of one of the four listed above. They are either unrelated to the main family or only very distantly related. Those in the service of one of the main families are listed below.

Niwa-Matsue, Ishii, Naoki, Kishimoto, Sato, Mushakoji, Nogami, Watanabe
Hori- Daidoji, Kadokawa, Fukuda, Ooka, Kuroda, Maeda
Igi- Inoue, Ebisawa, Koda, Nogami
Tsu- Kato, Sakai, Ikeda


The above taken from OA1:Swords of the Daimyo by David "Zeb" Cook (copyright 1986 TSR) used without permission.

Names & Language-

Most characters should all choose as much as possible real world Japanese names; I shall do my best to ensure that NPCs are likewise named. I have printed out a list of Japanese names and their meanings for you to choose from. The 3rd edition D&D Oriental Adventures book has a list of Korobokuru names that should do nicely for them, and I have several lists for Barbarian names available as well. Spirit Folk and Hengeyokai have Human names. Where I use vocabulary and real world descriptive names from Japanese for things, please forgive any inaccuracies in precise usage, as I do not actually speak Japanese and ascribe it to Kara-Tur being a fantasy world!

Available Starting Languages-

Kozakuran (all characters receive this for free instead of Common)
Wa-an (characters can understand this language with about 65% comprehension)
Kao te Shou (spoken in the empire of Shou Lung)
Korobokuru (free to Korobokuru)
Trade Tongue (mostly used by merchants and sailors)
Koryo
Han (ancient root language of Koryo, Wa-an, and Kozakuran - used by scholars)
T'u Lung (similar to Kao te Shou, but dialects are very different - spoken in the empire of T'u Lung)

Barbarians will also start with the language of their tribe for free.

All of this being said, in my opinion most characters should actually save the proficiency slots, most Kozakurans never learn a second language unless they are scholars or merchants.