The Mandalorian | Official Trailer | Disney+ | Streaming Nov. 12

Looking forward to this.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

I watched The Phantom Menace (TPM) earlier today. My thinking was that it's 20 years old now and maybe I should look at it with fresh perspective, which was going to be hard, just because of my history with that film.

Remember the build up to TPM? In 1999 I was working as a substitute teacher at Mexico High School (Mexico, NY), and I remember it pretty well. I used to bring stuff with me to read, because they had block scheduling then (80 minute periods) and I always had a free period, plus lunch to kill time in. One of the things I brought with me was a copy of Star Wars Insider, Mona used to buy them for me when she spotted them in the wild, and, since the movie was maybe six weeks from release at the time, everyone, teachers, students, and administrative staff, all commented. America was on fire for a new Star Wars movie.

I remember going to see it with Mona, maybe on opening day, I don't exactly recall, but certainly in the first week; then seeing it a day or so later with my dad. I may have seen it a time or two more in the theater, I am not sure. Mona and I talked about it a bunch, both of us were sure it was a good movie, that we actually did like it, or that maybe we missed something, somehow. I got the movie on VHS and DVD as soon as they were available, although the VHS copy was a gift and only got watched once maybe.

The internet turned into a cesspool of hatred for the movie, and I started to agree with a lot of the criticisms of the film. I hated the whole midichlorian thing, I was annoyed by Jar Jar Binks and I thought Jake Lloyd's acting was terrible. The story itself was convoluted and boring, trade disputes? Really? I cringed at the racist caricatures. George Lucas had done the impossible, he made a Star Wars movie that sucked, although the Holiday Special and the Ewoks movies really should have showed us it was possible.

Even with the crap in them though, there were still some cool scenes in each act of the film. Darth Maul was pretty cool, and his music was awesome. The action scenes were, by and large, pretty decent. I watched the DVD with commentary on so I could see what they were thinking, and it did give me a greater appreciation for their craft, and I could see what they were aiming for.

I dutifully watched TPM before each of the other two prequel films, but I never liked it. I sought out and watched The Phantom Edit, which did make it a better film, and invented the concept of fan edits. I got buried under a mountain of TPM related merchandise, most of which was garbage, just because my mom and Mona's mom both knew I was a huge Star Wars fan, and it was so over merchandised, it all got marked down to next to nothing for the next few years. I think George really expected Jar Jar to be a breakout character, his stupid face was everywhere.

Fast forward to today. I had not watched that movie in maybe a decade, maybe more. Honestly the last time I recall watching it was to show my kids all the Star Wars movies before we took them to see Revenge of the Sith. We're 20 years out from it's release and I keep hearing that people are loving the prequels now, so I figure it's time to give it a rewatch.

My impressions are now that it is less tedious to watch. Dialogue is pretty bad, most of the old complaints are still there, but less now. I figure it's because I knew what to expect going in, setting expectations low made it easier to watch. I cut the actors some more slack than I did in the past, because I have heard what a nightmare it is to be directed by George Lucas, and the dialogue, like I said before, is pretty bad. The biggest new thing that struck me is the CGI, it both held up well in some cases and kind of sucked in others. The CGI droids look pretty good to this day, mostly any mechanical stuff does; the biological stuff though is dreadful. All the fish things in the planet core transit sequence for instance look like crap, the Gungans all look like crap too, even Jabba the Hutt and Yoda pretty well suck. I didn't hate the pacing, the fight scenes were generally good, although I still think that the Jedi/Maul scenes look too choreographed, but maybe that's just me. I thought about it as I was watching them.

I guess, in closing, I'd say that a reviewing of it after two decades, along with the careful consideration of everything I've learned about the film and it's makers and the actors has made me reconsider my overall grade for it. I'd give it a C- these days, which is up an entire letter grade from where I'd've placed it 15 years ago, but down from where I figured it must be back in 1999 after my initial few viewings.

I have been in something of a Star Wars place for a couple of weeks now, thinking about watching the original trilogy and trying to bring back that spark of love I had when I was a kid. I kind of want to play a Star Wars RPG too, or maybe GM one. 

Some Recent D&D Thoughts

I am thinking a lot lately about D&D. What I like about it, and what I don't. Me being me, this means old school D&D (or it's clones). I have been giving serious thought to writing my own version of B/X to give to my players, maybe edit down the text only version of B/X Essentials (now Old School Essentials) to add a few sub-systems I like, subtract a few bits I don't. The only downside really is that they'd have to be rewritten for every single campaign I run. Different settings get different setting specific rules, but maybe a core?

I say B/X, because my Ostschild campaign was B/X and it was dead easy to hack those rules, add some AD&D if I wanted, or whatever. AD&D is what my “Colonies of Avalon” and my “Lost Atlantis” games were and I learned there were quite a few AD&Disms I just don't care for. For the last couple of decades at least, maybe longer, I have been hacking and house ruling my games pretty significantly, and I was really the only one that cared about the rules. I was the guy running the game, and my players, which usually included my wife and kids, trusted me to know what I was doing, and mostly could not have cared less about the actually rules. I dropped a lot of stuff over the years I thought was needlessly nit-picky. I pulled in stuff from other editions, or stuff I found online and thought was cool, or just stuff that I made up; not to mention the house rules that everyone just seemed to know from time immemorial. Critical hits on a natural 20 doing double damage, for instance, are so common many people think they are actually in the rules. EGG hated the concept (or so he said publicly, having never played with him I couldn't say), but they were, and are, everywhere. Where did we learn them? Who knows.

One of my players was recently frustrated by the fact that there isn't really any reason to play anything but a Human in 1st edition AD&D. She plays a Gnome Thief/Illusionist and I think has never played old school D&D before. My initial reaction was like “Duh, it says right in the book this is a humanocentric game”, but coming from where she was, I get it. WotC really took a lot of effort to balancing the races (and classes) in 3e (and beyond). AD&D does a pretty decent job at showing the various advantages non-humans get, but is fairly poor at pointing out the disadvantages, and they do not cancel each other out balance wise. In many ways I agree with EGG about the humanocentric game (also in the way he thought that fighters were the class people would want to play).

I have been considering stripping out all of the non-Human PC races. Over time D&D has consistently increased the number of PC races (really species) that are playable. I'd like to go the other way. Elves and Dwarves and Gnomes, if not Halflings, are folkloric creatures and should stay that way. Half Orcs and Half Elves have their own issues, on the one hand species this alien to each other probably should not be able to interbreed, on the other, at least for Half Orcs, it implies a tragic and disgusting backstory of rape.

I might consider creating new classes for human characters that are essentially reskins of the missing demihumans, or I may not. While the B/X Elf gives us a good “Fighting Wizard” class, what do the Halfling and the Dwarf bring?

I would not create the same issues by giving different mechanics to different “races” of humans either. A human is a human is a human, all the same flesh and bone. I might create a different set of skills based on social class, or place of origin, but those are pretty campaign specific. I might even come up with backgrounds a la 5th edition for that, why reinvent the wheel.

I have also been thinking about the class archetypes. In my recent “Colonies of Avalon” campaign the party Cleric has been a particular annoyance to me. I don't dislike the player, I wouldn't play with him if I did, but his character's class irritates me. He has a different view than I do on how Clerics are meant to be played. I always picture them (and as NPCs usually play them) as medieval crusader knights, like the Templars. He plays his character as a support healer, essentially a combat medic. We rarely see anything other than healing spells, which I find sad. Mona used to play this way too, I guess, but at least she fought on the front line, and spells for healing came after combats. I have tried over the years banning multiple preparations of the same spell, removing cure X wounds spells from the game and replacing it with spontaneous healing by removing a prepared spell and getting X number of dice (d6 or d8) where X equals the level of spell you are giving up, giving Clerics spell slots they can use as desired to cast any Cleric spell of the slotted level. Nothing really seems to work with Clerics not just taking advantage of healing spells. 

The other issue with Clerics is their Turn Undead ability. I hate to agree with Mike Mearls on this, but it really is just an “I win” button for Clerics. It takes what should be a frankly terrifying encounter and negates it, which I find both boring and frustrating as a DM. Any encounter with Undead creatures that a Cleric doesn't have a reasonably good chance of simply turning, is probably one the party can't win anyway, and should flee from. I would consider just stripping it entirely from the Class, but taking a core class ability away from it would likely incite player riots.

I have seen some suggestions for fixing either of these issues on various blogs and the rework of the Cleric in “Lion & Dragon”1 is pretty interesting; but the best suggestion I have seen is to simply remove it from the game.

That leaves us with an issue; if people rarely want to play Clerics, nobody wants to play a Magic-User (and why, oh why, couldn't Gygax have named this class Wizard or Sorcerer, or any other damned thing). Glass cannons, one shot wonders. Can't wear armor, poor choice in available weapons, weakest hit points in the game; melee combat is not an option. Only getting a single spell at first level always seems to leave them cowering behind the lines, often wasting good casting opportunities, just because they know they'll be done, absolutely useless to the party the moment they cast their lone spell. Sometimes (depending on the exact system of D&D being used) they will provide some largely ineffectual missile fire.

I have played a single classed Magic-User in every edition of D&D that has been out since I started playing (1981) up through at least mid level, I have been that guy. I could offer advice to the other players, but mostly I was taking cover and providing a little bit of missile fire. 

I have seen games where the party Magic-User blasted through his spell right away, that tends to lead to the ten minute adventuring day.

Fixes? I have seen very few. One suggestion that all Magic-Users get a cantrip or two, non-damage causing, they can cast at will makes them seem more mysterious and magical. It may have been the same place I saw the idea that Read Magic and Detect Magic should just be a class ability, which is useful. I might go ahead and make Identify a class ability (or skill) too. I am not sure any of this makes the Magic-User a more attractive Class to be though.

I have posted about the Thief in the past, and I guess my thought on this currently is to go with something like Lamentations of the Flame Princess's Specialist Class, you can do almost anything with them.

In the end most players I know like playing Fighter Classes, as God and Gary intended. I played in an online game last night where we were all Human Fighter types (actually all Human Bushi, it was a White Box Eastern Adventures game) and we were all essentially the same mechanically (weapon choice made some difference) and were differentiated mainly by the way we role played our characters. It was some of the most fun I have playing in a D&D game in a very long time, with the caveat that I rarely get to play D&D, as I am generally DMing.

I rather enjoyed the simplicity and even the lethality of a White Box game, but I am not real sure I could find players for a campaign, nor am I sure I'd like the difficulty set that high for a campaign. B/X seems to be hitting the sweet spot for me right now.

Not sure where I was going with this, I just wanted to get these thoughts down and sorted. It looks like “Colonies of Avalon” is over, the group has split up, and it's mostly my fault, although completely not game related. I want to have friends and play D&D, but my depression and anxiety, especially since Mona died, have made it harder and harder to keep having any social life at all.

Dun Gwyn

There are a couple of things about the setting I don't think I have adequately conveyed during gaming, so I want to clear this up, for the purposes of Blue Booking, if nothing else.

First, Dun Gwyn is small. It's the end of line line (currently) economically and militarily. The dun itself is a quickly constructed motte-and-bailey. Lord Gwyn¹, the first and current lord, has no more than a thirty riders at his disposal, although he commands a larger military garrison too. The small temple of Bel² is located within the fortified area, and has a handful of temple guards. The detachment of soldiers (about 100, it varies because of their patrols along the coast road, and expeditions to the interior) are garrisoned in tents at the western edge of town. The town is a ramshackle of rapidly constructed buildings, half constructed buildings and tents. One of the few buildings in the town is the poor quality inn, “The Lion's Den” that your party stays at while they are in town. It is lousy with fleas and bed bugs, and doesn't offer a lot of choice in it's sleeping arrangements, either barracks style shared multi-bunk room, the common room (where you just sleep on the floor (or on a table or bench) providing your own bedding, or, lastly, the one private room the inn-keeper lives in, but is willing to rent out to paying customers. The food is mediocre, but filling. Most of the merchants are just visiting, this is the last stop on their trade route, after buying and (mostly) selling here, they turn around and head back to the coast. Most of the stuff they bring is for the soldiers.

Recently an influx of a couple of hundred settlers of various backgrounds arrived, and more are likely on their way. The dun, the soldiers and the settlers are causing tension with the local human (barbarian³) population.

Second, Tirnakaur (the colony that you are in) is hot. Think Georgia through Florida hot. It also rains a lot there, pretty much every day. So it's also muddy and wet. The area is not especially well explored, although that will probably become a campaign goal as you guys level up. Levels 1-3 are traditionally focused on dungeons (and despite being largely outside, the Hill plays like one because of the magic in the forest restricting you to various paths), levels 4+ traditionally focus on wilderness exploration type adventures, or at least overland travels to more advanced level dungeons.

Third, the amazing abundance of animals everywhere. Us modern folk don't think about this much, but there are more animals than humans in any place there are humans. I went down a rabbit hole researching horses this morning and wow, are there a lot of different, specialized horses, not just the differences between riding and draft horses, but various types of riding horses for different purposes, and all of the working horses have specializations to their jobs, with very few horses being multi-purpose. That got me thinking about the other animals, almost every household has at least one dog, for instance, or cats, a necessity for keeping vermin down (although not particularly liked especially well, as a rule), any settlement or homestead is going to have flocks of various fowl, mostly chickens, ducks and geese, and cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs; with pigs being the only ones that are raised solely for their meat (although their hides are useful too).

So I guess Dun Gwyn is mostly a smelly barnyard of an unhygienic tent city. Crossing the Shrill to the Hill might actually be safer than the impending cholera and/or typhus outbreak that is sure to occur in Dun Gwyn. Probably the only clean places there are inside the dun itself, like Lord Gwyn's hall or the temple of Bel.

1Lord Gwyn is clearly an old style lord, he keeps his own band of oath-sworn riders, most lords of Avalon have abandoned this practice.

2Bel is also known as “The Great God”, he is the most widely worshiped deity in the Avalonish pantheon.

3These “barbarians” are mostly of a similar ethnic stock to the people of Avalon, speaking a different dialect of the same root language, kind of like the difference between the English of Shakespeare and the King James Bible vs. the modern American English of today. Isolated groups are of different ethnicities, there are also groups of “wild” elves here, they constitute an entirely different “barbarian” group.

Ostschild is done

Ostschild is done. It's actually been done for a few months now. A second TPK in as many weeks did it in for good, right before our Christmas holidays hiatus from gaming. I am a little sad that it's over, and maybe I'll revisit it later. Ostschild came close to being what I wanted in a D&D game; it was set in a realistic medieval milieu; it built on actual, real world history, folklore, and mythology; and it drew all of that into a coherent fantasy setting. Some concessions were made for D&D, for the feel, or the rules, or the expectations of D&D gamers. The only difference I might make is to change the rules set to something like Lion & Dragon, although it's explicitly British setting would require some retooling to make it fit the Holy Roman Empire. Alternately I might consider running a very similar set up in the British isles, I did lament a bit the choice of central European location making the names of people and places a bit difficult for both my gamers and myself to pronounce, given our American English speaking backgrounds.

I have been running a new AD&D game set in my old Garnia setting. I did TPK the party once there already, maybe three sessions in, but they dusted themselves off like troopers, made new characters and we're on our 5^th session with new new PCs now. I adapted “Horror on the Hill” for play in my campaign world, and it's been fun so far (despite the TPK).

I do have some more campaign specific stuff to hand out to them, currently they are aware of the Celtic theme of the setting, and it's set in my “post-apocalyptic” timeline, where all of the old kingdoms were overrun and destroyed by the forces of evil. Their characters are descendants of the refugees that fled the main continent to the relative safety of an isolated island I am calling Avalon in the eastern ocean. Now their people are seeking to explore and resettle the ancient lands of their ancestors. The biggest surprise is that not all of the humans, elves, etc. were wiped out completely, so there are pockets of pretty hardy survivors there, although they have often descended into barbarism due to the circumstances of their own ancestors survival.

The humanoids and other evil forces have become extremely disunited in the centuries following their victory, and have squabbled greatly over the spoils amongst themselves, which is probably why there are pockets of survivors.

Anyway, we've been doing this since January, and it's April now, so I thought I'd blog about it. I still need to put together a list of Celtic names, they actually requested it. I need to write up documents for Elves, Halflings and Gnomes. I already had one I made last year for Dwarves when I was running my “Lost Atlantis” campaign online, it needed just a bit of editing to remove the Roman stuff, it's still the same campaign world, but the other side of the main continent. Atlantis was kind of an inspiration for Avalon in this campaign, an island appearing where none was before and all, only with Avalon it was placed there when the forces of good needed a place to retreat to.

Recap 2018

I am thinking about D&D a bunch while my groups are on hiatus. Lost Atlantis hasn't played since May, that campaign basically got replaced with Ostschild the next month. I do think it's sad that I kind of gave up on the largely online Lost Atlantis campaign when I got a new local group, but these things happen. Both of those groups of people and the games I have run for them have helped me a lot in dealing with Mona's death. I needed people in my life, to try and kick start some bit of normalcy for me again.

Now Ostschild is probably dead. I killed the entire party two weeks in a row. They were killed by bad luck more than anything else, but with the holidays fast approaching, and one of the regular players not being able to show for a few weeks due to work, I talked it over with some of the players and thought about things some, and I am moving on from B/X, back to AD&D. B/X is a nice vacation, and I really like it, but AD&D is home.

This means a likely move back to my “standard” AD&D campaign setting of Garnia, in use off and on since about 1983, if I recall correctly. Technically, Lost Atlantis was also in that same setting, but it was in a newly discovered lost continent I added to the setting, where it will now exist forever.

Anyway, that's, more or less, my year end review for this blog. Nothing catastrophic happened. I started gaming again, first on Roll20, then in person. I still mourn the loss of Mona, but it is getting to where it is less immediate. We start playing in my “new” AD&D campaign on the 8^th of January, weather permitting.

Ostschild News Update 11-08-18

Following the latest TPK I am advancing the date a bit to match our own season, the new party will begin at Guido's Fort on the Donau river on November 13th 1018 AD. So what happened since the end of June, when I gave you the last update?

Internationally –

In late June Crown Prince Karloman died of a fever before being released from his captivity, despite the best efforts of the greatest healer-priests from Ostschild.

At the end of July there were two major battles of note. The battle of the river Bug, where Duke Boleslaw's Polish army defeated the Kievan army of Yaroslav the wise. Yaroslav abandoned Kiev and retreated to Novgorod.

The second battle has more far reaching consequences, the Imperial forces fighting against the rebellious Dirik III, Count of Holland, were decisively defeated at the battle of Vlaardingen, and Prince Clovis was killed in the fighting. The whereabouts and disposition of his bastard brother Adalbert are unknown at this time.

This leaves Princess Hildegarde as the sole legitimate heir to the throne, and she is being recalled from Wallachia, with her husband Count Vlad.

Closer to home -

Bands of Heathen Northmen have been traversing the wild areas of the kingdom, raiding outlying settlements and pillaging trade caravans. Thus far no military force has been able to bring them to a pitched battle. Rumors abound that they are here at the behest of Heathen Wends of the kingdom, so a commission of inquisition has been created for the kingdom to hunt down and root out these pagan hold outs among the Wendish subjects in the realm.

Poor harvest due to early frosts and freak weather have further strained an already stretched thin peasantry, who were forced earlier this year to pay an extra tax for the ransom of Prince Karloman from the Poles. Some peasants, mostly returning conscripts, have turned to banditry, preying on their fellow peasants and unwary merchants.

A cholera outbreak earlier this year was largely confined to the area in and around the city of Vecht, the city fathers and the priesthood both agree witches, possibly with Jewish allies, are to blame.

Rumors-

The Knights of the Lance are planning an enormous expedition down the Golden Way, to bring the fight to the Elf-King's doorstep.

Hags were seen flying over the King's palace in Lenz on the night of the full moon three months in a row, these deaths in the royal family can only be a result of their curse.

Man sized rats are seen prowling the streets of Lenz in the moonlight, people fear to leave their homes at night.

A tower appeared by the old north road one day.

Heinrich von Bayern has not been seen in the daylight in months, he's changed all meetings and business of the order of Charlemagne to adjust to his new sunless schedule.

Ostchild Still Going Strong

It kind of looked like I was back for regular blogging for a while and then petered out. That was unintentional, I got pretty sick and I am still dealing with the aftermath of that. I am still not back to 100%, but I have been DMing the setting still (with two missed sessions due to my illness). We play weekly at my house and I started a second game at my daughter's place, but that one has petered out because of her work schedule and a couple of other issues.

Tuesday evening we played our 17th session, one player couldn't make it because of a work thing, but we were in a good place to leave his character out safe. The party decided it was a good time to return to civilization and cash in so they could try to level up (the party Cleric did, the others were close). On their way back to the dungeon (in the wilderness, beneath an ancient ruined heathen temple) they got a random encounter with 20 Berserkers and I TPKed them. My dice were hot (I roll them in the open as much as possible), theirs were not. Three PCs (levels 3-5), two Henchmen (both level 2) and a pair of Hirelings (0-level Muleteers, brothers in fact) died in the wilderness that day.

I didn't fudge anything (except the fact that the Berserkers should have had surprise, which the players didn't see, but I thought "Oh my god, if I give 20 Berserkers a surprise round at this range, it could be a TPK", so I didn't) during the combat. I thought when I rolled up how many Berserkers there were that it would be a tough encounter, but Berserkers aren't that tough, they hit pretty hard, but go down pretty easy, and the worst AC in the party was 2 I think (except for the muleteers). I figured the party would get bloodied, and maybe have to worry about the next possible encounter (or turn back to civilization to rest and heal).

They immediately started rolling new characters, which made me happy. There was no question of ending this campaign to maybe play something else. Nobody was crying about it being too tough (except maybe me). The players were cool with it.

We have had PC death before. I TPKed them in the caves of Chaos back in June, the second session we played. We've lost Henchmen and Hirelings before (despite playing B/X, I use the more familiar [to me at least] AD&D definitions for the party's retainers, B/X is pretty foggy on the exact definitions there). PC death has become rare though, in part due to the Schrodinger's Adventurer House Rule, in part due to extremely cautious play and good battle tactics on the part of the party.

I just wanted to get this new blog post out. I'll have more Ostschild stuff coming, hopefully soon.

Frankish and Wendish Names

Names that seem historically accurate are a difficult thing to find, so I made this list of "campaign appropriate" names for my NPCs, and decided to share it with my players too.

Frankish Names -

Frankish (Germanic Frankish)

Male Names -

Abrahil, Abram, Adalbald, Adalbert, Adalgari, Adalgrim, Aegidius, Ageric, Agilbert, Agiulf, Ailbert, Albric, Aldedramn, Andica, Ansovald, Arcambald, Aregisel, Arnegisel, Arnulf, Ascaric, Audovald, Austregisel, Autbert, Autgari, Autgeri, Avremar Badegisel, Balduin, Barnard, Berald, Bernard, Berneri, Bero, Berold, Berthefried, Bertlin, Bertram, Bertrand, Burchard, Karloman, Ceslin, Chararic, Charibert, Childebert, Childeric, Chilperic, Chlodomer, Chlothar, Chramnesind, Clodio, Clodion, Clovis, Creat, Dagaric, Dagobert, Drogo, Eberulf, Ebregisel, Engilbert, Euric, Everard, Faroard, Faroin, Feremund, Feroard, Foroen, Frobert, Frotari, Frothard, Frothari, Frotlaic, Fulcari, Fulcrad, Galteri, Gararic, Garivald, Gaucelm, Gaudulf, Gaujoin, Gausbert, Gausbold, Gautmar, Gauzbert, Gedalbert, Gedalca, Genobaud, Gerbert, Gerhard, Gerold, Gislari, Gislevert, Gocelm, Godalbert, Godomar, Gozhelm, Grimald, Guadulf, Gualtari, Gualter, Guillabert, Guitard, Gundobad, Gunthar, Guntram, Haldemar, Hartmut, Hildebald, Hildebold, Hildegaud, Hildevold, Hildoin, Hucbert, Hugbert, Imnachar, Ingalbert, Ingomer, Karl, Lambert, Lantbert, Leudast, Lothar, Magnachar, Magneric, Mainard, Mallobaudes, Marachar, Marcomer, Marell, Martin, Maurifi, Meginhard, Merogais, Merovech, Munderic, Niebelung, Odelric, Odolric, Otbert, Otgeri, Otker, Pepin, Pharamond, Pippin, Radulf, Ragambald, Ragena, Ragenard, Raginari, Ragnachar, Ragnald, Ragno, Raimbold, Rainald, Ramnulf, Rathar, Raynold, Reginari, Ricchar, Rignomer, Roland, Robert, Rotbert, Segoin, Seguin, Sicbald, Sichar, Sicland, Sicleard, Siclevold, Sigebald, Sigebert, Sigeric, Sigismund, Sigobert, Sinop, Sunnegisil, Sunno, Tancrad, Tancred, Tassilo, Teotbert, Tetbert, Teutbald, Teutbert, Theoderic, Theoric, Theudebald, Theudemeres, Theuderic, Theudoald, Theutbald, Trutgaud, Vuitard, Vulfari, Vulframn, Vulvari, Waltgaud, Werinbert, Wilbert, Willichar, Wolfari

Female Names -

Adalgardis, Adallinda, Adaltrude, Adeltrudis, Adaluildis, Adelaidis, Airsenda, Albofleda, Albrada, Alda, Aldegonde, Aliberta, Alitrudis, Ansegudis, Ansegundis, Anstrude, Arsindis, Audofleda, Audovera, Austreberta, Austrechild, Balthild, Begga, Beretrude, Bernegildis, Bertenildis, Berthefled, Berthefried, Berthegund, Berthildis, Bertilla, Bertrada, Bladovildis, Brunhild, Burgundofara, Celsa, Celsovildis, Cesaria, Chlodosind, Chlothsinda, Clotild, Creada, Dagena, Eldesendis, Ermengardis, Ermengildis, Ermensindis, Eustadiola, Faileuba, Faregildis, Fastrada, Framberta, Fredegunde, Frolaica, Frotberga, Frotlildis, Frotlina, Galswinth, Gaudildis, Gautlindis, Genovefa, Gersvinda, Gertrude, Gisela, Glodesind, Goiswinth, Gotberga, Gundrada, Halderudis, Harildis, Hildegarde, Hildegardis, Hildesendis, Hiltrude, Illegardis, Ingitrude, Ingohildis, Ingunde, Itta, Landina, Lanthechilde, Lantsida, Leubast, Leubovera, Leutberga, Leutgardis, Liutgarde, Madelgarde, Magnatrude, Marcatrude, Marcovefa, Martinga, Monegund, Morberga, Radegund, Rictrude, Rigunth, Rosamund, Rothaide, Rotrude, Ruothilde, Rusticula, Sadalberga, Siclehildis, Sigalsis, Theodelinda, Theoderada, Ultrogotha, Vuldretrada, Waltrude

Latin Frankish (Old French)

Male Names -

Édouard, Érrard, Étienne, Adalbert, Adémar, Adrien, Aimery, Alain, Aldebert, Aldéric, Alphonse, Amaury, Amédée, Ancel, André, Angelbert, Antoine, Archambaud, Arnaud, Arnault, Arnoul, Aubry, Aymar, Barthélémi, Baudouin, Benoît, Bérenger, Bernard, Bertrand, Bohemond, Boson, Bouchard, Centule, Charles, Clotaire, Ebbon, Enguerrand, Eudes, Eustache, Evrard, Foulques, François, Frédéric, Géraud, Gargamel, Gaucher, Gaucelin, Gauthier, Geoffroy, Géraud, Gelduin, Gilbert, Gilles, Godefroy, Guichard, Guiges, Guilhem, Guillaume, Guy, Hélie, Hamelin, Henri, Herbert, Hildebert, Hugues, Humbert, Jacques, Jaufré, Jaspert, Jean, Josselin, Jourdain, Julien, Léon, Léonard, Lothaire, Louis, Loup, Manassès, Mathieu, Maurice, Nicolas, Ogier, Onfroy, Orson, Othon, Payen, Philippe, Pierre, Raimbaut, Raoul, Raymond, Raynaud, Renaud, Richard, Robert, Robin, Roger, Rorgon, Rorgues, Roubaud, Savary, Sigismond, Simon, Thibault, Thiébaut, Thierry, Thomas, Valeran, Yves

Female Names -

Éléonore, Élodie, Étiennette, Adèle, Adalmode, Adelaide, Adelinde, Agathe, Agnès, Aléarde, Alice, Aliénor, Alix, Almodis, Amelie, Anne, Antoinette, Arsinde, Aude, Aurengarde, Béatrice, Béatrix, Belleassez, Benoîte, Bérengère, Berthe, Blanche, Bonne, Bourgogne, Bourguigne, Cécile, Cathèrine, Charlotte, Constance, Denise, Douce, Echive, Eglantine, Elisabeth, Emma, Ermengarde, Ermessinde, Esclarmonde, Euphrosine, Eustachie, Eve, Gerberge, Gisèle, Guillaumette, Héloise, Helvis, Hodierne, Ide, Ida, Ildégarde, Isabeau, Isabelle, Jeanne, Judith, Julienne, Mafalda, Mahaut, Margot, Marguerite, Marie, Marthe, Mascarose, Mathilde, Mélisande, Mélisende, Mélusine, Péronelle, Pernelle, Perinne, Pernette, Plaisance, Raymonde, Sarrazine, Solène, Sophie, Stéphanie, Sybille, Tiburge, Valence, Yolande

Wendish Names -

Male Names -

Aleksander, Andrzej, Antoni, Aron, Barnim, Bartosz, Bedrich, Bezprzym Blazej, Bogislaw, Bohdan, Bohumir, Boleslaw, Boriwoj, Bozydar, Branimir, Branislav, Bretislav, Casimir, Ctibor, Dobieslaw, Dobromil, Drosuk, Dytryk, Frantisek, Gawel, Grzegorz, Havel, Jacenty, Jakub, Jakusz, Janusz, Jaromar, Jaromil, Jaromir, Jaroslav, Jedrzej, Jindrich, Jirí, Jozef, Juliusz, Kajetan Kamil, Karel, Kasper, Kazimierz, Kliment, Kolman, Kornel, Kresimir Krzeslaw, Krzysztof, Lech, Leszek, Lubomir, Lucjan, Ludvik, Marek, Marian, Martin, Mateusz, Mieszko, Mikolás, Miloslaw, Milosz, Miroslaw, Mscislaw, Msciwoj, Oldrich, Ondrej, Otokar, Patryk, Pawel, Piotr, Prendota, Przemysl, Przybyslaw, Radomil, Radomir, Radoslav, Rostislav, Ryszard, Sambor, Sobieslav, Stanislaw, Strasz, Swietopelk, Swietoslaw, Szczepan, Szczesny, Szymon, Tadeusz, Tomasz, Udalrich, Urjasz, Vojtech, Waclaw, Walenty, Wratislaw, Wawrzyniec, Wenceslaw, Wincenty, Wizlaw, Wladyslaw, Wlodek, Wlodzimierz, Wlodzislaw, Wratislaw, Zbigniew, Zdenek, Zdislav, Zygmunt

Female Names -

Agnieszka, Alzbeta, Andela, Anna, Berta, Bohuslava, Bozena, Branislava, Dagmar, Danuta, Dobravy, Dobroniega, Dorota, Dragomira, Edyta, Ewa, Geira, Gertruda, Gracja, Grazyna, Halina, Hanna, Irena, Izabela, Jadwiga, Jarka, Jarmila, Jolanta, Judyta, Kamila, Katarina, Kenna, Kornelia, Krystyna, Ksenia, Lidia, Ludmila, Magda, Magdalena, Malgorzata, Marcelina, Maria, Markéta, Martyna, Mateja, Matylda, Milena, Miroslava, Pechna, Róza, Radomila, Radomira, Radoslava, Raina, Regelinda, Rycheza, Salomea, Smiechna, Stanislava, Stefana, Svetlana, Urszula, Václava, Vladislava, Wera, Wojslawa, Zdenka, Zofia, Zwinislawa

Religion in the Ostschild Campaign Setting

Here's a clarification I sent to my players today, because nothing is ever just generic "standard" D&D with me DMing.

The default religion is Christianity, it is the religion of the Holy Roman Empire, and Ostschild is a member state of that empire. Specifically Latin rite (Catholic) Christianity, as opposed to Greek rite (Orthodox) Christianity. The great schism hasn't happened yet, but it is coming soon.

Various forms of paganism still exist in Europe, and many pagan rites are still celebrated with a Christian veneer in the kingdom, but paganism is officially done in Ostschild.

Heresies seem to crop up with alarming regularity within the kingdom, mainly due to the influence of Chaos emanating from the Elf-King's lands to the east.

Islam exists and is considered to be an existential threat to Christendom, especially in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean, but is pretty inconsequential in Ostschild. Pagans were more of a threat, but they are in retreat all over Europe, despite their overwhelming threat not even a century past. Scandinavians are becoming Christian now by choice and central Europe's Slavs by conquest.

Greek rite Christians are still considered brothers, there is no animosity religiously, but many Greeks are viewed with suspicion just because they seem to look down on Ostschilders as barbarians (much as Ostschilders view Northmen or Cumans).

Ostschild Map

It occurs to me I never shared the campaign map, so here it is. I made it with Hexographer, I am still getting the hang of it, and I have Worldographer (Hexographer 2), but I haven't really used it yet. Making maps isn't a strength of mine, but I think this one turned out OK. The Holy Roman Empire is to the north, west and south west (Bohemia), the incipient kingdom of Poland is to the northeast, Hungary to the southeast. Elf-Land is directly to the east, along the Golden Way.

New Feature for Ostschild Campaign

Once per week, going forward, I am giving the people in my campaign the world and local news in the group I created. Here is week One (Early June 1018 AD) -

News from abroad - The Count of Holland, Dirik III, is in revolt against the Emperor over the right to charge tolls on shipping in the imperial canals that wend their way through his fiefdom. There are hopes for a negotiated peace, but the emperor has charged the Duke of Lorraine with recruiting an army to punish him if he does not submit to imperial will and law. Prince Clovis and his majesty's bastard son Adalbert have declared they will respond to the imperial call to arms with a force of knights and men-at-arms from Ostschild.

An army of Poles under Duke Boleslaw the brave has marched towards Kiev to press his claims over the area, possibly paid for with the huge ransom that King Pepin paid for the release of our crown prince Karloman, who lingers yet in Krakow due to a fever contracted during his time as a prisoner of war.

Closer to home -

Princess Hildegarde is leaving Ostschild for Wallachia for her impending nuptials to their Count Vlad, a large train of wagons and armed men accompany her as her dowry is substantial.

The archbishop of Lenz, Heribert the wise, has ordered the dissolution of the Teutoberg priory due to an unprecedented level of heresy. This is the third cloister thus affected this year.

There has been an outbreak of cholera in the vicinity of Vecht.

Rumors -

Man sized rats have been spotted in the night in Lenz.

Great wealth is being plundered from heretofore unknown caverns beneath an old heathen temple to the east of Lenz.

The Knights of the Lance are said to be petitioning the crown to build a new preceptory fortress in the mountains north of Lenz.

Heathen Northmen are moving in force near Isar, such a host has not been seen in the better part of a century, what could have stirred them?

This is another tidbit I gave the group exploring the ancient heathen temple's underground labyrinth-

Also, it should be noted, while you are in town you hear rumors of another expedition to the ruined heathen temple, apparently others are encouraged by your party's success.

Ostschild Starting Languages

It makes no real sense that Humans in the Ostschild setting would speak Dwarf, or Goblin or Elfin or any of a dozen or more other fantasy languages common to D&D. This is a more historically based setting, so I thought I'd toss in some historical languages. All PCs are going to speak the common language of Humans in Ostschild, which is Frankish, by a nose over Wendish.

Dwarfs will speak Dwarf, which is said to be similar to the tongue of the Northmen. Elfs will speak Elfin, the language of the courts of Faerie. Halflings have no special tongue of their own, but speak the tongues of men in their vicinity.

The Languages of Men

Local Languages

Frankish, Wendish.

Frankish not only hangs on in Ostschild as a prestige language, even as it evolves into French to the west; but it prospers, replacing the Wendish tongue in the region. Frankish is a Germanic language, with a lot of Latin loan words, not unlike modern English in that regard.

Wendish is a Slavic language, the ancestor of modern Czech and Slovak, it is the language of the population that was conquered by Charlemagne.

Nearby Languages

To the North – German, Norse.

To the East – Polish, Russian, Cuman.

To the South – Italian, Romanian, Serbian, Magyar.

To the West – German, Wendish.

Further afield – Greek, English, Breton, Bulgarian, Irish, Welsh, French, Spanish, Occitan, Turkish, Arabic, Farsi, Dutch, Finnish, Basque. All of these languages have lots of dialects and regional variants, D&D isn't a language simulator though, and adding that kind of complexity seems kind of pointless, so I have made some arbitrary decisions about languages here. Hell, maybe this is already too complex.

Religious Languages

Latin,Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic. The languages of the old and new testaments, plus the Koran. There are other holy languages in the world than these ones obviously, Sanskrit comes to mind, but these are the languages that are likely to be seen in the Ostschild setting.

Magical Languages

Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Sumerian, Demotic, Coptic, Etruscan, Minoan, pretty much any ancient language will work. I am adding this category, because I am always tinkering with the game, and my current thinking is that Magic-Users keep their Grimoires (Spell Books) written in some ancient tongue rather than in some special esoteric “magical” language.

Non-Human languages

Dwarf and Elfin are the two key languages here. I am unsure whether or not the campaign really needs any others. My current thinking is that Goblins and other Fey creatures probably speak some lower class dialect of the Elfin tongue. Dwarfs speak their own elder Nordic tongue. I honestly don't see any need for a “Draconic” language, or really any other fantasy languages. In folklore the odd creatures all speak the tongues of men anyway.

Character Death

Character Death.

It happens, and with greater frequency I think than any of us would like to see. The life of an adventurer is rife with danger, it's the game we're playing. Older editions of D&D were far more lethal than their modern versions, and even with the steps we've taken via house rules, it is still true. Grumpy grognards (including me) will often point out that new editions coddle their players by making them more powerful and worrying about encounter balance, but the fact is that was always true. DMs fudged die rolls behind the screen to keep PCs alive, whether it was lowering the number of monsters encountered, or missing when they should've hit, or making a bad guy miss a save, or any of a hundred other “balancing” things we did to keep the game, and the fun, rolling along.

Now I am a much more “let the dice fall where they may” kind of a DM. I try not to coddle my players with poor tactics, but instead to play monsters and NPCs as written, and I roll all of my dice out in the open, except in those cases where players need to make a decision without knowing whether or not they were successful, this is mostly in regard to Thieves Skills and Secret Door checks. That's my philosophy now, I am a neutral referee, as much as I can be when I am also controlling the opposition.

Preamble aside, death is an omnipresent part of the game, without the risk the rewards are meaningless; so here's a couple of things about death in Ostschild.

First off, those who are not buried with proper Christian rites are likely to rise as undead. This is said to be a curse placed on the kingdom by the Elf-King, but other people say it happens because there was pagan death cult centered on the area from ages past. Some people say it because of all the heretics and witches found in this kingdom, or maybe just the general rise in power of Satanic cults. Regardless, if you want your friends and family to rest peacefully, they need to be buried with proper Christian rites.

Secondly, and hearkening back to heathen times, heroes of Ostschild are often buried with grave goods proper to their station in life. Making a sacrifice of items to the grave of a hero, when he is interred offers actual, in game, benefits; the minimum of which is an increase in experience points. 250XP for a one use item, 1000XP for a permanent item. There is also the possibility of getting a random beneficial spell side effect that may last for up to a month, examples include protection from evil (or good), Bless, Invisibility to Undead, etc.

Funeral costs are not insignificant for heroes. If a hero dies in the wilderness, and his body cannot be reasonably transported back to civilization for burial, it is possible to give the hero a proper burial in the wild, but the benefits are lessened. You still get full XP for grave goods, but are less likely to receive any other supernatural benefit. However, if the hero's remains are transported back to civilization, or, by chance he dies there, a proper public funeral is in order. The cost of the funeral varies with the stature of the hero being interred, but generally includes the price of both the funeral service and the funerary feast.

Note that Christians (also Jews and Muslims) are buried, only heathens cremate their dead.

So, henceforth we need to keep this in mind.

Addendum -

Wills – Any character can designate an heir, the heir must be a blood relative of the PC and of the same species. The heir can receive all of the non-magical wealth of the deceased, minus a 10% inheritance tax collected by the crown and one magic item belonging to the dead character. Choose wisely and before your character dies. Any character that dies intestate will forfeit their wealth to the crown.

Dwarfs prefer to be interred if Christian, cremated if not. They never leave any of their goods to an heir in either case, preferring to take all of their worldly possessions to the afterlife.

Halflings follow the funerary rites of the communities in which they dwelled in life.

Elf bodies evaporate slowly over the course of several hours after being killed.

Proposed Ostschild Crits and Fumbles

I sent the following to my players. We're running B/X D&D with a bunch of house rules, this is a proposal for another.

Crits & Fumbles

Rolling a 20 or a 1 should be exciting, but not debilitating or unbalancing

A 20 used to be a critical hit at nearly every table I ever played or DMed. A critical hit was usually double damage, sometimes just multiplying the damage die rolled by two, usually at my table it was roll twice the number of damage dice, adding bonuses for Strength or whatever after.

Since we started using penetration damage I have been leery of adding another bonus, and these affect player characters more often that they affect NPC or Monster combatants.

Likewise a 1 was often a fumble, or at least some sort of fumble check. Sometimes these were funny, sometimes inconvenient, sometimes downright deadly.

However, I'd like to bring back a little of the excitement of rolling a 20 to hit, and the dread of rolling a 1, so I am presenting for possible inclusion into the house rules these simple Crit/Fumbles.

Melee Critical Hits – roll 1d10

1-3 Enemy pushed back, usually 5 feet, into an unoccupied square.

4-5 Enemy knocked prone*.

6-7 Enemy disarmed, enemy drops weapon, which flies 0-15 feet (in 5' increments) in a random direction.

8-9 Enemy shield damaged/destroyed, enemy loses 1 point of AC.

10 - Enemy takes double damage (twice as many dice)

Ranged Critical Hits – roll 1d8

1-3 Enemy drops weapon/shield (50/50)

4-6 Enemy takes double damage (twice as many dice)

7-8 Enemy takes triple damage (thrice as many dice)

Ranged critical hits are clearly harder to give more variety of results to, but I think adding triple damage as a possibility makes sense given that missile weapons are all piercing (even blunt ones like sling stones/bullets); I mean, if it comes down to it and you throw a rock or a brick or something, we can justify the additional damage somehow or ignore any results saying triple damage.

Melee Fumbles roll 1d10

1 - Timing Off - -2 to next initiative

2 - Timing Really Off – lose all actions next round

3 - Off Balance -1 to initiative and -1 to hit next round.

4 - Really Off Balance – Make Saving Throw vs. Paralysis or trip and fall prone*.

5 - Opened Yourself Up -1 to AC until your next round

6 - Really Opened Yourself Up – -1 to AC and nearest enemy gets an immediate free attack.

7 - Butterfingers – Make Saving Throw vs. Paralysis or drop weapon, which flies 0-15 feet (in 5' increments) in a random direction.

8 - OOPS - Accidentally strike nearest ally for full damage, no to hit roll needed.

9 - Break weapon – You broke your weapon. Magic weapons get a saving throw vs. crushing blow, all others just break.

10 - Hit Self – Somehow you managed to hit yourself for full damage.

*Prone characters are at +3 to hit and require their next round to stand up.

Ranged Fumbles roll 1d

1-3 - Dropped weapon – Make Saving Throw vs. Paralysis or drop weapon, which flies 0-15 feet (in 5' increments) in a random direction.

4-5 - Dropped Ammo – lose next round retrieving ammo, if using a thrown weapon treat as dropped weapon.

6 - Broke Weapon - You broke your weapon. Magic weapons get a saving throw vs. crushing blow, all others just break. Exception – bows and crossbows only break the string on a 1-5 on a d6.

7 - Hit Ally – missile strikes ally nearest to intended target for full damage, no to hit roll required.

8 - Hit Self – Somehow you managed to hit yourself for full damage.

I agonized over whether ranged weapons should just use the melee fumble table, and whether thrown weapons needed to be separated from bows and other launcher based weapons, but opted for the middle ground here. There's room for discussion in any case.