Original Style cover for the Majestic Wilderlands

Two days ago I released a PDF to allow people to print an original style cover for their PDF. Several have requested the ability to order a print copy with that cover. With the internet being the way it is this is not a problem to issue.

One thing tho is that the PDF is black on white. And I don't think that what people were expecting. Luckily I own the three original booklet (the box sadly trashed many years ago). One of them has a very clean back cover with no text or graphics. So I scanned that in and used it as a background texture.

I used my photo printer to see how it looked and it looked very nice. Since I printed the first cover and it matched the proof copy from Lulu I figure that it would be OK to release it now.

Supplement VI: the Majestic Wilderlands (with original style cover) $12.

The rest of the story about Day Jobs

Back in June Tim at Gothridge Manor talks about Day Jobs. I was the GM for all three examples he gives here.

How all of this came about? When you run the same setting for decades, you need to mix it up a bit. Especially when you have players with as much experience as Tim and Dwayne (of Gamer's Closet).

The first with Devon the Blacksmith originated in a idea that I had for a campaign. Namely discovering the secret of gunpowder. I just finished reading Guns, Germs, & Steel and followed up with some more reading on the history of Gunpowder. Because Gunpowder was first used as a way of making better siege equipment I could introduce into the Majestic Wilderlands without causing a lot of change the esstential medieval feel of the game. Because of some events that occured in a previous campaign, the whole idea for a new campaign just popped into my head at once.

In the Majestic Wilderlands, City-State is the seat of the Tharian Overlords. The Tharian Overlords are leaders of a confederation of provinces and clans stretching from the Estuary of the Roglaroon to the Viridistan border. One of the province, Bernost, lies north, next to the Tharian Coast. It's Dukes have always resented living under the rule of the Overlord and every couple of decades will forment a revolt. A revolt that usually ends with the Duke head cut off, and a lot of Bernost folks dead.

This time the Duke has an edge, he lucked into a alchemist who showed him the wonders of something called Dragon Powder (aka Black Powder). The alchemist, being somewhat of a reinaissance man, not only could create Dragon Powder but also had designs for using Bronze Tubes to create seige engines of unparralled powers (i.e. cannons). The Duke immediately became the alchemist's patron and started mass producing Dragon Powers and Cannons. Among other things this required the hiring of a lot of metalsmiths who could cast bronze.

The hiring of all these metalsmiths did not go unnoticed by the Overlord and thus enter our heroes. Dwayne played an agent of the Black Lotus and Tim played a blacksmith. The two were charged to go north and find out what the hell was going on. The resulting campaign played in several distinct phase: The journey to Bernost, getting hiring, the gathering of information, the escape, and the denouement. The way it played it out the players rarely (if at all) got into a fight. I believe there was a encounter with bandits during the journey to Bernost. The most dangerous moment came when they were sneaking around and wandered into some wood downrange from where they were testing the cannons.

Now the campaign sounds much like a railroad. I assure you it wasn't, the combination of the fact it was a mission and that both characters where hired meant it was focused on specific goals from the get go. The campaign was proposed pretty much as all my games do with those two. "What do you want to play?" When Dwayne said "Black Lotus Agent" and Tim said "Average Blacksmith" I thought it was a perfect setup for my idea.

The crowning moment of the campaign was in the denouement. Dwayne's Agent got a promotion to a prestigious position within the Black Lotus, and Tim's Blacksmith gained his guild mastership along with a leading position in the monopoly that the Overlord was setting up to control Dragon Powder. We all looked at each other and came to the same conclusion. "This campaign is over. The characters got what they wanted and there no reason for them to adventure." It wasn't a feeling of "aw there nothing more to do" but rather the satisfaction of something that was just well done.

Allen Hess, the village priest, was a campaign involving GURPS 50 point characters. Now in GURPS 50 points means that you are a joe average person. Your best skill may be a 13 or 14 and the rest dead average. It is not quite as bad as AD&D's 0-level but close. I ran two campaigns with 50 point characters in college and they were a lot of fun. The main reason is because the group has to work together to get anything done. With normal 100 pts the individual characters usually just enough versatility that they can go off and do something by themselves. Not so with 50 pts, try to do that and likely you will just wind up hurt or worse dead.

This particular 50 pt campaign was a couple of years later and set in City-State. I took a neighborhood in the southeast corner near Guardsmen Road and populated it. Including a vampire that was preying on the locals. All and a fun campaign to play.

The twin brother campaign, was definitely not what I planned. The campaign was supposed to be a foray into the underbelly of the world of thieves and thugs. The basic idea is that the players were to be the goons and go up from there. Not burglars, pickpockets, con-artists, but just plain thugs. Well it didn't work out that way. Dwayne decided to play a very anti-social character and like it was told over at Gothridge Manor, got Tim fired. Afterward Tim decided not to be mad at Dwayne's character. No siree, he was just going to be mad as insane period.

The reason that Dwayne got Tim fired was that they can do this job they got "right away". Well Tim taught Dwayne a new definition of "right away". What followed was a rampage of violence and brutality that would leave even Quentin Tarentino gasping. They made their way up the hierarchy of the thieves guild to find out where the Baron's Heirloom was. At some point things just were getting way out of control.

When I feel out of control what is happening is that players are going things that will bring down the big guns of the campaign on them. But I don't like doing that in general unless there is a fun way of doing it. Which is not very often. Being blue bolted sucks and feels arbitrary no matter how much you sugar coat it. Well two encounters later they just about exhausted the hierarchy. They were only one step away from the Grandmasters themselves. Then I thought of the twist about the Grandmasters returning the item. In the end they still got blue bolted by the baron, but the twist made for a nice ending for the campaign.

The OGL and the Majestic Wilderlands

I had some inquires about adapting the Majestic Wilderlands to other systems. I apologize for not stating this out front but the entirety of Men & Magic and Monster & Treasures is under the Open Gaming License except for any Judges Guild specific terms like City-State of the Invincible Overlord which are Product Identity. The setting information in Wilderness & Adventures is likewise Product Identity. The declaration of open content is on the page with the foreward and the license the back page.

This is deliberately liberal as while I believe in a strong copyright (perhaps for shorter term than life+95 years) I also a strong proponent of open gaming. The rules for the Majestic Wilderlands wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the d20 SRD and Matt Finch's Swords & Wizardry so it only fair that I return the favor.

So this means you can take whatever section of the rules, adapt them, mutant them, kitbash, or whatever as long as you use the OGL in turn.

Also my Section 15 is pretty easy to copy consisting only of four entries. For those who don't know copying section 15 of the license to a derivative work is a requirement of the OGL. Some otherwise open product have section 15s as long as my arm.

Also if anybody managed to fabricate a book out of the PDF I would like to hear about it. I had to get my printout chopped in two and coil bound as I just couldn't staple it together.

The Print Version of the Majestic Wilderlands is available!

Announcing the release of the print version of the Majestic Wilderlands. It is available for $12 at lulu.com. (purchase here)

The First Myrmidon of Set

It started with Dragon #39 and the Anti-Paladin. While cool the article left me disappointed. The class seems to be the province of maniacs not all what I was thinking an anti-paladin would be like. To my way of thinking the opposite of a LG anti-paladin isn't a CE killer but a LE tyrant. As evil as the paladin is good the anti-paladin is the paragon of tyranny. These anti-paladins are called to a higher goal to be accomplished by any means.

I needed a cool name so I lifted AD&D's level title for a 6th level fighter, Myrmidon. Greek for " the one who obeys" or according to Merriam-Webster - a loyal follower; especially : a subordinate who executes orders unquestioningly or unscrupulously. Sounded perfect for my LE anti-paladin

Somewhere along the way in the mid 80s I ret conned Hellbridge Temple to be a Temple of Set. For a long time Myrmidon's were just scenery at the temple. Then around 1985 we were kicking around campaign ideas for the summer and everybody wanted to try an evil campaign. I have a vague memory of Dwayne thinking up and throwing away various characters. Finally the question of #39 came up and I said no I am not going to use that class but I do have Myrmidons. Dwayne liked what I came up with and decided to roll up Lord Divolic. (or as he spelled it Divolick).
I admit trying to remember this goes back into hazy memory territory. But between the two of us and some preserved notes we managed to dig up some stuff.

It started with everybody at the Keep on the Borderlands. It was set in the Wilderlands on the edge of the Dearthwood. As it turned out the evil plans costs gold to it is off to the cavern they go. Right away ran into a big problem. They were handling the monster OK but they were POOR! They were getting virtually nothing for treasure. Then Divolic started examining all the swords, armor, and other gear so lovingly detailed in the way that only Gygax can do. He pulled out the PHB price list and realized that here was the treasure of the cavern.

So they quickly went back to the Keep and hired a teamster and his wagon. The rest of the module was the party clearing the section hauling it back to the wagon and taking it back to the keep. Divolic was able to negotiate a package deal with the merchant. They didn't get book price but it resulted in a lot of gold being paid out to the party.

At this point my Dungeon Master Adventure Log intrudes and I have a snapshot of the party just after they left the Keep on the Borderlands. Click to get a larger view.




The party members were:

Lord Divolic Myrmidon 4,, 52 hp, Male Human, LE with a +1 Platemail, +1 Shield, and a agate gem +3 vs poison, with Plate armor and shield
Divolic was the man with the plan within the group.

Aladan, Fighter/Illusionist , 2/3, Male Gnome N, 22 hp, a deep sphere (no clue), +2 scimitar, Cloak of Elvenkind, a Ioun Stone of some sort, with Splint and Shield.
Heath was one strange player. He did crazy off the wall things like throw milk at barbarians.

Tryen, Archer 1st(from Dragon #45), Male Half Elf, 23 hp, NE, +1 Ring of Protection, Studded Leather
The player was greedy which annoyed people out of game to where he dropped out of the group.

Ivie Jack, Archer 2nd, Male Half Elf, 26 hp, NG!, +1 Dagger, Plate Armor and Shield
The player was a laid back guy who was along for the ride. Probably why the fact he was NG didn't get him killed.

Tab, Thief 3rd, Male Human, 39 hp, CE, +1 longsword, +2 throwing dagger, Studded Leather
Tim of Gothridge Manor's character. Must have died at some point because later in the campaign he plays a fighter named Count Travlin.

Highlights of the rest of Divolic's career

Went into a Dungeon and used local peasants as trap detectors. Had to kill the local strongman before he was able to force them to do it.

Went through the A series and wound up coming a Slave Lord.

Subdued a Blue Dragon and made a deal to use her offsprings for dragon steeds.

Went through the Tomb of Horror and became very rich. Recounted in Rob! Read that again.

Went to City-State and took over the Hellbridge Temple as Divolic setup the High Priest to take a fall.

When into the sewer to investigate some problem. Beat the hell out of some vampires and made them his allies.

Donated a large sum of Mithril (from the Tomb of Horrors) to the Overlord and got named Warden of the Southern March (near the Old South Pass south of Dearthmead and Goodnap).

Starting building a complete town called Rhyl

Recruits a mercenary army and conquers Zothay, Halkmenan, and Horaja. At which point the campaign ended.

Divolic becomes one of the main NPCs in later campaigns and is the driver of the meta-plot that goes on in the background when I run things.

Note: Talking it over with Dwayne of Gamer's Closets Ivie Jack and Tyren were an half elf and I was lazy not writing the correct notation of 1/2 E

OD&D Tasks/Abilities/Skills the Final Chapter

Well it really about midway starting on page 57. If you followed this blog I went around and around about this.

D&D Task Resolution
More on Tasks
More Old School Skills; the Claws of Kalis
OD&D Tasks/Abilities/Skills Revisited (again)


Jeff Rients said in his blog post that it was "..the least offensive skill system I've seen in D&D." but he still doesn't quite like this system. Which is understandable, and many of you who play older editions feel this way. I am not going to tell that I made a better D&D because I added abilities to the Majestic Wilderlands. Even you don't like parts of what did; I think you find the process of how I wrote it useful.

Basically this was an area I felt I had to get right. I knew just throwing in a skill system like a zillion other RPGs wasn't going to cut it. But I wouldn't let it go either because classes that were good at stuff other than combat and spells were an important part of the Majestic Wilderlands.

The first step that was in from the start was the idea that any character could do anything. Most games interpret skills as what limiting what you can't do as well as what you can do. As many pointed out this is not how the oldest campaigns of D&D were run and was eloquently pointed out in the Old School Primer by Matt Finch.

What I did was make a long list of stuff D&D character commonly do in my campaign. And because I had the good fortune of a license deal with Judges Guild, I threw in a bunch of stuff I found in the Dungeon Tac Cards, City-State, and other products. I then categorized everything and named the categories so I can assign bonuses in the Rogue classes. I called the categories abilities.

For resolving abilities I needed some guidelines. When I combing the Judges Guild much of it was using a d100 roll low. Probably the first universal task resolution system. But I didn't like roll low and I don't like using d100.

For while I was going with a 3d6 + attribute roll high system. Basically beat a target and succeed. I liked because it emulated the feel of GURPS. Several issues sunk it. While it well at the cons I used it nobody understood it. All they knew that there was some number they had to beat and they added their attribute to the roll. Everytime I explained it people looked at me like I had three heads. In computer programming we call this the smell test and the 3d6 system was starting to smell like three day old gym socks. More serious that it was the fact I was using Swords & Wizardry. Attributes don't count for much in OD&D or S&W and attributes dominated my 3d6 system.

So finally I just went with a 1d20 roll high you need to roll a 15 or higher. There are modifiers based on what you are trying to do for example -5 for climbing a shear wall. Classes got bonuses with certain abilities. A burglar has a +2 to climbing at 1st level. Every ability had an attribute associated with it that you could use to give a small bonus. If the attribute was 13+ you get +1, 8- you got a -1.


Because you can this process for your campaign and get something better for how you run your setting then what I did for the Majestic Wilderlands

What I recommend is that

1. Take all the rulings you can think of and make a list of them. Swinging on chandeliers, leaping over a lava pit, making a move on a barmaid all go on the list.
2. Note the dice you use to resolve them.
   
3. Categorize them however you like.
   
4. Look for related rulings that differ by the degree of success. For example if you make your roll by 5 you get to leap 20 feet but by 10 you get to go 30 feet.
5. See if you can use the same roll system for everything in the same category. For example all climbing is resolved by a d100 roll but hiring and firing hireling uses a d20.
   
6. Type it up and print it out and keep it in your notes.

With this list you can do some interesting thing. Even you don't have Rogue or thief classes you can use to make a magic that give a +10% bonus to climbing. A helm that confers a +2 to hiring hirelings and so on. As your campaign develops you may find that, like me, you want classes that do things better other than combat or spells. In which case your list of rulings can help in creating these classes.

P.S. Jeff I am not trying to pick on you. You just gave me an opening for a good post.

Simultaneous Campaigns

On the theRPGSite the RPG Pundit asks whether anybody runs two campaigns at the same time using a setting here.

I been running my Majestic Wilderlands for close to 30 years. A handful of times I ran two campaigns at once. The most was three while I was in college in the late 80s. The most recent was around 2003 when I introduced some friends from NERO LARP to GURPS Fantasy when I was still GMing my normal group.

I run my campaign in a naturalistic sandbox style. Generally I start out with what is the present of my campaign extrapolate a series of background events which forms the backdrop on which the player campaign. If what the players do effect these events I change them extrapolating from the changes that were made.

Things get interesting when more than one group is involved. This occurred a lot in college when I had a group at home and a group at college. There were times when both groups were wondering at the changes going on around them.

I generally don't set simultaneous campaigns in the same immediate geographical area. It minimizes the chance where a direct face to face meeting is called for.

The other technique I use is too minimize the overlap in their social group. For example two groups in City-State; one deals with the beggars and thieves another hangs around the Church of Mitra.

Still another technique is the slight time shift. A GM can throw in extra stuff to throw off time enough to make sure two groups don't end up in the same locale at the same time.

All of this done for the practical reason that is not easy to get a large group of people together. Aside from that I cheerfully let the separate groups run into the consequences of what the other group does. One group kills an important contact of another group, oh well that how it works out.

It is rare but sometime one group directly interact with another. Most of the time it just one or more member of the other group showing up for a session. I do have one interesting story.

One group in college revolved around a group with a Paladin of Mitra named Endless Star. Another a group at home with a Myrmidon (LE anti-paladin) of Set (played by Dwayne of Gamer's Closet). During the summer I continued the campaign at home with the Myrmidon. During the campaign they went through the Tomb of Horrors and managed to trap the demi-lich in a bag of holding.

The module stated that the demi-lich would rise if touched. Since it did not immediately attack and sank down after the players left the room they got an idea. With one holding the bag, Tim of Gothridge Manor, Dwayne touched it. As before the demi-lich rose into the bag and they quickly sealed it shut. Along with the demi-lich was all the treasure in the Tomb.

However this did not upset them because shortly before this incident was the infamous, "Rob read that again!" incident when they discovered that the doors were solid Mithril. With a ton of Mithril to haul out. they were not concerned with a few thousand in gold and gems.

After the adventure they were mulling what to do with the demi-lich and the bag of holding. Having heard of the college group and their paladin they thought this would be a good time to mess with them. So they hired a courier to send it to them.

So several weeks later and back in college everybody was ready to play again. During the first session up comes the courier with the Bag of Holding. Although I run my campaign as a sandbox this was unusual as it just totally out of the blue.

They cast Detect Magic, it was magic.
They case Identify, it was a bag of holding.

Now they were really scratching their head as a Bag of Holding was a really nice item to have. Out of the blue the paladin players goes "I detect Evil". And with the demi-lich in there the bag was evil as hell.

That cinched it for the players who had it destroyed. They figured it was a trap set by Bargle their arch-nemesis. (yes that Bargle) and never tried to figure out who sent it. They only learned of the bag content's a years later when Dwayne became a student at my college. While they were glad not to have dealt with the demi-lich, they groaned at the amount of treasure that was within.