Checking your ego in at the (editor's) door.

My friend Tim at Gothridge Manor has written a series of good posts on his editing philosophy. (Part I, Part II) His aide has been invaluable to me getting Thieves of Badabaskor, The Wild North, both Points of Lights, and parts of the Majestic Wilderlands (It was my screw up that it didn't get well-edited before it's release).

It is hard an author to surrender his work to an editor. Because a good editor will do more than just correct grammar but work with you to produce a tighter, more concise, and ultimately a better written work. What hard for an author to deal with is the change of dozens of bits of text. Many have issues even changing a few words here and there.

As an author the thing to keep in mind is the overall purpose of what you are written about. To use the example that Tim picked, Points of Light it was to present four campaign settings, each with a distinct theme. Tim challenged me at various points in my writing as to whether what I had written was extraneous wordage or truly important. Like the example of the Night Hag, he also pointed out stuff I missed and recommended that I include more.

The point of writing a game supplement isn't to hear yourself speak but rather teach another gamer what you are trying to do. Whether it is a series of interesting classes, an adventure, a setting, or terrifying new monsters nobody knows what in your head unless you write it down. Also nobody will read it unless it is well-written, clear and concise.

A good editor will help with that and Tim certainly did with my material. But you need to let go of your ego to make the relationship work.

And Frodo is taken into the tower.

For the past year I been reading the entire Lord of the Rings series to my eldest son, Jamie. Last night he and I finished up the Two Towers as Sam watched his master, Frodo, being taking into the orc tower that watches the upper passes of Cirith Ungol. Now it off into the Return of the King starting with what happens to Gandalf and Pippin at Minas Tirith

Creation thru Play Applied

James over on Grognardia has a interesting post on campaigns created through play vs those that are designed. Like him I noticed in the original boxed set of Forgotten Realms two areas seem to get far greater detail than the rest of the setting.

I have the same experience with the Majestic Wilderlands. The graphics on the left show all the different areas that I used or planning to use in campaigns.

The red areas show broadly my Main Campaign Areas. The largest runs between City-State and Viridistan and is the setting probably 80% of the campaigns I ran including my current two games.

To show how far a typical campaign runs I outlined my group with Dwayne, Tim, and the Rusty Battle Axes in Green. And Jerry and the Gold Star Anime crew in Purple.

The thinner red areas show regions that were used for one series of adventures only. The light blue areas are possible future campaign areas that I written some detail on. The one is the lower right corner is Ghinor which I designed with a combination of the Medieval Crusades and Italian City-States of the last Middle Ages.

The long area to the left is a campaign where the players are refugee fleeing the downfall of the Kingdom of Antil. They are huddled in camps along the thin sea to the top of the outlined area. Their mission is to sail to the south toward the bottom of the long area to find a new land for the refugees to settle and then return. There is a deadline as the conquerer of Antil will eventually reach the camps within a year or two and the hopes of freedom will be extinguished.

Law & Order for your Fantasy Games

For a realistic but RPG friendly treatment there is Harn Law at RPGNow

The original treatment of the subject is on pages 8 to 10 of Judges Guild Ready Ref book.

Everything from Draw & Quartered, Flayed, Whipped to the favorite; Case Dismissed.

It's Harn Day!

I got the latest installment of Harn Subscription the first part of the long awaited Kingdom of Rethem, 2nd Edition.

Over the past decade, Columbia Games and the Harn Team have been updating the various kingdom articles, making them far more useful than the original. Mainly by including description of the various personalities involved in the ruling of the kingdom and it's society. So far they have done Evael, Kanday, Kaldor, and now Rethem.

This focus also make these kingdom articles useful for non-harnic campaign by detailing an interesting cast of NPCs and their relationship. The older kingdoms were very much encyclopedic in their content which limited their use as a harn supplement. The first half of Rethem doesn't disappoint in this regard. In it we learn that Rethem's queen has Elisabeth Bathory in her. She is dealing with the priests of the Morgath the god of the undead. Whose religion is not outlawed in Rethm. We learn who is backing Chafin III the King of Rethem. It is a pleasant surprise that his origins as the king of the "evil" kingdom of Harn is one familiar to most fantasy roleplayers who wind up as rulers. He was an adventurer and when his predcessor, Chafin II, died he and his fellow adventurers eliminated his cousins and gained the throne.

A typical Harn installment is 40 to 50 pages of material and because Rethem is 80 pages long they broke it up in two parts. The first half is the general overview, history, and details on who who in the government. Because Rethem is on the verge of civil war there is considerable detail on the military line-up of Rethem. Normally this is nothing special but the authors go into detail about the various mercenary companies which something not normally covered. I got some ideas for my own Majestic Wilderlands from reading this section.

One thing about using Harn is that the population is low and the scale of the military is definitely one where adventurers can make a difference. Large forces are numbered in the hundreds not thousands.

This installment came with a binder for Rethem which is an orange cover compared to the purple of Kaldor and the green of Kanday. I am looking forward to the second half which also have two regional maps. Along with material on the various settlements of Harn including details on the lords and notable inhabitants.

Want a custom miniature or dice?

One of the enduring images from Star Trek is the use of Food Synthesizers and Replicators.





In the past decade the use of 3D printers and other additive manufacturing technologies has grown by leaps and bounds. They work by taking a special 3D model building a real object layer by layer by depositing plastic, metal, and other materials. There is a final step where you have to trim off any support structure as well as polish or smooth.

These printers are expensive although there are some hobbyists models out there. But now thanks to Shapeways the technology takes a closer step to be usable by the rest of us.

From what I understand is that you upload a model created with their software or specs. Select the material and they give you a quote. If they approve then you will have the object in a couple of weeks. Obviously some skill is required in creating the models but still it a great advance in access to this technology.

There appears two applications of this. Custom Dice, and custom miniatures. Both are expensive but not out of reach for a one time purchase.

Roleplaying Warrior Societies

My view is that in a "warrior society" there is a premium placed on physical prowess at whatever skills the society values, (archery, horsemanship, etc). If you actually lived there your impression will be much like witnessing a whole town of football fanatics (American or soccer). There will be a hierarchy of physical skill and experience with most at the level that would be considered "backyard" football. Along with nearly everybody having the same childhood experience of training. (A society where 80% of the males joins youth football). The average skill level of the population will be shifted higher because of the emphasis on warrior training and ethos.

For most warrior societies it will seem more violent due to different safety standards. I.e. the backyard football is always full contact and never just "touch" football. True intent to maim (or kill) will be frowned on and the grounds for legal action or feuds.*

However the best of civilization is likely to beat the best of a "warrior" society" due civilization's ability to preserve and pass on knowledge. A warrior society acquiring civilization rapidly transitions because the relative abundance allow the mediocre warrior to flourish at other occupations.

With that being said, a civilized warrior society is usually the result of a conquering population oppressing a slave population like the Assyrians and the Spartans and usually is transitory compared to surrounding cultures.

I don't have any hard data to support this other than general knowledge of how skill differences work in a human population and a few historical accounts.

*One of the reasons I have such a generous negative hit points rule in my D&D campaigns is to allow PCs and NPCs to bash the shit out of each other and the result be unconsciousness rather than automatic death. My rule is -3 at first level growing by -3 per level until you reach your constitution. A character with a 15 constitution will die at -15 hit points at 5th level and that where it stops.