Been slow going here. I've been busy with the Fallout campaign, my 4th ed D&D campaign, school and playing video games. And starting up a Shadowrun campaign. I'm also slowly laying the ground-work for a mega-dungeon. Unfortunately none of this has resulted in any real world-building material. The closest thing is my index of monsters from A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons found here: http://premium1.uploadit.org/rubberduck/Hamsterish/Creatures.pdf
But there is this A to Z April Challenge going around, and I figured it might give some material. So I'm doing the A to Z of The City. I just learned that I real should have started Friday (since that was the 1st of April), but that just means that I'll throw up A and B today.
søndag den 3. april 2011
onsdag den 9. marts 2011
Travelling the wastes
So, let's see how it will work when the party travels the waste, using the random tables I've made.
Right now I have a starting map, where I've filled in the most important features, and played a little bit with random terrain generation.
I've marked the urban area of Washington DC and Baltimore, the Potomac, Chesapeake bay and a couple of the major roads. The black dots mark settlements, with Rivet City and the Citadel at 1, Megaton at 2 and Grayditch at 3. The other numbers mark features, with a looted power station at 4, the entrance to Vault 101 at 5, and the Supermutant infested mall at 6. The large red area marks the general spread of the infestation. Finally the yellow line passing Megaton marks a power line. The power lines aren't functional. Merely a rusting part of the landscape, relics of a by-gone time.
Now, let's say the group finds that they need to travel to a settlement three days march to the northwest of Megaton. Each hex is 6 miles wide, or quarter of a day's march (half a day's march for hills, forests and urban areas). So I'll place the settlement 12 hexes to the northwest.
The group decides to head north first, avoiding the hills northwest of Megaton. This prompts me to roll for the three hexes adjacent to their destination tile. For the northwest one I roll 64 for terrain: more hills. I roll a d6 to see if it has any features (50% chance), and get a 3 and find that it has no features. Next I roll for the northern hex: 22, badlands. Another 3 on the d6 means still no features here either. The northeastern hex is another 64: hills, and still no features. I also decide that the powerlines will continue north, and draw them in. Finally I roll for random encounter: a d6 with a 6 meaning a random encounter. I get a 2 and thus no encounter either. And the map looks like this:
Since there are still hills blocking their path, the group continues following the power lines north. Once again I roll for the three hexes that come into view, getting a minor settlement to the northwest, badlands to the north and hills to the northeast. I quickly roll again to determine the terrain by the settlement, and get badlands. Checking for features, I find that the settlement hex also has a feature, and rolling for that I get 48: Hide-away/Stash. I decide that the small collection of hovels is also an entry point for smugglers, and that they both have stuff hidden away beneath the settlement, but also in a nearby cave. Finally I decide that the power lines will end in a tangle, down by the river. I roll for random encounters and get none.
The group goes northeast to the settlement, intending to spend the night. I roll for terrain getting hills to the southwest, badlands to the north and blasted lands to the northwest. Now badlands (and hills) are just your typical wasteland environment; radiated pools, crippled trees, scattered tufts of grass, and marginally fertile soil. Blasted lands are areas directly touched by the bombs, scorched and desert-like with the occasional plains of glass. Not a place for man.
Rolling for features, I find that both the hills and blasted lands have some. In the hills there is a shelter, which I decide is a hunter's shed dug halfway into a hill, and for the blasted lands I roll a 37: traffic jam. Hmm.. I decide that on the border between the settlement and the blasted lands, there runs a minor road, surrounded by the tumbled wreckage of cars. Evacuees that were jamming the road, and got blasted off it by the pressure wave when the bomb hit.
I also get a 6 when I roll for random encounters. This area counts as the Wasteland, close enough to civilization for normal folks to live (as evidenced by the settlement), but far enough that they are still subject to raiders, or in this case: hunting tribals (as I rolled a 40 on the random encounters table). I quickly decide that they are head-hunting tribals, and that the settlement is under attack. If the group help out, they'll learn afterwards that this isn't a single occurrence. A side-quest might be in the cards.
Next morning the group travels north to avoid the blasted lands, and a special rule comes into play. Any time a new tile borders an old tile of blasted lands or radiated lands, I roll on the deadlands table. The reason for this is to create large cohesive streches of deadlands (the same principles apply to woodlands). The result for the northwestern tile is that it becomes more deadlands. The northern tile is still rolled on the badlands table, as it doesn't border an old hex of deadlands. The result becomes hills to both the north and northeast.
The feature rolls tells of some factory ruins inside the deadlands, and a church to the north, both of which are visible to the group from a distance. The random encounters roll give a result again. This time a patrol of super mutants. I decide that the church to the north is a super mutant base, and using their binoculars the group is able to learn this themselves.
So the group heads northwest, aiming to avoid the mutants, and perhaps find some salvage in the factory. Since they are moving into the deadlands, all the new terrain is now rolled on the deadlands table. In this case I also get irradiated lands and crags. The irradiated lands are just like blasted lands, except they are radioactive. Not a good place to be, but unless the players carry a geiger counter, they might not notice until they start getting sick. The crags are blasted landscapes of tumbled rocks, and large rifts. Crags do not count as deadlands, and thus new hexes next to crag hexes are not forced to roll on the deadlands table, meaning that crags will often be found at the edge of deadlands.
The features rolls provide a pre-fallout animal population in the radiated zone (12) (which I decide to change to a unique post-fall animal population: giant two-headed vipers), and the Telescopes/Windmills/Powerstation result to the northwest, which I interpret as the blasted remains of a major nuclear power station (13). And once again a random encounter. However, this time we are in Inhospitable terrain, so subtract 75 from the roll. I roll 53, which results in a negative number. So there is no random encounter after all.
Continuing northwest they simply find more blasted lands. There is feature, a hermit, which I decide is a ghoul hermit (14), who probably hunts the two-headed vipers in the neighboring hex. But the group won't actually find him unless they enter that hex.
Which they don't, instead continuing northwest. By the time they enter the hex, it is getting time to set camp. But they do see some hills to the north that look decidedly more green (well, brownish green) than the deadlands. There are no features, and no random encounter.
The next morning they head north, aiming to leave the deadlands behind. However, while the hex north of the hill will be rolled on the badlands table, both the northwestern and the northeastern hexes border a deadlands hex. And indeed it they both turn out to be blasted lands. It also turns out that there is a camouflaged bunker(15), the tumbled remains of a trailer park(17), and an operational factory(16) in each of the three hexes. I roll on the random encounters tables a few times to get inspiration, and decide that the bunker is abandoned, while the factory is being run by semi-raiders who is using it to churn out ammunition.
Tired of the desert the group crosses the river, and going across the hills and crossing the river cost them most of the day, and this is the hex they end up in by the end of the day. The result is the same as the previous hex, with two hexes of blasted lands and one of badlands. This time there are no features, but there is a random encounter. As the group reaches the other side of the river, they disturb a nest of mole rats.
And I think I'll stop here. I may already have dragged it out too long.
One obvious problem with the above is that there is no way of knowing the terrain, before it is actually rolled up. Not only would nobody in Megaton know even the fact that there was a large stretch of deadlands to the northwest, but the inhabitants of the smuggler settlement wouldn't know whether it was 1, 2, 4 or 8 hexes wide. But that's an integral weakness of the concept I'd think.
Right now I have a starting map, where I've filled in the most important features, and played a little bit with random terrain generation.
Now, let's say the group finds that they need to travel to a settlement three days march to the northwest of Megaton. Each hex is 6 miles wide, or quarter of a day's march (half a day's march for hills, forests and urban areas). So I'll place the settlement 12 hexes to the northwest.
The group decides to head north first, avoiding the hills northwest of Megaton. This prompts me to roll for the three hexes adjacent to their destination tile. For the northwest one I roll 64 for terrain: more hills. I roll a d6 to see if it has any features (50% chance), and get a 3 and find that it has no features. Next I roll for the northern hex: 22, badlands. Another 3 on the d6 means still no features here either. The northeastern hex is another 64: hills, and still no features. I also decide that the powerlines will continue north, and draw them in. Finally I roll for random encounter: a d6 with a 6 meaning a random encounter. I get a 2 and thus no encounter either. And the map looks like this:
Since there are still hills blocking their path, the group continues following the power lines north. Once again I roll for the three hexes that come into view, getting a minor settlement to the northwest, badlands to the north and hills to the northeast. I quickly roll again to determine the terrain by the settlement, and get badlands. Checking for features, I find that the settlement hex also has a feature, and rolling for that I get 48: Hide-away/Stash. I decide that the small collection of hovels is also an entry point for smugglers, and that they both have stuff hidden away beneath the settlement, but also in a nearby cave. Finally I decide that the power lines will end in a tangle, down by the river. I roll for random encounters and get none.
The group goes northeast to the settlement, intending to spend the night. I roll for terrain getting hills to the southwest, badlands to the north and blasted lands to the northwest. Now badlands (and hills) are just your typical wasteland environment; radiated pools, crippled trees, scattered tufts of grass, and marginally fertile soil. Blasted lands are areas directly touched by the bombs, scorched and desert-like with the occasional plains of glass. Not a place for man.
Rolling for features, I find that both the hills and blasted lands have some. In the hills there is a shelter, which I decide is a hunter's shed dug halfway into a hill, and for the blasted lands I roll a 37: traffic jam. Hmm.. I decide that on the border between the settlement and the blasted lands, there runs a minor road, surrounded by the tumbled wreckage of cars. Evacuees that were jamming the road, and got blasted off it by the pressure wave when the bomb hit.
I also get a 6 when I roll for random encounters. This area counts as the Wasteland, close enough to civilization for normal folks to live (as evidenced by the settlement), but far enough that they are still subject to raiders, or in this case: hunting tribals (as I rolled a 40 on the random encounters table). I quickly decide that they are head-hunting tribals, and that the settlement is under attack. If the group help out, they'll learn afterwards that this isn't a single occurrence. A side-quest might be in the cards.
Next morning the group travels north to avoid the blasted lands, and a special rule comes into play. Any time a new tile borders an old tile of blasted lands or radiated lands, I roll on the deadlands table. The reason for this is to create large cohesive streches of deadlands (the same principles apply to woodlands). The result for the northwestern tile is that it becomes more deadlands. The northern tile is still rolled on the badlands table, as it doesn't border an old hex of deadlands. The result becomes hills to both the north and northeast.
The feature rolls tells of some factory ruins inside the deadlands, and a church to the north, both of which are visible to the group from a distance. The random encounters roll give a result again. This time a patrol of super mutants. I decide that the church to the north is a super mutant base, and using their binoculars the group is able to learn this themselves.
So the group heads northwest, aiming to avoid the mutants, and perhaps find some salvage in the factory. Since they are moving into the deadlands, all the new terrain is now rolled on the deadlands table. In this case I also get irradiated lands and crags. The irradiated lands are just like blasted lands, except they are radioactive. Not a good place to be, but unless the players carry a geiger counter, they might not notice until they start getting sick. The crags are blasted landscapes of tumbled rocks, and large rifts. Crags do not count as deadlands, and thus new hexes next to crag hexes are not forced to roll on the deadlands table, meaning that crags will often be found at the edge of deadlands.
The features rolls provide a pre-fallout animal population in the radiated zone (12) (which I decide to change to a unique post-fall animal population: giant two-headed vipers), and the Telescopes/Windmills/Powerstation result to the northwest, which I interpret as the blasted remains of a major nuclear power station (13). And once again a random encounter. However, this time we are in Inhospitable terrain, so subtract 75 from the roll. I roll 53, which results in a negative number. So there is no random encounter after all.
Continuing northwest they simply find more blasted lands. There is feature, a hermit, which I decide is a ghoul hermit (14), who probably hunts the two-headed vipers in the neighboring hex. But the group won't actually find him unless they enter that hex.
Which they don't, instead continuing northwest. By the time they enter the hex, it is getting time to set camp. But they do see some hills to the north that look decidedly more green (well, brownish green) than the deadlands. There are no features, and no random encounter.
The next morning they head north, aiming to leave the deadlands behind. However, while the hex north of the hill will be rolled on the badlands table, both the northwestern and the northeastern hexes border a deadlands hex. And indeed it they both turn out to be blasted lands. It also turns out that there is a camouflaged bunker(15), the tumbled remains of a trailer park(17), and an operational factory(16) in each of the three hexes. I roll on the random encounters tables a few times to get inspiration, and decide that the bunker is abandoned, while the factory is being run by semi-raiders who is using it to churn out ammunition.
Tired of the desert the group crosses the river, and going across the hills and crossing the river cost them most of the day, and this is the hex they end up in by the end of the day. The result is the same as the previous hex, with two hexes of blasted lands and one of badlands. This time there are no features, but there is a random encounter. As the group reaches the other side of the river, they disturb a nest of mole rats.
And I think I'll stop here. I may already have dragged it out too long.
One obvious problem with the above is that there is no way of knowing the terrain, before it is actually rolled up. Not only would nobody in Megaton know even the fact that there was a large stretch of deadlands to the northwest, but the inhabitants of the smuggler settlement wouldn't know whether it was 1, 2, 4 or 8 hexes wide. But that's an integral weakness of the concept I'd think.
mandag den 7. marts 2011
The Terrain Tables
Next part of my fallout tables are up. I did just intend it to be one table, but I ended up with 4. I sense a trend forming.
First is the general terrain table, or the Badlands table. Anytime the players move into a new area, I'll be rolling to check the terrain of the area, generally using the table below.
There are two other tables for specific types of areas.
The deadlands table:
And the woodlands table:
Finally an area might also have a feature of some kind. I'm currently working with a 50% chance of a feature, chosen from the table below:
This table is optimized for badlands, but I'll probably use it for the other two terrain types as well, and just tweak the results I get.
On the features table, the features from 20-29, 40-49 and 60-69 are features that might not be discovered by a group just passing through the area. Theoretically, it also presents them so that 20 is the most likely find and 29 the least likely find. But at the current time I haven't decided for a technique to determine whether the group stumbles across the feature. I might just end up using a 50% chance and some common sense.
Now, I haven't told too much exactly how I'm going to use the tables, but that is because I intend to run a demo of sorts once I've got all the tables up.
First is the general terrain table, or the Badlands table. Anytime the players move into a new area, I'll be rolling to check the terrain of the area, generally using the table below.
There are two other tables for specific types of areas.
The deadlands table:
And the woodlands table:
Finally an area might also have a feature of some kind. I'm currently working with a 50% chance of a feature, chosen from the table below:
This table is optimized for badlands, but I'll probably use it for the other two terrain types as well, and just tweak the results I get.
On the features table, the features from 20-29, 40-49 and 60-69 are features that might not be discovered by a group just passing through the area. Theoretically, it also presents them so that 20 is the most likely find and 29 the least likely find. But at the current time I haven't decided for a technique to determine whether the group stumbles across the feature. I might just end up using a 50% chance and some common sense.
Now, I haven't told too much exactly how I'm going to use the tables, but that is because I intend to run a demo of sorts once I've got all the tables up.
The Assassin's Guild
A few days ago Al wrote about The Book of the New Sun over on Beyond the Black Gate and how the weird pictures of that universe spring to his mind once in a while. Coincidentally I'm reading the same series at the moment. It is slow going, as I don't really read all that much at the moment, advancing a couple of pages a month or something like that.
But the city of Nessus from the beginning of the series is constantly trying to put its mark on The City. Currently I'm thinking of the city walls of The City as hundreds of meters tall, just like the city walls of Nessus. For a while I considered making The City the center of an interstellar empire, inspired by the hints of a fallen interstellar empire in The Book of the New Sun.
One concept that I really like is the series presentation of the Torturers Guild. I'm very tempted to just outright steal it and dump it into my setting, but each time I come to the conclusion that there isn't any reason to do that, except for the fact that I like that guild. But last night, as I was trying to sleep, I came upon the concept of the Assassin's Guild of The City.
The Assassin's Guild is an imperial institution, a tool of the emperor and his administration. It is an ancient institution, and a very specialized one, dedicated to the removal of single individuals that hamper the smooth functioning of the empire.
The code of the guild focus on professionalism, detachment, and civility. Death at an imperial assassin's hand shall be swift, painless and certain. The assassin's are not tools of terror or mass slaughter. They are precision instruments for removing individuals while causing the least amount of turmoil in society. There are stories of assassin's that has spent hours with their victim, helping them make their last will and testament and bringing their affairs in order, before the final end. Of course, not all are willing to surrender so easily. But the end is always swift and painless, and (at least so the stories say) death is always certain once the emperor has marked you for assassination.
In addition to the common assassin, there are also the undercover assassins. Assassin's that infiltrate the households of the most important nobles and functionaries, gaining positions as captain of the guard, personal butler or trusted advisor. Totally loyal to their employer until the day the guild sends the word, and the assassin kills the man he has served for years or decades.
The assassin's is just one institution among many, and the average lowly citizen is unlikely to ever have heard of them, and even if they have, is likely to view them in the same light as the murderers and cutthroats used by nobles and crime lords in their dealings. The nobles have an ambivalent view on the assassin's. They are civil, courteous, pleasant and are genuinely useful civil servants. On the other hand they are utterly loyal to the emperor, and you may find yourself marked at any time, depending on the emperor's whims. Few nobles welcome the presence of an assassin, except when they know the assassin is targeting a personal enemy. Some nobles live in constant paranoia, fearing the emperor will send an assassin for some slight, real or imagined. Most of the time, most nobles can forget that they even exist, concentrating on the more present threats of political rivals and grand machinations.
But the city of Nessus from the beginning of the series is constantly trying to put its mark on The City. Currently I'm thinking of the city walls of The City as hundreds of meters tall, just like the city walls of Nessus. For a while I considered making The City the center of an interstellar empire, inspired by the hints of a fallen interstellar empire in The Book of the New Sun.
One concept that I really like is the series presentation of the Torturers Guild. I'm very tempted to just outright steal it and dump it into my setting, but each time I come to the conclusion that there isn't any reason to do that, except for the fact that I like that guild. But last night, as I was trying to sleep, I came upon the concept of the Assassin's Guild of The City.
The Assassin's Guild is an imperial institution, a tool of the emperor and his administration. It is an ancient institution, and a very specialized one, dedicated to the removal of single individuals that hamper the smooth functioning of the empire.
The code of the guild focus on professionalism, detachment, and civility. Death at an imperial assassin's hand shall be swift, painless and certain. The assassin's are not tools of terror or mass slaughter. They are precision instruments for removing individuals while causing the least amount of turmoil in society. There are stories of assassin's that has spent hours with their victim, helping them make their last will and testament and bringing their affairs in order, before the final end. Of course, not all are willing to surrender so easily. But the end is always swift and painless, and (at least so the stories say) death is always certain once the emperor has marked you for assassination.
In addition to the common assassin, there are also the undercover assassins. Assassin's that infiltrate the households of the most important nobles and functionaries, gaining positions as captain of the guard, personal butler or trusted advisor. Totally loyal to their employer until the day the guild sends the word, and the assassin kills the man he has served for years or decades.
The assassin's is just one institution among many, and the average lowly citizen is unlikely to ever have heard of them, and even if they have, is likely to view them in the same light as the murderers and cutthroats used by nobles and crime lords in their dealings. The nobles have an ambivalent view on the assassin's. They are civil, courteous, pleasant and are genuinely useful civil servants. On the other hand they are utterly loyal to the emperor, and you may find yourself marked at any time, depending on the emperor's whims. Few nobles welcome the presence of an assassin, except when they know the assassin is targeting a personal enemy. Some nobles live in constant paranoia, fearing the emperor will send an assassin for some slight, real or imagined. Most of the time, most nobles can forget that they even exist, concentrating on the more present threats of political rivals and grand machinations.
tirsdag den 1. marts 2011
Random Encounters in Fallout
I've been distracted from the blog by a couple of other projects, none of which belonged here. However, the latest distraction is my tabletop group. We've decided to run a bi-weekly fallout campaign, and I've volunteered to be the game master.
The actual setting of the campaign will be the Capital Wasteland (for those of you who've played Fallout 3) since that's the setting that is freshest in my mind. With that decided, I also concluded that I'd need a random encounter table, to give proper life to the wasteland.
I've been working on that on and off for a week or so, and come to the conclusion that I don't need one, but at least 3 tables. One for when the group first walks into an uncharted area, to determine what static locations are in that area. That way I just have to worry about the large well-known locations, while still giving the characters plenty of stuff to run into out in the wasteland.
Second, I need a table for ordinary random encounters with various creatures and factions of the wasteland, which I can roll on for everyday travel. This'll let the players run into rad scorpion nests, raider ambushes, or the occasional fight between two factions, where they can intervene on either side, or just slink off.
Finally, I'm going to make a scavenging table. The players can decide to scavenge, causing them to move at a slower rate, and the table will contain different types of caches and salvageable loot that the players may find.
I've finished the table for ordinary encounters.
You may have noticed that the table has more than 100 entries. That is because I've stolen an idea from Mongoose Traveler's "Space Encounters" table. Every d100 roll has a modifier taken from the table below.
So no Brotherhood patrols in the Deep Wasteland, and no feral ghouls in Brotherhood territory. If the modifier results in a roll below 01, there is no encounter, which means there are very few encounters i Inhospitable territories.
Next I'll go to work on the table for Static Locations.
The actual setting of the campaign will be the Capital Wasteland (for those of you who've played Fallout 3) since that's the setting that is freshest in my mind. With that decided, I also concluded that I'd need a random encounter table, to give proper life to the wasteland.
I've been working on that on and off for a week or so, and come to the conclusion that I don't need one, but at least 3 tables. One for when the group first walks into an uncharted area, to determine what static locations are in that area. That way I just have to worry about the large well-known locations, while still giving the characters plenty of stuff to run into out in the wasteland.
Second, I need a table for ordinary random encounters with various creatures and factions of the wasteland, which I can roll on for everyday travel. This'll let the players run into rad scorpion nests, raider ambushes, or the occasional fight between two factions, where they can intervene on either side, or just slink off.
Finally, I'm going to make a scavenging table. The players can decide to scavenge, causing them to move at a slower rate, and the table will contain different types of caches and salvageable loot that the players may find.
I've finished the table for ordinary encounters.
You may have noticed that the table has more than 100 entries. That is because I've stolen an idea from Mongoose Traveler's "Space Encounters" table. Every d100 roll has a modifier taken from the table below.
So no Brotherhood patrols in the Deep Wasteland, and no feral ghouls in Brotherhood territory. If the modifier results in a roll below 01, there is no encounter, which means there are very few encounters i Inhospitable territories.
Next I'll go to work on the table for Static Locations.
torsdag den 10. februar 2011
Religion of the City
I've been thinking about this for a while. I've wanted temple districts that are a mass of temples to various gods, godlings and deities, as you might find in some sword and sorcery worlds. But at first sight it seemed at odds with the renaissance technology, which, in my mind at least, brings to mind large organized religions.
But I've thought a bit about it, and I think I've come up with a solution that might work. It starts off with five assumptions.
1) Gods are real. The gods often communicate with their worshipers, and there can be no dispute to the fact that they are real.
2) The more worship, the more power. So most deities (and their priesthood) will want to have as large a worshiper-base as possible. Also, worshipers that worship often are worth more than worshipers that worship less often. A ceremony is good, a prayer is okay, an oath is better than nothing.
3) The increase in power is not directly proportional to the amount of new worshipers. Power increases slower than the amount of worshipers. This means that the more worshipers, the less power there will be to each worshiper.
4) There are many gods. If one falls, another is ready to take his place. There are a multitude of unworshiped godlings trying to pry worshipers from the established gods.
5) Worship is not exclusive.A worshiper can worship any amount of gods, though of course there will be less worship to each god.
With these four assumptions in mind, I think of three primary phases in the life of a religion.
The Cults: There is the greatest amount of these. They belong to godlings who have managed to gather a small worshiper-base. The priests have decent amounts of power at their disposal, and can help every one of the cults members if needed. In the smallest of the cults there is enough power that every member can be a divine caster. Cultists have an intimate relationship with their god, often being able to hear him speak from his idol, or at the very least being able to speak to priests which will be able to speak directly to the god. Cultists often focus most of their worship on their chosen god, sending only occasional, minor prayers to major deities. If the cultists devote large amount of time to worship in the form of ceremonies and everyday observance, the resulting power to worshiper ratio may be considerable.
The Pretender Churches: These are cults that are growing too big for the intimacy of the cults. A secondary or even tertiary layer of priests develop which can't communicate directly with the god. The power to worshiper ration decreases, and though there is more power in total, worshipers may start to seek out smaller cults that can better provide for their needs. Most churches fail at this point, as the god gets a reputation for being capricious or isolated.
Some churches manage to remain in this state indefinitely, by taking up a niche where worshipers will rarely seek out aid, but more often remember to send out a prayer. These usually try to spread to as many worshipers as possible, given the smaller amount worship that each worshiper provides. Among these churches some manage to grow large enough, and old enough that they become established churches.
The Established Churches: These churches have grown large enough to become part of everyday life. They have become known for their niche, and people will think to send them a prayer when encountering that niche, whether it is childbirth, battle, strength, or smithing. Their power derives from two, and sometimes three groups.
The first group is the incidental worshipers. They have little relation with the deity, but will send a short prayer, or swear an oath in its name. They are legion, and thus still provide a significant amount of power, despite their lack of consistent worship. Incidental worshipers may be aligned to another deity, or they may not be aligned to any deity, the closest that the world comes to an atheist.
The second group is the priesthood. Incidental worshipers will occasionally donate money to the church, and with enough donations a permanent staff of priests can be established, dedicated to worship of the deity. The hierarchy is likely to be deep, and while the high priesthood will wield significant power, some minor priests may wield less than a cultist. Some churches have dedicated monasteries, where the monks have no divine power, but spend their entire time worshiping, fueling the deity. Some monasteries or priesthoods may run various business schemes, thus giving the church even more money, with which to have more priests and monks.
The third group, that some churches have, are the consistent worshipers. These are everyday people who will still spend time to visit church and participate in ceremonies. They also provide a power boost, and is a good pool to recruit priesthood from and with which to inspire incidental worshipers. Consistent worshipers provide power, but they also drain power, as suitable miracles need to be performed to keep them in the church.
The priesthood and the consistent worshipers are both strongly aligned to the church, thinking of the deity as their one god. They may send the occasional incidental prayer other deities, but dual- or polyworship is not done, unless it is part of the churches doctrine.
Now, all this is background information. Neither the world's populace or the players will be really aware of these simple rules, despite the results being all around them. The primary reason are the churches themselves. Most cults and all churches develop some amount of doctrine, which includes their view on the world. Some cults and churches will claim that their god is the only true god or the only just god or simply the strongest god. Established churches have a wide tendency to purport that the gods of the established churches are different from the minor gods, and that they have always been there. The rising and falling of cults compared to the permanency of established churches gives a sense of a clear separation between deities and the false gods/demons. Every church has its own view of the world, and most will have been formed by gods that want to do their very best to obscure the actual mechanics of divine power. After all, the optimal power to worshiper ratio is a achieved when you are a cult of one.
This, I think, is the religious model that I will be rolling with. Now I just need to find some time to actually make that starting area.
But I've thought a bit about it, and I think I've come up with a solution that might work. It starts off with five assumptions.
1) Gods are real. The gods often communicate with their worshipers, and there can be no dispute to the fact that they are real.
2) The more worship, the more power. So most deities (and their priesthood) will want to have as large a worshiper-base as possible. Also, worshipers that worship often are worth more than worshipers that worship less often. A ceremony is good, a prayer is okay, an oath is better than nothing.
3) The increase in power is not directly proportional to the amount of new worshipers. Power increases slower than the amount of worshipers. This means that the more worshipers, the less power there will be to each worshiper.
4) There are many gods. If one falls, another is ready to take his place. There are a multitude of unworshiped godlings trying to pry worshipers from the established gods.
5) Worship is not exclusive.A worshiper can worship any amount of gods, though of course there will be less worship to each god.
With these four assumptions in mind, I think of three primary phases in the life of a religion.
The Cults: There is the greatest amount of these. They belong to godlings who have managed to gather a small worshiper-base. The priests have decent amounts of power at their disposal, and can help every one of the cults members if needed. In the smallest of the cults there is enough power that every member can be a divine caster. Cultists have an intimate relationship with their god, often being able to hear him speak from his idol, or at the very least being able to speak to priests which will be able to speak directly to the god. Cultists often focus most of their worship on their chosen god, sending only occasional, minor prayers to major deities. If the cultists devote large amount of time to worship in the form of ceremonies and everyday observance, the resulting power to worshiper ratio may be considerable.
The Pretender Churches: These are cults that are growing too big for the intimacy of the cults. A secondary or even tertiary layer of priests develop which can't communicate directly with the god. The power to worshiper ration decreases, and though there is more power in total, worshipers may start to seek out smaller cults that can better provide for their needs. Most churches fail at this point, as the god gets a reputation for being capricious or isolated.
Some churches manage to remain in this state indefinitely, by taking up a niche where worshipers will rarely seek out aid, but more often remember to send out a prayer. These usually try to spread to as many worshipers as possible, given the smaller amount worship that each worshiper provides. Among these churches some manage to grow large enough, and old enough that they become established churches.
The Established Churches: These churches have grown large enough to become part of everyday life. They have become known for their niche, and people will think to send them a prayer when encountering that niche, whether it is childbirth, battle, strength, or smithing. Their power derives from two, and sometimes three groups.
The first group is the incidental worshipers. They have little relation with the deity, but will send a short prayer, or swear an oath in its name. They are legion, and thus still provide a significant amount of power, despite their lack of consistent worship. Incidental worshipers may be aligned to another deity, or they may not be aligned to any deity, the closest that the world comes to an atheist.
The second group is the priesthood. Incidental worshipers will occasionally donate money to the church, and with enough donations a permanent staff of priests can be established, dedicated to worship of the deity. The hierarchy is likely to be deep, and while the high priesthood will wield significant power, some minor priests may wield less than a cultist. Some churches have dedicated monasteries, where the monks have no divine power, but spend their entire time worshiping, fueling the deity. Some monasteries or priesthoods may run various business schemes, thus giving the church even more money, with which to have more priests and monks.
The third group, that some churches have, are the consistent worshipers. These are everyday people who will still spend time to visit church and participate in ceremonies. They also provide a power boost, and is a good pool to recruit priesthood from and with which to inspire incidental worshipers. Consistent worshipers provide power, but they also drain power, as suitable miracles need to be performed to keep them in the church.
The priesthood and the consistent worshipers are both strongly aligned to the church, thinking of the deity as their one god. They may send the occasional incidental prayer other deities, but dual- or polyworship is not done, unless it is part of the churches doctrine.
Now, all this is background information. Neither the world's populace or the players will be really aware of these simple rules, despite the results being all around them. The primary reason are the churches themselves. Most cults and all churches develop some amount of doctrine, which includes their view on the world. Some cults and churches will claim that their god is the only true god or the only just god or simply the strongest god. Established churches have a wide tendency to purport that the gods of the established churches are different from the minor gods, and that they have always been there. The rising and falling of cults compared to the permanency of established churches gives a sense of a clear separation between deities and the false gods/demons. Every church has its own view of the world, and most will have been formed by gods that want to do their very best to obscure the actual mechanics of divine power. After all, the optimal power to worshiper ratio is a achieved when you are a cult of one.
This, I think, is the religious model that I will be rolling with. Now I just need to find some time to actually make that starting area.
tirsdag den 1. februar 2011
A work in progress - always
I spent some time Sunday scattering ruins randomly across the town (using dice to decide latitude and longitude and how many blocks involved. It took forever), as well as marking gates in the walls, and where the walls had been more or less demolished (grey areas such as the park in the southwest).
But it is still a work in progress. Which I decided I would talk a bit about.
Building a world, especially one that is meant for roleplaying, is rarely a task that will ever be finished. Not only can you always add more detail, but even after you have started playing, you can still change stuff. The world created is not an absolute place, an entity in its own right. It is merely a background for the players to adventure in. So sometimes you'll want to change your world, so it will have more or better places to adventure in.
The map above isn't meant for the players. The information it portrays is meant for my own inspiration, which is one of the reasons that I've tried to be as random about it as possible. I've followed the guidelines in City Works (mostly), but whenever there was a choice to make, I tried to let the dice rule. This gives excellent inspiration material, because it will give situations that you wouldn't have thought off yourself. Of course, sometimes I did specifically place tiles in a certain way, because there was certain features that I wanted.
I'll throw in another map:
Here I've marked a few areas, the nature of which I have decided on.
The imperial administration, and the dwarven enclave were handplaced. The imperial district I knew that I wanted, and so placed the government districts from the very start to fit my vision. Though I did randomize which sides of the imperial palace would have administration districts. The dwarven enclave came after I had placed all the districts, as I decided I wanted a dwarven hold. I'm not quite sure yet whether it might be partially or completely in ruins.
I also knew that I wanted a necropolis. But as fate would have it, there was a temple district inside the walls, close to the nobles and the palace, and largely in ruins. Perfect. No need to add one to the hills, where it wouldn't really be integrated in the city.
Then there is Plague Row, and the Ruined University. Neither of those were planned. They just happened to be ruined as completely as they are. And when I saw those areas being ruined, I figured there must be a reason for it. I decided that Plague Row has been walled off at both ends, due to the deadly plague that may or may not have turned the inhabitants into zombies. The areas close to the wall was abandoned by people who didn't want to live that close to the area. The ruined university was destroyed by some magical experiment gone wrong, wrecking the entire university as well as some of the nearby administrative district.
My next step will be to decide on where the players will start off, and then more closely determine the nature of the surrounding area. The entire rest of the map will be left as it is. Maybe I will add further areas to the edge of the city. Maybe I will ruin further areas. The dwarven enclave might, or might not be ruined. But I will get to that as it comes up.
But it is still a work in progress. Which I decided I would talk a bit about.
Building a world, especially one that is meant for roleplaying, is rarely a task that will ever be finished. Not only can you always add more detail, but even after you have started playing, you can still change stuff. The world created is not an absolute place, an entity in its own right. It is merely a background for the players to adventure in. So sometimes you'll want to change your world, so it will have more or better places to adventure in.
The map above isn't meant for the players. The information it portrays is meant for my own inspiration, which is one of the reasons that I've tried to be as random about it as possible. I've followed the guidelines in City Works (mostly), but whenever there was a choice to make, I tried to let the dice rule. This gives excellent inspiration material, because it will give situations that you wouldn't have thought off yourself. Of course, sometimes I did specifically place tiles in a certain way, because there was certain features that I wanted.
I'll throw in another map:
Here I've marked a few areas, the nature of which I have decided on.
The imperial administration, and the dwarven enclave were handplaced. The imperial district I knew that I wanted, and so placed the government districts from the very start to fit my vision. Though I did randomize which sides of the imperial palace would have administration districts. The dwarven enclave came after I had placed all the districts, as I decided I wanted a dwarven hold. I'm not quite sure yet whether it might be partially or completely in ruins.
I also knew that I wanted a necropolis. But as fate would have it, there was a temple district inside the walls, close to the nobles and the palace, and largely in ruins. Perfect. No need to add one to the hills, where it wouldn't really be integrated in the city.
Then there is Plague Row, and the Ruined University. Neither of those were planned. They just happened to be ruined as completely as they are. And when I saw those areas being ruined, I figured there must be a reason for it. I decided that Plague Row has been walled off at both ends, due to the deadly plague that may or may not have turned the inhabitants into zombies. The areas close to the wall was abandoned by people who didn't want to live that close to the area. The ruined university was destroyed by some magical experiment gone wrong, wrecking the entire university as well as some of the nearby administrative district.
My next step will be to decide on where the players will start off, and then more closely determine the nature of the surrounding area. The entire rest of the map will be left as it is. Maybe I will add further areas to the edge of the city. Maybe I will ruin further areas. The dwarven enclave might, or might not be ruined. But I will get to that as it comes up.
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