Gazetteer for My Greyhawk Campaign

Political Divisions

Current Leader: His Majesty King Pepin I of the House of Rax, Altmeister of All Aerdi
Major military and religious power. More concerned about eastern borders than the wilderness of the campaign map.

Notes: I changed the heraldry from suns to stars because I liked the look better than the original. I am assuming that this is the Crest of the House of Rax and a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the Great Kingdom. This rivalry explains the relative disinterest the Kingdom has in the campaign map. I chose the name Pepin after Pepin the Short, founder of the Carolingian Dynasty which would go on to found the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne. I want the Kingdom to have that kind of vibe. 

City State of Scant
Current Leader: His Honorable Authority Mechert Szek of the Iron League
Major naval and economic power. Most influential human political entity on the campaign map.

Notes: I changed the heraldry from the knot to a cross in order to cement the major cultural difference between Civilization (represented by the Oerid, the Kingdom, and the Iron League) from the Wilderness (the rest of the map). The current seat of the Szek is in Scant, which has been relabeled as a City State. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of both sailors and merchants, so he will serve as a place holder as the Patron Saint of the Iron League until I come up with an analogue. 

Wild Coast

Disputed territory that no one bothers to control because it is resource poor. Widely known as a place of sanctuary, if a dangerous one.

Free City of Elredd
Current Leader: Mayor Morvia the Albino
A safe haven for ships trading with Highport. It is also a safe haven for pirates.

Free City of Fax
Current Leader: Mayor Rosgor the Old
While Fax does offer safe haven for most ships, it is out of the way for most trade routes; however, it is a primary destination for people who want to disappear from the rest of the world. Its residents know this and respect it.

Notes: I really like checkerboard patterns in heraldry. So, I decided that the checkerboard is to the Wild Coast as the Tricolor is to Europe. In other words, most things on the Wild Coast use a checkerboard to identify themselves, and the distinguishing feature is the difference in colors in the same way that Italy, France, Ireland, etc. all have the same flag except for the color scheme. 

Drackensgrab Peninsula (Formerly Pomarj)
Overrun by humanoid hordes. Once one of the richest areas on the campaign map. Among survivors, except for a few aristocrats in exile, this crest is not very popular. It is a reminder of past failure, death, and loss.

Notes: The hand is one of my favorite heraldic devices. Thus, I look the creative liberty to include it on my map as the symbol for The Pomarj. It is also a nod to the fact that one of the major orc tribes in Drackensgrab is called the Leprous Hand. The cross on the gauntlet is the Cross of St. Cuthbert.

The arid hills east of the Bright Desert are controlled by nomadic, wild, and warlike tribesmen. They don’t much care for interaction with outsiders.

Notes: The crest is representative of the kinds of symbols used by various tribes. I want them to have a Pictish feel about them — they are covered from head to foot in patterned tattoos.

Bodies of Water

Azur Sea

A major seaway for commerce and piracy.

Sea of Gearnat

Major storms during Spring and Fall make this a dangerous place to sail, but it is a major artery for trade, especially as the access point to the Nesser River. Raiders from the Wild Coast and the Drackensgrab Peninsula frequent these waters during the high trade months of Summer.

Woolly Bay

The original name for this body of water has been long forgotten. These waters are often foggy and telling friendly ship from foe is often difficult, thus sailors often feel as if they are woolly-headed as they sail the bay. Despite this, it is a major waterway because of the trade possibilities north of the campaign map.

Duntide River

Flows southward into the Gnatmarsh where it connects with the Nesser River.

Jewel River

About 150 miles of this winding river is navigable by large craft starting where it empties into the Azure Sea. Large sections are under control of the humanoids of the Dracuhengrab Peninsula.

Nesser River

This wide and deep river can be navigated by most seafaring ships with the right navigator. Thus, despite its relative remote location, is still a major waterway. River raiders are a constant problem.

Geographic Features

Abbor-Alz

Rich in valuable minerals, these hills are arid, rough, and difficult to navigate. They are also home to hostile tribesmen that are not welcoming to outsiders.

Bright Desert

Rumored to be filled with riches and to be the location of a hidden city built by the ancient Suel, its harsh climate and native nomads turn away would-be explorers.

Celadon Forest

The southern tip of this forest is on the campaign map. It is an other-worldly place of sylvan elves and treants. Locals dare not cut trees down and only hunt with permission.

Dracuhengrab Hills

Rich in valuable minerals and the home of many terrible monsters. There are legends of a hidden resting place of one or more powerful creatures who are waiting to awaken.

Gnatmarsh

These treacherous wetlands and bogs are home to a myriad of ghastly creatures and spawn clouds of biting insects in the summer months.

The Headlands

These form the central spine of the Onnwal Peninsula and form cliffs along the Azure Sea. Home to both dwarves and gnomes.

Note: Despite my dislike of the name, I decided to keep Onnwal as a name for the geographic area if not the country.

Suss Forest

A dreary, hateful place full of thorn trees, brambles and thickets. Filled with an oppressive evil atmosphere. Home to all kinds of orcs. It is used at a staging area for raids on the Wild Coast. There is a rumor that there is a lost, ruined city hidden within, but few have ever dared to try and find it.

Welkwood

Trees here grow to unnatural sizes, with many towering to more than 100 feet. It is the home of hardy woodsman, elves, hunters, and adventurers.

Beginnings (My Greyhawk Campaign)

Now that I have established the map I am going to work with, it is time for me to take my own advice and read through the relevant parts of The World of Greyhawk, note what inspires me,  ignore the rest, and make changes where needed. In other words, if you are a Greyhawk purist, this series of posts is not going to be your cup of tea.

First, lets go over the things I like:

• Three of the four main human peoples can be found on the map. The Oerid are well represented in the Kingdom of Nyrond and in Onwall. The Suel can be found on the Wild Coast and it can be assumed were the people that populated The Pomarj before the humanoid invasions. Finally, it is suggested in the text that the Wildmen found in the southern part of the Albor Alz are Flan.
• It is implied that the current King of Nyrond is a member of the House of Rax and the rightful heir to the thrown of the Great Kingdom. The usuper and demon-infested House of Naelax currently controls the throne of the Great Kingdom.
• The leader of Onwall is called a Szek, which is a Hungarian word for seat or chair — as in Chairman of the Board.
• Onwall is part of an alliance called the Iron League.
• Pomarj was overrun 63 years ago.
• While demi-humans are mentioned in passing, they are portrayed as largely uninterested in human affairs. One possible exception may be the dwarves and gnomes of Onwall. Another is that Nyrond has demi-human troops, but they are explicitly called "scouts" and are only used in times of need.
• There are two lost/hidden cities on the map. One is in the Suss Forest and the other is in the Bright Desert. Both appear to be built by the Suel.
• The Wild Coast is largely ignored because it is resource poor.
• Pirates are major factors in every single major body of water.
• The Caledon Forest is a no-go zone for non-elves.
• The Gnatmarsh is filled with “ghastly” creatures.
• The Drachensgrab Hills are supposedly the home of one or more very powerful creatures that are waiting to be awakened.
• There are several knightly orders throughout the land (though none are directly related to any place on my map).
• Finally, I realize that they aren’t explicitly on the map, but I love the idea of the Scarlet Brotherhood.

Now, to things I will specifically change:

• I realize that this technically isn’t a change, since there really is no real information about religion in the first edition of WoG, but given the history of the campaign setting and the game itself, it still feels like one. St. Cuthbert is the same saint that exists in our history. He was transported to WoG and introduced people to the God of St. Cuthbert. Colloquially, people tend to call Christians followers of St. Cuthbert and leave off “’s God.” As the Point of Light on the map, the Kingdom of Nyrond is the main political entity that champions St. Cuthbert’s God. Given the fact that the Iron League sees the Great Kingdom as their enemy, and that they share a common culture with Nyrond (Oeridian), The Iron League is heavily influenced by St. Cuthbert and his God, if not outright followers. This allows me to add some fuel to the fire of a cultural clash between the Oerid and the Suel and Flan by having the latter be primarily Old Believers.
• Nyrond will simply be referred to as The Kingdom. It is the only kingdom on the map and it serves the polemic purpose of dismissing the claim of the House of Naelax as the leaders of the Great Kingdom.
• I don’t particularly like the name Onwall, but I love the name Iron League. So, Onwall will simply be the Iron League, which rather than a group of nations is a group of City States (with some tacit support of the dwarves and gnomes of the Headlands).
• I want to play up the naval prowess and power of the Iron League. Given that their leader is a “Chair” suggests that their organizing principle is far more interested in economic power than political power. Given the constant pirate problem in the area, it would make sense that the Iron League would take matters into their own hands and protect their business interests. As such, they may be far more influential in the area than the Kingdom, especially at a practical level.
• The name “The Pomarj” doesn’t refer to the geographical area that contains the Drachensgrab Hills. Rather, it is an old Suel word meaning city state. It specifically referred to twelve City States that used to exist on the peninsula. The geographic area is called the Drachensgrab Peninsula or simply Drachensgrab.
• The Pomarj were some of the first Suel to officially adopt Christianity, though many Suel remained Old Believers. The leaders converted (some for political reasons), but not necessarily the people.
• The Scarlet Brotherhood came into existence after the fall of The Pomarj. It was started by Old Believer survivors of the Pomarj who blamed the destruction of their homes on Christianity and the failure of other Christian nations to come to their aid. Thus, they seek revenge and they seek to found a great Suloise Empire that will bring the Christian nations to their knees. To achieve this, they are willing to use any strategy or tactic no matter how vile.
• The great magics that brought about the Invoked Devastation and Rain of Colorless Fire are long forgotten; however, it is rumored that some powerful artifacts from that period were in the possession of the Suel when the Suloise migrations began. Not coincidentally, the Suel are more natural arcane spell casters than either the Oerid or the Flan.
• There are going to be two knightly orders that have a presence on the map: the Order of the White Hart (a play on the Order of the Hart in WoG) and the Order of the Red Rose (a play on one of the later developments in the WoG version of St. Cuthbert). The Order of the White Hart is based off of the hagiography of St. Eustathios (who will go by St. Sylfaen in my version of WoG) who had an encounter with Christ while hunting a deer and St. Gobnait who went on a quest to find nine white deer. The Order of the Red Rose is dedicated to the Mother of God because the rose is often associated with her.
• I plan on re-skinning various humanoids as orcs so that I can use them almost exclusively as my humanoid baddies. I have always wanted to run a campaign where Gygax’s suggested names for orc tribes gets used. As a consequence, all of the various tribes that now occupy Drachensgrab are all orcs: The Death Moon Tribe, The Dripping Blades Tribe, The Grinning Skull Tribe, The Leprous Hand Tribe, and The Long Spears,
• For the purposes of placing the A-series onto the map, the most important orc “tribe” is going to be the Long Spears. They are actually going to be a mercenary company consisting mostly of half-orcs (at least in the leadership) that have been hired by merchants of the Iron League (through the suggestion of agents of the Scarlett Brotherhood) to take control of Highport. They maintain a neutral port that does business with human and orc alike. While they will turn a blind eye to the slave trade if it is out of sight, the Long Spears make sure the city has the appearance of being above board. This justifies why the Slave Pits of A1 are hidden and not out in the open.
• I plan on re-working the heraldry of the area so that it suits my proclivities (that’ll be another post).
• Finally, I plan on incentivizing players to play humans. I want this to be a human-centric campaign where elves, dwarves, etc. are alien cultures that might interact with the human world out of curiosity, but rarely do anything to influence it.

My Greyhawk Campaign

As someone who tries to practice what he preaches, I have started working on making The World of Greyhawk into a sandbox campaign that I would actually like to run.

A little history is needed here: Greyhawk was never really part of my D&D experience. I never ran it. I never played in it. Modules explicitly set in the Greyhawk world were stand-alone adventures or ported over to another gaming world. Most campaigns I have run have either existed within worlds I created from scratch or from one of the many Judges Guild products I have used throughout the years. As a player, in the pre-3e era, every campaign was a home-brew. When I finally did play 3.5/Pathfinder my DM used Paizo’s Golarian almost exclusively.

By the time I had an interest in doing something related to Greyhawk, it had developed such a large canon that I felt overwhelmed at the idea of ever running a campaign there. Then I got a .pdf of the first edition of The World of Greyhawk. At a mere 32 pages, it is far more akin to something Judges Guild produced back in the day. In other words, there is enough information to get you started, but it leaves a whole lot of room for you to make the world your own. It is actually really inspiring.

Know also that I have had a long time love/hate relationship with the A-series of modules (Against the Slave Lords). I own the hard cover reprint that includes A0 and have long wanted to make them work. The one time I did run them as a campaign was both a blast and a complete disaster. I would love to have them on the map of a sandbox to allow them to organically happen within context of a good campaign.

The first thing that I need to do in order to make this work for me is to radically narrow the scope of The World of Greyhawk to a map that can easily fit on a single sheet of 8.5 x 11. Given the fact that A0 is set on the shore of the Sea of Gearnat in the Kingdom of Nyrond and that the other modules in the A-series all take place in The Pomarj, here is the map I came up with:

What I really like about this map is that except for a few hexes on the east side of the map, virtually everything is Wilderness. I am actually excited about this . . .

The Unsavory Past

As someone who originally went to school to become an historian, I have learned over the years that human nature is the same no matter the location or the time. As a consequence, every people, in every place and every time, are capable of soiling the image of God and are capable of revealing the image of God. Good and evil emerge from each of us every single day. Everyone sins.

The first time this was driven home to me was when I read Thucycides and his History of the Peloponnesian War. At the time, the Cold War was still raging and I was shocked at how similar the opening chapter was to the behaviors of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Indeed, had I read a transcript of Thucydides where the names of places were swapped out for the U.S., the Soviet Union and their satellite states I would have been hard pressed to tell the difference.

It should be no surprise, then, that I am not fond of the recent disclaimer by Wizards of the Coast on their legacy publications. When we make blanket condemnations about entire histories and peoples, we condemn both the good with the bad.

For example, I recently was going through the first two editions of The World of Greyhawk because I am contemplating how I would set up a sandbox campaign using the original material found therein. I happened across this statement by Gygax about the fantasy races that inhabit his world:

In general, the skin color of an individual is of no particular importance.

Since we have been informed that legacy products, and The World of Greyhawk specifically:

…may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time

and that

These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today

Wizards of the Coast have opened the door to declaring that the racists position of judging someone exclusively by the color of their skin is proper and correct. Is that really what you wanted to say WotC?

As a serious aside, for those unfamiliar with the history of the Soviet Union, they played fast and loose with history, bending it to their will in order to justify the starvation and murder of millions of their own citizens.

The path taken by Wizards of the Coast will end up having us consuming ourselves.

BTW, this nonsense was announced just as I was contemplating getting the 1st edition of Greyhawk in POD. I won't be buying that or anything from WotC anytime soon.

Alignment Languages, the Scarlet Brotherhood, and Flutes

JB of B/X Blackrazor has been meditating how to go “Advanced” from his usual B/X D&Ding. As seems always necessary in such endeavors is the long, hard struggle with Alignment.

I myself have waxed poetic about the subject many, many times.

The thing that interested me about JB’s post has almost nothing to do with JB’s near abandonment of the system. D&D has several mechanics that depend upon Alignment and therefore one must deal with those mechanics on some level if any major changes are to be made with Alignment (like getting rid of it entirely). One such mechanic in AD&D is the much maligned Alignment Languages.

Back when I got into blogging, one of the bigger blogs was James Maliszewski’s Grognardia. At the time he was trying to wrestle with OD&D as written using the axiom that the rules were always right and therefore he needed to find a way to make them work. The results were often surprising and fun. It is a principle that I enjoy applying to various editions of the game for that very reason — I often come up with ideas that wouldn’t exist otherwise.

With that in mind, here is what Gygax has to say about Alignment Languages on pg. 24 of the DMG:

Alignment language is a handy game tool which is not unjustifiable in real terms. Thieves did employ a special cant. Secret organizations and societies did and do have certain recognition signs, signals, and recognition phrases — possibly special languages (of limited extent) as well. Consider also the medieval Catholic Church which used Latin as a common recognition and communication base to cut across national boundaries. In AD&D. alignment languages are the special set of signs, signals, gestures, and words which intelligent creatures use to inform other intelligent creatures of the same alignment of their fellowship and common ethos. Alignment languages are NEVER flaunted in public. They are not used as salutations or interrogatives if the speaker is uncertain of the alignment of those addressed. Furthermore, alignment languages are of limited vocabulary and deal with the ethos of the alignment in general, so lengthy discussion of varying subjects cannot be conducted in such tongues.

This largely harkens back to the 0e version of Alignment, where it was about which side of the larger conflict are you willing to fight with rather than a code of behavior. It also introduces the idea of secret(ive) societies that use various means of communication that those outside their clique cannot understand.

Which brings me to my favorite love/hate political entity within the Greyhawk campaign world. I love the idea of a bunch of racist monks working in secret to further their political agenda, but I hated the idea of there being a country on the map called The Scarlet Brotherhood. I always wished that they were a secretive society that were the real power behind several different throwns and were always looking out for a way to whisper sweet nothings into the ears of the rich and powerful.

Here is an organization that would definitely have something akin to an Alignment Language as Gygax describes. There is even an historical template on which to build this vision of both the Scarlet Brotherhood and Alignment Languages: the Fuke monks.

As I noted in my last post, many Shoguns took advantage of the Fuke monk’s anonymity and mobility to create spy networks. One simple way to identify oneself, in an Alignment Language kinda way, would be the music a monk would play on their flute.

This also suggests why characters lose the use of an Alignment Language once their alignment changes. Secret symbols and signs are in constant flux in order to keep them secret. Think about pitching symbols in baseball or sideline play signals in football. The form is almost always the same, but their meaning is in constant flux because other teams are constantly trying to steal signals. Once a character leaves and organization, they lose the ability to update the current meaning of the signals being given or to recognize if a signal is being given at all.

The exciting thing about the idea of Alignment Languages is the world-building implications: secret societies abound in a political climate that is cutthroat and in constant flux. That sounds like a really fun atmosphere to throw a bunch of Player Characters at.

Re-Imagining The Slave Pits of the Undercity

[Forgive me, I am suffering from an unusual amount of Gamer ADD recently...I'll get back to my previous ADD ramblings shortly]

Recently, both Dyson of A Character for Every Game and Christopher of Grognardling have sang the praises of Joesky’s Carcosa Adventure. While I was checking it out, I noticed that Joesky also had a brilliant idea about what he wants from 5e.

Rather than wait in vain for WotC to do what so many of us want — re-release a bunch of old adventure modules — the folks of the OSR ought to release their own re-imagined versions of old favorites. Buried in the comment section, someone suggested that I do my own version of the Slave Pits. I find this a fascinating prospect (and a bit humbling at being mentioned along side some of the heavies Joesky suggests in his original post).

I have always really wanted to like A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity:

• The concept is really awesome: there is a secret slave trade that needs to be stopped —find it and root it out!
• I am not necessarily a big fan, but I often find Jeff Dee’s art inspiring. His cover art for A1 has always fascinated me. Why is Dread Delgath so casual about being attacked by giant ant people (aspis drones)? How cool is it that Blodgett is climbing walls in order to try and get a backstab? What is going on with the aspis in the foreground? I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out cool ways to answer these questions and still do every time I look at my copy of the module.
• There has been a lot of chatter about female characters recently, and I would hold up Elwita the Female Dwarf Fighter (featured as one of the tournament characters at the back of A1 and throughout the art of the module) as one of the cooler (if not coolest) published female characters in the history of D&D. I know most guys will point to Morgan Ironwolf, but due to how they are depicted I must disagree. Ironically, Dee is responsible for illustrations of both. I find Dee's version of Elwita to be immensely respectful — she’s wearing real armor, she’s muscular and she’s still somehow feminine despite having a beard (she is a dwarf, after all). In contrast, I have always found Dee’s depiction of Morgan to be ridiculous — how is all that supermodel detail showing through her chain mail?

Unfortunately, I have never been able to like this module, because its warts outweigh its virtues:

• Where and what is this undercity that you speak of?
• If the region has been overrun by evil humanoids, why the need to hide the whole operation in an abandoned temple?
• What are the aspis doing here in the first place?

I suppose I could overlook these things if A1 didn’t suffer overall from the fact that it is a tournament module. TSR did a very good job back in the day of making tournament module sound cool, special and superior to the crappy DYI stuff you did in your basement, but they necessarily abandoned several principles that govern normal dungeon creation:

1. The adventure is very linear. Characters start at Room 1 and proceed from there. Yes, it is possible to go in through other entrances and yes, it is possible to role-play the discovery of the temple within the city where it can be found; however, both are seriously hampered by the fact that it makes little sense to hide the slave trade in a city that probably doesn't think twice about owning and selling slaves.
2. The normal empty-room-to-encounter-area ratio is thrown out of whack. Tournament games are not about exploration, they are about overcoming puzzles and monsters. Therefore virtually every room has a monster, a trap or some kind of hurdle that the players must defeat.
3. There is an emphasis on having new monsters that players are unfamiliar with, even if their presence doesn’t necessarily make sense or fit the scenario (see my question about the aspis above).
4. The scenario is more important than its utility outside of the tournament setting. Placing A1 into an existing campaign takes more effort than simply placing it on a map.

In thinking about how I would do my own version of the Slave Pits, all of these things would need to be addressed while still paying homage to the original. Here are few preliminary thoughts:

• First, the homage: The Temple itself will be the ruins of a church dedicated to St. Cuthbert. That will tie it into Greyhawk and also coincide nicely with my own proclivities. In addition, I might add one or more agents of the Scarlett Brotherhood (or an analog) to an encounter area or two.
• Secondly, I am not adverse to using unfamiliar/new monsters, but I want them to make sense. As cool as they are, no aspis thank you; however, given that this particular project ostensibly is for folks who will potentially be owning their first copy of AD&D and in need of a good adventure to run, it would be fun to give them a traditional D&D monster that isn’t found in the MM. Since I’ve been fiddling with the FF, there are a couple of potential candidates that dabble in slavery. The one that appeals to me the most, because they can be understood to be an homage to HPL, are the kuo-toa.
• Unfortunately, kuo-toa are described as creatures who live deep beneath the earth and who hate the sun. What if this particular group of kuo-toa had figured out a way to interbreed with humans so as to make living on the surface a possibility? Thus, there is a reason for the slave trade (finding suitable humans to help breed; sell the rest to interested parties such as the Brotherhood), there is a reason to keep these activities secret, and it allows for yet another new monster: the halfbreed kuo-toa who is able (at least for a time) to pass as fully human. [This concept can also be carried out using the Deep Ones and Sea Bloods from the RCC].
• This, in turn, suggests that this secret hideout be near a body of water. I am thinking of using a map of Lindesfarne (an island off the coast of Northumerland where the real St. Cuthbert hails from) as the basis for the map of the region around the temple ruins. In addition to the temple, there will be a sleepy fishing village (of half-breeds), a castle (where some of the more vile activites of the kuo-toa occur) as well as the slave pits beneath the temple. Being on an island will also help keep this vile community from being passively discovered.
• This set-up will allow for player freedom in how to engage the adventure (including the Referee, who merely need drop the island anywhere there is a body of water). PCs can choose to explore the village, sneak onto the island in the dead of night, enter the Temple from a variety of entrances (including a secret door as yet undiscovered by the kuo-toa), explore the castle or even a secret sea cave that the kuo-toa use to smuggle slaves in and out of the pits.
• This scenario can properly begin with a rumor table, rather than plopping the PCs right in front of the secret entrance (as does A1 in tournament mode). Rumors can include red herrings to other villages in the area, thus resulting in an actual mystery that the party needs to solve prior to finding the horrors of the slave pits.
• I also have in mind to correct the linear nature of the A-series, which takes PCs conveniently from 1 to 4 in order. Rather, I would give clues to the other locations used by the slaving ring all at once, allowing players the ability to prioritize for themselves which they wanted to tackle first.
• Finally, the number of rooms available to explore will be increased by at least one-third (all of them empty) so as to bring the whole thing back in line with the traditional encounter-to-room ratio.

I am really intrigued by the prospects of such a project. I know not whether my schedule or my level of enthusiasm will result in any kind of finished project, but one can always hope.

Saintly Saturday: St. Eupsychios the Martyr

Today is the feast day of St. Eupsychios the Martyr. Considering the recent flap about a pastor burning a Koran down in Florida, St. Eupsychios is an extraordinarily politically-incorrect saint to be celebrating. He lived during the reign of Julian the Apostate (331/332-June of 36). The title Apostate refers to someone who renounces a religion. In his short reign, Julian tried to re-impose a systematized paganism over and against the Christianity that had taken hold of the Roman Empire. Whether he himself was once a Christian or he simply represented the renunciation of Christianity in the office of the Emperor, I cannot say for certain.

St. Eupsychios was on his way to getting married when he and others saw a sacrifice being offered at the pagan temple to Fortuna (a cult beloved of the Emperor). Seeing this, the groom-to-be led a group that destroyed the temple. Enraged, not only did Julian have Eupsychios tortured and beheaded, but he gathered an army to raze the city (Caesaria in Cappadocia) on his way to fight the Persians. He was diverted from this task by the bishop of Caesaria (St. Basil the Great) and subsequently died in battle from a stray spear. Legend has it that the spear was thrown by St. Mercurius (a Cappadocian martyr from a century before).

Setting aside the real-world merits and consequences of St. Eupsychios' zealotry, I can't help but meditate on one of the most beloved of Gygax's modules (and one of my all-time favorites) — T1 The Village of Hommlet.

We are told at the beginning of the module of a battle to destroy the Temple of Elemental Evil:

So great was the slaughter, so complete the victory of good, that the walled stronghold of the Temple of Elemental Evil fell within a fortnight, despite the aid of a terrible demon.

Interesting parallel, is it not? When one re-reads T1, there are those who go to the newly established Church dedicated to St. Cuthbert and those who cling to the Old Faith (along with a local Druid). If one recasts this module in terms of paganism vs. Christianity, the questions posed about Hommlet by Gygax for the players in his introduction are given added depth:

Will outsiders be shunned? Are reports of the whole community engaging in evil practices true? Are the folk here bumpkins, easily duped? Does a curse lay upon those who dare to venture into the lands which were once the Temple's?

Imagine, for a moment, if the open worship of St. Cuthbert's God is a recent phenomenon made possible by the conversion of those in political power. What if we recast the Viscount of Verbobonc in the role of Julian the Apostate? What if he were were either openly or secretly funding the renewal of the Temple?

Suddenly, Hommlet is transformed into a hotbed of political intrigue where every person in town who clings to the Old Faith is a potential spy for the Viscount and therefore the Temple. If the module (and implied campaign) goes ahead as written, the players will play the role of St. Eupsychios and risk the wrath of the Viscount, inviting an exciting end-game.

***

The Spear of St. Bywarian

This item, though it will radiate magic if detected, appears to be a rusted spearpoint upon a broken shaft. Its efficacy as a weapon depends upon the alignment of the target. Against Lawful creatures, it will function as a Staff of Healing. Against Neutral creatures, it will function as a normal spear. Against Chaotic creatures it will function as a +1 magic weapon and do double damage if the "to hit" roll is 5 or higher than the target number. For example, if the target number is 14 and the roll is 19 or 20, than the damage will be doubled.

Meditating on Greyhawk

I have a bit of a confession to make. I have never played in a Greyhawk campaign. In fact, it wasn't until well into the 90s that I even read any material about the Greyhawk campaign world. Certainly, I have played with modules written for Greyhawk, but they either were one-offs or removed from their original background in order to be reset into our home-brew campaign worlds.

Recently, I have come to really enjoy much of the research done by folks in the OSR about Greyhawk, Castle Greyhawk, etc. However, this hasn't affected the fact that I have never really had any desire to play in a Greyhawk Campaign or to go explore the Mad Archmage's Castle. Personally, I am more of a Judges Guild type of guy, because it has always seemed to me that the Wilderlands invited and encouraged a DIY attitude, whereas Greyhawk always felt like someone else's property. In fact, all of the attempts at finding a mythically historic version of Castle Greyhawk demonstrates that I am not the only one who feels this way.

Something funny happened on the way to the gaming table, however. After playing Labyrinth Lord for a year and a half while listening to me wax poetic about the old days of the hobby, some of my players have gone out and found old copies of modules, maps and rules. Not only that, but they have voiced a real desire to play them. As a result, I am faced with the very real possibility of running my very first Greyhawk campaign whether I like it or not.

To that end, I have been doing some thinking about how I could make a campaign set in Greyhawk interesting for me to play as a Referee. In other words, give it the same kind of treatment I feel entirely justified doing to my own version of the Wilderlands.

Source Material

Greyhawk 1st edition only. I don't much care for the later editions because they go into too much fiddly stuff and take the world in a direction I am not much interested in. The 1st edition is wonderfully short on detail, but overflowing with things that inspire. In other words, I can much more easily tailor the world to my liking and still stay true to the original material.

As far as maps go, I plan on using only this:

As much as it pains me to ignore so much of a beautiful map, limiting the campaign area greatly reduces the amount of information I have to process and be responsible for. It also places the Free City of Greyhawk in a backwater at the edge of the wilderness instead of being smack-dab in the middle of civilization. This allows me to have much greater freedom in representing what is off map. The corrupt Great Kingdom and the mysterious Scarlet Brotherhood can exert a much greater influence on the region because the geography need no longer get in the way.

Due to the reality that I don't want to spend an extraordinary amount of time on this project, I don't plan on using much in the way of home-brew adventures. In addition, this whole effort comes out of my players' desire to play through some of the original modules (specifically A1-A4). Thus, I plan to lean heavily on this material. Of course, one glaring hole in this plan is Castle Greyhawk. Though there are plenty of resources out there to emulate what the famous castle may have been, I'm not particularly interested.

I plan on taking a very different tack. The Mad Archmage will still be part of the world. He still built Castle Greyhawk only to disappear, and his influence can be felt far and wide, but the reasons the ruins of his castle are a magnet for adventuring types has very little to do with his original creation. Rather, at the height of the corrupt power of the Great Kingdom, the Overking used the ruins of Castle Greyhawk as a prison. While there are some who remember its original name and its original purpose, most now know Castle Greyhawk as Stonehell.

Ruleset

For reasons that will become obvious, I would use Labyrinth Lord as my ruleset. Not only because I have become a big fan, but also because I want to take full advantage of LL's modularity. This will be specifically manifest in the available character classes and races:

• Elves use the OEC rules.
• Dwarves, Halflings, and Magic Users use LL core rules.
• Clerics, Fighters, Illusionists, Monks, Rangers and Thieves use the AEC rules.
• Gnomes, Half-Elves and Half-Orcs will also be available as characters races using the AEC rules.
• In addition (as a way to allow the Mad Archmage to affect the campaign world), Replicants as found in Section 9 of Mutant Future will be available as a character class.
• Assassins and Druids are definite NPC classes only, because they both essentially function as monsters. As far as Paladins go, I am of the opinion that Clerics are Paladins and having a separate class just confuses the issue.

I have become a big fan of race-as-class. I didn't use to be until I started playing with it. I have come to really appreciate how it mechanically expresses the alienness of the non-human races. This has a way of sneaking into the way my players play them. I have become particularly interested in seeing how Elves from the OEC play.

Gnomes, Half-Elves and Half-orcs don't come with a race-as-class, however. Since the latter two are half-human, this can simply be explained by their humanness. Given this explanation, Gnomes can be understood as Dwarves who have come under undue influence of humans (dare I credit the Mad Archmage with creating a kind of Half-Dwarf?).

Magic Users begin with the LL core rules because I want to differentiate between the LL and AEC spell lists. The former will be more common spells, with the latter being much more rare, expensive to get a hold of and difficult to find.

Replicants are the result of one of the many bizarre experiments made by the Mad Archmage. Little is known as to who the original human being was that became the template for an entire race. Over time, however, as the Replicants continue to procreate, their ability to produce exact copies has deteriorated to the point where strange mutations have been popping up in recent generations. The closer one gets to the original, the more stable and mutation free one gets. Of note, though, Replicants have became fashionable bodyguards and soldiers among the elite within The Free City. Given the overall same-ness of the Replicants, they have a tendency to use tattoos as a means to express their individuality. Often, this takes the form of some kind of symbol tattooed on the face — this makes for easy identification.

Shape of the Campaign

The Free City has an economy entirely based around mercenaries and adventurers. It functions as the place where civilization and the Wild Coast meet to do business. The city works very hard at making an environment where outside feuds and conflicts are not welcome — they are bad for business. As a result, several mercenary companies have their headquarters inside the city and those interested in hiring them travel from all over the world to do business. This has resulted in a thriving economy based on accommodating nobility, merchants and travelers of all kinds.

Stonehell/Castle Greyhawk functions as a proving ground. Individuals who wish to join a mercenary company, adventuring guild or attract a patron are encouraged/expected to venture into the dungeon in order to demonstrate their worth. As a result, there is little interest in clearing out the dungeon or in finding out why it seems to be in constant flux and perpetually full of monsters. In fact, having it continually fester is good for business.

Slavery and the slave trade will be part of the background noise. While there is no slave market in the Free City, many of those who do business there own slaves.

Thus the basic trajectory of the campaign might very well be the party spending time in Stonehell in order to gain enough notoriety to gain a patron. Available patrons would be those that aggressively oppose slavery or have had family members kidnapped by slavers. The party will then be sent on a mission which will result in pulling out A1-A4.

Miscellanea

The one thing that I do truly appreciate about the Greyhawk world is the Scarlett Brotherhood. Any group that has racial supremacy as a central tenet makes for great villains. Nationalism is so very seductive and sexy. It also has the tendency to corrupt and turn very ugly. Thus, those who adhere to it can justify all kinds of heinous acts because they are the hero of their own story. In other words, every member of the Scarlett Brotherhood has a very real motivation that makes for great villainy. There is no doubt that I will take full advantage of this.

Saintly Saturday: St. Cuthbert

As you may have noticed, my output on this blog has been seriously lagging of late. Not that I am finding myself any less enthusiastic about this hobby or things that go on in the OSR. The time that I have had available for my hobby in the last couple of months has been short and I have simply chosen to use it for actual play rather than musing. It has been rather startling to discover how time consuming musing can be, especially when one doesn't have something rather specific to muse about.

To this end I've been thinking — there are a number of blogs out there that have regular features that keep me coming back. A really good example is Grognardia. James has three regular types of posts: Open Friday, Retrospectives and Pulp Fantasy Library. It should be no surprise, then, that James has given me the inspiration for a type of regular post, which Blood of Prokopius has thus far lacked.

Petty Gods has garnered a lot of attention and enthusiasm. Though not exactly my cup of tea, even I ventured to submit something (a saint rather than a god). It occurred to me that hagiographies could be a wealth of information for campaigns, character ideas and adventure ideas. Since Orthodoxy commemorates the dead on Saturdays, it seemed appropriate for the one day a week that I could challenge myself to write. For those of you out there that doubt my premise, I wish to begin with a saint that has long been embraced by our hobby:

St. Cuthbert

Personally, I first encountered St. Cuthbert in B1: In Search of the Unknown, where he is mentioned in passing in the list of potential characters at the back with the cleric Tassit, the Servant of St. Cuthbert. The saint is also mentioned in Supplement 3: Eldritch Wizardry via the artifact the Mace of Cuthbert as well as in T1: The Village of Hommlet via the local church which is dedicated to him. I personally find it very interesting that T1 actually portrays a reasonable facsimile of a fantasy Christian setting. Hommlet is a mixture of those who follow the new religion (Christianity) and those who still cling to the old religion (nature-based paganism). Both are threatened by demon-worshipping members of the Temple of Elemental Evil. In fact, this is one of the reasons it is one of my favorite modules to this day.

To my knowledge, St. Cuthbert does not make the transition to being a "lesser god" until around 1983 with the publication of the World of Greyhawk 2nd Edition. He is described there as:

a stout, red-faced man, with a drooping white mustache and flowing white hair. He wears magicked plate mail. Atop his helmet is a crumpled hat, and a starburst of rubies set in platinum hangs on his chest...[He] hates evil but his major interest is in law and order and the dual work of conversion and prevention of back-sliding by "true believers."

In reality, St. Cuthbert was a 7th century hermit and a monastic who eventually became the bishop of Lindisfarne, also known as the Holy Island. When he died, his relics remained incorrupt and were the source of countless miracles. He is known as the Wonderworker of Britain.

The aspect of St. Cuthbert that I find most useful for a fantasy RPG campaign is the context within which he lived. Lindesfarne historically functioned in much the same way as the Keep on the Borderland.

Britain was conquered by Rome in AD 41. Christianity followed shortly thereafter — it was so well established, in fact, that there were British bishops at the First Ecumenical Council in AD 325. Rome abandoned its British colonies around AD 410. Shortly thereafter, pagan Goths invaded and conquered much of the island. Lindesfarne was the beachhead of the second wave of Christianity, trying to reclaim lost territory for civilization (where civilization is understood as Christian Rome and its successors).

In other words, T1 need not be tied to Greyhawk, but could very well take place in a fantasy version of 8th century Britain.

City States

Although I started playing D&D in the late 70s and have gone through several modules set in Greyhawk, I have never taken part in a campaign which took place within that iconic setting. For whatever reason, the vast majority of the people I have played with over the years have always used home brew settings and do-it-yourself dungeons. I have had a passing interest in Greyhawk, due to its place in the history of our hobby, but never felt comfortable with it.

This week I cracked open a book that explores the economic and political history of towns and cities in Germany during the Middle Ages. What struck me was that as a political entity, these towns and cities became independent city-states due to several factors. Trade allowed the Burghers to become wealthy. In order to ensure stability and continued trade, these Burghers allied with each other to create councils which became the political force behind these city states. They invested in armies, in defenses and in superior technology (canons, guns, etc.). The remarkable part of this story is who they were protecting themselves against: the nobility. There is a story of one city state who was besieged by several princes who banded together to take it over. They failed. The technology and the professionalism of the city state troops proved to be too much. In addition, city states endeavored to acquire territory — a defensive buffer zone between them and the nobility.

For me, this sheds a new light upon the city state as a D&D setting, of which Greyhawk is the archetype. The city is governed by a council of various families and guilds with a variety of interests. Some of them conflict, but all are united in the desire to protect the city (and thus their own interests). In addition, the city invests in "technology" — it houses a school of magic, is tolerant of magical research, and gives wizards a seat on the council. In turn, this collection of magic-users can be called upon in times of trouble. As a result, there will also be a heavy concentration of magical items within the walls of the city.

There is a very competent city militia; however, there will also be a requisite number of adventurers hired on by various members of the council to take on tasks that ensure the survival of the city. One of these tasks is the acquisition of territory — clearing areas of monsters and the building of strongholds in order to maintain this territory.

These efforts will be in opposition to various "princes," whether they are orc tribes, the armies of mad kings, demon led hordes of barbarians, evil monks, or your run-of-the-mill power hungry nobility.

Although this framework does not lend itself as easily to a sandbox kind of game as does the proverbial keep in the borderlands, it does allow for a more political and patron driven campaign.

Having never had the whole Greyhawk experience, I am curious as to how closely this model fits with what was actually played. I know that if I ever were to go about making my own version of Greyhawk, this is the direction I would go. I am, however, more inclined to just apply this model to a campaign entirely of my own design.

I Have the Power!

One of the perks of being a father of young children is that I get an excuse to watch a lot of cartoons. I particularly enjoy sharing with my kids the cartoons I grew up watching. It is a fascinating experience full of surprises. For example, I enjoy the original series of Johnny Quest more as an adult than I did as a kid and my eldest daughter is a big fan of Thundarr the Barbarian, of all things. The is one show, however, that held no surprise for me at all — He-Man: Masters of the Universe.

My children have shown very little interest in He-Man, and I have never much liked the show myself. One of the main reasons for my dislike is that I was acutely aware that the He-Man cartoons were 30 minute commercials for actions figures.

He-Man toys first appeared in 1981. The Filmation cartoon didn't air until 1983. In other words, the He-Man cartoon was one of the first instances that I am aware of that created a TV show based on a Toy instead of the other way around. This particular arrangement bothered me quite a lot. I had never shown much interest in action figures based on movies or TV shows. Even my love for the Star Wars movies never really materialized in much of a collection of Star Wars toys. I never felt free to play with the toys as I wished to play with them. Luke Skywalker was always going to be Luke. I couldn't imagine allowing myself to do anything else.

He-Man took this to a whole new level. Making a TV show based on a toy sent a message: this is how you play with these toys. Looking back, I find it fascinating that the original back-story for He-Man, prior to the advent of the TV show, sounded like a great sandbox campaign:

He-Man is a barbarian from an Eternian tribe. The planet's inhabitants are dealing with the aftermath of the Great Wars, which devastated the civilizations that once ruled supreme over all lesser beings. The Wars left behind advanced machinery and weaponry known only to select people. — Wikipedia

By creating the detailed story lines of the TV show, this evocative description, and the endless possibilities were, for all practices purposes, destroyed. Anyone playing with the He-Man toys would expect to play the TV show, and nothing else. He-Man marks the moment in my life when I became disillusioned by marketing. It also marks a shift in the culture of RPGs.

The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon came out in 1983. Dragonlance first appeared in 1984. The way that D&D was being marketed sent a message: this is the way you play the game.

In retrospect, the mid-eighties marked a time when I wandered away from D&D as my main RPG. In the heady days from 1979-1981, I bought everything I could associated with D&D. Starting in 1983/1984 I can count the number of TSR products I bought on one hand. If I couldn't be free to play the game the way I wanted, I wasn't going to play. Eventually I did fall in with a group that primarily felt the same way. We never played Greyhawk, let alone Forgotten Realms and all the other settings that came out in the coming years. Not only do I think that our game didn't suffer from it, but I think our game was better for it.

In Christianity, there is a reason why the Eucharist is bread and wine. God has given us wheat and grapes. We take these gifts, rework them, recreate them and then give them back to God. We are expected to be co-creators with God:

God formed out of the ground all the wild animals of the field and all the birds of the heaven, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. Thus whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. — Genesis 2:19

Thus, when we are given a game or a toy — something with which we are supposed to creative — and then told that there is only one way to play with it is antithetical to what it means to be human. This is why I've always made my own worlds and why I've never done anything with published game-settings other than read them to mine them for ideas to use in my own game worlds.