The Gygax 75 Challenge Part 5

Week 4 of the Gygax 75 Challenge is dedicated to creating a Town. We finally come to a part of the process in creating a campaign that I personally rarely bother to do. For one, both T1: The Village of Hommlet and B2: The Keep on the Borderlands provide everything you need for a starting town for a sandbox campaign. Sure, I need to re-skin a few things to fit them into my world, but that pales in comparison to the amount of work I normally think necessary to make my own. Personally, the Village of Hommlet has been the foundation of my most successful campaigns.

In addition, even when I don't start with either the Keep or Hommlet, I rarely bother with creating shops or NPCs until the players specifically need or ask for them. This keeps my prep time down and allows me to play up elements of the campaign that are important to the players in the moment.

Those times I do go to the trouble is generally in context of an urban campaign, where part of the fun is exploring the city itself and the various factions and personalities that make that city into a character of its own.

That being said, I am looking forward to going through this part of the Challenge specifically because I normally don't. I am eager to see what fruits Otus' suggestions bear.

Step One is to find or sketch a map of the town. I really appreciate Otus' advice here. There are plenty of old maps and generators online that will produce a map that far outstrips what I can produce in a significantly less amount of time (and I have a graphic design background). So I found this online generator and popped out a map I liked the general look of. I took into my old copy of Illustrator and finagled a few things and produced this:

So, now that I have an inspiring map, I'll continue with creating the town in my next post.

Gamer ADD: Map for B1B2T1

So, my brain won't let go of the idea to place those great introductory TSR modules B1, B2 and T1 all on the same map. Despite the fact that Gygax gives a very detailed description for the location of the Village of Hommlet, placing it in Greyhawk, I have no real desire to use TSR's first flagship campaign world. For one, while the location works great for T1, there really is no place to put the locations of B1 and B2 to my satisfaction. Secondly, I am far more of a Judges Guild kinda guy, and the freedom I have to mess with the Wilderlands is exactly the sorta thing one needs for a project like this.

Thus, I ended up using about 20 or so hexes from Campaign Map Two, aka Barbarian Altanis. BTW if you haven't picked up Rob Conley's colored maps of the Wilderlands, do yourself a favor and get them.

There are several reasons I chose this location:

• Rogahn and Zelligar (see B1) fought off a barbarian horde, which can now be understood to be Altanians.
• There is an unnamed castle up the coast (and off the map below) that is led by a 7th level Lawful Good Cleric. Since we need a place from whence the followers of St. Cuthbert led a crusade against the ToEE, this castle makes a nice stand-in for Verbobonc. 
• There is a Dwarven village (Kolda) at the foot of the Ered Perack Mountains that can nicely serve as the warning sign that humanoid activity in the Cave of Chaos has come to a head. The town has been overrun and Dwarven refugees will be a source of information both in the Village of Hommlet and the Keep.
• There is both a keep and a village in close proximity on the map that lend themselves very nicely to be the location of Hommlet and the Keep.
• There is a swampy patch of land with lends itself to the Mound of the Lizard Men from B2 as well as a place to locate the Moathouse from T1.
• South of the map below, there is a lair of Owlbears, justifying the inclusion of the Owlbear in Cave G.
• The name Fogbound Forest just seems a great place to put Quasqueton.
• Finally, there are a bunch of hills at the foot of the Ered Perack Mountains which allow for the Caves of Chaos to be spread out in a more realistic manner.

Here is the map:

Key:

1 = The Mound of the Lizardmen (B2)
2 = The Spider's Lair (B2)
3 = The Bandit Camp (B2): These would be a rival gang that was not willing to work for the evil cleric Lareth from the Moathouse in T1
4 = The Mad Hermit (B2)
5 = The Cave of the Unknown (B2): Meant to be utilized by a newbie DM to create their own dungeon, this Cave is intended to serve the same purpose with one twist — the Dwarves of Kolda knew of and began to explore this place before abandoning the project due to what was down there.
A = Cave A: Kobolds
B = Cave B: Orcs
C = Cave C: Orcs
D = Cave D: Goblins
E = Cave E: Ogre
F = Cave F: Hobgoblins
G = Cave G: Shunned Cavern
H = Cave H: Bugbears
I = Cave I: Minotaur
J = Cave J: Knolls
K = Cave K: Shrine of Evil Chaos
Q = Quasqueton (B1)

Gamer ADD: Re-Skinning Quasqueton

So, Into the Borderlands, published by Goodman Games, arrived in my mailbox yesterday. It is a late-arriving birthday gift and, boy howdy, is my inner gamer all kinds of distracted. For those not familiar, Into the Borderlands is a lovely little piece of gaming history which compiles the Holmes-era and Moldvay-era editions of both B1 and B2. In addition, there are some essays by various luminaries of the gaming world, three different exercises in stocking B1, and a 5e update of both modules.

Of the essays I have managed to read (the rest of the book is very distracting, so please excuse my inattentiveness to the introductory material), the thrust is that these two modules stand as the gateway to not only as the starting point for many a campaign, but how to play the game of D&D for an entire generation of gamers.

Although my copy of the Homles Basic Edition Box came with the mono-chromed cover version of B1, and I certainly spent a lot of time looking through its pages, the sentiments expressed in these essays do not really apply to me. I have never used either B1 or B2 in any campaign I have run nor have I ever gone through them as a player. I learned how to play the game from older players who were willing to put up with me, because I was a slow reader when I was young and all of D&D's text was over my head for a number of years to come.

As long-time readers of this blog know, the one module that stands out in my playing experience is T1:The Village of Hommlet. I have used it a number of times as the starting place for a campaign. I have re-imagined it in all kinds of different scenarios and it still is my favorite TSR-era module. This is in part because, not despite the fact, that we never really got the Temple of Elemental Evil until years after the fact and the one we got fell way below expectations. Again, long-time readers will be well familiar with my various escapades and creating my own version of ToEE.

Thus, as I have been thumbing through Into the Borderlands, my Gamer ADD is going off like crazy because my inner gamer is desperate to throw together a campaign that marries B1, B2 and T1 in a crazy homage to the best beginner TSR modules of all-time. It was when I was perusing the various takes on stocking B1 that this inner chaos found its voice and it said:

Why not re-skin Quasqueton as the Temple of Elemental Evil?

It makes a twisted kind of sense. The two builders of B1’s dungeon were Chaotic, the place has some wonderfully weird rooms that can be re-skinned with elemental clothing and it would take a mere hand wave to explain its abandonment with the crusades of the followers of St. Cuthbert. One could also re-skin the Shrine of Evil Chaos in the Caves of Chaos as a fall-back position by the survivors of the cult and the Boathouse from T1 could still stand in as a forward position by the Cult as they seek to re-establish themselves after licking their wounds.

To boot, there is nothing that is preventing me from placing higher HD creatures with an elemental twist within all those lovely blank spaces between the covers of B1.

Saintly Saturday: St. David the Martyr of Georgia

Today is the feast of St. David the Martyr of Georgia, who was born to a noble Christian family. His father died when he was still young and his uncle, a pagan, seized all of the family’s possessions. The true heir, however, was St. David. Fearing this claim, the uncle first tried to win over his sister Tagine, David’s mother. This proved to be futile. Therefore, he tried to convince David and his brother Tarichan that he was now their father and that his was a better way than Christianity. Both refused, boldly declaring that were willing to endure anything for their Lord and their true Father in Heaven.

St. David’s uncle feared reprisals from the Christians, therefore he did not immediately kill his nephews. Rather, he plotted their murder in secret. Tagine, sensing danger, smuggled herself and her sons to lands in the south. There, they lived in hiding as shepherds for many years.

Spies, however, eventually discovered their whereabouts and St. David’s uncle ambushed them in the mountains. Rather than defend himself, St. David ran to his uncle to embrace him in love. His uncle ran him through with a sword and was immediately struck blind. The staff held by St. David was transformed into a tree. Soldiers also chased down and killed St. David’s brother.

When their mother discovered that her sons were murdered, she at first was filled with sorrow and denounced her brother; however, he repented. Taking soil soaked in St. David’s blood, she covered her brother’s eyes and his sight returned.

He went on to repent before the bishop, got baptized and built a church in honor of his nephew.

***

This is a great story, which suggests two periods within a campaign world:

1. The period where spies search the land for St. David
2. The period where the story of David’s martyrdom and church built in his honor are freshly known.

I realize I mention it a lot, but this story marries very well with T1:The Village of Hommlet and would make one of my favorite modules even better.

In the first case, Lareth the Beautiful could be the leader of a cell of spies in search of the nephews of a noble of the Old Faith. Rather than leading the characters to the Temple of Elemental Evil, it could lead characters into the political intrigue between the followers of St. Cuthbert’s God (Christ) and those who still hold to the Old Faith (paganism).

In the second, one could replace the Church of St. Cuthbert with the church built by the uncle in honor of the nephew he martyred. Thus, both the local Christian Church and the Old Faith would have a very rich local history. In addition, the tree that miraculously appeared could be a place of both pilgrimage and a place of safety for PCs on wilderness adventures (no wandering monster checks and double the hit points regained with rest).

Saintly Saturday: St. Nicetas the Great Martyr

Today is the feast of St. Nicetas the Great Martyr. He was a Gothic Christian who was captured, tortured and thrown into fire by the pagan usurper Athanaric in A.D. 372.

Normally, I would now go into more details about St. Nicetas’ life, however, yesterday I was struck by one of the hymns the Orthodox Church sang during the feast of The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross, which we are still celebrating today:

O Cross of Christ, the hope of Christians, the guide of the wayward, the haven of the storm-tossed, the victory in wartime, the security of the civilized world, for the sick a physician, for the dead resurrection, have mercy on us. [emphasis mine]

The feast commemorates St. Helen (mother of St. Constantine the first Christian Roman emperor) finding the True Cross in Jerusalem after the Edict of Milan, when Christianity was officially tolerated within the empire. When she had found three crosses lying next to each beneath a pagan temple, the bishop, St. Macarius, had a woman who was greatly ill touch the crosses. When she drew near the True Cross, she was healed.

Thus, the hymnody of the feast tacitly equates Civilization with Christian civilization. This, of course, is one of the assumptions that I make with my own use of the three-tier alignment system in D&D and its derivatives: Law = (Christian) Civilization.

The life of St. Nicetus, therefore, takes place in context of the expanding influence of Civilization in the form of the Christian Roman Empire. It also mirrors many tropes of the classic D&D sandbox campaign:

• His life took place in the lands of the Goths — at the edge of civilization. He spent it spreading the Gospel. His analog is a PC adventuring in the Wilderness, where Chaos = paganism.
• St. Nicetas was baptized by the Gothic Bishop Theophilus, who participated in the First Ecumenical Council. His analog is the former PC who has set up a stronghold and attracted followers, which then go on to be the next generation of PC adventurers.
• The area in which Nicetas operated was liberated by Fritigern, who led an army against the pagan Athanaric. Fritigern’s analog would be a fellow party member with Theophilus.
• The successor to Theophilus is the Arian Bishop Ulfilas. His analog is the NPC complication at the home base creating difficult choices for the PCs. While technically on the PCs side and able to help and supply them, this help comes with a price.
• Finally, the usurper Athanaric (who captures, tortures and martyrs St. Nicetus) has an analog in the lurking Chaos that the former party beat back, but failed to completely destroy. It is this threat that the current PC party must investigate and defeat.

For those interested, these tropes can be found in Gygax’s classic T1: The Village of Hommlet. Additionally, take a gander at Erin Smale’s The Bastard’s Blade. He doesn’t post there very often, but what he does have fits the life of St. Nicetas very nicely (and maybe some extra traffic will inspire him to write more often…)

Saintly Saturday: St. Augustine of Canterbury

Today is the Feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury. An Italian Benedictine monk, he was sent to Britain at the request of Bertha, the wife of King Ethelbert of Kent. Though pagan, the king had married into the Merovingian line of Frankish kings, which by this time had become Christian. She wanted to restore a church built during the Roman era of Britain at Canterbury and dedicate it to St. Martin of Tours.

The request was granted by the bishop of Rome, St. Gregory the Dialogist (who we Orthodox credit with the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts and who also, inspired by the chant he encountered in Constantinople, was the creator of Gregorian Chant). St. Augustine arrived at Kent in 597.

Despite his pagan beliefs, Ethelbert was very cooperative with St. Augustine. The church was restored and the Christian Gospel was preached throughout the kingdom. Eventually, through his relationship with Augustine, Ethelbert became a Christian himself (and is today recognized as a right-believing saint celebrated on Feb. 25).

According to St. Bede, Augustine was consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury, built Christ Church (the predecessor of the present cathedral at Canterbury) and the monastery of Sts. Peter and Paul (now known as St. Augustine’s Abbey which eventually fell prey to the dissolution of King Henry VIII).

St. Augustine was not entirely successful in his mission to Britain, however. Celtic Christians from Ireland had also been sending missionaries into Britain from the north (most notably from their outpost at Lindisfarne). St. Augustine came into conflict with these Celtic Christians over local customs (primarily over the date of Easter and monastic tonsure). While Augustine championed the customs of Rome, the Celtic Christians did not want to abandon their own. When he met with some of their bishops to seek unity in 603, the Celtic bishops had been instructed by a hermit to act based upon how Augustine greeted them. If he remained seated, he was to be rejected as arrogant and an unfit leader. St. Augustine remained seated. He would die two years later and it wasn’t until the Synod of Whitby in 664 that this conflict was settled in favor of the Roman customs.

You will excuse me if I find this whole story incredibly inspiring: Pagan kings, Christian missionaries, native Christians vs. imperial Christians and ancient ruins being explored and restored. What more could I want for the basis of a D&D campaign? I could even import some of the stuff I’ve done for my version of Averoigne.

I even see a way to insert some Gygaxian goodness into all of this by re-skinning one of my all-time favorite modules — T1 The Village of Hommlet:

• The Village of Hommlet is caught in-between the Roman and Celtic Christians as they argue over which set of customs to follow.
• The Church of St. Cuthbert is currently under control of the Roman faction.
• All the “old-believers” in town follow the Celtic customs.
• Jaroo Ashstaff (the Druid) is a monastic hermit that serves as the spiritual leader for all the local Celtic Christians.
• Rufus and Burne represent Frankish/Merovingian influence in the area.
• While these two Christian factions argue with each other, the menace of an ancient pagan cult is finding the time and space in which to flourish.
• The local cult is lead by Lareth the Beautiful out of the Moathouse.
• Is there a possibility that one or more of the local nobles are funding this pagan cult as a means to discredit the newly Christian king?
• Can the players discover the pagan plot, unite the Christians and save the king before it is too late?

Grrr. Now I want to play...

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.