Character Sheet for TFT

Steve Jackson Games was an important game company in my own formation as a gamer. I don't blog about that very often, because this blog is mostly about RPGs, not war games. Thus, when Steve Jackson won the rights to republish The Fantasy Trip, I really wanted to support him on the endeavor and managed to scrape together enough cash to get in on the Kickstarter.

I must admit that I am very pleased with the quality of this project; however, I do have one (minor) quibble. I don't like the character sheet. Admittedly, this is something I can say about the vast majority of RPGs. About the only character sheets I would readily use in a game are the sheets that came with B/X and those that came with early editions of Champions. Other than that, I usually have to comb the interwebs for someone who has created a different version or I have to make my own.

Thus, the reason for this post. I couldn't find a lot of options in terms of TFT Character Sheets, so I made my own. I thought I'd share:

Have fun!

On Vitriol: This Zak Smith Thing

Almost four years ago, Zak Smith and wundergeek had a very public fight about gender politics. At the time, I had been away from blogging due to the health of my child, but decided to use the situation as a launching point for a meditation On Vitriol in the digital age.

Ironically, at the end of this past December, right before Christmas, my youngest again had a surgery and has been in and out of the hospital since. Having walked away from blogging again to deal with this situation, Zak Smith is again at the middle of a storm within the OSR due to accusations launched at him by his girlfriend, Mandy Morbid. Again, I feel compelled to say something about this whole Zak Smith thing.

Let me be blunt. I do not like Zak. I find him to be an abrasive personality that I would not wish on anyone. I experienced this first hand when he leaped onto the comment section of my first meditation On Vitriol. While actively ignoring and dismissing the message of the post, he attacked the means in which I delivered that message and kinda proved the point I was trying to make in that post. While something I would be willing to do again, I cannot say that it was a pleasant experience.

Let me be even more blunt: I don’t even like his gaming material. I bought Vornheim way back when, didn’t find it particularly useful or inspiring and have never been much interested in anything he’s authored since. Thus, I wouldn’t miss much if he disappeared from the gaming community altogether and the world never saw another RPG-related publication by Zak.

Having said all that, I am still troubled by the reaction many have had to Mandy’s accusations. Cutting Zak completely off is not an answer I can endorse. Let me explain:

When I read the Facebook Post that started the purge of Zak Smith from all things gaming, I saw a bunch of broken people. Zak, Mandy and everybody else involved in this mess are broken. They were broken long before Zak ever did a thing to Mandy. It was this brokenness that led to Zak behaving in such a reprehensible way towards others. It was this brokenness that led to Mandy going along with the abuse as long as she did. This brokenness has also led to this community cutting Zak off. As James Raggi said in his announcement that LotFP won’t be publishing Zak’s stuff anymore:

[Everyone I talked to] was bummed out. They recognized this was a tragedy from top to bottom. Even the people who agreed with my course of action here, hell, even someone that thought I wasn't going far enough, recognized what we were losing, even while they said we needed to lose it. 

I recognize the brokenness for what it is because of my Christian world-view. We are all sinners. I also believe that everyone deserves an opportunity to repent and to allow God (who went to the Cross to give all of us a second chance) to transform the sinner into a saint. I still hold out hope for Zak that he can use this disaster as an opportunity to turn around his life and become a person we can all enjoy at the gaming table.

I say this, of course, as a Christian; however, we no longer live in a Christian society. As an openly practicing Christian who brings Christ to the gaming table I am acutely aware that I am in an extreme minority both within the OSR’s corner of the internet and gaming at large.

So, I have a serious question, not only for those who have cut off Zak, but for anyone who embraces secularism/atheism: How is it that abusive behavior (especially against women and children) is universally condemned?

As a Christian, I can answer this very easily. As the source of all good things in the world, God provides us with a standard that is eternal and universal. For secularism and atheism, answering this question is a much harder task.

Without the existence of God, there is no such thing as an eternal, universal standard, because all standards are generated by humans. Since humans are finite and mutable, any standard that we make is also finite and mutable. Considering that we have around 7 billion possible standards in the world (one for each person who lives on the planet), to expect any one of those standards to stand the test of time and continue to endure generation after generation is, well, folly.

Indeed, if we insist on the relativism of “my truth,” Zak’s opinion that breasts of a certain size have no value is perfectly valid. My truth may disagree with Zak’s truth, but since the source of these truths in both cases are human beings (the only real source of truth in a world without God), each is just as legitimate as the other.

Further, if we insist on organizing a society around one version of “my truth” over and against other versions of “my truth,” there is only one avenue for ensuring that one supersedes the others: force. As such, Zak’s abusive behavior is completely justified. He was imposing his version of “my truth” on everyone around him in hopes that his version would prevail.

Instead, we are all condemning Zak’s abusive behavior in the same way that humans have condemned abuse (especially against women and children) generation after generation after generation. Even if we refuse to acknowledge His existence, we are all using God’s eternal and universal standards to judge Zak’s behavior.

Due to the fact that this standard is actually God’s and not our own, I would invite everyone to consider the reality that this very same God knew who Zak would be when he went to the Cross. Despite all the vitriol and all the abuse, Christ still got up on that Cross for Zak.

For my part, I refuse to condone Zak’s lifestyle or to tolerate Zak’s abuse; however, if he ever needs someone that will listen in an attempt to turn his life around, he is always welcome.

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 10

In the 10th Chapter of his Epistle to Diognetus, Mathtetes explains:

If you also desire [to possess] this faith, you likewise shall receive first of all the knowledge of the Father. For God has loved mankind, on whose account He made the world, to whom He rendered subject all the things that are in it, to whom He gave reason and understanding, to whom alone He imparted the privilege of looking upwards to Himself, whom He formed after His own image, to whom He sent His only-begotten Son, to whom He has promised a kingdom in heaven, and will give it to those who have loved Him.

For the purposes of world-building, the salient point here is the idea that humanity is created in the image and likeness of God. We are created with the potential to be like God. As Mathetes says:

And do not wonder that a man may become an imitator of God. He can, if he is willing.

Since the Trinitarian metaphor for our analogue of the Father is Tizan (Artisan), it follows that the main way of imitating God in context of our campaign world is that of co-creator. We are given creation by God and are expected to work it with our own hands and present something newly created back to God. This is why the eucharist is bread and wine and not wheat and grapes.

Mechanically, this suggests a house rule where PCs are given some kind of crafting skills. I see two distinct choices as to how to do this practically:

• A table with various types of skills (like the Tool Proficiencies from 5e). Players would randomly roll on this table and their PC would then be skilled in that particular area. As long as the character is doing something reasonable using that skill, no roll is necessary. The character can do extraordinary things using the skill with an appropriate roll.
• Crafting skills that are class-specific. This follows the logic of Holmes allowing 1st level magic-users to craft scrolls at a cost of 100gp and a week per spell level. Each class would be able to spend time and money create a class-specific item for use on an adventure. Given the one-use property of a scroll, this should probably be universal across all classes.

Here are some ideas for this latter approach:

Cleric

• Healing salve (equivalent of a Laying on Hands)
• Incense (bonus to a single Turn roll)
• Holy Oil (bonus to AC for a single combat)

Fighter

• Liquid Courage (bonus to hit for a single combat)
• Baning Oil (bonus to damage for a single combat)
• Ablative Armor (absorb 1 hit per damage die until destroyed; has 1d6+1 hits when made)

Magic-user

• Scrolls
• Duration Component (double the duration of a spell)
• Range Component (double the range of a spell)

Thief

• Liquid Courage (bonus to hit for a single combat)
• Jury-rigged Tool (bonus to a single Thief ability roll)
• Smoke bombs (bonus to a surprise roll)

Since scrolls are 100gp for a 1st level spell and all the various bonuses are less than what one would gain from a 1st level buff spell, I would suggest that the non-scroll items would all be 1d6 x 10 gp per use and would take 1d6 days to make.

Mathetes to Diognetus: A Campaign Map

Hades as a concept is not only useful as an inspiration for the Aidisian Empire and how it functions, but it is also fodder for influencing the geography of the campaign. According to the Aeneid, the underworld had an entrance close to the volcanic Lake Avernus which is located near the city of Naples. Here is where I go really old school. The best fantasy maps are really just maps of real places that have been rescaled, turned upside down and/or relabelled.

Thus, if one takes a look at a topographical map of the area around the Lake Avernus, one finds something that looks great, is geographically realistic (because it is real) and inspires all kinds of ideas:

Therefore I am going to start here by changing the scale and re-labelling things. 

Here is another tid bit of advice from a guy who has run a lot of games over the years and has drawn a lot of maps: practically, most of a typical fantasy campaign happens within an area approximately 20-30 square miles. There is really no real need to do any kind of serious mapping beyond that. Generally, I will have abstract ideas pencilled in like, “there is a big jungle to the south” or “the Great Kingdom is to the east” or “there are barbarians to the north.” Sometimes those notes become relevant. Most of the time, they don’t. Thus, whenever I begin a campaign, I stick to a map that is approximately 20x30 miles and it generally serves me very well throughout a campaign.

One other inspiring thing about using the concept of Hades is that it offers up a lot of names that I can port into re-labelling the map. Thus, this will be a fun place to explore for anyone who is up on their Greek and Roman mythology:

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 9 Part 2

In the 9th Chapter of his Epistle to Diognetus, Mathetes understands death as a natural consequence for humanity’s sins against God. This understanding, of course, comes from Judaism which forms the foundation upon which Christianity is established. In paganism, death is better understood in context of the person of Hades/Pluto, or whatever name the God of death in a pagan pantheon goes by. I mention the name Hades because not only is that Puto’s name under the Greek pantheon, but it was used by the Romans as the name for Pluto’s kingdom of the underworld.

Rather than a consequence of human sin, death is just the way things are in paganism. Pluto, being the God who rules the realm of death, is someone who needs placated so that one’s experience under his rule is tolerable.

Interestingly, the pace of the dead in Judaism — Sheol — is very similar to the Greek and Roman conception of Hades. Both are seen as being underground and dark. In fact, when Greek speaking Jews began translating the OT into Greek beginning in the 4th century B.C., they translated the Hebrew Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) as Hades (ᾍδης).

Given the focus on the undead within the Empire of this nascent campaign world, this suggests that the Empire itself is an extension of the realm of the dead. Hades has bled out onto the surface world and has been imposing its will upon the living. This, in turn, helps define a few things and raises a few questions:

• The Greek word ᾍδης suggests a name for the Empire — the Aidisian Empire or Aidisia.
• In certain applications of old school D&D play, the Mythical Underworld plays a large role in how dungeons work. Doors for PCs are all locked while they open easily for monsters. PCs can’t see in the dark (even with ultra- or infra-vision), while monsters can. As parts of the underworld are cleared out, monsters are replaced and even geography changes. The question becomes, how much of this reality bleeds out onto the surface world within the Aidisian Empire?
• Another question is the relationship of the Mythical Underworld, the person of Hades, and the God-Emperor of Aidisia. I am most tempted to understand them as three different entities. The Mythical Underworld is a manifestation of the Natural Order being corrupted by Chaos. Hades is a demon that has tempted humanity onto the path of Chaos. The God-Emperor has embraced lichdom through the influence of the demon Hades. In order to pay homage to early versions of D&D, this demonic version of Hades can be replaced with Orcus.
• Since the Mythical Underworld has such a significant influence on the Aidisian Empire, this suggests that it is easily accessed. The adventure trope of the Temple suggested from Mathetes’ description of idols being guarded from theft suggests that the primary bleed points of the Mythical Underground into the world at large are the pagan temples. This, in turn, suggests that every pagan temple has a dungeon complex underneath it.
• Finally, there is the question of what relationship the Artanian Church has to the Mythical Underground. Historically, Christianity met secretly in house churches and catacombs. In older editions of D&D, the end game involved conquering a piece of Wilderness and making it into the demesne of a PC. Would the “end game” of this nascent campaign world be to conquer sections of the underworld to be consecrated as safe havens for Artanians to congregate?

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)

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 9 Part 1

In Chapter 9 of his Epistle to Diognetus, Mathetes lays out why the theological differences between paganism and Christianity is so important. He is brutally honest about the reality of the human condition:

[We are] borne along by unruly impulses, being drawn away [from God] by the desire of pleasure and various lusts…our wickedness [has] … clearly shown … its reward, punishment and death…

The great conundrums of the human experience have always been suffering and death. Mythologies, religions, and even political systems always try to explain why they are necessary and how to move beyond them.

In the pagan world-view, the gods are petty beings that cause all kinds of problems. When they become angry, natural disasters follow. Thus, the sacrificial system that pagans employ is based on the hope that such offerings will keep a certain deity placated as to avoid disaster. When disaster inevitably happens, it is explained away by claiming that the sacrifices made were not enough.

Note that within the Judeo-Christian religious system there is also a sacrificial system; however, rather than placating God it is a teaching tool used by God to help humanity understand that it was not

possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified

by anything other than God Himself.

Thus,

when the time had come which God had before appointed for manifesting His own kindness and power, how the one love of God, through exceeding regard for men, did not regard us with hatred, nor thrust us away, nor remember our iniquity against us, but showed great long-suffering, and bore with us, He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us…

Christ Himself became the sacrifice so as to pave a path for all of humanity to overcome suffering and death by entering into His Kingdom.

Note how vulnerable the pagan sacrificial system is to abuse by those in power. If one has the ability to either predict or manufacture disasters, this knowledge could be used to demonstrate how the gods are angered by political opponents or by certain philosophies, activities, etc. It is ripe for using in order to oppress those under the influence of the pagan power structure.

Christianity is a threat to those interested in power. It always has been and always will be. Christ empowers the individual to move beyond the influence of power. By trampling down death by death he removes fear for those who have faith in Him. Those in power have nothing to hold over or threaten a Christian. This is why the martyrs were able to endure. The Roman Empire exerted all of the power it had at Christianity and still the martyrs endured and even convinced others in the face of death to accept Christ.

Thus, in a world where the Empire is pagan and has the ability through magic to manufacture disaster and death, the pagan system of sacrifice is going to be a tool of those in power to keep and maintain that power. In turn, any Christianity/Church analogue is going to be understood to be an existential threat to those who wield that power.

Happy St. Nick's!

The Real Santa Claus

One of the wonderful things about being an Orthodox Christian parent is that at this time of year I get to declare with full confidence that Santa Claus is real. Go read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas again. While the physical description may very well conform to our modern conception of the guy in the red suit, he is referred to as St. Nick.

In the Orthodox Church, St. Nicholas is held up to be the exemplar of what it means to be a bishop. Hymns are sung about him all year long and he is one of the most popular saints in the Orthodox world.

Many of the Christmas traditions associated with Santa Claus we have today are actually in memory of real events from this great bishop's life. For example, we hang stockings above the fireplace because he was know to sneak into the night to place gold into the stockings of those in need. Specifically, he overheard a poor man lament that his daughters would be better off as slaves because he had no dowery money to marry them off. To prevent this, St. Nicholas secretly provided those dowries by placing gold in the daughters' stockings as they were drying over the fire.

So, today on this the Feast of St. Nicholas, I wanted to share a cool dad moment related to St. Nick. Yesterday, as my eldest was confirming that we were going to celebrate a liturgy for the feast, she related to me her favorite story from the life of St. Nicholas: she smiled as she said, "When he slapped Arius!"

For those who don't know, Arius was the heretic that held that Christ was created and was the impetus for the First Ecumenical Council, of which St. Nicholas was an attendee. In an attempt to snap Arius out of his delusion, the great bishop tried to slap him back into his senses.

Can you tell we play D&D in this house?

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 8

In Chapter 8 of his Epistle to Diognetus, Mathetes starts laying a theological foundation for why Christianity and paganism are so different:

For, who of men at all understood before His coming what God is? Do you accept of the vain and silly doctrines of those who are deemed trustworthy philosophers? of whom some said that fire was God, calling that God to which they themselves were by and by to come; and some water; and others some other of the elements formed by God.

Pagans mistake created matter for God. In contrast, Christians worship

God, the Lord and Fashioner of all things, who made all things, and assigned them their several positions…

This is one reason I dislike later editions of D&D. Starting with 2e, D&D took a hard turn towards a pagan world-view and hard-wired it into the mechanics of the game. Domains represent the “silly doctrines” of pagan philosophers who say that fire was God. In later editions of D&D, deities only have dominion over certain aspects of creation and as a result, their clerics can only use certain powers or spells.

Christ, through whom all things were made, has dominion over everything, including death, disease, decay and even demons. It makes absolutely no sense to me to assign Christ or a Christ-like analogue to a couple of later-edition D&D cleric domains. It demands that the Fashioner does not have dominion over what He fashioned.

To put in another way, one of the radical differences between the Christian and pagan world-views is that the Christian God created from nothing. Therefore everything owes its existence to God. No pagan would ever even consider the idea that the various pagan deities did anything other than create from some pre-existent matter.

As an example that inspired one of early D&D’s great primal villains, in the Babylonian creation myth Marduk slays the dragon Tiamat and from her body creates all of the various pieces and parts of the world. Humanity is created by squeezing the blood from the dragon’s heart. This is why humanity is flawed and evil. This, like so many other myths, impugns the various pagan deities with flaws and mistakes that reveal them to be, well, rather human.

Sin, in the Christian world-view, is introduced by humanity not God. Humanity is revealed to be utterly incapable of overcoming sin through the Law. Thus, the only way humanity is capable of overcoming sin and death is through God Himself.

With cleric spell lists inspired by the miracles of the saints, older editions of D&D make it far easier on me to build worlds based on a Christian world-view and to construct analogues like Artanianism.

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.

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 7 Part 3

Now that I have settled on the trinitarian metaphor for the Christianity/Church analogue of Artaniamism, it is time to decide on a holy symbol and therefore some of the story behind the Incarnation of the Christ figure Arta. As with Christianity, the symbol will derive from how Arta dies.

Looking at Chapter 7 of his Epistle, Mathetes challenges Diognetus:

Do you not see them exposed to wild beasts, that they may be persuaded to deny the Lord, and yet not overcome? Do you not see that the more of them are punished, the greater becomes the number of the rest? This does not seem to be the work of man: this is the power of God; these are the evidences of His manifestation.

Thus, the Artanians do not fear death by wild beast. I am willing to imagine that this is because Arta died in a similar way and yet overcame death through his resurrection.

The first idea that pops to my mind for a holy symbol would be based upon the icon of St. Iranaeus being torn apart by lions:

While this would make for a really interesting holy symbol, lions don’t really fit as nicely into the trinitarian metaphor of Artanianism as I would like.

Therefore, I did some searching on animals in Roman mythology and found this very interesting website.  Listed here are a bunch of animals reported my Roman writers from various parts of the world. Among them are several animals and monsters that made it into D&D:

• Amphisbaena
• Jaculus
• Basilisk

It is this last one that intrigues me the most, because it plays very nicely into the Artanian metaphor. Victims are turned into stone — they are turned into statues. They are turned into a form of art. How cruel would it be for victims and their families that their death visage could be put on display to be mocked and spat upon for all to see?

Basilisks as presented in D&D are probably too dangerous a beast to keep in captivity unless there were an entire class of basilisk handlers that were voluntarily (or involuntarily) blinded. Regardless, using a D&D basilisk would severely limit the ability of the Empire to conduct public executions in this particular way. I wouldn’t put it past some of the aristocratic families from having such beasts for the purpose of having private executions, however.

If one goes to heraldry and how the basilisk is depicted, it appears as what we who play D&D would call a cockatrice. Now here is a beast that would be much easier to keep and use for public executions. The spectacle of such an execution could be amplified by having the cockatrice on a chained leash that could be lengthened or shortened. Thus, a victim could be toyed with as the cockatrice is kept just out of reach long enough for the victim to suffer more and to present the best “pose” for their death.

So, the holy symbol for Artanianism is the cockatrice:

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 7 Part 2

To continue yesterday’s post, one of the factors that I want to consider when choosing which metaphor to use to express the Christianity/Church analogue for this nascent campaign world is the world itself. Thematically, I want it to run counter to the prevailing culture so as to heighten the differences between the Empire and the Church.

Thus, I am able to reduce the number of choices to these four:

• Creator of all things (King establishing a kingdom)
• Savior (keeping people alive)
• Creator (Craftsman)
• Fashioner (Artisan)

The first is the basis for the analogue I use in my Lost Colonies campaign. While I could drop this campaign idea into my existing campaign world, I went into this project hoping to have something that was separate from everything I have done before. Therefore, despite the confrontational title of “King of All” in contrast to the Empire’s God-King, I am going to pass on this option.

I am really tempted to use the second, because it contrasts beautifully with the undead factor that exists within the Empire, but it poses the most difficult concept to tease out in terms of a trinitarian metaphor. I am going to pass on this as well.

The last two are very similar, and I must admit I was inclined to use them primarily because neither term is Scriptural — it allows me to push the envelope of this whole pattern in a new direction. They both contrast with the Empire in the same way that Savior does, but in a more subtle way. While the Empire fashions idols, golems, constructs and undead, the Trinitarian God of the Christian/Church analogue fashions everything.

Artisan is the term I am finding the easiest to fit into the Athanasian pattern of Source/Embodiment/Participation:

Artisan = Source
Art = Embodiment
Beauty = Participation

This also fits nicely within Orthodox Theology which holds that beauty is a place where we can encounter the divine.

Since the Empire is roughly based on Rome, I am inclined to have a Latin-esque feel to naming things. Romanian is my default source for Latin-sounding names because, of all the Romance languages, it is the closest to Latin. Indeed, it could be argued that Romanian is modern Latin.

Artisan in Romanian is Artizan, which could be truncated to Tizan. Art is Arta, where the last ‘a’ is supposed to have a mark over it indicating the pronunciation of ‘uh.’ Ironically, if an American were asked to pronounce ‘Arta’ that’s probably how they’d pronounce it anyway. Finally, the word Beauty is Frumusete, which is a bit complicated for my taste. If one goes with the word Beautiful, however, the Romanian is Frumos, which sounds about right.

Thus, the trinitarian structure of the analogue is this:

Tizan = Source
Arta = Embodiment
Frumos = Participation

Since the name of Christianity comes from the Second Person of the Trinity, the name of the analogue will be Artanianism and members will be called Artanians.

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 7 Part 1

In the 7th Chapter of his epistle to Diognetus, Mathetes explains that the basis for Christians behaving in such a different manner than the rest of society is not to be found in any philosophy or other human-derived source. Rather, the source of all things Christian is God.

Of import for the nascent campaign world is all the various words to attributes to God (with the interesting onesin italics):

God Himself, who is almighty [παντοκράτωρ], the Creator of all things [παντοκτίστης], and invisible, has sent from heaven, and placed among men, [Him who is] the truth, and the holy and incomprehensible Word, and has firmly established Him in their hearts.

As a king sends his son, who is also a king, so sent He Him; as God He sent Him; as to men He sent Him; as a Saviour He sent Him, and as seeking to persuade, not to compel us

the very Creator [τεχνίτην] and Fashioner [δημιουργὸν] of all things

The reason these words are important is due to the way in which I create the Christianity/Church analogue for fantasy campaigns. I have noted this before, but St. Athansius the Great gives me a template with which to take a metaphor and use it to come up with an alternate description of the Trinity that stays true to the biblical understanding of the Trinity:

Father = source of the metaphor
Son = the embodiment of the metaphor
Holy Spirit = the means humanity participates in the metaphor

Thus, I am able to take the idea of God as King and Giver of the Law in order to produce the following persons of the Trinity for my Lost Colonies Campaign world:

Nomos = Law
Isten = King or Crown
Thikeosyni = Citizenship or Righteousness

Here is the list of words that are available from Mathetes to build a trinitarian analogue for this nascent campaign world:

• Almighty [παντοκράτωρ] where the Greek (κράτος) implies strength
• Creator of all things [παντοκτίστης] where the Greek (κτίζω) implies a king or ruler establishing a city or a kingdom
• Truth where the OT understanding implies something firm, solid, valid and binding
• Word where the Greek (λόγος) implies the primary verb for creation attributed to God in the OT ποιέω, which means Author and is the root for the word Poet
• King which is not explicit in the text, but is implied (especially with the use of παντοκτίστης)
• Savior where the Greek (σᾠζω) implies salvation, keeping alive, benefitting through cures and good health and the preservation of the inner being
• Creator [τεχνίτην] where the greek means Craftsmen and is the root of the English word Technician and interestingly is not attributed to God in Scripture.
• Fashioner [δημιουργὸν] where the Greek means one who pursues public affairs, builder or artisan. Like τεχνίτην this is never attributed to God in Scripture.

Now, all I have to do is choose...

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 6

This quote from the 6th Chapter of the Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus demonstrates why I believe a Christian world-view works so well in the context of D&D:

what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world…The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and [loves also] the members; Christians likewise love those that hate them. The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet preserves that very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet they are the preservers of the world.

Take a look at this prayer from the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom:

Enable us to offer You gifts and spiritual sacrifices for our own sins and the failings of Your people. Deem us worthy to find grace in Your sight, that our sacrifice may be well pleasing to You, and that the good Spirit of Your grace may rest upon us and upon these gifts presented and upon all Your people.

Note that the phrase “all Your people” does not say “all Christians.” It is intended to include everyone:

Again we offer You this spiritual worship for the whole world, for the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, and for those living pure and reverent lives. For civil authorities and our armed forces, grant that they may govern in peace, Lord, so that in their tranquility we, too, may live calm and serene lives, in all piety and virtue. And remember those whom each one of us has in mind…Remember, Lord, this city in which we live, and every city and land, and the faithful who live in them. Remember, Lord, those who travel by land, sea, and air; the sick; the suffering; the captives; and their salvation. Remember those who bear fruit and do good works in Your holy churches and those who are mindful of the poor, and upon us all send forth Your mercies.

If one goes to the Anaphora of the Liturgy of St. Basil, this list is even longer and more specific.

In other words, the Divine Liturgy is not done just for the people in the pews. It is offered up for the entire world. From the perspective of spiritual warfare, Orthodox Christians (and, in particular, monastics) are front line fighters taking on the demons where they live and trying to make the world a better place through asking God to have mercy and forgive all those that we bring to mind — even those who hate us and hate God.

In context of D&D, especially when one considers such tropetastic, classic modules as B2: Keep on the Borderlands, this life style of going out to where demons reside (i.e. Chaotic monsters) and to do those things that the rest of Civilization isn’t willing to do to make Civilization a safer place is exactly what the D&D adventurer is actually doing.

The typical D&D character doesn’t quite fit into the social norms of civilized society, and may even be despised. Yet, because they are going out into the lairs of various monsters, they are keeping society safe despite themselves.

Thus, in this nascent campaign world, when charges are leveled against the Christianity/Church analogue those charges are going to be false. The Church is out to help society, to improve the lives of everyday people. They will be willing to risk their lives to do so. Thus, despite all of the risks, all of those Christians from all the various walks of life within the empire are going continue to strive in their own ways to make the world a better place.

Gosnell as Horror

Today, I am going to take a break from my series on the Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus to write about one of the better American movies I have seen in a long time. Recently, I went to see Gosnell. The movie follows the detectives and prosecutors involved in the arrest and trial of one of America’s most prolific serial killers; however, let’s be upfront. Despite the protestations of several of its characters and the movie’s focus on the trial and its proceedings, Gosnell is a about abortion.

This is subtly made clear by the movie’s main character, detective James Wood. In the opening scenes he is shown three times telling people in his life, “As I see it, you have two choices…” We are never told what those two choices are; however, in context of the movie the two choices are meant to be: do you side with Gosnell or not? do you side with a legal system the enables Gosnell or not? do you side with the institutions that made Gosnell possible or not?

The purpose of this post, however, is not to go on some political screed about how awful abortion is (although, I will admit that seeing my eldest daughter dance inside the womb at 11 weeks in response to the laughter of my wife has had a major impact on my opinion on the matter). Rather, it is to meditate on how Gosnell is one of the best horror experiences I have ever had in the movie theater and how that repeated statement by detective James Wood is instrumental in making Gosnell into the masterful, if unconventional, horror movie that it is.

As I have stated in the past, I am not a huge horror movie fan. I find most of it to be excruciatingly boring. For the purposes of this post, I will focus on the following reasons:

1. I am rarely actually horrified by what I see on screen.
2. The graphic violence shoved down my throat always pales in comparison to what my own imagination had been envisioning up until the point that the fake blood and guts started flowing.

Gosnell, on the other hand, not only succeeds in horrifying its audience, but it also trusts in the audience’s own imagination.

By framing the movie with the implied moral choice that results in Gosnell, the movie effectively implicates its audience in what is happening on screen. The audience, in part, is responsible for what happened inside Gosnell’s house of horrors. Thus, the movie effectively holds up a mirror to its audience and makes it squirm with horror at what it sees.

Gosnell also staunchly refuses to show virtually anything. Gosnell collected the feet of his victims in bottles of formaldehyde, but this is as graphic as anything shown on screen. When detective Wood finds these bottles while investigating the inside of Gosnell’s “clinic,” an abortion takes place — off screen. All we see is the blood on Gosnell’s surgical gloves. Left alone to our own imagination, the horror of what went on inside that building is amplified well beyond anything that special effects artists or CGI could ever accomplish.

This is how I run horror in my campaigns. I allow my players to have the freedom to make moral choices, to see the consequences of those choices and to leave most of the graphic stuff up to their own imaginations.

As I have said on more than one occasion, if you want to see a monster look in the mirror. Gosnell is an experience that makes you do exactly that.

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 5 Part 2

In the 5th Chapter of his Epistle to Diognetus, Mathetes attempts to describe a typical Christian:

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly paradoxical method of life.

In other words, there is no real way to classify a Christian by normal, societal means. They defy the normal stratification of human society. To quote St. Paul:

Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scyth′ian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all. — Colossians 3:11

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. — Galatians 3:28

For those interested in power, this is a very dangerous idea. Power is gained and maintained by pitting artificially created groups against each other.

In context of an FRPG, this suggests that Christians can be found in all walks of life, including those who walk in such circles as the imperial family. Thus, one of the first questions that I asked at the beginning of this series (Is Diognetus sympathetic to Christianity?) seems to be answered here in the affirmative.

Given the horror show I spun out of the phrase that Christians “do not cast away their fetuses,” Diognetus now appears as someone truly horrified by what he has witnessed walking through the upper echelons of society and wishes to find out more of Christianity to see if it is a more agreeable way of seeing and living in the world.

This also means that Christian NPCs can be sprinkled everywhere in the campaign, possible creating a very interesting espionage feel to the background noise of a campaign. Should PCs be Christian, they’d be constantly tested to see if they could be trusted and then secretly allowed in to various parts of society. If the PCs aren’t Christian, then they could possibly be constantly be spied upon.

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 5 Part 1

In the 5th Chapter of his Epistle to Diognetus, Mathetes delineates how Christians are different in manner from other citizens of the Empire. In one of his more intriguing statements, he notes:

They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring.

The translation here is more poetic and practical than literal — “destroy their offspring” literally means “cast away fetuses.” I always find it fascinating how little human behavior changes over time. The ways in which modern Americans behave in a similar fashion to pagan Rome and the ways in which Christians criticize such behavior in both contexts never ceases to amaze me.

In context of an FRPG this little phrase opens the door to a horror element in the campaign world that suggests one of my favorite intelligent undead. In the MMI, ghouls are described as “undead” with quotes:

Ghouls are “undead,” once human creatures which feed on human and other corpses…their change from human to ghoul has deranged and destroyed their minds…

Ghasts are described:

These creatures are so like ghouls as to be completely indistinguishable from them…however…they exude a carrion stench in a 10’ radius which causes retching and nausea unless a saving throw versus poison is made.

In addition, while the stat block of ghouls indicate they have low intelligence, the ghast stat block indicates that they are very intelligent.

Imagine, for a moment, that the reason the Empire so blithely “casts away fetuses” is that not only are they considered delicacies by the aristocracy, but are an important rite of passage for the upper classes. Regular consumption of dead human flesh turns the aristocracy into “undead.” This process destroys the minds of the weak, thus culling from the aristocratic class members who cannot stoop to such debauchery.

This all suggests that the elders within aristocratic houses are all ghasts and regularly hold fetes where human fetuses are the center piece of the main course. Since ghasts exude a rancid stench of such potency as to require a saving throw, perfume would be in very high demand among the upper echelons of the imperial elite.

In fact, I could well imagine an entire adventure centered around the theft of a shipment of perfume to a ghast just ahead of having to make a public appearance…

This all implies the delicious irony that PCs who throw their lot in with one of the aristocratic houses will be working for a baby-consuming ghast. It would be very interesting to see player’s reactions when they realize the truth.

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 4 Part 3

In yesterday’s post, I felt rather unsatisfied with my musings about the ways that solar cycles affect the magics of the pagan priests of the nascent campaign world that is emerging from my study of the Epistleof Mathetes to Diognetus. As a consequence, I did a bit of research about the religious cults of Rome prior to Christianity and found some very interesting tidbits.

The patron god of Rome was Mars, who was originally an agricultural deity. It wasn’t until Rome began to expand its territory by force that Mars morphed into a god of war. By the time of Christ, however, Mars had largely been supplanted by the Emperor Cult. This reinforces my instinct to use the anti-cleric as one of the pagan priest classes. Since war is a central theme within the Mars/Emperor Cult, it seems appropriate that their priests should be able to fight. The anti-cleric fits this profile nicely and also backs up the idea of an undead slave economy where priests of the Emperor Cult are called on to be the main controllers of the undead slave population.

One of the oldest cults imported by the Romans from other cultures was that of Cybele. Originally a goddess from Asia Minor, Cybele became popular during the Second Punic War when Rome narrowly defeated Carthage. While Cybele was an earth-mother goddess, she was also seen as a protector in times of war. Of interest to my current project, priests of the Cybelean Cult were eunuchs. Thus, my instinct for having low born magic-users be both male and castrated was more spot on than I thought.

This is further reinforced by the demographics of one of the most popular mystery cults in Rome, Mithraism. Cultists were exclusively male and almost universally low born. What really interests me about Mithraism, however, has to do with yesterday’s post.

In its art. the cult almost always depicted Mithras sacrificing a bull surrounded by various creatures. These were most often a dog, a scorpion and a serpent. All of these animals correspond to constellations. We don’t know a lot about the practices of the mystery cults, but there is some interesting scholarly work that hypothesizes that the emphasis on animals corresponding to constellations indicates that the cult paid attention to how the position of the sun related to each of these constellations through the course of the year.

In other words, the bonus spell available to pagan priests could be determined by which of the constellations is currently closest to the sun. I also plan to include a period of the year in which the sun is roughly equidistant from these constellations and, therefore, no bonus spells are available.

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 4 Part 2

In the 4th Chapter of his Epistle to Diognetus, Mathetes talks about the various observances of the Jews. Among them he lists the facts that they use a lunar calendar:

And as to their observing months and days, as if waiting upon the stars and the moon, and their distributing, according to their own tendencies, the appointments of God, and the vicissitudes of the seasons, some for festivities and others for mourning…

In Jewish practice (at the time of Mathetes and Diognetus), the day begins at sunset when three stars are visible in the sky.

As an aside, one of the most aesthetically pleasing games I have ever played is Dragon Pass, Avalon Hill’s reprint of Chaosium’s White Bear & Red Moon. I own a digital copy just for the sake of mining it for ideas. I have always far more enjoyed reading the background text and looking at units and maps than I ever did actually playing the game. One factor that always intrigued me was the idea that the Lunar Empire had troops whose Combat Factor was reliant on the phase of the Red Moon.

Since the religious observances of the Jews noted by Mathetes are reliant upon a lunar calendar, as opposed to the solar calendar used by the Empire, I am sore tempted to add some mechanics that suggest the arcane magic ebbs and flows according to various astrological bodies. I am further tempted to have these mechanics differ between the Vrayosi, whose magic is affected by the moon, and the arcane casters of the Empire, whose magic would be affected by the sun.

The mechanic I am most inclined to use is the concept of a bonus spell. In favorable times, the caster gets a bonus spell. If I am feeling ambitious, this spell may even be a specific spell associated with the time of the year/month. During unfavorable times, those bonus spells just aren’t there.

There are, however, other spell mechanics which might prove interesting, such as duration, range, damage, area, etc. One could go to the Metamagic Feats of 3e for ideas and inspiration.

I am also tempted to have all Vrayosi characters (dwarves, elves and halflings) be affected by the phases of the moon in one or more of the following areas:

• Saving Throws
• AC
• To Hit Rolls
• Damage Rolls
• Surprise Rolls

At full moon they gain the equivalent of a +2. At new moon they are -2. During the 1d4+1 days prior and after that bonus/penalty is decreased by 1. I must admit that I would probably make players roll on a random table to see which effects take place.

At this point, I am thinking that the Empire version of arcane magic gets the bonus spell (at sunrise? noon? sunset?), the Vrayosi version of arcane magic gets a random metamagic feat and all Vrayosi get a bonus/penalty.

Mathetes to Diognetus Chapter 4 Part 1

In Chapter 4 of his Epistle to Diognetus, Mathetes continues to demonstrate practices of the Jews that differentiate them from Christians. One of the first that he mentions is their “boasting about circumcision.” At one point, Mathetes equates circumcision with the “lessening of the flesh.” This is important, because it gives me freedom to radically change the ritual practice of circumcision in a fantasy setting as long as it can be described as a “lessing of the flesh.”

At first blush, ritual scarring comes to mind. While this has a visceral quality to it, the minimalist in me is begging to take this idea in a completely different direction. I am already inclined to re-skin elves as Jews since they can use arcane magic in a way humans can’t (wearing armor) and are alien enough mechanically and physically to fill the role. The problem is that the whole arcane thing was meant to describe the priest-class, not the people as a whole. This is where my minimalism kicks in.

Let me first explain what I mean by minimalism: using the rules as is with as little mechanical fiddling as possible in order to emulate as many different campaign world concepts as possible. Since my default rule-set is B/X, this means finding roles within the campaign world that can be used to re-skin the extant classes of cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, halfling, magic-user and thief. In this case, I believe I have a means if re-skinning all of the race-as-classes.

In the older editions of D&D, the three main demi-human races are all significantly shorter than humans. In B/X Dwarves average 4 feet, elves 5 to 5.5 feet and halflings only 3 feet. This can fit very nicely under the umbrella of “lessening of the flesh” especially if there were a religious ritual performed on an eight-day old child that would guarantee that it would grow up to be a dwarf, elf or halfling.

In Greek, the phrase “lessing of the flesh” can be roughly translated as μείωση της σάρκας which can be truncated to “meostarkas,” which will refer to the ritual which begins a baby’s journey to become a race-as-class.

Thus, I am not only re-skinning elves as Jews, but dwarves and halflings as well. Elves get to play the role of the priestly class. Dwarves get to be soldiers. Halflings get to be archers. All of the various racial abilities are no longer environmental evolutions, but rather gifts from God for His chosen people.

Since I am already skipping down the road of using Greek to find cool fantasy names for circumcision, I might as well do the same for naming the Jews as a whole and its three “tribes.”

• Hebrew in Greek is Εβραίος. Transliterated Evrayos, this can be contracted to Vrayos; however, for reasons you will see below, I am going to go with Vrayosi.
• Levite in Greek is λεβίτη. This can be transliterated as Leviti, but I am sore tempted to simply invert in ‘l’ and the ‘e’ to come up with Elviti, which conveniently sounds a lot like “elf.”
• Soldier in Greek is στρατιώτης. Transliterated this is Stratiotis, which I will just contract to “Strati.”
• Archer in Greek is τοξότης. This can be transliterated as “toxotis.” To rhyme it with “Vrayosi,” “Elviti,” and “Strati” this can be slightly contracted to Toxoti.

Thus, all demi-humans are called Vrayosi. Under this general term are three different tribes: the Elviti (elves), the Strati (Dwarves), and the Toxoti (Halflings).

Note: should a Vrayosi fail to go through the ritual of meostarkas, they will grow up to be human.