Mare Nostrum

All Quiet

2011-08-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

I have really not been updating very often. Well, what happened is my somewhat regular online Castles & Crusades game using Fantasy Grounds II came to an end. It lasted a few years and and was a lot of fun. I guess I did not realize how important it was to keeping up my interest.

Without my regular gaming fix I also stopped writing, painting and planning to run my own Campaign which is the entire point of this website.

Since I don't want to say goodbye to the gaming, I had better come up with something. First up, I registered today for the OSRCON. It is right here in Toronto where I live so there is really no excuse not to go to it and meet other gamers with similar interests.

Maybe I will review some games. My gaming hiatus has not stopped my visits to the local gaming store - just made them less frequent.

Palace of the SIlver Princess

2011-03-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

What was my favourite Old School published adventure?

And it would be a published adventure. I hold no special place for the numerous adventures I or my friends wrote in the 1980’s. Most of our amateur efforts were terrible.

For me it is B3: Palace of the Silver Princess. Certainly, Palace of the Silver Princess is not on most gamers Top Ten Lists. But for me – given the circumstances it was perfect. I was not brought into the hobby by other gamers. It was a gift at Christmas and my friends and I were not sure what to make of it. The longest rules we had mastered were those in Diplomacy.

I received B2: The Caves of Chaos with the game but really it is an intermediate level adventure if you do not understand the gaming concepts. So we stumbled around until I found B3 in a game store in the big city.

Here was a programmed adventure to start.

We played through the programmed part in about 30 minutes and finally grasped the Role-playing concept. A 15 year campaign sprung out of the three brave adventurers who entered the Palace of the Silver Princess (2 survived the first adventure).

So when I was looking to do my first Fantasy Grounds II conversion I dusted off the old Green Cover module. I downloaded the orange cover version of Palace of the Silver Princess from the WOTC website a few years ago and was stunned with how awful it was but...

I did like the story behind the orange cover B3 a lot more. It never made sense in the green cover version that the Palace was in such neglect if the disaster has just struck. The Orange cover version made a lot more sense. So I took the plot from the original and the map and stocking mostly from the re-work.

No Ubue though.

On Hiatus

2011-03-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

With some mixed feelings I am back from hiatus. For a time Mare Nostrum became a place to review whatever I was reading while my Game World design was put on hold. But now that my regular Fantasy Grounds II group has gone on hiatus, I think it is time to dust off the old website.

In the interim I have enjoyed reviewing fiction and some people have actually told me it was of interest to them. So I am going to keep doing it – but on a completely different site.

On the Shelf resides at http://novelsontheshelf.blogspot.com/

I guess I felt that the two pursuits were just two different to appear on the same blog.

Hence, the old look of Mare Nostrum is back.

Midnight Riot / Moon over Soho

2011-03-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

Midnight Riot

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch is the first book in a new urban fantasy series set in present day London, England. The first book was released as Rivers of London in the UK but as Midnight Riot in North America. I became aware of the book through a review on a Scottish site.
The first book in the series was a big hit with me and I immediately ordered the just releases second book Moon over Soho and read through it.

The central character is Police Constable Peter Grant stationed in London. He dreams of being a Detective but lacks the spark of intelligence to make the grade. He has just found out that he will be assigned to a Paper pushing department when a mystery falls into his lap.

What allows him to be transferred to a special magic squad is his encounter with an eye-witness and a crime scene who happens to be a ghost. What follows is both a murder mystery with some magic elements and a careful discovery of magic by Peter Grant as he is trained by the METs only practicing magic using Inspector.

The murder mystery reminded me slightly of one of my favorites, Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers. The magic training is somewhat reminiscent of Harry Potter – although much more mature. The setting in gritty London is also a great departure from too many dark fantasy novels set in the Southern US.

5 Classic - This book was a definite hit with me and deserves my highest recommendation. Well written and an engaging storyline. Without giving too much away I would say that the murder mystery veers slightly into elements of horror.

Moon over Soho

Immediately after reading a great new book I was lucky enough to be able to order the follow-up novel. Moon over Soho continues the career of London Constable and Sorcerer’s apprentice Peter Grant. This novel centers the story more squarely on Grant and the cast of other characters moves into the background. I am not sure this is the right move as I enjoyed this work less than the debut novel.

Moon over Soho involves Grant in a series of murders of Jazz musicians. The author displays knowledge of the London Jazz scene which I frankly have no idea about. But it was engaging and interesting to learn these details. We meet more of Grant’s family and less of his workplace.

4 Keeper - Another hit from Ben Aaronovitch, and one I highly recommend. Perhaps not as powerful as the debut novel but then the debut had the advantage of springing the magic upon the unsuspecting reader.

Bitten

2011-02-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

I have seen Bitten on the shelf for a number of years. First the title convinced me it was a vampire novel, and I am not a fan of vampires. Then I read the back and realized it was a werewolf novel, and I am not a fan of werewolf novels. More precisely I am not a big fan of novels where the protagonist is an amoral killer who hunts humans.

But since I have recently enjoyed the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn and always liked the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, I decided to give Bitten, written by Kelley Armstrong a chance. It has the added bonus of being written by a Canadian and set at least partially in Toronto.

Well that was a mistake.

Now perhaps I am the wrong person to review this book since I really don’t care for this type of novel. I like urban fantasy but not the ones with a significant amount of romance or werewolves. But the idea here is that I review how I feel about the books I am reading so here it goes. So from a distance I can say that Bitten is well written. I just did not like the subject matter. For me that ruined the experience and I struggled to finish the novel once I was ¾ of the way into it.

The protagonist, Elena Michaels, the world’s only female werewolf is somewhat likeable. But she has a disturbing lack of morals. She casually mentions killing innocent humans while in wolf form and seems to shrug her shoulders at it considering humans another species. I also really did not care for her over the top bad-boy werewolf lover Clay.

2 For me this novel is going into the return bin. I could see the competence of the writer but did not enjoy the story. Perhaps this author with another series could get my interest.

Dying Bites

2011-02-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

Book One of The Bloodhound Files is the first novel in a new series by D.D. Barant. The Boodhound Files is another Urban Fantasy series with a hard-boiled female protagonist. The twist here is that rather than being a human fighting the supernatural in the real world – Jace Valchek is an FBI profiler pulled from our world by supernatural means to an alternate earth. This allows the author the benefit of not having to explain the hidden supernatural.

In this alternate dimension the Pires (vampires) and Weres came out in the Middle Ages and became the majority after a slightly different World War II. The world is not much greatly altered which I felt was a weak point of the novel. Short mention is made of the working conditions where your co-workers are weres or vampires. It is notes that most building do not have windows and that the vampires work during the night. But I felt Jace fit in too quickly to a very different kind of world.

The Vampire head of the NSA has pulled Jace into this supernatural dimension because they are dealing with a serial killer who happens to be human. The serial killer is killing and broadcasting the deaths of weres and vampires. Despite the plight of the humans in this dimension Jace sees fit to work with the vampires to capture her fellow human. There is justification for this but I thought it became weaker as the novel goes on and Jace becomes more and more aware of the depths of evil she is working with.

The writing style is first person and fairly light on development. It is an action novel more than anything else. I did not learn much of what Jace thought of this world and I felt that weakened the novel. Jace learns to live with Vampires some of whom have had direct involvement in crimes against humanity that make are on the scale of WWII Nazis.

3 Weak

Still I did enjoy reading the novel so I am not giving it a failing grade. Perhaps the series will improve with time. The first of the Dresden Files I felt was also weak and now it is a favorite series for me. The last few chapters and the big reveal did much to rescue this novel.

Earth Abides

2011-01-30T09:01:00.000-08:00

Earth Abides is an award winning (the 1st International Fantasy Award winner) post-apocalyptic novel written in 1949. The date of the novel jumps out at you. Today we have post-apocalyptic novels with rampant zombies – but in 1949 it was a simple, virulent plague that destroys mankind.

This novel was pushed to me by Amazon after I purchased Dying to Live. There was a lengthy preview of the book online allowing me to read several hundred pages before buying it. The start of the book is indeed very good and I eagerly awaited its arrival. Unfortunately, once the opening third of the book is complete it slides downhill and falls off into a boring read with disappointing results for me.

The novel follows the lead character Ish who is in the mountains working on his Geography thesis when the world is struck by a deadly plague. The rapid spread of the disease to even remote areas is a little hard to believe but I was willing to hand-wave it away. Once Ish descends from the mountains (where a rattlesnake bite may have given him immunity to the plague) he encounters almost no people. The plague has reduced the US population to the occasional lone or paired survivor. Unimaginably the electricity and water continue to function for a year in the case of the power and decades in the case of the water. Something I felt was very hard to believe.

The first third of the book Ish is a dispassionate observer of the world and how it gets on without humans. He travels the US in a station wagon with his dog and observes. The author writes in almost a non-fiction mode as Ish observes and theorizes about the landscape. Interspaced with brief paragraphs that describe how various species get along without humans about. In all his travels about the US, Ish meets only seven people. In all of New York city he meets one couple. Mankind has truly been reduced to a level at which survival hangs by a thread.

Then Ish meets a woman and decides to live and start a family. Another traveller arrives with some more people bringing the population to seven. For some reason they decide to live in houses in Ish’s old San Francisco neighbourhood. At first Ish tries to maintain civilization and teach the children being born but inexplicably they lapse.

From the moment Ish stopped being an observer and began starting the tribe I lost interest and the book became a chore to read through. There are also chapters of “Fast Years” where the author rushes through 20 years in a chapter. I found I lost interest at this stage.

(SPOILER)

Not wanting to spoil too much, but the final scene finds an ancient Ish handing his surveyors’ hammer (the symbol of leadership of the tribe) to a Great-Grandson who will lead the tribe as he dies. This Great-grandson lives outside, hunts with a bow and arrow and is dressed in lion skins. The passage of time is about 60-70 years since the apocalypse. In this brief period of time mankind has plummeted 5,000 years in advancement. I really did not care for this conclusion. In my mind this was a ridiculous backward community. The knowledge of full libraries and the possibility of technology is all around them but they would rather go out and play. I think the author had been reading a little too much into the noble savage. Simple solutions to maintain electricity were all about them but they slid into savagery.

(2) BIN
This book was a real disappointment for me. It started so well but then it was a struggle to finish. Probably my difficulty with struggling through it was compounded by my dislike for the direction the characters went. It is an interesting bit of literary history when you consider it was written in 1949. In some ways the book is an early attempt of “Life After People”, through the authors use of boom and bust populations of local wildlife unfettered by human involvement.

Dying to Live

2011-01-05T19:25:00.000-08:00

Dying to Live is another entry into the Zombie Apocalypse genre. Kim Paffenroth’s novel concerns a zombie outbreak where the humans have almost been exterminated by the walking dead. The narrator Jonah is unaware of what caused the outbreak a simple bite from a zombie is usually fatal with the victim soon rising as a zombie.

In the first short act we follow Jonah as he wanders alone in this new world carefully avoiding zombies. This soon changes in the second act as he is rescued by a community of humans barricaded in a museum. The book changes to detail the community and I felt this was the weakest part of the book. There seems to be a pointless initiation that Jonah goes through. In the final act the human antagonists suggested by the back cover blurb are encountered. This last act seems a little rushed.

I enjoyed the authors writing style but I would have much preferred that the story stay with Jonah surviving alone in the wilderness. The other members of the community on the Museum grounds really did not interest me.

The tone is strikingly less grim (until the final act) then another book of the genre I just read – Pariah. Of the two I would have to recommend Pariah but Dying to Live is still a worthwhile read.

(3) Weak – worth reading but I was not entirely satisfied.

Inhuman Resources

2011-01-01T19:58:00.000-08:00

Over the holidays I read the third book in the OSI Series by Jes Battis. I have read and enjoyed the first two in the series and I bought the 3rd in the series for my Kobo (e-reader supported by Indigo that uses Adobe e-reader software).

Tess Corday, supernatural investigator for the Vancouver office of the OSI is back investigating a murder. This time the victim is a prominent necromancer and the investigation leads Tess into the world of her secret Necromancer boyfriend, Lucian Agrado. Tess spends a few chapters in the Hidden City of the Necromancers. I did not feel it really added much to what was essentially a detective novel with the investigation of a murder.

Some characters from earlier novels make appearances and are central to the plot so I should have re-read the previous books first but the book manages to stand on its own. The highpoints are Tess’s interactions with her extended family. There is a plot in the background involving Tess’s parentage but the central plot is confined to this one book.

Overall another winner from the author and I enjoyed reading about Tess again. Not the strongest entry in the series (I think the debut is the best) but a good sequel. The series does not appear tired at all. Characters are growing, changing and new plots are revealed.

(4) Keeper - Recommended for fans of the series, urban fantasy fans of series like the Dresden Files or Anita Blake.

Damage Time

2010-12-30T09:44:00.000-08:00

Damage Time by Colin Harvey is a Science Fiction novel set in New York City in 2050. The novel opens with an old police officer sitting in a bar watching a hockey game between the Rangers and Islanders. The "Damage Time" of the title is a sort of random injury time that has been added on at the end of hockey games. A little hard to believe but who knows with the types currently running hockey. Of course the deeper meaning involves what becomes of the central character.

The novel built a lot of immediate good will with me opening with a hockey game and a fairly likeable main character. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. The world of 2050 is a grim place, much of the population of the planet and the US died due to disease (called the dieback). The energy crisis peaked and the US has become a broken shell of its former self. The US is dependent on foreign powers, broken up and in debt. It was not entirely clear to me if the separate cities are all somewhat independent. Society has changed; people work late into their lives well past 65. In New York people are paid in a budget of calories that licenses how much they can consume. Group marriages are common to share resources. Central to the plot is the copying or removing (ripping) of memories from willing and unwilling people. Memories are sold to people illegally on the internet.

The story involves a NY Police officer, Detective Pete Shah who is an expert and finding and deciphering memories. Shah spends the novel tracking a criminal family responsible for ripping memories from victims and leaving them vegetables. Shah begins as a fairly likeable older police officer (I think he is over 65) is himself ripped and becomes a fairly dispassionate shell of a man.
I was not comfortable with the volume of violence in the novel. Entire families are raped and murdered. It seemed excessive and was really unpleasant. Almost every other chapter are short memories from other people that Detective Shah is experiencing. I assumed that all were related to the plot but some never seemed to pan out.

In all I found the book readable if somewhat hard to believe. The drastic changes in society depicted are hard to imagine in just 40 years. I did not like the main character much once he is transformed but I did appreciate that he was out of the ordinary.

2 BIN
I just did not like the novel enough to recommend it. It is an interesting society study but I was wowed by the story.

Skulduggery Pleasant

2010-12-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

I came across Skulduggery Pleasant while reading a Blog Review of the latest book in the series and I was intrigued enough to check it out. Since the books only seem to come in large (expensive) format I bought a used copy on Amazon (blog's do promote sales).

I had never come across the series before. Apparently, because it is targeted at the young adult market and is in the 9-12 year old section of my regular bookstore. After reading this book I did go to check out the series and it seems there are now five books out in the series and it has been optioned for a movie. The book is very much in the Harry Potter style of books that have come out since the more famous Series hit the bookshelves.

The writer’s style is light and there is not a lot of character development. Most of the book concerns only Skulduggery interacting with Valkyrie Cain a 12 year old girl who becomes his side-kick. Skulduggery is a walking, talking skeleton animated by a sorcerer killed in an old (Medieval ?) war with the big evil sorcerer of the world. He was a leader of the good side in the war but is not entirely trusted so he works as a semi-independent detective.

At this point I should make a note about the names in the book. In the supernatural world posited by the book knowing someone’s name gives you power over them - so those in this world choose a third name to protect their true name. The name should be one suggested by your nature. It gives a good reason for all of the odd names of the characters’ in the novel (China Sorrows, Nefarian Serpine and Ghastly Bespoke).

The book moves along quickly, and is quite thin so there is little opportunity for a lot of sub-plots. Valkyrie meets Skulduggery and they have to save the world - pretty straight forward. Skulduggery is a witty skeleton that wise cracks constantly even in the most difficult situations. Valkyrie is a very, mature 12 year old girl who seems inordinately level-headed and brave for her age. The story was entertaining but not something that really held my attention to the pages.

The genre is light, urban fantasy with a barely perceptible nod to noir detective fiction.

(3) Weak
Best read by the target audience. Adults will - I think - find it a little too thin for their interests.

Embers

2010-12-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

This week features another debut novel.

Embers is the debut novel of author Laura Bickle. The novel is one of Dark Fantasy set in Detroit on the lead up to Devil's Night. As someone who lived in the Windsor-Detroit area in the '80s, a supernatural thriller with Devil's Night as the climax was certainly interesting to me.

Detroit is the setting as the protagonist, Anya, is an investigator for the Detroit Fire Department. The city actually does not put in much of an appearance - the novel could really have been set anywhere. a few landmarks are mentioned but only one is central to the plot.

Anya is a lantern, a medium able to attract and gobble up spirits. The world is the everyday world of today accept for characters like Anya or her friend Katie who can see spirits and do magic. Anya also has a gift from her dead mother - a flame salamander that resides in a torque around her neck but can emerge to protect her against magic. Sparky is visible only to Anya, spirits and animals but is a small firedrake. He appears to have the intelligence of a child and has a mischievous character.

The mystery involves a series of deadly arsons leading up to Devil Night. It turns out that the perpetrator is supernatural in nature.

The novel is well-written and the pacing is quick keeping your attention. Anya is a likeable character with only occasional lapses in to Romance novel character.

(4) Embers is a keeper for me and I look forward to the next novel with interest. I wonder what the plot will be as I cannot imagine every novel will involve investigation of a fire.

Child of Fire

2010-12-05T19:00:00.000-08:00

Child of Fire is the debut novel by Harry Connolly. Apparently, the first in the Twenty Palaces Series which aims to be the next Dresden Files or so I assume.

It is great to finally find another male lead in the urban fantasy genre. Refreshingly, Ray Lilly is more of an anti-hero with some real problems. He is not some brooding bad boy that all of the ladies want to bed and he is not an all-powerful super-hero. Ray makes due with a single, (albeit clever) spell and questionalble morals. A lot of the heavy lifting is done by his thouroughly unlikeable boss Annalise. Ray is her wooden man (think supernatural target dummy).

The book falls clearly into the urban fantasy genre but the supernatural element is more Lovecraftian then Anne Rice. The antagonists are outsiders called predators who grant spells to foolish mortals. The background is not fully explained, apparently it will come out as the series moves along. Ray has a recent criminal history that is important to his character development but it is not fully explained. His past is mentioned by the character in small, tantalizing snippets. The magic society is also not really explained. Why is there a Twenty Palaces society, what does it mean, and are they really the good guys?

These small annoyances aside, it is a good, fast paced novel and I look forward to the next novel in the series. Ray Lilly is a true original character in the Urban Fantasy genre.

(4) Keeper

This is a definite keeper and is recommended for fans of the Dresden Files and Anita Blake.

Pariah

2010-11-29T19:42:00.000-08:00

I picked up Pariah on a whim from a bookstore on the weekend. For some reason I was in the mood for this type of book so it went right to the top of the pile. Once I got started reading the book I could not put it down.

This is the first book by Fingerman that I have read so I had no real expectations. Pariah is a novel in the growing Zombie Apocalypse genre which I really have been avoiding so I few novels to compare it to.

The novel involves a disparate group of low income residents of an Upper East Side walk-up in New York. After a brief prologue the novel settles in to the daily survival of the residents trapped in their building by zombies. It is less a zombie book and more a study of a trapped group of individuals.

The author goes into the grim details as the residents slowly starve to death and begin to lose their grip on reality. The author does not pull any punches in the descriptions so the book is not for those with a weak stomach.

A little over halfway through the book the title character arrives and changes the situation dramatically. The results are somewhat predictable as the surviving humans prove to be thea greater threat to their survival then the zombies.

Fingerman's style keeps you glued to the page even while moving from narrator to narrator and through short flashbacks. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My only minor complaint was as to the nature of the pariah, I was not entirely sold on the explanation.

(4) Keeper

This is a definite keeper and is heartily recommended for fans of the zombie genre and straight fiction fans. Definitely an author for me to look for on the bookshelf.

Echo City

2010-11-26T11:02:00.000-08:00

Echo City is a novel by Tim Lebbon a Bram Stoker Award winning author. It is a little difficult to classify this novel but I would say it is more Science Fiction then Fantasy with a little horror thrown in.

The Echo City in the novel is a large, old city which is the entire world of the inhabitants because it is surrounded by impassible desert. Some undefined toxin in the desert quickly sickens and kills any who travel out into it - until a stranger arrives from the wastes.

The Echo part of the name refers to the areas beneath the city. The city is built on the ruins or echoes of its past. Descending into the depths beneath the city is a journey though the ruins of its past.

The technology level of the novel is difficult to place. Guards are armed with swords and crossbows, but a character called "the baker" uses either magic or technology that is no longer understood to "chop" together chimera based of off humans. These monsters are referred to as chopped. Humans with wings, masses of teeth, enormous, telescopic eyes, not to mention endless copies of bakers past.

The arrival of a man from the desert sets of a resistance force of humans known as the watchers and most of the protaganists are from this group. Peer Nadawa a watcher who was caught and banished to Skulk a neighbourhood near the edge of the city, Gorham, her former lover and betrayer and now the head of the Watchers, Nophel a chopped servant of the ruling class and Nadielle the baker.

I found there were too many voices in the novel and none of them resonated with me. If I don't care for the narrator it is difficult for me to read. Peer is the best of the narrators but whenever I got interested in her story the author would jump to creepy Nophel, a creature who betrayed his own mother to be murdered.

The city is facing destruction from a creature of somewhat predictable origin coming from deep in the echoes but this is almost a side show to the strange tale of the man from the desert. Who is something of a moron.

I finished the book, but I already knew what the ending was going to be.

(3) WEAK

It is close but I think I will keep this book.

New Direction - new look

2010-11-26T10:21:00.000-08:00

I changed the look around a little. I have not been posting in a while because I am not playing much and painting less. So it was time for another change in direction. Since I read a lot I thought I would pass on some thoughts on what I have read recently while it is still fresh in my mind.

I don't claim to be a judge of great literature but I know what I like. Rating system is as follows:

(5) Classic - buy a spare because it will be read again and again
(4) Keeper - goes on the bookshelf
(3) Weak - not great but I kept it
(2) Bin - goes in the return bin
(1) Defeated - I couldn't fight through it

Like I said I am not a professional writer this is just my opinion.

Analyze This

2010-07-26T16:32:00.000-07:00

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Over at A Rust Monster Ate my Sword I was directed to this site that analyzes your writing style. So I tested it on a short story I wrote. Apparently I write like Dan Brown (DaVinci Code fame), I don't know what to think of that.

Classic Blue Maps

2010-06-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have not blogged in over a month. What have I been up to? Well, mostly a lot of work. This blog was set up to detail my proposed Mare Nostrum campaign which never panned out. So I started blogging about painting miniatures. Well, the warm weather came and I never paint much when the weather is nice. I'd rather be outside.

Blue Maps

One thing I was doing while watching the NHL Playoffs on TV was converting some of my old dungeon maps to digitial format. I think they look pretty cool when done in that classic TSR Blue Cover design. Apparently, designed to make them difficult to copy - the colours just look cool.

The Colossol Caves

First up is the Colossol caves, which I have mentioned before. This was one of my earliest dungeon designs (1982). I believe I designed it with some input from the random dungeon generator in the back of the AD&D 1st Edition DMG. I modified the results somewhat to make it more playable. Still it was a fairly goofy dungeon with magic statues, many cultures of monsters and a black dragon.

The Curse of the Mummy

This dungeon was written in 1986 while I was at university. I had just gotten Dungeon magazine #1 and thought I could write something for submission. I ended up getting too big and was used in my long-running BD&D campaign.

I have been writing up a Labyrinth Lord version of the Colossol Caves and may just publish them online.

Delvers are Primed

2010-04-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

I got started on the miniatures I have set aside for the Company of Delvers. This is a large group of player characters in a Fantasy Grounds II online campaign that uses the Castles & Crusades rules.

Today I mixed up some putty and created stands for five of the miniatures. I did think about creating a dungeon floor base but some of the Reaper miniatures are on stands which would be difficult to remove so I copied the design of these stands. I did rasp down the stands so that they were very thin so the miniatures did not look like they were standing on a hill. Then some milliput to cover the stand with and a little work with a toothpick to get the right look.

Finally I primed the miniatures. This took a couple of hours and unfortunately the putty dried up before I could get finished. So Leo and Olli are still not on stands and will have to be done later.

I also still have two possible miniatures for Tenkar the dwarf. The one with the flagon of ale would be kind of funny but I think the look is all wrong. The dwarf seems to have skulls decorating his robes, hair and on his hammer which is kind of evil and wrong for this particular dwarven cleric. Also the hammer is all wrong for Tenkar. So I think I will stick with my first choice of miniature for Tenkar.

New Miniature Friday

2010-04-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

5 New Reaper Miniatures

I received five new miniatures in the mail today from FRPGames. All are Reaper Dark Heaven miniatures on stands. First is Nord Kegbreaker, a dwarf with a mighty hammer and a foaming flagon of Ale. Perhaps another miniature that could be used to represent the dwarf Tenkar from our Fantasy Grounds gaming group. Only problem is that Tenkar uses a battleaxe and wears a distinctive skull cap helm.

Second, is Halmar, young wizard. As I mentioned last week this will make a good miniature to represent Zorovar from our Fantasy Grounds II Campaign. The miniature is of a young, long-haired mage with arcane fire rising from his palm.

Next is Bertok the barbarian. Bertok is huge. I assume he is in the 28mm scale but the miniature is a full 40mm to his eyes making him a giant among men. Look at him standing beside Halmar. Easily twice the lead was employed.

Then we have Loryn Stormblade the elf. I purchased Loryn to represent the player character Jherrith from my Heroes of the Southlands campaign. I needed a classic elf miniature and this one fits the bill. I am not sure if the miniature is supposed to be of a male or female elf but it is not so obvious that it causes a problem. Loryn requires some assembly, his/her arm has to be attached. The positioning of it is going to make it a difficult paint job.

Lastly, but not least is the Overladen Henchman. A typical adventuring party henchman burdened with the spare equipment of the groups characters. He is carrying weapons, backpacks, spellbooks, shields and even a frying pan. This should be a challenge to paint.

Company of Delvers

2010-04-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

Progress
I have two more of the Heroes of the Southlands miniatures completed which leaves me with one more PC to go before the group is done. The last mini is still in the mail. Once it is done I'll post the full group photo. I think I will do two of the NPCs from this D20 Campaign as well because I have minis that match their look.

Company of Delvers
So for my next project I am paining miniatures to represent the PCs in a Castles & Crusades campaign I play in online. I have not started yet but I have set aside some miniatures to represent the PCs.

My character in this group, Cadfan, uses an icon to represent him online that comes from Valeros, Iconic fighter from Pathfinder. So I purchased that miniature. The Valeros miniature comes in the more modern 30mm scale so the rest of the group needs to be in the same scale.

For Tenkar the dwarven cleric I have set aside a Dwarf-Wars miniature with a helm I can paint blue to capture one of the distinctive features of Tenkar's icon. I have other Dwarf miniatures so I may change my opinion and go with something else.

Alton the halfling ranger is tricky. I do not have a lot of halfling miniatures and most are in 25mm scale. The Lem miniature of a bard for Pathfinder comes closest. I am still looking for a halfling miniature with a cloth cap. In the meantime at least this miniature has a shortsword.

Leo is a human rogue so it is fairly easy to find a miniature with a bow and a sword. Less easy to find one with the distinctive facial hair, but this one comes close.

Olli the scribe / apothecary assistant is an impossible miniature to find. Someone with a wizard-like hat and glasses should not be that hard to find but so far I have had no luck. Actually I am not entirely sure what class Olli represents. One of the interesting thing about playing online is that there is less OCC chat and you only form opinions of a character from watching them perform. Olli is a bit of a mystery to me.

Zorovar the mage is breaks out of the traditional bearded, tall peaked hat wizard look. I have more than 20 wizard miniatures and non of them fit his look. So I purchased Hamlar, young wizard from Reaper Miniatures. He is currently in the mail.

More to come
There are other PCs that have been central part of the Company of Delvers in the past that I also want to paint but first I want to represent the current roster. There are also a few, long-serving NPCs but with such a large roster our slate of NPCs has always been light.

New Miniature Tuesday

2010-03-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

Mail's here
Good news after work today. My order of miniatures from FRP Games arrived in the mail. I have only managed to paint two miniatures in this month but my miniature buying continues unabated.

Time-travel trio
First up is this group of three from Reaper Miniatures (Chronoscope line). They all seem a bit tall and thin (they are 30mm scale I believe). I bought these to paint for fun rather than for gaming so they don't need to match scale with anything else. Though Max Decker, Private Eye could be used to represent a PI in any investigator type game from the 20's to the present. With that name they might be going for a Blade Runner look? Duke Jones, the Astronaut I bought because the pose reminded me of a cover for a Perry Rhodan book I bought in the seventies. The only thing that jars is the cigar clamped in his mouth which is not very Rhodan-like. Maybe I can remove it but I am doubting it. Lastly, we have Socrates... because why not? It should be fun (and easy) to paint.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Next we have Sadie from Hasslefree miniatures in the UK. I love the scale, it says 26mm to the eyes but it will fit perfectly beside my 25mm miniatures. It is a clever design and I thought it would make a great Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I don't play Buffy but I think it will be a blast to paint. Really nice detail on this miniature.

Tomb Raider
Lastly I have something I have not seen before from Freebooter Minatures. An archeologist miniature that is an obvious nod to Lara Croft, tomb raider. It is a complicated miniature complete with separate parts for her pony tail, free arm, backpack and treasure. The unique thing is the thin metal base that sits inside a plastic base. Pretty clever. I am not sure how easy it is going to be to assemble. It comes with a photo of the miniature expertly assembled and painted to show you how the professionals do it.

Giant Dwarf sighting

2010-03-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

Vargas Vextor
One of the player characters in my D20 Heroes of the Southlands game was a Dwarven Fighter-Rogue named Vargas Vextor. As the proud owner of a bunch of new Dwarf Wars miniatures I looked through a picked one to represent him. Unfortunately, up alongside the other already painted miniatures representing the group of PCs, he looked huge. Taller than the human fighter.

Scale
Normally issues related to scale are not a big concern for me. But when you are mixing new 28mm scale miniatures with old Ral Partha or Grenadier 25mm miniatures it can be really noticeable. So I looked around some more and settled on an old Ral Partha Character miniature for a Dwarf. I painted his face first and I think it came out well. Which made the rest of the miniature much easier to paint. Below is an image of the completed Vargas Vextor Dwarf figher/rogue with his compatriots.

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Paint Removal Machine

2010-03-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

For those reading along with last weeks post, I have some old Grenadier miniatures with some paint of unknown providence upon them. Normally when I repaint miniatures I just paint right over top of what I put down the time before.

But since in this case I have ten miniatures purchased over the internet I have no idea what kind of paint and how many layers is on the miniature. So I decided to strip the paint.

Oven Cleaner
Trying every household cleaner under the sink had very little effect. So I went to the store and bought some oven cleaner. Sprayed it in a glass jar until it was 1 inch deep, dropped in a miniature, closed the lid (it was giving off powerful fumes) and waited an hour. The first miniature came out pretty good. I washed it off and scrubbed away with an old toothbrush and most of the paint came off. The green paint on the stand was very stubborn but everntually most came off.

What is it with green paint by the way. Every green paint I have every owned, by several different companies, makes me sneeze. It smells like mildew. Strange.

On the left is an image of the first three miniatures from the Dungeoneers collection that I attempted to strip. The wizard was the most stubborn in cleaning up. Perhaps I need to try an electric toothbrush on it ? Unfortunately, a little paint residue is far worse then leaving the paint on. It creates clumps of material that will show up when I attempt to cover with undercoat.

The Dungeoneers

2010-03-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

Before my 2nd session of D&D ever back in 1982 I had already bought miniatures. I went into the local Leisure World and bought the Grenadier Dungeoneer Set. It was released as part of the "Action Art" series. It came with 12 miniatures and a set of water based paints (and a useless paint brush). I took a while to attempt painting them but soon they were all painted and took their place at the gaming table.

Over the years I have painted and repainted all of the miniatures in the set at least twice - the iconic wizard, four times (left). As my painting skills increased I always wanted to go back and update these miniatures. There is still one miniature from my set waiting to get a new coat of paint.

Dungeoneers again
So when I saw the Dungeoneer set for sale online at a reasonable price, I decided to get it. They arrived in the mail this week. Most of the eleven miniatures that arrived have some paint on them. So I will have to decide to paint over or strip the paint. Interestingly the wizard is painted much as the picture from the front of the box. Much as I painted it as well.

The set is missing the original paladin and ranger. A substitute Paladin has been added to the set which fits well with the correct feel for the set. There is a little damage to the miniatures - the thieves 10 foot pool is broken (just like the one in my set) and one of the henchmen has a broken spear. It should be an interesting trick to fix these problems.

Below is an image of a little diorama I made about 15 years ago with some of the Grenadier Dungeoneers. I think what I like about these old sets is that they look like adventurers. They have backpacks, torches, pouches and the like. Newer miniatures have cooler poses but they rarely have equipment on them. It should be an interesting project repainting these old miniatures.

So how to paint them...
The first decision is how to stand them. I have some lead stands that are hollow that let you place standed miniatures in them hiding their bases but there is not enough for the full set. That was my first idea. It would be cool if they were all standing on dungeon floors. But unfortunately they are all standing on little mounds of dirt. So it is going to be tricky to hide these. Removing their stands would be almost impossible. Their feet are small and would be easily damaged.

Dwarf Wars

2010-02-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

This week some miniatures arrived in the mail from FRP Games (an online gaming store). I took home the medium-sized box from the post office eager to open and peruse the large box of plastic miniatures of Dwarves I was expecting. Only to open it and find three blister packs of lead miniatures. Apparently, I need to look at what I am buying a little more carefully. Now don't get me wrong - I was thrilled. I prefer the heft and detail of lead miniatures but the website managed to confuse me with the small thumbnail photo. I went back and all the information is there I just need to look a little closer next time.

The Miniatures
The minis are by a company called West Wind Productions apparently based in the UK. I had never heard of them over here in Canada or seen there product in the stores. The details on the dwarves and a set of humans/vikings (left) is excellent.
I would prefer 25mm but today everyone is in 28mm scale so what can you do.

Standing
For some reason I decided to remove a couple of the miniatures from their stands to give me more options, and because I like to tinker. I stand everything but sometimes I pin the minis to stands by drilling holes in their feet and gluing in pins. While removing one poor Dwarf's stand (the dwarf on the left) I managed to remove his left foot. It was so tiny and he is up on his toes so the foot was kind of crumpled. Now it was no more. So I created a small boot out of milliput and mounted him on a small round stand with no slot. I thought he made a good Vargas Vextor miniature (character from my Heroes of the Southlands Campaign) so I wanted him on a matching round stand.

Priming
I think the details come in in the priming. Here is a selection of the Dwarves (and one added from the Pathfinder miniatures set) primed and ready to paint. I decided one of the miniatures would be best painted without the stand because of his robes so I drilled up through the body and glued him to a toothpick for painting.

Miniature showdown

2010-02-23T20:48:00.000-08:00

I have a group of miniatures that were glued to stands and primed 10 years ago to represent characters in a D20 Campaign I ran for about a year. We decided to give 3.0 D&D a shot when it first came out. A friend started the campaign as DM but after one adventure got tired of it so and then I took over for the next few adventures.

I set up a bunch of miniatures to represent the PCs but at the time I was just not painting so they sat waiting to be completed. Now that I am painting again I figured it was time to finish these miniatures off. I usually like to paint a few miniatures at a time and the first two selected presented different challenges so I chose different painting styles. Lets make it into a contest and see who wins out.

Stage I: Base coat
We have Lance Guilderstone the Gnome rogue/wizard on the left and Human Barbarian Auric on the right. For Auric I am painting from the skin out as the mini dresses himself. So the skin is painted and dry-bushed first then the clothing then armor and weapons last. A lot of dry-bushing at the same time overlapping onto each other and then I clean up at the end. The problem is the mini will look like a mess and I won't perceive clashing colours until the end. For Lance I am trying to paint by numbers. So I laid down the base coats for each area first. It has the advantage of giving a sense how the miniature is going to look at the end while I am base coating.

Stage II: Cleaning up
For Auric the dry-bushing is complete and now comes the labor intensive process of cleaning up areas where the dry-bushing went over into other colours. Plus touch up dry-bushing to make it all blend in. At this stage is when I often realize I just don't have the right colours and I have to start over. But everything is working out reasonably well. I am not thrilled with his mail but it looks okay. This method also completes the face early on which helps give the mini some personality.

Lance is all base coated and now I am trying to paint in the hi-lites and shadows with mixes of the base paint. It is not going all that well and I am just not sold on the colour combinations I chose. Note the white base. I was actually toying with the idea of having this entire group of miniatures standing in the snow. But it just did not work out so I tossed the idea and went with standard dirt bases.

Stage III: Auric Wins !
I found myself stuck on the colours for Lance and racing ahead with Auric. Auric is finished off with a dry-brushed base and nameplate while Lance languishes on the shelf. I guess there is something to be said for the dry-bushing method. I think the painting method has the potential to give much better results but it is far more difficult. Dry-bushing is easy and gives quick results. I still would not recommend dry-bushing the face. On close inspection it makes it look like the miniatures face is covered in clumps of paint like mud.

Stage IV: Lance is finally done
Here they are both completed. I wanted more of a yellow-green tunic for Lance but this is the colour I got when I mixed my yellow and green paints. I used it as a base coat and thought it looked okay so I kept it. His pants have changed to blue to break up the overall green and the cloak was redone starting from a soft brown to give it a less "dirty" look. The tunic was actually painted to give the hi-lites and shadows rather than dry-bushed and it gives the mini a cleaner look I think. A startling number of coats went into his tunic which I just could not get right.

Return of the Miniatures

2010-02-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

My attempts at starting a Labyrinth Lord Game using Fantasy Grounds II have hopelessly failed. It seems the LL Ruleset is giving us some problems and my players just get error messages when we try to play. This Blog was started to detail my LL game world and to tell the story of games played in LL so . . .

Since that does not appear likely to happen I guess I had better find something else to talk about. It is not like I have not gone off topic in the past.

So what have I been doing lately.

Miniatures

I used to paint miniatures all of the time. I had a regular D&D Campaign and I provided Miniatures for the game table fully painted. But with moving away and working all the time my miniature painting days are 15 years in the past.

Lately I have been playing in a C&C Game online (with Fantasy Grounds II). I joined late and took on the character of one of the NPCs. I have since been playing Cadfan, Human fighter for more than a year and he has grown in the process. Now it turns out his character portrait is that of Valeros, Iconic Human Fighter over at Paizo and they just put out a Valeros miniature. Of course I had to buy it.

Now before I am ready to paint such an important miniature I figured I better get some practice in so I went to paint a few other miniatures. . . and discovered I need new paints, brushes, while I am here lets grab a box of minis. Before I knew It I was back into full mini painting mode.

A few more miniatures and I will by psyched enough to try my hand at the Cadfan (Valeros) miniature.

Highport: Grand Duchy of Tarvis

2009-12-13T17:41:00.000-08:00

Highport is the capital city of a country on the map just south of the Empire of Vicentia called the Grand Duchy of Tarvis. I decided to locate the opening adventure in my Labyrinth Lord campaign in Highport. The first adventure is a conversion of The Crypt of St. Bethesda put out by AEG. It did not require a lot of local background but I decided to develop Highport in case the players went off story.

Map
Usually I come up with a 2D map of towns and cities in my gaming world. However, for Highport I had a specific physical setting in mind which was hard to depict on a flat map. Being unable to draw at all I sketched a rough map, inked it, scanned it and then ran it through a few filters to make it look a little better. The end result is not completely terrible I think. Not bad for someone who cannot draw.

Highport
Highport is located on the banks of the Dendragon River before it enters the ByFox Marsh. The city is the capital of the Grand Duchy of Tarvis and the Keep of the Grand Dukes towers above the city. Highport grew at a portage point along the Dendragon River. The ByFox marsh spreads out west of the high ground of Tarvis from the foot of the escarpment where the Dendragon River passes over a falls.

The 125 foot drop of the falls effectively forced all goods carried through Tarvis to have to be offloaded in Highport. The Dendragon River is navigable through the marsh and upriver of Highport. A small village (Halishollow) sits at the edge of the marsh and Highport sits high atop the cliffs. At the highest outcrop of rock sits the keep of (Grunenfell) the Dukes of Tarvis.

An old stone bridge marks the furthest point downriver that ships can travel. From here to the walls of Highport the banks of the river are crowded with wooden docks and warehouses. Highport is a city of merchants who make their fortunes buying and selling goods entering and leaving Tarvis.

The north bank of the river in the shadow of Graunenfell Keep is the wealthier area of the city. After dark town guards enforce a curfew on this part of the town blocking the two bridges into the North Bank. The South bank is the poorer part of town and the streets remain active all night. The gates to the south bank close at dusk but the taverns and shops have no curfew.

Outside the town walls to the south is the cemetery district of the city where the city has recently grown right up to the edge of the city of the dead. Small shrines and temples got this open area.

Halishollow
At the base of the large pool below the Dendragon falls is the handful of buildings of Halishollow. This area holds the homes of fishermen and the workers who unload ships and carry goods up into Highport. Halishollow is not patrolled by the town guard and has had to resort to paying protection to a local Merchants Association known as the “stickmen”. What started as an attempt to protect themselves from local thieves as grown into a formidable underworld group that controls the village and reaches up into Highport.

The Sea Princes of Candis

2009-09-29T18:13:00.001-07:00

When I placed the “Sea Princes of Candis” on my Mare Nostrum map the first thing that came to mind was a copy of the privateers, pirates of the Sea Princes of the World of Greyhawk. But after some thought I decided to make them a unique cosmopolitan race of merchants.

Origin
The islands of Candis were first settled at least 3000 years in the past. Only a handful of human scholars are aware of this fact. Few ruins or reminders of this time remain on the island. The fallout of Kem’s Horn, an active volcano in the center of the island, tends to obscure old ruins. Candis was settled by humans from the southern jungles. The humans on Candis led a peaceful agrarian life until invasion by the Cohorts of Vicentia 850 years ago. Candis became a client state of Vicentia and later a full province. The soldiers of the Cohorts often retired to Candis so it became a very mixed race population. Candis became a hub of trade in the provincial era. It was located in the center of the food and gold trade between Vicentia, the Southern provinces and Khemet. This led to the rise of a large, wealthy merchant class with independent fleets of trade ships.

Independence
The merchants of Candis formed their own Merchants council and were responsible for much of the safety and security of the inhabitants of the islands. Eventually they grew tired of the interference from Vicentia, and more importantly the taxes. A series of Merchant council heads negotiated more and more independence from Vicentia in exchange for gold until Candis was completely independent from Vicentia by the reign of Emperor Secestus. At first Candis continued as a Merchant’s council of the 12 most successful merchants but eventually the positions became hereditary. Over the years 2 of the families were removed from the council until today. Candis is now ruled by a council of 10 Merchants. The head of each of the 10 Merchant houses each sit on the council.

Economy
The wealth of Candis is based on the sea trade and the export of food grown in the great inland farms of the islands. There is a distinct split in the Council between the 6 city-based trading families with fleets of ships and the 4 inland-based agriculture merchant families. The Merchants of Candis monopolize trade to the ports of Khemet and the other western nations and are a major player in the northern ports. Only among the Eastern nations is their presence weaker.

Military might
Candis does not field and army of any consequence and few military ships. What they do have is an enormous merchant fleet capable of boycotting any nation threatening Candis. To date this has been enough to keep Candis safe. It has been helpful that Khemet has never had a strong navy. The ships of Candis are not the most advanced in the world of Mare Nostrum. That distinction likely belongs to the Northman and their longships. The ships of Candis are simple cogs that have not changed much in 100 years. What they do not have in technology level they make up for in numbers.

Adventurers
Due to its central location and varied population Candis is a frequent way-port for adventurers. That being said they are still rare in the inland areas. Magic use is rare but not necessarily feared. Aptitude of magic is not very strong amongst the people of Candis so magic-users are generally foreigners. Dwarves, Halflings and Elves are uncommon but not the subject of any more prejudice then stares. The people of Candis worship a mix of gods from other races and temples to just about every god or cult imaginable can be found in the seaports.

Classic Classes - The Fighter

2009-09-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

The fighter is the basic class of B/X D&D and Labyrinth Lord. Every group of adventurers needs some tough fighters along to stand up front and take the hits. It could be argued that the Elf usurps some of the need for the fighter but as long as the experience gains are handled properly the Fighter should always be a level ahead of the Elf and have a solid lead in hit points due to his superior d8. In B/X D&D and Labyrinth Lord all fighters are simple humans but in the Mare Nostrum setting, get to choose from a myriad of ethnic backgrounds. Some already detailed.

Menetians (children of Menete) in Khemet. They are generally brown skinned with black or brown hair. There language is Yasi or Menetian.
Venedea in Vicentium. They are tan skinned with black, blonde, or brown hair. There language is common or elvish.
Northmen (Josniaks or Horyuns) they have pale skin, brown or blonde hair and speak common, Josni or Horyuni.
Heptian in the Ugu-Ilathi jungles. They are darker skinned brown or black with black hair. They speak common or a number of local dialects.
Balci (Balcians) in the distant north are very pale skinned and have blonde or red hair. Each tribe speaks its own, distinct language (examples are the aedui, helvetir, and icenui).
The sea people (olachian) are black skinned with curly black hair. They speak common or chianis.
The plainspeople (Alawi) in the southern plains are a red-skinned people with black or brown hair who speak many dialects or a rough trade language related to common.

Female Fighters
What about female fighters? Not a staple of fantasy novels but not completely uncommon. The Rules make no distinction for sex in Labyrinth Lord. In Mare Nostrum female warriors exist in most of the cultures but are fairly uncommon. They are most common in the Vicentium Empire and in Kingdoms to the south of Vicentia. Some or the tribes of the Ugu-Ilathi make no distinction between male and female warriors and have almost half of their number female. Finally, the ships of reavers of Candis are famous for their female warriors and captains.

German Castles on the Rhine

2009-07-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

No I have not disappeared. I went to Germany on Vacation for a few weeks. Among the things I did was take a cruise down the Rhine. During the cruise I took pictures of a lot of the Rhineland Castles. I have attached some of the photos below.

On the left is Marksburg Castle built in 1117 AD. One of the only castles on the Rhine that has survived in its original condition.

On the right is the Ruines of Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar. Construstion began in 1245 AD and it grew to become the largest castle on the Rhine. The French Revolutionary Army destroyed the castle in 1797 AD.

On the left the walled town of Oberwesel. One of the 16 remaining towers in the town walls.

On the right Schonberg Castle in Oberwesel. Now it has been turned into a hotel.

On the left the amazing Pfalz Castle in the middle of the Rhine in the village of Kaub. Gutenfels castle is visible in the background. Kaub grew rich on tolls for ships travelling on the Rhine. They had a chain across the Rhine that they lowered once you paid the toll. They were so sucessful the Pope called from their destruction in 1504 AD and they withstood a 6 week seige of the town.

Sterrenberg (left) and Liebenstein (right) castles. The so-called "Hostile Brothers". There is a legend of 2 feuding brothers and a fair maiden they fought over. It is all a fabrication though the 2 castles were for separate familes. The castles date from the 12th and 13th century.

Temple of Kahotep (1-3)

2009-06-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

I was reminiscing with a friend about some really bad early ‘80s adventures for Dungeons & Dragons. His “favourite” worst was the infamous Temple of Ra Accursed by Set by Judges Guild. The Gorgriffspidrascorp monster that closes the adventure made a lasting impression upon him.

Now I happen to have said adventure from Judges’ Guild but I had never played it. So I went back and read it and decided there is a good adventure here – a classic Rescue the Princess style adventure perfect for my retro Labyrinth Lord world of Mare Nostrum. I am writing it up for Fantasy Grounds II and we shall see how it runs when I spring it on unsuspecting players.

I am rewriting the adventure for Levels 1-3 and calling it the Temple of Kahotep (Accursed by Wati). The original was a mid-level adventure so almost all of the encounters need to be changed. One of the issues with the adventure is the lack of cohesive purpose for all the monsters in the Temple. Every room (but the penultimate room) has an encounter. This needs to be scaled back some. Nothing kills low level adventurers quicker then constant combat, they do not have the hit points to survive multiple hits and they do not have the healing capacity to offset this. I also want to include more of a purpose for kidnapping the Princess other then a demand for gold and sacrifices.

Any stocking suggestions?

Classic Classes – The Halfling

2009-06-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

Why include Halflings in a B/X or Labyrinth Lord Rule system world? In most game worlds their influence is slight on the Grand stage of history. Probably all authors are cognisant of the central role played by Halflings in The Lord of the Rings.

The Rules
A Halfling is a fighter with fewer hit points (1d6 HD) and a few minor abilities; -2 to AC against large monsters, +1 to all initiative rolls, and +1 to all missile attacks. Personally I think that the classic Halfling class is the thief or fighter-thief but that is not an option in B/X rules. Halflings seem more like rangers with their ability to remain hidden in wilderness. Maybe their niche is sneaking around in dungeons and tracking outcasts in the wilderness. It seems at odds with the usual depiction of Halflings as corpulent country gentlemen. More to the point, in my Mare Nostrum setting the Halfling’s traditional gentlemen farmer lifestyle seems out of place. Rather than leave Halflings out I have decided to make them a secretive race of traders plying the rivers of the Eastern lands.

Riverboat Culture
Halflings are a race of nomadic traders who live in loose family units aboard riverboats in the western lands about the Mare Nostrum. They are commonly found trading goods to communities along rivers in the heart of the Empire of Vicentia. There can often be several families aboard a Halfling “home” on the river with no clear leader. Despite this they seem to be able to work as a unit without disagreement. Shirkers or troublemakers can find themselves exiled from the home. These exiles are the Halflings most often met working in human cities or travelling through human lands. Halflings have no nation of their own and rarely own property in any land. They have an interesting view on property; they will defend the property of the Home vigorously but seem to view property of non-Halflings as finders-keepers. Despite having no formal organization, Halflings do have gatherings where several Home boats will meet together. During these gatherings, marriages occur and members will often switch boats to join new families.

Interaction with other Races
Halflings are closest with the human race and the Venedae culture. Some human lands consider them to be thieves to be avoided by they do perform a useful service as traders amongst human cities. In the Western lands they are almost unknown – though one Khemet Pharaoh was delighted by Halflings and purchased more than 100 Halfling slaves as entertainers for his court. Elves are amused by Halflings and do allow them passage through their forest kingdoms. This is most apparent with the High Elves of Aelwynne. Several important annual Halfling gatherings occur along rivers in the forests of Aelwynne. Dwarves interact with a few Halflings along the gold routes in the north but generally view them with suspicion. No Halfling has ever visited a Dwarven Hold (that they are aware of).

Tribes of Man – The Northmen

2009-06-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

Among the Venedae and other tribes of men to the south the people of the northern coast of Mare Nostrum will always be collectively known as “the Northmen”. However, in this region are two distinct cultures known locally as the Josniaks and the Horyuns.

The Josniaks
The Josniaks or Josni are found primarily in the Eastern nations of the North clustered around Lake Vulne – Numantia, Nornheim, and Alstena. This culture is noted for strong clan ties, pale skin and light hair color (brown or blonde). They traditionally built small villages surrounded by wooden palisades. Extended Josniak families live together in one lodge. This lifestyle changed when the Josniaks were subjugated by the Empire of Vicentia. A lot of Venedae people came to the north and settled marrying into the clans. Clan structure fell apart and larger settlements became common. This is most apparent in the Kingdom of Numantia where the culture is heavily influenced by that of the Venedae settlers. In the distant past the Josniaks were the weakest of the northern tribes when compared to the Horyuns or Balci, but contact with the Venedae has provided their nations with a structured military that makes them the strongest of the northern tribes. The Josniaks speak Josni with a lot of Venedae words mixed into their everyday speech. In the towns of Numantia, Venedae is the predominate language.

The Horyuns
The Horyuns or Horyuni are found in the western nations along the northern coast of Mare Nostrum. They are traditionally a sea-going people and members of this culture group can be found spread throughout the known world in the human port cities. The Horyuns did have a single nation in the north known as Limoghed up until fifty years ago when the Last King (Hrosus) died with no heir. The most powerful nobles each claimed the throne and Limoghed has split into four nations. The Balci nomads to the north have taken note of this and their raids south have become bolder in recent years. The Horyuns have their own unique language that is distantly related to old Josni and is less cluttered with Venedae (common) words. Because of their love of travel and trade common is often spoken by Horyuns. The Horyuns are similar in appearance to the Josniaks but have slightly darker skin and hair colours.

Gods
The gods of the Horyuni and Josni people are a shared pantheon. The Josni also incorporate the gods of the old Venedae pantheon into their worship.

Alaric - ruler
Haydn - fire
Timola - horse
Aigo - sea
Gawin - honour, combat
Gelthar - earth, agriculture
Hiruz - warm southern wind
Ulricus - magic, evil
Wurm - beasts
Wintar - cold north wind

The Josni incorporate the Venedae god Geta and his family into their pantheon as southern gods with influence but not at the head of their pantheon. They also venerate the unrelated Venedae gods but do not worship Koz or his family. The worship of Tem is also found in Numantia. Missionaries of Tem are common in Numantia and Nornheim. Tem missionaries in the Horyun nations can find themselves run out of town tied to a log.

Magic in the North
Both Horyuns and Josniaks believe that the god Ulricus stole the secrets of magic from the elven gods and tricked humans into using it to free demons. They believe that the use of magic is at best foolish and at worst evil. Magic-users will normally keep a low profile in the north. Casting spells on an unwilling person is an offense punishable by death in many of the northern nations. Clerical magic is considered a gift of the gods and is not viewed with suspicion.

Tribes of Man - Venedae

2009-06-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

The largest tribe of men are the Venedae. It is their language that evolved into the common tongue or “trade-talk” and it is their Empire that once ruled the known world. Venedae originated in the Damas river valley in close contact with the High Elves and are heavily influenced by them. Many elvish and old venedae words are similar.

Vicentia
The greatest realm of man was the Empire of Vicentia which at its height (-100 to 200) ruled all of the eastern Mare Nostrum, much of the north and south and forced the west to pay tribute to the Empire. The Venedae were the originators of the Empire and Vicentia is their traditional homeland. They recruited all the races of man into their ranks and became a very diverse society. Still some features can be considered typical of the Venedae; tan skin, black to brown hair colour and darker eye colours. The Empire spread so far that their language became a common trade language.

Nations
The predominant nations of the Vendae are those nations which once comprised Vicentia at its peak, Vicentia, Tarvis, Belshore and Kalavria. Areas with substantial Venedae populations include Noumidis, Vessurra, Iaurinum and Benamas in the south and Numantia and Nornheim in the north. Venedae can be found as a small percentage of the population in all human lands.

Gods
As Vicentia expanded the original family of gods of the Venedae expanded to add popular local gods of the people they conquered. The total count of gods reaches over 50. However, the core gods worshipped in all areas of the Empire are noted below:

Geta - Father of gods, weather, water
Afer - wife of Geta, hearth
Esdras - son of Geta, wits, skill
Frugi - daugter of Geta, thief, merchants

Koz - brother of Geta, opponent, hunting
Jove - wife of Koz, agriculture
Magnus - son of Koz, strength
Mathus - son of Koz, speed

Asello - crafter
Brutus - war god
Dama - river goddess
Isatis - beauty, love, wealth
Nodens - sea god, beast, submitted to Geta
Orosius - magic

The original Venedae pantheon included Geta’s family and some unattached gods. When the Venedae mixed with the Alawi people they added in their gods which included Koz and his family.

The Church of Tem
The origins of the worship of Tem are uncertain, possibly coming from the hill tribes around Hammer’s reach. Whatever the origin of Tem, the worship came to prominence in Serdica around -50. The unique aspect of the worship of Tem was the insistence of his followers that Tem was the only true god and that all other gods were lesser beings then him. When Emperor Secestus converted to the worship of Tem in year 0 the church gained official sanction within the Empire. The church grew to become a powerful force in Vicentia and a major powerbroker for the throne. The worship of other gods in Vicentia is not openly tolerated.

Clerics and the gods

2009-05-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

The healer is the backbone of every party of dungeon delvers. The fighters may do most of the heavy lifting in combat (though the healer is no slouch) but only the cleric can heal the wounds of the adventurers. So if the party does not want to bring a keg of healing potions they need a cleric along.

Demi-human Clerics
Labyrinth Lord and B/X D&D does not allow for demi-human clerics. Only humans can be clerics. I have kept this for Mare Nostrum as well. As I explained earlier dwarves do not call to their gods for miracles. Elves also do not call to their gods for help. They consider them to be more like wise elders then gods.

Multiple or One god
In Mare Nostrum amongst the human nations there are examples of one-god worship and multiple or pantheon worship. The first humans worshipped the Elvish gods who came to the humans and were given human names.

Khemet Gods
The worship of Elvish gods continued in the Khemet kingdoms until 1800 years ago when worship changed to that of Uro. The Khemets follow the tenets of Uro (king) and his companions, Djabenusiri (hearth), Nubiti (queen), Akori (farming) and Mshai the Traveller. Uro and his companions are legendary heroes who repeatedly saved Khemet in antiquity and eventually rose to the status of gods.

Church of Vicentium
The people of Vicentia used to worship a large pantheon of gods headed by Geta. In some provinces of the empire worship of the old gods is still practiced. However, Vicentium changed to the worship of Tem exclusively when Emperor Secestus converted. The Vicentium Calendar uses this as year zero. The Church is highly organized with its own feudal hierarchy of priests, bishops and an arch-bishop. They are fully integrated into the governance of Vicentia and the military.

Gods of the Northmen
The northmen worship a large pantheon of gods. Alaric is the storm god and ruler of the pantheon. Beneath him are Haydn (fire), Timola (horse), Aigo (sea), Gawin (combat), Gelthar (agriculture), and Hiruz (southern wind). The northmen pantheon is one of the few among men with active worship of gods considered evil with Ulricus (magic), Wurm (beasts) and Wintar (north wind). Wintar and Hiruz are constantly feuding brothers who are sons of Ulricus.

Other nations
I have also developed god systems for the Balcian barbarians to the north and the savages of the jungles to the south. However, they are not very important to player characters. There are also areas of the world where there is a cosmopolitan blend of gods worshipped. The islands of Candis are a good example of this, almost every god worshipped in the bowl of Mare Nostrum has a temple in Candis.

Adventurers and the gods
Having players and especially clerics choose a god to follow adds a little flavour to the campaign. These all play the same, I am not interested in adding the complication of specialty priests. The characters who are clerics will use non-edged weapons and adopt the weapons of their local culture.

Classic Classes - Magic-user

2009-05-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

The magic-user class is a standard human class. I do not plan on any changes.

Origin of Magic
The Elves claim that all magic is a gift from their god Feanaro. This belief is contested by humans who believe magic is more primal and even above the gods. While magic is common among Elves (all have some ability) and very rare among humans it is also clear that the most powerful magic-users are clearly human. Some legendary magic-users gained access to levels of magic far beyond what the most learned Elven mages ever managed. From the human viewpoint magic is clearly a product of nature.

Magic and Humans
Traditional magic and the culture of ancient Khemet are closely tied. In ancient times Khemet produced the most magic-users and had the only organized School of Magic to ever exist in Habtawi. This institution did not survive the fall of the Pharaohs of Ancient Khemet. Habtawi now lies in ruin in the badlands. From Khemet the practice of magic spread north and across the sea to Vicentia. The most powerful magic-users still hail from Khemet and most powerful magic-users in the rest of the world can trace their ancestry to Khemet. There are no schools of magic anymore. Magic-users are rare, keep apart from others and have to learn magic from a mentor or by finding ancient Khemet scrolls. The closest thing to a magic school is the Imperial Cohort of Kell in Vicentia where a small number of magic-users are paid as mercenaries by the Emperor of Vicentia.

Fear of Magic
Because magic is so rare there is some distrust of those who wield it. The Dwarves allow few magic-users into their realms and magic use is taboo amongst some of the jungle tribes of Ugu-Ilathi. The most notorious area that magic-users avoid is the Northlands. Both the Northmen and the Balcian tribes equate magic with evil. The Northmen simply distrust users of magic and feel they are foolish to deal in such things. The Balcian tribes believe that magic-users are possessed and should be burned alive. Magic-users in the Northlands keep to themselves.

Calendars

2009-05-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

A few notes about the time-keeping methods of the people of Mare Nostrum.

The Elvish Calendar
The Elves developed the first calendar. Since the single moon has a period of just over 30 days the Elves chose that as a method for their calendar. Their calendar is divided into 4 seasons. The elves further divide the year into 12 months of 30 days each. The last day in each season has one extra day so the year is 364 days long. It does not perfectly correspond to the moon cycle but comes close.

Winter
1. Galathil (30)
2. Vanimedle (30)
3. Narmolanya (31)
Spring
4. Ancalime (30)
5. Arcamenel (30)
6. Felagund (31)
Summer
7. Maglor (30)
8. Meneldur (30)
9. Nenharma (31)
Fall
10. Taralom (30)
11. Eledhwen (30)
12. Tiwele (31)

The Elvish calendar has been adopted by the Scribes of the Empire, scholars and mages throughout the lands.

Human Timekeeping
Outside of scribes in the Empire few humans use the Elvish Calendar. Must human nations tell time by counting seasons and by the number of moons since the winter solstice. The winter solstice marks the start of a new year. All Human nations on the Eastern side of the Sea follow the Imperial calendar and date years from the adoption of the worship of Tem by Emperor Secestus. Those nations which follow the Imperial calendar place the current date as 550.

The Khemet calendar also uses the winter solstice but they date the beginning of their calendar with the legendary ascension of Uro. For the Kingdom of Khemet the current date is 1850.

The Northmen do not use a calendar. They tell time by oral tradition and by the passage of moons.

Dwarven Calendar
The Dwarves also use a 364 days calendar. However they make no distinction for seasons or the moon’s cycle. They divide the year into 8 Transits - 4 of which are 45 days and 4 are 46 days. The Transits alternate. The Dwarven year starts in the middle of the summer. The Dwarves count years by the current King of the Dwarves. The current date is the 455th year of King Berem.

Aedenne

2009-05-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

As is probably apparent I enjoy making maps. Often I get no use out of them for gaming I just enjoy making them. With a little spare time on my hands I decided to make a map from the Realms of Aedenne. The Realms of Aedenne is a setting for 1st Edition AD&D on Dragonsfoot. The setting can be downloaded for free from the Dragonsfoot forum. The Setting book comes with a neat little hand drawn map in the back. It was a simple task to load that into Hexographer and put together this map.

Before developing my own Game Setting I was thinking of using the Realms of Aedenne setting for my own group.

Dungeon Forge

2009-05-17T14:41:00.000-07:00

I am trying to find a program to make dungeon maps easy. I have used a Paint program in the past and pasted in tiles. So I am now trying Dungeonforge. To test it out I attempted to draw one of my first dungeon maps. Since this dungeon was for B/X D&D and very much old school I thought everyone might like to see it.

The Colossal Caves
The Caves were situated in the depths of an extinct Volcano home of the Black Dragon Scatha. I recall my group of adventurers ended up retreating from the dragon's master the Evil Magic-user Balda Yoka.

As with many old school dungeons it was immense with nonsensical corridors going in all directions. There were magic portals whisking adventurers about the dungeon completely messing up their sense of direction.

I have recreated the West half of the map as best I could with Dungeonforge. There were a lot of diagonal corridors which I have had to show as saw-tooth corridors until I figure out a way to make angles corridors. Also there were circular rooms which I am unable to do yet.

The program is pretty quick and simple to use but the more complex shaped are not possible. The export feature seems to be a little clunky and often cuts off part of the map.

Classic Classes - The Dwarf

2009-05-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

The classic Dwarf is usually a tough fighter familiar with the ways and passages of the underground realms. So the Dwarf=fighter race as class for B/X D&D and Labyrinth Lord is not an issue for me.

The Dwarf
The Dwarves arrived in Mare Nostrum at the same time as the Elves. It was the sacrifice of the Dwarf gods Westron and Eastron that shielded Mare Nostrum from the devastation of the rest of the world (see earlier post). These Dwarf gods are still honoured but most Dwarves hold true only to Everast the first god of the Dwarves. He is a distant god who expects Dwarves to fend for themselves. He has provided the mountains of rock to mine and they are to make worthy items from it. For this reason there are no Dwarven clerics. They do not call to Everast for spells or miracles. Dwarves are more likely to call to Everast to keep their hand steady when working at the forge or their swing true when in battle. Dwarves are also highly resistant to magic and have no skill in using it. Some of their best smiths do know the ancient art of crafting Runes of power into their creations.

The Afterlife
Dwarves believe they are taken back into the earth on their death and can guide their descendents. For this reason there is a practice of calling for aid from ones descendents similar to ancestor worship. A common saying among Dwarves before entering battle; “May you find your ancestors in the deeps” relates to this belief. For these reasons they have a racial hatred for all of the various goblinoid races that have, in their view, infested the Halls of their ancestors (the Depths beneath the mountains). Dwarves fight an unending war against the goblinoids. A Dwarf can expect to live as long as 400 years if he is not killed in a war with goblins or a cave-in deep in the earth.

Exile
Almost all Dwarves are found in Egerlad (literally Rockhome in Dwarvish) in the mountains to the east of the Kingdom of Nornheim. There are small settlements further south in the Eastron Rampart near mines or military outposts. The worst fate that can befall a Dwarf is exile from the Halls of his ancestors – the mountains. This is a fate reserved for those disowned by their families or communities for misdeeds. Most Dwarfs met outside Egerlad (and consequently most Dwarven adventurers) are exiles. Dwarves have also been known to exile themselves if their families are killed.

Trade
Long ago the Dwarves broke the ban against trading weapons with man. When men first arrived in Mare Nostrum, the Elves and Dwarves agreed not to trade weapons or technology with them. Eventually the humans advanced despite this ban and feeling the ban was no longer of use the Dwarves opened trade. Trade roads were constructed leading from Egerlad to trade-posts (now cities) in land claimed by men. A brisk trade grew as men gathered food, needed by the Dwarves to support their expanding population, and traded it for weapons. The best armours and weapons available in the human lands are Dwarf made. The smiths of men try to match their skill but fail. Men all top the Dwarves in magical weapons and armour, these are rare for Dwarves.

Elves
Despite working together with Elves to found Mare Nostrum, Dwarves have long held Elves in disdain. They have not forgotten that is was an Elvish war that ruined the world and created the goblinoids. They find they have more in common with short-lived men. This is also cited as a reason the Dwarves broke the ban on trading with man. A Dwarf has not appeared in Esdevium (the capital of the High Elves) in more than 1,000 years.

Adventurers
As mentioned above most Dwarf adventurers are exiles. They may also be young Dwarves seeing the World. Dwarves encountering each other in human lands will make a point of not talking about their homelands or past as a sign of respect. Dwarves are uncommon in Human lands but notso rare as to attract the curious.

Equipment List

2009-05-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

I have come up with an equipment list based on my conversations with friends, reading other blogs and some online research. I was looking for an early Medieval / Late Imperial European technology level. The average Vicentium cohort foot soldier is armed with a dagger, shortsword, shield and dressed in Scale Mail or Leather. Officers would have chain mail or possibly banded mail. The best armour is uniquely crafted for an individual by Dwarves. More on this when I look at the Dwarf class.

Classic Classes - Elf

2009-05-07T21:17:00.001-07:00

The race=class issue bothered me the most with the Elf. While he does need more experience points to advance in level I found that his superior abilities meant that he accumulated more experience. In The World of Selenica Campaign I ran back in the 1980s the Elf managed to stay up at the same Level as the Magic-user, Thief and Fighter in the group. So the method of balancing the Elf class did not work. Still I am willing to give the Elf class a reprieve now that I make a practice of dividing experience more evenly among participating classes. So without further ado;

The Elf
Elves along with Dwarves were the first peoples to arrive in the Lands of Mare Nostrum. Unlike the Dwarves the Elves had a great deal of contact with the humans. At first Elves dominated the bowl of the world but as time moved on the vast difference in population growth meant that the humans came to dominate the Lands and the Elves retreated into their Forests.

The Races of Elves
There are Four races of Elves but all are treated the same in the Rules.

First are the High Elves who are renowned practitioners of magic. Their homelands are Tentyra and Aelwynne which are currently at odds. The two High Elven lands are ruled by twins. Queen Alatariel Seregon rules Aelwynne and her twin brother King Tathar Helyanwe rules Tentyra. Alatariel married a human more than 200 years ago and her brother never forgave her. High Elves are the most likely ones encountered as adventurers. Most have had some contact with humans and if from Aelwynne they have likely spent some time living amongst humans. High elves are shortly, and slimmer than humans, have pale skin and short, pointed ears. High elves often express dislike of Dwarves and suspicion of Humans. The High Elf armies of magic and sword wielding foot soldiers are a formidable force and have rebuffed any human incursion in the past. Even the Empire of Vicentia at its height was unsuccessful in an expedition against Tentyra.

Second are the Grey Elves, the sly ones. The Grey elves are found most commonly in the taiga of the north. They have small communities hidden in the forests of Nornheim and Carmorgue. The Grey Elves are peculiar in that they live underground in halls in low hills. The Grey Elves also have a long history of cooperation and trade with the Dwarves. Their population has greatly reduced in numbers in the last few hundred years. To humans Grey Elves do not look much different then High Elves but astute observers will note that their skin is a darker shade and that they often have darker hair.

The Wood Elves or Wild Elves are natives of the Ugu-Ihlathi Jungles. They are rarely encountered by Humans other than those humans who are native to the jungles. They have light brown skin, long thin pointed ears and brown or black hair. There are rumours of a hidden city in the jungles where the Wood elves dwell. None have seen a wood elf city and returned to tell the tale. They are usually encountered in small groups far from any settlements.

The last group of Elves are the Drow of legend. Certainly Elves are aware of their existence but most humans scoff at the stories of dark skinned elves living deep in the earth.

Adventurers
I expect that Elven adventurers are fairly rare and would be the object of curiousity if they passed through a town. The novelty factor would be less in the nations around Aelwynne. In the Free Cities some Elves actually maintain residences in the Human cities. My intent was to make elves rare but give them some safe havens from which adventurers could hail from.

Coldstream Vale

2009-05-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

The first adventure I have written for Mare Nostrum is, The Temple of the Ice Toad. An adventure for a small party of 1st Level characters set along the Coldstream Pass road on the border of Numantia and Vicentia.

I took the world map in Hexographer, exported it as an image, expanded it by 300% and then imported it as a trace in Hexographer. A quick and simple way to expand a 24 miles per hex map into a 8 miles per hex map.

I still have not completely decided on the technology level for the world but I am settling around early Medieval. There is no platemail and only heavy crossbows are available. No carriages, little glass, travel by foot or boat. In the Empire of Vicentia the predominant weapons are spears, shortswords, slings and bows. In Numantia some of the warriors tend toward the bigger swords but shields are uncommon.

Back to the adventure. It is based on module M1: Blizzard Pass heavily modified. I do not know if it will get in actual play but I wanted to exercise my writing skills. I need a few short, simple adventures for one-shot online play and this fits the bill.

Borderlands of Kern

2009-05-03T05:37:00.001-07:00

Back in January 1982 I started my first campaign in the Borderlands of Kern. After writing my previous post I went looking for what information I might still have on this World. I still have the original graph paper map and luckily in 1999 I clumsily sketched it in a computer paint program.

As can be seen this map was an extension of the wilderness map provided in the back of Module B2: The Caves of Chaos. This was the only wilderness map I had seen up to this point. On this map I added my first dungeon - The Haunted Keep which was an extension of the adventure in the back of the Red Book D&D Basic rules. The Haunted Keep had 4 levels of dungeons spread beneath the two towers. Recently, I re-wrote the Keep for use online in Fantasy Grounds II. As I went through my writing from 1982 ( a groan-inspiring read) I was struck by how difficult a monster-fest it was. Monsters in practically every room with no apparent reason for their being there. I am surprised my bold adventures survived with only one death. Especially since there party numbered only three characters and there were no NPCs along. Back in 1999 I had also committed the first level of the dungeon to an image format.

Also, in the Borderlands of Kern was the Colossal Caves. A name I stole from an Apple Computer text adventure game. As I started writing, it was placed in the Borderlands but by the time it was actually used it was now set in a new world detailed in my previous posting. The lair of the Great Black Dragon Scatha and his master the Evil Wizard Balda Yoka (for whom I used the wizard image on the front of the Expert Rules. The players were forced to retreat from the Caves and come back later when they were higher in level. Of course I re-wrote things in the meantime.

There was a local Gamestore in 1983 that sold Judges Guild products so I cannot help but wonder if my first game world would not have been The Wilderlands if I had bought it at the time. As it turned out the first real World map I saw was the Grand Duchy of Karameikos in the back of the Expert Rules.

The World of Selenica

2009-05-02T13:41:00.001-07:00

My first Game World was the World of Selenica. My first campaign initially started on a simple Map on a piece of graph paper. It was called the Realms and later the Borlderlands of Kern. The first four adventures I ran for my players took place on this map. A few months into the campaign I purchased Module X1: The Isle of Dread and decided to create my own world map. Using the Hexagonal Mapping Booklet (8007) I created The World of Selenica. As you can see from the posted map I borrowed heavily from the Known World Map in Module X1. The area of Karameikos , Thyatis and Ylaruam were retained and much of the other place names.

This map only served as the basis for my World of Selenica campaign for half a year before I changed it to something that became more like the map mentioned in an earlier post. I do not recall all of the history I had written. I believe the World was one well after the end of a Golden Age with a High Magic Realm in the area to the west. After its fall the area around the Great Forest was made up of small kingdoms surviving in the ruins of the Realms. Selenica is a centrally located city where all trade routes meet. The Empire of Thyatis is a new Empire of Man on the rise and Karameikos was a borderland. Far to the north in the mountains in the barrens was an ultimate evil – roughly along the lines of Mordor.

Technology Level and Adventures

2009-05-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about the level of technology for Mare Nostrum. Speaking with a friend who is more versed in history and technology than myself I have learned quite a bit. I had some definite ideas going in. I wanted the water transportation to be fairly primitive. The societies of Mare Nostrum obviously depend greatly on water travel both on rivers and the sea. However, there is no need for very long voyages. I am envisioning cogs as the most common maritime vessel followed by galleys for military use. Sails are pimitive, single square-rigged concerns which limit tacking into the wind.

Going back and forth on the tech level gives me a time period in which the most advanced armour is banded mail, breastplates, leather and chain mail. The popular weapons are pikes, spears, shortswords, slings and javelins. Bows are not yet re-curved so they are weak and unable to penetrate armour.

Now I am not sure this is what I want. I started with a simple setting to frame some standard D&D adventures. This is slipping from that intial mission statement. This is not necessarily a bad thing but I need to think about the implications. How well does this lend itself to mammoth dungeons, keeps, castles and the stuff of D&D classic adventures. So I thought I would look at some of the classic adventures and see if they fit.

B1: In Search of the Unknown This takes place in a large, two-level dungeon complex. Nothing wrong with that. There is a high level of magic and some mechanical traps. Nothing here that does not fit in the tech level. There are some mentions of portrait paintings which actually is ahead of its time for Medieval ages as well. So a light re-write and this module works for the technology level.

B2: Caves of Chaos The wilderness part and the actual caves are in need of only a light re-write. However, the Keep on the Borderlands is definitely a problem. It is perhaps too modern, it has a Loan Bank, crossbowmen, arrow traps etc. So I think this one would not convert well and would need a heavy re-write.

B3: Palace of the Silver Princess One of my personal favourites and one that I have already written up for Labyrinth Lord. The Palace is far too advanced for the technology level I am considering. It is closer to Renaissance with its enormous size, a ballroom, complex traps, paintings, rooms with Renaissance furnishings, and thick stone walls. This adventure would need a complete re-write but it could still work. I would have to think a little about what Palaces and castles will look like in this proposed technology level. Now that I think about it a little more it might be fun to completely re-write the Palace for a more primitve setting.

T1: The Village of Hommlett This one really does not work. The village described is deeply rooted in English countryside of the 1400's. Even the Keep does not work and the Castle that they are building in the village is immense for the location. It is adventures like this one that will not work in the technology level I am considering.

All in all I have a lot to think about.

Kingdom of Khemet

2009-04-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

I have always liked having an Egyptian- style nation in my game world. Probably from a love of "Sword & Sandal" movies as a kid and TSR's "B4: The Lost City" adventure. The stereotype desert kingdom is easy on the DM as he can just have trackless sand wastelands between the occasional oasis. Of course this is not very realistic but it feels very much like a Conan novel. So for Mare Nostrum I worked the basis of an ancient Egyptian civilization into the back story. In the rain shadow of the Great Westron Mountains, Khemet is the birthplace of the first civilizations of man in the world. The patron god Akhom arranged for the lands of Khemet to be fed by three rivers flowing from the mountains and later when the people of Khemet displeased him he made the waters stop. A new hero - Uro caused the water of the River Amahte to flow again and became the new patron of Khemet. Almost 1,000 years later Khemet is in decline. It is newly independent after a period as a client state of Vicentia. Khemet is a loose Kingdom centered along the Amahte River. The colossol ruins of earlier civilizations bring a stready stream of adventurers to Khemet in search of their fortune. Those areas not along the coast or the river are only loosely under the rule of the King and are the territory of nomads and bandits. Khemet is at a similar tech level to the rest of the World. Steel armour is unusual because of the heat. Most of the military and adventurers are dressed only in leather or ringmail armour. Riverboats on the Amahte are the most common form of transportation. It is navigable from Deshret to just west of Benipe. Khemet manages to export grain grown in the fertile river valley. They also trade in gold and silver mined in the Westron Mountains. Benipe is a major hub of adventurers, miners and traders. Khemet also has a tradition as the birthplace of some of the most powerful magic-users in the past of Mare Nostrum. For this reason it is not unusual to find scholars searching the marketplaces for rare books and scrolls. The coastal cities to the north of Pahahasi and Qis have been independent from Khemet for almost 200 years and have developed a more urban culture distinct from Khemet.

Worlds out of Time

2009-04-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

While I kept all of my old campaigns, maps and journals not much of it is available to be posted online as it was rare for me to have an image of anything. At the time I did not have a computer. So all of these neat gaming tools (Paintshop, Word, Hexographer) were not available. I did find this one image (left) from my "first" campaign world. This image is from late in the development of the world. I called it the World of Selenica and it was the basis of a 15 year Basic D&D campaign. As observant people will note it was based somewhat on the Known World from the back of the Expert Rules. I cannot recall if I developed the World before or after I came across the map in X1: Isle of Dread but only the area around the Grand Duchy of Karameikos conformed to the Known Word Maps. The rest of the world was based off the map in a Science Fiction novel by Thomas F. Monteleone called "Guardian". Not much of that can be seen here. As the Gazetteer series came out I shoe-horned more and more of the content into my World. My Players did not really notice anyway. I sometimes found I was the only one concerned that the geography make sense. Recently I found my original maps and I have been slowly re-creating it in Hexographer. Hopefully I can soon post it as well.

Technology Level Part I

2009-04-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

An early step in preparing a Game World is the level of technology. You need to make this decision right at the start as it affects the landscape in many ways. Can people survive in the wastelands, are there roads or travel by sea, city-states or nations connected by trade. The easy way out is the default D&D setting that seems to be Northern Europe circa 1200 AD. But I wanted a world where the adventurers came from culture held into the valley around the Sea. This meant that travel could not be overly advanced and Magic could not be producing Flying Ships in the style of Mystara. If travel was more advanced then they would have spread from the area around the central sea.

So Magic is rare and practiced by few. Technology is stagnant at around 800-1000 AD level. Shipping both commercial and military is done with cog style ships and galleys. The ships hug the shoreline and move slowly. Using the Labyrinth Lord travel tables the length of time to sail from Vicentium to Deshret (my Rome and Alexandria) would be about 15 days without stops. As most ships would stop frequently at ports I am thinking it would be about a 1 month trip – which is about what I was looking for.

Travel inland is done largely on rivers on riverboats and barges. There are some roads in the territory that used to be claimed by the Empire of Vicentia. These roads are well built roads of stone. Dirt tracks make up the rest of the roads. Travel is on foot or horseback. There are carts but no carriages. Trading posts, Hitching posts and Inns would be a rarity along the roads as there is not very many travellers. Most travellers would stick to the ports along the sea and rivers. Villages will have an Inn if they are on an established route otherwise your party of adventurers needs to stay with a family willing to put them up for the night.

For the equipment of adventurers and war I have not completely decided the technology level. The first thing that occurred to me was to remove crossbows. But looking in the history books it appears crossbows are older then I had realized (appearing in Ancient Greece). I do not want mounted knights and plate mail. So likely the majority of armour would be ringmail, scalemail and steel breastplates with the wealthy having chainmail crafted for them. Warhorses have not yet appeared. Horses are riding horses not yet big enough to carry a heavily armoured knight or to wear barding.

I still have to think this over a little.

Creation Myth

2009-04-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

The God-War
In prehistoric times the ancient Elvish races dwelled in Nargothron by the Endless Ocean. The race became split between those that followed Feanaro Calafalas on the path of magic and nature and those that followed Daeron on the path of technology. Eventually the split led to War. The war lasted over 1,000 years and devastated the lands. Seeing this Feanaro suggested a truce with Daeron and a meeting. Daeron contrived to kill Feanaro at the meeting and the resulting clash destroyed the lands making them uninhabitable. Daeron had warned his followers and most hid underground. Feanaro looked for a safe place for his followers and could find none. They wandered until Everast the leader of the Dwarves came upon him. The dwarves were also wandering because of the devastation. Everast suggested the two work in concert to create a Safe Haven or Telemnar. Everast instructed two of his sons (Eastron and Westron) to lay down near a bowl in the earth creating the Great Eastern and Great Western mountains. Then Feanaro bade his daughter Earwen Arnatuile to lie in the bottom of the bowl and he opened a vein in her arm from which flowed water quickly filling the bottom of the bowl. It was agreed that the followers of Feanaro would then inhabit the woodlands of the bowl and the followers of Everast the bones of the gods in the mountains.

Return of the Drow
Eventually the elves of Daeron or Drow came up from their underground caves to look upon the world. They discovered that the land was dry and barren and inhabited by the monstrous descendents of elves now called orcs. The Drow set upon the orcs but could not defeat them due to their vast numbers. Daeron bid his people to wait underground while he planned. As he sat thinking Daeron discovered Telemnar and was angered to discover that the followers of Feanaro lived in peace and comfort. He approached a powerful Orc chieftan in disguise and offered to help him. Grumash became the first Orc god and with Daeron's help he built a powerful, magical hammer. Armed with the hammer Grumash began smashing a hole in the Eastron Mountain wall allowing the orcs to pour through and attack Telemnar. The Elves and Dwarves fought back but they had forgotten much of the ways of war. Just as things looked grim Feanaro appeared to the beastmen of the wastes as Akhom the great Eagle and led them to attack the Orc nation. Hearing of this the orcs abandoned Grumash and raced to return to their homes. Feanaro imprisoned Grumash beneath the Eastron Mountains.

Arrival of Man
The return of the Orcs to their nations put the beastmen on the run and they were chased far to the north. Akhom appeared to them again and led them through secret ways to Telemnar which they called Amhati. Here he gave them control over the western, desert half of the bowl and caused rivers to rise in the Westron Mountains running to the sea. In these river valleys they began their own civilization worshipping the same gods as the elves though they were in little contact with them. In time Man spread from the valleys to cover all areas in the bowl except the deep forest homes of the Elves and the mountains of the dwarves.

The Age of Man
Feanaro bade the Elves and Dwarves to not trade metals or weapons with the humans for fear of what the quick breeding humans would do to his valley. The humans chafed under these restrictions and eventually turned from the worship of elven gods and began to make weapons of bronze. Feanaro was angered and in punishment he stopped the flow of the rivers in the primary human Kingdoms of Khemet turning the land into a desert. For 40 years the humans scraped out a bare existence amongst the ruins of their old culture until the coming of the Hero Uro and his band including Mshai the mighty wizard. They set out to investigate the headwaters of the Ahmate River to bring water back to the humans. Uro successfully defeated the traps left by Feanaro and reopened the well to the Ahmate River. Water flowed again and in time Uro became the patron god of Khemet. Those humans who had remained faithful to Feanaro settled along the Damas River and their settlements grew into the Empire of Vicentia.

The Setting

2009-04-26T08:58:00.001-07:00

Mare Nostrum is a Mediterranean style setting. A huge single sea surrounded by mountains, basically a "bowl". Inside the bowl is dominated by humans. Outside the bowl are the wastelands where the orcs and other beasts rule. Goblinoid races are confined to the underdark and the mountains at the edge of the bowl.

To the west of the sea is the dry, desert regions ruled by the Egyptian style cultures. To the east of the sea is where the Roman style empire rose and is now in decline. To the north are the barbarian tribes and to the south are the trackless jungles.

Climate is equatorial to the south moving through temperate to frozen steppes in the north.

What is Mare Nostrum

2009-04-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

I have always felt a need for a developed Game World as a setting for my RPG adventures. Recently I wrote some Adventures for Labyrinth Lord a Retro-Clone game and I wanted a setting for it. What sprung to mind was a large bowl with an ocean at the bottom. A program called Hexographer made this map a reality. I started developing the world with the help of a friend So I thought I would put it Online to chart the development of the World.