When AO created all-that-is, it is written by some who are wise in such things, there were spirits and godlings and beasts and those-who-would-be-man who did not want to play the-game-that-is-All that AO first postulated as what-was-to-be."Why should we play this game, whose Rules are not ours to suggest and to create?!?" said some, who were outraged that they had had no say in the making of the rules-that-were-to-be that would govern them. "Why should we play this game, whose Rules are not to our liking at all?!?" said others, who grew discordant at the idea that all-that-is-to-be should have rules at all. "Why should we play this game, we who see no profit in this?" quietly said a third small group, who even in the great Beginning of Beginnings saw that there is profit, and loss, and that one of these things was, to their eyes, better than the other.
And AO looked upon AO's creations, and grew sad, for it was not even the End of Beginnings, and already there was dissension and chaos. But such is as it is, and so AO said unto the first group "In the times to come, there will be opportunity to modify and create rules - which shall be known as Laws - in some aspects and respects. And while some Laws will be immutable, and you may not change them, others you may arrange as you see fit, and all beasts and men and gods shall fail to follow them at their peril. Kun? (is this good?)"
And the gods and the beasts and the spirits and those-who-would-be-men looked on this, and most said "Paya-Kun". (this is good) for it was good. But some said nothing.
And AO turned then to the second group, it is written, and said unto them "In times the Laws shall grow over-bearing, and at times they shall be written poorly, for only AO has all-the-wisdom-there-is, and so is infallible. And in these spaces and in these places you who have no respect for rules-as-they-are-written shall flourish, and your disdain for them shall be a potent reminder that the Law is a tool to an end, not an End itself. And some of you shall live within the Law, but others beside it, and you shall bring Change to all things. Kun?"
And the gods and the beasts and the spirits and those-who-would-be-men looked on this, and saw that though this division would bring change - but also strife - but that it was better than a never-ending stasis, and many said "Paya-Kun." But some said nothing.
And so AO (who was ever so clever, it is usually said) turned to the third group, and said unto them "And you who seek only profit, You I give both profit and task. For you shall be able to use both the Law and Change to your advantage, and shall conceivably grow mighty, though ever small in numbers. And some of you shall oversee both Law and Chaos, and stand between them, seeking always Balance between the two, for this is your geas that I set upon you, and others shall seek to defend always my creations that have no voice, for this is the geas that I set upon you as well. But others shall wind the Engine of Commerce that you shall create, and use it to better those who have voice but no power - for that is the third geas I lay upon you, for as you desire to grow mighty, so shall you spend that power in my bidding. Kun?
And the third group looked about, and saw that their path might be the hardest of the three, but also the most interesting - and certainly the most profitable - and so most of the gods and the beasts and the spirits and those-who-would-be-men looked on this, and said - if reluctantly "Paya Kun." But some said nothing.
And so it was that there were those of Law, who set forth to creating rules and regulations, and those of Chaos, who set about creating dissension and change, and those of Neutrality, who depending on their geas created profit, defended those-with-no-voice, or sought Balance between all things.
But there were those who had said nothing, and thought themselves unbound by any agreements with AO. And some created Laws that were unjust, favoring only themselves, and others flouted all laws, not just those that were too stifling or too restrictive, and created abominations, and others sought only profit at the expense of others, regardless of their duties.
And in time word of this came to AO - as indeed all things did, in the Beginning - and AO gathered up all the gods and the beasts and the spirits and those-who-would-be-men, and AO's wrath was terrible, and AO separated out those-who-had-made-no-agreement, and AO said to them "You, who said nothing and did not Agree, now you do not play the Game-that-is-All by any rules save your own, and you create nothing that is great and mighty, but only that which is dark and twisted, and you do not fuel the Engine of Commerce with your profit, but horde it. And for this I banish you to the Places Beyond, and you may enter into All-That-Is only when invited, and must serve the whims of your invitee, and I name you Devils, you who twist the Law, and Demons, you who follow no rules and make no beauty, and Daemons, you who seek only your own aggrandizement. And I say to you that you shall have no taste of the pleasures of the Heavens, and shall dwell only in dark places!"
And so it was.
And to this day, those who did not Agree are called Devils, and Demons, and Daemons, and when summoned they must serve - if the summoner knows the words and the terms and the bindings and the Names. But few today can speak the Language of the Beginning in the ways it must be spoken. And fewer still know the Terms and the Bindings. And of those who speak the Language, and know the Terms and can perform the Bindings, few have more than a handful of Names - and often those names are only partially correct. And so demons and devils and daemons are often free to twist and even ignore the commands of their summoner.
And the hatred they bear for those who dwell in all-that-is is secondary only to the hatred they bear for those that dwell in all-that-is-Beyond, and for AO who sleeps.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
D is for Dungeons and Dragons and Demons
Dungeons
Although it is said that many citadels and fortresses of the Old Countries had underground complexes associated with them - and this method of construction has continued to the present day, these (usually) small subterranean complexes are often dwarfed by the massive partially-ruined underground compounds that can be found with disturbing regularity on the continent of Malaster. There are some whose original purposes can be discerned - whether they are the long-buried ruins of cities forgotten, with streets turned into corridors, and houses and shops into room complexes, dwarven mining complexes left to moulder by whatever disaster took the miners, tombs and funereal labyrinths, the dungeons and basements of fortresses long-since reduced to rubble, or something similar.
Many, however, have no coherent theme or purpose that can be discerned - some, indeed, seem to have only been the expression of some mad-god or magus' fevered imaginings, filled with deathtraps and puzzles, creatures that have no purpose beyond the assassination of intruders - sometimes literally - and treasures scattered haphazardly throughout (although whether they are purposely left by the creator, or lost by those who dared its hazards since, is often impossible to discern).
This plethora of underground (or partially underground) complexes has made exploration of the inner reaches of Malaster hazardous and a slow process - even in the earliest settled areas, there are still dungeons and other complexes found in areas long-since cleared out, or new sections of labyrinths long thought cleared are unearthed inadvertently. Some sages - although not necessarily well-regarded ones - opine that the entirety of Malaster's underground might be honeycombed with such complexes, natural and man-made. While this is given little credence by most, it certainly is the case that creatures thought restricted to one area or another of the continent are occasionally found hundreds or even thousands of miles from their native territories - with no plausible reason for why.
Dragons
Dragons are an exceedingly ancient species - some say they date back to when AO made all-that-is, while others say that the Draconic sub-species were, in fact, present at the Great Creation itself - although this is, naturally, madness, for before AO undertook the Creation there was only Chaos and AO.
The Metallic and Chromatic branches of the Draconic races are the most well-known, but by no means the only ones - by some accounts, there may be as many as a hundred different species of Dragon, ranging from the diminutive Faerie dragons, to the massive Reds and Golds. Dragons have changed - whether through accident of evolution, or purpose-driven change brought on by their own magics - to exploit nearly every possible niche, and are largely considered to be the apex predators in nearly every biome on Malaster.
Fortunately, they are exceedingly rare. Many - particularly in the more "civilized" areas of the continent - will go their entire lives without ever seeing* a dragon from closer than far in the sky (and grateful for that), and even in the wildest parts of Malaster dragon sitings are uncommon to be sure.
But those who have witnessed a dragon's attack - or those who have somehow survived one, or (more rarely yet) overcome a dragon - will never forget the experience, for even very young dragons are fearsome creatures. And the power of the most ancient and largest Dragons is rare and wondrous beyond belief.
*or, at least, without ever knowing they have seen a dragon, anyways, since many of the more powerful and cunning have mastered the secret of taking the form of others.
Demons
Demons are those-who-disagreed-at-the-beginning - those who flouted the agreement with AO, and thought themselves unbound by AO's will. Although the term is often used by those with less knowledge of such things as a catch-all term for all such beings, Demon specifically refers to those who worked against the forces of Law in the Beginning, and were bound therefore to the Law in their very Chaos.
And so Demons, who are themselves Chaotic, are nonetheless held to be structured and rigid in their society and organization in the Places Beyond and the Outer Darkness. They, who created no beauty in the Beginning, themselves are believed to have none - even those who work through the temptations of the flesh are supposedly hideous in appearance, working through illusion and deception*.
Two things are certain, however - Demons can only enter all-that-is with the assistance of those already within, and if summoned with the proper rituals and circumscribed with the proper bindings and agreements, they are bound to serve the summoner, although such acts are, even when everything appears perfect, nonetheless risky to both body and soul.
*Demons of Temptation are widely held to be Erinyes, not Succubi, who are themselves held to be Devils by most sages - although as with many things "known" about the Outer Dark and its inhabitants, this could be the result of mischief, deception, or misinterpretation.
Although it is said that many citadels and fortresses of the Old Countries had underground complexes associated with them - and this method of construction has continued to the present day, these (usually) small subterranean complexes are often dwarfed by the massive partially-ruined underground compounds that can be found with disturbing regularity on the continent of Malaster. There are some whose original purposes can be discerned - whether they are the long-buried ruins of cities forgotten, with streets turned into corridors, and houses and shops into room complexes, dwarven mining complexes left to moulder by whatever disaster took the miners, tombs and funereal labyrinths, the dungeons and basements of fortresses long-since reduced to rubble, or something similar.
Many, however, have no coherent theme or purpose that can be discerned - some, indeed, seem to have only been the expression of some mad-god or magus' fevered imaginings, filled with deathtraps and puzzles, creatures that have no purpose beyond the assassination of intruders - sometimes literally - and treasures scattered haphazardly throughout (although whether they are purposely left by the creator, or lost by those who dared its hazards since, is often impossible to discern).
This plethora of underground (or partially underground) complexes has made exploration of the inner reaches of Malaster hazardous and a slow process - even in the earliest settled areas, there are still dungeons and other complexes found in areas long-since cleared out, or new sections of labyrinths long thought cleared are unearthed inadvertently. Some sages - although not necessarily well-regarded ones - opine that the entirety of Malaster's underground might be honeycombed with such complexes, natural and man-made. While this is given little credence by most, it certainly is the case that creatures thought restricted to one area or another of the continent are occasionally found hundreds or even thousands of miles from their native territories - with no plausible reason for why.
Dragons
Dragons are an exceedingly ancient species - some say they date back to when AO made all-that-is, while others say that the Draconic sub-species were, in fact, present at the Great Creation itself - although this is, naturally, madness, for before AO undertook the Creation there was only Chaos and AO.
The Metallic and Chromatic branches of the Draconic races are the most well-known, but by no means the only ones - by some accounts, there may be as many as a hundred different species of Dragon, ranging from the diminutive Faerie dragons, to the massive Reds and Golds. Dragons have changed - whether through accident of evolution, or purpose-driven change brought on by their own magics - to exploit nearly every possible niche, and are largely considered to be the apex predators in nearly every biome on Malaster.
Fortunately, they are exceedingly rare. Many - particularly in the more "civilized" areas of the continent - will go their entire lives without ever seeing* a dragon from closer than far in the sky (and grateful for that), and even in the wildest parts of Malaster dragon sitings are uncommon to be sure.
But those who have witnessed a dragon's attack - or those who have somehow survived one, or (more rarely yet) overcome a dragon - will never forget the experience, for even very young dragons are fearsome creatures. And the power of the most ancient and largest Dragons is rare and wondrous beyond belief.
*or, at least, without ever knowing they have seen a dragon, anyways, since many of the more powerful and cunning have mastered the secret of taking the form of others.
Demons
Demons are those-who-disagreed-at-the-beginning - those who flouted the agreement with AO, and thought themselves unbound by AO's will. Although the term is often used by those with less knowledge of such things as a catch-all term for all such beings, Demon specifically refers to those who worked against the forces of Law in the Beginning, and were bound therefore to the Law in their very Chaos.
And so Demons, who are themselves Chaotic, are nonetheless held to be structured and rigid in their society and organization in the Places Beyond and the Outer Darkness. They, who created no beauty in the Beginning, themselves are believed to have none - even those who work through the temptations of the flesh are supposedly hideous in appearance, working through illusion and deception*.
Two things are certain, however - Demons can only enter all-that-is with the assistance of those already within, and if summoned with the proper rituals and circumscribed with the proper bindings and agreements, they are bound to serve the summoner, although such acts are, even when everything appears perfect, nonetheless risky to both body and soul.
*Demons of Temptation are widely held to be Erinyes, not Succubi, who are themselves held to be Devils by most sages - although as with many things "known" about the Outer Dark and its inhabitants, this could be the result of mischief, deception, or misinterpretation.
Monday, April 4, 2011
C is for - Common, Coinage, and Courts
Common
Trade tongue (also called tradespeak, Trade, or - rarely - Common), as it is generally known, is the equivalent of “Common” in Malaster. Its roots devolve back to the Old Countries, where it was the language of a semi-nomadic group of halfling and human merchants, now believed extinct (or nearly so).Trade Tongue has an easy structure to learn, is understandable when spoken by a wide variety of different mouth types, and seems eager - even aggressive - to absorb loan-words and phrases from other languages (although, as Elves are wont to exclaim, exact pronunciation rarely survives contact with Trade tongue).
This makes it highly suitable for a trade patois with a focus on mercantilism and exchange, but is less useful for certain highly esoteric or precise topics. For these subjects, various other languages - Elven, Draconic, etc. - are used instead.
Trade tongue is probably the most commonly spoken language in Malaster. It is nearly always the second - and sometimes the first - language learned by most "civilized" races, and more than a few "uncivilized" ones - while the lesser servants of the Unseele Court rarely deign to learn tradespeak (or little more than enough to give commands to slaves, and understand their responses), goblinoids, many giants and giant-kin, and other humanoid (and semi-humanoid) species will speak at least a smattering of tradespeak.
Coinage
Coinage is broken down into three primary groupings, with two being in common usage. The mints of Isderay produce a series of coins known as Sovereigns, in bronze, copper, silver, electrum, gold, and platinum, which are legal tender on the isles, but (officially) are not to be traded further than Isderay's holdings. This makes the Sovereign a fairly stable coinage, but hard to get ahold of.
Most coinage in Malaster in common circulation is minted with the blessings and auspices of the city-states of Aldyrin. Such coinage can be produced in any fashion or denomination, with any kind of decoration, but must use blanks purchased from the Aldyrin mint, and copies of every coin created must be turned in to the Aldyrin Assay Office in Myrashelle. This produces a regularity and trustworthiness that is unmatched even by Isderayan coinage - coins minted in this fashion are of known purity and weight, and are standardized in a way that makes them popular with merchants and customer alike.
Aldyrin-templated coins are minted in brass, bronze, copper, silver, electrum, gold, platinum, orichalcum, and mithril, although the latter two are highly uncommon. A variety of designs are possible, but most common are a coin which can be broken into four quarters - these are known as "bits", and have one-fourth the value of a whole coin.
The last pool of coins commonly found are heirloom, heritage, or foundling coins. These are available in an amazing variety of styles, options, metals, and designs - especially when foundling coins (which are "found" in ancient tombs, dungeons, and the like) are considered. While some, principally those from the Old Countries, have some level of numismatic value beyond the value of their materials, most - particularly foundling coins - are sold to assay offices, to be melted down and turned into blanks for minting.
Although coinage is the main form of wealth, some countries do use alternate forms of currency - paper monies, magical options, trade goods, etc. And many areas, particularly those on the fringes of civilization, trade is as much a matter of barter and negotiation as it is raw wealth.
Courts
Although the pantheons of gods are far more complex than two simple courts of "good" and "evil", the Seele and Unseele Courts are certainly important parts of the sophisticated web of godlings, spirits, deities and entities that rule over - or at least influence - the world of Malaster.
The Seele Courts
The gods of the Seele Courts are, for the most part, gods of Good or those with Good tendencies. Many - though by no means all, and perhaps not even most - are Lawful by nature. They are promoters of civilization, and the patrons of humanity and demi-humanity (in general). Despite their seeming beneficence, there are those who claim that the Seele court holds humanity back - that their patronage of humanity is seeded not in some munificent desire to help, but rather to retard humanities progress - they point to the examples of human champions that have ascended to the Courts - and the lack of them in recent centuries - as proof that humans can become Gods, but that the Courts have no interest in this becoming a more common occurrence.
The Unseele Courts
Where the Gods of the Seele Court are primarily gods of Good and (to a lesser extent) Law, the gods of the Unseele Courts are primarily (but not exclusively) those of Evil (or self-interested Neutrality), and Chaos (although a number of Lawful deities also make their home in the Unseele Courts). Strangely, (some of) the Unseele claim to be promoters of humanity just as strongly as the Seele do - they assert that only through trial and tribulation are people tested and made stronger - or found to be wanting and discarded or destroyed.
While the Unseele Courts are largely seen as inimical, capricious, and even cruel, they are by no means heartless (it is said, anyways), nor are they without redeeming features - most, it must be stated, are loyal (to some degree or another) to their worshippers and servants, and all of them take their Aspects seriously. For although they may be Evil, they nonetheless play the game-that-is-all that AO created in the Beginning of Things, and they dwell not in all-that-is-Beyond, but in the Heavens Above.
Trade tongue (also called tradespeak, Trade, or - rarely - Common), as it is generally known, is the equivalent of “Common” in Malaster. Its roots devolve back to the Old Countries, where it was the language of a semi-nomadic group of halfling and human merchants, now believed extinct (or nearly so).Trade Tongue has an easy structure to learn, is understandable when spoken by a wide variety of different mouth types, and seems eager - even aggressive - to absorb loan-words and phrases from other languages (although, as Elves are wont to exclaim, exact pronunciation rarely survives contact with Trade tongue).
This makes it highly suitable for a trade patois with a focus on mercantilism and exchange, but is less useful for certain highly esoteric or precise topics. For these subjects, various other languages - Elven, Draconic, etc. - are used instead.
Trade tongue is probably the most commonly spoken language in Malaster. It is nearly always the second - and sometimes the first - language learned by most "civilized" races, and more than a few "uncivilized" ones - while the lesser servants of the Unseele Court rarely deign to learn tradespeak (or little more than enough to give commands to slaves, and understand their responses), goblinoids, many giants and giant-kin, and other humanoid (and semi-humanoid) species will speak at least a smattering of tradespeak.
Coinage
Coinage is broken down into three primary groupings, with two being in common usage. The mints of Isderay produce a series of coins known as Sovereigns, in bronze, copper, silver, electrum, gold, and platinum, which are legal tender on the isles, but (officially) are not to be traded further than Isderay's holdings. This makes the Sovereign a fairly stable coinage, but hard to get ahold of.
Most coinage in Malaster in common circulation is minted with the blessings and auspices of the city-states of Aldyrin. Such coinage can be produced in any fashion or denomination, with any kind of decoration, but must use blanks purchased from the Aldyrin mint, and copies of every coin created must be turned in to the Aldyrin Assay Office in Myrashelle. This produces a regularity and trustworthiness that is unmatched even by Isderayan coinage - coins minted in this fashion are of known purity and weight, and are standardized in a way that makes them popular with merchants and customer alike.
Aldyrin-templated coins are minted in brass, bronze, copper, silver, electrum, gold, platinum, orichalcum, and mithril, although the latter two are highly uncommon. A variety of designs are possible, but most common are a coin which can be broken into four quarters - these are known as "bits", and have one-fourth the value of a whole coin.
The last pool of coins commonly found are heirloom, heritage, or foundling coins. These are available in an amazing variety of styles, options, metals, and designs - especially when foundling coins (which are "found" in ancient tombs, dungeons, and the like) are considered. While some, principally those from the Old Countries, have some level of numismatic value beyond the value of their materials, most - particularly foundling coins - are sold to assay offices, to be melted down and turned into blanks for minting.
Although coinage is the main form of wealth, some countries do use alternate forms of currency - paper monies, magical options, trade goods, etc. And many areas, particularly those on the fringes of civilization, trade is as much a matter of barter and negotiation as it is raw wealth.
Courts
Although the pantheons of gods are far more complex than two simple courts of "good" and "evil", the Seele and Unseele Courts are certainly important parts of the sophisticated web of godlings, spirits, deities and entities that rule over - or at least influence - the world of Malaster.
The Seele Courts
The gods of the Seele Courts are, for the most part, gods of Good or those with Good tendencies. Many - though by no means all, and perhaps not even most - are Lawful by nature. They are promoters of civilization, and the patrons of humanity and demi-humanity (in general). Despite their seeming beneficence, there are those who claim that the Seele court holds humanity back - that their patronage of humanity is seeded not in some munificent desire to help, but rather to retard humanities progress - they point to the examples of human champions that have ascended to the Courts - and the lack of them in recent centuries - as proof that humans can become Gods, but that the Courts have no interest in this becoming a more common occurrence.
The Unseele Courts
Where the Gods of the Seele Court are primarily gods of Good and (to a lesser extent) Law, the gods of the Unseele Courts are primarily (but not exclusively) those of Evil (or self-interested Neutrality), and Chaos (although a number of Lawful deities also make their home in the Unseele Courts). Strangely, (some of) the Unseele claim to be promoters of humanity just as strongly as the Seele do - they assert that only through trial and tribulation are people tested and made stronger - or found to be wanting and discarded or destroyed.
While the Unseele Courts are largely seen as inimical, capricious, and even cruel, they are by no means heartless (it is said, anyways), nor are they without redeeming features - most, it must be stated, are loyal (to some degree or another) to their worshippers and servants, and all of them take their Aspects seriously. For although they may be Evil, they nonetheless play the game-that-is-all that AO created in the Beginning of Things, and they dwell not in all-that-is-Beyond, but in the Heavens Above.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
B is for - Bugbears, Bodyguards, and Bolt-throwers
Bugbears
Bugbears are perhaps the most commonly encountered - although not the most feared* - of the Unseele Court's servants. Although mighty in battle, and fearsome both in appearance and demeanor, they curiously many of the mannerisms and depravities found in other servants of the Court - they are cannibalistic, but not rapacious, cruel, but not sadistic, and while they torture for information or intimidation, they appear to derive no joy from it. Even their warfare and raiding is goal-oriented in nature - although chaotic in aspect, and evil by nature, they do not seem to enjoy war for its own sake.
For these reasons, while few seek out dealings with the children of Hrugg (self-proclaimed god of the Bugbears), and war between the Bugbear tribes and "civilized" lands (especially the Dwarves) of Malaster are not uncommon, Bugbears enjoy somewhat less hatred than other servants of the Unseele.
But only somewhat.
*That dubious honor is bestowed upon the foul Orcs who revel in all of the sins that the Bugbears appear to eschew, and more besides. Or perhaps the Kobolds, widely regarded as cruelty and depravity personified, although their small stature and general xenophobia renders them less outwardly harmful, save to those foolish enough to brave their warrens.
Bodyguards
Bodyguarding is a somewhat popular way for low-born - but talented - individuals to rise up in social status - at least to some degree - without some of the hazards and risks of warfare, or "adventuring".
Bodyguards are hired primarily by nobility, by higher-ranking merchants, and in particular by the merchant-princes found in some of the more mercantile nations and city-states of Southern Malaster (particularly in the Hundred Islands). Merchant-Princes of Makorios make the most use of bodyguards, as befits their highly cutthroat business style and anarchic form of governance - even lesser merchants will have a small retinue of bodyguards to attend to their person and their loved ones, and the Great Princes of Commerce hire entire cohorts - really, small armies independent of and superior to their actual military forces - to oversee their safety.
Bodyguards are rarely considered servants, but at the same time, are not at all equals or friends - they usually occupy a somewhat grey area between the two. Their duties vary according to contract, tradition, and need - most often they are primarily concerned with the physical well-being of their charge, and others handle supplemental duties (like taste-testing for poisons, handling the charge's spiritual and magical well-being, etc.). Depending on the nature of the threat, they may - or may not - be charged with ensuring their protectee is not taken by kidnappers or the like - even to the point of making certain that if they cannot protect their charge, they must be eliminated.
Bolt-throwers
The problem with guns in fantasy games is that they are immensely polarizing. On the one hand, actual interpretations of early firearms result in few characters using them - a weapon that reloads and fires at the rate of a crossbow (at best), creates clouds of choking smoke, is less accurate than a crossbow, and only slightly more lethal is rarely the preferred weapon for an adventurer. On the other hand, more modern(ish) weapons - or less realistic interpretations - often run into the massive amounts of mystique that surround modern firearms - the gun as magic wand of death - and the massive amounts of rules-lawyering and unwarranted assumptions that spring up around them.
But while Vlad Taltos is perfectly capable of swashing his buckle without the aid of a gun, he does have access to various tools to make this more feasible. And while swashbucklers and pirates are by no means a central concept to Malaster, they certainly are part of it (just because I love rapier-and-dagger work, if nothing else - hey, I grew up on Errol Flynn movies, okay?) and I felt that they needed something to make up for their lack of heavy hitting power, defensive prowess (armor), and the like. So they needed a proper, hard-hitting missile weapon of some sort... but guns are out. But gun-like objects are not guns, right? And so, Bolt-throwers and dart-flingers. Based on the mechanisms used in various trap designs, they are essentially crossbows, but instead of using a spring arm, they used a coiled spring mechanism, making them far more compact (if more expensive because of the higher quality steel needed, and additional engineering expertise).
Because they are still a fairly new invention (being less than a century old), and because they are still in the process of being worked out, there are many variations, but few recognized designs - nearly all currently are pistol-sized in nature (although a few arms-masters have begun producing something akin to a carbine - they're still rather nose-heavy, however, since the steel spring rides around the barrel), most have a pair of springs to allow a quick follow-up shot, and there are relatively few "pepperbox" designs, because of the massive weight involved.
And so - a gun that is not really a gun, and (hopefully) carries little or none of the mythology and mystique that surrounds firearms.
Bugbears are perhaps the most commonly encountered - although not the most feared* - of the Unseele Court's servants. Although mighty in battle, and fearsome both in appearance and demeanor, they curiously many of the mannerisms and depravities found in other servants of the Court - they are cannibalistic, but not rapacious, cruel, but not sadistic, and while they torture for information or intimidation, they appear to derive no joy from it. Even their warfare and raiding is goal-oriented in nature - although chaotic in aspect, and evil by nature, they do not seem to enjoy war for its own sake.
For these reasons, while few seek out dealings with the children of Hrugg (self-proclaimed god of the Bugbears), and war between the Bugbear tribes and "civilized" lands (especially the Dwarves) of Malaster are not uncommon, Bugbears enjoy somewhat less hatred than other servants of the Unseele.
But only somewhat.
*That dubious honor is bestowed upon the foul Orcs who revel in all of the sins that the Bugbears appear to eschew, and more besides. Or perhaps the Kobolds, widely regarded as cruelty and depravity personified, although their small stature and general xenophobia renders them less outwardly harmful, save to those foolish enough to brave their warrens.
Bodyguards
Bodyguarding is a somewhat popular way for low-born - but talented - individuals to rise up in social status - at least to some degree - without some of the hazards and risks of warfare, or "adventuring".
Bodyguards are hired primarily by nobility, by higher-ranking merchants, and in particular by the merchant-princes found in some of the more mercantile nations and city-states of Southern Malaster (particularly in the Hundred Islands). Merchant-Princes of Makorios make the most use of bodyguards, as befits their highly cutthroat business style and anarchic form of governance - even lesser merchants will have a small retinue of bodyguards to attend to their person and their loved ones, and the Great Princes of Commerce hire entire cohorts - really, small armies independent of and superior to their actual military forces - to oversee their safety.
Bodyguards are rarely considered servants, but at the same time, are not at all equals or friends - they usually occupy a somewhat grey area between the two. Their duties vary according to contract, tradition, and need - most often they are primarily concerned with the physical well-being of their charge, and others handle supplemental duties (like taste-testing for poisons, handling the charge's spiritual and magical well-being, etc.). Depending on the nature of the threat, they may - or may not - be charged with ensuring their protectee is not taken by kidnappers or the like - even to the point of making certain that if they cannot protect their charge, they must be eliminated.
Bolt-throwers
The problem with guns in fantasy games is that they are immensely polarizing. On the one hand, actual interpretations of early firearms result in few characters using them - a weapon that reloads and fires at the rate of a crossbow (at best), creates clouds of choking smoke, is less accurate than a crossbow, and only slightly more lethal is rarely the preferred weapon for an adventurer. On the other hand, more modern(ish) weapons - or less realistic interpretations - often run into the massive amounts of mystique that surround modern firearms - the gun as magic wand of death - and the massive amounts of rules-lawyering and unwarranted assumptions that spring up around them.
But while Vlad Taltos is perfectly capable of swashing his buckle without the aid of a gun, he does have access to various tools to make this more feasible. And while swashbucklers and pirates are by no means a central concept to Malaster, they certainly are part of it (just because I love rapier-and-dagger work, if nothing else - hey, I grew up on Errol Flynn movies, okay?) and I felt that they needed something to make up for their lack of heavy hitting power, defensive prowess (armor), and the like. So they needed a proper, hard-hitting missile weapon of some sort... but guns are out. But gun-like objects are not guns, right? And so, Bolt-throwers and dart-flingers. Based on the mechanisms used in various trap designs, they are essentially crossbows, but instead of using a spring arm, they used a coiled spring mechanism, making them far more compact (if more expensive because of the higher quality steel needed, and additional engineering expertise).
Because they are still a fairly new invention (being less than a century old), and because they are still in the process of being worked out, there are many variations, but few recognized designs - nearly all currently are pistol-sized in nature (although a few arms-masters have begun producing something akin to a carbine - they're still rather nose-heavy, however, since the steel spring rides around the barrel), most have a pair of springs to allow a quick follow-up shot, and there are relatively few "pepperbox" designs, because of the massive weight involved.
And so - a gun that is not really a gun, and (hopefully) carries little or none of the mythology and mystique that surrounds firearms.
Friday, April 1, 2011
A is for... Arduin, Azathoth, and Atlantis
Arduin
Arduin was both the name of a series of role-playing supplements, and the name of the world they were set in, both created by David A. Hargrave starting from 1977 until his death in 1988. Arduin was one of the first - or at least best-known - early examples of what might be called "Gonzo" fantasy - a sort of anything-goes, all-inclusive melange of mythpoetic madness that shamelessly borrowed from nearly everywhere, and when it ran out of stuff that wasn't nailed down, trekked into the wilds of imagination - drug-induced or otherwise - to fill in gaps and plasterboard over the worst holes in the narrative.
The result was a roller-coaster ride of races, spells, poisons, monsters, weird weapons, classes, rules extensions, world details, religions, gods, demons, and a plethora of strangeness that nearly any dungeon master could find something to love in - all painstakingly typed up on a typewriter and laid out in digest-sized handbooks (8 of them), with artwork pasted in from the likes of Erol Otus and Michio Okamura.
Very little of Arduin has directly made it into Malaster - it's a little too gonzo, in some respects, for my current play style. But to say that Arduin has not informed and inspired nearly everything I do in gaming would be incorrect. So there is, perhaps, a little Arduin - if only because of its inspirations - in Malaster.
Azathoth
The Blind Idiot God. The Daemon Sultan, who dwells at the center of the universe, kept sleeping by the mad piping and drums of unseen tormentors. In this case, Azathoth stands in for all of the Cthulhu-esque madnesses of the Great Old Ones and their many-angled servitors.
Cthulhu and Swords&Sorcery fiction are nearly tied at the hip - many of the writers of Lovecraftian fiction and pulp fantasy drew from the same inspirational progenitors (Lord Dunsany, for example), merely in different directions, and many of the early writers - Clark Ashton Smith, HP Lovecraft, and Robert E Howard, for example - were close friends, shared frequent correspondence, and even collaborated on plots and world-building. It is not surprising, therefore, to find references to Lovecraftian horrors in some of Howard's works, for example, and to see suggestions of Hyperborea and Atlantean excesses in some of Lovecraft's writings (and such ties were much more strongly suggested - or even outright stated - in the works of those who would come after).
But a little - or even a very little - Lovecraft can go a very, very long ways in a fantasy game. Too much, and it begins to dominate the plot landscape very quickly, overriding nearly everything else. SO hints and suggestions that Things Man (and Elf and Dwarf) Were Not Meant To Know certainly can be found - but players are unlikely to spend much time seeking out the thin melodies of mad pipers who cast their somnolence upon the Nuclear Chaos.
Atlantis
Atlantis serves many purposes in fictions of the fantastic. It is the lost utopia, the advanced civilization that fell because of hubris, or decadence, or invoking the wrath of the gods. It can be a threat from beyond time, a source for amazing treasures, or sciences, magics or miracles long-lost - or all of these things. Númenor is Atlantis, in a sense - so is the Dragon Shogunate, or the First Age, in Exalted.
There are several Atlantis stand-ins in Malaster. The most obvious, of course, is the Old Countries - the lands that many/most Malastrians fled from two centuries ago, in the face of some mysterious threat so horrible few can even agree on its nature, let alone wish to speak of it. But Malaster itself has its Atlanti - the terrible Secret Kingdoms of the Sarastian Empire, the proud realms of the Acanti, the demon-infested horrors of the Maras-til. Little is known of these strange principalities of yesteryear - indeed, to some scholars they are little more than myth and conjecture. But even through the millennia, they cast their shadows over the current inhabitants....
Arduin was both the name of a series of role-playing supplements, and the name of the world they were set in, both created by David A. Hargrave starting from 1977 until his death in 1988. Arduin was one of the first - or at least best-known - early examples of what might be called "Gonzo" fantasy - a sort of anything-goes, all-inclusive melange of mythpoetic madness that shamelessly borrowed from nearly everywhere, and when it ran out of stuff that wasn't nailed down, trekked into the wilds of imagination - drug-induced or otherwise - to fill in gaps and plasterboard over the worst holes in the narrative.
The result was a roller-coaster ride of races, spells, poisons, monsters, weird weapons, classes, rules extensions, world details, religions, gods, demons, and a plethora of strangeness that nearly any dungeon master could find something to love in - all painstakingly typed up on a typewriter and laid out in digest-sized handbooks (8 of them), with artwork pasted in from the likes of Erol Otus and Michio Okamura.
Very little of Arduin has directly made it into Malaster - it's a little too gonzo, in some respects, for my current play style. But to say that Arduin has not informed and inspired nearly everything I do in gaming would be incorrect. So there is, perhaps, a little Arduin - if only because of its inspirations - in Malaster.
Azathoth
The Blind Idiot God. The Daemon Sultan, who dwells at the center of the universe, kept sleeping by the mad piping and drums of unseen tormentors. In this case, Azathoth stands in for all of the Cthulhu-esque madnesses of the Great Old Ones and their many-angled servitors.
Cthulhu and Swords&Sorcery fiction are nearly tied at the hip - many of the writers of Lovecraftian fiction and pulp fantasy drew from the same inspirational progenitors (Lord Dunsany, for example), merely in different directions, and many of the early writers - Clark Ashton Smith, HP Lovecraft, and Robert E Howard, for example - were close friends, shared frequent correspondence, and even collaborated on plots and world-building. It is not surprising, therefore, to find references to Lovecraftian horrors in some of Howard's works, for example, and to see suggestions of Hyperborea and Atlantean excesses in some of Lovecraft's writings (and such ties were much more strongly suggested - or even outright stated - in the works of those who would come after).
But a little - or even a very little - Lovecraft can go a very, very long ways in a fantasy game. Too much, and it begins to dominate the plot landscape very quickly, overriding nearly everything else. SO hints and suggestions that Things Man (and Elf and Dwarf) Were Not Meant To Know certainly can be found - but players are unlikely to spend much time seeking out the thin melodies of mad pipers who cast their somnolence upon the Nuclear Chaos.
Atlantis
Atlantis serves many purposes in fictions of the fantastic. It is the lost utopia, the advanced civilization that fell because of hubris, or decadence, or invoking the wrath of the gods. It can be a threat from beyond time, a source for amazing treasures, or sciences, magics or miracles long-lost - or all of these things. Númenor is Atlantis, in a sense - so is the Dragon Shogunate, or the First Age, in Exalted.
There are several Atlantis stand-ins in Malaster. The most obvious, of course, is the Old Countries - the lands that many/most Malastrians fled from two centuries ago, in the face of some mysterious threat so horrible few can even agree on its nature, let alone wish to speak of it. But Malaster itself has its Atlanti - the terrible Secret Kingdoms of the Sarastian Empire, the proud realms of the Acanti, the demon-infested horrors of the Maras-til. Little is known of these strange principalities of yesteryear - indeed, to some scholars they are little more than myth and conjecture. But even through the millennia, they cast their shadows over the current inhabitants....
A-Z for Malaster, 2011 - Introduction.
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| A-to-Z Blogging Challenge |
So, like many (over a thousand), I'm taking part in the A-Z Blogging challenge this year. Mainly, this is to try and kick-start my blog back into sentience, after a few haphazard attempts at startup.
So, each day of April (except Sundays), I will post at least one blog entry regarding Malaster, and gaming in general, with a theme based around the next letter of the alphabet. So today is the 1st, which is A (A is A - remember that, or Ayn Rand will cry. Or something). A posting might be one topic, or several. It might be short, or long. But it will be posted every day.
I hope.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The Problem with Perception
One of the earliest problems DMs ran - and run - into in adjudicating Dungeons & Dragons (or any role-playing game) is that they are the pipeline of all data about the world to their players. While props, audio tracks, etc. can help set mood and convey information, the reality is that they have to be the eyes, ears, noses, sense of touch, etc. - and by default, all of those senses get short-changed. On the one hand, there is something to be said for challenging the players, not their characters, for that certainly is part of the Old School way - on the other hand, taking that too far can lead to the following transaction -
Dungeon Master - You open the door. Beyond is a room.
Player One - is there anything in the room?
Dungeon Master - yes.
Player Two - (sigh). Does my sight provide any information to me about the room's contents and dimensions? Explicitly, please?
Dungeon Master - Yes (after a pause) The room is longer than it is wide, and somewhat large.
Player Three (exasperated) Is the room lit, and by what?
Dungeon Master - There appears to be some source of illumination in the room, perhaps torches. Maybe if you examined the walls?
Player Five, after a day and a half of this - HULK SMASH PUNY DM!!!!
Player One - is there anything in the room?
Dungeon Master - yes.
Player Two - (sigh). Does my sight provide any information to me about the room's contents and dimensions? Explicitly, please?
Dungeon Master - Yes (after a pause) The room is longer than it is wide, and somewhat large.
Player Three (exasperated) Is the room lit, and by what?
Dungeon Master - There appears to be some source of illumination in the room, perhaps torches. Maybe if you examined the walls?
Player Five, after a day and a half of this - HULK SMASH PUNY DM!!!!
The above is, sadly, not too much of an exaggeration of what some DMs put their parties through - the players have to work and toil for every piece of information about a room, either because the DM is making it all up as they go along, or because they feel that this is the way you 'challenge' players - right up until the moment someone's boot goes up their backside. At its most extreme, this kind of pixel-bitching is far worse than even the most deliberately obtuse text adventure game - at least those usually gave you a paragraph or two of description when you actually examined (or even just LOOKed) at a room. Of course, on the other side of it, you can get the situation where a single perception check provides more information than even Sherlock Holmes could hope to acquire at a glance -
Player One - Okay, I'm checking out the room.
Dungeon Master - Sure. Give me a Perception check.
Player One (rolling dice) - uhh... let's see - Wisdom mod plus skill plus a 15 is - twenty three!
Dungeon Master - Your trained eye scans across the room, which is thirty-seven feet long by twenty-three feet wide, with a four foot by six foot alcove at the rear left corner. The room is lit by eleven oil lamps on shelves about five and a half feet off the ground, spaced evenly around the room. There are three equidistant doors along the right hand wall - you can see the light of a beeswax candle guttering through the gap between door and floor of the middle one. Tapestries adorn the left wall - the one closest to the alcove is fluttering weakly at the bottom corner, as if blown by a breeze. Four large tables, surrounded by chairs and benches, are placed somewhat haphazardly in the middle of the room - they are cluttered with an assortment of tools, plates, drinking mugs and other eating accoutrement. The room still faintly smells of pipeweed - a northern blend, you believe. The stones of the far wall seem off somehow - there's something wrong about the way they are laid, you think.
Player One - Okay. Danielle, have Aychera check out the secret door behind that tapestry. Bill, let's let Watusi the Wily deal with whatever is up with that far wall - maybe it's a trapped compartment. The rest of us quietly make our way into the room and line up a crash crew on that middle door - Tom and Janelle, have Robur and Lyra keep an eye on the other doors. Steve, Borax the Brave is up top for door duty, with Meliar behind - Frank, keep in mind that Fireballs in small spaces hurt this time, okay? Everyone else, watch and make sure we don't get stomped unexpectedly, please? Given the pipeweed, I'm betting this is where that spell-casting assassin bailed out to.
Dungeon Master - Sure. Give me a Perception check.
Player One (rolling dice) - uhh... let's see - Wisdom mod plus skill plus a 15 is - twenty three!
Dungeon Master - Your trained eye scans across the room, which is thirty-seven feet long by twenty-three feet wide, with a four foot by six foot alcove at the rear left corner. The room is lit by eleven oil lamps on shelves about five and a half feet off the ground, spaced evenly around the room. There are three equidistant doors along the right hand wall - you can see the light of a beeswax candle guttering through the gap between door and floor of the middle one. Tapestries adorn the left wall - the one closest to the alcove is fluttering weakly at the bottom corner, as if blown by a breeze. Four large tables, surrounded by chairs and benches, are placed somewhat haphazardly in the middle of the room - they are cluttered with an assortment of tools, plates, drinking mugs and other eating accoutrement. The room still faintly smells of pipeweed - a northern blend, you believe. The stones of the far wall seem off somehow - there's something wrong about the way they are laid, you think.
Player One - Okay. Danielle, have Aychera check out the secret door behind that tapestry. Bill, let's let Watusi the Wily deal with whatever is up with that far wall - maybe it's a trapped compartment. The rest of us quietly make our way into the room and line up a crash crew on that middle door - Tom and Janelle, have Robur and Lyra keep an eye on the other doors. Steve, Borax the Brave is up top for door duty, with Meliar behind - Frank, keep in mind that Fireballs in small spaces hurt this time, okay? Everyone else, watch and make sure we don't get stomped unexpectedly, please? Given the pipeweed, I'm betting this is where that spell-casting assassin bailed out to.
The problem being that the DM gave up too much information at a glance - precise dimensions, exact numbers, too many hints and clues all at once. The team Caller immediately tumbled to, well, everything - the secret door behind the tapestry, the hidden compartment on the far wall, etc. etc.
The trick is that both of these are extremes. On the one front, the players are expected to operate with no information from the DM except that which they specifically ask for. In the other case, they're being given the entire plot. The best way of playing, as usual, lies somewhere in between.
Unreliable Narrators
One problem is - while humans are really good at noticing motion, picking out patterns (even too good), and detecting that something is off, we're really not that good at noticing detail - not reliably so, anyways. This is borne out by years of research into courtroom testimony - although people put a lot of faith into an eyewitness account - in reality, they're not that good unless backed up with video surveillance, or cross-referenced through a large number of independently verifiable testimony (so if something happens in front of a large crowd, and those people are all individually interviewed, when taken as an aggregate, their story will probably align with the truth - but any individual person's account may be wildly inaccurate). Even highly trained individuals can end up missing significant pieces of information - which is why crime scenes have entire teams going over them.
Challenging the Players, Not the Characters
One of the fundamental assumptions about the Old School gaming style (or the OSR movement, anyways) is that a game should challenge the players, not the characters. Characters are seen - to a degree - more as playing pieces than as fully fleshed-out individuals in their own right. (This, obviously, varies from group to group - some groups pay little or no attention to role-playing details, character history, etc. in general, while others pay quite a bit of attention to such things, but still see the character as distinctly secondary to the player). With this in mind as a founding statement, one can see how perception - and some other skills - can be denigrated in the abstract.
Of course, this system breaks down fairly rapidly. While we can, for the sake of discussion, ignore the strawmen arguments about how players aren't asked (in a tabletop game, anyways) to actually fight monsters, or cast spells, there are numerous situations (picking locks, deciphering old scrolls, etc) where the players could be more directly involved in the "how" of doing some task - but these tasks are, generally, relegated to a die roll instead.
A Spectrum of Tolerance
The reason for this is, quite simply, that every player has a differing level of tolerance for "pixel-bitching". For some players, they see their character as carrying most of the workload for things that happen "in game" - the player's job is more one of director, soul, and conscience than actually "inhabiting" the character in any sort of way. Facing these players with endless puzzle traps, riddling gynosphinxes, etc. is not a way to make them happy - quite the opposite. For these players, while the second example is still a bad one, they want something closer to that than "You see a room, medium-sized, with an L shape, you're on the wall that would be the "top" of the L. The room appears lit from some unknown source." They have no problem with using a Perception check to notice that the tapestry on the far wall is twitching a little (from the breeze caused by a secret passage?).
Other players, however, eat that sort of thing up. They love obscure prophecies that have to be decoded, and bits of doggerel that help the players short-circuit death traps, and riddle-battles with arch-magi, and all that sort of stuff. For them, "Room, stone walls, twenty by forty-ish, tapestries on walls, lit from oil lantern hanging from ceiling." is plenty for them to run with. While they might not appreciate having to individually check every single book on the library wall to see if it has a secret door trigger - they're going to be the one asking if one of the books is less dusty than the others, or shows more evidence of having been moved recently. They don't need a Perception check - and if asked for one when asking for specific information, might be put out.
So DMs have to walk the line between those two groups. As always.
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